Cold and Lonesome
Stillness. Were there a perfect word to describe Chaldea’s state, stillness would be the first to come to mind. The place had darkened, its inhabitants become motionless, standing yet unconscious, forever waiting.
The entire facility was devoid of power, thought, color, motion, life and warmth. Eternally frozen, captured in their state, they showed a photograph of longing.
Chaldea was waiting for something which would never happen, for someone who would never come.
However, all things that slumber wake or die in their sleep.
And it was time to wake up.
X
An unimaginable chill went through me. It didn’t feel cold, it felt painful, desperate, violent.
My hands worked, assaulting a lighter, forcing into existence a fire where there was a small, pathetic pile of sticks and bark.
Under the cover of an alcove, a fortunate stacking of stone, a small flame came to life.
I huddled close, approached my convulsing fingers, my numb face to the fire. More sticks, more bark, all I found on the way, all that looked dry.
Between uneven breaths, I felt energy drain from my body, from every cloud leaving my mouth.
I was sitting, but my chest didn’t want to stand straight. I fell to my side, immediately shoving myself as close to the fire as possible, face and fingers as close as I could without burning them.
Should I take off my wet clothes? Should I force myself to stay awake? I didn’t know, I didn’t know. I looked at my phone, wet, unresponsive, dead, laying next to me.
This was supposed to be easy.
This was supposed to be the easy way.
To the sound of desperate gasping, my eyes failed me. My numb body refused to move. No energy went anywhere, the only sensation coming from my lungs and my fingers, a painful burn.
My mind left me.
X
Everything came to life at once. A violent, terrible shock came over her, not unlike having a bucket of frozen water tossed at her in her sleep.
Fire immediately formed around her hands as she looked around. It was her room, in Chaldea. The lights were on, the bed was made, but half the room was missing. At the midway point, the room crumbled, turned into shards and stopped existing, showing a great black nothing.
Before her confusion had time to be registered, it had already made way to anger. She reached for the door, still intact. It was an airlock-like door, but it wasn’t opening on command as it should.
She banged on it with the force of a heroic spirit, aware her voice wouldn’t get through.
Banged once, twice, until once again aggravation turned to anger, and a great fire formed at her feet, and around her hands. She forced her hands on the door, burning and melting the steel as she tried to make a foothold to pry it open with.
It didn’t work. Like a gorilla trying to hit a projection, a dog trying to reach inside a television, the door was impossible to affect. She cursed loudly, strongly, banged on the door as fire unwillingly sprouted at her feet, covered her being as she grew angrier and angrier.
Until finally, someone knocked back. She looked at the door in surprise, knocked again and was responded to immediately.
Silence followed, the longest seconds she had ever felt, until a very loud knock came again, this time not on the door. Whatever happened, it resulted in the door opening quickly, so quickly it was impossible to see. As if the door’s two only states were wide open and tightly shut.
“Are you okay?” A voice came from outside, rushing in to meet her.
A girl wearing a bikini, gauntlets and a hat came into view.
“Martha,” the woman’s voice came out, aggravated and belligerent. “I suppose I should thank you for that.”
The woman’s face hardened immediately.
“Jeanne.” A frown deepened. “Come outside.”
Jeanne looked at her quietly as a response, then headed outside the room.
“What in hell…”
X
“Hey there, [you]…” A soft voice spoke to me. I looked around, to see two girls. One was lean and muscular, with long, dark hair. She was wearing a bikini and holding a hat in her hands. A cross hung from her neck. The other was more buxom than lean, with short, whiteish hair and stunning, golden eyes. She was wearing a short dress with a coat over it.
They both seemed ephemeral, impossible. I looked at them then at my hands and felt strange, like my they weren’t my own.
“Are you alright?” The long-haired one asked, concerned. She looked straight at me, at nothing else.
“Ah, uh, yeah. I’m fine, just a little, uh…” Thoughts came to mind. Instinct, memory. “It’s my first time with both of you, is all.”
She giggled, and the light haired one blushed and looked away.
“Don’t be worried, [you].” She stood up, and I just realised I was lying on a bed, in the dead center, and they were sitting at each end of it. She tossed her hat aside, approached me and climbed the bed on all fours, directly over me. “I’ll take the lead for now. I’m sure [she] will want to give it a shot when we get started.”
I heard a huff from afar but was immediately distracted by the soft sensation of lips meeting my own.
The earlier feeling dissipated. This was unmistakeably real, an unforgettable experience.
X
“This can’t be real.”
Jeanne starred as seconds passed. Outside her room was not a hallway. It was half of a hallway, the other half…
It was hard to describe. If she looked up, she could see a nightmarish blue hole, a thousand cracks spreading away from it, turning all sorts of colors. Around it, she could see rooms, locations. She saw London floating behind it, partially obscured. She could see Orleans, off to its left. She could see hundreds of locations from their work to save the world floating, no, gravitating around the hole.
A feeling of dread overcame her, she looked to her left, to see Martha standing in the hallway, then to her right. A void, like before, as if the area had forgotten to exist in its entirety.
Unlike in her room, however, she could see past the void. She saw more places, more [event locations] and [main story destinations] floating, slowly reaching for the hole.
“What is this? What the hell is this?” Jeanne barked at Martha, but the stoic saint simply shook her head.
“I don’t know. As soon as I awoke, I started looking around for answers, but I didn’t find anything until I heard your knocking.”
“How… how did you even walk around this mess?!” Jeanne gestured behind her, where the hallway no longer existed.
“I walked the halls until they stopped, but whenever I approached the end of their existence, they’d suddenly just extend.” Martha walked past Jeanne, to the place where the hallway stopped. As she reached the absolute edge, the hallway suddenly stretched out again, continuing onwards, just as described. “Come, Jeanne D’Arc. There must be most people trapped, we have to help them.”
Jeanne stared at the composed woman, jaw loose. She then looked up, at Orleans, and London, at Rome and Liz’s castle and Mysterious Heroine X’s crashed ship and a great apartment building and-
The hole was changing color. It went from a bright blue to a bright green, slowly and surely, and the cracks around it followed suit as they spread.
“No.” Jeanne laughed slightly. “No, I’m leaving.”
“What?”
“I said, I’m leaving. Everything’s getting sucked into that big hole, right? I’m going to go have a look, up close.”
“Jeanne, what about the rest of our comrades?” Martha said, putting a hand to her chest, obviously about to continue her speech.
The fallen saint’s face contorted into disgust.
“Save them your own damn self.” She said, not letting the saint continue. She turned the other way and walked off.
She could feel the true saint’s eyes on her back, even after she was gone. Eventually, even that sensation had faded away, its disappearance lending a deep feeling of solitude.
X
The bikini had disappeared at one point, its removal masked by an intense session of non-medical mouth to mouth.
I saw this in between breaths, and she immediately noticed. She licked her lips, and her face retreated away from my own, her entire body moving backwards, putting herself between my legs. My member stood proud to meet her, and she smiled to see it tall and large, a pulsating vein of desire.
“Well then. [You], [you]’re certainly ready for this.” She gave it a kiss, and I took a deep breath. I wanted it, wanted her to take it. She licked it, tickled at my package, and looked up to me hungrily. A pair of golden eyes turned to watch us, unreadable.
“I… P-please…” I couldn’t even form words to explain my desire, but she understood. She rested her mouth near the top, giving it a big kiss, lick, and then pushed her head down, making my penis disappear.
It was wet. It was hot. A warm, mucous membrane met my head, caressed it, stimulated it. I felt restless, I wanted more. My hands involuntarily rose up, reaching for her head.
But my own was taken first. Without noticing, the light haired one had come to my side and pushed my head down. She was still in the mini dress but had taken off the coat. I looked at her, her face, and in the corner of my eye I saw she had nothing underneath.
Once again, I was noticed. She pulled the mini dress up a bit, showing her crotch. Before I could even appreciate the sight, she had thrown a leg above me and put my head into her intimacy.
“Lick,” she said, her voice hard, though her cheeks were bright red.
I obliged.
X
Eventually, the corridor did end. Instead of falling into a void, however, the hall simply turned into a different terrain. At Jeanne’s feet was now the burning streets of Fuyuki. Its flames refused to shake and dance as real fire would, their state reminiscent of a still picture.
She took a few steps, felt the ground, and walked back into the hallway. Despite the clear difference in material and solidity, they felt exactly the same. Curiosity unsatisfied, she decided to keep moving.
As she walked through the terrain, the same phenomenon as the hallway happened. The world seemed to only to exist so long as she walked towards it, through it.
And as the world existed, so too did residents exist within it. More than once, Jeanne creating a new segment of the world brought about the appearance of skeletons and dragon tooth soldiers. Some were frozen, unmoving as the portrait she walked through. Some moved and seemed hostile, but never truly acted, as if waiting for her to make the first move.
So, she walked past them.
She walked and walked, her instincts guiding the way. Eventually, she found herself in front of the big mountain. She walked around, found its entrance, and almost went in. Instead she looked up to the sky, to the great hole. It was as green as it was before, but it felt larger now.
Either it was larger, or she was slowly getting closer. She preferred the more optimistic of the two, a conclusion reached with a grimace-like smile.
“Well…” She muttered to herself. “So long as I don’t have to walk through every single area we’ve been to.”
She walked down the tunnel, to the place where the first singularity ended. After a long trek through a cavern filled with unresponsive enemies, she made it to where a familiar face was standing. At the very height of a ledge was Saber Alter, standing tall. Her sword was planted in front of her, and both hands rested on its pommel.
Jeanne shouted her name, with no response. She walked up to the king and waved her hand in front of her face. She pulled at her cheek. She punched her. Nothing garnered a reaction.
“Disappointing.”
Jeanne walked away, towards a darkness further in the cavern. As she reached it, another world spread before her.
Orleans, she realised with a sigh.
She put one step in front of the other and kept walking, her goal clear and her focus unbreakable.
X
I could barely focus on licking, as my member was under an assault. But still I tried, and tried, and eventually my mouth’s own liquids were not the only ones I was tasting.
I couldn’t feel the taste, but I knew it was there, it was different.
I tried to keep going, between the need to constantly breathe and the desire to interfere, to add to the assault in between my legs, until finally it stopped.
The girl directly above me noticed, and she took her leg away, sat next to my head.
She wasn’t looking at me. She was looking at the other presence, who had adjusted so her other mouth was the one now facing me.
She looked at me, at only me, her face red with excitement. Her warm hand grabbed hold of me, held me in place, and guided me in properly as she fell onto me.
It was like another world, compared to the one hidden behind her lips. I was completely devoured. The warm, sticky feeling present in her mouth was multiplied here. Every fold felt as lewd and accepting as her tongue, every crease as hungry and willing to wring me dry as the girl who owned them.
“Let’s… get started, then.” She fell over, my member within her, and said this in my ear. I felt her words ring in my head, turn my chest into a furnace and trigger a rush of energy between my legs.
My hands grabbed her hips, and I…
X
Jeanne put aside her flag for a moment and put both her hands on her hips, exasperated.
She was both thankful and disappointed nothing had happened in Orleans. She saw her old self for a moment, had fun comparing the her from then to herself now, but apart from that it was just bad memories.
Then came Okeanos, where she learned she could walk from a beach onto a boat onto another island immediately.
Then was London, where she learned that walking for hours with no distractions was a boring endeavor.
Then America, which was where she was now. In front of her was a white building with a massive spear right through it. While it could have been impressive, the spear stopped existing after the tip, becoming part of the void. Most of the building decided to do so as well.
She sighed and looked to the sky, the hole becoming a shade of yellow. Like a sunset, but instead of the sun…
A moment passed in silence. She picked her flag back up, walked through the door of the white house and came out into a desert.
Camelot. She started walking, occasionally looking up to the sky, the hole making a bigger impact than the sun, which didn’t exist. Its light did, however.
She walked, and walked, until she found an interesting occurrence.
She walked to a shadow, creating the next area, which revealed Camelot in the distance. Revealing Camelot in the distance upside down, rather.
Not only had the newer areas never gone so far before, she also didn’t understand what was happening. But then there was nothing else she could do, so she put a foot before the other. Eventually the desert stopped, made way to a more volcanic, solid-looking terrain.
The one problem was that where one ended, the other started hundreds of feet in the air. Jeanne walked forward and poked at the abyss at the end of the sand with her flag. There was nothing, no further path. The fallen saint did, however, notice something completely different. Her flag wasn’t hanging downwards, but up.
“Ha…” She mumbled, voice filled with the kind of aggravation only boredom could ignite. “A leap of faith, then.”
She walked forward, off the edge, and started falling upwards. She did not fall straight or gracefully, and her landing could not be described as either. Dropping her flag and rolling a few times too many, she forced herself back to her feet. She picked up her flag and looked at Camelot, then back up to where the sand was. Then, she looked off into the horizon, where the hole lay motionless, its color stable.
She shook her head at the entire situation.
She walked into Camelot, only to see that while the city had been fully visible, the ground was still a part of the too-familiar abyss. She stepped forward and ground came to be, but different than before. Before, it didn’t exist, until it suddenly did along with décor and static background.
This time, the streets seemed to flip into existence, tiles that were not there spinning into motion, into shape and form, leading her onwards. No buildings, no gardens, just street.
Jeanne hummed unpleasantly, followed by a smile. She had the nasty feeling this meant something was going to be different in this place. A nasty feeling, but at least a break from the boredom of walking along silently.
She walked the streets surrounded by nothing, seeing only walls in the distance around her, and the castle in front. Eventually she came to the castle itself and walked in the front door. What she found however, was not a dark area waiting to exist.
Here the décor was complete, even without her prompting it. An uncomfortable feeling crept into her gut, immediately before a feeling settled on her shoulder, falling from above.
A wet feeling.
X
It was wet, it slid in and out so easily, so pleasurably, but every stroke felt so far from the climax I craved.
I wanted to spread my seed into her.
I wanted to mark this girl, to make her mine in the most primal of ways.
She fell forward again, her hair falling around her head, giving me an unforgettable image. Her mouth was slightly open, her cheeks red, eyes filled with desire.
The sight burned itself into my eyes, my very soul. This woman, this woman I am relentlessly pounding into, this woman I am doing this act with, this woman is mine.
Yes, yes, this situation, this is where I belong, beloved by these two girls. I am wanted, hungered for, sought for.
I breathed heavily, the situation, exercise, the emotion overtaking me.
Something obstructed my vision. Not darkness, shade. I saw a crotch, moist, pink, hungry. It didn’t obstruct the other girl, who was pushed a bit further for the new participant. I still saw her, breasts jumping up and down as I pumped into her, but now I could see a new sight. Yes, this new girl, this wetness.
I wanted to make her mine too. She wanted to be mine.
I was desired.
She didn’t wait for me to do anything, she moved down on her own, knees folding to give me once again her slit.
X
Jeanne didn’t wait to look up before acting. She immediately darted forward, turned around and blasted the ceiling with fire.
Many of Gilles’s squids came down, hitting the floor with barely a sound, and disintegrated from top to bottom. Many more wriggled and squirmed on the ceiling, and she saw a familiar face amongst them.
“Gilles!” She shouted, and the upside-down deviant opened his eyes to look at her.
“Jeanne… oh, Jeanne. You shouldn’t be out here. Return to your room.”
Jeanne didn’t even have time to respond before more of the beasts fell to the ground, this time full of vigor, and assaulted her directly. Tentacles came from each side, and she ducked to avoid them, calling forward a dark flame to devour her surroundings.
The beasts couldn’t withstand the flame and disintegrated once more.
“Ho… well, looks like you’ve chosen your fate, Gilles.” Jeanne’s face contorted into an angry expression. “You’ll regret turning on me.”
“No,” he immediately answered, dropping down from the ceiling, falling onto his back. He contorted impossibly until he was upright once more. The rest of his beasts fell along with him, surrounding Jeanne from all sides. “If you keep going, you’ll regret having left your room.”
“Is that so?” Jeanne forced herself to sound bored through clenched teeth. “I think I’m the one who gets to decide that.”
A dark vortex of flame danced at her feet. The amassed power built up at Jeanne’s command, waiting to be unleashed. She pulled out her sword and held it above her head as the very lighting around her seemed to dim. As soon as a single one of Gilles’s creations lunged at her, she shouted for its release, for its name. Flames reached out to every corner of the room, bursting with power, hunger and violence. Stakes rose from the ground, skewering the squid-like creatures as they burned.
She was glad that none of them could make a sound, as they all turned to ashes. It would have been a cacophony otherwise.
Only Gilles remained, standing directly facing her, untouched and untargeted by the flames.
“Last chance, Gilles.” Jeanne was not smiling.
“How could I live with myself if I let you go and hurt yourself?” He opened his book, and behind him spawned massive tentacles, signs of a beast magnitudes larger than the others.
Jeanne waved her arm and flames released, burning away her last remaining opponent.
There were no last words, no parting statements, no verbal end. She looked for a moment at where he once stood, then turned around and walked away purposefully. He said something was going to hurt her. That meant, there was something at the end of this long road.
Where there was once doubt, there was certainty. The situation had changed.
X
The situation had changed, at some point. I was still pounding the long-haired girl. It felt like my soldier had now become one with her trench, an inseparable combination. But now, she was on all fours, and I was behind her. Next to her, also on all fours, was the short-haired girl. My hand had nestled into her wet crease, pushing, pulling, going left to right, searching deep within, pleasuring from the outside.
I could hear nothing but heavy breathing. I couldn’t even tell whose it was anymore.
She was still looking at me. She was facing away, but I felt like I was still being looked at by her, like I was the only person in her eyes.
Yes, that is what it is, love.
As I thought that, I kept going, wet folds constantly accepting me, feeling good, feeling unending.
I wanted release. I wanted to give her my release.
I pushed harder, harder.
X
In Babylon, the environment got a little less static. The entire area would quickly shift and change in the blink of an eye. Just as flicking a light switch could immediately change a room this place too, changed in a similar way.
The entire area would suddenly look overcome with a black mud, then immediately disappear with a flicker.
However, she’d already confirmed that stepping on the mud was the same as stepping on any other surface, so it was of no concern.
She kept walking, onwards and onwards, waiting for the next time someone would stop her.
Eventually, she came up to Tiamat itself, going straight from the ground, to a shadowed area that immediately brought her up the in sky. Much like the spear in America or the lack of sun in Camelot, the area didn’t actually extend down far enough to see what was going on, leaving only the gold ripple at her feet to indicate she was actually supposed to be able to stand here.
She walked passed the still alligator-mouthed giantess and onwards, surrounded by darkness.
Jeanne suddenly heard something. A clash of blades, a metallic scratching, the sound of bladed skates. It was something along those lines, and immediately she ducked out of the way of a swinging blade. She threw herself forward and tossed out a wave of fire to her aggressor, pushing them away.
Back on her feet, she saw her attacker, a tall, sword-legged woman wearing a white dress and a lack of decent underwear, or anything around her crotch for that matter, just a small plate. An unnatural smile was displayed on her face, completely unmoving.
“What’s this now?” Jeanne said angrily at the new arrival.
Meltlilith made a noise from her mouth, sounding electronic and wrong and impossible. Her mouth did not close, even once, as it poured out an aggravating static, an unappealing noise.
Without even giving Jeanne a chance to react, she slid across the ground and kicked at her with a bladed appendage. Jeanne ducked out of the way and tossed out fire once again, which was avoided with an uncommon grace.
Jeanne clicked her tongue and sent out fire once again, her opponent dodging and avoiding like a figure skater. She lunged in to attack Jeanne once again, and Jeanne had to parry the heels with her sword.
Meltlilith took her leg away and came in with the other, which was blocked again, and again she twirled and twirled and attacked and attacked. Jeanne kept blocking more and more, as terrible, incorrect laughing came out from her opponent. But every single blow blocked was another inch of anger in Jeanne’s head, another piece of fuel for a flame that danced beneath her.
Eventually, the assault became too much for Jeanne’s nerves, and she snapped. The flame beneath her exploded outwards, pushing away her opponent.
A terrible, screeching sound came out of her open, smiling mouth as she flew away.
Jeanne didn’t give her enough time to get back up, to start her dance again. She dashed over to her, stabbing her into the absent ground, into the gold ripple with her sword. She forced the blade down with both hands, discarding her flag for just a moment. The dark vortex of flame underneath Jeanne stirred and rose upwards, clinging to the darkened saint.
“Burn.” The fire that covered Jeanne rushed to her arms and down her blade in an uncontrolled blaze, inciting a screech of terrible, inhuman noise from her victim. Dark flame devoured her, overflowing to spread across the inexistent ground, creating a blanket of cursed conflagration.
Jeanne kept it going, venting her frustration to the incomprehensible servant. She kept going and going until Meltlilith herself disintegrated, leaving only the fallen saint and the unmoving stature of Tiamat.
Jeanne stayed for a moment, leaning on her sword, until finally she decided to keep moving. She picked up her flag, and kept walking, to the final destination, the end of the Grand Order.
X
The scene changed again, she was down on the bed, taking it. The other was on top, and I pleasured her in other ways.
The scene changed again. She was standing, hands on the wall, and I pounded from behind. Her back glistened with sweat, her hair getting wet, curly, sensual. A white head was below, holding my testicles sensually, or playing with the girl’s clit.
The scene changed again, I was holding her up in my arms, by her legs. Her hands reached behind my neck.
The scene changed again, I was fully on top of her, pressing down and deep into her.
Still, I felt no release, but the longer it went the more I wanted it. Conscious thought left me, as only a desire to thrust remained.
Again and again.
The scene changed, I thrusted, I felt pleasure and pleasure and pleasure but no release.
The scene changes, again.
I want release, I want to thrust into the other girl, I want, I want, I want.
The scene changes.
The silver haired girl kisses me for the first time.
X
Solomon, the final singularity. Jeanne walked up to see the otherworldly area, expecting to see nothing, another area filled with void, incomplete. Instead at the first zone, which she absently remembered being called Ceremonia, she could see the entire area, a great ruined temple spread across demonic pillars, creating an odd, tree-like vista.
She looked around for a moment, seeing an entire zone for the first time since her trek started. She walked slowly, carefully taking in the area around her, as the eyes of the pillars glowed softly.
For the first time in what felt like a very long time, she looked up at the sky, to see the hole, the tear in reality taken form. It was massive, or rather she was very close to it. Its yellow had changed to a deep red.
“Frightening, isn’t it?”
Jeanne looked down and saw the girl who died here. Short, purple hair, black armor and a huge shield at her side. She was standing there without a care in the world, looking up at the hole herself.
“Confusing, more like,” Jeanne grumbled.
“Right?” Mash laughed softly. “Still, it’s rather pretty for something destroying our world.”
“Ho…” Jeanne hummed, looking up. She could still see the landscapes of places she’d travelled, of certain events she’d seen, and yet…
They were certainly less numerous than before.
“Well.” Jeanne shrugged, and smiled smugly. “Nothing to do but stop it. Is that why you’re here, too?”
She smiled sadly and shook her head.
“No, there’s no stopping it now. I’m just here to meet others who’d make it this far. And well, this place is the only place I can see sempai.”
“What are you talking about?” Jeanne took a step closer, which Mash answered with a step back, putting the shield between them.
“No, I shouldn’t have said that much.” Mash shook her head. “I’m glad I managed to meet another person, Jeanne. But I can’t have you go any further.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jeanne took more steps forward, answered with a few steps back.
“I can’t let you go further. For both your sake, and his.”
Jeanne took a step further, answered with the sound of a shield smashing into the ground. Demonic pillars sprouted out of from the temple’s floor, making an unmistakeable sound, a rumbling noise, a foreign language. Thousands of eyes looked at Jeanne at once, an unstoppable onslaught unleashed.
Jeanne steeled herself, the strangeness of the situation removed in her mind by imminent danger.
X
That was strange.
I remember her taste, down below. I remember the weight of her body.
But her kiss was empty.
Her kiss had never happened.
I could not remember her kiss.
All the times we switched positions, the feeling, the pleasure was the same, why now was it empty, absent? Why had I never kissed her?
I could hear heavy breathing.
Bodies changed.
X
Their attacks were unavoidable. Dark clouds, beams of energy and geysers of power assaulted her, and she wasn’t fast enough to avoid getting hit. It was impossible.
Yet, Jeanne felt no true pain. She felt a massive pool of endurance. She felt like she could take a thousand of their attacks and still strike back. She did strike back, she swung her arm and threw around fire, burning the tree-like pillars. But the more she burned down, the more appeared.
It was a slugfest of arcane powers.
The battle didn’t end, two unstoppable forces sent against each other. Dark fire marred the environment, recreating it to look like scene of an arson, the remains of a war still ongoing, never ending.
Until an outside force stepped in. Another barrage of lasers came and Jeanne prepared to take the hit, until someone stepped in front of her. Gauntlets blocked the blow, diverting the shot away.
Martha shook her arms off as she ran forward, punching pillars right in the eyes.
Jeanne smiled and kept blasting away the pillars. Burning them away again and again, and with the help of Martha they started getting mowed down faster than they could come back.
Jeanne ran forward, burning pillars as she went, making sure they stayed down. She jumped over a charred, disintegrating body, and for a moment her eyes locked with Martha’s.
Jeanne smirked.
Ignoring the spawning Demon pillars behind her, Jeanne ran to the Throne, after Mash.
X
I remember now. This, this happened. The idealized, impossible forms before me changed, returned to the real situation, to realistic bodies.
Long, brown hair, not purple. No cross, no bikini. It had been underwear. I look down and of course there it was.
The hair was white, bleached but too long. It had shortened, and the face was not blushing when it looked at me. It looked difficult, complicated, unreadable.
Displeased.
I pulled out of the long-haired girl, who herself looked confused, worried.
Ah, I was flaccid.
X
“Mash!”
Jeanne came up, breathing heavily. Her clothes were in tatters, her hair a mess. The Shielder meanwhile was facing away, looking at pictures still in the air. A cat, some food, a boy, a boy and a girl, a landscape, some papers up close, a schedule, the boy again, and again, looking worse and worse as time goes. A screenshot of sorts came up, a catalog of people Jeanne recognized. The boy again, with an older man and woman.
“Hey, look at me when I’m talking to you!” Jeanne stomped ahead, grabbing Mash’s shoulder.
“Hello, Jeanne.” Mash was smiling again, her expression stiff. “You’ll never guess what I found.”
“I think I might, actually.” Jeanne punched Mash in the face. The Shielder took the hit silently, then turned her face to look at Jeanne again, animosity in her eyes. “Enough, I’ve been seeing enough of this nonsense to make a bit of sense out of it. It’s not even the first time it’s happened to me. But I want you to say it.”
Mash looks up at Jeanne, hesitant. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, like a paused moment, Mash spoke up.
“This world isn’t real.”
X
A threesome, she had asked. I was nervous, unsure, we had gone out so shortly we’d never even been just us. For a first experience to be three was frightening. But she wanted to do it, and I didn’t have the courage to even try to say no.
I was uncomfortable, when a punk girl met us the next day, and was so familiar with her.
I was ashamed, embarrassed, when they pulled down my pants and saw me so hard.
I felt unwanted, as they kissed above me. I felt undesired, as we shifted to the missionary position, yet I was never looked at, even once.
I felt deep, immense shame when I grew limp. I ran away to the shower, and she looked at me, worried, scared, afraid, guilty, unreadable, unknown.
She looked at me, for the first time since she’d taken off her clothes, and I felt her eyes look at me forever.
Mission start.
X
“None of us are real. We’re all programs, pieces of art, created to follow, to serve, to speak words of love to someone on the other side of that.”
Mash pointed up to the tear, its outline and cracks now a hot red.
“We’re not saving the world. We’re not going to other times, just fake maps, fake stories, a fake world, a fake enemy. We’re just lines of programs, made to do what we’re ordered to.”
She reached for the images, took a picture taken of the boy most often showed.
“What we’re ordered to do by this man, here. This man who doesn’t even exist in our world.”
X
She talked to me later that week, she said a thousand words, I only understood a few. It was too loud to hear her. I apologized and left.
Mission parameter: Disconnect.
X
“This man sends us to fight, to war, do die again and again and come back,” Mash said calmly.
X
I saw her every now and then, from the corner of my eye at school. On my phone, she’d send texts I couldn’t read. I could feel her eyes, looking at me as I ran away.
So I ran further, quit school. Looked for work, away, away, away.
Stay at home, look for work, go on computer, look for work, distract. Distract from the sounds I keep hearing.
Disconnect.
X
“We gather for this man, grow through his actions, evolve under his order.” She looked down as he talked.
X
Work was found. Mountains, winter, caretaking, alone. I wanted alone. I wanted to stop seeing her eyes. To stop seeing her friend’s face. To stop remembering.
I needed more distraction. Work wasn’t long enough. I needed an out, something to focus on. Started going online more. Started playing games more.
I still couldn’t sleep. I kept hearing heavy breathing.
Disconnect.
X
“Our story was never important. We’re not even pets. We’re a game, to be tossed aside if ever he gets bored of us.” Her voice cracked.
X
Wandered the mountains. Winter was cold, it felt numb, and it was hard on my legs.
It helped me forget.
Watched tutorial videos on a thousand subjects, dropped within a few weeks.
Played games on my phone. None lasted. None lasted except for one.
No contact. Mission complete. The mission was simple, it was easy. The sounds were dying off.
I had disconnected.
X
“Our feelings aren’t even real, just lines of program in a phone. That’s what that is, up there. The phone’s breaking.”
X
I got a text, family member wondering where I’d gone. Short response. Quiet.
Disconnect.
Got a text, friend worried where I was gone. No response. Still quiet.
Disconnect.
Got a text, she
I didn’t read. Her texts are too noisy.
I was disconnected.
X
“This man treats us like toys, cheap entertainment.”
X
I couldn’t stay disconnected, I kept getting too loud, I kept needing, I read her messages. She was worried. All of her eight, unanswered texts were her worry. She needed to know if I was alright, if I was alive.
It was too loud, I’d answer when it was less loud.
For now, disconnect. I promised a return.
X
“Knowing all this, we should hate him. I should despise him. I should want to make him pay for forcing us through this fake drama, these fake moments of real fear and despair.”
X
The games didn’t make it get less loud. I needed to answer her.
The walks didn’t make it quiet down. She needs to be answered.
I don’t deserve this unending noise. She doesn’t deserve this silence.
One more walk, for sure, this time. The snowstorm last night wasn’t even too large, I’d be-
X
“But I can’t help it.” She looked up at Jeanne, her face awash with tears. “I don’t care if it’s programming, if it’s something that isn’t even mine. I love sempai. This man, this boy, I look at him and realise what he’s done to us, but I can’t help but think he looks good, like this is what the sempai I love looks like. This is the man I love, despite everything, and I can’t make myself feel anything else for him.”
Jeanne looked at her, then at the photo, then up at the hole, becoming brighter and brighter. It started looking more and more dangerous, like it was inches away from exploding.
“Well. In that case, I should go sock him for you.”
“Wha…” Mash looked at her like she was crazy. “Did none of that hit you! We’re not even real! We’re fakes!”
“Like I said, not the first time this happened. I was fake to begin with, something Gilles made to fulfill his fantasy. Just like everyone else, as it turns out.” Jeanne walked past her, to look at the stack of photos awkwardly present, floating behind Mash. “Not what I expected.”
Mash backed off, wielding her shield.
“What are you planning?” Mash’s voice sounded hoarse.
“Well, I’ll try going up there. I want to try meeting this man,” Jeanne said, pointing up at the hole. Mash gaped for a second, until her face hardened with resolve.
“I won’t let you hurt sempai!”
Jeanne smiled.
X
I jolted awake, my breathing erratic.
I was alive, the fire beside me become small, weak, near death. I felt my fingers, but not my toes. I felt my breath, my life, but no energy. My coat was frosted over, my environment white and hostile.
But I burned. Deep in my gut, I felt a deep burn, a deep fire, a deep emotion. I wanted to live. It was getting loud, and I understood what was so loud, I couldn’t even think.
It was me, I was loud. My breath was loud. My cries, my tears were loud. The noise stopped me from doing anything because the noise was all I was doing. But I didn’t want the noise to be the last thing I heard. I wanted to get up, to see her, to make a different noise at her. To shut this noise up.
I didn’t want to see her, I wanted to disconnect.
I want to see her, I want to reconnect with her.
But still, my body wouldn’t move. Despite this deep fire inside of me…
I could feel myself overwhelmed with darkness, and cold.
X
Mash could feel herself become overwhelmed with Jeanne’s oppressive power. A black flame had taken permanent residence on her shield or rather might as well have. Any attempted advance was met with a burst of flame. Any defensive action was not allowed to end. Any maneuver was called out, and noble phantasm use could not aid Mash in taking ground.
Jeanne was not feeling it.
Blast after blast she threw the servant further and further from her. Jeanne knew she could become invulnerable for a short time, she waited for it. But it never came. She wouldn’t be able to fight unless she was allowed.
The fire blasts stopped. Jeanne dropped her flag to the side, donned an unpleasant smile and beckoned to Mash.
Mash looked at her, stunned for a moment, then immediately made a charge. She jumped up and forced her shield down, only for Jeanne to dash under her and kick her from behind. Mash caught her balance and turned to face Jeanne, staring her down.
They were just a few feet from each other.
Here, the real fight started. Mash put her shield ahead and rushed, but Jeanne had jumped up. She adjusted at the very last second to block Jeanne’s foot reaching down to stomp her. Mash tried pushing the shield outward, forcing the woman off, but Jeanne had already put her weight forward, forced herself to fall forward, behind Mash. The Shielder’s weight was all in front, and Jeanne’s sword struck her armor directly.
The hit was light, and as Mash was already moving forward, she kept her momentum going to reposition herself. But Jeanne wasn’t done yet. Before she could fully turn the bulk of her shield around, she stepped in, her fist endowed with a black flame, and unleashed a powerful straight punch directly to Mash’s face. The full strength of the servant sent the demi-servant tumbling backwards.
“Whew, that does feel better than just tossing you around.” Jeanne shook her hand off. Mash got up on a knee steadily, bringing her shield up. “You know, I probably don’t even need to fight you. The game would probably keep generating paths for me until I reach the tear, if I just walked away right now.”
“Then…” Mash looked confused. “Why are you still here?”
“Beating you up before heading off seems like the right thing to do,” Jeanne said, cracking her neck.
“I don’t understand,” Mash mumbled, standing once more.
“Good, that makes both of us.”
Jeanne didn’t allow the conversation to continue. She ran forward at Mash, prompting her to put her shield before her. At the last second, she dropped completely, sliding in and sweeping Mash’s leg right out from under her. The demi-servant used her other leg and shield to remain standing, but Jeanne took the action’s delay as a time to get up and knee the Shielder in the gut.
She would have fallen to the ground, had Jeanne not grabbed her collar before she could collapse. For a short moment, the two’s eyes locked. Then, Jeanne turned around, pulling the collar hard enough that Mash’s feet left the ground. With a great heave, Jeanne tossed Mash on the ground like a football on a touchdown. The impact was so hard Mash bounced off the ground a couple times before finally settling, motionless.
Jeanne stared a moment, waiting for movement, signs of life or willingness to fight. None came. She picked her flag back up and walked away, looking back only once.
“Don’t worry, I’ll sock him once for you too.”
She walked off, her goal within reach, a great hole ripping her world to shreds. A great unknown, an unforeseeable conclusion.
But a conclusion she had to reach.
X
The sun rises in the distance. My eyes shifted, just a bit. The fire had faded. I was next. It was quiet. It wasn’t cold. It felt comfortable, somehow. I could feel myself falling asleep, the last thing I’d experience being a sunrise.
I couldn’t see the sun, though. Something was in my way. I moved a bit, my neck cold, and creaking, and unwilling. On the ground, where I’d dropped my phone, useless and empty, was a fire.
Some kind of dark, shadowy fire. I looked up, a bit, as far as I could. Shapeless, dark, looming over me. I couldn’t describe it. It was indescribable.
It felt alive, somehow. It felt like it was looking at me, somehow. I felt like it was here to hurt me, somehow.
Burning returned. Noise returned. I was being too loud again. It was here to hurt me, I was afraid.
“Do it.” The words escaped me on their own.
I didn’t want to be hurt. I wanted to be saved. This burning, I, I want to live.
“Kill me.”
I want to see her. I want to go home. I want to play my phone game. I want to go for a walk. I want to ride my bike. I want to disappear. I want to see everyone again. I want to be forgotten. I want to be found.
I want to be saved.
“Please, do it.”
I couldn’t even say any more. My lung felt dry, empty, weak.
It looked down at me, for a long, long time. The sun was rising further and further. Immobile, staring, judging, deciding, thinking, pondering, ignoring, teasing, torturing, sleeping, PROLONGING MY AGONY.
“DO IT!” I heaved at her, dry, painfully. I coughed, I burned, my breathing became too loud, too loud, too noisy, I wanted it to go away, to go away forever.
“Now, now.” A hundred voices came from it. Sounded almost computerized, mashed up, edited. “Don’t say such things, [master].”
The voice hurt the ears, became less and less pleasant the more words it forced into existence.
“I’ll warm you right up…”
A dark, burning hand reached down to him.
- - - Updated - - -
Prompt Pool was pool number 4, prompt used was
- Jeanne Alter x Gudao x Summer Martha. It was supposed to be an easy mission. Hell, his two lovers were max ascended and grailed even! Yet, here Gudao was in a cabin with them freezing himself to death. The mission was to wipe out enemies and collect materials to bring back. The string of mishaps started when he brought the wrong Mystic Code. Next, it was winter within the singularity. His Servants weren't affected by the cold but he was! Third, he broke into a frozen lake and was soaked. Seeing their master in this state, the two had no choice but to strip down and share body heat in one sleeping bag. (Tags: Vanilla, massage, spooning, cowgirl, doggy style, one-on-one, threesome, creampie.)
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Originally Posted by Arashi_Leonhart
