Heulen Nachthexen
Howling Of The Night Witch
: D
Type: Anti-Unit
A crystallization of the assault tactic Rider's unit used against the German army. They would idle their engines near the target and slowly glide to the bomb release point, with only the whooshing of the wind to reveal their location. The Germans likened the sound to a witch's broomstick and named the pilots "Night Witches".
When she invokes this Noble Phantasm, Rider vanishes completely from all five senses of the target, as if possessing an extremely advanced form of the
Presence Concealment Skill. She then slowly advances towards the enemy, while emitting a low-pitched ghostly howling that seems to resonate from everywhere around them. The noise also imposes a curse-like psychological effect, assaulting the enemy's mind with the sense of being stalked by an invisible, inhuman huntress. Upon reaching the enemy, Rider will then drop her disguise and attack them, either by dropping a bomb if in her aircraft or with a melee attack if on foot.
While a theoretically powerful ability, this Noble Phantasm has several key downsides that keep it from being overpowered. First, due to recreating the legend of Rider's nocturnal bombing runs, it can only be invoked under the conditions of nightfall. However, since the battles in most Grail Wars take place at night this is unlikely to be a concern most of the time. Second, Rider is only invisible during her advance and not actually intangible, so a lucky shot or large scale area-of-effect attacks (like, ironically, a bombing run) are still capable of affecting her. Third, this Noble Phantasm is weak against enemies with a sixth sense or other extrasensory form of perception (such as
Instinct and
Revelation), who will be able to dodge Rider's attack despite being unable to perceive her.
Konigin Der Nacht
Cast Aside The Light Of Day And Answer My Call, Sisters Of Night
: C++
Type: Reality Marble
Rider's bombing runs were carried out only under cover of night. Alone, that fact could not possibly crystallize into a Noble Phantasm. However, through being demonized as a "Night-Witch" by the German army and conflation with a completely unrelated mythical figure, the Queen of Night in Mozart's famous opera
The Magic Flute, Rider gains the ability to become a phantasmal existence incarnating night itself.
Upon invoking this Noble Phantasm, a magical shroud of darkness engulfs Rider's surroundings, smothering all light within the vicinity. Rather than mundane darkness it is actually a conceptual denial of light itself; a declaration that within the Queen of Night's domain no light shall be allowed to exist. Enemies will be forced to rely solely on their other senses to perceive the battlefield, or else extrasensory forms of perception like
Instinct and
Eye Of The Mind (False). Rider herself is unaffected by this loss of sight, and in fact can see, hear and feel every inch of space within the darkness as if it were an extension of her own body. As a final effect, Skills and Noble Phantasms that function by manipulating light, such as
Excalibur or
Mana Burst (Light), will be sealed if C-rank or lower and otherwise weakened by one ranking.
However, that is only a secondary effect of this Noble Phantasm. Within her Reality Marble, Rider can manipulate the darkness at will, commanding it to take shape into a massive fleet of Polikarpov U-2 byplanes piloted not by mundane humans, but grotesque female figures reminiscent of witches or demons. These planes and their pilots are powerful Phantasmal Beasts, and even if destroyed will continually reform themselves from the shadows as long as the Reality Marble is intact.
As invoking this Noble Phantasm is tantamount to fully acknowledging her persona as the "
", Rider gains all the attributes of a true queen of the night within her Reality Marble. Her
Innocent Monster (Nachthexen)Personal Skill is ranked up to EX, raising all her parameters by one ranking and allowing her to cast powerful witchcraft. Her personality also becomes far more sadistic, haughty and cruel, often drawing out fights she could easily win simply to torment the enemy. As a drawback, Rider also gains all the weaknesses of a stereotypical witch, such as a vulnerability to flames and Christian sacraments.
Despite the overwhelming power offered by this Noble Phantasm, Rider utterly refuses to use it, clinging to her pride as a human who committed extraordinary feats without needing to rely on the power of witches or demons. She will only invoke it if forced by a Command Seal, and with her newfound loss of morals will likely kill her Master immediately afterwards.
As her first Noble Phantasm-
Heulen Nachthexen represents her feats as a human rather than a phantasmal existence, it will be sealed once
Konigin Der Nacht is invoked.
Originally Posted by Kabalisto Koga
I'm a fan of the (relatively) subdued servants of the original Light Novels... but then again I'm pretty sure that the actual Excalibur didn't shoot lasers and Gae Bolg didn't rewrite cause-and-effect
