Fate/stay night and its related concepts and ideas are the intellectual properties of Kinoko Nasu, Type-MOON, Notes Ltd. and other respective rights holders. This story is written solely for the purpose of entertainment, and not for any sort of monetary profit. If anything, consider this free advertising.
The Stewards of Gaia
To seek Akasha is to pursue the knowledge of this world. The motions of the stars, the history of this earth, and the untold millennia of the primal times of the past – all of these outstrip the grain of sand of human achievement in the hourglass of the world’s knowledge. Most feats of humanity are pale imitations of that which the world’s fauna have achieved for millions of years. They are closer to Gaia and its fruits than we could ever become. Therefore, to emulate the beasts of this world – its first and proper inhabitants – is the fastest path to the Swirl of the Origin.”
- Nikólaos Thirioakis, 1st Family Head of the House Thirioakis
~*~*~*~*~*~
The sun shone weakly through a patchwork of grey; grass still limp with melted frost bent and crumpled under the heavy footfalls of the five people walking purposefully over the grassy hills. The one farthest to the left – a short blond woman with light gray eyes – stretched parka-clad arms in exaggerated tiredness and spoke.
“Who builds a hotel out in the middle of nowhere like this?”
“Apparently, the Thirioakis family in the late 50’s,” answered another member of the group. The stout man ran a pale hand through mud-brown hair and continued. “During the reconstruction period of Germany after World War II, one of the target’s ancestors diverted funds to build this safe house in the outskirts of Stuttgart. Interestingly enough, Jenna – the report didn’t offer any sources for this section – he might have used unorthodox means to acquire the tools and money for the hotel’s construction involving a-”
Jenna waved a hand to interrupt him and then pinched her forehead in a practiced motion. “Ethan. That question was rhetorical.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
Jenna sighed and rolled her shoulders, causing a package covered in blue cloth strapped to her back to wobble.
“Jesus, cheer up will you?” A large gloved hand whooshed through the air to swat Ethan on his parka-clad back, and the smaller man jumped out of his slouch to face the offender.
“Would you please stop doing that, Franz?” Ethan glared upwards at the tall, dark-skinned man; Franz met his stare with a broad grin.
“Just loosening you up for the mission.” The grin morphed into a pensive frown, and Franz’s dark green duster rustled as he brought a hand to his chin in thought. “Still, it’s strange. We haven’t gotten a single notice of wanton murder, reckless use of magecraft or any of the usual stuff for this guy. Hell, according to the report he didn’t even try killing people the last time he escaped.”
“Orders are orders, Franz. And you know the saying when it comes to these guys. The only crimes a Designate haven’t committed yet–”
“Are the ones we haven’t caught him for yet,” finished Franz. He tilted his head toward the fourth member of the party and spoke. “How close are we to the target, Sebastian?”
Sebastian – a dour man with stringy black hair and skin like curdled milk – stared straight ahead as he spoke. “It’s over the next hill, to the left of that forest. At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if–” He cursed under his breath.
“A hawk just killed one of my scouting familiars. They’re enchanted to repulse natural wildlife.”
He turned to face the rest of the group, a scowl on his face.
“He knows we’re coming.”
“We all know the plan. If he gets the chance to go to ground again, we may not find him.” Their leader spoke, and each member stood at attention at her words. “As Enforcers, we must capture Dimitri Thirioakis – by any means necessary.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
A lone man stood in the dingy hotel room, staring intently at the walls. Once the bearers of cheap paintings by amateur artists firmly mired in mediocrity, the walls were now clad in equations abstruse to all but the most knowledgeable and diagrams of various animals detailed to each capillary. A window formed the majority of one wall, though the thick patina of dust on its paisley-patterned curtains spoke to its use. Adjacent to it was a wooden bed, topped with ratty sheets of faded red filled with holes and a mattress haphazardly punctured with springs. A sturdy table was the final piece of furniture in the room; its covering was a layer of papers, each adorned with machinery and equations, and a small velvet-clad box covered in faintly glowing runes. The thin man scrawled furiously on the peeling wallpaper, golden brown hands flying across the wall adding to the arcana on the walls. He wore scuffed and faded black shoes, dusty dark brown slacks and a gray sleeveless shirt underneath a black jacket. If one shaved away the layer of stubble across his face, his features would be considered attractive; yet they held a cruelty impossible to truly hide.
The man suddenly ceased his mad scrawling, and the constant skitter of his pen – not unlike the crazed skittering of starved rats – faded into the air of the solitary room. He reached into the black curls atop his head and pulled. A strand of hair writhed in his palm before igniting, and then burning into ashes.
“So they found me already, then.”
He grabbed the papers and box off of the table and crammed them into a bag. With a word, the bag shrunk to the size of a marble, and Dimitri swallowed it with resigned distaste. He stepped to the window and threw open the curtains with a clamorous rustle. A lance of sunlight pierced the room as motes of dust floated in the air, but Dimitri paid it no heed and with a click of the latch, raised the window. He pushed a hand forward toward the opening, and then threw himself back into the table with a clatter; the hair on his arms stood on end, and his mouth was twisted into a feral snarl.
With a faint glow, red light shone on Dimitri’s back, forming a pattern of feathered wings. This was the Magic Crest of the Thirioakis family, borne only by the family’s head.
For this occasion, Dimitri would use a fraction of its power.
“From the menagerie, a bird flies.”
Από το θηριοτροφείο, ένα πουλί που πετάει.
The head of a bird rippled out of his outstretched hand, and a barn swallow shot out and flew toward the window. Dimitri watched the fruit of the branch of magecraft he had used – Familiar Creation. A feat usable by those adept in the creation and use of familiars, Familiar Creation is the act of storing a template of a familiar within the body for the instantaneous creation of that familiar later on. Prana is consumed, and the familiar is created from available materials. For most magi, they are forced to use their own flesh and blood, or that of others to create an adequate familiar through Familiar Creation. For the Thirioakis family, this is not the case; its members store the materials of animals within themselves and their crest for immediate usage.
The swallow that flew toward the open window was merely one beast of Dimitri’s internal menagerie. It soared past the curtains, and with a howl of wind its dark blue feathers were stained a deep red as the swallow was torn to pieces.
“As expected of the Enforcers. This time, they managed to make a decent cage.” He stood and ran to the door.
The door opened with a bang as Dimitri dashed down the hallway, his feet lightly padding on the blood-red carpet. Doors and hall lights on the walls blurred by as he rounded a corner and continued to run toward the nearest flight of stairs. With measured breaths, Dimitri closed an eye and focused, and his vision shimmered to show underbrush and insects along a loamy forest floor. As a master of familiar crafting, seeing through the eyes of his familiars was a matter of the greatest ease. He blinked, and the image shifted to a bird’s eye view of the nearby forest. Dimitri cursed under his breath and switched viewpoints once more.
“Where are you, you jailer of a magus? Show me where you are, so I can shatter this cage!”
He blinked once more, and the verdant leaves of the forest were replaced by a spear of flame. Dimitri threw himself to the side with a crash, his jacket smoldering and burning away. His head swam from impacting the wall; despite this, Dimitri’s instincts screamed. He rolled to the side to see a fist clad in wind punch the ground where his head once was, cratering the floor. The Enforcer pulled his fist from the ground and leapt at Dimitri’s prone form, his brown fist swirling with howling winds.
Red light shone through the charred holes in Dimitri’s jacket as he raised a hand toward the Enforcer – Franz.
“From the menagerie, a rat leaps!”
Από το θηριοτροφείο, ένας αρουραίος άλματα!
A large brown-furred rat shot toward Franz’s face, and he swatted it aside with his left arm before punching the ground with his right. The Enforcer’s fist struck the floor with the roar of a cannon, shredding the carpet into dust and splintering the floor.
Yet it had not struck Dimitri Thirioakis. He kicked off against the floor, throwing himself backward the moment the rat had leapt, and rolled once more to dodge another blast of scorching flame. Dimitri jumped to his feet and slammed through a door, tumbling into a room. His Crest thrummed with power once more as he began to incant.
“ The body is a menagerie. The blessing is that of Pan. The soul is a garden. Its flower is…”
Το σώμα είναι ένα θηριοτροφείο. Η ευλογία είναι ότι του Παν. Η ψυχή είναι ένας κήπος. Λουλούδι του είναι...
With a roar, Franz punched through the door with a torrent of wind, reducing it to splinters.
“... a lion!”
... ένα λιοντάρι!
And with a roar, Dimitri pounced through the doorway and mauled Franz with a lion’s claws, tearing dark brown flesh away to reveal pink and white. Franz collapsed to the ground, his cheek hanging off his jaw as a flap, as Dimitri landed on top of him and leapt into the hallway.
Familiar Transformation. This was the first art of magecraft practiced by the Thirioakis family – the assimilation of animals into the body to temporarily gain their traits. In exchange for prana and using the materials of an animal as a medium, the body is manipulated and reforged to reflect the characteristics of a beast. The more prana is spent, the faster the transformation and the greater its extent, and increased access to the beast’s abilities is also granted; however, the likelihood the practitioner will lose themselves to madness is greatly increased.
Dimitri flexed his claws, tensed the superior leg muscles of a lion and launched himself forward toward the second Enforcer, Sebastian, who had cast flame. Sebastian chanted an aria and released a spear of fire that filled the hallway. The torrent of flame surged forward like a roaring dragon, and Dimitri dived without hesitation into its maw.
“A salamander is the next bloom!”
Μια σαλαμάνδρα είναι η επόμενη άνθιση!
As Dimitri pressed forward, his skin rippled and cracked. The powerful paws of his hands and feet lost their fur as his skin blackened and clad itself in scales. His face distorted once more, the feral fanged grin of a lion shifting into a reptilian smirk. A black comet shot through the roiling ocean of flame and tackled Sebastian, sending the two magi crashing down the stairs in a tangled heap. Dimitri shifted his hands into the paws of a lion, and with a loud crack, grabbed Sebastian’s neck and twisted it. He landed on the dead Enforcer, and ran down the hallway at the base of the flight of stairs.
Dimitri’s hands rippled back into those of a human’s as he ran down the hallway. He flexed them experimentally, grimacing as the bones popped back into place.
For the sake of his goal, pain was the least of all costs to pay.
Once more, Dimitri closed one eye and focused on the familiars outside the hotel. He flicked through the visions of trees dappled in fading sunlight and grass waving in the wind as he ran up another flight of steps and around multiple corners. With an aria, he released seven hounds into the hallway that paced watchfully. Dimitri stopped and yanked open a door, and then stepped into the room and closed the door. As he shoved a dresser in front of the door, he grinned.
In his vision were two magi, one with hands outstretched maintaining a Bounded Field.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Dammit! Sebastian’s dead.” Ethan gritted his teeth as he communicated with the other Enforcers through a modified earpiece. A magic glyph shone on its surface, and pulsed in time with his speech. “He’s still in the hotel, though he’s a floor above you now and near the middle of the hotel. Are you alright, Franz?”
Jenna paced behind Ethan, her fists clenched. “Where the hell is the leader? She should’ve gotten to him by now!”
“She’s been fending off the familiars within the hotel the whole time! They’ve been prioritizing her as a threat and keeping her busy!” Ethan sighed deeply, and continued speaking. “You were able to heal yourself, Franz? Good; Thirioakis is still in the location I said before. The leader’s on her way as well, but the familiars are focusing on her, so you’re on your own for now.”
“At least this cage of yours is keeping him inside.” Jenna adjusted the cloth-covered package on her back as she stared into the forest, her vision Reinforced. “I just wish he’d died like that bird.”
“He may have instinctively sensed the Bounded Field. With his association to animals, it’s not outside the realm of possibility. In fact, this alongside the speed of his transformations might confirm part of the report – him having the Origin of Beast.”
“It amazes me how much you can see inside that field of yours, sometimes. In fact, I think that – oh, is time for my job now?”
Jenna shrugged her shoulders, sending the package clattering to the ground. The cloth slid off the object to reveal an aged amphora painted with a picture of a raging storm. With a radiant blue light, the urn began to glow.
From the depths of the forest, a Bengal tiger leapt with unnatural speed. The orange and black blur rocketed forward with a roar, and shot straight toward Ethan. Yet before it could slay the Enforcer, Jenna cast her spell.
“Aquarius, heed my call! Naiads, arise!”
A torrent of water burst from the top of the urn and spiraled into a tentacle that swatted the tiger aside. The beast flew through the air, slammed into a hill and crumpled to the ground. It then stood shakily to face the golem of water, lips curled back in an angry snarl.
“Don’t think I’ll make this easy for you, you heretic!” With a swing of its arm, the golem fired a barrage of watery darts that tore into the hill as the tiger leapt aside. Jenna turned to see a streak of pale fur pounce from the left toward Ethan.
“Poseidon’s domain knows no limits!”
A second geyser erupted from the urn and enveloped the lioness, pulling her away from the occupied Enforcer. The feline struggled in its watery cage, sending violent ripples through the golem.
“Fall into Thetis’s embrace!” Jenna clenched a fist, and the golem morphed into a ball of rapidly spinning water, violently spinning the lioness until her thrashing began to subside.
Jenna looked to the right to see the tiger dodging blast after blast of water. The golem shifted its arms into watery blades and swung at the tiger in a flurry of motion; light refracted off of its surfaces to form a dazzling display of grace. Its muscles tensed, and the feline ducked under the myriad slashes to lunge under the golem’s legs. With a predatory roar, the tiger leapt at Ethan once more.
“Why you… Amphitrite, I require your aid!” A third pillar of water gushed forth from the urn, and slammed into the tiger, pinning it to the hill with a gunshot’s blast. The tiger writhed wildly, yet the shifting water pinned any limb that escaped the golem’s grasp.
With a low snarl, a timber wolf barreled out of the forest and leapt straight at Jenna, claws outstretched as it lunged for her throat.
“Tch…one after another, you shitty beasts!” With a snap of her hand, the first golem surged toward her and slammed into the wolf’s side, knocking it onto the ground. The wolf rolled along the ground and slid to its feet, and then leapt at the blonde Enforcer once more. It dodged blow after sluggish blow from the golem, at times leaping over a watery blast and at others ducking under a sweeping slash. Jenna stood panting as sweat streamed down her face, yet continued to manipulate the golem.
The lioness is almost dead. If I can just hold out until then, I can release that golem and focus on the rest!
She turned to check on the lioness, and then heard a piercing scream.
Jenna ran toward Ethan, bodily Reinforcement transforming her into a blur, to see the man crumple to the ground, his face frozen in a rictus of agony. Ethan’s fingers were clenched into claws and his knees were tucked into his stomach; his tongue hung from his mouth and only the whites of his eyes were visible. Hanging from his ankle was a dark snake – a black mamba.
One of the most venomous snakes on Earth.
She drew a knife and stabbed through the snake, decapitating it, and then cradled Ethan’s head in her arms.
“Hang on, Ethan. I’ll heal you, alright? So hang on, dammit!” A liquid golem flowed to Jenna at her command, and she wrapped it around Ethan’s injured ankle, enveloping the raw and angry wound.
“May the blessings of Asclepius revive thee!” The water flashed a light blue, and then began to glow. Ethan thrashed wildly, bloody froth flying from his mouth.
And then he was still.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“That’s the second person I’ve killed today.”
Dimitri grimaced in disgust as he opened his eyes. The slaying of others was an unpleasant, yet necessary task. He couldn’t afford to be merciful anymore.
From the beginning, mercy was a mere hypocritical luxury.
Outside the barricaded door, the howl of wind mixed with the dying whines of hounds. Dimitri turned behind him to what the dresser had once blocked and stepped forward.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Franz stood against the wall in a pool of blood. As the crimson fluid dripped from his hands, he brought a foot forward and slammed it into the door with a violent bang. A blast of wind tore the door from its hinges and sent it flying into the room with a crash. Franz spun along the doorway into the room, arms protectively raised in front of him to see the wreckage of a splintered door and dresser. He stepped forward cautiously, and then strode into the room.
“Where the hell did… he go… ”
With a sweep of his arm, the fractured wood flew to the side, crashing into the wall. In front of Franz was an open ventilation grate.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Dimitri slapped a hand covered in green scales onto the side of the heating duct. The modified duct, specially created to be scalable by a human, had been a special addition made once his ancestors assumed control of the hotel’s construction. With his Familiar Transformation granting him a gecko’s climbing abilities, climbing to freedom would be a simple task.
Well, as long as there was no interference.
The duct rattled violently as a vicious cyclone tore at its sides. With a loud howl, it tore Dimitri off of the wall, leaving bloody smears behind as his palms ripped off of his hands. On a platform below stood Franz, his fingers twisting around each other in a blur of motion. The tornado spun Dimitri like a gyroscope in a blender, smashing him into the walls with each gust of wind. Red mist filled the air as scale by scale, the winds tore him apart.
Dimitri gritted his teeth as the winds greedily yanked him down. The cyclone wrenched him downward toward Franz, whose entire body was tensed for one final punch.
This was the moment for Dimitri’s trump card.
“The greatest of flowers are the Stymphalian Birds!”
Το μεγαλύτερο από τα λουλούδια είναι οι Στυμφαλίδες Όρνιθες!
Dimitri’s mouth and nose stretched into a hard point as bronze feathers sprouted from his cheeks. His body compressed and lightened as dull gray feathers jutted out of his skin, tearing it apart as they clad his body. His arms twisted and cracked as they grew feathers and shifted from limbs to wings. With a twisting motion, Dimitri spun out of the cyclone and dived into its eye. Franz looked on in shock and raised an arm to guard as Dimitri unleashed his strongest attack.
With the speed of bullets, a storm of blades tore through the air to pierce the body of the Enforcer.
The Stymphalian Bird – a Monstrous Beast from the Age of the Gods capable of firing its feathers as a hail of blades and poisoning its opponents. As a Monstrous Beast, it is a creature out of the league of most modern magi, and in hordes gave even the peerless Herakles a fitting trial.
Countless feathers punched through Franz – his arms, his legs, his chest – as they bored into the steel wall of the duct. The Enforcer toppled like a felled oak, the blades jutting from his body gouging fresh blood from his wounds as they screeched against the metal platform. Franz hacked violently, spraying the duct walls with fresh red.
“You… what are you after?”
His vision was a madman’s mix of Dali and Monet, his flesh bubbled and burned with an acrid stench in every rent and his body ached from reopened wounds that never had the chance to heal.
Despite this, Franz raised his head and spoke.
Dimitri flicked his eyes at the prone man and snorted.
“Someone who wastes their time defending those unworthy of saving… a hypocrite like you would never understand. Lie there and die. That is the best thing that you can do for this world.”
The winds died, and Dimitri flew upward with a powerful flap of his wings. He ascended to the grate at the top of the duct and in a burst of blades blasted it off. Dimitri shot out of the duct and landed on the roof. The setting sun hung over the trees to the west of the hotel, casting the beginnings of a deep and unnatural shadow. It dragged shadows along the stone surface of the roof, leaving nests of darkness alongside every pipe and structure. A chill wind blew, rustling feathers that glowed a deep, ruddy red in the dying light of the sun.
A gloved fist crunched into Dimitri’s arm, breaking it and sending him flying through the air in a disorganized heap before crashing into the ground with the clatter of shattered blades. He looked up weakly. Short red hair on the verge of purple bobbed slightly as a woman walked toward him. She wore a staid brown suit and gloves that glowed a brilliant green, and as she approached, Bazett Fraga McRemitz spoke.
“Dimitri Thirioakis.”
He staggered to his feet, feathered arms creaking as he raised them into a cautious guard.
“You shouldn’t have stolen from the Barthomeloi.”
Next Chapter:
“We know what he wants and where he’s headed. This time, he won’t escape our cage.”
“Stay out of my way, you selfish fool. For I am the one who will save this world.”
This is my first fanfiction here, and as usual, all civil feedback and criticism is welcome. This was also my fanfiction contest entry, and as such all consequences of me relinquishing my anonymity fall on me.
I won't promise a consistent updating schedule, but I will promise that I will finish this.
Originally Posted by Arashi_Leonhart
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