A long time ago, there lived one ■■■■■.
He was a blade meant to fulfill the desires of a group completely different in nature from the future group that would be known as the Order of Assassins. In other words, he granted the desires of men without a shred of faith. This ■■■■■ raised to be a "shadow" was reconstructed as a ■■■■■■■■ through magecraft, curse, alchemy, and science. After ■■■■■ing numerous ■■■■■■■■■■s, the organization that created him ultimately ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ him. The only ones offering their hands to the ■■■■■ degraded into a ■■■■ were one good-natured ■■■■■ and a pious ■■■■■ with pure faith in ■■■ heart. Thanks to them, the ■■■■■ could ■■■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■■■■■■ ■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■ ■ ■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■ ■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■ ■ ■■■■■■ everything ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■ ■ ■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■ ■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ killed ■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■ ■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ couldn't save ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ ■ ■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■ ■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■ saving ■■■ was not the right thing to do■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ sought ■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■ ■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ——————— ——— —————— —————— —— — ——— ———— ——— ——— —————— ————
And so, he journeyed to the ravine.
He was after a mausoleum rumored to be deep in those mountains, the one which regulated the divide between the underworld and the world of the living.
Most of his past was dissolved at the bottom of that nothing.
The Saint Graph data supposed to be recorded in the world for this Heroic Spirit scattered apart along with his past.
It's not possible to deceive the planet's memory, but the world being capable of detecting him didn't make a difference when no one could perceive him.
No one—Naturally including his own Heroic Spirit self.
All that remained inside him was his semi-systemified ego and the ideal he dedicated all of himself to on the verge of his death.
"Fool."
The journey of his life ended with him reaching the Mausoleum and encountering a greater entity there.
"What doth thou think thou canst with thy hands etched into shadows not allowed to perish? Did thou believe atoning before the proper time would give thee salvation? Doth thou desire to eternally wander the boundary between dark and light, aware that the resolve thou carrieth will not take thee anywhere?"
The embodiment of death was human in flesh, and yet he was clad in shadow so deep that it seemed like the whole underworld was contained inside him.
At first sight, the man understood
he would become this honored entity's shadow for eternity.
He didn't decide he would, he
accepted it.
He got the answers to all his questions.
"Why was I reconstructed into a being with non-human characteristics?" and "Why am I continuing this walk, considering that someone with no reason to live has no reason to fear death?".
To become the shadow of one he saw.
That was enough to dispel all the doubts he believed he would carry to his grave.
There was no emotional sobbing or fear of the dense shade of death, only a plain resolution.
Where he was, there was only tranquility.
He rested in peace knowing that, despite never knowing what he was born for, he finally arrived where he was meant to reach.
"If so—bare thy neck."
Condemning words and a silver glimmer.
And then the wind, sharp and full of mercy, passed through his neck.
The last sensation he felt in life shone far more brilliantly than anything in his memories buried in shadow.
That was what he remembered the most clearly in his Saint Graph mostly sunk in shadows.
He needed nothing more.
He continued to exist as a curse eternally loitering the shadows.
That was enough. He couldn't ask for a better reason to have treaded the arduous journey with no end.
The path with no destination wasn't a curse because, at the end of the extensive road, he earned a blessing.
Perhaps his mentality was no longer human at that point.
And lastly—
His life ended there, where one
shadow was etched into the world.
X X
In front of the Neo Ishtar Temple
"What's that?"
Enkidu noticed the unusual event inside the temple progressing.
Their Presence Detection merged with the world now could clearly sense the abnormality.
The presence that revealed itself now disappeared again.
But they didn't stop sensing the abnormality.
Enkidu felt, heard, and saw the situation grow more unfamiliar than ever before.
Said abnormality being the disappearance of the very world.
A portion of the divinity filling up the Neo Ishtar Temple disappeared like a bug bite in a leaf.
Furthermore, the range of this presence loss gradually expanded, on its way to erase the entire world.
Color, sound, smell, magical energy—Watching the divinus air inside the temple be swallowed by shadow, Enkidu stopped for a moment.
Berserker did the same, momentarily turning her giant body away from Enkidu to fire her light of Calamity into the temple's interior.
Rainbow-colored radiance slipped above Haruri's head, passing by Ishtar's sides.
But the moment they touched the
shadow inside, they silently disappeared. No explosions, no shockwaves, not even a mild breeze.
"..."
That was the perfect chance for Enkidu to attack Berserker's behind, but instead of attacking this defenseless back, they directed their magical energy to the giant golden chain above them.
"Berserker!"
Watching the event attentively, Haruri issued a command.
If she hadn't received her blessings, she would have lost consciousness when the light of calamity passed above her head.
But despite everything, her status as Ishtar's head priestess was official.
She had no need to be anxious about Ishtar's well-being.
She could tell from her Goddess Blessing, a connection much beyond a magical energy link, that Berserker wouldn't hurt the goddess.
She suppressed her instinctual fear, not sure if she could do it thanks to the blessing protecting or purely due to her personal growth, and devoted herself to hers and Berserker's shared duty as Ishtar's believers.
"You don't have to stop Lancer or the Assassin behind me! It's that
chain! Something is up with that thing!"
"I agree. Well done.", Ishtar's voice echoed immediately behind her.
"Mm! My Goddess! I'm grateful for your kind wo...!"
Turning around made Haruri gulp.
Everything in the corridor to the temple's interior except the goddess had completely lost its light and color. And that was left was a pitch-black open space.
She couldn't tell if the blackness was a room or a wall. It was impossible to visualize what was inside, given that the space let no light return outside.
It wasn't just light. She couldn't hear the echoes of sounds or feel any magical energy.
Haruri was struck with the unsubstantiated conviction that if she took a step in, her body would be gone forever.
The domain of shadow was trying to take over their territory and Ishtar was doing everything in her power to hold it back.
Unbelievably enough, that Assassin's Noble Phantasm was challenging a Divine Spirit on even grounds.
"You're evaluation was right. That chain and harpoon are the biggest threat.", said Ishtar to comfort the flabbergasted Haruri.
She nonchalantly issued a command that had nothing to do with the
shadows, as if to say they weren't an issue.
"That chain and harpoon could have been a much more powerful Noble Phantasm if the piece of junk had transformed their body into it. And yet, they chose to instead plant the equipment on the top of a building... This means the piece of junk has some hidden plan, not that I expect anything clever out of them... Ah."
That was all she could say before the
shadows squirmed explosively.
Every shadow within the temple gained physical shape and started predating the light around them—the light-consuming nothing was practically sending a message: "We are the ones who oppose the world ruled by Ishtar".
Ishtar raised her hand while watching them with serious eyes.
Ishtar instantly charmed the space around her—the air and walls twisted, and the staircase above her began to open like the soft petals of a blooming flower.
"I'll be right back after I deal with this tactless Assassin."
"My goddess?!"
Ishtar's words were absurd but she maintained her fearless smile while her worshipper was watching.
"Oh, right. Not even I can survive touching these shadows, so watch out, okay?"
"Wha..."
"
The shadows already surrounded the forest"
And so, the shadows began to devour the lights of the world.
The signs of life disappeared from the forest around the temple. The world was stained with darkness and silence.
Shadows proliferated from everywhere—the shades of the foliage, behind the tree trunks, under the sprays of the muddy streams, and the crevices of the dirt previously manipulated by Ishtar's charm.
The shadows lauded themselves as the righteous form of things.
But the shadows swollen in the color of death didn't take the life of a single insect clinging to the trees.
Because there was one entity rejected by the
shadows on the land illuminated by the azure sky.
Only the mistress of the skies attempted to engulf the land in her false light.
"
We're going out for a spin, Maanna!", Ishtar yelled as she jumped to the sky from the hole she opened in the ceiling.
In response, all gold and lapis ornaments composing the temple trembled, floated in the air, and flocked to her location.
They transformed into a bow-shaped boat with two beautiful arcs, which floated carrying Ishtar up into the skies.
But the
shadows wouldn't let her escape.
The rabidly pursuing clusters of shadows appear from within the world, hunting the radiance that blinds the eyes of all creation: Ishtar. Where there is light, there is shadow, they prove.
The black geysers chased Ishtar from all directions. Although they were called geysers, their movements much more closely resembled pitch-black worms eating the sky.
Goddess Ishtar's charm takes control of the surrounding space and terrain, the flow of the wind, and the atmospheric density, allowing the continuously perform last-second dodges on the flock of
shadows unaffected by her power.
Gracefully, elegantly, boldly.
But it couldn't last forever.
Maanna was originally a Boat of Heaven meant to fly across the world.
But since the Age of Gods hadn't fully started again, it can only maintain its max speed within the temple and forest areas.
Conversely, the
shadows are in opposition to the new world, existing even at the current world's edges.
It's painfully clear that if the chase persists, Ishtar will be the first to run out of divine aura and magical energy.
However, that is assuming that Ishtar will not fight back.
"Ooo, that's perfect."
Ishtar saw the gigantic snakes coiling to Gugalanna's legs below her and reached down like a child picking up a stick to swing around.
"Come here,
Cita!"
Those were incarnations of Hydra, the giant serpent of curses unleashed against those who defy the gods.
But who would have thought? The goddess emanation regaining her full Authority could charm the essence of the snakes and reconstruct them into a completely different entity.
The aura shaped in the image of venomous snakes condensed and shapeshifted into smaller snakes as all of its curses flipped inside out.
As Ishtar extended her hand while dodging around on Maanna, seven snakes coiled to her fingers and tangled themselves to form one
ritualistic implement.
A stone mace built in the image of seven snakes.
With one hand, Ishtar grasped a weapon with a visibly atrocious appearance.
"Eat this!"
Before she could finish her sentence, Ishtar flew Maanna high into the sky.
Higher, higher, aiming towards Venus in the sea of stars.
And the shadows extended in pursuit.
True or not, Ishtar had declared that those shadows could
kill gods on contact.
Like the Tower of Babel, the pitch-black tower rose taller and taller, extending its hand to reach a god.
Maanna's trajectory was like a roller coaster full of sudden turns and loops until it spun 180 and began a sudden descent toward the tip of the tower.
Ishtar, a god, could not allow a tower to reach the domain of the gods.
No, that was not it.
It was not about the gods.
She needed all to know that the skies were hers, Ishtar's domain.
To do so, Ishtar simply swung her weapon relying on Maanna's momentum.
Seven-Headed Warhammer Cita
A warhammer in the image of seven snakes. Legend tells that Ishtar was born holding this hammer.
Ishtar took this warhammer known for its ability to devastate her enemies without her needing to swing it, loaded it with her divine aura, and slammed it at the top of the tower of shadow with all her might.
Everyone who looked at that specific area of the sky at the moment her hit sparked mumbled the same words: "I'm seeing a second Venus".
Her moment of radiance continued as she descended to the ground with Maanna and the Cita warhammer flattening the shadows.
By the time she landed back atop her temple, she had exerted enough force to pulverize the shadows along with Assassin's Saint Graph—but Ishtar forgot to consider one thing.
That was no Tower of Babel.
That's not the kind of tower any Hassan-i-Sabbah would ever build.
The tower of shadow was created by Ishtar's own light and symbolic of the heights of her arrogance.
Therefore, it's not radiance that can erase it.
"...Yeah, I really don't do well against these underworld kinds!"
In response to her words, the squashed
shadow moved upward, turning its attention to the Divine Beast of the skies.
Completely vanquishing this shadow would require drawing out the full force of the temple.
And to achieve that, she'd have to cross everything out of her list of potential concerns.
"Gugalanna.", Ishtar called for the Bull of Heaven that had been protecting her temple from the swarm of snakes. "Go destroy the source of the
chain—while I hold this guy off."
This order wasn't a product of pressure.
It was as casual as telling one's favorite dog to fetch a ball.
But coming out of a goddess' mouth, this was now a new law of the world.
Many American meteorological surveillance systems, including the government, were observing "Hurricane Inanna" abnormal movements at the time, but what they saw was erased from the records in a matter of minutes.
Although, had that
movement remained in the records, it's plain to see that the public would have taken it as a video edited for a joke.
Even mages would have a tough time believing this.
The hurricane that had been strangely unmoving for a while took a 2-meter-long...
backstep.
Numerous arrows were stabbed into the colossal beast's leg.
From them gushed out the aura of giant serpents.
On the outside, they were the miasma of dark mud. On the inside, they were a deadly toxin that took many a hero and monster to their grave. They tangled to the Divine Beast's leg, sewed it to the ground, and attempted to rot its body along with its divinity.
But that's no reason to refuse an order from the goddess.
The Bull of Heaven took a big leap behind, not bothered by how it needed to let part of its leg be ripped off for it.
One jump back was enough to pierce the land and ravage the forest with tremendous windstorms.
The colossal beast crouched into the shape of a hurricane while taking a deep breath, condensing the concept of galestorm within itself.
The quiet and pleasant sunshine over Snowfield made the galestorm one second ago feel like just a dream.
But the people locked inside their houses never noticed this abnormality.
In extremely rare cases, some fearless fools were watching everything from their windows. Those looked puzzled at this change in weather, but it didn't last long.
This fantastic scene of all the unstable air suddenly disappearing and all problems being solved only lasted 4 and a half seconds.
After that, he breathed out thunder and torrent condensed into one stream of death.
A massive tornado formed at the Divine Beast's mouth at unbelievable speeds and plunged toward the top of the tallest building in Snowfield.
A migratory anticyclone exhaled. A physical phenomenon induced by force.
If shot at the ground, the city would have been leveled then and there, without having to wait for the masterminds' scheme.
Its shockwaves alone would blow away the city and the forest with winds beyond those of a hurricane. But what engulfed the top floor of Crystal Hill's was the actual hurricane breath, a 200m/s vacuum blade covered in lighting and raindrops turned into ice.
"Tch... Is there a worse place I could have been sent to...?"
Doris Lusendra—one of Hippolyte's Masters—who was at the building's rooftop, circulated her magical energy through her whole body with a cold sweat.
And then she picked up the silver wolf sitting next to the harpoon cannon to watch the forest in the West.
The wolf tried to resist but stopped upon sensing no hostility from Doris.
"I didn't think the Master I'd invite for an alliance would be a chimera, but I still can't afford a Master on our team to die."
She still hadn't recovered from her fight against Rin but forcibly expanded the path of her Magic Circuits to accelerate her hardening.
"Nope... I probably ain't surviving this one. Sorry."
She covered the wolf's whole body with hers, half-aware of her imminent death—That's when the breath of wind and lightning reached the rooftop.
That is the full power of a Divine Beast.
Those are the divine works of the skies.
A brazen strike of heavenly retribution, commanding the whole of creation to ensure Ishtar's victory.
The perfect gospel to announce the return of the Age of Gods under her rule.
But—
One person still resisted the changing times.
A wordless chant echoed and soon 4 walls of magical energy surrounded the rooftop.
"...Hh?!"
Doris saw a girl.
A child. There was no other way to describe the youth still left on her.
When Doris first visited this place, she thought it would be impossible to get her to join their fight.
Partially because she was a child, but mainly because she was using all of her magical energy to
preserve her Servant's corpse, ceaselessly preventing him from naturally vanishing into spiritrons.
Doris had assumed that this was because the girl was too young to make decisions on her own, so she simply relayed the message that her allies would gather in the northern strath and went to the silver wolf's company.
Thus, when she saw the girl arrive, she thought her Heroic Spirit had finally returned to the dust of spiritron.
—Tine Chelc.
This girl, Master of the Hero King, was the first one defeated in this Holy Grail War.
She had a powerful light in her eyes, which made Doris instantly rethink her impressions.
As this lone mage was challenging the
god in the forest.
"My family...
lives in this land..."
Her 12 brothers and 9 sisters were buried, sacrificed to the land.
Tine had already made peace with the fact that she lived as the "extension" of a series of lives cursed to offer themselves to the land, but that didn't make the time spent with her family disappear from her memory.
Her sisters made their poor attempts to teach her what normal people did for fun.
Her brothers did what they could to let the youngest Tine escape their fate.
She had no time to remember any of this in the middle of battle.
And yet those were the only thoughts running across her brain as she yelled with clear anger.
"So I won't let anyone take this land... this soil... My
family away from me!"
With pure, unadulterated greed, the girl yelled words that could sound unreasonable from an outsider's perspective.
"Not even a god!"
—Children should act like children.
(How ironic. I'm just like a child throwing a tantrum right now.)
This land belonged to the planet and humans unilaterally decided to be its defenders for their own convenience.
(When King Gilgamesh said all lands would eventually be his yard again, was that simply the king's arrogance or was it his serious views as the arbiter between man and the planet? I can't tell anymore, but I do want one thing.)
Tine now stood in opposition against a
god out of her own will, her own arrogant and self-serving anger—not for the clan of keepers of the land.
The magecraft of this ungrown child created sturdy walls of magical energy covering the top of the building.
A defensive boundary capable of blocking an impact capable of collapsing the building.
This vast volume of magical energy didn't come exclusively from her Magic Circuits, it utilized power flowing from the dragonveins.
Nevertheless, this amount of energy is too severe for a single mage. The land couldn't recharge her magical energy fast enough. Her walls would lose potency in seconds.
With the Bull of Heaven's not stopping, she figured she only delayed the inevitable. But that was when she heard a silver wolf's loud and melodic howl.
One of the Command Spells engraved into the silver wolf's body shone red with this howl, generating an immense surge of magical energy.
X X
"!"
Having avoided the shockwaves of the Bull of Heaven's breath, Enkidu landed on the floating harpoon captured by the living dirt and felt the activation of the silver wolf's Command Spell through their magical energy path.
But it didn't have any effect on their Saint Graph.
On the contrary, they could feel the surge of magical energy passing through them and returning to the city's direction.
(This must have been an instinctively activated Command Spell, but what did he use it for?)
With milliseconds of examination, Enkidu understood their Master's reasons and quickly turned to the city to say one phrase that would go unheard.
"Thank you. I'm wholeheartedly grateful for having you as my Master."
X X
"!"
Tine felt a sizeable surge of magical energy flow inside her along with the flash of the wolf's Command Spell.
(It used the power of the Command Spell... on me?)
An unthinkable act in a Holy Grail War.
Command Spells are made to be used on one's own Servant. They can't be used to boost other Masters because there isn't a connection of magical energy between them.
But Tine remembered she was currently an exception.
Tine had been constantly spending her magical energy to prevent Gilgamesh's corpse from crumbling.
And to prevent her own body from crumbling, Enkidu temporarily connected her to their own magical energy path with the wolf.
Thinking back to everything in full context, Enkidu doing that by simply laying their hand on her shoulder was already absurd in both idea and execution, but thanks to that, the silver wolf managed to pass its Command Spell's energy through Enkidu to inject it into Tine.
The power of a Command Spell is capable even of teleportation, which is almost Magic territory.
This energy instantly expanded the Magic Circuits in Tine's body, reconstructing her Circuits into a sturdier network so her body wouldn't crumble from her fusion with the land.
This resulted in the walls majorly expanding and the approaching cyclone of dirty water and thunderstorms completely dispersing into the air.
3 seconds later.
The walls vanished roughly at the same time as the breath attack.
Even with the power of a Command Spell, none can make walls capable of withstanding the goddess' attack last more than a few seconds.
"Thank you..."
Confirming that they managed to survive by the skin of their teeth, Tine hesitated but thanked the wolf who watched her from her side.
"..."
The wolf looked like it wanted to say something.
Something about the one Tine was trying to protect.
Its eyes showed concern about her version of "Servant", which lay down on the top floor of the building.
Figuring out what the animal meant, Tine crouched next to the wolf and hugged it tight.
"I did all I could... It wasn't a lack of trying."
Remembering
what she did a few minutes ago, Tine squinted, shaking in anxiety, and whispered something akin to a confession of sin.
"It was
a gamble... but now his fate is up to the land to decide."
Originally Posted by aikoizumi
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