Two aspects of Chiyou turned their gazes towards the Aventine Hill, where a roar of unimaginable fury had paralyzed an entire city and temporarily blown away the stormy clouds, announcing the coming of a night of horror unparalleled.
Chiyou Caster sighed.
“Well, it appears mine own death hast cometh.”
Chiyou Rider chuckled; a brief, raspy sound, broken by the blood pouring out of her mouth. Lying prone on the grass, she could feel her Saint Graph slowly breaking apart from the countless wound Caster’s spells had inflicted. Her soldiers and beasts had long departed from that world, as she no longer could sustain their summoning.
“Hmph. So, in the end, I’m leaving the stage at the right time,” she said slowly. “Wouldn’t want to stick around to have to deal with that one.”
“Aye, that couldst beest called fine fortune.”
They looked at each one last time. Rider tried to spit blood out, but it just poured out of the corner of her mouth and trickled messily down the side of her neck.
“Damn it, I didn’t even make you sweat a little. You…Caster, you are a monster just like that one.”
“That is what it means to be Chiyou,” replied the shortest of the aspects, eliciting a wicked smirk from the defeated Rider.
“Damn right it is. Chiyou is
extraordinary.”
And with that, Rider was no more. Alone, Caster once more turned her gaze to the city, where the monster was about to begin its festival of violence.
“Aye. This is what we liveth for, after all.”
With a calm, sedate pace, the Sequencer of the Seasons began to walk towards her doom.
***********************************
“Ughh…ack…”
“I will give credit where due: I did not expect to have to run all the way to the outskirts of Rome. Great showing, little devil.”
No answer beyond grunts and gasps could come from the horned Assassin, what with her throat being relentlessly squeezed by Chiyou’s left hand.
“And to think Berserker’s already here. Faster than expected; to think Cacus would turn up such a disappointment.” A shrug. “Oh well, I don’t expect to stick around much longer. Actually, I should hurry a little; it would be the worst if the Chaldea brat gets killed before I make the trip.”
Assassin’s body from the neck down was rendered numb and incapacitated by Chiyou Assassin’s mysterious martial arts, just like in the Alps. She could not even muster the energy to conjure a musket.
“So, can I have the Cornucopia now, or do I have to kill you for it?”
It did pass through Assassin’s head, if only for a moment: to do something stupid and heroic, like spitting on her face and saying something of the likes of “Fuck you”. But then she could only wonder: why try so hard?
Why did she run all this time, without rest or sleep? Because Chiyou Archer threw her the Cornucopia. Because it was obvious Chiyou Assassin was up to no good.
Because
gave her life so that she could keep running.
In the end, this was as far as could go. But, after all, she still—
The space between the two Servant rippled gently as the Cornucopia emerged from the mysterious space where Assassin’s belongings were stored.
“Good girl.”
And Assassin found herself back on solid ground, thrown away like a discarded toy, coughing and hacking with desperation.
“Upon abandoning themselves to their true selves, the people of Rome have condemned this world,” Chiyou muttered to herself as if the damnation of the timeline had nothing to do with her. The horn of plenty floated in front of her, its golden halo gradually changing into an unsettling pallor as Chiyou fed it
something.
“Rather than the Force of Providence that governs the fate of individuals, it was the fate—no, the
self-preservative force of this entire reality—that I fed upon. There cannot be an anthropic principle if humans become unable to think of themselves as a whole.”
Finally, the Cornucopia entered Chiyou’s well-built body, transferring its unhallowed radiance to her.
“My existence—no…” The glowing Servant looked down at the defeated Assassin with a strange expression of affection and pride. “It was our combined presence here that spelled the doom of this timeline. Just by being here we were a disruption of the proper course of the history of man; it was inevitable that this timeline would be quarantined; detached from the stable trunk of Tree of Time. Isolating it from extradimensional and extratemporal interference was almost a nonissue at that point. It was easy to keep Chaldea’s sensors away after they sent the child here.”
The light was spreading, enveloping her, swallowing her features as she slowly became something like a body of pure radiance. The buildup of magical energy was staggering, even more so because Assassin was certain what she could see was only the leakage that Chiyou’s current Saint Graph could not contain.
“What…what’re you saying…?” Assassin finally managed to say something in a raspy, hoarse voice. A part of her wondered why she had not asked what Chiyou was doing. In any case, the elder Assassin seemed amused by the question.
“Even after whatever Naamah did to you, you still don’t remember everything, do you? So I’m giving you a helping hand. It’s the least I can do after everything you’ve done for me, child.”
“What…?”
A brief, bark-like laugh. Chiyou began to walk the few steps separating her from the prone Assassin; one step for each taunting sentence pronounced. As she moved closer, Assassin became more deeply aware of that growing lump of energy, and trembled beneath the growing awareness of what Chiyou was doing to herself.
“Oh? So you don’t even remember that? I pity you. So, my darling girl, think about it for a moment: where do you think I got the first Grail from? The one I used to summon those Servants? The one I used to block Chaldea? The one that Rider just used to summon Cacus, and which I prepared so that it used Cacus as a catalyst for one last Servant summoning upon his death? Where. Did. That. Grail. Come from?”
As this point, Chiyou’s radiance was obscenely bright, forcing Assassin to close her eyes and avert her face. She still felt, however, Chiyou breath on her ear as she leaned forward to whisper the answer she did not want to believe.
“I got. That Grail.
From you.”
Assassin felt a kiss on her cheek. The soft sensation was quickly washed away by her own tears.
“Everything I needed, you provided! My wondrous benefactor, who delivered two wish-granters to my greedy little hands. My wonderful child, I’d do a lot more than kissing you, if I thought you’d enjoy that. But anyway, we’re done.
You are no longer necessary.”
The calm ultimatum made Assassin shudder. She felt like abandoning everything; just lay there in fetal position and wait for the end.
“As a token of my gratitude, I shall not take your life. If you feel like dying nonetheless, I’m sure Berserker or Rider will eagerly accommodate you.”
Finally, the light engulfed them both and the world around them. Assassin could only hear, and feel, Chiyou’s Saint Graph changing, growing, transmuting itself into something aiming to defy all categorization.
“You have my most sincere gratitude, little demon,” said Chiyou. Her voice, too, was changing. It sounded older, more adult, more mellifluous. “Thanks to you, I can fulfill the purpose of my existence. I can show that I am worthy of
becoming more.”
“And now, I am ready to move on.”
***********************************
“Nobody. Move.”
He did not need to be told that. Momu’s words were utterly superfluous, and the only reason he was not berating her for the reckless opening of her mouth was because he was too afraid to emit sound himself.
This was it. This was absolutely it.
We’re fucking dead.
This certainty. This heart-wrenching certainty that their lives were forfeit. That the only reason his heart still beat, and his lungs still breathed, was because
that thing had not seen them yet. So familiar, and oh so unwelcome. It said something about the human condition that, after the likes of Tiamat and Goetia, he could still feel like this.
“Don’t look at it!” hissed the masked Assassin behind him.
I’m too afraid to look away!
The monster, which could only be the Berserker-class aspect of Chiyou, was a horned, light-haired woman, just like her sisters. Really, there was nothing particularly intimidating about her appearance, and compared to Herakles’ ridiculous weapon, this girl’s cleaver-like thing looked like a toy. No, there was really nothing to be afraid of just by looking at her.
But he could tell. They all could tell.
This girl, can kill me.
This girl, will kill me.
If she reaches me, I’m dead.
If she looks at me, I’m dead.
There’s nothing I can do about it.
The only reason we are still alive is because
she was summoned with her back towards us.
The girl Berserker scratched the ground in front of her with the corner of her blade, giving the impression of an impatient, caged lion. She turned her gaze to the side, and then to the other, clearly looking for something alive so she could kill it. Yet in her almost-endearingly-simple mentality, she still did not think of turning around looking behind her.
They had felt the powerful surge of magical energy somewhere south of the city, but it was impossible to dwell on it with their lives on the edge of the precipice.
The Master found it in himself to look at his Servant out of her corner of his eye. Lancer Alter looked immutable, unfazed and stern by the newcomer—it was almost uplifting. But she would not move. She breathed heavily, and grimaced at her own inability to take the initiative and charge.
Just like he, she could not figure out a way to get out of this.
“We can do this,” Momu spoke very softly. “If we are extremely careful, and don’t make any loud noises, we might just get out of here without being seen—”
And that was when it all went straight to hell.
It began with exactly two beeps.
“Senpai? Senpai, it’s really you! Aaah, Miss Da Vinci, we’ve finally made contact! Senpai, are you well? It’s been so long; please tell me you are unharmed—”
She was so dazzlingly fast.
She was already there, at arm’s length. He was struck by her inhuman eyes, so devoid of expression, utterly contrasting with the powerful roar with which she manifested herself.
A machine. A true, honest-to-god “killing machine”.
Aw crap—Simple thoughts, driven by more than one reason.
“Boy!”
“Maste—”
“Senpai—”
***********************************
“Found you~” Chiyou Assassin murmured with an uncharacteristically sweet voice. Then again, perhaps this would be the new “normal” for her. After all, she was not “Assassin” anymore.
She was taller, less rough around the edges and more voluptuous. Her somewhat messy, ashen silver hair had grown longer, becoming a cascade of artificial-looking white. Skeletal wings of red bone adorned her back, and darkness accompanied her. Swirling, rumbling, crawling chaos-stuff surrounded her, polluting the world with its presence. Around her, plant life decayed and broke apart into worthless dust, as if afflicted with a curse of aging.
“The path to Chaldea is open. I knew it would be easy, but it still amazes me.” Her sardonic smirk betrayed the falsity of her “amazement”.
“Class…Beast…”
“Right, you still here,” muttered Chiyou dismissingly. Not sparing a glance at the pathetic, tear-stained form of Assassin lying prone on the hard soil, the newly christened Beast instead looked down at her gauntleted hands.
“Yes, albeit not unexpected, this is a disappointment nonetheless. I was truly hoping for
something else, but I guess this is as far as I can go with the foundation of a Servant’s Saint Graph.”
She shrugged.
“Oh well. It is not a complete failure, and it does show there is still room for improvement.” She stretched her arms towards the sky, groaning with a pleased tone as she strained the muscles of her new, stronger body.
“In any case, it was lovely meeting you, little demon, but I should be making my way to Chaldea—”
“Which one…are you?”
“Hmm?”
Assassin had long regained the use of her body. She just did not find the will to get back on her feet. She felt tired, defeated and hopeless. She had failed Queen Naamah and, more importantly, she had discovered disappointment. For the first time in her life, she understood the pain of failing to herself, of aiming for something and finding herself lacking, of striving for one’s own wish, yet failing to reach anything.
It was true that she did not remember everything, but she remembered enough.
Who she ever was had never mattered; in the end, she amounted to nothing. Her existence was a falsity, a dreg of something that was once was great, but eventually amounted to nothing as well. Never worthy of pity, never worthy of mercy, never achieving anything. Was there ever anything that could be called commendable about her?
Coming into awareness of how irrelevant an existence she had been, she questioned the very purpose of it. Why keep moving? Why keep trying? Such were the doubts taking control of her mind. The question to Chiyou was an uncontrollable impulse; a lapse born of her innate curiosity.
“Which among the Seven? Which one did you claim?”
Chiyou’s inhuman red eyes paralyzed her with the utter disgust they projected. Assassin feared she had said the words that would render her life forfeit, but Chiyou merely clicked her tongue and looked away.
“And that’s why you will never amount to anything, stupid girl.”
It was a particularly stinging insult at that moment. Assassin winced and looked down, even if she did not understand her mistake.
“I hate labels, categories, distinctions like that. These Saint Graphs are already torture, having to debase myself by allowing this system to throw me into a box labelled ‘Assassin’. I thought I would be able to get away from this, but no. Now I’m ‘Beast’. But I’m sure as hell not throwing myself into the box of the ‘Seven Evils of Mankind’.”
She began to walk away, seemingly no longer content with Assassin’s company. Nonetheless, the growing distance between them did not prevent Assassin from listening to Chiyou’s clear, powerful words.
“I am
Chiyou. That is everything I am, and everything I need to be. I have no need for some number. If I am to be a ‘Beast’, then I am Beast Chiyou. That is all.”
No longer smothered by Chiyou’s powerful presence, and finding herself devoid of purpose or motivation, Assassin was finally defeated by both physical and mental exhaustion. Knowing that the Human Order was in imminent danger, but incapable of doing anything about it, the young horned girl abandoned herself to the oblivion of unconsciousness.
Originally Posted by Daneel Rush
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