Quest of Fate - Apocrypha Universe Grail War

[4score7years]

Elemental magecraft is bad civilization and usually not interesting at all.

Make him fight like Scar in FMA.

Alchemy is defined as the recombination of matter into something else.
Therefore, we use the Magnum Opus as our magic formula.
The first step in the Hermatic tradition of the magnum opus is known as "Nigredo"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigredo

In short, it's the decomposition of stuff before it can be reformed. Since his wind element increases his affinity with decomposing stuff that synergizes well.

Furthermore, thematically, Nigredo is the first step of the Magnum Opus, how one creates the prima materia which at the same time symbolizes completion of the spirit and self.
Seigi, as mentioned, is definitely someone incomplete and a "meh" magus. Therefore it makes sense that his fighting style uses an incomplete form of magecraft spiritually and mechanistically.

So his Karate with Decomposition based in Alchemy.

I like it. More interesting and unique without necessarily being more powerful, plus a bit more of a thematic tie-in, as you said. Seems like pretty smart stuff to me.

[SleepMode]

So... Seigi has become a slightly better Waver with a dash of Scar's fighting style. It'll be exciting to read the future fight scenes.

[Bird of Hermes]

Fuyuki Bridge
Early Morning

Target Master, "Justice"

Optional Battle Music

As "Justice" dashes forwards, I let my instincts carry my forward. With his right arm reaching out, I spin counter clockwise and allow him to come past my back and between my left arm. After hitting the right point, I close the gap , trapping his wrist between my left elbow and my back - pinning him there for now.

I shoot out my right elbow and strike at the back of his head, as he leans forwards I wrap my arm around his neck. Now with him immobilised I can focus and analyse. I have a few tricks I hadn't used against Reiner.

My elemental alignment is Wind, strongly aligned to movement the element wind, in Humor theory also refers to blood or saugine much like water. I have training in all the basics: alchemy, spiritual evocation, summoning, divination, spiritual healing, among others including things like structural analysis.

A little trick of mine is combining divination and analysis.

As I focus on the movement in his body as it's pressed against mine, I can picture the movement of blood in his body, where and how he will move and with his whole body pressed against mine I know what he will do. His blood flows fast and radiates heat. His whole body is hot, his finely sculpted muscles flexing as he prepares to move.

It's his legs.

Incapable of moving his arms, he rolls backwards, using my body as a ledge to flip free of my hold as he lands on his feet. We both stagger backwards as I pull back into a defensive stance.

He fires out a quick jab with a still expression, given his arm length I don't need to move, he's just testing my reaction and seeing how I take the bait - but it's an opportunity I can't drop.

I rise with an Age Uke head block, my fore arm catching him and moving his fist upwards - he's open. In the corner of my eye I can already see his other had coming to me, aimed straight at my stomach. He's too fast, I can't block in time, but I can kick.

My knee is closer to him than his fist is to me; I extend my leg forward with a Mai Geri Keage front snapping kick, lauching the blow laced with reinforcement straight into his centre. He keels over on my leg but doesn't lose momentum as his fist collides straight into my chest.

It isn't as strong is I expected, the dull thud still remains and with enough force for me to recoil backwards but someone of his fine figure should be able to use more strength. I felt the heat within him but as I look down, I see I'm too late. His hand opens up into a flat form, similar to a 'knife hand' style and there is a flicker of purple electric energy welling up at his index finger.

Gandr

The flash of rockets out of his hand towards me, I try to move but it's not enough. The bolt of energy scratches across my side, scrapping past my body as it continues its course downwards into the floor before dissipating upon contact with the ground.
I can't feel any pain there, I can't feel much of anything at all there. A portion of my right flank feels numb. A close range shot like that hitting my dead on could have maybe even paralysed me.

He fires another shot directed at my face but I allow the weakness at my side to grow. My legs wobble and my right side falls to the ground as I extend my left leg out. My foot slides into the side of his ankle and I knock him off-stance, arms flailing and the shot going wide up to the side.
Reaching out for the feeling of blood in his body, I feel the flow. Most of his energy is still in his hand as it lowers down. He still plans of shooting me point blank. With my hand on the floor of the bridge, I lean back and press the majority of my weight backwards, freeing up my left leg as I kick him in the guts again, this time I poor more energy of my element into it.
Wind.

An upwards gale is enough to make him arc into the air and tumble backwards, rolling onto the ground. It's less about making pain and more on distance. The tricks I pulled on Reiner won't work here.

But I have one hell of an Ace up my sleeve no one's seen yet.

Alchemy is the transmutation of matter, in particular with attempts to convert base metals into gold or find a universal elixir. It is not a magecraft that one would traditionally use in close quarters combat aside from pulling ground from the earth to move it or to forge a weapon but the basis of the recombination of matter is fundamental.

Magnum Opus, the process of working with Prima Material to create a Philosophers' Stone is the basis for my formula. Destroying an object then instantly reforming it into something else. The first step is "Nigredo", pronounciation of the destruction of structure before transforming the base materials to a new form, combined with my own Wind affinity, the rate of decomposition accelerates. In practise, matter would dissolve in my hands before I could reengage it into a desired structure. I could implement Nigredo - the first step of the Magnum Opus but I could not focus truly. The shars and whispers… I was not complete, now the revelation of my fathers workings show my spirit and self is weight down by the blood on my hands, for to be born, many had to die.

I am incomplete, therefore my technique is "Incomplete". The basis of being rushed and imperfect makes the execution Perfect.

I see a flash of silver as this figure of "Justice" reaches out for a knive before throwing it at me, I reach out and focus. By stopping at the second step of alchemy, matter is destroyed and not reshaped. My magic circuits fire up, whiping around my nervous system. I ache throughout my entire being and I focus and destroy.

The green lines of Magical Circuits are liuminated on my arm as a flash of energy sparks out. The blade is pure iron. A single element with a simple chemical structure to the object. There is no resistance as the atoms slide over each other and upon influence of my magecraft, move apart.

With a loud shatter, the blade breaks apart and dissolves in mid air.

"Justice's" face twists around. Fear. Confusion. All of these would normally feed my ego and while I'd be happy to gloat, he tried to kill me.
There is no posturing, no declaration of superiority, no monologue.

He raises his arm and fires of bolts of Gandr repeatedly over and over. Although magic is different to physical objects, it has parts and has a basis. A basis I can break.

I move my hand into the path of each bolt and focus on Nigredo. Upon contact, I analyse Gandr. A simple curse designed to reduce health originating from Scandinavia and although there is no runic letter base it is still Rune Magecraft of the 18 original Norse Runes.

I understand. I destroy.

With a successive small shockwave one after the other, the curses dissipates with no harm to me but the numbness is starting to spread. Not from my would-be assailant but myself. This is the first time I've actively performed "Alchemy" like this in a combat scenario and destroying so much is taxing. The numbness begins to crawl up from my kidney to my shoulder but I cannot stop. I cannot show weakness, it will give him the incentive he needs.

Lowering my arm, I reenter my combat stance and slowly edge towards him. Wasting so much energy should have him drained somewhat but a cornered animal is at it's most ferocious. I place my arm of the ground.

The bridge is concrete by the road was a supprising shortcut, one part cement to one part sand.

Divine, analyse. Destroy.

I well my magic circuits to their limits and unleash a cascade of energy into the floor. It cracks under my power, opens up as a small hole opens up under the feet of "Justice."

With the ground beneath him collapsing, he rolls to the side out of the way of the arc of energy as the crack continues down the rest of the bridge.

I'm spent. I've used up so much power that any more would compromise Lancer. I need to settle this with fists.
As I walk up to him, he swings upwards wildly. Inaccurate. As I grab onto his wrist once more, I channel Nigredo.

The human body is complex, so many materials, layers and structures. I'm running low on fuel. I cannot afford any more.

Hampered greatly my poor comprehension and energy, I only feel bones break and blood spurt out of his body like a high pressured jet. It could easily be healed and I didn't have enough to affect Magical Circuits, but it hurt like hell.

As he lets out a silent scream, he staggers off to the side of the bridge. I simply reach out my hand and walk towards him.

My whole body aches, my circuits are burning, I'm losing feeling in my right side but if I can do this, I can remove a quarter of the competition.
He doesn't know I have no more energy for Nigredo but I can leap off the bridge with him. Reinforcement and making an air bubble will mean I'd survive the drop. He wouldn't.

However looking at that hand of his, I see a flash of red light glow. A command seal has been activated.

"Saber!"

In a crack of ghostly red light, a large wolfish figure emerges from the light now emanating behind me. Handsome, rippling, a wicked smile and a large sword is pointed at me.

He is strong. I feel the power emanating from him and It's directed at me.

The feel is so great, so overwhelming. His rugged handsome feature combined with such overwhelming power. I'd adore him if he wasn't about to kill me.

1). Push "Justice" out of the way and jump of the bridge to escape.
2). Try and fight your way out.
3). Try and appease Saber and his master.
4). Summon Lancer with use of a Command Seal.
5). Write in!

3 Command Seals Remain

=============================================

I'M BACK!

Major shout out to You for the combat preposition, I'm a solid 85% certain I butchered it but hey, rule of cool (and it can always bite Seigi in the ass later). The gap was far longer than I had intended but I hope that it holds up.

Alongside picking what to do next, could someone make an avi or find one for Justice and Saber much like one was done for Lancer? Cause that would be great.

--EDIT--

OP Updated thus far

[RoydGolden]

Wow, that was definitely a badass fight scene. I suggest taking option 1 and diving off the bridge. Not only is it the most 'Hollywood stunt-esque' option, but fighting our way out at this point would just be ridiculously stupid (we may've held our own against Justice, but there's no way we'll survive going toe-to-toe with a Heroic Spirit, much less the strongest Class) and I think it's pretty obvious appeasement seems unlikely at this point.

By the way, just from Saber being a wolf-man I'm putting a very high probability on him turning out to be either Siegmund or Hrolf Kraki, two ancient Norse heroes associated with wolves.

[SleepMode]

...Saber Class. Whelp, we just found a threat to our entire Grail War.

Well, I'm going for #1 since ha ha nope we're booking this fight for it's suicide to even continue to battle.

(A "write-in" of sorts for the "dramatic escape": )

This was not a good day at all; Our father's missing, the summoning was botched at the last second, and we just found out that we are having dead sibling-flashbacks (courtesy of Mom and Dad). Now, we're pissed, exhausted, and are currently facing a Saber of all Servant Classes without the company of Lancer.
Yep, definitely not a good day.

Maybe it's the frustration, or just the exhaustion, but with a final push, Seigi just mutters something like "Oh, screw this" and push Justice aside, leap off the side of the bridge and try to land headfirst into the water.

[Rafflesiac]

1 and then mentally call for Lancer to fish us out of the river.

Worst case scenario we die and reload from our last save. I'd say summon Lancer with a seal, but we're kind of wiped and not in much condition to support.

[RoydGolden]

1 and then mentally call for Lancer to fish us out of the river.

Worst case scenario we die and reload from our last save. I'd say summon Lancer with a seal, but we're kind of wiped and not in much condition to support.

That reminds me. Was it ever clarified how this RP deals with player death? Is it just 'you can't die, ever' (in which case you could take OOC dangerous actions with full knowledge that you'd somehow survive) or is there some system in which dying gets you sent back some number of steps? That'd be kind of boring and pointless since we'd just likely retrace the same path until the point we did something wrong anyways.

Maybe restarting right before the last decision, just with some kind of penalty added? I'm honestly not sure how this works...

[4score7years]

Raff's 1

and yeah, like Royd said, that was pretty sweet.

[Bird of Hermes]

Regarding points that had been raised, I had never mentioned Character Death when I started because I honestly hadn't gotten that far. Furthermore, 'Quests' that I were playing along with previously always fizzled out or the author stopped updating so I'm just going to lay out a few options for y'all.

1). People die when they are killed.

... Just kidding, Depends if you are satisfied with the ending Seigi gets but death is a genuine risk. You all can come up with a decision in what you want down the line and I'm happy to wait till that day.

Also I'm glad you all enjoyed this one

[You]

i've been thinking long and hard about this, the logical answer is Raff's
but a grail war isn't a grail war unless the first Servant battle is Lancer VS Saber
so 4

[Rafflesiac]

apoc though, says rafflesiac desperately trying not to change his vote

[You]

karna vs seigfried technically starts off that war.

I think the only one that's different is strange fake where it's enkidu vs gilgamesh.

- - - Updated - - -

don't change your vote though

[Zurvan]

4, the girl said she wanted to fight tonight
It's time for some Servant action

[SleepMode]

A question, will you be posting the Quest's Servant profiles to Create-A-Servant 2 thread after they've revealed their identities, or after the Quest is over?

[Bird of Hermes]

Fuyuki Bridge
Early Morning


There's no way I can win.

When facing Justice alone with the element of surprise granting me advantage, I had him dead-to-rights but I was careless. Nigredo gave me the chance to take him out of the Holy Grail War entirely but right now, I'm too drained to finish him off. What's more, Justice has summoned his servant. The Saber class carries the reputation of the 'Strongest' servant. I was not sure if it simply meant high stats, a powerful Noble Phantasm or a large amount of magical energy… This Saber possesses all three. Even his body is a perfect specimen of achievement.
To fight is to die. I have no intention on dying, not even to Saber. If I am to turn to face him however, he will cut me down in an instant. In front of me is his Master, this figure of "Justice" is broken for now but to move toward him with harmful intent would mean my death at the hand of his servant.

Summoning Lancer to assist me is too dangerous, the moment I take to call her, I will be struck down. The only option is to run and survive.
I take one step towards my opponent on the edge. Interestingly enough he does not or perhaps even cannot move. Even his Saber does not move, waiting for me to give him reason to strike me down. Their inaction has granted me an opportunity.
Head buzzing, numbness growing… I allow myself to let go of my strength and tip over. And fall. The world rushes by in a blur and I know the pain is coming; time is a paradox, moving slow and fast at the same time.

I call out to Lancer in my mind to come for me. She cannot be too far and she'll be able to fish me out of the river. My magical circuits still fired up and ready, I perform one final spell of reinforcement on my body to prevent damage from the impact and prepare a bubble of warm breathable air to form around my head to reduce shock. Though oddly, I already feel a cold embrace as I begin to slow down and just above the water now rippling below my body suspended in mid air. Just as swiftly, I feel myself rocket away from the waters below towards the rooftops. The grip around me feels more solid and begins to radiate slight warmth with a vaguely familiar scent, garlic and fish.

As I reach the top of the building close to the bridge, I feel those arms prop me down to sit on the edge as Lancer sits beside me. She says nothing but the silence is worse; she must be furious, I nearly got myself killed but she stays vacant. The tension is just building but she says nothing.

Why doesn't she yell at me? Practically everyone else does now.

Why won't she say anything?
Why won't she say anything?
Why won't she say anything?

She's just sitting there.

I can't take it. I need to say something but trying to bring words up to my mouth makes them suddenly indecipherable. I want to roar and rail and rant about what happened, about Justice, about Father. But the weight of the knowledge is… I can't help but whimper.

"I'm sorry."

Lancer brushes a tear welling in an eye of my and brushes my cheek. There is no warmth in her touch or actions, feeling more like an automated response from a computer program, she doesn't even smile or emote when she speaks to me.

"You need to decide whether you are a Warrior or an Emperor."

Well that's ambiguous and I have no idea what she means about that and it doesn't help me in the slightest. As frustration wells within me, I raise my hands and-

Wait.

The seal on my hand is still complete… At least I didn't waste a command spell. Lancer was already close by. Thank God.

Lancer however remains staring at the bridge where Justice and Saber presumably remain and she's just watching intently, gesturing forward to the bridge.

"Your fight with the Master of Saber was enlightening, you're been given a lot of information - he's a curse user and you have an ability that negates them. He may bring more guns and knives to the next fight as backup so you may what to prepare in turn. And now- She places her hand on the back of my head and my sight improves tenfold. It's like I'm sharing her vision, the vision of an excellent high depth camera lenses on a telescope. -we study Saber."

New! Clairvoyance

Rank: B

The Skill’s possessor is capable of viewing objects many kilometres away in very high detail. Furthermore in close range combat, the servant is capable of making improbable and highly precise strikes. However precognition and other forms of perception are not available to the user.

On the opposing side of the bridge is a strange figure wrapped in shadow, clearly taking this opportunity to eliminate their target now I've sufficiently weakened the master. The Saber class servant instinctively stands in front of his Master as I feel energy well up in both servants.
Crimson web-like strands of mana arc around an outstretched limb of this shadowy figure, spirally to a condensed single point before unleashing a barage of energy blasts across a large area, detonating across the whole bridge and leaving large craters. Such energy could be considered equal to the greatest modern magi and this servant is unleashing cascades of it like nothing.

What is more, the spells are bouncing of Saber to no effect, rather they are nullified upon contacting his body.

The two figures stand motionless, as if to gauge each other's strength. The shadowed figure summons another flood of mana and spends a few seconds before firing it out towards Saber again, who in a blur of silver deflects it. I can't help but be in awe, Saber is moving faster than our enhanced visions can perceive.

No. Stop gushing over him for god's sake Seigi. Focus.

He clearly has a limit on how much magical energy he can negate. Given how impressive this other servant is as well, I estimate it would require at least Ten-Count Thaumaturgy or at the least someone of the second rank Brand: Colour to hit him…

"Look-" says Lancer into my ear as we watch the battle progress. As the anonymous heroic spirit continuously fires bolt after bolt of A-Grade spells, Saber begins lumbering in the path of his master forwards across the wrecked road, swinging his sword to deflect the bolts. "-He still stands to guard his master, he's protective of him. Also, he's favouring his right side as he moves and clearly has no method of long ranged attack."

How Lancer can see all this is beyond me, Saber's arms are still a blur but evidently she is more talented than I am with this.
The shadowed figure begins to levitate in the air and starts to fly across the bridge, despite the bolts of energy still being focused at Saber, he moves instantly back to the weakened form of Justice to act as his living guard.

"He's very protective, see how slow he moved earlier compared to the motion to save his master? He likes to show off too, kind of like a dog."
She's smiling to herself but the joke wasn't funny at all. She isn't giving a laugh but giving a warm smile, like regarding a happy memory. For all her insistence on being a 'mere weapon', she's doing a poor job of hiding it with those less than subtle curves on her lips.

Bring myself back to attention; I look back on Saber and this other servant. The shadowed figure is flying around, blasting the pair from all angles. I can just about make a few feature on Saber's face, the desperation doesn't fit his handsome face well. With a final swing, deflecting a blast back to sender, Saber takes hold of his master and jumps into the river. The same exit I took.

And as the battle stops, the skill Lancer demonstrated vanished as if it was never possessed. And I must admit however my servants actions strike me as odd.

"Lancer, you surprise me. I always figured you as an honourable combatant who doesn't perform espionage."

She scoffs, as if to chide me and swats her hand in dismissal like she's heard this before. "A fight is about who is standing at the end, nothing more."

Well that was dark. But now that the distraction is gone, an unfriendly reminder brings down on my back. That book in my breast pocket pulls down. It feels heavy.
I'm conflicted. I know that Father had never been fond of me but all this… If I had disagreed with him when he came to Clock Tower that fateful night… I have no doubt in my heart; he would have killed me and recycled me.
This book, the ruined remains knowledge of what he did; Aoi - the only child my father loved and my mother… Lancer puts a hand on my shoulder, the faintly warm grip, I can hear her talking but the words don't register. I feel cold. I feel. I feel.

No.

I won't be a link in this chain.

I pull out the book and pass it to Lancer. She should know.

"…"

Her eyes dart over the contents. Her face still as a lake.

"Has your goal changed? Or do you still wish for us to collect him?"… Is she so focused her Emperor she does not care? "The death of family is on no bearing to me, my purpose is maintaining order."

She's so neutral to that, is she so inhumane? How can she not care?! I feel the anger welling in me till it breaks. "How would that friend feel of you if you murdered your brother without a second thought?!" I yell.

Upon mentioning that person special to her, her face contorts: Horror, shame, venom… finally sorrow. "Master… don't take her name in vain."
Her grip on he has tightened, pleasure clamping down, restoring feeling in my arm in the worst way before release. Not so inhuman after all.

Well while I'm here and have the chance, I should probably take time to ask Lancer about herself and what I'm willing to say in respond.

1). Write in!

==============================================

ATTENTION I'm going to try something different.

Everyone can pick one or two topics of conversation to strike up with Lancer, how they talk and what to answer. Like you can talk about parents/saber/whoever and how

Seigi

you

feel about them and be defensive, ask about Lancers friend/love life and install headcanons for Seigi to reply about, perhaps what your wish is and why you really joined the war. If everything is civil and goes well I may try to incorporate more free discussion like this,

- - - Updated - - -

A question, will you be posting the Quest's Servant profiles to Create-A-Servant 2 thread after they've revealed their identities, or after the Quest is over?

Either when everything is revealed, when the quest is over or when the servant dies & should they get enough screentime to deserve it. If people really want I can make a Grand Order profile for them for something different. Depends on how I and everyone else feels.

[RoydGolden]

Damn, this is more open-ended then usual. I presume we won't get very far asking any questions that'd directly expose her identity (else we might as well just ask her to reveal it outright). So, I'll just go with perhaps the most obvious yet significant question of all...

"Lancer, what's your wish on the Grail? You answered my call for a reason, right? There's a desire you want granted more then anything else in the world... if we're to keep fighting by each other's side, that's something I have to know."

Obviously Hermes can feel free to paraphrase the dialogue itself to make it less cheesy. And I'm open to any more interesting suggestions as well...

- - - Updated - - -

Also I take it Clairvoyance was the Skill obscured on Lancer's stat sheet? Not really sure what the point was, since it doesn't really reveal anything obvious as to her identity (or not that I can see, at least). Speaking of Lancer's identity though, I'm taking Seigi's reference to fratricide as another clue as to her being Yamato Takeru, who famously killed his/her brother in a family squabble early in life.

[Bird of Hermes]

"Lancer, what's your wish on the Grail? You answered my call for a reason, right? There's a desire you want granted more then anything else in the world... if we're to keep fighting by each other's side, that's something I have to know."

One cue for grail wish, you can ask but you may need to answer what Seigi wishes for the grail as well (unless you're putting your point forward to not answer in turn)

- - - Updated - - -

Also I take it Clairvoyance was the Skill obscured on Lancer's stat sheet? Not really sure what the point was, since it doesn't really reveal anything obvious as to her identity (or not that I can see, at least).

Nope, the fourth skill is still censored as that Clairvoyance skill vanished as soon as it showed.

[RoydGolden]

Nope, the fourth skill is still censored as that Clairvoyance skill vanished as soon as it showed.

Hmm. I take it that means she has some kind of composite or "Skill-granting Skill" sort of Imperial Privilege or Expert Of Many Specializations?

[Rafflesiac]

Apologize and theorize about who Saber and Caster? are, because hoo boy that Saber looks strong.

also hey I recognize that skill template

[4score7years]

Apologize and theorize about who Saber and Caster? are, because hoo boy that Saber looks strong.

also hey I recognize that skill template

I like this course of action, so I vote that we do that.