Year: 2022
Location: Pentagon, Washington DC, US, SFA
Daytime: Night
Objective: 2 Hours and 25 minutes remaining until Leader finished his Noble Phantasm.
Lestari Elliwyn
Health: Excellent
Magical Energy: Excellent
We know the spec of his abilities, but we barely know how he fights as we only battled him once and he mostly played the supporting roles. We are inside his laboratory, meaning, he can pull a much more powerful stunt than what he has shown.
Leader’s True Name indicates that he is far below SFA Caster in combat, with SFA Rider isn’t here and SFA Archer has been defeated; Bell is the strongest of SFA. Taking him down or making him defects means there is no one standing in our way anymore to stop Leader. We shouldn’t be in a haste and play our cards right.
And there is also the unknown factor: Joe Magarac and John Henry.
“Everyone stays on guard. We can’t be hasty fighting Bell in his domain!”
“I agree. He has always been a cautious man,” says Benjamin.
“Poor choice. My strongest weapon, ‘soundwave’, is not something you can simply ‘defend’ from it.” the walls inside this room reveal countless amounts of sound systems, surrounding us from all directions. “I might not be able to invade your mind, but I can still rupture your ears.”
With a finger snap, he bombarded us with high-frequency tremors strong enough to make elephants collapse.
Which we have seen coming hours and hours ago.
“Generate.” From her hand, Ruler generates the same drone-like device used by Benjamin back in the base. And just like back there, “Thunderbolt!” He uses it in conjunction with his Noble Phantasm to create an electric cage, albeit smaller in scale, to filter out the soundwave. “You can’t penetrate my electric cage for years, you will not figure out how to bypass it within half a day.”
“Indeed. But that’s because I never had the chance to be up close with this device, making it malfunction is a different case.”
He decided to continue sending out his booming tremors endlessly. The output he can send within his laboratory is leagues beyond what he does back in Cusco, meaning, Benjamin’s thunder unable to filter it entirely. The drone is slowly but surely collapsing from the intense pressure. Yet, once again, Ruler proved that her class is not just for show.
“Don’t worry. If my calculation is correct, it takes more than 10 minutes for the drone to fully break. If that happens, I can simply generate another drone for Benjamin to use. And Benjamin is an SFA Servant, he already hooked himself to US’ Reservoirs years ago, he can do this all day.”
“I have seen so many strong Servants, but you are the only one that is plain cheating besides Nobunaga.” Kenshin commented in awe.
“Well, thank you! You are great too, Miss Kenshin!”
“That’s our Little Miss for you.” El-Dorado Assassin is oddly proud of the accomplishment of other people.
“I still need to concentrate on my Thunderbolt, you know? Can you all not have fun while I'm busy like this?”
“Oh, dude. Suck it. Don’t be a party pooper.” And Assassin, even if it’s true, you shouldn’t say that!
“...” it’s clear that even Bell isn’t amused with being looked down upon.
But still, I can see if they are relaxed like this, we are safe for the time being. I decided this is the best time to talk with Bell and hopefully convince him to come back.
“Bell, please return to us! If about an ‘impossibility’ you yearn, we can try to work for it! Heck, we are doing it right now!”
“Miss Lestari...!” Ruler lit up her eyes in hope.
"That's why-"
“Have I not made it clear before?,” even so, Bell doesn’t budge. “I’ll teach you, Lestari. People that don't take their chance are the ones that pay the price. As thankful as I am, you should crush us by dropping Zeta without mercy.”
clang!
A sound of metals hitting each other can be heard.
Inside our thunder cage, two gigantic metal arms, adamantine arms, almost as tall as this room suddenly raises from the ground. One of the arms immediately tried to squash us, but Ruler spent no time and increased her strength parameter to block it and delete it with one blow. Yet her distressed voice shows a sign of frustration, “No, Mr. Benjamin!” and the other arm slapped him across the room, breaking the thunder cage.
“Damn it…! What the hell?” even El-Dorado Assassin didn’t see it coming, and he is intercepted by one of Bell’s ‘clones,’ “Bell Unity,” ready to kill him in one strike.
Ruler tries to reach him, “Mr. Assassin!” but she is also intercepted by another clone and raises her endurance parameter to fully block them. “...!” And the other three clones tried to reach me, which Assassin and Kenshin defended me with all their might.
“Patriots, Turrets, fire.”
A volley of bullets rains toward us, Ruler quickly increases her agility to evade them all and disengage from the clone. I quickly defend myself with “Carcer!”, surrounding myself with a circular electric sphere and stopping the bullet to reach me, the soldiers raised their shields to defend, while the rest of the Servants were able to parry it effortlessly.
Bell silently observes, “...”
“What of it?!” And immediately increase her strength parameter to delete one of the clones.
“Henry.” And as Bell mutters the name of the unknown Heroic Spirit, the adamantine arm that has been destroyed by Ruler earlier suddenly reconstructs itself like a nanomachine technology and catches her off guard. “Ghh!”, despite that, the arm is incapable to crush her in any way as she once again increases her endurance.
“Recursion!” I tried to immobilize Bell just like back in the cavern, “hmph!” but he simply fired a laser turret at me and I was forced to ditch it “tcch!” as expected, I can’t hack him inside his territory so easily.
“Thunderbolt!” a thunder blade, far bigger than my electricity, rumbles across the field and skewers everything in its path. It is hot enough to cleave through the adamantine arms that keep him busy and captured Ruler, “thank you, Mr. Benjamin!” which allows her to be set free. With the fame boost he gained in the US’ soils, Benjamin was capable of gaining an output that reached Lancelot’s Arondight. “Henry… you say…?”
“These are not even heartless machines… Leader turned John and Joe into this entire building, isn’t it?!” the man that looks like the epitome of a gentleman, screams.
“Indeed, they are now no different than puppets, no, a mechanism,” Bell answers Benjamin as the adamantine arms once again restore itself with its nanomachine-like ability.
“This is just enslaving them! Leader, how can he fall so low...?!”
“Your feeling toward them is understandable, however-”
However-
"Tristitia + Populus, blinds!”
“?!”
I throw my Tristitia geomantic card inside Benjamin’s thunder, the spell that I usually use to control thunder from the sky. With Benjamin’s permission and Populus, I redirect the Noble Phantasm to Bell and his machines. That ‘main body’ immediately disappears into countless lights without putting up a fight.
We have taken down two of Bell’s bodies, there are four remaining. We still don’t know from where he will come, where Bell’s original mind will surf back. From all I know, there are more than four bodies in front of us hidden somewhere in a different area of the Pentagon.
He can appear from anywhere-
“A quick thinker too. Most impressive,” I heard his metallic voice on my back. “I hope you could quickly think of this one.”
“Recur-” the man behind me is not even a scientist in a helmet, he shares the same appearance with the mass-produced humanoid machines. He has masqueraded a hidden body among the robots. Its arms reveal complex machinery identical to Bell’s vibration machine as it immediately tries reaching my skull-
“Master!” Assassin quickly disengaged from Bell clones, but Kenshin forcefully dropped the former body to the ground, “Tsuru!” And throws her trusted katana like a boomerang and immediately destroys the Bell that blended as a robot and saved me.
“Lord Kenshin!!!” Assassin screams.
This is all a gambit, as the clone immediately takes the opportunity to crush Kenshin with his deadly arm. And even her Magic Resistance can’t take a direct and point-blank attack from its already powerful output boosted inside his territory.
“-!!!”
Without her Echigo no Ryu in its max output, that attack caused her to instantly fall to her knee.
“You are not the only one that prepares nonsensical tactics.”
* * *
Location: Somewhere on the ocean
Surrounded nothing but with the blue sea, three acquainted Servants tirelessly exchange blows.
The aggressor, a young man clad in black armor employs a hit and run tactic. He has judged that his mount gives him superiority in terms of speed. But even so, his continuous attacks are incapable of penetrating Magellan’s defense, let alone reaching Caster. The soldiers left in Victoria have become a spectator, as they lack the means to harm any of the Servants.
“Nope!”
“Tch!”
Employing her knowledge about fighting together with him as a Servant of Spain coalition, Magellan continues intercepting his lance with her saber skillfully. Despite being unable to communicate verbally, perhaps because of Magellan’s luck or knowing Lancer personally, El-Dorado Caster learns what to do against Lancer. As Magellan keeps him busy, Caster fires his self-teach holy orbs like a machine gun. While Lancer’s Magic Resistance nullifies them into bug bites, getting hit with it repeatedly causes him to lose a considerable amount of health.
“The rage of the wicked cannot put him in the right, for the weight of his rage is his downfall!!”
“Guh!!!”
And the last attack is enough to dismount and disarm him.
“Give up, you can’t beat us two, not inside Victoria.” Magellan pin his dominant arm with her sword and pointed her ornamented gun to his head, “to begin with, I’m the better fighter than you.”
“Heh, such loyalty from a fine ship. I suppose investing in you was the right choice, after all…!”
Lancer was not an incompetent fighter, far from it. He also understands that Magellan is the better combatant in a duel, but she is far from unbeatable unlike some Servants of the myths he has fought years ago. He prepared to skewer weapons such as the lance as he knows about how she was slain by many spears at once. The armor he and his horse wear are also a state of the art that was crafted by the famous Filippo Negroli, granting him an increase in endurance and Magic Resistance. He only miscalculates one thing:
Victoria will never try to take Magellan’s life.
Nao Victoria may be the smallest, but she is the sole survivor of Magellan’s armada. She is the one that carries the captain’s will until the end and reaches Spain, and only the flagship - Trinidad rivals her in terms of loyalty. She indeed will bow to Lancer, but harming the captain is far above her. He planned to bombard her with the cannons, but the ship has not fired a single shell despite how much he repeatedly commands to do so.
But not only that, his performance gradually decreased, and he started to feel sick, something that shouldn’t be possible to a Servant unwillingly.
“I respected you a lot, but I want to protect the people in El-Dorado.”
This is all El-Dorado Caster’s doing. A unique Caster even among the outliers like Bell and Leader. The man possesses something that works similarly with curses and could ruin an entire country for the rest of its history if he is not being careful. An ability that is capable of actualizing libels, as long there is a single grain of truth in it-
The so-called Black Legend. An offensive form of the Skill - Innocent Monster.
“My body…! Ugh!”
Lancer feet are in pain, and his belly is burning, strongly so it actively interferes with his judgment. El-Dorado Caster has simply pronounced illnesses Lancer has in life, the same way with how he pronounced Lancelot's weakness toward women half a day ago. As long the legend is about humanity, he is capable of modifying it into an apparent weakness.
“Hey, your geas is a total pain. If you turn it off, I don’t mind letting you go.”
“How about no?!” a sword materialized from his pierced arm and successfully wounded Magellan in her left leg, the left leg that he knew well was a lame spot for her back when she was alive.
“That painful you bastard!” Magellan shot him in the chest many times.
“Ugh!”
“I must return to Lestari-chan even if that means killing you. Who gives a shit about Caster’s dumb geas anymore?”
Her eyes are of a demon, and anyone who knows her a lot like EC Lancer and El-Dorado Caster understands that she is someone willing to turn off her reason if that means getting what she wants. If what Lestari sees is the grand adventurer that inspires her men to follow her path, what she is right now is the merciless admiral that executed many of her own men because they annoyed her.
“Can’t you see, you are alone right now. Use your mind and see what is best, just like how you control Spain. You know what is the best choice for you in this situation.”
“Heh. I never personally witnessed you like this, scary…!” Yet befitting of his status as her former superior, the young man is in control of himself. “Take a look, where do you think we are right now?”
Magellan instinctively uses her skill as a navigator to good use. She felt the temperature, the breeze, the calming sea to pinpoint where they are without even looking to the sea. “We are on the Pacific. What of it?”
“That’s mean, I have never been alone.”
A huge shadow towers above her.
“Lady Fernan, get out from there!!” Caster warns too late.
“?!”
She was crushed with an arm as big as her body, creating a hole in the sturdy Victoria.
“How dare ye!!! Threatening my country while I was far away?! Killing my comrade, Archer?! Ye damn traitor!!!”
A four-meter giant in rage, full of patriotic fervor to defend the homeland.
SFA Rider, Alfred Bulltop Stormalong, formerly known as Zachary Taylor. An idealized cartoon hero, a sailor that wrestled the Kraken, and one of the US Presidents.
Lancer has specifically warped them here so SFA Rider that is on the way to the US from Japan can join the fight.
“Gaaaaaaah!!! That hurts a loooooooot!”
Magellan rises from such a devastating attack, brings back her hat to her head properly, and picks her sword again.
“Whoaaaa, now we meet again I noticed how big you are, SFA Rider! Even the Patagonians aren’t as big as you!”
SFA Rider isn’t amused with how unaffected Magellan is, but he decided that he needed to pay attention to his ally first.
“Thanks. I finally meet someone with a sense of honor,” says Lancer as he takes SFA Rider’s lending hand, a man-sized lending hand.
“I should be the one. I’m thankful for ya’ to give me the opportunity to crush her.”
“You are much more diplomatic than Leader and these dumbasses.” Lancer also gets up, and materializes a bottle of water in his hand, and quickly drinks it as if his life depends on it; literally so as his wound quickly goes away once he drinks them all. “But please, don’t kill her if you could.”
“Wha-. What are you doing?” yells Magellan from below.
“Don’t act surprised,” Lancer tilted his head. “This is just Caster’s holy water, our Caster’s, the Europe one,” and continue to gulp more without care.
“That thing is the most bullshit item ever in this verse! Cheating, cheating I say!” says Magellan while swaying her saber and shooting her gun wildly in protest.
“You…” Lancer widens his eyes in disbelief, “fucking hypocrite!”
There are the wounds and torture she inflicted before, yes. But if anything, he is extremely pissed with her lack of self-awareness, as it comes from the same girl that smuggled it for her personal use and abused the hell of it hours ago.
* * *
“If you think this kind of injury will stop me-”, Kenshin grit her teeth and prepare an overhead swing without a sword on her hands, “you are wrong!!!” as she continues her swinging motion when Tsuru immediately returns to her grip.
And cleave the helmet man into two.
“Ghh!” Kenshin’s entire body is covered with blood and Assassin lends a shoulder for her.
“Why...?” Assassin asked.
“Without Magellan, I’m the most durable. And our enemies are robots, I practically have no access to any Noble Phantasm except Tsuru. I am simply opting for the best scenario. Besides, you-” Kenshin grits her teeth in pain once again.
“We still have our last healing water left.” I reached my arm inside my bag, but I noticed that my bag had been crumpled and wet, leaving only my cards and Anti-Servant guns intact. “...!?”
At that time when he caught me off guard, was he aimed for this the whole time?!
“Not that holy water, no.” says one of the two Bell left. “You people rely on it too much.”
“Goddamnit! Bell!”
“Indeed, that’s the appropriate reaction. Have you learned that we are enemies now? You should understand that not everything will end the way you want.”
A piercing blade came from Bell’s mouthless mouth. “Just like how you failed to save everyone around you because of your arrogance.”
“!!!”
He is right.
If only at that time I didn’t decide to shoulder everything alone and be more realistic with my approach, everyone will still be…
“I have learned quite a lot from this encounter. Magarac.”
clang!
The sound of metal hitting each other once again can be heard.
Just like the giant arms from before, adamantine walls suddenly sprout in front of us. Not only that, the floor shakes as if there is an earthquake, which I quickly understood that the entire room completely changes. Benjamin’s guess is correct, the entire Pentagon building is the two unseen Servants!
He is going to separate us all.
“Bell, we have not done yet!!” Benjamin launched another thunder blade, which cut through the wall, “Henry.” but it once again repairs itself instantly.
“I’ll tell you something, Lestari. The difference between you and Leader. You don’t have a single clue to achieve your ‘impossibility’, just like how your magecraft will never let you reach the Root in your lifetime. It’s true you can do the extreme, but the only thing you know is to struggle, you can’t find a solution. Leader, meanwhile, understands what he must do, even if he must carry a sin more than anything humanity has done. He has long decided to be an Anti-Hero.”
“Even so-” Ruler shouted as she destroyed the wall in front of her in a single strike. “Giving up on humanity as you and Leader did is pathetic! You should understand that better than anyone here, Professor!,” but the wall once again quickly repaired itself and separated them, blocking his all-hearing ears from Ruler’s irritating speech.
“Ruler, you are just too naive...” the helmet Bell wears unable to convey an emotion. “Why do you two care so much...?”
* * *
Location: somewhere in Pentagon
I was trapped by the adamantine wall and the floor I’m standing on is quickly transported to somewhere else. I’m not sure where I am right now, but judging from how long I was inside, this place must be pretty far from Bell’s Workshop.
“The wall is gone. Why not just trap me inside?” I immediately asked such a question to myself.
But turning Heroic Spirits into an entire building… while inhuman, it’s definitely something else.
“Assassin, Kenshin, Tsuru, any of you heard me?” The first thing I do is to check whatever I can still contact my friends, but periodically a soundwave travels across the room, disturbing my connection with them. “Of course not, without my Laetitia, Bell can freely disrupt our telepathy.” Even if my Laetitia can negate his mind attack or forcefully connect himself to my head, it lacks the range to reach an entire building.
At the very least, Assassin is together with Kenshin last time. Even if Assassin doesn’t have Magic Resistance to resist his soundwaves, as long she is close with Kenshin she can benefit from the latter's resistance. I’m still worried about Kenshin, she suffered so many wounds from the last attack.
As for the rest, Benjamin is capable of controlling electricity like me, I’m sure he will be fine. Not sure with El-Dorado Assassin, we barely interact to have a grasp of his capabilities, but he has infiltrated this place for years, he most likely knows something. And Ruler is Ruler. While the soldiers… well, I don’t think Bell sees them as a threat, and I think they can defend themselves against the robots, and they have the special shields we specifically prepared to invade this place.
“I’m alone again...”
I checked my surroundings, while it is dark, it has the same interior design as the rest of Pentagon. Just a typical military office that nothing stands out, except all of them are secretly made from adamantine. Though, the floor I currently stand on is the same cyberpunk neon light floor from Bell’s.
“Aww… my bag… it has been years too…”
In an effort to destroy our last holy water, my beloved strap bag is ruined. It still functions as a bag at least, but this is one of the few things I have from 5 years ago beside my geomantic cards. Now what is inside my bag is simply the Anti-Servant guns, which I doubt will work against Servants in practice. And I carry the same shield the soldiers have for protection, which I use in conjunction with Albus to automatically intercept an attack, this is probably my first time using this card independently since I have lost many of my Mystic Codes.
“I need to reach the others soon…”
But where in Pentagon are they?
I can’t use the same method that I used to find Cusco’s leyline. Because adamantine is a diamond, a mythical diamond, which by itself an extremely poor conductor, my electricity can’t travel far enough. I suppose I can just brute force it by sending an extremely powerful wave of electricity, but it definitely will be lethal and kill our soldiers and other people that get caught on it.
The answer is there, the solution is there.
Killing people, or I die.
The same question again.
“...”
And I stare at my right arm, an arm with a flipped ‘A’ engraved on them, actual Command Spells I received from Ruler.
She is such a good girl, isn’t she? I honestly liked her a lot.
And Bell… he really doesn't want to come back...
Objective: 2 Hours and 10 minutes remaining until Leader finished his Noble Phantasm.
Originally Posted by zikari8
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A wise and beautiful woman who exudes an aura of grace. She is a sly, cunning, manipulative person who always gets what she wants, whether through trickery or ruthlessness. Her own fighting abilities are low, but she should not be trifled with. What does she ride? Men, of course!
