DISCLAIMER: Lunar Legend Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night, and all related characters and concepts are the creation and property of Kinoko Nasu and TYPE-MOON, along with whomever they’ve happened to license them to, such as Geneon, Funimation, A-1 Pictures and Netflix.
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Somewhere, somewhen
Beyond the reaches of time and space
He burned, though there were no flames.
He burned, though nothing was consumed.
He burned, though no time existed.
And though he burned—still, he did not yield . . .
Café Ahnenerbe
Grail Works Universe
“Hm,” Zelretch muttered to himself. “How—problematic . . .”
He’d been fully aware of the possibility, of course; how could he not be? Even disregarding Kaleidoscope as a factor, there was ample prior evidence of what could happen when a Holy Grail attempted to integrate an entity that wasn’t quite a proper Heroic Spirit, never mind Servant. That was partially what begun this whole enterprise (at least, on his apprentice’s side of things) in the first place!
And with Kaleidoscope as a relevant factor in things, the possibility became even closer to a certainty. After all, in at least one timeline, Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia had managed, like “Angra Mainyu” before him, to cling to the core of the Greater Grail; and that was before factoring in the particularly ludicrous abilities of the entity called “Count Dracula”—and more specifically, said entity as reimagined by a video game company for a shonen audience . . .
Thankfully, things had not degraded that far: without the focussed influence of Command Spells, to say nothing of a “natural order” rendered malleable by the active presence and influence of several deities, maintaining Count Dracula in that form was not possible, even for the Grail. Certainly, not when the character’s own lore required that a century pass following each defeat (barring outside efforts, at least) before resurrection was even possible.
But though the persona had been discarded, the entity which had donned it was still very much a presence—and possibly even more confusing to the Greater Grail, as the core of it, as Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia, was (technically, at least) more human than any vampire—be they folkloric, literary, or Dead Apostle.
This left the Wizard Marshal with something of a dilemma. As it existed now, Trifas’ Greater Grail was no more suitable for its intended purpose than Fuyuki’s; with slightly less apocalyptic consequences to its usage, perhaps . . . Probably. Well, maybe—it seemed likely, at least. Logically speaking, while no doubt more dangerous himself than a random scapegoat (being a century-old magus), Darnic was ultimately drawing on Vlad Tepes as his source of power, not the embodiment of all the world’s evils . . .
At worst, Zelretch figured, they’d wind up with a pseudo-Dead Apostle attack; if the Church was forewarned, they could deal with it easily enough (again, probably). It might, might even be amusing to watch, if he did it right . . . But while it was (in theory) a manageable problem, the issue surrounding it was that his apprentice’s little part-time job needed a working Greater Grail to operate as it did—and, unless he felt like creating a time paradox, had always had one, from the Fifth War on.
(Speaking personally, he didn’t have any need for a time paradox at the moment. They were, admittedly, handy for eliminating problems that couldn’t otherwise be killed—even beings that had no concept of “death” were subject to the concept of “never existed to begin with”—but he was just breaking in this apprentice and saw no point to replacing her so soon.)
So, he had to see about getting her a Greater Grail that worked as advertised; no small feat, given the history of the Holy Grail War Ritual in general—no matter which parallel you were talking about. The good news was that this particular facet would push things to help him, since neither Gaia nor Alaya really liked time paradoxes, either. But it did mean he was on a time limit, since the two primordial “consciousnesses” could only pretend to ignore the problem for so long . . .
Essentially, Zelretch decided, there were two real paths to solving the problem. First, he could find some means of purifying the Greater Grail he had, or second, he could follow his apprentice’s example and switch this one out for a working one elsewhere—which, as he’d noted, was kind of hard to come by. Not that purifying the Grail was any easier, mind you; there was a reason they generally defaulted to destroying it, instead.
(Though admittedly, part of that was down to a lack of suitable tools on the part of the destroyers, and part on the nature of the corruption. The latter might be easier, this time, as Darnic wasn’t “Angra Mainyu” or an unreasonable facsimile, but . . .)
Now in theory, the easiest possible solution to this problem was to take it to the appropriate facet of the Kaleidoscope and have Touko Aozaki deal with it; unlike Arcueid’s boytoy, her employee wouldn’t destroy herself just trying to comprehend what she was trying to kill . . . But then again, she probably wouldn’t be able to see what needed killing until Darnic had actually manifested—and the whole point was to avoid that, if possible.
Although, he thought to himself, Ryogi Shiki could at least eliminate that pesky “Rhinegold” curse—but not just yet, I think. After all, it’ll help out by acting to scupper Darnic’s plans, too, so why not let it do its job for a while . . .?
(The curse would eventually have to go, of course—but as long as its effects could be used to his advantage, Zelretch was prepared to let it have its fun, this time.)
He frowned pensively. So, if the easiest way to eliminate Darnic from the equation was out, and he couldn’t simply ignore the problem by virtue of finding an untainted Grail, seeing as they were rare enough to be referred to as “the Holy Grail of Holy Grail Wars,” what options were left?
Idly, Zelretch considered handing the problem off to some iteration of Chaldea; they had dealt with it before, in their own facet (albeit with a slightly different history), and they had a knack for accomplishing not merely the impossible, but the outright ludicrous. Of all the divergent facets, watching them was one of his primary sources of entertainment—it was amazing what could happen when you crammed hundreds of Servants together all at once . . .
Not to mention hysterical. In every possible sense of the word.
. . . But no, he ultimately decided, Chaldea wasn’t feasible; while he had no doubt that they would solve the problem somehow, they’d take at least a year to do it, what with the way they tended to “rerun” things—and his apprentice didn’t have that kind of time.
What else . . .? Zelretch supposed he could always kidnap that Miyu girl of the many surnames—she was a complete and untainted Grail, after all . . . But then, the irony of running an agency that specialised in salvation on the captivity and enslavement of a little girl was probably a bit too ironic for most people to grasp the humour in it.
And there was even more irony to be had in the situation, when he really thought about it: the currently serving Ruler would likely have been able to deal with Darnic, had the Grail not been stolen out from under her nose. Her Divine Authority included Justice, after all—and one of her mythological attributes was “purity.” Who better to cleanse a tainted Holy Grail, after all . . .? Sadly, it was unlikely she would be able to do so now—and bringing the Grail back would only cause problems anyway.
Pity, though—it was a simple solution, and one that would require very little effort on his part. He liked those.
By the time Zelretch had come up with “stealborrow Altrouge Brunestud’s dog, and let IT kill Darnic” as an idea, however, the Wizard Marshal was prepared to admit that he was coming up dry so far as inspiration went. Having potentially infinite possibilities and outcomes at one’s fingertips wasn’t nearly so useful as people might think . . .
I need a drink, he finally decided. And maybe some advice, though not necessarily in that order.
Zelretch briefly considered stopping by Arvandor, now that he knew how to reach it, and seeing if he could pick up a bottle of elverquisst; if nothing else, in the event he had to resort to that last plan, the stuff would work wonders at throwing off potential pursuit . . .
But if I do that, I might be tempted to go with that idea just so I can use the stuff, he realised, stifling a sigh of disappointment. The Moon Cell it is, then.
He just hoped the thing’s efforts at cultivating “administrative interfaces” had improved, somewhat—otherwise, that Archimedes prick would never let him live this down . . .
They dwelled somewhere in the shadows of reality, as mysterious in their purpose as in their true nature. Few even suspected that They existed—and fewer still believed it—but those that did referred to Them only obliquely, if at all. Their grasp extended across worlds and planes, even to the depths of space; and Their sight was, perhaps, even more far-reaching.
After all, if the abyss could be said to look back at you, should you stare too deeply into it, then there could be no truer manifestation of that abyss than the Dark Powers.
And They found this “Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia” to be most interesting . . .
The mist rose suddenly, thick as the layers of dirt on a freshly buried coffin and colder than any grave. For all that, however, it moved with a speed that belied the smothering weight of it, grasping hungrily at all in its path. The Wizard Marshal’s acclimatisation to the Kaleidoscope was the only warning he had; as it was, he barely got out of the way in time.
Silently, the mist enveloped—consumed—the Greater Grail, before thinning away to nothing, like a nightmare before sudden wakefulness. The shadows seemed darker, for a moment, in its passing . . .
And then, as though the world had released a suddenly-held breath, all signs that it—or the Grail, for that matter—had ever existed were gone.
Zelretch stared, for a moment.
“. . . Damn it—now I’ve really got a mess to fix . . .!”
Writer's Notes: I am sincerely sorry for the brevity and the wait - this has been fighting me for three weeks straight . . .
*Sighs* Hopefully, it at least takes the edge off for you.
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Originally Posted by Kieran
