[FF] Grail Works, Ltd.: Fate/Anarchy (Type-Moon/Scion crossover)

[RanmaBushiko]

I mean, feel free to make the way the upgrade trees halve in cost be (sum of individual costs) / 2 instead. It'll make Concept Boosting cost 1 (3/2), and Kinetic Storage Boosting cost 2 (5/2). That seems more balanced to me, albeit it contradicts a couple of your examples. I then need to free up two points, via some 2 of the following:

• Losing Fuel-less flight for just Dash Systems/Augmented Flight Systems
• Have Scylla get Cloaked Firing, dropping Scylla-Grade Augments for just Legion of Coal Augmentation (or taking 5 Scylla actions and praying)
• Drop Kinetic Storage Boosting down to Kinetic Storage Core, which is only 1.

Admittedly, it could be more balanced... but unique weapons, etc. tend to be in history, and tend to be badass stuff that everyone else would kill to use. Keep in mind, Erik's last blacksmithing teacher was Wayland Smith, aka the dude who made Gram according to Scion. That sword that killed Fafnir? Quite literally, in the Scion game, did 3x damage to Fafnir, and double damage to other dragons. Also sharp enough to cut an anvil in half.

Wayland smith, also known as Volund/Volsung, and other names, that is. Who was also notorious for making metal wings that would let him fly, after the local king chained him to the local forge and hamstrung one of his legs to keep him from running off.

So I'm leaving it, as it's the exact sort of magnificent bullshit his teacher would have made by sheer happenstance. Because when Wayland was genuinely able to make a pair of wings that would let him go to divine realms and back, just from the skill of smithing alone... you know that his student will occasionally achieve similar stuff. If having no clue how the hell he did it yet... also, keep in mind. ERIK STILL IS A GOD. He might be posing as a demigod to live with the rules of Gaia but his soul still contains that full divine might of legend 12.

[Kieran]

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.
This is a not-for-profit, just-for-fun project.







The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
July 4, 2004








As soon as they re-entered the physical world proper, her armour’s systems began processing inputs. And as it detected the presence of Assassin of Red’s Master immediately, the combat analysis suite went to work.

Truthfully, Artoria hated this part; more specifically, how it, through the armour’s neural link interacted with her brain. While it was undeniable that the system was invaluable to her work as Mysterious Heroine XX, having saved her life and sanity—as well of that of others—many times over, it did bizarre things to her internal sense of time. Often, it felt like days, weeks, or even months could go by while the system collected and analysed data, processing it into viable strategies and tactical options . . . And then, in real time, only the merest fractions of a second would have passed, and she was suddenly back in a fight for her life.

It was very disconcerting, and frequently annoying, in her opinion—no matter how gratifying the end results turned out to be.

. . . In any case, Avalon eventually delivered its analysis, which Artoria dutifully scanned.




[Servant detected . . . Database match: Servant identified.]

[Class: Ruler]

[True Name: Amakusa Shirou Tokisada]

[Parameters: Strength C, Endurance C, Agility B, Mana A, Luck B, NP D]

[Class Skills: Magic Resistance A, True Name Discernment B]

[Personal Skills: Baptism Rite B+, Charisma C-, Revelation A]

[Noble Phantasm:] (2)


(1) Left Hand – Xanadu Matrix: Left Arm – Foundation of Heaven’s Blessings
AKA: Left Hand – Fault Tolerant: Left Arm – Degenerative Drive


Type: Anti-Unit
Rank: D
Range: 1
Number of Targets: 1

Manifestation/Effects: Shirou Tokisada's left arm that has the ability to reproduce his many miracles. His arms that have inspired hope for his believers to continue onto the road of hardships through him personally raising continuous miracles have transformed into Noble Phantasms that materializes his legend. Similar to his right arm, it is a Noble Phantasm used upon himself. It has the ability to connect to all Thaumaturgy Foundations, allowing him to effectively use any sort of Magecraft with its Almighty Key

By linking to the foundation of all forms of magecraft, these Noble Phantasms make it possible to use, to a certain degree, even Magecraft that the user shouldn’t know of as general knowledge. They are handy and convenient Noble Phantasms, but even if Shirou was summoned as a Caster, he still wouldn’t stand a chance against a first-rate magus like Medea. However, this modest blessing of being able to use any Magecraft without needing to master them is what allowed him to gain complete control of the Greater Grail.

His left arm has an ability similar to the "Eye of the Mind (False)" Skill. By combining the two, the arm strengthens his Baptism Rite.

The left arm allows for reinforcement and strengthening of his body. It has the effects of "eternal youth", allowing him to withstand over half a century without aging even while incarnated.




(2) Right Hand – Evil Eater: Right Arm – Wickedness Predation

Type: Anti-Unit
Rank: D
Range: 1
Number of Targets: 1

Manifestation/Effects: Amakusa Shirou Tokisada's right arm that has the ability to reproduce his many miracles. His arms that have inspired hope for his believers to continue onto the road of hardships through him personally raising continuous miracles have transformed into Noble Phantasms that materializes his legend. Similar to his left arm, it is a Noble Phantasm used upon himself. It has the ability to connect to all Thaumaturgy Foundations, allowing him to effectively use any sort of Magecraft with its Almighty Key.

By linking to the foundation of all forms of Magecraft, these Noble Phantasms make it possible to use, to a certain degree, even magecraft that the user shouldn’t know of as general knowledge. They are handy and convenient Noble Phantasms, but even if Shirou was summoned as a Caster, he still wouldn’t stand a chance against a first-rate magus like Medea. However, this modest blessing of being able to use any Magecraft without needing to master them is what allowed him to gain complete control of the Greater Grail.

His right arm possesses an ability similar to the Eye of the Mind (True) Skill. By combining the two, the arm strengthens his Baptism Rite.

The right arm gives him supportive abilities such as Precognition.

[Personal History . . .]




Artoria skimmed that part; while occasionally useful when formulating strategies, it was also very boring, because the database was nothing if not thorough when it came to collecting and retaining information.

(Personally, she blamed the fact that Sensei had based the tactical computer’s algorithms on her Master.)

Instead, she went directly to the “notations” area.

[Known Tactics and Weapons,] the armour proclaimed. [Executor Fighting Style, Exorcism Techniques, Black Keys (Incendiary, Shadow Manipulation)]

[Recommended Combat Strategy: Tactical Approach Alpha-1,] Avalon concluded.

That, XX knew, was “Wide-Area Saturation Bombardment from Long Range”—or as Sensei once put it, “Nuke the site from orbit—it’s the only way to be sure.” It was always the combat suite’s first recommendation in any encounter.

And, also as always, she declined the recommendation; not only because it disagreed with her personal inclinations, but the fact that in this case, it really wasn’t practical. The Hanging Gardens she didn’t care about so much, but Rin and the Greater Grail would also be collateral damage if she did go that route.

And as expected, her choice led to the system’s standard response:

[Your funeral.]

As useful as the whole thing was, between that and the time dilation effect, Artoria did occasionally wonder if basing the combat analysis suite on Master’s brain scans had been a mistake . . .




[Secondary targets detected . . . Secondary targets identified.]

[Designation: Dragon’s Tooth Warriors (252)]

[Threat Level: Negligible.]

[Recommended Combat Strategy: Tactical Approach Alpha-1.]




Avalon’s targeting system obligingly highlighted where the constructs were hidden in the stone and mortar of the room—obviously meant as a delaying tactic, as they weren’t a serious threat to most Servants, even only dangerous to magi in high numbers. Most Sabers could vanquish a hundred easily; but as a surprise assault, or a means to throw someone off in mid-combat? They would work just fine—unless, of course, one was clad in divinely-forged armour with both the ability to track multiple targets, and more weapons platforms than should reasonably fit inside its confines.

XX might only be able to fire up to two dozen lasers at once, but given their sheer output, she could likely reduce the number of Dragon Tooth Warriors by half in a single barrage . . .

Oh wait, Amakusa was opening his mouth—that was her cue.

She opened with a burst from the armour’s head-mounted pulse cannons; far from the most powerful weapon in her arsenal, but the Close-In Weapons System was designed for just these ranges. And the machine-gun sound effect that accompanied their firing, despite being energy weapons, just made the whole thing cooler.

(That was why she’d insisted on it, after all.)

To give Amakusa credit, he managed to dodge them all—though the ensuing explosions caused by the impacts took out a half-dozen inert Dragon Tooth Warriors (opening several holes in the far wall and floor) in the process. XX wasn’t surprised, , as they were matched when it came to Agility (though that was with the weight of her armour), and he had Revelation feeding him precognition. But the immediate attack threw off his timing—and in a contained space like this his ability to dodge was hampered. Worse still, with the Greater Grail effectively taking up such a large portion of the chamber, they both had to beware of collateral damage; a missed attack on either side could be catastrophic . . .

He retaliated by throwing the Black Keys gripped in both hands. She dodged the half-dozen blades even more easily than he had her half-dozen shots—

“Set,” the priest commanded—and mandalas appeared behind each hilt, retargeting them in mid-flight and propelling them towards XX like the closing jaws of a steel trap.

She hovered for an instant, then fired beams of light in every direction—vaporising the Black Keys and nearly a hundred more Dragon Tooth Warriors in their hiding places.

One hundred and two down, Artoria thought, one hundred and fifty to go . . .

Amakusa might realise that her attacks were deliberately aimed to take out his Servant’s little surprises, even if she missed him—he was far from an idiot, after all—but there was little he could do about it. The bulk of his capability lay in close combat: with swords, specifically, though not limited to that. Regardless, almost everything he could do lacked the range of her weapons, allowing XX to hold him at bay more or less indefinitely. Granted, both of them were hobbled by an inability to use their most powerful attacks; she, because the effective use of her lance required that she be closer (and it took time to spin up, anyways), and he because the Greater Grail was directly behind her (and Rin behind it).

As things stood, however, unless Semiramis’ attention was suddenly freed from attacking “Yggdmillenniavania,” and she immediately came to her Master’s aid, this would come down to a war of attrition.

And while my Mana stat isn’t the best—and especially not when compared to his—as long as I stick to these low-level attacks, between my Cosmo Reactor and Independent Action Skill, I’m not running out of energy any time s—

[WARNING: Dimensional transition detected.]

With a flare of green light that crept in around the edges of her vision, XX felt a sudden whoosh from behind her, as air rushed past her to fill a sudden—and massive—vacuum . . .






Avalon Castle, Phantasmagoria Island (Grail Works, Ltd. Headquarters)
Outside the boundaries of time and space










“ . . . That was a bit more exciting than I would have liked,” Rin admitted.

Making the necessary calculations to disconnect the Greater Grail without its blowing up a good portion of the Hanging Gardens or Trifas in the process, while a firefight was going on in the same room, had been more than a little nerve-wracking . . . She’d managed it, of course, but it wasn’t the sort of activity she enjoyed.

“Yes,” Ilya agreed. “You were lucky that Miss XX managed to blow a big enough whole in the stone that I could connect a Door.”

Rin flinched, recalling the chunk of masonry—of approximately her own dimensions—that had barely missed her head.

“I’m not sure that’s the word I’d use . . .” she muttered.

Shaking her head, the Japanese magus continued, “Regardless, I’ve accomplished the mission the Wizard Marshal set for me: the Greater Grail has been retrieved. And in the bargain, Shirou Kotomine can no longer utilise it for . . . Well, whatever his plans were.”

Godafrid had mentioned the scheme he was familiar with, of course—but given the presence of so many Masters, Servants and other beings that weren’t “supposed” to be there, Rin thought assuming that said plan was the same wasn’t necessarily wise.

Shirou blinked, visibly processing that. Then he frowned.

“. . . So, that’s it?” he asked uncertainly. “We’re done? That seems . . . Unsatisfying, somehow.”

Rin hesitated, trading glances with Ilya. In the most absolute terms, yes, they were done—all she’d intended to do, and needed to do, was the task Zelretch had set for her. At the same time, however, the unexpected appearance of Godafrid and other outside elements within that world had added complications that, if they wanted to be true to the spirit of what Shirou intended the Works to be, they really shouldn’t leave alone . . .

They didn’t want Shirou's ideals to crush him—they’d seen the results of that happening—but at the same time, they didn’t want to destroy him themselves, either.

Rin wracked her brain, trying to figure out some way out of this—and then she had it. It even had the benefit of possibly being true, based on what she knew of the Wizard Marshal.

“. . . I’m not certain that we are,” she said carefully. “Everything I’ve heard about my teacher says that he likes to set fiendishly complex tests; I doubt very much that simply obeying the letter of his instructions is all he wants me to do, regardless of what he might expect . . . It’s probably wise to at least keep an eye on this world, for the next little while, to make sure that everything turns out satisfactorily—and be prepared to intervene if it doesn’t.

“But that said,” Rin added, “it’s probably better if I stay here for the next day or three, unless I absolutely need to go back. Nobody is going to be happy with my managing to steal the Greater Grail, if they manage to trace its disappearance back to me—and if they can’t get to me, they can’t either kill me for doing it, or try to torture me into giving it back . . .”

Shirou paled briefly, before his expression hardened. “That’s not happening, Tohsaka.”

. . . It was the adrenaline crash that made Rin’s cheeks burn at that statement (and anyone who said otherwise was lying).

“. . . Will Kurai be OK, then?” Shirou asked. “Should we pull him out, too?”

“He’s going by ‘Godafrid’ now, Onii-chan,” Ilya reminded him. “Or ‘Frid,’ if that’s too hard to pronounce—and he’ll have to be, for a while, since his current location is too hard to open a Door to without someone noticing.

“Although,” she mused, “with the heart of the Holy Grail War Ritual gone, I think that anyone who might even suspect he was involved will have too many other things to worry about right now to pursue the idea before we can get to him . . .”








Tokyo International Airport
July 5, 2004








Ruler lurched in her seat, suddenly and violently, doubling over and clutching her chest.

“Nee-san!” Sakura shrieked instinctively, reverting to old instincts in panic at seeing her sister in distress.

As though suddenly catching fire, Luvia Edelfelt’s mortal body glowed with golden light, exuding an awe-inspiring radiance that bathed the airplane in dazzling radiance. Almost immediately afterwards, that gentle heat turned acrid as her Magic Circuits ignited, with their contrasting verdant light burning an esoteric tracery across her flesh. For almost a full minute, she spasmed violently, as though in the grips of an epileptic fit, her jaw clenched and extremities twitching as arcane energy crackled over her—

Then, like a cloud passing across the stars, or the sudden snuffing of a candle, the light winked out, leaving only the scent associated with sunburnt flesh—and a blackened, half-melted airplane seat. The blonde young woman within the seat folded nearly double once again, this time like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

“NEE-SAN!” Sakura repeated—and then, fearfully, “. . . Nee-san? LUVIA . . .?”

“. . . Not . . . Not yet, child,” Astraea said hoarsely, gripping the back of the seat in front of her to aid in pulling herself back up. Once done, she lay back in her seat for a breath, eyes closed, before opening them once more to gaze at Sakura.

It was Astraea, of that Sakura was certain—but she resembled Luvia now more than she ever had. The golden gleam of her eyes had dulled with weariness and pain; sweat beaded along her skin, and her breathing was still evening out. Far from the perfect goddess of her initial appearance, she seemed as vulnerable and frail as any mortal woman . . .

And as irritated at being seen in such a state as Luvia herself would be.

“Something has gone very wrong in Trifas,” Ruler stated, cold anger rebuilding her poise and dignity. “The Greater Grail is gone; and with its loss, the Great Holy Grail War has ended in failure. Only possession of my own Divine Core has allowed me to endure beyond it—that, and the fact that my manifestation is incomplete, depending on my contract with your sister as much as the Grail.” She scowled, looking every inch Luvia Edelfelt when affronted as she muttered, “Even so, I have had to reduce the amount of power I allow myself to its barest minimums, lest I unduly strain her.”

“Thank you,” Sakura said, hesitantly but sincerely.

Astraea waved away the sentiment with a dismissive gesture that was very much Luvia. “It is simply pragmatism, child—while she is capable of providing sufficient prana to sustain me in full, it would be unwise to prolong such efforts on her behalf, or she might falter at a critical moment.”

“Still . . .” Sakura persisted, though uncertain of how exactly to follow up that statement.

Astraea looked at her, and smiled slightly.

“Your dedication to propriety is admirable,” Ruler said simply, “and your familial concern does you credit. In light of this judgement, I will accept your thanks—however unnecessary, as I am simply executing my duties.

“And I would ask,” she said in a sharper tone, “that you make all possible efforts to expedite our journey to Trifas, in return—because I feel a need to execute the rest of my duties with all possible alacrity . . .

Her eyes blazed—not with eldritch power, but with fury; and her voice dripped with the icy contempt that Luvia’s only ever held when she felt herself mortally insulted.

“And in a very literal fashion . . .”








The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
July 4, 2004








XX stumbled abruptly, internal alerts shrieking in her armour regarding a sudden and catastrophic drop in power output.

“. . . Oh, crap.”










Writer's Notes: Some text in this chapter has been lifted from the TYPE-MOON wiki, rather than written by me; thank you to all those who contribute to it for your help.

[Xamusel]

Oh, crap... that's a succinct reaction, yep.

[Kieran]

And very accurate . . . Honestly, you'd think that, given the identities of her sensei and her first Master, Artoria would know better than to tempt Fate!

[Xamusel]

Who is Artoria's first Master, again? Kiritsugu, you mean?

...and, by sensei, you mean Frid? I think that's who you mean... ugh. I agree with your sentiment.

[Kieran]

Who is Artoria's first Master, again? Kiritsugu, you mean?

...and, by sensei, you mean Frid? I think that's who you mean... ugh. I agree with your sentiment.

Nah - if I meant Saber, I'd use Arturia . . .

XX's first Master (as opposed to Ritsuka) was Frid, back when she was Mysterious Heroine X; her sensei, on the other hand, was Erik.

. . . And a lot of her quirks probably really make sense now, eh?

[Xamusel]

I get the idea... thanks for the heads up. Still, I'm wondering if Artoria will end up in the Grail Works office, somehow.

[Arbitrarity]

XX's plot relevance has rapidly ended, and so has the Cosmoreactor's power, I guess. More likely it's also related to the lack of Grail support, given the impact on Astrea. Unless Kotomine Shirou gets drained heavily supporting Semiramis suddenly (which is... plausible? The Hanging Gardens is powerful enough that it might effectively sustain her even without the Grail) that's a fairly massive problem for XX.

Astrea being so weakened makes her impending arrival seem considerably less threatening, but I suppose I should not underestimate Luvia's desire to suplex people.

I'm getting concerned about the Heart of Winter. We haven't heard from it since Chapter 47 or so, where it was "presumed destroyed", but I trust that about as far as I can throw it. It seems like near the right time for it to make a surprise return.

[RanmaBushiko]

I get the idea... thanks for the heads up. Still, I'm wondering if Artoria will end up in the Grail Works office, somehow.

Eh. She's got a nice job already, with good vacation time for bonuses if she does an extra good job in her work, no less! As long as that doesn't sour on her, I'm pretty sure she'd stick with it.

XX's plot relevance has rapidly ended, and so has the Cosmoreactor's power, I guess. More likely it's also related to the lack of Grail support, given the impact on Astrea. Unless Kotomine Shirou gets drained heavily supporting Semiramis suddenly (which is... plausible? The Hanging Gardens is powerful enough that it might effectively sustain her even without the Grail) that's a fairly massive problem for XX.

Astrea being so weakened makes her impending arrival seem considerably less threatening, but I suppose I should not underestimate Luvia's desire to suplex people.

I'm getting concerned about the Heart of Winter. We haven't heard from it since Chapter 47 or so, where it was "presumed destroyed", but I trust that about as far as I can throw it. It seems like near the right time for it to make a surprise return.

XX's plot relevance... rapidly ended? Interesting theory there... I'm rather amused by it. As for Shirou, on the other hand, you'll see his reaction from my next chapter, I'm afraid to admit.

Astrea is pissed, and for good reason.

The Heart of Winter is effectively out of the picture from that last attack referenced in 47, and we're closing in on the end game here.



Speaking of the end game for the story, I'd like more votes on the ring/armor, please? Or would you two prefer to vote on that first ring and armor combination for Mordred and Erik?

Also, considering some of the settings Erik will be tossed into, and how shitty the settings will be, he's very much going to need that armor to be as good as possible, thus me not correcting things with my builds, Arbitrarity.

He's going to need them... mwahaha.

[Arbitrarity]

XX's plot relevance... rapidly ended? Interesting theory there... I'm rather amused by it. As for Shirou, on the other hand, you'll see his reaction from my next chapter, I'm afraid to admit.

I was ~50% joking there, but the "Cosmoreactor power improves when needed by the plot" inverse would be "decreases when not needed", and once the Grail is out, her role as distraction in this situation is less important. It's CONSIDERABLY more likely to be the lack of Grail support though.

The Heart of Winter is effectively out of the picture from that last attack referenced in 47, and we're closing in on the end game here.

My paranoia knows no bounds.

Speaking of the end game for the story, I'd like more votes on the ring/armor, please? Or would you two prefer to vote on that first ring and armor combination for Mordred and Erik?

Right, I'm going to do some revising, mostly dropping Fuel-less Flight and Scylla-Grade Augments to get Cloaked Firing and some extra durability.

Revisions

Great Welsh Red, free Shin

Legendary Power Armor (3 dots, Scylla/Tamamo/Fenris/Erik/Merlin, 1 Reactor Tap)
Durability Enhancement/Regenerating Durability (3 dots, Fenris. His fur is bullshit)
Enhanced Environmental Systems (0 dots, Tamamo to protect fertility)

Relic Integration (1 dot, Erik)
Modular Relic Systems/Prototype Upgrades (0 dots, Scylla)
Cloaked Firing (0 dots, Scylla, 1 Reactor Tap)
Upgraded User Manual (0 dots, Scylla)

Augmented Flight Systems/Dash Systems (0 dots, Erik/Legion of Coal)
Computer Systems/Legion of Coal Augmentation (0 dots, Erik/Legion of Coal)

Kinetic Storage Core (0 dots, Erik)
Juggernaut Driver (1 dot, Erik)

Machinery (0 dots)
Innovation (1 dot)
Death's Reflection (1 dot)
Nuclear (1 dot)
Aerial Battleships (1 dot)

6 Erik actions, so previous Mordred build is covered. 4 Scylla actions, 2 Tamamo, 2 Fenris, 12 dots.

I feel like the lack of Scylla-Grade Augments and Fuel-less flight will bite me in the ass, but hopefully Machinery+Innovation can develop those over time, when needed. I'm essentially trying to loot the best parts of Future Power and Survival Is King, and tossing in the free Scylla upgrades that make the most sense to me. I swapped Kinetic Storage Boosting for Juggernaut Driver, on the theory that Regenerating Durability will make paying those "at what cost?" costs easier.

[Xamusel]

I like Arbitrarity's ideas that he provided.

[Kieran]

XX's plot relevance has rapidly ended, and so has the Cosmoreactor's power, I guess. More likely it's also related to the lack of Grail support, given the impact on Astrea. Unless Kotomine Shirou gets drained heavily supporting Semiramis suddenly (which is... plausible? The Hanging Gardens is powerful enough that it might effectively sustain her even without the Grail) that's a fairly massive problem for XX.

. . .

I was ~50% joking there, but the "Cosmoreactor power improves when needed by the plot" inverse would be "decreases when not needed", and once the Grail is out, her role as distraction in this situation is less important. It's CONSIDERABLY more likely to be the lack of Grail support though.

A logical assumption.

And honestly, I'm unsure about the Hanging Gardens - they are built of physical materials, but it's still prana holding the whole thing together; this is a replica and not the original, after all . . . Should it fall apart if Semiramis or her Master suddenly run dry?

Astrea being so weakened makes her impending arrival seem considerably less threatening, but I suppose I should not underestimate Luvia's desire to suplex people.

You should never underestimate Luvia; much less a goddess so in sync with her . . . *Chuckles*

And it's not that she can't use full power, but that she'd run on a time limit, now - kind of like Sieg and his transformations, but without being forcibly changed into a dragon . . . Probably. People didn't like it when I did that to Arturia, after all.

. . . On the other hand, while Luvia is difficult to add to the Works because of her associations with magus society, Astraea is much simpler; so, maybe there's a reason to come up with something like that . . .?

I'm getting concerned about the Heart of Winter. We haven't heard from it since Chapter 47 or so, where it was "presumed destroyed", but I trust that about as far as I can throw it. It seems like near the right time for it to make a surprise return.

My paranoia knows no bounds.

I'd say I've trained you well, but I doubt I deserve the credit for that.

[RanmaBushiko]

I was ~50% joking there, but the "Cosmoreactor power improves when needed by the plot" inverse would be "decreases when not needed", and once the Grail is out, her role as distraction in this situation is less important. It's CONSIDERABLY more likely to be the lack of Grail support though.

My paranoia knows no bounds.



Right, I'm going to do some revising, mostly dropping Fuel-less Flight and Scylla-Grade Augments to get Cloaked Firing and some extra durability.

Revisions

Great Welsh Red, free Shin

Legendary Power Armor (3 dots, Scylla/Tamamo/Fenris/Erik/Merlin, 1 Reactor Tap)
Durability Enhancement/Regenerating Durability (3 dots, Fenris. His fur is bullshit)
Enhanced Environmental Systems (0 dots, Tamamo to protect fertility)

Relic Integration (1 dot, Erik)
Modular Relic Systems/Prototype Upgrades (0 dots, Scylla)
Cloaked Firing (0 dots, Scylla, 1 Reactor Tap)
Upgraded User Manual (0 dots, Scylla)

Augmented Flight Systems/Dash Systems (0 dots, Erik/Legion of Coal)
Computer Systems/Legion of Coal Augmentation (0 dots, Erik/Legion of Coal)

Kinetic Storage Core (0 dots, Erik)
Juggernaut Driver (1 dot, Erik)

Machinery (0 dots)
Innovation (1 dot)
Death's Reflection (1 dot)
Nuclear (1 dot)
Aerial Battleships (1 dot)

6 Erik actions, so previous Mordred build is covered. 4 Scylla actions, 2 Tamamo, 2 Fenris, 12 dots.

I feel like the lack of Scylla-Grade Augments and Fuel-less flight will bite me in the ass, but hopefully Machinery+Innovation can develop those over time, when needed. I'm essentially trying to loot the best parts of Future Power and Survival Is King, and tossing in the free Scylla upgrades that make the most sense to me. I swapped Kinetic Storage Boosting for Juggernaut Driver, on the theory that Regenerating Durability will make paying those "at what cost?" costs easier.

To be fair, being paranoid isn't a bad thing... *chuckles*.

I will have to ask, though... are you absolutely sure you want to take Juggernaut Driver for both Erik and Mordred? Having it be different for both of them, so they have similar, but different "highest level" abilities could be more interesting. And, to be perfectly honest, Shin works better with Kinetic Storage Boosting, rather than Juggernaut Driver. But if you'd like to go this route, I can. I've still got pages to go before it's finished, after all, so I'll let you think it over.

I like Arbitrarity's ideas that he provided.

Gotcha. Not a problem, then.

A logical assumption.

And honestly, I'm unsure about the Hanging Gardens - they are built of physical materials, but it's still prana holding the whole thing together; this is a replica and not the original, after all . . . Should it fall apart if Semiramis or her Master suddenly run dry?




You should never underestimate Luvia; much less a goddess so in sync with her . . . *Chuckles*

And it's not that she can't use full power, but that she'd run on a time limit, now - kind of like Sieg and his transformations, but without being forcibly changed into a dragon . . . Probably. People didn't like it when I did that to Arturia, after all.

. . . On the other hand, while Luvia is difficult to add to the Works because of her associations with magus society, Astraea is much simpler; so, maybe there's a reason to come up with something like that . . .?




I'd say I've trained you well, but I doubt I deserve the credit for that.

He's definitely got aces up his sleeve that he likely didn't pull out for canon, due to getting all those extra masters on his side and under his thumb.

As for Astraea/Luvia? Yeah, I'll agree there. Doesn't leave her less effective, she just doesn't want to kill her host.

And paranoia is a good thing for our readers, sometimes... other times, it's just amusing.

[Arbitrarity]

I will have to ask, though... are you absolutely sure you want to take Juggernaut Driver for both Erik and Mordred? Having it be different for both of them, so they have similar, but different "highest level" abilities could be more interesting. And, to be perfectly honest, Shin works better with Kinetic Storage Boosting, rather than Juggernaut Driver. But if you'd like to go this route, I can. I've still got pages to go before it's finished, after all, so I'll let you think it over.

Let it not be said that I'm the sort of person who throws away freely given advice. I'll take Kinetic Storage Boosting/Concept Boosting instead, then. Should be a fairly simple modification.

[Xamusel]

That also works... better than I thought originally.

[RanmaBushiko]

Let it not be said that I'm the sort of person who throws away freely given advice. I'll take Kinetic Storage Boosting/Concept Boosting instead, then. Should be a fairly simple modification.

I'm glad to offer advice. Truth be told, that's one of the best options you can take, right there, for synergy. (Especially considering I invented what Kinetic Storage, etc. is based off of in real life, primarily for use on the astral plane... utter pain in the ass to do, but well worth it to use. Well. At least there's been no accidents with it. Some of my teachers in Ki towards the beginning of my studies just... pulled stupid shit for the sake of researching unique shit like that.) Short term, all of what you're learning to do? It'll be an utter pain in the ass to get to work. Long term, however... well, there's a list of synergies I specifically didn't write up for the last chapter, just to make you blink when you get to read them. Possibly twitch a bit, then go "Huh. That makes so much SENSE now..." for the upgrades.

Of course, you're not seeing the places Erik will be dropped into post Anarchy, so you don't know how bad it's going to get for him. But trust me, it should be at least entertaining...

That also works... better than I thought originally.

We want to make things interesting for all our readers. That doesn't mean we won't hide plot twists planned for either this, or future stories. But we're still working to make it entertaining, and still debating over how fights will go, etc. If that means dropping hints here and there, or suggestions for you, or pointing out little facets that I've debated with Kieran about, endlessly?

*Shrugs* Honestly, I'm glad you two, and the lurkers are still around, enjoying it.

I spent most of last night just re-reading the story, and making sure that I've got most of the particulars still right after not writing people specifically for a while. It's been interesting so far, seeing how far the plots and twists have evolved.

[Kieran]

I agree - if occasionally headache-inducing as I attempt to recall where things came from (or were going) . . .

[RanmaBushiko]

Chapter 68: Preparations for the Final Battle





The Wolfen
Mordred’s Room




As Mordred rests in his bed, Erik glances over, glancing at the reports on a screen. “Looks like we’ll have them heading south in a bit… good.” Erik slowly sighs.

“Now, to get to work.” He adds, with a mumble, as he moves off. “Time to use what I got from Merlin to benefit Mordred.”

Fenris nods towards Erik he passes, then pauses at the sight of the sheer amount of materials gotten from Merlin, including a large sealed bucket of dragon’s blood. Blinking slowly, Fenris stares, then follows after Erik to study the materials further.

“You know, that’s one huge jug of blood there, Erik.” Erik blinks, almost falling on his face, before looking back to see Fenris. Then he smiles, and nods. “Indeed. I’m pretty sure we’ve got enough to use it to affect two projects, not just one! And the dragon scales added to it just sweeten the deal for Mordred’s ring…”

“I wasn’t much for forging, myself, but I did overhear the Norse Gods, before I was chained up, you know. If you imbue your Legend into the blood used, you can get some odd effects to show up sometimes.” Fenris admits. “I’ll also agree that Dragon Scales should give interesting effects. It’s a pity we don’t have Stygian Bronze anymore, though. I suspect that would give us better results for the signet ring and the dragon materials.”

Erik slowly nods, lost in thought for a long moment. “Legend imbued liquids…” Erik pauses, studying the sheer amount of dragon’s blood. Then he glances at Fenris, looking over the wolf’s massive size. “You know…” Erik continues, musing. “There’s just about enough in here, that if we did it right, at least you and I could get a bath out of this, and imbue our Legend into it as we do so… maybe 3 at most…”

Fenris pauses, obviously musing. “Even if we’d have issues with it reacting to Legend, and not being of Fafnir’s blood, Erik?” Fenris hesitantly asks.

“Dragon’s blood freely given from the Great Red Welsh dragon, over the course of decades. Nearly all his stores of the stuff, in fact.” Erik muses. “Not sure how much is in here, but I think it’s one of those ‘bigger on the inside style containers’ you see in some fantasy stories. Even if it isn’t, it’s still about 10 gallons worth from the weight alone…”

Fenris muses, as they walk towards the forge, carefully studying it as well as Erik. Then Fenris grins, softly. “Interesting. Just like you to figure out unique things without even realizing, too. So, do you suggest at least the both of us bathes in the blood, imbuing it with our Legend to enhance it, before using it as a liquid for tempering?”

Erik simply nods. “Call up Scylla for this, we can get him in and in on the offer, before we start to fire the forge up.”

Erik gently sets the materials down, thinking, as he studies the toolbox turned workshop that Wayland Smith left for him. For one single moment, he closes his eyes, mourning the old man. Then he opens them, one of the books his wife gave him long ago on how to forge Legendary Weapons, then starts getting to work.

The ring basic forging is mostly finess work, a small bit of Meteoric Iron forged into beautiful steel, with the heightened nickel content shining through clearly to make it far brighter than most steels like it. Layering it with Dragon Scale of all things would sound crazy to most, but doing it properly leaves it having a red hue through the wood grain like pattern of the ring’s metals.

Then, for the inside of the ring, to ensure it’s comfortable? A bit of a dragon’s talon, carefully carved to fit Mordred’s finger, long broken off and given freely.

It’s a slow, painstakingly process, as Erik slowly files off the unnecessary materials, while keeping it bulky enough to do the work required of it, as well as enough room for all the runes required of the project.

For a moment, Erik leans back, wiping sweat off his face, then pauses to look at food held before him by his smiling wife. Then Erik digs in, finally feeling the weariness from designing the ring.

“You know, if you didn’t make me something infinitely better, I’d be jealous, dear. That looks almost fit as a wedding ring, you know?” Tamamo smiles, before grinning with far too many teeth as she continues. “Should I worry about Mordred being wife number two, at this rate?”

“Please don’t tease me, dear.” Erik grins, then pulls his wife down for a kiss. She simply smiles, her teeth still showing a somewhat foxy grin at her husband, as she whispers “Mine.” in his ears, staying close for a long moment. After that, he sips on water, before looking over things carefully.

“I think I have it set to convert Legend to prana, and vice versa…” Erik admits, quietly.

Tamamo carefully looks it over, before nodding, and kissing her husband’s cheek. “I’ll be back for you when you need help with other things, later, dear. Right now, I need to finish off getting food to everyone, then I think I’ve got the things I talked with my mother just about done and finished. I’ve just about finished writing up the runic sequences that the Legion of Coal will have to engrave through the ship. Then we’ll have the cloaking enhanced for a while. Scylla should be able to help if you want to put that in, but he’s swamped with a side project of his own, so he’ll likely be somewhat busy in the near future while you’re working on this…”

Erik nods, and gets back to work, carving tiny runes into the ring in front of him, as well as shaping the metal for a long while, just getting it right. Then he pulls out a gem, and chuckles softly, before sliding it in. After that, he carefully studies it, looking at it from every angle, before carving the insignia Mordred asked for into the ring’s gemstone. Then, with a tiny bit of Legend, the gem starts to shine with power.

For a long moment, Erik simply studies it, then breathes out, as he feels Legend and Prana slowly building up in the tiny battery the gem doubles as, before smiling.

“Perfect… the last bit of emerald gemstone I made back then, when I was making the Gem of power.” Erik mutters to himself. “It fits, and I’ll heat it up and temper it to ensure it doesn’t fall apart soon, after I get my other project done…”

“Impressive. If I were able to hold things more easily, I suspect I would enjoy working things like that.” Fenris admits from the side, happily munching on a roasted ham as he watches Erik’s work.

“Hmm…” Erik glances over, pausing his thoughts as he blinks at Fenris. “You know, Scylla could likely whip up something for you with artificial muscles to give you hands like us, as prosthetics that could attach from the body. You’d just need something like a neural interface… unit…”

Erik pauses. LOOKS at his equipment, quietly, just blinking. Slowly looks at the skin tight armored piloting suit he wears for piloting his mecha. Blinks again, thinking, as his mind rapidly thinks over something.

“Wait a minute… neural interface…?” Erik mutters, as he blinks, harder. Then he rapidly starts scribbling ideas down with a pen, as he works. Then he pulls on his goggles, thinking.

For one long moment, he blinks at the realization that he still doesn’t have a headache while wearing the goggles, then glances at the scythe piece, literally shining with power when he looks at it through the goggle’s lenses.

Then Erik casually ties the scythe piece to the goggles with some wire, before getting back to work as he puts his mind to the equation.

Every time before, Erik couldn’t figure out how to make power armor have health of its own. It was armor, yes but it was never having health of its own, like his mecha. But now…

“I think I’ve got it…” Erik admits, almost with a whisper. “That one, tiny little issue that ensured my power armor was just armor… was missing bulk within.” Erik trails off, then starts getting to work.

Time passes, as Erik works. Forging, annealing, tempering and hardening. Repairing and adjusting, as he struggles to shape the inner and outer layers of armor. Designing custom “muscles” for the inside, meant to make it easier for him to wear and use.

Barely, Erik notices, as Scylla comes in and out of the forge, occasional suggestions reaching Erik as he works.

Somewhat more, does he notice Fenris helping with certain things, giving him an extra pull, or moving tools for Erik.

What brings him out of his working haze however, is Tamamo showing Fenris how to weave the fur he donated somewhere along the lines, as well as Olga asking for him.

“Now, if you want to make sure the fur you donated to this will work well, you have to pattern it like this, see? Layer by layer, like a blanket weaved in a loom!” Tamamo says quietly in the background.

Olga, on the other hand, is right in front of Erik, staring him in the eye.

“Ah, sorry. I just… had a realization that sparked my creativity, Olga. What’s going on?” Erik half states, half asks, as he studies her.

“Ah, that Merlin guy wanted to communicate, and somehow linked up with Sapphire enough to send messages through…” Olga admits, sheepishly. “He says he wants to make more of a deal? Apparently you forgot ammunition with the deal before…”

“Or I left it out on purpose, in case he backstabbed me and tried to use it to kill us all?” Erk admits, chuckling. “He’ll get it after we’re done.”

“I’d rather get it now, Erik. I’ll admit, your plans on taking advantage of me are useful, but it’s not like some God like you could ever…” Merlin’s voice trails to a halt, as he looks through the screens at both ring and armor, blinking.

“On the other hand, I could be completely wrong about your prowess, and owe you an apology, I suppose.” Merlin admits, quietly. “Quite the fascinating workmanship, I’ll admit. Who was your teacher?”

“Wayland Smith, more commonly known as Volund, or Volsung, depending on how drunk you got him when he talked about it. The forger of Gram, as well as a pair of wings that let him travel to divine realms.” Erik admits, quietly. “Now, were you going to ask me something, or…?”

A long moment passes, as Merlin studies the armor thoughtfully. “If I asked for you to send that mech back, so I could see this better, would you do so? I’d like a better look at your runes...”

Erik blinks, musing. “Tell you what. I’ll send you over the ring I’ve made for Mordred, for you to look at as well, so you can have a look at them. If you’d like, I could send over some books on runes, along with ammunition for you, after this is finished.”

Merlin blinks. “Ammunition, tools, and a way to repair it if it’s damaged by Morgan.”

For a moment, one single long moment, Erik thinks it over. Then he slowly nods. “That’s a bit much for simply charging a ring…”

“Is that the way you want to treat me?” For a long moment, Erik and Merlin look at each other, before Merlin frowns, continuing to speak. “You’re using at least part of the stuff I gave for other projects, or something, with that suit of armor there! You should at least ensure it goes to helping Mordred out, you know?”

Erik snorts. “This is so I can survive what will likely happen sooner, rather than later, to weaken me. As it is…” Erik trails off, silently.

“You don’t want to tell me, but the way you said that… you’re not nearly as well off as you portray yourself, are you?” Merlin asks, thinking. “No, you’re worried about something in the near future… and you’re building this early, so you can still support Mordred even after something occurs, hmm?”

Erik almost glares at the image of Merlin, before slightly nodding quietly, folding his arms as he does so.

“Since you don’t want to talk about it, it has to be major… and considering your companions are nowhere near your level of strength…” Merlin trails off, as well, eyes narrowing. “You’ve got a time limit before you’re like them, then. A weakening, of sorts…”

Erik’s silent nod is all the answer Merlin needs, before Merlin settles back, one hand under his chin. “Then I suppose you’re right to use it for yourself, to ensure you can survive helping Mordred in the long run. Books, ammunition, tools and repair kits, for a recharge, and some help from myself involving your armor and her Signet ring, then.” Merlin admits, quietly. “I’ll expect it to be sent over soon.”

Erik quietly nods, as Fou, Mash and Olga quietly leave the room again. For a moment, Erik glances over, asking a Legion of Coal unit to set things up with some spare books on runes, before getting back to work.

Work he does, pulling out more equipment to measure, as well as fine tune the slowly developing power armor.

It takes a long time, as Erik works. Hours slowly pass by, the monitor coming in courtesy of Olga and Mash, letting him team up with Merlin to carve articulate runes into the armor.

He doesn’t notice his wife sneaking in, picking up the plans and looking over them, only to giggle, and bring some of the Legion of Coal over to look at certain points, pointing out things her husband missed out on realizing.

He does notice when they bring him a new life support unit, and several pieces of lead to encase the arm cannon he’s rapidly developing for it, as well as lead sheets for under the top level of armor.

Eyes widen, as Erik’s eyes jerk up to stare at his wife, smiling smugly at him. Then he grins, stealing a kiss off her, before getting back to work, while she sneaks back out, a wide smile on her face.

The world descends for Erik, once more, as he continues forging, the masterpiece rapidly forming into a single piece, unlike anything he’s ever dreamed of before. Soon enough, it’s all but finished, leaving only tempering the pieces.

At that, Erik slowly breathes out, shaking himself out of the sheer amount of work he’s done, as he glances over the masterpiece.

“So.” Merlin speaks up through the television. “Still no sign of Morgan, thankfully. I still get the feeling she’s watching somehow, but I suspect she’s too busy with Arturia’s coma to come over and harass us.”

Erik simply nods, and sighs. “Thank goodness for small favors? Or me, perhaps?” Erik half snarks, before relaxing again.

Merlin smirks, half nodding. “I suppose.”

Olga casually sits, and curls up, snuggling with Fenris and Fou as she watches quietly.

Then, everything pauses, as slow, cackling laughter erupts from somewhere on the ship. “Mwahahahaha! MWAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! IT WORKS! MY THEORY WORKED!” Scylla’s voice erupts with utter glee in the distance.

Slowly, Erik pauses, to look at Fenris. “Do I normally sound like that after I’ve achieved something impossible?”

Fenris simply nods, before curling up to rest again, thinking, before admitting aloud. “Did you notice it, when I finished weaving my fur into protective matting for the armor, Erik?”

Erik pauses, thinking, as his mind slowly struggles to work through everything that happened. “I noticed things got easier, yeah…”

“I’m pretty sure with me learning how to weave my hair into something, we made our little group of Gods into a new pantheon, somehow.” Fenris admits. “It got stupidly easy to do, after I finished the first one, like I was born to do that.”

Erik pauses, blinking. Merlin’s eyes simply go wide in surprise on the other side of the tv.

Then Erik pumps his fist into the air, with a grin. “Hell yes! We finally pulled off creating a pantheon!”

Fenris grins, nods, then shuts his eyes, with an added mutter of “Now what the hell can we do…?”

Erik frowns. Pauses. Pulls his fist down, then sighs softly. “I have no clue yet either.”

Scylla rushes in, grinning. “Erik! You’ll never believe what I managed to build! What’s that look for? Wait, right. Body. Look at the body I got, Erik! Isn’t it neat?!”

Erik glances over Scylla’s body. Something like skin, covered in the shell of glass most of him was always in. A mouth, with jagged “teeth” covering the real mouth within, that moves as the true mouth moves.

Then Erik moves over, and gives Scylla a hug, gently. “Yeah. I like it, Scylla. Now, calm down, and tell me what you built. Okay?”

Scylla nods, leaning into the hug for a moment, before the grin on him grows wider. “I think I built something like a warp drive, or hyper drive!”

“You what.” Fenris and Erik half ask, half state, in sync.

“No, seriously! I honestly figured out how to upgrade the Rainbow Bridge into something new, something more unique!” Scylla grins, and continues. “First, for the past few years, I’ve been theorizing how to make Legend cycle within something, so it would restore itself constantly while keeping something running. Second, I also have been theorizing how to make it so the Rainbow Bridge skill could be remade into something more like warp drive, and just a while ago, I managed to make it work and combined them into a unique relic!”

Erik glances at Fenris. Fenris looks at Erik, one eyebrow raised. Then Erik turns back to Scylla. “And… have you tested this relic at all, before installing it onto my ship?”

“The Mecha Fafnir unit we tested it on, went to orbit and back. Without fuel use whatsoever, barring what was used to keep it’s generator running..” Scylla admits, grin never wavering.

“How does the power work?”

“I… kinda imbued my power into it, using some of the knowledge that Amaterasu mentioned to your wife recently? If we all do that, I’m pretty sure we’ll get much better range on it, faster top speeds, and better control as well!” Scylla admits, a bit sheepishly.

Erik rubs his chin, thinking. “I’ll do it as soon as this is wrapped up. Merlin, since you’re not busy, how many people could bathe in the dragon’s blood and get unique attributes or traits from it, like Fafnir’s?”

“You, safely, Erik, since you’re already her Master for this war, and it would only enhance the link between you both..” Merlin admits. “If someone else wants to sacrifice some attribute of their Legend, as a true sacrifice, to empower the blood further, it’s doable…”

Erik glances at Scylla, who shakes his head slowly. “Not me, thank you. I’ve got enough fuckery going on with me as it is, and I barely managed to get this strong without dying.”

At that, Erik turns to Fenris. Fenris looks at Erik, thinking. Then Erik speaks up. “Destined to kill the Norse Gods, ring a bell? Getting rid of that would only help you out…”

Merlin pauses, as does Fenris. Then Merlin sticks his face close to the camera, to stare at Fenris, who’s suddenly looking rather smug.

“True enough. And claiming this to help you will only help…” Fenris admits with a grin.

“That should prove to be… interesting. I never even thought someone might be willing to get rid of that sort of advantage-” Merlin pauses, thinking. “Ah… you’re all technically part of the Norse Pantheon, aren’t you?”

“And if we hadn’t done rituals to counter it, I’d be stuck in the unfortunate situation of having to EAT THEM ON THE SHIP, TOO.” Fenris bites out with a snarl, before settling back to relax.

“Got it. Got it. I’ll just… write some tips on how to do it, so you can temper the equipment, and…” Erik nods at the television, before settling back to rub his forehead. “Me first, then you, Fenris?”

Fenris simply nods.

For a long moment, they just sit, as Erik chugs down some water. Then EMIYA comes in, looking mildly disgruntled. “My Master’s missing, and so is Godafrid’s Servant. When I asked her if she needed help, or if she’d like me to test out that stuff to give me a new body, she screamed at me about being a ‘Dummy that should do it as soon as possible’, before locking down the connection.”

Erik glances at EMIYA, then shrugs. “We’ve got a little bit of time…” Erik pauses, looking over the sheet of paper, then carves out the runes on the sunglasses like EMIYA drew up, before getting up and walking towards him. “We can get it done real fast.”

It’s a quick walk to the room where the cloning technology is in. Erik glances in while sniffing to ensure there’s no unwanted extra people listening in, then nods at Kairi, Touko and Scathach, near Kairi’s daughter. “You mind if we borrow the tech real fast to try giving EMIYA a new body?”

Kairi blinks, before grinning widely. “We just finished healing up my daughter’s clone using the repaired tank, and transferring her soul over, so I don’t mind one bit. Your Legion of Coal just finished repairs, too.” After those words, Kairi gets up, and bows. “Thank you so much for saving my daughter. If there’s anything we can do to help, I won’t hesitate.”

Touko smiles widely at Kairi for a moment, before she relaxes again, looking over Kairi’s daughter once more.

Erik on the other hand, kneels to look Kairi in the eye, then gently pulls him up. “Don’t mention it. Seriously. I was honestly glad to help. I build things to help humanity, not to fuck humanity over.”

At Erik’s words, Kairi smiles softly. “Still, is there anything we can do to help?”

“We’ve got an hour and a half left before we can go after the Hanging Gardens.” Erik admits. “I made a deal to give them a 5 hour head start before we come after them to settle things for good, and to give us time to ensure everything is functional, working and battle-ready, in return for them blowing a couple holes through Darnic’s little shield so we could hurt the bastard.”

Touko simply smirks. “Even with them being marked for death?”

“Tactically, I’d rather not have had the Heart of Winter go off underneath the damned thing, so I took steps to ensure that if my weapons couldn’t finish it off, theirs would.” Erik admits.

Touko stills, before Scathach nods in understanding. “That trick with the 15 plates all rising up to make a giant mandala for the prana cannon. You ensured they’d aim it for small concessions, then?”

“Like not nuking them outright, basically.” Erik nods.

“Which gave you a handle on them, ensured you wouldn’t irradiate the Greater Grail or outright destroy it, and let you seem like you were giving ground to get what you wanted. Good job.” Touko admits. “I would have done the same thing, I suspect.”

Erik simply nods, stretching, then glances over. “Put on the mask for air, make sure it’s strapped down and fitted tight, then get in the tank, EMIYA. It’ll take about an hour before it’s done.”

At that, Erik nods towards them. “Mind not letting what’s left of Black’s faction in on what I was up to?”

Kairi and Touko glance at each other, then nod. “You’re giving us this thing and instructions on how to repair it. Why would we fuck you over like that?” Kairi asks ruefully.

“Just making sure.” Erik walks out with a wave on his way to get back to work, as EMIYA slides the mask on in preparations to enter the tank behind them.



1 hour later, Erik glances up at the time. “5:30 PM, huh?” Erik mutters, half under his breath, as he settles back, armor nearly finished.

“Indeed.” Merlin admits from the television across from him. “This last rune, and it’s done.”

“Then the blood tempering.” Erik admits, stretching.

“It looks like Fenris won’t be able to sacrifice all of his need to devour the Norse Pantheon, since it’s actively enhancing him, but we’ll be able to dull the legendary effects, at the cost of him growing stronger more slowly. I’m still working on if it’s wise to have him bathe in something he pushed that into, however.” Merlin admits.

Erik glances over, thinking. “And what will he get out of it?”

“Likely the same thing as you, whatever ability you’ll gain from it, if it works out well. Arturia got a Dragon core. You? I have no clue, considering you’re a problem from completely outside the usual context of this.” Merlin admits, sounding somewhat amused. “Ah. And I added another gem to the ring for you, and scribed both with runes to reinforce them and their function of storing energies. Ingenious work, though very primitive.”

“I had to develop it from scratch, based on a gem I saw that was holding the souls of people who met the Erlking, without sacrificing people’s souls for Legend.” Erik admits, quietly.

Merlin simply blinks. “Ah. Little wonder it’s primitive then. If you only saw one thing, and the original was used for such a horrible concept, it would be quite irrational to power your own things the same way. Regardless, however, the gems are both fully charged with prana.”

Erik simply nods. “Thanks for that. Olga seems to be napping for now, but when it’s all over, I’ll send you the extra stuff.”

“Indeed. Now, carve into this just like this rune I’m showing you…” Merlin trails off, as Erik gently does it, perfectly. “Perfect! And that’s that. That’ll link your armor materials, so both enhance each other. It won’t be multiplying the durability like the inner layer of fur from your friend, but both will enhance each other instead of relying on one or the other.”

Another 20 minutes pass, as Erik inserts several of his relics into the armor, testing out capabilities, mixing and matching different assets and aspects.

“Looks like my piloting outfit won’t combine with it. I’ll have to work on something to let it synchronize with my mecha later…” Erik admits, quietly. “Pity, that.”

“At least the other things work?” Merlin smirks.

“Fair point…” Erik admits, stretching. “Ready for the tempering?”

“I’d suggest Fenris not go through it, I’m afraid. Too many things could go wrong if he bathes in something he just sacrificed a part of his divinity to.” Merlin admits, before continuing on, “Do it yourself, add some of your blood to the result, then temper it.”

Erik nods, looking at the ring Olga just brought back. “Have a nice nap?”

Olga nods, quietly blushing as she does so, wide eyes staring at Erik’s naked chest, eyes staring over muscles overlaying other muscles to the point where bodybuilders would be jealous. “And this will help Mordred?”

“And help me, help her, too.” Erik nods, patting her head.

Olga blushes, but watches, as Erik moves off. “Now for the bath, and then tempering.” Erik pulls the shower curtain around the long metal tray, hastily set up by Tamamo.

Soon, clothes go off, as Erik whistles a tune. Outside, Olga quietly whispers “His muscles have muscles!” to Mash.

Mash simply stares, a brilliant bright red hue on her face. “Oh wow. You’re right. S-still… S-sempai is hotter… but muscles on muscles...”

Olga nods, before Fou pounces her lap, smiling. “Fou!”

In the makeshift shower, Erik pours the blood over his head.

For one long moment, a pulsing thrumming floods his body. Faintly, ever so faintly, he can hear a voice scream in the far distance “NO! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MY NEXT BODY IF YOU DIED! YOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO BREAK YOUR BOND WITH MY BLOOD, DAMN YOU!” And far off, in the distance, Erik faintly feels something snap, like something horrible had been averted somehow. With it, comes a great feeling of exhaustion, as for one moment, Gaia’s pull grows stronger, less like a steady small drain, and more like a nigh-inescapable whirlpool.

Then the voice fades away, as a thrumming of his bond with Mordred almost floods with power. With it, the pull from Gaia fades back to normal, leaving Erik shivering for a long moment, wide eyed with confusion at the near miss.

Then, as Erik thinks it over, comprehension dawns on him. Fafnir’s Legend, dead or not, still anchored him to his home universe. Losing it, he nearly lost to Gaia’s pull, before the Red Welsh’s blood replaced it entirely to tie him further to Mordred, and the others compensated for the lack of Fafnir’s own anchor.

Erik dunks himself in the blood, ensuring everything is covered properly, even gargling with some of it. Then he bottles a few ounces to set aside, before adding his own blood to the concoction as he steps out.

The sight of the glowing hot ring and armor, slowly going into the blood, has him wide eyed. The sight of both absorbing it equally, without issues, is more awe inspiring to him.

The results are beautiful. The ring glows a faint red, flickers of lightning as Legend slowly charges within the gems, warring with the prana already flooded in them. The armor, on the other hand, is a deep red, almost black in spots.

“Can you send that stuff to Merlin, Olga?” Erik asks. “I’ll need to bathe, and get changed real fast, here.”

“No problem, Mister Erik! I’ll have it handled!” Olga shouts. “Let’s get it done with, Sapphire!”

A quick bath later, Erik nods towards Merlin. “Thanks for the help.”

“It was a pleasure to see a God like yourself in action.” Merlin replies. “And good luck with Mordred. I always did hate how her issues turned out…” He trails off, thoughtfully.

“They’ll work on reconnecting after this.” Erik nods, before the screen winks out.

With that, Erik walks. It’s a quick walk to the room Mordred’s in.

Putting the signet ring in her hand, Erik smiles as Mordred snaps awake… and then both flinch as a sudden feeling of exhaustion hits them in equal amounts.

“You finished… wait, what the hell?!” Mordred glances down at the signet ring, goes wide eyed, before putting it on her right hand to counter the strain. Then she slowly sighs in relief, as the strain disappears for them both.

“It’s beautiful, but I’m not connected to the Greater Grail anymore… I think something’s gone horribly wrong, Erik.” Mordred admits, looking at Erik with worried eyes.

For a moment, Erik simply thinks. “Yeah. Go to that simulator made for Amaterasu, Mordred, and get some training in. We’ll have you pose as weaker than you are and stuck relying on piloting to fight, while I figure out what the hell is going on.”

Mordred blinks, then grins. “Roger that!” With one hand, she salutes Erik, before rushing off. Then, Erik sits, breathing out hard, clutching where the Prototype Cosmoreactor is in his body, now rapidly generating power within him. “What the hell did that bastard Shirou do…?”



6:00 PM
The Wolfen
Cloning Lab 1



Touko sits, one eye watching over Kairi and his daughter, as they both nap together. “Glad to be done with guarding them, so we can move on to finishing things off, Scathach?”

“I’ll admit, the shows were entertaining…” Scathach smiles. “But being done is fine, too. Now all we have to do is…”

The room pauses, as Scathach feels a sudden level of tiredness flow through her, like she’s suddenly weakened drastically. “That’s not good. Did something happen to the Greater Grail?”

Then the room as a whole turns, to see EMIYA screaming in the tank. Wide, horrified eyes as Kairi, his daughter and Touko all stare, before Scathach rushes forwards.

“What’s going on with him?!” Touko half yells, worry in her eyes.

“His spiritual core is…! That can’t be right... Hang on, while I try to keep him alive…!” With those words, Scathach frantically works, pulling EMIYA out of the tank to trace runes into his skin in order to help him. “Try to reinforce the connection between his mind and the clone! Something’s gone horribly wrong with the procedure!”

Touko nods, going to work. Soon enough, they’re all staring again, at a slowly breathing EMIYA. “He’s out like a light. What happened?”

“Something, likely whatever happened with the Greater Grail, ripped his spiritual core out, but left his mind and attributes in the body, since this was made to steal him from it. He’s not a Servant anymore, but he’s still alive.” Stunned silence reigns in the room as Kairi and Touko stare at the now human EMIYA.

“Does that mean I’m out of the damned contract with Alaya?” EMIYA mutters, weakly, rubbing his throat. “I’d forgotten how painful it is to scream your throat hoarse…” He continues, weakly.

“From what I can see? Yes, you’re likely so.” Scathach admits.




6 PM
The Wolfen
The Cafeteria




In the cafeteria, Fiore sits across from Gordes and Roche, holding Godafrid’s hand quietly for strength.

“Well,” Fiore began, “thank you both for coming so quickly.”


“It feels like I’m betraying Sensei by teaming up with Erik for this.” Roche admits, quietly. “At the same time… You sounded certain that we all had to get on board immediately? I missed the truck out to that Wolf Home place for this. Even if he said he might have another ride for us later, I’m still worried.”


Gordes nods, speaking quietly, “Your insistence on our being here was most persuasive, Fiore.. What’s going on, that we need to hide on board?”


“I analysed the situation with Chiron when we were in the middle of Darnic’s… Dead Apostle assault on the city,” Fiore slowly explains, thinking about how to word things properly. “While I did so, I realized that Darnic wasn’t collecting us as allies, but as scapegoats.”


Fiore’s words hang in the air as Gordes and Roche go abruptly still.


“What brought you to that conclusion, Fiore?” Gordes asks, still oddly subdued for him. “What evidence could’ve lead you in such a direction?”


“Back when I learned about the Greater Grail… It was supposed to only manifest physically when ready to grant a wish, right?” Fiore begins carefully. “That until then, no wish could be granted?”


Gordes nods. “Indeed, that is the case. Considering it was a spiritual construct, it was a marvel that Darnic could steal the thing how he did! It’s one of the reasons why I joined this group; to learn how to do the same!”


“But when he showed it to me,” Fiore stressed, “it was already materialized. It took a long time for me to realize what that meant, with how distracted I was by being his replacement; but when the crisis happened? I realized the truth: it had always been manifested, with a wish ready to grant.”
Fiore hesitates briefly, clinging tighter to Godafrid’s hand as she does so. Silently, she can feel Chiron nodding to her words, encouraging her to elaborate.


“Look over things more closely, Gordes,” she continues. “I was set up to be his Heir if he ever fell; you, Roche and the others were to serve as defenses, keeping us relatively safe. But we would have also been excellent cannon fodder, never seeing it, if he used Lancer of Black’s second Noble Phantasm. That… thing he became was horrifying.”


“He called to ask me how Dracula in the Castlevania games worked after a meeting between me and Gordes, Fiore,” Roche says, quietly. “You remember I played them with your brother and Godafrid?”


Fiore slowly nods, listening to Roche as he continues.

“He asked if Dracula was ever shown as being sane in the series. When I said ‘Yes…’” Roche trails off for a moment, looking down with balled up fists. “I realized what he was likely going to do. He even admitted as much to me in that last phone call… He said he was going to be loathed and hated. More than that… More than that! He admitted he was going to turn Vlad into Dracula of some sort. Become a Dead Apostle. ”


For a long moment, Roche trails off, head bowed.


“He insisted he was doing it so we’d all have a future to live in without him. That he was going to take all the blame upon himself, so that if he failed, we’d live. He sounded so unsure if it would work, at the time. I thought that he’d likely fail. Become a simple monster at best…” Roche trails off, thinking over Darnic’s last message to him. “Then he told me… I reminded him of his grandchild… When he could actually be himself.”


Fiore thinks over the ramifications, slowly, the only sign of her unease is the tightening of her fingers around Godafrid’s hand before she speaks up.

“That’s terrifying, I’ll admit. But what do you mean by ‘when he could actually be himself? ’”


“His magecraft,” Gordes speaks up, arms folded. “He admitted his magecraft had more dire backlashes to him than he realized. What were his words…? Ah, right. ‘Most of the time, it feels like I can barely think. You recall that I don't speak of my magecraft for staying young? There are major side effects—ones that I would rather you not suffer from, or have to worry about. Ones that have made it feel more and more like I'm a prisoner in my own mind; less and less like myself, and more every day like my own body is someone else's. Someone who has my thoughts, my memories—my skills and magecraft, even! But is not, nor ever can be, me.’”


Gordes pauses, taking a sip of water, before he continues to the wide-eyed Fiore. “He very much admitted afterwards that he had been influenced for decades by this, having a hard time thinking through plans, and feeling like himself.”


Fiore sits back, thinking while clutching Godafrid’s hand tight, to the point where a quiet squeeze makes her jump. Glancing over, she reads the tension in his expression and deliberately loosens her grip a little, lest she crush his hand. To one side, she can almost visualize Siegfried as well as Chiron looking pensive while thinking over things carefully.


Then she quietly sighs as she settles back. “So we’ve been following a half-cognizant madman who left us to pay his dues for destroying Trifas, leaving us the ones to suffer for his actions.”


Gordes slowly nods. “I see where you’re coming from, at least. I suppose we should vote on sticking with Erik, then, all of us?”


“Indeed.” Fiore admits, before quietly looking up to stare at them. “If nothing else, he can keep us saf-”


She can’t finish her sentence, as a feeling of utter exhaustion hits her, along with Gordes. For a moment, her fists tremble as her Magic Circuits open up with more of her power, burning brightly as she forcibly struggles to counter the burning drain. Then, slowly, they shiver as the drain disappears, leaving the two magi only looking weary.


Godafrid, on the other hand, is trembling with exhaustion, pallid and sweating with effort. Slowly, he pulls up his right hand. For a moment, the Command Spells glow, as he gets ready to speak and order his Servant to do something. Then he sighs from relief, as the drain slows down to a bare trickle.


“Thank God for Independent Action…” Godafrid groaningly admits, sagging against Fiore’s side. “Thanks to that, I can compensate – but sustaining the contract still eats up more of my prana capacity than I’d like.”

“Did…” Gordes trails off, wiping sweat off his brow, before looking up with worry. “Did that Shirou Kotomine just cut us off from the Greater Grail?!”


Fiore slowly nods, looking worried. “I think so… And in light of that, as much as anything else, I vote for us to help. Roche, I want you on the next ride to that ‘Wolf Home’ place, if we can get you on it. Okay?”


“I’ll go. You should prepare for whatever fighting is going to happen. Please be safe?” Roche asks, quietly.


Fiore nods, as does Gordes.

“As the last members of Yggdmillennia, we have a duty to ensure it does not fail,” she admits. “And without Darnic, leadership falls to myself. Thank you for staying with me, for whatever may come…”

With those words, she focuses on Godafrid as Chiron moves him to a nearby bench to lie down. “Can I get you anything to help?”

Godafrid just shakes his head. “It’ll pass, I’m just exhausted.” He sighed. “I just had to summon a power hog...”






6:15 PM
The Wolfen
Main Hangar




Olga weakly smiles, then sits beside Mash, looking at where the supplies she’d sent back to Merlin were a few moments before. “You were right. It really does help out with stress, to work and help fix things…”

Mash nods, adjusting her shield while pulling Olga closer. “Indeed. Feeling better, Olga?”

Olga quietly nods, then giggles at Fou jumping onto her lap. “Fou!”

“Awww, you’re so cuddly and cute, Fou!” Olga smiles softly.

“Warning. High power drain enabled. Increasing Kaleidoscope tap to counteract. Tracking issue... Greater Grail connection lost. Mistress, I think something’s wrong.” Olga turns to stare at Sapphire, eyes wide.

“How bad is the drain, Sapphire?” Mash asks, quietly, her eyes narrowed.

“This unit will be able to handle the drain for approximately 57 days before repairs will be necessary. Major ones will be necessary at that point for continued functionality, however.” Sapphire admits.

“I think we need to get to Mister Erik and tell him…” Olga pauses, thinking it over. “No, he already likely knows…”

Mash simply nods.




6:20
The Wolfen
Main Bridge



Erik rushes into the bridge, before leaning against a railing, breathing out. “Nestor!”

“Yes, Erik?” Nestor glances over.

“Get us in the air. Scylla! I’ll need you to test your invention. Get us anywhere but here! Looks like Shirou just pulled out a trump card. We’re all cut off from the Greater Grail, all of us masters.”

“Got it, boss! Calculating… all of those Homunculus tanks have been moved on board like Gordes asked of us, barring the couple heading for Wolf Home. Looks like we’re ready! Scylla retorts.

“Just get us the fuck out of here, damn it! ANYWHERE IS FINE, SO LONG AS WE WON’T BE SHOT AT!” Erik outright snarls.

“Roger that! Operating prototype faster than light drive in 3… 2…. 1!” A flash of blue light erupts around the Wolfen, just barely rising into the air, before the ship slams up out of the atmosphere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcB8DS141Ks (The perfect sound effect)

A wall of sound, erupts from somewhere in the ship, almost like a howling wail. Erik’s eyes widen at the sight of reality seeming to warp around the ship.

For one long moment, the Wolfen shakes, as the new drive almost has something go wrong with it, then they flinch as reality returns to normal.

Slowly, Erik looks around, before adjusting himself, only to start floating up into the air.

Then he looks out the window, to stare at the Wolf Home nearby.

“...Huh. Well, that solves getting Roche off the ship, at least…” Erik admits, wryly. “I think we need to imbue Legend into that thing before we do this shit again.”

“I was aiming for up, not for the Wolf Home!” Scylla admits, staring. “Yeah, I think there’s a lot of fine tuning I need to do to fix that real fast. I was busy helping with your armor a bit too much to ensure it would navigate perfectly…”

“Yeah. Nestor, can you tell everyone on board what happened while we fix that thing that got us here?”

A slow nod from Nestor is returned, as he stares out at the Wolf Home, almost speechless.

15 minutes later, Erik sighs slowly, before speaking up. “So that’s imbuing Legend into something, huh?”

Tamamo smiles. “That wasn’t too bad.” She admits. “Felt like it was a rather tiny well to tap into, though.“

Fenris nods. “Doable, but more taxing for us than you, Erik. Your reserves have not drastically shrunk like ours have.”

Erik nods slowly, thinking. “Scylla, get us back to Earth, and get the spinal railgun charged for when we drop on Shirou. I’ll aim the railgun myself. It’s time to break his little Hanging Gardens, and finish things between us.” With those words, he leaves towards the Railgun in question, goggles at the ready.

“Got it, boss!” Scylla shouts, as he works. “Transferring back in 3 seconds!”

The feeling of speed, and the sound hits again, for a few seconds this time, before it stops.

“More accurate, but we’ll have to upgrade the guidance system heavily. We’re 20 minutes out, though, boss.” Scylla admits.

“Prep for a quiet insertion right on top of them, then we’ll use the enhanced Cloaking to ensure they suffer.” Erik smiles.

“Just keep in mind you’ll have about a shot every 13 seconds with that one, if we want to remain flying, boss.” Scylla admits.

“So about 69 shots before the cloak fails to hide us with the new ammunition…” Erik trails off, nodding. “Make sure it’s charged fully, so we can do some real damage with the initial strike, Scylla.”

“Roger that!”


Author’s Notes:
Did you like the surprise trip?



Current Final Plan:
Mordred:
Faith Tap
Boosting + Juggernaut Driver
Second Legend battery, knockoff Grail
Consumes 2 Erik actions

Erik:
Great Welsh Red, free Shin

Legendary Power Armor (3 dots, Scylla/Tamamo/Fenris/Erik/Merlin, 1 Reactor Tap)
Durability Enhancement/Regenerating Durability (3 dots, Fenris. His fur is bullshit)
Enhanced Environmental Systems (0 dots, Tamamo to protect fertility)

Relic Integration (1 dot, Erik)
Modular Relic Systems/Prototype Upgrades (0 dots, Scylla)
Cloaked Firing (0 dots, Scylla, 1 Reactor Tap)
Upgraded User Manual (0 dots, Scylla)

Augmented Flight Systems/Dash Systems (0 dots, Erik/Legion of Coal)
Computer Systems/Legion of Coal Augmentation (0 dots, Erik/Legion of Coal)

Kinetic Storage Boosting (1 dots, Erik)
Concept Boosting (0 dot, Erik)

Machinery (0 dots)
Innovation (1 dot)
Death's Reflection (1 dot)
Nuclear (1 dot)
Aerial Battleships (1 dot)

6 Erik actions, so previous Mordred build is covered. 4 Scylla actions, 2 Tamamo, 2 Fenris, 12 dots.

Blood Tempering Notes:

Death's Reflection (Amplified)
Erik... wasn't quite as brilliant as he thought, when he worked on the obsidian mirror he'd claimed from the Aztec death goddess, turning it into goggles, and other unique tools.
And inhaled some of that Obsidian Dust. Glass shards versus a God's own innate healing? No issues, just irritation.
However, between the goggles, the scythe chunk, and this masterwork piece, the innate power left behind will let him have his Mystic Goggles of Weakness Detection work through the helmet.
Mystic Goggles of Weakness Perception works through the visor. Possibly other equipment as well.

Innovation (Amplified)
One of Erik's core unique abilities as a God, this has slowly become a literal part of his blood.
Could be used to add other Unique abilities not on this list, later on, if people so choose to innovate at a later date, post Fate Anarchy.

Machinery (Amplified)
Another of Erik's core unique abilities as a God, this has also slowly become a literal part of his blood.
Will make upgrading this unique armor easier, increases modularity for the armor, and generally increases ability to work on machinery and personal equipment over time. Cannot increase Relic dots, however. Maximum is 10, period.
May make tinkering easier. May add lots of multi-tool equivalents to the suit.


Aerial Battleships/Starships/Submarines (Amplified)
Yes. Yes. More of Erik's unique abilities as a God, literally a part of his Blood. God, blood. You get it, by now.
Erik's finest creations. His finest masterpieces. The shit he most swears at, because of how often it breaks down on him.
Aerial Battleships like the Wolfen count under this.
Enhanced construction speed for such things. +25 to all rolls for building, construction, and designing one. +10 to all rolls to not have things break down in the background. Tendency for such rolls will be permanently halved. (No more Millennium Falcon breakdown shenanigans, yay!)

Nuclear (Amplified)
Erik has built nuclear equipment nearly as much as he has Lasers. It's going to be there as a part of him, you know? Just like all the other stuff on this partial list.
+10 to safety rolls with Nuclear equipment, materials, etc. +10 to building things that utilize nuclear power or material in some fashion.
If Relic System, Relic Integration and Modular Relic Integration are chosen, this will allow the built in arm cannon to be utilized for enhancing attacks with nuclear radiation, making the attack do Aggravated Damage. Alternatively, if shields are taken, then the shields will have a +5 for what they're capable of taking on, +10 for additional uses, and stabilize the fuel so it doesn't drain most of the radioactivity out of the uranium rod with each pulse, leaving the nuclear rods needing to go into a breeder reactor, rather than being used as depleted uranium.
Will make the Arm Cannon look more like Utsuho Reiuji's own, from Touhou.


Synergy notes:

Machinery + Death’s Reflection = Guaranteed results for working on building/repairing machinery, with the Mystic Goggles/Eyes of Weakness Detection. +22 automatic success to all rolls for constructing, repairing, or designing machinery.

Innovation + Death’s Reflection = Mystic Goggles/Eyes of Weakness Detection now kind of works for scientific formulas that are written down, giving hints to where Erik is messing up with formulas and other stuff when figuring out how to do things. Albeit at a much weakened rate. Must be trained to figure out how to make this work as effectively as the Mystic Eyes of Weakness Detection works for machinery.
10% rate, training will increase by increments of 10%.

Nuclear + Death’s Reflection = Can see how radiation would affect the body, with brush-stroke like lines. Much much thicker, and more unique. Nuclear Reactors are more effective, from seeing how radiation would damage the nuclear reactor, or possibly explode, and countering it.

Aerial Battleships + Death’s Reflection = Much easier to fix or destroy flying ships. Because his own Aerial Battleship was able to handle space, this includes starships, so long as they can fly in the air as well as in outer space.

Innovation + Machinery = Guaranteed ability to devise new upgrades on the original list, as well as modified upgrades, and ensures technology found in the future will be able to be used as enhancements for the power armor unit, mecha, and Wolfen. 20 successes = 1 upgrade being developed, post Fate/Anarchy. Will not count for blood enhancement like these abilities all came from, post Fate/Anarchy.

Innovation + Nuclear = Easier to come up with upgrades for nuclear reactors, making them more effective. +5 to rolls for designing nuclear reactors and equipment involving it.

Innovation + Aerial Battleships = New upgrades are much easier to develop, for Aerial Battleships.

Machinery + Nuclear = Less Uranium is drained per attack, shot, or shield use. Irradiated weapons/ammunition do +2 Aggravated damage.

Pantheon Bonus: For unlocking the pantheon by including Fenris in the crafting, and creating this armor and ring, a unique blood tempering was unlocked. For having more than 4 blood temperings added to this, this has been further enhanced

Smithing = Erik has outdone his teacher’s finest works with the creation of this armor. With this, Erik has a basic understanding of how materials work, as well as how to smith it for best results. Not exactly in RPG mechanics, but as a general “if it’s more useful for me or not” setting. +15 to crafting rolls involving forging, as well as figuring out how to make something work with other materials. Can vaguely tell what quality the ore and resulting product is, as well.

Wolfson Mark 1 Power Armor

Armor Stats: 24A/51L/51B, 6000 HP. (Breakable, but you’re going to need a starship or nukes to really ensure Erik dies. Or possibly a run through Doom 2016, and Doom Eternal back to back...)

+8 to strength rolls, +4 to stamina.

Built with an arm cannon that can flip up to rest on the forearm of the right arm, and a Radiant Wave Surger in the left, this armor does have some pretty potent offensive measures. However, between the defensive systems, built in repair, cloaking, flight and dash systems, this is built to ensure Erik survives long enough for Mordred to finish off damn near anything that might try to kill them.

The built in cannon has currently two weapon firing modes. The Railgun gives a value of either 1 lethal damage or 3 Aggravated damage due to irradiated ammunition, with every second charged adding extra 1 damage to a maximum of 15 Lethal, or 17 Aggravated. The Plasma cannon, on the other hand, gives a standard 5 Aggravated damage, but with range issues.

More attacks will be added as time goes on, due to the modular relic system built into the cannon.

The Radiant Wave Surger has now 13 uses, rather than 3, and has life span drastically to 5 rounds. When used, converts all punch attacks to aggravated damage, and outright vaporizes almost all shots smaller than the built in projection system for the nuclear pulse.


Flight and dash systems have been built in, then enhanced, ensuring a +5 to mobility rolls when used, rather than +2.

Enhanced Environmental Systems are good, if a little unstable, due to Tamamo just pointing out to the Legion of Coal how to use lead for it since she didn’t have time to help upgrade, and it’s really not her thing.. +5 to rolls for handling ice or cold, +20 to defenses against radioactive materials.

Cloaking ensures that most beings cannot see the armor, except as an outline at best. +15 to all stealth rolls. Enhanced cloaking ups it to +30, at the cost of a constant drain on the Prototype Cosmoreactor. And the unique, one of a kind module built to help with firing during this allows ranged attacks, at the cost of needing to not use shots that make Erik’s barrel. Still hard to find them, but if any ammunition is used that glows, -10 to stealth. Or if the railgun is used, -15 to stealth. It’s hard to not be noticed when you’ve got giant crack sounds coming out of the barrel.

Kinetic Storage, and Boosting are not yet available.

[Arbitrarity]

Wooo that is a LONG one. And I have to reply to Kieran over in the Grail Works discussion thread still, augh. As per usual, writing in roughly temporal order, but I'm cross-referencing with upgrades at the bottom, since I can map some of the mechanical effects to what's going on with descriptions.

So we lead with a fair amount of upgrading planning, which is quite satisfying. I think Merlin is judging me for being lazy with Mordred upgrades. I do wonder if I could have used more Fenris actions, if I thought about having someone else use an action to give him some hands. Scylla actions were very precious though, so I don't regret those choices much.

So dropping Fenris's "must kill Norse Pantheon" trait is part of the Pantheon tempering bonus? Interesting. Effects unspecified so far as well, but that will hopefully help against whatever other bizarre effects the Great Welsh Red has later. I'm feeling like the lack of Mech blood tempering choice might also be painful, given that he explicitly calls that out, but presumably that goes on the priority list for development. Also I suspect his armor is more durable than most mechs right now.

I'm not sure if I should consider that mysterious voice related to Fafnir or Ymir. Judging from Erik's response, that was a Fafnir thing, which seems... beneficial, though the anchoring problem definitely wasn't great. I suspect Uller's blood might have had some other spooky effects at that point.

Emiya seems essentially out of the fight, then. Between Rin being out of the area, and the Grail missing, he would be relying entirely on Independent Action normally, and as a non-Servant, that might be worse. Since he's semi-stably incarnated though, he'd likely be a good assist for other smithing things later. I guess that's a good reason why we couldn't use him for crafting, since he'd be gone otherwise.

I'm actually a bit shocked we ALSO got Fiore/Godafrid here. Combination of Kieran usually handling Godafrid things, and just how much there already is in this chapter. It's definitely useful getting the 6 p.m. timer for the Grail vanishing to synchronize all of these perspectives at once. Of course, no one knows that this isn't actually in Kotomine Shirou's plans at all, but presumably it's not going to hurt to be concerned. Godafrid probably knows what's going on, but it wouldn't be good operational security to reveal that to Fiore, Roche, or Gordes.
Also, I just realized Siegfried hasn't technically been killed yet. That feels strange, since we've seen Gordes around so often, but haven't seen a hint of Siegfried. I remember Astolfo explicitly going out, but Siegfried has just been quietly... there. Chiron has considerably more presence. That... hm. Considering Erik's relation with Fafnir, that's probably not coincidental.
Darn it, apparently I STILL overtapped Scylla, since we took that surprise trip. Hopefully that doesn't waste too much Legend.

Now to look at upgrade effects.
Lots of hidden synergies with Death's Reflection. I was wondering why you were pushing that one so much with your pre-builds, but they make sense in this context. Innovation does about what I was expecting, I was mostly looking for the Machinery synergy, but the rest are welcome. Nuclear had a lot of good synergies as well, and the Railgun with irradiated rounds looks quite impressive. Nuclear helping with the Radiant Wave Surger makes me think I should have gone for Shields? since the Nuclear synergy would have helped. Ah well. I also got a bit lazy with having Tamamo do the Environmental Systems, but I couldn't think of much else I could have her do effectively. I didn't really want to push that one onto Fenris, and I figured she'd be at least motivated, which... yeah, lots of lead makes sense.

I'm hoping to see some fun in-battle learning experience from the Upgraded User Manual, since he obviously has no idea what to do with Boosting etc yet. I didn't realize how tight a timeline he was on, though. He's more likely to throw himself through a few walls trying to do that right now.

[RanmaBushiko]

Wooo that is a LONG one. And I have to reply to Kieran over in the Grail Works discussion thread still, augh. As per usual, writing in roughly temporal order, but I'm cross-referencing with upgrades at the bottom, since I can map some of the mechanical effects to what's going on with descriptions.

So we lead with a fair amount of upgrading planning, which is quite satisfying. I think Merlin is judging me for being lazy with Mordred upgrades. I do wonder if I could have used more Fenris actions, if I thought about having someone else use an action to give him some hands. Scylla actions were very precious though, so I don't regret those choices much.

So dropping Fenris's "must kill Norse Pantheon" trait is part of the Pantheon tempering bonus? Interesting. Effects unspecified so far as well, but that will hopefully help against whatever other bizarre effects the Great Welsh Red has later. I'm feeling like the lack of Mech blood tempering choice might also be painful, given that he explicitly calls that out, but presumably that goes on the priority list for development. Also I suspect his armor is more durable than most mechs right now.

I'm not sure if I should consider that mysterious voice related to Fafnir or Ymir. Judging from Erik's response, that was a Fafnir thing, which seems... beneficial, though the anchoring problem definitely wasn't great. I suspect Uller's blood might have had some other spooky effects at that point.

Emiya seems essentially out of the fight, then. Between Rin being out of the area, and the Grail missing, he would be relying entirely on Independent Action normally, and as a non-Servant, that might be worse. Since he's semi-stably incarnated though, he'd likely be a good assist for other smithing things later. I guess that's a good reason why we couldn't use him for crafting, since he'd be gone otherwise.

I'm actually a bit shocked we ALSO got Fiore/Godafrid here. Combination of Kieran usually handling Godafrid things, and just how much there already is in this chapter. It's definitely useful getting the 6 p.m. timer for the Grail vanishing to synchronize all of these perspectives at once. Of course, no one knows that this isn't actually in Kotomine Shirou's plans at all, but presumably it's not going to hurt to be concerned. Godafrid probably knows what's going on, but it wouldn't be good operational security to reveal that to Fiore, Roche, or Gordes.
Also, I just realized Siegfried hasn't technically been killed yet. That feels strange, since we've seen Gordes around so often, but haven't seen a hint of Siegfried. I remember Astolfo explicitly going out, but Siegfried has just been quietly... there. Chiron has considerably more presence. That... hm. Considering Erik's relation with Fafnir, that's probably not coincidental.
Darn it, apparently I STILL overtapped Scylla, since we took that surprise trip. Hopefully that doesn't waste too much Legend.

Now to look at upgrade effects.
Lots of hidden synergies with Death's Reflection. I was wondering why you were pushing that one so much with your pre-builds, but they make sense in this context. Innovation does about what I was expecting, I was mostly looking for the Machinery synergy, but the rest are welcome. Nuclear had a lot of good synergies as well, and the Railgun with irradiated rounds looks quite impressive. Nuclear helping with the Radiant Wave Surger makes me think I should have gone for Shields? since the Nuclear synergy would have helped. Ah well. I also got a bit lazy with having Tamamo do the Environmental Systems, but I couldn't think of much else I could have her do effectively. I didn't really want to push that one onto Fenris, and I figured she'd be at least motivated, which... yeah, lots of lead makes sense.

I'm hoping to see some fun in-battle learning experience from the Upgraded User Manual, since he obviously has no idea what to do with Boosting etc yet. I didn't realize how tight a timeline he was on, though. He's more likely to throw himself through a few walls trying to do that right now.

For the upgrades? In order... I was one step. ONE STEP from dropping Morgan le Fey into things, just to make things more interesting. She succeeded in dice rolls, and everything, for the series of coin flips. Then Kieran pointed out that Mordred would have nothing to do with anything Morgan did, or made, I agreed, and threw it out. Even though she would have been the equivalent of a book starved bibliophile after being stuck with her sister for so long, ranting about how Erik's runes were better than hers, and she could only give it a tap to Avalon's power.


I also have done jewelry making, and a bit of forging with copper and steel during college. I know what's involved with smithing stuff. Not to mention watching man at arms, michaelcthulhu, etc. for knowledge on how it works. So you actually got to see some of the concepts behind real life forging, mixed in here. And yeah, Scylla's actions were precious, considering what he achieved in the end.


Fenris tried, but couldn't get the blood bathing in, so it lessened things for him, but not nearly as much as he'd have liked. Still fated to kill the Norse Gods in a universe with them, but the restriction's now a lot more loose... for good or bad. Uller's blood would have made things quite interesting indeed, I'll admit. And yes, his armor is more durable than mechs. That doesn't mean he can't get tossed around in it and get hurt more easily by issues like being rattled around in it. The regeneration helps, though.


Fafnir had a slight grasp on Erik, as a result of Erik bathing in the guy's blood. With no way to counter things, Fafnir would've wound up eventually like a voice in Erik's head, telling him to be greedy. Easily ignored, but an irritant. This cast that little shadow of him out entirely, at the cost of less links keeping Erik around. It's why I mentioned the blood the way I did.


Emiya is now no longer a Counter Guardian. That also means he's now closer to Unlimited Blade Works Shirou. Few more years of knowledge, better magical circuits... etc.


Fiore and Godafrid, Kieran helped me write to ensure it would read well, and have them be accurate.

And yeah, no one realized it's not Shirou's plans yet. Considering the fight to come, as well? He's not likely to talk when we get to the chapter I've been eagerly waiting to write...

And yes, Siegfried has been waiting in case he had to shank Erik. *Chuckles* Or destroy some of Erik's creations, etc. Watching, biding his time, and ensuring he'll step in if necessary.


It would have taken a couple extra actions to ensure the system would aim well. You managed to put in the bare minimum for Scylla to get it done and built, though!


As for the hidden synergies? Yes. Yes it is. I had a couple extra synergies for if you went all "copying Erik's old abilities" that would have been pretty effective, but you didn't trigger them. Legendary, and Dimensional, to be precise.

At the same time, there was a couple of trap synergies, depending on variables, that would have given issues to Erik, more than capable of fucking him over long term, too.

Like Fenris' blood meaning Erik would more easily be bound long term. Or Fafnir's version of Dragon's blood making Erik more greedy, and likely to loot places to the bedrock, if he hadn't taken the Great Red's Welsh's blood? And considering Uller is right now the equivalent of Shrodinger's Cat, a situation of Shrodinger's God... it would have made things interesting, if you'd gone that route. Don't you agree?

To be perfectly fair, Fenris' blood was the safest, since Erik already has something that can counter that sort of situation. The same key that unchained Fenris, no less!



Shield? would have benefited, definitely. But the system would have had issues on occasion, too. *shrugs* You honestly built it to survive most shit and ensured it would be modular enough to upgrade, it's going to be able to survive quite a few scenarios that doesn't involve "being bombed with nukes or antimatter from orbit" and it's going to be a bitch for his enemies to find.

And yes, the railgun is a nice handy synergy with nuclear, isn't it? That's enough to one shot most minor dieties, if it hits. Of course, that's if it hits.

Upgraded User Manual will start having effect come next chapter. Of course, considering next chapter's going to be seeing the Wolfen and the Hanging Gardens finally duke it out, this should get interesting for you all...

It's been a year and a half. You finally get to see what you've all been waiting for!