“Who do you think you are!? This isn’t one of Goetia’s Grails; it’s a relic that rightfully belongs to the people of this time! And you one-sidedly decided you’re taking it to Chaldea? ‘For safety’, right!? Because Chaldea’s great champion of righteousness knows better than anybody else, right!? Well fuck that shit! And fuck you, too! So-called ‘Master’, you’re just like everybody else, another greedy piece of shit.”
Watching the rich vista of the Milky Way painting the night sky with its radiance, Assassin winced as she remembered her outburst the night before reaching Rome.
“Damn, I really blew a gasket there.”
She did not regret it; she still disagreed with Chaldea’s one-sided decision to claim custody of the Cornucopia. She was just bothered by how much it bothered her. It clearly had something to do with whoever the hell she was, but she could not help but think there was more to it.
She sighed. What was done, was done. Better to focus on more immediate concerns.
“You know, you can just come out already. It’s really creepy, having you peeping on me the whole damn time.”
A crimson and black demon leapt off a nearby tree, walking calmly towards the feeble light of Assassin’s ghost lantern.
“Have you considered I may want to creep you out?” proposed the Assassin-class Chiyou.
“Then you need better hobbies.”
“Hmph, you developed a bit of a sass
in that form. Can’t you at least pretend you’re afraid?”
Assassin shrugged.
“If you wanted to kill me I would already be dead,” she pointed out. “Also, you need me to find the Cornucopia.”
“I changed my mind. You are not cute at all. Oh well.” The mighty Chiyou slumped unceremoniously on the grass next to the slimmer girl. “Do your best coming up with a way to beat me before we reach it.”
“So you’re just strolling along.”
“Yup. It’s gonna be awesome!” A fully-toothed grin from the devilish Chinese.
Assassin grunted when a clawed hand slapped her shoulder with careless strength.
“Speak for yourself, Chiyou.”
“I am!”
**************************************************
“
Sensei, sensei! I have a question!”
The effusive raising of her hand like a good student did not match her deranged grin in the slightest.
“What the hell happened to the cool and scary villain I met in the Alps? You’re having way too much fun. It’s annoying as fuck.”
“I know, right?”
Realizing just how much her discomfort pleased Chiyou, Assassin rubbed her temples while taking deep breaths.
“God, you are officially the worst.”
“Worse than the boy from Chaldea?”
“…yes.”
“Don’t believe you~”
“Fuck, you’re a pain in the ass.”
They walked in silence for the good part of one minute.
“So? Didn’t you have a question?”
“Ahaha, you’re so nice~”
“I’ll fucking shoot you.”
Chiyou laughed wholeheartedly, seemingly delighted by taking the role of the idiot in their little sketch.
“Yes, yes, senseeeeei~ Why are we in Campania?”
“It’s called Magna Graecia, ignoramus. And we’re obviously here because the Cornucopia is in this area.”
Turning her gaze away from Chiyou’s encouraging grin, Assassin began her lecture while guiding the other Servant across the dry Phlegraean Fields. The white walls and columns and the red rooftops of beautiful Neapolis poked out of the horizon to the southeast.
“The Cornucopia, the horn of plenty, is a mythological symbol of abundance and prosperity, claimed to possess the divine power to provide unending nourishment. It is therefore strongly associated with gods of harvest and fortune. At this time in history, the divinity more closely associated with the Cornucopia would be…Annona, I guess.”
“Right!?” Chiyou all but exploded. “The personification of Rome’s grain supply. Nero was really into her, wasn’t she?”
Assassin nodded.
“The grain supply was deified as Annona Augusti, representing the emperor’s power to provide for his people. She was not a mythological figure like Ceres, just an element of the imperial cult, like Abundantia.”
“Yeah! Well I looked for the Cornucopia in all their temples and shrines across the city, and nothing! I even went through the mansions of those who gave the greatest offerings. It’s just not in the city! So frustrating.”
“Yes, I guessed as much. If it were in the city, you wouldn’t need my help. So, we could look at other deities: there’s Jupiter, Hercules, or Fortuna, for example. But my gut feeling brought me here, and I trust my gut feeling.”
“So do I. But where’s here, anyway?”
“Well, when it comes to the Cornucopia, there is a god that was connected to it way before Annona. The horn represented the wealth of the earth, and that was not limited to plentiful harvests. Watch out for sulfur.”
“Wha—uwagh!”
A cloud of noxious gas erupted out of a small fissure on the ground, engulfing Chiyou and filling her lungs with poison. She hurried out of the cloud choking and coughing while glaring at Assassin with tear-filled eyes.
“The hell!? You did that on purpose!”
“I warned you,” replied the small horned girl, never interrupted her determined march uphill.
“You definitely did that on purpose!”
“Well, now I have a grasp on your resistance to poisons. See? You’re not the only one learning new things today.”
“You’re so incredibly—cough!—not cute!”
Assassin rolled her eyes, reminding herself that the only reason Chiyou was acting like this was because she did not see her as a threat. She was running out of time to figure out how to prove her wrong.
“Look,” she said, pointing towards their destination. Chiyou had not even realized they had reached the top of that slope. A glance at the scenery in front of them made everything clear in her head.
“This is Lake Avernus.”
“The Greeks feared the name Hades, so they preferred the name
Plouton, the ‘giver of wealth’. Not merely the lord of the underworld; he is the god of the land, of the rich soils that allow for plentiful harvest, and of the mineral wealth hidden underneath. This did not change upon becoming the Roman Dis Pater. Pluto is the original bearer of the Cornucopia.”
Assassin began the rough descent towards the crater lake.
“The Cumaean Sybil resides nearby. It was she that showed Aeneas to the underworld’s entrance. I guess we should pay a visit to Pluto’s realm as well.”
“Neat,” Chiyou said, visibly excited at the prospect of soon finding the relic. “But the Age of Gods already ended around these parts. It’s not like the underworld is a physical realm anymore.”
“It was a metaphor, idiot. My guess is that there’s a hidden underground shrine to Dis Pater somewhere around here. Let’s start looking around Jupiter’s temple.”
“Aye aye, cap’n!”
“Seriously, I think I liked the scary Chiyou better.”
**************************************************
“You are so frigging good at this.”
Chiyou’s idle comment struck a chord within. She was completely right: Assassin was in her element. Exploring the labyrinthine underground, deducing the right way to go, disarming traps, avoiding unnecessary threats and smiting the scattered groups of undead roaming the dark depths—Chiyou was simply following along the smaller girl while Assassin thoroughly dismantled the challenges standing between them and the Cornucopia.
“This is so fun! It’s like we’re exploring a dungeon!”
“What do you mean, ‘like’? We
are exploring a dungeon,” Assassin retorted scathingly. “Seriously, whose was the bright idea to turn this place into a goddamn labyrinth? Couldn’t they just make a tunnel and a shrine at the end?”
“Well, it’s more fun this way.”
“We’re not supposed to have fun!”
“You’re lame, little devil. More importantly, is that a ghost lantern?”
She was pointing at the illuminating tool in Assassin’s left hand.
“Ah, um, yes, I guess?” She shrugged. “It was in my bag o’treasure, but I don’t remember…anyway, no idea.”
Chiyou could only chuckle at the smaller Assassin’s easy dismissal.
“Well, don’t let the boy from Chaldea know you have one of those. He’ll want to get his greedy mat-hoarding hands on it.”
The idea made Assassin growl and grind her teeth.
The narrow passage eventually gave way to a vast chamber; a crypt clearly already ancient by this point in time. Hollows in the walls revealed the broken remnants of dozens of people laid to rest in these depths.
“No, no, this is just strange,” pondered Assassin out loud, more to herself than to share her thoughts with Chiyou. “No, unless, this is where they laid to rest those who died building this whole labyrinth thing? And those bones lying on the floor—there’s no wind reaching this far, nothing that could disturb the bodies in their alcoves, so that cannot be natural—aaand now they’re assembling together. Fucking great.”
“Yeah whatever. More importantly, check this out! A chest!”
“Oh you have got to be shitting me—” The last word got caught in her throat when she glanced to the side and, indeed, Chiyou was reaching into one of the alcoves for an ancient-looking chest. “Wait, stop! What are you—”
“Aw come on, you’re not so weak you can’t deal with a bunch of skeletons on your own. Now, if I…just…stretch…a bit…further…! Aha!”
Click.
Dust trickled down the ceiling as the whole place began to shake.
“Ah.”
“Ah, she says…”
“So this is why the rogue always has to check for traps first! Te-heh~”
“An idiooooot! The singularity’s final boss is an idioooooot!”
The two Servants showed diametrically different reactions to the crypt’s floor collapsing beneath their feet.
“Ahahahaha, this is really fun!”
“You suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!”
**************************************************
“Oooh, we’re getting closer! I can feel it!”
“We would already be there if you didn’t trigger every goddamned trap in this place!”
“My favorite was the big rolling boulder. A true classic.”
“I still don’t get why we had to run from it. Couldn’t you just stop it or something?”
“Do I look like Berserker or Saber to you? My Strength is only C-rank.”
“Nah, I’m pretty sure C-rank is enough…”
“Besides, what if it exploded on touch or something? I mean, those traps were the real deal.”
Chiyou was right. Things like arrow traps and wall scythes, that normally would not even scratch the flesh of Servants, had been imbued with things like deadly magic-draining poisons and delayed magical explosions. Which meant…
“Those traps were made recently.”
“Umu. Well, more like, they were normal traps and she improved them to become anti-Servant.”
“She?”
“Yeah. No way around it, it’s got to be Archer.”
They arrived at the top level of a cavern shaped like an amphitheater. Clearly carved with intelligent design, its rows of columns extended radially towards a stone altar. There stood the Cornucopia: a two-feet-long horn, seemingly glowing with a golden hue. However, a Servant indeed stood in front of that altar, one hand on her hip and the other holding a crossbow about as large as the Cornucopia itself.
“Yo!” saluted the Assassin Chiyou. “Wassup, Archer sis.” She then leaned to whisper in Assassin’s left ear. “She’s a shut-in, so let me do the talking here.”
“Oh, you actually intend to talk?”
“Agh, you know what I mean, little devil.”
Sad thing was, she did have an idea what Chiyou meant.
“At least pretend to have a modicum of respect and keep your distance, Assassin.”
Chiyou stopped her way downstairs, raising her hands in the standard gesture of innocence.
“Fine, fine. But really, I should have guessed you’d be here. This is your kind of place, after all. But, if you’re guarding the Cornucopia, then we’ve got a problem.”
“Not really,” retorted the stern-looking Archer. “I acknowledge that I am outmatched.”
“Eh? Really?” Chiyou Assassin seemed honestly surprised. Archer had reached towards the altar, taking a hold of the Cornucopia with her free hand. Holding it like a hunter would the slain hare, she presented it to the two horned Assassins.
“In all honesty, I lack the interest in protecting this relic. There was merely no preferable alternative. Here, catch.”
Half a second later, the wish-granting device was in Assassin’s hands. Two hundred milliseconds after that, the Assassin-class Chiyou was smashed against the wall by one of Archer’s magical crossbow bolts, disappearing in a cloud of dust and debris. A second, and then a third impact quickly followed, each more ear-shatteringly loud and mighty than the last.
“Run, child! I’ll keep her here as long as I can!” The woman’s stern bearing had disappeared. Only simple desperation remained, tempered in the decisiveness of one ready to give her absolute everything.
“Eh?” Assassin needed a moment to catch her bearings, but the emanations of killing intent and
something else pouring out of the dust cloud quickly put her thoughts in order.
Her eyes met Archer’s for a fraction of a moment.
“Aww, crap!”
She ran. Things like valor or righteousness, or the fact that she was leaving Archer to what would definitely end in her death, completely eluded her mind.
The path from the Cornucopia’s shrine to the great outdoors was perfectly outlined in her mind; there might as well never have been a labyrinth in between. Yet, no matter how fast and far she ran, the distant echoes of furious battle still reached her ears. She heard the scream of her former traveling “companion”—an echo of fury and loathing that made her knees freeze and almost send her to the cold stone floor. But she nonetheless ran, and while she ran her brain juggled the myriad thoughts haphazardly scattered inside. In the end, however, they could be reduced to a single question: what to do with the Cornucopia?
She had never intended to use it to learn her original identity. Rather, she thought it was a pointless waste of the powerful artifact’s power.
Protect it from Chiyou—that much was clear. And she would give it her all, even if she already knew it was hopeless. That was what she saw in Archer’s eyes: that this was the (right? Brave? Heroic?) proper thing to do.
Was this what her original self would do?
Does it matter?
Assassin did not notice the fire arrows soaring over her head, mere moments after she made it back outdoors. She was very startled when they exploded behind her, sealing her exit hole under a massive landslide. She was too addled to think about the Archer-class Servant she had met near Rome, or why he was there, apparently helping her.
She ran north. Mostly because any other direction would lead to the sea. The image of the Master from Chaldea popped up in her mind for a moment, but she dispelled in in disgust. The Cornucopia did not belong to him—rather,
she just did not want him to have it.
She just ran, in the only direction it made sense to run. She ran faster when she felt the prickling presence of Chiyou’s dark intent in some indeterminate direction behind her. And she ran as fast as her thin legs could afford when the waters of Lake Avernus surged explosively upwards, like a placenta forcefully broken from within, releasing a hideous mass of impossibly incandescent darkness, writhing chaos that refused to become matter, and a howl of rage so hideous, the scant flora on the lake’s shore instantly shriveled and scattered into worthless dust.
“Ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit!”
Indeed, there was only one thing to do, and Assassin did it like a champ.
She ran, like a bat out of hell.
Originally Posted by EonADS
"Tribal Chieftain Warrior" illustration
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