Chương 32: Chapter 19.2 - Bleeding Heart [2]
I smiled at the mess my Noble Phantasm created, before suddenly having fatigue strike me and nearly causing my control over gravity to disappear.
[MP: 32879/107865]
[Stamina: 40.3%]
Which, considering that around 50.000 MP and 60% of my stamina is now gone, is understandable.
Unleashing a Noble Phantasm sure is tough work.
Perhaps that fatigue is why I didn't notice the malevolent beam that was fired at lightning speeds before it hit me square in the chest. I was too slow to react, my Brimstone Elemental was still healing and was too slow to move,
And as the beam's energy blasts deep into my body, curses flood through my very being.
For a single moment, I see the evils of the entire world. The one second that vision lasted is painfully stretched on, and I bear witness to the sins humanity has, and will commit in their lives.
Killing, stealing, raping, cursing, lying, destroying, plaguing, bleeding, torturing, everything.
Even with my passive [Magical Resistance], the damage the curse inflicts deep into my psyche is large. My body is fine, but the nerves that govern my motor and mental functions are shocked, and I'm pretty sure my brain shut down for a second or so.
The vision ends, but I'm still far too frazzled to be fully conscious. [Morningstar] deactivates, my control over gravity wanes, and I'm subjugated to the earth's gravitational pull, causing me to fall down. Numbly, I bring up my status to check on my condition, and proceed to wince as I see my HP hovering just over 20.000.
Not good.
Seeing me seemingly down for the count, the tainted heart glows, and from it comes a legion of wraiths, created from potent curses and all flying towards me with the speed of a tactical missile.
Still, not everything's bad. My nerves may still be too shocked to function optimally, but even with me downed like this, I'm not defenseless.
Namely, by summoning several hundred tons of logs and firing them at the incoming wraiths with my gravity control. The wraiths stand no chance as they're swiftly obliterated by what looks like a lumberjack's wet dream come to life.
Why do I have several hundred tons worth of wood you may ask?
Well, I chopped down several forest-themed island back in [Yuriele], so that's where they came from.
And why?
I don't know.
Either way, the technique is still very effective. The wraiths approaching me are eliminated in an instant, and the logs are now heading straight for the tainted heart. In retaliation, it fires several accursed beams at once, slowing moving them around like spotlights and burning and hitting away the logs I fired.
It's a pity I couldn't kill the heart by flattening it with wood.
Oh well.
I continue my wooden assault as I slowly recover, pushing myself to stand back up. And I succeed, albeit my stance is a bit wobbly with my still somewhat shocked nerves, but it's better than kissing the dirty ground the entire time!
[MP: 24116/107865]
I take a long, deep breath. Effective it may have been, but my wood assault still took quite a significant chunk of my remaining MP, and I'm left with just above a fifth of my maximum. My motor function isn't perfectly healed either, but it's good enough for now, and I can't afford to wait too long.
Mostly because as soon as I let go of my breath, a black blur rushes just over my shoulder and crashes a distance away. An explosion follows the impact, kicking up a thick cloud of dust, which soon settles to reveal Saber Alter, her face still as pale as I remember.
Or, to be exact, the upper half of her body. Her lower half is missing, seemingly having been grizzly torn off by what looked to be a jagged weapon.
"I see you haven't died yet."
"Of course. I can't kick the bucket just yet." I can't quite help but smile as I turn to see Gilgamesh land right beside me, her body covered by her favored golden armor, enchanted and created by magic from the age of gods. "That, and I haven't shown you what sushi is just yet." I add on, and Gilgamesh meets my smile with her own.
"That you haven't." She says, but our attention shifts as a rain of cursed bolts of energy rain down from above, and I swiftly jump back to avoid it. Gilgamesh just sort of stands there, letting the curses splash harmlessly down onto her armor. As expected from an armor from the ago of gods, not a single point of Gil's HP is lost.
Then, Saber Alter's body is enveloped by black ribbons, reminiscent of those that Sakura had in Heaven's Feel, twisting and forming into an oblate sphere. From what my Mystic Eyes can see, Saber Alter's body seems to melt into the curses the grail has supplied her with, before she emerges out of the sphere of curses, her body returned to its prime form.
"The mongrel just won't stay down." I hear Gilgamesh whisper with a click of her tongue, her annoyance over the situation large enough to bring her favored catchphrase back.
"She's connected to the grail. As long as it lives, she's going to keep coming at us." I say, using my Mystic Eyes to trace the long and convoluted connection between the tainted heart and Saber Alter.
Of course, it's not as simple as I make it sound. Saber Alter's 'anchors' are numerous. She has the tainted grail providing her with energy, she has the magical energy in the atmosphere, the leylines she's taking mana from, and even from the souls of the many Fuyuki citizens who died when catastrophe struck.
She's a self-sufficient automata.
But her connection with the grail is the strongest, so taking it down should make her unstable as well.
Hopefully.
"Then so be it." As she says that, a portal shimmers behind Gilgamesh, and out of it comes a pair of golden swords, shaped and carved by inhumane origins. She flips them around, and with ample force, she smashes the two swords' hilts into one, merging them together to create an almost bow-like construct.
"This farce has gone on for too long." A magical string forms around the bow's ends, and Gilgamesh swiftly pulls out another sword, this one thinner and much longer, and fires it at the grail faster than the normal eye can see.
Only the arrow flew at like, Mach 20 or something. The beam of curses the tainted heart fired is pierced through in a single moment, and the arrow stabs right into it, dealing a nice 100.000 or so to the grail. Of course, compared to the remaining 320 million HP it has left, 100.000 is merely a small fraction.
But that doesn't matter, for what was fired at it was not merely an arrow, but a warning shot, a sword to paint a target for an attack much larger.
At first, I simply blink, confused at what just happened, but then I remember what Gilgamesh told me a week ago as we were having a nice beef bowl as dinner, and immediately create the biggest [Empty ID] I can currently handle.
Things are about to get awesome. Well, if everything goes to plan at least.
And Saber Alter will give her everything to hinder our plan from working.
Her blade erupts with tainted purple light and she raises her sword above her head, ready to unleash her Noble Phantasm. Gilgamesh quickly fires another arrow to interrupt her, but as soon as her arrow comes close a translucent barrier appears and blocks the arrow completely in an effect eerily similar to [Avalon].
I say 'eerily', but it's actually basically the same thing. It seems, just as a big 'fuck you' to us all, the moment the grail healed her back up it gave her a passive Noble Phantasm with effects similar to that of Avalon. The Phantasm itself doesn't seem to have a name, and it's obviously not as strong as [Avalon]'s complete protection and isolation, but it's still a very powerful passive shield.
Beside me, I hear Gil click her tongue as several golden portals shimmer to life behind her back, each with the edge of a weapon slowly extending out. From within her treasury, I hear the collective sound of locking mechanisms, the sound similar to the locking that sounds when you finish notching a crossbow bolt.
The Dingirs have been set, and ready to fire.
Happiness fills me when I realize she's taken my advice, but I shelve the feeling for later.
Because history is about to be made!
High above the sky, up just above the earth, there exists six golden spears, spinning and burning with magical energy. Down on the surface, the arrow Gil shot into the heart blinks, and its coordinates are transferred up into the six swords. With its target sighted, it begins thrum with power, the magical energy spinning around it weaved into what looks to be golden chains.
The chains spin and weave together, and from the six golden swords come one giant golden spear, made entirely of magic from the age of old. Its authority is invoked, its history reimbursed, and on Gil's call, it starts a swift descend back onto the planet.
Saber Alter doesn't seem to realize this and continues burst firing her Excalibur Morgan. It seems she's trying to separate me from Gil, and then probably take me out seeing as I'm still weakened from being hit by the grail's curse.
It's kinda working actually. I've become separated from the king of heroes, and Saber Alter's invulnerability isn't helping me fix the situation either.
But that matters not.
Sharing a glance with the golden king, we both immediately take to the skies, her on her Vimana and me using [Morningstar]. Saber Alter continues to bombard us with beams as we escape, but we easily swerve around her attacks, seeing as, well, she can't fly.
Then, the sky is suddenly split when a giant golden spear falls from the heaven. Saber Alter can only watch in muted shock.
No, she couldn't have known, as there need be no words spoken, no incantations uttered, nor any signals given.
Where its king wishes for it to go, it shall go.
For it is the sentinel of the stars, [Enki].
The spear digs into the tainted heart, right where Gil's arrow struck, and hell follows soon after.
An unholy screech erupts from the grail as a myriad of a thousand forces tear open its insides. Flesh is torn, muscles are burnt, vessels are popped, and blood splattered all over the open area where the heart resides. A massive 300 million HP is decimated in an instant, leaving behind only a small 20 million HP as its lifeline.
But the show's not over just yet.
The oceans surrounding Fuyuki grow turbulent, called to action by the Noble Phantasm and enchanted to cleanse the filth from the earth. With tides taller than even skyscrapers, the ocean crawls its way onto land.
Survival is impossible.
In a last attempt, the grail directs all its energy to Saber Alter, commanding her to cut open the sieging waters.
Saber Alter takes a step forward, digging her foot into the dirt, and with her sword brimming with magical energy she calls out her Last Phantasm.
"[EXCALIBUR MORGAN]!"
From her sword, a beam is fired, bigger than any she's fired before. It's futile to attempt to deny their end, the grail knew that, so it didn't try to bother.
Instead, it commanded her to fire her Last Phantasm at me.
Shit! The beam is far too big and fast for me to completely avoid. I'm on my own, I separated too far from Gil in our attempts to avoid Saber Alter's beam bombardment. Even in the best case scenario my Mystic Eyes can see, I'd still get a part of my body hit, and my HP would drop to zero.
So, I'll fight back!
Bringing out my staff, I ready an attack of my own, channeling the lightning I'm gathering with [Holy] and [Draconic] energy. My vision begins to blur, my senses numbing as my MP and Stamina takes a massive drop.
But then,
"[EXCALIBUR]!"
From out of nowhere, a beam similar to the one approaching me is fired, this one a warm, bright gold instead of Saber Alter's ominous purple, and the two sides clash against one another. Light bursts out, exploding as a myriad of miniature stars.
However, it isn't enough, so I unleash my already charged attack at Saber Alter's attack, aiding the other one in its efforts. With our combined efforts, Saber Alter's Last Phantasm is shot off its course, instead flying up high into the sky and exploding harmlessly into the night sky.
And so, I survived.
Down below, Saber Alter silently looks up, her Noble Phantasm falling down as her hands cracked and broke away.
Strangely, I can't help but wonder if she felt any peace as she was swallowed by the tides.
The grail screeches as the waters crash against it. Its already singed flesh burn even further as the cleansing properties of the waters tear away at the many curses that created it. One by one, sin by sin, it pulls away any and all evil from the grail, cleaning the ancient artifact to return it to the object it was meant to be.
Every patch of tainted mud the water touches is cleansed, every leyline corrupted by the grail's influence is restored, and the cursed dirt caused by the grail's magic is returned to its original self.
It was a recreation of Noah's Ark.
With nothing but a whimper, the last remains of the tainted heart fades from the world. Its purpose fulfilled, the raging waters finally calm, reducing and seeping into the earth. Soon, all the water that'd been called is gone, with only the fertile wet dirt below as a remnant of the historical event.
A relieved sigh leaves from my lips, thankful the entire debacle ended before my stamina and MP hit a painful zero. Still, with the battle over and my adrenaline dying down, my focus wanes and my control over gravity fades.
"You've done well." But before I can fall, Gil arrives and catches me, gently lowering me down onto her flying ship. With my blurry vision, I can somewhat make out what seems to be a smile, and I smile back.
I let myself rest soon after.
~~~
Gilgamesh will never admit it, but she was fairly worried.
Not for herself nor the world mind you. She had all the treasures in the world within her gates, so she was hardly worried, and the world may be bruised, but it'll live.
Hanami, strange and powerful she might've become, was still very much a human. A strange and powerful human, and perhaps one on the course to immortality, but a human nonetheless. The girl had already undergone many trials, sapping her energy, and now she was facing the crux of this entire war.
When the world began its course towards death, her Noble Phantasm blurred to life, and her mind's eye rang loudly in warning. She'd still been in combat against Saber Alter, firing Noble Phantasms after Noble Phantasms at the infinitely regenerating servant. She was swiftly growing annoyed, but then a wave of power washes throughout the entire city, one she was familiar with, and her passive Noble Phantasm went silent.
She was intrigued by the possible results, so she fired a particularly volatile Phantasm from her gate and exploded the regenerating mongrel, tearing her bottom half apart and sending the other flying towards where the tainted grail is situated. She soon follows, flying on the ancient flying ship she'd kept in her treasury.
And there she saw Hanami, injured and tired and her skin slightly burnt, but she was overall fine. Nothing an overnight rest couldn't fix.
But the tainted heart of the grail looked far more interesting, with part of it burned and torn by whatever attack the girl had launched at it just moments ago. She grinned at the carnage, before bringing Vimana back into her treasury and gracefully landing next to the tired girl.
Then they soon delve into idle talk, and Gilgamesh was once again faced with how seemingly unaffected the girl was of the current situation. Even with the fatigue built from continuous battles, her quips remain, said with an amused smile. The king couldn't help but smile at the girl's cheeriness, but the torn body of the altered Saber is restored, and her annoyance peaks once more.
The damned mongrel just wouldn't die.
So she took action, called for the Noble Phantasm she'd sent to the heavens a week before and sent it crashing down. The Noble Phantasm left no trace behind, burning and cleansing every curse and sin that made up that detestable creature, but like any animal, it fought to live and sent its magical energy into Saber Alter, enough for her to perhaps fight off the approaching waves.
They'd gotten far enough from the area, and Gilgamesh had relaxed, ready to watch the waters cleanse the filth that'd stayed on this earth for far too long when her mind's eye suddenly became active again, crying out in warning.
Immediately portals shimmer to life behind her, ready to fire at the beam Saber Alter fired at a fatigued Hanami. Even fired from the Dingirs, her weapons wouldn't make it in time, perhaps lessening the damage Hanami would take against the superpowered Last Phantasm, but before such a thing could happen, another familiar voice cried out, and a beam of golden light raced through the air.
The two opposing sides clashed, fighting for dominance, and Hanami quickly added to the flare with her own attack. Hanami succeeded, diverting the Last Phantasm up into the sky instead, and finally fell to fatigue as the battle came to an end.
Now here she is, back down on the soil cleaned by the flood, with Hanami laid gently atop a bed Gilgamesh had pulled out from her treasury. The girl looks far too gentle, far too comfortable for someone who'd come so close to death so many times.
It's quite cute actually.
"So, you've finally come to understand, haven't you?" She asks, sounding more like a statement than an actual question and the one on the receiving end clearly understands as such, replying with a sigh. "That I have, Archer." Saber answers, striding towards her with power and honor, with Hanami's companion and charge right behind her.
Or is it master now?
The boy himself is weary, tired, much like the girl sleeping not far from them. His body is swiftly healing, most definitely a product of the ancient artifact living inside his soul, but his energy remains emptied.
His eyes lock onto Hanami, and he rushes forward past her, worried. She allows him to, and respectfully distances herself from the two and turns to Saber. Gilgamesh smirks. "You took quite some time going here however, Saber. Enjoying your time with your new master?"
It greatly pleases her to see the normally stoic girl suddenly stutter, her cheeks gaining a tinge of pink. "I-It has been a while after all." Saber tries to reason, but Gilgamesh doesn't care. She swiftly commits the image to her memory, intent on using it on further teasing sessions.
The king of knights is simply too fun to tease.
Her mind's eye suddenly rings and Gilgamesh turns to where her instincts are directing her to. Saber and her master seem to have noticed as well, though only Saber steps forward to face whatever is about to appear, forcing her master to back down and rest. Golden portals shimmer behind her, weapons from all ages already peeking out from her treasury.
Then, out from the ground comes a blob of malevolent curses, and immediately Gilgamesh rains down a volley of Noble Phantasms on it, uncaring whether the beast inside could even fight back. By her side, Saber doesn't remind idle either, launching a burst of wind from her sword to shred whatever that blob of curses is.
And of course, even after all that, the blob of curses remains. Saber poises her sword to strike, but Gilgamesh holds her hand up to stop her, now genuinely curious as to what might come from it. Saber, though somewhat unwilling, understands and reluctantly draws her sword back.
Slowly, the blob of curses begins to rise, growing taller and turning somewhat humanoid, before collapsing on itself and returning to just being a black blob. A tall one to be sure, but still a blob.
"So this is what you've been reduced to, Angra Mainyu." Gilgamesh sneers, the collected annoyance she'd gained bubbling back to the surface. The blob lets out an incoherent gurgle, its slimy body rippling,
Before it suddenly shoots forward, intent on forcing its curses down her throat.
It doesn't get far. The moment it'd moved, Saber had as well, slicing what remained of Angra Mainyu in half. The half that was flung off was blasted by Saber's Noble Phantasm, while the other remaining half was stabbed into the dirt by a volley of Noble Phantasms from Gilgamesh's gates.
But it doesn't panic. It simply looks up to the golden king, and with its remaining energy, it forms a twisted smile on its slimy body.
"[I wISh UpON tHe HoLY gRaiL-" It begins, a suffocating wave of prana cascading outwards from Angra Mainyu. Gilgamesh's eyes widen in realization, and she swiftly rains down a wave of swords and spears upon it, but it doesn't matter. Its words may not have been fully said, but Angra's intent is conveyed clearly through its connection to the Holy Grail, and using the abundance of magical energy gathered from the many defeated Heroic Spirits, the ancient artifact activates.
The two kings are blown away when winds powerful enough to shred reality begins to spin around the blob of curses. Shirou and the resting Hanami are blown away as well, though Shirou quickly takes hold of Hanami and jumps away. Both kings land on opposite sides, but they both see the same hurricane, composed by winds of untamed energy, its color a shifting rainbow.
"Well, isn't this an interesting situation." Gilgamesh comments lightly as she reunites with the sleeping Hanami, Saber not far from her. The king of knights says nothing, opting to instead observe what might come out of that twisting pillar of wind.
"...I should never sleep again…" A tired voice says, and they all turn around to see Hanami slowly waking up from her sleep, her eyes dead as she stares at what's happening not too far from them. Sighing, she shakes her head and activates her set of Mystic Eyes, her green eyes turning to a bright shifting blue, and she peers through the fabrics of history and reality. Her deadpan turns into a frown, which then shifts into a deep grimace.
"Yeah, that's...that's not good. Not at all."
"What might you mean, Hanami-san?" Saber asks and Hanami sighs again, running a hand through her hair as she starts her explanation.
"It's...I guess you can say Angra's using all the energy it gathered into the grail to create a new body for itself, one that can actually fully use all the curses the world implanted into him."
And that's the crux of this entire situation, is it not? As the winds slowly dies down, Gilgamesh sees the new form Angra Mainyu had granted itself using the grail's energy, and-
'...Enkidu?'
For a brief moment, the one that stands there is her eternal friend, the chains of god that she'd travelled the world with, but it soon changes. Not him. She reminds herself. It's form is continually changing, shifting from one body to another. One moment Angra has the body of the king of knights, and then the next it'd become a Sumerian goddess.
"Angra's using a collective jumble of Heroic Spirits as its body." Hanami explains as she conjures her staff in her hands. "Don't worry, the switching is only a cosmetic thing...I think."
"That does not fill me with confidence, Hanami-san." Saber says, and Hanami turns to her with her expression stiff.
"It shouldn't."
"Yoo! Hanami!" A certain cheery voice sounds, followed by the sounds of wafting wind, and the girl turns around to see a ship magically float down from the sky. It lands with a soft thud before it disappears into glitters of gold, and from it falls three familiar individuals, two tired but uninjured and the other one injured and unconscious.
"Sir Gareth!" Francis gently places the unconscious Lancer down on the ground, respectfully backing away from the worried king. Hanami quickly approaches as well, using her Mystic Eyes to survey the Lancer's current condition. Her lips purse to a thin line, before she sighs.
"Is she alright, Hanami-san?" Saber asks, and Hanami gives a slow nod.
"She's fine. Hurt and near death, but she'll live."
"Hanami." Hanami turns to Shirou, an eyebrow raised. "Why isn't Angra Mainyu moving?" He asks, pointing at the unmoving body of their revived enemy.
"Oh, he's not done assimilating yet." She says casually with a wave of her hand. "We can't attack him, but it's not able to move either, so we have time to prepare."
"Truly?" In an act of curiosity, Gilgamesh fires a Noble Phantasm out of her gate, and just as the girl had said, the Noble Phantasm bounces harmlessly from the still enemy, as if the weapon had crashed against a wall of steel. "Interesting…" The king stares at the shifting being in interest, wondering just how many different bodies the accursed human will go through before it finally settles.
"That was dangerous, Archer." Saber admonishes.
Gilgamesh simply smirks. "Life is filled with dangers, Saber. One without such would be dull."
"Hanami-chan~!"
Another cheery person appears, this one a male with pink hair and with clothes fit for his love of crossdressing. "Astolfo!" Hanami smiles at the cheerful servant, and distantly Saber begins to wonder if all Riders will be just as cheerful as the two she's come to know.
Hanami notices something strange however. "Astolfo, where's your mount?"
"Oh, my Hippogriff? I had him carry Waver and Akemi out from the area. He should come back soon!"
"Ah." Hanami nods in understanding, before taking a glance at the strange lance in his hands. "How's the [Spuit Lance]? Is it working?"
"It's great!" Astolfo immediately says, hugging the rock-like lance affectionately. "I don't know how this thing's just a Rank C+, but I love it!" The knight then looks to her, his eyes twinkling with excitement. "Can I keep it!?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, sure." At that, the Rider cheers. Strangely, the [Spuit Lance] seems to glow as well, as if just as excited to be owned by the cheery Rider. 'Weird, I don't remember it being able to do that.' Hanami thinks, and even as she uses her Mystic Eyes, no new set of words has appeared on the item's description. 'Are the items evolving on their own?'
"It really is taking its sweet time, huh…" Francis comments with a curious stare. Hanami takes another look at the changing Angra with her Mystic Eyes.
"He sure is." She deadpans.
"Ah, Tsunaka-san, Emiya-san, please have these." Since the final climactic boss is still powering up, Caster decides to step in and hand over two flasks filled with a strange blue liquid. Shirou takes it, eyeing the potion before looking at Hanami. The girl herself seems to be analyzing the potion using her Mystic Eyes, taking in the history and knowledge of the consumable before nodding at her wary companion.
At her approval, the two flip open the lids and take a drink. Shirou's face remains carefully neutral while Hanami shivers as she drinks the last few drops.
"Uf, that feels weird."
"It does, doesn't it? Kinda feels like you're somehow getting fatter by drinking it." Francis says, frowning slightly as she recalls the strange texture of the potion.
"Understandable. The contents of it aren't very light." Caster explains.
"Still pretty cool though! Just wish you can drink another one right after…"
"Hmm? I'm surprised you know that much from just a glance." Caster says, genuinely surprised. "If I may ask, how much detail can your Mystic Eyes read into?"
Hanami blinks at the sudden question, before shrugging. "I can see pretty much anything with it, but the bigger and more impactful the thing is, the more time I have to dedicate to grasp the whole thing." She says, then adds, "And taking in too much information will make my head explode too, so there's that."
"How convenient."
And as Caster says that, light begins to shine from Angra Mainyu, looking almost like it's a Pokémon just about to finish its evolution. Its form flickers, changing from the thousands of templates it'd pulled from the throne of heroes, before settling on a familiar body belonging to a hero of justice.
Hanami blinks, surprised. Unlike what form Angra Mainyu decided to take in Hollow/Ataraxia, the body it takes is one of EMIYA, just with even darker skin and black hair. His clothes, or near lack of it, remains the same however, with only a red garb cloth tied around his waist. Black tribal markings are drawn all over his body, each a curse pulled from all the world's evil.
Astolfo draws his lance.
Caster brings out her bow.
Francis calls her twin pistols into her hands.
Golden portals shimmer to life behind Gilgamesh.
Excalibur forms in Saber's hand, uncloaked and shining in its eternal glory.
The Kojiki Kiyomitsu is gripped in Shirou's hand, the trust he'd built with it becoming its strength.
Hanami calls forth her staff, lightning dancing and crackling all around her, her eyes shining a deep shifting blue.
Two shivs are brought into Angra's hands, unremarkable and unknown yet bearing within them the weight of a thousand curses. The curses etched in his body comes to life, burning with the sins of their origin and tainting the world around it. Slowly, his eyes open, a burning obsidian black, and he smiles.
CURSE THE WORLD
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