Omake: One Punch-Servant 7
The Einzbern castle shook once again as the sound of what seemed like explosions echoed somewhere, Berserker roaring in defiance while his Master hung from his shoulder with a panicked face.
Why, Illya wondered, had things gone so wrong for her? She was just an innocent girl that had done nothing wrong!
Yeah, maybe she wanted to kill her adopted brother, who she had never met in person, for stealing her father away, knowledge she had gotten all from her grandfather, an old, bitter and clearly obsessive Magus, famous for using deception and subterfuge when needed, but there was nothing wrong with that, right?
However, during the last days (Ever since her utter defeat before the monster of a Servant her brother had summoned), she had been slowly forced to accept that maybe she had been wrong about all that she knew, and that maybe her grandfather wasn't telling her the entire truth. Big surprise.
The young half-homunculus had been watching the War from a distance through Familiars, unwilling to leave the safety of her castle and forest even with her Servant back to full strength, and she and her maids had been witness to the madness that the 'fights' in Fuyuki had caused.
Well, maybe it would have been better to call them curbstomps rather than fights. As if Shirou's Servant wasn't ungodly broken by himself, he apparently had at his beck and could call an entire group of other Heroic Spirits, which despite their clearly extreme limits to maintain themselves materialized were all High-Tier Servants on their own. While Illya hadn't even been able to properly see what had happened when Archer betrayed Tohsaka, she didn't need to be a genius to know it had probably been as hardcore as Caster's defeat, the destruction of the Matou Manor or Rider's failed attempt at school. Especially when everyone returned unharmed, except for the Servant of the Bow.
The Einzbern heir had also, reluctantly, been forced to accept that there was no way Emiya Shirou could be the person her grandfather had told him he was.
The red-haired boy was naive like no one that should have been raised by the legendary 'Magus Killer' should, was unable to harm a fly for no reason, had clearly no experience with conflict before the Grail War started, didn't doubt to put himself in danger to help others and yet was able to give his enemies a second chance despite these having been trying to kill him, as what happened with Caster and her Master showed.
Perhaps if she had been less traumatized by how she had seen Savior punch Heracles into oblivion, she would have been a bit more wary and skeptical about the whole thing, but between that and knowing from the exasperation in Tohsaka's face every time the boy did something that seemed so out of place with a Magus, never mind how he had actively gone out to try and repel every single one of those corrupted abominations that came from the Greater Grail (Which seemed to be corrupted by something very sinister, given the evidence, which jeopardized the whole ritual), not only those that threatened him or his allies, caring more for the protection of the citizens than for the secrecy of Magecraft.
It was something extremely stupid…and yet also admirable, in a foolish way.
She had been seriously considering since that morning to just go to the city and announce to them that she surrendered when she had felt the first explosions shaking her castle, and just in that moment become aware that a Servant was right in her inner garden.
It was impossible. Never mind the fact that it had somehow slipped past the Bounded Fields undetected, there was no Servant remaining that could do anything in the 'War'. Caster was just content with continuing her existence on her now broken 'fortress' and aiding Shirou in trying to discover a way to stop the things that spilled from the Grail the other day in case more came, while Rider was on his side protecting the Matou heir. Not to mention, the amount of power she was feeling…
Her blood ran cold when, almost arriving at the disturbance, she remembered that her maids had been stationed right there.
"LIZ, SELLA!" shouted Illya as Berserker literally took down a wall to enter directly towards the castle's inner garden.
The scene that greeted her was a disconcerting pandemonium.
Garnering the most attention were the golden missiles that flew everywhere…no, that wasn't right. They were weapons, all kinds of them, from swords to axes to spears and more things she couldn't even name, coming from golden ripples (Portals?) that opened in midair. And every single one of them, to her utter horror and shock, were Noble Phantasms, legendary weapons turned crystalized legends, all of them shooting like glorified projectiles and destroying the entire area.
Off to one side, the half-homunculus saw her two maids, Sella and Leysritt, a wave of relief flooding her at seeing they were alive. Though the former's halberd was broken in pieces near her and the latter was grabbing onto her as they stared in wonder and fear at what was protecting them. The Einzbern heir did the same and stared in shock at the only thing preventing her loyal homunculus (And the closest thing she had ever had to a caring family since her parents, now that she thought about it) from dying.
Floating in the air while her long black hair waved wildly behind her, a girl that seemed no older than what Illya looked like seemed to be holding back the wrath of the heavens, several gashes filling the black dress she wore even as her eyes and body shone with an equally dark energy.
Dozens of Noble Phantasms flew directly at her every second, and she 'sent them back' just as fast, the legendary weapons being surrounded by her eerie black aura and turning around as if she was controlling them. Sadly, the sheer amount of the attack meant that she was only able to use the blades she got a hold of to try and disrupt others that came her way, unable to attack the one who was doing this.
Eyes sweeping away from that, the half-homunculus caught sight of a girl clad in form-fitting blue and red clothes, with heavy-looking shoulder-armor and boots, wielding a spear that seemed to be more than twice her height in length. She also had some strange triangle-shaped shades, which were currently cracked, and was sporting several wounds on her body.
Despite this, the Pseudo-Servant still moved with unnatural agility, her spear flowing around her at unreal speeds as it deflected the Noble Phantasms that came her way, less numerous than those attacking the little girl but still deadly accurate. Her face seemed set on a mask of grim determination.
And standing on the middle of it all, with his arms crossed over his chest, stood a man of golden hair and ruby eyes, wearing casual clothes and a confident smile. His aura radiated POWER and it was clear that this was the one causing this impossible phenomenon…an eight Servant, one that possessed this seemingly unlimited amount of Noble Phantasms.
His red gaze settled over the frozen form of Illya, who suddenly felt a shiver of terror running down her back as she felt his eyes on her.
It was the feeling of a giant looking towards an ant that it found particularly interesting.
"Oh, so the vessel and her mad dog have arrived." the golden Servant's words made everyone's attention to shift towards the Master and Servant pair for a moment. "Wait there until I deal with these annoyances."
"Be-Berserker, destroy him!" screamed the scared girl even as Heracles roared and charged forward.
"No, Illya-sama! Run away!" came Sella voice as she tried to move, but her sister stopped her in time for a wicked-looking spear to not impale her. "Ah…! You, Night Mistress, right?! Forget about us!"
"Please…save Illya." added Leysritt while also looking at the Pseudo-Servant, who just gritted her teeth as she expanded her strange powers and pushed more and more weapons back.
"No…! I won't abandon…you…! I promised myself that I wouldn't…leave someone alone again…!" growled the one called Night Mistress before a strange axe shot through her 'barricade' and cut a deep gash on her shoulder. "Gah!"
"Yui-chan!" shouted the other Pseudo-Servant, who had been halfway to try and back-up Berserker before stopping at the scream, in time to watch as another wave of Noble Phantasms turned the Mad Giant into minced meat and destroyed the ground around them in an explosion of debris.
"How…?! My powers…these weapons…I can't reach farther…!"
"Futile, little pest. While your powers are impressive in scale, I have more than enough treasures that can withstand, limit, overwhelm or outright ignore those abilities of the mind in my possession." revealed the golden-haired man with just a hint of boredom, shocking the girl and the two homunculus behind her, even as more strange and glorious weapons appeared from the golden ripples and took aim at them, while Berserker roared as he came back to life. "I just wanted to see how long it would take for you to give up, but I have grown bored of this. Your King commands you to die."
"Like Hell!" roared the spear-using girl before this shone with ethereal power and she jumped backward as Heracles once again took the brunt of the raining weapons, even as she thrust her weapon to the side.
The shining aura extended and pierced through Reality itself, exploding just behind the calm Servant…even as an enormous wall of shields, of all sizes and kinds, came from another golden portal and stopped it short, the spinning power of Amenonuhoko's massive drill-aura being unable to penetrate through more than the smaller ones, barely cracking the ones behind those.
"That ability of yours to get your lance to ignore the Laws of Gaia is quite the trick, but it became nothing more than a futile distraction when you failed to harm me the first time." informed the King while giving her amused look, which she returned with rage from behind her cracked sunglasses. "You're nothing but a mongrel compared to me, 'Sky Breaker'."
"Shut up!" retorted the Pseudo-Servant before retracting her spear and putting a hand near the tip, the energy around it warping. "I won't allow you to do as you please! We came to save them, and we will not allow a monster like you to harm them!"
"You won't allow me? Heh…that's almost funny…" softly commented the man before idly letting a torrent of Noble Phantasms to impale Berserker's just resurrected form, the Mad Servant barely managing to get closer to him a dozen meters before dying again. "And shows how FOOLISH YOU ARE! Hear me, mongrels!" shouted the golden-haired man to the heavens as the weapons coming down grew in number, paralyzing everyone. "YOU'RE NOTHING COMPARED TO THE KING OF…!"
"JUSTICE CRASH!" echoed through the air before a bicycle somehow jumped over the castle's walls, the two people riding it jumping down as it fell down and, without ceremony, crashed against the Servant's face.
Everything fell silent and the Noble Phantasms stopped raining while the homunculus tried to make sense of the absurdity that had just taken place, even as the two riders, a teenage Japanese girl in what seemed like a very cheap 'costume' (Wielding a shinai) and Emiya Shirou (Ignis Heart in hand), landed beside the frozen Illya. Berserker even had time to resurrect again, but it seemed that the small part of the Servant that still retained a bit of sanity was just too shocked to react to this.
"Illya, are you okay?!" asked the young Master before looking back at the scene of the fight. "We came to save you!"
Gilgamesh blinked, as if trying to decide if the event had really happened or not, and allowed himself to feel no surprise when the bicycle suddenly moved by itself and quickly rode back to her master's side, ringing its bell all the while.
'Hah! Right on your face, bastard!' echoed a voice that everyone was able to hear, and that somehow seemed to come from the bicycle. 'You weren't expecting that, uh?!'
"Justice, now is not the time." dryly commented the shinai-wielding girl before turning around. "Shirou-san, get them out of here! We will keep this guy busy!"
"Sugu-mama, here they go!" screamed Night Mistress before throwing the surprised Sella and Leysritt their way, the homunculus barely having time to blink (Or scream in the former's case), before landing haphazardly at their mistress' side.
That seemed to be enough to snap the golden-haired man out of his shock, cold anger appearing on his face as more and more and EVEN MORE portals opened behind and around him, almost seeming to want to turn the sky golden as everyone couldn't help but gasp at the sight, Shirou's mind struggling to keep up as he gazed and recorded more Noble Phantasms he could have ever imagined existed, each one more powerful than the last.
"You DARE to mock the King, mongrel?! PERISH!" screamed Gilgamesh as the flood of pure destruction came down.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
Any thought Shirou had had about retorting to the bicycle-rider's order forgotten, he grabbed Illya on his arms and ran, the young girl barely having time to cry out for her Servant as this charged towards his demise with more power than ever, plowing through the rain of destruction and intent on destroying the enraged King. Her two maids hurried after her without hesitation.
Night Mistress screamed to the heavens and the entire upper part of the Einzbern Castle broke down at her will, debris shooting forward like a tsunami made of meteors to combat the overwhelming force.
With a shout of 'Super Galactic Breaker!', the one called Sky Breaker seemed to turn into a humanoid mass of stars as her spear broke Reality and shot forward, annihilating Space-Time as it extended seemingly to infinity, going so far as to push her back.
Without a word, the shinai-wielding girl grabbed her bicycle and this one 'broke down', Reality rewriting itself around her as it flew around her body and her blade changed, even as she swung forward.
The group of 'normal people' (Or at least once Magus, 2 homunculus and a half-one) had made it to the end of a hallway before he turned around and shouted 'Trace On!', materializing several shields just behind them.
A massive 'explosion' engulfed everything, seeming to shake the very foundations of the world.
Illya didn't have the luxury of falling unconscious, because the world had barely stopped spinning (Though still hurting like hell) when she found herself on her adopted brother's arms again, the boy having several cuts and other minor wounds all over himself as he stood up from where they had crashed near the edge of the forest surrounding her once great castle, now little more than a pile of debris. The Einzbern heir saw with shock that a moaning Sella, with some bones clearly broken, was being carried by a quickly standing and almost unharmed Leysritt (Being an Einzbern battle-homunculus had its advantages), before she wondered how the hell they hadn't all died.
The albino's eyes settled for a moment over the vanishing shields with the 'Immortal Object' screens on them before Shirou was moving again, gasping from the clear effort and sweating, but not slowing down even as the stronger of her maids quickly kept the pace with them, carrying her half-conscious sister.
She took a moment to realize she was 'missing something' before her head turned towards the ruins of her castle, a heavy sadness on her heart as they were hidden from view by the trees.
"Berserker…" whispered Illya while feeling tears run down her eyes.
Back on the destroyed and collapsed area that had once been the inner garden of probably the most powerful magical fortress in Fuyuki's nearby area…everything was eerily silent, even as what remained of the supernatural combatants stood.
There was nothing left to shown Night Mistress had been there, only rubble and an unholy amount of weapons that ignored the powers of the mind filling the area she had been in.
Sky Breaker looked down towards her body, that seemed to be made out of a ripped-off piece of the night sky, impaled several times by blades and lances that could cut that which couldn't be cut. Half of her spear was missing, split by a similar weapon. She managed to glare towards the golden figure on the center of the destruction one last time before her body collapsed into Prana, vanishing.
Berserker's broken body stood blackened and destroyed, filled to the brink with legendary weapons, his massive fist just an inch from a wall of shining shields that reflected untold power. The bastard of Zeus turned to dust an instant later, no more lives left to spend, but at least having allowed his Master to escape the destruction.
The shields retreating back into the extra-dimensional vault known as the Gate of Babylon revealed Gilgamesh's imposing form, though the Servant was now clad in form-fitting golden armor that seemed to shine with an inner light, his hair now all spiky and standing up, even as he silently stared towards the last other living being in the area.
"…you survived." idly declared the golden King as he looked at the transformed Pseudo-Servant.
Gone was the girl with the silly costume and the bicycle, for now she stood clad in ethereal and slightly revealing green and white armor, her hair now much longer and a blonde similar in shade to the sun, falling down her back in a ponytail held up by what seemed like a strange gear-like decoration. In fact, runes similar in design to it filled her entire armor, even as her now green eyes stared at Gilgamesh without emotion, only for them to turn towards the places where Berserker and her two companions had been before.
On her back, the Servant saw how there were some kind of ghostly and shining 'wings', which seemed to be made of some strange blur of pale and dark colors mixed into complex designs that, somehow, had the shape of eternally-spinning wheels. The bamboo sword she wielded before was now a strange and unnatural-looking katana with an unknown script written on its blade, the wheel-like decorations on its blade humming in silent rage.
"…what are you?" simply whispered the girl while staring forward at the monster before her. No being as petty and uncaring as him should be allowed to have that much power, and yet there he stood, probably the second most dangerous thing she had ever seen in her existence.
Given that the most dangerous was something that could wipe out the universe, that was saying a lot.
"I'm Gilgamesh of Uruk, King of Heroes. The owner of all that exists in this world." he proclaimed with a voice filled with power and authority, his eyes trailing over the girl's blade and wings. "You wield a Concept. How interesting. And that on your back…those aren't wings, but Concepts too, right? That's how you were able to survive." tilting his head, Gilgamesh idly let the sky behind him once again fill with portals, four times more than there had been before, letting the girl know that he had not been really trying to destroy them at all. "Impressive. More than your friend with the lance, who couldn't do much besides destroying many of my treasures despite turning her own body into another Concept. Be grateful I'm going to end you quickly, girl, for she was already punished for that insult. Any last words?"
Staring forward, the Pseudo-Servant took a deep breath and closed her eyes, slowly raising [Justice] as she gripped it with both hands.
Her words suddenly came echoed by a second voice.
"Yes. We're Justice's Wings…"
When her eyes opened, one of them had turned metallic silver in color, and Gilgamesh saw with fascination how she stabbed her blade on the ground and untold power exploded in the form of a strange circle around her feet.
It was divided in nine, and each section seemed to have the symbol of a different weapon carved on it.
"…and we won't fall without showing you what [Justice] is!"
With that screaming declaration, the girl swung her katana in a circular motion, passing the blade over each and every single one of the carvings on the ground before the Conceptual Weapon shone in 10 different colors.
The Gate of Babylon was just starting to fire its deadly projectiles when the 'wheels' on the girl's 'wings' spun at speeds that defied logic.
The power of [Time] and [Space] synchronized and the Laws of Reality were rewritten, Gaia 'blinking' as suddenly the Pseudo-Servant was 'flying' down just before the Golden King and swinging [Justice] down, as if the World said she had always been there.
Red eyes widened beyond belief as shields materialized haphazardly from within his vault, an especially big one with a lion on it made of divine metal appearing just for the King to hold as he raised his left arm.
Chains made to bind down the Gods themselves shot from within the Gate, wrapping themselves around the girl's wings and body.
Her blade was still swung down, cutting through them.
A scream echoed as divine blood stained the world.
In the middle of the forest, Emiya Shirou panted as he forced himself to continue running, the Reinforcement he had been using on his legs having long-since vanished. He definitively shouldn't have tried to Trace so many copies of Heathcliff's shield at the same time, as he was feeling like he could fall down dead any second. Even so, he had managed to save them all, and if the price was just him feeling like crap then he would deal with it when…
"Onii…Shirou, what happened back there?! What was that Servant?!" demanded Illya in a half-desperate tone when she saw how pale he was as he slowed down, Leysritt stopping at their side. "And why isn't Savior with you?!"
"He's…back in the city. Something…something happened, those black things came in hordes and that dammed and obviously evil fake priest disappeared…That's when Rin realized you were probably the only one not in the city that had anything to do with the Grail War and I had a bad feeling, so I came while the rest stayed to protect the city…Suguha-san appeared and told me Savior sent him when I was halfway here." standing again and looking at her and her maids with worry, the young Magus managed to get out a shaky smile. "Don't worry, though. Once we're back, we will be…"
"It's over, mongrels."
The four of them froze, Leysritt quickly letting go of Sella and standing in front of Shirou and her mistress protectively, despite surely knowing at this point how futile it would be. On the boy's arms, Illya started to shake, looking at the golden figure with untold fear.
The young Emiya, for his part, stared towards the now golden-clad form of the Servant, staring at them with a blank face, no longer smiling or gloating, his lips drawn in a thin line.
Blood silently spilled to the floor from where his left arm had been, his nigh-invincible divine armor having been cut a little bellow his shoulder. A clearly broken chain was wrapped around the wound like a dying snake, as if trying to stop the crimson liquid from falling down.
Slowly, Shirou started to lower Illya before the light of twilight turned pure golden as hundreds upon hundreds of portals appeared behind the King of Heroes, making them all freeze.
The red-haired boy felt his body shake and his mind start to overflow when he saw the things coming out of those portals.
Blades that could cut through the immaterial. Spears that defied the logic of Reality. Axes that could strike down any enemy. Daggers that would drink the blood of even the strongest beast.
Divine weapons wielded by Gods of old, glorious instruments of powers used in long-lost ages. A sword big enough to crush mountains, a trident that could split the seas at will, a hammer that had the power of a star on its core, a spear that could raise islands from nothingness…
Weapons that defied imagination, too many to count. All of them unable to access their true power, turned into glorified missiles.
…but even used like that they would be more than enough to wipe out the entire forest and even half the city if they hit.
"Don't even try, Faker. I can see in your eyes what you're about to do, and you know its futile." proclaimed Gilgamesh with an emotionless voice, making the Magus twitch. "Do not think you can harm me like she just did. You're not anywhere near her level. I shall remember the name Justice's Wings when I see this worthless world burning and rule over those worthy of surviving."
Despite this, Shirou took a step forward. He knew it was futile, in all senses. Even if he had enough Prana left to trace any of the weapons before him, just the clash between two copies would create a backlash big enough to cripple him and the Einzberns, maybe even outright killing them…but he still had to try.
After all, being a Hero wasn't about winning or losing…
"Trace…!"
The world seemed to fall silent. Gilgamesh stiffened, then looked to the side for a moment before reaching with his remaining hand into another portal, even as MORE and MORE portals opened from his Gate of Babylon, more weapons as outrageous as the last ones emerging and taking aim.
With his hand having been just raised to try and protect even if at least the girl on his arms, the young Magus stared frozen at the black-clad figure that had appeared in front of them, standing there like a statue as his white cape flapped in the wind.
"Savior…" came from Shirou's mouth as he stared at his Servant's back, breaking the unnatural silence that had suddenly filled the forest.
He didn't miss the way in which his fists were tightly closed. Suddenly, he remembered that his Noble Phantasm allowed him a semi-direct ability to know what happened with his allies…his friends…his family.
"Gilgamesh…" spoke the Caped Hero with a voice filled with untold anger.
"You have finally come…" stated the King of Heroes with a very different smile from those of before, almost…joyous, in a way. "Let us see who really is 'The Strongest', Savior."
Suddenly, the son of Emiya Kiritsugu felt his head start to ache and his mind to convulse upon itself as the Eighth Servant brought something out from his vault.
The Sword that was not a Sword started to spin…