Atop the Acropolis, Only a Moment Ago
Dionysus, that is Caster, Bromios, stood in front of the great golden pillar of light, the tabernacle from which the Ichor Chalice would emerge. Each of his hands danced in the air as a waltz of purple light that traced runes and circles into empty space, all the while his many, bovine tails swayed to and fro with anticipation. His focus was wholly narrowed in front of him, though on what it couldn't be said.
His chin tilted towards the back of the Parthenon, behind him.
"Radiya, dearest, come here please."
A shadow emerged from the darkness, one which hadn't seemed to be there a moment before. It was a woman draped in a black cloak which itself had been torn to ribbons such that her torso was barely obscured, the curves of her chest and navel exposed, though it was clear the outfit once hid her whole body. Between this, her leggings, and her long hair which fell over her front, she was just barely covered to decency. Her hair was oily and unkempt, her eyes were both violet and vacant, and her lips were contorted into an inhuman smile, looking especially unnatural on a face that had hardly ever smiled at all before her transformation.
Her voice was raspy and quiet, as if she couldn't be bothered to put any effort into speaking.
"Yes, Lord Bromios?"
He addressed her without diverting his attention, "I need you to use a Command Spell. Lord Archer is in need of assistance."
"As you wish."
She raised her right arm, causing the ribbons that once was her burqa to gather around her chest. The violet tattoos, wrapped like a bracelet around her wrist, shone with light from within, seeming to slither like a serpent in its place.
"Archer. Receive the Divinity you lost. Give it as an offering to Lord Bromios."
The purple serpent shuddered and settled on her wrist.
...
Across the city, in an impossible forest underground, a woman's corpse lied slumped against the wall. Her head dangled from a broken neck, such that her forced smile was nearly upside-down. On her hand there was a symbol resembling a lyre broken in two. The crack down the middle of the broken tattoo glowed with a light, violet at first and then red, which seemed to rise like an aurora from her skin. A moment later and it was gone.
...
Lancer opened his eyes from his prayer and searched with all his senses- his sight, his smell, his hearing- for any sign of Archer. He had cheated death once before, after all. But of course the steam clouded all of these senses, filling his nose with moisture and even his ears being stuffed by the pressure. There was no sign, but he was far too pessimistic to assume that even his most powerful attack had been enough.
-Movement on his left.
He switched his rake to his left hand and made a wide swing, catching the obsidian bolt with a burst of fire and smoke, at the same time-
"RAGH!"
One. Two. Three. Four arrows, all into his right shoulder in the very moment he struck. They didn't explode immediately, no, they left just enough time for-
Five. Archer, out of the fog in a blink of an eye, sank a straight blade into Lancer's shoulder, he could feel it slip into the socket.
"I told you before, Lancer.
"You're too slow."
The sword and arrows exploded all at once. From out of the smoke, Archer flew out in a blaze, planting his feet into the ground as his body reconstituted itself, reforming from the blast. Where the smoke cleared, there was Lancer, unmoved. From his shoulder came a cascade of blood, and at his feet was what remained of his right arm, motionless and bloody on the ground, surrounded by the bits of flesh and gore scattered by the blast.
Zhu Bajie coughed up blood, "Bastard -grunk-... I thought you said you were gonna defeat me without your Divinity."
"Don't mock me," Archer summoned a sword in each hand, "Falling to you would be a far greater disgrace than maintaining some arbitrary handicap."
Lancer was breathing heavily, but the wound on his arm was beginning to close. He found his inner strength and looked Archer in the eye.
"Do you really believe that killing me will bring her back?"
"It will!"
Hou Yi rushed forward, raging like a wildfire, manifesting three bolts that moved alongside him. Lancer cast out his rake with his remaining left hand, and the head shot out on its chain. It shone with a pure, golden light, bending in the air at perfect angles and intercepting each of the arrows as they flew, but Archer was undeterred. He raised both his blades to strike and, with a flick of the wrist, Lancer spun his rake faster than the eye could see, the shaft, chain and head moving together like a buzzsaw- shrinking steadily as the head moved back to the shaft. Archer struck forward anyway, the blade being wrenched from his hand, flung far away and exploding a moment later. From the smoke, Lancer cleaved down with his rake and Archer, from muscle memory alone, strafed leftward, dodging the blow. As the nine teeth of the rake dug into the soil, Lancer flicked his wrist again, flinging a shower of rocks in a burst of frigid wind.
-But the rocks and ice, of course, flew effortlessly through his Solar Mantle, turning Archer into a pillar of flame for a moment before reforming unharmed.
This reminder of his invincibility filled him with a new vigor.
"I'll win this war, damn you! All I have to do is put you in the ground and I'll have her back!"
He cast his sword out and another five bolts formed in the air, firing one-after-the-other. Pigsy primed his rake, its head spinning on the shaft, and matched Archer's stance, summoning a shower of hail that flew towards the shadowed hunter, bursting each of the arrows on contact while the rake itself began to glow.
Zhu Bajie let out a growl, "Pick a lane, asshole!"
The Lord Archer was so inflamed that the hail turned to rain before it ever reached him. There then came a sound like the firing of a cannon, and the empowered head of the rake shot towards him- but he was unafraid. He would let the attack roll by him like so much dust in the wind and skewer the pig where he stood.
-But his recklessness, however warranted, was not rewarded.
The head launched into his stomach, making full contact and sending him sprawling onto his back.
"What-?"
Pigsy left no quarter, closing the distance with a single step like a launching mortar, raising his rake over his head and bringing it down on top of him. The rake- this time- went through his Solar Mantle, and Archer burst into a cloud of fire, shooting off like a comet and reforming his body a few yards away.
Lancer growled, "First ya said this was about pride, and now ya say it's about your wife! Keep yer story straight, jerk! Do you even know what your goals are!? Do you even know why yer doin' this!? Why do you do anything at all!?"
Archer rose to his feet, his eyes aflame like two suns in his skull, his coat and hair transforming into a plume of fire that consumed him, leaving only the shadow of himself.
"Forget pride! Forget honor! I don't care anymore! Anything that keeps me from her will be reduced to ash! HYAH-!"
Burning with rage, the rolling ball of fire hurdled towards Lancer. Archer brought down his swords and Lancer parried. Lancer struck back and the attack would either be dodged or fly through the Solar Mantle without contact. In this way, countless blows were exchanged in little more than a second. Three arrows manifested over Pigsy's head and he leaped back; the bolts dug into the ground and burst in a shower of dust.
"Do ya really think she could ever love a man like you!? The innocents you've hurt! The people you've tortured! You think she could ever hold hands as bloody as yours'!? After everything you've done!?"
"You... ARE A -FUCKING- PIG!"
He shot forward, his blade meeting the shaft of Lancer's rake in a precarious balancing act.
"What do you know about love!? What do you know of devotion!? Of loyalty!? She-"
His strength seemed to fade for a moment, but, before Pigsy could strike out, it exploded with a new momentum.
"She's the only person who never betrayed me! The only one who stayed by my side! THE ONLY ONE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?"
His sword began to burn with an orange glow, but Pigsy leaped back before the blade exploded in a cloud of orange, red and white. Above Archer, six obsidian arrows formed, circling above him to create a black halo over his head. Each flew out, flitting about, seemingly at random, and forming a matrix of black and orange around Lancer on all sides.
Pigsy grit his teeth, his skin turning paler by the second.
"Yeah, you know what!? I am a pig, dammit! I always have been, even in Heaven! But every day I try to be more than that! More than who I was yesterday! But you!? Each day that goes by another piece of your soul gets burned away!
"I'm sayin' this for your own good, dammit! When you're done here there'll be nothing left for her to love!"
"SHUT UP!"
Each of the arrows, and Archer himself, moved to kill Lancer where he stood. But Lancer, with the thunderous burst of earth at his feet, shot up into the air, far into the heavens, leaving the arrows to join the rubble underneath him.
Archer turned his face to the sky, his eyes so wide with rage that they seemed to take up half his face.
"You think you're safe up there?" He jumped up, seeming to skip off of invisible stones as he, too, ascended, "I'm the god of the sun, damn you! The sky is my domain!"
Among the frigid air, high above the earth, Zhu Bajie couldn't help but see the whole picture spread out before him, the whole war and everything it had wrought.
"I see." He took a deep breath, a silent prayer to the bodhisattva of mercy, "Shen Yi... it's time to put you out of your misery."
Archer was so blinded by rage that he didn't hear him at all, or, more accurately, he refused to listen. He summoned all nine of his arrows and flew up beside them, his defiant scream filling the night.
Gravity grabbed hold of Zhu Bajie, pulling him back towards the earth. Archer flew towards him like a bat out of hell, a demon in a visage of iron and flame, but there was no fear in his heart. He closed his eyes, grabbed hold of his rake with his remaining hand and whispered these words:
"Guanyin... take this as an offering. An apology for every time I let you down."
White and gold light sparkled on his right side, illuminating the edges of an object that didn't exist.
Lancer's roar echoed across the skyline as he released the name which had been granted to him at the end of his journey eastward. The name he was given as he climbed the stairs to Heaven. The shape of the light was becoming clear now: a giant hand, made of pure gold, whose palm was as large as Lancer himself, formed where his right arm used to be.
"Wuneng-!"
Archer recognized it now. The hand held the same aura as the attack that went into his gut just a minute ago. An attack that could pierce his Solar Mantle. Animal panic cut through his anger, piercing his heart. But there was still so much distance between them, he had time-
-
The martial art of the bodhisattva, of the enlightened, of the Buddha himself. A power which channeled the will of the soul into something tangible. The will to save. To preserve. To protect. It was an attack which cleansed the curses of the target, not a curse in of itself. Yes, in other words, the single requirement to mastering the Buddha Palm is this and nothing else:
To love your enemy.
-
Perhaps Archer could have dodged the attack, but watching the attack unfold left him in a stupor. He knew this was an attack. He knew it carried the same properties as the other. He knew it possessed the key ingredient necessary to piercing his defenses.
But he couldn't believe it.
That was an attack? No, it couldn't be. There was no hostility. There was no anger. In fact, looking up at that beautiful, awe-inspiring hand, he was reminded of something from long ago. He felt that he saw his beloved, the love in her eyes, that he felt her arms around him. What was this? This warmth. This benevolence. This love. Why did he want it? Why-
Why did he hate it?
"-Buddha Palm!"
The hand shot out, past the limits of what should've been possible, the light and shapes bending, catapulting the massive palm directly into Archer, as well as each of the bolts he'd summoned, pressing past the smoke and flame and shooting straight into the earth, leaving a perfectly palm-shaped crater in the hard ground.
When the light faded, there was Archer, his arms and legs splayed among blood and dirt, bent in all the wrong ways, his broken bones making for him false knees and elbows. Blood fell like tears from his eyes, but, even among the pain, flashes of fire were moving across his body, healing his wounds, healing his brokenness, restoring his vigor.
But Zhu Bajie was still falling.
"HRAH!"
He righted himself in the air, his mighty Buddha Palm dispelled, bringing up his left knee as a similar noonday light surrounded it.
-BOOM-
The impact sent rocks flying into the air: a flying knee strike from over a hundred feet in the air, with an entire ton of weight behind it, fell directly into Archer's stomach.
He screamed with pain, his avian body crushed in a hundred different ways: dust where his bones had been, and gore in the place of everything else. The golden light pressed into his body, but even now those flames- that Solar Mantle- the emblem of the phoenix, went to restore him. Lancer bellowed, releasing all the emotions, all the pain, in a roar which shook the very ground, raising his rake above his head, the nine teeth spinning like a saw, and pressing it into Archer's chest-
-It went through. It stirred the flames like water, but did not injure him.
Shen Yi sputtered, coughed and hacked, bleeding from his eyes, "Gah-cagh- ha-Ha! Ha! What have you accomplished!? Half your attacks can't even hit me! The wounds you somehow manage to deal will heal in no time at all! YOU ARE WORTHLESS! YOU ARE NOTHING!"
Pigsy's eyes were growing hollow, unfocused.
"Yer right 'bout that. But we'll see how you do without a heart."
"Idiot! If you could've pierced my heart you would've done it!"
"Yea... but it's what holds you together, ain't it? What happens if it can't reform?" He gave a low, half-hearted chuckle, "I'm not very smart, but I know a man without a heart ain't long for this world."
It was true. He lacked the strength to extend his Buddha Palm beyond his knee. He wondered if that would be enough, but the realization he saw in Archer revealed it all.
"HRAH-! It doesn't matter! You think you've put me in a corner!?"
His stomach was almost done restoring itself, but it couldn't quite finish the job- Lancer's knee was pressing too deep.
"I'll never be defeated by the likes of you!"
His talons flared out, and four arrows manifested over Lancer's body. Each of them shot straight into his fatty flesh, each of them exploding in bursts of fire, smoke and blood. Another five manifested, and the volley repeated the first.
"DIE! DIE! DIE!"
Another four, another five. Another four. Another five. Through it all, Lancer made no sound, his body perfectly stiff, perfectly still, all his muscles tensed so that, even if he died, his mission would be accomplished. Under his knee, the stirring whirlpool of flames was becoming larger, beginning to encompass Archer's shoulder and neck.
"DIE! WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?"
There was nothing left to say. He held fast through the explosions, the arrows which were slowly and steadily becoming fewer and farther between, some being so disoriented that they even managed to miss his mountainous body, sticking into the ground on one side or the other.
Shen Yi was increasingly dissolving into flame, consumed by them, such that his face now seemed to peer out from an endless hall of fire.
"PLEASE! NO! NOT LIKE THIS!"
His face pivoted from one side to the other on what was left of his neck, searching desperately for some savior that wouldn't come. Fear and sorrow were all that remained for him.
"NO! I CAN'T DIE! THERE'S SO MUCH I NEED TO DO! I'VE GIVEN UP SO MUCH! I CAN'T DIE HERE! I DIDN'T WANT THIS! THIS ISN'T WHAT I FOUGHT FOR!"
"Rest in peace." Zhu Wuneng coughed up a glob of blood, "Maybe... if you die now... there'll still be something left to save."
"NO-!"
His eyes and arms were dissolving, even his feet. Only his midsection, still pinned under Lancer's knee, kept any substance. Another obsidian bolt formed, shuddered in the air, and fell uselessly into the dirt with the pathetic pittering of discarded scrap.
"PLEASE! NO! NO-!"
His wails echoed into the night, lasting longer than his body. The dying embers rose into the sky, each fading one-by-one, like a cloud of lanterns rising for the new year. Zhu Bajie followed them with his gaze, letting his rake fade away, and eventually spotting the moon, barely peeking through the clouds on the city's edge. It's cool light felt warm to him. It was as if it were giving its approval, even thanking him.
"Ha. Nights like these are good for drinking -grunk-. If only I had some booze."
He let out a sigh. Feeling the air leave his body, he knew his next breath would be his last. All he had to do was breathe in and breathe out, and that would be that. He would be dead.
No, he was already dead. His heart had stopped. It was destroyed, in fact. The only thing keeping him alive were sheer will and the skills he had been granted as a Servant. But there was nothing left to do. He had done all that he was required to do. It was time to rest. He had only one regret, one thing that he wanted to do, but that would have to wait for his next life-
"Wuneng!"
"...!?"
He was raised from his stupor by the sound of his name. He looked up to the crater's edge and saw, running towards him, a woman with blonde hair and, under her arm, being supported by her, his Master. Heping.
"Master!"
She rushed ahead, leaving the support of Monika's arms, sliding into the crater and rushing to his side, her bandaged hands pressed against his bloody chest.
"Wuneng!" She looked up to him, her eyes wet with tears, shaking with fear, "Are you okay!? Will you be okay!?"
"Master...-grunk-" He bared his red-stained teeth. It soon became apparent that it was a smile, "You didn't call me Pigsy."
She slammed a weak fist into his meaty chest.
"This is no time for jokes!"
It hurt more than she imagined it did, but he didn't let that show.
Her head shook, the weight of his injuries falling on her shoulders.
"I-I-uh-"
She raised her hand, the light of her Command Seals shining through the bandages.
"Heal!"
A flash of light, "Survive!"
There was no obvious change.
"Zhu Wuneng! By the power of my Command Seal, I-!"
He laid his heavy hand on her shoulder, "Don't bother. I'm afraid my work here's done."
"What? No!" She pressed into him, "That cannot be true! I should have been here! I should have-!" She whimpered, "You are the only friend I have ever had! This cannot be goodbye!"
"I'm just the first of many, kid. You'll make new friends, I know it. A girl like you? Ha! You'd have to be stupid not to love ya!"
"Please! I do not want to lose you. We had so little time..."
He gave her a light smack across the head.
"Hey. Ain't I taught you anything?" He lifted his hand, pointing his finger and his snout up towards the sky, "We'll meet again! Up there! Count on it! -grunk-"
She pulled away, looking up at him with tear-stained eyes. Suddenly, she stamped her foot, standing erect and at-attention. She gave her salute.
"Sir, yes sir!"
"That's the spirit! That's what I taught ya! Keep climbing that mountain, Master! I'll be waiting for you at the top!"
Her lips quivered. Her legs shook. She broke her send-off and wrapped her arms around him as much as she could, not even coming close to the small of his back. She cried silently to herself, but said no more. There was nothing else to say.
Zhu Wuneng took his eyes off of heaven for just a moment, lingering on the head of the young girl hugging him so tenderly. When he was cast from Heaven, he was cursed to go a thousand reincarnations without ever knowing the touch of a woman. No, no woman would ever love him; would ever join him in bed of her own accord. But here was another kind of love. A true kind of love. The only person who had never so much as grimaced at the sight of his true form. Maybe this curse of heartbreak wasn't so bad after all. If that curse meant he could know love like this, unbound by lust, unbound by appearance, simple affection from one heart to another, then he would happily be cursed for all eternity.
It was maddening. In this moment, he could even understand Archer's insanity.
"Rahahaha."
He chuckled, laughing at the absurdity of himself, of the world.
What a world it is! What possibilities there are! What curses turn to our benefit? What good comes from evil? What small victories are won even in the midst of disaster and devastation!?
"WAHAHA! WAHAHAHA! WAHAHAHAHA!"
It was a loud and boisterous laugh, so full of life that you never would've guessed it had come from someone who had died long ago. A laugh that resounded through time and space, lasting long after his body was destroyed, and his soul returned to the Throne of Heroes.
...
Atop the Acropolis, Caster gives a wry smile, feeling a great weight lifted off his shoulders.
"Two more for the tabernacle. Only one more...
"Yes. Welcome to my world, Saber. Poor, pathetic little snake-spawn. Better men than you have failed. Let's see how long you last."
....