"I praise you for your courage Rider." I grinned at the big man, "It places you well above the other craven mongrels skulking about. But no more, for I too am a king and a god, and I demand by my authority that you all REVEAL YOURSELVES!"
Divinity is a handy tool as it purges various defenses, and when you squint your head and look at things sideways the aether form servants use is a special defense just waiting to be purged.
"You dare to lay your curse upon the king of everything!" Gilgamesh declared in a fury as he appeared atop a streetlight, glowing brightly from my divinity revealing him just like Lancelot and the Hundred Face Hassan clone relaying information to Kirei.
"We are all hear save that pathetic creature, Caster." I smiled while ignoring Gil as he summoned his treasures to attack me, "Drag us into your reality marble, Rider! Let tonight be the most glorious battle ever witnessed in any Grail War!"
Iskandar looked shocked that I knew about his Noble Phantasm, but was more than happy to comply, "Gather here my glorious comrades!" he cried out as a sphere of blue mana enveloped us, "Tonight we shall become the greatest legends in all of eternity!"
With those words spoken we were all transported to the golden sands of a barren waste, dust in the air, and a blazing sun scorching us from above. It was almost as inhospitable as Tuchanka, but was missing the highly adapted predator species baying for your blood.
Iskandar's army made up for their lack in spades. Tens of thousands, some of them even greater in might than Iskandar himself, but all of them loyal to the man even beyond the grave. Truly this is the most beautiful of all Noble Phantasms. The true epitome of the manly combustion of manly souls.
Even Gilgamesh was stunned by the gleaming ferocity of the men gathered before us.
"A battle greater than any other." I smiled at the sight and took off in a burst of speed that brought me to the Hassan in an instant and ran my fist through his chest, clutching his heart in my hand.
"By your heart itself I summon thee to my side!" I cried out as I activated a summoning spell to gather all the bodies of the Hundred Faced Hassan to me.
With a single swing of Excalibur a golden ring of sword light burst forth and obliterated them all, leaving me with just the stilled heart in my hand which I sank my fangs into. I felt the thrill of my mana ascending to B rank, and more importantly, my take over of the Assassin role in this Holy Grail War.
You see, a master cannot fulfill the mana needs of a Servant. Think of Medea, a Servant with the mana capacity of 100 age of the gods sorceresses. As such, the Grail more than matches the Master's mana contributions, and for each Servant I eat, I take their portion of that income. So now I have the Grail supplying its match of power for Saber, Lancer, and Assassin straight to me, all more than matching the contributions of five Masters in total.
TLDR, I have a fuck ton of mana at my disposal, and just in time as I had to clash Excalibur vs Ea to keep Gil from ruining this epic as fuck battle. My golden river of sword light struck Ea's red energy beam, neutralizing most of the attack, leaving it only to claim the lives of a few hundred of Iskandar's men.
Lancelot had gone completely ape shit fighting the assembled soldiers with Arondight in hand, and no shame, that shit was scary as fuck. Lancelot's stats were almost as broken as mine, and then Arondight adds a full rank up to each of them. That's ten more Lancelot's worth of strength, speed, and toughness right there and it boosted his luck to A tier, so no insta win yeets; especially, considering his Protection of the Spirits: A also boosting his luck, and Arondight naturally increasing his saving throws.
Dude is a problem you can't just go around, you have to face him. And he has the Eternal Arms Mastery Skill at A+ tier, meaning he is the strongest, fastest, and most skilled warrior on the battlefield.
Finally a worthy foe.
I chose to save that morsel for last as Gil was putting in work on Iskandar and his men with the Gate of Babylon. With a shudder I activated my newest Noble Phantasm: Delusional Illusion. I suddenly became one of eighty copies of myself, but I knew I was the original as only I had our Noble Phantasms Excalibur and Phrik Armor.
We looked at each other in our sapphire and gold saber tooth tiger themed armor with our golden fur, big white capes, tower shields and radiant swords and knew that this… this was the dopest shit we'd ever seen.
One Dio can turn a setting on its ear, eighty of us. GLHF world, cause you ain't getting a GG against me.
I charged as a tide of gold, blue, and white painting the world in the only color I can, red. We scythed through the members of the Ionioi Hetairoi to arrive at the battle between Rider and Archer, the former doing much better than in the show due to his chariot Noble Phantasm not being broken, but in truth it was also because Gil had to contend with so many foes with me their to block his Ea strikes.
The man was holding his ground, but looking frayed as he pumped out more Phantasms than I'd ever seen him use in any route to keep Rider and his boys at bay. They'd hit a stale mate that ended quickly with the arrival of the great blue and gold wave.
Despite not having the use of my Phantasms each of my incarnations had the use of my skills. Mind's Eye (Fake), Mind's Eye (True) and Instinct came together to form a over powered version of Protection from Arrows, one of the two skills that enabled Cu Chulainn to solo fight Gil for many hours.
Eighty motherfuckers capable of that feat charging at once. Gil was fucked.
The glorious Gilgachad backpedaled for likely the first time ever, and the lack of experience showed as my clones led him right into my glowing sword, splitting our boy in two at the waist. I reached up into his chest cavity and pulled out my mid fight snack and Gil became the third Servant whose skills I sweeped.
I could tell that I'd automatically re-acquired every skill of his I had previously, but now I'd filled out the lot.
Rider and I faced off. Or better to say, Rider and his homies and we faced off.
Covering in the blood of his crew, my fangs still dripping the gore of demigods and madmen I pointed at the man and smiled.
"Jolly good."
The man wiped the blood from his eye leaking from a close call with one of Gils weapons and the man's jaw dropped when all seventy nine of my clones pulled Noble Phantasms out from the Gate of Babylon. Armor, weapons, accessories. We donned anything and everything we could possibly use and as Avalon and the Golden Fleece settled on my hips and shoulders a calm settled upon the Reality Marble and the once barren desert became a field of endless green with a cool breeze caressing us.
"How about we join forces!" Iskandar offered, "With my army and your treasury we could conquer the whole universe.
"We'd conquer even more." I smiled.
"Nothing could stop us." He nodded his head in agreement.
"More than anything Iskandar, I could use a friend." I told the man whose jaw dropped, "The men were I come from… to call them a disappointment is an understatement. So few carry the spirit of a true man, and none of them are competent enough to carry my sandals, let alone be my friend. But I am not just a king, but a god. So swear a covenant with me now and fight me in glorious combat and I will summon you from the Grail again, and enshrine you in the body of devilgod. Not only this, but each and every man that heeds the call of the Ionioi Hetairoi will also be brought back and empowered. I will sheathe you in golden armor and give you the finest weapons to wield in all of existence. Together we will conquer all the Heavens and all the Hells and become the masters of all that is."
Iskandar wiped a single tear from his eye and nodded, "That… THAT IS TRUE AMBITION! To battle my brothers, here today and across all that is tomorrow!"
They charged with reckless abandon and stood no chance.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Servant: Dio (Saber)
Parameters
Strength: A+ (50 Holy Grail War Imposed Limit)
Endurance: A++++ (50 Holy Grail War Imposed Limit)
Agility: A+ (50 Holy Grail War Imposed Limit)
Mana: C (39)---> B (46)
Luck: A (50 Holy Grail War Imposed Limit)
Skills
>Divinity: A+<
>Independent Action: A+<
>Charisma: A+<
>Presence Concealment: A+<
>Golden Rule: A<
>All Kinds of Specializations: A+<
>Librarian of Knowledge: C<
Mana Resistance: A
Mana Burst: A
Instinct: A
Mind's Eye (Fake): B
Mind's Eye (True): B
Love Spot: C
Battle Continuation: EX
Thick Skin: C (Nullifies Strike and Projectile Damage C rank and Below)
Blood Rage: A (Upon Entering Battle can temporarily +Strength and ++Endurance, becoming incapable of feeling pain and regenerating rapidly at the cost of massively increased prana consumption)
Noble Phantasms
Cannibal King: EX (Servants do not dematerialize upon death, allowing Dio to consume them to pilfer 10% of their true stats and possibly take Skills and Noble Phantasms. Upon Master kill, the servant quickly loses energy until left as a normal human performance wise. No longer capable of breaking imposed stat cap.)
Phrik Armor: A (Reduces all damage by 90%)
Excalibur: A++
Gae Buidhe: B
Gae Dearg: B
>Delusional Illusion: B+<
>Gate of Babylon: E-A++<
>Enuma Elish Ea: EX<
>Avalon: EX<
>Golden Fleece: EX<