Fighting Iskandar and his top homies while my clones wrecked the rest of his army was exhilarating. The man himself was no slouch, but certainly not a world beater in solo combat. Nah, Iskandar entered a seven man free for all tournament with team support skills in his tool belt. Dude really is the ultimate bro, and his Noble Phantasm lets that come to the forefront as he lead the cream of the crop, the kings and generals that served under him against me as a squad, each of them worthy of servanthood in their own regard but bound by loyalty to Iskandar first and foremost.
With Iskandar running their tactics, they moved as a near perfect unit against me and I loved every minute of it as they worked together flawlessly to attack and defend. They pushed me to the limits of my skills and at times made me consider the nuclear option, but after wrecking Rider's Chariot with it, any more would cheapen the experience, and it was the resistance that made felling them one by one until my sword sunk into Iskandar's chest worthwhile.
The reality marble didn't collapse with Iskandar's death as I tore out his heart, but instead transferred to me along with his other phantasm and his skills in riding and tactics.
The death of Iskandar did not cause his army to vanish or route, but instead to charge to his body in an attempt to reclaim their king. My clones and I enacted a slaughter against them, but Lancelot came with the tide of pissed off Greeks.
My clones pulled back from him and led Lancelot straight to me, where I engaged the Berserker with all my might available as a Saber. I needed it, for Lancelot wasn't going to let me win like he let Artoria. In fact, my holding of Excalibur just made him fight me all the harder.
I have never since training with Thanos been truly impressed by the skills of an opponent. I have been impressed like the way a dad is impressed by his kids crayon drawings, but this… this was new. Is this what it feels like to be envious of another guys combat skills? How long has it been for me. Decades? Close to a century?
Lancelot beats ass.
As the last of Iskandar's men fell, my clones formed a big circle around Lancelot. We could destroy him with our combined might, or with our Phantasms. The Gate of Babylon liked up with my DxD version, meaning we could whip out some shit that would absolutely wreck the guy.
BUT FUCK THAT NOISE.
I was tough enough to take the ass whooping Lancelot was dishing between my Phrik Armor, Avalon, the Golden Fleece, and the Blood Rage, and holy shit was I burning through mana faster than Salter in her fight against Heracles where she just kept swinging Excaliblasts, but for the first time in along time I was fighting someone with something to teach me about fighting, and you can be damn sure that I will do everything in my power to draw this fight out to learn his every trick.
Good thing the Gate of Babylon has Command Seals I can just use for extra mana.
Too bad only one of us had basically unlimited mana, because Kariya ran right out. Without his master supplying energy, Lancelot swiftly burnt through his power and found himself becoming the next victim in my rampage.
Arondight felt incredible in my hand, the sword adding twenty percent to my stats felt like lightning in my veins, and with my new Eternal Arms Mastery A+ I found myself shadow fighting though Lancelot's entire skillset.
With a thought I summoned Bucephalus and mounted up on top of the shaggy man eating horse, finding a true brother in the beast. We rode a bolt of lighting across the night sky above the city, following my instincts to lead me to Caster and his wretched master in their underground lair where they were enjoying themselves by torturing kidnapped children.
A single swing of Arondight sent out a streak of sword light that bisected the pair at the waists. I wasn't going to get up on a soap box and moralize about how horrible these ass hats are and how hurting children is unacceptable and all that shit. I have stuffed thousands of my own children into accelerated growth tanks and brainwashed them to perform as obedient super soldiers. I have allowed entire worlds full of children to die for fun. Hell, sometimes my presence condemns worlds to the apocalypse.
Two jackasses who get their jollies murdering kids ain't going set me off, but it did present me with a weird conundrum.
Do I eat this guy?
Gilles is likely the least impressive caster ever shown in any Fate Medium. His skills fucking suck and all he has is a spell book that lets him get Lovecraftian.
Fuck it. The horse can eat him.
After Bucy got his feed on we rode the lighting to the location of the Grail and I found my clones conducting a ritual to cleanse the Grail of Angry Mango and his bullshit. The new Einzburn family showed up about a half hour later and I took up the Grail and chugged the power right out of it, slapping everyone with some Heaven's Feel and shooting them the peace sign as I used the rest of the power to send my harvest back to DxD.
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"And that, girls, is how I got a kick ass man eating horse." I nodded to my very tired daughters.
"What a lovely and child appropriate story." Yasaka's face twitched as she said that.
"Dio-Daddy?" Kunou yawned, "Can I go to Fate?"
"Sure thing baby girl, good night." I smiled and gave both her and the sleeping Emmy kisses on the cheeks before turning the lights out.