"Arash." I greeted.
"Dio." He nodded.
We stood across from each other under a tarp canopy each enjoying a plate of falafel.
"I considered making tracks when I saw you coming." Arash admitted with a smirk on his face, "It's only natural for a man to move out of the path of calamity."
"But you knew you could not avoid me." I smiled back at the man with incredibly powerful clairvoyance.
"Indeed. So I ordered falafel, and am enjoying it in a shady place." Arash grinned and turned his head to welcome Bedivere.
"Sir Arash Kamangir." Bedivere stated as he approached.
"That's right. That's what they call me." Arash confirmed.
"I am…"
"Sir Bedivere." I interrupted, "Here to lay your defiled King to rest."
"And you are, Sir?" Bedivere growled.
"Godking Diodora Astaroth." I smirked, "And I am here to perform similar service on a more… through level."
"He isn't boasting." Arash nodded, "With his arrival, the future of the Singularity has become far less perilous."
Bedivere took my measure and bowed his head, "Regardless, I have my duty and must get inside the Holy City."
"Then you are in luck, because the way into the city opens tonight." Arash spoke.
"I fucking love it when shit lines up perfectly like this." I laughed as I pulled the cork out of a bottle of wine with my teeth and spat it aside, "To plot convenience."
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I reunited with DaVinci and the crew as they waited next to a pair of refugees, a mother and son. The later of whom was losing miserably in a game of tag against Emmy and Kunou, the pair shameless in the use of their combined fifty little girls in total agility.
Which is pretty fucking agile if you've never seen little girls jumping around.
"Damn it is hot out." I complained to DaVinci with a grin as neither of us were bothered by the heat, "How bout we strip down and cool off together in the tent."
"Maybe after you have proven that you are capable of delivering on your promises." DaVinci countered.
"We can enter the 'Holy City' tonight." I smiled, "Then the destroyance can begin."
"And while you were away I managed to ascertain that Arthur does not in any likelihood possess the Grail." She shook her head, "Chances are better that it is currently in the hands of the Sun King to the west."
"Sounds like the kind of thing we should compare notes about when all my brain blood isn't in my boner." I laughed.
DaVinci put a palm on her face and let out an exasperated sigh.
"You're the one who made yourself a hot chick, bro. Not me." I chuckled, "Should have realized that your life was going to be a blizzard of dicks coming at you."
"Aren't hot chicks supposed to be too intimidating for men to come up to?" She growled.
"You forgot that veteran ladies men exist." I smirked, "Where most men choke up and get anxious at the sight of a beautiful woman, I am at peace. Whether I pry her open or not, I am getting laid sometime in the near future. Come to think of it…"
"Emmy! Kunou!" I shouted and the girls stopped playing to listen, "Aside from rapists and murderers, the two men that fuck up a girl's life most are her dad and the first guy she sleeps with! Since you too are already screwed on the first, you both have to take the second really really serious! Most guys are losers who shouldn't be allowed to breed, so keep your heads on a swivel!"
"Okay, Daddy!" Emmy called back and Kunou looked very confused.
I'd have to help her understand later.
"That…" DaVinci looked at me with a furious face, "That was some of the worst parenting I have ever seen."
"Don't count me out just yet." I laughed, "I get way worse."
"Excuse me, Sir." the boy's mother, Salia approached.
"Speak, woman." I commanded.
"That was very wise advice to give your daughters." Both DaVinci and I looked at the woman in shock, "Though your manner of speech was crude, the message was much needed. If you would be willing to speak to my son of such matters, I'd be willing to… reward you… for your time."
As Salia walked away I grinned at DaVinci.
"See." I laughed, "Even if I don't pry you open, I am still going to get laid soon."
DaVinci blew a gasket as I sauntered on over to the boy, Rushd, to deliver my sage teachings.
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Salia went with us to the Holy Selection a new woman, having learned the truth of multiple consecutive orgasms and squirting. Rushd was a good kid. Got that moral fiber weaved deep into his bones. I am sure DaVinci and Mash learned a thing or two as well.
Namely how good it is going to be for them in my harem.
As the gates to the 'Holy City' opened we walked up a long set of stairs guarded by tall knights wielding halberds. The whole way up DaVinci was all like, 'this is super sus.' and 'run if this turns into a fight.'
Please, woman. I need this to turn into a fight.
Our path led to a courtyard and Sir Gawain who introduced the Lion King, goddess Rhongomyniad.
With a raise of her hand Rhongomyniad found all three of the 'Pure Souls' she was looking for and condemned the rest to death, but as her eyes drifted across them, they met mine as I stood near Salia who was one of the candidates.
Rhongomyniad clutched her head, as if suddenly remembering vivid agony and screamed.
"GRAX!" she roared and collapsed.
"What is this!" Gawain shouted as he looked up at his King, missing me leaping out of the crowd at him with my barbed red spear in hand.
Once in range I shouted, "Gae Bolg!"
And my position changed from flying through the air to landing with my spear in Gawain's chest. Activating his hidden Guts ability he survived the sure kill strike and I backed off, leaping into the air and flinging a brace of throwing knives into the archer knights ready to loose into the crowd.
Kunou and Emmy also joined me in this effort, felling the knights with peerless skill and power.
"What do you bastards want?" Gawain gasped as his innate ability allowed him to continue on despite his lethal wound not healing.
"Blood." I answered and charged at him once more.
Gawain lifted his sword, Galatine, causing the sun to appear in the middle of the night to fill him with power. This was his gift from the goddess for standing by her side when the other Knights of the Round Table rebelled instead of going along with this defeatist plan of hers. Galantine burst into brilliant flames ready of lash out at me until those flames were doused by the power of Gae Dearg.
Kunou struck his sword with the unsealed noble phantasm, the anti-noble phantasm that disrupts all forms of magic. Gawain looked at her in shock and missed the flanking strike from Emmy who thrust Gae Buidhe deep into his unarmored side and twisted her golden cursed spear to inflict a terrible injury that would never heal.
Despite the horrific wounds, Gawain back handed Emmy and sent her flying. Emmy landed on her feet unrattled and the three of us circled the fading knight. Despite lacking a Battle Continuation skill, Gawain was unnaturally tough. I'd upgraded our spears long ago into A rank noble phantasms, vastly increasing their sharpness and durability, and even then wielded by Servants with A rank strength it felt more like we were stabbing a solid rock than a man.
Only a top tier servant can even harm him, but much to his misfortune, our Lancer configuration is the tippy top of the pile and would more than qualify for Grand Lancer status if not for our Foreigner origins.
We only made two more exchanges before Gawain fell. With our mix of abilities, coordinating three simultaneous strikes was simplicity in itself, and the great knight could only ever block two attacks at once. He chose my attack both times and collected two more wounds each from Emmy and Kunou that felled him.
Seeing her chance, Emmy pounced on the downed knight and finished him by plunging her dagger into his chest and prying apart his ribs to tear his heart from his chest. Without hesitation she bit into it and ate every piece, much to the horror of the many people our swift attack had saved.
Despite their horror I just laughed as I felt Gawain's power added to our own and hefted Galantine into the air with a warcry.
"Arthur!" I yelled in reply to her previous scream.
We had already won, as we had taken Gawain's sword, his power under the sun, his gift from the Goddess, and even his belt that lowered the cost of using Noble Phantasms while simultaneously increasing their damage.
My own power warped the goddesses Gift of Nightless, instead of the sun shining down on us whenever we want, the light of the sun always exists within us, empowering us.
"Arthur!" I shouted again and her response stunned me.
Above in the sky appeared a radiant light. Like a spiral of glowing ribbons shaped like a cone Rhongomyniad descended to pass judgment on us, a judgment that would even destroy this new Camelot along with us.
"Damn." Arash sighed as he leapt down from the ramparts and stood beside us, "I am tempted to just let you deal with this, but I know you don't have anything that can stop it. What a pain."
"I'm like fifty percent sure we can survive that strike." I told the Persian Archer.
"I'm a hundred percent sure that all these people you saved, and all the pure souls that have been gathered here will be destroyed if I don't do this." Arash stated as he drew his final arrow.
"O' My Good Willed Sacred Master.
O' Lord of Brightness who bestows all of his power, sanctity, and wisdom to me.
See clearly my heart, my thoughts, and my achievements.
Now, O' being who created the moon and stars…
Behold my deeds, my death, my spenta armaiti which I must carry out.
STELLLAAAA!"
From Arash's bow launched a single arrow trailing blue mana that struck the tip of that radiant lance and kept going. At the point of impact came a mighty explosion, and the wrath of the goddess unraveled and turned to ash, taking with it every cloud in the sky.
I caught Arash as he collapsed into death, having spent every single ounce of his power to create that final spectacular shot.
"This girls," I stated as I tore open his chest and pulled out his heart, "this was a man worth breeding, but we will just have to settle for eating."
As I bit into the hero's heart, everything changed.