Beta read by Shigiya, Fluffy Slayer, Paragon of Awesomeness and DOOMRAIDER
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-Castle of Discordia-
Chaos reigned all over the castle. A cacophony of deafening screams harmonizing into a single hellish melody that would placate even the most sadistic of demons. Needless to say, the morale of the surviving Kuroinu had crumbled spectacularly. Gone was the triumphant mood of conquest and lechery, having now been replaced by the dread of death. It was agonizing for them to watch as the fruits of their labor withered away as this indestructible monstrosity came crashing down on them. Powerless and demoralized, their numbers were bled dry within seconds. Those who remained tried to put up a fight, but found themselves being brutally eviscerated as they screamed for their mothers. That is until the next set of screams settled in and drowned out their dying gasps.
Akin to bitter medicine, it wasn't long before they lost all sense of hope or self-preservation, the piling pressure causing some to dive headfirst into the mouth of the monster.
"Aaaargh!" One mercenary ran with his spear in hand straight towards the beast who'd killed hundreds if not thousands of his comrades at this point. Wearing the skin of a man but unable to see the indifferent gray eyes to the masses in front. This Kuroinu mercenary wanted to be freed from its hold on them, to escape this hell hole they got stuck in and just stay alive. But his action, emboldened by either foolishness or despair, was met with a tragic end as a result of a metallic flash of black and white.
He didn't know it yet, but it was far too late for him already. Blood gushed from his throat when he tried to scream, nothing but a gargled sound came from his mouth. The sensation of touch slowly left his body and it began to feel cold… far too cold for him to even attempt to move around. As his body touched the floor, no pain was felt, only his eyes remained open as he saw the white haired monster lay waste to those he once considered brothers. People he laughed with, shared drinks and whores with for years were now staring back at him with either soulless eyes or with half of their heads sliced off.
'Maybe if I close my eyes, I'll wake up back in the camp. Yeah… this can't be real, most likely another one of those scary nightmares.' And with that, he closed his eyes, drifting off forever into a slumber from which he would never wake from.
All of this happened in less than ten seconds. By then, a dozen other Kuroinu men had joined him as well.
"Use the fucking mages! Bring them over here and incinerate that guy right fucking now!" Further down the hall, one of the Kuroinu captains, Garn, shouted orders to stop this walking calamity from advancing any further. "Shut the doors or create a wall!"
"B-But, many of our men are still on the other—"
"I wouldn't fucking care if my own mother was on the other side, you idiot! It's either them or us, and I sure as hell ain't dying in this shithole of all places!" He grabbed one of the beaten dark elves in the group who were still alive from their initial attack. Her armor had been long destroyed, leaving behind her naked injured body. "You!"
Garn slapped her awake, pouring some of his water on her face, snapping the badly beaten woman's eyes open. Though before she could regain her wits, she was pulled by her hair and made to face the approaching threat to him and his men.
"Is this one of your reinforcements, you cunt!? Another Dark Elf from another kingdom you called to kill us!?"
Even in her weakened state, she could still see those blank gray eyes slaughtering men left and right. He couldn't be a dark elf, it was impossible… and he also couldn't be an ally from Nidavellir.
"Argh!" She cried out in pain when a knee hit her side, her legs gave out before she was left dangling by her hair held up by the Kuroinu captain.
"Well? Tell me, you worthless whore!"
Whoever this person was she did not care, the castle had fallen, her Queen was most likely captured and their superior Chloe was defeated. Not to mention, the Kuroinu mercenaries had amassed a substantial number of demon troops on their side, including the Orcs that were once under their Queen's control. Nevertheless she still sneered at the man threatening her. "...Go to hell, human."
This only served to infuriate him.
"Why you—"
"Shit, he's here!"
"—!"
Backpedaling his focus on the dark elf, the captain realized that the screams and swords clashing had stopped, replaced by the sound of fire crackling as it consumed the hallways around them. c Looking past the shield that the mages had set up between them, he gulped when he saw the monster gazing at them from afar, uninjured and poised to strike. The man bore no emotions on his face, neither hate, rage nor contempt could be seen. It felt more foreign and unnerving to Garn who couldn't understand who or what this person in front of him was. It came to the point that he started questioning if this was one of those dark elves or something else entirely.
Having said that, the blue shield surrounding him was still functioning, and the white-haired monster has yet to make a move. Almost like clockwork, he felt his fears beginning to subside, under the impression that the white-haired monster was incapable of attacking them thanks to the magic shield.
"Hehehehe," Emboldened by his foolhardy logic, Garn couldn't help but laugh, causing those who were stationed with the mages to sigh in relief, believing that they were safe inside. "HAHAHAHAHAH!! Fucking idiot! Look at you now, standing there like a lost dog begging to be let inside. What's wrong? Can't reach me now can ya!?" While keeping his distance as a safety measure, he started taunting the silent attacker.
"..."
"Cat got your tongue? I bet you can't even understand my words you prick. You thought your kind could win against us humans? Hahahaha! What a joke, stay there and watch as we head to the throne room to fuck that Queen of yours!" Everyone around laughed, some even going as far as to throw rocks and pebbles at the shield where Archer was — the latter watching all of them rejoice in their little safe zone.
His fingers twitched, and a large black bow materialized in his hand, immediately silencing all the laughter inside the circle.. They held their breath as they witnessed this unfathomable foreign magic before them. This bastard was also a mage!?
Archer pulled the string, confusing many as they saw no arrows. But that quickly changed when one appeared in the same manner as the bow, his hands blurred before a loud sound was heard on their side.
The air shook, from what sounded like a loud explosion, forcing many to cover their ears and close their eyes.,— but Garn made sure to never look away. The arrow had vanished, moving so quickly that his eyes couldn't even keep track of it. What followed that instant was the sound of glass shattering.
"A-Ah—Arg!" A scream of pain came from one of the mages. His eyes widened at the scene where one of the mages had become hysterical, for there was a bloody hole the size of a head occupying his chest. The exposed parts of his heart still continued to beat, blood gushing towards the floor before the man himself collapsed.
"H-H-How? D…" One of the Kuroinu mercenaries stuttered, looking over at the shield that still stood before he noticed something that horrified him to his core. The shield had a crack, localized at the spot where the arrow managed to break through. Within seconds tiny cracks started spreading all over the barrier of magic that separated them. "I-It broke though? How!? The shield is supposed to withstand volleys of arrows with ease!"
"Shit! There's more of them!?"
Panic struck the mercs as another arrow appeared within Archer's grasp, but unlike last time, this projectile was blasting with Magical Energy. A shiver of dread washed over their being when they remembered the previous shot. Now in the presence of so many, they turned tails and fled — even a few of the mages scattered as well.
"O-Oi! Where are you fools going!? The shield is going to crumble without your support!" Shouting with all his might, Garn hoped his fury would stop them from rushing away like a bunch of cowards.
"Fuck that! He just proved he can break the stupid thing regardless!"
"We have a better chance of survival if we run!"
Gazing back at Archer, Garn's heart skipped a beat when he saw the man focusing his eyesight on the fleeing mercs, with the bow becoming still for a second before…
Schrk!
"Argh!"
"My legs!"
"H-Help!"
He fired once, and the white streak of light separated into two, then three, then four — all turning into dozens of deadly projectiles as they reached their targets and in less than a second. He just became the sole survivor of this massacre.
…Him, and one other.
"Tch!" Garn grabbed the dark elf girl, holding her in a hostage position with his sword pressed against her neck, hoping that this would delay the inevitable. "Don't even think about moving… you… bastard…"
The red bowman calmly walked past him, unbothered by his threats. Giving him as much attention as one would give to an ant, yet the part that stunned Garn was not his dismissal, but rather the stinging pain coming from his stomach. "A-Ah… Ah?" He looked down to find a long barbed red spear pierced through his guts… along with the dark elf's.
Why? Wasn't he part of the reinforcements sent to save them? Despite that, he did not hesitate to kill both of them. As his vision grew hazy, the man tried to push himself away from the impaled dark elf, but cried out in pain as the barbed points of the spear latched onto his flesh — even a slight heaving of the chest would aggravate the damages.. Without much success, his life trickled away with the dark elf having died by now as well.
{Break}
Things were going just as he expected, the same old hit-and-run tactic worked wonders in this confined castle. The enemy was badly beaten and consumed by fear, making them easy targets. To say that he was a bloody mess was an understatement, his cloak including the weapons were covered in gore. The stench of blood and charred bodies would choke even the most battle hardened of knights. Still, he managed to keep his breath steady and calm, having long been used to the smell. Gradually the number of humans dwindled as he carried on, replaced instead by demons working under Vault.
There were some dark elves who survived the initial invasion of the Kuroinu, those who were unconscious or wounded he left to their own devices, but those who got in his way in any form were dealt with promptly. This wasn't a place he could hesitate or let his emotions compromise the mission; adhering to the model of the perfect killing machine was necessary… Yet he still kept a small part of his mind focused on those inside the main throne room. After this was done, he would most likely be called back and pulled out from this world forever, his 'vacation', going by Alaya's words, having come to an end.
"So this is it…" Emiya contemplated as he watched the doors of the throne room. Yet this was blocked by the presence of hundreds if not thousands of demons filling the extremely large corridor. Some of them were once part of Olga's army, but have now betrayed their Queen after her influence over them was dispelled. Working alongside Vault's men and their own demons, it was a sight that further made him sigh at the Princess Knights' incompetence. How did they miss this guy amassing so many demons in the first place? Were they aware of it? Even if it wasn't the case, it was a miracle that the Seven Shield Alliance are still standing without having been conquered by the surrounding nations.
'Maybe Celestine is indeed a Goddess of Luck? It would at least explain how this pathetic Alliance of hers somehow retained any form of stability for so long.' And Vault was the nail in the coffin that her lucky streak was over. "Mah… I shouldn't care at this point."
Standing a hundred meters away from the main group, he planned on ending this quickly and efficiently. Half of the castle had already been destroyed by this point and the exteriors were nothing but a burning hellscape riddled with corpses. The fire probably illuminated the barren wasteland for a good few miles at the very least. How these demons still managed to smile and sneer at him as if the last hour of chaos didn't affect them was a testament to their idiocy. Blinded to the notion of danger unless it hits them right in the face — which was a silver lining for him given what he was planning to do.
"I'm not going to repeat the same mistake again. Engaging them in close quarters is just asking for trouble." Not to mention Kin and Vault are behind that door with god knows how many men and monsters.
The familiar bow remained in his hands, being a weapon he'd grown used to relying on for such missions instead of his swords. It made the whole concept of warfare much simpler to engage in when he doesn't have to rush into battle against an entire army by himself — at the end of the day, he was an Archer after all. From where he stood, he could see another magic barrier blocking the metal door to the throne room — most likely put in place by Kin. Though he could just use Rule Breaker to deal with it, his previous encounter with the mages has shown that a strong enough impact was more than enough to deal with these.
Raising his arm high up into the air, he Traced the one weapon he used regularly in these situations, having used it once before at the very beginning. Magical Energy gathered around, his mind locking onto a single spiral sword wielded by one of the greatest heroes in Irish mythology, the King of Ulster and Heroic Spirit whose weapon he was going to basically turn into a projectile.
The moment the sword came into existence did the demons feel wary, they could sense the power and danger behind the widely shaped sword. "Hoo, so they aren't completely hopeless in terms of recognising danger." He chuckled, watching the sight brought back memories of the attack on Grünes, a time that felt like ages ago but quite haunting as if it was yesterday.
With combined Reinforcement and Alteration, Archer slowly poured more of his Magical Energy inside the sword, its shape contorting even more and becoming thinner. An abomination in comparison the original one most would say, but it was an effective weapon of his own making nonetheless. He pushed the limits of the Noble Phantasm, breaking all barriers with excessive Magical Energy and even the weapon itself until cracks started to spread all over it.
Woosh!
A red haze of energy swarmed him, pushing the wind and dust away as he was surrounded by an eerie aura to those who watched him from a distance. This further intensified when he raised the now weirdly shaped arrow to the bow and pulled it along the string before aiming straight for the door.
"Rooaar!!!"
Some grew restless and charged, hoping to get a hit on him before he could act. But he was biding his time, poised for the perfect moment to strike.
As the seconds ticked away the demons got closer and closer, some tried throwing weapons at him at this point but ended up missing his face by a hairbreadth. The sensation of impending doom was dawning on them, making them desperate and rash with their actions until…
"Caladbolg II!"
Letting go, a shockwave erupted around him, sending some of the imps within reaching distance flying backwards. The Broken Phantasm flew in a straight line without stopping, leaving behind a red trail of light and fire, the space around it distorting tremendously. It ripped the bodies of any demon unlucky enough to stand a bit too close to it, some even getting shredded to pieces by shrapnel piercing through their flesh. But it didn't explode as it reached its target — the door leading to Olga's throne room.
Right as the tip of the arrow touched the shield, it caused a distortion in space itself along with the magic that guarded the door. Just as the demons before, both were shattered into oblivion. The distortion of the metal created heat that turned the surrounding metal bright red until it became molten, and all the while Archer looked on at the destruction apathetically, for it was a sight he'd seen times beyond counting.
"This is what that fool would do, but what do I have to lose?" Asking himself the same question, he ultimately decided to take the risk. "…Damn it." His knees bent, and light spread all over his skin in a circuit pattern before pushing himself straight toward the door where his figure disappeared in a flash.
{Break}
(Moments before the attack)
They had done it, everything he'd worked from the ground up for about a decade has finally bore fruit. Accompanied with his trusted mage Kin, his most loyal subordinates and a few of the Orcs holding down a beaten and growling Chloe. Detained with her hands bound in chains and her weapon stripped away from her, there was no way she could escape from her captors — she would serve an important role for the situation in hand.
"Open the door, our beautiful Queen is waiting for us." Vault ordered his men as they finished off the last line of defense consisting of just a handful of remaining elves, most of whom had been taken out by the Orcs freed from Olga's control. His gaze turned to the blonde who kept glaring at him with vitriol. "Well, it seems like we've finally reached the end game of this entire war between two idiotic women whose tits are ten times the size of their brain."
"Don't you dare…" Chloe said, trying to break free from her bonds but unable to muster enough strength to do so. "I'll kill you!"
"You've been repeating that for the last few minutes, and my heart is still beating. So how about you shut the fuck up? You're going to need that energy for later." Vault taunted the girl, rubbing her cheeks while grinning. "To be honest, girls like you are my favorite. So energetic and gutsy, quite irresistible I must say. It would make the challenge of breaking you all the much sweeter. Though maybe I can hasten the process if I get physical with your Queen. And who knows, maybe if you're nice enough I'll even let you join in."
"Rrraaaaahhh!" Chloe's killing intent went through the roof as she screamed at the top of her lungs, she wished for nothing more than to gut this man in front of her.
Vault and his men chuckled, the Orcs using their superior strength to push open the giant metal doors to the throne hall where they were greeted by the sight of Olga sitting on her throne all alone.
"Olga-sama…" Chloe was shocked, she expected her Queen to have escaped by now. But to see her inside the hall made Chloe's legs go numb as she feared for what was to come.
As they walked inside, Kin instructed the demons from both his group and Vault's to stay outside to guard the door. Staying cautious, he placed another barrier of his own creation on the door as it closed behind him.
With a loud bang, they were now locked in a hall facing one of, if not the most feared and hated enemy in all of the human kingdoms.
"We finally meet, oh Queen of The Dark Elves." Being the demagogic person that he is, Vault smirkinly greeted the woman with an exaggerated bow.
To that, Olga sneered at him, not wanting to give Vault the satisfaction of an answer. But he didn't mind it and kept talking.
"Ten years… Ten years I've locked horns with your army, ever since I was a young boy who could barely raise a sword. Watching those who I called friends and family die because of your actions and nearly losing my life countless times… I won't lie, the temptation to behead you right now is quite appealing." His tone had dropped near the end along with the smugness on his face, disappearing for a split second as a look of hatred donned his face. Though it vanished as promptly as it came, returning the man to his usual brash and arrogant self.
"A human thinking he could best me… Your species' capacity for delusion never ceases to baffle me. Even now I can erase you with a mere wave of my hand."
"But you won't," he said confidently, pulling the chains that held Chloe. "All because of her." He grabbed her face, his other hand wandering around her body until it groped her butt, enraging Olga to no end.
"Do it, Olga-sama! Don't listen to him!" The blonde pleaded, willing to lay down her life if it meant saving the person she cared about most in the world. "Don't hesitate, I beg you! Please!"
"..." For centuries she'd been the source of people's fears, to even think of doing such a horrendous thing made her blood boil. She clutched the staff as she went through her options, the desire to kill this man was immense, but both her pride and concern for Chloe prevented any chance of making a move. Her decision was clear to everyone in the room: Olga wouldn't hurt them if it puts Chloe at risk.
"I believe it is my turn to play." Her other source of worry, Kin, walked past Vault with a similar smirk plastered on his face. He had a hand in severing her connection to the demons that she had controlled from within the castle. And that was the worst thing that could ever happen to her. "You've sat on that throne commanding vast armies of demons at your leisure for centuries. But I figured out your secret. Just like Celestine, your powers have weakened, and now you need external artifacts like the one you're currently sitting on to keep up the illusion of your threat to the world."
"You're speaking nonsense." She replied, only making him chuckle.
"Oh you know I'm correct. You no longer hold the power of your past self. The subjects under your rule have lost their faith in you long ago, and even the very people you've saved will remember you as a monster. It was as clear as the light of day but you were just too arrogant to accept it. In fact, I know you still have some control of the demons outside the castle, no matter how small that control might be. Let me show you the culmination of my years of studies and research that has allowed me to do this!" Kin raised his arm and slammed the butt of the staff on the ground.
The red gem grew unbelievably bright and it made many squint their eyes. "Reeeeeeeee!" What sounded like the cries of a banshee pierced through the crowd's eardrums, making even Vault frown in discomfort as Kin just continued to smile maniacally.
"Hahahahaha! Let me show you how weak you are compared to a genius like me!"
The hall was soon filled with a pungent scent of blood. A red haze of energy enveloped the caster whilst crimson tendrils emerged from the staff and spread throughout Kin's skin before descending towards the floor.Like parasites they spread far and wide, slowly taking over everything around them, though he made sure to keep it away from Vault and the group.
"What is this abomination…" Olga commented out loud, disturbed by what she was seeing. She couldn't identify it, a spell that looked alive and with a will of its own. "—!" Her eyes widened in shock, a sight that made Kin chuckle with glee.
"Abomination?" Kin shook his head, "How naive, you just don't understand what you're seeing, of course. A marvelous work of art that only a true genius of magic like me can understand. You and Celestine selfishly hoarded the ancient knowledge of magic for years, and now… I'm going to take it all away!"
A huge amount of Mana inside the room began to be absorbed by the tendrils. Like a ravenous being that has found its prey. Olga could feel the throne weakening as the seconds go by, losing its power and growing duller over time, cracks forming all over.
"Oi Kin, don't go too far, we need that throne as well. Sides, I'm planning on parking my ass on that thing to demonstrate my authority, with all sorts of hot bitches satisfying my cock as I show them where they belong. At least until we take Celestine's castle and throne." Bringing the mage back from his daze, Vault quickly reminded him of the mission at hand. Even so, the barrage of voices inside his head kept hounding Kin to devour more Magical Energy, making it hard for him to calm his racing heart..
'More~ Don't stop~! I'm almost full!' That melodious voice spoke into his ear, almost as if someone stood by his side caressing his body sensually.
Kin shook his head, using his willpower to stay calm.
No, he needed to hold on to his sanity.
"It's done, she has no control over the throne anymore." He said, with Olga still glaring daggers at him. "The world was ruled by your kind for far too long, now it's time for us men to finally claim what's rightfully ours."
A group of Kuroinu men proceeded to rush over to Olga, causing Chloe to become frantic as she tried to free herself from her restraints and rush to protect her Queen. "No!!! Stay away from her, you pigs!!!" She screamed, cursing herself for being so weak.
As his men restrained Olga, Vault couldn't stop the overflowing glee inside his heart. His dream was now within his reach, so close that he could almost taste it. He had secured all the correct pieces, established enough connections and gathered everything he needed to create his long desired sex empire. He started walking towards the steps of the throne as the Dark Queen was dragged from hers, his hands gliding over the golden artifacts that promised so much. Turning around, he faced his subjects and sat down.
"From this moment onwards, I declare myself the King of this new Empire of Men! As we are now finally freed from our shackles, let's partake and enjoy all the women we can and drink all the wine we want till our bodies get tired of them!" Announcing at the top of his voice, he knew that at this moment… he'd won.
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Crash!
As soon as he said that, the entire castle shook. The sound of multiple explosions echoed from the outside, causing tremors throughout the room, nearly making Vault himself fall off the throne.
Both Olga and Chloe were equally caught off guard by the sudden change.
"W-What was that!?" He shouted, looking over to Kin for answers.
The mage was clueless, "I-I'm not—" he stopped mid-speech to dodge a piece of falling rubble. The barrage of explosions had set off a domino effect on the infrastructure of the hall, causing it to fall apart.e. At that moment, one of the communication stones inside his pocket lit up, devices that he gave the mages in the unlikely event of an emergency. "Something's wrong!"
"Look, over here!" Standing near a window overlooking the bailey of the castle, one of the Kuroinu quickly signaled them to come over. Both Vault and Kin rushed towards him to assess the situation. "The sky is on fire!"
Absurd words that neither men took seriously until they were rendered speechless by the carnage in front of them.
Fire.
Blood.
Desolation.
The entire castle turned into a hellfire with hundreds of arrows hurdling under the cover of the night towards the troops stationed outside. Then out of nowhere, a streak of light flew past them at lightspeed towards the castle before erupting in an infernal explosion, swallowing all the living beings there within seconds.
"Enemy attack!" Vault shouted, slamming his fist onto the stone wall. "Kin, the shield!"
The mage rushed to his staff to access the Castle's mana system that he had previously commandeered. He sighed in relief as the shields around the perimeter were reactivated.
"—!"
But contrary to his expectations, it shattered within a matter of seconds.
The doors proceeded to burst open as one of the guards stationed outside came in stricken with fear. "B-B-Boss! We're being attacked!"
"I can see that you idiot, I'm not fucking blind! Tell me which kingdom is attacking us!" Was it Furusutāja? No, that bratty little ruler wouldn't care about a dark elf bitch, let alone someone like Olga. The beastmen nation was also a possibility, but they were far too weak to spend these kind of resources on Olga, nor would they even bother given how she'd subjugated many of the small villages under her rule and allowed her demons to rape their women just like with the humans.
'Then that leaves Nidavellir, a nation of dark elves is the only possi—'
"W-We confirmed what looks to be a single man making his way inside the castle and killing all our men! He's… he's a demon! We can't stop him!"
His thoughts were thrown out of the window with that sentence. A single person? Was this a joke? "If you are trying to have a laugh now of all times, I'll cut off your limbs and throw your body inside the Orcs' breeding pit if you don't stop fucking around!" He yelled furiously, grabbing the man by his collar and lifted him up in the air.
"G-ah! I-I'm not lying, boss! I-I-I swear this is the truth!" He spoke hastily, holding onto dear life as Vault's hold started constricting his breathing. He was immediately thrown to the side, coughing and panting from finally getting to breathe again.
Vault meanwhile cursed before glaring at Kin as the room shook further, with pieces of the walls crumbling bit by bit. "Have every available demon stand guard in front of the throne room, and why the flying fuck are the shields not up yet!?"
At this point, nothing short of a full blown panic attack ensnared the people who were just celebrating a few seconds ago. Vault, and Kin were scrambling to set up the defenses and reorganize the men before it was too late. They came here expecting victory and glory, to usher into the dawn of a new empire. But ended up getting caught up with an unknown threat that decimated their army in less than a day.
"I don't know what's happening! Something keeps negating the spell the moment it activates!" The once calm and composed Kin was an absolute mess right now, shifting through his book, looking for a spell that'll help them. He once again checked the connection between him and the throne, using the red gem to reinforce it but still coming to the same conclusion. With sweat pouring down his forehead, the once famed mage of Eostia was now at a loss on how to solve this situation. He chucked the book away in anger and fear, already having an idea on the culprit behind this attack, terrified of what this entails for him. "I-I… I can't do anything in this situation!"
The dome on Olga's castle was infamous throughout the kingdoms of the Seven Shield Alliance for its defensive capabilities. Yet he found it eerie that it wasn't activated during their takeover; a possibility of it being a trap had crossed his mind previously but it proved to have no weight. Everything had been in working order beforehand, so he concluded that the Dark Queen was just too arrogant and prideful to use it on them.
Then out of nowhere, hellfire rained on the castle, killing a large chunk of their army in the blink of an eye. This chaos dragged on as the distress signals from his subordinates and exceptional mages kept multiplying. All crying that a single person was cutting down their allies left and right, ravaging the field like the grim reaper itself. Magic attacks were useless, fireballs proved to be useless as he heard them describe the scene of the man basically cutting the spells in half mid-flight.
Throwing hundreds of veteran mercenaries at him did not even slow him down in the slightest, and all attempts of binding him proved just as useless and fatal to the caster soon after.
'It's him! It's Archer!' Drowning in panic, as his clothes, hair and glasses became disheveled, he hastily scoured through Olga's tomes in hopes to find a spell that would help him survive this! Something… Anything! 'I can't die right now! I can't! I can't!'
A rush of warm energy from the red gem spread throughout his body, freeing Kin of all traces of exhaustion and revitalizing his mind for the danger ahead.f 'Yes, with this by my side… Archer can't harm a hair on my head.'
"Useless fucking idiot!" The leader of the Kuroinu mercenary group blew up in a rage, grounding his teeth in seething anger. His entire plan had been ruined by a single fucking man! Not even the thousands of mercenaries in his army could lay a hand on him, and instead were cut down themselves. "Is this one of your ploys, bitch!?"
Chained to the ground while surrounded by a bunch of orcs, many of whom used to serve her, Olga thanked whatever gods or spirits that had saved her from the humiliation she was about to endure. Still showcasing a facade of indifference, she hoped to not leak any weakness on her face..
'Nidavellir's forces could not have arrived so quickly, they're still a day or two away from reaching my domain.' The allied nation of dark elves was one of the few remaining kingdoms who she still managed to keep a formal relationship with, given how many of the slaves she saved were their people as well. Yet even she knew that a time would come where they would eventually abandon her. Whether for political leverage or her declining power base, the support she once had was waning considerably.
Power earned respect and fear brought loyalty, without either there was no Olga Discordia anymore — only a dark elf mage who lost her use in the grand scheme of things.
Were it not for the timely intervention of this unknown force, then the Orcs would have had their way with her body, before being passed around to Vault's army as the camp's whore. She knew it, their lustful stares which persisted even now showed exactly what they had planned for her.
Filthy insects, that was what these people were and nothing else. Seeking to use her of all people as a toy to satiate their carnal desires for the rest of her days. Going through the same fate many of her people had suffered for centuries.
A smug expression surfaced on her face as she mocked the man who had sought to make her into their personal fuck trophy, having a strong feeling that this was now the end for Vault and his army. "This is divine punishment from the spirits, human. The one causing this chaos will destroy you, your army and your dream of that disgusting empire. There's nothing you can do to stop it and I pray that your death will be just as horrific as your damnation in the afterlife". Bitter and filled with vitriol, she let out a laugh that caused many of the men's spirits to plummet even further, realizing that their time was coming to an end.
Truthfully, even Olga didn't know the identity of the attacker nor whoever it was that sent him, but she welcomed their presence. For her, it didn't matter as long as they killed Vault…
'Is it Celestine's doing?' That was very possible, for even if they were enemies, the Goddess Reborn still considered her a friend deep in her heart. Olga knew her far too well, Celestine couldn't truly hate anyone and that was her biggest weakness. She remembered the day of the attack on the Princess Knight, Maia, how she had tasked Howler and Crusher to eliminate her and take care of that particularly powerful mage. Yet in the end, a sword as massive as the mountains crushed them and ruined her plans. She still didn't know who or what did it, possibly one of the other Goddesses? No, Seraphina was still asleep while the third was…
Either way, it seems that they would not stop in completing their task.
"Hahaha! You can just sit here like sitting ducks and await your fa—!" Pa!
"Shut up!" In his anger he delivered a hard kick to her face, sending the Dark Queen to the floor and silencing her. Blood and saliva foamed on her lips as her face started to swell from the hit but she continued to smile cruelly as Vault's demise was getting closer with every second. Whoever that man was, whether a human with a dark elf ancestry or something else — she welcomed his presence and even was prepared to die along these scums. She would rather end her life with dignity fit for a queen than end up as a sex slave.
"Olga-sama!" Chloe, who was soon brought to the room after the attack had begun, was struggling to free herself from the orcs' restraints. Hate shone in her eyes as she cursed Vault and everyone involved with him. "I'll kill you human! I swear I will gut everyone and hang you with your intestines! You'll pay for laying your hands on Olga—purgh!" She was silenced by one of the Orcs who followed Vault's example and shut her up with a hard strike to the gut, knocking the wind out of her.
Kin decided to put a silencing spell on her before Vault bashes her brains out of anger...
Yet Vault's rage continued to skyrocket when he heard the death throes of his troops getting closer, with those remaining pleading him to come save them. Sooner or later, the army he painstakingly created would be gone and his dream for Eostia and the world would be burned to ashes.
'Where did I go wrong in my plans? Neither Celestine nor her Shields had an inkling of my plans. It can't be Maia, she would rather betray her own than believe that I was a traitor. Not to mention none of the shields have the power or skills to take out an entire army on their own. So who is it!?' Or maybe it was Celestine in the end who sent them off to their deaths after learning about his plans from one of her premonitions. 'Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! This can't be happening!'
He was interrupted by his head mage Kin, "The shouting stopped…" The man brought his staff close by, ready to call upon the power of his gem at any moment.
Yet his hands couldn't help but tremble in fear. His memories of that time still burned brightly, reminding him of his failures against that plebeian Archer as he used a sword of all things to steal his spell from right under his nose.
'How was that even possible!?' Kin had read through all of the ancient tomes on forbidden and legendary artifacts. Finding a counterspell against the castle defenses was simple, so was weakening the Dark Queen. But even after going through the library here, never had such a weapon been mentioned!
"Damn it!" Taking hold of his bastard sword, Vault took a fighting stance, ready to face whoever it was beyond the heavy doors and quickly annihilate them for ruining his plans. "Kin, get ready… the bastard is near."
The mage readied his staff, channeling his mana to a single point–a fiery red magic circle formed on his hands, a spell fueled by the gem. Unknown to Vault, Kin wasn't going to make the same mistake twice and had other plans besides taking that man head-on.
.
.
.
Shhhhhh
Crack!
The iron doors suddenly bulged forwards, taking on a red hue from the immeasurable heat lying behind. The ductility of which was affected in such a way that it starts twisting. The heat of the metal made the space around it bend from the sheer heat before starting to twist. The room's temperature rose rapidly with the carpet near the entrance catching fire.
"What?"
BOOOOMM!!!
The doors gave in, blown apart as a fiery explosion of crimson fire swooped in from the other end. And with it a warped, twisted-looking arrow at the forefront of the destruction.
Before being skewered by the arrow, Vault caught a glimpse of a man donning a red cloth that was hiding part of his features. He was carrying an unconscious Olga and her servant Chloe before disappearing in a flash — seemingly teleporting away from his eyes.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO—!!"
The leader of the Kuroinu wailed as he, as well as the Castle of Discordia, were consumed by an inferno of red fire. One that exploded outwards with the force of a nuclear blast. His last thoughts before the impact were that of unrelenting rage and indignation, refusing to accept the belief that his life would end here. All the planning and schemes he had engineered, the sacrifices he endured to create his Sex Empire would amount to nothing. Even ashes would be a far cry to what he had already accomplished today, as it never even had a chance to begin with.
All of them perished without ever knowing the identity of their killer.
{Break}
-Remnants of Castle Discordia-
It happened far too quickly.
Kin barely had time to activate the crimson shield protecting him before the room exploded, consuming everyone and everything within. Once more he experienced the same sensation of failure from back in the valley And to boot it was at the hands of Archer yet again, a fact that humiliated him to no end.
Right now, one of Eostia's most renowned mages found himself buried under rubble, clutching his staff with his right arm while his left was completely burned. The familiar red gem did save his life, but unfortunately it wasn't as fast as he would have liked.
"Haa… Haa… Ha…" While exhausted, Kin never felt an ounce of pain from his injuries. dulling the physical exhaustion, the mental one was not so resilient. "I… I need to get out of here." He whispered, looking around in search of a possible escape route from this mess. If it weren't for the thin red film surrounding his body — then the collapsing piles of rubble and molten rocks would have crushed him instantly. "There!" Spotting a small hole exposing moonlight, he pushed himself one last time, using his magic to shove obstructing debris away until he was finally close enough to crawl outside.
With great effort, he stood up and gazed at his surroundings.
"This…" There was nothing left, the giant castle that once served as the display of power of Olga Discordia, a symbol of power that also represented her status as the ruler of the dark lands, was now gone. A sea of shattered stones and scattered rubble laid before him, with no signs of life in sight aside from himself, with the fires of the burning landscape being the only light source. The air was thin and inhospitable, polluted by the fumes and ashes of the carnage. All that remained was smoke and soot, including the cremated remains of the corpses that got caught in the explosion. "He… did all this?"
The man possessed magic that was foreign to these lands, capable of calling forth swords with power of great renown. Nimble as Alicia but with the strength of Claudia. A mysterious man from a kingdom that Kin could never pinpoint, having entered Eostia for unknown reasons. The fact that he took out the entire Kuroinu army in less than an hour was inconceivable, a baffling reality that even he was having a hard time accepting.
Yet despite all of that, Kin still lived.
"I… won't accept this." He muttered to himself, refusing to give up on his dreams of becoming the most powerful mage in history, something he would achieve once he gains access to Celestine's library. The amount of knowledge he could acquire there would grant him the powers of the gods.
"K-Kin…?" He heard a weak voice next to him and as he looked over, the bespectacled man's heart became heavy with sorrow, dismayed at the sight before him.
"Vault…"
It was his leader. Or at least… part of him.
The man was crawling towards him, his face was… gone. Half of it had been burned away, leaving behind the whites of his bone including a vacant hole where his left eye should have been. But that was nothing compared to the spine-chilling sight that had once been his lower half — the missing part of his body.
"A-A…Ah… h-heal me… q-qui-quick." He could barely talk, something Kin considered to be a blessing in disguise.
Though his healing magic was quite potent, even he couldn't restore this shambling mess of a human being. Having the entire lower half of one's body ripped away safe for a few remaining segments of intestines and guts whilst he continued to crawl towards him… that was beyond his skills.
"I can't," he said, watching his leader attempting to grab hold of his legs but failing due to the red dome around him.
"D-D-Do it… ple-please…" Vault pleaded, coughing up blood and bits of his own flesh. "G-Gold… Men… Women… I'll give… everything."
Kin sighed at the pathetic sight before him. "You can promise me the world Vault, but I still won't be able to help you." A man he'd respected for years because of his charismatic personality, confidence, leadership and bravery was now reduced to a crawling beggar who couldn't understand that he was no god. Then again, still managing to cling onto life at his current state spoke volumes on how freakishly durable the man was.
"I… know a way to… help you." He said, wanting to finish things here as soon as possible. But before he could show mercy by ending Vault's suffering, he heard a voice.
"Well, you certainly are quite troublesome to kill. Good thing I'm thorough."
"—!?"
Out of nowhere, he felt a stinging pain on his chest. It was cold, the sensation caused Kin to stop breathing.
Turning around, Kin was just in time to face the terrifyingly familiar steel-gray eyes of the man who had killed Hicks, Vault and the entire Kuroinu army that they had brought… and now him. Standing barely a meter away from him, was Archer holding a long red spear that had pierced his heart.
"H-How…?" The shield that had saved him just minutes ago from a cataclysmic attack from the same person when he'd unleashed an attack that was far more powerful. Yet now, it wasn't even able to stop a simple old spear?
Archer shrugged, "Gáe Dearg can be quite useful for piercing magical defenses."
Gáe… what? He'd never heard of such a weapon, nor how this spear was special enough that it could bypass the magical spell he believed to be the ultimate shield.
Suddenly he heard the sound of glass shattering.
The next second, the shield around him broke into shards that scattered throughout the wind. Kin held the spear, tears forming in his eyes as he became weaker and weaker. "T-This can't be." He cried, "Sh-she… promised… me…"
Too weak to say another word, he fell with the weapon still pierced through his chest, dying as the last speck of life left his eyes.
Archer looked at the man with barely a hint of emotion in his eyes, "Just didn't want to repeat the same mistake from last time."
As he said that, his attention turned to the other figure near Kin's corpse, who stared back at him with pure hatred being the only discernible emotion in his remaining eye.
"So we finally meet. I do believe though that this will be our first and last encounter with one another, Vault."
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.