C245: Beginning of the End Pt3
Alt title Teaser: The Lich King
Date published: 8/3/2025.
pretty good chapter this time around, lot of inspiration flowing into it. Enjoy
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Axel's appearance in the battlefield was an unexpected turn, it also doesnt help that it was all orchestrated by Sheba.
Nevertheless, Axel cant allow anything to happen to her like this. He steps forward and his mana flows into her body, purging the black mud.
Yet he also cant just allow her to remain unpunished for her actions, with a wave of her hand, she is sent to his reality marble and put under house arrest with his clones watching over her.
Axel then looks at Angra Mainyu who has turned into a beast and speaks up.
"Your transformation was caused by your reaction to me, I shall allow it this one time but you must cancel it the moment I leave, keeping it up will ensure you face the punishment dictated by my rules" he gives his one warning as he nods to Washio who has also paused in his fight against Martha.
Moments later he visibly floats away instead of just teleporting.
Angra Mainyu understands that he cant keep it up much longer but is knowingly upset that he wasted his transformation so easily.
Yet as he thought of this, a blue orb flies towards him at fast speeds, it slams into him, seeping into his body. Shirou finds that he was moderately healed and his own energies restored.
He has a frightening realization that Axel knows exactly what the energy and physical cost for using his noble phantasm was.
Knowing that there is someone who can see through you so easily is very scary. Not knowing if your every action just plays right into their hands or they are just puppets in the other person's hands.
Naturally the first to recover from the awe of Axel's magical energy is Berserker. His roar and swing of his sword is what alerts all others to return to the battlefield yet due to Saber (alter) also being stunned by the mana. She had taken the sharp club straight to the face which sent her flying.
The collision causes Saber to bounce off the ground once or twice before they dig their feet in and come to a stop.
Naturally things will not be easy for Saber as Luna too recovers after being lost in her masters half restrained aura. Her unique ability ensures that she always has an understanding of what level her master has reached but that is harder to understand when the gap between them is just so large.
When Luna recovered and saw Saber sliding away from Heracles' attack, she concentrated her power into the earth, creating threads of metal that slowly wrapped around Saber's legs without the swordswoman noticing since the threads did not restrict her movement as she slid away from them and their temperature and feel was made to replicate the feel of Saber's own legs.
Saber would simply assume that a leaf or piece of mud had stuck to her again, as she had already gotten accustomed to being covered in mud from Luna's attack. Luna's plan worked as Lancer catches up with Saber, Lancer's attack leaves her primarily defenses as all her power is concentrated into her spear. Lancer's spear is poised to stab Saber who also begins to swing her sword at the lancer, Saber has faith in her armor to overcome this strike even if it comes at a small cost of her energy.
Should Saber's plan come to fruition then the battle would revert to a two v one. Then a single opening would allow her to kill Berserker or finally take down Luna.
Her own impatience would be her own undoing as she swings her sword down, attempting to kill Lancer but she finds that she was simply an inch short of the attack. This was caused by Luna's threads pulling the swordswoman's body, ensuring her attack missed but the same was not true for the other.
As said, Lancer's spear continues forward and pierces through Saber's armor, only to come in contact with her chest and subsequently her armor, It continues deeper as it touches flesh and goes even further beyond.
Luckily enough, Saber is able to move backwards, preventing her death, momentarily if anything as a summoned rock golem by Luna punches her back into the trident before she had fully escaped.
Saber's heart becomes pierced by the trident and her death is now inevitable. She coughs up blood and falls to her knees as Caenis pulls the spear back.
Lancer shakes the blood off as Heracles brings down his
Sharp club down onto sabers head, crushing it with a bloody splatter.
"We should meet up with the rest at the temple." Caenis states while Heracles responds with a huff as the two move further in.
Sakura and Illya who were a distance away, watching through binoculars cheer as Saber is taken down.
"This should mean we won right?" Illya asks Sakura but it is someone else that responds.
"Assassin is dead, and now Saber has been taken down. With the previous lancer taken care of, victory is pretty much assured as long as Caster, Ruler and Shirou are defeated. Then we've won."
Click "Yea you've won alright."
At the temple, Washio takes action up front while Rin supports him by buffing his speed and strength further.
Due to Washio boosting his own metaphysical dragon muscles and Rin boosting his human muscles. He has a larger boost in power and speed which allows him to suppress Martha quite easily.
Also, Due to Sheba's fight against her master..Caster, Martha is at a minor loss of energy which reduces her combat effectiveness.
'Release your noble phantasm' Martha suddenly hears in her head and she lowers her head as her magic energy begins to be heightened.
Along with her rising energy levels,she begins to chant briefly before the mana takes on a mystical shape.
"Child of Leviathan, now a guardian of the people.
Become a meteor...
Tarasque!"
A giant scaled beast with enormous horns takes shape behind Martha. A fog of dark energy summons the beast as its rumbling growl is heard and felt by all at the temple.
"Everyone, spread out" Washio moves away from Rin as well as everyone else. He had long been warned by his servant before she had been taken from him how her noble phantasm works.
They had made plans about how to use it if it ever came down to it. That very plan is now being used against him.
Martha jumps high, backflipping behind the Tarasque as she prepares her cross staff. Once she chooses a direction based on her master's decision, she swings the staff.
On the other side of the battlefield, after being saved by Axel, Sheba had distanced herself from Angra Mainyu. She had summoned smoke based golems to keep him off her, not that the pseudo servant would go after her again in case Axel would go after him now that he feels his last servant has perished.
Avenger continues taking down the smoke-based golems yet they keep reforming while Sheba blocks all of Caster's spells. Her own master has already escaped to safety so he would not be targeted by the enemy for any reason. This also saves her a minute amount of mana.
Everyone soon hears Washio's words, Sheba flies up while maintaining the smoke, as such, Angra Mainyu is the sole one who gets struck by the tarasque flying in their direction. Sheba had at most been nicked by the horns of the tarasque as she had been one step too slow. Yet her own smoke seals up her leg while healing essence from her masters mana flows to the wound, gradually healing it.
Caster gets a moment of freedom yet she is eventually disappointed with the result as Sheba had instead been freed to focus on her due to Avenger being sent flying out of the temple. Lucky for him, he had only been struck by a part of the Tarasque's tail, so he collided with one of the walls to stop his ascent against gravity. The situation reverts to its previous one on one with Caster falling behind gradually.
It has to be noted Caster could compete with those in her own tier of magicians but even she becomes nothing more than prey to those who bear supernatural blood. The prime example being a goddess like Aprodite who had brainwashed her to fall in love with Jason.
This is the case in this scenario as Sheba is half-Djinn.
This grants her higher magical abilities than most humans, this combined with having lived years beside her master, Axel Gram.
She has grown used to his mana and the innate worldly laws infused into it that allows her to regularly change her own basic nature to simply counter every single one of Casters spells.
If Sheba had been a recent summon like the other servants then she could have been on the backfoot fighting off both Avenger and Caster but that is not the case.
While the fight continues, Lancer and Berserker arrive at the top of the temple stairs as they take in the situation but while Berserker charges at Angra Mainyu, who was slowly getting up from the previous noble phantasm, for his misdeeds against his master, Lancer on the other hand focuses on Caster with a curious expression until a bit of wind flaps her hood up slightly for Lancer to get a better look.
"Berserker, Get the booze again, we are having another reunion. Hey Medea, let's get drunk, you can drown that bastard Jason in all of it." Caenis rushes forward past all the golems, the servants and magical explosions to leap at Caster with a grin on her face. She somehow pulls out her own canteen of booze that she promptly stuffs into Caster's mouth.
Not expecting the strange attack, especially one from an old friend, Medea chokes on the alcohol which stops her barrage of spells, luckily Sheba cancels her offensive on her to turn her attention on Berserker.
Which she was unfortunately one step too late as Avenger has shoved his hand into the heroes chest. The distraction from Caenis a severe one.
In any other situation, a hand in the chest would be fatal but berserker can heal from such a light wound, the real issue is the black mud spewing out from the wound, sticking to his skin. Corruption to his saint graph is the next thing to happen as his very legend is corrupted.
Sheba's golems move to interrupt the procedure but even partial corruption to the saint graph is more than enough to fully do so.
(starting corrupted backstory, can be skipped if not interested. It's fairly long-500 some words)
Heracles, the hard working hero who went through the twelve trials, a test of brawn, brain and wit, reduced by madness enhancement to be no more than a protective weapon.
Yet that protection is gone now, the hero has been turned into nothing more than a rampaging monster who had brought ruin to Olympus. The shame of Zeus who cried in rage for his destroyed family, one destroyed by both Hera and Zeus. He would have his vengeance in the most cruel way possible.
He ravaged their temples, slaughtered their innocent servants, toppled every single monument and artifact that had their blessings until the only known legend of these two gods would be his rage against them. He completed their 12 tasks in the most cruel way possible.
He slayed the Nemean Lion, taking it's skin only to collect an artifact of hades which allowed him to rouse the weary beasts spirit to serve him. He beat the hydra with pure physical force, killing it and bathing in their blood until he too possessed immense regenerative power.
With the power of the two beasts flowing within him and their spirits submitted to him, he captured the precious hind, seducing Artemis to grant him her blessing before killing the deer with her own bow that he stole. Using that same bow he took down the Stymphalian birds, capturing their souls next for his army.
With the gathered souls, he defeated the Cretan bull, following the original's path by feeding the bull it's owner. But he later killed it and added it's soul to his army.
With said army, he ravaged the amazoness Queen and her army, stealing the Girdle of Hippolyta. Slain was the three bodied giant that owned the Cattle of Geryon. Slain was the dragon and ravaged were the Nymphs that guarded the Apples of the Hesperides.
Yet the final task was the easiest as due to overusing the artifact of Hades, he was dragged to the underworld where he captured Cereberus using the same said artifact. Captured was the beast and brought to the surface before slaying it and adding it's own hellfire born soul to melt the artifact into his own body.
His body was destroyed by the necrotic energies but his own soul was empowered, he became the first true undead, an eternal lich that had restructured it's original body back into his prime.
He alchemically integrated the flesh of the Stymphalian birds as well as the Nemean Lion into his own thanks to the help of the Nymph, Circe who he had subdued thanks to his might and 'might'.
With the completion of these 12 tasks, he was granted the title of Demigod and allowed access to Olympus where he finally put his plans into action.
He did not rush his actions, taking out various lesser gods while recruiting others to his cause if they too held hatred for the main dieties.
Aphrodite became no more than a common sow for the gods and sometimes even mortals she had previously bewitched for whatever her fanciful reason was.
Hades torn head from his shoulders under his own and Nike's blades. Apollo became a branded slave, to be no more than a toy for others. Artemis is transformed into a similar hind as the one Heracles hunted to be his pet.
Hermes is spared but locked up until the whole revolt ends. Same with Hephaestus who was promised materials and help to reforge his own body to become a proper and undeformed god, his wrath against his mother Hera immense, he had practically volunteered to join Heracles once he heard. When Aphrodite was captured, she was given to the smith god where she gave him two children before being discarded and relegated to her prostitution role.
With all forces quelled, the demigods and lesser gods had taken down Hera when she was endowed with wrath against her husband for another possible brat of his, unknowing that one of them was just beside her when she cut off her head.
Zeus had not fallen with ease, his mythical lightning bolt had given the corrupted hero much trouble before the father of the gods was simply overwhelmed with numbers and heracles own impervious skin and phylactery which ensured he would never fall along with the army of spirits that are weakened but never killed.
Poseidon and Hades are left well enough alone as heracles has no wrath against them. He even has to rely on Hades a fair bit to retain his lich state but he eventually masters that power for himself but neither side chose to go to war, as if Zeus had never fallen.
Heracles eventually chose Nike as his wife but they never had children due to the nightmares he retained of his family being slaughtered. He never forgot his rage and his actions eventually led to his destruction as foreign pantheons eventually waged war against him and his.
(back to the action)
Sheba's eyes widen in horror as she witnesses the greek heroes skin effectively melt into just bones before a strange green glow covers said bones, infesting them with necrotic energy until the skin regrew, returning them to a tanned but pale skin, the type that can't take in light as he is bereft of all life. A black light shines in his eyes as his corrupted divinity overflows.
"He he he" Sheba frowns as she summons more golems to encircle the corrupted hero but he just chuckles as the green energy encircles his body until it seems into the floor as a lion stands beside him. It roars loudly before rushing towards the golems, destroying them easily but they just keep regrowing.
More mythical creatures, specifically their spirits are roused and sent onward. Angra Mainyu is given a break to rest and recover as his new corrupted demigod is sent out to pillage.
Martha is constantly being suppressed but due to Lancer's interference in the magic battle, has regained most of her energy but the 2 v 1 continues to be against her in more ways than one as Rin showcases her innate gemstone affinity. Utilizing her storage of crystals, she can merge them into the ground and sprout larger stalactites to pin Ruler down while Washio prepares stronger attacks for these moments.
Lancer on the other hand is keeping Caster occupied with Caenis' heartfelt celebrations. She is so happy to see Medea again that she doesnt notice Berserker's situation. Her emotions are heavily sparked as after Medea had murder-suicided Jason at his wedding day with Cerusa/Glauce (two names due to differing accounts), she had learned from Poseidon of Aprodite's actions to essentially brainwash Medea to serve her champion, Jason. Caenis grew to mourn Medea and hate Jason.
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Word count: 2955
Drop a comment if you wanna judge my writing or the story. I'll try to respond, especially if you're confused or anything.