Fate: Beyond the Gate

1

In a far away land surrounded by rolling green hills and verdant tranquil plains stood an Empire that had lasted over a hundred years. Its Kingdom stretched beyond the high walls of a central citadel and expanded to encompass a thriving townscape of homes and village folk happily going about their days. It was idealistic, tranquil, but only ever on the surface. Politically, and strategically, the Empire was surrounded by rival kingdoms all intent on running various espionage missions to hamper each others progress and gains.

To the North existed the Demi-Humans. To the South, the Beastfolk. To the East, the Kingdom of Tinae nearest to the Avion Sea rich in resources plundered by seafaring races and pirates. And to the West, well, there actually used to be nothing in the West, but as of recently, an anomaly appeared that garnered the focus of all nearby Kingdoms and factions.
Two Gates that seemingly led to the middle of nowhere. All they were, were two stone arced entrances with no discernible end in sight down a black tunnel. No one would had paid much attention to them at first aside from aspiring Wizards and Sorcerers vying to understand the Gate's magical principles, but everything quickly changed when strange rumours began to emerge from the magical community.
'Treasure beyond mortal means existed on the other side of one of the Gates with the ability to allow any Kingdom to Lord over all things.'
Hoax or not, the Gates were within travelling distance to all rival kingdoms and Factions, and it wasn't something that the Empire was going to risk not investigating. Due to the mystery of the matter and the lack of knowledge about what existed on the other side of each gate, Molt Sol Augustus, the current Emperor of the Empire had sent out expeditionary forces rather than an army unit. They had one job, and one job only. Intelligence gathering.
Within the castle throne room of the Empire, Molt Sol Augustus contemplatively brushed the stubble of his beard while seated upon his throne. He wore a white mantle over a regal tunic and, and had gold-lace-like designs scrawled over his breaches. He was the very image of a militaristic ruler.
Constant territory expansion was the only way that he believed that the Empire could maintain its prosperity, so if such treasures did exist on the other side of one of the Gates, he would not let his competitors monopolize such commodities. In which case, the faster he could verify the information, the faster he could come to a decision.
"Have they not returned yet?" Molt asked impatiently, his fingers rapping lightly over his thigh.
"Well father, one of the teams have actually just gotten back," a red-haired woman spoke up. Much like Molt, her hair was swept back and held in place by a metal crown. However, unlike Molt, the woman wore female Silver Knight's armour.
Her name was Piña Co Lada, and she was Molt's only daughter. In her hands, she reviewed a report hastily brought over by one of Molt's advisors from the intelligence gathering division of the Empire's senior council.
She stared hard at the report, and soon enough, her expression shifted into something of disbelief and awe.
Noticing his daughter's reaction, Molt cleared his throat. "Did you discover where one of the Gate leads?" He asked authoritatively.
Molt's voice broke Pina out of her daze before she nodded curtly, traces of excitement present in her eyes.
"About that," Pina appeared out of breath. "It seems that the westernmost Gate leads to some kind of other world."
Molt raised a brow in interest, beckoning for Pina to continue. She simply nodded in response, both hands griping tightly onto the parchment report. "The world on the other side spans for as far as the eye can see, a bronze coloured horizon stretching far beyond the clouds and hills of densely packed mana filled world. The world magic community is already in pandemonium with this discovery. Aside from the nature of the other world, there's not a human or inhabitant in sight. It's entirely barren father. A new land."
Molt hummed, but he could see that his daughter wasn't done. New lands or densely packed and ambient mana wouldn't be enough to excite her, a Knight and not a magician. There had to be something more, and his intuition appeared to be spot on.
"It's an Ancient Armoury with no owner in sight," Pina swallowed down her excitement. "Enchanted Weapons of all kinds exist there, many of which the Sorcerers dared not even draw near due to the dense amounts of blood lust, or because of ungodly amounts of Holy and Demonic properties."
Molt suddenly found himself standing in front of his throne, his heart palpitating wildly, a sharp gleam in his eyes. "About how many of such ownerless weapons are we talking about here in this Ancient Armoury?" He asked to clarify, his hands already trembling in excitement. He was already considering in his mind about whether or not the other Kingdoms had made a similar discovery yet. If so, then time was of the essence. The Empire would plunder and monopolize all the weapons and leave the other Kingdoms with nothing. From there, the Empire's dominance would be uncontested.
Different from Molt's expectations though, the answer to his question left him speechless.
Pina looked troubled. She knew her father and understood what he was probably thinking, but from what the report indicated, there was no way to pull such a maneuver off.
"It's not a question of 'how many,' father," Pina said tentatively. "It's more of a question of the Kingdom's capacity."
Molt looked taken aback. Capacity? Was his daughter insinuating that the Empire would not have enough space in their armouries to store every weapon? Rubbish. If there wasn't enough space presently, he'd just order for more armouries to be built.
As if able to read his mind, Pina shook her head. "It's not as simple as that father," she said before just simply handing the report over.
Gingerly, Molt skimmed through the report, before his expression abruptly stilled similar to how Pina's had been before.
"There's no way we can take all those weapons," Pina made eye contact with her father.
After all.
"Beyond the westernmost Gate is a world of Unlimited Blades."
Thanks for Reading!
Author's note: This is the winner of Tier A's story prologue asking to cross Fate and the Gate Series by Alex K, and this is what I ended up thinking up for a crossover. Hope you enjoyed!
A Tale of Two's update will come out later today. I was thinking of posting A Tale of Two's update with Beyond the Gate's, but since I already had Beyond the Gate's update done, I figured I'd just post it.
P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious