White Ink

24

Satsuki and Sumire were not having a very good time. As soon as they had started to attack the tornado they ran into problems. The tornado's mobility was not accounted for in their initial estimates and every time Satsuki tried to drain the mana that surrounded and made up the tornado it moved out of the way before the effect in the space it occupied could get to severe. In addition the park resisted Satsuki's ability to drain the mana crippling the ability she most relied on. After about five minutes of this Sumire simply pulled Satsuki aside and sat down with her on a nearby park bench watching the tornado. A bottle of ale in her hand which she then proceeded to crack open and start to drink.
"

What are we going to do now? Satsuki asked feeling upset about her failure to stop the tornado.
"Nothing Sumire," said lazily. "There's no point fighting a losing battle. Save your energy for whatever comes out of it."
"But we can't just do nothing, you said that thing is absorbing all the curses. What happens if it finishes absorbing them," the younger woman implored.
"When that thing finishes absorbing the curse I want you to retreat," Sumire said. "You probably haven't noticed this but this cursed ground contains a powerful anti-human inclination. You are probably the second most vulnerable to its effects after Illya."
"What," Satsuki said stuttering. "But you said I'm not human. When Shirou unvampirised me both of you said I couldn't go back to being human anymore and that I was a phantasmal beast."
"True we did say that," Sumire turned towards her student. "But you have to realise that being human is more than just a state of body but a state of mind. Despite the fact that you have a reality marble an attribute that should logically set you apart from humanity you still emulate the species too much."
She took another gulp from the bottle and continued. "Arcueid has never been human and in fact has an alien outlook that only can go as far as emulating humanity. Shirou dons and takes off his humanity like a hat depending on the situation. As for me I've been a vampire for a very long time. I can't even remember what it was like to be human."
Satsuki examined the face of her mentor. She had known the old vampire for three years now and she had a strong feeling that the last statement was a lie, but an equally strong feeling that the other statements were true. If what she said was true then she would be useless in a battle against whatever monster emerged. She clenched her hands feeling her frustration boil over. She hated being useless, that she was always the weakest on the team and she never seemed to accomplish as those much as those stronger than her.
"It doesn't have to remain that way," Sumire said giving her a knowing look. "I'm not going to give empty platitudes like you're the heart of the team or we all rely on you. You're better than that. What I'm going to do once this is over is teach you everything I know." Sumire put away her bottle and looked at her apprentice. "If you accept this offer I'm putting before you I will teach you enough that no member of the twenty-seven would call you inferior."
Satsuki gasped at the implications. "So you want to make me one of the Dead Apostle Ancestors."
Sumire nodded. "When I die, I will grant you my spot."
Turning away from the stunned Satsuki she refocused her eyes on the phenomenon. "It's stopping," she said. And indeed it was the black tornado's rotation had slowed down and contracted as the curses from the park had finished being absorbed into the blackened mass. The tornado collapsed down on itself shrinking until one solitary figure remained. Sumire sighed as she beheld who it was.
"Really, Arcueid," she said exasperatedly looking at the long haired version of one of her good acquaintances. "I don't really find her scary, do you Satsu?"
Satsuki only shook her head as she eyed up their opponent. This version of Arcueid not only had her much longer hair but she wore a black and red dress as opposed to normal Arcueid who was most often decked out in white. Besides that there were no other differences between the false True Ancestor and her friend.
Their opponent suddenly looked at them and a huge smile appeared on her face. "Hey Satsuki how are you doing," she said. "I saw you did some good work just now to try and stop me being born. Congratulations, pity it didn't work out."
"What? said Satsuki blankly trying to come to terms to what she just heard. This was what they were trying to prevent. The big villain was a polite Arcueid Brunestud.
"I see," Sumire said from next to her. "Turns out you're not as human as I thought you were Satsu. This manifestation obviously absorbed the human hating aspect of the curse. We are not its targets."
"Human hating," the Arcueid in front of them said. "I don't hate humans. I just believe they should all suffer and die." She tilted her head looking like an innocent young woman.
"Okay so Dark Arcueid, Darcueid, you know we can't let you do this," Sumire stated. As she did this she performed some pre-exercise stretches and then adopted some form of combat stance.
"Oh Sumire," Darcueid said, "I actually really liked you. I don't want you to die."
"Sorry Arcueid, that is not a scenario that I can let you act out unopposed."
The True Ancestor sighed. "So be it," she said. And then she charged.
xxx
"This thing is quite tough," Arcueid spoke idly to herself. A kick lashed out causing the gigantic evil octopus to recoil and fall over. Blades of wind formed in the air and crashed into the monster causing deep gouges in its hide. However the monster kept regenerating. Despite its huge size the monster possessed comparatively weak attack power and was very slow.
Annoyingly however the creature possessed regeneration which allowed it to take all of her punishment and come back for more. She had already chopped it into bits and dropped rocks on it but both of those it had shrugged off. Sighing Arcueid jumped back watching the monster very slowly get to its "feet". At this point she was starting to regret not going to the other two spots, they must be better than this. The upside of the whole situation was that the creature was slowly running out of mana and the night was progressing. It was already passed midnight and therefore in less than six hours the sun will rise and the Night of Wallachia will end. While this wouldn't kill the apostle ancestor it would defer the problem. While they had the backup plan based on Sumire and Shirou's conjecture she wasn't that eager to go through with it.
Suddenly one of the two sources of power changed suddenly almost taking Arcueid off guard. Using her connection to the planet she felt out the new power. Analysing the power she felt some familiarity and then everything clicked.
A burning feeling erupted in her chest. Something was trying to steal her identity, her life. She liked her life. She liked having Nine and Shirou's cooking. She liked playing games with her group of friends and talking about stuff she'd never heard of before. She liked having her special time with Shirou and she liked practicing martial arts with both of them as well.
And now some impostor wanted to take it away from her. "Not just no, but fuck no," she thought in her head. Turning to the monster she eyed it up. It was big and would be called dangerous under most circumstances but in this case it was just an obstacle.
She submersed herself in her own power resolving to crush this beast before obliterating the imposter. She jumped up to a nearby building and unloaded the unconscious Illya. Then she turned back to face the creature, not as Arcueid Brunestud but as the will of Gaia, the strongest of the True Ancestors and as the closest thing on this planet to the Crimson Moon. Activating the counter force inherent to that position she felt her strength grow to gigantic levels. Powering up she struck the creature with a single blow, a straight punch that drove the monster into the ground.
Activating her marble phantasm to the highest level she had ever used it she tapped into the magma that bubbled and boiled right below the city causing the ground to erupt in a spurt of lava that engulfed and burnt the creature causing it to shriek in pain. With a wave of her hand the lava wrapped around the creature completely covering it. Another gesture and the area in which the creature was situated dropped to under minus eighty degrees centigrade. In less than ten seconds the creature was a mere statue. Arcueid nodded grimly to herself and went to confront the imposter
xxx
The dragon snorted in satisfaction looking at the melted crater in front of him. His back was in agony and the cool night air scraped against his exposed spine like a thousand needles. He regretted attacking that man. He did not actually want to fight him as the man had done nothing to harm him personally and was very dangerous as indicated by the fact that during the fight he had come perilously close to dying. But unfortunately he couldn't help it. His very genes demanded that ones such as he must die and regrettably he wasn't strong enough to disobey.
A noise to the side made him pause. "No," he the dragon thought. "No, surely not. It can't be."
Turning his head he came across the image of the red haired man that so dodged his best attempts to kill him looking better than ever. He sat astride a black unicorn and the places that his wounds were glinted silver.
xxx
"Wow that was close Nine, another few seconds and I would have been ash," Shirou smiled down at the unicorn. "And I see you've brought my sword back to me. Well done. In future I'm going to have to include some ability that allows me to summon it back. But as for now."
Shirou straightened up. His overtaxed circuits spun again gathering more prana as he addressed the dragon. "Do you still want to continue," he said with steely eyes. "You can still retreat."
The dragon gazed at Shirou and then slowly nodded his head. This time however there was no certainty in the action and Shirou picked up on the reluctance. He sighed and then grasped his newly returned sword and charged. The dragon could not fly due to the damage that was done to his back so he remained earthbound. However that problem did not restrict his ability to breathe fire nor did it restrict the sheer mass of his blows and toughness of his hide. Nine darted around the fire as he charged towards him adjusting his speed and bearing to weave between the tongues of flame.
The unicorn was among other things inherited from Nrvnqsr and it was bloody fast. It stood over twenty hands tall and yet could turn on a dime. As they approached the crippled dragon a three fingered hand came whipping towards the duo at speed comparable to lightning. Nine not only dodged the claws but turned his entire body ninety degrees allowing Shirou to run his sword through arm of the massive beast. The dragons armour was unbelievably tough but with the momentum of the unicorn as well as Shirou's strong arms and the incredibly deadly piercing power of Nolava Shirou managed to penetrate the scales of the dragon.
As soon as the sword pierced its target the secondary effect of the blade activated and small bits of metal broke off the edges of the blade and were left in the wound. As soon as the blade left the arm of the dragon the bits of metal exploded in growth. This rapid expansion of metal inside the dragon caused it to roar in pain as its right arm was rendered useless.
Its right side falling to the ground the dragon propped itself up on its left arm and spat out a wave of poison at the duo. The wave rose up to block them as they approached their prey. Running straight at the poison Nine leapt up at the dragon Shirou standing on his back. At the apex of the jump Shirou with all his power leapt up and atop the dragon pushing Nine down into the poison below.
Landing on the dragons head Shirou immediately dodged a claw that was aimed to crush him into pulp. Grabbing onto the dragons scale as he fell he landed inches from the open mouth of the dragon. Its jaws snapped at him and he had to struggle to keep those enamel swords from slicing him in two. With his free hand he stabbed the gums of the dragon.
At this new pain the dragon went berserk thrashing his head trying to dislodge this unwanted intrusion. With tremendous force Shirou was flung upwards and into the sky. The pressure was so great that he almost passed out but with sheer force of will he remained consciousness.
Looking downwards he saw the open mouth of the dragon flames starting to gather. Taking stock he realized he was low on prana, his muscles were tired, Nine was still taking a poison bath and his blade was still stuck in the dragons gums.
All that he had on his person was his Magic and his wits while the dragon appeared to have a volcano down his throat. That was the problem with dragon lungs Shirou realized; they were entire worlds that simply existed to produce prana. It was one of those things that made them such feared examples of Phantasmal beasts.
Shirou nearly smacked himself the answer was so obvious. Letting out almost all the water in his body he quickly applied the concept of [freeze] to it and in under a second he was above a titanic iceberg. Cheating further he once again called on his magic and applied the concept of [heavy]. Both concepts were not properly applied and would likely not stick around too long as the iceberg melted and changed but it was good for his purpose.
The dragon's fire had barely begun when the impact of a fifty thousand ton iceberg hit it in the face. As tough as the phantasmal beast could be it was not prepared for that and the resulting collision caused its head to be crushed beneath the mass.
Shirou was falling down into the poison when he felt strong arms envelop him. Looking up he came across the concerned eyes of Nine. His butler landed and carried him through the poison on the ground.
"Wow Nine," Shirou said desperately trying to recover some control of the situation. "If I was that way inclined I might have actually fallen for you right there."
"If my Master wishes I can change my gender to match his perversions," Nine said as he smiled in good humour.
"Gods no," Shirou shuddered. "We don't need any more oestrogen in the house. But I'm sure you have the girls falling over you Nine."
"I'm afraid Master that I'm married to my job," Nine replied back as he helped his Master to his feet.
"What about that cute maid golem," Shirou replied winking.
"As cute as she was I feel that she would be more your type than mine Master," Nine smirked. "You always seem to like those that are a few screws short."
Shirou smiled and then he sighed, "As interesting as this is we should really get to the others."
"Are you sure Maste," Nine said concerned. "You're really not in the best condition. You have just fought a dragon, the strongest of all phantasmal beasts; even if the dragon was not a real one that is still no small feat."
"Sorry for worrying you Nine," Shirou said sheepishly. "But I have a feeling I need to go." He took one step forward and then stumbled. "Can you call a taxi or something Nine. I really don't feel like walking all the way."
"I'm afraid no taxis will be available on a night like tonight Master," Nine smiled. "If you're going to insist on going let me provide you with alternate transport."
At those words Nine started to shift until a new form appeared. Shirou whistled as he beheld it.
"Nine, not going to lie that looks pretty cool, let's go." He gave the iceberg one last look. "I don't think I'm going to be able to retrieve my sword right now."
xxx
The fight between Darcueid and Sumire was going far more evenly than Satsuki initially thought. Sumire was weakened on land and was going up against one of the most physically powerful beings in the world backed up with the various curses in the park.
However there were a few things that gave Sumire an advantage over her opponent. Firstly the curses were mainly geared towards humans and so most of them slid off her and those that didn't she almost immediately diffused.
Secondly she had prepared by charging up her marble phantasm beforehand, synchronizing with the world and was now currently performing some truly impressive feats despite the lack of ocean. Satsuki had never thought about half of those uses and she was sure that Arcueid hadn't either. So far Darcueid had been zapped by electricity, poisoned, spontaneously combusted, crushed by gravity and been plunged into unforgiving fog.
Third was that the creature did not fight like Arcueid. To be more specific, she did not fight like the modern Arcueid. Arcueid had been practicing with a simplified martial art that worked for her and had practiced until she became pretty good. This Arcueid stuck to wild attacks that while unpredictable, vicious and strong were technique wise no match for Sumire's Krav Maga. Despite being stronger and faster than her opponent she was getting slightly dominated.
Suddenly the new Arcueid seemed to have enough of the fight and started spamming wind attacks by using her Marble Phantasm. Sumire was getting pushed back and started fighting on the defensive trying to wear out the seemingly inexhaustible reserves of energy.
This tactic didn't work because the battle was suddenly joined by the real Arcueid who appeared from behind Sumire and ran forward landing a powerful jab in the other Arcueid's face. This jab was followed by a one two combo against the ribs and then an uppercut causing the other Arcueid to stumble backwards.
This didn't slow real Arcueid as she simply strode forward dodging the wild swipes of her evil counterpart with some fancy footwork. Bobbing left and right she landed hit after hit on the doppelganger. Not a single punch was held back and not a single blow was taken by her and after about half-a-minute of this Darcueid was on the ropes.
"Try to steal my life will you," the Arcueid suddenly shouted out. "They're my friends, my food, my fun, my family. Find your own." With that she suddenly started rocketing out blows at ever increasing pace until the copycat scum was reduced to a pile of flesh on the floor. Only then did Arcueid relent stepping back and breathing with a certain heaviness neither of the onlookers had ever seen before.
She then raised her hands and far above in the night sky a red moon appeared. Under the light of the moon the beaten body disappeared and was replaced by that of a blonde aristocratic looking man.
"Zepia Eltman Oberon," the unamused True Ancestor stated. "As the man started to stand up she drove her fist through his skull. "She then unleashed her Marble Phantasm tearing the entire upper portion of his body to ribbons.
Stepping away from the corpse she started to walk over to Satsuki and Sumire her grim look disappearing and her smile widening as she beheld two of her friends. The two also showed relieved smiles as they looked at her. But then Sumire's smile faded. A chill went up Arcueid's spine as she turned to face her defeated opponent. The corpse had started bubbling and Arcueid started getting a very bad feeling.
"It's cursed," she heard Satsuki yell out from behind her. At this knowledge she started forcefully categorizing what she could do to stop it and coming up blank. She had no ability to stop curses. She could only watch helplessly as the bubbling came to a stop and the curse exploded into being a muddy sick black thing.
The curse washed towards her and she resolved to stop it by any means necessary when suddenly Shirou was in front of her. At the same time she vaguely recognized Nine in the form of a Pegasus land next to her but she was too bust focusing on her best friend who was in front of the wave of curses.
Shirou stuck out of his hand and the black wave impacted his body. After a moment he was buried in the black goo. Arcueid rushed in to save him and she dived into the mud swimming through it to get him. She reached him in a moment and pulled him out but even as she did that the mud was becoming less viscous and by the time he was out the mud had been reduced to just a few small puddles.
"Shirou, Shirou can you hear me," Arcueid said shaking him slightly. He really did not look good. Blood was dripping from his ears and his eyes were red and veiny. In addition his breathing was shallow and his skin was dry.
His eyes opened, "Arcueid," he said his voice cracked and hoarse.
"Yes Shirou, what is it," Arcueid said anxiously looking at him.
Shirou raised his hand and rapped the vampire on the forehead. "Why is there a fucking volcano in my city?" he said his voice quiet. "And why the fuck was Illya on the roof?"
"He he," Arcueid said. "Well that's a funny story."
Shirou sighed, "Nevermind I'm tapped out. I don't think I can even stand up anymore after I had to apparently purify the whole park while it attacked me."
Shirou eyes flickered and he yawned. When he next spoke his voice was full of fatigue. "Arcueid fix the volcano, take Satsuki with you. Sumire can you please remove an iceberg by the temple and keep the Tiger off of me tomorrow. Nine take me home. Somebody get Illya off…" his voice trailed off and he fell asleep.
"Well I'll see you tomorrow," Nine said picking up Shirou and heading into the darkness.
"Let's go fix up the volcano and get Illya back," Arcueid grabbed Satsuki and they both headed off in that direction.
Sumire smiled and took another drink of her alcohol. She headed off towards the temple but before she left she took one look at the fading red moon etching the spectacular sight into her memory.
xxx
Scattered throughout Fuyuki hundreds of runic circles captured the light of the Crimson Moon. These runic circles were themselves siphoned off of by a series of devices. Each device had such millimetre precision that it could have only been created with the latest of technology and yet each device simultaneously were so steeped in magic that they could have been mistaken for an artefact from the Age of the Gods. The devices themselves burned out in a brief display of power imprinting their dying magecraft on a set of runes drawn in blood below. Each of the fifty circles activated only briefly creating an effect that was imprinted on the surrounding mana and then went still.
The fiftieth of the circles that was located on the roof of a cavern beneath Mount Enzo didn't disappear but instead remained active. The circle was hidden incredibly well to such an extent it would not be possible for anybody to actually discover it without prior knowledge.
Because of this nobody would ever notice the slowly pulsing circle. Nobody would ever notice that among the ever-changing numbers and figures that one figure remained constant.
Nobody would ever notice the countdown marking one year from now.
Author Note: Not one hundred percent happy about this chapter. This is basically the end of the arc. There will be a more relaxed chapter next dealing with the conclusion. Can anybody who has some time on their hands do me a favour and just drop a short review about their favourite and/or least favourite character and maybe why they like/hate them.
Omegazero2718 Okay you got me. Neither I nor google translate have any idea what the fuck you said. I assume this is something memetic but I'm genuinely not sure. Can you please indulge my curiosity.
The Rupture He's trying but he's been taking damage and constantly using it. In this chapter with a bit of patching up he's able to use it again.
2lzy2login I always feel that fate/stay has such great potential for au fics. However this potential is very rarely exploited. My next fanfiction won't be a fate fic as I don't want to just find a niche and sit in it.