Fate/Outside Experience

Chapter 6: Swallowed In Darkness

FATE/OUTSIDE EXPERIENCE

Part III: Challenge of Grief

Chapter 6: Swallowed In Darkness

"-la! Connla!"

"Hm...?" the girl stirred awake.

"Connla! Are you there!? Come in, please!"

"M-Ms. Da Vinci?"

"Thank god! You need to return to Chaldea immediately!" the inventor's voice sounded uncharacteristically panicky.

"What? Why-?"

That was when Connla saw it. The tranquil blue lake she had been napping in front of was now a deep ebony black, as if someone swooped in and replaced the water with tar. Although it was mid-afternoon, the sky was dark as night, with no moon or stars to decorate the stygian canvas surrounding her. No birds or creatures could be heard – everything was perfectly silent save for the ripples on the lake. Once the sight jolted her awake, that was when she sensed a malicious presence nearby.

"Something's here..." she gasped and got to her knees.

Da Vinci desperately urged, "Get out of there already! Whatever it is, you can't fight it!"

Connla wanted to obey her instructions, but she was paralyzed with fright. Her gaze was fixed on the very center of the lake where a mass of black ink swirled out of the water and grew bigger until it materialized into a humanoid figure. Then the person stood up, somehow magically remaining on the lake's surface even though he should have sunk. From head to toe, the man was completely dressed in black armor and clothing. His helmet immured his entire head and face in darkness save for a red visor that glowed horizontally, serving as the only source of illumination around him. A long feathery plume rose from the helmet's apex. From Connla's perspective, he was the embodiment of midnight itself.

"Of all the-!" Da Vinci cursed in a shrill tone. "It's a Berserker! You need to run, now!"

"But..."

Right then, the armored knight turned his sights toward the little girl when he heard her voice. Sweat poured down her face as she stared back at him. They remained like this for a few, agonizingly long seconds, neither refusing to budge. Then he shuddered so much that his armor creaked.

"GRRR~RRUUUUUUU~UUUURRRGH!"

Water spurted around him like a sudden geyser, then parted as Berserker's body slashed through the lake straight for Connla. She gasped and instinctively rolled aside milliseconds before he cleaved through the ground she previously was on. She clumsily tumbled across the grass and landed face-first nearby. After breathing to compose herself, she got to her knees and gazed wide-eyed at him as he slid upon the ground and grabbed a fallen tree trunk. Judging from his constant transfixed stare on her, she could tell that she was his target.

I wish I could ask him why he's attacking me, but if he's a Berserker, he won't possess enough reason for me to have a conversation with him, she realized.

Faced with no other choice, Connla brandished her spear and announced to Da Vinci, "Preparing to engage the enemy!"

"Don't be ridiculous!" the inventor objected. "That Servant's power is through the roof! You have to get out of there!"

"But my geas won't allow me to flee!"

"Guh!"

Da Vinci immediately remembered the three geasa that the young Lancer was bound to. One of them forced her to fight any opponent who would ever challenge her, and it was impossible for her to disengage from it until either the enemy was dead or surrendered, or she was killed. Before the inventor could think of anything, Connla ran towards him while chanting the Runes to give herself Protection From Arrows. Meanwhile, Berserker dug his hand into the tree he was carrying and transformed it into a black mass with red veins running along it, prepared to face his young foe.