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A Nascent Kaleidoscope - Chapter 440

Published at 15th of March 2024 06:22:28 AM


Chapter 440

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Chapter 440:

In the blink of an eye, there were many different attacks landing on my person.

The familiar black thorns fired by what looked like a berserker Atlanta. Some very unpleasant looking fleshy tentacles that sprouted from the ground. Amidst them were also a bunch of stakes that gave me another familiar feeling.

And....a large Iron Maid connected to a chain was swung down overhead.

I, of course, chose the most logical course of action and ran.

The ground literally erupted with combined attacks in my wake. It took a burst of Shunpo for me to get even a moment of breathing room before someone I was familiar with made their proper introduction.

His hair was a mess, and his armor grotesque and bloodstained, but I recognized him all the same.

"We meet again!" He bellowed, slamming into the ground from the Wyvern he jumped off of. He wasted no time, lunging at me with fangs bared.

There was none of that previous grace nor martial prowess, even from someone who claimed leadership over martial might. No, he was more like a rabid beast, swiping at me with his clawed gauntlets, letting his stakes jut out from his own body to eek out any advantage

"You remember me too!?" I couldn't help but blurt out as I dodged to the side, letting a hail of arrows dipped in malefic energy from Atalanta pass by me.

I spared the briefest of moments to glance towards the others and saw that they had engaged the other Servants and Wyverns. Specifically, Fafnir was being preoccupied, which was rather important.

"How could I forget the one who destroyed my hopes and dreams!?" He cackled, oddly contradictory of the fact that he was trying to kill me.

"Would it help if I apologized?" I asked, shunpoing away.

"I admit it would make me feel better." He rather calmly replied, gouging out a chunk of the ground, and threw it at me.

I wasn't stupid, I snapped my fingers, compressing air at a fine point right in front of what was essentially a giant dirt boulder, making it burst, revealing dozens of Stakes following.

With Mirage in my hand, I flicked my wrist, matching each one with my own Birds. Vlad came barreling through the collision of energies, gauntlet claws trying to grab at me. I deflected each swipe, flying off at each failed attack of his.

"I would feel better if I took my pound of flesh instead!"

"You're oddly lucid for being 'controlled'. Are you even controlled?" I asked, ducking under another swipe as he gouged the ground from the force and Magical Energy dispelled.

His wide grin twisted into a snarl. "Do you think I want to be manifested this way!? That petulant child forced me into the state I despise the most! It eats at my mind, my will, and my desires! I enjoy the wanton slaughter, the blood, the corpses that I leave in my wake! I relish in the carnage!"

I slammed my knee into his armored torso, sending him skipping across the ground. "Doesn't sound much different than how you lived your life, Impaler."

He hissed, standing back up. "I accept my sins fully. I did what I thought required to protect my people and my home. Not falling to pleasure and gratification by inflicting horrors upon the undeserving!" He roared, releasing an impressive amount of Magical Energy, Stakes shot up from the ground everywhere, like a tidal wave with him at the focal point.

The concept of being impaled, not just normal stakes. It was rather annoying and something I wasn't too keen on testing myself on.

"Fus Ro Dah!" I roared in response, the invisible force rippling out, blowing away everything in its path, even the stakes he sent my way, creating a rather large 'safe space' in my direction.

Vlad braced himself at the obvious attack coming his way, but he was still blown away. However, there was a small unforeseen side effect of using the Dragon Language.

Fafnir spun its head around nearly instantaneously, glaring right at me with an odd look in its eyes. It was nearly ignoring the Servants it was battling as it roared in challenge.

[You basically declared yourself a proper Dragon even if it doesn't understand the words, it could recognize the Draconic nature of what you did.] Ddraig stated. [It doesn't seem like that guy has much of his sense right now, so it's moving on flimsy orders and mostly acting on instinct if I had to guess.]

It opened its mouth, a ridiculous amount of Magical Energy gathered in its jaw as it aimed at me.

My immediate reaction was to redirect the breath attack back at it with a use of the Kaleidoscope, but just as I was about to do the required actions, the realization of where I was set in. Using the Kaleidoscope in this situation was perhaps a bad idea considering that I'm technically hiding.

Instead, I went to dodge, only for that Iron Maiden from before to come swinging down on me from a Servant that just materialized.

It didn't do any damage, but all I could now see was the destructive breath filling my vision. I quickly used the Hogyoku to shift what I had into Aura and braced myself.

My Aura fluctuated violently, and it was painful, but I endured. It wasn't quite as strong as the one used to offset Excalibur, but it was certainly not pleasant by any means.

"Ooow."

What snapped me out of my momentary self pity, was a rage induced roar, following but a large amount of Magical Energy discharged right in Fafnir's face.

Surprisingly....it wasn't Raikou.

I don't think I've ever seen Artoria's face twisted in anger that much before.

"Will, are you okay!?" Jeanne slid to my side, looking at me in concern.

"Get back here you fake bitch!" The other Jeanne followed after her, wreathed in some menacing flames.

"I'm good." I reassured her. "Hurt like hell, but no major damage done." My Aura took a huge hit though. Would not be good to take that if my Aura broke, or even do it again and let my Aura tank the damage any further.

"Let me fix that!" The Servant from before reappeared swinging that Iron Maiden again, but more than anything.....she was dressed like she just walked out of a sex dungeon. Like, complete leather bondage gear barely covering her important bits. The thing was, she had like half a dress on, covering only her sides for some reason, but that just means it was intentional. I was honestly surprised she wasn't using a whip, but I guess a literal Iron Maiden was a step beyond that.

"Hey Jeanne, your Dark Twin hired a stripper!" I pointed out as I deflected the massive chunk of metal.

"Bwah!?" Jeanne made a strange noise as she registered what I just said. "You can't say that about people!"

"How uncouth." The Woman brought out a staff...mace, weapon thing and just licked it very suggestively.

".....well, you shouldn't assume." Jeanne blushed a little.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy your virgin blood~"Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.

"Jokes on you, she was already touched by the devil!" I retorted.

"Will!"

A hail of stakes landed on the ground and Jeanne and I both jumped to the sides to avoid them.

"Ruler, we meet again!" Vlad rejoined the fray, as Jeanne did her best to block his attacks. "Would you kindly put me out of this misery, I despise taking orders from that fake reflection of you."

I jumped back because I felt something dangerous. Like my instincts were screaming at me about something I wasn't quite sure about.

Fleshy appendages burst out from the ground, and I now know who sent those ones earlier.

They were....like marine creatures, some form of squid, but distorted and wrong.

They didn't belong.

As a literal Half-Devil, they made my skin crawl with their wrongness.

"RAIKOU!" I shouted out, knowing who exactly was responsible.

I didn't even need to look over to know that Raikou immediately came to my aid. My other swords shot out of my ring, cleaving those monstrosities into pieces as I shot towards the new Servant that had joined the fray.

I recognized him, though not from meeting him in person. He was a participant of the Fourth Holy Grail War in Fuyuki, and the reason that Zelretch nearly interfered. Not even the potential manifestation of an Evil God made Zelretch move, but this Servant did.

I moved as fast as I could, turning into a streak of lightning, and I saw Raikou as well, her purple lightning enveloping her as her sword was pointing right at his forehead.

He raised a book up, and a shield enveloped him and the Dark Jeanne, completely blocking both Raikou and I.

[Priority, Book or Servant need to die!] I quickly sent over our mental ink.

[Yes, Master.] Raikou replied.

The book was utterly disgusting, even to my Devil Nature. It nauseated everything about me, every aspect, and I could even feel Ddraig's disgust.

It had writing on the front, and as someone who could magically understand every human language and had the knowledge of many more, it was utterly indecipherable.

Because that book was a fucking link to an Outer God.

I liked to joke about Meridia being my Eldritch Girlfriend, which was true to a degree. But this Book was a true link to an entity that was at the very least on par with her, and much less amicable.

It needed to die, he needed to die.

"Gilles, what's happening to me!?" Jeanne looked up to the Caster Servant. The fallen and deranged future version of the Soldier we had met earlier that was still living.

"There is nothing wrong with you, Jeanne! You are perfect." He reassured her, the shield around them starting to crack. "It's the fault of these pests." His bugged eyes turned our way. "I will remove them for you." He held his arms up and the space around him twisted in an unnatural way. I couldn't understand what was happening, but a void opened up, an area bereft of normal space, and massive tentacles shot out.

Raikou and I dodged, our blades tearing through the unnatural appendages, but they were seemingly never ending.

[Get ready, I'll give you an opening.] I sent towards Raikou, taking a deep breath. "Zun Haal Viik!" I roared, amidst the tsunami of tentacles.

The book in his hand was flung up into the air and the tentacles, as if having their strings cut, just stopped.

Raikou was already moving, with a thunderclap, she arrived in front of the book, and sliced it in half.

There was an unnatural wailing that made nearly everyone cover their ears in horror. Wyverns dropped from the sky, and even Fafnir roared in fury upon hearing it.

Raikou became stunned, being at the epicenter of it, giving the Caster Servant a second to grab the two pieces of his book with a furious look.

Gilles, the mad Caster, held up his hand in annoyance, and then it appeared, the golden Chalice. The unmistakable power that emanated off it made it so no one could actually question what is one. He was the one holding the Grail.

"Let us return, my beloved Jeanne. We will deal with them later." He said softly towards the dark Jeanne who was....not having a good time from the looks of it.

They all began to glow, and the other Servants, even Fafnir, disappeared. The sheer power needed to teleport that many people in such a way....

That wasn't a simple teleportation circle like from my birth world, the space here didn't work the same way.

"Will?" the Real Jeanne walked over, a little tussled, but otherwise unharmed. "What's going on, was that Gilles?"

"It appears so."

"And he had the Grail?"

"Yup." I nodded in annoyance. "I'm guessing that the Dragon Witch is not the source of our concerns." No, that book of his was far more dangerous than the fake Jeanne running around. Hell, I would call it magnitudes more dangerous than even Fafnir and he was holding off four powerful Servants.

Suddenly, Jeanne's head jerked to the side. "More Servants are coming." She grabbed her banner, ready for battle again.

Three more Servants appeared from their astralized form, led by a woman with white hair and a rather bubbly aura about her. "Marie Antoinette is here to help!" She declared proudly

"...you're late."

I presume they came because of the fighting? Well, it seems obvious they aren't on the Dragon Witch's side, that's good at least.

Apparently, the woman wasn't even fazed, instead she took one look at Jeanne and ran up to her smiling happily. "Oh, you must be Jeanne! Kyah, you're so pretty, I'm Marie! I feel like we're going to be the best of friends!"

".....Eh!?" Jeanne's confused response was rather telling of what she understood about what was going on.

I ignored her, and looked at her companions.

One had long hair with colorful clothes, perhaps even flamboyant in a sense. And he held a conductor's baton in his hand.

The other, well, I immediately guessed his identity. He had long red hair, copper colored armor in the design of a knight, and a white tunic overtop. Not to mention the Dragon slayer properties he practically radiated. But his sword, well, it was one I was familiar with.

I held out my hand, letting Ascalon enter my grasp as I walked over to him.

I held my sword up, and he too blinked in confusion, holding up his identical sword.

".....wanna touch swords?" I asked.

[***]

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