NOVEL NEXT Chapter 57: Roman Order
I felt anxious. This sudden weakening touched upon a fear that only appeared in my worst nightmares: being powerless.
Even during my darkest hour, within Site 19 underneath a sun that's hostile to all organic life, where I've just returned with Bright from that visit to the Church of the Broken God, I knew instinctively I could always rely upon my power as Kukulkan. It was an unbreakable bedrock upon which I stood, my very foundation.
Like a fact revealing the falsehood that sustained an entire culture's belief structure, Longinus' Noble Phantasm destroyed this unbreakable bedrock on which my confidence was built.
Oh sure, I've been beaten before by the likes of SCP-343 and Grand Karcist Ion, but none of them reduced my power. Ion especially was much more powerful than me, so much so that even when I fought at full strength as the Heart of ORT I could never have defeated him.
Yet at the end of the day, not one of them reduced my powers.
I've never encountered an enemy that reduced my powers at all.
My powers as Kukulkan were a constant in my life after I signed on with the Company. It was a universal constant like the speed of light in a vacuum or the strength of gravity: something unable to ever change or break.
Yet Longinus destroyed that foundation.
(AN: Play Lord of Ashes by Lappy - Topic)
I felt like a Christian who had just learned of Constantinople's fall to the Muslims. I felt like the Aztecs when they first warred with the Spanish and discovered the power of guns and gunpowder that are able to take a life from 50 yards away. I felt like an uncontacted tribesman in the Amazon, discovering how big the modern world outside of my jungle territory was. I felt like my whole world was upended. My anchor amid a rough sea severed. My touchstone shattered. My… my entire being uprooted.
What… is this fear? This unsettling feeling that consumes my soul?
I knew it wasn't the fear that one would feel after getting jump-scared in a horror movie. I knew it was closest to culture shock but that doesn't fully encapsulate what I was feeling.
Lancer Longinus unleashed so many thrusts that they conjoined together to create a wall of death in front of him. I just barely managed to dodge about half of them, with the rest causing small cuts upon my body as I was too slow to move out of the way.
They were ridiculously fast. I wonder if it's because I'm much weaker now or if Longinus was much stronger after invoking his Noble Phantasm. Or maybe it's both?
Longinus continued with this tireless barrage of spear thrusts. He became even faster somehow, so much so that his spear thrusts were all a blur I couldn't keep up. I had a feeling that he'd land a hit sooner—
"AH!" I screamed out as an intense pain blossomed down my sides.
Looking down at it, my eyes widened as I realized the tip of the Spear of Destiny was in my lungs, with the length getting through in between two of my ribs. It entered my sides.
Longinus looked surprised, as though something that was supposed to happen, didn't.
My powers… my Authorities… my strengths… where are my powers? Where is it?
I bemoaned internally.
I felt betrayed. Just when I needed it the most and it failed me?
'You won through your own strength, not the strength of your ideals.'
What Archer said rang through my mind as Longinus pulled out his Holy Lance. The hole it left was slowly stitching together with strands of crystalline flesh pulling it close.
My own strengths… defeated Ion… not my ideals. Then that raises a question: am I more than my powers? Or am I nothing without it?
"..."
I was suddenly flushed with rage. That anger at Archer's insinuation chased away all the previous fear and confusion at the sudden decrease in power, allowing me to think clearer than ever as I cling to that feeling akin to a drowning man with a lifesaver.
What bullshit.
What fucking bullshit.
Archer, you who know nothing about me have no right to judge me. Only those who know of my struggles have the knowledge to judge me accurately.
"Fucking die," I said whether to Archer or Longinus not even I knew.
I discharged another wave of plasma much weaker than I wanted.
If it weren't for my ideals I would've left. With the Delayed Difficulty option selected during the Catalog creation phase, I am required to stay in a world long enough for either a progress bar to fill up or after the completion of a Standard or Grand-level mission. The mission I chose for When Day Break only required me to leave the planet. As Kukulkan, I could've left the Solar System in a few hours of travel and fulfilled the requirement of the mission. After that, I would've been free to choose a new world to head into.
It was so easy to leave. But I didn't, Archer you fucker. My ideals didn't permit me to leave. My ideals forced me to stay and help them recover.
I went through so much pain… changed so much that I'll be unrecognizable to the 'me' before I signed on with the Company.
I placed so much of myself upon the altar of saving mankind. I was entirely willing to place the rest of myself upon that altar.
By the time the plasma dissipated, I saw how Longinus protected himself using his shield.
I tugged upon my connection to that Star. After over a year of never even touching it, I yanked upon that channel and felt its warmth fill every cell of my being. It was nice. It felt like I was in a warm shower after shoveling the snow off a driveway in winter.
Brimming with light, I was now in my Second Ascension stage.
A leotard reminiscent of a spacesuit surrounded my body. The hole created by Longinus' spear was closed in a swirl of crystals quickly paved over by skin.
Without saying another word, Longinus launched his attack once more. A powerful thrust of his spear aimed at my chest.
Not once did he utter a word after that initial talk. His focus was like a machine, a killing machine. That makes sense, he was a Roman Centurion, after all, the elite of the Roman Army. Kill first, talk later, and all.
The spear… slowly inched forward.
I noticed how the spear thrust was much slower than before. Or rather, I am much faster now that the Star's energy is filling me, making up for the gap in abilities created by the Incarnation caused by the Spear of Destiny. That Star was entirely unaffected by the Incarnation caused by Longinus' Noble Phantasm.
Time and space around me became different than before, something Longinus must've realized as his eyes widened. My Personal Skill Golden Sea of Trees Travelogue was in full effect.
The world almost came to a halt relative to the speed at which I moved. A plasma sheath created from friction with the air wrapped around my body as I side-stepped Longinus' thrust.
For Longinus, he must've realized he had over-extended. He tried so desperately to swing that lance like it was a sword at me, yet it was too slow.
I approached the Servant as a burning figure wrapped in the air with a temperature in the tens of thousands of degrees. He struggled to keep up with me. My fist came up, and I threw a punch right into Lancer's chest and hit empty space.
He teleported away.
"Don't you run away from me."
I flew faster than the sound of my voice travels. So fast that Longinus could barely react to the punch I threw his way. He couldn't teleport away fast enough, as I was faster than thought itself.
I imagined it was Archer who was in Longinus' place, and I threw a lot of my force into this one, single punch.
The Lancer's raised shield shattered along with his left arm. It broke, severed even when my fist when compared with the cutting edge of a blade is as dull as it can get.
The sheer force behind my punch was such that my fist— the flat front of my punch— managed to cut through his arms.
My fist continued its travel and it slammed into his chest. In this short time frame, I easily saw how the armor he wore didn't have time to fully break. Oh sure, cracks were spreading out like tree roots from where my fist was embedding itself into Longinus' chest, alongside vaporization, but they were abysmally slow. No, what's faster are the crystals that are growing upon its body.
Areas that were in contact with my fist had a layer of crystals coated upon its surface.
Oddly enough, I only saw a satisfied smile on Longinus' face.
*KABOOOM*
The force I imparted upon Longinus was such that he became a railgun round that went through the rim of the crater that used to be the Hagia Sophia and out into the rest of the burning Constantinople.
The tall curtain of smoke from the fires parted like the Red Seas as Longinus's body continued its travel. Houses relatively untouched by the sack exploded in a cloud of loose wood particles and fire as Longinus shot through it, with burnt ruins disintegrating into a fine mist and thrown into the air like water splashes. Longinus only stopped traveling when he slammed into the remnants of the walls of Constantinople many kilometers away, having slowed down from pulverizing so many buildings.
A trail of destruction was left in the city. It was as though a runaway train ran through this area with how totaled everything in Longinus' path was.
Suddenly, I felt much stronger than before. It occurred to me that Longinus' Noble Phantasm must've worn off as he ceased to exist.
And so it is done. I've dealt with Longinus. Much of Constantinople is destroyed in the crossfire, and doubtlessly thousands of soldiers and civilians died from the simple light emission of my plasma burst alone. They were cooked and burnt as if they were next to a nuclear bomb going off.
I lowered my head and turned away from the destruction I had wrought. I took a deep breath, feeling the air filling my lungs, and then I let it all out. Constantinople was a casualty of my fight with Longinus.
(AN: End BGM)
"This power… unbelievable power… Who… are you? No matter… what I do… I cannot analyze you…"
Ah, that must be Information Defense at work, preventing Flauros from analyzing my true nature. Good to confirm, but does he have any other useful information?
The writhing remains of Flauros muttered, "Our King didn't believe me… you are the greatest threat… to his Master Plan… Surely now…"
Looks like he doesn't.
I raise my right arm and silence Flauros with a wave of divine fire from the regained Tohil's Authority. Not even ashes remain, as the area where the Demon God Pillar used to be is now a pond of lava shining almost white.
With my right hand still burning with those godly fires, I stared passively at the scene, before suddenly a bright light manifested itself where Flauros used to be.
Clenching my hands and snuffing out the fire, I approached the slowly descending bright light— the Grail. The Holy Grail. It wasn't entirely a loss it seems.
Good.
I grabbed the Grail by the stem that connected its base and cup. Instinctively, based on how magical energy was trickling into the Grail I could tell the Singularity was reaching its conclusion. It didn't explode like the last Grail, so the Singularity didn't immediately end, merely crumbling away at the edges as cracks slowly spread.
My foot left the ground as I started to hover. The spacesuit-like leotard wrapped around my body vanished, and in its place was a revealing jungle explorer clothing as I returned to my First Ascension, the energy of that Star vacating my body like migratory birds heading down south for the winter.
I headed toward where Ritsuka, Mash, and Nero were. As I did, I made sure to pick up the communicator Ritsuka had… which melted. Ah, it must've melted because of the heat I generated when I moved so quickly not even a Servant as powerful as Longinus would have reacted to.
Flying over the crater's rim, I was thankful to see how the rim had shielded the group from much of the damage I had caused when I fought against Longinus.
"Umu, that was an impressive fireworks show against that enemy! So who was he, who had troubled you so, Goddess?" Nero asked as she confidently strode forward away from the others.
There were bruises, yet no burns on Nero's body. Interesting. Did her fiery passion translate into a resistance against heat in general?
"He was Lucius Longinus. A Lancer-class Servant." I replied.
"Longinus?!"
That came from Ritsuka.
"The same Longinus who was known for god-killing? His name is synonymous with god-killing weapons, and you still defeated him?"
I realized that to him, it might've looked like I'd defeated someone who was fully specialized in killing my kind. Like a rat somehow singlehandedly killing the pest exterminator called in to deal with the problem. However, I felt like a rat and an exterminator is an inaccurate comparison because the power difference is too large. Maybe a prisoner killing his warden?
"You're amazing, Kukulkan!"
I could've easily imagined that the old 'me' might've shrunk in the face of such heartfelt praise, but I was used to hearing such things from those who worshipped me, so I merely nodded in thanks.
Mash looked sheepish, "Actually Senpai, Longinus is known for piercing the side of Christ, confirming his death, not killing 'gods'."
"Christ?" Nero perked up and wondered out loud, "That weird sect of Judaism that worships only one God?"
Huh? Wasn't Christianity the most popular religion— Oh right, this is the First Century. Christianity must've not spread out yet.
His Apostles haven't been able to spread Christianity much yet. I don't think Nero has even started her prosecution of the Christians either.
Mash looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself.
Ritsuka, as though realizing he was close to Emperor Nero, intentionally made the decision to move away closer to me and Mash. That's strange, did something happen to sour his relationship with the Emperor?
I then held out the Grail for all to see, "With this Holy Grail captured, the Singularity can now conclude itself. And with its conclusion, comes our departure."
"Your toes are disappearing. You're leaving?" There wasn't any disappointment in Nero's voice. It was more like if she was stating a fact rather than a realization.
"The mistakes in this Singularity have been corrected. This era will be restored, and with it, your memories of fighting the United Empire will no longer exist. Everything will return to as if nothing happened. History corrected." I explained.
Ah. And so would the changes that I brought about. I stared down at my disappearing feet. I could feel a 'tug' at my being, trying to bring me across spacetime back to where CHALDEAS resides.
Taking out the Company Device, I deposited the Grail inside.
"It's unfortunate." Nero glanced at Boudica before returning to the rest of us, "If you had stayed, I would've ordered the grandest celebration ceremony in all of Roman history. The streets will be filled with festivity from the entrance of the Domus Transitoria all the way to Londinium. It would be a party to remember…"
Nero's eyes appeared saddened, "I will not say goodbye. Even if you are a Goddess foreign from the Roman Pantheons, all roads lead to Rome, for Rome is the world. I will say my thanks—thank you for upholding your end of the deal."
"I feel like I should also thank you as well. For showing Zvezdnyy what she was missing."
Nero smiled.
"Umu! It was my pleasure to show her all the world's luxuries to her."
With that, we were jettisoned out of the Singularity. I was once again hit with a face full of raw spacetime foam. The bubbling, frothy structure of spacetime at the smallest, unobserved scale easily entered through my mouth and nose and filled every crevasse as if it were a liquid seeking to fit its container.
Before I knew it, I was once again staring at my barely visible reflection against the Rayshifting Coffin.
With a single push, the Coffin lid opened, allowing me to walk freely. A tap on a materialized Company Device later and the Grail reappeared inside reality.
Heels clicking on metal heralded the arrival of Olga.
"Congratulations on clearing this Singularity, Ritsuka, Mash, and Archer. Good job, Goddess Kukulkan, on acquiring the Grail. With the newly acquired Grail, we can now sustain a new Servant to aid us in the Grand Order."
____
AN: And with that, concludes the Septem Act of the FGO Arc.
Kuku managed to acquire the Grail and with it, comes a new Servant for the Grand Order. Which Servant do you guys think it's going to be? Which Servant do you guys want it to be?
Same beta as last time.
Also, I am posting this fic on Fanfiction Net as well, so if you see this under 'You are being saved, please do not resist', drop me a review if you'd like. I am entirely motivated by comments and reviews.