Apocryphal War

"Gilgamesh." I say as the King of Heroes himself deastralizes in the lounge of my hotel suite. "To what do we owe the honor of your visit."

It is the night of the day after our arrival in Romania, the setting of this Holy Grail War. Currently Ozymandias and I are the only remaining members in the building as everyone else left to fight their battles, with Gilgamesh deciding to pay us a visit. Were I expecting Gilgamesh to conform to whatever plan Jason came up with we would have left long ago to fight him. However, knowing the King of Heroes' temperament, I can say with certainty that he would observe before participating.

Similar to when he was summoned, the King of Heroes wears his golden armor in full while he stands there stoically with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Planeswalker." he says as he looks at me, his sense of superiority fully on display without him saying a word. "I expected much more from you, and yet you still failed to live up to expectations with that cowardly action. Then again, a mongrel is a mongrel regardless of their potential."

"I assume that you speak of the bomb?" I reply with a raised eyebrow.

"Tch." replies the golden archer with a look of disdain in his eyes. "It is an admission of your lack of ethics and weakness."

"Perhaps to you and Ozymandias, and as a man who has led Roman civilization in his own universe I would very much agree. However,-" I tell him, causing him to arch an eyebrow. "-as a father whose sole purpose in this war is to achieve victory, I will have to strongly disagree with you. No tactic or strategy is too cowardly to win."

Before he can answer Ozymandias walks into the room.

"Well if it isn't the Golden King himself!" exclaims Ozymandias as he makes his way towards us.

"Oh...you're also here as well, Sun King." replies Gilgamesh as he looks at Ozymandias. "To have one such as you as an adversary… perhaps I shall not suffer from complete boredom in this… so called Holy Grail War."

"Indeed. Holy Grail War? How plebeian. Do they honestly expect the world's greatest King to attend such slovenly trifles?" replies Ozymandias. "I had expected to derive some form of entertainment from it, after all only the greatest heroes may be summoned. Yet I find myself disappointed in the participants, particularly my fellow pharaoh and his cowardly actions."

His last sentence is delivered with a hint of disappointment in his voice as he and Gilgamesh look towards me.

"Indeed,-" replies Gilgamesh as he returns to ignoring me. "-it is far beneath the station of the most majestic of history's kings"

"Hahaha!" laughs Ozymandias boisterously in response to Gilgamesh. "Regardless, it is rare for one to meet the King of Heroes in his domain, even for me. As such, I shall permit it. I shall allow this King who is a stranger here to enter as I grace him with my presence, and personally give him a tour, I am feeling generous this night."

"Truly your words are far too gracious." replies Gilgamesh as he follows his fellow King. "I am humbled."

"No." replies Ozymandias. "It is I, who is embarrassed."

While Ambrosius finds himself witnessing the budding friendship between the King of Heroes and the King of Kings, the remaining masters and servants make their way through the forest surrounding the Yggdmillennia castle with no regards for whether or not their enemies are alerted to their trespassing. Arriving outside of the woods, the group is met with a clearing large enough to field an army that leads towards the Yggdmillennia castle.

"So this is their castle huh?" comments Cu as the group stops just short of entering the field. "It's not that impressive."

"It does indeed lack a certain quality to it." agrees Mordred, not realising that she and Cu Chulainn are both comparing it to the castle owned by Ambrosius and Scathach back in England.

"So who wants to go knock?" asks Cu as he looks at his companions.

"Leave this to me." answers Azula as she steps forward with a smirk and a gleam in her eyes.

High above in the sky, clouds quickly gather and enshroud the field and the castle as lightning flashes and thunder rumbles.

"Perhaps you should reduce the amount of power that you are channeling." comments Scathach as she looks at the growing flashes of lightning with a frown. "We would not want to inadvertently damage the Grail."

"Ah." sighs Azula in disappointment. "Sorry. It's been a while since I have had the opportunity to properly stretch my muscles. I got carried away"

Sure enough, the flashes of lightning seem to slow down and the cloud decreases in size until it only encompasses the castle. Satisfied with the amount of power built up, Azula releases a lightning strike upon the castle and watches with a triumphant smirk as the one of the castle's wings is demolished.

"You know… you remind me of this lady that used to come by Dun Scaith to spar with teacher and the old man." says Cu as he looks at Azula. "Her name was Aife, and she had the most sadistic smile whenever she was sparing or using lightning."

Just remembering her makes Cu shiver with unease, which is only made worse when Azula turns to him and smiles that very same sadistic smile. Unknown to Azula, Scatach, or Ambrosius, Cu possesses a subconscious fear towards the woman. It started out with their first encounter, and was very built up during the times that she would visit and spar with him and Ferdiad. Her ruthlessness, sadistic smirk, and the gleam in her eyes very much unnerved the two students at the time. The situation was only made worse by the fact that, unlike Ambrosius and Scatach, Azula had no qualms with making their spars as painful as possible to make sure that pain would never be a deterrent for the two in a fight. While Cu is very much thankful for her making him almost impervious to pain, seeing that smile once again brought about memories of his training that he buried.

Before anyone can answer Cu, an enraged roar can be heard coming from the direction of the castle and approaching the group. Azula, seeing a charging Kintoki, duck's under the swipe of his maskari axe and punches him in the solar plexus, sending him flying back. Meanwhile the other masters retreated away from the pair to escape being caught in the crossfire.

"Azula,-" says Scathach. "-did you not claim that Kintoki was turned into magical energy by the Grail?"

"I did." replies Azula with a frown. "And I am almost certain that my scrying was successful."

"Ohoho." comes a giggling voice as Circe deastralizes next to a recovering Kintoki. "Did you truly expect for your scrying to go unnoticed when I, Circe, was summoned. It was simple to cast an illusion and make you see what you saw."

"Do you mean to tell me,-" comments Azula with a vicious smirk. "-that I was fooled by a short little pipsqueak like you, who doesn't have the sense to sleep once it's their bedtime."

Hearing Azula's words about her height, Circe cannot help but become enraged and prepares to retaliate. Before she can, however, Sakura appears behind said servant and grabs her by the neck and crushes a stone in her hand. Once crushed, the stone glows a faint blue light before transporting the duo away from the group and into an unknown location.

The action was so sudden that Kintoki, who has been prepared to once again launch himself at Azula, takes a second to process the disappearance of his comrade. His hesitation cost him however, as Azula takes the opportunity to launch herself at him and teleport them away, leaving Bazett, Rin, Scathach, and their servants behind.

"Well damn. There goes Jason's plan" comments Achilles as he deastralizes, his spear loosely held in one hand as it leans on his right shoulder. "Man you guys are really a troublesome bunch. First the bomb, then you guys destroy Jason's plan in seconds."

"Finally." replies Cu with a savage grin as he approaches Achilles. "I thought that I would have to come get you from the castle."

"Oh?" answers Achilles with a smirk as he cocks his head to the side. "Fine, we'll see who wins. I am Rider Achilles."

"And I'm Lancer Cu Chulainn." replies Cu as he summons Gae Bolg. "I hope that you can give me a good fight."

"Hehehe, I never thought that I'd be facing you of all people." chuckles Achilles. "So what are the rules? One on one combat, just skills, and to the death?"

"Sure." replies Cu with a shrug. "I wanna see which one of us is better."

With a smirk on his face, Achilles activates the duel field of his noble phantasm (Meteor Spear): Spear-tip of the Star Traversing the Skies. Upon its activation, the combatants are transported to a separate dimension outside of time that is comparable to a Reality Marble, so that when the duel within concludes, it will have lasted only a second from an outside perspective. Due to Hector not wishing to fight Achilles with the advantage of his immortality, he developed the ability so that they could evenly fight where inside the field all forms of immortality, including his, became moot.

Bazett, who has been observing the interaction behind Cu, cannot help but slightly worry about him. While she knows that he is the greatest hero to come from the Ulster Cycle, she also knows that he will be facing Achilles, one of the most famous heroes in the world. However, she decides to not interfere since this is what the original plan entailed, isolating Achilles so that Cu may defeat him.

Turning her attention back to the remaining participants of the war, she notices that Karna has arrived and is already battling a deep breath to calm herself, Bazett slips the package that she has been carrying from her shoulders and gently places it on the floor. She opens it to reveal Ambrosius' second underhanded plot, the noble phantasm Fragarach.

Earlier in the day, while she was taking part in her morning exercise, Ambrosius pulled her aside to give her the order that she is about to execute. According to him, Karna possesses a noble phantasm that is always active, Kavacha and Kundala. It is an armor that reduces all damage inflicted upon Karna to one tenth of its power no matter what the source of said damage may be. This is where the Fraga family's noble phantasm comes into play.

Fragarach: Gouging Sword of the War God, also called Answerer: That Which Comes Later Cuts First and The Retaliator, is a Noble Phantasm and Mystic Code with the ultimate form of counterattack. It warps causality to always strike the opponent in the heart with a needle thin concentrated blast right before they unleash their ultimate attack. The condition for its use is that the opponent must use their strongest attack, and Fragarach must be used directly after the enemy's strike. It would normally be that Fragarach would kill the enemy, and the opponent's attack would also simultaneously destroy Bazett. However, this is not the function that she will be using. The second effect is far more suitable for this situation.

Fragarach is an "Ace-Killing Joker" and the "ultimate counter code" that responds to the "trump card" of the enemy, such as the Noble Phantasm of a Servant. Against passive trump card abilities that are constantly activated, such as Kavacha and Kundala, it can be used against them at any time, and against an attack used by a mount, like Bellerophon, it kills the Pegasus rather than the rider. If used in the proper conditions with the "Answerer effect", it activates as an A Rank attack after calling out both of its names. One major weakness is that it is useless against enemies without a special ability, such as an all-rounded magus like Caster.

Normally she lets a metal ball float in a diagonal rear movement a few meters behind her in anticipation of the enemy's trump card. However, considering the fact that the noble phantasm is already active, the attack begins. The ball glows and begins to be electrically charged and a blade is generated. By this point Karna and Arjuna's battle has reached its crescendo and Karna seems to be ready to dismiss his armor in order to use Vasavi Shakti. Meanwhile Arjuna seems to be preparing Parshupata to counter Karna. Calling out her noble phantasm's name, Bazett punches it towards the enemy for the strike. As the blade launches towards Karna, Bazett's glove and hand are burned as an aftereffect, and the sphere, as a one-use weapon, loses its grey color as well and drops to the floor. However, Bazett does not stop and repeats the process two more times, launching two more blades at Karna.

Like predicted, the blades turn into beams of light and pierce Karna's heart.

Arjuna had not expected to meet Karna of all people in this Holy Grail War. While he answered the call of the summoning, it was due to the fact that he hoped to be able to use it to have his rematch with Karna. One can imagine his surprise however, when during yesterday's briefing it was mentioned that Karna was summoned. He had been looking forward to his battle with Karna especially when the faction's leader decreed that he would be facing his rival. Unfortunately, the excitement was short lived as it was later decreed that he would be receiving aid. So like a true hero, Arjuna remained silent, but unfortunately it is also part of his nature to plot on how to receive what he wants once he has been slighted. He even remained silent when it was mentioned that his faction had bombed the opposition, making him question their honor and whether or not he found himself on the 'evil' side.

When he and the group had arrived in the clearing, he had been glad to find out that the bomb did not have the desired effect that was reported. Since every servant of the enemy is very much still alive, then that means that he can face Karna on his own. After having dispensed of the pleasantries and having his master taken to a safe distance, Arjuna cannot help but follow Karna's lead and throw himself into the fight, which is how he finds himself dodging Karna's spear and retaliating with a kick to his opponent's chest that sends him flying a short distance away.

Recovering quickly, Karna launches himself into the sky before launching himself at Arjuna once again. However Arjuna has no intention of facing Karna on his terms and proceeds to shoot his fully powered Agni Gandiva at the approaching lancer.

Agni Gandiva: Flame God's Roar is one of the two Noble Phantasms of Arjuna. It is a Bow of Flames that essentially cannot be handled by humans (mortals), awarded to Arjuna by the Flame God, Agni. Normally just a regular bow, by activating its True Name, its arrow becomes a missile engulfed in flames. It is not a homing missile, but since Arjuna is an archery genius and possesses the Clairvoyance Skill, its precision is similar to that of a homing missile. It is also a noble phantasm that is capable of fully damaging Karna as if ignoring his armor.

Knowing this, Karna does not attempt to block nor does he tries to dodge, instead he makes use of his third noble phantasm Brahmastra Kundala. It is a Noble Phantasm obtained by Karna from the Brahman Parashurama, a projectile attack that is granted his fiery attribute and resembles fiery beams. Karna launches the projectiles at the incoming arrows canceling them out.

With renewed effort, Karna attempts to close the distance between him and Arjuna while dodging the standard arrows and canceling out the fully powered ones. As he reaches a few feet away from Arjuna, Arjuna increases his rate of fire and Karna is forced to take the full brunt of an arrow head on. While the damage is not crippling, nor does it hinder his performance, it is still a substantial amount and Karna is certain that his master does not possess enough magical energy to heal him.

Knowing that his armor is not of any use to him during this battle, and it serves as more of a hindrance due to it restricting him from utilising Vasavi Shakti, Karna prepares to remove it from his person.

Meanwhile Arjuna, who takes notice of Karna's action, readies himself to counter Vasavi Shakti with Pashupata. Before either of them can finish their actions, three beams of light pierce through Karna's heart, or at least that is what seems to have happened. With his clairvoyance, Arjuna is able to perceive Karna being teleported away as Circe appears next to him and completely heals him. At the same time, he notices his comrades, Medea and Sakura, appear next to him with frowns on their faces.

"What has happened?" questions Arjuna.

"The plan was a failure." replies Medea. "Circe managed to escape the barrier that was set up to separate her from her faction."

"It was my fault." claims Sakura. "I was the one who set up the barrier and forgot that she is a magician from the Age of Gods."

"It doesn't matter anymore." replies Medea. "From now on she will be reinforcing Karna to give him an edge in your battle. However, you don't have to worry, I will be reinforcing you to match him."

Arjuna simply nods and looks towards the direction from where the beams of light emerged. There he sees the woman named Bazett fighting a blond portly man, Gorde, along with what seems to be a dozen homunculi.

Turning his attention back to his opponent, Arjuna sees a recovered Karna approach.

"It seems that we will have to escalate our battle." comments Karna.

"Indeed." replies Arjuna. "Are you ready?"

As if given an unseen signal, the duo launch themselves at each other.

As Medea watches Arjuna clash with Karna, she makes sure to reinforce him as much as possible while sometimes launching volatile balls of magical energy at Circe, and making sure to defend herself against Circe's ranged attacks.

"Maybe I should engage Circe in melee combat?" questions Sakura.

Medea glances at her master, who has managed to endear herself to her, and nods.

"Be careful." warns Medea.

Before Sakura can make her way to Circe, she is forced to dodge an overpowered Gandr shot.

"You will do no such things." comes a male voice from their right.

Looking at the direction of the attack, Medea sees Darnic Preston Yggdmillennia himself approaching them as he continuously launches curses at Sakura. Without saying a word, Sakura easily dodges his attacks and begins to retaliate with streams of fire and air towards him. Unfortunately, Darnic seems to have a defensive magecraft that blocks all of Sakura's attacks. This does not seem to worry Sakura however as she jumps into the air and launches a pillar of fire at Darnic with an axe kick. Seeing that Sakura has things well in hand, Medea turns her attention back to her own battle where Circe has begun to take control of the battlefield itself and is making use of illusions, curses, and poisons to affect Bazett, Rin, and Sakura.

Dodging one of Darnic's curses as she lands on the ground, Sakura begins her counterattack. Channeling magical energy throughout her body, Sakura performs a mana burst to close the distance between her and Darnic. Moving so fast that she appears to be teleporting to Darnic, Sakura arrives in front of him and coats her left hand in lightning as she drives it through his heart and uses her right hand to snap his neck. Once Darnic's body falls to the ground, Sakura turns her attention to Circe.

Rin has never been involved in such a dangerous situation before, and her training certainly has not prepared her for it. The battle between servants is certainly a sight to see. She knew that servants were very much overpowered, especially the ones with old legends like Arjuna. However, knowing and experiencing are two different things. Their battles seem to be straight from the pages of a manga. What makes the situation worse is that she knows that the majority of her fellow masters can face them head on. Earlier this morning she saw the battle royal spar between the other masters and Cu Cuchlainn. Somehow they all managed to keep up with Lancer of all people in melee combat, and although she was not as powerful as the others, Sakura was able to keep up. Even if it was barely, it still makes Rin feel somewhat inadequate.

"Pay attention to your opponent." comes Scathach's voice from behind her and breaks her from her train of thought just in time to dodge an incoming metallic limb.

Her opponent is Fiore Yggdmillennia, heir to the Yggdmillennia family. Sometime after the beginning of Arjuna's battle with Karna, the majority of the masters of the Yggdmillennia family took to the field. Rin caught a glimpse of Darnic engaging Sakura while Gordes attacked Bazett with the aid of his homunculi. Meanwhile she is faced with the Yggdmillennia heir as an opponent.

Fiore Yggdmillennia's way of battle is utilising her wheelchair which she turns into four robotic limbs that are attached to her back. It is eerily reminiscent of Doctor Octopus from that American comic book she once read, which is why Rin is currently leading the battle back into the woods. Rin takes cover behind a tree just as Fiore pelts her previous standing spot full of bullet holes. With a frown on her face she climbs up the tree, turns back, and launches herself down at an unsuspecting Fiore. Unfortunately, she is suddenly struck with the worse she can possibly be imagined resulting in her losing her concentration and getting smacked back into the clearing by one of Fiore's metallic limbs. As she lands on the grass, Rin is struck by violent tremors across her body as the pain subsides. Without an impressive amount of effort, she stands back up and regards her opponent with a glare. Reinforcing her limbs once more, Rin sprints towards Fiore as she launches spells of Gandr and Fin shots at her adversary. Caught off guard, Fiore is unable to react allowing Rin to reach her. Without giving the poor girl time to react, Rin punches her on her left temple knocking her out.

"Not bad." comments Scathach as she approaches Rin. "You have plenty of potential. Even managing to fight through that curse that inflicts pain."

"Thank you." answers Rin with a slight blush. She didn't expect to be complimented by the wife of her idol of all people.

"Come." orders Scathach as she picks up the unconscious girl. "Bazett is almost finished with Gordes."

With a nod Rin follows her.

As Bazett dodges another halberd, she cannot help but pour her frustrations into her counterattack punch. She doesn't know what annoys her the most, having to fight these homunculi and their weak master or the fact that she failed to kill Karna because Circe interfered. Maybe it's because her current enemies are distracting her from trying again, or maybe it's because of all the poisons and curses she would have fallen victim to if she wasn't protected by the runes inscribed on her suit. Even then, she can feel the amount of magical energy that she has reduced the longer the battle continues, thereby reducing the amount of times she can use Fragarach after she finishes with these annoyances.

Dodging the strike from the sole remaining homunculi, Bazett closes the distance between them and snaps his neck before he can react. Not bothering to pause, she runs past the corpse towards a panicking Gordes and launches a kick towards his face.

Before her foot can reach him however, Bazett is forced to retreat as Jason deastralises while swinging his sword at her leg.

"Tch, you're so useless that I have to take to the field just to save your life." comments Jason.

Jason makes to speak again, only to suddenly decide not to and grab Gordes as he dodges a bolt of lightning from Bazett.

Watching Jason dodge her attack causes Bazett to frown even more. Jason is the last servant that she wanted to encounter, not because of his combat prowess, but because of his skill Insight in the Jaws of Death. It's a skill that provides him with flashes of inspiration and foresight when acting to throw his life away, essentially making it so that he can survive any dangerous situation. While it doesn't increase his combat skills, it does increase his chances to survive by escaping or dodging attacks exponentially, and the more dangerous the situation is for him the better it works.

Before she can form a plan of attack, Gordes' body slumps the ground and blood can be seen leaking from his forehead.

"NO!" exclaims Jason. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!"

Since they did not see the projectile, Bazett and Jason are forced to look around in order to spot the culprit. Soon enough two figures can be seen walking towards them from the left, Scathach and Rin.

"Fine." says Jason with gritted teeth as he takes a few steps away from Bazett. "Since I'm going to be taken out anyway, I might as well bring you with me. Astrapste Argo: The Dazzling Ship that Splits the Heavens."

Astrapste Argo: The Dazzling Ship that Splits the Heavens is Jason's Noble Phantasm, Reinforcement from the Argo. The heroes that sailed on the ship begin a simultaneous attack. Which is why as soon as Jason finishes calling the name of his noble phantasm, Berserker Heracles, Archer Atalanta, and Caster child Medea appear behind ready to attack. With a roar Heracles launches himself at Jason's opposition while Atalanta nocks her arrows, child Medea prepares a magical attack.

Before Heracles can reach far however, twelve Gae Bolgs impale him in fatal locations, immediately killing him. Following through with her previous attack, Scathach launches herself at Atalanta and child Medea with a Gae Bolg held in each hand. Atalanta attempts to evade by jumping back, unfortunately she is too slow and dies with a spear through her throat. Child Medea takes to the skies, but does not make it far as a Gae Bolg impales her through the heart.

"Dammit!" mutters Jason as he slowly dematerialises due to running out of magical energy after using it up to activate his noble phantasm.

"That was too close." comments Bazett.

"Yea." replies a dumbstruck Rin as she watches Scathach with admiration clear in her eyes.

"Come you two." orders Scathach as she makes her way towards where she can sense Medea and Sakura.

Dodging Achilles' spear, Cu retaliates by stabbing his spear towards his opponent, only for it to be also dodged.

"You're pretty good." comments Achilles as he gathers himself.

"You're pretty good yourself." answers Cu.

They have been exchanging blows for an unknown amount of minutes, and so far no one has been able to decisively dominate the battle. It's as if their fighting styles were specifically designed to counter each other even though they are opposites. Not even Achilles' superior speed has been able to tilt the battle into his favor. Achilles' style takes the basics to an extreme level. It is simple yet effective with no wasted movements and making use of every part of the user's body. Cu's style however is anything but simple. It's savage and looks very impressive, almost as if the user has lost their senses and the only thing matters is their enemy. It makes full use of Cu's demi-god physique and takes it to the next level.

After settling themselves back into their fighting stances, the two warriors launch themselves at each other. Cu begins with a powerful swing of his spear that is redirected by Achilles who follows through with a stab towards Cu's opening. Cu tilts his head to dodge the spear as he collects his own and slashes at Achilles' shoulder tendon. Achilles, who had been prepared to turn his stab into a slash, is forced to abandon that route to block with his spear and leaves his stomach open. Cu takes the opportunity and sends Achilles flying with a kick. Achilles quickly recovers, jumps into the air, and throws his spear at Cu who is sprinting towards him. With his spear, Cu blocks his opponent's attack and sends the weapon back into the air. Making use of his impressive speed, Achilles follows his weapon and catches it.

"This is getting us nowhere." comments Cu.

"Yea, it looks like in terms of spearmanship we're pretty even." replies Achilles.

"Hand-to-hand?" asks Cu as he dismisses his spear and takes a fighting stance.

"Hand-to-hand." answers Achilles as he stabs his spear into the ground and follows Cu with a fighting stance.

Looking over his opponent, Achilles can't help but frown at the slight similarities between their fighting stances. However, with a shake of his head Achilles puts it out of his mind and rushes towards Cu. Cu's first move is a straight punch towards Achilles' face. Achilles tilts his head to dodge and retaliates with his own punch towards Cu's open left only to be surprised as Cu grabs his wrist and punches him in the solar plexus, knocking the breath from his lungs and breaking a few ribs. Cu follows through with a leg sweep towards Achilles' heel forcing him to hop back in defense.

"That fighting style." comments Achilles as he catches his breath.

"Once you reach your opponent,-" begins Cu with a smile.

"-be sure to destroy it." finishes Achilles with a smirk.

"That is the basis of Pankration." comment the two together.

"How do you know that?" asks Achilles.

"That old man taught me hand-to-hand combat. According to him some lady called Lupa taught him that." answers Cu.

"Lupa? Like the wolf goddess?" replies Achilles.

Cu merely shrugs in answer before rushing towards Achilles. Achilles lets him get close enough before jumping into the air and kicking towards his opponent's face. Cu weathers the assault to grab Achilles' left heel and attempt to break it. His opponent however launches another kick towards his temple, forcing Cu to let go.

As he lands on the ground Achilles launches his knee towards Cu's face, but his opponent raises his arms and blocks. Following through, Achilles launches an assault of punches at his opponent. Cu answers in kind by deflecting and sending his own punches that are also deflected. As it begins to look like every punch will be deflected, Cu sees an opening that he takes advantage of. Grabbing hold of Achilles' left arm, Cu snaps it at the elbow and follows through by sending his own elbow at Achilles' face. However, Achilles dodges the blow and kicks one of Cu's knees, snapping it.

Despite their injuries, the two do not stop fighting. Achilles sends a full powered punch towards Cu's left ribs snapping a few and sending them into his heart. In retaliation Cu grabs that very same arm and snaps it, then he proceeds to grab Achilles' neck and breaks it.

Exhausted and injured, the two retreat from each other with heavy breaths.

"I win." claims Cu as he sits on the floor.

"Barely." replies Achilles with a strained voice as he drops to the floor.

"You lost that battle as soon as I first punched you in the solar plexus." says Cu as he begins to cough blood.

"Yea." strains Achilles with a smirk. "Break… bones… into… heart. Happy… fight… you."

After saying his peace, Achilles' eyes close and his body breaks down into magical energy for the grail.

"Yea." replies Cu as he too is turned into magical energy.

With an impassive face Karna blocks an arrow and fires his projectiles at Arjuna who also dodges. They had been fighting in this stalemate for a while now. Similar to their encounter before the interruption, not one of them has been able to hold the upper hand for long. The only time one of them has been able to truly gain the upper hand is when one of the caster's reinforcement would stop due to being put at a disadvantage in their own battle.

Dodging a thrust of Karna's spear, Arjuna retaliates by shooting Karna with fully powered Gandiva arrows on the chest, sending him flying. Recovering quickly, Karna takes to the skies.

"This is taking us nowhere. Perhaps it would be best to decide the winner with one final attack." says Karna.

"I agree." replies Arjuna as he also takes to the skies.

Noticing the duo's actions, Medea and Circe cease their actions on the battlefield and turn their full attention to reinforcing the two.

Raising his right hand into the air, Karna gathers as much magical energy as he can. As a result miles of land is burned to cinders as what seems to be a second sun appears above his head.

"I have enjoyed this battle between us rivals." comments Karna. "Should we meet again, let it be with the knowledge that a victor has officially been decided."

Floating until he becomes across from Karna, Arjuna also gathers as much magical energy as he can. Unlike Karna however, he gathers the magical energy into his hand and compresses it into a ball.

"Indeed, this battle has been most satisfactory." replies Arjuna.

With small smiles on their faces, Arjuna and Karna call upon their noble phantasms.

« "Holy Ground Expansion, Space Fixation, Divine Punishment Enforcement Period Establishment... All Clear. By Shiva's wrath, your life ends here..."

"Pashupata! »

« "My father, I ask for your forgiveness. For the first and last time."

"End everything, Vasavi... Shakti! »

The two demi-gods release their noble phantasms into giant beams that clash with each other, neither one willing to submit. However, as the clash continues both fighters suddenly find themselves out of magical energy, cancelling their noble phantasms. At the same time, two beams of light pierce their hearts, killing them.

Finding Circe is proving to be harder than Sakura thought it would be. The child like Caster has turned the entire clearing and the castle into her territory with Territory Creation. This certainly explains why she was able to teleport straight here after breaking through Sakura's barrier. As a humble person Sakura may never admit it, but her magecraft is only below the likes of her teacher Azula, Morgan, Scathach and other magus of that caliber. That is to say that no one from this era can defeat her in a battle of magecraft. Then again Circe is not even a magus, she is a magician from the Age of Gods. One who is on par with Medea of all people.

"Pluto. Jupiter." whispers Sakura as she activates her magic circuits and concentrates on finding her foe.

The arias that she whispered, Pluto and Jupiter, are the arias needed to utilize her personally invented spells, The Olympia's. Being raised by Azula, Sakura has heard countless stories of the Greek and Roman gods to the point that she could name them based only on their personalities. She also became fascinated with their abilities and has researched on ways to replicate them. While she hasn't truly replicated them, she has been able to replicate aspects of their powers. Jupiter for example can be used for simple lightning manipulation or creating a full on lightning storm. And while some may seem like simple elemental manipulation, they are actually more powerful than any elemental spell of modern magecraft.

Sensing the wind with Jupiter, and the ground with Pluto, Sakura is able to easily find Circe flying to her right.

"Mercury." whispers Sakura as she takes off towards the Caster with a speed that would be impressive even to a Lancer.

Arriving near Circe, Sakura makes use of her spell 'Diana' which creates a bow that is capable of shooting arrows of any variation, from pure magical energy to curses, or poisons. Not only are the arrows versatile, but she also knows from testing that they can't be sensed, not even by a Caster of Medea's level. While Circe seems occupied with her battle against Medea, and reinforcing Karna as much as possible, Sakura shoots her with three arrows. One to the head, a second through the neck and a final one to the heart, killing her.

"Was that necessary?" asks Rin as she looks on as Karna and Arjuna turn to magical energy from losing their links to their masters and due to having a Fragarach blade killing them.

"Yes." replies Bazett as she puts away the noble phantasm.

"Do you feel Setanta's link?" asks Scathach to Bazett.

"It was broken a few minutes ago." she replies solemnly.

"I see, and judging by the fact that Achilles has not assaulted us then that means that the battle was mutually destructive." answers Scathach as everyone nods in affirmative. "Then that leaves, Gilgamesh, Ozymandias, Mordred, Circe, the berserkers and the assassins."

"Circe is dead." claims Sakura as she approaches the group. "While she was occupied with her battle against Medea, I killed her."

"One assassin, and one berserker." says Morgan as she teleports in front of the group with Reika, Kiritsugu, Mordred, and Jack, and throws an unconscious Roche and Caules to the floor.

"Actually." calls out Azula as she too appears before the group. "Make that zero berserkers."

"What happened to Li Shuwen and Caligula?" asks Scathach.

"After we destroyed the remains of the homunculi chamber, disposed of the vermin Celenike,-" says Morgan as she begins to explain "-and captured these two, he decided that he had spent enough time in the land of the living. So to receive his wish of once more participating in a worthy battle, he challenged Mordred to a one on one battle. One that she easily won."

"As for Caligula,-" says Azula as she looks at her nails. "-well the battle between him and Kintoki made him even more mad. So I had to put him down after his victory."

"I see." replies Scathach. "Then that only leaves Ozymandias and Gilgamesh."

"My, what a boring performance." says Gilgamesh as he looks at the television that displayed the events of the Holy Grail War. "It is good that you are here to provide me with ample entertainment King of Kings."

"Indeed." replies Ozymandias as he and Gilgamesh stand from their collective seats. "Now that the teaser is over, perhaps it is time for the main event."

"Hahaha."laughs Gilgamesh. "Perhaps it is best that we skip the 'warm up' Sun King." says Gilgamesh. "Watching these mongrels has made me weary, and I wish to quickly finish this."

" well, Golden King." answers Ozymandias with his own boisterous laugh. "If it is a swift battle that you wish, then it is a swift battle you shall have. I shall give you a reward, lightless one."

« "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and bow down! My infinite brilliance. The sun descends here! "Ramesseum Tentyris"! »

As Ozymandias finishes summoning his noble phantasm, my hotel floor is replaced with his reality marble, Ramesseum Tentyris.

"This is Ramesseum Tentyris: The Shining Great Temple Complex." boasts Ozymandias as he opens his arms in presentation. "It is my greatest trump card, similar to and a kind of Reality Marble. The Great Temple Complex, the might of the Pharaoh Ozymandias, embodied as a Noble Phantasm. It is the manifestation of how I, the glorious Pharaoh, contains within my body the various Egyptian gods, thus it contains a number of mystics."

Inside the temple a number of divine protections and curses take effect. The first is a divine protection that grants immortality to Ozymandias and his Guardian Beasts, making total destruction of both the temple and Ozymandias himself necessary to defeat him. The second is a divine curse of an Ancient Egyptian Divine Spirit that acts as poison to any invaders, killing typical creatures in two seconds and weakening Servants by ranking down their parameters and occasionally weakening some of their Skills. The third and final is a curse of the gods that stops enemies from activating Noble Phantasms by sealing them. However, should one possess a high enough divinity, then the curse becomes moot.

"Truly an impressive structure." proclaims Gilgamesh. "Yet, can it withstand the power of my ultimate noble phantasm?"

As Gilgamesh speaks, a golden portal opens above his hand and the golden handle of a sword emerges from it. Unlike a regular sword, the blade of the sword has no edge and is instead rounded like a tournament lance. The tip also is not sharp and is instead flat. Surrounding the rounded blade are intricate red patterns over the black background.

Looking at the weapon, I can feel my godly powers over weapons attempting to comprehend what it is that I find in front of me. However, no matter how much it tries all I can feel is gibberish and a terrible migraine. Eventually I decide to turn away from that abomination and instead focus on the Golden King himself.

« I have enjoyed myself in your presence King of Kings, as such I shall allow you the pleasure of witnessing this.

I speak of genesis. The elements amalgamate, coalesce, and bring forth the star that weaves all of creation. Pay homage in death. Enuma Elish! »

As Gilgamesh nears the end of his aria, every single one of my senses scream for me to leave. Never one to ignore my danger sense, I immediately activate one of my trump cards, a teleportation array that is designed to allow me to leave Reality Marbles. I feel space twist as I am ejected from Ramesseum Tentyris and arrive in the teleportation chamber of my castle. As I catch my breath, I feel sweat roll down my brow and realise how close to death I just was. Wiping the sweat from my brow I focus on the teleportation marker that I placed in the hotel and activate it.

Arriving outside of the hotel, I notice that nothing seems to be out of place, not even my floor is destroyed.

"Planeswalker." calls out Gilgamesh as he walks out of the hotel. "As a show of respect towards the Sun King, I elected to swiftly kill him and leave the building undamaged. You may be thankful. As for you… Well, I see no better time than now to finish this so called Holy Grail War. Come, show me your worth."

As Gilgamesh finishes his statement, countless golden portals appear and fire noble phantasms at me. With a smirk on my face I summon my trident and proceed to deflect and block every weapon thrown at me while my divine powers from Bellona proceed to read and record every weapon that I lay my eyes upon.

As I dodge more weapons, the quality of the noble phantasms increase until I find myself satisfied with the variety of weapons that I will now be able to conjure. With renewed effort I begin to fight back by approaching him.

"An adequate performance mongrel, you may yet be worthy of my respect." says Gilgamesh as he summons more portals.

Knowing what earning Gilgamesh's respect entails, and wanting absolutely nothing to do with it, I decided to stop holding back and completely speed blitz him. Before he can process what has happened I appear before and drive my trident through his throat, killing him.