His story has long since reached its conclusion, and the Counter Guardian has already come to terms with his fate. Yet for the former hero, adventure seems to plague him wherever he goes- or wherever he's forced to go.
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At the Foot of the Mountain (Wuthering Waves/Fate)
- Thread starter Dagaz
- Start date
- Created
- Status
- Incomplete
- Watchers
- 56
- Recent readers
- 105
- Threadmarks
- 4
-
Statistics (4 threadmarks, 11k words)
User Total Dagaz 4
Prologue
Dagaz
Making the rounds.
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2024
- Messages
- 40
He's lost count of how many times he's seen this exact view. He lost track of how long he's been staring at this exact view. The barren sandy hills that spanned towards the horizon. The dusty clouds above the large floating gears. Hundreds, if not, thousands of swords stuck within the sand, covering the hills like a graveyard. His graveyard. His home, his soul, his grave. All three are true of this hill of swords.
Once he had attempted to release himself from this eternal hell by killing his younger self. He had hoped that the paradox of having killed his past self would completely wipe out his existence. He was no longer able to cope with his existence and so he looked for a way out.
Perhaps he always wanted some closure. Perhaps he just wanted to see himself break before he could ever fall into Alaya's clutches again. Yet at the end of that journey, instead of erasing himself, a spark lit in his heart– one that he had long forgotten.
If there was a reality where Shirou Emiya didn't take that contract, if he can be a hero without falling down this hellish path, he decided that that would be enough for him.
His own fate had been sealed the moment he accepted Alaya's terms, and he had finally truly accepted that.
Like a man rolling a boulder up a mountain he had been sent to kill again and again. From the moment he gave up his life to his ideals, he continued to live under Alaya. Even death didn't give him solace, as he woke up back on this hill of swords. "All for the greater good" he had once told himself, but that excuse didn't hold up for long.
He rolled the boulder up the mountain, summoned across time and space in order to kill.
The boulder would fall, he would return to this hill of swords after his duty is complete.
He walked back down the mountain, he would wait for his next task.
Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.
At this point he had long forgotten the events of that time, but the spark that remained afterward continued to persist. Even as he continued to fight, even as he continued to kill, that memory never left. That spark left a reminder and it is the sole reason his actions as a counter guardian have not broken him.
That immature dream he once had was not wrong. He was not wrong.
Yet it's far too late for him to fulfill that dream. Now he is merely just a tool, a sword made to be swung and discarded.
So here he stood, waiting for Alaya's imminent call. A young man with tanned skin and white hair, coated in red. A breeze carried through Unlimited Blade Works. He glanced at the gears that scattered across the sky, blocking most of the horizon.
At that moment, a sublime presence made itself known. At first the man believed that it was Alaya.
Yet as he closed his eyes expecting to wake up in another place, something else happened. The presence grew stronger, and the Counter Guardian was finally able to get a better grasp.
It was definitely not Alaya, the presence had some foreign divinity behind it. Yet the man could not call the presence "godly". It did not belong to this planet, nor was it anything he had felt before. The presence finally arrived completely, revealing itself right behind him. He opened his eyes and turned around, not knowing what to expect.
He was met with a beautiful young woman in silver. She looked around, observing the gears in the sky and the swords in the ground. Her ruby red eyes glanced at the counter guardian curiously, before she gave a solemn look.
"Who are you?" EMIYA asked without any subtlety. His usual snark isn't present.
You two really are similar.
She observed him, yet he felt as if her gaze was moving through him.
You must have suffered through so much.
Whispers left her lips yet they echoed like regular spoken words. Her frown deepened.
I apologize for forcing this upon you.
"What are you—" The strange woman cut him off mid sentence. Before the man could even notice, she had moved closer to him and gently grasped his hand.
His lifetime of experience should have said to step back, but her melancholic expression combined with the lack of any malevolence or intent to harm left him confused.
Still, it only took him a second to gather himself, and he made to pull away. Once again he was stopped, this time by a loud ringing resonating into his ear.
Please.
"Wait!" He thinks he yelled, the ringing drowned out all other sound— he couldn't even hear his own heartbeat. Despite the discomfort he did not feel any pain, and even so he still couldn't move.
Protect my dearest Rover.
The ringing stopped along with his vision. His body fell into unconsciousness. The last thing he saw before the world went black was the saddened visage of the foreign goddess.
(A/N) Finally got around to crossposting this here. As 2.0 inches closer I have to get off my ass and make do on my promise. I have so many ideas for this story but currently so little to actually work with. Hopefully I have my mind made up by the time 2.0 rolls around.
Once he had attempted to release himself from this eternal hell by killing his younger self. He had hoped that the paradox of having killed his past self would completely wipe out his existence. He was no longer able to cope with his existence and so he looked for a way out.
Perhaps he always wanted some closure. Perhaps he just wanted to see himself break before he could ever fall into Alaya's clutches again. Yet at the end of that journey, instead of erasing himself, a spark lit in his heart– one that he had long forgotten.
If there was a reality where Shirou Emiya didn't take that contract, if he can be a hero without falling down this hellish path, he decided that that would be enough for him.
His own fate had been sealed the moment he accepted Alaya's terms, and he had finally truly accepted that.
Like a man rolling a boulder up a mountain he had been sent to kill again and again. From the moment he gave up his life to his ideals, he continued to live under Alaya. Even death didn't give him solace, as he woke up back on this hill of swords. "All for the greater good" he had once told himself, but that excuse didn't hold up for long.
He rolled the boulder up the mountain, summoned across time and space in order to kill.
The boulder would fall, he would return to this hill of swords after his duty is complete.
He walked back down the mountain, he would wait for his next task.
Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.
At this point he had long forgotten the events of that time, but the spark that remained afterward continued to persist. Even as he continued to fight, even as he continued to kill, that memory never left. That spark left a reminder and it is the sole reason his actions as a counter guardian have not broken him.
That immature dream he once had was not wrong. He was not wrong.
Yet it's far too late for him to fulfill that dream. Now he is merely just a tool, a sword made to be swung and discarded.
So here he stood, waiting for Alaya's imminent call. A young man with tanned skin and white hair, coated in red. A breeze carried through Unlimited Blade Works. He glanced at the gears that scattered across the sky, blocking most of the horizon.
At that moment, a sublime presence made itself known. At first the man believed that it was Alaya.
Yet as he closed his eyes expecting to wake up in another place, something else happened. The presence grew stronger, and the Counter Guardian was finally able to get a better grasp.
It was definitely not Alaya, the presence had some foreign divinity behind it. Yet the man could not call the presence "godly". It did not belong to this planet, nor was it anything he had felt before. The presence finally arrived completely, revealing itself right behind him. He opened his eyes and turned around, not knowing what to expect.
He was met with a beautiful young woman in silver. She looked around, observing the gears in the sky and the swords in the ground. Her ruby red eyes glanced at the counter guardian curiously, before she gave a solemn look.
"Who are you?" EMIYA asked without any subtlety. His usual snark isn't present.
You two really are similar.
She observed him, yet he felt as if her gaze was moving through him.
You must have suffered through so much.
Whispers left her lips yet they echoed like regular spoken words. Her frown deepened.
I apologize for forcing this upon you.
"What are you—" The strange woman cut him off mid sentence. Before the man could even notice, she had moved closer to him and gently grasped his hand.
His lifetime of experience should have said to step back, but her melancholic expression combined with the lack of any malevolence or intent to harm left him confused.
Still, it only took him a second to gather himself, and he made to pull away. Once again he was stopped, this time by a loud ringing resonating into his ear.
Please.
"Wait!" He thinks he yelled, the ringing drowned out all other sound— he couldn't even hear his own heartbeat. Despite the discomfort he did not feel any pain, and even so he still couldn't move.
Protect my dearest Rover.
The ringing stopped along with his vision. His body fell into unconsciousness. The last thing he saw before the world went black was the saddened visage of the foreign goddess.
(A/N) Finally got around to crossposting this here. As 2.0 inches closer I have to get off my ass and make do on my promise. I have so many ideas for this story but currently so little to actually work with. Hopefully I have my mind made up by the time 2.0 rolls around.
Chapter 1: Solaris III
Dagaz
Making the rounds.
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2024
- Messages
- 40
Counter Guardian Emiya awoke with a groan. He covered his eyes with his hand from the sun glaring down from above. Taking a second to orientate himself, a groan left his lips as he stood up from his supine position. A single blink removed the blur from his vision.
Vast amounts of green and gray welcomed his eyes, grass danced in the wind. He looked up to a sky covered by darkened clouds. He gazed down at himself, there were no physical anomalies and he still wore his signature red and black garb.
He felt a strange hum reverb through his circuits. A strange taste in his mouth, a strange smell in the air. With narrowed eyes, he crossed his arms and attempted to dematerialize, nothing occurred.
Strange. He felt like a spirit yet he was clearly in his human body. He looked back to the ground he woke up from, no sign of any summoning system. Only grass and dirt. He absentmindedly rubbed the front of his neck. Perhaps it was a sort of lag between his soul and body? He never bothered to track how many years it's been since his death (not like he could anyways). He shook his head. No, that doesn't make any sense, his body worked perfectly fine. Either way, that wasn't too important at the moment.
No, the most important thing was—
"Where the hell am I?" He muttered.
He looked around, looking for any clue that could hint at where he is. From his time as a Counter Guardian he is at least familiar with the basics of many cultures. Despite his foggy memory he could always tell that he was at least somewhere that he's once heard about.
Yet all that greeted his sight was nature. He turned back around, shifting his gaze over to the hill next to him. Might as well get a look from higher ground.
He only took a few steps forward before something stopped him. A strange noise emanating from the tree to his right. No, it wasn't from the tree. Emiya narrowed his eyes.
A small creature walked out from behind the tree. Around the size of a small child, the creature's head was shaped like a yellow flower. It wobbled out with glee before its eyes (Emiya assumed the two circles in its "face" were eyes) met his. Whatever noise it was making stopped as it simply stood and stared at him.
He stared back.
A squeal left the creature as it held up its arms. The two tendrils that extended from the side of its flower "head" like bangs aimed upwards. A ball of light formed above its flower head, and with another squeak it aimed its arms forward. The ball flew towards Emiya, who simply stepped to the side. The orb of light shattered upon making contact with the ground, leaving a hole in the dirt.
He's seen creatures of multiple different sizes, but he's never seen one quite like this. He also highly doubted that it was a familiar.
Another ball of light formed above its head and flew towards the Counter Guardian. This time, instead of dodging, he formed a simple steel sword in his hand and swiped at the orb. It shattered upon impact, but a strange feeling had entered Emiya's hand.
It was just for a moment, no longer than a blink of an eye, but Emiya felt his swing slow down the moment his sword connected with the ball of light– despite the fact that he felt no physical resistance.
He narrowed his eyes.
"What are you?"
In response the creature held up its hands and prepared another attack. The counter guardian sighed, it was worth a shot he supposed.
With a quick swipe he tossed the sword into the creature, the speed behind his throw allowed the blade to cleave right through the creature's neck. It vanished the moment its head separated from its torso, and in its place a strange yellow outline appeared. It looked like a hologram and it took the exact form of the creature.
With a curious glance he walked up towards the "hologram" and observed it. As he got closer, the ringing in his ears grew louder. The same ringing he felt when he met with that strange silver woman.
Out of curiosity he held out his hand towards the transparent figure. The ringing grew to the point that it became akin to a screech— yet he could not feel any pain from it.
It kept growing louder by the second until he pulled his hand away from the remnant of the creature.
He had an assumption when he first felt the creature's presence, but now he had confirmation.
Whatever it was, whatever it did, whatever it is now–
None of it was formed from magecraft or any form of Mystery.
Was he… even on Earth anymore?
He looked back up the hill and proceeded to walk. His footsteps were quick. The ringing he felt did not vanish but it quickly faded off. A strange and soft white noise replaced the previously high-pitched ringing.
It took a few seconds before he reached the top of the hill, and as he looked down he realized he wasn't on just a hill, but rather a mountain.
His eyes widened slightly as he gazed upon the land. In the distance in front of him he could see a city that stood right next to a large mountain. If he narrowed his eyes he could see the form of a large dragon in the distance. Was that a mountain?
His gaze moved to the side, and his eyes widened fully upon seeing the remains of a destroyed city. Remnants of a skyscraper floated above the center of the land covered in flames, defying gravity. A long monorail orbited around the floating broken skyscraper like the moon of a planet. Yet what surprised him the most wasn't the broken building defying gravity, but the black hole that lingered above it, covered by clouds.
If the creature before wasn't proof enough, then this was the nail in the coffin.
He was no longer on Earth.
"Just my luck." He grumbled with a sigh.
A noise echoed from a distance behind him. He looked to the side, listening in closely. Besides the everpresent white noise in the back of his mind, the distant noise began to clear up as he focused. Eventually it cleared up to the point that he was able to hear the causes of the noise. Something familiar to him.
The sound of blades clashing, of bullets flying. Steel cleaving against steel, and iron piercing through iron. A battle.
An opportunity for him to get some answers.
With a heavy breath and a determined glance, he walked towards the conflict.
A young woman stood with bated breath. Her blue eyes, with light-grey pupils, scanned over the enemies in front of her. Her black and blue dress was covered in a few tears. A short breeze flowed through her long black hair, which had feather-shaped white streaks.
She kneeled slightly, both of her hands grasping her sword.
"Don't even think about it missy."
A gruff voice from one of the men she was facing spoke as soon as he saw her stance change.
Surrounding her stood eight men dressed in blood red clothing and devilish gas masks– members of the Fractsidus. Two of them had an extra pair of arms which looked like the arms of Tacet Discords– Executioners. These two men held two hostages with sharp knives against their necks.
"Big sis!" One of the hostages—a young girl—cried, her mouth was quickly covered by one of the man's extra hands.
"Make your next move carefully, Ranger." The Executioner hissed as he inched a knife closer to the young girl's neck. "Or both of these brats will be seeing the afterlife."
A snicker left the mouth of the man who held the other hostage. Despite being called a "brat", the other hostage was a relatively calm looking young man. He did not look any older than the girl who was attempting to save him.
Unlike the young girl, who squirmed against her captor, the young man looked oddly apathetic to the entire situation. His black eyes deadpanned beneath his shoulder-length raven black hair. His life held in the hands of malice, yet he simply stood as if he held no regard for his life.
He did not flinch when his captor inched the knife closer to his neck, to the point that it drew just the tiniest drop of blood. He still stood bored.
His eyes met the eyes of the young woman, his only chance of survival. He opened his mouth to speak, and one would expect a desperate attempt at a plea to live.
Instead he simply asked, "what will you do now, Yangyang?"
She glared at him, but after observing closely she realized that the question was genuine. From his body language to his face to his eyes, there was no sign of a taunt.
He asked the question as if he wasn't the one in mortal danger.
He winced as his captor moved the knife to the side, drawing more blood.
"Shut up kid, don't you know where you stand at this moment?"
"Apologies."
He did not sound sorry.
Both sides stood at a standstill. No one made a move as tension filled the air. Yangyang's eyes frantically moved between the girl and the young man.
In a different scenario she would have dealt with this quickly, but the eight members of the Fractsidus had spread out. Should she go for a small handful then the rest will retaliate. If she attempted to go for all of them at once she wasn't sure if she could confidently avoid the girl and the young man. The young man's apathy regarding the entire situation certainly did not help her.
After a few seconds of hesitation, the Fractsidus Executioner who held the young man called out, "you know what, we're feeling nice today."
"We are?" A Fractsidus grunt from the side asked, earning a shoulder to the stomach from his comrade.
"I notice those colors on your outfit, you're a Midnight Ranger aren't you? Give us your head and we'll let these two brats go." The Executioner chuckled, a rough and venomous sound reverberating from behind its masked face. "Your life for these two."
With her guard still up, her eyes moved towards the rest of the Fractsidus. She obviously wasn't going to fall for the bait, she knew these types, they were not true to their word. However, that doesn't mean she couldn't let them think she fell for it.
As they are now she couldn't confidently fight off one without another taking action, she needed a way to get them closer to each other. She looked towards the young man, his curious gaze focused on her. She then looked towards the younger girl, who stared back at her with wide , pleading eyes.
"Fine." She said, standing up straight, and slowly moving her hands to sheath her blade. Her gaze locked on the Executioner who threw the "bait". After a few agonizingly long seconds, she fully sheathed her blade.
"Let go of them first."
The Executioner holding the young man smiled. "No can do."
His grip on the young man tightened, signaling for the men behind Yangyang to step forward. Meanwhile, the young man's head perked up slightly. He turned his head towards the left, looking off in the distance.
"First, your head."
Two more grunts took a step forward, preparing to lunge towards the girl.
Yet before they could act, a sound echoed. A small object soared through the wind, longing itself directly into the head of the Executioner who held the young man hostage. Within a moment, life left the man.
Silence reigned in the area.
"Huh?" One of the Fractsidus members uttered.
With a blink, the young man shrugged the dead body off, letting it fall to the ground behind him. He turned around to see the arrow dissipating before turning back towards the direction he had previously been looking in.
Something else soared through the wind– another arrow longed itself into the head of the Executioner who held the girl hostage.
"Ambush!" Someone yelled.
Within a few seconds, two other Fractsidus members fell from an arrow. The remaining four looked around in a panic, attempting to find the source of the arrows.
"Sister!" The young girl ran up to Yangyang, engulfing her in a hug. Tears started to fall down her face. Yangyang reciprocated the hug with one arm and held her blade in the other arm, guarding both herself and the girl.
In quick succession, the remaining four Fractsidus grunts fell to an arrow. One struck in the heart, another struck in the head, and two struck in the stomach.
The only sound remaining in the area was of the young girl's soft sobs.
Yangyang looked at the dead bodies. "Is it over?" She asked before looking towards the young man.
"It's over." He said, his eyes fixated off towards the distance, no rather fixated on someone in the distance. With a breath he said, "You can come out now."
Yangyang looked in the same direction as the young man before turning back to him with a raised eyebrow, "Wugang what are you–"
He stopped her with a raised hand, and after a few minutes something responded. Walking into view was a man cloaked in red. His skin tan, his hair a solid white, and his eyes a steely grey.
"And there's our savior." Wugang muttered. His gaze focused solely on the newcomer, observing the man.
"I apologize if I frightened you." The man said, raising his hands in the air to show that he meant no harm.
"I just have a few questions I want to ask."
(A/N)
I feel as though maybe this story might get too ambitious and the average fanfiction reader may as well just say "fuck this". But YKnow what? I'm still going to try. Even if it's beyond my current capabilities, I'll keep trying.
One must imagine a shitty author happy.
Reviews and comments are appreciated.
Thank you for reading!
Vast amounts of green and gray welcomed his eyes, grass danced in the wind. He looked up to a sky covered by darkened clouds. He gazed down at himself, there were no physical anomalies and he still wore his signature red and black garb.
He felt a strange hum reverb through his circuits. A strange taste in his mouth, a strange smell in the air. With narrowed eyes, he crossed his arms and attempted to dematerialize, nothing occurred.
Strange. He felt like a spirit yet he was clearly in his human body. He looked back to the ground he woke up from, no sign of any summoning system. Only grass and dirt. He absentmindedly rubbed the front of his neck. Perhaps it was a sort of lag between his soul and body? He never bothered to track how many years it's been since his death (not like he could anyways). He shook his head. No, that doesn't make any sense, his body worked perfectly fine. Either way, that wasn't too important at the moment.
No, the most important thing was—
"Where the hell am I?" He muttered.
He looked around, looking for any clue that could hint at where he is. From his time as a Counter Guardian he is at least familiar with the basics of many cultures. Despite his foggy memory he could always tell that he was at least somewhere that he's once heard about.
Yet all that greeted his sight was nature. He turned back around, shifting his gaze over to the hill next to him. Might as well get a look from higher ground.
He only took a few steps forward before something stopped him. A strange noise emanating from the tree to his right. No, it wasn't from the tree. Emiya narrowed his eyes.
A small creature walked out from behind the tree. Around the size of a small child, the creature's head was shaped like a yellow flower. It wobbled out with glee before its eyes (Emiya assumed the two circles in its "face" were eyes) met his. Whatever noise it was making stopped as it simply stood and stared at him.
He stared back.
A squeal left the creature as it held up its arms. The two tendrils that extended from the side of its flower "head" like bangs aimed upwards. A ball of light formed above its flower head, and with another squeak it aimed its arms forward. The ball flew towards Emiya, who simply stepped to the side. The orb of light shattered upon making contact with the ground, leaving a hole in the dirt.
He's seen creatures of multiple different sizes, but he's never seen one quite like this. He also highly doubted that it was a familiar.
Another ball of light formed above its head and flew towards the Counter Guardian. This time, instead of dodging, he formed a simple steel sword in his hand and swiped at the orb. It shattered upon impact, but a strange feeling had entered Emiya's hand.
It was just for a moment, no longer than a blink of an eye, but Emiya felt his swing slow down the moment his sword connected with the ball of light– despite the fact that he felt no physical resistance.
He narrowed his eyes.
"What are you?"
In response the creature held up its hands and prepared another attack. The counter guardian sighed, it was worth a shot he supposed.
With a quick swipe he tossed the sword into the creature, the speed behind his throw allowed the blade to cleave right through the creature's neck. It vanished the moment its head separated from its torso, and in its place a strange yellow outline appeared. It looked like a hologram and it took the exact form of the creature.
With a curious glance he walked up towards the "hologram" and observed it. As he got closer, the ringing in his ears grew louder. The same ringing he felt when he met with that strange silver woman.
Out of curiosity he held out his hand towards the transparent figure. The ringing grew to the point that it became akin to a screech— yet he could not feel any pain from it.
It kept growing louder by the second until he pulled his hand away from the remnant of the creature.
He had an assumption when he first felt the creature's presence, but now he had confirmation.
Whatever it was, whatever it did, whatever it is now–
None of it was formed from magecraft or any form of Mystery.
Was he… even on Earth anymore?
He looked back up the hill and proceeded to walk. His footsteps were quick. The ringing he felt did not vanish but it quickly faded off. A strange and soft white noise replaced the previously high-pitched ringing.
It took a few seconds before he reached the top of the hill, and as he looked down he realized he wasn't on just a hill, but rather a mountain.
His eyes widened slightly as he gazed upon the land. In the distance in front of him he could see a city that stood right next to a large mountain. If he narrowed his eyes he could see the form of a large dragon in the distance. Was that a mountain?
His gaze moved to the side, and his eyes widened fully upon seeing the remains of a destroyed city. Remnants of a skyscraper floated above the center of the land covered in flames, defying gravity. A long monorail orbited around the floating broken skyscraper like the moon of a planet. Yet what surprised him the most wasn't the broken building defying gravity, but the black hole that lingered above it, covered by clouds.
If the creature before wasn't proof enough, then this was the nail in the coffin.
He was no longer on Earth.
"Just my luck." He grumbled with a sigh.
A noise echoed from a distance behind him. He looked to the side, listening in closely. Besides the everpresent white noise in the back of his mind, the distant noise began to clear up as he focused. Eventually it cleared up to the point that he was able to hear the causes of the noise. Something familiar to him.
The sound of blades clashing, of bullets flying. Steel cleaving against steel, and iron piercing through iron. A battle.
An opportunity for him to get some answers.
With a heavy breath and a determined glance, he walked towards the conflict.
A young woman stood with bated breath. Her blue eyes, with light-grey pupils, scanned over the enemies in front of her. Her black and blue dress was covered in a few tears. A short breeze flowed through her long black hair, which had feather-shaped white streaks.
She kneeled slightly, both of her hands grasping her sword.
"Don't even think about it missy."
A gruff voice from one of the men she was facing spoke as soon as he saw her stance change.
Surrounding her stood eight men dressed in blood red clothing and devilish gas masks– members of the Fractsidus. Two of them had an extra pair of arms which looked like the arms of Tacet Discords– Executioners. These two men held two hostages with sharp knives against their necks.
"Big sis!" One of the hostages—a young girl—cried, her mouth was quickly covered by one of the man's extra hands.
"Make your next move carefully, Ranger." The Executioner hissed as he inched a knife closer to the young girl's neck. "Or both of these brats will be seeing the afterlife."
A snicker left the mouth of the man who held the other hostage. Despite being called a "brat", the other hostage was a relatively calm looking young man. He did not look any older than the girl who was attempting to save him.
Unlike the young girl, who squirmed against her captor, the young man looked oddly apathetic to the entire situation. His black eyes deadpanned beneath his shoulder-length raven black hair. His life held in the hands of malice, yet he simply stood as if he held no regard for his life.
He did not flinch when his captor inched the knife closer to his neck, to the point that it drew just the tiniest drop of blood. He still stood bored.
His eyes met the eyes of the young woman, his only chance of survival. He opened his mouth to speak, and one would expect a desperate attempt at a plea to live.
Instead he simply asked, "what will you do now, Yangyang?"
She glared at him, but after observing closely she realized that the question was genuine. From his body language to his face to his eyes, there was no sign of a taunt.
He asked the question as if he wasn't the one in mortal danger.
He winced as his captor moved the knife to the side, drawing more blood.
"Shut up kid, don't you know where you stand at this moment?"
"Apologies."
He did not sound sorry.
Both sides stood at a standstill. No one made a move as tension filled the air. Yangyang's eyes frantically moved between the girl and the young man.
In a different scenario she would have dealt with this quickly, but the eight members of the Fractsidus had spread out. Should she go for a small handful then the rest will retaliate. If she attempted to go for all of them at once she wasn't sure if she could confidently avoid the girl and the young man. The young man's apathy regarding the entire situation certainly did not help her.
After a few seconds of hesitation, the Fractsidus Executioner who held the young man called out, "you know what, we're feeling nice today."
"We are?" A Fractsidus grunt from the side asked, earning a shoulder to the stomach from his comrade.
"I notice those colors on your outfit, you're a Midnight Ranger aren't you? Give us your head and we'll let these two brats go." The Executioner chuckled, a rough and venomous sound reverberating from behind its masked face. "Your life for these two."
With her guard still up, her eyes moved towards the rest of the Fractsidus. She obviously wasn't going to fall for the bait, she knew these types, they were not true to their word. However, that doesn't mean she couldn't let them think she fell for it.
As they are now she couldn't confidently fight off one without another taking action, she needed a way to get them closer to each other. She looked towards the young man, his curious gaze focused on her. She then looked towards the younger girl, who stared back at her with wide , pleading eyes.
"Fine." She said, standing up straight, and slowly moving her hands to sheath her blade. Her gaze locked on the Executioner who threw the "bait". After a few agonizingly long seconds, she fully sheathed her blade.
"Let go of them first."
The Executioner holding the young man smiled. "No can do."
His grip on the young man tightened, signaling for the men behind Yangyang to step forward. Meanwhile, the young man's head perked up slightly. He turned his head towards the left, looking off in the distance.
"First, your head."
Two more grunts took a step forward, preparing to lunge towards the girl.
Yet before they could act, a sound echoed. A small object soared through the wind, longing itself directly into the head of the Executioner who held the young man hostage. Within a moment, life left the man.
Silence reigned in the area.
"Huh?" One of the Fractsidus members uttered.
With a blink, the young man shrugged the dead body off, letting it fall to the ground behind him. He turned around to see the arrow dissipating before turning back towards the direction he had previously been looking in.
Something else soared through the wind– another arrow longed itself into the head of the Executioner who held the girl hostage.
"Ambush!" Someone yelled.
Within a few seconds, two other Fractsidus members fell from an arrow. The remaining four looked around in a panic, attempting to find the source of the arrows.
"Sister!" The young girl ran up to Yangyang, engulfing her in a hug. Tears started to fall down her face. Yangyang reciprocated the hug with one arm and held her blade in the other arm, guarding both herself and the girl.
In quick succession, the remaining four Fractsidus grunts fell to an arrow. One struck in the heart, another struck in the head, and two struck in the stomach.
The only sound remaining in the area was of the young girl's soft sobs.
Yangyang looked at the dead bodies. "Is it over?" She asked before looking towards the young man.
"It's over." He said, his eyes fixated off towards the distance, no rather fixated on someone in the distance. With a breath he said, "You can come out now."
Yangyang looked in the same direction as the young man before turning back to him with a raised eyebrow, "Wugang what are you–"
He stopped her with a raised hand, and after a few minutes something responded. Walking into view was a man cloaked in red. His skin tan, his hair a solid white, and his eyes a steely grey.
"And there's our savior." Wugang muttered. His gaze focused solely on the newcomer, observing the man.
"I apologize if I frightened you." The man said, raising his hands in the air to show that he meant no harm.
"I just have a few questions I want to ask."
(A/N)
I feel as though maybe this story might get too ambitious and the average fanfiction reader may as well just say "fuck this". But YKnow what? I'm still going to try. Even if it's beyond my current capabilities, I'll keep trying.
One must imagine a shitty author happy.
Reviews and comments are appreciated.
Thank you for reading!
trashtaker
The (un)lucky Patreon Saint of borrowed fortune
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2023
- Messages
- 4,096
Hey author good shit ngl.
Just one question.
Would this be like the beta scenes in WuWa before the changes?
I really want crownless to be HIM.
Just one question.
Would this be like the beta scenes in WuWa before the changes?
I really want crownless to be HIM.
Dagaz
Making the rounds.
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2024
- Messages
- 40
Thank you for the comment! I won't be pulling scenes from the beta; however, the Jinzhou story here won't play out like it does in the current canon (with a few exceptions).
But don't you worry, I'm definitely giving the GOAT Crownless the attention he deserves.
trashtaker
The (un)lucky Patreon Saint of borrowed fortune
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2023
- Messages
- 4,096
HELL YEAH. MY GOAT CROWNLESS
Chapter 2.1: Rover's Prelude 1
Dagaz
Making the rounds.
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2024
- Messages
- 40
(A/N) Before anyone says anything, I know I know, I apologize for the wait, I really have no excuse. I'll try to be better.
Anyways, is it a good idea to have what is essentially a flashback/prologue as the beginning of the second chapter? Probably not, but this has been stuck in my head for ages and because of my incompetence and laziness, I decided to just put it here. I also decided to have this become the "first half" of the second chapter, which is also a choice I made cuz I was irritated with my own laziness. I'll try to make it all make sense as the story progresses though, that I promise.
Two more things: I would like to thank my friend TimesChanged for helping iron out the kinks of this story. If you like wuwa go check him out on Ao3 and FFN!
And finally; to anyone asking if it's Female or Male rover, this chapter is your answer.
A week prior to Emiya's arrival
A bright blue butterfly fluttered off.
Golden eyes awoke to a clear blue sky. With a few blinks she sat upwards, rubbing the fatigue out of her eyes. Her long black ponytail– with inner white highlights– shook from the small gusts of wind. She looked down as she stretched her arms upwards. She took in her outfit, a small blush formed just a bit when she looked at her attire. What was even the point of the straps around her shoulders if she wasn't carrying anything?
Didn't matter, she supposed. No, the most important thing she needed to know was–
Where was she?
She looked around, large cliffs covered her on both sides.
"Oh, is she finally up?" A loud and delighted voice asked from behind her, she turned around to see two young women walking up to her. One with long black hair, blue eyes and a blue and black uniform. The other young woman, the one who spoke, had unruly red hair, red eyes, and a mix-match of sweaters around her chest and shorts.
"Are you okay?" the one with black hair asked softly, upon a better look, the golden-eyed woman noticed a feather in the other girl's hair.
"I… I'm fine… I think."
"Are you sure? You're not injured or anything, right? We had Baizhi double check before she left but even then…"
The girl with red hair spoke up, "Yangyang don't pester her, she looks fine, either way Baizhi confirmed she had no injuries."
The feathered girl, named Yangyang, sighed, "I'm just making sure, Chixia, she's been unconscious ever since we found her."
Yangyang looked straight at the woman's golden-eyes and asked, "Are you sure you're alright?"
She nodded slowly, and attempted to stand upright. With a wince she stumbled, only for Yangyang to hold onto her shoulder.
"Woah, careful there, don't want you to get disoriented." The red-haired girl, now named Chixia, said, walking up to the two and standing on the opposite side of Yangyang.
As she fully stood, the young woman looked around again and asked, "Where am I?"
"We are in the Gorges of Spirits, right near the border of Jinzhou, one of Huanglong's major cities."
Those words… meant nothing to her, at least she thought so. There was a strange sense of deja vu but nothing concrete.
"Where…" with some hesitation, the young woman attempted for clarification, "exactly are those?"
The golden-eyed young woman and the feather-haired girl stared at each other, and after realizing that the woman wasn't joking, Yangyang asked, "Do you… really not know where you are?"
The young woman shook her head.
"Do you…" Yangyang was going to ask another question, but her eyes widened. "Oh, right, how rude! We forgot to introduce ourselves."
The two took a step back.
"I am Yangyang, a Midnight Ranger."
"And I'm Chixia! Hero of Justice and Junior Jinzhou Patroller!"
More terms that meant nothing to the young woman, but the name "Jinzhou" still echoed in her head. Though she did memorize their names.
"What's your name?"
All other thoughts halted upon the question. The young woman stared forward with an empty expression, as if her mind short-circuited.
"My… name?"
Yangyang nodded.
"What is… my name?"
Yangyang was going to nod again before she realized, "Do you… not know your name?"
The young woman scratched her head, "I think I have a name, I just… can't remember."
Yangyang folded her arms, this was unprecedented. She asked, "Your date of birth?" the woman shook her head, "Your parents?" the young woman shook her head again, "Your place of origin or residence?" another head shake.
"Do you truly not remember anything?"
The young woman shook her head a final time.
"Boom! Knew it! Mysterious amnesiac! Baizhi owes me twenty credits!" Off to the side, Chixia pumped her fist.
"Chixia…" Yangyang side-eyed her friend and sighed.
Realizing that she had both of their attention Chixia released a soft chuckle and scratched the back of her head, "Sorry, that was probably not the right time."
Yangyang looked back towards the amnesiac and studied her. "So you don't know who you are or where you are, but your clothes don't exactly look local. Are you some sort of, roving traveler?"
The young woman shrugged.
"Then for now… how about we call you Rover until you remember your name?"
The name felt more like a name for a pet, but Rover went along with it nonetheless, it'll only be until she finds her real name after all.
"Rover is fine." She nodded.
"Now that we got that settled… somewhat," Chixia said, putting her shoulder around Yangyang and Rover, "Let's go find Baizhi and get out of here, for some reason this place is starting to give me the creeps." She tilted her head towards Yangyang, "Can you sense where she went?"
"Of course."
With a breath, Yangyang closed her eyes, feeling the vibrations in the current. She searched for the familiar feeling of her friend. After a few seconds she opened her eyes and stared upwards.
"I found her, but there also seems to be another problem."
"Which is?" Chixia motioned for Yangyang to continue.
"The Etheric Sea is converging."
Chixia winced, removing her arms from the other two. "Then we really have to find Baizhi and get out of here."
Yangyang nodded. "Follow me."
As the two walked through the gorge, Yangyang answered any questions lingering on Rover's mind.
Rover asked about the Etheric Sea, an inverted 'sea' in the sky made up of condensed remnant energy. Whenever it appears it usually means the appearance of Tacet Discords and a Tacet Field, more terms that rung bells in Rover's mind, yet she still didn't understand or know them. As Rover was about to ask about Tacet Discords, Tacet Fields, and Remnant Energy, Chixia stopped her.
"Alright, we're going to be here all day if you get Yangyang going, she likes to explain things y'see."
"H-hey!"
"So we'll get to Jinzhou and grab you an encyclopedia. Hopefully that can answer all of your questions."
Rover nodded, for some reason she understood what an encyclopedia was. Something that Chixia and Yangyang caught onto.
"So you know what an encyclopedia is?"
Rover nodded.
For some reason Chixia looked over to Yangyang with a smug grin. "What did I tell you?"
Yangyang sighed, "Chixia for the last time–"
Chixia cut her off, "An extremely mysterious individual wakes up in the middle of nowhere with selective amnesia, and coincidentally everything she doesn't know are important topics that everyone on Solaris should know! Yet she knows other basic things like encyclopedias!"
The feather-haired girl rubbed her forehead, "Life isn't like a webcomic, Chixia."
"You think I don't know that? But look! All of the boxes are ticking!" She wheeled herself over to Rover and stared at the amnesiac with wide sparkling eyes.
"Are you from a different time period!? Did you regress from after The Lament or did you travel from before?! Or wait, maybe you're from a different planet altogether!"
The questions sprang from Chixia's mouth, and Rover wasn't prepared. The amnesiac stared with a confused expression, so confused that she was only able to answer one question.
"I… think I'm from this planet."
"Alright that's enough Chixia." Yangyang grabbed onto the red-head's shoulders and pulled her back.
"Wait– but-!"
The two walked away, Yangyang motioned for Rover to follow, which she did right after.
After a few seconds of walking the three ran into their first Tacet Discord, a large creature that seemed to be made out of rocks, it was dealt with easily. Yangyang and Chixia did most of the work, though Rover got in a few hits.
The three continued walking until they reached a large open area, from the side a long serpentine dragon watched over.
Rover walked up to the dragon statue and stared.
The two others walked up beside her.
"That's Jué," Yangyang started, "Our sentinel and one of the seven sentinels of Huanglong, no other nation–"
"Yangyang you're doing it again."
"Can you let me finish?!" Yangyang raised her voice in annoyance, but Chixia knew it was nothing outright malicious, especially since her Tacet Mark didn't start glowing.
While the two started to argue, Rover simply stared at the statue. It's stony eyes seemingly staring into her own.
And in that moment, something filled her mind.
A vision.
She couldn't see where it was but she could only see two figures, one of herself and another of a bright dragon, the same one that the statue in front of her replicated.
It was a short vision, but one that definitely affected Rover. She took a step back, gathering herself. The other two took notice.
"Rover, are you alright?"
"I… had a vision… a memory?"
"What was it about?" Chixia asked, her mind already flowing with different possibilities.
"I've met Jué before."
"That's… not impossible… but it would have to have been long before General Jiyan or Magistrate Jinhsi." Yangyang muttered, "They are the only ones in recent history to have gained Jué's direct attention."
"So you have history with Jinzhou." Chixia rubbed her chin, "Or maybe even with Huanglong as a whole."
"Let's keep going." With some new found confidence, Rover motioned towards Yangyang to walk forward. Why was it that the statue brought forth a vision but all of the other familiar concepts early didn't have any other reaction outside of a feeling of deja-vu?
Maybe if she found a similar statue she could find out more.
Yangyang nodded, leading the other two out of the gorge and onto a cliff. They peeked over the edge, seeing both a large tacet field and a familiar figure examining the area.
"Ah! There's Baizhi! What is she doing alone?!" Chixia called out. She quickly leaped off, and before Rover could realize, a strange glider appeared in her hands, allowing her to float safely to the ground.
"Ah, that's a glider echo it comes with the Terminal, the thing behind you."
Rover reached behind her, feeling nothing for a second before an object appeared in her hand, she brought it to her front, taking in the gourd that appeared in her hand.
"Just feel for it after you jump, it'll come to you naturally." Yangyang said, motioning for Rover to jump.
With no hesitation, Rover jumped off the cliff and held out her hand, and Yangyang was right. An echo glider appeared in her hand, holding her up and gliding her towards the ground. Yangyang followed quickly after.
As the three landed on the ground, Chixia walked up to Baizhi while Yangyang followed right after Rover. The young woman who Rover assumed was Baizhi passed by the redhead and up to her. Baizhi flicked her hand up towards Rover, and a strange sensation flowed through her.
Following right after the movement, a strange white creature floated around Rover, observing her.
"No problems with her vitals, and all things seem to be stable."
"Baizhi! You owe me twenty credits!"
Baizhi raised an eyebrow towards the redhead, "I thought I told you I wasn't going to take the bet."
"Aw but cmon! I was right! This person is a mysterious amnesiac! C'mon Rover, tell her!"
With the spotlight suddenly put back on her, Rover rubbed the back of her head. "What… she said."
Baizhi pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "Alright, I'll hand you the money after we finish this."
"Yes!" Chixia pumped her fists.
"Speaking of which," Yangyang walked up to Baizhi, her gaze examining the surroundings before finally landing on the scar-like hole in the ground. "The Etheric Sea is converging here, when did this appear?"
"Ten seconds ago." Baizhi answered. "Without exaggeration, it appeared within a blink of an eye. It is still dormant, and no Tacet Discords have come out or in this vicinity."
"Hm… Then it must be a strong one, so hopefully we have some time before it awakens."
"I believe so as well."
The four young women observed the surroundings. Though Rover did not know what exactly she was looking at, yet it felt familiar.
"You think we have enough time to call for backup?" Chixia asked, in her hand her Terminal beeped. "Nevermind, one of us will have to return and bring backup, the Terminals are all out of wack."
"Two of us should stay," Baizhi suggested, "While the other person returns Rover to the city and grabs backup."
"Sounds good," Yangyang nodded, "I'll take Rover and–"
A ring echoed through the vicinity. A screech that pierced through the three young women, yet the amnesiac stood. The three young women hunched over, rubbing their foreheads. For just a split second, something echoed through Rover's head, causing her to flinch.
It barely took a second for Rover to recover herself, and when she did–
War
Something resonated throughout, something familiar to Rover yet unknown at the same time. She turned around to find nothing, but the feeling didn't go away. When Rover turned back around–
A figure appeared right in front of her. Her eyes widened.
A white humanoid figure with a malicious grin stood in front of her. Because of its height, it leaned forward slightly to meet her eye level, glaring directly into her golden eyes.
"Where is your crown?"
Quickly gathering herself, Rover did not hesitate or doubt, she followed her instincts. Quickly materializing her sword, she swung forward. In retaliation, the figure swung its arm towards her. Its fist and her sword collided, creating a swirl of violet and gold.
The figure pushed Rover back by just a meter, while it jumped back.
Gathering herself again, Rover twirled her sword in her hand, standing upwards; strong and firm. She glared at the figure as it stood upwards as well. She could have sworn that she saw its smile sharpen, as if forming a mocking grin.
For some reason, a sense of deja vu filled Rover again, as if she had been in this exact position facing off against this exact creature once before.
"What are you?" She asked, not exactly expecting an answer.
"It's—" A voice called out from behind her. Rover tilted her head to the side to signify that she was paying attention while she still glared at the figure.
"It's the Crownless." Yangyang's voice gasped out. Thankfully her, Baizhi, and Chixia had recovered fairly quickly, but from their gasps and their disorderly breathes, Rover could tell that they hadn't fully recovered.
"An Overlord-class Tacet Discord. The Crownless is just one rank below the Threnodian Overthrax itself."
"We'll explain later," Chixia spoke out, assuming that Rover didn't understand those terms either, and she assumed right. Rover nodded in appreciation.
Yet despite not knowing those words, something pulsed in her mind. "Crownless" and "Threnodian" felt familiar, but she still couldn't explain why.
"For now we have to deal with this guy." Chixia materialized her pistols and steadied her aim.
"Shouldn't we call for back up?!" Yangyang yelled.
"We don't have the time!" Chixia replied, "Besides, it's four against one! We should have the upper–"
Chixia was cut off by none other than the Crownless itself. Having had enough of their conversation, it vanished within a blink, faster than Rover could notice. It appeared right behind the red-head and smirked.
"Chixia!"
It swung its hand before Chixia could even turn her head. Colliding with her arm with a loud "crack", it flung straight into the rocks that surrounded the area. A large trail of dust surrounded her.
Rover retaliated first, on instinct she swung her sword in an arc, causing it to spin towards the Crownless. A second after, Yangyang followed, her Tacet Mark shone as she unsheathed her sword. Crownless scoffed, forcefully grabbed onto Rover's sword right before it came into contact with its torso. It swung the sword at Yangyang, who countered with her own blade. With one hand the Crownless continued pressuring Yangyang with the sword, while the other hand moved downwards, a spiral of violet energy surrounding it.
"Yangyang!" Rover yelled, already moving towards the Crownless. Noticing the other arm, Yangyang placed more pressure on the blade in its hands and twirled. A strong gale followed her arms.
Her move pushed the Crownless back just an inch, but it wasn't enough. The violet fist punched forwards, piercing through her gale and smashed right into her sides. With a gasp and cough she met the same fate as her red-headed friend, flung directly into the rocks.
Crownless wasn't given a moment to rest as the sword in its hand vanished. It felt a presence from both sides. From the left; a white Remnant Creature, and from the right; Rover. It ignored Rover entirely and grabbed onto the Remnant Creature's neck. With speed faster than Rover could react to, it vanished again.
It reappeared right behind Baizhi with the white creature in its hands and its arms held back. With both of its hands it grasped onto the creature's neck and swung like it was a baseball bat. Another crack echoed as the creature collided with Baizhi, sending her flying directly towards Yangyang's location.
Baizhi collided into the downed midnight ranger, who was just attempting to stand up. Chixia laid to the side with a broken arm and a dazed look. Baizhi and Yangyang moved off each other and attempted to stand up, but neither could.
"Baizhi!" From outside the dust Baizhi could hear Rover. "If you can, focus on recovering! I'll fight it alone!"
Baizhi wanted to stand up and yell 'no!' but before she could she winced, shards of stone stabbed into her legs.
With all three of the other girls taken care of, the Crownless turned back to Rover.
It was just her and it.
The sword materialized in Rover's hand again. Her golden eyes glared even stronger at the Crownless.
Once again, its mocking grin seemed to sharpen, and it held its forearms upwards as if shrugging. With the fingers on both hands it gestured for Rover to move first.
And she did.
She swung her blade again and at the same time she ran forward. The Crownless dodged the blade by tilting to the side, and it met Rover by kneeling forward and winding up its arms. Right as Rover reached the Crownless, it pushed its first forward, attempting to hit Rover the same way it hit Yangyang.
At the last second, Rover tilted her body to the side. The Crownless's fist slid right past her, missing her by just an inch. With her arm above the Overlord's arm, Rover took the opportunity to grab onto its shoulder. With strength that did not seem to fit her, she pulled the creature forward, all the while the Crownless still had its taunting smirk.
A smirk that vanished as soon as her glowing right hand– the one that held her Tacet Mark– smashed directly into the Crownless's face.
The force of her punch should have caused the Crownless to go flying backwards, but Rover kept her left arm steady, clinging onto the Crownless's shoulder with an even stronger grip.
A bright yellow light emanated from Rover's Tacet Mark– a spectro light. She pulled the Crownless back again and punched again, with even stronger force. The Crownless attempted to release itself from her grasp, but whatever her punch did, it left the Crownless… frazzled.
She repeated the same motion three more times, each time leaving the Crownless dazed even more. She finished it off with a different motion. In her right hand she formed her sword again, tilting it forward she swung, aiming directly at the Crownless's chest.
At the last moment the Crownless was seemingly able to gather itself enough to tilt just a bit– enough so that the sword pierced through its shoulder instead of the chest.
Finally having had enough, the crownless grabbed the back of Rover's head– using the arm that Rover had dodged a moment ago, and flung its head forward. With alarming speed, its head smashed right into hers with a nasty headbutt.
Rover stumbled back, releasing her grip on the Crownless. The Overlord Tacet Discord jumped back, grabbing onto the sword on its shoulder and throwing it to the side. Purple liquid, of which Rover assumed to be blood, fell from the hole that the sword created. The hole itself appeared to be mending itself.
The sword vanished and materialized in Rover's hand again.
The Crownless vanished again. From the gusts of wind that surrounded her, Rover could tell that it wasn't any teleportation ability, no, the Crownless was just that fast.
It reappeared right behind her, and right as Rover made to turn around, the Crownless seized her long ponytail. It flung her upwards by her hair. Before Rover could gather herself midair, the Crownless appeared above her with one of its legs held up high. Realizing what was about to come, Rover folded her arms in front of her, shielding her face. The Crownless swung downwards, its leg colliding with her stomach. With a silent gasp Rover slammed back down into the ground.
She coughed. Reorienting herself, she blinked. She focused quick enough to see the Crownless falling down towards her, ready to smash her head in. At the last moment, before the Crownless reached her, she rolled to the side.
She quickly stood up by kicking the ground, pushing herself upwards. She stood up with her sword in her hand again. The Crownless blew away the dust with just one swipe of its hand. Both prepared for their next move.
This time, both of them charged at each other. Both aimed to kill the other.
Right before contact, Rover threw her sword upwards. With both hands she caught the Overlord's fist. Expecting the same move from earlier, Crownless swung its free hand. Narrowly dodging the punch, Rover jabbed the Crownless's stomach, causing it to kneel. She grasped onto both of its arms and pulled forward, and returned the headbutt from earlier.
She took a step back and pulled the Crownless towards her, falling back first towards the ground with the Crownless following after her. With the space between them, right when her back met the ground, she kicked the Crownless upwards. At that moment, the sword that she threw up earlier made its way back down, stabbing straight through the Crownless's chest.
Rover quickly used her elbows to push herself upwards, kneeling backwards she grabbed onto the Crownless and slammed it into the ground behind her; a suplex that would have probably beheaded anyone else.
The sword vanished from the being and Rover stood back upwards, turning towards the downed Crownless. It flopped onto the ground, the hole on its shoulder already having healed, but the new hole right in the middle of its chest proceeded to leak purple blood.
Rover took a step forward while the Crownless slowly got up. She intended to behead the creature, hopefully ending it with one last strike, but the Crownless made it's move before her.
It laughed as it kneeled upwards. While it moved to stand upwards, a violet gale surrounded it.
Its diabolical laughter echoed in the air.
"You will fail again! Savior of Solaris!"
Bright wings sprouted from its back as it leaned upwards. Its laughter echoed in a grim tone.
It slammed its foot against the ground, causing a small pillar of violet wind to form in front of it. It grasped onto the energy, and a spear appeared in its hand.
The winds grew stronger.
The violet hurricane covered the area, causing Rover to shield her eyes.
When Rover was finally able to open her eyes, The Crownless appeared in front of her with a fist covered in the same violet gale.
Rover shielded the punch with her arms, but it wasn't enough. A loud crack echoed again, and Rover was once again flung upwards. This time she was flung even higher. The Crownless quickly flew after, it grabbed onto the back of her head and flew upwards, it smashed her into the cliff face and flew up even higher. It moved towards the gorge that rover awoke in earlier, and while it flew through it, it moved towards the cliff faces.
It slammed her into the cliff face, face first. It continued to fly forward, dragging her across the cliff face. Rover didn't have the chance to gather herself as the dirt, rocks, and dust bombarded her face.
After a few seconds of abuse, the Crownless threw her down towards the ground. She fell on her back, colliding harshly with the cement. She wiped the dust and dirt off her face and out of her eyes. When she was finally able to open her eyes she noticed the blood on her hands.
It hurt. It hurt a lot.
But for some reason, it felt familiar, it felt natural. She felt as though she had been through worse and survived.
She looked around her, noticing the familiar lay out. She looked behind her to see the large statue of Jue looming behind her. On the other side of the area, The Crownless landed with grace.
Familiarity flowed through Rover again, this time it was with a vision.
The Crownless stood, its wings spread across the battlefield. Rover stood on the opposing end with Jue looming right behind her. Its roar echoed across the war-torn battlefield.
She has been in this situation before.
"I don't know what you are, or who you are."
She could say the same about herself in this situation, but at this moment the answers didn't matter.
Even from what little she knew of Tacet Discords she assumed that she wouldn't be able to get any answers from the Crownless.
"But something inside is screaming at me to finish you."
She readied herself, kneeling down slightly and aiming her sword forward.
"So I'll end you, here and now."
The Crownless merely laughed.
The two charged forward once again. Their weapons at the ready. Rover ran while the Crownless flew. The Jue statue loomed over them, as if examining them both.
Clang!
Rover met the Crownless's spear with a downward swing.
Clang!
She countered again with an upward swing.
Clang! Clang!
From the left she countered. From the right she countered. Every time the Crownless attempted to pull back, Rover only pushed forward. Every time the Crownless swung, Rover would swing back.
Each counter caused the Overlord Tacet Discord to stumble backwards. After one counter, the Crownless attempted to fly back, but its wings were clipped by one of Rover's swords. Right when it attempted to lift off, Rover threw her sword directly at the wing, cutting it into two.
For the first time in the fight, Rover truly had the upper hand. She threw her sword one last time, aimed directly at the Crownless's head. This time her throw aimed true, hitting its mark.
The Crownless staggered backward.
She clenched her right fist, a bright light emanating from her Tacet Mark.
Words bubbled up from inside her, like instinct she released them.
"Moment of Resonance."
She swung her hand to the side.
From the Crownless, spectral forms of glass exploded from within. The fragments stopped just a foot from the Crownless, before they collapsed inward.
The sound of shattering glass echoed throughout the area.
The Crownless bellowed as its form dissipated.
"You will fall again, Absurd Savior!"
"The Architect's Grand Design will collapse!"
"War will follow the Crown!"
"And you will remain here, at the foot of this Worthless mountain!"
With that final message, the Crownless vanished, leaving behind an echo of its form.
(A/N)
Emiya will return in the second half.
Anyways, is it a good idea to have what is essentially a flashback/prologue as the beginning of the second chapter? Probably not, but this has been stuck in my head for ages and because of my incompetence and laziness, I decided to just put it here. I also decided to have this become the "first half" of the second chapter, which is also a choice I made cuz I was irritated with my own laziness. I'll try to make it all make sense as the story progresses though, that I promise.
Two more things: I would like to thank my friend TimesChanged for helping iron out the kinks of this story. If you like wuwa go check him out on Ao3 and FFN!
And finally; to anyone asking if it's Female or Male rover, this chapter is your answer.
A week prior to Emiya's arrival
A bright blue butterfly fluttered off.
Golden eyes awoke to a clear blue sky. With a few blinks she sat upwards, rubbing the fatigue out of her eyes. Her long black ponytail– with inner white highlights– shook from the small gusts of wind. She looked down as she stretched her arms upwards. She took in her outfit, a small blush formed just a bit when she looked at her attire. What was even the point of the straps around her shoulders if she wasn't carrying anything?
Didn't matter, she supposed. No, the most important thing she needed to know was–
Where was she?
She looked around, large cliffs covered her on both sides.
"Oh, is she finally up?" A loud and delighted voice asked from behind her, she turned around to see two young women walking up to her. One with long black hair, blue eyes and a blue and black uniform. The other young woman, the one who spoke, had unruly red hair, red eyes, and a mix-match of sweaters around her chest and shorts.
"Are you okay?" the one with black hair asked softly, upon a better look, the golden-eyed woman noticed a feather in the other girl's hair.
"I… I'm fine… I think."
"Are you sure? You're not injured or anything, right? We had Baizhi double check before she left but even then…"
The girl with red hair spoke up, "Yangyang don't pester her, she looks fine, either way Baizhi confirmed she had no injuries."
The feathered girl, named Yangyang, sighed, "I'm just making sure, Chixia, she's been unconscious ever since we found her."
Yangyang looked straight at the woman's golden-eyes and asked, "Are you sure you're alright?"
She nodded slowly, and attempted to stand upright. With a wince she stumbled, only for Yangyang to hold onto her shoulder.
"Woah, careful there, don't want you to get disoriented." The red-haired girl, now named Chixia, said, walking up to the two and standing on the opposite side of Yangyang.
As she fully stood, the young woman looked around again and asked, "Where am I?"
"We are in the Gorges of Spirits, right near the border of Jinzhou, one of Huanglong's major cities."
Those words… meant nothing to her, at least she thought so. There was a strange sense of deja vu but nothing concrete.
"Where…" with some hesitation, the young woman attempted for clarification, "exactly are those?"
The golden-eyed young woman and the feather-haired girl stared at each other, and after realizing that the woman wasn't joking, Yangyang asked, "Do you… really not know where you are?"
The young woman shook her head.
"Do you…" Yangyang was going to ask another question, but her eyes widened. "Oh, right, how rude! We forgot to introduce ourselves."
The two took a step back.
"I am Yangyang, a Midnight Ranger."
"And I'm Chixia! Hero of Justice and Junior Jinzhou Patroller!"
More terms that meant nothing to the young woman, but the name "Jinzhou" still echoed in her head. Though she did memorize their names.
"What's your name?"
All other thoughts halted upon the question. The young woman stared forward with an empty expression, as if her mind short-circuited.
"My… name?"
Yangyang nodded.
"What is… my name?"
Yangyang was going to nod again before she realized, "Do you… not know your name?"
The young woman scratched her head, "I think I have a name, I just… can't remember."
Yangyang folded her arms, this was unprecedented. She asked, "Your date of birth?" the woman shook her head, "Your parents?" the young woman shook her head again, "Your place of origin or residence?" another head shake.
"Do you truly not remember anything?"
The young woman shook her head a final time.
"Boom! Knew it! Mysterious amnesiac! Baizhi owes me twenty credits!" Off to the side, Chixia pumped her fist.
"Chixia…" Yangyang side-eyed her friend and sighed.
Realizing that she had both of their attention Chixia released a soft chuckle and scratched the back of her head, "Sorry, that was probably not the right time."
Yangyang looked back towards the amnesiac and studied her. "So you don't know who you are or where you are, but your clothes don't exactly look local. Are you some sort of, roving traveler?"
The young woman shrugged.
"Then for now… how about we call you Rover until you remember your name?"
The name felt more like a name for a pet, but Rover went along with it nonetheless, it'll only be until she finds her real name after all.
"Rover is fine." She nodded.
"Now that we got that settled… somewhat," Chixia said, putting her shoulder around Yangyang and Rover, "Let's go find Baizhi and get out of here, for some reason this place is starting to give me the creeps." She tilted her head towards Yangyang, "Can you sense where she went?"
"Of course."
With a breath, Yangyang closed her eyes, feeling the vibrations in the current. She searched for the familiar feeling of her friend. After a few seconds she opened her eyes and stared upwards.
"I found her, but there also seems to be another problem."
"Which is?" Chixia motioned for Yangyang to continue.
"The Etheric Sea is converging."
Chixia winced, removing her arms from the other two. "Then we really have to find Baizhi and get out of here."
Yangyang nodded. "Follow me."
As the two walked through the gorge, Yangyang answered any questions lingering on Rover's mind.
Rover asked about the Etheric Sea, an inverted 'sea' in the sky made up of condensed remnant energy. Whenever it appears it usually means the appearance of Tacet Discords and a Tacet Field, more terms that rung bells in Rover's mind, yet she still didn't understand or know them. As Rover was about to ask about Tacet Discords, Tacet Fields, and Remnant Energy, Chixia stopped her.
"Alright, we're going to be here all day if you get Yangyang going, she likes to explain things y'see."
"H-hey!"
"So we'll get to Jinzhou and grab you an encyclopedia. Hopefully that can answer all of your questions."
Rover nodded, for some reason she understood what an encyclopedia was. Something that Chixia and Yangyang caught onto.
"So you know what an encyclopedia is?"
Rover nodded.
For some reason Chixia looked over to Yangyang with a smug grin. "What did I tell you?"
Yangyang sighed, "Chixia for the last time–"
Chixia cut her off, "An extremely mysterious individual wakes up in the middle of nowhere with selective amnesia, and coincidentally everything she doesn't know are important topics that everyone on Solaris should know! Yet she knows other basic things like encyclopedias!"
The feather-haired girl rubbed her forehead, "Life isn't like a webcomic, Chixia."
"You think I don't know that? But look! All of the boxes are ticking!" She wheeled herself over to Rover and stared at the amnesiac with wide sparkling eyes.
"Are you from a different time period!? Did you regress from after The Lament or did you travel from before?! Or wait, maybe you're from a different planet altogether!"
The questions sprang from Chixia's mouth, and Rover wasn't prepared. The amnesiac stared with a confused expression, so confused that she was only able to answer one question.
"I… think I'm from this planet."
"Alright that's enough Chixia." Yangyang grabbed onto the red-head's shoulders and pulled her back.
"Wait– but-!"
The two walked away, Yangyang motioned for Rover to follow, which she did right after.
After a few seconds of walking the three ran into their first Tacet Discord, a large creature that seemed to be made out of rocks, it was dealt with easily. Yangyang and Chixia did most of the work, though Rover got in a few hits.
The three continued walking until they reached a large open area, from the side a long serpentine dragon watched over.
Rover walked up to the dragon statue and stared.
The two others walked up beside her.
"That's Jué," Yangyang started, "Our sentinel and one of the seven sentinels of Huanglong, no other nation–"
"Yangyang you're doing it again."
"Can you let me finish?!" Yangyang raised her voice in annoyance, but Chixia knew it was nothing outright malicious, especially since her Tacet Mark didn't start glowing.
While the two started to argue, Rover simply stared at the statue. It's stony eyes seemingly staring into her own.
And in that moment, something filled her mind.
A vision.
She couldn't see where it was but she could only see two figures, one of herself and another of a bright dragon, the same one that the statue in front of her replicated.
It was a short vision, but one that definitely affected Rover. She took a step back, gathering herself. The other two took notice.
"Rover, are you alright?"
"I… had a vision… a memory?"
"What was it about?" Chixia asked, her mind already flowing with different possibilities.
"I've met Jué before."
"That's… not impossible… but it would have to have been long before General Jiyan or Magistrate Jinhsi." Yangyang muttered, "They are the only ones in recent history to have gained Jué's direct attention."
"So you have history with Jinzhou." Chixia rubbed her chin, "Or maybe even with Huanglong as a whole."
"Let's keep going." With some new found confidence, Rover motioned towards Yangyang to walk forward. Why was it that the statue brought forth a vision but all of the other familiar concepts early didn't have any other reaction outside of a feeling of deja-vu?
Maybe if she found a similar statue she could find out more.
Yangyang nodded, leading the other two out of the gorge and onto a cliff. They peeked over the edge, seeing both a large tacet field and a familiar figure examining the area.
"Ah! There's Baizhi! What is she doing alone?!" Chixia called out. She quickly leaped off, and before Rover could realize, a strange glider appeared in her hands, allowing her to float safely to the ground.
"Ah, that's a glider echo it comes with the Terminal, the thing behind you."
Rover reached behind her, feeling nothing for a second before an object appeared in her hand, she brought it to her front, taking in the gourd that appeared in her hand.
"Just feel for it after you jump, it'll come to you naturally." Yangyang said, motioning for Rover to jump.
With no hesitation, Rover jumped off the cliff and held out her hand, and Yangyang was right. An echo glider appeared in her hand, holding her up and gliding her towards the ground. Yangyang followed quickly after.
As the three landed on the ground, Chixia walked up to Baizhi while Yangyang followed right after Rover. The young woman who Rover assumed was Baizhi passed by the redhead and up to her. Baizhi flicked her hand up towards Rover, and a strange sensation flowed through her.
Following right after the movement, a strange white creature floated around Rover, observing her.
"No problems with her vitals, and all things seem to be stable."
"Baizhi! You owe me twenty credits!"
Baizhi raised an eyebrow towards the redhead, "I thought I told you I wasn't going to take the bet."
"Aw but cmon! I was right! This person is a mysterious amnesiac! C'mon Rover, tell her!"
With the spotlight suddenly put back on her, Rover rubbed the back of her head. "What… she said."
Baizhi pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "Alright, I'll hand you the money after we finish this."
"Yes!" Chixia pumped her fists.
"Speaking of which," Yangyang walked up to Baizhi, her gaze examining the surroundings before finally landing on the scar-like hole in the ground. "The Etheric Sea is converging here, when did this appear?"
"Ten seconds ago." Baizhi answered. "Without exaggeration, it appeared within a blink of an eye. It is still dormant, and no Tacet Discords have come out or in this vicinity."
"Hm… Then it must be a strong one, so hopefully we have some time before it awakens."
"I believe so as well."
The four young women observed the surroundings. Though Rover did not know what exactly she was looking at, yet it felt familiar.
"You think we have enough time to call for backup?" Chixia asked, in her hand her Terminal beeped. "Nevermind, one of us will have to return and bring backup, the Terminals are all out of wack."
"Two of us should stay," Baizhi suggested, "While the other person returns Rover to the city and grabs backup."
"Sounds good," Yangyang nodded, "I'll take Rover and–"
A ring echoed through the vicinity. A screech that pierced through the three young women, yet the amnesiac stood. The three young women hunched over, rubbing their foreheads. For just a split second, something echoed through Rover's head, causing her to flinch.
It barely took a second for Rover to recover herself, and when she did–
War
Something resonated throughout, something familiar to Rover yet unknown at the same time. She turned around to find nothing, but the feeling didn't go away. When Rover turned back around–
A figure appeared right in front of her. Her eyes widened.
A white humanoid figure with a malicious grin stood in front of her. Because of its height, it leaned forward slightly to meet her eye level, glaring directly into her golden eyes.
"Where is your crown?"
Quickly gathering herself, Rover did not hesitate or doubt, she followed her instincts. Quickly materializing her sword, she swung forward. In retaliation, the figure swung its arm towards her. Its fist and her sword collided, creating a swirl of violet and gold.
The figure pushed Rover back by just a meter, while it jumped back.
Gathering herself again, Rover twirled her sword in her hand, standing upwards; strong and firm. She glared at the figure as it stood upwards as well. She could have sworn that she saw its smile sharpen, as if forming a mocking grin.
For some reason, a sense of deja vu filled Rover again, as if she had been in this exact position facing off against this exact creature once before.
"What are you?" She asked, not exactly expecting an answer.
"It's—" A voice called out from behind her. Rover tilted her head to the side to signify that she was paying attention while she still glared at the figure.
"It's the Crownless." Yangyang's voice gasped out. Thankfully her, Baizhi, and Chixia had recovered fairly quickly, but from their gasps and their disorderly breathes, Rover could tell that they hadn't fully recovered.
"An Overlord-class Tacet Discord. The Crownless is just one rank below the Threnodian Overthrax itself."
"We'll explain later," Chixia spoke out, assuming that Rover didn't understand those terms either, and she assumed right. Rover nodded in appreciation.
Yet despite not knowing those words, something pulsed in her mind. "Crownless" and "Threnodian" felt familiar, but she still couldn't explain why.
"For now we have to deal with this guy." Chixia materialized her pistols and steadied her aim.
"Shouldn't we call for back up?!" Yangyang yelled.
"We don't have the time!" Chixia replied, "Besides, it's four against one! We should have the upper–"
Chixia was cut off by none other than the Crownless itself. Having had enough of their conversation, it vanished within a blink, faster than Rover could notice. It appeared right behind the red-head and smirked.
"Chixia!"
It swung its hand before Chixia could even turn her head. Colliding with her arm with a loud "crack", it flung straight into the rocks that surrounded the area. A large trail of dust surrounded her.
Rover retaliated first, on instinct she swung her sword in an arc, causing it to spin towards the Crownless. A second after, Yangyang followed, her Tacet Mark shone as she unsheathed her sword. Crownless scoffed, forcefully grabbed onto Rover's sword right before it came into contact with its torso. It swung the sword at Yangyang, who countered with her own blade. With one hand the Crownless continued pressuring Yangyang with the sword, while the other hand moved downwards, a spiral of violet energy surrounding it.
"Yangyang!" Rover yelled, already moving towards the Crownless. Noticing the other arm, Yangyang placed more pressure on the blade in its hands and twirled. A strong gale followed her arms.
Her move pushed the Crownless back just an inch, but it wasn't enough. The violet fist punched forwards, piercing through her gale and smashed right into her sides. With a gasp and cough she met the same fate as her red-headed friend, flung directly into the rocks.
Crownless wasn't given a moment to rest as the sword in its hand vanished. It felt a presence from both sides. From the left; a white Remnant Creature, and from the right; Rover. It ignored Rover entirely and grabbed onto the Remnant Creature's neck. With speed faster than Rover could react to, it vanished again.
It reappeared right behind Baizhi with the white creature in its hands and its arms held back. With both of its hands it grasped onto the creature's neck and swung like it was a baseball bat. Another crack echoed as the creature collided with Baizhi, sending her flying directly towards Yangyang's location.
Baizhi collided into the downed midnight ranger, who was just attempting to stand up. Chixia laid to the side with a broken arm and a dazed look. Baizhi and Yangyang moved off each other and attempted to stand up, but neither could.
"Baizhi!" From outside the dust Baizhi could hear Rover. "If you can, focus on recovering! I'll fight it alone!"
Baizhi wanted to stand up and yell 'no!' but before she could she winced, shards of stone stabbed into her legs.
With all three of the other girls taken care of, the Crownless turned back to Rover.
It was just her and it.
The sword materialized in Rover's hand again. Her golden eyes glared even stronger at the Crownless.
Once again, its mocking grin seemed to sharpen, and it held its forearms upwards as if shrugging. With the fingers on both hands it gestured for Rover to move first.
And she did.
She swung her blade again and at the same time she ran forward. The Crownless dodged the blade by tilting to the side, and it met Rover by kneeling forward and winding up its arms. Right as Rover reached the Crownless, it pushed its first forward, attempting to hit Rover the same way it hit Yangyang.
At the last second, Rover tilted her body to the side. The Crownless's fist slid right past her, missing her by just an inch. With her arm above the Overlord's arm, Rover took the opportunity to grab onto its shoulder. With strength that did not seem to fit her, she pulled the creature forward, all the while the Crownless still had its taunting smirk.
A smirk that vanished as soon as her glowing right hand– the one that held her Tacet Mark– smashed directly into the Crownless's face.
The force of her punch should have caused the Crownless to go flying backwards, but Rover kept her left arm steady, clinging onto the Crownless's shoulder with an even stronger grip.
A bright yellow light emanated from Rover's Tacet Mark– a spectro light. She pulled the Crownless back again and punched again, with even stronger force. The Crownless attempted to release itself from her grasp, but whatever her punch did, it left the Crownless… frazzled.
She repeated the same motion three more times, each time leaving the Crownless dazed even more. She finished it off with a different motion. In her right hand she formed her sword again, tilting it forward she swung, aiming directly at the Crownless's chest.
At the last moment the Crownless was seemingly able to gather itself enough to tilt just a bit– enough so that the sword pierced through its shoulder instead of the chest.
Finally having had enough, the crownless grabbed the back of Rover's head– using the arm that Rover had dodged a moment ago, and flung its head forward. With alarming speed, its head smashed right into hers with a nasty headbutt.
Rover stumbled back, releasing her grip on the Crownless. The Overlord Tacet Discord jumped back, grabbing onto the sword on its shoulder and throwing it to the side. Purple liquid, of which Rover assumed to be blood, fell from the hole that the sword created. The hole itself appeared to be mending itself.
The sword vanished and materialized in Rover's hand again.
The Crownless vanished again. From the gusts of wind that surrounded her, Rover could tell that it wasn't any teleportation ability, no, the Crownless was just that fast.
It reappeared right behind her, and right as Rover made to turn around, the Crownless seized her long ponytail. It flung her upwards by her hair. Before Rover could gather herself midair, the Crownless appeared above her with one of its legs held up high. Realizing what was about to come, Rover folded her arms in front of her, shielding her face. The Crownless swung downwards, its leg colliding with her stomach. With a silent gasp Rover slammed back down into the ground.
She coughed. Reorienting herself, she blinked. She focused quick enough to see the Crownless falling down towards her, ready to smash her head in. At the last moment, before the Crownless reached her, she rolled to the side.
She quickly stood up by kicking the ground, pushing herself upwards. She stood up with her sword in her hand again. The Crownless blew away the dust with just one swipe of its hand. Both prepared for their next move.
This time, both of them charged at each other. Both aimed to kill the other.
Right before contact, Rover threw her sword upwards. With both hands she caught the Overlord's fist. Expecting the same move from earlier, Crownless swung its free hand. Narrowly dodging the punch, Rover jabbed the Crownless's stomach, causing it to kneel. She grasped onto both of its arms and pulled forward, and returned the headbutt from earlier.
She took a step back and pulled the Crownless towards her, falling back first towards the ground with the Crownless following after her. With the space between them, right when her back met the ground, she kicked the Crownless upwards. At that moment, the sword that she threw up earlier made its way back down, stabbing straight through the Crownless's chest.
Rover quickly used her elbows to push herself upwards, kneeling backwards she grabbed onto the Crownless and slammed it into the ground behind her; a suplex that would have probably beheaded anyone else.
The sword vanished from the being and Rover stood back upwards, turning towards the downed Crownless. It flopped onto the ground, the hole on its shoulder already having healed, but the new hole right in the middle of its chest proceeded to leak purple blood.
Rover took a step forward while the Crownless slowly got up. She intended to behead the creature, hopefully ending it with one last strike, but the Crownless made it's move before her.
It laughed as it kneeled upwards. While it moved to stand upwards, a violet gale surrounded it.
Its diabolical laughter echoed in the air.
"You will fail again! Savior of Solaris!"
Bright wings sprouted from its back as it leaned upwards. Its laughter echoed in a grim tone.
It slammed its foot against the ground, causing a small pillar of violet wind to form in front of it. It grasped onto the energy, and a spear appeared in its hand.
The winds grew stronger.
The violet hurricane covered the area, causing Rover to shield her eyes.
When Rover was finally able to open her eyes, The Crownless appeared in front of her with a fist covered in the same violet gale.
Rover shielded the punch with her arms, but it wasn't enough. A loud crack echoed again, and Rover was once again flung upwards. This time she was flung even higher. The Crownless quickly flew after, it grabbed onto the back of her head and flew upwards, it smashed her into the cliff face and flew up even higher. It moved towards the gorge that rover awoke in earlier, and while it flew through it, it moved towards the cliff faces.
It slammed her into the cliff face, face first. It continued to fly forward, dragging her across the cliff face. Rover didn't have the chance to gather herself as the dirt, rocks, and dust bombarded her face.
After a few seconds of abuse, the Crownless threw her down towards the ground. She fell on her back, colliding harshly with the cement. She wiped the dust and dirt off her face and out of her eyes. When she was finally able to open her eyes she noticed the blood on her hands.
It hurt. It hurt a lot.
But for some reason, it felt familiar, it felt natural. She felt as though she had been through worse and survived.
She looked around her, noticing the familiar lay out. She looked behind her to see the large statue of Jue looming behind her. On the other side of the area, The Crownless landed with grace.
Familiarity flowed through Rover again, this time it was with a vision.
The Crownless stood, its wings spread across the battlefield. Rover stood on the opposing end with Jue looming right behind her. Its roar echoed across the war-torn battlefield.
She has been in this situation before.
"I don't know what you are, or who you are."
She could say the same about herself in this situation, but at this moment the answers didn't matter.
Even from what little she knew of Tacet Discords she assumed that she wouldn't be able to get any answers from the Crownless.
"But something inside is screaming at me to finish you."
She readied herself, kneeling down slightly and aiming her sword forward.
"So I'll end you, here and now."
The Crownless merely laughed.
The two charged forward once again. Their weapons at the ready. Rover ran while the Crownless flew. The Jue statue loomed over them, as if examining them both.
Clang!
Rover met the Crownless's spear with a downward swing.
Clang!
She countered again with an upward swing.
Clang! Clang!
From the left she countered. From the right she countered. Every time the Crownless attempted to pull back, Rover only pushed forward. Every time the Crownless swung, Rover would swing back.
Each counter caused the Overlord Tacet Discord to stumble backwards. After one counter, the Crownless attempted to fly back, but its wings were clipped by one of Rover's swords. Right when it attempted to lift off, Rover threw her sword directly at the wing, cutting it into two.
For the first time in the fight, Rover truly had the upper hand. She threw her sword one last time, aimed directly at the Crownless's head. This time her throw aimed true, hitting its mark.
The Crownless staggered backward.
She clenched her right fist, a bright light emanating from her Tacet Mark.
Words bubbled up from inside her, like instinct she released them.
"Moment of Resonance."
She swung her hand to the side.
From the Crownless, spectral forms of glass exploded from within. The fragments stopped just a foot from the Crownless, before they collapsed inward.
The sound of shattering glass echoed throughout the area.
The Crownless bellowed as its form dissipated.
"You will fall again, Absurd Savior!"
"The Architect's Grand Design will collapse!"
"War will follow the Crown!"
"And you will remain here, at the foot of this Worthless mountain!"
With that final message, the Crownless vanished, leaving behind an echo of its form.
(A/N)
Emiya will return in the second half.
trashtaker
The (un)lucky Patreon Saint of borrowed fortune
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PEAK SHIT IS BACK.
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Let Crownless Aura Farm 
Chapter 2.2 Wugang & Yangyang
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Dagaz
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Chapter 2.2:
Wugang & Yangyang
Wugang & Yangyang
"I just have a few questions I want to ask." Archer said calmly. Awkward silence reigned as Yangyang observed him. A small breeze slithered through the area, brushing against Archer slightly, as if intentionally. His gaze focused on her blade for a moment.
Finally accepting that he truly meant no harm, Yangyang stood up straight, sheathing her blade. The young girl, with brown hair and golden eyes, quickly hid behind the young woman, holding onto her legs.
"Don't worry YiShi, he means no harm." Yangyang comforted the girl while scratching her head. The girl moved from behind Yangyang but still stood beside her.
Yangyang turned to look at the tanned man and bowed. "Thank you for saving us. I will answer whatever you want and will help you with whatever else you may need."
Archer allowed his hands to fall to his side, and waved off her thanks. "I don't need much, just a few things I wish to know."
Yangyang stood up and nodded, "Of course, ask away."
Archer hesitated slightly before asking, "What is the name of this country?"
Yangyang tilted her head to the side with a questioning glance. Even Wugang's emotionless face changed slightly– raising a sole eyebrow.
"This nation?" She asked to make sure she heard right, before answering, "We are in Huanglong, and the closest city is Jinzhou."
"Hm." The Counter Guardian hummed, after a few moments of contemplation he asked, "What is the name of this planet?"
Another odd question, one that Yangyang answered either way, "Solaris Three."
He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. An agitated sigh leaving his lips.
Curiosity filled Yangyang, and she wished to know the purpose of these questions. This man found himself in a place that seemed unfamiliar to him, asking basic questions that even those born into exile would know. It reminded her of someone else who had similar questions, an image of a young woman with black hair and amber eyes popped into her mind. Could he perhaps be an amnesiac too?
"Um, if it's not overstepping, may I have your name?"
He opened his eyes and stared at her, contemplating what to answer her. Meanwhile Wugang began to walk forward toward him.
"Archer."
He even has an alias. Obviously a fake name. While Yangyang was contemplating whether or not she was dealing with another amnesiac, Wugang walked up to Archer (Archer) and stopped a small distance in front of the man.
Awkward tension filled the two as their gazes met. Archer couldn't tell what the young man was planning due to his apathetic face, even his body movement showed boredom.
"Excuse me." Wugang said, his eyes glowed as he quickly held out his hand towards Archer.
A loud noise blared through Archer's mind, causing him to place his hands against his ears and shut his eyes. The ringing from earlier grew louder, drowning out all other noises. High-pitched frequencies filled his vision, reverberating through the air in a disharmonious choir.
"Interesting"
If it weren't for the chaos, if it weren't for his closed ears and shut eyes, if he had truly watched and listened to the maelstrom, he wouldn't have missed the mutterings of a dark and gravelly voice.
Yet before he could even make sense of it all, it vanished. The ringing in his ears died down as quickly as it came.
"Wugang!" Yangyang yelled.
With a groan, Archer composed himself and glared at the young man. Wugang's eyes finally showed emotion– that of curiosity. Though that curiosity quickly faded away.
"My bad. Didn't think that would happen." The boy was being truthful, but he did not sound apologetic.
Archer checked his own condition, and outside of… whatever that was, there had been no outward or inward effects on his body. In fact, it felt and looked as if nothing had even happened.
"What did you do?" He asked with a glare. He appeared as though he was ready to strike should the answer dissatisfy him. Of course he wasn't going to hurt the young man, unless the boy truly did something to him, only just appear as though he was. Yangyang too took notice of his change in posture and demeanor, and she quickly rushed to Wugang's side– with YiShi, the young girl, right behind her.
She attempted to bow and apologize, but before she could, Wugang responded.
"You…" he started, "you're not from here, are you?"
His tone of voice was flat, as if he were asking a rhetorical question. Yet despite that, there was an emphasis on 'here' that hinted at something grander. Like he was talking about something beyond Jinzhou and Huanglong.
Archer raised an eyebrow. Whatever the young man did, did it help him figure out Archer's true nature?
Yangyang turned her head towards Wugang. "What do you mean?"
Wugang looked ready to explain himself, but he shut his mouth before could. He stared at Archer with a blank expression, as if he was looking at something beyond the man in red.
Wugang shook his head, "Hm, nevermind, just a random thought."
He turned around and walked away, stopping near a hill just a few meters away from them.
"I.. apologize for his actions." Yangyang scratched her arm. "Wugang isn't exactly the most… sociable of people."
Archer finally decided to drop the act, giving a hum of affirmation. "I can see that."
Despite the tension dropping, he still kept his eye on the boy.
"Anyways, how much do you know, or remember?"
'Remember'? Did she assume he was an amnesiac? Well, whatever the case, he decided it would be easier to just go along with it.
"If you need any help, I can answer any question you may have." Yangyang stood up straight and proud. The last time she ran into an amnesiac, Chixia kept her from helping the poor woman, but this time Chixia isn't around to stop her from helping an innocent soul in need of help!
The younger girl peeked her head from behind Yangyang, "Big sis just likes to talk."
"YiShi, please."
Archer smirked at the duo, "That's fine, I happen to be in need of the talkative type."
A sparkle lit in Yangyang's eyes, but perhaps she felt embarrassed for appearing too excited as the next moment she composed herself with a cough.
"If it's anything I can assist with."
Before Archer could start his questioning, YiShi pulled on Yangyang's dress. The young woman looked down towards the little girl, who simply looked around cautiously. The Outrider understood the message and looked back towards the man in red.
"Perhaps we should continue somewhere safer. All right, let's head back to Jinzhou. You might be able to find answers that I don't have there."
Archer nodded, finding civilization would be the smartest option.
"Wugang! We're going!"
Wugang turned back and walked towards them with his hands in his pockets, and a bored expression.
As the four made their way to the city of Jinzhou, Archer began his questioning.
"What I felt earlier, and what I feel… everywhere. What exactly is this?"
"Easy question," Yangyang cleared her throat and began, "What you are sensing are the Frequencies of the world, something that appeared after the Lament began. Everything in this world, conscious and inanimate, physical and intangible, all contain frequencies, even certain concepts have enough power to hold their own frequencies."
She moved her hair to show the strange looking scar on her forehead. "There are those who are able to Resonate with the frequency of another entity, we call them Resonators. Every Resonator has one of these, Tacet Marks. With these we are able to use our resonated frequencies as a resonance ability, otherwise known as our Fortes."
Archer nodded. The world was made up of frequencies, and sometimes the frequencies people match with the frequencies of other things, giving them unnatural abilities. Though as he thought about it, this introduced a conundrum.
He doesn't have a Tacet Mark.
He'll have to come up with an explanation or excuse later, luckily it seemed like no one noticed, so he has enough time. He side-eyed Wugang, who walked a couple of meters behind them. In turn, the young man simply stared at him with a blank expression.
Well, mostly no one noticed.
While he does know that whatever Wugang did, did not have any after effects on him, it most definitely allowed the boy to figure out something about him.
Even if Archer can not sense the counter force, even if he has his own physical body again, he could not help but be cautious. His lifetime as a Counter Guardian kept him from being too relaxed. After all, he had to be here for a reason… right?
Either way, he shoved all these thoughts into the back of his mind, and focused back onto the conversation.
He did not want to ask too much, otherwise he might gain more suspicion, so he just asked one last question.
"What exactly is 'The Lament'?"
"It's a general term used to describe everything destructive and unnatural that occurs on our planet. It is essentially the cause of frequencies in this world. There are plenty of phenomena, or Waveworn Phenomena, that The Lament causes, but the most common one is Tacet Discords."
"The ugly-looking monsters!" For the first time, YiShi joined in the conversation.
"Exactly," Yangyang rubbed the young girl's head. "Tacet Discords come in all shapes and sizes, as they are made of distorted frequencies. Because of this, they hunger for the frequencies of other existences. That is the one thing they have in common; their desire and hunger for destruction."
Archer took in the information, and remembered what occurred when he had first arrived.
"When I first… woke up, I was 'attacked' by a small creature. It vaporized and turned into a yellow figure of itself after I had finished it off."
"So you 'woke up' too?" Yangyang muttered to herself, realizing that she spoke aloud, she shook her head.
"Sorry, anyways, what was left behind is a Reverberation. Sometimes Tacet Discords leave behind frequencies after being slain. Resonators are able to pick up and use those Reverberations with these Terminals." She pulled out a gourd from behind her. Archer noticed the dragon symbol on the side. "And the Tacet Discords that are recycled through the Terminals are called Echoes. Reverberations are not everlasting though, and will fade away over time."
"Interesting." He muttered.
It certainly isn't something he was familiar with.
Solarius III huh…
Sol 3 was also another name for Earth. But if this were truly Earth then the Counter Force would've never allowed these frequencies to spread the way they did– neither Gaia nor Alaya. If this were truly Earth then he would have felt any sort of connection to the Counter Force.
As the four walked, Archer closed his eyes and took a breath. There was nothing. He could feel his abilities are still the same, his circuits still the same. Yet even though he could feel that nothing changed his power– the same power that was given to him by the Counter Force– he still couldn't feel Alaya's strings tug at him; like they always do, what they are supposed to do.
As if he were a human again, but with the power of a Counter Guardian.
Perhaps if this were a younger him he would have assumed this meant he was free from Alaya's chains, but he knew better. At the very most, perhaps this could be taken as a sort of… vacation.
But he also couldn't treat it like that too, he still needed to know who that silver-haired woman was: the woman who sent him here.
He shook his head and clenched his fists. Another strange mystery that he was forced into. Just his luck.
"Archer?"
He looked towards the Outrider, her gaze curious with the smallest hints of concern.
"Are you alright? You–"
Before she could finish, a loud roar echoed throughout the land, followed by the deafening ringing of large bells.
"That's–!" Her eyes widened. The Outrider quickly unsheathed her blade. "Wugang! Watch over YiShi!"
She ran towards the direction the sound came from. Archer caught up barely a moment later.
"What was that?" He asked, running beside her.
"I hadn't mentioned it yet but we also label Tacet Discords on a hierarchy. Common, Elite, Overlord, and Calamity. A single Resonator can handle a small group of common TD's and some can even handle an Elite class on their own, but Overlord and Calamity class TD's tend to be on their own level, especially Calamity. Every Threnodian and anything of similar power is labeled as a Calamity."
She paused as the ancient bell rang again. As the two ran closer to the source, Archer could feel the vibrations echo throughout his being.
Yangyang's eyes widened, "I just realized! I hadn't explained the Threnodians and Sentinels–!"
"You can explain after we deal with this!" He assured her.
"Ah, right!"
The two finally arrived atop a waterfall. The area surrounding the cliff was covered with ice crystals. Even though Archer has dealt with the elements more than enough, he could still fill the chill that emanated from the river.
The two looked down and saw the source of the ringing bells.
"That's–"
A large monstrous turtle with a large bell etched into the top of its shell.
"What is that?" Archer asked.
"Bell-Borne Geochelone. A calamity class Tacet Discord. It's supposed to be asleep, so why is it–" As she frantically looked around the area, she noticed a figure gliding across the Calamity-class TD.
She squinted, noticing the figure's black attire and black hair. It took but a moment for her to recognize who it was.
"Rover!" She yelled, and with no hesitation she jumped down the waterfall.
"Wait–!" Archer held out his hand in an attempt to stop her, unsure of her motives. His worries were unfounded, however, as Yangyang held up her hand and summoned a strange looking glider above her. Using her own ability, she quickly drifted towards the battle.
With a sigh, a familiar bow manifests in his hands. When it comes to circumstances like these, Emiya doesn't mind shooting first and asking questions later.
A spiral-like sword appeared in his other hand.
He was ready to take aim at any moment.
While Archer and Yangyang had run towards the commotion, Wugang simply walked forward, as if a living calamity wasn't just a couple of miles away.
YiShi grasped onto his shirt as she walked behind him, fear evident in her eyes. Her body was shaking all over.
Only Wugang took notice of the black haired raven that loomed over the land. Its crimson eyes circled in on him.
He stared back for a single moment before continuing on.
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Dagaz
Making the rounds.
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2024
- Messages
- 40
might've been cuz i copy and pasted from SB, hold on lemme fix it...
alright there, it should be fixed now
MrSplashy
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2020
- Messages
- 390
Haha, Wugang is probably part of "them". Gonna be interesting to see how he'll explain his abilities away especially once things start to ramp up that he has to use his Reality Marble.
Also, Female Rover! The hottest female Gacha I've seen hell yeah! I guess I can consider Archer as the "male rover".
Also, Female Rover! The hottest female Gacha I've seen hell yeah! I guess I can consider Archer as the "male rover".