21 Raid on Ice Crown Citadel
The leaders of the various cities were currently meeting on neutral ground, Dalaran city. Even those who had not experienced a large battle were attending, The prophet Velen from the Exodar, Cairne Bloodhoof from Thunderbluff, Vol'jin from the Darkspear trolls.
It had been several hours since the battles at each of their homes. They had been sitting in this meeting for about ten minutes and yet no one spoke. Jaina was the only one who had a more carefree expression as she watched the others try to make sense of everything.
Various other factions were also represented here, Tirion Fordring of the Silver hand was also sitting at the table, he too did not speak for awhile after reading the reports.
Ronin was representing the Kirin Tor in this rebuilt Dalaran, he had always been on decent terms with Jaina and she was one of the few who did not look at him with the same disgust that many did when he made his "mistake" in the past.
Thrall was the first to break the silence. "I'm happy you are alive Jaina" He said with sincerity towards his friend.
"Thank you thrall, that truly does mean a lot." She said with a smile.
"We're all glad to see you are alright Jaina" Varian added in, receiving nods around the table.
"I'm curious though, why you are not representing Theramore but instead this group of strangers?" Varian asked.
"I left Thereamore….and I will probably never return." She said with a sad expression.
They all had heard how she almost died in that battlefield, how her emotions had clouded her judgment and lost many lives for her own desires. They couldn't blame her or Theramore for the way they reacted. Theramore almost immediately gained a new leader, one that had previously shown was not above talking out against Jaina. So for Jaina not wanting to return, they could understand.
But the question that was more important, when did she get on such good terms with these powerful individuals?
"I'm curious what you can tell us about these...people" Tyrande said. The eyes turned to the Night elf priestess.
She had asked the question that everyone else wanted to ask the mage.
"If your asking about their personal information, I will not give it." She stated clearly.
"Jaina you need to give us something….they came out of nowhere and said they were gods and I'm rather inclined to believe them." It was Ronin who spoke.
"They did not say they were gods if you read the report correctly, that was just the translation from their language to ours. And neither do they consider themselves gods." Jaina retorted.
"It is true, the one called Ichigo said that the translation was an arrogant one and warned us beforehand" Malfurion said.
"I saw their weapons", Magni spoke, "They were not crafted by mortal hands".
"The human female that went by Saber, Her sword, which she called Excalibur, dwarfed that of Ashbringer, it actually purified what was supposed to be the strongest holy blade in the world."
"Speaking of Ashbringer, have they handed it over?" Tirion asked.
"By rights, it is theirs to do with as they want." Magni said shutting him down, its not like he didn't try himself.
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"Lass, may I ask for the return of the blade you won of that Death Knight?" Magni said towards the petite knight.
"It is my spoils of war." She said plainly.
"Maybe you should give it back saber…he is the one who forged it after all.." Shirou said.
This elicited a surprised reaction from Magni, not many people knew he was the forger of the blade.
Saber looked over to her lover, she was clutching the blade like a stuffed animal. She was pouting, her eyes sad, she looked as if she was about to cry.
Shirou was taken back, he quickly started stuttering trying to comfort his lover, he finally relented and said that it is indeed hers to keep. To which she immediately returned to normal like nothing happened.
Shirou had no idea what just happened, and Yoruichi was heard a laughing her ass of, saying that it was the same thing Rukia does to Ichigo when she wants something.
Truly those two had become good friends.
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"Truthfully, I doubt we will ever get that blade back." Magni said with a sigh. He felt sorry for the boy, he too would have fallen to the power of those eyes.
"Are they a threat?" Varian Finally asked towards Jaina.
"No." She answered plainly, she knew what he meant by "threat".
There was silence as everyone comprehended this, until the Prophet spoke up.
"She is correct, they pose no threat us or the world." Velen said.
His words carried weight, even though he allied with the Alliance, the Horde were inclined to believe anything he had to say. He was a man of honor and great wisdom. He did not lie. And that's not even touching on his ability to see into the fates of people. There was a reason he was called "prophet".
"What did you see Prophet?" Tirion asked. He had nothing but respect for such a great wielder of the light.
"Their hearts are pure. Some of them posses abilities that could be objectively evil in nature, yet they will never stray from the righteous path." He said with conviction.
Thrall remembered the giant demon fox that had been summoned. The boy had no hate or malice in his eyes, it baffled the man how the boy could overcome such a thing yet remain pure hearted.
"Where are our guests now?" Varian asked.
"I allowed them to stroll around the city" Ronin said.
"I'd rather not too many civilians interact with them" Varian said.
Jaina was silent for a moment before her eyes went wide. She had remembered some of the stories she had been told about how they seemingly got into trouble whenever they went for a "Stroll".
She abruptly stood up which caught the attention to all those at the meeting.
They all heard the same thing moments later
"MANA POTIONS" could be heard shouted by various people in the city.
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The group was strolling in the city, they were pretty much the center of attention wherever they went. The rumors had already spread at this point and everyone was looking at them in awe.
They were just walking randomly until they came across an Alchemy shop. This caught Shirou's attention, alchemy was a rare subject back in his home and he wondered what kind of concoctions they had here. The group followed in interest.
They were worried when they saw the expression he made after buying a certain potion for a few gold coins. He tried it to make sure it worked. His eyes went wide and he started to shake uncontrollably.
They quickly grabbed the potion away form him and he only uttered the words "Mana potion".
His prana had recovered. Only a sip and he recovered a decent a mount of prana. Such a thing in his home would cause a world war in the magical community.
Saber was the one to grab the potion away, she heard what he said and went wide-eyed as well. She took a sip as well. She had the same reaction as Shirou did, only able to utter the same thing, "Mana potion". She wasn't a magus but she used prana.
Ichigo was the next to take a sip of the potion, he had used a lot of reiatsu in his last fight and he was a bit exhausted. His reiatsu was restored to an extent. A similar reaction occurred.
It was passed around, the same thing happening to the group. Apparently it also helped facilitate the recovery of Sarah's psionic energy.
It finally got over to the two ninja, Naruto was the first to take a sip then Sasuke. Their Chakra had recovered a bit.
"Mana potion" they said at the same time.
Sasuke immediately pulled out a storage scroll and activated it.
A literal Pallet of golden bars poofed into the open.
Everyone grabbed an armful and ran around the city. "MANA POTIONS" was all that could be heard as they ran around. They hadn't even bothered with the gold they couldn't carry, they left it there in the middle of the street.
They went to any and every shop, they were slamming golden bars on the table and taking all the mana potions, and some other potions in the rush.
The shop owners who were brave enough to ask what was going on only got a single response.
"Mana potions".
They had also joined the fray, they went around trying to buy up all the mana potions, so they could resell them at the absurd price that these newcomers were buying them for.
Everyone quickly heard about what was happening and tried to get a piece of the action.
It got to the point where half the city was running around screaming "MANA POTIONS".
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After the people in the meeting managed to regain control of the city, they all sat back down.
Jaina was currently in an adjacent room scolding the group for their actions. Her voice could be heard at its peak by the council.
Everytime one of the group had mentioned the words "mana potion" it was met with a hit on the head by Jaina's staff.
"Well….at least we know that bags of holding are indeed not bottomless" Ronin said with mild amusement.
This caused a roar of laughter to finally erupt. Maybe it was just the absurd situation that had happened. These beings that had taken out millions of undead by their combined efforts, were being scolded like children in the other room by Jaina.
"So do we have a plan of action?" Cairne spoke for the first time.
He was talking about a siege on the Frozen Throne.
They had some knowledge about the Lich king. He was a powerful entity, his domain was divide amongst three pieces. His helmet which housed his spirit, his sword which housed his power, and his throne which took in all the souls of those that died by the hand of the scourge.
Jaina had rejoined the council while Cairne was asking his question.
"They will aid in the fight against the Lich King." She declared to all present.
"We need to make preparations, a month, no two weeks and we can be ready to launch a full scale operation on Northrend again". Magni said.
"We don't have that kind of time" Velen spoke up, the eyes drawn to him. He was an amazing leader and a great priest. But a battle strategist he was not.
"Explain prophet." Vol'jin spoke for the first time.
"The Lich king is consolidating his power on the Throne, he knows we are coming, the longer we wait the longer he has time to prepare, we need to go immediately and catch him unprepared." Velen spoke.
"How are we supposed to do that, the fastest ships would take days to reach northrend, then we have to track through Scourge infested territory to make it to the Citadel." Thrall said.
Velen then looked over to Varian.
Varian let out a sign then spoke, "I may have a solution...we call it the skybreaker"
An excited expression appeared on the faces of everyone present as he described what the skybreaker was.
"Tell the guests, we leave in the morning." Velen said.
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The group was currently stand on the deck of a flying ship. Even Sarah who had flown through space at lightspeed, was surprised at what was happening.
A wooden ship, with giant propellers, was flying through the sky. This whole design was absurd, yet it apparently was working.
A flying ship, that still used canons.
"This is really cool to be honest…" Ichigo said to no one in particular. The others couldn't help by nod in agreement.
They had cross the sea in relative ease, they had just entered the airspace of Northrend. The aura of death permeated the land.
Naruto was the first to speak up. "I let my guard down earlier and got hurt, best we don't all make that mistake" He said to the group who also entered a battle state.
"Scourge ahead" A shout was heard from a crewman.
Gargoyles, hundreds of them approached the flying vessel.
As the crew were scambling to get ready for combat, Ichigo walked to the front of the ship.
Tirion had joined the group, the other leaders couldn't risk coming and leaving their domains without leadership so Tirion opted to come instead. Saber was kind enough to lend him the use of her new sword.
He watched without panic as Ichigo made his way to the front of the ship.
He saw as the Young man summon a weapon made out of light. It was pure, it wasn't holy, it was hard to describe the feeling he felt from it.
He then saw the bow release thousands of arrows towards the flying enemies. They had all dropped like flies.
He barked orders at the crew to calm down and continue course. What he didn't tell them, even though they were in scourge infested territory, they were in the safest place in the world as long as this group was on the ship.
"I don't like this" Ichigo said to the group.
"I agree" Saber stated.
"It's too easy, they are expecting us and probing anything they can with minimal effort." She continued.
Ichigo agreed with her insight. He didn't tell the group but he also had a bad feeling about this Lich King. His instincts were rarely wrong in matters like this.
As they got closer and closer to the citadel, more waves of random creatures attacked. Nothing strenuous at all. It was as saber said, they were probing.
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They had landed at the ice crown citadel, there was resistance but it was….easy. Even the higher ranked undead that they encountered while climbing the citadel could only get off some arrogant remark before being destroyed.
This only made the tension higher as they enter the throne room.
It was there that they saw him, the Lich King.
This monstrosity. The Shinigami present could see, souls. Millions of souls swirled inside the throne and there were thousands more inside his sword and only two inside his helmet.
He was being powered by the very souls he stole from his victims. This made him strong, extremely so. He was at the very least at captain level.
"Careful, he's strong" Ichigo said to the non-shinigami.
"What did you see?" Shirou asked him.
"He's being powered by millions of souls….i couldn't count them all." Rukia said in disgust.
Tirion who, was also present, felt a surge of disgust inside his stomach.
"I'll take lead. Shirou and Sarah you both are on ranged support, if you see an opening, take it.
Naruto and Sasuke, run interference and do any damage you can without getting hit, that sword is bad news it may grab your soul on contact. Saber, you and Yoruichi are with me, we're getting in his face and hit him hard. Rukia, you run kido support, I don't think your ice powers will be much help against him, also watch Orihime's back.
Tier, you are important here, I'm going to need you to go into your resurrection at the start. Your going to need to pay close attention to his actions, your ability to heat up the water around us will counter his ice abilities. And finally Orihime, use your shield if his sword is about to make contract with the body of anyone present, otherwise you are on healing duty.
The lich king only looked on as they briefly strategized against him. He was amused at these newcomers, he couldn't tell what they were.
"They sent a bunch of children to face me" His icy voice echoed out.
They ignored him and got into position.
"Cast off your fear and cleave the Heavens, Zangetsu" Ichigo called out with an explosion of reiatsu.
At the same time Tier summoned forth her resurrection, "Destroy, Tiburón". She said as a similar reiatsu pushed out.
Ichigo charged in with his larger blade, which met the Lich king's blade, Frostmourne.
"Your blade is not of mortal creation." The Lich king said at first contact.
"And your blade is an abomination" Ichigo retorted, trying to put more strength into his arms and push off the blade. He was unsuccessful.
Ichigo's comment only caused the Lich king to laugh.
As Ichigo and the Death knight were locked in blades, Saber came from the side with a slash of her own.
The Lich king used his free hand to send a blast of frost in her direction.
Saber quickly tried to bring back the swing, before it was too late a familiar orange shield appeared before her to block the magical attack.
While the Lich King was preoccupied with these two, Sarah had fired two Psionic bullets into his eyes, blinding the Death knight.
Yoruichi came from behind and delivered a powerful kick to the back of his legs, pushing him down onto his knees. His grip on Frostmourne loosed as Ichigo pushed it to the side and thrusted his smaller blade into the stomach of the Death knight.
Saber also was free to swing her blade at his side when he moved his hand to try to catch himself from falling.
As both their blades made contact with the king, they both felt something was off.
Saber had pulled back after cutting open his side, and Ichigo followed after pulled his blade out of his Gut.
"Whats wrong?" Naruto asked, he could tell something was bothering the duo after that exchange.
"It's hard to explain, I need more time to figure it out. Continue laying it on him, this won't keep him down at all." Ichigo said.
The lich king stood up, his body was perfectly fine. It wasn't time reversal or healing…it was something else.
Naruto and Sasuke moved this time.
Sasuke took out a storage scroll, summoning a large Shuriken.
He threw it towards the king, as it was about to hit him, it split into hundreds of smaller shuriken with wire attached. At a tug of the wire, the Shuriken curved in the air, they wrapped around the arm that held his blade.
With all his strength, he pulled back on the wires, The Lich king also pulled back. It become a tugging match.
While this was happening Naruto ran up to him, he activated his Chakra mode with the Six's path's chakra.
Naruto started to farm a large ball of energy in his hand, it was familiar to those that knew him.
With his free hand, The lich charged charged it with a deathly energy, intent of taking this boy out.
Naruto trusted in his comrades, he continued his attack.
Just as the hand was about to sweep down on Naruto, a blade/Arrow pieced it.
"Durandal" Shirou called out. It was a powerful holy sword. It would grant three miracles per use. The blade itself took a lot of prana to create, and to use a miracle would even more costly, he had to keep it small.
He chose the miracle of "purification".
The blade had pierced the hand of the Lich king, The deathly magic he gathered had been promptly dispersed and he reeled back in pain as the holy attribute invading him.
Naruto did not miss this chance, he pushed more chakra into his jutsu, he caused it to inflate into a size a couple times bigger than his hand.
Right as he was about to connect, Ice blades formed above the Lich King's head, they would pierce the fox as his attack landed. But just as they finished forming, they suddenly were heated up and turned into water. Tier was quick to stop the attack in its tracks.
"Rasengan" He called out as the ball of energy erupted into the chest of the King. He was sent spiraling into a nearby pillar.
Ichigo was on stanby, he was watching the fight, he had an idea of what was going on but he needed more information.
Rukia stepped up after the king stood up once again, his body apparently was okay.
"Bakudō no. 61, Rikujōkōrō" She chanted, and six rods of light penetrated the king and stopped him from any action.
Rukia could feel the strain from the kido, it was being torn apart forcefully.
"Bakudō no. 79, Kuyō Shibari" Yoruichi said, adding on to the binding. Eight pitch black suns appeared around the death knight, and one extra one in the middle, locking him down further. She had noticed the strain Rukia was under.
As second binding was put on him, it alleviated some of the stress but he was still pushing through with physical force.
It was Ichigo and Tier this time who went for the attack.
Tier pointed her blade towards the king, and ichiog pointed two fingers.
"Cero" They said together.
The Yellow and Red lights shot forward at high speed and penetrated the king.
They weren't done. Sarah stepped up next. She let go of her rifle and let it slump on its sling. She held both hands a few inches apart, lighting began to condense in the middle. She looked towards the pitiful king and released her psionic lightning. It erupted at the location of her choosing.
The explosion of lighting was powerful, it vaporized any objects in the vicinity of the king.
Before the lightning had subsided, Rukia began to chant.
"The crest of turbidity, seeping out. An insolent vessel of madness. Boiling up, Denying, Numbnes, blinking, obstructing slumber. The steel princess who creeps. The mud doll, ever disintegrating. Unit! Oppose! Filling the earth, know your own impotence!"
"Hadō no. 90, Kurohitsugi!" Rukia roared.
A large black structure formed around the king, it completed its rectangular shape and black cross-like spears penetrated it.
Tirion could only look on in shock. He couldn't ever hope to intervene in such a battle. He was even more shocked that the Lich King kept on getting up, unharmed.
"I got it" Ichigo said, bringing all attention on him.
"He's using the souls to replace the damage to his body."
"His body is just a husk, it doesn't matter how many times we kill it when he has millions of souls to use as scape goats, this also means my Bankai won't work against him" Ichigo said.
"We need to separate him from the Throne somehow" Ichigo said looking towards Shirou.
"I can use Oath breaker?" Shirou suggested.
"Its not a binding, the throne is literally a part of him at this point." Ichigo dismissed the thought. He could see the tether that the "body" had between the three objects. Just as the dagger couldn't sever the bindings between one's body and soul, it would do nothing against the connection he has with the throne.
"I can pull him into my reality marble…" Shirou said hesitantly. He had never used it since the fight with Gilgamesh.
"I think that's our best shot at victory" Saber interjected.
She saw the hesitation on her lover's face. He didn't like showing it off, it was warped in his opinion.
"Don't worry Shirou, you're among comrades" She said in a comforting voice.
"If your going to do something, do it quickly" Naruto interjected while he reengaged the king.
"We'll keep him busy, Orihime keep your shield up and guard Shirou." Ichiog said, as he entered the fray.
Shirou took a deep breath.
"I am the Bone of my Sword" He said as his circuits began to flare up.
The Lich king sense the power on the words, something tickling the back of his mind to stop the boy, but he was too preoccupied at the moment.
"Steel is my Body and Fire is my blood."
The words echoed out again, the feeling was stronger this time. The Lich king started to focus more on the boy.
He met blade with blade, he was powered with millions of souls so he could physically overpower anyone here.
"Getsuga Tenshō" Ichigo roared. He was trying to slow the abomination down.
The king tried to block with his blade, restoring the damage would take longer. He was pushed back into the corner of the room.
"Cero" Tier called out as the bright yellow light consumed the Death Knight.
"I have Created over a Thousand Blades" Shirou spoke once again.
It was more powerful this time. Arthas could feel it, what ever the boy did would spell his destruction.
He started to ignore the damage he was taking, trying to make his way toward the boy and interrupt what ever it was he was doing.
"Shunko" Yoruichi cried out as she sent a devastating punch at him, he flew back, far away from
Shirou once again.
As he "revived" again, he broke out into a charge towards the boy, Sasuke used his swapping ability of his Rinnegan and swapped him out with a random shuriken that was still on the floor, forcing him back even further.
He didn't stop there, "AMATERASU" He roared as black flames erupted onto the king.
The Lich King literally carved the pieces off of himself that were covered in the flames when he realized that the cold would not put them out.
"Unaware of loss, Nor aware of Gain"
The group tried to slow him down, he started to ignore any damage he took. Ignore the pain he received. The only way was to physically stop him and he would continue to plow through even as the like of Tier tried to meet him blade to blade. He had opted to use a close ranged death magic that even hurt himself causing them both to falter but he recovered faster.
Naruto Tried to grab onto him with claws made from the kyuubi's chakra. He almost succeeded until the Lich King let out a large destructive ice magic that swept away all those in close range like a tornado.
Sarah aimed from a distance to blow out his tendons in his legs, it forced him down for a few moments before he got back up and continued.
"Have withstood the pain to create many weapons"
The undead was a juggernaut. He would not stay down and he was strong. He had yet to land a decent hit due to the teamwork, but it would take only one hit for him to create an advantage. His sword could grab hold of the soul of anything it pierced.
"Waiting for one's Arrival"
Saber had released the wind around her blade, she met his blade head on with the full glory of Excalibur.
The blade forced him back, he was a being of darkness, he could not stand up against the light. But the Blade could also not do anything about the millions of souls that replaced the damage he received upon every "death" that Excalibur inflicted.
"I have no regrets. This is the only path"
He was burned as he bathed in the light, but it would not put him down for good.
He pushed through the pain he felt from such an absurd holy aura.
"He met saber's blade again, ignoring the pain and swiped her away with his empty arm, knocking her into the nearby wall.
He was getting close to the boy, he was almost there. The feeling of death crept up on him with every verse uttered.
Orihime had summoned her shield as a last line of defense, only to be shattered by the power of Frostmourne.
"My whole life has been…."
The Kings blade swept down towards the young magus. But Shirou did not falter.
"Unlimited Blade Works"
Fire erupted from Shirou, and the world went white.
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The peerage was quick to recover, no serious damage had been done. They quickly looked over to see the shouting Saber.
"SHIROU" she yelled as she held the magus that was on the ground grasping for breath.
"Too many souls...….pulled all in.....thousands in blade…" He barely squeaked out.
His Reality marble pulled in all the SOULS in the designated area. He did not take into account the ones stored in the Lich King's Blade.
Saber quickly channeled prana into Avalon to relieve his pain and fatigue.
"Magical backlash…I can't hold the reality marble for long….i can barely control the blades." Be barely said.
The peerage had regrouped on the kneeling magus.
They heard what he had said and were starting to get worried.
"He should only have a few thousand souls inside that blade to sustain him since his connection to the throne has been forcefully severed. " Ichigo said.
"The problem is we have to kill him a few thousand times in a matter of minutes." Yoruichi added.
Sure, they could take him on, their power easily dwarfed his. But he could outlast them and he only need one serious hit to do some major damage.
"If I could force all the swords into one focal point, could you allow them to move by anothers' will?" Sasuke spoke up.
"I think I have enough in me to unearth all the blades…" Shirou replied.
Naruto was the one to catch on. "We need to get him up in the air for maximum damage." He said to the group.
They picked up that the two ninja had a plan.
"Take point" Ichigo said to Naruto.
The Lich king was confused, he was in a whole new world. His connection to the Throne was forcefully severed, something that was not possible as long a he was still on Azeroth.
He only had a few thousand souls at best in his blade, he could only wager that this magic or whatever it is could not be held long judging by the boys condition.
He had to play it safe.
The one most out of place In this whole situation was Tirion. He had no idea what was going on anymore. He was apparently in a new world filled with blades. He heard what the boy had called it, "unlimited blade works". The realization didn't come until he saw another Ashbringer stabbed into the ground near him.
"By the light…" He muttered in complete disbelief.
"Getsuga Jūjishō" Ichigo called, swinging both blades.
The resulting blast consuming the Lich king and creating a large dust cloud.
Before the Lich king could catch himself, a sonic boom was heard and a bullet pierced through his knee-cap. He was forced down onto one knee.
Tier condensed enough water to shoot up from underneath him as a mall geyser, he was propelled into the air a few feet.
The Lich king fired a blast of deathly cold towards tier, who was trying her hardest to maintain this geyser in a desert environment.
The blast was met with a promp shield courtesy of Orihime.
"Thank you, Princess." Tier quickly said to the girl.
"Bakudō no. 1, Sai" Rukia called out.
The death knight's arms were pulled behind his back, it would hold if only for a brief moment.
Yoruichi did not miss this chance
"Shunko" She yelled.
The familiar lighting enveloped her, with a hard punch to the kings back as Tier let the the water disappear, He was sent further into the air.
As Yoruichi was at the highest, she threw one of naruto's three-pronged kunai further above the Death knight.
Naruto promptly teleport to the kunai, he created giant Chakra claws and grasped the King. He threw him further into the air with any strength he could muster without a good foothold.
The Lich King was a good distance into the air, and that's when Sasuke finally made his move.
"CHIBAKU TENSEI" He roared, his arm extended and his hand in a grasping motion.
A suction force focused around the Lich king.
Shirou could feel the swords wanting to be pulled out by the suctioning force. They would not move though unless he gave the command.
He forced all the prana he had in his body out for this.
"UP" His yell reverberated throughout the reality marble.
All the blades were pulled out of the ground, if only by a few centimeters. But it was enough, with the blades free and with Shirous consent, they were pulled in.
Hundreds, Thousands, Unlimited.
An unlimited amount of blades ascended to meet the abomination. Holy swords, demon swords, godly swords. They laughed at the arrogance of the death knight as each one took away a soul from his blade.
The battle hadn't lasted for more than a couple minutes. But it was enough. The husk that held together the various aspects of the Lich king was finally destroyed. The helm and Blade fell to the earth right as the reality marble collapsed.
They were back in the throne room. The throne, the helm, and the sword layed dormant. Without the body of Arthas that acted as a focus, they could not do anything. Their power decreased dramatically.
The group was exhausted. It was a drawn out fight. They had not been pushed to their limited physically, but mentally. Minus one magus.
"Saber, the last blow is on you" he said towards the knight.
Her sword was the strongest holy weapon in existence. It had the power to cleanse these disgusting things from the planet now that they had nothing to bind to.
"With pleasure" She said as she held her blade high.
Tirion watched the scene. He heard the reports from the dwarves about the supposed holy sword that exceeded Ashbringer, he was skeptical at best.
He was never so happy to be wrong. Tears were brought to his eyes. He saw them, all his fallen comrades, the ones who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the name of the light.
The Glory of humanity. It was what made it the "blade of assured victory". The infinite potential that comes with humanity.
The light that represents what humanity can achieve.
It's light that will never go dark.
And its name will forever echo in this world.
"EXCALIBUR" She roared.
When Tirion retires and decides to teach the children in the order, he will tell them about the light they chose to serve. When they ask him about it, he will tell them. The light is the potential that exists in every one of them.
The wave of light enveloped the dark artifacts in its path. The blade, helmet and throne were all destroyed. The souls trapped within were purified.
"Why hadn't we done that from the start" Naruto asked with confusion.
"Thought about it, the souls would have probably just been shifted over to his sword, which I don't think was meant to hold that many souls since that was the only function the throne served. Worst case, the sword would overload and explode. " Ichigo said.
This caught his girls off guard. The only thought that crossed their minds, "When did he become so intelligent"?
"Or we could have just wasted our time and that would have been a quick and easy solution" Ichigo said shrugging his shoulders.
Ichigo looked around at his peerage. They had pretty good teamwork for the little amount of time they had spent together. They were a bit held back by the small space and proximity to each other, but he felt like they did good overall.
"We should head back to jaina…" He said quietly.
They respected her wish to not come. They wouldn't hold it against her and they knew how bad she felt about leaving them alone with the monster. She couldn't control the fact that she still had feelings somewhere deep down, even if it was only a husk of the man she once loved, watching him die over and over again might have broken her.
"I believe I am owed an all you can eat feast as promised by Varian" Saber said with anticipation.
An awkward smile appeared on the faces of Yoruichi and Shirou. Stormwind was about to have a food shortage.
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A couple days after the festivities died down, the group gathered without any ears around.
It was the first time they had truly been together as one group. Ichigo was absolutely giddy at the idea of his peerage being finished. His family was now complete.
After hearing about Ichigo's story, the group understood his obsession with creating his "family". He was trying to fill the hole that was left. They all were in some way and he brought them all together.
They were healing together, as a family.
"Have you said your goodbyes?" Ichigo asked his newest member.
"Yes." She said. She thought she would be sadder to leave, but the group grew on her so quickly she couldn't imagine being separated from them at this point.
"I am ready, to head home." She said to the group.
Ichigo smiled as he pulled out the jeweled dagger.
"Open portal to: Home" He said, and the group finally returned.
