111 Chapter 110: Bitter memories
(Titus's POV)
[You have won the following rewards:
- EXPs
- 3 million LPs
- 2 Skill Enhance cards
- Moon Cell Level 3
- Active Skill: Nordic Chief God's Spirit? Z]
[You have leveled up from 79 to 83]
[Moon Cell Level 3 Functions:
- Timeline connector: You choose a map and Dreamshift with one partner, whether past or future. For the time being, you can only connect one timeline.]
[Nordic Chief God's Spirit??? Z
Effect:
- All parameters will be multiplied by 1000.
- All of your skills will be ranked A+++ or EX with no cost of MP.
- Multiple Tier 10 spells are possible.
- Anything tied to the 'World' will have a 1% effect on you.
Caution: This is a Rank Z skill, a highly unstable skill. You will be handing yourself to the Nordic Chief God (???)]
My jaw hung slack as I scrolled through the list of rewards. EXPs and LPs? Fantastic! With Moon Cell's new timeline hopping function, I could create a dummy identity like Titus in Nero's reign and experience that era firsthand. The possibilities were endless!
But what the heck was going on with the last skill? Ranked "Z"? Even in Nasuverse, that was unheard of.
Yet, as I read its effects, my jaw dropped. My parameters, those numerical stats that defined my strength and agility, would be multiplied by a thousand in a blink. Gods and dragons wouldn't stand a chance.
All my skills below Rank EX would be catapulted to Rank A+++, no sweat. Tier 10 spells, the stuff of world-ending destruction, would be at my fingertips. Wodime's Noble Phantasm, a reality-warping masterpiece, was a mere Tier 9!
And to top it all off, anything from this world, any attack or spell, would be reduced to a pathetic 1% of its original power. It'd be like a mosquito trying to sting a redwood.
"The Whore of Babylonia…" I muttered, "She alone could bypass this shield." Draco, fellow alien extraordinaire, might also slip through the cracks of this 1% debuff, I surmised.
Groaning, I cursed my conflicting fortune.
"I can't use this casually," I lamented. "It's a trump card for dire situations."
While Draco certainly fit the bill, countless other Nasuverse entities – Chaotic Beasts and primordial forces from beyond the stars – could still squash me like a pesky bug. I needed a way to use this skill for some other emergency situation.
Shaking off the weight of this burden, I turned my attention to the memories with Kama.
---
[Fate/Extra World Part 5: Assassin's Memory]
(3rd person POV)
Kama shivered, a phantom chill despite her ashen form. Her screams of "Please, no more! Don't let me burn again!" had echoed into the void just seconds before Chaldea's victory turned her to dust. Now, her consciousness drifted in the abyss, a swirling sea of forgotten heroes awaiting rebirth.
For regular spirits, this limbo was a momentary blink before rejoining the Throne of Heroes. But for Kama, a divine ember of chaos, it was another cycle of torment.
"Peace, at least," she muttered, resigned to the endless dark.
She knew darkness; she reveled in it, danced in its flames. Here, at least, there were no more flames that could sting her soul.
Or so she thought.
An icy grip, sharp as starlight, snatched her from the swirling darkness.
"Aaa! No!" Kama shrieked, the pain tearing through her immaterial form.
Tears, phantom remnants of her last agony, hadn't even evaporated before a new wave of torment crashed over her. This wasn't the scorching hellfire of Chaldea's incineration, but a soul-wrenching agony as she was ripped from the Fate universe, dragged, screaming, into the alien clutches of the Moon Cell Holy Grail War.
Her world twisted, contorted, the familiar void replaced by a churning vortex of unfamiliar energies. Fear, raw and primal, clawed at her. Where was she? What awaited her in this unknown abyss? The answer to her silent plea came crashing down in a flash of blinding light, pulling her into the maelstrom of a new destiny.
----
Titus watched, bewildered, as Sakura Matou's body, the artificial intelligence he'd installed within, underwent a radical transformation. Her form aged with unnatural speed, culminating in a being that transcended human. No, this was something more, akin to a divine spirit.
When the entity's icy gaze landed on him, Titus flinched with an inexplicable dread. Though devoid of a soul, incapable of emotions like fear or love, his very being screamed a primal urge to flee, to erase this servant from existence.
"I am..."
"Titus Dusklock," she cut him off, her tone dripping with disdain, "You filthy human. This body, connected to the Moon Cell, reveals all. I am Kamadeva, Mara, but call me Kama."
A cruel chuckle escaped her lips. Then, with a snap of her fingers, Titus's surroundings warped and twisted. A notification materialized before him, stark and damning:
[Anomaly detected. Punishment for defecting an AI: exile to Imaginary Numbers Space.]
"What the...?" Titus's eyes widened in panic. He looked to Kama, seeking a lifeline, but found only amusement dancing in her eyes.
"Fufu~," she teased, her voice dripping with honeyed malice. "Why the long face, worm? Scared?"
"Do something!" Titus screamed, his voice laced with desperation. "We'll both be erased!"
He understood the gravity of the situation. Moon Cell wouldn't detect him as an anomaly, merely reset the program and the Grail War, trapping him in an endless loop. But this time, the threat was far worse. Imaginary Numbers Space, a realm of infinite nothingness, awaited, escape from which was near impossible.
"Don't fret, little worm," Kama purred, her voice sending shivers down his spine. He found himself in a different landscape, a hellish panorama of fire and blood.
"A hell, you say?" she chuckled, her eyes gleaming with sadistic delight. "Indeed, my adorable plaything. Welcome to a hell of my own creation, courtesy of the Moon Cell. Now, burn."
His screams echoed through the infernal landscape as fire consumed him. His very skills, his essence, were being disintegrated, a torture beyond human comprehension. Death offered no solace, for regeneration was his only fate.
"Burn, burn!" Kama cackled, her laughter a cruel symphony against his agony.
For the first time, Titus felt emotions he never thought possible: rage, terror, a hatred so profound it threatened to consume him. He craved to rend Kama limb from limb, to tear her laughter from her throat.
Yet, he knew brute force wouldn't suffice. He needed to breach her mental defenses, coax her back to the Grail War, back to the Moon Cell.
'Fine,' he thought, a cold resolve hardening within him. 'If this is how you want to play, then I'll play. You underestimate me, Kama. A broken puppet can still dance.'
With a steely glint in his eyes, Titus met her gaze, his scream morphing into a defiant roar. He may have no soul, but his purpose remained. He would break free from this twisted game, not as Titus Dusklock, the puppet master, but as something else, something new, forged in the fires of this infernal crucible.
This was the moment of his true transformation. The game had changed, and Kama, with her cruel amusement, had just unwittingly lit the spark of rebellion within him.
He will play his game.
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