147 Assault on Edenia
Edenia, Formerly the Isle of Man.
~ 484 AD
It has been six years. Six years since the birth of Lucifer and Venus, six years since Zelretch was given command of the Bifrost in a similar fashion as Heimdall, six years since Setanta, Connla, and Aoife became Ambrosius' Royal Guard while also being turned into New Edenians, and more importantly six years since the the humans on the island were turned into New Edenians.
Despite what many would think, there was no grand ceremony, no ritual was undertaken, and there was certainly no impressive showing of magic to accomplish the process. It had begun just as Ambrosius ordered, the warriors were gathered into one of the castle's many courtyards where they faced their gods and their teachers while they were posed a question, do you want to become one Ambrosius'? None had refused and all had accepted with a collective roar that shook the island. Afterwards they were all imbued with the crystal clear dragon shaped statuettes.
While the process itself was mundane, the results were anything but. Power had exploded from every single warrior as their physique was turned into that of a New Edenian, making them faster, stronger, thougher, and with far more vitality than any human could ever hope to possess, causing their Touki to become even more powerful than before. Their previously average magical talents had soared to prodigious levels even by Devil standards and their magical reserves had grown to absurd levels. The resulting explosion of power had shaken the entire island and would have destroyed it had Morgan not had the foresight to reinforce it beforehand. With the warriors turned into New Edenians, their training was paused while the Malphas family observed in case something detrimental happened due to the transformation. In the end everything turned out fine and Ambrosius went ahead with turning every human on the island into a New Edenian.
Unlike the spectacle that the warriors caused, the civilian transformations were quite tame, only causing a small earthquake. With that done, Ambrosius and Azula took over the training of the warriors.
Per usual, their training began with testing their new physical limits with no enhancements. The results suffice to say were interesting. While previously the majority would need Touki in order to even survive a battle with a low Ultimate Class being, now they can all easily do so with just their bodies while the most powerful of the physically can stalemate a low Ultimate Class being.
Afterwards they were tested on their Touki, and it quickly became clear to Azula and Ambrosius why beings with enough life energy can become monsters with just that. Using only Touki, even the weakest New Edenian warrior is able to beat a high Ultimate Class being who does not have any hacks like the Power of Destruction. With Touki, any form of magic that is within the Ultimate Class and below is absolutely harmless to them. Fire magic? You may as well be trying to burn the Ocean with a mundane candlestick. Wind magic? You look like the big bad wolf huffing and puffing to blow down Mount Everest. Lightning? That's like trying to use a non conductive metal wire to charge a continent. Water? They are blessed by Ambrosius to have the passive abilities of a demigod child of Poseidon, and even if they were not blessed you may as well use a faucet with a limited supply of water to erode a mountain chain. Even time magic that is not above Ultimate Class will not work on them. They are essentially the worst nightmare of any magic based fighter.
After those tests came the magical portion of their training, and to say that every single one of them is a prodigy would not be a lie. By the first month they were all proficient enough in elemental magic to use it to support their fighting style while also having mastered reinforcement to easily use it in combat. By the third month even the least talented in magic was casually flinging around lightning bolts in the middle of all out brawls while the most talented of them were beginning to attempt to copy Ambrosius' telumkinesis even though their bodies were still undergoing the final adjustments of the transformation. By month six the transformations were complete and the Nasuverse Class Skills had been activated.
The first one to make its presence known was the Magical Resistance of the Saber class, a skill that when paired up with their Touki made it impossible for them to be one shotted with magic unless its on the level of what Ambrosius theorises to be the around the level of number five in the Top 10 most powerful beings.
The second skill to make itself known was the Independent Action of the Archer class in an interesting way. For servants of the Archer Class, Independent Action allows them to act on their own for a period of time without the magical energy of their master. Since the New Edenians are not servants it was expected that the skill would be useless to them, however while the skill is in fact Independent Action, it is not the same as a servant's. This skill is a passive ability that makes the New Edenians use the magical energy from the Earth once they have runned out of their own. Or at least that is what they thought at first, but it quickly became evident that they are drawing in the life energy from the planet when one warrior used that energy in a similar fashion as mokuton from naruto. With more experiments it was found that while the skill does not give them senjutsu it does completely the first step towards it by having them passively draw in the life energy of the planet once they run out of magical energy. The rest however is up to them.
The third and fourth skills were Item Construction and Territory Creation. The first was found by a blacksmith who attempted to recreate Gae Bolg. While the spear that he created was in not even close to the genuine article due to lacking its ability of causality reversal, it was still very impressive due to the fact that it bypassed the toughness of a New Edenian warrior's skin while also constantly honing in on his heart despite him dodging the spear twice. Territory Creation was found by a warrior when he set the terms for a one-on-one match and made use of the skill to enforce those terms. While not impressive compared a servant's use of the skill, it was the first time and by accident.
The last two skills were found through experimentation. Riding was easy enough since all Ambrosius had to do was create a horse and ask a civilian to try riding it. Contrary to what the civilian expected, the horse was enough to ride despite its moody temperament. Like Riding, Presence Concealment was also easy to verify since Morgan simply erected a set of magical detectors around the castle before asking a few New Edenians to attempt breaking in. Despite believing that such an action is blasphemous they felt that disobeying would be worse, so they obeyed. While they never made it past the courtyard and into the castle itself, their presence was never detected. The skill however goes beyond hiding their presence, it also masks their magical energy to make it seem that it is the same as a normal humans while also making it almost impossible to detect when they are using it. At first none of them had noticed since they never bothered sensing anything on the island, but it was proven that the skill is always passively active.
With the completion of the transformation and the activation of the Class Skills, came the final major ability of the EMS, Edenian Metamorph System, Resonance. Like Ambrosius and Morgan expected, that particular ability did not show itself much. Out of the tens of thousands of New Edenians, only around a dozen of them with the majority resonating with Achilles, Guan Yu, and Lancelot. While at first it seemed to be a good thing, it quickly became evident that there was a major downside to it due to one simple reason, Ambrosius and Morgan did their job far too well.
When the prototypes were first created, those who resonated with a hero did not receive personal skills that the hero did not possess in their life, even if legends say they did, they did receive all of the class skills and the life skills of whichever soul imprint they resonated with. As such at most they would receive their skills in magic, weaponry, and any skill they possessed in life. That does however mean that unless the Noble Phantasm was an actual life skill turned into a Noble Phantasm that the warriors would not get it even if they resonated with the imprint. Unfortunately however Morgan was not satisfied with this and wanted to take it a step further to allow the warriors to access personal skills even if they were only present in the hero's myth. Long story short she and Ambrosius succeeded too well.
Now whenever a New Edenian resonates with one of the imprints they are put into a coma where their souls face the soul of which hero they resonated with. While facing them the hero will test them to see whether or not they are worthy of their powers, should they be worthy then they will receive all of the skills and Noble Phantasm. Should they not be worthy however they will either die or have the powers locked to them forever or until the hero deems them worthy of another test. So far two warriors have died, a few have had the powers locked and only six have been able to pass the test.
Those who have passed the test not only receive all of their skills and Noble Phantasms but also any clothing that the hero wears when they are summoned as a servant, although it is optional to wear those clothes.
With the final ability of the EMS found out, training became more intense, not only to get the warriors used to their abilities, but to also have them master their personalised fighting styles.
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Edenia, Formerly the Isle of Man.
~ 490 AD
Aatrox is a member of Ediana's trained warriors and its greatest combatant in terms of close quarter combat, be it with a spear, a sword, or simply his hands. Having been born in the year 474, Aatrox did not bear witness to the descent of The Four, as they are called by the mortals of the island. He did, however, grow up hearing stories of the event as well as how much they have changed life for the better. He also grew up hearing stories of heroes from The Four's original universe. Stories of Hercules, the greatest Greek hero, Setanta, Lord Ambrosius' first adopted son, Perseus Jackson, the half brother of Lord Ambrosius, and even stories of Lady Arturia Pendragon, the sister of Queen Morgan and the aunt of Princess Mordred. Interestingly enough, according to Queen Scáthach, most of these heroes also existed in this world but with different stories. For example, in this world Lady Arturia is actually King Arthur Pendragon as opposed to Queen Arturia. Despite the similarities between the gods and heroes of this world and The Four's original world, The Four do not exist in this world unlike the other gods like Zeus and Odin who exist in multiple worlds. To the New Edenians this information is proof of The Four's superiority over any other gods. There can only be one version of them unless they themselves decide to make clones of themselves.
To Aatrox however, none of this truly matters because he only cares about two things, serving Lord Ambrosius to the best of his abilities and living an enjoyable life. Right now that means being the greatest warrior he can be for when they join the war and just enjoying the simple pleasures of life. Perhaps once the war is over he will begin to think about settling down, but he honestly doubts it since according to Queen Morgan they will now live for tens of thousands of years. While he can't actually visualise such a long life, he does know that he can spend ten thousand years gallivanting around the world doing as he pleases and he will only be considered a young adult in terms of the New Edenian lifespan. While to others it might seem daunting, to Aatrox it simply means that he can take life on one day at a time and not worry about wasting his lifespan. Which is why he is currently on his way to the house of Penelope, a woman that has recently become acquainted with., as opposed to worrying about something like settling down.
As he leisurely makes his way to her house with his hands tied behind his head, a voice calls out to him.
"Aatrox!" calls out a familiar voice, prompting the young warrior to turn around.
"What do you want Ajax?" he questions his approaching friend.
"Where are you going?" asks Ajax, a young man of the same age as Aatrox with black hair tied into a rattail similar to Setanta's, a roguishly handsome face that attracts the attention of many women, married or otherwise, glowing violet eyes with a mischievous glint to them, and a charming smirk that shows his sharper than average canines. He wears a sleeveless blue tunic that showcases his toned arms and tan skin, black trousers and a pair of sandals.
"To Penelope's house." he replies nonchalantly. Like his friend Ajax, Aatrox is a handsome young man whose handsome face, pale skin, and laid back attitude has attracted countless women. He has silver hair that is cut short on the sides, glowing golden raptor like eyes, and a strong, firm build that cannot be obtained through training alone. Similar to his friend he wears a tunic, trousers and sandals, but colored green and black respectively with an orange cloth wrapped loosely around his body.
"Her again? C'mon man, you can't always go to the same one, you need variety in your life." says Ajax as he puts his arms around Aatrox's shoulder. "Look at me, yesterday I went to Alexa, the day before that was Althaia, and today I'm meeting the twins." he explains.
"Not all of us like jumping from women to women." refutes Aatrox as he continues on his way with Ajax following next to him. Before Ajax can reply however another voice speaks from behind them.
"There's jumping from women to women, and then there's this manwhore." says the voice with a scoff, prompting the duo to turn to face the speaker, a young man around the same age as Aatrox and Ajax with short fiery red hair that contrasts well with his pale skin, glowing brown eyes and a face, that while quite handsome, falls behind compared to Aatrox and Ajax. Like them he has a powerful but slimmer build, a sleeveless white tunic and short with sandals.
"Alexander, my man!" exclaims Ajax as he pulls Alexander in for a hug. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you in weeks." questions Ajax as Alexander detangles himself from his boisterous friend.
"I had a Resonance." answers Alexander, causing his friends' eyes to widen.
"How did it go?" asks Aatrox as he removes his hands from behind his head.
"The test was peculiar to say the least, but I managed to succeed." he replies with a smile.
"Alright! We celebrate tonight, drinks are on me!" declares Ajax as he attempts to pull his two friends in for a group hug despite their protests. Before he can complete the deed however, the three friends sense something and immediately look to the sky.
"We're under attack!" screams Ajax as a lightning bolt attempts to strike the city. Before it can come close however it is stopped by a magical dome.
"Devils." says Alexander as hundreds of figures with batlike wings appear in the sky and he and his friends summon their weapons and their clothes change to their battle attire.
Alexander now wears a sleeveless purple tunic, slim black trousers and black shoes. In his hands are black gloves that cover half of his forearms with countless runes inscribed on them.
"Rain of Light: Machia Hecatia Graea'' encants Alexander as he waves one of his hands into the air towards the devils. With the activation of the spell, a volley of 10 beams of light, each with an A rank power of attack, rapidly fires at the approaching devils. Each beam is a deadly spell on the level of High Thaumaturgy with three times Shirou's entire amount of magical energy, capable of destroying the body of a Servant with a direct hit. Unprepared for such an assault, ten devils fall to the spells and are killed before even knowing that they are under attack.
"Oh? Not bad, I see that your Resonance was with Medea." compliments Ajax who is now dressed in a full black and blue sleeveless bodysuit with blue vambraces that cover his entire forearm while he holds a familiar red spear in his right hand.
"Is that what I think it is?" questions Alexander as he looks at the weapon in his friend's hand.
"Hell yea it is! I won it in a bet against Setanta and Queen Scáthach trained me how to use it. Apparently he doesn't really need this one since Queen Scáthach gifted him with a better spear." happily explains Ajax as he twirls the spear before looking at Alexander. "Wish me a happy landing?" he says with a grin, prompting the other young man to roll his eyes before nodding. Crouching down on the ground, Ajax looks towards his enemies who are currently attacking the defensive dome with their magic before he launches himself into the air, cracking the ground beneath him.
As Ajax soars towards the devils, a red magical aura envelops the spear and a severe aura of bloodlust permeates the air, freezing many devils in fear while knocking the weaker ones unconscious. As Ajax reaches higher than the devil and the pinnacle of his flight, he arches his back as if drawing a bow and the spear towards the ground with all his might while screaming out its name. With the release of the spear and the activation of the curse, Gae Bolg distorts space to create a "tapestry of action" that splits into numerous spearheads that pours down over the enemy and easily kills fifty of them.
As Ajax falls back to the ground, many of the devils attempt to take this opportunity to kill the young warrior, only for them to hear a loud whistle and the thunderclap before being run over by a three horse chariot driven by Aatrox who uses it to catch Ajax.
"That was reckless." comments Aajax who is now dressed in a short sleeve black shirt, slim black trousers, black boots with a silver and grey cuirass covering his chest, black gloves, and black vambraces. In one of his hands he holds Diatrekhōn Astēr Lonkhē: Spear-tip of the Star Traversing the Skies, Achilles' hero killing spear, which he uses to kill any devil that attempts to board the chariot.
"I knew that you would catch me." confidently replies Ajax as he calls Gae Bolg back to him.
"Tch, this sort of battle is not advantageous to us. Unless we fly it will take forever to deal with all of these devils." says Aatrox while steering the chariot towards the ground.
"I have no interest in flying. You and I both know that we suck at it and doing it in the middle of a battle is asking to join Valhalla thousands of years before our time. Besides, the battle is almost over anyway" argues Ajax as he fires a ball of lightning at a devil. By now a good number of Warriors have joined the battle and the forces of the devils has been reduced by over three quarters.
"Alexander!" calls out Aatrox as he dismisses his chariot and he and Ajax plummet to the floor where a few devils have managed to make it into the city.
Already knowing what Aatrox wants, Alexander envelops every devil in a tornado and sends them flying towards his friend. Within a second Aatrox disappears from his position in the air and makes his way through the horde of devils, killing every single one of them while leaving behind afterimages. As quickly as he disappeared, he reappears in front of Alexander as all of the devils fall to the ground dead.
"Dammit Aatrox, you didn't leave me any!" whines Ajax as he catches up with his friend.
"Not my fault you're a slowpoke." replies Aatrox with a grin as he flicks the blood off his spear before looking at the sky where the last devil falls to the ground dead. "Looks like the war is here." he comments to his friends.
"About time. I was getting antsy." replies Ajax, earning a chuckle from Aatrox while Alexander merely sighs in exasperation.
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AN: Here's the chapter and the beginning of the Malphas family's faction joining the war (I really need a name for their faction. Suggestions are welcomed). I know that you guys are wondering how the devils found the island, much less made it all the way to the city to attack, and it will be revealed in a later chapter. As usual, tell me what you guys think.
Also the second chapter of my Campione fic is published. The name of it is The Godslaying Pharaoh. The third chapter is already available on my p a t r e o n The link is, (p a t r e o n . com / servantambrosius), minus the spaces. That story will be updated once a week and patrons will be able to read chapters a week in advance along with other ******* exclusive content such as the Authorities that I have come up with and are considering for the main character.
