Chapter 74: Angst Lord Ray Final Part
(This chapter is giving me a migraine to write because Nasuverse, battle on scale of Beast and Grands always revolve around concept. Raw power has no meaning the same as having a million people against an attack helicopter. Like how Beast 1 literally die to a human Solomon coz a ring that will strip all his power no matter how powerful Goetia is. Raw power is inferior to concept. Fuck. 99.99% time spent on googling and shit just to make sure what I write is correct.)
(Anyway, enjoy.)
"Storm Border arriving soon at Singularity: Grand Temple of Time. Good luck master!"
"Let's go, Senpai!"
"Le-"
*RIP*
A beam of dark energy rips through the fabric of space with its gargantuan amount of energy, forcing Storm Border to make an emergency jump into the Imaginary Number space and barely survive the impact.
"Fujimaru-kun! Are you alright?"
"Barely, Da Vinci. What happened?"
"From our observation, it's Goetia's noble phantasm, Ars Almadel Salomonis. But, its power reading was more than a hundred times higher than the previous one. Also, as we had predicted. Most Heroic Spirits are unsummoned the moment Storm Border touches the Temple of Time. The only ones left are Grand Servants, Heroic Spirits with strong divinity, Beast and your Kouhai."
"Good luck, once you are within. The communication will be bl-"
The transmission ended and the Humanity Last Master lift himself up from the floor to help Mash.
———
"Tch, another pest."
"Oi! Come down here and fight me, coward." The not so princess-like Princess Arc had merged with all her alternate consciousness and was really eager to defeat Ray to save this crumbling universe.
Ray didn't waste his time and entertained the idiotic demand as he pushed Kaleidoscope even further to harvest more energy.
'Our king. We are struggling to contain the expansion of the opponent Marble Phantasm rewriting the Temple of Time.'
'The newly arrived opponents are the Chaldeans. We cannot sustain the Temple of Time anymore with Beast II on their side.'
'Please grant us more power.'
Different Demon Gods spoke each time but spoke as if one person because they are a hive mind existence with Ray at the crux.
Ray divert several dozen strands of light band and feed it to the rings which glow as it absorbs the energy.
Marchosias and Malphas, Demon God with aspects of war, join Focalor who also assume humanoid form like Baal to fight off Princess Arc and Alma.
Instead of trying to win, Ray only stalling time as much as possible to gain energy as fighting will expend those energy instead of gaining more which is counterproductive.
Suddenly the Chaldeans arrived at the party and immediately started their assault.
"Oh, reinforcement. Didn't expect it but it was a welcomed one, Master of Chaldea." Princess Arc cheered while blocking another combined attack from the three Demon Gods.
The former Beasts that accompanied Ritsuka. Tiamat and Kama, both in their pre-Beast state, suddenly gain help from the Counter Force too, to regain their Beast Class. They didn't hesitate and grabbed the chance to prove whatever help they could for their Master.
Tiamat immediately used her noble phantasm fitted to her Class, Potnia Theron. The divine authority of the Mother Goddess that birthed all creation. Black Mud sprouts and forms a domain that surrounds her, her Sea of Life authority and starts spawning Lahmu in millions each second to attack the Demon God Pillars that are resisting the expansion of Marble Phantasm of Millennium Castle, lead by Bel Lahmu that have potential to surpasses even the original Demon Gods.
Proto Arthur, being the exception of Heroic Spirit, able to join due to his Excalibur being needed by the world right now to combat the threat. He is able to resist Nega-Summon with his Excalibur's help.
Gilgamesh opened his entire treasury and emptied its endless prototype noble phantasm at Ray's barrier around his throne.
Altera joins Princess Arc to combat the Demon God while Alma calls upon her authority to sprout a Tree of Life which provides support to all combatants on her side to defeat Ray.
Seeing this many enemies assembled just to bring him down, he merely glanced emotionlessly and uncaringly as he temporarily left Ars Nova operating autonomously and stepped up from the throne.
"Ants will remain ants forever. Mere pests that need to be exterminated. Perhaps I should indulge you with my power." Ray stopped before the step of stairs and looked down on them all.
*CRACK!*
A sound of crack followed by an invisible pressure suddenly smashed down upon everyone. The Lahmus is the first to die as they basically just explode from the spiritual pressure that suddenly crushed them down to the ground. Anyone that bears a soul will be affected and it is an unavoidable attack which targets the very soul itself. The only exceptions are those within Millennium Castle boundary which protected them due to being a domain under Princess Arc's absolute control.
Ray slowly raises his right arm with his palm grasping something invisible. He grips it tightly and causes those affected by it to feel their Saint Graph literally being crushed by a hand.
"Mere simple move like this is enough to cripple most of you. Pathetic." He said flatly and grasped his palm into a fist, crushing the Saint Graph itself and forced Altera and Gilgamesh who caught in the crossfire to disintegrate before they could contribute much to the battle.
"It's far from over." Ray continued and caused his shadow to expand and spread toward his enemies.
"Indeed. It was far from over for humanity and the world."
"Who?" Ray's focus interrupted as his eyes darted around to find the source of the feminine yet cold voice.
He then felt the disturbance in the fabric of space and time. He didn't notice previously because it's well camouflaged but someone suddenly expanded it, opening a portal into the Temple of Time.
"Hope I'm not too late for the party." A familiar voice reached the ears of many which include Ray.
"Zelretch." Ray muttered and his biggest threat to his plan of harvesting energy from this universe.
A giant portal opened behind Arcueid and the sound of galloping horse and armor clinking was heard before the presence of a divine spirit drowned it all down.
"March, my knights! For the survival of the world." Goddess Rhongomyniad appeared along with all his Knights of The Round Table, leading holy knights created from Rhongomyniad's ability.
In response, the already expanding shadow of his, spawn his Legion of Undying. But, their appearance looks different. They look more corrupt than the harbingers of death in pure black, with glowing red eyes, pulsating veins spread across their body and equipment.
*HuuRROOOAARR*
The giants issue their warcry, filled with emotions of anger and pain, as if they were suffering. The Legion itself no longer uses tactics it usually did and instead attacks with maddening frenzy. They attack just literally anything that moves.
Seven fold barriers appeared in front of Ray when suddenly, multiple barrages of Ether Cannons appeared and smashed against the barriers, shattering each layer with every five shots. Rho Aias had been buffed up to the limit with the immense mana Ray supplied to it, but it has its limit of durability and with each layer shattered, one of his vital body parts will be injured as the price of the authority.
"Precognition huh." Zelretch mused as it didn't falter him at all with his attack failing.
Since none could really fight Ray on even ground and was forced to resist each of his abilities. Zelretch would be his opponent.
"Clairvoyant ability is a double edge sword. Did no one ever tell you?" Zelretch said as he didn't fire another Ether Cannon and instead opened multiple portals surrounding Ray.
Multiple Ether Cannon shoot out from the portals, shot by Zelretch from another dimension, thus their action cannot be seen through Precognition because it operates on the basis of peeking into the future but this attacks were made from time axis from another dimension entirely which limits the future vision Ray's Precognition can see.
"Time Alter - Quadruple Accel"
"You are still too green!" Zelretch taps into manipulation of time directly using Kaleidoscope unlike Ray who is still learning to grasp its functions. He creates entire mirror dimensions that cover both and deny Ray's Time Alter ability.
The Ether Cannons struck the barrier around the throne and cracked it open. Many more ensued and drowned Ray in an endless barrage of Ether Cannons added with dimension slicing attack to bypass his regeneration stemming from his Immortality of Soul.
*BOOOOM*
Cloud of dust kicked up by the partial collapse of the temple.
'King!'
'No worries, resume your task.'
Ray emerges from the dust cloud with his body marred with wounds that take significantly longer to heal due to it caused by dimensional attributed attack which overwrite the reality where the missing parts are considered normal and will not regenerate automatically. Basically like reducing Max HP instead of HP only.
"As expected, the only one I see as true obstacles in this world. You do not disappoint me, Zelretch." Ray's body begins to transform again, this time becoming more demonic as All the World's Evil basically uses the Black Mud to seal the wound the similar manner Emiya's injury is healed by blades stitching back his wound. The Crown of Wisdom previously still looked sacred with its untainted silver metal now turning dark and spread with red veins as the black hole at its center spilled out Black Mud which bathed Ray's body.
"He is turning himself into Evil God using Ahriman's Legend… the alternative Beast VII. Beast of the End which represents and holds all evils of humanity." Zelretch couldn't help but feel fascinated this is the first time he observed this from him observing countless timelines before. "This cannot be allowed to happen!" Zelretch loses his calm as if Ray becomes Ahriman, this will cement this scenario as another branch of possibility which can create a domino effect to another timeline. A scenario where Evil God Ahriman will be born successfully. The history that must never be allowed to exist.
"Now!" The Master of Chaldea suddenly entered the dimension with the help of Abigail.
"Samsara Mara!"
"Enuma Elish!"
"Qliphoth Rhizome!"
Kama, Enkidu and Abigail William deployed their noble phantasm in effort to restrain or at least slow Ray.
"Do it, Zelretch! We buy you time. Do everything you can to stop it!"
"No need to tell me twice, boy." Zelretch grinning with excitement surpassed the battle he had with Crimson Moon.
"Wait!" Alma also entered the dimension and stopped Zelretch. "Please don't kill him. Let me do it. Let me take the responsibility to correct my mistakes." Alma didn't explain more as they are pressed on time.
Generally there are three ways of fixing Inner Demon. First is to reconcile the mental issue which is the safest for the afflicted person. But, from his outburst earlier, his willpower simply isn't enough to regain control. Second is purification which weakens and banishes the Inner Demon from the mind but that is also equal to killing the Yin part of a person. Third is a rather orthodox method but it uses external help to reconcile the Inner Demon. Through… dual cultivation. It's the only way for her to inject her Qi without agitating or harming Ray.
(😏 OG Fate VN is original a H+ game though decanonized. Seggs save live - Sun Tzu from alternate Human History maybe.)
Kama on the side can feel her seggs sense tingling or maybe should be Kiara Sessyoin? Idk. My last brain cell left for vacation.
Alma willed her power and sprouted a giant tree that engulfed Ray and her inside its hollowed trunk.
'Focus Alma. You are doing this to save him. I'm just taking responsibility for my negligence to this child.' Alma told herself as she began the procedure with a heavy breath and flushed face.
"Forgive me for what I am about to do, Ray." Alma whispered as she got started.
(Pretty sure he wouldn't mind.)
—————
(Majority of my readers don't like +18 scene much anyway. So, I skip. Anyway, the purpose of this and last chapter is to demonstrate Ray max power without too much consequence to the plot I have in my mind.)
(Peace out✌️)