Where we left off...
When you awaken, you find it's grown considerably darker and you've been removed from your bed. The black sky of a clouded night, rather than any ceiling, is above you. You look around in surprise to find that you are, in fact, lying on the roof of the Koyama house. Medusa is standing beside you calling your name with a subdued smile on her lips.

"Ah, Medusa," you say, sitting up with a yawn. "Good evening. Care to explain why you've relocated me to this rooftop?"

"Night has fallen," Medusa answers, "the rain has stopped, and the barrier is ready. I thought you might rather be in the open air to see it work than be shut up in that dismal little home."

You look at Medusa again with some surprise. It's the first time, you think, that you've heard her openly disparage something to that extent, aside from her comments on your own black-hearted character before you made her yours. Has living with her sharp-tongued sisters had this effect on her, you wonder, or is she simply letting her tongue wag more freely because of the happy moment? Then, you think, it doesn't really matter. The ritual is the important thing now, and she's right about your wanting to see it function from a place where you can do so properly. "Well," you say, "I have my reservations about being moved in my sleep, but you did surmise correctly. Give me your arm."

With that, you work with your right arm to first prop yourself up into a sitting position on the roof, and then pull yourself up to stand using Medusa's shoulder. Leaning thus, with the girl as a makeshift crutch, is a bit of a humiliation, but as your eyes sweep over the nighttime view of the city from above that has been hidden from you these past days, it feels worth the concession not to be lying down.

"Master," Medusa begins, dropping the good cheer from her voice to address you in a tone of formal solemnity, "shall I activate my Noble Phantasm?"

"Yes." You nod as your look out over all the homes of the people who will soon go to heal you, noting with your eyes the periodic mystic circles of Medusa's ritual inscribed on chimneys, carved lightly into walls, or laid out in broken roof tiles, and in every place reinforced by the inlay of her own blood. She has been well at work, you see. "As soon as you're ready, Rider."

"Bloodfort Andromeda!" The cry rings out to pierce the night, echoing over the rooftops the moment you give your permission; and at the same moment the barrier becomes visible. A broad region of suburban Shibuya is cut off from the rest of the world by a vermilion dome that springs up from the earth like a fresh horizon and sky. Mystic energy crackles through the air and you feel, though it makes no impact on you, the oppressive power that suffuses the whole space and even now is reducing the sacrifices caught within from doomed men and women to the stuff of life itself. The air itself is stained with blood as a great red mist begins slowly to rise from the earth, first in nigh-imperceptible tendrils, and then more and more as a visible tinge on all the surroundings. Then, the power begins to flow into your magic circuits as if you drink it in through every pore. It begins, at last, to make you whole again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHIKoGq6n0s

For a while you simply luxuriate, bathing yourself in the sensation of such flawless healing. Muscles, once severed, knit themselves back together as interstitial tissue regenerates out of the vast supply of free and untrammeled mystic energy that flows within you; the thousand cuts that perforate your skin seal themselves up without a scar among the lot; the pierced and useless heart in your chest fills in its vicious tear and returns to perfect function; best of all, the vanished limbs that Matsuda cut away from you return. Crimson mist first coalesces in their place, coming together out of the blood-saturated air into the vague shapes of a hand and foot. Then it becomes fluid, a continuous mass of blood holding their shape as if poured into macabrely formed, perfectly transparent vases. At last the crimson disappears and the blood truly becomes the lost appendages, as perfectly identical to their former state as if they'd never sustained a blow. Now you can take leave of the support of Medusa's shoulder and, your heart soaring with the feeling of pure triumph, stand once more on your own two feet.

Carried along by the simple, overwhelming joy of the moment, the two heady drugs of healing and an energy surplus after so long spent barely sustained, you even turn some of that newfound energy to frivolity. You conjure in your hand a crystal goblet formed out of Nothingness and watch as it fills, responding to your will, with the blood that saturates world around you. When you quaff the draft, the flavor is the sweetest you've ever tasted. It is the savor of a restoration to power, and it seems to you there can be none better in the world.

Even with all the power that goes into healing your body spent, you find that you remain filled with a great surplus of it. So much, in fact, that it reminds you almost of those transcendent moments when you've taken the power of another Servant into yourself. Could you, you think, shape some of this excess in the same way, though it is neither drawn from a Servant nor channeled through the hereditary ritual of sacrifice at the core of the Shijou magic? Could you take this sacrifice of the worthless multitude and shape it into one of the relics no longer able to be used by the foes you've struck down? You speculate with heady anticipation on the possibilities of such a thing, and what a success might entail.

>[ ] Attempt to replicate one of the Noble Phantasms of a Servant you've defeated with the excess mystic energy. (Which?)

>[ ] Rather than attempting to recreate one of the other Noble Phantasms, try channeling the energy into strengthening a piece of your own equipment. (Choose between your sword, cloak, armor, or helmet.)

>[ ] Think better of the effort, and save the energy within you to act as fuel over the coming days. You still don't have a continuous supply, after all.

>[ ] Do something else? (Write in)

Would you look at that. I was unable to be online last night, and during that interval the thread was knocked off the board at the worst possible time: while we were tied between those who wanted an NP upgrade and those who wanted to conserve energy. Since this is a pretty major choice, I thought it'd be a pretty unkind thing to do just to pick one and right the update, so I've reposted the tail-end of the last update from the last thread for you folks to resume the discussion and settle the question of what to do with this magical energy.

>>4334952
>[X] Think better of the effort, and save the energy within you to act as fuel over the coming days. You still don't have a continuous supply, after all.

Don't we need independent action as a skill to hold onto magical energy?

>>4334969
In case it wasn't clear from earlier updates, you do still have a connection to Ayaka, and are receiving just enough energy from her to keep you in the world, but not enough to provide for any surplus actions like magic or healing.

>>4334952
>[ ] Think better of the effort, and save the energy within you to act as fuel over the coming days. You still don't have a continuous supply, after all.
I wanted armor before but on second thought new skills are useless if we don't have the energy to use them. We'll use the excess energy to kill a servant and find Ayaka. Can we send some energy backwards to Ayaka, just enough for her to regain consciousness and then contact her telepathically to see where she is?

>>4334952
Get the fucking armour.
Truly, "do nothing"fags are a scourge.

By the way, if you do empower your armor, I'm thinking about a redesign. White, steel, gold, or black theming; which appeals to you folks most?

What would Alberich's mystic eyes do if we copied them from Rider?

>>4335081
Black would go with our recent full-on embrace of villainy. A dark steel would be cool.

>>4334952
>[ ] Rather than attempting to recreate one of the other Noble Phantasms, try channeling the energy into strengthening a piece of your own equipment. (Armor)
Give up the Mystery Box and all its yummy contents

>>4334952
Finally caught up and in time for an upgrade vote?
Lucky me.
>Apply Achilles' immortality to the armour

>>4335081
Let's go for that gold look.
Infringe Gilgamesh's IP.

>>4334952
>armor,
I dont care if Aramantos or new NP, (prefer Aramantos though) I got an idea or the mana situation.

Shirou should be arriving, we lost against him because of weak armor not due to lack of energy, beat him KO him, attempt absorption on him, bit of a long shot but if it actually works we'd have a temporary substitute for Ayaka.

>>4335325
As I said, a long shot but if it works according to my understanding; we know it works on non-servants thanks to the sisters; its not a standard contract so if it works we get control over the flow of energy while he shouldn't get command seals like how noone got seals with Saber/Medusa; when making the link we imprint an order; put in that can't act to harm us, no rule breaker; if tries to off himself or have Rin do it, threaten to go after the family if anything happens to him (or just cut off his limbs and toss him in a broom closet in one of the now abandoned buildings)

>>4335325
We lost to Shirou because we parried Caladbold instead of Kenotising it.
With an excess of magical energy we'd recover from the damage such a mistake would inflict on our body.

>>4335557
>We lost to Shirou because we parried Caladbold instead of Kenotising it.

We lost because the parry caused an explosion on top of us, how exactly is spending time and energy on recovering damage a better alternative than preventing said damage in the first place doubly so since we can still get knocked out from too much damage at once, as was the case in the last fight against him?

>>4335566
We recovered from the damage using Lily's energy.
Even if we upgrade our armor, it still doesn't completely cover our body, and we can fight while on the verge of death now that we have battle continuation.

>>4335570
>it still doesn't completely cover our body
still doesnt address the question how is taking less damage inferior to skipping an upgrade to have more energy to recover from said damage when we can still get knocked out from taking too much damage? If I recall right we did have a rank of battle continuation when we fought him before, esp since battle continuation has appeared to keep us alive not conscious.

>>4335579
Just as a point of clarification, if you'd had the rank of Battle Continuation you presently have when you fought Shirou, you'd have stayed conscious through being hit by Caladbolg.
Recovering from that kind of wound does take a lot of energy, though, you're right about that.

>>4335570
>our armor doesn't cover our entire body
I don't think conceptual defences work that way and if they do then we can just apply the immortality to the undersuit we seem to wear.
Godhand is represented by Heracles' skin which doesn't cover his eyes and those don't get treated as weaknesses.
After all we know that Archer should have the skill to hit even miniscule targets like that.
Effortlessly, with Hrunting.
Yet he never once does.
We saw in this quest what happens when you try to cheat your way around a conceptual defense when Achilles regenerated from damage he never should have taken in the first place.

In a way, powers in the Nasuverse work on the basis of who has the biggest capacity to just say "oh yeah?" To an enemy.
>My Servant can't be cut!
>Oh yeah? My sword cuts through space instead!
>Oh yeah? My servant can regenerate!
If Heilig was imbued with the ability to cause cursed unhealing wounds or had Harpe-like immortal slaying qualities, then the battle would've been over then and there, I imagine.
No ability is truly absolute. Not even True Magic.

>>4335081
>>4335270
Now that I think about it...
Black AND gold armour would be quite appealing to my sense of aesthetics.

>>4335584
Thanks for the clarification, however assuming we do end up in a repeat situation would we still be in any condition to continue to fight at full capacity while we grow back our limbs?
My main problem with it, aside from skipping an upgrade, is to me it sounds like they think we'd be getting infinite energy and not just extra, they talk like were getting days more of energy, the energy to burn on whatever spells we like, and the energy to repeatedly grow our limbs back over the course of that time.
The point i'm trying to get across is I don't find it to be an acceptable trade off to skip an upgrade that would permanently reduce the amount of damage we take but only having a couple hours to fight without needing to feed on people vs having more mana, but we end up burning through so much of it recovering from the damage we could have avoided while also toying around with experimental magic that we end up effectively having the same amount of time anyway.

>>4335588
God Hand effects the body, not just the skin.

And the immortality you'd be using on the armor is Achilles "has an exploitable weakpoint" style immortality.
So not only does our armor not cover our body completely, it probably won't even be completely covered even if we upgraded it.
In our current situation it's an expense of energy we really don't need.

>>4335619
This is the energy of an entire neighborhood, and it's enough to allow Alberich to develop or copy a NP.

The vote itself says to keep it as fuel for the coming days.
It's obviously enough to do quite alot with it.

>>4335625
>"has an exploitable weakpoint" style immortality.
Haven't you been paying attention? The "exploitable weakpoint" was hardly exploitable. It was a very complex method that required poison to take effect and not something that the vast majority of servants would've been able to have a hope at dealing with. Honestly a little too puzzle like for my tastes and maybe too strong for the rank of NP, but you've got stuff that completely breaks the War like Rule Breaker at lower rank.
And no, God Hand is quite specifically the skin. Alcides in Strange Fake when he loses God Hand loses his skin as does Heracles Alter in Heaven's Feel. It affects the entire body because that's how conceptual defenses work, but it is manifested as his skin.
Hell, Gilgamesh doesn't even wear a helmet and the conceptual defense of his armor lets him tank an Excalibur boosted by command spells at a distance at the end of Zero.

>The vote itself says to keep it as fuel for the coming days.
But why would we do that when we could use the straight up power boost in order to find Ayaka or Lily? We ought to be taking action as soon as possible, not bunkering down. A vaccine is superior to a cure, after all. Why keep the energy to waste upon potentially healing ourselves in a fight when we could avoid taking that wound in the first place?

>>4335625
>the immortality you'd be using on the armor is Achilles "has an exploitable weakpoint" style immortality.
I also remember people getting assmad that attempting to bypass the defenses with HFS caused him to regenerate because "none without divinity may harm him" and when at one point Sweets mentioned something about how we had to use poison or divinity because just hitting the heel doesn't disable the regeneration or insta-kill him.

>>4335637
>We ought to be taking action as soon as possible, not bunkering down.
This, if we're really concerned about mana capture a mage and attempt to use absorption on them to turn them into a battery, even if it doesn't work eating them should at least give us more mana than a mundane.

>>4335637
It having a weakness at all is the problem.
With our enemies always immediately figuring out how to deal with anything we throw at them, they'll find something that will render the upgrade pointless.

To my recollection Heracles never loses God Hand at any point.
We do see him when his skin isn't covered by it because he's regenerating, but God Hand itself covers his entire body and not just everywhere but his eyes.

We have enough strength as it is to kill anybody left in the war, so long as we have sufficient magical energy.
There's no need to use up our magical energy on this upgrade when we're already fine.

>>4335658
We don't know where either of them are, we have no idea how long looking for them will take, and we have several enemies that can track us down.
If we take the upgrade we don't know how much energy we'll have left, and attempting to recreate a Noble Phantasm bestowed by a god on our armor will at least take almost if not all of the energy we just gathered, enough that we'll have to immediately track down something to sustain ourself with, and we'll end up in the previous situation where we're waiting for BFA to go off again, but this time everyone will be immediately going after us so we'll have to fight low on mana.
Rider shows what happens when you sustain yourself on a few random people instead of having a good source of mana, she was far weaker than she normally was.
We don't know where any mage family to feed on are either, so that won't work.

Finally, it's not like the magical energy suddenly won't be able to be used to materialize an upgrade for us just because we don't immediately take the option when it shows up.

>>4335699
>We don't know where either of them are,
We know Shirou should be coming for us over BFA.
> we have no idea how long looking for them will take,
Unless Adelheid got offscreened we have her tailing them
>we have several enemies that can track us down.
We have Circe and Harris that can track us and Harris needs to take a breather if uses too often, the church has to search manually and Adelheid proved that the only reason Shirou found out where we were was because Medusa got careless when trying to keep us alive, none of which are a serious threat to 4 servants unless they all attack together, something that takes time to arrange during which we should be focused on eliminating those we know where they should be (Shirou or the church) and thing about BFA, unless Shirou went and told everyone which should've prompted Adelheid returning to warn us, the built in bounded field would've prevented them from knowing it happened until a patrol passes through the area after it has dropped delaying the response time.
>We don't know where any mage family to feed on are either, so that won't work.
We know where Shirou lives and even if they moved, it ignores that we should have multiple human-battery candidates coming for us very soon.
To get this straight: we cant try to capture a mage because we don't know where they are or how long it will take to look, but we need the energy now because those same mages are going to be coming for us immediately and as such we cant feed on anyone; we can't assume we won't end up using all the mana we gained on the upgrade or when we use our new ability during the fight, but also can't assume we won't get the chance to take it later after we'll end up spending alot of it recovering from the injuries we could've easily avoided had we taken it? I'm sorry, I hate sounding like an asshole on this, but your argument really comes across like it's all over the place to me.

>>4334952
>[X] Rather than attempting to recreate one of the other Noble Phantasms, try channeling the energy into strengthening a piece of your own equipment. (Helmet.)
Am I the only one with a burning curiosity about what the helmet NP would do?
Also, if we kill Shirou and feed off Sakura that should pretty much finish our energy problem permanently.

>>4335832
When I was talking about the two, I was referring to Ayaka or Lily, not Emiya or Adelheid.
We do know where the Emiya house is, but everyone there will be an active combatant, not people we can feed on.
Yeah, I don't know how much mana it will take to catalyze a new NP, but the natural assumption will be quite a bit, especially considering the one that would be the model is one that was bestowed by a goddess and granted immortality so there's no way it's cheap.
And we're a good fighter who can avoid most injury, the only times we got injured seriously were when we were either low on mana or lacked knowledge on our enemies, and we're at a point in the war that we know what the remaining parties are capable of, and can plan our fights around our knowledge.

The armor upgrade won't even help against Odin, and everyone else is easy for us to take down with our current companions and equipment, but we do lack a stable source of mana.

>>4335878
We should get the chance to upgrade several items at once if we get the chance to do that, but she is a strong Magus who won't go down without a fight, and we don't have a way to gather her energy upon her death, so it's most likely that she'll just die unless we find Ayaka first.

Keep the energy from Bloodfort Andromeda as fuel for your coming battles
>>4334963
>>4334989

Replicate Andreias Amarantos and combine it with your armor.
>>4335019
>>4335270
>>4335325

Create a new Noble Phantasm out of your armor.
>>4335261

Make your helmet into a new Noble Phantasm.
>>4335878

Have I missed anyone? If not, and if no votes change, I think I'll call this in an hour. Those of you still discussing, you've got 'til then to make your cases and sway folks.

>>4335889
>We do know where the Emiya house is, but everyone there will be an active combatant, not people we can feed on.
And how many of those aside from Shirou and a bloodlusted Sakura are a credible threat to 4 servants without extensive setup? What I was talking about all night is if we attempt to incapacitate a mage and try using absorption on to make into backup battery, not like Ayaka has already been running into issues with the mana burden to begin with.
>The armor upgrade won't even help against Odin
Because its linked to our divinity? Sweets confirmed yesterday that won't be the case so we don't know if the "can only be harmed by a greater divinity" aspect still holds or if it changes to whatever the new factor might be.

Ayyy we back at it again.

update tonight?

>>4336140
I'm working on it now, so hopefully there will be one.

Mulling over what to do with the surplus of energy now at your disposal, it occurs to you that you don't feel exactly dressed. Indeed, looking down at yourself you can observe that you're clad pitifully, wearing only slacks and a shirt open at the front to reveal the tightly wrapped, no-longer useful bandages that cover your chest. In that case what better use of this energy could there be, you wonder, than to remedy this pathetic situation? In fact, you quickly decide that you'll not only rematerialize your armor, but will create a whole new set to commemorate the occasion. One not only better looking, but far more powerful as well.

There is, after all, a Noble Phantasm at your fingertips which could serve as the ideal material for armor or a shield. Having already taken one aspect of his person from him, you find that the structures of Berserker's skills and Noble Phantasm are particularly sharp in your mind. Although the energy required will be great you're perfectly confident in your ability to shape a replica of that Noble Phantasm which gave him his monstrous endurance within yourself, and then to reforge your own presently ethereal armor out of that Noble Phantasm while both still remain within the confines of your magic circuits. This, in fact, is precisely what you intend to do. Although the view of the city trapped within its new crimson walls and every instant supplying you with more magical energy is a highly pleasant one, you regretfully shut your eyes to it and turn your focus inward, first seeing in greater clarity the energy within you and then visualizing the composition of energy which you must create if you are to have Andreias Amarantos for yourself.

Unfortunately such creation proves more difficult than expected. Much as when you attempted to replicate the affections his goddess mother bore him, you find that there is something about the Noble Phantasm which simply doesn't agree with your own situation. The half-formed energy of it is constantly slipping through your fingers, so to speak, and that which is constructed is of mystic energy of one or another of your own elements. At length, however, you do succeed in this struggle to recreate Andreias Amarantos and manage to wholly construct an interior magic sigil which almost precisely that you recall from Berserker's sacrifice. This you weave skillfully into your armor before opening your eyes once more to gaze out on the world as you are encased in a new and newly beautiful suit of armor. One certain never to give way in the face of an attack, however potent.

Status Updated

As your new Noble Phantasm forms, it seems to you that you can throw your mind's eye outside of yourself, to observe your own body from a separate perspective as your new armor takes shape. Of course this is really no more than a visualization of the shape with which you are instantly familiar, having created it, but it is a useful mode of thought. Your new suit of armor is a large, ornate suit of black steel plate, decorated in many places with intricate patterns of inlaid gold and cut rubies, including a coat of arms emblazoned on the chest which you can't remember having ever seen in the past. Even your cloak has grown a sumptuous sable trim about the shoulders, a luxury for which you would surely be grateful at this time of year if you were a mere human. In addition to these changes in color and decoration, the general shape of the armor itself has become far less jagged than previously, and perhaps better designed for deflecting blows as a result. Only the helmet remains the same as ever, although its ornate white and gold lion-head design looks strangely well-suited to your new armor in spite of the opposite coloration.

As you're pondering on this and other worthy details of your new appearance, you suddenly realize that you can see a person running up the street toward the Koyama Residence. It is, in fact, Emiya Shirou in the company of Tohsaka Rin and even his wife, Sakura. Medusa seems to notice them at the same time, for she immediately tenses as if to spring on them; with a raided hand, you restrain her and wait for Shirou to arrive outside the house on which you're standing. To look down on him so blatantly, you think with a chuckle, ought to do well in repaying him for the humiliation of being the weaker party when he visited you this morning.

Finally Emiya does arrive, and when he looks up at you his face carries painted across its features all the misery, frustration, and righteous indignation you'd expected to see there. Whatever Emiya's talents may be, you doubt they're in unpredictability. He is the first to speak, however, angrily demanding, "Why did you do it, Alberich? Didn't I tell you I'd be back to night with a way to keep you alive?"

"Bloodfort Andromeda[/b] was ready," you answer with nonchalant frankness, smiling broadly down at your angry guest, and continue with a sardonic manner, "When it was, you were not here. I never promised to wait as long as it took you to find this hypothetical solution of yours."

"So it was all for impatience? That was the only reason?" Emiya's expression of loathing for you only deepens, but it seems he hasn't yet tired of peace, for he once more attempts to make conversation by demands. "Just how many people has this barrier already absorbed? How many have you murdered to heal from those wounds?"

"Now, now, Emiya-san," you answer with a smirk, "that really is an unkind question for you to ask me. Suppose I were to ask you how many grains of rice were in your bowl this morning. How would you attempt to answer such a question?"

"You monster," Emiya breathes, momentarily taken back. "I guess I really was wrong about you, and everyone else had the right idea. You must've-"

>[ ] You abruptly decide you've had enough of Emiya's blathering. Put an end to his emotional outpouring by means of your sword.

>[ ] For the moment, just wait. Emiya will have to make the first move eventually.

>[ ] Say something to Emiya or his companions. (What?)

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

File: New Armor Prog.jpg (349 KB, 1920x1280)

349 KB JPG

Here's some concept art for your new Noble Phantasm, by the way. Obviously there are some significant differences, such as his ridiculously wide sword or the lack of rubies in the inlay, but the armor itself is essentially just what I was describing.

>>4336271
>[ ] Say something to Emiya or his companions. (Tell them all to fuck off. Give them one last chance to take what of their family they have left and leave this place. We may be a "monster", but in the end, we aren't without compassion. He most likely won't go for it, but he deserves the chance to learn his place and escape with his life for at least trying to help. And this also opens up the possibility of killing him with Lily if he ever dares to show his face again.)

>>4336271
Oh man, Emiya showing up already?
That's just kinda upsetting.

>>4336355
Yeah I'll support this, but with the addition that if we do end up fighting, to only go for non-lethal strikes. We can capture them and assign an actual loyal guard to watch them, or not store them in a place with windows.
I like Shirou too much to want to just kill him off like this. Call it personal bias. Sakura too. As well as Rin, I guess.
That Jojo reference though... I don't know if there was much of a point in doing that, Sweets. It really does feel like we were warped into Carnival Phantasm at the end there, and we were doing a bit with Shirou.

Also Medusa is right there and could paralyze sword boy and Rin basically immediately even at a distance, allowing her to easily capture them.

>>4336273
Armor is cool though.

>>4336271
>[X] For the moment, just wait. Emiya will have to make the first move eventually.

Also good lord, it feels like our armor is actually foreshadowing us killing Shirou and immediately getting to see Dark Sakura 2.0 and dying horribly.

>>4336368
>Alberich.
>Pulling his punches.
Looks like someone wants a repeat of the Matsuda fight!
No, if he doesn't fuck off he needs to fucking die or we're gonna job again. Also, the idea that Alberich wouldn't slaughter someone that he offered mercy seems too OOC at this point.
I do agree that the rice comment was a bit much, but Alberich does have a flare for the dramatic, so I can't hate.

>>4336383
>pulling his punches
>repeat of the Matsuda fight
As far as I can tell that wasn't caused by us pulling our punches and we are in a much better position now. The only person here who can really present a threat is Sakura, and Rider should be able to paralyze and chain Rin and Shirou without much effort.
Then we can just ask Sakura to back down for their sake. Maybe offering one last chance to let them all go free with their family. Maybe even mention that we'll stop the Einzbern's pursuit of them or something.
Or they can all die right there and leave the children orphaned.
Shirou did arrive to attempt to help us, after all, and acting like a dick regardless of what he actually came here to do is a little much for my taste. We already did the dick move and activated Blood Fort out of impatience. Which probably should have been a vote, mind you.

>>4336389
>We already did the dick move and activated Blood Fort out of impatience. Which probably should have been a vote, mind you.
You aren't wrong, but come on. Have you seen Alberich's Pride score? It would be weird for Alberich not to use blood fort for petty bullshit reasons. And after getting that sick upgrade and don't really have to heart to complain.
Regardless, I guess we'll see what happens.
For all we know, murderhobos will sweep in and make whatever small disagreement we have pointless anyway.

>>4336271
>>4336368
Supporting.
Less because I care about Shirou and more because finding a way to break his will would be a far greater triumph than just plain killing him even if it's riskier.

>>4336271
>[ ] You abruptly decide you've had enough of Emiya's blathering. Put an end to his emotional outpouring by means of your sword.

>>4336271
>[X] You abruptly decide you've had enough of Emiya's blathering. Put an end to his emotional outpouring by means of your sword.
Maybe also say something like this: There was no other way and you should know that. Waiting would have ended exactly like this anyway and I learned my lession about giving time to my enemies with Harrison.

People choose the shiny which leaves us ill prepared for any prolonged fight. And like predicted Emiya appeared due to BFA.

Let's at least not drag this out anymore than necessary by trying to take prisoners, which would need us to burn additional mana for our sword.
We need to end this fast and replenish our mana, which at least we could try to do with our enemies or we need to avoid this confrontation alltogether.

>>4336513
We have Medusa right here with us though?
Subduing the Emiyas isn't exactly going to be difficult for us.

>>4336271
>[ ] You abruptly decide you've had enough of Emiya's blathering. Put an end to his emotional outpouring by means of your sword.
It's time. Get over your personal bias about these characters. We don't have the time or the means to hold them prisoner. They won't leave when they're so worried about the Grail. Shirou has been nice, sure. But we've played him for a fool each time he's been nice. He won't be so forgiving anymore.

>>4336523
And that's why we already killed him the last time. Or did he knock us unconscious?

Also the same thing could be said about Harris. Heck, they literally just need to survive long enough for us to run out of mana and they know it. I'm pretty sure Medusa runs on our mana, so if she fights that's only increasing the drain on us.

Do we even have enough servant proof rope to tie them up if we win?

>>4336271
>>4336355
support

>giving shirou the chance to activate UBW
guys please no. just attack

>>4336578
Don't be ridiculous.
UBW takes like a ten-count to set up.
He'll die or get KO'd before he finishes the incantation.

>>4336578
You can say what you will, but they have the arrogance and pride down pat. Dismissing enemies as threats, etc.

Just with the self-preservation do we have a problem.

>>4336578
>>4336580
isn't Sakura, the one less likely to fight, the only person here that can easily bypass our new armor as well? I doubt Rin's going to have those A-rank Jewels in huge supply and be fast enough to hit a Servant with them

>>4336583
You want to depend on Sakura not fighting when we fight Shirou?

Also Rin doesn't need to use the A-Rank jewels. She just needs to mix them up with normal ones. Unless we want to gamble with which ones are which we would need to defend from all of them and we can't just activate Kenotis all the time since we don't have the mana.

>>4336583
>A rank Jewels
Worthless.
We have Magic Resistance: A still.
Only way they can hurt us is Broken Phantasms and Sakura fighting us.
Even UBW wouldn't be able to harm us now.
We're invincible.
Live a little.
>>4336368
Supporting

This shit is so infuriating. Take them seriously as threats and just deals with them in the least energy intensive way. Play it smart, without all the unnecessary bullshit that doesn't even make sense. Non-lethal? Are you kidding me? How would we hold them prisoner? Why would we? Every time we get the chance to make progress you guys do this and then complain about when it goes poorly and draws things out too long.

>>4336271
>>4336355
I'll support, was working on something similar over the night but writing dialogue isn't my forte and could never get to sound quite right, main difference I had was something along lines of:
"When last we met you told me you had nothing, how long did you expect me to sit idly by waiting on some vain hope when the people I do care about are out there being hunted down like dogs?"

>>4336593
>how would we hold them prisoner?
I wonder if we could one of our literally tireless servants to maybe watch over them...
And we can see about doing whatever Kirei does to Rin in UBW to stop her from busting out of her bindings.
As for energy intensive?
Shirou just went out of his way to bring us a way to recover our energy.

>>4336596
But why go through all that effort when we're in absolutely dire survival mode? Your priorities are fucked. We have countless other things to focus on.

>>4336593
>How would we hold them prisoner?
Ribbons, attempt absorption geas, amputations
>Why would we?
Batteries, food rations

>>4336597
>dire survival mode
We aren't anymore.
And because magical energy on tap is better than a 2 day wait for recovery.

>>4336602
>Ribbons, attempt absorption geas
I thought you said something about not using up that much mana just last thread?

First would take mana to keep up. The second took a lot of time the last time we did it with Medusa and the last...
Are we an experienced medic? Because doing massive amputations like that without equipment or experience is just killing them in a creative way.

>>4336603
Then kill everyone besides Sakura. Shirou is just a drain in any way then.

>>4336602
We need to find Ayaka and Lily to permanently solve the energy problem. I care more about them than Shirou and the others because I'm actually capable of voting without my judgement being completely clouded by pro-Shirou bias.

>>4336271
>[X] You abruptly decide you've had enough of Emiya's blathering. Put an end to his emotional outpouring by means of your sword.
Time to settle with this asshole.

>1 post by this ID
Who are you fooling, Shirouhater?

>>4336617
Don't you feel hypocritical? Seeing as you only have exactly one post by your id?

>>4336619
Difference is I haven't voted, you dumb asshole.

>>4336617
My ID changes daily because of my IP. I was >>4335878 earlier.

>>4336606
>First would take mana to keep up. The second took a lot of time the last time we did it with Medusa and the last...
If it takes longer than a few seconds to hold a restrain and do what we need to do with A agility we have problems esp since only one of them can actually hurt us without killing the one we're going for, the second took alot of time because we targeted someone with a mental world that restricted us by their time's standards as a hero, the only one that might do the same to us is Shirou and we got problems if we go for the one with the least mana
>>4336610
>pro-Shirou bias
If it's possible to forge a link with absorption and it works similar to everyone else we did it to we get control over the mana flow and can feed off them, as stated when debated feeding off Saber, while also imprinting a order in them to not harm us in any way, I couldn't care less about keeping them alive after we find Lily/Ayaka and they can get sacrificed for all I care.

>>4336620
A yes, because of course that makes a difference.
Couldn't be that people just vote and don't take part in discussion, like they really often do.
Or id's change. Better to insult on assumptions.

>>4336623
Have you considered that everyone else we've used absorption on is a spirit? I think that makes them way more susceptible to control magic then flesh and blood people are. Especially mages.

>>4336626
I have, but at the same time geas' are a thing and so are the master/servant link, theoretically It should be possible but if it doesn't work we can bleed them dry for extra mana for all I care, leaving them alive without at least one as a bound "hostage" would just make them a constant problem anyway.

>>4336269
Gah, another formatting error! I hate the way these things happen.
>>4336368
>It really does feel like we were warped into Carnival Phantasm at the end there, and we were doing a bit with Shirou.
Oh no, I'm sorry you feel that way. You folks have always gotten such a kick out of Alberich inserting such references, I figured you'd enjoy it here.

>>4336389
>We already did the dick move and activated Blood Fort out of impatience. Which probably should have been a vote, mind you
I think I mentioned this in the last thread, but there were two places in that update where I would probably have broken off for a vote if I hadn't already been delaying so much. The first would've been about whether to send Futodoki back and what to say to him and the second would've been about whether or not to activate Bloodfort Andromeda when you did. After thinking about it, though, I decided that under the circumstances you folks would appreciate more progress more than you would the chance to branch the story more, so I had Alberich decide for himself.

>>4336662
Works for me.

>>4336654
>>4336662
>You folks have always gotten such a kick out of Alberich inserting such references, I figured you'd enjoy it here.
That's fair.
We did love our Dio memes back in the day, and I can't say it's not in character, but still, time and place.

>I decided that under the circumstances you folks would appreciate more progress more than you would the chance to branch the story more, so I had Alberich decide for himself.
Ah, there you go again. Doing shit with the best intentions that would obviously lead to a shitstorm under proper scrutiny. It seems like every time you let Alberich "decide for himself" something like this happens, but I guess that comes with having a MC with such a bold personality.
As you can see, however, there is a sizable contingency of folks that didn't quite intend to reap a bloody ruin upon Emiya just yet, for whatever their reasons and having Alberich playing the role of the complete psychopath doesn't help matters.
I can't really blame you for wanting to speed things up, or even writing him how you did, but this is a pretty big moment in Alberich's character. Please be careful next time.
I have no delusions in my head that Emiya would have to die eventually, but it's the details that make things worth reading.

>>4336654
I think there isn't a problem with Alberich making the reference, because that's something of a character quirk of his, but the fact that he needed the set-up from Shirou to actually make it. Making it feel just a little bit too meme-y for the tone of the scene. Do you get what I mean?

>>4336662
I suppose that's fair enough, but still. If a decision the main character makes will have a major impact on the story depending on how the decision turns out, it probably ought to be left down to the players. At least that's my logic, generally.

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>>4336668
I don't plan on making a habit of passing you folks over for significant choices, if that's what you're getting at. This one was something of a foregone conclusion, though, so I felt the benefits of one continuous update would outweigh the drawbacks.

>>4336681
>Do you get what I mean?
I do. It could've been done better, for sure; all I can say is that it was very late at night when I was writing that update, and I fell asleep immediately after getting it done.
>At least that's my logic, generally.
And mine. Generally.

By the way, here's an alternative design for your new armor that I was thinking of going with if you'd asked for an all black style. I think it might be a bit too chuuni to take seriously, though.

>>4336687
>it was very late at night when I was writing that update, and I fell asleep immediately after getting it done.
Oh yeah I know that feeling.
Ah well, it's not like it's particularly egregious.

>And mine. Generally.
I know the feeling, sometimes you'll just end up having votes where you'll need the players to make lots of important choices in quick succession. Which can make actually writing updates a bit of a pain.
Still, Bloodfort probably would've won out anyway. So it's not really that big of a deal for you to make the choice.

>a bit too chuuni
Way too chuuni for my taste, honestly.
That looks like an effeminate anime Sauron.

>>4336271
>[ ] You abruptly decide you've had enough of Emiya's blathering. Put an end to his emotional outpouring by means of your sword by making a beeline to Sakura at hypersonic speed and vertically bisecting her as the opening attack.
I'm truly sorry best FSN heroine. Nothing personnel :'(

Offer Emiya the chance to take his family and leave. Attempt to capture rather than kill if it comes to a fight.
>>4336355
>>4336368
>>4336569
>>4336594

Wait for Emiya to attack you.
>>4336369

Attack Emiya before he continues his harangue.
>>4336444
>>4336513
>>4336526
>>4336612

Jump down and attack Sakura.
>>4336893

This is just a tally for now; I plan to call the vote in another 7 hours, at 9:00pm, so you have the afternoon to continue your debate and settle this tie one way or the other.

>>4336893
Come on man, vote to attack shirou. Otherwise we'll be stuck trying to capture them which is straight up retarded

>>4336949
Fine, but I'm going on record saying Sakura would have been a better target to try to speedblitz.
>>4336271
Add >>4336893 to the
>Attack Emiya before he continues his harangue
pile

>>4336947
Did you miss some votes?
>>4336404
>>4336586

>>4336954
Apparently I did, yes. Here's the new tally, then:

Offer Emiya the chance to take his family and leave. Attempt to capture rather than kill if it comes to a fight.
>>4336355
>>4336368
>>4336569
>>4336594
>>4336404
>>4336586


Wait for Emiya to attack you.
>>4336369

Attack Emiya before he continues his harangue.
>>4336444
>>4336513
>>4336526
>>4336612
>>4336952

I just want to see one legitimate reason and plan for taking them prisoner.

>>4336988
You've been given them though?

I'd just like to see one legitimate reason not to take them prisoner.

>>4336993
We're in a time crunch to find Ayaka and Lily, we have no way to securely contain them, we gain no benefit from keeping them prisoner, fighting to incapacitate requires more energy than fighting to kill, etc. I can keep going if you like.

Putting aside taking them prisoner, I am curious to know what your plan is for the best way to keep them prisoner. I don't want to sway the argument one way or the other, mind, but I would like to know what your plans are in that regard. Rope isn't likely to be very effective for holding Shirou, after all, and you don't have your sister with you.

>>4337004
>we're in a time crunch.
Then why not force Rin to use her familiars to help us search?
In fact? Why fight at all? We ought to run away if time is that crucial.
>no way to securely contain them.
Saber doesn't need sleep and with the proper orders can be an excellent warden. Rider can also keep watch.
>no benefit
Magical energy? Rin and Sakura are both excellent for recovery.
>fighting to incap takes more effort
We have Medusa.
The only one who could resist Cybele is Sakura and she would surrender for Shirou and Rin's life.

No valid reasons.

>>4337013
>Saber doesn't need sleep and with the proper orders can be an excellent warden. Rider can also keep watch.
Still no secure place to contain them. We have to remain mobile while we search for our allies. And don't forget that Riders eyes got nerfed hard when she was lolified.

>>4337007
>Rope isn't likely to be very effective for holding Shirou
Clearly we ought to get him a blindfold then.
Jokes aside, we can just play mind games with them.
Keep them in three separate rooms fairly long distances away from each other, tell them that any attempt to escape will automatically trigger a mundane explosive that will incinerate the contents of the other two cells.
In addition, how about we give Shirou and Sakura one of their kids each to stay in their cell with them.

>>4337013
>Then why not force Rin to use her familiars to help us search?
How?
>In fact? Why fight at all? We ought to run away if time is that crucial.
They're a threat to the Grail that's been ignored for too long.

>>4337016
>Nerfed hard
Not so hard that paralysing Rin and Shirou wouldn't be easy for her anyway.

>>4337019
How?
Threats.
If threatening her directly doesn't work.
Threaten Sakura or one of the kids.

>>4337024
I just think that whenever we do all this extraneous shit it blows up in our faces every time. Killing them is simpler and less risky, and doesn't sidetrack us from our main goal. It's not surprising since this happens constantly but I was hoping we'd learn a lesson eventually.

>>4337029
Saber didn't.
Rider it's iffy but we got what we wanted and only got blown up because our allies were having an off-day and we "accidentally" made the best magus on the planet (except Odin) hate us through carelessness.

>>4337040
Whatever man. I just know we're in the endgame now and it's not the time to lose focus on our goals. Nothing I can say will convince anyone so I'll shut up now. There's still no plan on how to keep them prisoner that makes sense. Guess I'll just watch shit go terribly and wait months for legitimate plot progress like always.

This is taking the "keep your friends close and enemies closer" adage way too literally. Our name is irrevocably mud with them now, and wasting our still-limited resources on capturing and guarding them is inconceivable. Maybe we could have managed if the manor hadn't been blown up but in the current circumstances it's just silly.
Not to mention the high probability of Assassin popping in to make us fumble our already half-assed attacks so I'm not convinced we're even going to capture them to begin with.
I'm going to have to headcanon Alberich unconsciously wanting to grind more XP and ability-boosts because he's been leaving his enemies around so they can perpetuate the conflict rather than just defeating them permanently.

>>4337122
Nobody cares. It's just "muh shirou" with these people. Alberich doesn't care nearly as much about shirou as the apparent majority of players do. Sweets should've never included them in the quest.

That's what Sweets did better in Akeldama, using less canon characters. Once we entered the real world players started voting based on their own out-of-quest Fate preferences which led to all of the worst segments of Awakening Mirror.

>>4336956
I don't know If I'm late, but I support >>4336355. Shirou's a good boy.

>>4337161
>Shirou's a good boy.
Case in point.

>>4337171
He is. He's such a lovable autist. We have to protect his dream.

Setup:
>>4337122
>>4337141
>>4337143

Punchline:
>>4337161

I get a real kick out of running this quest, folks, thanks.

>>4337185
The jokes on the apparently few players who actually care about Alberich's story.

>>4337185
We're getting to the point where I wouldn't be surprised if the players allowed Alberich to die to keep Shirou alive. Very frustrating.

>>4337191
I care, you know. When it comes to either laughter or frustration, though, I think it's better to laugh.

>>4337205
What irritates me is the one-two punch of Sweets being pressured into rushing to the Bloodfort instead of leaving a chance to hear Shirou's alternative (I was the anon who made the write-in when we were talking with him so I at least wanted to hear it out) and now against all roleplaying common-sense Alberich is going to have to come up with a justification for fighting non-lethally AGAIN when we've burned the diplomatic bridges and the enemy has 100% motivation to go all-out.
If Shirou gave us a reasonable chance to recover even if it wasn't as effective as the Bloodfort that could have been a character-development opportunity where the Shiroufags could have made a plausible in-character case to cooperate with him, sacrificing personal power for a diplomatic arrangement that had potential if played properly. But now we're stuck with this insanity!

>>4337234
I'm sure Alberich would've decided what to do again if it were OOC to do anything but attack.

>>4336271
>>4336369
Since nobody else wants to wait for Shirou to make the first strike I may as well switch to just attacking.

>>4337234
>against all roleplaying common-sense Alberich is going to have to come up with a justification for fighting non-lethally AGAIN
Oh, he has a reason; you don't need to worry about that. Non-lethal doesn't exactly need to translate to fighting with good intentions, after all. What's a bit tougher to write around is making Emiya the offer to leave.
We're tied again now, though, so who knows what I'll end up writing tonight.

Offer Emiya the chance to take his family and leave. Attempt to capture rather than kill if it comes to a fight.
>>4336355
>>4336368
>>4336569
>>4336594
>>4336404
>>4336586
>>4337161

Attack Emiya before he continues his harangue.
>>4336444
>>4336513
>>4336526
>>4336612
>>4336952
>>4337311

>>4337334
7-6
There's no tie.

>>4336271
[ ] You abruptly decide you've had enough of Emiya's blathering. Put an end to his emotional outpouring by means of your sword.
I usually don't get a chance to vote but I'll break the tie.
I don't know why everyone's still moping though, we've got our groove back and a sick suit of armor to boot.

>>4336355
Support

>>4336271
>>4337374
Whoops, nearly fucked that up.

>>4336271
>[ ] You abruptly decide you've had enough of Emiya's blathering. Put an end to his emotional outpouring by means of your sword.
To some, I am a monster. To those I care about I am a hero. You are not someone I care about.

>>4337141
>It's just "muh shirou" with these people
And its just "muh risk" with yours, we got bitten a few times on some poorly thought out calls and now you're scared to try anything new, frankly I just want to test if we can make the attempt we can kill them if it doesn't work, hell we can kill them if it does just to make the survivors easier to manage.

>>4337515
Or we can get crippled again or lose an ally. Don't pretend that there is no risk here.

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>>4336271
>>[X] You abruptly decide you've had enough of Emiya's blathering. Put an end to his emotional outpouring by means of your sword.
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVhtq6ICOZ4
Onwards and upwards.

>>4337520
There's always that risk unless were being thrown a softball, hell even then we don't know whats going on behind the scenes, still I dont really care to take Shirou alive, I just want to try to capture one as a battery and he's the weakest, I''d switch if we can try to capture Rin since Sakura's too volatile to be worth it if we start stacking bodies.

>>4337529
Sure, but you don't need to make it as big as possible by deciding to try any fancy things right now. Because if we go too low on mana during this fight using it up for restraints, then we definitely will drop the upkeep for Medusa before we die.

And if we lose Medusa then we don't get any do-overs or can decide to switch strategies to get her back.

>>4337529
Shirou is being powered by Sakura.
If we kill her then he'll die.

>>4337541
Medusa shouldn't be taking energy from us, given we felt no such thing and that they felt nothing similar to the lack of mana we did.

>>4337547
We have a master servant bond with her. And part of why we strained Ayaka even more after we got Medusa was Medusa and her sisters drawing even more power over us from Ayaka.

>>4337547
Where did you think she gets her mana?

>>4337556
>Where did you think she gets her mana?
Considering she didn't start fading when we did, I figure HFS' sustaining miracle might have something to do with it.

>>4337553
>>4337556
Not only has Alberich not felt her taking mana from him, he hasn't felt it from her sisters either, additionally, they haven't said they are being sustained by his mana.
Besides that, Stheno and Euryale are incredibly weak goddesses, so the amount of strain they would put is negligible.
Medusa should be being sustained by the leylines same as Saber.

What I'm more curious about is why Alberich referred to himself as Adelheid's anchor.

>>4337542
Why I said capture Rin, if we kill any of them we kill Shirou since he'd provide the least mana and guarantees the removal of rule breaker as a way out, and if he dies we kill Sakura to remove the chance of Dark Sakura making an appearance, meanwhile Rin provides decent mana and her magecraft depends on spending valuable rocks, she's the easiest to imprison after we rob her.

Sorry, folks, but I don't think I'll be able to write tonight after all. A family matter's come up and I don't think I can get back to the computer for the next few hours, by which time it'll be around midnight here.
I'll get to writing as soon as possible tomorrow, though, you have my word on that.

>>4336594
>>4336956

Switching over to Attack, so long as we can still do this >>4337594 I may as well bring the count into the double digits if the tally's accurate.

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Happy Independence Day, folks! Looks like you ended up deciding to celebrate with a shocking upset!
Seriously, I wasn't expecting this vote to turn out this way. It's a shocker. I'm writing now, though.

>>4338330
Hyped for the update!

Update never?

This, you think, is the point at which the potential for a reasonable, or even an entertaining conversation is at its end. Emiya has reached a pitch of moral fury sufficient to decry your supposed evil, and will under no circumstances be persuaded to see things from your perspective. In the middle of his sentence, heedless of his words, you leap from the rooftop. As you fall, you prepare to materialize your sword, and the moment your boots slam fully down in the damp grass of the Koyamas' front garden is the moment you spring forward and drive Heiligöffnungschwert through Emiya's throat. He hadn't taken no precautions, of course; while you fell he saw your intention to strike him and tried to step outside your range, but having the advantage of speed you could easily close with him faster than he could retreat or sidestep. He stares at you over the blade, looking in mute shock and fury at you, unable to utter more than a gurgle and incapable of articulating beyond his burning eyes.

"Silence," you say in the same coldly polite tone with which you received him this morning, stepping forward again and running your blade farther through Emiya, closing in on him until your crossguard is pressed against his wound, so that you can lean forward and speak directly into the dying man's ear. "To some I may be a monster," you continue softly, "but to those I care about I am a hero, Emiya. Heroism and monstrosity are matters of perspective, for a hero is one who saves, and a monster is one who destroys. One cannot save all humanity, however; for one to be saved, another must be condemned. This is the zero-sum game, the great competition of life in which we live, and in the Holy Grail War this natural pressure is intensified to all the more potent a degree. You survived a Holy Grail War yesterday, and your wife spoke of the sensation of consuming human souls. Don't pretend to me you're unfamiliar with the dynamic of sacrificing others for one's own gain."

Emiya's mouth works, no-doubt shaping words of protest against your uncharitable opinion of him, but no sound issues from his mouth. With mild amusement, you note that no blood flows from the place where Emiya is impaled, for all that you've severed his jugular. Emiya's blood, after all, is flowing through the portal in your blade to be spilled somewhere in the Realm of Imaginary Numbers. How fortunate it is for this part of Emiya, you think sardonically, to ascend to the realm of the Gods while the whole dies wretchedly here, hanging on your sword. Then, with vicious energy, you step back and rip the sword from Emiya, sending the first and only spurt of blood out of his wound in pursuit of your blade as the man falls, lifeless, to the ground. As his wife and comrade look on in mute astonishment, you declare to the corpse, "You, unfortunately, are not one of those I care for. To you I must be monstrous."

With Emiya dealt with, you step over the corpse to move closer to his two companions. As of yet, they appear too stunned by the man's sudden execution to do anything, so you have rather a free hand in how best to deal with them. As you're doing this, however, you hear a movement in the grass behind you; a shuffling, rustling sound in the wet blades, as of someone first getting to his feet and then springing forward.

You turn just in time to catch one of Emiya's blades in the palm of your left hand while cutting the other in two by blocking it with Heiligöffnungschwert. Somehow, despite the certainly fatal blow you dealt him and the visibly gaping hole in his throat where his spinal cord was severed and his jugular vein opened, he is capable of standing and fighting; fighting, indeed, with no less speed and precision than when you last saw him in battle with Berserker. With the precision of a machine, he rains down blow after blow on you, his blades reforming each time one is cut, and despite your superiority of speed it's all you can do to defend yourself, so skilled is he in reading your movements. The only testament to his wound in his capabilities is the man's utter muteness, for whatever else he may be capable of, Emiya obviously can't make a sound with severed vocal cords.

Throughout the long, grinding battle, the Tohsaka woman and Emiya's wife are kept as spectators by the vigilance of Medusa. Briefly you wonder whether Emiya Sakura, with all that energy at her disposal, shouldn't be able to overwhelm your Servant, but the battle requires too much focus for you to think much on such topics. Indeed despite all your attentions, you gradually find yourself outmaneuvered. By a careful series of misdirections Emiya manages to entice you into blocking four simultaneous blows from two flying blades and two in his hands by sweeping your blade around you in a wide arc to destroy all the weapons at a stroke, and in the opening created by that enormous blow to bring two more newly created daggers to bear on your throat, set to sever it like a pair of scissor blades. Finally, with a sense of hilarity at your having been so put into checkmate, you simply let your sword dematerialize, and take the blows.

The red-stained night reverberates with the bell-like ring of Emiya's blades slamming into your gorget. There, though the strike was made with force enough to pierce your old armor, a force no doubt measured by analysis of your battle with Berserker, they are stopped. In the moment of surprise, to which Emiya is still susceptible in spite of all his skill, your hands flick up and catch him by the wrists.

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"Do you see now, Emiya?" you ask, grinning into a face twisted by mute anger and frustrated righteousness. "This isn't a battle between you and I, however resilient you may be. I've seen your limits in our old fights; I've taken the measure of them; and I've surpassed them. Now there's nothing you can do to me. No attack you can make without that Reality Marble of yours can pierce my defenses, and in your current condition you've no hope of reciting the little poem you orthodox magi need to make use of your abilities. It's almost a shame, really; if only you'd had the kind of teacher I've had, you wouldn't be suffering so now."

Emiya, unsurprisingly, makes no reply, though you can hear a sharp intake of breath and a pained "Senpai," from his wife. Finished gloating, you hammer a kick into Emiya's gut and release his wrists at the same moment, sending him flying across the yard with the force of the impact. You don't let him go far, though, before you spring forward and make one final strike with Heiligöffnungschwert. Tracing a circle with the blade, you sever each limb from your enemy's torso as well as his head. By the time the sundry pieces have landed, to the sound of an incoherent scream of abject horror from his wife, there is no possibility in your mind of Emiya's continued ability to fight. There's no Emiya now, after all; no man who wounded your pride and insulted you with his moral preaching. Only the flesh remains of the man, and that is scattered around the garden. His life, along with the mystery behind his strange abilities, is gone from the world. Emiya Shirou's last act is to stain the Koyamas' flowers and shrubs with the same crimson as the night sky in Bloodfort Andromeda.

DEAD END

With Emiya dealt with, you turn to his companions. Now, for the second time, you consider how best to deal with them.

>[ ] Order Medusa to take Tohsaka Rin prisoner. Kill Emiya's wife yourself.

>[ ] Order Medusa to take Emiya Sakura prisoner. You'll deal with the sorcerer's apprentice.

>[ ] Order Medusa to take the both of them prisoner and go inside to contemplate your next move.

>[ ] Capture the two of them by means of tendrils of Nothingness, then interrogate them here about the nature of Assassin.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

File: Fate Awakening Mirror.pdf (4.48 MB, PDF)

4.48 MB PDF

Sorry for the wait, folks. I ended up rewriting parts of today's update repeatedly, trying to get a version of this that didn't read like an absurd power fantasy even though there's really not much that Shirou can do in these circumstances. Hopefully I didn't do too bad a job.
Anyway, here's the latest version of the PDF, brought up to this update. I suggest you reread the last update in it, since I made some changes to hopefully improve the scene and tweak the reference folks were complaining about. I edit most updates when I add them to the PDF in this way, but I thought it was worth pointing out this time after yesterday's discussion.

>>4339246
>[ ] Order Medusa to take Tohsaka Rin prisoner. Kill Emiya's wife yourself.
We're probably also gonna have to find out where they put their kids.
Don't want a yonger pair of Emiya siblings trying anything funny now do we gang?

>>4339246
>[ ] Order Medusa to take Tohsaka Rin prisoner. Kill Emiya's wife yourself.

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>>4339246
>>[X] Order Medusa to take Tohsaka Rin prisoner. Kill Emiya's wife yourself.

>>4339261
I think it made sense, we are objectively more powerful than he was. Nothing absurd about it.

>>4339246
>[ ] Order Medusa to take Tohsaka Rin prisoner. Kill Emiya's wife yourself.
Shame we couldn't mindbreak Shirou or that Lily couldn't be here to see us, but whatever. Best of luck to Emiya in his next timeline.

>>4339246
Eeesh. That was quite... uncomfortable.
This whole evil route has gotten a little too uncomfortable in general.
I can only hope that Alberich gets the end he deserves.
>[ ] Order Medusa to take the both of them prisoner and go inside to contemplate your next move.

>>4339299
Are you seriously complaining that the Evil route is too icky?

>>4339299
Don't worry, anon, if I understand you correctly this is most likely the high water mark of this sort of discomfort in the War.
Of course, I could be wrong. I can't choose what to do for you folks; but that's my feeling, at least.

On that subject, folks, what do you want to do next? Shirou was the most pressing threat to your safety; like I said earlier, you have fairly complete freedom to prosecute the War at this point. Where do you go from here?

>>4339299
>This whole evil route has gotten a little too uncomfortable in general.
It's cause all the compassionfags like you left months ago. Alberich has been riding high on his Pride for the past forever and nothing has come up to stop him. Lolicon Psycopath is his character now, god bless it.

>>4339323
>On that subject, folks, what do you want to do next?
Find our Wife.
Find our Master.
Find the rest of our crew.
Kill our Brother and his Master.
Final push towards the end of the war.

>>4339329
>riding high on his Pride for the past forever and nothing has come up to stop him
Except all the Dead Ends and the house explosion and losing his limbs and getting trapped in Medusa and being betrayed by his own allies and having his prisoners escape from under his nose and getting played like a fool by human magus twice.
But sure *nothing* has stopped Alberich. He's an unyielding force of pride and power.

>>4339314
I'm just saying that when dealing with another story's protagonist in a quest like this that it's not narratively satisfying to just stomp them to death with ease in front of their loved ones. It does a disservice to the original story.
I ought to know, I run a quest with an evil protagonist in direct opposition to the canon heroes.
I mean, turning him into a pile of limbs? Couldn't you have gone for a comparatively more respectful vertical bisection? It feels over the top.
Good grief.

>>4339320
You say that but it looks like Alberich is murdering Sakura next.

>>4339323
Find Lily and Ayaka.

>>4339343
>I run a quest with an evil protagonist in direct opposition to the canon heroes
Is that you, What? Or is there another evil protagonist quest I've been missing?
>I mean, turning him into a pile of limbs? Couldn't you have gone for a comparatively more respectful vertical bisection? It feels over the top.
Hey, when somebody's doll body gets up after losing the function of his spinal cord you don't take any more chances. For all Alberich knows, maybe Shirou could paste himself back together like Berserker provided the pieces were all together. It's all about being thorough.

>>4339343
The Dead Ends literally didn't happen so they don't count. Besides that, half of those situations lead to net possitive things such as the Medusa situation leading to him getting 3 new lolis. The other half aren't situations that would lead to Alberich expressing any compassion, To anyone he wouldn't already anyway, just situations that would damage his swollen ego.

I also feel you're being a baby about Emiya's death, or did you forget the dozens of extremely horrible way Shirou tends to end up dead in the VN?

>>4339246
>>[ ] Order Medusa to take Tohsaka Rin prisoner. Kill Emiya's wife yourself
Good update, dead end almost had me worried when I saw it.
>what do you want to do next?
For me the overall goal is the same, finish the war and relocate our allies, I just have a more roundabout way of going for it.
Once we finish here and deal with them we go on an offensive against the church, kill the priest and burn it to the ground, we deal with an enemy for a few days until they can regroup and hopefully any of our allies who are still loyal and watching in would come to us instead of having to go on a goose chase to find them, it might draw out Matsuda again as well, at which point we turn him into a torso, absorption him, and stick him in the wheelchair to wait to be sacrificed by Ayaka when we find her.

>>4339343
Fuck respecting the original story. This quest is its own story and doesn't have to kiss the ring of the source material.

File: He would later die.png (57 KB, 165x192)

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>>4339356
>Is that you, What?
Not What, Who?
>For all Alberich knows, maybe Shirou could paste himself back together like Berserker provided the pieces were all together. It's all about being thorough.
I'm pretty certain that Shirou probably would've mentioned before this point if he were literally immortal. Seems like an important detail to bring up if you're going to be fighting alongside somebody with incredible strength. I don't know, it just feels comically brutal.

>>4339367
>I also feel you're being a baby about Emiya's death, or did you forget the dozens of extremely horrible way Shirou tends to end up dead in the VN?
I'm going to quote you on this one.
>The Dead Ends literally didn't happen so they don't count.
Also there's a difference between a character dying during their story and a character dying after their story.

>>4339371
Ouch. That's hardly what I'd want to hear if I were writing a story I had once described as "Setting out to write a fan sequel of Fate/Stay Night."

>>4339368
We should also probably hold off on killing more servants till after we find Lily and check the grail, that way if we end up running into a fight with Odin, although less prepared than i'd like, with his soul apparently being worth 3x the value we'd be less likely to risk ending the grail war early before we can check what team assassin did to it.

>>4339384
And what did it say after the end of that post?
>Dead End.
This isn't Shirou's story so as far as we're conserned he's dead.
But do not cry for him sweet anon, because in some other worldline or whatever, your boy is just fine and dandy, probably getting his Tiger Shamp right now. Or better yet he's sitting at home, fucking sakura while rider and the kids watch!

Never ever forget what this shit is.
Indulgent fanfiction. Plain and simple.
Alberich isn't real, he can't hurt you or your favorite characters. Calm down.

>>4339246
>[ ] Order Medusa to take Tohsaka Rin prisoner. Kill Emiya's wife yourself.
did not expect that to go so well, so long Emiya, maybe in another world, we could've been friends, but do not fret nor worry, your wife will soon join you

>>4339246
>[ ] Order Medusa to take Tohsaka Rin prisoner. Kill Emiya's wife yourself.
Drinking Sakura's blood would net us a lot of energy. I hope we can store some for later as well.

I liked the bit about heroism, really showed a fundamental difference between us and Shirou.

>>4339620
>I liked the bit about heroism, really showed a fundamental difference between us and Shirou.
Thanks anon, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Reading it back though, I realized that I wrote "You survived a Holy Grail War yesterday." I have absolutely no idea why I wrote that. I know I had it in my head as "You survived a Holy Grail War fifteen years ago," and that's what should be written there. For some reason, though, it came out as "yesterday".

>>4339620
I liked it too, really showed Alberich to be the eighteen year old pseudo-intellectual he really is. Emotionally he hasn't matured a day since Akeldama ended, has he?
I do hope that he wasn't supposed to be taken seriously there because that was total shlock he was selling while attempting to justify callous mass murder.
Then he actually attacked his opponent before they could respond because he knew his argument held about as much water as a helium balloon.
Sure kill em all I don't care about the other characters anymore.

>>4339750
That just made it sound more like he didn't know what he was talking about.

I might need to take a break from all of this, it's just depressing me.
Somewhere along the line you've caused your anons to all become especially bloodthirsty just so they can end the story and quest faster.
I don't think I would even read a Part 3 if that was the philosophy used to reach it.
I'm more interested in seeing you run that OC quest you mentioned after this quest anyway. I can't see much appeal in just wandering about after the war without any real aim other than the nebulous "take over the planet."

>>4339243
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sqRredXIFI

How strange it feels to be the dead-end monster.

Goodnight sweet Shirou. In another time we could have told you to fuckoff, and in another time from there, you could have taken it. But we didn't, and you probably wouldn't without a trip to the dojo first.

My only complaint about the whole thing is I really would have liked to see Shirou go back and forth with us, honestly. Shirou's dialogue in fights has always been fun to see. That said, I understand the necessity to eliminate his ability to use his reality marble as necessary for victory, so I'm not sure if I have the right to wish for an alternative, despite it being disappointing.

>>4339246
>[ ] Order Medusa to take Tohsaka Rin prisoner. Kill Emiya's wife yourself.

Time to see if Sakura can kill us or not somehow, I suppose. It feels weird that Rider's enabling all of this. Not that I don't get why, but It's weird to see it.

>>4339820
>I do hope that he wasn't supposed to be taken seriously there because that was total shlock he was selling while attempting to justify callous mass murder.
If there's one thing Fate is all about, it's schlock philosophy and characters hanging around on the border of insanity with that schlock to justify their position. The Emiya father and son show that well enough. If the protagonist were less broken than Shirou, it just wouldn't feel right.
>I might need to take a break from all of this, it's just depressing me.
Seems like I can hardly write an update without someone deciding they need a break or quitting. Oh well. Drop if the quest if you want to, I'll be here writing it for the foreseeable future.

>>4340144
>it's schlock philosophy and characters hanging around on the border of insanity with that schlock to justify their position
Actually it's all about those characters being forced to realize that their outlook on life is completely incorrect.
>Drop if the quest if you want to
No no, I'll try to hold on to see where this trainwreck goes from here.
The fact that the vote to kill Sakura is winning is concerning though.
What's the logic there, outside of metaknowledge that she can harm Alberich?
Why not kill Tohsaka as well as Sakura, as a magician's apprentice, she ought to represent a far greater threat to Alberich than Emiya's wife.
Last time I checked, metaknowledge wasn't one of his abilities.

I kind of want Alberich to start to slaughter all of his allies at the slightest failure now. Starting with Circe and moving swiftly on to his two useless siblings.
He's absolutely morally irredeemable and you may as well revel in that instead of keeping around a harem of useless allies.
The cat ought to go too.

Why did Sakura just stand there doing nothing anyway?

>>4340155
Actually the more I think about it, the more I realise that this scene makes absolutely no sense. Rin and Sakura should've instantly made their move the moment that Alberich attacked Shirou. Instead they decided to just watch for some reason.
This scene makes literally no sense because of Alberich's monologuing.
But no, instead the two of them stand about to die doing absolutely nothing like Berserker's Master did when Odin showed up.
I'm just going to imagine that these characters aren't Rin or Sakura at all, and are just people passing by who have a strong resemblance to the two of them.

>>4339750
Meh, yesterday can refer to an unspecified amount of time in the past too.
>>4340160
Rin and Sakura were paralyzed by Rider. For a writer you have surprisingly low reading comprehension.

>>4340166
Rin I can understand being paralyzed unless she somehow brought the Jewel Sword with her, but Sakura I don't buy at all.
She's been explicitly mentioned to have a huge quantity of magical energy and we know that Cybele doesn't function at all on people with that amount of energy now.
So the scene still makes absolutely no sense outside of fellating Alberich.
I must have glossed over that line because it made no sense.

>>4340155
>Actually it's all about those characters being forced to realize that their outlook on life is completely incorrect.
Have you ever read Barry Lyndon? For a character like this, the fall and confrontation with the hollowness of his own feelings has to come after the rise is over. Not everyone gets confronted with the impossibility of their ideals while they're trying to put them into practice, like Kiritsugu.

>>4340168
>Sakura I don't buy at all.
I can, even if Cybele had no effect it doesn't change that this is still Sakura were talking about here, one with 15 years of placing way too much faith in Shirou after he managed to pull off saving her without killing her after all she did revert to calling Shirou senpai.
I fully believe the real boss fight is about to begin though when she goes dark Sakura over this and fact that she can move, her first attack will bypass the armor and what Alberich heard about from their own description of what happened in Fuyuki should be more than enough motivation to send her to join her husband.

>>4339299
Acceptance
>>4339820
Depression
>>4340155
Anger
>>4340168
Denial

Anon, are you going through the stages of grief over this scene? In reverse, at that? I think you skipped over bargaining, if that's the case.

I'd still like to see you put on your name and trip so I can have a look at that evil protagonist quest of yours, by the way. It's only fair, with you calling my writing a trainwreck and accusing me of fellating my protagonist, that I have the chance to form my opinion of your writing.

>>4340342
>>4340344
Fuck yeah Sweets out here bringing the heat

>>4340344
Based

>>4340358
>>4340384
Going to vote, you two? Or are you satisfied with the present almost-unanimity?

Moving away from the topic of argument with my critics, I'd still like to hear any more detailed plans you folks can put together for your future movements. Finding Liliesviel and Ayaka are great goals, but if you don't think the online Kōrakuhime is the real thing that still leaves you with no leads. How should you go about finding your scattered allies? Any ideas?

>>4340423
The count on that last vote really kicked you out of the funk you were in didn't it? Good to see.

To try and elaborate on my thoughts here >>4339368 with no leads I figure the only way to find Korakuhime would be to have her come to us while sending a signal that we're back in the game to any of our other allies who are still loyal.
If nothing else eliminating the superpriest and his 'anti-pagan weapon' while knocking the church out of the picture for a few days should allow them to operate more openly without the manhunt getting in the way, and since most of them either have some form of scrying or should be with someone who does I figure if they don't show they're either dead, captured (unlikely since the only ones with any interest in taking any of them alive would've been the Emiyas, maybe Circe) or traitors.

>>4340423
I've already voted from a different IP, I'm at work now. I think now that we're healed we need to locate Korakuhime to locate anyone else. The lead that we found online is as good as any and it's a least a place to start.

>>4340423
question: can we Bloodfort Sakura for more upgrades?
Well, regardless, look for Lily, Ayaka and Korakuhime, proceed to scry for Circe once more, beat her, once more, deal with her by either lolimancing her or killing her ego, deal with Assassin, Harris, the Church and Odin all in time for Titania's Christmas Special

>>4340518
>can we Bloodfort Sakura for more upgrades?
If you're asking if we can use it again probably not, according to the wiki Bloodfort can only be used once per region because it damages the leylines when used, although going by the last couple updates it does sound like the Bloodfort is still up so if we kill or incapacitate her we might, otherwise we could try to take her alive and eat her.

>>4340501
>The count on that last vote really kicked you out of the funk you were in didn't it?
Yes and no. I'm just trying to be positive right now and hope that if I push forward and write as much as I can things will improve. It's still depressing to get into arguments with readers, since my reason for putting so much time into this is to try to make something people can enjoy and share a fun experience with all you folks, but what can you do? It seems like I'm going to gather insults and complaints no matter what I write, so as long as folks are voting and some people are happy I'll go forward with that.

>>4340518
Sakura has too much magical energy to be dissolved by Bloodfort Andromeda, but that's not to say you can't get magical energy from her.

>>4340559
Bloodfort Andromeda is still active, you're all still inside the crimson barrier.

>>4340568
You'll always get some people who're going to criticize every time things doesn't go their way, esp when they're passionate about what they feel they're missing out on. All I can say is hang in there, I can't speak for anyone else but I enjoy your work and have faith that you'll try to make this the best story you can, so long as you keep it up I won't be going anywhere.

>>4340568
This has really felt like a step in the right direction to me, you instilled some confidence in Alberich's abilities and you're not taking shit from the whiner. Bravo.

I've finally resolved an issue of continuity that's been nagging at me. The sun deity is not in fact Tamamo's Amaterasu form; according to a quote from Fate/EXTRA Material in TMDict that form is merely a pseudo-god, and not the authentic Amaterasu.
For those of you who might have felt dubiously about how Helios might be related to Tamamo, you can rest easier; they are properly separate beings.
Anyway, the update should be finished in the next few hours.

You need only look at the two women for a short time before making your decision. Tohsaka may be apprentice to the sorcerer of the Clock Tower, but all the same she's only a human magus. You sense no power greater than Truvietianne's from her. Whatever her level of skill, Medusa should be enough to restrain her without difficulty. Emiya Sakura, though... she can best be described as an unknown quantity. Human to all outward appearance, but the shudder of intimidation that ran through you when you first sensed her energy is still clear in your mind. It's no less unnerving now, when she stands there across the yard, her face contorted with shock and grief for her husband. Only a pretty woman in a cream cashmere sweater and long skirt a few shades darker than her violet hair, grieving for the man she believed would protect her. Only that, yet with all the heaped up mystic energy of a Holy Grail War bound within her. Energy far greater than that gathered together for you by Bloodfort Andromeda; greater, perhaps, even than the overwhelming tempest of energy thrown off at the revelation of Odin's true power. This strange being, dubbed a forgery of the Holy Grail by Liliesviel, is surely no less dangerous an entity than her impossibly Servant-like husband. You must deal with her yourself.

No sooner have you so concluded, however, than something in her face stays your hand. Sakura makes no move to react to your actions since killing Emiya, or even to acknowledge your presence. She stands there, head lolling and limbs limp, like a marionette with its strings cut, tears streaming down her cheeks as she murmurs "Senpai," once more, as if in disbelief. Then she changes her theme, apologizing to the dead man. "I'm sorry," she breathes. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," over and over, never changing in her tone, but chanting the words in soft intonation like a repeated prayer or incantation.

"Medusa, restrain Tohsaka," you say, shifting your attention to your Servant to distract yourself from the grief-driven madness of Emiya's wife. Even you aren't without feeling, after all, though you don't intend to allow compassion to alter your policy. "We can find a use for her later. I'll deal with Emiya's widow."

"Understood." With that toneless, disciplined confirmation or your order, Medusa steps forward to menace the sorcerer's apprentice more directly. "I would prefer not to kill you," she informs Tohsaka in a regretful tone, "but you must know that I am capable of petrifying you the moment I choose. Do not resist, Rin." Tohsaka remains still, like a rodent pinned by the gaze of a viper. Perhaps, you think, Medusa is capable of using a lesser form of her mystic eyes' power when she chooses; a form which merely applies to ordinary mortals the paralytic pressure normally felt by those too powerful to be petrified. Then again, perhaps the canny Clock Tower magus is simply making no move that might worsen her situation while she weighs up her chances. What passes between them further, though, you turn away from to focus again on Sakura. She's changed the words of her apology to her dead husband once again, you see.

"This is all my fault," she whispers to the dead man, utter grief in every syllable. "You saved me, Senpai, but I couldn't change. I was still a coward, still relied on you for everything. I wanted to let you go on saving me forever, couldn't face using the power that reminded me of Avenger. Now..." Her breath catches in her throat. You tighten your grip on your blade. This has waited long enough; there's no need to let Sakura finish her speech. She can tell it all to Emiya directly, after all, for they'll be together soon enough. You spring forward with energy to propel you faster than any human can react to, to strike the head from her shoulders before Sakura can feel any pain.

Or, you should have. Your feet don't move. They're trapped, in fact. A sudden chill running down your spine at this loss of your formerly absolute control of the situation, you look down to see that the ordinary gloom of the night has been supplanted on the ground by a far deeper shadow; one with substance, and which clings to your boots up to the ankles. In the crimson-stained night of Bloodfort Andromeda you never noticed as Sakura's shadow pooled and spread over the garden while she spoke to her dead husband. In the atmosphere of the world within the barrier, saturated with energy prepared for intake by your Imaginary Element-attuned circuits, you could not have noticed the shift as another field of such mystic energy spread from the seemingly broken woman. Now you find yourself sunk ankle-deep in a bog of Imaginary substance unnervingly similar to your own tendrils of Nothingness, and the truth of the conclusion you formerly made, but did not act sufficiently quickly on, is driven painfully into your mind. Sakura is more dangerous than her husband.

Suddenly, as if all at once the energy of life has flowed back into her, Sakura straightens up and fixes her eyes on you. "As long as I had Senpai to believe in," she says in that same quiet, almost sing-song voice of deranged grief with which she addressed the dead Emiya, "I would never use this power. I could leave everything to him, and never think unkindly about anyone, because Senpai would always be there to save me from any conflict. Even if he needed help, there was Rider. Now you've taken them both from me. I don't have anyone anymore. I guess now I have to use the power that Grandfather gave me again, don't I?" Suddenly she breaks off again, and looking at the tear-strewn face you think she'll sob. Instead, a deranged laugh falls incongruously from her lips before she continues, "I don't have Avenger anymore, but I can probably still make you suffer enough to pay for Senpai. What do you think?"

With this last rhetorical question, the mystic energy you can feel from Sakura seems to redouble, and formless black energy begins to emanate from her right hand, rippling and swirling like an impossible cross between fluid and smoke as it waits for her to shape it to her will. You know instantly that she's about to launch her first true attack; what it will be, you'd just as soon not find out.

>[ ] Attempt to talk the woman out of attacking you. (What would you like to say?)

>[ ] Wait for her to strike and defend yourself with your cloak.

>[ ] Attempt to cut yourself free of the stuff binding your feet and protect Medusa. She must be trapped in this same shadow.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

>>4341734
>[X] Wait for her to strike and defend yourself with your cloak.
I definitely think a write-in would be more suitable though.

>>4341734
>>[X] Wait for her to strike and defend yourself with your cloak.

>>4339824
I was somewhat distracted from this by other posts at the time, but I want to mention that I found this post touching.

>>4341734
Use the all the excess energy surrounding us for a massive rift slash to destroy her. We can't win in a real magic battle because she's an unlimited battery. But our portals are the one thing we can use to beat her, and the excess energy is our best shot to make it strong enough to overwhelm her.

>>4341734
>>4341775

For now ill support this although I do have some issues to with,
I do feel we do need to go on the offensive and eliminate quickly before she can do serious damage, although from what I recall from the Achilles fight it still took time to make a charged attack with HFS, we could probably block the first with our cloak but who knows how large the attack might be/if its a splash damage type attack behind us.
Also i'm not fully sold on dumping all our energy into the attack as she doesn't seem to be doing anything to protect herself aside from the 'mud field', the fight should be over so long as it connects.

>>4341835
Sakura can regenerate herself easily.
If we want to kill her it has to be something that destroys her entire body.

>>4341734
>Now you've taken them both from me. I don't have anyone anymore.
Wow, cold. Apparently the kids don't count for anything here.

Cringe and edgepilled.
This really is the quest for people who loved Zero and Kiritsugu, isn't it?
Nice handling of Sakura, hack.

>>4341734
>[ ] Wait for her to strike and defend yourself with your cloak.
I have a feeling as if any option might lead to a dead end

>>4341734
>[ ] Attempt to talk the woman out of attacking you. (What would you like to say?)
If you attack me now, I will attempt to kill you. You don't have anyone anymore? Your children may lose both of their parents in one night. Leave and take them away from here.

>>4341734
>[ ] Wait for her to strike and defend yourself with your cloak.

>>4342039
I denated for some time whether to write "I don't have anyone to rely on anymore" or whether you would just understand that meaning naturally from context and I could use the phrasing more appropriate for her mental state. Apparently I made the wrong choice.

>>4342044
>1 post by this ID
So you come here for the sole purpose of insulting me? Go watch Carnival Phantasm if you want to forget Heaven's Feel happened, anon, I'm not interested in sugarcoating Fate.

>>4341837
Aware of it but one of those things I like to learn in character before factoring into decisions, regardless i'm still in favor of blocking or dodging the first attack i'm just looking to come up with a plan for the counterattack, managed to come up with a few but mostly just me spit-balling ideas, for now what we do know in character she isn't a fighter so she should be much less effective when we close the distance
A) attempt to restrain with ribbons, maybe attempt to add drain to them
B) factoring in regeneration we could take a page out of Heracles book and try to create something like fire or acid
C)if her regeneration is like ours destroying the head should still be a kill
D) all else fails; toss her in the cape though we'll probably lose a chance at an upgrade
Does make me wonder if we do end up cape-ing her and we try summoning again would we need to roll really high or really low to get spooked by Sakura?

Otherwise if don't think we can handle her could go with this >>4342089 had idea to bluff with the original post Achilles plan in mind "You know i'm wondering; if you're here whose watching your kids? After your late husband visited earlier I sent one of my servants after him, since you all came then that means they're likely on 'babysitting duty', since they depend on me for energy what do you suppose will happen to them if you manage to kill me?"

>>4342207
Whatever you edgy crybaby.
You have a fetish for suffering and I hope you get what you desire so.

>>4342207
>I denated for some time whether to write "I don't have anyone to rely on anymore" or whether you would just understand that meaning naturally from context and I could use the phrasing more appropriate for her mental state. Apparently I made the wrong choice.
I understand she is shaken. But just from what she said it keeps being a sentence implying she has nothing to lose anymore.

That does not exactly express a lot of care for the children.

>>4342230
Coming from a guy who's throwing a tantrum that's rich.

>>4342265
Of course Sakura does care about her children, but you know, she didn't exactly have the kind of childhood that fosters a feeling of family bonds being greater than anything else in a person. For Sakura, Shirou was her whole world. Perhaps even moreso after fifteen years of marriage than at the end of Heaven's Feel. When he's taken away, the mental impact is extremely heavy.

Sweets, you really should stop responding to people that are salty about literally anything happening in the quest. It's kind of a beta move.
>We are winning too much, waah, this quest is turning into harem wish fufillment
>*island arc happens*
>Waah, why is it so hard, I just wanna win!
>Sweets, you never let us straight up win, waaah, I just wanna wank at how cool an stron we are, let us btfo an oponents
>*Emiya gets rekt*
>Waaah, I wanted an epic fight, why did we just kill him like that? Waaah
You just can't win with these people, you know?

>>4342751
Alpha, beta, whatever. I get angry when I see stuff like this 1-post guy, and I can enjoy discussing motivations with the more reasonable folks. It's some conversation at least. Maybe I have too short a temper, I don't know.
Thing is, I've put a lot of time into this quest over the last year, invested a lot of emotion into it, and all just with the desire to write something that folks who enjoyed the same visual novel I enjoyed could have fun with.
So I write all this, I put all this time into it, and every time I finish an update I get complaints from a long-term reader, or hate from somebody who just walked in here from the QTG, or both, and I wonder why. I don't see this kind of QM hate going on in Sworn to Valour, or Strikers, or Saiyan Conqueror, or any of the other long-running quests that predate mine. At least those that I've looked in on. These quests have their fanbases, and the people who don't like them steer clear. So I'm mystified as to how I ended up in this situation of being hated.
It's not like I set out to write some ridiculous power fantasy, or a total misery simulator about a powerless protagonist, or a fetish-fueled piece of smut, though people have acted like I'm writing all of those at one time or another. I haven't gone out of my way to antagonize folks or make enemies. I try to be civil as much as I can. I haven't railroaded the quest according to my interests, I've always developed on the choices you folks have made.
Now maybe you'll call me oversensitive for all this, and picture me getting all emotional about it, but that's not really it. What I'm trying to say is that I really just want answers. I want to know how I ended up here, and if possible how to get back the energy and good feelings my quest had in the first threads of Awakening Mirror, when it did feel a lot more like those other long-running quests I mentioned, at least to me. I don't know that anyone can give me those answers, but I try to engage the people who complain about my writing in the hope of finding out.

>>4342804
The reason your quest is so loathed compared to those other well liked quests is that 1. You've got a massive ego for a shit fanfiction writer. 2. You obviously samefag your own quest. 3. You don't railroad yet things always seem to turn out in a way you but not the players want. 4. Your quest is a delicate latticework of disappointment woven into a blanket of failure.

>>4342804
I haven't read Sworn to Valour or Strikers too much but you can't really compare yourself to Saiyan Conqueror beyond being based on an anime series, in SC it's obvious fairly early into reading any given thread that it's just going for fun mish mash of different series in to see what comes out and someone can't really come in taking it way too seriously, whereas here it seems like you're trying to write something that would feel like proper continuation of the original story set to the rules established by the VN and canon characters.
I suppose in a way that is the root of your problem, if you take two different fans you're going to hear two different stories of who they are and how they act beyond the superficial.
If they think they can do a better job of it than you they're free to run their own instead of expecting you to bend over backwards to read their minds and make them happy, frankly I'm here to read what your writing not "theirs".

>>4342804
Fatefags are aggressive autists, at least on /qst/. I appreciate the time you've put in Sweets. They're just mad that we're not besties with their favorite canon characters.
this is why you should reuse only the settings of popular IPs and not canon characters

>>4342858
The other points are a matter of opinion, but if you think things in the quest have turned out the way I wanted you're delusional, and as for samefagging I'll thank you to take your groundless insults, pack them in, and go elsewhere. I don't.

>>4342876
the true big brain move is to take inspiration from shit you like instead of doing straight fanfiction

>>4342878
It's pretty funny, the only players you have left are retards, masochists and trolls.

>>4341734
Would use of void magic counteract her nothingness at all?
Also, all of these people getting mad about edgy and dark content in Fate media need their heads examined. Keep doing your thing Sweets.

>>4342964
She doesn't make portals to the IN realm, her magecraft creates things made out of IN elements.
Portals should work fine.

All the schizophrenic hate for this quest gives me the amusing image of Alberich going about his quest with a crowd of hecklers following him around.
>fails to kill achilles
>"Why are you so weak!"
>captures medusa
>"Stop wasting time, just kill her!"
>kills shirou
>"Why did you kill him! Why are you so overpowered! This is just edgy and masturbatory!

Sorry, folks, it looks like I can't write an update tonight. Working late again, but I'll try to get the update done earlier tomorrow. Thanks for chatting with me on my break earlier.

>>4342876
I appreciate the sentiment, anon. Thanks for the kind words.

>>4342880
That is the plan, once I've finished Alberich's story.

>>4343126
I chuckled at this, thanks.

>>4342964
You can't clearly identify the element of her magic, which is why it's just referred to as some kind of Imaginary Element-aligned magic that seems similar to your nothingness. You don't know this, but Sakura's elemental affinity is rather muddled. Needless to say it's only thanks to her massive amount of mystic energy that she's able to manifest this stuff at all.

Defend yourself with Kenótis and wait for an opportunity to take action.
>>4341746
>>4341750
>>4342049
>>4342127

Condense the energy held by Bloodfort Andromeda into powering a single projected portal to wipe Sakura out completely.
>>4341775
>>4341835

Try to talk Sakura down.
>>4342089

Looks like we have a clear majority. Anyone want to change their vote before I sit down to write, or are we settled?

>>4341734
I'm supporting >>4341775
I don't think trying to tank it will end well. Not because it won't work the first time, but because we have no guarantee of there ever being a better opportunity than now.

>>4341775
This.

>>4344383
I'll swap over to making the portal.
She shouldn't know we can do it so it should take her completely by surprise, that we'd probably lose if we use Kenotis.

>>4342804
I don't really participate in quests, but I have been following this one for a while.
I think one of the reasons for the hate might have been the shift away from using dice. For example, if a choice is made and the dice rolled is low, players aim their frustation and anger at the poor role. Meanwhile, if they choose an action and the result is not to their liking because you decide that action is dumb or leads to a Dead End they direct that anger and frustration at you.
Either way, I still quite like this quest and while I probably won't participate, I'll keep on reading.

It's enough for you to see the power Sakura has readied for an attack. You have no intention of going so far as to let her make it. As your mind races ahead of the conflict of strikes that will decide your fate in the next few seconds you become certain of two things. First, that if you take no action Sakura will kill you agonizingly; she has the means and the intent, that much is obvious. Second, that this will not come to pass. You have utter confidence in your own victory. What risk can there be, after all, with so much mystic energy around you that you could be healed, empowered, and still fil a glass simply by holding it out; so much that all restrictions on your power are removed? It isn't enough energy to overpower your foe in a clash of pure quantity, that's true enough, but what need is there for that when you have the miracles of Heiligöffnungschwert? All you need to do is give shape to a gateway, and all Sakura's power will pour uselessly into it before she herself is consumed.

You raise the black sword above your head, the rubies of its hilt and pommel gleaming above you like stars in the crimson firmament, and through every pore you drink in all the power that is left around you. You pour it all into the blade, readying it to empower this single perfect strike while across the garden from you Sakura's power shapes itself into the weapon that gives form to her rage. Wrapped around her forearm and extending past it, poised to strike at you, is something like a great thorny vine, and then again something like a twisted black flame; a thing made up of countless shadows shaped in imitation of Emiya's black blade and strung together into a weapon as vicious and flexible as the tail of a scorpion. It will all be settled in an instant.

"Heiligöffnungschwert!"

With that cry you bring your arm down as Sakura extends her hand in elegant silence. The twisted viper of Imaginary Numbers springs out, streaming toward you as your blade grows and surges outward until it is not recognizable as a blade at all, but a great shadow like a curtain, a hole cut out of the world that hides all before it from your vision. There's a tremendous grinding, squealing sound replicable by no truthful material as the two impossible masses meet, and for a moment all seems still within that tempest of horrid noise. For a moment you wonder if Sakura has created a curse of Absorption out of Void; if she somehow foresaw all you'd do and planned to turn your own weapon against you. Then the conflict ends, in truth a pause of no more than the merest fraction of a second, and it's your gate that continues, Sakura's striking creation plunging through it into the world of its own elements. Another moment and without further sight or sound of conflict, without a scream or drop of spilled blood, Sakura has vanished along with the portal you forced over her; put through your inner door made material.

With Sakura gone, the shadow that spread over the garden and bound you in place has faded too, and the freedom to move your feet again lends a certain visceral sense of victory even to a battle won without laying a hand on your enemy. Intersperced with that sense of triumph, however, there is a voice of concern at the back of your mind. There's no sign of injury to your enemy; no fragment of her body remaining to testify to its having been severed. Even a thin layer the ground beneath her feet was scooped up along with her, leaving a shallow trench before you where bare earth can be seen. It comes to you suddenly that you aren't certain of just how the transportation of your blade functions. When something is put through a portal whole, as Sakura just was, is it separated piece-by-piece when the portal passes over it? Transported in fantastically thin slices, to collapse on the other side in an unrecognizable mass? Or is it transported as one solid object? Have you, you wonder, just transported one of your most dangerous enemies unharmed to a world which, to all appearances, suits her elemental alignment far better than the one you now inhabit?

"Sakura!" Before you can consider longer on the possible implications of the victory you've just won, your attention is torn away by a horrified scream that emanates simultaneously from two throats. Medusa and Tohsaka, when you turn to look, are staring at you with equal horror in their expressions. In fact, despite all her previous signs of loyalty, Medusa has her weapons once more in her hands and faces you with the expression of one about to strike. Tohsaka actually appears less distraught then the Servant, if only marginally. Though her hands are bound with a chain, she seems to have succeeded in getting a small gemstone between two fingers and begun mouthing an incantation the moment she stopped screaming. Of all the new obstacles to have forced on one, you think with irritation, this may be the most pointlessly frustrating. Killing a woman who was trying to kill you has evidently made an enemy of Medusa again, and at the same time the sorcerer's apprentice is preparing her magic. Some people just get too attached.

You and Medusa spring forward at the same moment; you toward Tohsaka and Medusa toward you. Unfortunately, Medusa is by far the faster of the pair and slams into you, wrapping her chain around your neck as if to throttle you with one hand and futilely trying to jab a nail through a chink in your armor with the other, long before you can get to Tohsaka. What the tiny girl has in speed, though, she lacks in strength and it's the work of a moment to grab the back of her head with your free hand and slam her into your knee, knocking her out killing her. You'd like to deal with this situation without losing a valuable subordinate, after all.

As Medusa drops to the ground and you make a second dash toward Tohsaka, she drops her stone to the ground. As it falls, it begins to shine with a brilliant white glare that seems to cast the whole neighborhood into sharp relief. Then the white splits into seven colors, nearly blinding you, and something even stranger happens to your vision. Superimposed on the shining light and the scene of Tohsaka standing in the garden, staring hate at you, is the phantom image of what looks like the interior of an empty warehouse, itself clearly in near-total darkness despite the scene of painful brilliance you can see seemingly behind it. All at once it fades, and Tohsaka with it. She, Sakura, and the scattered corpse of Emiya Shirou are all gone, leaving you alone with an unconscious Servant and her fast-disappearing Noble Phantasm. You didn't think ordinary magi could master spatial transportation; then again, this didn't look quite like that. Perhaps that strange layering of spaces was tied to the arts taught by the sorcerer.

As the cracks of ordinary night sky work their way into the dome of crimson that is the now-expended and no-longer sustained by Medusa's will Bloodfort Andromeda, you look down at your Servant and wonder what her behavior will be like when she wakes. Is this to be another one like Arturia, superficially bound to you but working against you at every opportunity? Or was her last action no more than a momentary burst of emotion at the loss of her former human family, one that can be dealt with by a reasonable conversation? For that matter, it occurs to you to wonder just where Arturia is; shouldn't she have had her attention drawn by the battle? Where also can Adelheid be, whom you set to following Emiya? If your mind is determined to wonder where, you think, where are Liliesviel and her maids; Ayaka; Hecate; Circe; Kōrakuhime? With healing comes the satisfaction of acting on your own, but also the burden of resolving the great many things still to be resolved after the detonation of your home. Where to start?

>[ ] Shake Medusa awake and talk to her about her behavior a moment ago. (What would you like to say to her?)

>[ ] Find something with which to restrain Medusa and leave her with her sisters for supervision, then go looking for Arturia and Adelheid.

>[ ] Go back inside and call Kikuko again. Perhaps there may be something in her online Kōrakuhime after all; if not, at least interviewing the original Ogawara may give you some clues as to how the authentic girl thinks.

>[ ] Do something else. (Write in)

>>4344882
Thanks for the input, anon, as well as the kind words. I do think you've got something there about dice acting as a buffer between the QM and resentment over consequences. I'm pretty reluctant to bring them back, though; I just hate the practice of randomizing things with a non-random outcome.

>>4345257
Alternating bold is not a good way to convey multiple voices speaking at once. Noted.

>>4345262
>[X] Shake Medusa awake and talk to her about her behavior a moment ago.

Talk to her about how she's doing, and that except for the children, the Emiya's are now gone.

We can find out where Arturia is with our link, but I'm worried Adelheid got ganked by someone.
We could use the internet to find out if she's broadcasting again, and then go interview Ogawara.

>>4345257
>knocking her out killing her
knocking her out without killing her?
>>4345262
We got hit by an amped-up Color-Spray to cover her escape? Interesting.>>4345262
>[X] Shake Medusa awake and talk to her about her behavior a moment ago.
What >>4345313 says is fine

Since Sweets likes MGS references I was hoping we could do what Solidus did and adopt the Emiya's kids to later reveal "By the way I KILLED YOUR PARENTS" but Rin will probably spill the beans before we get the chance. Sad!

>>4345330
>knocking her out without killing her?
Yes. That without should definitely be there. It's really what you might call a key part of the sentence.

>>4345335
Makes sense. Not surprising for a word to be dropped here or there when there's as much pressure for sustained writing output as there is.

It's exciting though, only a matter of time before God-mode Sakura's revengeance.

Oi >>4345313, would you mind adding to have Medusa hang out with her sisters for a while to help her come to terms with her grief after we talk to her? Then we can check on Alter with telepathy and try to find Adelheid.

Unrelated but this captcha is convinced that a mailbox is a parking meter and gave me a new slide because I was "wrong", kek

>>4345262
>>[ ] Shake Medusa awake and talk to her about her behavior a moment ago.
I don't know about questions to ask but I suppose something worth addressing; since she has 15 years of experience dealing with those two, does she actually believe we could've said to convince either Shirou to back down after we killed hundreds/thousands, would Sakura have backed down after we killed Shirou, with her power could she even be taken alive?
Acknowledge things had gotten out of hand, but at the very least tried to make it quick.
Least that's my thoughts at the moment, though I'll admit they usually aren't my best at this hour.

>>4345395
Sure.

>>4345262
>Execute Medusa. Such treachery shall not be tolerated.

>>4345262
Supporting this. No traitors.

>>4345262
Help if I linked to what I was supporting. >>4345610

>>4345398
Support. >>4345610

>>4345610
Feel like this would be pretty out of character for Alberich, he spared Circe even after she refused his offer of reuniting, and started acting against him.
Rider attacking him for defeating someone she cares about when she's very motivated towards protecting those she cares for should be much less of a mark against her to him.

>>4345666
He spared Circe and look what happened?
Another betrayal!
Kill Medusa before that can happen again.
IC Alberich shouldn't be so retarded to keep fucking traitors in his ranks.
Time to prune a few branches.

>>4345670
Almost his entire faction is formed by people who fought him at one point.
In a way they're traitors to whatever purpose they originally had that put them at odds.
If Alberich starts getting rid of people for the first thing they do that's not perfect then he'll end up alone really quickly.
If Medusa dies here the sisters will have to die as well, and Sweets said the third chapter won't be wrote if Alberich ends up mind of steeling his way to the end of the war.

>>4345679
What idiotic logic. This betrayal came after a complete oath of loyalty. Fuck Medusa, Fuck Circe, and FUCK GREEKS.
>If Medusa dies here the sisters will have to die as well
What a shame.
I'll really miss them.
Really.

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>pridefags already choosing to purge without Ayaka to take advantage of it
sic semper tyrannis

>>4345687
I don't think it's anymore idiotic than expecting Sakura to hold no place in Rider's heart.
She didn't even disobey her orders, Tohsaka was restrained by her chain even while she was attacking us.

>>4345679
>the third chapter won't be wrote if Alberich ends up mind of steeling his way to the end of the war.
At this point it almost seems like that's what angryanon's going for, with our limbs back and armor upgrade if we're actually threatened by Medusa 'betraying us' that cant other to spend the effort to keep in line over killing off when we wont even get the benefit of a sacrifice then we have severe competency problems that goes beyond whats in character.

>>4345262
>[ ] Shake Medusa awake and talk to her about her behavior a moment ago.
I can't think of anything to add.

>>4345700
That's what I figured, but I prefer arguing against the argument instead of the person since the argument is more immediately relevant to whatever the current topic is.

>>4345610
Support.
Treacherous slut.

>>4345262
>[ ] Find something with which to restrain Medusa and leave her with her sisters for supervision, then go looking for Arturia and Adelheid.
>>4345610
>he's still this butthurt
this is just sad anon. go outside

While I don't want it to happen, if killing Medusa ends up as the winning vote it will be somewhat entertaining to read Alberich killing all of his allies for anything they do wrong.
At that point he'd probably start contemplating locking Lily up or putting her to sleep and hiding her so he wouldn't have any weaknesses.
I think at that point even Odin would be somewhat disappointed with how he turned out.

Missing the third arc of the quest would be a shame though.

>>4345610
Support with extreme prejudice

>>4345262
>>4345313
This

>>4345787
>it will be somewhat entertaining to read Alberich killing all of his allies
Calling it now:
>Kill S/E for Medusa's actions,
>Kill Futodoki for losing to the priest
>Kill Korakuhime for not teleporting to us immediately,
>Kill Hecate for not giving us affections,
>Kill Saber for lack of initiative,
>Kill Adelheid for not being here even if she found a lead,
>Kill Ayaka for not giving us energy,
>Kill Lily for not keeping Circe on a tighter leash,
>Kill self

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>>4345262
>[X] Shake Medusa awake and talk to her about her behavior a moment ago
>pic related
Give her a reminder that we're keeping her sisters

>>4345262
>>4345313
support

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>this blatant samefaggotry
You know how obvious you're being right?

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Methinks there be trolls among us.

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>ID changed
As if the well hasn't been poisoned enough.

>>4345910
>>this blatant samefaggotry
Someone finally says it, I knew it was going to be a sign when my ID "2men"

Wow.
What a fucking disaster of a quest this turned out to be.

I won't be calling the vote for 8 hours or so, but for now here's a tally.

Ask about how Medusa is feeling and try to help her process the loss of the Emiya parents. Give her to her sisters, then go looking for Arturia and Adelheid.
>>4345313
>>4345330
>>4345822
>>4345858

Ask if Medusa thinks you could have convinced Shirou or Sakura not to fight you.
>>4345398

Wake Medusa up, but I'm not sure which conversation topic to count this vote for.
>>4345715

Completely snap and kill Medusa
>>4345610
>>4345640
>>4345649
>>4345771
>>4345821

Wake Medusa up and threaten her with her sisters.
>>4345845