Fate Of A Gamer

Astolfo frowns, seeing the slowly rising tides of corrupted mud coming out from the ground. From the moment he was summoned, he knew something was amiss, and Hanami had come to him to describe just what was going on, but still, seeing it for himself is…

Behind him are Akemi and Waver, the former unconscious while the latter is injured, most of his left arm bȧrėly functioning. Had Astolfo arrived a second sooner, the monster of corrupted mud would have speared him through his ċhėst. Actually, it was quite impressive for a normal human to have survived against what was essentially a servant made of the grail's corruption.

Hanami and Shirou don't count. Those two are exceptions among exceptions.

But now that puts him in a dilemma. Both Akemi and Waver are currently incapable of fighting nor moving, and trying to escape from a situation like this was a bad idea. Now, Astolfo is forced to defend against an increasing number of these weird 'corrupted mud servants'.

But that's fine, because despite all the chaos, the skies are awfully pretty tonight, filled with blinding auroras and blinking stars.

He always liked the night sky, especially when the moon was missing or near invisible. It looked almost picturesque, like an ethereal painting that would fade away when the sun returned to the sky. Back when he still served as a knight, he'd spend many nights simply roaming about, maybe flying atop his mount once in a while as he watched the night sky.

...Huh, how did he remember that? Just a day ago he completely forgot about that, answering nothing when his master asked him why he liked night time so much. Is it because the moon isn't visible tonight or something?

Well, whatever the case, this ultimately tilts the odds back into his favor.

Because you know? He'd been called the 'weakest knight' among his fellow knights. Hell, it even became a part of his legend! He doesn't particularly mind it, since he doesn't value strength like the other gorillas do, but...It's always been a sore point on him, and it hurt him somewhat just how casual people mentioned it.

But just like how strength doesn't always determine the outcome of a battle, so do to the face-quality of a servant. A low, maybe mid rank servant he may be, but when he gets serious?

And he'd killed a hoard of harpies with but a single blow of his Noble Phantasm, so why should a bunch of mindless mud monsters be any different?

Astolfo prepares himself, taking note of how many mud servants have been created, and how many are approaching from the distance.

The verdict? Not good. These guys have mediocre stats, but they number in the thousands in total, and anyone's going to get tired eventually, him especially considering his stamina is perhaps the worst thing he has going for him.

But here, Hanami-chan comes to the rescue, once again!

Light flickers and a spear forms in his hand. However, instead of the [Trap of Argalia], a new spear takes its place, one that is made from a strange, black metal and looks more like a strange syringe placed on a spear handle. It even has some weird glowing purple liquid sloshing inside it!

"Here, take this." Hanami had said to him a night ago, the strange spear offered. "You said stamina's your weakest trait, right? Then this should help."

Of course, several questions popped up the moment the girl handed over a bona-fide Noble Phantasm over like it was nothing, but before he could ask, the girl had already disappeared.

Still, it was just the girl's strangeness, he supposes.

Either ways, as much as he liked his natural jousting spear, it isn't much of an offensive Noble Phantasm. Like, sure, it can kill if need be, but most of the time it'd only force someone down and incapacitate them. Sadly, these mud servants don't feel pain, nor do they care if their legs suddenly disappear.

[Spuit Lance] is this spear's name, one that Hanami said belonged to a certain vampire. Unlike the [Trap of Argalia], this spear will kill someone if they're hit by it, and if they survive, then they'd probably explode from the influx of magic the spear sent into the opponent's bloodstream. .

Or so she said.

But the reason why Hanami had given this to him in the first place was because of its final and true effect. Every time he hits or stabs something with it, then a portion of the hit enemy's life will be drained away and given back to her as prana.

And despite all that, it's still only a C+ Rank Noble Phantasm.

"Waver-chan, stay behind me, okay?" He turns to the boy and says. Waver makes a slow nod back, his teeth grit as he applies a healing lotion he'd created earlier with Caster. With his approval, Astolfo turns back to face the monsters. He brings forth the [La Black Luna], a special horn given to him by a kind witch, in its small horn form and brings it up to his mouth.

Then, his prana flows.

The small horn transform, becoming larger and more sophisticated. The previously small horn is replaced by a giant contraption created from a giant tuba with several trumpets as an added touch. Each instrument is tied together, their inputs all coming from one giant tube for Astolfo to blow into.

Astolfo takes one giant breath, and he blows.

The world is blown away.

With the force of a dragon's cry, the Noble Phantasm sounds, creating giant shockwaves that blow away anything remotely in its path. The mud servants too small or too weak to withstand its force are blown away, torn apart into tiny specks of corrupted mud, while those who manage to survive are blown and scattered about, parts of their body missing.

Now then, with around a couple hundred of those mud servants dead,

"Hippogriff!" His favored mount comes into existence at its master's call, and Astolfo smiles at it as he looks to the two masters he's protecting. "Take them somewhere far away and safe!" The hippogriff cries to deny, but the knight glares at it, and the phantasmal beast gives one last look before reluctantly turning and walking to the two humans. Waver stares at the beast for a moment, a trace of fear in his eyes, but he steels himself and carries Akemi and rides onto the beast.

The hippogriff gives out a cry as it flies away towards a safe location, leaving behind its current sworn master. Astolfo simply smiles as it flies away, before turning back to the empty space he'd created, now already filled with new mud servants ready to pull him in and turn him into them.

Yeah, not happening.

Astolfo brings forth his new spear run forward, eager to test this spear's effect first hand. A mud servant closes in, his sword already in the air and leaving its ċhėst open for attacks. He immediately thrusts the spear forward, and the rocky spear easily stabs right through and out of the mud servant's body. It spasms uncontrollably before it collapses, broken down and then absorbed into the spear.

Vigor rushes inside him as a fair amount of energy is returned, and Astolfo can't quite help the excited grin on his face as he turns to the approaching tide of monsters.

And so Astolfo bursts forward with speeds befitting of his class, kicking winds powerful enough to knock the monsters down as he runs past. His spear blurs, stabbing and swiping, tearing and piercing through the bodies of the mud servants. His energy is used when he boosts his speed, and he regains energy when his spear kills another mud monster.

It's a seemingly never-ending cycle.

Of course, over time, as he swiftly reaches somewhere around his 300th kill, he begins to notice the increasing amount of prana he's missing even with the [Spuit Lance] giving him energy back from every kill.

Not that it's slowing him down in any way though. He's still acting on the same strategy; kill the mud servants that'd come too close to him, and when there's a massive group of mud servants approaching in a single clump, he'll bring out the [La Black Luna] and blow on it, destroying the approaching group with massive shockwaves and winds.

It's when he's beginning to approach the 500th mark that he begins to realize something is off. The night, despite all the shuffling from the approaching horde, is silent, too silent. The sounds of cannons and explosions coming from the sky is gone. The worried shouts and cries he hears from the populace are gone. The sounds of something far above the night sky is gone.

All is gone, leaving eerie silence.

Astolfo stills, and the battlefield suddenly stops as well, with all the mud servants suddenly stopping their movements, simply staring at him impassively. What? He looks around at the mud servants, and none are moving. They're all standing in place, frozen in the same pose they are in just moments ago.

He quickly brings forth his other Noble Phantasm, a thick leather-bound book given to him by that same kind witch and calls upon its name.

"[Cassuer de Logistelle]!"

At its name, the book opens, its pages light up into sparkles of golden light before it erupts towards the sky in a tower of light. It crashes against an invisible ceiling, and suddenly cracks begin to form, spreading across the sky like some sort of intricate web. Soon, the Noble Phantasm succeeds in its endeavors, and the invisible barrier surrounding the area he's in shatters.

And with it, so do the mud servants he'd valiantly fought off, disappearing like a mirage.

'But then what was the point?' Astolfo can't help but ask. His master is still safely riding atop the Hippogriff with Waver, and there aren't any monsters even remotely close to them. There aren't any dangers nearby to bring him down, no obstacles to tackle.

Was it just a waste of time then? And if so, for what?

The answer presents itself to him when suddenly, out from the mountain roughly at the centre of the city, a bright pillar of purple light erupts up into the night sky. The starry sky is overridden by a sickly poison-like color, similar to the mud servants he'd just fought. The magical energy rising from the expanding cracks turns from a pale blue to a deep, eerie red.

The air shifts, and reality is twisted.

A reality marble has been formed.

And powering it in its center is the corrupted holy grail, its corrupted heart beating to an unheard rhythm.

Ah, so that's what Hanami meant.

~~~

"It seems it's time for you to wake."

"Is it?" Shirou asks, and Merlin gives a small nod. "Time marches on, and the final arc of this event has come to greet us." She smiles. "I believe it's ample time for us all to end this."

With a nod, Shirou stands, ready to leave. "Wish me luck." He says, before fading into golden dust, fading away and returning back into the real world.

Merlin places down her now empty cup, and sighs. "I shall."

Fight well, hero.