Fate Of A Gamer

Saber and Astolfo rush forward first, their weapons brandished and ready to strike. Angra easily blocks both with his shivs, his strength far above what he'd normally have as a simple Avenger. Saber breaks away and fires a barrel of spiraling wind at him, pushing him back and opening him for Astolfo to charge forward and thrust his lance forward.

His markings glow.

WEAKNESS

Black tendrils shoot out from him, created by the curses inside him. Astolfo quickly blocks the incoming attacks, but he nearly trips when a sudden weakness strikes him. His arms shake, his legs quiver, and it's only because of Hanami pulling him back that he manages to escape without getting hurt.

Caster and Francis start their ȧssault, firing magical bullets and pellets at the stationary Angra. They only make it so far before they're struck down by the tendrils still lurking all around him, and it's then that the Dingirs Gilgamesh had prepared in her treasury fires, launching the weapons from her gates at incredible speed.

More of the markings glow.

IMPOTENCY

The fired Noble Phantasms suddenly crack, the connection between them and their owner broken, and they disappear into golden dust. Gilgamesh continues to fire, but nothing changes. The Noble Phantasm lose their anchor the moment they come close to him, and those lucky enough to reach him are blocked by the tendrils coming from his body.

Soon, the sickly atmosphere surrounding Angra disappears, and with him still open from Gilgamesh's bombardment, Shirou takes the chance and leaps forward. Angra notices this easily, bringing forth more tendrils to attack him.

But he's not backing down. A weakened version of his [Spirit Embodying] is activated and Okita's haori appears around his shoulders, boosting his strength and speed. Hanami quickly notices, her Mystic Eyes allowing her to survey the battle in greater clarity, and she uses her control over gravity to speed Shirou up even more.

The markings on Angra's body glows, but both Shirou and Hanami aren't going to lose this chance. Leaping impossibly from air, Shirou boosts forward even more, Hanami bending space to increase his speed. The curse in his body is about ready to be unleashed, but Shirou makes three instantaneous thrusts, and blackened blood erupts from his ċhėst as the katana stabs into and out of his body.

BLINDNESS

Shirou's golden eyes suddenly become dull, and he's struck by a blindness in all senses. Hanami is there to pull him back though, allowing Saber to take his place.

Saber swiftly charges on, using [Invisible Air] as powerful jets to boost her forward. Noble Phantasms from varying histories and ages fly past her, each aimed at the still unmoving Angra and burning with magical energy, ready to explode. Following them are a volley of gunfire and magical arrows.

However, even with him focused on healing the injury he's taken, the tendrils he controls don't slow down, easily batting away any projectile sent his way. As she closes in, Saber's eyes and ears become blind, but she continues onwards, using her [Instincts] to guide her body. She ducks under an incoming tendril, and as she rises she slashes her trusted sword up, creating a nasty cut stretching all the way up his torso.

She steps aside to avoid an incoming shiv, but a tendril sneaks up from the soil and strikes her boots. Immediately, screams and wails of an uncountable number of curses bubble within her soul, but she pushes them down. Gathering wind through her sword, she focuses them into her sword's tip, before thrusting her weapon at Angra.

Be struck by the hammer of the wind king,

"[Invisible Air]!" A condensed blast of air shoots forward from her sword, blasting through Angra's body and sending him tumbling back. The accursed screams in her mind stop, her senses return, and quickly steps back to recover.

Angra's stumble is less than graceful, understandable considering his lack of actual battle experience, but he quickly gets up and backs away, dedicating his energy to heal the injuries he's sustained.

Then, from behind, Astolfo appears, using the [Trap of Argalia] instead of the [Spuit Lance]. The curse he's sent has ended, but his markings quickly glow, ready to burst.

CONFUSION .

Astolfo's world shifts. He's suddenly upside down, his weapon in his legs and the sky somehow bright green. His eyes are no longer coordinated, moving on their own, and his body is both hot and cold.

But he isn't a knight for nothing. He pushes past those debilitations and gently taps Angra's shoulder with his spear before leaping over him and escaping. The Argalia's curse comes into effect and Angra finds himself falling onto the ground, his knees no longer capable of holding him up.

Hanami quickly pulls Astolfo away, and with the coast clear Gilgamesh readies her armory. Hundreds of golden portals come to life behind her, each Dingir behind those portals ready to fire the Noble Phantasms notched on them. Magical energy floods every weapon in her portals, and at her command, they fire.

Each Noble Phantasm is bursting with magical energy, so much so that they're losing their natural form and beginning to crack under the extreme stress.

A broken Phantasm.

The tendrils coming from Angra's body do their best to defend against the onslaught, but the empowered bombardment of Noble Phantasms soon overpower it, and Angra lets out a silent scream as hundreds of broken Phantasms stab into his body, each exploding the moment they make impact.

Just like with the Dingirs, this was another one of Hanami's brilliant suggestions Gilgamesh had to try out, but the praises can be saved for later.

Though injured, the marks on Angra's body glow, the light an intense purplish black.

Sensing the incoming danger, Hanami reverses the flow of gravity and pulls them all into the sky, up and away from the blast radius of what is to come.

DESOLATION

In a radius of a large lake, every single trace of life disappears. The fertile soil Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasm created turns empty and dead. The small foliage beginning to grow over it decays, crumbling into ash and blown away.

'The stronger curses are coming.' Hanami narrows her eyes, doing her best to decipher every remaining curse Angra has in his disposal. With the curse ending, Gilgamesh sends a rain of swords at the downed Angra, aided by a volley of magical projectiles from Francis and Caster.

The marks on Angra's body glow.

A dome of condensed curses form over him. Any and all attacks that come into contact are suddenly broken, their energy sapped and torn away.

Within that protective dome, the markings glow once more.

DECAY

All that's come to this conflict suddenly suffers. Astolfo and Saber both double over, the muscles in their hands suddenly tearing and bleeding. Francis and Caster cough up blood, their lungs suddenly tightening and weakening. Gilgamesh shivers as the portals around her disappear, the connection between her and her treasury cut off with no warning.

Shirou winces as his magic circuits shut off all of a sudden. Okita's katana and haori disappears from him, the reinforcement he's passively applied on himself fading. But Avalon quickly comes to life, healing any potential damages the curse might've caused on his circuits.

Only Hanami is saved from this, a product of her [Morningstar], and even then her Mystic Eyes are fȯrċɨbŀƴ closed by the influx of magical energy. Shaking the feeling away, Hanami quickly activates her Mystic Eyes again, and proceeds to frown.

"Is everyone okay?" Hanami quickly asks.

"We're not dead, so I say we're still adequately fine." Caster says, though whether that was sarcasm or not is unknown and her stoic expression doesn't say anything either. "But we won't win in a battle of attrition." Caster frowns as the protective dome around Angra fades, showing that he's completely healed all the damage he's taken. "So what should we do, Tsunaka-san?"

"There's not much we can do really. With how much prana he's got going for him, he's pretty much immortal." She says with a grimace. "The most I can think of is cutting off his anchors, but even then he'll still live."

"Then we don't have a choice, do we?" Gilgamesh says with a smirk, though the paleness of her face betrays the confidence she's trying to keep, the missing connection to her treasury causing her no small amount of discomfort.

"I just need to get close…"

But such a thing won't be easy, especially with the multitude of accursed tendrils rampaging around him. Well, that, and the many, many curses he still has access to.

Oh well, if she isn't trying to get close up to destroy the foundation of something, then it just isn't her style.

"Then I'll make sure no one will halt you."

"But your hand-"

Saber shakes her head. "I can feel nothing from it, but it isn't a liability just yet." Her green eyes seem to shine, her mind taken back to a time long gone. "As long as I stand, I will not yield. Not now, and never."

"Count me in too!" Astolfo cheers, the famed horn [La Black Luna] already enlarged to its true form and ready to be blown. His arms are shaking, still suffering from the curse Angra struck him with, but he sends a toothy grin at Hanami. "I'll blow away all those icky tentacles for you!"

"I shall as well."

"Don't count us out yet!"

Despite Angra's curse, Gilgamesh forcefully returns her connection to her treasury, causing winds to blow as portals begin to form behind her back. They aren't as many as the king likes, nor are they stable enough to allow her Dingir's to function correctly, but she remains silent, her eyes narrowed at the mongrel who dared take away her treasures.

The last to respond is Shirou, the Kojiki Kiyomitsu brandished in his hands and Okita's haori draped over his shoulders. He looks to her, gold meeting bright green, and she nods.

There needed no words to be exchanged, the message he sent simple.

Go.

Smiling, Hanami brings forth her staff, her mission clear.

"Francis!"

"Alright! [Golden Hind]!" Francis' priced ship forms under them, and with a flying construct under them Hanami lets go over gravity and everyone gently drops onto the ship's deck.

Hanami, Shirou, Saber, and Astolfo leap off the ship, their Noble Phantasms ready. The Rider is first to strike, taking a deep breath before blowing into his enlarged magical horn, sending powerful waves of wind and sound at the incoming tendrils. They all are stopped, before they are torn away, blown apart by the magical horn's powerful winds.

Hanami and Shirou speed past the other two, leaping off air and flying fast towards Angra Mainyu. Saber is just behind them, sending gusts of wind to clear the approaching accursed tendrils, clearing a path for the two to charge on.

CORRUPTION

A sickly feeling passes by the two approaching individuals, but the feeling goes mostly ignored, with Hanami's [Morningstar] and Shirou's Avalon providing protection against the curses. Saber, who'd been closely behind them isn't as lucky however, as taint begins to creep up her body. The screams of the world's evil echo in her mind, and the armor she so prized begins to grow black, almost looking like it was rusting.

The corruption seeps deeper into her, reaching deep into her [Saint Graph], the traits that makes her who she is, and it starts to tamper with it, changing it into something else entirely. Her history flashes by her eyes as they start to change, her mind tears in half as new familiar yet unknown memories begin to conflict against her old ones.

Her identity is cracking, slowly being torn away.

As numbness begins to set in, she finds herself carried away into the sky, pulled up by a worried Astolfo, now riding on the mount that defined his class. Gently tapping the mythological beast, the Hippogriff roars and brings them away from the battle.

Back on the ground, Shirou and Hanami are close. The distance between them and Angra Mainyu is less than a meter. A single of Shirou's leaps will be enough to cross the distance, but Angra fights back, calling forth hundreds of black tendrils from inside his body and lashing them at the duo.

His markings glow.

SICKNESS

The tendrils coming to them suddenly turn a sickly purple, diseases of a thousand ages dripping from them. With her Mystic Eyes, she sees a glance of every sickness contained within those accursed tentacles, and she sees pain and death, parasites that dig through the body like some sort of worm, and even illnesses from the distant future.

That doesn't stop her advancement, nor does it stop Shirou.

Because from above comes a bombardment of weapons, each a Noble Phantasm of varying strength and effects. The tendrils moving towards them are torn away in an instant, the diseases they carry useless against the onslaught of material weapons.

They close in, not even a tenth of a meter left.

Angra roars silently, his markings glowing in tandem as he swings his two shivs at them.

BLEEDING

Hanami quickly brings up her staff to intercept, but Shirou beats her to it, moving in front of her and clashing his katana against the shivs instead. The curse Angra brought out activates, surging through their attached weapons and seeping into Shirou's body.

The curse thrashes violently, and blood erupts from every muscle in his body. Strength leaves his body, his magic circuits forcefully closed, and he's thrown aside by Angra to attack her.

But by the time he does that, it's too late.

Hanami reaches her staff forward, the staff's head stabbing into Angra Mainyu's heart.

Then, the world goes still, and she bleeds as she peers into all the evils of the world.