Land of the Blades

30. Death

Before I could take a sip out of it, Shirou warned me that it might be hot, but he forgot to warn me about its taste. It wasn't entirely sour, but it was really strong, and I almost choke because of it.

—I'm sorry, since we didn't have any sugar or honey, I completely forgot about the taste —Caster said, giving me some pat on the back.

Shirou drank his tea and made a weird face, half out of the intense flavor of the tea and half of fond memories being awaken by it. I was hesitant to take another sip, when Sensei approached me.

—May I? —He said, pointing to the cup.

—Are you going to drink it too? —I asked with a surprised tone, handing him my portion of the tea.

—No, I would like to just smell it a bit —Sensei replied—, it is somehow... nostalgic.

My head started hurting a bit, and for a moment, I thought I saw the silhouette of someone standing next to him, wearing a coat like Rutile's, and holding a cup in her hands.

—Sensei, I... —I started to say after the figure had vanished, but I was distracted by a weird blue glowing coming from the hole in the ceiling.

I turned around and saw that the light was coming from every opening to the outside. Everyone else also noticed, so we stood up and approached it with caution, swords drawn. To our surprise, we found that the black clouds covering the sky had opened in a spot, letting us see one of the moons. However, this one looked huge, and with a blue tint. Just as that image was starting to set on my mind, a Sunspot appeared, and as it started to unfold, it also started expanding both horizontally and vertically, seemingly covering the entire panorama in front of us.

From the sunspot, several hands started sprouting, like when Shiro the dog appeared the first time, but this were humongous in comparison. At least a dozen hands appeared individually, and two more emerged together, being followed by the chest and head of a giant figure. I felt a bit of relief when I realized it was just a giant version of the immobile statue they had in the center of their vessels, and not an actual giant Sundry. The statue rotated a bit downwards, allowing us to see that each had was carrying a group of Lunarians equal than what a regular vessel will carry, all of them playing instruments or waving banners. In the center hands there was Franny, surrounded by four figures that seemed to be other Servants, and some very peculiar beings.

For the servants, one was wearing a black armor with some red markings, and wielding a similar looking sword. Another was a child with grayish skin and black hair, wearing what seemed to be rags, and holding a sword that was bigger than her. The third one was another girl, dressed in some sort of ceremonial clothes, with her face behind the skull of what seemed to be a jackal. The final one looked like a samurai with a straw hat, and an extremely large sword. At that moment it didn't occurred to me that there should only be three servants left.

The other beings that were next to them and Franny could have been separated into two groups. The first ones were definitively Lunarians, their entire body was their characteristic pinkish color, but they all had different body shapes. One was very tall, almost as tall as Sensei, and was wearing what looked like an Oni mask. There were a couple of the brawny ones we fought when Rider attacked, but also others who didn't look too apt to fight. One of them was so scrawny, and was holding something like a notebook as if his life depended of it. It kind of reminded of my younger self.

The other group was really odd, their skin and clothes were some tone of dark blue. Their body shape, their clothes, and the weapons they carried varied a lot, but all of them had their eyes covered, and stood still as rocks.

Shirou manifested his shield in front of us after a quick glance, but none of the Lunarians had even drawn their bows or any other weapon. Franny was the only one who stepped to the very edge of the platform she was standing in.

—Congratulations, Lustrous people —she said, extending her arms to the sides—, you have proven your determination to survive against the odds, you have impressed me. For that reason, allow me to present you with what that will end all the conflicts.

She held her hands towards us and lowered her head, it looked almost as if she was praying. A large object started to manifest over her hands, a spear with two prongs that twisted and fused with the rest of its body. My head started aching again, and in the corner of my eye, I could see that Shirou was experimenting something similar. I focused on the weapon, "tracing its components" and saw carbons of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. I felt as if I had seen that pattern before but at first I couldn't remember where. When I turned around and saw the same pattern in Sensei's sash, I was able to remember it. I had seen something very similar on the cracks that had appeared on Sensei's back, though I was still not sure if I had imagined seeing them. I felt like there was still something lacking in that spear, but it was sure it was physically the same.

I heard a thundering noise, and Shirou's shield was destroyed in an instant. Right before my eyes, Sensei had been impaled by that spear. I... I couldn't understand what I was seeing, and I'm sure everyone else was as confused as I was, at least during the first instants after that. He fell backwards into the ground, and closed his eyes.

—Se-Sensei? —Euclase weakly murmured, trying to reach him, but to scared to move.

—W-what? No... —Jade said, not believing what his eyes were saying.

—We... We can... —Rutile was hyperventilating, looking for the instruments he always carried on his coat's pockets, but his hands were shaking so hard he keep dropping them to the ground.

Dia was the one who finally let a yell of pain and horror from the bottom of his soul, and most of the others followed him. Everyone started cracking and "crying", falling to their knees. I was still standing, frozen, but I felt my body cracking and the alloy sprouting to the outside. I think one of my arms even fell off. Even Caster and Shirou looked too shocked to react.

—How dare you... —I heard someone say among the cries and laments, with a tone full of anger and resentment. To my surprise, it hadn't been Bort, but Jade.

He stood with the help of his sword, and before anyone could do anything, he started running towards Franny.

—W-wait! —I heard Caster said, but it was too late to stop him. Instead, she started to recite a spell.

Jade jumped higher than I had seen anyone jump before and was about to slash Franny, when she defeated him with just a simple word.

—DIE.

Jade's body went limp and he started to fall, I reacted on the very last moment and ran to where he was falling, managing to catch him with my alloy just before he would hit the ground. He wasn't moving, and I was thinking that the worse had happened, but he started coughing and wheezing.

—Thank goodness —I head myself saying—, are you alright?

—Yeah, I'm fine —he said, his head had cooled a bit by that point.

He tried to stand on his own, but his legs didn't respond and he almost fell.

—W-what is going on? I can't move my legs?

—I'm sorry —Caster said as she arrived where we were— Franny intended to kill the inclusions on your body, I tried to cast a protection spell, but I couldn't cover all of you on time...

She told Jade that they will do a full test when things have calmed, so we carried him together back to where everyone else was. Just as we passed Shirou, we heard lightning cracking.

—I AM THE BONE OF MY SOUL —he said as he aimed his bow loaded with Cadalbog, pointing right where Franny would be.

I tried to stop him, thinking of how he was still recovering from the exhaustion after using it during the fight with Rider, but he had already released the string. The arrow went straight against its objective, but Franny made it disappear with just a gesture of her hand. The giant statue started receding into the sunspot, and as it vanished, the clouds once again covered the blue moon.