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protoarthurpendragon-blog · 7 years ago

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A knight's purgatory part 2

It was not strange that Arthur's mind and heart were racing thinking about the possibilities of someone maybe just looking the same as him but the most logical conclusion was that this vengeful spirit in armour was him.

Usually he'd have remained composed , polite and just honorably challenged this servant to a duel and preserve his honor but the fact someone dared to act as him , praising himself as the king Arthur is set him in a state of rage he hadn't felt since he lived.

In a fit of anger his first reaction was to swing at the alter with his free hand, but before it connected the hand was caught and he was headbutted.

Normally the impact of a head against his metal helm would've harmed the assailant instead but this was not a normal spirit, for that hit packed enough force to shatter his helmet's visor and launch him back sliding across the ground on his back.

As Arthur got to a stop he felt his vision blurr and noises sound muffled ; he struggled to get up extending his shaking left hand to his enemy , but said man just stood over him with a look of disgust on his face. The last he managed to pick up was him saying "you can't trick yourself." in a very faint echo before he raised his left metal boot and bringing it down towards his face, he didn't feel the impact pain as he immediately faded to black.

Arthur awoke after an undefined amount of time, he couldn't tell if it was night or day considering the entire land was covered by a sinister blanket of black clouds but this area felt different yet familiar in a way.

He slowly got up on one knee and in a reflex of the intense pain surging through Arthur's head , his hand jolted up to hold it. Aside from the pain he felt an all too familiar feeling of a warm fluid dripping down his face ; he was bleeding. Not surprised that he was after that kick ; in fact it was pretty lucky that he didn't have that impact shatter his skull.

He realised now was not the time to dwell in thought and ignored the pain in an agonised grunt standing up now, closing his eyes for a moment not to faint and gain balance, breathe in, breathe out, until a voice from behind him called out calmly :

"You're finally awake. Welcome."

Arthur's head slowly cocked around ; he wasn't in shock to hear that guy around as well , would've probably been more shocking if he wasn't. As he slowly opened his eyes however his mind went absolute blank.

He was on the top of a hill with dead grass and around him was a sea. Not a sea of water, a sea of corpses. Swords were stuck in the ground with helmets put over the hilts, horses and men alike scattered dead , and the entire landscape was coated in a layer of dry blood. The armour they wore , crests they had, even some faces ; all of this was familiar too him and the knight prayed to dear god this was not what he thought. Arthur shambled through the pile of dead fighters, aiming towards the alter:

"What is this... what did you do?! THIS ISN'T REAL!"

While he did, he was fast to notice another thing that proved all his skeptism wrong ; in the distance he saw a village and castle, the further it stretched the more chaos , destruction and death was seen. His gaze even when so far away from it basically zoomed in on all of this as if he had seen it all with his own eyes before in horrific detail, if it wasn't for the fact he could barely feel his face Arthur would have thrown up just now as he realised what castle was engulfed in flames, towering this far away, Camelot. His kingdom all in ruin.

"This..this is a dream! THIS ISN'T REAL! YOU'RE NOT REAAAAAL!"

Arthur found himself shouting and falling to his knees ; it was real. He couldn't fool himself thinking it is a dream because servants don't dream but he wished for it to be one with all his heart.

He looked straight at the dark knight as he rose his voice:

"All of it is real. You're in purgatory, your very own hell." The man's face looked unsettling as he smiled basking in Arthur's agony,

"And I am real too. Deny it all you want but I am you; all your desires , lusts and bad qualities. Your sins have created this hell and now you brought it too far living a careless life. Get up and fight ; I am going to kill you and you will keep coming back. You will be stuck here reliving this hell for all eternity."

The man grabbed up to his face and tossed the mask aside revealing that it was indeed just an evil Arthur. If he had any doubts in that being him, they were gone now.

"...no. You aren't me."

Arthur said getting up,

"You may look like me and sound like me, carry the same armour and weapon as me but you are not me. I would have never become the vengeful husk of a man you are , do you know why? Because I can love. I love my friends, my family, my master and the power of this undying love has led me into the light. All you can do is hate and that will be your downfall, now let me show you how much this fake reality is worth to me."

Arthur clasped his right hand's fingers around the hilt of Excalibur and pulled it out of its scabbard, bringing it on chest level and pointing it at the faker using the free hand to wipe some blood of his face.

The alter's eyes narrowed before unsheathing the tainted Excalibur and raised it over his head,

"You talk a lot of shit for barely being able to stand. Whatever, at least it will be more interesting now."

With these words both of them charged at each other and the blades started clashing.

Every hit precisely aiming for vitals but countered by the other, grabs and throws occuring and Arthur finally managing to inflict a slash wound on the alter's left cheek in which he started to put more force into his assault. Arthur returned the favor as their swords kept clashing in a test of power letting sparks fly everywhere, if spectated by others this display of skill would be beautiful ; two masters of the sword facing each other, something any fighter dreams of. If it wasn't for this scenario, Arthur would happily surrender his head after defeat but this time defeat wasn't an option.

He warded off a strike from the alter and gashed him across the chest, doing enough harm to send him toppling back and grabbing at his chest.

The alter calmly asked, "We're the same person with the same strength and fighting style, yet not even with the grail's power I can outdo you. Why?"

Arthur lowered his sword but not his guard,

"Has the grail's corruption really blinded you this much? It is because I have a reason to fight. People love me and believe in me and as long as I live I will not disappoint them. I fight for my friends and that gives me strength. My heart carries conviction ; all that I see in you is hate. You fight for the sake of harming others and have no reason or morals to pursue, all you want is chaos..which is why I will not lose. I can not lose to you, man whose heart is filled with nothing but hate. Prepare to be stricken down and hopefully be cleansed of this corruption."

These words must have hit the man deep in the nerve for he grit his teeth and breathed loudly, running at Arthur with his sword raised.

"Shut up and die already, you're so annoying! AAAAAAAAGGGHHH!"

This is the end. Arthur's sword came up in a horizontal swipe and inflicted a mortal cut before the other could even swing down. Both of their gazes met in a stare down, Arthur's calm yet stern and the other's shocked and angry. He coughed and started to stumble back tripping over his own feet and falling onto his back, Excalibur Morgan suddenly sliding out of his grasp.

Arthur slowly walked up to the man who was coughing and struggling to breathe, "a sad sight to see." he thought while shaking his head and raising Excalibur with both of his hands.

"I-...Impossible.." came coughing out from the mortally wounded alter,

"If you had been me you would have never let mere words make you throw out a sloppy strike."

Those were the last words they traded before Arthur thrusted his sword into the man's heart in a mercy kill. He would never let a lethally wounded man die on his own if the suffering didn't have to be prolonged. And as the cold steel pierced his heart , his eyes closed and body faded away as this era's holy grail was now laying on the ground in front of him. Arthur could have wished to have his kingdom and previous life back but he knew what this would mean ; never to see his friends again. That he could not bear to even think about.

He sheathed Excalibur and picked up the grail and felt its magical presence crackle and slowly cover Arthur's vision in light and hearing in a slightly high pitched buzzing before it all faded to black again, though this time..

..Arthur was fine with it.

His eyes opened again slowly as in the blurry state of his vision he could already make out the mystic code and orange hair above him.

As his vision came to, he heard the calm voice speak, "You were passed out for a while, I was starting to get worried." None other than his master, he smiled as he felt that she had held his right hand close to her chest with both hands.

"I'm sorry for making you wor-"

Wait...where was he laying on? Looking aside he was met by her stomach ; he'd been laying in his master's lap for the entirety of the time he was out cold?! His hands swiftly covered his face to hide the his embarassed expression as he heard giggling and a hand ruffling through his hair.

"I hope you're comfortable, you can lay here as long as you want, the grail is secure so we can take a breather for a while."

And with that, Arthur sighed and took his hands away still having his cheeks flushed red and just remained there for a while.

He was back home and master was safe, another successful day on the job.

[Fin]

#fgo rp #rp #fate grand order #roleplay

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protoarthurpendragon-blog · 7 years ago

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"Saber come on! Wake up!" Is all that it took to rip Arthur out of the dream he was having and make him slowly open his eyes. It took him a while to get acquainted to the light of day again as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. His mind was still all over the place and he squinted at the person that shouted for him to wake up, the metal plates and massive shield would have him guessing it was Mashu and he was right, her shield disappeared in a short flash of light and she gave him a look he had yet to see from a person like her. It wasn't her usual cute , optimistic and collected self, it was ridden with worry and slight panic.. whatever it was that would leave a brave servant like her scared gave Arthur an idea of how serious the situation might be.

Rising from the make shift bed he tilted his head at Mashu, he would have wished her a good morning but it wasn't looking like it was good after all.

"What's the matter, shielder? You look distressed.. and where is master?" Mashu's expression darkened even more as she stuttered while going pale "Master was abducted while me and her were out on exploration! Unknown enemies and a saber-servant took her into custody and left, they didn't harm me but if we're not fast then...then.."

It dawned on Arthur it was time to get serious. He gestured her to calm down as he saw the tears welling up in her eyes saying "I couldn't protect master..it's my fault!" And he responded "I will deal with it. You stay here and guard the camp. Whoever decided to snatch her off the road made a grave mistake."

He started to swiftly step towards the exit of the makeshift hideout cave they had rested in , correcting this singularity took longer than expected so they needed rest but why did they decide to go out again? He had no time to lament or blame, Arthur was on a mission and he would not let ANYTHING get in his way. As he stepped out the cave the armour plates he usually donned appeared in a flash of light alongside the belt bearing his sacred blade Excalibur Proto and scabbard, Avalon. For once he also put on his horned helmet closing the visor, looking back once more seeing Mashu stand there wordless , no words needed to be exchanged any further he thought and he let his left hand rest on Excalibur's cross guard as he went.

It did not take long to find the presumed root of this cause, considering Arthur was staring down the gates of a fortress with guards stationed at them, from the distance it seemed normal but the amount of magical energy he sensed was unusual. Not only that but the air had the scent of death in it. Looking closer he noticed the guards were not humanoid either, shadows of servants created by some foul craft.. his instinct never failed him. He flicked out the straps holding Excalibur in place as he charged at the gates, though it seemed the fortress bolstered more manpower than he expected as he saw a group of 20 shadows charge him like they were just grunts they could affort to lose, though the aura and their ferocity seemed to say otherwise, if he'd drop his guard once that would mean death for him. Arthur's sword concealed itself with magic to hide the identity as he clashed with the group of fighters. They were not a pushover but there was no stopping Arthur , his intentions were clear and his mind was dead set on returning with master.. and seeing this , he assumed that getting rid of it must also mean cutting the singularity's cause. After disposing of them he raised his blade in front of the gates and gashed it down letting an arc of harmful light cut them in half so he could step in. Being inside he now felt it , master's presence and at least one servant. Though..the aura seemed familiar he could not put his finger on whom it could have been. It seemed so familiar yet so different, hundreds of thoughts coursed through his mind as he rammed down the doors of each individual room of the castle interior scanning them with his eyes, cutting down any threat he encountered. Normally he would struggle against enemies of this caliber but his undying loyalty surged him with the willpower of a thousand rallied soldiers. Feeling the presence get closer he shouted "I'm coming master, hold on for me!"

As he busted down the last possible door , the large throne room just had one singular large chair in the middle of the unusual looking.. was this a work of mage craft? At this point he didn't care, he had to save his master. Walking up to her throne he saw how tired she looked but thank god no injuries

"A...arthur..is that..is that you? Sorry for making you worry.."

He cut the ropes she was tied up with and scooped her up carefully like a princess, talking softly "Yes it's me master. It's okay, don't worry.. I came to get you out of here." And that he did.. to his surprise Mashu came after him and stood outside the castle doors with her shield planted into the ground, he'd question why she abandoned the hideout but now was not the time. He handed Gudako's tired body to Mashu, "Let's go h-" right as he was about to say he felt a sinister presence emerge from the room behind him. Damn it , in his rush he didn't notice how a servant was following him! "Run, I have a score to settle." Were his only words as he turned around. This must have been the person who captured her he thought, though as he saw who it was he was left dumbfounded in shock..the red-black armor was an exact polar opposite to his blue-white one, the hair looked like his and the sheathe.. a corrupted carbon copy of himself who dared touch master. No matter who it was he'd make them pay, the fact he saw it was another version of him made this unforgivable.

"Hello there, saber." Even the voice was similar just a lot more sinister. They approached each other with no rapid movement, no fear.. though the alter seemed to be smiling in a smug way, mocking him. As they stared each other down on point blank , both of them as if staring into a mirror grasped the hilt of their sheathed blades as the righteous one spoke : "Try me, heathen."

In which the dark one replied "Feelin' lucky, punk?"

[To be continued.]

#fgo stuff #fgo #fate series #fate grand order #fgo rp #rp

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