Gamestar Forum

Cody Lazarus

He had a standard room within the base, in which he was reorganizing his backpack. He took out his old pistol, which, despite now being powered by magic, used an old 45 Colt Peacemaker as a base. It still looked identical, and even slightly rusted due to its age. He checked numerous times to make sure he had exactly five bullets loaded. One slot was left open, just in case...

Caster, similarly resting, sat across from him in a wooden chair. He was still somewhat awake, but his eyes were shut and he was breathing slowly- optimal conditions to regenerate mana. Cody smiled, counting himself extremely lucky to have both himself and his servant survive throughout the entire war, but Avenger entered his mind.

Henri's right, I don't know if we have enough raw power to defeat her. Maria's an excellent asset despite her... eccentricities, but even her and her servant may not be enough. He fiddled with the revolving mechanism, keeping track of the slot without a bullet. "If I put enough mana into this, could I damage a servant? Could I kill one? I suppose I haven't tried... and of all servants, Avenger... I shouldn't consider it a reliable option." He slipped it into his holster and did away with the thought. Downstairs, he could hear something... There was a violin playing on the first floor.

In the lower room Avenger was playing to herself, wielding a polished black violin against a white bow. She was performing Johann Sebastian Bach's BWV 1004 in almost complete darkness, using only the gleaming blue code of Sanctum Sanctorum as a light source, which slowly danced around her like a few stray leaves caught up in a vortex. She noticed him enter, but continued to play, ignoring him. Unsure of what to do, Cody sat down and listened until the piece was eventually finished. After a brief silence he let out a single clap, hesitant to continue.

It's impossible to get a read on this girl...

Avenger let the violin dangle loosely in her grip as she addressed him. "You."

"Hmm?" He felt in a similar way as he was as a child, when a teacher was about to scold him.

"I can tell... You're different."

"How so?"

"I recognize you."

"I-I, uh, I think I summoned you."

"No, not from today. At some other point in time." He noticed she'd stammered for a moment, trying to find a better term than 'before'.

"Some... other... point?"

"I can't put my finger on it... but I've seen you. You may have not seen me, but I know I recognize you. The others are unknown to me, though."

"Well that's..." he nervously finished, "...weird..."

"It's probably nothing." She sounded like she was lying. "Do you play?" She asked, referring to the violin."

"Uh, no. I don't play any instruments."

"Hm." She nonchalantly dropped her instrument. Cody stared as it turned to glowing code and dispersed before it could hit the floor. "Alright... what do you play with?" She walked up and came uncomfortably close, then firmly planted two fingers on his forehead.

ח͝ט̤̪͜א ̭̫͡מ͙̥̺͙ק̝̜̪̯ו̱̫ר̖̯́י̡͈.

...What? He heard a spell being spoken, but he couldn't understand it.

"So you work with computers." Her fingers stood still, then slowly rubbed down and left his forehead, returning to her side. "I understand now."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You want to destroy the key."

"You could tell that just by touching my forehead?"

"I could recite your entire life story to you, Cody Victor Lazarus. Life is short, though, so I won't waste your time."

"...Hey."

"Hm?"

"Who are you, really? What's your identity?"

"Must I say?"

"The history books always speak of your noble phantasm and your role in the Sanctum Wars, but they never mention your identity. First-hand accounts always say they've forgotten. What is it about you, that after your death you were chosen by Sanctum to be its prime representative?"

"You seem to have it backwards." For once since she'd been summoned, she **** a smile. "Sanctum didn't choose me. I was the one who chose it."

"...Can you clarify?"

"Certainly, but I'm positive you've heard the story before."

"Go on."

"Fine." She exhaled. "It was the first meaningful decision."

Cody raised his eyebrows as if to say "Go on", but she'd apparently finished her sentence.

"And every decision has the potential to go horribly, horribly wrong." His eyes widened in realization. "But I'm confident I made the right choice. After all, I did create a new age. Someone else created this world..." She forced her fingers on his forehead once more. "...B̻̻u͙̯̦t̜͈̝̺ ͙̥͕̟̙̝i̖̤̝t̰̞̖͕̪ w͈a̤͚̰̬̲̥̙s͎̪̫͚ ̠̹̩̪I̮ w̘̞̬̹ͅh̯͍͓ͅo̜̼̦̤ ͖̪̠͕ḓ͎͓͎̪͍ͅe̦l̫͙̯̞i̬̰̜͖͈̭v̞̣̙̱͔̳e̗͖͙r͉̟͔̘̦̼e̪͖̲̬̖̭̣d̘̳͚͈͔ͅ ̠̱i͉̬̼͔͓̥t͔̣͖̞̹͈s̞̜̩͖ ̦l̠̙̰̲̬if͔̰̮e̮̪̰̬̭." The code enveloped him, and the world became a blinding white.

A new world appeared. The air's scent was that of a musky old house, but the skies were blue and the world seemed unnaturally young. Before him and Avenger stood a massive gate. Beyond it was a scene that his mortal brain couldn't fully comprehend, but he somehow felt that by his own hands he could open the gate somehow.

"Do you know who I am now?" Leaves were flying from inside the gates, but each one died as it touched the ground.

"The birth of Sanctum..."

She cleared her throat, reciting the full name of the original magic entity. "The birth of Sancta Sanctorum, the Second Garden. Before us, beyond that gate, lies the First." She walked forwards and pressed her fingers against the bars. "And I've been longing to unlock this gate for eons."

"You're Eve. The first sinner."

"You're Lazarus. You catch on quickly." The world faded back to the darkened laboratory. Above her hands Sanctum Sanctorum was glowing. From within it, the massive spear Luin fell to her side, which she caught and let tilt slightly to her left. "A noble phantasm is an amalgamation of a heroic spirit's memories, legacy, will to fight... and sins. Sins are what define us best, after all. All noble phantasms who have committed the ultimate sin... All weapons who have killed their target... belong to me. And my noble phantasm?" Luin exploded into code and the room went dark again. "...It is Sanctum itself."

Cody stepped back. The cycle... All noble phantasms linking to her, Eve. Does she think that... With enough weapons, with enough sins, she can destroy the gate and return to Eden? Am I understanding any of this correctly?

"I'd like to show you one more thing, Lazarus."

He gulped. "...Fire away."

In her hand appeared one more object.

It was a flash drive with duct tape hastily wrapped on it. Cody scrambled into his pockets, and sure enough, he took out one identical to hers.

"...No..." He couldn't believe it.

"Caster of Spades, Divided war of 2083. EX rank noble phantasm, Seed of Madeline."

"That's..." He stumbled backward. "That's not possible!"

"Sanctum doesn't care for the concept of time. A person leaves their impact on the world, that is part of the conditions required to summon a servant. There's no law dictating that all servants hail from the past, though. I can summon this because you're here. You're the catalyst."

"B-but, I..." He was shivering. "We destroy the key! We've won the war, we win, we..." His heart was pounding. "...No. I'd destroy the key. I know we all would."

"I could use this, you know..." She laughed, letting the flash drive disperse into code. "Never in history has such a powerful Noble Phantasm existed, excluding my own. Do you know what it does?" Cody's eyes were racing for an escape. "Do you know what you do in the future? With the Sanctum Key?"

"No!"

"You..." She stopped. "You did what I never could. You created life. Or, more, you equipped others with the power to do so. And that was it. 2083 was the final Sanctum war, you know..."

"What?"

"...By the time the conditions were right for the next one, there were no humans left to participate." She smiled maliciously at the sight of him convulsing. "Now, I know you'd never use your key, but..." She was fighting back more laughter. "I know someone who would. Now, do you remember Genesis? God created Adam, and from him he created me. I, in turn, created sin. I created Sanctum. Sanctum birthed modern humans, such as yourself. Tell me, Cody Victor Lazarus..." Her eyes were glowing. "W̫̤H̪͙̺O̤̥͕͈̦̣ ͕D̼̥͉͓̪I̖͙̫̗D̙͎̱̘̞ ̘Y͖̳̲̬̩̭O̟͚͓̰̥̤U̟͚̩͈ ̫C͚̼̗̣̘R̺E̜̱͎̘̹ͅA̟͈̩̹̼TE̹̮̮͎͖̭?͖̻̬͈̺"


AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

"Damn you!" He pulled out the peacemaker and fired at her.

The bullet stopped in midair and shattered.

"...You've had plenty of time to prepare, Club Faction. Now, while the apocalypse following 2083 sounds promising to watch, I'd rather forge a new destiny. It has to start here, though." More lines of code spewed forth, now focused in two places. Two powerful swords began to take form, blades facing him. "Every other war, I am predestined to be defeated. Not this time, though. Finally, I can fight back with full force knowing that you'll destroy everything." The swords were nearly completed. Cody stared her dead in the eye. "Let's start over, Lazarus. Fourteen new masters, fourteen new servants. I'll try to make this clean." The blades erupted from their portals and fired at him at incredible speed. He narrowly dodged out of the way as more surfaced behind her. "The war ends here." A glass of wine appeared in her hand, and she raised it in a toast. "Here's to the next one, so it may hold better results."

The portals all fired.

Maria

        Her eyes drifted along the snow and followed the footsteps as they led away from the grave. Only the tracks that led away from it remained and even those were slowly eaten away by the elements. The snow slowly ebbed, fluttering like petals in the wind.
She jaunted through the air, hovering over the mound of dirt.

        "Well, away from the prying eyes of your friends and loved ones, I'll prepare my own eulogy for you. You who has been graced with the showers of affection and sorrow. They truly are all fools. It's cold out you know. Threats could be on the horizon, they could die at any moment, and it'd make it all the manners worse if it was pneumonia that ended them."

       "Well, if we were to talk, I guess it'd be about our contract. Well, sorry about that.
All I can say really. Yeah."

---

       Clasping her hands in front of her chest, she began pulling artistry from the air. The familiar mist coiled, condensed, and solidified. This time, a glistening apple appeared in her palm. Cradling it, she began once more.
 
      "I was in an apple kind of mood the last couple of days. You accepted the apple quite willingly. COuld've been full of poison you know. It's synonymous with a lot of nasty ailments. In latin, mālum and mălum are quite similar phonically, with one being apple and the other being evil. The apple is the iconic symbol for death, sin, eternal life, and rebirth.Above all, the apple represents the tie between to people. I wonder, would he have joined your side if he had taken a bite?"

     Maria chuckled as she continued onwards, "Yeah, perhaps he'd be dead two. Well, I guess you wouldn't want that now, would you. After all, your purpose for being in the war was to protect those dearest to you. Well, he's still alive. You were a young, naive fool and you paid for it with your life. Yes, in hindsight, a mirror may not have saved you, but having one would have been nice, no? Ah, well, I'll bequeath upon to you another apple. For the journey ahead. It'll be a long one."

     "Ah, I'm in a sing songy mood so let's listen to this." The Maria shell began digging into the song remains stored within the crystal tissue.

---

     As Lancer charged through the forest, he felt both a sense of impending doom and an exhilarating exaltation of the highest degree. The energies that he comprised with hummed with awe and gloom. It was a complicated feeling. But the one thing he knew for sure, was that it emanated from the building in front.

    "There is a great person amongst us."

     "Is that so my King? Someone more grandeous than you?"

     "Very much so, my soul quivers due to the sheer aura they emit. Divine? Heathen? I do not know. This cloud is unclear, unlike the clear taint from that trash who walked upon this earth moments ago."

      Although Maria was in a nice mood due to the lovely music she was enjoying by proxy, her expression sunk.

---

      "HahahahahahaahaHAHAHAHAAHAAA"
      A few miles away, the broken laughter echoed in a small, enclosed area.
 
     
           

Hera

Hera was wrapping up her leg in gauze when she heard a loud noise from down the hall. ...the f*** these people doing? Killing each other?

Hera turned towards Kirin, "Did you hear that?"

Kirin

"We should stay back and use ranged attacks, but..." Eve was staring down an unfamiliar servant. Kirin could feel her raw power in his bones. "If she puts her full focus on us, it's all over. If you want to make an attack, make it count."

Cody Lazarus

"It looks like she got impatient. I don't know if she even has a weakness; she just shoots swords."

Muramasa

Muramasa screamed, as countless blades sproutd out of thin air around her, forming an alost porcupine-esque sphere. The blades launched out, seemingly indiscriminitely, in every direction. Eve backed up, and folded the broad wings around her body in an effort to shield herself. Masamune, despite his injury, calmly deflected the few blades headed in his direction. Robin simiarly used his own sword to knock those nearest him out of the air.

Despite how each cluster of blades was blocked in a different way, all landed tip-first, evenly spaced in a perfect circle around the room.

Muramasa smiled now, glaring at Eve almost hungrily. A deep red coloration bled from the aura around her into the ground, painting the floor crimson. This shade was interrupted only by a radiant white aura around Masamune, and a similar black one beneath Avenger.

Her former teacher seemed to know what she was doing, if his expression was any indication. It did not matter. Muramasa's chance had finally arrived; all her enemies in one place. This was the time to purge them from the world forever, beginning with the dirty thief.

The red circle across the floor darkened. To all the mages in the room, it was obvious what was occurring. A summoning ritual.

Maria

      Having recuperated from her initia shock and displeasure, she kicked her mind into high gear. She shut down her body and activated her parallel mind link between her primary shell and the core cube. She began to drown in her sea of consciousness.

She is of the higher denizens of Christian faith, from the aura our Christian King faces. She is of not a purity but of a vile mixture of the above and the beyond. Thus it must be so that she is the proprietor of original sin, Eve. As she is a Christian entity, how does one go about terminating her?

Spoiler: tl;dr if lazy (hover to show)

First: A magecraft derived from faith has their weakness pinpointed in their own source material. Second: The characteristic weakness if proportional to the character's strength.
Third: Weaknesses attributed to a faith based magecraft and be universally applied to said faith. Fourth: The power of a faith magecraft ebbs and wanes with location, time of day, and various other factors

Let us analyze how each of these factors influence the proper course of action.

First: She is derived from Genesis. In the original text, that which leads to her downfall is the union of mālum and serpens. However, this is prior to her death and as such, is not a reliable method to defeat said entity. Prior to death, Eve integrates upon her חטא מקורי, the core aspect of her identity. As such, she is also integrated with that which represents mălum. As such, ultimately her official weakness can be defined as mortality.

Second: Of those held in the eyes of the world, Eve is a symbol that unifies Judaism and Christianity. As the Christian faith is more pronounced, that is the source her powers are formally derived from. Faith is heavily intertwined into this system and as such, Eve, who has one of the highest levels of name recognition by much of the world is among the most power figures to possibly become a servant. As such, any existing weakness if also elevated to the highest. Thus, meaning she is able to be defeated. A good start.

Third: As she represents mostly the sins of terra, it is thus concluded that any Christian magecrafts would be highly effective. In this scenario, the previously planned action of mock divinity would be highly suitable for the proposed battle. In addition, as the core was initially planned for the members to comprise of three members, by switching all combat systems to faith magecrafts, a Holy Trinity formation can be achieved. As feng shui is essential to most forms of sophisticated modern day magecrafts as well as ancient magicks, this will highly amplify the amount of sustained power over time. Useless branches of magicks in this scenario would include anything the Oshiro family is used to as their branch of magic is overtly modernized to focus on a balance of cast time, cast delay, and overall output in regards the the former categories. As such, these spells are ineffectual to inflict enough harm. A spell relying on the body of Christ using bread or flour as the medium or a spell using alcohol to conjure the blood of Christ may see some degree of use. Of the most basic magic formations, the cross has one of the highest degrees of relation to sin. I have no idea about magic derived from the commandments and do not care to know either.

Most importantly, in Roman Catholic magecraft, one of the oldest and influential branches of magecraft in existence, has anointment type spells including the ever important baptism type. In that medium, it purges original sin.

Fourth: As we are in magical Britain, we are not sitting upon the Christian and Jewish centers of the world. Thus as we are not in the Vatican or in Jerusalem, we are not completely out of a chance to defeat her. England is roughly 60% Christian if going by the 2011 census reports, as Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism don't provide much of a divide in the subject of Eve, it can be said that all of that population grants her strength and her name is well known enough to cover essentially the entirety of the country. Thankfully enough, we are within the battlefield in which Richard the III was reportedly said to have fought thus here, his power is also greatest if not accounting for London due to Shakespeare.

In conclusion, why the **** does it have to be Eve for goodness sake.
Better gouge out my eyeballs now.

---

     As Maria rushed through the air with the cube flying to her left and Lancer running along beneath her, she took her index and middle fingers, and shoved it into her eye sockets, and crushing the mana tissue composing the eyeballs. She pinched the fake nerves, redrawing the shape of the eye. As it was nearing the original shape, she started engraving markings into them

Ekki hræðumst ek þat sverð
Ekki hræðumst ek þat sverð
Ekki hræðumst ek þat sverð

    This line of magical text was overlapped three times per eye, creating a faux fusion of Norse and Christian magecraft. It began to singe her mind so she shut off the pain receptors completely.

   Moving her palm onto the cube, the words were plastered onto each face of the cube. She intently stared at the giant array of swords and weaponry laid out amongst the skies.
 
  "I recite upon to thee:
    'Now, indeed, have things taken a right hopeless turn; for this man's eyes can dull any weapon.'
    Thus:
  'Thou that is held within my eyes, I fear thee not.'"

    Time is a ticking- when i get close enough, we shall start our dance, my King.

Eve

From the shadows, blue eyes began to peer out next to each scattered Noble Phantasm on the ground. From Sanctum Sanctorum's infinite supply of mana, armored human bodies each began to claim a weapon. Eve spoke to them, with eyes gleaming like a command seal.

"Destroy them all."

The two armies clashed.

Anne

As Cody inched away from Eve, Anne gently pushed him back to where he was originally. "Uh... Any ideas?" she asked. He shook his head in response, so she shouted to Saber from behind the shield, "Use it, it's not a waste to do it now."

Saber closed his eyes, and glowing, translucent, and white lines extended from him across the room. There were ten exact. The lines spiralled around him. A flash of white light lit up the room, blinding everyone temporarily. When they could see again, ten new people were in the room, each with one if Saber's handcrafted blades. The tendrils of white had disappeared.

"Chogi, Kanemitsu, Shizu Saburo Kaneuji, Kinju, Kunishige, Kunitsugu, Saemonzaburo, Saeki Norishige, Go Yoshihiro, and Naotsuna. The enemy is ahead. Do not underestimate her power. Now aid me in this battle!" He said, opening his eyes.

They charged at the opposing army, destroying the armored humans with incredible speed compared to everyone else.

((So I just made up a bunch of stuff for the summoning, tell me if I need to change it.))

Eve

As the massive battle raged on, the soldiers of Muramasa and Masamune gained an advantage. In a fury, Eve summoned countless portals in the sky and began to rain down high ranking noble phantasms from the sky in bolts of violent light. Left and right, warriors would die. Dust and blood flew every which direction. Most of the masters ducked for cover and waited it out.

One man stood right in the middle of the carnage, however, completely unaffected. Caster stared up at Eve, and a familiar crooked smile grew over his face.

Roger Bacon

...You know, master, this may have been a bit easier if you'd just immediately told me of Avenger's identity as soon as you found out.

Hey, I was a little busy trying to stay alive. Besides, does that even matter?!

Information always matters, Lazarus.

So this is the Sanctum Sanctorum. The fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. given physical manifestation and unleashed in a weaponized form. The screams, the murders, the sins of heroes past, and heroes yet to come. Lazarus himself had a noble phantasm within it.

In the first Divided war, I died before I could meet Avenger. I was decapitated by the first Saber of Clubs, the legendary King Arthur Pendragon of Camelot. I was covering Max's escape so he could bring the seventh catalyst home to safety. It didn't matter in the end, though- that war, the Spade Faction lost anyway. But that really was my last stand, lest we forget. Defeat may still yield glory, as they always say- but glory isn't what I'm after here. It's the experiment.

Now I have the ultimate experiment right in front of me. A chance to challenge the very foundation of Sanctum. Empirical Thinking, the rejection of all bias... and the denial of the otherworldly. A rare ability, allowing a servant such as myself to reject an enemy's weapon simply by virtue of its associated legends- legends which cannot be proven true. That is why Don Quixote fell, and his reality marble collapsed in on itself- in reality there never really was a Don Quixote. Was there an Eve? Even if there was, and she is the one standing in front of me...

...Behind her lies the strangest creation myth I've ever heard.

It's time to put complete the experiment.

"So." He raised his voice. Amid the chaos he knew Eve could still hear him. "The supposed code of Sanctum, your noble phantasm, uses weapons from other heroic spirits. Impressive!" He was still smiling. Eve scowled at him, aiming new portals in his direction. "But, ah... Do you know that there are people- many people, even Christians- who believe Genesis to be nothing more than a fable? A massive metaphor to describe the natural progression of organic life. And yet... Here you are. In the flesh, Eve, the soul of Sanctum.

How adorable!" He decided to let loose this one last sentence, clearly getting a little too carried away. Eve increased her prepared firepower in ready to rip his body to shreds.

"Choose your next words carefully, Roger Bacon."

"Oh, of course, your highness and your many Noble Phantasms- but you don't posses them all, do you?" He raised an eyebrow. "I can tell in the minute details in your expression, Eve- I have something you don't- two somethings, to be exact. The Brazen Dome, and the Brazen Head- two noble phantasms that have never harmed a soul. They're primarily ideals, and you can't find sin nature in that! And against all these mages I suppose you think you could use something like the Dome, which cuts off all magic. Then again, if you were to open the Sanctorum within the dome, I wonder..."

"You're stalling."

"Hm?"

"You're making some vain attempt to stall me. Unfortunately my attack on your allies has not lessened over the course of your witless banter. You've only let more of them die."

"Well, that's not entirely true! Now I have you facing me, with dozens of codified magic portals aimed straight at my head."

"...And?"

"Well, that's my advantage. You really don't know what I posses, do you? Have you ever heard of an ability called... Empirical Thinking?"

For a moment Eve seemed to panic. Upon hearing the comment she signaled her portals to fire, but the blue code forming them began to fracture. In an ear-piercing blast, one-by-one the portals began to shatter as bright yellow code seemed to tear straight through them.

"Behold, the power denial holds, Eve. I weaken those with Noble Phantasms on basis of their divinity. And what could be more divine than Sanctum itself?!" Eve grunted in pain as shrapnel from broken noble phantasms began to pelt her body. She flew back with somewhat damaged wings and quickly created more portals for a counterattack, but these too shattered. Above them, the portals attacking the army also began to crack and shatter.

Eve screamed in pain as a large sum of her magic began to rebound. During this opportunity Caster struck one of her wings with Mjölnir, ripping it to shreds and sending her spiraling into the ground.

"That ability of mine takes... huh... quite a toll. She'll be able to create portals again very soon- It's time we finished this quickly!"



[The armies are mostly gone, but Eve's somewhat crippled for a few seconds.]