=== Godrick ===
As Godrick and Jeanne sat together atop a weathered boulder, a subtle shift passed through the valley.
At first it was little more than a gentle breeze that stirred the tall grass and rustled the leaves overhead, but within moments the wind strengthened into powerful gusts that bent entire trees until their branches groaned in protest.
Jeanne rose to her feet first, one hand resting on her banner as she searched for the source of the disturbance.
Beside her, Godrick stood as well, his thoughts finally settling after the turmoil of seeing Mordred again.
The ache in his chest had not disappeared, but it no longer clouded his judgment.
She was here.
Alive in her own way, just as he was.
Whatever had happened after his death could wait until they met again.
When that day came, he would hear the truth from her own lips.
Both of them turned their attention toward the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, now hovering directly above the castle of Yggdmillennia.
As they watched, a colossal tornado descended from the heavens, tearing into the earth with enough force to uproot forests and hurl massive boulders through the air.
The cyclone widened until it swallowed the entire valley beneath it, and from the heart of that maelstrom a gigantic stone sphere slowly rose into view.
Its ancient shell was split by a jagged crack that revealed the radiant light contained within.
“My goodness…” Jeanne breathed.
“The Greater Grail…”
For a long moment neither of them spoke, simply watching as the object every Master and Servant sought finally revealed itself to the world.
Jeanne was the first to break the silence.
“Come on,” she said, turning toward Godrick with renewed determination.
“Several Servants are already making their way into the Hanging Gardens, and with everyone’s attention fixed on the Grail, this may be our best opportunity to confront the Masters of Red. If we can capture one alive, we might finally learn what’s really happening.”
Godrick answered with a firm nod before materializing his halberd.
Planting one end against the ground, he lowered the long shaft toward Jeanne like the arm of a catapult.
A small smile crossed her lips.
“Ready?”
He gave her another sharp nod of his head.
“Then I’ll see you up there.”
Stepping onto the broad head of the halberd, Jeanne crouched as Godrick tightened his grip.
In a single explosive motion he swung upward, launching her high into the sky.
She soared through the air with grace, twisting her body and using her banner to guide her flight until she landed atop the Hanging Gardens with barely a sound, her boots sliding only a few feet before she regained perfect balance.
Godrick remained below for only a few more seconds, giving Jeanne enough time to reach the interior before beginning his own ascent.
Taking several steps backward, he lowered himself into a runner’s stance before exploding forward.
The earth shattered beneath his feet as he launched himself skyward with enough force to leave a crater where he had stood.
Halfway through his ascent he hurled his halberd ahead of him like an enormous spear.
The weapon screamed through the air before burying itself deep within one of the outer stone platforms surrounding the Hanging Gardens.
Godrick reached it only moments later, planting one armored foot against the embedded weapon before pushing off with even greater force, sending himself soaring over the fortress walls like a living siege projectile.
Far below, the shockwaves from both his leap and his thrown halberd swept across the countryside, flattening patches of grass and sending nearby trees swaying violently.
Jeanne had already entered the fortress by the time Godrick reached it.
Racing through its elaborate halls, she followed the unmistakable signs of battle until she arrived at a vast corridor where Servants from both factions were desperately trying to restrain a single opponent.
Her eyes immediately settled upon Vlad III, though she could sense something deeply unnatural about him.
The Servant’s Saint Graph had become twisted, fused together with that of his own Master until the distinction between the two had nearly vanished.
As Vlad noticed her arrival, countless crimson stakes erupted toward her in a murderous volley.
Jeanne calmly stepped forward and swept her spear through the air, smashing the blood-red pikes aside before they could reach her.
“Vampire,” she said evenly, leveling her weapon toward him.
Before anyone could react, the ceiling above exploded inward.
Stone rained from above as a massive armored figure crashed through the roof like a meteor.
Godrick descended directly onto Vlad, one gauntleted hand already wrapped around the vampire’s throat as the two slammed into the marble floor with a deafening impact.
The entire Hanging Gardens lurched beneath the force of the landing, cracks raced through the corridor in every direction, and several Servants instinctively staggered to keep their footing before the flying fortress slowly stabilized once more.
Still gripping Vlad by the neck, Godrick rose to his full height and lifted the struggling Servant completely off the ground.
Vlad clawed desperately at the iron fingers crushing his throat while his elongated limbs lashed wildly.
“Let go of me, you brute!” he snarled, Darnic’s voice clearly mingling with Vlad’s own.
Jeanne turned toward Archer of Black.
“What happened here?”
“Darnic merged with his Servant,” Chiron answered, never taking his eyes off the struggling vampire.
“They’re sharing the same body.”
“Fused…” Jeanne repeated quietly.
Vlad suddenly drove one grotesquely elongated arm toward Godrick’s face.
Godrick caught the strike effortlessly with his free hand before jerking the vampire forward and smashing his forehead into Vlad’s with a thunderous headbutt.
Godrick released him only long enough to slam him into the floor before planting a heavy boot squarely across his chest, pinning him beneath several hundred pounds of enchanted armor.
Around them, the Homunculi Vlad had already transformed into vampires shrieked as they rushed to rescue their master.
Godrick drove a single fist downward on the closest one, crushing the creature’s skull into its torso with sickening force.
A second leapt toward his back, only to explode against the wall as a casual backhand sent its body bursting apart like fragile porcelain.
Bones shattered, blood splashed across the stone corridor, and the remaining vampires hesitated for only a heartbeat before continuing their desperate charge.
“No!” Vlad roared.
“My dream!”
His body dissolved into crimson mist before reforming farther down the corridor.
“Kill them!” he screamed to his followers before turning and fleeing.
Jeanne watched him disappear before looking toward Godrick.
“You pursue Lancer. We’ll handle the vampires.”
The assembled Servants nodded in agreement.
Godrick simply rolled one shoulder before turning toward the fleeing vampire.
His first steps echoed like artillery fire through the halls before accelerating into a full sprint.
The walls splintered beneath his shoulder as he rounded a corner too quickly, shoulder checking a Vampire into the wall before he continued to run.
Vlad fled with everything he had, weaving expertly through magical traps and defensive wards built into the Hanging Gardens.
Purple beams erupted from hidden magic circles while enchanted restraints burst from the floors and walls, but Godrick ignored them completely.
He crashed straight through every defense the fortress could muster, allowing the magical blasts to glance harmlessly off his armor as he relentlessly closed the distance.
Realizing escape was becoming impossible, Vlad gathered every ounce of speed he possessed before suddenly spinning around to confront his pursuer.
He never had the chance.
Without slowing even slightly, Godrick lowered one shoulder, wrapped an arm around Vlad’s waist, and simply ran through him.
The vampire disappeared beneath the Juggernaut’s arm as Godrick continued charging forward, carrying his captive like a sack of grain while smashing through a pair of enormous cathedral doors.
The altar inside the room exploded into rubble as Godrick barreled through it.
The massive stone reredos behind it shattered next, followed immediately by the outer wall itself as the pair burst from the Hanging Gardens into the open sky.
“You lunatic!” Vlad shouted as the world disappeared beneath them.
Still held firmly beneath Godrick’s arm, the vampire dissolved into crimson mist and escaped his grasp before surging upward toward the hole they had blasted through the fortress.
He almost smiled before a massive halberd hurtled past him, burying itself deep into the stone above the opening.
“He missed…” Vlad thought triumphantly as he climbed higher.
“Fool. Once I claim the Grail—”
His thoughts ended abruptly as enormous metal arms wrapped around him once more.
Using the embedded halberd as a point of leverage, the giant knight launched himself after the fleeing vampire with terrifying speed.
He intercepted Vlad in midair, wrapped both arms around him, and drove him back toward the earth.
As the ground rushed up to meet them, Godrick drew back one armored fist and began hammering blow after blow into Vlad’s face, each impact echoing across the valley like a cannon shot while the two of them plummeted together toward the world below.
The ground rushed toward them with frightening speed as Vlad’s screams became a howl of panic.
Then they struck the ground.
The impact shook the valley like an earthquake.
Earth and stone erupted outward in every direction as a massive crater blossomed beneath them, its shockwave flattening trees and sending clouds of dust rolling through the forest.
For several long seconds nothing moved.
Godrick stood and looked at the Vampire beneath him.
The Servant body had been twisted into an unnatural shape by the impact, broken bones jutting through his torn flesh, yet even as Godrick watched Vald’s body began knitting itself back together.
Bones snapped back into place.
Torn muscle reformed.
Blood retreated into sealed wounds as though time itself were reversing.
Vlad’s crimson eyes snapped open, and with a feral snarl he lunged.
Godrick answered by driving his knee upward into the vampire’s jaw, the crack of the impact echoing through the crater.
Before Vlad could recover, an armored fist hammered down onto his skull, smashing him back into the fractured earth.
Godrick immediately seized both of the vampire’s legs, spun once for momentum, and hurled him across the forest.
Vlad tore through dozens of trees before finally crashing into the mountainside.
Godrick followed, stepping into the devastated stretch of woodland.
He watched Vlad slowly drag himself upright once more.
Without breaking stride, Godrick reached to one side and wrapped both hands around the trunk of an enormous pine, ripping it from the earth.
Roots and soil exploded outward as he swung the entire tree overhead before launching it like an oversized javelin.
Vlad instinctively turned toward the incoming projectile.
That single moment of hesitation was all Godrick needed.
Pouring a burst of energy into his Agility stat, he exploded forward in a blur, white arcs of lightning dancing across his armor as he crossed the distance almost faster than the eye could follow.
He appeared beside Vlad just as the airborne tree arrived, driving a crushing hook into the side of the vampire’s head that slammed his face directly into the hurtling trunk.
The pine shattered into thousands of splinters from the combined force before Godrick followed with a brutal uppercut that launched Vlad high into the sky before catching both of Vlad’s ankles, and violently swung him back toward the earth.
Still refusing to relent, Godrick dropped beside the broken Servant and buried a heavy left fist into Vlad’s stomach hard enough to force blood from his mouth. Get faster updates on novelping dot com.
The vampire lashed out wildly, baring his fangs as he tried to bite through the knight’s armor.
Godrick answered with a savage headbutt that shattered several of Vlad’s teeth and left the vampire dazed.
Standing over his defeated opponent, the Juggernaut extended one hand.
His halberd tore through the forest before slamming back into his grasp before he raised the weapon high overhead with both hands.
Seeing the execution about to fall, the vampire abandoned his ruined body once more, dissolving into crimson smoke that desperately raced back toward the opening in the Hanging Gardens.
Godrick watched the fleeing cloud in silence.
He could have chased immediately.
Instead, he calmly rested the haft of his halberd against one shoulder, and waited until the smoke was almost through the opening.
Then he drew his arm back and hurled the weapon once more.
=== Jeanne ===
Jeanne and Archer of Black sprinted through the winding corridors of the Hanging Gardens, weaving around magical traps and avoiding the fortress’s automated defenses.
Their pursuit eventually brought them to an enormous pair of intricately carved wooden doors.
Or rather… what remained of them.
Both doors had been completely obliterated, their splintered remains scattered across the chapel floor.
Stepping cautiously inside, Jeanne immediately noticed the enormous hole smashed through the far wall, opening directly onto the empty sky beyond.
Broken pews, shattered stone, and the remains of an altar lay strewn across the chamber as though a siege engine had passed straight through the building.
“That was rather rude, don’t you think… Ruler of this Holy Grail War?”
Jeanne turned sharply to stare at a man standing calmly near the ruined altar.
Shirou Amakusa Tokisada.
He gestured toward the destruction surrounding him with an amused smile.
“I think it’s incredibly discourteous to steal my kill… and then destroy both my chapel and my altar.”
Jeanne stared at him.
“…How is this possible?”
Recovering from her shock, she lowered her spear toward him.
“A seventeenth Servant should not exist.”
Shirou only smiled wider.
“You’re mistaken. I am not the seventeenth Servant.”
He spread his arms.
“I am the first. Just as you are, I am a Ruler.” His gaze drifted briefly toward the hole in the wall.
“The true anomaly is your Juggernaut. No records speak of a Servant commanding another Servant, yet the two of you behave more like equals than Master and Servant. If anyone deserves the title of seventeenth Servant…”
“…it is him.”
Jeanne ignored the observation.
“What is your purpose here?” she demanded.
His smile never faltered.
“To save humanity.”
Before she could question him further, crimson smoke rushed through the broken wall and condensed into Vlad’s battered form.
The vampire barely managed to regain his footing before a massive halberd came hurtling through the opening and buried itself in the stone ceiling directly behind him.
Godrick burst through the ruined wall a heartbeat later, having simply leapt after his weapon.
He collided with Vlad, driving the vampire face-first into the chapel floor hard enough to crack the marble beneath them.
Planting one armored boot squarely between Vlad’s shoulder blades, he reached back, wrenched his halberd free from the stone, and brought its crescent axe blade around the vampire’s neck.
The gathered Servants fell completely silent.
Vlad struggled desperately beneath the crushing weight on his back.
“Help me!” he screamed, Darnic’s voice mixing with his own in blind panic.
Godrick slowly drew the axe blade tight against Vlad’s throat while increasing the pressure beneath his boot.
Then, in one swift motion, he stamped downward and pulled upward.
Vlad’s head separated cleanly from his shoulders, and blue particles drifted into the air as the Servant’s body began to dissolve, the vampire finally disappearing from the Holy Grail War forever.
Godrick planted the butt of his halberd firmly against the cracked stone floor and stood in complete silence.
Around him, the assembled Servants exchanged uneasy glances.
Some regarded him with open fear after witnessing such overwhelming brutality.
Others, particularly those who had struggled against Vlad moments before, could only stare with newfound respect.
Only Shirou seemed entirely unfazed.
Tilting his head slightly, he smiled with quiet amusement.
“Care to explain,” he asked, looking directly at the towering knight, “why you felt the need to destroy my chapel?”
===
I promise I’ll take good care of them:)