=== Godrick ===
After agreeing to lend their strength to the Black Faction, Jeanne and Godrick were shown to the section of Yggdmillennia Castle that would serve as their quarters for the duration of the war.
The fortress was alive with activity despite everything that had happened.
Homunculi hurried through the halls carrying broken masonry and shattered timbers, while magi directed repairs with practiced efficiency.
Every corridor echoed with the sounds of hammers, grinding stone, and hurried conversation as the castle slowly recovered from the damage inflicted during the battle.
Their guide had only just begun leading them toward separate rooms in one of the quieter wings when a young man accompanied by a woman in a white wedding dress approached from the opposite direction.
The young man stopped in front of Godrick and bowed respectfully, his servant remaining silently at his side.
“My name is Caules Forvedge Yggdmillennia, and this is my servant, Frankenstein.”
The Berserker looked up at the towering knight for several quiet seconds before giving her usual soft grunt.
Reaching into the folds of her dress, she carefully produced a small white flower and held it toward him with one hand.
Godrick immediately recognized her as the servant he had struck away from Mordred earlier that day.
He had expected fear, resentment, or perhaps simple caution after such a violent encounter.
Instead, she offered him a gift.
Caules smiled awkwardly at the sight before speaking on her behalf.
“She wanted to thank you… for sparing her life earlier. And… so do I.” Unsure how to respond, Godrick looked toward Jeanne, who merely smiled and motioned for him to accept it.
Dematerializing the heavy armor covering his body, he carefully extended his bare hand, allowing Frankenstein to gently place the flower in his palm before she gave another content little grunt and quietly walked away, dragging Caules along with her before he could embarrass himself any further.
Godrick examined the delicate flower resting in his rough hand before glancing over at Jeanne.
She smiled back at him, her expression warm enough that he found himself stepping closer without thinking.
Reaching up with surprising gentleness for someone capable of leveling castles, he brushed a loose strand of golden hair behind her ear before tucking the flower into place.
Jeanne’s cheeks immediately flushed crimson, and she lowered her eyes for a moment, unable to hide the shy smile that spread across her face.
Neither of them noticed how long they stood there until another voice echoed through the corridor.
“Ah! So you’ve decided to join us after all, have you?”
The moment broke as Gordes Musik Yggdmillennia approached with Siegfried following a respectful distance behind him.
Fiore, who had been accompanying the pair through the castle, crossed her arms almost immediately.
“Hello, Gordes. I’m surprised you didn’t send Saber into the Hanging Gardens to help retrieve the Greater Grail.” There was no attempt to hide the accusation in her voice.
Gordes hesitated, suddenly looking far less confident than usual.
“Well… Darnic ordered me to withdraw Saber before the assault.”
Fiore frowned.
“Withdraw? I never received such an order.”
Gordes shifted awkwardly before answering, “He… required someone expendable to accompany him. Besides, your Archer returned safely, didn’t he?”
The words had barely left his mouth before a priceless porcelain vase tore through the air and exploded across his face.
The impact snapped his head backward and sent him sprawling onto the polished floor, blood running freely from his nose as shattered pieces scattered across the corridor.
“You should learn when to keep your mouth shut,” Fiore said coldly, brushing a few flower petals from her lap as though she had merely tossed aside an annoyance instead of assaulting a fellow clan member.
Gordes stared at her in disbelief before struggling back to his feet, one hand pressed against his bleeding face.
“What in the world is wrong with you?!” he shouted.
“Just because Darnic named you acting leader doesn’t mean you can attack the rest of us!”
Fiore rolled forward without the slightest hint of remorse.
“Then perhaps you shouldn’t insult Chiron. He’s every bit as valuable as your Saber.”
Gordes looked ready to explode before deciding better of it.
Instead, he rounded on Siegfried with an indignant glare.
“You could have stopped her, you know!”
Siegfried answered with the faintest trace of amusement.
“And why, exactly, would I have done that?”
The question robbed Gordes of any meaningful response beyond an irritated snort before he stormed down the hallway muttering under his breath.
As Siegfried followed after his master, he offered Godrick a respectful nod.
Godrick silently returned the gesture, the two warriors understanding one another perfectly without the need for words.
The tour resumed only briefly before a faint vibration traveled through the castle floor.
At first it was little more than a subtle tremor beneath their feet, but within moments the entire fortress began to shake as dust drifted from the ceiling.
Jeanne moved immediately to the nearest window, her expression becoming serious as she looked across the valley.
“My goodness…” she murmured.
“Avicebron is attacking with an enormous golem.” She instantly summoned her silver armor and holy banner while Godrick materialized his own armor and halberd beside her.
Together they hurried outside, joining the gathered servants and masters atop the castle walls just as the colossal construct emerged from the forest.
Towering over the treetops, the immense stone giant glowed with veins of green magical energy as every thunderous footstep shook the earth beneath it.
Even with such a threat approaching, Fiore could not resist one final jab.
“I’m surprised you’re out here, Gordes. I assumed you’d be hiding in your room while Saber protected you.”
Gordes’s face reddened, a vein bulging visibly along his forehead, but to everyone’s surprise he managed to keep his temper under control.
Jeanne ignored the exchange entirely as she turned toward the giant knight standing beside her.
“Would you like to take a crack at it?” she asked with a playful smile.
Godrick answered by crouching for only a moment before launching himself from the castle roof with such force that the stone beneath his feet cracked apart.
He soared through the air like a living meteor, both hands gripping his halberd overhead before bringing the weapon crashing down onto Adam’s skull.
The impact split the golem from crown to waist, blasting enormous slabs of enchanted stone in every direction as the construct collapsed into a mountain of rubble.
Avicebron leapt clear at the last instant, tumbling across the ground while staring in stunned disbelief at what should have been his masterpiece.
Godrick landed amid the collapsing debris, mildly disappointed that the battle appeared to have ended so quickly.
He had only taken a single step before he noticed something was wrong.
The rain of stone had stopped.
Silence settled over the battlefield for a single heartbeat before the shattered fragments surrounding him began to tremble.
Every broken piece lifted from the ground and flew back together with alarming speed.
By the time Godrick turned around, the giant had already reformed, and Adam’s enormous foot came crashing downward, engulfing the knight beneath it as the earth exploded outward.
Watching from below, Avicebron laughed triumphantly, convinced the Juggernaut had finally met his end.
“Even you cannot overcome perfection!” he shouted as he hurried toward the golem.
His celebration lasted only a moment. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
Without warning, Adam lurched violently before its entire body was hurled skyward.
The gigantic construct disappeared and crashed somewhere beyond the treeline.
Standing exactly where it had been moments earlier, Godrick calmly brushed the dust from his armor as though nothing of significance had happened.
Avicebron immediately tried to retreat toward his creation as it came from the trees once more, but his escape ended when a massive armored foot pinned him face-first into the earth.
“Release me!” he cried, struggling desperately as the weight pressing down on his back steadily increased.
“Killing me won’t accomplish anything! The golem is unstoppable!”
Godrick ignored him completely.
Instead, he watched the approaching giant while gradually applying more and more force, curious whether Adam would react to its creator’s suffering.
When it became obvious the golem would continue forward without hesitation, he finally looked down at the servant beneath his foot.
The experiment had answered his question.
Stepping aside, he allowed Avicebron to scramble desperately toward safety, only to seize him from behind before he had taken more than a few steps.
Grasping the caster’s head with both hands, Godrick twisted sharply.
The sickening crack of breaking vertebrae echoed across the battlefield before he casually tossed the lifeless body away.
Blue spirit particles immediately erupted from Avicebron and streamed directly into Adam, causing the construct’s magical aura to surge dramatically.
Empowered by the sacrifice of its creator, the giant extended one enormous hand as stone flowed together to form a colossal war club.
With a roar that shook the valley, Adam swung the weapon downward as Godrick raised his left forearm.
The impact echoed like thunder as the massive club shattered into thousands of fragments against his armor, leaving the golem wide open.
Without hesitation, Godrick shifted his grip, held his halberd like a spear, and hurled it with overwhelming force.
The weapon tore clean through Adam’s head in an explosion of stone and magical energy, leaving a gaping hole where its face had been.
The giant staggered backward and nearly collapsed, only managing to catch itself with one hand as glowing green magic immediately began knitting the ruined head back together.
Godrick didn’t notice the change at first, but as the dust settled around the battlefield, Adam’s vacant eyes slowly shifted.
Where there had once been empty sockets of lifeless stone, two pupils now formed, glowing with an unsettling intelligence.
The giant no longer moved like a mindless construct.
It watched him.
With a sharp tug of his will, Godrick recalled his halberd.
The weapon screamed back through the air and tore straight through Adam’s head for a second time, reducing it to flying fragments of stone, yet before the pieces had even struck the ground, the ruined skull began knitting itself back together.
Adam answered by swinging its newly formed stone club with enough force to flatten a city block.
Godrick met the blow head-on, driving the haft of his halberd into the descending weapon.
The impact echoed across the valley like thunder, and the enormous club exploded into countless fragments once more.
Before Adam could recover, Godrick lunged forward, covering the impossible distance in a handful of strides before throwing himself at the construct’s leg.
His halberd carved cleanly through the golem’s ankle, sending thousands of tons of stone crashing to one knee as the golem released a deafening roar that shook the surrounding mountains.
Adam’s massive hand shot forward with surprising speed, catching even Godrick slightly off guard.
Its stone fingers wrapped around his body before he could wrench himself free, and with a violent twist of its torso the golem hurled him toward Yggdmillennia Castle.
“Take cover!” Siegfried shouted.
Every Servant reacted immediately.
Chiron wheeled Fiore’s chair out of the impact zone while Astolfo swept down to snatch another Master out of harm’s way atop his Hippogriff.
Jeanne threw herself aside with her banner as the others scattered, and a heartbeat later Godrick slammed through the outer wall of the castle.
Stone burst outward in every direction as he tore through room after room before finally disappearing beneath a mountain of shattered masonry.
For several long seconds, nothing moved.
Then the rubble shifted.
Chunks of stone rolled aside as a massive gauntleted hand emerged from the wreckage, followed by another.
Godrick forced himself upright, dust cascading from his silver armor as though he had merely stumbled instead of being launched through half the castle.
He climbed from the gaping hole in the wall, giving himself a quick shake to scatter the last of the debris before looking toward Jeanne.
She hurried to his side, relief washing across her face despite the battle still raging around them.
“Are you alright?”
Godrick answered with nothing more than a nod.
Jeanne couldn’t help smiling despite herself.
“Good,” she replied, her expression hardening as she turned back toward the towering golem.
“Because we’re going to need you.”
Neither of them wasted another second.
Astolfo was already soaring through the sky atop his Hippogriff, weaving around Adam’s enormous arms with impossible agility.
Every pass of the flying mount gave him another chance to thrust his lance into the construct’s shoulders, neck, and face before banking away moments before a retaliatory strike could connect.
The Hippogriff’s speed forced Adam to constantly divide its attention, buying precious moments for the others below.
On the ground, Frankenstein charged fearlessly into the giant’s shadow.
Green lightning danced around her body as she swung her enormous mace into Adam’s ankles again and again, each impact blasting away chunks of enchanted stone large enough to crush houses.
Siegfried advanced beside her, Balmung flashing in broad arcs as he severed tendons of living rock and carved deep wounds into the golem’s legs, forcing the colossal construct to repeatedly shift its balance to keep from collapsing.
Farther back, Chiron transformed the battlefield into a storm of arrows.
His bowstring seemed never to rest as shaft after shaft screamed through the air, striking Adam’s joints, eyes, and exposed cracks with flawless accuracy.
Whenever the golem attempted to regenerate, another volley was already descending, disrupting its movements and steadily slowing the pace of its recovery.
Jeanne and Godrick entered the fight together.
With her banner raised high, Jeanne darted wherever the battle threatened to overwhelm her allies, intercepting attacks, driving her spear into weakened sections of Adam’s body, and calling out warnings whenever the construct shifted its weight.
Her presence held the scattered Servants together, ensuring they fought as a single coordinated force rather than as individuals.
Godrick remained where the danger was greatest.
Again and again Adam abandoned the others in an effort to crush the towering knight standing beneath it.
Each thunderous punch, sweeping kick, or falling fist was met head-on as Godrick planted his feet and absorbed the full force of the blows.
Every collision sent shockwaves racing across the battlefield, flattening trees and splitting the earth beneath him, yet he refused to yield even a single step if it meant keeping the golem’s attention fixed on himself.
While Adam relentlessly tried to batter down the immovable Juggernaut before it, the rest of the Black faction carved away at the construct from every direction, slowly but surely forcing the seemingly invincible giant onto the defensive.
Adam roared as another volley of arrows buried itself into its chest, and its enormous hand swept through the air in an attempt to catch Astolfo.
The Rider twisted his Hippogriff sharply to the side, barely avoiding its fingers as they passed close enough to send a violent gust of air through his hair.
“Too slow!” Astolfo shouted, laughing despite the danger, before pulling hard on the reins and sending the Hippogriff into another dive.
The attack tore through several layers of enchanted stone, and the golem lurched sideways.
Frankenstein immediately followed, bringing her mace down on the opposite leg with enough force to send a column of green lightning across the battlefield.
Adam’s balance finally gave way, and the enormous construct dropped toward one knee.
“Godrick!” Jeanne shouted.
The knight had spent the entire battle waiting for that moment, absorbing the rhythm of Adam’s movements and watching the other Servants slowly force the golem into a position where it could no longer respond to every attack at once.
As Adam staggered, Godrick lowered his halberd and launched himself forward, his armored boots tearing through the earth as he accelerated.
Jeanne barely had time to raise her spear before he passed her, charging directly toward the collapsing giant.
Adam’s head turned toward him, its glowing eyes focused on the approaching knight as one enormous arm began to rise.
But Godrick didn’t slow down.
The golem’s fist came down with enough force to crush him into the earth, but Godrick launched himself upward at the last possible instant.
The fist slammed into the earth beneath him, sending a massive shockwave across the battlefield, but Godrick was already above Adam’s shoulders.
He rose higher, his entire body silhouetted against the sky as the golem looked upward in confusion, and for a brief moment the Juggernaut seemed almost weightless as he cleared Adam’s enormous frame.
Then he brought his halberd around.
The weapon flashed downward with everything Godrick could put behind it.
The blade struck the top of Adam’s head and tore straight through the enchanted stone.
The force of the blow was monstrous, splitting the construct’s skull apart and continuing through its neck before Godrick ripped the halberd free.
A deafening crack rolled across the valley as the golem’s head exploded from its body, fragments of stone scattering through the air like shrapnel.
Adam released a deep, distorted roar as its body finally lost its balance.
Godrick landed behind the golem as the enormous body began to fall backward.
He turned his back toward the falling giant and planted his feet firmly into the earth.
His halberd vanished from his hand as he reached upward, spreading both arms just as Adam’s enormous back crashed toward him.
The impact drove Godrick several feet into the ground, cracking the earth beneath his boots and sending a tremendous shockwave outward.
His muscles strained beneath his armor as he caught the golem against his shoulders and arms, the sheer mass of the construct threatening to bury him beneath it.
For several seconds, it looked as though the impossible weight would finally force him down.
His armor groaned beneath the strain, and cracks raced through the ground around his feet as he pushed upwards.
Adam’s body began to lift away from him, slowly at first, then faster as Godrick committed every ounce of his immense strength before suddenly launching Adam into the sky.
The golem’s enormous body passed over his head, climbing higher and higher into the sky until it became a colossal silhouette against the clouds.
Every Servant on the battlefield watched the impossible sight as the giant golem reached the apex of its ascent, completely separated from the earth that had sustained it.
For the first time since its creation, Adam was truly helpless.
“Now!” Chiron shouted.
Chiron was the first to fire.
High above, and shooting star lit the sky as the projectile struck Adam’s exposed torso, the entire construct shuddering as the accumulated damage began tearing through the core of its magical structure.
Siegfried stepped forward as Balmung ignited in his hands, its blade flooding with blue light as the dragon-slaying Noble Phantasm unleashed its terrible power.
He swung upward, sending a colossal wave of destructive energy into the airborne golem.
The beam struck Adam from below and tore through its already damaged body, blasting away enormous sections of stone as fragments rained down across the valley.
Frankenstein followed.
Green lightning exploded from her body as she raised her mace toward the sky.
With a scream, she unleashed the power of her Noble Phantasm, sending a massive torrent of electrical energy toward Adam.
The lightning wrapped around the golem’s body, surging through every crack and fracture left behind by the other Servants.
The construct convulsed violently in the air as the magical current ripped through it, illuminating the entire battlefield in brilliant green.
Astolfo swept overhead on Hippogriff, his expression unusually serious as he raised his lance.
“Let’s finish this!”
The Hippogriff screamed as it accelerated, carrying its rider directly toward the airborne golem.
Astolfo’s Noble Phantasm erupted with brilliant light as he struck Adam head-on, the force of the impact tearing another enormous section from its body and sending pieces of enchanted stone tumbling through the sky.
Godrick watched from below.
He stood alone amid the ruined battlefield, his armor covered in dust, his chest rising and falling heavily as he watched the final assault unfold above him.
The sky had become a maelstrom of Noble Phantasms, with arrows, lightning, magical energy, and blades of light converging upon Adam from every direction.
The golem attempted to regenerate, but there was nothing beneath it to draw upon.
No earth answered its call.
No mana flowed into its body.
For the first time, its wounds remained.
Cracks spread across its enormous frame as one of its arms broke away.
Then its torso split.
The glowing pupils that had appeared within its eyes flickered as the construct’s head, already shattered by Godrick’s halberd, began to collapse in on itself.
Adam released one final, distorted roar before its entire body erupted into countless fragments of stone and magical energy.
The explosion lit the sky for several seconds, the battlefield disappeared beneath a blinding white light.
Shockwaves rolled across the valley, forcing the Servants to brace themselves as enormous pieces of shattered stone rained harmlessly down around them.
Godrick stood his ground, raising one arm to shield himself from the blast as fragments struck his armor and bounced away before he lowered his arm and looked upward.
Adam was gone.
Around him, the exhausted Servants slowly began to regroup, each one breathing heavily after pouring everything they had into the final attack.
Chiron lowered his bow, Siegfried rested Balmung against his shoulder, and Frankenstein leaned heavily against her mace while Caules hurried toward her.
Astolfo descended from the sky with Hippogriff, wearing an enormous grin despite the exhaustion written across his face.
Jeanne approached Godrick last.
She looked up at the massive knight, her hair and clothing still disturbed by the fading winds of the battle, before looking toward the empty sky where Adam had disappeared.
A smile slowly crossed her face.
“We did it.”
Godrick looked down at her.
Jeanne reached up and rested a hand against his armored forearm, smiling as she looked at him.
The small flower Frankenstein had given him was still tucked carefully into her hair, somehow having survived everything that had happened since the beginning of the battle.
===
(I just need 2 more!) I promise I’ll take good care of them:)