Artoria and Siegfried seemed locked in a deadlock.
On one side stood a king born with the heart of a crimson dragon, her veins coursing with draconic blood.
On the other side was a hero who slew an evil dragon with his own strength, stealing its immortality and inheriting its unyielding body.
Their battle spirits clashed, their gazes locked, igniting sparks in the air.
Until an external force shattered the stalemate.
"Sky above, heed my command! Wind, rain, and lightning, all bow before me! Storms and tempests, manifest my wrath!"
The chant of climate manipulation echoed through the battlefield once more.
Marquis Voban, who had earlier lost both arms and his head to Artoria, still stood tall in his werewolf form. A fearsome orb crackling with electricity formed in front of him, radiating terrifying power.
"Die, heretic gods!"
Voban unleashed the electric orb without hesitation, aiming it squarely at Artoria and Siegfried, who were still locked in their contest.
The massive ball of lightning struck them directly. In an instant, the endless sky was engulfed in blinding flashes.
The air was disintegrated the moment it touched the lightning.
The earth was shattered the moment the light descended upon it.
The deafening roar of the explosion was so intense that it left the entire world in a silence even more profound than before.
All color fled, leaving behind only a void of pure white.
It felt as though an eternity had passed, though it could have been mere seconds.
Slowly, sound and color returned.
Amid the rubble and devastation, a massive shadow covered in dark fur emerged, crawling its way out of the wreckage.
"Hahaha! How does it feel now? You arrogant gods! Doesn't it feel wretched to be injured by a lowly human you look down upon?"
A thunderous rumble approached at terrifying speed, bringing with it a suffocating killing intent that seemed determined to turn the battlefield into a sea of corpses.
Voban straightened up, his steel-like claws colliding with Siegfried's dragon-slaying sword, [Balmung].
Sparks erupted from their clash, and neither seemed to gain the upper hand.
Despite standing over four meters tall in his werewolf form, Voban still towered nearly half a body over the already imposing Siegfried, who stood at over two meters.
"Immortality? I see now. Not only are you a godslayer, but you've stolen the authority of an Earth Mother goddess connected to the underworld and death. I didn't notice before, but you also carry a powerful draconic aura!"
Voban's claws raked against Siegfried's body, leaving faint scratches. In contrast, Siegfried's strikes carved deep gashes into Voban's flesh.
Siegfried's expression turned feral, a wild grin spreading across his face.
"It's useless! No matter how well you hide it, the truth is undeniable—you are a dragon!"
"Witness this, gods above! By the name of Siegfried, the dragon-slayer, I shall vanquish this demon king and destroy the dragon serpent!"
Siegfried's strikes became even more ferocious, leaving Voban struggling to keep up.
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Voban's cruel green eyes flashed with frustration, his patience eroded by the relentless assault.
His own attacks failed to injure Siegfried, while Siegfried's blows inflicted heavy damage. Worse yet, the lingering "dragon-slaying power" in Siegfried's strikes not only prevented Voban's wounds from healing but intensified the pain.
Even when he channeled the power of wind and lightning into his body and claws, it was of no avail.
"Damn you! Don't get cocky!"
Lightning bolts converged from all directions, hammering Siegfried's body. Though he endured the strikes without flinching, he shielded a small patch of his back with utmost care.
That small patch—untouched by dragon's blood due to a linden leaf—was Siegfried's sole weak point.
A massive shadow loomed over Siegfried, and Voban, charging like a feral beast, tackled him with full force, sending him flying.
Just then, a black pillar of destruction descended from the heavens, aimed directly at their location.
Voban narrowly evaded the devastating column of light, though he lost a patch of fur to its searing heat. But before he could catch his breath, Artoria's figure flickered before him.
Voban reacted instantly, attempting to dodge, but it was too late. [Excalibur Morgan] imbued with immense magical energy pierced into his right shoulder.
"Vortigern, Hammer of the Vile King, [Excalibur Morgan]!!"
Artoria's destructive Noble Phantasm was unleashed at point-blank range.
The black pillar of energy shot skyward, a manifestation of despair and calamity. It cursed and annihilated all blessed life, consuming all hope and light.
The terrifying heat contained within could reduce an entire city to ash.
It was like the divine fire that had destroyed the sinful city of Sodom in myth.
Artoria stood firm, her sword still raised.
Before her, Voban's massive werewolf form was reduced to a shadow of itself. Two-thirds of his body had disintegrated, and the charred stench of burnt flesh lingered in the air.
As pitiful as he looked, Artoria knew Voban was not dead yet.
The Marquis possessed the authority of resurrection—[Black Dragon of the Underworld]—a power he had stolen from the Mesopotamian Earth Mother goddess, Inanna.
Inanna, though less familiar by name, was better known in Babylonian and Assyrian culture as Ishtar, a goddess affectionately referred to as Archer Rin in the Fate universe.
While revered as the Queen of Heaven, Inanna was infamous for her arrogance. She had once trespassed into the underworld, the domain of her sister, Ereshkigal (Lancer Rin), and escaped at great cost by sacrificing a stand-in.
This escape granted Inanna the power of resurrection, though Artoria had always found it odd. Shouldn't that authority belong to Ereshkigal instead?
Perhaps it was because Inanna and Ereshkigal were two sides of the same coin, often considered one and the same deity. With mythologies as convoluted as they were, if Siegfried and Sigurd could be considered the same, then Inanna and Ereshkigal being treated as one entity wasn't implausible.
Having decapitated Voban once, Artoria knew she had killed him before.
But the ancient godslayer's resurrection abilities had brought him back. For someone like him, having such life-saving authorities was hardly surprising.
Artoria wasn't certain if killing him again would end him for good.
But then again…
"If you can still revive, I'll just kill you again."
With that, Artoria raised [Excalibur Morgan] high. A torrent of magical energy swirled around the blade, as black particles converged from every direction.
"An enemy must be shattered completely, granting them the most despairing death."
With one slash, the searing torrent engulfed Voban.
Within the column of light, his body turned black, breaking apart into black particles, until nothing remained but void.
Lowering her sword, Artoria stood at ease, though her golden eyes still carried a lingering weight of solemnity.
At that moment, a massive black shadow covered the battlefield.
The double wings of eternal death darkened the sky, bringing an ominous silence to the land.
In the shadow's depths, two crimson eyes burned like harbingers of death.
"Roar—!!"
The dragon's cry was both majestic and ancient, its overwhelming aura spreading like a storm from a primordial era.
---
...
Huh. You really stuck it out all the way to the end.
Didn't think you had the patience. Guess I was wrong.
WiseTL's the one who actually made all this come together. I'm just here putting a bow on it… or, well, shoving it in a backpack and calling it a day. Same thing.
If you had fun, you know what to do:
👉 [patreon.com/WiseTL]
Heads up—Patreon's 50% off for all tiers during May. So if you were on the fence? Now's the time.
And if you're the social type, there's a Discord too. Pretty decent spot to hang out—no battles required.
👉 [discord.gg/wisetl]
Alright. That's enough standing around. Go on—before you make it weird.
—Leaf