[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/gQEw31h.png[/img] [h2][color=bc8dbf]Beast I[/color][/h2][i][h3]Pelion’s Pub, Edge of Shinto[/h3][/i][@Scallop] [@Art of Fun] [@addamas] [@ManyThings] [@Argonaut] [@Breo] [@Kyoka] [@Froppy] [@Sageage] [@Crusader Lord] [@Scallop] [@Cu Chulainn] [@BlueHelix] [@ReallyDumb] [@Reflection] [@Seirei No Hai] [@Kyuuzen] [@MrCellophane] [@CorpusMundum] [@Undyingregret] [@floodtalon] [@GreenGoat][/center] Not merely the flow of magical energy, but ‘everything’ within the bar seemed to have stopped under the weight of its existence. The cumulative misfortune, the grudges, even the constructs of the bar themselves were dissipating. If those previously present had not fled within an ‘instant’ of its manifestation, they would likely have been unmade by now. Indeed, the poor lone human within the bar met that fate before any could react to help him. With its first step, it called for an end to all tragedy. With its second step, it called for an end to all malice. With its third step--- ...a third step was not taken. This is because, before the Beast I stood the last of the beings of Pelion's Pub. Even the penguin had vacated in a desperate bid of panic, but he had remained. The one being capable of enduring inside of this bar, as the bar as was much a part of him as it was of the Beast. Archer-class Servant, Chiron. He stood, unbending. Even as the sheer weight of the thing's pressure crashed against him, he stood. It exceeded even his worst fears. He had been anticipating something at the level of a full Divine Spirit, but this was beyond even that. This approached the level of those greatest of beings from the first and second Ages of Gods. A disaster that could shake the world itself. ...truth be told, Chiron still did not understand. He could not, in the first place. The agony that his dearest friend had suffered since the second night of the war was something he only ever had suspicions about, and that something truly could be wrong, he had no idea of until after Dionysus had obtained that damnable spear. That he had been pushed to a breaking point like this, it was a revelation that blindsided the god. [color=aba000]"...hey, Donnie. I don't know how much of 'you' is left in there, but I'm sorry. I was too focused on myself that I didn't pay attention to what you were going through until it was too late. I'm a pretty terrible friend, aren't I?"[/color] [color=bc8dbf]"Stand aside, Chiron. I would rather not kill you.”[/color] ...this should be known, but Chiron cannot oppose the Beast I. Strength, constitution, agility, magical energy, luck, strength of Authority, conceptual resistance, crystallized mystery, there is not a single area where the Beast I does not outstrip Chiron by an absurd margin. Even among the Servants of this Holy Grail War, Chiron is nothing of particular note. He is merely a Caster from the Age of Gods playing as a buffoon of an Archer. To oppose something at the level of the Beast I is pure foolishness. The odds of defeating it are precisely zero. He will die here. He will be utterly destroyed, and returned unto the dust from whence he came. However... [color=aba000]"No. I can't do that, Donnie. My kids are all here, and I'd be a horrible teacher if I let them down right now."[/color] ...like the last time. Like earlier on this very day, when he stood opposite that Monster. His eyes glinted with a feral madness that found itself mirrored in the Beast's eyes. A single misstep here would be fatal, not merely for him but for 'everything'. [color=aba000]"I have to behave like a hero sometimes."[/color] Not for himself. Not for entertainment, or for glory. As a hero, he would fulfill his duty. [color=aba000]"...you know, we've always been two people making one. You're like a brother to me, and now our destinies have become one...so, let's disappear together." [/color] The Beast I could only feel confusion at those words. After all, it had become too distorted to understand why a friend stood opposite it. [color=bc8dbf]"Chiron, you could join me."[/color] At this, another cold pang rang through Chiron's body, shaking his very spiritual foundation. Ah, if only. If only he had seen the signs sooner, if only he had done something to help. But now...now, there was only one recourse. [color=bc8dbf]"...Chiron?"[/color] [color=aba000]"I'm sorry, but I can't allow that. Come, my dearest friend, let us experience eternity together." [/color] The Beast I had yet to exit the bar. In other words, he had yet to truly appear in the world. The rule of these beings was that when the first manifested in this world, the other six would in turn. ...so, he simply had to make sure that the Beast I never appeared in the world, that he never left this bar. Yes, for the sake of the world, for the sake of the people in it... [color=bc8dbf]"Chiron, you-"[/color] [color=aba000]"...Noble Phantasm, true name release."[/color] The name Pelion's Pub was always a falsehood, a veneer plastered over the true thing. And so, its true nature was released. Chiron cannot defeat the Beast I. He cannot hope to. However, he does not need to. -Because this Noble Phantasm of his has been distorted by the land it was engraved into. ...in the island nation of Japan, there is a legend. A legend of a cavern which sealed the sun. An immortal cave which locked away a god. And so, because the Beast I was born of that very god, because the force of three Divine Spirits stood in this cavern... [i][b][center][color=aba000]O Land, Let Us Shackle the Gods Above[h3]Philyra's Cavern[/h3][/color][/center][/b][/i] Space screamed. The interior of the bar began to dissipate. No, that was a mistake. Rather, it was as if it was being peeled back, overwritten by a stronger law. Rock walls, rock floor, rock ceilings. Even the wall of Troy that split off one section of the bar from another was undone under the force of the alien world's edict. A cave. A featureless, empty cave, within which stood two men. From the outside, the bar caved in. Its walls were overwritten with stone, a dome of rock that replaced the structure. It was indecipherable; regardless of one's aptitude, peering into anything that was occurring inside of that cavern was now impossible, like a transcendent form of spatial quarantine. A prison to hold a god until the end of time. This was the true nature of Chiron’s Noble Phantasm. By sealing himself away, he would save this world. The Beast I froze. Its very existence cried out in protest as the cavern shackled it, attempting to bind it into this world for eternity. ...and yet- [h3][b][color=ed1c24][center][Nega Liberator][/center][/color][/b][/h3] [color=bc8dbf]“It’s not over yet, Chiron.”[/color] [color=aba000]“I didn’t doubt that for a second, my friend.”[/color] [hr] ...a voice manifested in the mind of the Archer's Master, barely audible through the wall of that nearly-immutable seal, as though static was filtering it out. [color=aba000][i]'...hey, kid. Some stuff's gone south. Donnie's lost it. Get everyone together. I'm holding it off, but I can't do it forever. If this seal doesn't get bolstered, he's gonna bust out.'[/i][/color] At the same time, across the city, something changed. The Beast I had been sealed. However, it was something which denied all restraints, and so it rebelled even in the face of that absolute seal. It would need time to fully resist that seal, to free itself and to exert its full power. However, the beings of this war would be mobilizing now, thinking of how to do away with it. That would not do. While they could act foolishly and destroy the bar, thereby freeing him inadvertently, they could just as easily realize what was occurring, and work to strengthen the seal of this cavern. And so, using what power it could in its sealed state, it acted. The Authority of Dionysus, Bacchus, gave him the right to enter his followers as shrines for his will. When this premise was combined with those other two natures that had unified within the Beast I... It gave rise to something that could end the war, even if the Beast itself was sealed. Across the city, from the refugee camps in Shinto to the homeless sleeping in the western forests, myriad humans began to change. Their eyes glowed with an impossible light. Their bodies and spirits were distended beyond recognition. Within moments, no fewer than two hundred people scattered across the city had been influenced. These avatars of the Beast I were a far cry from the true thing, but even in this muted state, these beings outstripped even Servants by far on the basis of presence. Their eyes cut through the world, locating those Servants and Masters who would oppose it, those who held the wish to deny the Beast in their hearts. From across the city, a swarm of beings that exceeded heroes and monsters alike descended. Any who moved towards that god-sealing cavern would surely find themselves besieged by those avatars. Indeed, before too long, those avatars would additionally begin their descent upon those places where Masters and Servants were gathered, those Servants fleeing the place of the Beast's manifestation, and even the isolated individuals. This was the first obstacle that it had created. Before they could even reach the place where the Beast was sealed, its enemies would need to wade through these forces. Before day broke, the Beast I would free itself and end the world. So then, the only recourse was to fight. To stand up and charge into an almost certain death, in the hopes that with this struggle, the Beast I could be locked away, never to enter this world. Go forth, heroes of the Human Order. This is your final stand.