Asuras

Fate/Empty Providence

Rider

~First Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Father of the Illuminati, Mastermind of the World~

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♂ | Chaotic Neutral
Male, Humanoid, Servant, Weak to Enuma Elish

A dreamer and a doer. Hugues de Payens embodies a sense of grandiosity in underlying action and mind. Anything short of perfect execution on multiple levels is paramount to failure for the knight, though his constitution affords him an unbreakable aura of steadfastness and placidity. Calm, dignified, and respectful, Hugues carries himself as a truly honorable figure, though tends towards the way of unintrusive. He himself is aware of this, and wonders at times why he wasn't summoned as an Assassin-class servant instead.

Biography ::

Born in France in the year 1070 AD, Hugues de Payens was destined to form the Knights Templar alongside a handful of other knights. As the First Grand Master of the Order, Hugues efforts prompted the rise of a great religious military force in the old world, defending the so-called Temple of Solomon and serving in the Crusades as some of the most skilled warriors of the war.

Within their decline is steeped many mysteries, and to this day their ties to shadowy organizations continues to mystify the modern world. From their secretive activies sprouted the formation of the greatest and most powerful organization of the world, the Illuminati.

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Weapon :: A simple silver longsword.
Parameters ::
STR ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ [C]
CON ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ [A]
AGI ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ [D+]
MGI ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ [D]
LCK ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ [A]

Class Skills ::
Riding - C ||
Class Skill of Rider and Saber class Servants, denoting the ability to ride mounts and vehicles.
Hugues de Payens unnamed horse, the symbolic horse of the Knights Templar which carried both himself and Godfrey de Saint-Omer, is the mount of choice. Being a horse known for carrying two persons into victory, the mount can similarly carry both Hugues and another individual without any detriment to its ability.

Magic Resistance - B ||
A Class Skill denoting the Servant's ability to resist magical effects.

Personal Skills ::
Golden Rule - A ||
Beyond the Knights Templar being associated with the first instances of banking in the old world, the extension of the order into what became the Illuminati affords Hugues de Payens a level of wealth and resources that goes beyond 'mythic status' and into a virtually immeasurable rating. Being the Grand Master of an organization effectively ruling the world in the shadows, money as an object is inconsequential.

Shadow Author - A ||
A special version of Charisma that specializes in the commanding of forces towards a particular plan. Boosts the Luck of allies so long as things 'go according to plan'.

Never Alone B ||
An anti-Assassin skill that diminishes the bonuses enemy Servants get for facing Servants one-on-one or utilizing sneak attacks. Has the added effect of a pseudo-Presence Concealment skill that masks their presence as multiple individuals rather than as one.

= Noble Phantasm =

Umbra Mundi - The Plan That Stretches An Eternity
Rank: A
Type: Anti-Team
Maximum Number of Targets: Indefinite, diminishes in effectiveness with more targets.
Description: From the formation of the Knights Templar to the present day, the machinations of mastermind Hugue de Payens have been scripted to a 't', unwavering and near-perfect. Umbra Mundi represents the essence of Hugue's ability to plan ahead, and manifests as numerous allies of the Order appearing on the scene. The wraiths are the remaining deceased of the Knights Templar or the Illuminati seeking to continue their battle upon the world. Only those wraiths residing within the 'nation' Hugues resides within can be drawn to the scene. The wraiths manifest as far more 'tangible' or 'real' existences thanks to Umbra Mundi, allowing them to interact with the world in a much more corporeal manner.

Though they are powerful entities, they are lesser in nearly all respects to a Servant, and so cannot be classified as Anti-Army. They are meant to overwhelm smaller teams or individuals with compounded sub-Servant fighters.

Q - FLUX

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line as Cash listened intently to their gripes and yelling. Another moment of silence as he, presumably, gathered his thoughts on the situation. As Advent did her best to mend the ugly wound, Cash began to speak in an unfettered manner. A single sigh betrayed the coolness of his tone, however.

"I'll call one in. Let me know where you can stop for a heli," he said. There was the sound of a snapping finger on the other side of the phone as Cash beckoned for a servant to do something. He continued, "Goons? Of who? Other mobsters? How fast did the Policus arrive? Before or after the goons?" As he continued with the questioning, Advent's work seemed to be stabilizing the still unconscious Zer0, though Diva's mental stability likely needed work of its own. As the team answered Cash, he took a moment to consider the meaning before giving an opinion on the situation.

"If anything, I'd hazard a guess those were Rash mobsters that attacked as revenge, which means either someone else did this, or the Wirefort's really are the culprits. I'm willing to bet it's the former. But then the question is who and why." Cash hummed briefly over the line.

"I'm going to direct you guys to the people who got me the information on the nightmare initially. Talk to them and see if they can't dredge up some more information on how the spell disappeared. I'm sending you a text with an address." In a few seconds, their phones buzzed as an address appeared. From the numbering, they could tell their destination was obviously quite low in the city, deep down near the earthly foundation of it all. Slums awaited them where vehicles could no longer tread.

Meanwhile, Blitz's captive took little time to size up his situation, eventually stopping his flailing and resigning to limpness. "Fuck you man," he grumbled initially before speaking. "This is for those damn Wireforts and whatever the hell that spell is. Going around killing off our brotherhoods like this...! It's genocidal!" he yelled.

Fate/Empty Providence

What's the verdict on unique class skills? Might we be afforded one, within reason?
Throwing my idea out there, for that matter;
Never Alone: [Rank]
A skill the negates or diminishes any boons enemy servants receive for fighting a servant with this skill one on one, or pertaining to assassination. Sneak attacks are harder to achieve, and the Presence Concealment skill suffers in a rank decrease.

Will be making a Rider.

Q - FLUX

The disengage went almost flawlessly, if a single death were the difference between almost and perfect. Piloting End's car towards the opposite end of the street, Runner weaved between two of the attacking force's parked and burning vehicles. The single way forward was, evidently, just the path that one of the robots had predicted; as if waiting the vehicle to be sandwiched between, it fired a round straight into the back of the truck and penetrated its armor. At the very least it wasn't one of the tank-busting rounds from a larger robot, but it did do more than bore a hole into the vehicle.

The fragmented projectile bounced off of a wall inside the cabin and embedded itself straight into Zer0's chest.

The girl was immediately rendered unconscious as blood swept across onto Diva's lap, body slumping over. A second shot rang out just as the car turned around a corner, and Runner could see in the side-view mirror as an explosion jetted off of the side of a building that would have otherwise been End's car.

Besides Zer0, the team was unharmed as the party bus, Echo, End, and Blitz split off from the scene, leaving the Wirefort's to their fate. Echo's EMP temporarily put the smaller robots out of commission, some longer than others, but did not last. Alternative systems found their way into working condition to get them up and running again, eventually bringing them to the biological barrier Doc had raised. Even then, they were delayed little more than a second as powerful legs launched them a dozen feet over the cars and in front of the manor entrance. In the distance, gunshots could be heard, along with the occasional explosion.

A few minutes into their drive, the team received a phone call from Cash, unaware of their recent failure to contact the Wireforts proper.

"How's it faring guys?" he asked, but did not wait for a reply, "News, news. The Rash's apparently just got hit too. Same method, reported by the Prohibitum. I've got someone at the scene right now, and he says it was on one of their warehouses. Not as many people dead, but still a considerable amount. Did you get any information?"

Edged Horizon

Perhaps it was because she had already braced herself for 'something' that the scourge upon reality had only elicited a glare from Ambroise. Still, her hand gripped tighter around her blade until caution got the better of her, and she finally decided to unsheathe it. What had burrowed out of the void wasn't their original target, but it was a target of humanity in general. Any knight worth their salt would turn their sword upon a Rift Beast given the chance. Attacking it went without saying, if indeed her comrades were as willing as she, but the better question was if they had the ability.

"I think we may need to shift gears towards another enemy," she said, "I've never fought a Rift Beast before, but if we are all confident in our abilities, then I would very much love to have one's head to my name." She stepped forward, siding up alongside the others as she turned her chin up to the horizon. The creature was visible just over the treeline, seemingly complacent with merely emerging upon the world for the time being. They could attain the element of surprise.

"If we must approach, we must do it slowly. I shall stay at the back, of course, and will provide support should the worst come to pass. I will focus on protecting you all until we can better gauge the enemy's strengths. That is... unless we decide to retreat to town instead."

Q - FLUX

Slowly, as the retreating Wireforts had disappeared behind the cover of their brick front gate, fire was shifted from them to the remaining targets; that of End's party bus, End herself, and the darting Blitz. The fire power from the left side was heavily dampened as Warthog's suppressing volley forced enemy combatants to run for cover or spontaneously explode over the streets. Together with Advent's bioweapons, Warthog, Blitz, End, and Runner's firepower, the forces on the street had been cut down severely within mere minutes. A dozen or so remained as Echo pulled up from behind on the left side, squaring him up against the 6 or so hiding behind the trucks that protected them from Warthog.

On the right side, as each armored vehicle had been rendered inert by Blitz's pinpoint eradication of their engines, the remaining fighters turned and ran, well aware of the clearly turned tides. All that was left, then, were the six sandwiched between Echo and Warthog. Gunfire subsided for a moment as vision between the parties was lost. The final crack of a bullet exiting Warthog's weapon rang out alone in the crisp cold air.

Silence was interrupted by a loudspeaker booming across the city block.

"Citizens. Lay down your weapons or face immediate execution." The message was simple, direct, and stern. To Echo's left, and perhaps within sight of End from her vantage point, a big rig lurched to a halt on the street. Where sonar had revealed only the size and shape of the vehicle to Echo, seeing it in person revealed far more.

A yellow and black symbol across the side of the big rig revealed its origin; a Policus vehicle. The armor too revealed that the big rig was beyond their firepower. The thickness of even the tires looked as if they were built to withstand salvos from main battle tanks. Despite the warning, the vehicle seemed uninterested in actually granting mercy. Like claws, the body of the rig's cargo split aside to form virtual ramps onto the street below. Contained inside were a uniform line of machines that promptly shuddered into life. Four-legged robots with long, slender rifles situated atop stirred and began to file down onto the streets. Though they were only 6 in number, their formidably was made immediately aware to Echo.

With little more warning than a quick swivel of the turret and millisecond pause, one of the robots fired a shell at Echo and pelted his helmet dead-on. Their accuracy was, for all tends and purposes, perfectly accurate. The armor forming his helmet instantly shattered to reveal a portion of his face, though he was left unharmed. Where the bullet wasn't powerful enough to penetrate his armor, the rifle of the robot was of the smaller variety; two of the six featured far larger weapons, clearly meant to penetrate armor.

Edged Horizon

A spark, like the sound of a snapping twig, flickered at the back of Ambroise's mind. A sense, like deja vu, but far sharper and defined. The woman paused, her hand instinctively finding its way over the pommel of her sword. Had the rest of the group lacked the faculties to sense such things, they would have heard the clamor of her sheathe and belt against one another.

Being a mage with extensive range to their spells, Ambroise's sense of the arcane in its most fundamental form was exceptional. To cast a spell at far ranges, sometimes remotely rather than as a spell with a vector, one had to truly know where their magic was, especially after it was cast. Subsequently realizing where the spell had ended up if out of sight was critical to knowing how to adjust the next time. The arcane flicker that darted through the area was easily attuned to, though it remained in existence far too briefly for Ambroise to get a sense of its origin.

On edge, the woman gripped her sword handle as she stopped.

"Were any of you blind to the signal I had just sensed, I would advise you all to be on guard. There's something unnatural afoot," she said, eyes scanning across the horizon.

Q - FLUX

Though the numerous guardsmen looked to Blitz with clear confusion and dislike, a hand and voice raised towards the back, closer to the front gates of the Wirefort manor, had directed their attention away from the soaring Cleaner.

"He's good, guys. He's fine," someone said at the back. A voice perhaps familiar to Blitz if he were prone to jotting down such things. The guardsmen loosened their tension before the caravan, guns lowered to their hips or holstered altogether. The one who spoke up approached closer, shifting past the wall of fellow guards to get a better look at the Cleaners.

"It's more than sufficient," the man said. As he came closer, the glow a cigarette in his lips partially illuminated his face. The majority of light on the street came from a pair of orange streetlamps situated on either side of the gate. Much of the guardsmens' faces were darkened and difficult to discern. "You need the boss? What about these guys?" he asked, gesturing with his chin to the cars behind Blitz, End, and Advent. Another guard spoke up, shifting their shoulders in a half-shrug.

"What? What weapon? Last we tussled with the Himura's it was fists and knives at the Reginald-Don Pub," he said with a laugh. A few others scoffed in turn, recollecting something funny only to them.

"She's talkin' about the massacre the other day. At their manor," another chimed in.

"Ah shit. Right. That one. That wasn't us though. We've been tryin' to figure out who it wa-"

Before the man could finish his sentence, a distinct sound set the whole street into combat mode. The screech of several tires in succession was as clear a warning as any. As if on cue, there was chaotic shouting over one another and the ringing of phone notifications. Something was coming...

And it came in but four seconds.

From both ends of the street came a squad of five cars, all of them armed to the teeth with plating and gunnery. Shots rang out as soon as they made their appearance, bullets flying from every direction. The entrance to the manor was the only safe refuge, save being inside End's car, and so the Wirefort's began running and gunning for their headquarters.

Stopping far from the entrance, the five cars skidded to a halt broadside as dozens of individuals spilled out with guns of all kinds. Handguns, assault rifles, and sub-machine guns rattled out with death upon the streets, focusing fire towards the retreating Wireforts... and the unknown Cleaners that were caught in the middle of it all.

Edged Horizon

No matter how many times she'd chanted it to herself, Ambroise couldn't shake the feeling that her skills were out of their element for this particular mission. Even after she had come to realize the caution that had been implanted into her life from outside, brought on by her parents' worry, it still didn't seem right that a mage of her type was being sent to be rid of a single serial killer. Willing as she was to kill such a stain on society, it felt wrong to send a cannon to fell a rat. Was she not more suited for engaging entire bands of bandits and cutthroats?

It must have been the millionth time she sighed to herself audibly during the trip, but the first time she worried the other three accompanying her would hear it. Surely they must have gotten tired of her soft and clearly muffled demeanor. Stepping down the mountainside, she gave a brief glance upwards where the other knights were before her; habit had her standing at the back lines, even in casual travel.

Three men her junior, but no less capable. In her soft-hearted mind, she would imagine they were her seniors in skill. Instinctively, she gripped the pommel of her sword, as if trying to remind herself she actually had one and knew how to use it. Though all three of them were Astopolian, she couldn't help but feel slightly more distant from them, as if the outcast of the team. Did they see one another more favorably than her?

Undoubtedly the worry stemmed from the storm of quotes that plagued her kind.

"Undeserving of those knights' lives."
"Too little use for too much effort."
"Useless in comparison to the faster casters."

Superior as the Jeulian Empire proved itself to be, long-channel casters such as herself were nevertheless seen unfavorably during the war, unable to prove their destructive worth when even the efforts taken to keep them protected resulted in no better a rate of survival. For the knights that protected them in battle, it was a greater death sentence than any other position. It was as if their chances of death were one-hundred and ten percent.

Too late to enjoy the boons of Talentium, her now-gone siblings never got their chance to show their worth, and so the spite continued. Ambroise couldn't help but imagine the three before her may harbor the same distaste.

Hector von Helbrecht. A young man with determination in his eyes befitting of the hate that loomed behind them.
Jacque Raynes. Likely one of the most noble men she'd ever encountered in her life. A spitting avatar of Astopol.
Notia Cragsky. A soul she'd become sure of by then was more than the quiet exterior he tended to put off.

If they had any semblance of kindness, they'd tell her they had no issue with her presence regardless of their true feelings, but Ambroise knew she'd find it difficult to trust them regardless, and so she left it to linger in her. Endure and accept. That's all there was to it. She'd done it for years already, and she wasn't about to crack then. Not in so simple a mission. To keep her mind off of the pointless and inevitable, she choose to speak up in the quietness of the forest.

"Displaced as I find myself to be for this sort of mission, I do find it odd there are four of us being sent. I know little of the 'Virtuoso' killer beyond their kill count. Should we expect someone dangerously skilled?" she asked.

Q - FLUX

Cash just shook his head at Vivian.

"Yep. Once I had tried it with two chickens with some light in a small wooden crate, I'd put a camera inside. Didn't change anything. It did give me a glimpse of the nightmare though... Sort of," he shrugged. "It manifests instantaneously as a few gusts of air, so I imagine we're dealing an intangible type of nightmare, hence why I asked for Diva to come along," he explained, gesturing to the girl.

"As for its usage, I've only gotten word of this one incident occurring, so I think we're dealing with a single knowledgeable individual using it. Given the targets, it's likely they're another mob against the Himura, or a hitman for the same reason. Could be any number of folks. Pendeltons, Rash, Wireforts, Towers..." he Cash counted on his fingers, "Those are the groups I know that have something against the Himuras. The problem with killing it is that whatever you kill in an area afflicted by the mark isn't truly the nightmare itself. Merely a manifestation of it. The research for this particular idea is shoddy, but there's reason to suspect that it has a 'true home' from where it can extend its manifestations through the symbols. And yes. It can show up in multiple places at once. That much is known from the research on when it was used last... Some twenty-odds years or so ago." Cash straightened himself and turned to Arsenal.

"We've been cautious about our little 'tests' with the symbol. Haven't tried it on any actual buildings, so I can't say if an open door affects it or not. I imagine the Himura house had open windows at least somewhere when it happened, and the nightmare remained inside, so I'm lead to believe it stays in the 'house' as a concept. And we only know it just kills macroscopic living things. There was a robot servant in the house and it wasn't touched." Cash sighed, letting his hands fall noisily at his sides.

"Now then, with all those details explained, I've got a suggestion for a lead. Given it probably can't be killed at the house and that we have no clue where its origins might be, our best bet is to get info straight from the source. Whoever used the symbol will have a better idea on where it popped up from twenty years later, and that is where we should be able to get the right answers. I'd suggest speaking with the Wireforts first. Policus news seems to believe they're the ones in deepest shit with the Himuras right now. Just let them know you're not after any of them, just how they this symbol... If it indeed was one of them."

With that, Cash urged the group on their way, giving short answers to the lingering questions the group had. Ultimately the plan was simple, though it still meant having several things in the way till they actually got to some nightmare skull-bashing. Indeed, if anyone had even considered what it'd be like to fight the nightmare in a common house, few could be convinced it'd work out. The moment anyone was unseen, they would presumably be dead. Given its strange nature, no one was willing to test if it could bypass arcane shields. Diva could root the thing to physicality, but even that could be a waste of time, according to Cash's provided info.

And so it was that their first stop was the Wirefort manor, an old-timey chic manor in the middle layers of Neo Babylon, nevertheless with a wide land surrounding its walls. After gathering once again in the available vehicles, they were on their way out of the Envi-Novel district and back into the grimy under city where natural light reached them only in the few hours of high noon. The Wirefort manor was well underneath several megafoundations, leaving only the orange light of old streelamps to illuminate their path. Several buildings surrounded the plentiful lot of the manor, undoubtedly bought out and fortified for added protection and buffering. Well before they reached the street it was on, their appearance had already drawn the attention of residents and placed watchmen alike. There was no fuss. Not until they stopped nearby the manor.

Several men had stepped out in front of the cars on the street to stop them, clearly wary of their presence so close to the mob family manor. Gesturing for at least a few of them to step out, they approached at a distance, handguns and SMG's brought out from thick overcoats to make sure everyone understood what was at stake.

"The hell are you freaks doing around here? What's your business? Painstakers?"