Moonlit Sonata

Fate/Empty Providence

@Beloss So you're saying we just need a whole bunch of pigs

@DrowsyPangolin

shit they've figured out my boss's weakness

Fate/Empty Providence

as bad as this situation is, just imagine how much worse it would be if this castle had a good company of soldiers manning its walls. They might be able to hold us off for MONTHS. Depending on how much food they had stored in there of course.

@Beloss

How do you know it doesn't?

Fate/Empty Providence

For future reference, it's important to keep in mind that while a human can kill a Servant, a human can't fight a Servant. Only freaks like the perfect half-oni or the Nasuverse's poster child for efficiency can do that.

With that in mind, in a situation like this, while a Master being able to respond to something like a normal golem would be perfectly feasible, trying to dodge the attack of a Servant-level golem is analogous to trying to dodge a Saber swinging their sword. In this particular case though, it's not a sword but a castle tower, which makes this quite a few times more problematic than even dealing with a Servant's attack.

This applies to all Masters in this war. Unless the Servant is playing around or very serious planning/precautions have been taken prior to the fight, it should be assumed that attempting to react to a Servant's attack will be pretty useless. But then again, that's why you have your own Servant.

Well, unless you're Nakae.

Fate/Empty Providence

Ruler

"Servants, protect your Masters!"

Yelling this out, Ruler roughly grabbed the only human of this battle to whom that statement had no relevance, pulling the not-really-a-magus out of harm's way in his own effort to avoid the fist hurtling for him via a tactless dodge to the left.

"What are you?"

It had noticed, as would the other Servants have, and maybe even particularly focused Masters. That wasn't just a brute force strike; even with the "arm" being the unwieldy tower of a castle, even though it didn't have muscle to explode out with in power, some vestige of real technique had been behind that attack. It had only been a trace, but there was no denying it was present?

And with what Nakae said on top of that...why would a castle be able to feel pain? Why would it know fighting technique?

"Get the Masters out of harm's way! If your Master is safe, then start attacking, we need to find some sort of a weakness!"

---

Matou Archer

The first blow like a descending hammer had been a simple enough affair for one at the level of a Servant to avoid. The second, slightly less so, as could be expected from the difference in their forms. While a Servant could still avoid it, it wasn't something as trivial as the first attempted attack had been.

Archer's bow had materialized since the moment of the golem's appearance, his eyes running over the behemoth in an attempt to pick up on its weaknesses. Possible points of attack had been mentioned, and his own Master was feeding him instructions as well, but for now everyone was relatively equal in flying blind.

His original plan to deal with the approaching tower-fist was to avoid it by leaping up, using the chance to test its defenses with an arrow, but that plan had wound up failing, because...

"What are you doing?!"

Because some twit Master was trying to use his piddling magecraft to avoid the golem's attacks. Was he incompetent, or just suicidal? The first blow had been avoidable, if only just, but now the golem was truly behaving as a combatant equal to a Servant. While among Servants, its speed was nothing to be shocked by, it was still a blow that had surpassed the sound barrier by well over double. For Servants who routinely moved at such speeds, it was only natural.

In other words, this magus was trying to dodge something faster than a bullet after it had been fired from a gun, except in this case the bullet was the tower of a Demon Castle. Perhaps if this was the sweeping motion the other group was dealing with, something never meant to be a killing blow, this would at least be possible, but against this "punch"? Archer doubted he could even dodge a bullet, let alone one that was several times larger than his own body.

A human could not fight a Servant. This was a near-ironclad rule, against a Servant a human would be killed without even knowing what killed them. So then, why would a golem that was equal to a Servant be so slow that a mere magus could avoid its strikes?

He couldn't allow the idiot to die, not when his Servant could be useful in this fight. Regretfully canceling his plan of attack, Archer clicked his tongue and moved to the Master @Kost Alter, grabbing him and pulling him out of harm's way at the last second.

As Berserker would say, the "little shit" owed him.

Fate/Empty Providence

Which side would Team Cao Cao be seperated towards? Writing my response right now.

@Cu Chulainn

Whoops, forgot to tag. You're on the Ruler side, ie the one with the punch.

Fate/Empty Providence

He's standing on his own, but he didn't walk away or anything so he's still within arms' reach.

Fate/Empty Providence

In the interest of flow and to keep this as dynamic as possible, posts with Ruler and the Matou Archer will be made separately to posts made with the Demon Castle.

Fate/Empty Providence

Demon Castle ■■■■■■

Processing all of this data is a headache. I might not like it, but I see why the Suppression Protocol was a thing.

Still, no excuse for slacking.

Sufficient mana to kickstart the ■■■■■ ■■■■■ System's been absorbed. Let's stop eating up the mana at this point, then. There's not enough for the magi to actually do anything dangerous with it at this point, and there's no sense in trying to hit capacity in that way.

Shields are all functioning optimally, good. I was worried some of them would have needed a touch-up. Partitions, report.

Partition 1 Report: All targets avoided initial attack.

Partition 2 Report: All targets avoided initial attack.

Partition 3 Report: Anchoring successful, complete circuit formed.

Partition 4 Report: Anchoring successful, complete circuit formed.

Alright, didn't actually expect that haphazard swipe to take any of them out, so that's fine. 1 and 2, start attacking. 3 and 4, start circulating through the keystones, we need to be ready to respond in an instant to whatever they can plan out.

Like I said, Servants, I'm sorry. I'm really, terribly sorry. In an ideal world, this wouldn't have to happen, but in a world like this, I'm powerless. You don't have to forgive me. I'd be shocked if you did, honestly, so don't feel like you shouldn't be upset. But, all the same, I'll have to ignore your feelings. Because, after all...

I have to wipe every last one of you out.

---

What is a castle?

Something that protects a king.

What is a king?

Something that lives in a castle.

What is a hero?

Something that slays the monster.

What is a monster?

Something that is slain by the hero.

Like clay, the two towers that had been swung down distorted the moment they struck the earth, kicking up great clouds from the impact. Their form shifted and writhed, stone folding in on itself and compressing.

Strengthen certain points, weaken others. Reshape, reform. Circulate absorbed magical energy in order to create an imitation of life. Faster, faster, faster, faster, faster. A monster cannot defeat a hero, a king cannot defeat a hero, a castle cannot defeat a hero-

So the castle and the king and the hero and the monster must all be the same and wouldn't that be strong enough wouldn't it be able to strike them down then wouldn't it be able to call itself by that name

A castle, built of stone and jewel. A king, imprisoned within the castle that is its flesh. A hero, running headlong without stopping. A monster, daring to call heroes its enemies.

The absorption of mana stopped as quickly as it began. The towers lifted themselves from the earth, an absurd sight to be certain as one of the two towers wound back...

-and punched.

@Berserk Gene @SIGINT @Yukitamas @Ijoyen @Breo (David) @ConstantlyComic (Moses) @Kost Alter

The air shattered under the wake of the strike. The tower darted out, mocking the sound barrier as it flew forwards towards those who had been nearest Ruler. The sheer force of the wind in front of the tower was enough to cause damage as it approached, let alone what would happen were it permitted to make contact. And yet...something was wrong, something about that "punch" was impossible. There was a sort of refinement behind the hasty blow made with a castle tower.

Technique. This thing had technique.

At the same time, the other tower swept out in a wide arc among the others, aiming not to kill, but to keep them separated from Ruler's group. They could either flee back from the sweeping strike, guaranteeing themselves safety, or attempt to leap over or even attack the tower in order to keep their footing and bridge the gap between groups. Given the sheer mass behind the tower, though, even a glancing blow could likely be enough to cripple a Servant, let alone a Master.

@Holy Grail @DrowsyPangolin @Beloss @Breo (Siegfried) @ConstantlyComic (Marguerite)

Fate/Empty Providence

Just a quick question, by the way, but as someone who isn't as well versed enough in Typemoon's Magecraft system to be a good judge, what would be the proper spell length to reinforce a Servant in order to increase one of its physical parameters, if possible?

@Cu Chulainn

Sorry, didn't see this.

Nerfed-Manaka (Brand-level) can buff one of a Servant's parameters by one. Nerfed-Manaka is still better than anyone in this war by far at Reinforcement. Reinforcing a Servant's hella hard. So yeah, you can't.

Fate/Empty Providence

Yep, expected that much.