Carly-Beth
Za Boat, Harbor
It came without warning. A lance stabbed upward from the kingdom below, a brilliant white spear that heralded the age of something that no longer had a place in this world.
“Eh~?”
And from the opposite side of the city, the homunculus toying with her menagerie of masks felt a coy grin split her face.
“Ehe, wow, that sure is something~ Hey, Elena, give me the specs on it.”
Turning towards the Atlas Alchemist in her employ, Carly-Beth’s grin only faded when she sighted the troubled expression that took up her companion’s face. Well, she was nothing but face, really, but that was beside the point.
"...that thing is skewing every calculation I've been drafting by a factor of five. It's...similar to Shaytanea, in nature. I wouldn't recognize it if she wasn't right here for comparison, but that's a world microcosm."
Elena’s voice was practically a low mutter, but even that much was enough to rouse the attention of the other masks, all the while their maker let out an exasperated sigh.
"Hmm? That's pretty annoying. Something like that's enough to tip the balance of the war a good amount. What're the odds it gets stronger?"
"If left unchecked? As close to 100% as you can get."
“...well then, looks like we’re going to check in on our newest friend. Don’t let me down, Ted-”
Ted
Somewhere, Outside
Now, Ted was just minding his own business, getting violated by rats as was typical for Ted in the time before he’d been turned into a mask, when he felt the world shake around him.
Eh, that was nothing special.
Typical Tuesday.
Was it even Tuesday?
Of course, an order from the Boss Lady came in moments later, so it looked like he would have to do something. He would have to talk to the rat-thing again.
“Hey, the Boss Lady’s wondering what you think about this tree shit and if you think it’s worth getting rid of.”
And talk he did.
Ratface
"Hated it, it's a symbol of things I despise, not only it's hogging all of life itself and its ugly to look at, It has to go" Piper said through his messenger ratface, expressing his irritation about this fantasy tree, strangling Ted without knowing it.
"Oh, sorry about that, just got carried away."
Carly-Beth
Za Boat, Harbor
Well! It seemed like their new friend also felt the tree was a problem, and he’d provided quite a lot of very interesting information. In light of that-
"Strategiiiist-"
The process was simple. Feeding the information from Ted into Strategist's mind was a trivial task. After all, if it was the task of 'relegating information between multiple sapient beings', Carly-Beth was confident she was the number one in the city in that matter. Even familiar experts likely didn't have her level of experience for dealing with multiple sapient minds in such a matter. In other words, it took a negligible amount of time before Strategist had a full grasp of the situation, and more specifically, of where she ought to aim her weapons.
Naturally, a litany of info was given in addition, in order to draw up a battle plan using Strategist’s Noble Phantasm. Everything from information on the fire last night to information on the tree as it was, with even supplementary calculations from their resident Atlas Alchemist, was filed in, and so a battle plan that had been perfectly optimized was prepared.
Right, they had to avoid attacking in such a way that Piper’s assault would only strengthen it, especially given their knowledge of the fire that had scarred the land it was built upon, and there were certain similar pitfalls to avoid, but with Strategist, the chance of their assault failing fell drastically.
"This thing's an eyesore, it's inconveniencing our ally, I'm sure the families you mentioned are against their land getting usurped like that, and it's undoubtedly taking advantage of a disaster which I'm pretty sure is a bad thing to do in the eyes of that Ruler guy we got the letter from. Sooo, let's get to it, shall we~?"
With that optimized battle plan designed through Strategist’s capabilities, the full plan was relayed to their ally through Ted, and so the order was given.
"Bombard that thing out of existence."
Chartroom, HMS ‘Dreadnought’, 12nm from Harbor
Ensconced over the map table as she poured over the details of the Miyaman coastline, Carly’s grey-haired Servant had little warning of the ‘info-dump’ heading her way until the ‘package’ hit her. She winced in pain, doubling-over, chin first, onto the table as concerned Marines and ship’s officers tried to steady her. As the information completed its transferal she shook off both their inquiries and any of their help, rising back up to her full height.
"This thing's an eyesore, it's inconveniencing our ally, I'm sure the families you mentioned are against their land getting usurped like that, and it's undoubtedly taking advantage of a disaster which I'm pretty sure is a bad thing to do in the eyes of that Ruler guy we got the letter from. Sooo, let's get to it, shall we~?"
“Aye, my Master,” Strategist chuckled to herself (and, through their link, to her Master). “Let’s be about it, then.”
Composing herself, she waved off concerns and wrenched a nearby communications telephone off the hook. In seconds, she was connected to the wheelhouse and the partially-shaded bridge.
“Bridge, this is the Admiral.” she calmly stated to Captain Reginald on the other end of the line. “There’s been a change of plans; I am moving us to battle-stations at once.”
”Battle stations?” the Captain added, understanding the order yet perplexed by the context. “Aye-aye, ma’am, though you do realise that if we go into action now-”
“We’ll be exposing ourselves; I’m bloody well aware of that, Reginald!” the Servant snapped. “Bring the ship to bearing 3-1-0 and stand-by on main and secondary batteries. I’ll be on the bridge in the next few minutes.” She slapped the receiver back into place and turned to the others.
“You heard me, gentlemen. To your stations!” she gruffly reiterated.
As the men hurried out of the room and charged through the exiting bulkheads, throughout the ship, nearly 820 men likewise snapped to orders. On the main deck, the ship’s alert bell was being violently rung by a Midshipman while the ship’s Royal Marines clambered into the seating and stations for the ship’s swivel guns. Deep in the armoured barbettes of the bow ‘A’ turret, the mid-ship’s ‘P’ and ‘Q’ turrets and the stern’s ‘X’ and ‘Y’ turrets, ratings worked in stifling conditions to load the main guns, hoisting cordite charges through armoured, fire-proof bulkheads onto lifts to the guns above, or shifting ramrods to pack the guns with the warheads and charges under the strict timing of their turrets’ command officers.
As she likewise began her ascent to the surmounting bridge, Strategist felt a slight smile tug at her cheeks. Her war might have been kicked off far too early for her liking, but regardless, war had finally come.
And she did not plan on letting her Master or her ship down now ...
Carly-Beth
Za Boat, Harbor
Of course, there was something else to keep in mind. Defenses.
Carly-Beth had no doubt that the Pied Piper’s territory had defenses prepared, but she sadly did not. So, while the Servants prepared their assault, she made preparations of their own.
Nine magecraft-capable masks, and one homunculus. Ten magi, all in all, which was just the number that she needed.
Magic circles had been drawn, the ritual itself again optimized through Strategist’s NP, and so it began, timed perfectly to match up with when Strategist and the Pied Piper would launch their assaults. A defensive measure, using Shaytanea’s own world as the lynchpin, to ward off and swallow anything that the enemy attempted to bring to bear.
Ah, this was so much fun.
Pied Piper(Caster)
Academy
As soon as the false Yggdrasil shows up, The bard can feel the world shifting, and not in a good way, something is amiss, the karmic lines have been tempered and this is not the natural order of things. Something has to go.
This power, this energy...
It's so pure, so divine yet whoever is harnessing its core is not fully optimizing it in its true potential.
Why is that you ask?
Because Piper is here, and because this boy cannot compare to him in the realm of connections. His will reaches out, breaking the thread that connects the boy to the land.
"Foolish tree of life, you don't have the right to be here." He laughs manically at the thought.
"Let the old world die and into the new, There's no place for gods in this world. only man. I've seen it first hand when I led those hundred of innocent children into their demise, where was god to stop me? That's right! He has left and forsaken them!" Manifesting on top of the school's rooftop, a mystical bard screams at heavens, facial veins popping everywhere from his disdain.
Piper takes deep breaths and composes himself before continuing.
"Heh, how ironic, fate has brought me into this position once more, proving that we don't need an abstract creator who does nothing." Piper lets a half smile and presses his lips against his flute.
The symphony of destruction begins.
The academy warps itself into a fortress of mass destruction, the wails and echoes of the children in Piper's basement shriek in despair as if he's giving them the good succ, harvesting their lifeforce, almost leaving them drought in the process. Reality shifts around the school, the pleasant day was gone, and down comes the doom and gloom.
This place reeks of despair and grudges even an Avenger-class would be jealous of. Rats began to manifest all around the place, overflowing the corridors and every inch of the school, Souls began to ooze down the school's walls and ectoplasm runs wild in this place desperately saying "help us" only to fall on deaf ears.
The windows of the school open as multiple cannons are ready to be deployed. Ectoplasms line up only to get shot like some suicide bombers. This is the symphony of the Piper in its repulsive form yet, The wails of a thousand Grudges.
"Aim at that magical tree, its a symbol of things I hate, a false hope of the gods and life itself." Piper casually said, as the artillery cannons turn their attention to the direction of where the Yggdrasil lies. Piper's noble phantasm attack mode is on, with the grudges of souls at his disposal.
"This is the grudges of the ones you forsake! Let lose my children, let your voice be heard upon these pompous gods, Open Fire!"
On the slightly-open-aired bridge deck of her ship, Strategist lowered her set of binoculars, her yellow-hued irises set on the still-distant coastline of Japan. “That’s our objective, gentlemen.”
“The white-barked tree, ma’am?” CTN Bacon added, his eyes fixed through his own binoculars to the growing phantasmal flora.
“Aye. That ‘tree’ is a phantasm, a conduit for - from what I’ve been told - enemy magics and a living forest that, even now, is bringing ruin to an already-devastated Japan. Our orders are to reduce that monstrosity to splinters.” She glanced over her shoulder to the ship’s first officer. “Pass the order to the guns and firing control.”
As the officer hurried away, Strategist raised her binoculars to her eyes for a few brief moments, dimly aware of the metallic sounds coming from below as the ship’s turrets began to pan towards the coast. A twinge in the pit of her stomach briefly arose: would ‘Dreadnought’ be ready for any reprisals sent against her, or the consequences of what she and her Master were about to do?
’No, there is no doubt, she reassured herself, focusing her glasses’ lenses as she swallowed her anxiety down. ‘There is only duty.’
“Bridge, Wheelhouse. Course, 3-1-0.” a rating’s voice echoed up the voice-pipe that connected the wheelhouse to the bridge. CTN Bacon sent a curt reply back as Strategist lowered her binoculars once more, briefly glancing over her shoulder to the Captain.
A silent nod between them was the only signal either of them needed. All was prepared.
Turning back to the coastline, Strategist’s uniformed chest puffed up from inhaled breath before she let out a violent shout.
“ALL MAIN BATTERIES, OPEN FIRE!!”
The tree's master had been cut off from the land through the expertise of this Grail War's master of familiars. And so, with that obstacle negated and with the time of fire coordinated between the pairs, three acts simultaneously occurred in a declaration of war upon the tree of Fantasy.
-Strategist’s Noble Phantasm was released.
-The weapons of the Pied Piper blasted out.
-The Grand Ritual fueled by a World was brought to bear.
Through the network and preparations of the Pied Piper, the mind of Strategist, and the magecraft aptitude of Carly-Beth, an assault was made to bring the budding Yggdrasil down before it could spread its roots.
Time to be a hero.
