AN: Not many Chapters are left in this volu. We will be starting with Volu 22, The Fate Borrower, starting September.
First, The Fate Borrower will be quite long - given I don’t have any intention of including Fate World again, I will be making it grand, serving all purpose and keeping the future in mind.
Second, if you haven’t watched Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel movies, and have no idea so of the core plots related to them, it would be an incredibly difficult read for you.
I don’t want to give any false promises that you will relate to what’s going on without having any idea about the ani and the movies.
If you can, try to go through at least UBW and Heaven’s Feel. If you have so extra ti, start with Fate/Zero.
That’s why I am putting this Author’s Note much earlier than the actual beginning of the next volu.
Enjoy and Good Luck!
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As Kai and Black stood up, veins throbbed on their forehead, Calm bouncing off between them to keep things from getting out of hand.
For a mont, they just stood there, looking at the spot where the ancient wizard had disappeared.
They couldn’t believe it.
Twice. They failed not once, but twice!
Not only had they failed to seal Herpo the Foul’s existence, but they had also failed to restrict him after using My House, My Rules — a Skill that had never disappointed him before!
Then there was that look in Herpo the Foul’s eyes before he had disappeared — a montary glow of realization.
"If they weren’t sure about us before, they are now," Black said, dusting off his clothes.
"The Order of the Immortal Lotus knows that I am an Outer One," Kai nodded, his mouth pressing into a thin line, "backed by a Bubble Entity and a Tiline..."
Kai looked around, saw the sheer destruction, and frowned.
Years’ worth of planning and experints would have wasted away today if he hadn’t shifted all the magical Xenomorphs to the White Serpent Pirates’ HQ.
However, it wasn’t like the place served no purpose to him.
It was the greatest source of Despair for Kai.
Despair begot Despair, fueling itself.
Kai had been keeping prisoners here, both humans and beasts, adding their despair to the place using torture and manipulations.
It was all to have a constant, reliable supply of Despair to breed more Dentors.
Now, everything was gone. In seconds.
"It was our fault," Black said, putting his hands inside his pockets, the Ad Infinitum agreeing with him. "We shouldn’t have kept the Echoes in Active Mode within the villagers."
With the AI and the Lucky Intuitions, it didn’t take long for Kai to generate a plausible theory behind the series of events.
The destruction of a Horcrux...
rlin leaving hibernation because of the Imperishable Artifact, which itself was another Horcrux...
Herpo the Foul manifesting himself into the tiline using the Basilisk... and then finding yellow crystals bobbing up and down so plainly in the villagers of Cunestune.
Kai had intentionally kept the Echoes within the villagers in active mode to throw the Order off if they sohow found out about the Village.
Rescuing the villagers then would have given them false security, thinking they had destroyed the Yellow Warlock’s plan.
anwhile, none would have been wiser about the Echoes in Hogwarts Students and Professors, Wizards and Witches, Magical Creatures, Muggles, Animals, Insects...
However, Herpo the Foul surpassed Kai’s imagination, not only reaping all the villagers’ souls, and strengthening his own magic after manifesting into the tiline, but also destroying the underground lab, diffusing all the Despair with his Fury.
Fury...
Only emotions on that scale could counter other emotions that had beco Concepts.
Still, the greatest question remained, sticking out like a thorn.
How did Herpo the Foul survive against Kai’ and Black’s full onslaught?!
Kai looked up, his eyes glowing purple. "Herpo the Foul can go fuckhimself searching for the answers," he said, biting through his teeth. "But I need an answer right now!"
Silence.
...
Suddenly, from the depthless crater, over which the two existences were hovering, a mutated corpse flew out, its neck twisting and turning.
Once it reached their eye level, the unhinged movents of the corpse paused, a blue light glinting in its hollow eyes.
Tiline?! Kai asked himself, but sothing fell off. No. "You are..."
[My Scion...]Death the Artificer hissed through the corpse, bits of its body parts crumbling. [What have you done?]
Kai scoffed. "What have I done?!" he asked, a sneer dancing on his lips. "An Old One’s Curse perated through your authority, and you couldn’t do anything?!"
Screeeeeeeeeech!!!
The corpse let out an ear-piercing noise, the blue glow in its eyes pulsating in anger.
[You would be wise to not attract my ire.]Death hissed. Then, the tone changed. [Why do you think your bad luck lasted only for sixty seconds?]
Both Kai and Black’s brows shot up.
This was sothing neither the Ad Infinitum nor the Lucky Intuitions had picked up.
Kai and Black exchanged glances. Yes. Now that the Deep One brought it to their attention, the thought was truly a contemplating one.
Why did his unluckiness last only for sixty seconds?
[I did what I could, my scion.] The corpse twitched, its jaw crumbling. [Otherwise...]
A re sixty seconds had pushed Kai’s plans years ahead. re sixty seconds had birthed a mythical wizard. re sixty seconds had made Kai feel helpless. Only for a mont, but yes, helpless.
What would have happened if the bad luck had lasted for two or three minutes?
Kai licked his lips. "Why couldn’t I seal Herpo the Foul?" he asked, throwing the previous question into the back of his mind.
[Your initial guess was as good as OURS, my scion.]Death said, ntioning the Tiline as well. [That creature didn’t exist in one place...]
I knew it... Kai’s lips twisted under the hood.
But the Deep One had more to add, which the Outer One had failed to guess.
[... nor did he exist in ti. That we learned too late.]
WHAT?!
[As he stood here, Herpo the Foul exists not in one, but ALL tilines.] The Corpse hissed out, bringing a silence so heavy that it weighed on Kai’s shoulders. After a mont, Death continued giving the blows. [Not only that, but he doesn’t even exist in the past, present, or future...]
It was only by a little, but Kai’s shoulders drooped, a chill running down his spine.
Black still held Calm on him, though. "That doesn’t make any sense," he said, narrowing his black eyes. "I kicked him."
The corpse’s broken mouth twitched and its shoulders shook.
Death was laughing. [You kicked Herpo the Foul, true, my creation.] The hisses lted into the surroundings. [He was using Soul Magic at that mont.
[Herpo the Foul’s position in space shifts between the tilines, but, to use Soul Magic, he needed to be here. You simply caught him in the act...]
Black pressed his brows in realization.
Yes. When he had co out of the Inventory, Herpo the Foul was amidst pulling his soul out using Soul Anchorage.
Still, what worked one ti might never work again.
Herpo the Foul would be wary of getting caught in the act one more ti; ever.
Kai took a deep breath. "You should have let know what kind of absurd powers Herpo the Foul possessed much before," he said. "If I had known..."
[... the result would have been the sa.] Death hissed out the truth. [Herpo the Foul was supposed to manifest in this tiline... only in this tiline just before rlin’s death. Now that he already has...]
Kai gritted his teeth. "What about the remaining Horcruxes?"
[Tiline is pursuing him as of this mont.] The corpse screeched. It had crumbled completely from the waist down now. [Herpo the Foul would not co back to this tiline for so ti, but... even if he returned, he would not prevent the Horcruxes from getting destroyed.]
That puzzled Kai. "Why?"
[That is not for you to know. Not yet.] Only the corpse’s eyes remained now, hollow, the blue glints dwindling within them. IT looked at Black, then back at Kai. [Your objective remains the sa, my scion.
[I want you to kill Herpo the Foul. That was the price you agreed to pay. Think of sothing outside the box... now that your Reality Marble is useless... Ha-Ha...]
Then the corpse disappeared, becoming dust.
The throbbing veins returned to the duo’s foreheads, their hands balling into fists.
Kill Herpo the Foul?! Even if Kai sohow pinned the wizard down into one tiline, the thrice-damned wizard didn’t exist in the flow of the ti!
Not to ntion, Kai’s Shikai worked by sealing an existence’s past, present, and future selves into now using Parselscript.
So... in the truest sense...
Herpo the Foul was Qliphoth Genesis’ nightmare!!!
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AN: Original image related to the scene (corpse-related) is available
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