[ unintentional video; sword of promised victory ]

[regalbearing]

[ should you choose to play this video, you will find that it is nigh-impossible to see anything through a combination of static, darkness, and fog. eerily glowing fog. fog shouldn't be glowing a sickly shade of purple, right?

you can hear the sound of water sloshing against something. something very large. something-- oh dear god in heaven WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT.

whatever it is and however many nightmares it will soon be giving you, if you look past the writhing tentacles, you will see Saber in her full armour, somehow defying physics by standing on the water of the river itself to face the thing. compared to the grotesque mass in front of her, she is tiny. but the sword in her right hand glows with an impossibly brilliant light, gold and warm and seeming to carry every hope you have ever even half dreamed of becoming reality.

she raises the sword above her head with both hands and closes her eyes, concentrating. you may wish for some appropriate background music.

somehow, impossibly, the light from her sword gets brighter and brighter, gold motes rising like dust from the river, the grass, everywhere in the surrounding landscape to join the light from her sword until it is too blinding to look at. ]

[ and softly, whether though some will of the community or some other magic, the voice of a young woman can be heard. ]

"It shines. That sword is the dream all warriors, past, present, and future, hold as their deaths approach. A sad, exalted dream. She carries their will as her pride, bidding them to remain steadfast in their loyalty. Now, the undefeated King sings aloud the name of the miracle she holds in her hand."

[ as if on cue, Saber's eyes open, and she stares resolutely at the monster in front of her. the golden light - energy - flares around her, making waves in the river. she takes one, two steps forward, and-- ]

EXCALIBUR!

[ she brings the sword down, and the beam of light comes with it, displacing the water and the fog around it in a chaotic spray as it rushes towards its target, blinding--

the light flares, and the feed ends.

what the hell was she doing using that particular sword. ]

Comments

[regalbearing]

Ordinarily, there would not be many people that would trouble me unduly. However, the war I am currently involved in is far from ordinary.

[entreats]

So what you're saying is that everyone has those kind of powers in that war you're in? Honestly, shooting beams of light at each other all the time like that just sounds like it'd be a pain.

[regalbearing]

I would not say that they are the same kind, exactly. However, some of the abilities my opponents possess are certainly around the same level in terms of power.

[ or much more powerful, in some isolated cases. ]

[entreats]

Wouldn't that be incredibly dangerous for people who aren't involved in that war though? [ since she said not much can stand up to that blade, so.. ]

Normal people would just get hurt by a battle of that size.

[regalbearing]

Ordinarily, perhaps. But on the whole we do our best to hold our battles at nighttime, in secluded or uninhabited areas. ... Caster, however, had no such compunctions, hence why I was forced to confront his creation on the river.

[entreats]

[ .. 'Caster'? So that thing was made by someone then, huh? Great, people who can make gigantic tentacle monsters. Just what any world needs. ]

So do you often have those huge gross things around? It sounds like this was an exception.

[regalbearing]

It was an exception, one that I hope will not be repeated. I do not think any of the remaining Servants have the ability to summon anything like that.

[entreats]

So all of you have very different powers in that case? There's a difference between what you did with that sword and being able to summon some sort of oversized seafood.

[regalbearing]

Yes, that is correct. Usually they have some connection to either our assigned Servant class, or to abilities which we possessed during life.

[entreats]

.. Ah, I guess I get it. It's the difference between someone who fights with a weapon and people with abilities that don't necessarily depend on weapons, right? Stuff like just pure magic or summoning things.

[regalbearing]

Yes, exactly. For example, as a Saber-class Servant, my abilities lie primarily in my swordsmanship, in the same way that Caster's lay in his magic or Assassin's in his ability to remain undetected by his enemies.

[entreats]

Wouldn't that make for some really weird sort of war then? I mean, usually in a regular kind of war the opponents more or less have the same abilities at their disposal, but like this it's like some people might have a disadvantage towards others from the very beginning.

[regalbearing]

That can be the case. I did not create this war or its rules, however; I was merely called to participate. It certainly is nothing like any war I have fought in the past.

[entreats]

It doesn't sound like any conventional war, yeah. If anything, it's almost more like a game of sorts from what it sounds like. Even if it's a pretty dangerous game.

[regalbearing]

A game... I suppose it would be easy to think of it as such, if it were not for the high stakes involved.

[entreats]

.. High stakes..? You mean your life?

[regalbearing]

Yes, but for we Heroic Spirits that is a somewhat secondary concern. The stakes I speak of are the reward that await the victor. It is said that whosoever wins the Grail will be granted a wish, no matter how grand or impossible it may seem.

[entreats]

[ .. a wish. Just like what the person who would revive Beatrice and go to the Golden Land would get according to the story. So.. ]

Well, I do know a thing or two about how crazy people can get if a wish is at stake. [ Hi, grandpa. ] It must be a pretty tough war if it's over that.

[regalbearing]

That seems to be the case thus far, though I fear we have yet to see the true extent of things. Five Servants remain, now; if anything, the fighting will become even more fierce.

[entreats]

I guess I'll just wish you good luck then. You seem pretty reasonable, so in that case that's already enough to deserve to win rather than having some idiot take the prize at the end.

[regalbearing]

Thank you for your kind words. At any rate, I hope to secure a victory without drawing things out for much longer, if possible.

[entreats]

Don't think too much of them, I'm just saying whatever pops up in my mind. [ As if Ange would just easily accept someone's thanks.. ]

But.. yeah. Good luck fighting then.