Fate/Eva Frankenstein

"Sometimes the hardest blow isn't the one that breaks your bones, but the one that forces you to see who you were... and who you still aren't."

--Anonymous Author.

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Chapter 4: The Spark and the Abyss.

Pov. Third person.

Four and a half years ago.

Frankenstein Manor, Switzerland - Autumn 1831

The hiss of slashed air was the only warning.

Eve barely had time to twist her body before the warhammer descended like a thunderclap.

She dodged it by inches, feeling the pressure of the blow pass by her ear.

She tried to counterattack, but her opponent—quick and calm—was no longer there.

The air burned her lungs. Her breathing was labored, her muscles tense. She was tired.

Too tired.

A second later, another blow struck her square in the side.

"Ugh!" Eva cried, thrown from the impact.

She fell to the ground with a thud. Bridal Chest flew out and landed far away, vibrating faintly.

Dazed, panting, Eva reached out to retrieve it...

But a foot stepped on her hand before she could reach it.

With an effort, she looked up.

The warhammer was millimeters from her face.

"You missed," a monotone voice said. "Again, you didn't even manage to hit me."

Lea.

The servant calmly withdrew the weapon and then bent down, offering her hand.

Eva took it. Her legs were still shaking when she stood.

Again? So fast? Barely a few minutes passed.

"How...?" she stammered breathlessly. It was only the fourth day of her practice with her. She still couldn't understand where such strength came from.

Lea rested her hammer on her shoulder.

Her expression, as always, was serene... though a spark of pride shone on her face.

"Although my primary role is household chores," she said calmly, "I'm also trained in combat. If the mansion's enclosed grounds don't stop intruders, I'm one of the lines of defense. It was also the reason Master Victor assigned us to guard the workshop entrance."

Eva could only stare at her, incredulous.

The cold wind caressed her skin, mingling with the fresh scent of damp grass.

They were outside, in a cleared area near the greenhouse, where the ground had been partially smoothed by Lea for training.

In the distance, the white roses Lea tended swayed gently.

The creaking of a door interrupted the silence.

From the side entrance of the mansion, Emma emerged carrying a tray with two glasses of water and a towel.

Her hair was loose and her expression friendly, as usual, though her gait was somewhat lighter than her sister's.

"Are you done?" she asked, looking at Eva, panting and covered in dust up to her elbows.

Lea shook her head.

"We were just taking a break," she replied in her flat tone, taking one of the glasses with mechanical precision and offering it to Eva. "But Eva managed to last longer this time."

"She lasted a minute longer than yesterday."

"That's all?" Eva murmured, accepting the water while trying to hide how much her fingers were shaking.

Emma approached and handed her the towel.

"Good work," she said with an encouraging smile, handing it to her.

"Thank you," Eva said gratefully as she received it.

She wiped her sweat and looked up at the cloudy sky.

There was still much to learn.

Shortly after returning to the mansion, she had begun training with her mace.

She wanted to learn to master her weapon better.

But, in Lea's words, without a proper teacher, the only thing she had learned in these months was how to swing a mace crudely and inefficiently.

Apparently, her performance displeased Lea so much that she offered to teach her herself.

Although her training method could only be described one way: spartan.

She would lift her as soon as the sun rose and bring her here. Afterward, she always hit her until she couldn't get up... then she would wait for her to recover... to hit her again.

Sometimes she wondered if she had made the right decision.

Sge drank slowly, trying to regulate her breathing.

"Besides," she added in a small voice, "it's only day four. Results don't show up overnight."

Lea stopped. Inside, she was slightly surprised. It was true. Even if it was minimal, there was improvement. She thought it would take longer to improve her time.

But Eva was adapting more than she'd anticipated.

She wasn't sure whether to attribute it to Eva's abnormal body—an artificial human, after all—or to another, much more obvious and logical reason.

Her nose lifted slightly, with a faint, silent dignity.

Obviously, it was because she was an excellent teacher.

She didn't notice the look Emma was giving her from a few steps behind. A mixture of resignation and affection, as if she were holding back a smile.

"You're thinking you're the best again, aren't you?" Emma murmured under her breath, unheard by either of them.

Eva looked at them both for a moment.

And without quite understanding why, she felt something warm in her chest.

A smile formed on her lips without her realizing it.

Lea clapped her hands enthusiastically, brushing some dust off her training apron.

"Very good. Physical training break," she announced, as she put on... small, round glasses?

"Now we begin... Using Mystic Codes 101!" she declared theatrically, proudly adjusting her glasses.

Eva looked at her in silence for a second and then gave a few soft claps, almost in resignation, though not without a spark of amusement in her eyes.

Emma, ​​still holding the same glass of water, narrowed her eyes at Lea.

Where the hell did he get those glasses...? Emma thought, turning her head slightly.

"Eva," Lea said in a more formal tone, staring at her as she extended a hand. "Bridal Chest, please."

Eva hesitated for a moment, but finally carefully handed her the mace.

Lea took it with both hands and, once again, demonstrated that her small body had no trouble carrying the monstrous weight.

"Mystic Code: Bridal Chest. A code designed to absorb, recycle, and convert residual magical energy in the environment," she recited solemnly, holding it reverently. "Though that's only its most basic use."

"Emma, ​​could you help me?"

"Sure," Emma replied matter-of-factly, leaving the glasses and towel next to Eva before walking to the opposite side of the clearing.

Eva looked at them with growing bewilderment.

They both took up positions: Lea with her mace at attention, and Emma standing with her right arm extended. Under her sleeve, thin luminous grooves began to light up: magical circuits.

"Attack!" Lea ordered without hesitation.

"Pierces..."

A sphere of light blue began to form on Emma's palm. Within seconds, it grew to the size of a twenty-centimeter ball, sparking with compressed energy.

"Kugel!" she shouted.

The orb shot out with a sharp sound, slicing through the air like an arrow of light.

But Lea was already ready. She swung the mace as if conducting a symphony, and right at the instant of impact, Bridal Chest split open.

The sphere of energy was completely absorbed, swallowed as if it had never been there. The weapon vibrated gently in Lea's hands.

Eva gasped.

The entire exchange had lasted only a few seconds. A gust of wind, born from the shot, ruffled her hair.

"...That was incredible," she whispered.

Bridal Chest glowed brightly, wrapped in flashes of green lightning that danced across its surface. Tiny electrical crackles floated in the air.

"Wind manipulation, energy bullets, and lightning attacks," Lea explained, observing the weapon closely, "can all be absorbed and converted into electricity." She paused for a moment, then added,

"Without affecting the wielder."

Then, with a fluid motion, she swung the mace toward the ground.

A green lightning bolt shot from the end of the weapon, striking a nearby spot with a sharp chzzak!.

The ground was scorched, marked by a smoky line.

"And with a single gesture," Lea said, casually placing the mace back on her shoulder, "it can be discharged into the surroundings."

"Perfect for countering sorcery that doesn't involve the manifestation of physical matter," Lea said, handing the mace back to Eva.

"Do you want to learn how to do that?" she asked with a small smile that barely curved her lips.

"Yes, Master!" Eva nodded fiercely, looking at her with shining eyes. She wanted to be able to do that. She wanted to learn everything.

Lea shuddered slightly.

"...You know, for a servant to be called that by her Mistress, it feels somewhat..." She grimaced, uncomfortable. "It's better not to call me that."

"But Lea is my family. I'm not anyone's Mistress, am I?" Eva asked, tilting her head in bewilderment.

Lea blinked. For a moment, the dignified air that surrounded her shattered. Her face reddened slightly, and she looked away as she coughed to regain her composure.

"The pause is over," she said, raising her voice. "Now try doing what I did."

She handed her the mace with a firm gesture.

Eve took it respectfully and hurried to the position where Emma had been.

"Those words made you happy, didn't they?" Emma whispered with a smile, approaching Lea.

"...I'll reserve my comment," the servant murmured, turning to take her place in the field.

Emma watched them both from the shade of the greenhouse. She smiled softly.

What good days these are...

"Ready?" Lea asked, already in position, hammer raised.

"Ready!" Eva replied, with a fierce, almost savage smile as she raised her mace.

With an enthusiastic roar, she launched herself forward. She leaped...

...too bad they didn't last.

And the blow descended with precision.

__________________________________________

Present moment - Year 1836.

The mace swung down violently and crushed the chimera's head.

The deformed body fell to the side, inert.

Another creature—a grotesque cross between a tiger and an eagle—attempted to pounce on her from behind.

Eva spun around just in time, dodging the attack with a fluid motion.

With a roar, she swung Bridal Chest toward the creature's stomach. The impact deformed its abdomen and threw it against the stone wall of the tunnel.

Before it could rise, Eva took a step, raised the mace again, and smashed its skull into the ground.

Ten.

She counted silently, quickly scanning the surrounding corpses. All different, all inhuman.

Most bore human faces somewhere on their bodies: a face on the chest, eyes on the back, lips formed on the arms.

But none of them was one of the girls.

None of them were Mia. Not Sofia. Not Olivia. Not Sarah. Not Anna. Not any of the others.

That fact didn't erase her guilt.

But it did make it... bearable.

For now.

Even so...

Who were these people? she wondered uncertainly.

In Chamonix, she only knew about the disappearances of the girls, so... where did all these come from?

She thought for a moment, but finally shook her head. The girls first... the rest is secondary.

With that clear in her mind, Eva continued through the dark, damp tunnel.

The walls were covered in moss and a few carved runes emitted a faint, almost imperceptible green glow.

Chimeras kept emerging from the shadows.

Every step was a constant struggle: a wolf hybrid with human arms attacked ferociously, another with a raven head tried to ambush her from above.

The only positive thing was: none of these were as strong as the one she had faced at the beginning.

Eva, tired but determined, dodged, blocked, and counterattacked with brutal precision.

Her muscles burned, electricity crackled beneath her skin, and Bridal Chest vibrated with the energy she absorbed.

One after another, the monsters fell.

The mental tally became inevitable: Fifteen... sixteen... maybe more...

The smell of blood and burning flesh permeated the air.

Finally, with one last lunge, Eva brought down a creature that groaned in agony and stepped back to catch its breath.

In front of her, a reinforced metal door appeared in the tunnel wall.

The cold increased as she approached.

A faint metallic hum sounded as she touched the surface.

Eva sensed that beyond lay what she was looking for.

The magus must be here.

The girls too.

With that thought, she tightened her grip on the hilt of Bridal Chest and moved forward slowly, her guard up.

She hadn't forgotten the owl outside, nor what the cessation of the wave of chimeras might mean:

Beyond this door, they were probably waiting for her.

Her heart pounded.

There was no turning back now.

The door at the end of the tunnel gave way with a slow, rusty groan.

Eva moved forward.

The first thing he felt wasn't a smell, or a sound. It was a weight. An invisible oppression that fell on him like a wet blanket.

The air was thick, almost solid. Every step made her chest tighten a little more.

She was in a workshop.

One that, in shape, reminded her too much of Victor's.

But everything else was… wrong.

Too big. Too dark.

The place wasn't made for creation, but for transformation.

And not in the noble sense of alchemy… but in a grotesque. Profane.

Test tubes—taller than a person—rose in neat rows like vertical tombs.

Inside, human bodies writhed in different stages of mutation: some with scales emerging from their skin, others with additional limbs forming from the abdomen.

A couple were already complete… or asleep.

One had wings.

Another, three mouths.

Another—the worst—a face that was still weeping.

Eva said nothing.

She just walked.

The ground bore marks: ritual formulas traced in dried blood.

Some still oozed energy.

Others had already cracked from overuse.

The metal creaked beneath her feet.

A makeshift altar rose in the background, on a black stone dais.

There, a large artifact pulsed with a dull light.

It wasn't natural light.

She wasn't sure it was even magical.

It was as if that core breathed.

And what pulsed within wasn't energy.

It was something... alive.

Eva swallowed. Instinctively, she adjusted her grip on Bridal Chest, still damp with blood from the previous chimeras.

There were no enemies here. Not yet.

But she felt stares.

Stares that didn't come from eyes.

The walls were covered with scrolls, formulas, names.

Some were crossed out.

Others were circled in red.

Girls' names.

Names she'd begun to learn, to remember.

And others... that didn't sound familiar.

Perhaps the pipe dreams of before.

Some had notes beside them:

"Impure. Contaminated. Useless."

"Too weak. Incomplete dissolution."

"Viable candidate. Extract."

Eva's head lowered slowly.

Guilt gnawed at her heels.

But fury kept her standing.

She approached the core.

The device vibrated, as if reacting to her presence.

And for a moment, she heard it.

A whisper.

Many whispers.

They seemed to spring from all directions.

Like a chant from beyond the grave.

"...save us..."

"...kill him..."

"...run away..."

"...because..."

"...don't let him...finish..."

Eva took a step back.

A high-pitched whirring sound filled the air for a moment, like a screech between dimensions.

The core quieted.

Silence returned.

Then, she spoke in a low voice. Almost like a thought:

—…This is horrible.

Victor... I don't think even you did anything so horrific...

She stared at the lights in that core, pulsating.

—And that's why... I'm going to destroy it.

"Oh, really...?" said a serene voice from the darkness.

Eva tensed instantly. Her breathing became thick. The sound of slow, steady footsteps broke the silence of the workshop.

A figure emerged from a raised walkway, descending gracefully.

He wore a dark, perfectly tailored suit.

His hair, black as oil, was swept back with surgical precision.

His arms remained crossed behind his back, and his gait was that of a nobleman visiting a gallery... not that of a murderer walking among the remains of his crimes.

But the worst part was his face.

An expression of absolute serenity. Calm. Satisfied.

As if nothing were wrong with the world.

That was what horrified Eva the most.

"So tell me..." the man continued, stopping a few feet from her, "how do you plan to do it?"

He raised an eyebrow, as if genuinely intrigued by the answer.

Eva didn't respond immediately. Her body had already instinctively shifted into a fighting stance. Bridal Chest trembled slightly between her fingers.

"You..." she spat through gritted teeth, her contained fury on the verge of bursting. "You're the magus! The one who took the girls!"

"THE ONE WHO TURNED LITTLE ELENA INTO A CHIMERA!"

Her scream resonated like a whip through the pipes.

The man didn't flinch.

"Indeed," he replied with impeccable courtesy. He lowered an arm and bowed elegantly. "Benedict Kizcrud, at your service, mademoiselle... or, perhaps, "intruder" would be more appropriate?"

He didn't need to hear more.

Eva charged.

With a roar, she crossed the distance like a flash of lightning. The mace rose in the air, ready to crush her skull in a single blow.

Benedict raised an eyebrow.

And then... he smiled.

"So predictable?"

A sharp impact.

A sharp pain erupted in Eva's side.

"Gah!" she exclaimed as her body was thrown, as if an invisible train had hit her. She hit the wall with a crunch of stone and bone, leaving a crack in its wake. Bridal Chest rolled across the floor, sparking.

Dazed, she slowly sat up.

Blood trickled from her mouth. She was breathing heavily.

Her eyes fixed on the culprit.

But Benedict... he hadn't moved.

Beside her, the air vibrated, and something materialized.

A new monster emerged.

Even larger than the first chimera.

Its body was a grotesque fusion of lion and crustacean, with long tentacles sprouting from its back like living whips.

From its shoulders grew two giant, crab-like claws, heavy and sharp. And where there should have been a face...

...there were hundreds of eyes.

Human eyes. A child's. An adult's. A beast's.

All open. All staring.

"I present to you Ra'el, one of my masterpieces," Benedict said in a monotone, lightly patting the air, as if petting the invisible monster. "Patience, obedience, and power... a rare combination."

The monster's eyes blinked in unison.

Eva, panting, struggled to her feet.

"What the hell... have you done?"

"The hell? No. Perfection. Beauty... evolution." Benedict smiled slightly. "You understand, don't you? Because you, too, are a masterpiece... incomplete."

The silence was broken by a guttural roar.

Ra'el lunged.

The roar filled the workshop like suppressed thunder.

Eva barely had time to recover and raise her mace before the monster launched itself at her.

CLANG!

A colossal pincer slammed into Bridal Chest, sending her reeling. Barely had she steadied herself when a tentacle grazed her leg, tearing off part of her cloak and sending her spinning.

Another descended like a flesh whip. Eva dodged it by inches.

"Tch...!" She clicked her teeth and stepped back, her breathing already labored.

She tried to circle the creature, find an angle, a blind spot.

But it was impossible.

Every move she made, the creature anticipated. Tentacles blocked her path, pincers dropped like guillotines. And those damn eyes... they followed her. Every single one.

From every angle.

"It has no blind spots..." she murmured, panting, a drop of sweat sliding down her neck.

She tried to launch herself again.

She rolled on the ground, dodged a lateral lunge, and propelled herself with all her strength to land on her flank—

WHAM!

A clamp descended from the air like a trap and slammed into her stomach.

The air escaped her lungs. Eva was thrown backward and slammed into one of the test tubes.

The glass shattered into a thousand fragments. A dark substance—she couldn't tell if it was blood or amniotic fluid—spattered her face.

"You can't get closer, can you?" Benedict's voice slid like a knife through the shadows. "A tool without reach. A force without precision."

A girl with a hammer.

Eva forced herself to stand. Trembling.

Bridal Chest still in her hand, but every muscle screamed in protest.

Ra'el waited for her. Silent. Motionless.

As if it knew she had no way forward.

Its tentacles fluttered gently. As if breathing.

"Tch..." Eva gritted her teeth.

She leaped. She roared. She swung the mace with all her might.

But she didn't reach it.

A wall of tentacles stopped her. Crossed pincers blocked her path. She was forced to retreat. To roll. To retreat again.

And again.

And again.

She couldn't close the distance.

She couldn't strike.

And then she understood.

He was studying her.

Benedict wasn't even participating. He was just watching.

As if this fight wasn't a spar... but an experiment.

Her mind began to cloud as she noticed more and more details.

That attitude... that way of acting...

So similar...

So hateful.

"Victor..." Eva spat.

She tried once more.

"?" Benedict repeated, tilting his head in mock curiosity. "Who?"

"VICTOR!" She roared, and for a moment, the air sparked with pure electricity.

But it wasn't enough.

Another blast from Ra'el struck her, this time from a tentacle that stretched beyond expectation.

Eva barely blocked it, and fell to her knees.

Her legs buckled.

Her energy was draining.

Benedict took a few steps forward.

"You know? I'm not here to destroy.

I'm here to create.

To achieve true advancement."

He made a slight gesture with his hand, and Ra'el stopped.

Like a nightmarish statue.

The silence in the workshop was almost deathly.

Only the slow bubbling of tubes and the faint whir of machinery filled the air.

Then Benedict opened his eyes fully.

And Eve held her breath.

Not out of fear.

But because of the immediate chill that ran down her spine when she saw those eyes light up.

A brilliant blue, deep as the ocean, wrapped in a faint violet glow that danced gently at the edges of the iris.

It wasn't light.

It wasn't ordinary magic.

They were Mystic Eyes.

"Interesting..." Benedict murmured, taking a step forward and observing her with the care of a sculptor. "Your soul..."

His tone was soft, almost reverent. As if he were speaking of a work of art.

"I've never seen one like it."

Eva tensed. Her breathing was labored.

"It's not one, really. It's like... an amalgam."

As if someone had taken two souls, forced a symbiosis…

And even so, somehow… it worked.

She turned slightly, as if trying to see her from another angle.

Her eyes shone with fascination.

"Balance is imperfect, but stable. The kind of mistake that doesn't even seem like a mistake.

A brilliant accident. An incomplete soul that... sustains itself."

Eva clenched her jaw. Her skin sparked with erratic shocks.

An electric tingle spread through her veins.

"Whoever made you... was a true genius."

And then, something inside her snapped.

"Shut up…!"

Eva's voice was a roar.

"Don't talk as if that were something admirable!"

Electricity erupted around her body.

A blue-white aura crackled violently, illuminating the room.

—DON'T TALK AS IF THAT TRASH DESERVES PRAISE!

Ra'el's tentacles instinctively moved forward, preparing to block her.

But they weren't fast enough.

Eva's burst of energy was so abrupt and fierce that it pushed them back, opening a gap.

"Oh..." Benedict murmured, half curious and half impressed.

Ra'el prepared to intercept her.

But Benedict raised a hand.

"No."

Ra'el stopped instantly.

"I want to see her. As she is."

Eva couldn't see anything anymore.

She didn't see the glowing eyes.

She didn't see the signs.

Only the man in front of her.

The reason for all this horror.

The echo of her creator.

She jumped.

Bridal Chest rose like thunder in her hands.

But just before she reached her opponent...

...she saw him pull a dagger from his trench coat and point it at her.

It was too late to dodge.

—Orb of Vide: Poussée.

A murmured word.

A compressed orb of wind appeared between them.

A second later…

WHOOOSH.

An invisible, brutal explosion erupted in her face.

Eva was thrown through the air like a broken doll.

CRASH.

She slammed into the opposite wall, leaving a deep crack.

She spat out blood.

Her eyes were still wide open in disbelief.

Bridal Chest slipped from her grasp and fell to the floor with a metallic thud.

She soon followed.

And this time…

she didn't get up.

__________________________________________

Pov. Eva.

She lay on the floor, face down. Her breathing was shallow, her entire body trembling. The pain made it impossible for her to move. She could barely keep her eyes open.

The echo of the explosion still resonated in the workshop.

Soft footsteps approached. Calm. Measured.

"It wasn't a bad reaction," Benedict murmured, stopping a short distance from her. "In fact, if you were one of my creations, I'd be proud."

Eva gritted her teeth. But her body didn't respond.

"And yet... I can't help being disappointed. I thought you'd give me more entertainment."

Silence.

Then he crouched down.

She didn't see him. But she felt him. That gaze digging into her back, like scalpels flaying the soul.

"At first, I just wanted to kill you. The little meddler who stuck her hand in the closest this ritual was to being completed," he whispered in her ear. "But you intrigued me after defeating the first Chimera. She was one of my finest creations."

"Your anger is strong… very strong. But it's misdirected."

He regarded her with a calm that chilled her blood.

"You think I resemble someone. Your 'creator,' perhaps. You must hold a deep grudge against him, for the mere sight of us resembling each other to cloud your judgment like this."

He stood gracefully, like a nobleman finishing an inspection.

"Too bad, you probably would have put on a better show under other circumstances."

He turned.

And then, one last sentence, spoken almost sweetly:

"Your soul is beautiful. An aberration, yes… but beautiful.

And that's why I won't destroy you yet."

With a wave of his hand, Ra'el approached to retrieve his creator. Benedict walked to the back of the workshop.

"I'll leave you here, to contemplate your failure." And if you manage to get back on your feet... then I hope that the next time we see each other... we can really talk.

He turned slowly, heading toward a hidden hatch in the back wall of the workshop.

He opened it with a mystical click that echoed in the heavy air.

A descending staircase, dimly lit by crystals that emitted an ethereal light, was revealed.

Without looking back, Benedict descended through the opening.

The door closed behind him with a soft thud, leaving Eva alone in the workshop, leaning against the wall, her breathing ragged, her body aching.

Shame and anger burned hotter than any other wound: that an enemy had defeated her in this way was shameful in the extreme.

Read…

She would be ashamed to see her like this.

Down.

Broken.

Defeated.

She gritted her teeth, but she couldn't deny it.

She had lost.

End of Chapter 4

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I'm sorry for the delay, despite what I said this afternoon. I hope you like it. Bye, bye.