Fate/Eva Frankenstein

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Chapter 7: Kizcrud's Ending.

Pov. Third person.

The impact was imminent. The magical whirlwind descended like a divine arrow, piercing space with violence. In Benedict's eyes, the scene was already decided.

There was no defense possible. Not at that distance. Not in that state.

But then, the light was absorbed.

A green flash swallowed the attack whole. It didn't deflect it. It didn't block it.

It consumed it.

The Bridal Chest hummed as if it had devoured a bolt of lightning. Its surface vibrated, magical lines igniting red.

Eva took a half step back from the impact.

The ground creaked beneath her feet. But no she fell.

She remained standing.

She clicked his tongue and exhaled sharply.

"Hah... damn it..." she gasped with a broken smile.

Her injuries didn't disappear, but something changed.

The electricity around her body grew more stable, more steady. The absorbed charge had lessened her pain, eased the tension tearing at her nerves. She was still bleeding. She was still broken.

But now…

Now she could fight back.

Benedict didn't speak immediately. He slowly lowered his sword, his eyes fixed on the scene.

"…What…?"

Eva raised her head, her single open eye glowing with a mocking spark.

"Did I disappoint you? Did you expect me to die with a dramatic pose?"

The silence thickened.

Benedict frowned.

And then, almost reflexively, he raised his dagger again and launched another whirlwind.

Eva didn't move.

Bridal Chest absorbed it with a dry sound, like thunder swallowed by the earth.

Zzzzzzzt.

The glow of her weapon increased. Eva smiled, tired, but determined.

"Go ahead. I'm waiting for you."

Benedict's face twisted even further.

The third attack was faster. Sharper.

Eva took it just the same.

WHAM.

Her body shuddered. The ground shook.

One knee buckled, but she didn't fall.

Her wounded eye opened a little more, the swelling subsiding.

Another spark joined its core.

Benedict stared at her, and for a second his eyes widened in horror.

"No... it can't be..."

He took a step back, gritted his teeth.

"Damn it!"

Eva didn't respond.

She just exhaled. The air crackled. Her body, though shattered, no longer crawled.

She stood upright.

And the electricity around her gathered like a storm ready to erupt.

She cracked her neck once, then looked at Benedict with a smile.

"Thanks for the reload, I needed it." She separates her feet and adjusts her stance." Are we going for the third round?"

Benedict's face twists, and he points at her. He screams into the darkness.

"Ra'el, kill her!"

A roar echoes, but the chimera remains invisible.

Eva didn't speak.

She only breathed.

And raised her weapon.

"If you can't see it... force it to become visible," she thought with determination.

During this grace period, she thought of a way to finish off the creature. Finally, it occurred to her.

Bridal Chest hummed as if it housed an electric heart, beating furiously.

Eva held it up, trembling, and with a scream that pierced the tension, she brought it down on the ground.

"RAAAHHHH!!

BOOM!

CRAAACK!

An electrical explosion ripped through the cavern.

Energy erupted in a full radius, spreading like a sea of ​​lightning. The walls were covered in sparks, the core trembled, and the capsules vibrated as if they were about to explode.

Like a bud in full bloom, they opened up, encompassing the entire space.

The shock was total. It left no corner untouched.

And then, it was heard.

A screech.

Unnatural.

Like a thousand needles scraping rusty metal. Like the wail of something that shouldn't exist.

The air sparked, and for an instant... something appeared.

Ra'el.

Like a distorted image emerging from the smoke, his silhouette was revealed, wrapped in electricity. His body, long, irregular, riddled with invisible tentacles now visible, convulsed in spasms.

Eva's eyes opened, furious.

"...I found you, you invisible bastard."

Ra'el fell to the ground. He hit the stones, his gelatinous body smoking.

The illusion that protected him had shattered.

Eva saw him clearly now.

And his condition was even worse than the first time.

One of its tentacles was twisted and charred, another severed. Several of its eyes were blind and bleeding. Its breathing was labored, as if the very air was struggling to exist.

The creature crawled frantically. Not out of hunger.

Out of fear.

From above, Benedict said nothing.

He just watched.

And for the first time all night…he had no words.

Eva spat on the ground.

And raised her weapon once more.

"I've suffered enough today. Now...it's your turn."

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Pov. Eva.

There you were.

Ra'el, trembling, visible, vulnerable.

I didn't give him time. Not a second. My feet shot forward before he could even stand.

The ground crumbled beneath my steps, but my legs no longer faltered.

Electricity coursed through me like blood. I felt alive. Tired, aching, broken... but alive.

I lunged.

In an instant, I was in front of him. His amorphous body was still trying to rise, tentacles wobbling like boiled noodles. I watched him move, clumsy, useless.

I swung my mace.

THUD!

A direct blow to the head. It sounded like I'd hit rotten fruit.

One of his eyes burst with a wet pop.

Before he could even straighten, she was throwing another blow.

And another.

And another.

"AN EYE FOR AN EYE, DAMN!" I yelled. Every blow was a shock. Every impact, a repetition of the pain he'd caused me. Only now, he was the one screaming.

Every blow he delivered, every electric shock that resonated in the flesh of that thing, wasn't just against Ra'el.

It was against him too.

Against Benedict.

"Ra'el, back! Back off, damn it!"

I heard it.

From the back of the room, Benedict had finally left his distant godly pedestal and was moving, hands raised, eyes glowing.

Formulas floated in the air, warm, golden.

A healing spell.

A faint pulse brushed the chimera's body.

I didn't let it work.

THUD.

My mace fell on his mutated shoulder, shattering it. The spell was immediately interrupted.

He tried another.

An attack this time. A magical spear shot from his hand, like a needle of light.

I saw it coming.

I raised my weapon and absorbed it head-on.

The core of Bridal Chest sparked. A momentary warmth coursed through my chest. The fatigue eased a bit.

"Thanks for that..." I muttered through my teeth, barely audible.

From the background, Benedict seemed to hesitate. His face wasn't that of a strategist. It was that of a child watching his sandcastle crumble.

"Damn it... Ra'el!" he roared, conjuring another heal, this time more intense. "Keep her busy just a second longer!"

He tried.

The magic circle descended, almost touching Ra'el.

But my blow was already coming down.

CRACK!

The creature's deformed spine buckled with a crunch. The healing spell burst into harmless sparks, never completing its sequence.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Benedict yelled, now without a trace of grace, without a mask of control.

Ra'el tried to retreat, his tentacles trembling.

I didn't let him.

"FINISH HER!!! NOW!!!"

His voice bounced off the walls, frantic.

And I just ignored him.

Or rather, I responded in my own way.

With every blow he landed on Ra'el, with every bolt of lightning that exploded on his monstrous skin, I saw him tremble.

Benedict recoiled back, eyes wide, helpless.

There were no more commands.

There were no more rituals.

There was only a scream...

...and the sound of flesh yielding to my justice.

Ra'el tried to defend himself again. I saw him struggle, trembling, trying to raise one of his pincers. But he was slow. Predictable. As if fear and pain had rusted him.

I punched him in the sides, in the jaw, in whatever he used as a chest. My muscles screamed with exertion, but I didn't stop.

A tentacle lunged at me. Another. It tried to push me, scratch me, hit me.

Nothing worked. I was no longer the prey.

Then I saw him do it.

He wrapped several tentacles around Bridal Chest and pulled. Hard.

He wrenched the weapon from me.

But not because he won.

Because I let him.

"You want it? Take it." I smiled.

I dropped the mace. Ra'el staggered back, reeling from the weight of the weapon. Clumsy. Vulnerable.

And just when he thought he'd won something...

CRACK!

My fist struck his face with a direct jolt, catching one of his last good eyes. He screamed. Not in rage. In terror.

Another punch. To his temple.

And then I clasped my hands together, raising them above my head. A human hammer of fury.

THUMP!

The blow lifted him off his feet. His body trembled, his tentacles loosened.

Bridal Chest fell freely, and my hand was already waiting for it.

I held it tightly, and with a single leap, I positioned myself over its sprawled body, still floating for a second in the air.

I looked at it.

And it looked back at me.

That unnatural, mutated, deformed face… it was very afraid.

I just smiled.

Happy.

Furious.

Bridal Chest was covered in lightning.

The core inside roaring loudly.

It shone with a savage intensity.

And it descended.

"BLASTED TREE!" I roared.

THRUUUUUMP!!!

The impact shook the entire cavern. A thunderclap. A sharp explosion. Falling rocks. Dust in the air.

And below me, Ra'el… was no longer moving.

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Pov. Third person.

No more optacles. No more enemies to enter: only Eva and Benedict Kizcrud remained in the cavern.

She began to walk toward him, exhausted but determined.

Benedict, panting and desperate, approached the core with a feverish gesture.

"Don't force me! I can still do it... I CAN STILL...!"

Benedict, finding himself cornered, without Ra'el and defenseless, entered his final phase of desperation: he tried to activate the ritual prematurely.

The light in the core began to vibrate as if something was reacting. Finally ready to awaken.

However... they didn't give him time.

Eva reacted as soon as she saw him reach out for the core.

"No!"

Her body moved before her mind.

And in an instant, Bridal Chest impacted again.

CRACK!

The mace struck Benedict's side with a sickening sound, a mix of splintered bone and bruised flesh.

He flew.

Like a powerless doll, his body hit the stone floor near one of the pods and rolled until he was hunched over at the feet of one of the girls in the pods.

He groaned. He writhed.

"H-it hurts...! It hurts...!" he gasped, his voice shaking, his breath labored with pain.

He tried to get up, but the trembling in his arms was uncontrollable. For the first time, his magus composure had completely disintegrated.

Eva walked toward him.

Her steps were slow. Relentless.

Her face, a mask of ice.

With the magus so weak and fallen now: before finishing the job, she wanted him to answer one question, yes, just one.

"What did you do with the missing girls?" she asked in a low voice, more dangerous than a shout. There were only seven in the pods, and 13 were missing. "Did you do the same thing to them as you did to Elena? Did you turn them into monsters?"

Benedict stopped. He stood motionless for a few seconds. And then, as if something had broken inside him, he raised his head and shouted in blind rage:

"OF COURSE!!!"

His face was twisted with rage.

He face was twisted with rage.

"I thought they were like the others! I thought their souls were pure! Clean!"

He eyes widened.

"But it was a lie! A LIE! Like a blank canvas... ruined by a dirty stroke! They were pure, yes, but not the unique purity I sought!"

He spat the words out. Spit venom.

"They were imperfect, useless, a disappointment...! But..."—and he smiled with a grotesque mixture of satisfaction and resentment—"at least they were useful in the end."

"They turned out to be excellent bases for my chimeras Dalet, Shalosh, and Arba..."

He paused. He lowered his voice.

"...though you killed them easily in the end."

The world stopped for a moment.

Eve didn't blink.

She didn't breathe.

She just stared at him.

He, on the other hand, seemed to go a little crazier.

His fingers tightened on the hilt of the Sword of Paracelsus.

"YOU LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!" he roared, raising the dagger with a savage motion. "CORT-

¡THWUMP!

He didn't finish speaking.

For a moment, his face froze.

Like a statue caught mid-sentence.

Eva's mace had slammed straight into his forearm.

CRACK!

His wrist twisted with a sharp crack, snapping at an unnatural angle.

The sword flew from his fingers, spinning in the air before crashing to the ground with a hollow clink.

Benedict stared at his hand.

Blood oozed from his fingers to his elbow.

He was trembling.

His lips parted, but no sound came out.

Then he looked up... and saw Eva. Standing in front of him.

Silent.

Cold as death.

She looked at him as if there was nothing more disgusting in the world.

And for the first time since it all began...

...Benedict was afraid.

"g..get awa-"

He didn't finish his sentence.

THUMP!

Bridal Chest collided with his side again. It wasn't a lethal blow. Not yet.

Just enough to draw a cry of dry, animal pain from him.

Benedict flinched.

He tried to gather prana. A defensive spell, a barrier, something.

Eva didn't even flinch.

With a simple twist of her wrist, the mace swept through the air, broke the spell at birth, and slammed back into his opposite side. Splintered bone. One more shriek.

"C-coward!" he gasped. "With that weapon... how is this supposed to be a... a...?!"

THUD!

Another blow. This time to the stomach.

He buckled like an empty sack. Bile rose in his throat, mixed with blood.

"S-stop...! O-one on one... a-at least... give me a fair fight!"

Eva paused for a moment.

And then she spoke.

"This isn't a fight."

Her voice was low, calm.

But laced with an ice that prickled Benedict's skin more than any paralysis spell.

"It's an execution."

He stepped back. Like a wounded worm, he crawled on the ground, his tunic soaked with blood and sweat. His gaze trembled.

It dilated. Tears were already running down his cheeks. Pleas were gathering in his throat.

Eve watched him.

Then, without changing his expression, he raised his mace…

…and brought it down.

Not on him.

Beside him.

CLANG.

Bridal Chest hit the ground with a deep, thud.

The echo resounded like a funeral bell throughout the cavern.

Benedict looked up. He blinked.

He looked at the weapon.

He looked at Eva.

"…What…?"

CRACK!

A punch exploded in his face.

"GACK!"

He spat blood.

He didn't have time to process anything else.

Another punch. And another.

And another.

Eva didn't stop.

The rain fell.

A storm of fists descended on him with force, rhythm, and rage. Fists charged with electricity. Fists that sought more than flesh: they sought memory, redemption, justice.

No spot was spared: stomach, chest, jaw, sternum, solar plexus. She prioritized the parts that would cause the most pain.

Benedict screamed.

"P-p-please...! H-help...! S-stop...!"

"No...! No more...!"

But the words dissolved in the blood.

They weren't pleas. They were agonized sighs.

Eve didn't answer.

Her face showed no hatred.

Only cold condemnation.

Every blow was an answer.

Every impact, a condemnation.

Every bone crack, a sealed word.

Until finally...

...the sounds of resistance died away.

And silence returned.

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Pov. Benedict.

Pain.

Pain. That was all that remained.

He body creaked, throbbed, and burned.

Every breath was a muffled roar in he chest, where the blood clogged her throat like a thick, warm mass.

He couldn't swallow, couldn't spit, couldn't speak without his voice sounding like a drowned toad.

He face, distorted, collapsed to one side. It felt like one eye had sunk in, and the other was seeing double, or triple, or nothing.

What...?

He didn't understand.

What had happened?

Just a few hours.

Just that.

That was all he needed. A few more hours, and he would have done it.

It would have become eternal.

And now...

Was he going to die?

Like this?

At the hands of... her...?

"D-damn you…" he spat, choked, barely more than a viscous whisper. "Damn you…"

Hatred kept him awake when his body wanted to faint.

If you hadn't shown up…

I would have made it.

The Core was already close!

The ritual was almost complete!

"I had the right!" he roared, or thought he roared. "I was born with the Mystic Eyes of Soul Perception… One of a kind!"

He coughed blood.

"It was I who stayed when everyone else gave up! I who glimpsed possibility in the failed Grail! It was my time!

My destiny!"

His contorted face trembled.

"… I would r..revive the Kizcrud… I would give them a new era. I would have fulfilled my ambition!"

Tears now mingled with the blood.

"I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, I HATE YOU!"

He screams weren't screams.

They were spasms.

A hysterical, broken murmur.

But in his head, they rumbled like thunder.

"I WANT YOU TO SUFFER! TO DIE!" he wished. "THIS IS NOT OVER!"

For an instant, his goal... his family... his great vision... were gone.

He didn't care anymore.

He just wanted to kill her.

Her.

The one who ruined everything.

"How...?" he murmured through broken lips.

He no longer had any dreams.

His body was a carcass.

The Sword of Paracelsus lay far away, on the stained stone.

Then...

he remembered.

A possibility.

It wasn't ideal.

It wasn't noble.

But it would do.

—…even the lowest quality will do… —he whispered with a crooked smile, almost cooing the words.

Eva's back was turned.

She was walking away.

She was going to retrieve her mace.

Tired of his chatter, she decided to finish him off. She could see it clearly: she no longer saw him as a threat.

Perfect.

"She regretted that mistake for all eternity"

Benedict Kizcrud still had...one last contingency plan.

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Pov. Third person.

Barely recovering Bridal Chest, Eva took a step toward Benedict's battered body... but he was already moving.

Like a wounded worm, he crawled, leaving a slimy trail of blood and slime on the cracked stones.

Madness shone in his eyes. He propelled himself with a broken arm, dragging his body as if his will were stronger than the pain.

"This isn't over..." he spat through broken teeth, biting his finger so hard he tore off a chunk of flesh.

Blood trickled from his hand, and with it, he pressed it into the ground, in the center of the false core.

The symbols hastily carved into the ground—the incomplete formula, the stained circles, the fragments of a ritual that should never have existed—lit up with a sickly light.

Eva frowned. She took a step.

The air trembled.

"What are you doing...?" —she murmured.

The core reacted. A burst of wind erupted from the circle, and Eva instinctively stepped back, covering her face.

The whirlwind tore up dust, stone fragments, and shreds of Benedict's clothing. The magus laughed.

"I will seize every last cursed second...! IF I CAN'T DEFEAT YOU, I'LL BRING YOU DOWN WITH ME!"

And then, he began to recite:

Iron and Silver, blood and soul—root of my cursed lineage.

Let the profane stone and the oath of the dead serve as my foundation.

I, Benedict Kizcrud, last bearer of the Name, summon with the weight of my heritage.

Let the Archduke's seals be opened for me—for I have looked where others have closed their eyes.

By the twisting path that rises from the crown and descends to the tomb,

let the throne now rise in the center of the abyss!

Full. Full. Full. Full. Full. 

Five vessels, five sins, five broken promises.

Now… break each one! Let the flow spill, let the shape break, let fate twist.

Ready.

I command you! Come! Pierce me!

Eva tried to get closer, but the wind repelled her like an invisible wall. Sparks of energy shot from the ground, and the air had a metallic taste, like rusted iron.

"What are you doing...?!" Eva screamed, raising her voice above the rising roar.

Benedict's face was flushed with feverish fervor, his lips cracked, his eyes bulging.

The girls in the containers had fluttering eyelids, their bodies shuddering: a web of cracks formed at their core.

Your sword will guide my hatred. Your name will be my vengeance.

From the imitation of the Grail, from the remains of the Kizcrud, from the degenerated core of absolute alchemy...!

Answer if you accept my fury as law.

I swear now that I will be the shadow of the eternal world!

That I will tear away the good from the eternal world!

By the seven oaths that infest the heavens, come from the incomplete circle…!

Descend, protector of the fallen balance!

Servant…!

A flash like no other filled the entire cavern.

Eva stepped back, shielding her eyes with her forearm. Then... as suddenly as it had appeared, it stopped.

The light disappeared.

The chant ended.

The air trembled. The blood above the ground stirred as if responding to an ancient call, one never to be heard. The cracked core pulsed one last time.

Eva turned her head.

A screech that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere filled the cavern, as if someone were tearing at the fabric of the world.

An incomplete, battered circle ignited in red lines like open veins.

At its center... something crawled from the other side.

There were no trumpets. No holy light. Only a cold breath.

And then she saw it.

And an oppressive feeling tightened her chest.

It wasn't the pain from his broken ribs, no, it was something else.

Not a man. Not a heroic spirit.

A large, hunched shadow, with stitched skin and a blank stare, with scars that seemed to have been opened by birth itself.

The creature gasped as if every second was agony. Its body was more real than it should have been. More present than was possible.

A Phantom Spirit.

A charade of a heroic spirit.

A monster without legend, born of the fear of men. Summoned only because of the unique circumstances of the situation.

Its eyes—soulless, yet echoing—met Eva's.

And she saw herself.

Not as she was.

But as she feared she had been.

"Yes, YES!" Benedict cried, staggering, the veins in his neck swollen. "It worked!"

He pointed a trembling finger at Eva, elated.

"Kill her! Make her suffer! Make her scream in agony! My Servan—"

SPLASH.

A wet, dry, final snap.

Before Benedict could say more, the creature raised its massive fist… and crushed him without hesitation.

A downward blow that pulverized bone, skin, and ambition in an instant. What remained was a formless puddle, a miserable echo of a magus defeated by his own summoning.

Silence.

The creature trembled, as if breathing were too much.

And then, it raised its head… toward Eva.

There were no orders. There was no master. Only an echo that shouldn't exist.

Eva, her weapon still hanging at her side, stared at the being before her.

It wasn't Benedict.

It wasn't Ra'el.

It wasn't even an enemy.

It was something worse:

An unanswered question.

A dark reflection.

And now, Eva faced an opponent like no other.

End of Chapter 7

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Who could it be? Can you guess? I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Until next time.