Jayr POV - Nasuverse, Moon, SE.RA.PH, Chimeric Lunar Sea - 2030 AD
The silence after I took notice of Elizabeth's appearance is heavier than any battlefield I'd stepped into until now. Across the chamber, Run Ru and her Servant stand still, but their stillness is more unnerving than any attack they could unleash.
However, as the glow of the Primary Trigger pulses against my palm, the silence is broken by Run Ru, who eerily giggles and asks, "AhHh...? whATcha dOinG hEre? HeHehE..."
For a tense moment, I wonder if they are going to discard all the rules and attack us right here, right now, and more importantly, if I should deliver a preventive attack, but in the end, I decide to simply observe them and let them do the first move, after all, if they do start a fight then the penalty would fall on their shoulder making the Elimination Match much easier.
Reaching that conclusion, I quickly sign Nero to restrain herself while at the same time, Elizabeth's lips curl into a smile that is far too sweet, far too sharp, before she sings in a voice that is at once melodic and venomous, "Ohhh, so you're the one making noise in my halls! How rude. How terribly, terribly rude."
Nero scoffs, her stance ready to respond at any hint of aggression, "So this is our opponent? A deranged girl? Hmph. I expected more."
In response, Elizabeth's laugh rings out, high and broken, carrying the echo of madness.
For a moment, she sways, almost like a performer preparing to bow, but then her eyes flash crimson, and the mask slips, and what stares out is raw hunger, sharpened by centuries of cruelty, while she comments, "Look at her, Master! Such a pure and youthful face! Isn't she perfect? Just like all the others before her."
Run Ru's smile only widens, her voice a whisper at the edge of sanity as she replies, "yUp! yOu ShE sureLy Looks pERfeCt... BuT don'T GEt ToO eXcited anD DraIn heR tOo QuIckly."
Elizabeth steps forward, humming a tune that is just a shade off-key, her talons glinting in the light, before she nods and says, "You are right... The last time those annoying people imprisoned me within my own castle. I still don't understand what I did wrong..."
Again, Run Ru nods and casually comments, "yUp, yUp! you JUst enjoYEd yOUr daIly liFe withOut anY uNusuaL eVentS, buT NobLes fRom yoUR own coUntRy stIll imPrisoNed yOu."
Elizabeth's smile grows wider as she exclaims, "That's right! I just went through my daily life! Nothing too strange! Yet they said I was guilty of something and imprisoned me! Left me to die in my own castle! But! But in becoming the monster they all wanted me to be, I am now truly free to do what I love! And it is thanks to my Master. My tragically empty and triumphantly full little squirrel of a Master who consumes only what she loves. It was truly fortunate to meet you!"
Then Elizabeth's gaze lingers on me first, then slides toward Nero, making her lips curl into a smile that should have been charming, yet every note in her voice carries venom, "Behold this fine gift we have encountered! They both have what we are seeking in our prey. That noble stare of yours is like many others I have seen before... I long to pierce that supple body of yours with my spear and claws. Watch as your blood flows. I just can't... can't wait to hear you scream, enjoy your anguished face as I slowly torture you... Sing as I bathe in her blood."
At this point, Nero draws Aestus Estus, ready to attack at a moment's notice.
The crimson blade catches the Trigger's glow, like a flame eager to meet blood. Her stance is perfect, theatrical even in caution, but her eyes are sharp.
At the same time, I keep observing the two of them, especially the Servant Elizabeth Báthory, as their manner and speech reveal much more information than what they may think. In fact, at this point, I already have a pretty clear idea of what we are going to face in the coming Elimination Match that will take place in five days.
Meanwhile, in response to Nero's actions, Elizabeth purrs, almost singing the words, "Ohhh, such a poised little noble! Would it trouble you if I bathed these halls in blood, little squirrel Master?"
Run Ru tilts her head, almost like a broken puppet, while distortely humming, "HmMmMMm... It iSn't dinNertiMe for ThEm. anD lil' RoNNie's tuMmy isN't SUPER huNgry rAvenOus right Now."
Elizabeth also tilts her head and giggles, the sound too high, too sweet, like glass scraping porcelain, then, abruptly, she stops and says, "Right, right. It would be bad to my little squirrel of a Master consume the meal she hungered for so greatly before its time."
Run Ru claps her hands once, sharply, as if applauding the remark; the sound echoes too long in the chamber while her body moves like a marionette tugged by unseen strings, jerking slightly, then fluid, then stiff again.
Her eyes, however, never lost focus; they are bright, lucid in their madness, and so dangerous.
Then Elizabeth focuses on us, she straightens, her posture suddenly graceful and deliberate, before she snorts and says, "Hmpf. No fight today. Not yet. Why waste blood when the stage is still being set?"
Suddenly, Elizabeth giggles, twirling one clawed finger through her hair, "Besides, I need to practice my songs before the real show. You guys are so lucky..."
Just like that, the two of them turn around as if the confrontation had never been anything but a passing conversation while Run Ru's last words echo behind her, low and cold, "WE'll seE EACh otHer AgaIn... sOon."
Then they are gone, swallowed by the shadows of the Arena, likely searching for their own Primary Trigger.
The chamber becomes quiet once more while Nero lowers her blade only after a long pause and mutters, "That woman is unhinged, and that girl... bah, she mocks the very stage she prances upon. Yet…" Her expression hardens as she continues, "They are dangerous."
I nod in agreement, but with a confident tone, I say, "Dangerous, yes. But now we know what we're dealing with."
With the Primary Trigger secured, we decided to leave the Arena for today and return to our Private Room, and once there, Nero casually lies on the ornate bed and says, "I have to say we had quite the fruitful day, isn't it, my Praetor?"
Hearing that, I sit on a nearby chair facing Nero and with a smile, I reply, "Indeed... I was able to glean quite a bit of information from that brief encounter with our opponents."
Then, with the tension of the encounter with our opponents now behind us, I tell Nero everything I knew and was able to deduce, "First of all, I was able to recognize the Servant's true identity. Her name is Elizabeth Báthory. A quite unique and fairly powerful Servant who has the potential of being summoned under the Lancer, Saber, Rider, Berserker, and Caster classes."
Shortly after that brief introduction, I tell Nero the story behind Elizabeth Báthory's legend, who allowed her to become a Heroic Spirit.
I tell her how one day she let a maidservant comb the hair she was so proud of; however, the comb got caught in her hair, and in a vehement rage, she stabbed the maidservant with a hairpin.
The maidservant's blood happened to fall upon the back of her hand, and she noticed that the skin that the blood touched was smoother than usual, which caused her to decide that from that day on, to preserve her beauty, she would bathe in the lifeblood of women, and she followed through.
Collecting blood became part of her daily routine, and after she changed residences to Csejte Castle, it reached the point where young women of marriageable age were disappearing from the rural villages within her dominion, or maybe everyone came to know what was going on and were sneaking the women out in secret.
Because of that, she became distressed since she was no longer able to collect blood from the rural villages, and so collected the daughters of minor nobles under the pretense of teaching them proper manners or inviting them to banquets.
And those daughters, coming together for the banquet, dressed in fancy dresses, completely unaware of what would happen, were struck on the head.
In addition to having their blood drawn, they would have hot irons thrust into their mouths, their entire bodies stabbed with pins, and other kinds of tortures.
She would make her servants rip off the skin of their own daughters so she could enjoy the anguished faces of both the parent and the child.
On the other hand, regarding torturing men, tales of her enjoying killing them would not be surprising.
To Elizabeth, killing the common people in droves was a daily life "without any unusual events."
If there was anything that could be considered her misfortune, it was that there were no people to rebuke her abnormality, to teach her that her deeds were atrocities.
Several years after she started taking blood, her cruel acts came to extend even to the daughters of the aristocracy, and she finally received the indictment that her character deserved.
The year was 1611, and at the trial conducted in the actual person's absence, she was given a guilty verdict and imprisoned within one of the rooms of Csejte Castle.
And the people completely sealed her, who was already feared as a demon, away. The people whisper. To see her figure is frightening. To hear her voice is frightening. Simply bringing to mind the memories that had lost her, the memories from which they had removed her, is frightening.
The father who brought her into this world. Elizabeth's relatives. Her compatriots in aristocratic society, as if to hide their own feelings of guilt, concealed her prison with stone.
The room that Elizabeth used in her final days, her prison in the basement of the castle, contained nothing but a small slit to allow food to be passed to her.
And, in that room without an exit or windows, that room which was plastered up from the outside, she continued to ask, "Why?" until her final moments.
They say that her voice could be heard through the stone that imprisoned her, but it is also said that, due to the soldiers finding it annoying, the transom was sealed, and she could no longer be heard.
After that, there was no one who saw her firsthand while she was alive, then on the August 21, 1614, the soldiers noticed the smell of rotting food, confirming that her life had ended.
From thereon, she became the legend known as the Blood Countess.
After I've finished recounting Elizabeth's tale, Nero's eyes widen and, for a moment, her lips curl in disdain, as though the very thought left a foul taste on her tongue before she comments, her voice rings sharp, like a sword drawn in anger, "So, that is the monster history has painted her as… A countess who reveled in torment, who shed the blood of innocents for her vanity! Hah! To think such a grotesque legacy would dare to stand before me as a rival!"
Then Nero puffs her chest proudly as she declares, "I, Nero Claudius, have been called tyrant and madwoman by history's cruel tongues, yet never, never did I delight in such savagery! There is weakness in ruling through terror, weakness in finding joy in pain. That is not art, that is not beauty, that is a mockery of life itself!"
I can easily feel the heat of her conviction and passion as she raises her voice to a booming crescendo, as if she stands once more in the amphitheater, "If she hides behind her legend, then so be it! I will strike her down as both emperor and performer! Let her twisted story end at my feet, where it belongs. If she wishes to stand upon the stage, it will be only as a villain whose curtain falls by my hand!"
Going with the flow and following the sudden urge to satisfy Nero's theatrical passion, I enthusiastically clap my hands and loudly whistle, making Nero blush slightly before she stands up from the bed and offers me an elegant bow like an actor who just concluded her play and is responding to the crowd's standing ovation.
Then, after a brief pause to allow Nero to calm down and fully digest Elizabeth Báthory's tale, I focus back on the most important topic: "Now that you know about the story that gave rise to the Heroic Spirit Elizabeth Báthory, it is time to talk about her abilities. Like I've told you a few moments ago, Elizabeth Báthory is quite the peculiar Servant who can be summoned under the Lancer, Saber, Rider, Berserker, and Caster classes."
Seeing Nero carefully listening and nodding, I continue, "At first, I supposed that the enemy Servant may have been a Lancer Class, considering that some of the Enemy Programs we faced in the Arena used a polearm weapon whose movements matched those of someone using a spear. However, after meeting Run Ru and Elizabeth Báthory today, I can only deduce that she is, in fact, a Berserker Class Servant."
Hearing that, Nero hums, "Ohh... A Berserker Class Servant. Are you sure, my Praetor? To me, our enemy looked quite sane if not a little deranged..."
In response to her question, I reply firmly, "I'm pretty confident in my deduction. The Berserker Class Elizabeth Báthory has the Class Skill Mad Enhancement (E- Rank): A skill that transforms one into a brute and raises one's abilities. But as Elizabeth still possesses her reasoning abilities, the benefits from this are very low. Rather than affecting her abilities or endurance, it simply makes it so that she does not feel any pain."
After saying that, I continue by telling Nero about Elizabeth's other Class Skills, "In addition to Mad Enhancement (E- Rank), she also has the Magic Resistance (A Rank): A skill that grants protection against magical effects. Differing from the Resistance effect that merely rejects Magical Energy, this Skill cancels the spells altogether, making her quite the threat for pure Casters. In actuality, Elizabeth genuinely has dragon blood mixed within her. She herself does not realize she has this Skill, but the capacity equals that of Artoria Pendragon, one of the most famous Saber Class Servants."
In the end, I conclude, "The last and likely most tricky Class Skill at our opponent's disposal is without any doubt the Territory Creation (B Rank): A Skill needed to build a special terrain that is advantageous to oneself as a magus, such as for the purpose of collecting mana, creating magic objects, or performing other tasks. This is normally a skill of the Caster Class, but Elizabeth has acquired Territory Creation as a special exception because of her life experiences. She can create a castle to imprison young maidens and harvest their blood. According to the record, the lady of this castle would capture five virgins a day, execute three of them to bathe in their blood, and treat one as a pet so as to kill them with relish. The final one remaining was given the right to challenge her fate, the possibilities including: "Stay and be killed," "Be betrayed by the people I planned my escape with and be killed," "Be captured by the castle guards and be killed," "Fall from the castle and die by accident," "Barely escape with my life and bring the demon to justice." As a side note, the chances of achieving the fate where one "escapes successfully" are 1/1000."
At the end of my explanation, Nero frowns and mutters, "I see... I can understand now why our opponent has the capacity to be summoned into so many Classes. She has quite a varied list of abilities, and their combination makes her quite the tricky opponent."
But then, Nero focuses her gaze on me and theatrically declares, "However! All those silly tricks will be useless in front of the might of the Emperor of Roses and her Praetor!"
In response to her declaration, I stifle a chuckle before I say, "Umu. However, my Emperor, I ask you to allow me to continue with my report about our enemy's capabilities. After all, as a Chinese sage once said: Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated."
Nero smiles widely and nods before she says, "Umu! Those are wise words indeed. Go on, my Praetor."
With Nero's blessing, I continue to inform her about Elizabeth Báthory's abilities. "She wields a Dragon Lance named Sárkány Csont Lándzsa, which means 'Dragon Bone Lance' in Hungarian, though she uses it more as a microphone than as a spear. This version of Elizabeth has also been demonized by the Innocent Monster skill that uses the image produced from one's deeds in life to distort their past and way of being, which ends up transforming their abilities and appearance."
I continue by telling Nero that Elizabeth's form is due to the deeds she practiced in life, unlike Vlad III, another who holds the same skill, being looked down upon as a monster after death due to the work of a novelist.
Though she looks like a demon, her horns and tail are those of a dragon, and though her fangs look like those of a vampire, they are also those of a dragon.
The form is not a forgery caused solely through the means of Innocent Monster, but rather brought about by the dragon's blood mixed within her.
The source is the crest of the Báthory family, a shield coat of arms patterned after a red fang that represented the dragon's gallantry, vigorousness, and the brutality of never letting the enemy live.
After that, I move on by telling her about some of the other well-known skills of our enemy.
Battle Continuation (B Rank) is a Skill that allows for the continuation of combat after sustaining mortal wounds and reduces the mortality rate from injuries.
This Skill represents the ability to survive and/or the mentality of one who doesn't know when to give up, consisting of one's strength of vitality under pressure.
After briefly telling Nero what the skill does, I add, "Ordinarily, Battle Continuation (B Rank) makes it possible to fight even in a near-death state, and to survive afterwards so long as the bearer does not sustain a fatal injury, but in Elizabeth's case, this skill manifests as her ability to keep coming back, no matter how many times she's summarily defeated making her a frighting enemy in a prolonged battle."
Then I move on and tell about the skill Breath of the Dragon (E Rank), the ability to release a torrent of mana like the breath of Dragons, the strongest race of the Phantasmal Species.
In Elizabeth's case, it takes the form of a supersonic dragon breath, but luckily, the power is low.
I also tell Nero about the last few skills, which, while important, I don't value too much as I think they aren't going to be very relevant in the upcoming Elimination Match.
Charisma (C Rank) that exemplifies her ability to coerce others based on her position as a member of the ruling class, and informs her that, due to the grisly details of the myths surrounding Elizabeth, this skill is increased by one rank when used against females.
Mental Disorder (A Rank), which is not the Mad Enhancement that Berserkers usually possess nut works alongside it and makes one unable to feel the pain of others or read the mood of one's surroundings in exchange for having the ability of mental super armor.
Torture Technique (A Rank) earned by her excellent technique for torture.
A bonus midfier is added to her damage when she uses torture tools.
In her case, apply another plus correction for damage dealt against a woman.
And lastly, a skill shared by Nero herself, Migraine (? Rank), which is a curse inherited from the birthplace of one's previous life, and due to the effects of the curse, she cannot recognize others as "human beings".
In the end, I conclude the lesson about our enemy by telling Nero about Elizabeth's Noble Phantasm.
Noble Phantasms are "crystallized Mysteries", powerful armaments made using human imagination as their core, and are the weapons and/or abilities owned by Heroic Spirits.
As humanity's illusions, Noble Phantasms embody the ultimate Mysteries of a hero as symbols of their existence through historical fact and anecdotes.
Noble Phantasms can be physical weaponry like swords, spears, bows, and etc., or they can also be support items like shields, rings, crowns, and so on.
They can also be abstractions such as unique, often magical abilities, even close to or matching True Magic, unique, even conceptual, means of attack, curses, and changes to the very environment and its physical properties.
When summoned as Servants in the Holy Grail War, Noble Phantasms are the trump cards of the heroes that allow them to overcome others in battle.
After mentally going over everything I know about Noble Phantasm, I focus back on Nero and say, "The name of the Noble Phantasm utilized by Elizabeth Báthory while under the Berserker class is Báthory Erzsébet: Fresh Blood Demoness. It is a Noble Phantasm that summons the castle wherein she reigned during her lifetime and uses it as a stage to make herself prominent. The summoned castle is the Prison Castle Čachtice, a demonic castle where hundreds of young girls were tortured to death, and by being soaked in the fresh blood of girls that she used to fill her bloodbath, a bathtub of blood, she maintains an enormous magical power and charm power."
After a brief pause to let the information sink in, I continue, "It is the worst and nastiest Noble Phantasm she has attained after becoming a Servant and having dreamed of becoming the ultimate idol. Utilizing her singing talents to contest for the top position of idol on the planet with the castle that has been remolded into a giant amplifier, they bring about a tune that is certainly something that can be called hell on earth. Her singing of the songs slips away from musical intervals to a destructive degree, unfolding a hellish stage. Her lungs, having gained tremendous capacity from her dragon blood, allow her to amplify her voice through the Noble Phantasm enough to turn it into a noise capable of making almost anything crumble. The point is, it is Super Sonic Bless Hell."
At this point, Nero snorts out loud and comments in an almost upset tone, "Hmpf! What a fitting first opponent... After learning about all that, I can't help but feel that we are in some way very, very similar in some ways. Even our own Noble Phantasm seems to have a similar function. Both are in some ways stages where we are able to show the best version of ourselves."
Then Nero suddenly smirks, regaining some of her usual bravado as she declares, "Let her try! I am Nero Claudius. The true star of any stage. No false idol can outshine me. In the end, I will prove that my Praetor and I are without any doubt the superior version!"
Her confidence is infectious. For all of Run Ru's unsettling manners, I feel the advantage remains with us; my expansive knowledge regarding the Nasuverse is our strongest shield.
After Nero's declaration a serene silence falls within the walls of our Private Room, allowing Nero to regain control over her emotions and calm down while I move in front of the desk and start to write down a few plans that may help us overcome our opponents without revealing too much about our abilities, most important of all, Nero's Noble Phantasm that while powerful is way too unique and will reveal Nero's identity in an instant.
While I'm working on a few plans, the serene silence is broken by Nero, who suddenly focuses back on me and says, "Praetor. You are way too relaxed around your enemies. I am speaking specifically about that young woman you met today. You should be more suspicious. Making allies of your enemies is a strange way to go about things. If this is how you want to proceed, then you should at the very least ensure a way to prevent her from harming us."
In response to her rebuke, I smile wryly and say, "The point is that I don't actually consider Aletha an enemy. She is more like a friendly competitor. Sure, we may be forced to fight in the near future, but there is no enmity between us. We are comrades who fought side by side against almost insurmountable odds, and I'm confident of the fact that we both can survive even if we are defeated. But more importantly, I am absolutely confident that no one can defeat us, so there is no need to sour the friendship with her for this."
Hearing that, Nero smiles widely, clearly pleased by what I just said, as she simply nods and utters, "Umu!"