DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fate/stay night or Campione. Fate/stay night is the property of TYPE-MOON and Campione is the property of Takedzuki Jou.
Italics text = character thinking to themselves.
Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy
Bold text = shouting
Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability
Chapter One
Campione of the Holy Grail
Illyasviel von Einzbern was going to die.
That was not exactly news for her; she knew her days were numbered ever since her 'family', the Einzbern Clan, had begun making modifications to her body to optimize her function as a Lesser Holy Grail. In the off chance that she did not die becoming the Holy Grail during the Fifth Fuyuki Holy Grail War – which was indeed a very small chance since the War actually ended one way or another when all the Servants died and thus their souls and power ended up in her – or got killed during the fighting – which was significantly more possible, what with a Berserker Class Herakles of all Heroes guarding her – then her lifespan had been shortened so much by the modifications that she was unlikely to have as much as a year left to live after the Grail War.
What was somewhat surprising was the method of her rapidly approaching death: Suicide. She did not have any reason not to do it and all the reasons in the world to go through with it.
The entire War had been a catastrophe unlike any of the four preceding it, and considering how bloody the average Grail War was, never mind the disaster that was the Fourth Grail War that culminated with the Great Fuyuki Fire… yeah, it was an achievement in that way of seeing things, if nothing else.
Nothing had gone right. Shirou was not the evil fiend that had stolen her father from her – the furthest thing from it, in fact – and her father had not abandoned her – the concealed journals and equipment she had uncovered hidden under a bounded field under a tatami mat in her father's former bedroom told her more than enough about Kiritsugu Emiya's efforts to retrieve he from the Einzbern castle, the occasional tear marks telling her more than written words ever could.
That had been a critical hit to her confidence and plan to kill Emiya Shirou in a messy way via Berserker, but rather then upset she had been relieved and more than willing to pretty much put the Grail War on hold to be able to spend her remaining time with her adopted brother.
Then, of course, fate proved to be as big of a bitch as her many memories inherited from Justeaze model homunculi had taught her, throwing a black and evil wrench in her plans in the form of the berserk Sakura Matou, or the Shadow as she was called in that form, who began essentially eating the Servants to power the corrupted Lesser Grail Zouken Matou had placed in her, and even spitting them out as corrupted versions to serve her, as she did with her dear Berserker and even her oni-chan's Saber, the later which she did not even believe possible considering Artoria Pendragon wielded Excalibur, the Strongest Holy Sword.
Eventually, they ended up on two sides rather than the seven Master-Servant pairs the Grail War normally consisted of.
On the one hand was Kirei Kotomine, the Church representative and Master during the Fourth Grail War; Sakura Matou who now wielded essentially infinite prana and was an avatar of Angra Mainyu, the god of evil; and Saber Alter, the Blackened King Artur.
On the other side was her oni-chan, Shirou Emiya, wielding a portion of her potential future Heroic Spirit self's power which was steadily killing him; Rin Tohsaka armed with the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch that her oni-chan had managed to project using her memories and Tohsaka's blueprints of the thing as a basis, as well as a Projected Rule Breaker that could sever the connection between Sakura and the Greater Grail; Servant Rider, Sakura's original Servant, Medusa the Gorgon; and finaly Illya herself, clothed in the Dress of Heaven she had turned Leysritt into and armed with her father's Thompson Contender and his remaining Origin Bullets which were capable of rendering magi cripples.
The plan was simple: free Sakura from Angra Mainyu with Rule Breaker, kill Saber Alter and Kotomine and destroy the monstrous manifestation of the Greater Grail.
The first two parts, killing Saber Alter and severing the connection between Sakura and the Greater Grail went surprisingly well. That should have warned her about what was to come. Apparently, Kotomine had also been empowered by the Grail to some extent, as Illya saw no other way for him to manage to kill Rider, after which he proceeded to kill the tired and disorientated Rin and Sakura.
At that point, the Servants within Sakura were almost instantly transferred into her, the true Lesser Grail, and had it not been for her oni-chan mechanically pulling Avalon from within himself and implanting it into her – Illya was quite certain that had it not been for his mind being overwhelmed by Archer's Steel and pretty much turning him into a machine, he would have collapsed at the sight of his dead lover rather than automatically take measures to limit the damage – she was certain she would have tuned into the Holy Grail then and there.
As it was, as Shirou collapsed besides her and shattered into countless tiny blade shards as without the Shroud of Martin and Avalon holding it back the Reality Marble overwhelmed him, Illya managed to stand and as the smug fake priest approached her with the intent of tossing her into the Greater Grail to facilitated Angra Mainyu's incarnation… she drew the Thompson Contender and put an Origin Bullet through his eyes that had had just enough time to widen in recognition.
Which brought her to the present, with the Greater Grail having taken the form of a gigantic humanoid monster what was approaching her, while she held the only weapon available that had the potential to destroy it: The Jeweled Sword, the legendary Mystic Code that had once allowed Wizard Marshal Zelretch of the Kaleidoscope to push back the Moon.
She was not pointing it at the monster before her though. No, the tip of the blade shining brightly in all the colors of the rainbow was pointed straight at her heart as she used its power to gather massive amounts of prana into said blade in preparation to unleash it all straight into her own body with the intent of turning herself into a magical bomb which would surely have enough power to vaporize the wretched thing.
Of course, doing so was almost certainly going to wipe Fuyuki off the map, but frankly she did not give a damn – she never did. She wasn't like her oni-chan who wanted to save people – him choosing Sakura over the world did not eliminate his desire to save the world, merely placing Sakura in a higher priority – and beyond the reaction of the Mages Association she had not cared too much about the regular people Sakura had killed on her feeding sprees.
No, she was doing it right now for revenge. Revenge against Angra Mainyu who was responsible for the death of her father and brother, revenge against the Grail System who doomed both her and her mother to be sacrifices, and revenge against the Einzbern as a whole who came up with the ritual in the first place. With her death, both Angra Mainyu and the entire Grail System would be destroyed, ending the Grail Wars and the ambition of the Einzbern to recover the Third Magic, the Heaven's Feel.
What Illya did not know about – though in hindsight it should have been obvious – was that she really had no idea just what the Jeweled Sword could do and how to properly use it. She was essentially winging it, trying to copy what she had seen Rin do when she battled Sakura's Shadow Giants. As such, while a great amount of prana was being gathered inside the blade, several times more was released in her surroundings, saturating the nearly sealed-off cavern with the power of the Kaleidoscope, adding to the already healthy amount of it left over from Rin's battle.
Which led, unknown it her, to having the Grail System begin to fulfil its true purpose, that to open a hole to Akasha. Unlike the hole that had been opened earlier before Sakura's connection to the Grail had been severed, this hole did not open in the sky above the Greater Grail. As the function of opening the hole relied on the connection to Akasha Zelretch had made for the Grail System, this time the hole, the Cup of Heaven, opened much wider and in an entirely different locatiion then what was traditional: namely, right under the entire cavern in which they were in, allowing the entire mountain to drop inside.
Illya was unaware of this. She knew something had happened, she knew something within her was changing, but as she was in the still magically isolated cavern and did not see the mountain dissolving into the nothingness of the Void, she chalked it to her body and Avalon reaching their limits and forced the Jeweled Sword to produce even more prana… and she suddenly felt it Break. With that realization, unaware that she was floating as the cavern and what little remained of the mountain around it dropped through another hole somewhere at high altitude, she stabbed the Jeweled Sword into her heart and released all the stored power all at once.
And then all she knew was white.
Netherworld
"Oh my, oh my! For such a cute little girl, you sure like to make a big statement, don't you, Illya-chan?" an impressed female voice that was utterly unfamiliar suddenly pierced the curtain of sensory and thought deprivation that had engulfed Illya and slowly her senses began to return.
First was her hearing.
"Never before has a human caused such a big explosion – neither did a god for that matter, as far as I remember and my memory goes way back!" the young woman continued. "All the magicians in the world – hell, even the Campione and Heretic Gods themselves – must have been scared out of their minds by that!" she chuckled.
Second was her touch, letting know that was she was laying down on a straight solid surface, with the exception of her head which resting on someone's – presumably the speaking young woman's – lap.
"How in the world did you do that?" the woman continued curiously. "Hm, a sword that can draw mana from infinite parallel worlds?! And you stabbed yourself with it to become a living bomb?! What foolishness, truly you are fit to bee his daughter, alright!" the woman chided.
Third was her smell, telling her that the air was cleaner then she had ever felt and the woman on whose lap her head was resting had a pleasant flowery scent.
"Still, do you fulfil the conditions for the ritual? And while the kill was grand, was it a worthy sacrifice? Hm…?" the woman mused. "You are not entirely human… human father and… homunculus mother? Hoh, that would make her closer to being human then a Divine Ancestor, so you do qualify as a participant to the ritual indeed. Now for the sacrifice… no, Sacrifices! You have so many sealed inside you as well! Eight, plus the ugly one you were intending to kill in the first place! But are they Heretic Gods?" she mused.
Fourth was her taste, the phantom taste of her own blood being felt momentarily before fading away.
"Hm, a good number of them obviously are. The Earth Goddess Medusa. The Demigod Sétanta, Cú Chulainn. The Demigod Herakles. The granddaughter of Helios, Medea. The Demigod Gilgamesh. The Demon God Angra Mainyu. Hm, this King Arthur holds the aspects of both Steel and Dragon, how odd… but she qualifies. But the remaining two… wait, what's this? A Demon God sealed in this masked fellow's right arm? He'll do." Here the young woman paused. "The last one does not qualify however; while he holds one of the most potent aspects of Sword that I have seen and his essence is close enough, he has no legend, no myth, I'm sorry… oh, he is your adoptive brother… from a different future… timeline? Mou, time travel is always confusing! Still, I can't give you his Authority… but I suppose I allow a memento at least. One of his spells should not bother anyone… and his armor. Can't have my new daughter wake up naked in her new world!"
Finally, her sight returned allowing Illya to gaze into a white sky, with the only color existing in the young woman leaning over her. She appeared to be a slender young woman in her mid-teens with violet hair held in two ponytails by white ribbons, emerald green eyes and pointed ears decorated with red pearls. Finally, she seemed to be wearing a white dress.
Then, Illya focused on the woman's last words and spoke the first thing that crossed her mind.
"My Mama had big boobs."
It was truly a sight the way the young woman's face fell and she comically began to cry.
"Whoaaaa! Another instant rejection! Is that it? Is my figure why they keep doing it? I know I'm a …"
"Nearly flat." Illya helpfully provided, only to gulp at the look she earned "But you look great like that!" she quickly added.
"Really?" the violet haired young woman prodded.
"Yeah, the lipstick and the earrings make you look more mature." Illya babbled.
"I would home so! I am several thousand years old, after all." The woman remarked, though it was clear she had calmed down.
"Thousands of years… who are you?" Illya asked, wide eyed and as she tried to put some distance between herself and the obvious non-human, she realized could not move anything from neck down.
"I am the All-Knowing All-Giving Woman, Pandora. And I am you new mother… well, step-mother." She allowed, having felt Illya's sentiments for her natural mother.
"When you say Pandora… you mean the Pandora with the Box from Greek Myth?" Illya asked slowly.
"It was actually more of an urn, but yes, that's me." Pandora nodded cheerfully.
"And you want to adopt me. Why?" Illya asked in disbelief.
"Well, you obviously haven't realized, but you are no longer in your world. You and that big ugly monster you were fighting dropped from a huge hole in the sky with a whole mountain." Pandora exclaimed excitedly.
At this, Illya froze.
"Did… did this hole have a black void beyond it?" Illya asked slowly.
"Yep. I think it was outside any universe. It's a miracle you came through in one piece." Pandora remarked.
"Yes. A miracle." Illya repeated mechanically as she inwardly tried to see what had happened to her.
For one, her body was gone. If she was dead as she was assuming to be – why else would she meeting gods – then that was nothing relevant. What was relevant was the fact that her soul was pretty damn solid rather than a mist that barely withstood the world's attempt to dissipate it as it should. Specifically, her soul had been materialized. A feat of True Magic, the Third True Magic, the Heaven's Feel which was whole point of the Fuyuki ritual. She had apparently gained it by passing though Akasha or at least close by it.
"And I didn't even see anything because I wasn't paying attention!" her inner-magus cried and screamed in shame and indignation.
Another thing of note that she noticed was her now perfect recall of the memories of not Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern, her genetic ancestor and the core of the Grail System, but also all of the Justeaze-model homunculi that have been made and died since.
The bottom line, however, was that she had gained what the Einzbern had spent a millennium desperately seeking. By accident. She was immortal.
"I want to die." Illya said abruptly.
"What?" Pandora blinked before frowning. "You have nobody left that can be called friend or family." She spoke gently. "But, do you truly have nothing to live for? Nothing at all?"
Illya was about to utter a resolute 'yes' when she remembered. She remembered her oni-chan saying how he would like to give her a new chance at life, away from the expectations and cruelty of the Einzbern. She remembered her Papa who went to fight a war that would assuredly cost him his wife so that she would be able to live in a better world. She remembered her Mama who willingly went to her death so that Illya would not have to, to try to make the world better for her.
All those flashed through he mind before leaving her staring blankly at Pandora's knowing smile. Illya decided to not accuse the All-Knowing goddess of messing with her mind to give her a flashback.
"This really would be a new start. And entirely new world at that. It's different than the one I came from, considering how much Pandora talks about gods… the Age of the Gods must still be happening here. That would make things better at least magecraft-wise. But still, new world or not… I'm dead, my body at least." Illya thought.
"Not for long, Illya-chan." Pandora spoke up, cluing her in on being able to read her thoughts. "By killing Angra Mainyu and sacrificing those inside you, you participate in my Grand Ritual."
"Ritual?" Illya tensed. The last one had not gone well.
"Simply put, when a mortal kills a Heretic God, a divine being that has descended onto the mortal world, the become my adopted children, gaining a portion of the slain god's power as well as being ascended physically and magically. Your magic reserves will be hundreds of times greater than any moral magician, your body will be much sturdier, you will be able to pick up new languages quickly, you will have a high magic resistance and will be have enhanced spiritual senses. And enhanced longevity, letting you live for centuries." She added as an afterthought.
"Quite a lot of powers." Illya commented "Though the magic reserves and longevity boost I already have in excess already."
"Now then, about the Divine Authorities you're about to gain… well, normally I have to tweak them to fit the personality of their new owner or limit them if they can't handle the original form… but these Noble Phantasm forms of the Authorities seem pretty well structured. You gain one for each Heretic God slain, normally, unless you have high compatibility or the deity has some bond with you and wants you to gain more than one…" here she paused and frowned "But while I will be giving you that arrogant king's treasury, I will have to remove most of the contents since they are not truly part of his legend and thus not his to have or give, regardless of what he may think."
"Okay." Illya blinked – it was not like she knew exactly had been and what will remain in the Gate of Babylon, so she would have to wait and see.
"You will be gaining the Authorities of eight Heretic Gods at the same time, an unprecedented amount both for a first timer and in general. It's truly fortunate your soul has become so strong, near divine, otherwise I would have been forced to either weaken the Authorities severely or withhold some of them altogether." Pandora remarked with a frown. "I should look into a solution for that."
Illya remained silent, thinking of how the Clock Tower would react to the news of a human / homunculus gaining not one but eight Noble Phantasms. Idly, she wondered how many Sealing Designation worthy stunts she will be pulling from now on.
"I, Pandora, the witch who brought forth all the disasters and a shred of hope, do declare this child to be my new son. Let everyone present grant their blessing and their hatred to this child! The seventh Campione—possessing the destiny of the youngest devil king, please bestow the sacred spell words upon this child!" Pandora began to chant.
"…I'm actually eighteen." Illya muttered.
But she was ignored as from the white background voices, screams and roars were heard.
"By the black art that I and Epimetheus left behind this is the sacred birth of an illegitimate child, shrouded in darkness, born of a fool and a witch. A secret of usurpation made possible through the sacrifice of a god." Pandora continued. "I, the all-giving woman Pandora, declare that you shall be reborn as a Campione. The Godslayer, the King of Kings, the Campione." She finished and Illya felt several warm existences enter her chest before Pandora leaned down and placed a kiss on her brow, her world once more fading into white.
Human World
Sometime later, Illyasviel von Einzbern awoke and took in her present state.
She was now a Magician, possessing immortality and infinite prana.
She was a Campione, possessing several powerful Noble Phantasms.
She was in a new world, and she was utterly and hopelessly alone.
For the first time in five years, Illya cried.
Timeskip – three days later
Three days. That was how long she allowed herself to grieve. She had gotten up an hour after awakening at the edge of a forest and entered the nearest town she found, quickly hypnotizing her way into a hotel room before she spent the next three days drowning her grief in food and drink ordered via room service.
Now though, as she began to pull herself together, she realized she had been rather lucky that the language spoken in the city was her native German. And as she left the hotel room and began looking around town, she realized why: she was in Austria, hence why people sounded a bit different to her.
The next thing she found out was her exact location, which was near the border with Italy, a city called Hermagor.
Then, she thought about what she needed from here on and her eyes went down towards her own body and she had to cover her mouth to silence her own scream of surprise. And for a good reason.
Not only was she wearing a feminized version of Archer's outfit, armor and holy shroud – which explained why there were so many eyes on her – but she was not as she remembered herself! She no longer looked ten! True, she didn't look her actual eighteen years of age, but the thirteen or so years her body appeared to be was definitely more then she had dared to hope for in years. She actually had boobs now! Sure, they were small, an A-cup if that, but compered to before it was certainly progress.
Then, taking into account her outfit, she focused on what else had changed on her body… and went still as she realized she was pumping out the equivalent of B-rank spells worth of prana into the atmosphere unconsciously while her body was like a beacon of magical power. It was a wonder some supernatural being had not found and approached her by now, for whatever purpose!
Quickly suppressing her unconscious creation of prana by drawing on the mana from the atmosphere and mixing it with the od from her circuits, she managed to significantly lessen the cloud of prana she was giving out. It was annoying to do this considering she had trained herself extensively to be able to do it continuously and unconsciously in order to have an as large as possible reserve of prana available to support Berserker during the Grail War, but with some willpower she could curb this now useless and potentially dangerous habit.
However, it was not enough. Even without pumping out more power, she was a beacon simply by existing. Merely trying to suppress her own power would not be enough – especially considering she never learnt how since it was deemed useless to her… well, from the memories of the Justeaze homunculi, she knew how, but the fact remained that it would likely not be enough especially with her amateurish attempts.
So, she had to hide her power some other way. Quickly returning to her hotel room, she began mulling over her options.
"Simply holding it in will not work. My soul is now capable of producing an infinite amount of prana; there's no way I can hold all that in." Illya mussed. "I'll need s mystic code to do it, or a bounded field… yeah, a bounded field will do for the moment while I think of an alternative." She nodded decisively.
She did not, however, get up and begin to create anchors for said bounded field. Instead, she focused inwards as she began to gather prana before unleashing it into a single pulse… creating a rather powerful bounded field around her hotel room via her Wishcraft.
As much as she hated the Einzbern, she had to admit that their Sorcery Trait was first class. By simply using a large amount of prana, they could actualize a mystery without having to go through the various otherwise necessary steps as long as they knew them and the desired end result. That was the Holy Grail. It was also one of the big reasons why the Einzbern were so desperate to regain the Heaven's Feel, as with infinite prana and an ability that could do anything as long as you used enough prana, few things would be out of their reach.
Checking her work, she was satisfied with it and turned her attention to her next problem, namely a means to remain undetected even while outside this room, particularly while moving. She quickly reached the conclusion that she needed to enchant some trinket into a Mystic Code that would function as an anchor for a bounded field that could move around the world rather than remain in a fixed point in space.
"I need some jewelry, silver or even mithril if I can get my hands on it." Illya muttered out loud.
Moments later, she looked upwards with wide eyes at the golden portal that appeared before it spat out a few dozen rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets on top of her head an then closing.
"That… was the Gate of Babylon." Illya said slowly. "Oh, right Pandora mentioned that, didn't she? Though she said she removed the stuff with legends unrelated to Gilgamesh's. I guess these things are either his original or simply were left in the Gate because nobody else had a claim on them… hm, I wonder what other Authorities / Noble Phantasms I got…. No, I can think about that later! For now, I need to make a way for me to walk around town without everyone and their grandma knowing about it!" she decided and began to go through the jewelry.
Eventually, she decided on a pair of mithril earrings shaped as leaves, dismissing the rest causing them to fade into golden motes of light back into the Gate. Without further ado, she gathered several times as much prana as before and poured it into her Wishcraft as she anchored a permanent bounded field onto the two earrings, that would be able to completely hide her magical presence at the price of draining the prana her body naturally released into the atmosphere – thus a perfect tool for her who needed to put her excessive prana aura to good use.
Before she put them on, she checked them one final time with Structural Analysis… and froze as far more information than expected flowed into her brain. Not only the basic information she had expected, but scarily detailed data such as the concept of creation, basic structure, composition material, the skill of its making, the accumulated experience, accumulated history and manufacturing process...
"Tracing!" Illya whispered in realization, remembering how Pandora had mentioned granting her a single simple spell in addition to the outfit of Archer. Examining herself, she realized that one of her Magic Circuits had been turned into a Magic Crest with just the Tracing version of Structural Analysis and Projection being imprinted.
Shaking her head, she put on the earrings which had been confirmed to be fully functional for her purposes before heading out of the room and straight towards the reception desk. She was checking out.
Timeskip – Two days later, Bolzano, Italy
It had been easy for her to cross the border – she merely had to hitch a ride and hypnotize the border guards into ignoring he existence. Now in Italy, she repeated the process of renting a room at a nice hotel via hypnotism and after adding a bounded field to this one as well, just in case, she went outside the city to finally begin to test her new powers. While on the road, she had meditated on what she could feel new within her but had not dared try anything less blow up the car she was in.
Now though, after selecting an area to practice in, she set up a large bounded field over it and called upon the one Authority she had used before.
"Gate of Babylon!" she commanded with Gilgamesh-like conviction causing a golden portal about as large as she was tall to appear before her.
Illya had vague idea on the contents of the Gate, having seen the memories of Waver Velvet, the Master of Rider during the Fourth Grail War, which the Einzbern had spared no expense to obtain in the aftermath of Kiritsugu's 'betrayal'. As such, not knowing what treasures Pandora had left within and even what was already in considering how Gilgamesh was using Noble Phantasms as projectiles, she began to try calling out each and every treasure she had seen in Waver's memories.
It soon became obvious that Pandora had been quite correct in her statement that most of the treasures in the Gate did not belong to the King of Heroes and only a handful of Babylonian sword sand spears appeared before Illya reached the final two treasures Gilgamesh had used to defeat Iskandar. And they answered.
Enkidu, the Chains of Heaven and Ea, the Sword of Rupture.
Looking intently at the two priceless treasures of immeasurable power, Illya was quick to realize which of them will be seeing the light of day anytime soon. Ea was simple too powerful, too dangerous, to be wielded at the drop of the hat and she swore to herself as she returned it to the Gate not to bring it out without just cause. The Chains of Heaven, however, would clearly see plenty of use if she ran across the Heretic Gods Pandora had mentioned.
Returning the Chains to the Gate, she began asking it various things from things she expected to be from Gilgamesh's time period to various kinds of valuables that may be inside. Much to her surprise, there was plenty of money of the current age, wad over wad of bills of several currencies from all over the globe making her realized Gilgamesh had not spent ten years in Fuyuki waiting for the next Grail War to start – understandable, Illya could not stand being in the presence of Kirei Kotomine for an hour, never mind a decade.
Truly, she had enough gold and other precious metals and gems to builds several mountains out of them, never mind merely buying them. She was a little disappointed, though, that there was no Vimana within the Gate as that would have been an awesome mode of transportation.
Closing the Gate, she focused on the feeling that reminded her of Saber… or rather feelings. One of them, however, she had a pretty good idea what it was and soon enough she was holding Avalon, the Everdistant Utopia which Shirou had implanted in her to ensure her survival. Placing it aside for the moment, she turned her attention inward and drew on another power that felt like Saber and soon enough she was holding Excalibur, the Sword of Promised Victory. Nodding in satisfaction, she drew on the last power that felt like Saber and the holy sword she was holding was wreathed in wind and became invisible.
"Avalon I already had in me, so I got Excalibur and Invisible Air from Saber." Illya nodded in satisfactions. She had been on good terms with Artoria and was not surprised the blonde had granted her a second Authority.
Returning the now invisible blade to the space from which she took it, she then re-implanted Avalon within herself before moving on to focus on Lancer.
A few seconds later, she was holding the blood red Gae Bolg and began twirling it experimentally, even as within her mind she felt that the spear could perform both the un-avoidable thrusting and army-killing throwing attacks. Nodding in satisfaction, she dismissed it and focused on her dear Berserker.
Nothing seemed to happen and Illya blinked in confusing for a few seconds before remembering what Noble Phantasm has been available to Herakles during the war. Approaching a tree, she nodded to herself and punched it with all her strength. Surprisingly, a small indent appeared which was not what she was aiming for at all, but her actual expectations were met as well: there was not even a scratch on her knuckles.
"God Hand, get." Illya smiled viciously. With the near impenetrable skin, regenerative and revival power and immunity gaining attributes of her new divine skin, only the strongest of attacks may harm her and even those would not work for long.
Holding out her hand as she focused on Caster, Rule Breaker appeared as expected before it was dismissed. Rider, however, was trickier and she soon found two accumulations of power bearing her signature. When the first she tried pulsed from her eyes, Illya was not at all surprised to see the trees before her turned to stone. Cybele, the Mystic Eyes of Petrification which were ranked as Jewel class were working great, and while overpowered and dangerous, she also had her own Mystic Eyes of Binding for a non-lethal approach.
Focusing on the other power, however, was somewhat of a letdown as while the golden bridle and whip Bellerophon appeared, no Pegasus followed no matter how much she tried rendering it useless until she found herself a mount.
"No wonder she gave me her Cybele as well. This one is pretty useless right now." Illya pouted as she dismissed the bridle and whip.
Turning her attention toward the two Servants she disliked the most, she decided to leave Avenger for last and focused on True Assassin instead. Soon enough, her right arm turned black before an orange-red light began to glow from within, the brightest being her hand up to the wrist.
"Zabanaya, Delusional Heartbeat." Illya murmured before dismissing the Hassan's power.
It was a tool of murder, one that worked only on humans thus useless on Heretic Gods and likely Campione as well due to their Magic Resistance, so one would think she won't be using it. Wrong. Illya had every intention of using it as soon as she met a magus that gave her an excuse to do so. After all, she was anything but squeamish regarding killing and one way to use Delusional Heartbeat allowed her to gain the intelligence and knowledge of a victim by extracting and devouring its heart. While cannibalism did not appeal to her at all, she could live with it once or twice considering she had to live on the wolves and other beasts Berserker killed for two weeks after her Servant's summoning before she was allowed back into the Einzbern Castle.
Finally, she called upon Angra Mainyu's power and was suddenly covered in black and red tattoos all over her body.
"Verg Avesta, the False Copy of Inscribed Creation." Illya grunted before dismissing the wound-sharing curse that she was unlikely to ever use – with God Hand, she was unlikely to get wounded at all… though the wounds she would be capable of receiving would certainly be worth returning in kind… "Tsk, fine, I suppose it's not entirely useless." She huffed.
With her new powers largely discovered, she now turned her attention to the one thought she had been avoiding but had now ran out of excuses to.
What now?
Right, she accepted the chance to live in order to honor her family's wishes, but what to do? What to live for?
The standard magus answer would be to find a way to reach Akasha, but she had been there, done that, got a True Magic as a souvenir.
Maybe try to fulfil the ambitions of her family? Be a super hero like her Papa and Oni-chan? She could do it, hell she was better equipped than either of them had been and she didn't have to worry as much about getting killed in the process… but there was also the fact that she could not bring herself to care about saving people as much as a proper super hero should. After all, after losing everyone she held dear, why should she care about some nameless humans needing saving?
No, neither of those ideas really appeal to her though she may try the second just for the hell of it.
"What do I want?" Illya thought as she sat down leaning against a tree. "What's missing from my life… other than family and friends?" she briefly grimaced. "Let's see… I grew up in the Einzbern castle, was repeatedly experimented on the make me into a better Lesser Grail… then I summoned Berserker and was sent to die one way or another in the War… Damn, I need a life, never mind what's missing from it!" Illya rubbed her temples in irritation. "Fun. Entertainment. That's what I'm missing. I spent nearly my whole life being a lab rat for the Einzbern. I never saw any of the world besides the castle and Fuyuki… I should go on a world tour, see what this world has to offer… I should say that I could learn how it's different from my old world, but with how little I knew about that… and I need some company, since talking to myself isn't healthy." She grimaced. "Now then, where to start?" she muttered. "I'm in Italy… so I should go to Rome! It should be easy! All roads lead to Rome and all that!" she decided, nodding to herself in satisfaction.
A.N.: Yep, another Campione Crossover. One with Fate/stay night of all series… yeah, not that original, I know. Still, nearly all of them have Shirou or EMIYA as the main character and as badass he can be, raining down dozens or hundreds of powerful weapons on his enemies' heads, it's been overdone and only a handful of authors have done it right, with even fewer keeping said stories alive.
Now Illya, on the other hand, has potential. I admit, my first instinct had been to use the Illya from the Kaleid Liner series, but after some consideration I realized it would be kind of boring once the novelty wore off. Illya using the powers of the legendary figures she killed? That's pretty much what happens in the two seasons of Kaleid Liner canon. Yeah, the similarity would allow her to adapt easier to being a Campione, but beyond that, what? She would still be a ten-year-old girl who just got super powers and can't even begin to realize the magnitude of the mess she's in… just like canon.
So no, while potentially more amusing – especially with Kaleidostick Ruby around – it would still mean I'm throwing a preteen at Heretic Gods. And while I've been told I have a cruel streak when bashing some characters, I'm not planning on making this a bashing fic. So no go.
Then I ran across a relatively new story in this section, the Loli Campione, with a Fate/stay night Heaven's Feel Illya taking one for the team to blast the Grail to smithereens and becoming a Campione in the process with a Holy Grail-related Authority. That's a premise I can work with.
That being said, there will be no Holy Grail Authority here, as you have noticed, and the take on the situation is significantly darker, with Illya having lost everyone and willing to blow all of Fuyuki up, even all of Japan if that was what it took, to destroy the target of her hatred. This Illya will not be as childish – not all the time, at least – and with the Justeaze homunculi series memories she won't be as helpless either. She also won't have raining Noble Phantasms from the Gate of Babylon to fall back on in a pinch, but I will compensate for the loss of tens of thousands or more Noble Phantasms… somehow.
For now, here is the list of Authorities Illya currently has, and from whom:
King Arthur – Excalibur & Invisible Air (Avalon as a Divine Relic rather than an Authority)
Cú Chulainn – Gae Bolg
Gilgamesh – Gate of Babylon (With Ea and Enkidu still in it)
Medusa – Cybele and Bellerophon (The later which is useless without a mount)
Medea – Rule Breaker
Herakles – God Hand
Hassan-i-Sabbah / Demon God Shayṭān – Zabaniya: Delusional Heartbeat
Angra Mainyu – Verg Avesta
Now, as for Illya becoming a True Magician of the Heaven's Feel… frankly, it won't play a large role in the story. Let's be honest here, Illya already had monstrous reserves on par with Divine Ancestors in the Campione world, and through becoming a Campione those reserves would have increased hundredfold or more. So, the Heaven's Feel does not really help there. No, what I needed it for was so that Illya could be able to handle gaining such a large number of Authorities at the same time… that and there to be some consequence of unknowingly falling the hole to Akasha made by the Greater Grail. And let's face it, achieving the True Magic that grants immortality by accident while committing suicide? I just HAD to do it.
As for her Wishcraft… a lot of people believe that the Einzbern are totally crazy with how desperate they are to regain the Third Magic. What they don't seem to realize is that with the Third Magic powering their Wishcraft, the Einzbern could achieve pretty much anything within the boundaries of the world. So even if it would not be able to directly get them to Akasha, it could help them along the way. And now Illya has it, and with the Age of the Gods not having ended in this world, Gaia's rejection of magecraft is insignificant. Think on that.
It goes without saying that this will be an OP Illya story, but I'll try not to make it that obvious at all times.
On a different note, Merry Christmas everyone!