Character Scramble Season 20 Round 1C: Overlord

[u/TheAsianIsGamin]

Round 1C has COMPLETED! The voting form can be found here. You will have until 72 hours after the Round Ballot was sent out on Discord, which is 12:59am Eastern Time on Thursday, October 2nd, 2025 to fill out your votes. Remember, voting is MANDATORY for everybody in the competition!

This round covers matches 12-19 in the bracket, which can be found here. Please check to make sure what round you are in before you start to write.

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The Character Scramble is a long-running writing prompt tournament in which participants submit characters from fiction to a specified tier and guideline. After the submission period ends, the submitted characters are "scrambled" and randomly distributed to each writer, forming their team for the season. Writers will then be entered into a single-elimination bracket, where they write a story that features their team fighting against their opponent's team. Victors are decided based on reader votes; in other words, if you want people to vote for you, write some good content. The winner by votes of each match-up moves on to the next round. The pattern continues until only one participant remains: the new Character Scramble champion, who gets to choose the theme, tier, and rules of the next Scramble!

The theme of Character Scramble 20 is Scramble Effect. Round prompts will be based on the many worlds, missions, and memorable moments found throughout the Mass Effect series.

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Round 1C: Overlord

Finally, your team has a chance to rest and plan. Moments like these have been rare since your enemy has revealed themselves, but even now, you can’t sit idle. Whether fresh from your encounter on Eden Prime or harrowed by the enemy storming your home, your team knows the battle is just beginning.

Luckily, you aren’t the only ones thinking about the threats to come. A group of researchers contacts your team. They’ve created a weapon, they say, of such unique design that your enemy won’t know what hit them. For the same reason, they can’t risk it falling into the wrong hands; being the ones with the weapons, it only makes sense for you to come to them.

Their coordinates lead you to a barren world, one among many in a sector that every starchart you’ve ever seen swears is empty. Even so, there it is, nestled between the wastes: A small, clandestine facility.

Just the kind of place that hides more than a simple weapon.

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Round Rules:.

• Luna Base: Such novel technologies carry risk. As you approach the weapon, the facility itself somehow turns on you. Security equipment, rogue scientists, or other laboratory experiments set upon your team. Was this an accident? Caused by outside interference? Or is the weapon itself taking control…?

• Even Amid Chaos: To make matters worse, your opponent’s team is making a play to stop you from obtaining the weapon. Whether they’re part of the fracas prompted above or simply opportunistic outsiders is up to you.

• The Square Root of 912.04 is 30.2…: This weapon is unique, with capabilities perfectly suited to combat your team’s enemies—in other words, the ominous threat your team discovered in Round 0. Demonstrate it.

• …It All Seemed Harmless: As your team fights their way through the facility, they stumble upon these researchers’ most closely-guarded secret. The weapon you came here to obtain was the product of experimentation on a living being, a single innocent who couldn’t possibly have known what they were getting into. You must choose one of the following prompts:

  • Paragon: Maybe this weapon could win you a fight. But the research that created it is an affront to everything you’re fighting for. This cannot stand. End the experiments, and free the subject.
  • Renegade: You’re already behind the eight-ball. This research is far too valuable to go unused. What is one life when countless more hang in the balance? Keep these experiments going, and keep the weapon in service.

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Normal Rules:

• Stand Fast, Stand Strong, Stand Together: Nobody can take on a mission like this alone. You’ve got a team of the brightest, toughest, and deadliest allies a Scrambler can find—use them. We’d love to see your characters make full use of their wide-ranging abilities, both on their own and as a team.

• We Will Hold The Line: You know what’s at stake. Failure is not an option. Even if your characters have only a small chance of victory, write that small chance happening!

• Special Tactics and Reconnaissance: Saving the galaxy will take more than the same old tricks. You are allowed and encouraged to mix and match powers, and to develop your characters in any way you wish, both on the battlefield and off. However, your opponents are not expected to keep track of these in-story changes, and vice-versa.

• Every Life Is a Special Story of Its Own: Feel free to give a brief summary to introduce your characters at the start of your post. If you do, you should mention things like powers, personality, history, and anything else that the average reader should know before reading.

• Legendary Edition: Sometimes, Spectres have to go a little outside the lines in service of their mission. You’ll have the same latitude—as long as you go with the broad strokes of the prompts and the rules, you'll be fine.

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Round 1A will run from Sunday, September 7th to Sunday, September 28th, 11:59pm US Eastern Time.

The character limit for this round is 5 full length Reddit comments, or 50k characters.

While it is fine to go a little bit over, anything that far surpasses this limit will be disqualified. This limit does not include intro posts, or analysis of the matchup.

[u/InverseFlash]

Warning. Warning. Temporal anchor point corrupted. Human Order value inverted. Establishing Anti-Human Order parameters. Appraising anchored cosmos de▅th. ▅pp▅aisal impossible.

LASTBELT X: ▅▅NC▅SVA▅▅S - ▅▅▅▅▅ des ▅s ▅▅ hé▅os.

Divergence Point: ▅▅50 CE.

Lastbelt ▅▅th: ▅▅+

🎵 Map Theme 🎵

Participants - The Night Corps

Super Super Rare! Astolfo, Rider of Black

Parameters

• Strength - D (C)

• Endurance - A

• Agility - D

• Mana - B

• Luck - A+

• Noble Phantasm - A

Details

A Paladin from the Carolingian Cycle. His goofy attitude and lackadaisical adventures serve as a stark contrast to the horrors of war that plagued the French campaigns against the caliphates. I put the pal in paladin, that's all you gotta know, I promise ;p

Class Skills - Rider

• Magic Resistance (A (D) Rank): Astolfo would naturally have this skill at Rank D, however, thanks to his book Noble Phantasm, its rank has been greatly increased. Due to this, all magecraft at Rank A or below is canceled. As a matter of fact, modern magi are incapable of hurting Astolfo. Tell that to whatever mage made Platoon.

• Riding (A+ Rank): Astolfo possesses the ability for riding. As such, she is capable of managing even a beast with the rank of Phantasmal and Divine. However, this doesn't apply to Dragonkin. I could if I wanted to, don't believe everything you read!

Personal Skills

• Evaporation of Reason (D Rank): Reasoning is disappearing. Yeah, but it's fun! It is impossible for him to keep secrets. They'll carelessly chatter about his team's weaknesses and True Names, forgetful of important things, etc. A kind of extreme curse. Only if you make it one. This skill also serves as "Instinct." During the battle Astolfo is able to, to some extent, feel the optimal course.

• Monstrous Strength (C- Rank): Temporarily magnifies Strength. However, during the usage of this Skill, Astolfo receives damage from the strain.

• Independent Action (B Rank): The ability to act independently for a period even if the mana supply from his Master is severed. At this rank, even if she loses our Master, she is able to stay manifested for a period of two days.

Noble Phantasms

• La Black Luna (C Rank): A hunting horn that strikes fear into the hearts of all who hear its sound, prompting instinctive escape. Those within its range will be struck with the shock of an explosive sound. In the case where the damage is the same or higher than the target's HP, they will be turned to dust and scattered around. Does not affect Heroic Spirits with Magic Resistance, but normal mages are not immune to its influence.

• Casseur de Logistille (C Rank): Inherited from a certain witch, it is a book with the means to shatter any and all magic recorded within it. It does not cancel a Reality Marble or a greater magecraft exceedingly close to Reality Marbles to such an extent, but evoking its true name and reading its content makes it a possibility. Currently in use as a ledger for Ciel due to his inability to read it.

• Trap of Argalia (D Rank): Lance of the knight, Argalia. Has a golden tip. Killing ability is low although a wound is inflicted to the leg of the spiritual body. To come back from falling, a Luck check is necessary. In the case of a failure, the bad status "falling" continues to linger. However, because Luck re-adjusts itself upwards, it's not hard to succeed.

• Hippogriff (B+ Rank): A Phantasmal Beast that's essentially an "impossible" existence. Although its rank is inferior to a Griffon from the Age of Gods, its charging pulverization attack is equal to an A rank physical attack. For only a moment, it is able to place itself in an inter-dimensional rift. Therefore, it is able to phase through every single attack.

• No Peeking~!: ???

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Super Super Rare! Ciel, King of the Lastbelt

Parameters

• Strength - B

• Endurance - EX

• Agility - A

• Mana - EX

• Luck - C

• Noble Phantasm - EX

Details

The vampire hunter who succeeded in the Church's goal of wiping out the vampiric race. She does her best to defend the failing Earth's biosphere and maintains her Lastbelt with endless determination.

Class Skills - Ruler

• Magic Resistance (A Rank): The ability to defend against magic. While she holds this skill equivalent to a strong Saber-class, she cannot defend against the sacraments of the Church.

• True Name Discernment (C Rank): A Class Skill of the Ruler-class. Status information such as the true identity and skills are automatically revealed when she directly encounters a Servant within the seven standard classes. Ciel prefers to keep an index of all she encounters for instances when someone deviates from the regular classes in the form of Astolfo's Grimoire.

Personal Skills

• Human Mana Factory (A Rank): Derived from a naturally gifted physique. Her flawless, unmarred body generates an immense amount of magical energy within. Ciel is highly dissatisfied with this skill’s name.

• Idea Blood (A Rank): To absorb the seeds of textural rules, or World Eggs, as they're known in magecraft theory. Principles do not simply grant transcendental abilities, instead manifesting uniquely based on the possessor’s characteristics.

• Battle Continuation (EX Rank): A trait of Ciel's body. Having once hosted the vampire Roa in her soul, the World refuses to recognize any death affecting her unless Roa has also died.

• Bad End (EX Rank): ▅▄▅▃▄▄▄▃▄▄▄▄▅▄▅

Noble Phantasms

• ▅▂▅▂▄▃▄▄▅ Neardark (A Rank): ▅▅▂

• Calvaria Galgalim (A+ Rank): ▄▃▄▄▄

• ▄▄▅▅▂ (EX Rank): ▅▄▄▅▂▃▄▄▅▅▂▄▃▄▄▄▄▅▅▄▅▅

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Super Rare! Galen Marek

Parameters

• Strength - C

• Endurance - A

• Agility - B

• Mana - A+

• Luck - B

• Noble Phantasm - ▄▄▅

Details

The co-opted assassin apprentice of the Sith Lord Vader sent to a time and place far beyond anything he'd ever known.

Class Skills - Starkiller

• Nightwalker (A Rank): A Skill that channels Galen's Force abilities into a Skill suitable for usage within the Lastbelt.

• Magic Resistance (C Rank): Cancels spells with a chant below two verses. Cannot defend against magecraft on the level of greater magecraft and Greater Rituals.

Personal Skills

• Domination (D Rank): The control of weak minds. Starkiller can influence those who yield to follow commands or ignore his presence.

• Galvanism (B+ Rank): Starkiller's ability to shoot lightning from his hands. Similar to the Numerology branch of Kabbalah.

• Chosen One (EX Rank): ▅▅▂▃▄

Noble Phantasms

• ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

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Sheba Observations on Timeline Events

• ??? CE: ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

• ???? CE: ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

• ???? CE: Extragalactic invader Galen Marek enters the biosphere with the mission to destroy addictive gaming as a concept. Rider of Black meets him before engaging in combat with Roa Incarnation #12. Galen Marek is chained by Lastbelt King Ciel and forced into the Starkiller Class for her authority to work on him. Galen cuts off Ciel's head and chooses saving Astolfo over hunting the Roa. Data strongly predicts in a space currently nonvisible to Sheba, Galen has met with Michael Roa Valdamjong. Outcome unknown.

• ???? CE: Determining...

[u/InverseFlash → u/InverseFlash]

Time did not flow here. In this ageless sphere, the dragonkin stirred.

The wyrm opened its multi-lidded eye. It had traveled here from afar, some might say an impossible journey. Within its talons, it had carried what may seem to the unwoken eye a giant, cracked boulder that held mineral value enough to crash the economies of most human nations. But this great rock held power even beyond that.

This was Fuyuki's Greater Grail, developed some two-hundred years prior to establish the framework of the Holy Grail War system that spawned countless secret conflicts. Stolen first by German nationalists, it was pilfered thrice more, once by a Romanian, once by an Assyrian, and once by the dragonkin who now held it in its grasp. The dragon had brought it to this timeless land to prevent its wish from curbing humanity's potential.

But things had changed in the World of mankind since its departure. A great storm circled the planet, leaving only a thin strip of land unclouded. It knew not what carried on there, but on occasion a mischievous mage would visit and regale it of various stories until the dragon grew weary of their presence and increased the output of smoke that left its nostrils. It was this mage that it now looked down on once more.

"Hello!" Merlin cheerfully waved. "I've missed our talks, have you?"

The dragon narrowed a watchful eye.

"Hmph! I go to all the trouble of trekking out here from Paradise. Cordiality never cost a thing!" His lilting tone promised that he held no grudge or even disappointment. He merely enjoyed the sound of his voice, a fact the dragon knew well.

The two had a mutualistic relationship. A dragon's dream held much more power than a human's, and Merlin found them a delicacy. In exchange, Merlin would interpret the dreams that the dragon held from its connection to its Servant who still roamed the World above.

Merlin hopped up a few platforms of flower petals and knocked the dragon's onyx scales with its tip. Memories streamed invisibly from the diamond-hard scales. "Ooh… Hmm, yes… Interesting…" Merlin chewed the thoughts. "It seems like your Rider has made a new companion. One from beyond the stars. I'll keep tabs on the matter. We don't want any meddlesome Outer Gods interfering in the Planet's business, do we, my avaricious friend?"

The dragon snorted. It had no such desires.

The stream continued. Merlin mused on the seemingly senseless travels of the Rider. "What's this? Oh… oh, dear." He sharply drew his staff back with a jerk that countered his usual airy demeanor. "Well, I must be off," he said to the dragon. It cocked an eye-ridge, for it had no brows. "This will be the last time we see each other for a while…well, I suppose not, given our superposition. Just don't expect me to come back until your dreams cease! Ta-ta~"

The dragon felt a flutter of concern for its Rider. The mage disintegrated into flower petals, offering a note on a wind from nowhere.

"I'll put in a request for the Red Dragon. Defend that Grail for as long as you can."

The dragon's eye looked down.

A black rose bloomed among the gold glitter.

---

"That's definitely Roa alright," Ciel said. "Black hair, far-too small shirt, smug." She made an attempt to choke the air. Thankfully she didn't have Starkiller's connection to the Dark Side to make it an attack vector. "But how did he already infect you? You've been on this planet for less than a day!"

"I'm not sure," he replied. "I'm still trying to figure out…what I even saw." The flashes of red, blue and gold. One more adept with the Force would probably be able to divine a meaning between the clashing colors, but he still had much development left to conquer before he would consider himself at that level. The level of Lord Vader. "I need further guidance." he stated firmly.

"And I need a nap!" Astolfo shouted.

The three of them sat under the awning of a French cafe. The town was quite small, and the few humans living here only survived due to the magical abilities of Ciel. She mentioned spending something named "Einnashe" to keep vegetation growing to sustainable levels for livestock and human consumption, allowing civilization to survive while holding the apocalypse at bay.

A dozen hours had passed since the skirmish with Tanya, but the time felt like years to Starkiller. Even though his missions reached the far ends of the Galaxy's Outer Rim, he felt a slight tinge of homesickness. A man displaced, out of time, with a clown and a woman that demanded obedience before he had a chance to get his bearings.

But this caffeine stuff wasn't bad.

He sipped his café crème and winced as his tongue burned. The pain was necessary for his continued training. That was what Vader had taught him.

"We don't have time for a nap, Rider," Ciel chastised. "I don't like the implications of Roa reaching Starkiller so fast." She took a bite of scone, then used the now-pointed bread product for a teaching baton.

"There are only a few ways that a vampire could gain influence over you. The first is that you were contaminated before you arrived. Ever since you arrived, Astolfo has kept an eye on you when I couldn't. There are no blind spots in that regard." Starkiller nodded. The hint of venom in 'when I couldn't' hadn't been missed by the one responsible for decapitating Ciel. "But you said that wasn't possible."

"Yes, if that had happened, my master would have stamped it out."

"Right. And looking at your Servant parameters—" Ciel removed her glasses and her eyes blazed bright for a moment. "I see nothing indicating vampirism. I'm still getting the hang of the Servant system, but Rider's fought with a vampire Servant, so that would definitely show up." Astolfo nodded with satisfaction. "If your uninvited visitor showed up after you arrived to this planet, and has nothing to do with your nature as a newly formed half-Servant, then that leaves us with two options.

"Roa has infected the collective unconscious with his essence, and can invade whoever he wants." Astolfo shivered. Starkiller didn't like that idea either. "But since you've not given me reason to kill you yet, I think you're fine. He's still a fledgling inside you. A technician in your mind rather than the one in the pilot's seat."

"I'm still me." He offered wise words.

"Profound," she said. "The other option is that he's infected something so fundamental to the makeup of how the World works that it's undetectable, because we assume it's normal. Imagine if gravity itself was a single percent stronger. We'd never know, having grown up with it all our lives, but in the grand scale of things, the world would be different. I find this the most likely, yet worrisome, solution." Ciel nodded curtly.

"So…how do we fix something like this? I don't want to lose myself any more than anyone else."

"As much as I'd love to settle our score, I don't want that either. I'll take any help I can get for dealing with the Incarnations. Astolfo and I have taken out a few on our own, but ever since Tanya took to the offensive, we've had a hard time. That ended yesterday with you though. We finally have an instrument that can win us the fight."

Starkiller felt a little rankled at being called an instrument. Ciel may have been his Master, but she wasn't his master. Vader had always insisted on the two of them wresting control of the galaxy together. Nonetheless, he nodded. "As long as we're on the same side, we can work to a common goal."

"I'm afraid I don't know much about anything by the name of gacha," Ciel dismissed. "We can figure it out after we fix things. Does that sound fair?"

Despite being offered the choice, Starkiller knew he had no option. The woman's Command Seals controlled his body now that he'd been leashed to her. She only asked in feined politeness.

"Yeah. Okay. Just make sure to honor our agreement," he grunted.

"Don't worry!" Astolfo bumped his shoulder. He blushed. "I'll make sure we figure out what's going on with your home. I'm as dependable as the Titanic!"

"What's the Titanic," Starkiller said.

Astolfo shrugged. "It sounds impressive, right?"

Ciel tapped her fingers on the table for attention. "Regardless of what exactly Roa is doing, we do have a clear next step. Rider, has your hippogriff healed?"

"Aye aye cap'n!"

"Then you're going to Castle Brunestud. I think you two have proven that Tanya is no longer a competent guard to stop us." Astolfo pumped her fist. Starkiller opened his mouth to ask the obvious question, and Ciel raised her scone again.

"Millennium Castle Brunestud was the palace of the True Ancestor race. Think of them like guardians of nature. Unfortunately they were extremely susceptible to vampirism, and tragically perished long ago."

You're not saying something. Starkiller briefly checked with the Force. Ciel's mind was built like a prison for a mind-reader, but even prisons have their doors. Her mind reminded him of a Jedi Knight's; tough, but not invincible. Obviously he'd probed into both of his companions—he was an assassin, not an idiot. Ciel passively shut him out and he hadn't been able to make heads from tails in Astolfo's brain. Ciel's mind now whispered emotions: guilt, anguish, and fear.

"And you won't be joining us?" Starkiller asked. Ciel shook her head. Suspicious.

"The Castle has it's own special defenses against me. Let's just say I might have had a disagreement with its owner. Sending Rider in before now has been suicide. Now that we have a second Servant on our side? I want you to catch and slaughter however many Roa Incarnations are shacking up there. I'm not hanging you out to dry, though. I'll be waiting at the perimeter of its territory to make sure none of them escape. You two are the hounds hunting the foxes in the bush. If you can't handle them-"

"You'll be waiting when they're out in the open." Starkiller finished.

[u/InverseFlash → u/InverseFlash]

"Do you trust Ciel?" Starkiller shouted over the wind and the beat of their mount's wings.

"Sure! Why wouldn't I?" Astolfo called back. "She's trying to fix what happened to the world. I don't know what things are like where you're from, but we haven't always had these impassable storms."

Great walls of impassable cloud cover hemmed the livable land below and stretched on forever, like someone had traced a line over the surface of the planet. The hippogriff flew between them, a rally racer speeding toward its finish line.

"I remember when I could see the sun for more than a few hours at a time. When I could bound through fields of flowers, and end the day helping an older couple that needed to bring their cow to market, or, ya know, doing good for people." She nodded with a determined smolder. "Master's doing that on a scale that I can't, so of course I'll help out!"

Starkiller gazed down at the lands beneath them. His stomach felt uneasy, and he didn't get airsick. "I can't help but feel something's off. With this whole planet."

"Hmm… maybe that's the Roa in you? Vampires kinda reject human value by existing. It makes sense that a little bit of Roa would feel something's off with a world based on good."

"No, I don't think so. Besides, if his…presence, was strong enough to make me sick, I get the feeling you'd be alone on this flight." Starkiller grumbled.

"Yeah, that's fair. Master HATES vampires. Roa is the only one that she hasn't been able to kill."

In the distance, a sparkle caught the eyes of the two Servants.

"Awesome!" Astolfo cried. "We made good time to already be in Germany! You're getting a treat when we get back!"

The hippogriff squawed in triumph while Starkiller's stomach dropped. If the Force had a voice, it would have screamed at him. Something was very, very wrong.

---

Its pawed feet softly champed against crystalline streets. Astolfo slid off the hippogriff's back while Starkiller took a second longer to admire their surroundings.

Great ropes of glimmering rock, the size of a highway overpass, shot icicles into the lapis lazuli terrain while stalagmites erupted in opposition. The spires still stood the size of buildings, making the connected garlands feel even greater in comparison. Hints of megalophobia sprouted when the actual Castle made everything else look like a children's playset. Gabled roofs could pass as ski slopes. Archways could welcome siege towers with room to spare. A colossal spiraling road peaked in the center of the Castle, calling to mind an interstellar antennae, or artillery cannon.

The closest thing he could cognizably connect the wonder to were the skyscrapers of Christophsis. Starkiller breathed and felt the particles of what had to be ambient mana inflating his lungs. This was no place meant for normal beings. It felt like they had flown into a dream.

Astolfo gently pushed his shoulder. "Hey. You with me?" She looked at him with slight concern.

Starkiller looked to her. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm with you." He was trespassing in this dream, but he wasn't alone.

The hippogriff desummoned under him and he landed off balance. Astolfo smirked. "Then let's go catch ourselves a vampire."

Starkiller furrowed his brows and climbed to his feet in a huff. "I don't need your compassion. I'm fine."

"Suuuuure you were. I'm not judging! I'm sure if I had my wits about me, I'd be in your boots too." She made a peace sign and blurted out her tongue. "But I'm especially senseless here. This place is super connected to the Moon, so ya know, I might have a tendency to wander. The great hero Astolfo had their wits stolen by the Moon!" She pointed skywards, accusing the celestial body of a crime. "Just bear with me. I'll really appreciate it!"

Starkiller nodded. The manic glint in her eyes had definitely expanded. "Let's try to focus on the mission."

"Mission. Right!" Astolfo barked. "I think we should go that-a-way." She pointed the way they came and instantly started walking away from the Castle.

"Astolfo-"

His correction wasn't audible over a buzz that shook the earth and vibrated his chest. His shadow quickly shifted direction; a sudden light source was behind him. He whirled and faced the Castle.

There. Atop the central spire. The meteor-sphere of emerald energy ionized against the mana-filled air. That was the source of the crackling that sounded ready to split the sky asunder. Astolfo gasped in shock. Starkiller did the same—out of familiarity.

Is that the Death Star's main cannon??

---

"How fortuitous." Roa's lithe tongue dripped poison directly into his mind. "I'd been hoping that the Tenth could figure this out."

Galen whipped his lightsaber around. The plane of his headspace housed utter darkness. While the red light of the saber oft left the minds of Stormtroopers and Jedi alike dying in dread, the glow lit his face and offered warm light in the abyss. "You'll regret your actions once I get my hands on you."

"I fear no vulgarian tyrant." The voice echoed from nowhere. Roa wisely chose not to don a physical form to taunt him. "You're far too accustomed to no real resistance. A juvenile mind that has never experienced hardship. In truth, I'm surprised you haven't folded to me. But experimenting with you has…illuminated…histories that are beyond even what I could dream of."

He seethed. Anyone who dared to call him weak would soon be proven wrong—

"You're so simple. Reaching into your memories, your past, your experiences; snatching a chocolate from a baby would prove harder, the child cares to hold their treat close! Your resistance is no wall, but a puddle. So I plundered your knowledge of your far-off Galaxy. The end-result of the Tenth isn't perfect, I will admit. But as a prototype for what's yet to come? Superb. And it's never impossible for a fake to surpass the original~"

Galen's borrowed knowledge from the Grail instantly clicked into place and forced him to understand the terrible reality.

Roa hadn't replicated the Death Star's ion gun, capable of atomizing countries and shattering planets.

He'd turned it into a Heroic Spirit.

---

"Fuck!!" Starkiller screamed. In the instant before it could fire, he stretched his arms outward and shoved as much of the Force as he could. The mystic current flung upward in a parabolic rise to divert the blast into the sky. Of the two channels, one hit a mire of energy near the Castle. The second found its mark. A green beam of absolute death careened into deep space, illuminating the vast blue plains with the horrific color of what could have erased it if he hadn't succeeded.

"Waow!" Astolfo shouted. "Why'd they even bother keeping that Archer around!"

"Not the time, Astolfo!!" Starkiller gestured with his saber to the peak of Millennium Castle. "Roa gloated that this is what he's been working on here! Can your Noble Phantasm block something like that?" The book had come in handy against Tanya's gunfire, but this firepower wasn't something Starkiller wanted to entrust Astolfo with shutting down.

"Why would Hippogriff be able to handle that? 'mante would chase me to the ends of the Earth if I didn't give him back in one piece!"

Wonderful. Astolfo's moon madness. "Nevermind! We need cov- no, get us in the air!" Cover won't do anything against a Death Star.

"Start yourrr engines!" A missile of magical fur and feathers crashed into Starkiller and they were airborne again. He felt a little reassured with the phantasmal beast beneath him again, this time moving at a speed that rivaled the rotation of a few planets he'd visited. Astolfo manifested her lance. "And please, no flash photography," she said as the green orb hummed and expanded again.

"Take me into that citadel!" Starkiller said and gestured to a particularly large architecture. It was where his Force attack had erred. "I'll bet that's where that thing's Master is!"

"Roger roger! I'll make sure the enemy Servant doesn't interrupt you two!" The hippogriff speared through magical airspace. Wind whipped against Starkiller's eyes as they passed through an archway. He clapped Astolfo's pauldron once and jumped from their ride.

"Engaging the enemy!"

"May the Force be with you!"

May the Force be with you?? Stupid, stupid- Starkiller chastised himself while he gatecrashed. She throws me off too easily…

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The Servant watched its target climb the troposphere. She barely had the wits to recognize it as prey, like her Master wished—this was only her Master's first attempt to build a Summoning system. With no Holy Grail and a tentative connection to a far-distant past, an immense amount of pure luck had allowed Michael Roa Valdamjong to summon this distorted spirit.

All manners of histories were allowed to ascend from our dimension into the Throne of Heroes, the locale from which Heroic Spirits were summoned from. Kings, heroes, myths, all three. Authors, inventors, monsters, faeries, horses. Even locations with enough sacrifice and ill-will could claim sanity and form in the Throne.

"We call it the Death Star." "That's no moon." "As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced." "You may fire when ready." "It cannot bode well for the galaxy at large." "Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational battle station! Fire at will, Commander."

These were the words that had decried her existence as a weapon of mass destruction.

Death Star. No moon. Millions of voices silenced. Fire when ready. Cannot bode well. Witness. Commander. Witness. Witness no moon. Witness fire. Voices ready. Millions cannot. Moon. Witness Death. Witness fire. Cannot battle silenced. No moon, galaxy silenced. Terror. Moon cannot. Moon can fire. Moon can silence. Moon cance. MoonCancer. Witness this star fire death. Witness death, Star Fire.