20 New Schrift And Choice
Friedrich POV:
I don't know how many hours I slept, but I woke up refreshed, as if my battle with the amalgam of all the Quincy never existed in the first place. But I knew for a fact that it happened. The place where I was sleeping was not the most welcoming one, a pure cocoon of darkness, but I noticed a difference compared to before.
When I first came here, the place was just full of darkness, there was no light to illuminate the area. But now, there were some kind of bubbles of light with vague human figures inside of them. Some bubbles were far larger than the others, and I could see letters on each cocoon. The largest one that I could see for now was the bubble with the letter 'S'.
Suddenly, I could see a figure behind a cocoon with the letter 'T' on it. It was the man I had fought with before, and he was looking at me while caressing the cocoon.
"Friedrich, my best friend, how was our sleep?" he asked me, looking directly at me with a smirk on his face. I had a strong urge to punch him in the face, but I restrained myself knowing that I couldn't even touch him
"Ow! Don't be such an angry man. No woman likes a man who lets his emotions take control." He added, At this I took a long breath to calm my nerves before looking back at him
"What are these cocoons ? " I questioned the amalgam, I added my suppositions about these cocoons but I still wanted to be sure.
He teleported in front of me, lighting the area with his Blut Vene, looking straight into my eyes, still smirking.
"These are the souls of every Stern Ritter, each of these cocoon is a Stern Ritter, or what remains of them after Yhwach retrieved his souls fragments " he explained, as he walked back at Candice's cocoon
"You see, as I am all the Quincy, I have a part inside every cocoon here, in fact, these cocoon acts as a barrier to protect the Schrift from being stolen"
"But you could use every single one of them back then" I recalled, catching what I believe was a lie, he looked at me, smiling
"In fact, when I fought you, I just used a single Schrift" he said, lifting only one finger and pointing it at his head "The Visionary is arguably the strongest bare the A, I just had to imagine that I had the other Schrift and voilà , I had them"
I widened my eyes hearing this,this was a terrifying Schrift indeed; it is one of the most versatile powers, but a wrong move and you could die without knowing how.
"But why didn't Lord Gremmy do this, why did he die against Kenpachi ? "I demanded the man, calmly, analyze what the man said, the Visionary, dying against someone that could only swing his sword, this had no sense.
"There is two reason to this" replied the man, lifting two of his fingers to make his point "One, Yhwach was so scared of Gremmy that he imprisoned him in a cell during 1000 years"
"But why did his Majesty do this ? " I asked, not believing what I heard, this was basically crippling one of the strongest Stern Ritter there was
"If you let me finish what I started to say you would have your answer" he admonished me, "But Yhwach did this to cripple the imagination of Gremmy, rendering him weak, because his Majesty didn't have his Schrift yet so Gremmy would be stronger than him if he trained" .
"And the second reason why he lost, is because he was dumb, not his fault tho, this stems from the fact that Yhwach crippled him during 1000 years" he finished his explanation
What the man said started to paint a bad light for his Majesty in my head, but I soon dissipated this thought, I had another question to ask him
"Tell me, why do you consider his Majesty a traitor, when He did so much for us? " I demanded answer for this question that plagued me since yesterday, I always saw His Majesty as a wise leader, so that someone like him could be tarnished filled me with unbridled rage
"Ah ahahahha" the man laughed wildly, the sound of his voice made the membrane of darkness shake for a while before it stopped
"You are so innocent and unaware of the true motives of his Majesty that it's cute and disappointing at the same time" he mocked me before a sort of screen appeared behind me, as the images on it started to appear, I saw him teleport beside me, looking at the screen with a frown
"Look, how much this 'Betrayer' loves us !" he exclaimed as the images started to appear, the image was the Soul Society, I know of this, this was just before I was hit by this blue beam of reis-, wait blue beam of reishi ? No that can't be !
As the images continued to move, I saw, coming from the sky, thousands of reishi's beams, as it engulfed all the Quincy on the ground. I saw Bazz-B cry out at the sky
"This is how you treat us, your Majesty !!!"
"What were we for you ? " I heard the raging voice of Liltotto under the rubbles too
All of this happened so fast that not even a second later, all the beam disappeared back into the sky, the screen changed too, instead of the souls Society, I saw his Majesty in front of a bald man holding a brush, in the sky was an enormous quantity of reishi shaped like a ring
"Auswählen " I heard his Majesty said, as the reishi descendent inside a strange cage made of wood, where I could see all the royal guard, Uryu and lord Jugram, stand up, the royal guard in a state that resemble a Vollständig .
As the reishi disappeared, the monk looked at His Majesty
"You still sell your subordinates short Yhwach " mocked the monk
"They served their purpose, a technique that takes the reishi from one Quincy to give to others that are more in need" explained my King, not bothered at all by the fact that he just killed 99% percent of his own army to empower his royal Guard.
"Comrades should give their lives to allow the others to continue to advance, that's the meaning of an army" he added
After His Majesty's explanation, the screen turned black as the man beside me turned to look at me
"So, do you still trust this bastard ? " he asked me, his easygoing smile gone , what remained was a frown
I felt surprised and angry, I didn't know why it happened, weren't we, Quincy and Stern Ritter, brothers and sisters all united with a common goal? His Majesty always spoke of camaraderie and unity but he just slaughtered all of us.
"Did his Majesty win the war with our sacrifices ? " I asked in a murmur, my voice broken by my raging emotions
The man looked at me, the frown persistent
"No, he lost even after he used again this technique to kill the royal guard, Uryu Ishida shot an arrow made of the reishi of the victims of the Auswählen that sealed his powers, and it allowed Ichigo Kurosaki to kill him for good" he explained to me
"So our sacrifices were in vain ? " I asked, my body trembling as the weight in my soul started to get too heavy for me
"Yes, ultimately, the only Stern Ritter that survived were Thunderbolt and Power as Bazz-b started to get revenge on his Majesty only to get killed by Jugram" he replied to me, looking saddened at what he just described
"Candice survived ? but her cocoon is just in front of me " I asked puzzled by the presence of the cocoon with a T on it
"Candice survived, but the Auswählen still took a part of her soul, so a cocoon is present" he explained to me
"To respond to your question regarding if I still trust His Majesty or not," I stated firmly, "I still believe in him. Because if the Royal Guard were defeated by the Division Zero, what would have happened to us, the little Soldats and Stern Ritter, after our loss at the Royal Palace?" I asked the man.
"We would've been slaughtered, as His Majesty is the source of our powers. If he dies, our Blut and techniques will weaken then disappear," replied the man, contemplating my words. "But it doesn't allow him to kill everyone!"
"I was raised for that purpose. All Stern Ritter and Soldats were trained to assist His Majesty. I should be honored to have been of service to him. Even if he lost, His Majesty only wanted the world to be fair for everyone, not the tyranny that the Shinigami installed," I explained, reigning in my emotional state once more. I didn't loathe His Majesty for what he did; I was honored to have been part of his plan. It's just a shame that we lost again in the end."
"You are such a robot ! " exclaimed the man, "Just because you were raised for that purpose don't mean that you need to accept anything that come from His way"
"You are a living, breathing and functioning human ! you are not a cattle that'll be slaughtered when his master need his sustenance !" he exclaimed
I pondered for a while, trying to find the right words to explain my point of view,
"I speak only for me, as I am not arrogant enough to know what everyone wants but I don't hate his Majesty for my death, as it was a death to help the war or being killed by the shinigami after the defeat of the royal guard and His Majesty, so yes I think that my death was just and I shouldn't be hating Yhwach for that " I explained my point of view to the man, as I continued to speak, I saw him smile for a bit before a frown made it to his face
Silence reigned after I spoke, as we just looked at each other in the eyes
"You have a good point " said the man, "But as I am all the quincy at the same time bare you, the enormous majority of them does not agree to what you said"
He smiled at me before putting his hand on my right shoulder
"But don't worry, some of them agree with you, well the royal guard in majority" he added before looking at the cocoons
"Enough small talk, now I'll tell you how to use your full potential " he announced, turning to face me with a big smile on his face.
"For now, your soul can only accommodate one more Schrifts, choose wisely, the smaller the cocoon the better as the cocoon's size reflect the toll it will take on your soul" he added
'I have already a defensive Schrift, using an offensive on should be optimal' I thought before looking at the moderate cocoon in front of me,
"You choose the T, a good choice, that likely your limit for now for an offensive Schrift as the Explode or the Fear are a bit stronger than the Thunderbolt, " said the man looking at my choice
"Now touch the cocoon and you will have your Schrift," he added, smiling
I extended my arm, touching Candice's cocoon, and suddenly my arm was pulled inside the cocoon. I looked back at the man who was smiling at me.
"Oh, I forgot to mention that the owner of the Schrift will subject you to a trial in order for you to obtain their power," he said, still smiling.
"Good luck, see you soon ! " he finished, waving his hand to me as my entire body was engulfed in the cocoon of light , as I opened my eyes again, I was in strange stadium, reminiscent of the Wandenreich's one, but with a lot of electricity dancing through the ground.
In front of me was Candice Catnipp again, the woman still looking as pissed as always.
"So you choose me huh ? " She started, electricity dancing in her hand, "My trial is you against me, we just murder each other ! " she grinned as she aimed her index finger toward me
"But the use of your own Schrift is forbidden in my own soul realm " she said, as beam of pure electricity was launched toward me
I dodged the beam, as I decided to generate my own reishi bow, blasting some arrow toward the woman, she promptly dodged them before touching her heart buckle on her belt, coming out of the belt was a heart-shaped quincy's cross, in an instant an enormous quantity of reishi and electricity was gathered in the cross as she aimed it at me
"Try dodging this Friedrich ! " she exclaimed as the increase of reishi soon came to a stop, the arrow was brimming with energy
"Galvano Blast " she exclaimed as the blast of reishi was launched at blazing speed toward me
'I'll use this, this is the only line of defense against this type of attack' I thought as I stretched my hands toward the ground
"Kirchenlied : Sankt Zwinger(Church Hymn: Saint Ward)" as I said this, from the tip of my finger came long strings of Roman numeral inscribed construct, these construct allow for a quick construction of several column of reishi shaped like the Quincy cross in a circular formation around me
'This is the ultimate defensive quincy spell' I thought while looking at the marvelous construct that I made.
The blast from Candice impacted my altar with a thunderous explosion, despite the incredible level of power of the blast, it couldn't come through my Sank Zwinger, as soon enough, the pillar that I made started to blast with a pure beam of reishi her attack, successfully nullifying her.
'This technique is incredible, it combines the arrow generation and an area Blut forming an impenetrable bubble of protection and offense' I marveled at the technique.
Upon seeing Candice's surprise at the sudden turn of events, I used Hirenkyaku to appear in front of her, my spear enveloped in Blut. With a swift impaling motion, I aimed the spear towards her, but as it closed in on her stomach, her body transformed into pure lightning, and she swiftly evaded.
I quickly employed my Reishi detection to locate her presence. "Behind!" I exclaimed, sensing her Reishi behind me. I turned to find a boot hurtling towards my head as she harnessed her momentum to crush my head beneath her boot against the ground. The moment I hit the ground, I felt energy gathering above me, and I observed a lightning discharge heading straight for my head. I was unable to even cry out, as my mouth was buried in the earth due to the pressure of Candice's boot.
The discharge hit me like a truck, she used her boots as an impact point, thankfully my Blut protected a big part of my body but I still felt numb with the electricity coming through me.
I used every fiber of my being to create an explosion of reishi to separate her from me.
"Shit!" I heard her scream as I stood up from the crater I had just created, sensing the blood dripping from the spot where her boot had struck.
"You could've mentioned that you like it rough," I quipped, smiling despite my wounds, relishing the sparring match with a fellow Stern Ritter.
"You can say that again when you manage to land a hit on me, boy!" she retorted, teleporting once more with her lightning speed. I concentrated, this time with better preparation and a deeper understanding of her tactics. I parried her first leg strike that came from behind, using my arm coated in Blut.
"Oh?" she smiled upon seeing my successful defense. "It seems I'll have a bit of fun tonight!"
As she spoke, her leg began to generate electricity. Recognizing the impending danger, I quickly retracted my arm, but she seized the opportunity to throw a punch, charged with Blut and her Schrift, at my face. I parried her fist with my palm, also coated in Blut, surprising her. Capitalizing on her momentary distraction, I delivered a swift kick to her stomach.
'What ? ' I widened my eyes seeing that my kick didn't do any damage as she shrugged it off easily, she used her other hand as a fist again expecting a different result from the first one but I caught it too.
We were like to kids trying to push other while holding hands
"You little ! '' she said through gritted teeth, trying to overpower men. I smiled at her seeing this, her strength was nothing to scoff at, a Stern Ritter couldn't be underestimated in any measure, but I was stronger physically.
I took a good hold of her hands as I spun myself in place, generating momentum, her body flying due to her hands behind prisoners of mine
"AAAAAAAH!" I heard her scream as I continued to spin in place before I chose to let her hands go, her body was sent flying before crashing violently in one of the walls of the arena .
As soon as my hands were free of her's I generated an enormous arrow of reishi before sending it to the crash site of Candice.
As the arrow impacted the wall creating a blinding blue explosion, blowing my hairs back as I smiled seeing this
"I truly relish fighting formidable opponents," I contemplated in silence, awaiting my dance partner to emerge from the now crackling wall. Soon enough, I detected movement within the agitated wall.
"What is she up to?" I pondered, sensing an enormous quantity of Reishi being drawn into the wall. Then, it dawned on me, "Oh, hell, Vollständig," I realized, familiar with the sensation of this transformation.
I attempted to reach for my Vollständig glove but suddenly remembered its absence. "That rascal took my Vollständig glove yesterday and didn't return it!" I fumed inwardly, recollecting the man who had removed my arm with the glove on it.
I took a moment to compose myself before considering my options. There weren't many available to me. My best bet was to try to keep pace with her, knowing that Candice's stamina wasn't her strong suit when using her Vollständig. I could attempt to wear her down.
Before long, a vibrant green pillar of Reishi burst forth from the wall, pulverizing it. As the pillar dissipated, Candice emerged in her Vollständig form. She had gained six green lightning bolt-edged wings, with threads of electricity dancing around her body.
Instantly, I adopted a serious stance, summoning four enormous bows made of Reishi behind me as I unleashed a volley of arrows upon her.
Utilizing the cover provided by my arrows, I accelerated in her direction, crafting a spear made of Reishi to compensate for my inability to retrieve my spear from yesterday's encounter. I observed her slowly extending her arm towards my volley of arrows, electricity dancing around her fingertips. Suddenly, she unleashed a myriad of small lightning bolts, each one destroying one of my arrows on contact, creating a chain of explosions that propelled my body towards hers.
Then as I landed near her, the arm that she used to destroy my volley was touching one of her wings
'What is she doing ' ? I questioned before I charged toward her using Hirenkyaku, then I saw that she took off one her wings and she adopted a throwing position
"Galvano Javelin" she screamed as the part of her wings was used as a projectile, the speed was so great that I was hit by hit even before I could try to dodge
The explosion generated by the projectile sent me hurl toward one of the walls of the arena, I impacted it like a meteor, tearing a hole into multiple layers of it
'Hell ! the electricity totally numbed my body, I can't even move' I cursed inwardly as I tried to move my body
"Well, it seems that the fun is over, it was fun while it lasted I guess" I heard Candice said as she appeared in front of me, her Vollständig deactivated, but she still had one of her wings in hand, pointing it at me
"While we were still alive, I would've relished having you as a Soldat under my command. But, well, we can't change history with 'ifs,'" she commented as she prepared to swing her wing like a sword.
"Indeed, Miss Candice, indeed," I replied, smiling widely as my trap proved successful.
"Sank Altar," I chanted, and five beams of light enveloped Candice's entire body.
"AAAARRGHH!" she screamed as a substantial chunk of her Reishi and her Schrift were transferred to me.
"I devised this trap just as I was struck by the Javelin. Just before it could hit me, I initiated the altar and used the dust created by the explosions of the arrows and from my impact with the arena wall to conceal its activation," I informed her as her body hit the ground, drained of Reishi.
"NOT AGAIN!" she startled me with her banshee-like scream. "I don't want to be powerless again!" She tried to stand up, but her body refused to obey. "Give me back my Reishi so I can bash your skull!"
"I'm truly sorry, Miss Candice, but your demise here will grant me your Schrift, so I can't risk anything going awry. However, you can rest assured that when I obtain the Visionary or the Grail, you'll be the first one I'll resurrect," I assured the woman.
What I said seemed to bring a measure of peace to her, and she sighed, saying, "You've won. You have my approval to use my Schrift. I hope you're happy," her voice monotone as she began to fade away.
"See you soon, Miss Candice," I bid her farewell as her body dissipated into particles that were absorbed by my own.
"You little bastard," I heard her voice as the entire cocoon started to crack, and finally, I found myself back in the familiar darkness.
I glanced around and spotted the man, engrossed in manipulating a peculiar cube. He deftly twisted and turned it until each face displayed the same color.
"It took you quite some time, too much flirting with the whore?" he taunted. Hearing his words, I generated a javelin crackling with electricity and hurled it toward the man, but when it approached him, the javelin simply dissipated.
"Would you kindly refrain from using such language to describe Miss Candice?" I politely requested of the man
"Hmm, well, that's what she is, though. She used her Soldats sometimes to 'have fun' with them, so I don't see why I couldn't call her 'whore.' But, if you're so enamored with her, I can refrain from speaking of her in that manner," he retorted.
"Ah, I forgot to mention that it seems Fujimaru Ritsuka and little band of misfits managed to snatch the Grail right from under your nose," he added "I detected that they came back to Chaldea with the Grail"
"How much time has passed since I arrived here?" I inquired, finding it highly unlikely that Ritsuka and the others could secure the Grail in just one day.
"I don't have a clue. I'm not the Almighty, you know," he responded with a smirk, as if he'd cracked a joke. However, I couldn't quite catch the humor in his comment.
"Quite a tough crowd these days, but here's an idea for you. We could totally mess with those Chaldeans, no problem!" he suggested with a grin, adopting a more familiar tone.
"What exactly do you mean by 'messing with'?" I inquired, finding it difficult to follow his train of thought. He appeared entirely alien to me, as his speech and demeanor seemed to change like one might change their mood. It was rather peculiar, but I remained intrigued by what he was proposing.
"Okay, pay close attention," he began. "We have all the souls of the Stern Ritter at our disposal. When I had the Grail that you gave me earlier, I used it to access a place they call the Throne of Heroes. So, I can easily do it again without too much trouble. I could use you and the soul of a Stern Ritter to manifest in the Throne of Heroes and be summoned by those Chaldeans, taking on the appearance and power of one of the Stern Ritter."
I looked at him strangely, what the hell was this idea, who could come out with an idea this strange ?
"Why can't we just use me?" I asked, puzzled by his proposal.
"But, my dear Friedrich, it's because you're already known to them. We should enhance the mystique surrounding Quincy in this world, not only through you but with others as well. Everything here operates on the element of mystery," he declared with pride.
"You've officially lost me here," I admitted to him, puzzled by his plan.
"What I've discovered in this world is that everything thrives on mystery. If something isn't well-known, it becomes more potent. But our powers don't operate on the same principle. What I want to find out is, by placing one of the Stern Ritter in the Throne of Heroes, will our powers be transformed into mana and mystery, or will they remain as Reishi?" he explained his hypothesis.
"I see," I said, contemplating what the man said as I thought about the ramification of what he said "So this is a brand new world, totally separate from the three realms ? "I asked the man
"Yes, the rules are not even the same, humans don't have any reatsu in their body" he explained "So we must take everything in our hands, to let the Quincy's empire shower the human world of its light like we did before ! " said looking at the sky, reminiscing about a long lost past.
'Do I accept his mission or not ? Anyway, what could I do against Chaldea and the mysterious enemy that wants the demise of Humanity ?' I thought darkly looking at the ground
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Well, you have the choice to choose the next arc as this one was just the interlude, vote in one of those
-Friedrich accept the proposition and become temporarily another person (he just change his appearance and Shrift and probably his demeanor as it's another soul directly in collision with him) and you choose as whom he will go(I'll take the most upvoted comms, you propose and you vote isn't it wonderful ?)
-He accepts but refuses to fuse temporarily with another Stern Ritter and and go himself in the Throne of heroes to temporarily become one of the Heroic Spirits
-He refuses and we go with Friedrich alone against the third Singularity
I'll choose the most voted one tomorrow, I hope you enjoyed this 'little' chapter
See you soon :)
