A Berserk Heart - Chapter 8.2 (Patreon)

Faeran found himself opening his eyes almost as soon as he closed them. It was weird, boredom getting the better of him, he had decided simply to rest his eyes a bit.

Only, as soon as he felt sleep take hold of him, he felt his consciousness shift and felt himself awaken.

"....What the fuck?" the Scottish teen gaped as he looked up and the roof of a dark stone cavern met his gaze.

Not only that, he was no longer laying on a couch, but cold hard ground. Pushing himself up, he took a look around himself.

The first thing he noticed, beyond the fact that it was some kind of massive cave system, was the fact that he seemed to have been laying on some kind of path that led downhill, carved into the side of a huge rocky wall made of dark blue-grey stone. Following the path with his eyes, he noted it zigzagged at each side into a new path and led down for easily over a thousand feet. Even with his enhanced eyesight, the eyes of a demi-god, he could not see the bottom.

The second thing he noticed, was the light illuminating the cavern. Or rather, the many many wrought iron cages cropping out of every surface he could see, so many he couldn't even count them all, each filled with burning blue balls of flame.

Only, they weren't fire. He couldn't tell how he knew, but his very instincts told him they were no mere elements. But rather, souls of the once living. Souls of humans.

"Where in the fuck am I?" Faeran wondered.

As he spoke, his breath frosted in the air and he could feel a biting cold nipping at his skin. If he were still just a mere human, he had a feeling his body would be getting worn down at a rapid pace.

Actually never mind where the hell he was, how the hell did he end up here? the kind of power it would take to shift him like this without him being able to notice or put up even a token resistance was far beyond the norm, something he'd honestly expect only out of True Magic or above that level.

"...I'm not fully here though." he noted pretty easily after a few moments. He could feel the connection with his physical body, and he could feel his connection with Mash and the Noble Phantasms he had bound to himself.

A dream then? He'd been kind of expecting the dream sequence at some point. He wasn't sure if it would be Herakles or Mash's past he would dream about though.

Something told him, this was not either of their pasts though. Especially with how in control he felt of his movements.
'Astral Projection maybe?' Faeran mused. But, he had little training at all in the art. Ah, what a pain.

"Well, only one thing to do then." he shrugged and began making his way down the path carved into the rock wall.

However he ended up here, he didn't feel threatened. It was hard to feel threatened when he had the power of Herakles backing him up alongside multiple Noble Phantasms.

                                                                                  ___________

He wasn't sure what he was expecting when he got to the bottom. All the way down he felt on edge, as if he were being watched, and expected something to jump out at him at any moment and pick a fight.

Despite his expectations though, nothing at all jumped out at him. And Faeran wasn't sure if he was glad, or disappointed. At least it wouldn't be as boring something came to pick a fight with him and maybe he could get some answers.

But no, when he got to the bottom, or rather the ledge overlooking the bottom, he merely found himself staring down into a massive level area down below, the only things of note being a pair of large stone pillars towering over a small rocky plateau foundation that looked a bit like an alter of some kind.

Simple as it was, it definitely stood out. If there was anyone about here, they were definitely somewhere within that vicinity. His instincts told him that.

Wasting no more thought on it, the teen dressed only in a pair of tassets leaped off of the point where he was standing and descended hundreds of feet down into the level area.

He landed easily, the ground buckling and cratering under his feet as he landed, and as he did, he felt the density of the biting cold targeting him increase massively.

It may as well have been a stiff breeze though for all it accomplished against his God Hand.

"Now who'll pop out I wonder?" he mused to himself. This looked like some kind of boss stage. Would some form of demonic beast pop out?

As he made his way towards the stone alter, a grin spread across his face, 'I wouldn't mind that.' he thought. There was a lot of things he could do with the blood, body and soul of a demon with his magecraft.

Just as he was within a hundred feet of the stone alter, it lit up in an eerie blue glow alongside the pillars, casting a cyan shade over the area.

"I will admit, you have guts to so brazenly break into my domain and swagger around as if you own everything in sight." a deep ominous voice echoed from all around him and the blue light flickered like flame.

How cliche.

"I am pretty gutsy," Faeran agreed, grin on his face widening, "Though, believe me if you want, but I didn't break in here, hell I've got no idea where I am, I just woke up here."

"Impossible," the voice scoffed, "This is not a place you can just appear in. It is not so simple a world, the only ones welcome here are the dead, and I can very clearly feel life burning in you."

Only the dead huh? That definitely caught his interest, "So this is some form of afterlife then?" Faeran asked in interest, before grimacing, "This isn't Tartarus is it?"

Because fuck going there.

The voice scoffed, "Tartarus, a mere lesser knock off that does not yet even exist," it scoffed, "No this is Kur, my domain!" the voice proclaimed proudly.

Kur!?

Faeran's eyes widened in total shock this time, "The Sumerian underworld?" he gaped. Fuck that, he didn't want to deal with that.

That would mean, whoever was speaking right now was either Ereshkigal the goddess of death, the other half of the whore goddess ishtar...or Kur itself. And he didn't know what was worse. Either a goddess of death, or a realm of the dead that in some mythologies was a titanic dragon of unstoppable power.

"Hoh? You at least are knowledgeable interloper," the voice chuckled, before becoming deadly serious, "I give you one chance to leave this place, and only one. Should you not heed my kind offer, your soul shall be claimed and dwell forever within this realm."

Faeran grimaced. "I'd love to take you up on that, but like I said, I've got no idea how I got here." really the only thing he could really think to do at this point was let whatever kind of dream this was play out.

And that wasn't looking too fun of a prospect right now. He did not have the full power of Herakles at his disposal right now. Sure, he had his own abilities to bridge the gap, but he still didn't have the full power of the demi-god within him.

And even with that he doubted he'd be able to take on the strength of an ancient goddess or a phantasmal beast the likes of Kur that would positively dwarf the power of the likes of Fafnir and other dragons that came after.

"Very well." the voice replied simply.

As soon as it did, a massive golden light burst out of the altar rising up into the air like a shining, blinding pillar of golden power, it was almost like looking at a miniature version of Excalibur. blasting its way up.

And as the golden light was expelled, Faeran felt it. Divinity. A massive swell of divine power that even exceeded the A-rank divine power had had of his own.

...Yet not overwhelmingly so. At most, he could feel twice the amount of divinity he had, which was a pitiful amount for a full goddess. And Kur was not a god to his knowledge.

But, alongside that divinity he felt something else. The same presence Medusa, Mash and Cu gave off. The presence of a Servant.

A moment later the light died down to reveal a titanic skeletal beast, with the upper body of a human skeleton, while the half below like that of a serpent of bone, a huge billowing white veil hanging from its head.

On instinct, he activated his masters clairvoyance.

Paramaters
Strength: A
Endurance: B
Agility: D
Mana: B
Luck: B

Class Skills
Magic Resistance: D
Territory Creation: A+
Divine Core Of The Goddess: B

Personal Skills
Hidden Great Crown: A
Mana Burst(Cage): A+
Protection Of The Underworld: EX

This didn't make sense at all! Territory Creation, which meant they were probably a Caster class servant. But holy fuck, look at those stats! What kind of Caster had parameters like that, and those skills were utterly absurd!

But even worse than that-

"You must be Ereshkigal then," Faeran clenched his fists so tightly he felt the bones pop, "...But how are you a servant? Gods can't be summoned as servants!"

A chuckle left the skeletal beast, "Such an intelligent one you are, you deduced my identity so easily," she replied, "But, it seems you are much out of your depth here boy, the Grail Wars rules are a thing of the past, as is history itself, and I am far from the only goddess summoned here to Babylonia!"

Babylonia!?

This was getting crazier and crazier with each new thing he learned. Babylonia did not exist in the present day, it was a dead civilization. Which meant, in the process of going to sleep, he'd been somehow pulled to the past?

But more than that. She claimed history itself was a thing of the past. Meaning, destroyed? Meaning, a singularity then, just like Fuyuki? But one set at basically the dawn of civilization. If Babylonia disappeared through a singularity, wouldn't the entire history of humanity die out as well?

"Have no fear boy, I will make your death as painless as possible," Ereshkigal broke him from his thoughts, "You need not wonder why things are the way they are, you can feel free to curse me and the other gods and hate us with all your might, and I shall make your afterlife within Kur as comfortable as possible." as she finished speaking, she held up her skeletal hands and a massive lance of golden energy appeared within her grasp, so titanically large it could double as a small mountain.

Well, there was no getting out of here without a fight huh? Well good, that made things simple then, "Sorry, tempting as that offer sounds, I've got a cute servant and white haired babe waiting for me," Faeran bared his teeth at the goddess and held out his hand and with a thought, summoned one of his noble phantasms, "But, I'll at least be kind enough to to make your own death easy in return for your offer." he proclaimed, pointing Durandal at her, the golden hilt glinting in the shining light cast by her lance.

As it was, he'd need to go full out from the beginning and give it everything he had. Ereshkigal on stats alone was no joke, and he had no idea what her Noble Phantasm was besides probably tying into her authority as a goddess of death. And on top of that, she claimed multiple goddesses had been summoned.

Knowing his luck, Ishtar or something was gonna come blasting through the roof to help kick his ass. So before that could happen, he was going to be the one giving a divine ass kicking.