Fate/Tower of God - Climbing the Tower as/with Mordred (fanfic)

After taking care of his basic hygiene using the tools he was provided together with his room, Isaac met up with Khun in the cafeteria at the scheduled hour.

The two ordered food at the bar and then sat down.

Silently, the two began to eat.

But the moment that Isaac picked up the first fork of his spaghetti, he suddenly thought back to how he had 'eaten' Bam.

Rather than feeling guilt, he felt alienation and a sense of loneliness.

Because of how his power was displayed to the world, as he had devoured his teammate's soul, he would surely be avoided and feared by others. He could already see how the other Regulars would always avoid him wherever he walked.

And what would Yuri think if she found out that he had swallowed Bam's soul?

Isaac faintly smirked as he thought of all this and still thrust the fork into his mouth.

His heart thought, 'Since when did being judged, alienated or lonely bother me? Basically, nothing had changed.'

Because of his supernatural powers as a Magus since birth and his strangeness, he was always alone. The current situation was no different.

As far as he was concerned, he liked being alone. Most people are not worthy of being his 'friends' and would only bother him.

If the fools keep their distance because they fear him, that's just right to his liking.

[That spaghetti looks nice, Master! Wish I could come out and have some, aaaah!]

Isaac faintly smiled when he heard Mordred's whining from within Clarent. Concentrating on their connection, he asked, 'Can you even eat in that form?'

[We won't know until we try! Don't underestimate me!]

"Haha." Isaac lightly laughed. He recalled how his Servant's eating habits had emptied his bank account in the first life.

"Isaac?" Khun asked when he noticed this.

Isaac shook his head with a faint smile. "It's nothing. It's just my sword."

Khun smiled at him. "You two seem to have a good relationship."

"Well, we're partners," Isaac said as he thrust his fork into his spaghetti.

It was at that time that he sensed a presence and turned to his side. He saw that it was the green-skinned lizard Princess Anak Jahad that was approaching him.

Looking at him coldly as she still walked, Anak smirked and coldly said, "You have quite good instincts. Your name was Isaac, right?"

Isaac clearly saw Anak look at him in a condescending way, but he didn't let it get to him. He lightly smiled and replied, "Yes, that's my name. Why are you here, Anak? Do you want to eat with us?"

Anak looked at him weirdly as she was taken aback for a moment, before saying while staring into his eyes, "Let's skip the crap. I'm here for the Black March."

From the other side of the table, Khun lightly spoke up, "Just to remind you, Regulars are not allowed to attack each other during the break."

Anak smirked as she didn't even turn to look at Khun and continued staring at Isaac. She said, "I know about that. That's why I want to propose a bet."

As Anak didn't continue, Isaac faintly raised his eyebrows and asked, "What bet?"

Anak lightly swiped through the air with the green whip in her hand and then showed it off, saying, "Maybe you noticed, but this weapon is the Green April. It is one of the 13 Month Series, just like your Black March. A weapon of the 13 month series begins to resonate when it is close to another of the series. You felt it too, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then what do you say about a bet? I'll bet my Green April, you bet the Black March, and we'll fight. If you win… I will give the Green April to you."

Isaac raised his eyebrows. He somewhat already expected it, but was still surprised that Anak proposed something like that. It seemed that she had no idea how strong he was and was really fully confident in her own strength.

Mordred advised, [Master, that lizard is not too strong, but her weapon is. I don't think Clarent would lose out, but it's up to you…]

Around the same time, Khun also said, "Isaac… You don't need to accept this bet if you don't want to."

Isaac was grateful for the advice, but still looked straight at Anak and said, "Sure. I'll take this bet."

Anak faintly smirked. "Good! I felt you wouldn't disappoint me. Then let's go to the arena."

She then turned around, and began to expressionlessly lead the way.

Isaac secretly smiled as he stood up from his seat. He returned his trey, then followed Anak out of the cafeteria.

Khun also got up and followed Isaac.

Meanwhile, the other Regulars present discussed the fight and some of them got up to watch it. This included Shibisu and Hatsu who were also eating together.

On the way, Mordred told Isaac, [Master, I didn't expect that. You've gotten more gutsy!]

Isaac lightly replied, 'Why? Was I cowardly before?'

[Yeah. Kind-of.]

'... I was only cautious.'

[No difference. You basically wanted to hide and wait out the entire war like a real turtle.]

'Shut up. We were disadvantaged in information and resources, that's why I wanted to lay low. But didn't we win in the end?'

[That was because of my spectacular performance, Master.]

'... That's true. But it's because of your impulsiveness that we were screwed most of the time in the first place.'

[Haha, I can't deny that. It's boring to do nothing… Let's just say we both did well.]

'Sure…'

Isaac chuckled and didn't dwell on the subject. He was a cautious and scheming type by nature, while Mordred was a reckless shounen protagonist type; that was the truth.

Putting that aside, his decision at this moment was calculated.

He could understand that Mordred should have been wary of the Green April after sensing its power, but his guess was that even though the Green April was powerful, Anak shouldn't be able to bring out its full power as a mere Regular.

As far as he remembered, the way that Green April's ignition worked was also special. The ignition was not a blast of energy like Clarent or the Black March, but instead caused the weapon to enlarge and split, which made it seem as if its destructive power is largely reliant on the user's own physical strength and speed.

That's why he was quite confident in winning against Anak who had the Green April. If he didn't fight her here, she'd probably continue bothering him, and it was also a chance to prove FUG that he's capable of being their God who could kill Jahad.

In the first place, killing Anak would probably be easy. He thought of the difficulty of suppressing and defeating her without hurting her too badly, which seemed slightly harder to pull off.

Just as the two were talking and walking toward the training area, the group passed by an outside courtyard where a giant crocodilian beastman practiced his spear thrust in the rising morning sun.

Rak noticed the bunch of turtles with the corner of his eye and hardened his expression. 'The turtles are watching, I have to look cool.'

"Ha! Haa!" Rak began to let out loud battle cries while sending out powerful spear thrusts into the air.

Suddenly, he noticed a few familiar turtles, including the lizard and his prey, and saw that there were quite many of them walking together. Seeing so many turtles, he felt that something was up.

Rak quickly caught up to one of the turtles he knew and asked, "Hey, Blue Turtle! What's going on here?"

Khun glanced at him. "Crocodile. Anak and Isaac are going to fight."

"Anak?" Rak tilted his head.

"The lizard."

"Eh? My prey is going to fight the lizard with that powerful weapon?! I have to see that!"

"Suit yourself…" Khun replied lightly. Along the way, as Isaac walked in the front following Anak, Khun began to comment, talking to Rak, "Anyway, it's going to be an intense fight. Anak bet the Green April and Isaac bet the Black March on this match."

"What are those?"

"… Their weapons. The winner will take the loser's weapon."

"Ha! Good! Fights like this are more interesting."

Khun sighed and said, "The problem is that Anak is a Princess of Jahad and has a strong Ignition Weapon. Isaac looked confident, but it won't be easy for him to win."

Rak heard this and burst into laughter. "Haha, you stupid turtle! Of course my prey is going to win!"

Khun's eye twitched at being called 'stupid', but still swallowed the insult and only said, "... I hope you're right."

…

The place that Anak and Isaac came to fight in was a roof-covered large spacious public battle arena for the Regulars.

Anak and Isaac slowly reached the center of the arena while the Regulars that followed them to watch the fight remained at the side in the spectators' seats.

At that time, there were already two Regulars sparring there by crossing swords. Sensing the dangerous atmosphere, the two stopped practicing in the middle and retreated to the side.

Anak and Isaac stood around ten meters away from each other.

Anak kept her eyes on Isaac and said, "Like I said, I bet my Green April on this, and you bet the Black March, and we'll fight. The winner will take the loser's weapon. You're in, right?"

"Yeah, I'm in."

Anak smirked confidently. She then looked at the ceiling of the room and said, "I heard that what Regulars do in public spaces is all recorded. That's why the result of this game will be final. You don't need to worry about me going back on our promise."

"That's cool. Then what about the winning conditions? There's no need for us to kill each other," Isaac said. He naturally wanted to avoid killing Anak; she was spunky and bratty, but she was still one of the important characters and could be his ally in the future.

"Then what do you propose?"

"Let's think… How about this. The winner will be the person that steals the opponent's weapon, and the other party can't get it back for at least one minute. After one minute of having no weapon the loser gets decided."

Anak was a little surprised when she heard Isaac's conditions. Was he so confident in stealing her weapon? But then she would only need to knock him unconscious or kill him. She said, "That's fine with me. And what if someone dies?"

"Then it's bad luck. But I'll try to go easy on you." Isaac smiled in a friendly manner.

"Ha! You're gutsy. I wonder how long you'll be able to keep it up." Anak smirked and then whipped the floor a few times with the Green April.

Isaac returned a carefree smile in turn. "Let's take it slow. I want to test my level."

"Slow or not, I always go all out. Pray you'll survive this."

Isaac chuckled when he saw Anak's green whip suddenly extend to a few meters.

He stood there calmly.

He was well aware of his strength. That's why he could act confident. It was very different than during the war when he had to hide behind Mordred and rely on her when it came to fighting.

He has the power to bravely face his enemies head on!

"Let's start! Ignition!"

As Anak shouted out, her weapon that she raised overhead exploded in size and transformed into a green python the thickness of a car.

[She started off by igniting her weapon!] Mordred commented.

In the next moment, the thick green python was swiped out by Anak like a whip and was sent flying to smash into Isaac.

Isaac clearly saw the approaching attack. 

The attack clearly had power and momentum, but it lacked speed.

As the green python threatened to slam into his body, Isaac kicked off the ground and jumped over it. He then kicked off the Green April itself and landed on the ground on the other side, quickly avoiding the attack.

He then stretched out his left hand toward Anak.

A casual attack.

Lightning Strike!

White-crimson electricity gathered and then shot out toward Anak not too far away.

Anak gritted her teeth when she saw this, crouched down while supporting herself with her tail and then kicked off to jump to the side.

By a small margin, she dodged that lightning attack that continued flying for a hundred meters until it struck the wall of the arena.

Khun watched this and was surprised. "A Shinsoo attack! Isaac can already use those too?"

In the arena, Anak glared at Isaac, secretly thinking, 'That was a bit close. I didn't think he could use Shinsoo attacks like this.'

At such a short distance of around 10 meters, it simply wasn't easy for her to avoid this kind of fast lightning attack!

She immediately knew that she was disadvantaged at mid-range! If she wanted to win, it'd have to be at range or close range; ideally at long range.

'I can't lose here! I'll have to go all out!'

Anak gritted her teeth, recalled the Green April again and activated it once again. Isaac had dodged her previous attack, so clearly, he wasn't a weakling.

In that moment, Isaac saw an opportunity to simply dash straight at Anak and attack, but he remained in place. He felt confident and wanted to test himself.

Although earlier he only used a casual attack that had the power similar to Laure's Shinsoo attack, at such a close range, it turned out to still be very effective.

'Speed is king,' Isaac's heart thought.

As it was often in fiction, lightning was one of the fastest elements! And he could clearly see that here.

In front of him, Anak's weapon began to grow very rapidly, but this time it was tens of meters longer and even split into several sections. Within moments, it transformed into what seemed to be a giant green tree with thick twisting and wringing green branches that covered a large portion of the space in the arena.

"She's fully igniting the Green April!" Khun called out from the spectator's seat.

"Woooho! What a powerful weapon!" Rak shouted cheerfully.

At the side, Shibisu, Hatus and a few other Regulars also watched. "This is the full strength of Anak's weapon?"

"Die!"

With Anak's shout, the numerous thick green pythons that were the branches of her weapon began to shoot down at Isaac like flexible thick spears.

Bang!

Lightning exploded as Isaac suddenly sprung from the spot, rapidly accelerated in an instant and began to sprint through the arena by just relying on his physical body.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

As Isaac ran, green spears began to pierce into the ground in his wake.

Gradually, the speed and frequency of the attacks intensified. They pierced down in front of him as if attempting to predict his route.

But Isaac still dodged the numerous attacks, leaping to the side as he rapidly changed his directions, running in a zig-zag fashion.

Instead of running straight at Anak, he runs around her through the arena in a circle as if making a sport of it.

Seeing how Isaac harmlessly emerged from the impossible flurry of attacks, Khun was shocked. "He dodged all of those?!"

"Anak is going all out, but it doesn't even seem as if he's in any danger," Hatsu commented.

"Damn, they're both monsters!" Shibisu watched with an ugly expression; compared to those two, he was simply an ordinary person!

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

Green spears continued piercing into the ground around Isaac as Anak recalled the branches that missed and sent them out once again.

She made the branches as thick as she could and the attacks more concentrated and complicated, sometimes leaving Isaac nearly no way out as they intertwined.

But even so, Isaac avoided all of those attacks as if he had eyes on top of his head and behind him, and could clearly see all of them coming.

Apart from that, his speed was also so quick that Anak's attack simply had no chance of connecting!

Seeing this, Anak gritted her teeth. She was already going all out with the Green April, but even that was not enough!

At that time there was nothing that she could do apart from keeping her offense and trying harder!

'I can't lose here! I can't lose the Green April! I have to avenge Mom and Dad! I can never lose!'

"Aaaaah!"

While continuously sending out the Green April's attacks, Anak kicked off the ground and began to run in Isaac's direction to attack him herself.

Isaas noticed this as he kept avoiding the attacks.

As Anak neared, she recalled the Green April and turned it into a singular thick branch that she swiped out with in front of her while running ahead.

'She's blocking my line of sight to block my lightning attacks,' Isaac thought.

He kicked off and jumped over the Green April and saw the rest of the Green April being twisted like a snake in front of Anak and continued acting as her shield.

He didn't think much of it and sent out his attack.

Lightning Strike!

A crimson lightning bolt shot forward and struck the thick Green April.

As the lightning exploded, there actually wasn't much of a reaction on the Green April.

Anak continued her advance. As the distance shortened, she pulled back the Green April and ignited it to the limit.

The green whip thickened thousands of times to the thickness of a bus, then swiped out at Isaac at close range.

Even if it lacked power and speed, because of the sheer size of her weapon and the short distance, it was an attack extremely difficult to avoid.

As Anak watched, she then saw Isaac jump onto the gigantic green python, then use one hand to push off of it and do a somersault in the air to avoid her attack with grace.

[Good call, Master! If you tried to block that, you'd probably be sent flying!]

'Damn it, he dodged that too?!' Anak frowned.

After landing, Isaac then seemingly nonchalantly aimed his hand at Anak.

'Damn it!' Anak cursed inwardly as she saw electric currents gather.

In the next moment, she hurled herself straight at Isaac who was only several meters away.

Bang!

The lightning struck Anak's body and exploded, slightly pushing her back. At a glance, her clothes and skin were burned, but she gritted her teeth and pushed through the pain.

'She didn't avoid it?' Isaac raised his eyebrows as he saw Anak continue rushing straight at him.

'Green April!' Anak shouted out inwardly and swiped out at close range.

This time her weapon was far smaller, but the speed was maximized.

Isaac saw the attack coming and slashed out with Clarent in an upward strike. For this, he used his complete strength.

The weapons collided. Isaac felt the force of the attack, but the Green April's whip was still sent upwards by his strike, causing it to avoid him.

It was at that moment that Isaac noticed that Anak had let go of her weapon; as she did so, she continued hurling at him with just her body.

Anak jumped off the ground and launched a front kick at Isaac's face.

Isaac saw all of this clearly. He released his hand from his sword, evaded the kick by leaning his head to the side and caught Anak's leg by the ankle.

'What?!' Anak was shocked when this happened, but she didn't even have the time to process how much faster Isaac was than her.

After catching her leg, Isaac swung her Anak overhead like a wipe and then slammed her onto the ground.

Bam!

"Aaagh!" Anak let out a pained groan as she was slammed against the ground with her back.

"Ah, this move! He did this to me before!" Rak called out.

'Are you proud of it or something?' Khun thought to himself when he heard this. 'But either way, this fight is over…'

By now, he clearly realized the gap between Anak and Isaac.

Anak was powerful without a doubt. Khun himself was not her match, and she even had the Green April.

But Isaac was simply on another level!

Hatsu also observed that fight, thinking, 'Anak saw that she can't do anything to Isaac at long-range and can't compete with his speed at mid-range, so she decided to fight at close range. She abandoned her weapon to be able to close the distance, but she was still completely outmatched. This man, Isaac… He looks human like us, but it's as if he's a completely different species.'

'These guys are real monsters… How are we supposed to compete with them?' Serena thought, feeling a kind of despair. She killed many people during the first test and had passed through all the tests, but she knew that she couldn't compare to even a fraction of the strength of either of those two.

In the arena, Anak spat out blood as she laid spread-eagle on the ground. "Cough! Cough!" 

In the meantime, Isaac looked toward the Green April that was abandoned. After making a quick decision, he quickly broke into a sprint toward it.

'Let's end this.'