Fate/Re:Trace

[ItsaRandomUsername]

Curse you and your hooks!

Curse them!

[Aladar]

Heh.

Oh, but guys, if you could tell me your opinions about the characters and setting and stuff in general so far I'd be really thankful. I'm building those OCs from scratch so any input is welcome.

[Aladar]

Chapter 3:

Opening Move

The gentle rays of moonlight entered unobstructed through the ceiling of the dilapidated building. Or rather, they entered through the enormous hole that had taken the place of the ceiling. And whenever the moon shined, only more and more destruction was revealed. It was as if a hurricane had stormed through the building or a war had been waged inside. There was not a single pillar left intact in the spacious hall and the once clean to reflection floor was now smeared with blood and littered with more holes than a Swiss cheese. The west wall was completely missing, seemingly destroyed in a single blow. Expensive crystals, now smeared with blood and covered in a thick layer of dust, littered whatever parts of the floor were still intact- remnants of the dozens of crystal chandeliers which had once served to light up the place. And amidst this chaos, on a large pile of rubble was sitting a lone young man.

He was a very strange man. Even though the area around him was like a war-zone, there was not a single cut or wound visible on his body. His choice of clothing also contrasted with the scene, both with its present and former appearance. The typical Hawaiian shirt made him look like a lost tourist and the camouflage cargo pants somehow ended up seeing even more out of place than it. And yet, despite his appearance, the man was most certainly really there- and reading a worn out, almost ancient book by the looks of it. How exactly he managed to was a mystery, what with only the moon illuminating the place and with his eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses.

One couldn’t tell if the man was actually reading, looking at the strange illustrations of the book or just passing time by turning over the yellowed pages. It seemed like the young man was waiting for someone, but for whom and why there, no one knew. In the end, after many hours had passed and the day finally changed from Halloween to the first of November, the man seemed to have finally grown bored of waiting.

He jumped down onto the shaky floor and looked around for an exit which could lead him to some still intact stairs. But before he could decide on his escape route, the female voice that reached his ears made him stop.

“So was my tip of some use to you, Mr. Cyrus?”

“Hey, dudette, remember- it’s The Cyrus!” proclaimed the young man with burning passion clearly evident in his voice and pointed an accusing finger at the newcomer.

Said newcomer was a teenager- or rather, a young woman. She was certainly easy on the eye, her pale skin making you want to hug her to get her warm and she could just captivate you with her fiery red hair, which went down past her waist and glistened slightly with every move she made, as if there were numerous small crystals buried inside it just to reflect the moonlight. She had a body many women would kill to possess- and however cliché it may have sounded, ‘curves in all the right places’ was only the accurate phrase The Cyrus could think off. But then again, he admitted to himself he wasn’t much of a literary genius for someone who constantly hauled an ancient book around with him. Still, it only took one glance at the eyes of the girl- at those eerie venom-green eyes- for him to remember with who he was actually dealing with. In front of him may have been the body of a young attractive woman, but The Cyrus knew well enough what was hidden under the skin. Or rather- who.

The young man ran a hand through his spiky blond hair and finally answered properly after letting out a tired sigh.

“The mission may have been impossible, but the mission’s a success. But Gosh, was she a tough cookie for a teenage girl. Offense fully meant.”

The redhead just put some locks of her fiery hair behind her ear and flashed him an innocent smile full of promises of pain and death for later on.

“Come, come now, Mr. The Cyrus. All I want is to know whether I have to worry about her anymore or not.”

“See for yourself,” replied The Cyrus with a shrug and tossed a nearby chunk of debris to the redhead.

She caught the stone with relative ease, using only a single hand to booth. Her eerie green eyes immediately glared at it, soaking in the features of the stone which looked like half the broken off head of some statue. The broken face was that of a girl, her lower lip bitten and her determined eyes seemingly looking into the very soul of whoever glanced back. When the redhead spoke, she sounded almost sincerely impressed.

“My, oh my, Mr. The Cyrus! You mean to tell me you have a basilisk stashed inside that Scripture of yours?”

“Oh, I’ve many things stashed in here,” answered the blond man and his lips curled into a smirk. He tapped the cover of the worn-out book with his finger. “Given that she was a girl, I decided to be a gentleman and start off with some unicorns, y’know, fluffy stuff. But after she cut them up to pieces and nearly skewered me with ‘em nasty shadow tendrils of hers, I decided I’d stop going easy on her. Her main weapon were the eyes, right? So, I thought, ‘hey, if she has to look at someone to kill him, why not make her face an enemy she can’t look in the eyes’? She struggled a lot, tho, only turned into stone after I used her delayed reactions to kill her. I kinda shattered her ‘cause I was scared she’d spring back to life or something.”

“And what about old Regnar?” inquired the girl and tilted her head in curiosity.

“Whonar again?” blurted out The Cyrus and scratched the back of his head.

“Big scary shadow demon thing, who’s actually the real possessor of the Mystic Eyes?” clarified the redhead with a tone one usually reserved for explaining things to little kids.

“Oh! That one!” almost shouted The Cyrus and snapped his fingers cheerfully. “Your Whonar dude is now the resident of page number… 1187,” the blond finished with a voice that clearly conveyed how much trouble he had accepting a book of so much pages and power being so small in actual size.

“And any chance I can persuade you to give that little page to me? Or at least burn it?” asked the redhead with the nicest voice possible, hands behind her back and slightly leaning forward, revealing quite the cleavage. She fluttered her eyelashes, eyes piercing deep into the man’s soul. The Cyrus gulped rather loudly.

“Honestly, you disgust me. To know what I am and still get swayed by appearances… pathetic.”

The voice that came from the redhead’s throat could give a heart attack to anyone unprepared. It was rude, gruff and very positively male. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, the redhead shot The Cyrus an arrogant look filled with disgust. She extended her hand and nonchalantly said to the blond:

“Give it to me. Now!”

A beat passed, The Cyrus still trying to get used to the male voice coming out of the girl’s throat. But when it looked like he’d finally bow down to the whims of the mysterious redhead, he only pushed back his sunglasses and plastered a knowing smirk on his lips.

“And you better give me a reason why not to turn you into the resident of page 1188.”

A cold hoarse laugh filled the annihilated hall after about half a minute of silence. The redhead was now laughing her head off, hands clutching her sides in a vain attempt to stop herself.

“Do you honestly think, whelp, that you can stand even a ghost of a chance against me?”

To his credit, The Cyrus didn’t seem threatened in the least. The knowing smirk was still plastered on his face, splitting it almost from ear to year.

“Ain’t nothing but the truth, dude- I stand no chance against the King of Nightmares… but isn’t the one I’m facing now just a desperate old man who stole the body of a little girl so he could keep on living on borrowed time?”

It had been a nonchalant comment but it had cut short the redhead’s fit of laughter rather abruptly. The glare of those eerie eyes seemed almost like the glare of a real basilisk- petrifying whoever looked at it on the spot.

“Don’t push your luck, kid,” eventually growled the girl.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” replied The Cyrus with a shrug and, hands buried deep into his pockets, walked past the redhead and towards the exit. “Oh, and before I forget- the Cardinal said the info on her location has earned you some time. You won’t be our first on the list of Masters to target. Rejoice, dude!”

“And you tell your Cardinal this, Burier,” countered the redhead and threw a mocking side glance to the fleeing blond. “This battle has helped me estimate the power of his strongest. End result: you won’t stand a chance against even the me of today.”

***

The darkened forest was engulfed by eerie silence. From the shadows lurking between the trees, so dark that they almost looked like black holes in the night, the watchful eyes of the nocturnal predators observed the strange actions of the invader in their land. The hooting of the numerous owls and other such night-dwelling birds was the only thing that disturbed the silence that was permeating the place. The chilly autumn wind made one’s skin crawl, making you feel as if there was someone right behind you, breathing down your neck. And with every sudden gust the whole forest came to live and the trees started ominously waving their branches around, as if to chase away the unwanted guest that dared disturb them. Even the full moon looked unwelcoming, its pale light looking almost sickly as it washed all over the clearing and colored the whole place in a white and ghastly hue. The grass, whispering after even the lightest gust of wind, was mostly covered by the shadows of the clouds looming from the skies above.

All in all, it was quite the scary place.

Or maybe it was just her imagination and Ayaka was merely too nervous about what was to come. The no small amount of blood loss may have had something to do with it as well, since the bespectacled girl had greatly underestimated the amount of the crimson liquid she would have to spare to complete the summoning circle. But now she could finally bandage her rapidly bleeding palm and get a few short minutes of rest before she proceeded with the main part of her task.

The girl pushed back the few sweaty locks obscuring her vision and plopped down on the cold hard ground, leaning against the nearest tree. Her vision was somewhat blurry and she felt like drained on the inside. Maybe it had really been only the blood loss, but something deep inside her whispered that the meeting with her unknown ‘benefactor’ may have had something more to do with it. Ayaka cast up her eyes at the cloudy skies and let out a weak sigh.

One would normally wonder why she would play along with that blonde after it was painfully clear the other woman was just using her. But to Ayaka, that was nothing more than equivalent exchange between mages. Just like she was using Jed as her lifeboat to the point that she would let him use her if the status quo of their friendship required it, so was she ready to allow the other woman to use her if Ayaka got something equal in return. Indeed, the bespectacled girl considered herself nothing more than a leech sapping off the life energy of others. A monstrous vampire hiding in a human disguise, unable to keep on living without hurting those around her so she could survive.

Shortly put, an abomination. Trying to pay back something equal in return was the only think that somewhat managed to alleviate her disgust of herself.

The lone light of her cell phone’s display failed to illuminate anything more than her pale face when she glanced at the clock. It was already the first of November and Ayaka sincerely hoped that the blond woman hadn’t urged her to perform the ritual that night precisely because it had still been Halloween back then. The black-haired girl had no actual knowledge of whether specific dates and times of the year could affect magecraft or if a certain ritual would work only under specific conditions. The information that woman had given to her mentioned nothing like that. In fact, just as she had warned Ayaka, the information on the War itself was minimalistic. Virtually everything explained was only how to construct the summoning circle, the chant needed and how the bond between Master and Servant worked with the help of the Command Spells binding them together. The majority of the other information was more akin to a tour guide for the mage side of Hartcroft, plus the digital copy of some book about ‘Formalcraft’. On further inspection the girl had determined that Formalcraft was basically what she had been doing so far- old, hermetic magic that required circles, chants and other similar specifics tied to the witchcraft which normal people knew about.

It would have been no use waiting anymore, so Ayaka slowly pushed herself up and tried to rein in her dizziness. The girl walked slowly back to the circle drown in the center of the clearing, almost fearful that it would come to life on its own and summon God knows what kind of horror. With shaking hands, she dripped some of the blood oozing from her bandage onto the class card and carefully placed it into the center of the circle. After taking a few steps back, the bespectacled girl took several deep breaths to clear her head and began the chant, trying to keep her shaking voice as clear as possible.

“Upon this crimson blood I pledge myself-
This vow a I swear on the highest of Heavens
And on the darkest pits of Hell itself.”

The girl gulped rather audibly, black eyes fixating on the dim glow that had started emanating from the circle in front of her. The sensation of electricity running through a grid inside her body was getting stronger and stronger.

“These very words shall be our chains
The bindings between this world and the next.
Hear me,
And lend me your wings, to become the Valkyrie soaring above this twisted battlefield.
Answer me,
And be my shield, for now and times eternal.
Obey me,
And become the bloodied sword that slays my enemies.”

Ayaka felt like something was siphoning out her insides. The sensation of an electrical shock running through her body was becoming unbearable and the world soon started spinning around her. Frightened what could happen if she lost consciousness at a time like this, the bespectacled girl hurried to finish the chant.

“From blood to blood and ashes to ashes-
Our souls now forever intertwined.
Let the gates between our worlds be shattered,
O Saber, heed my call and descend from your rightful Throne!”

The clearing disappeared into a flash of brightest crimson when the summoning circle erupted with the force of a hurricane. As the world around her was engulfed with this blinding red blanket, the girl thought the blood vessels in her eyes had probably erupted from the pressure. Ayaka was send flying backwards into the nearest tree, crashing abruptly into its hard trunk. The miniature storm of arcane power died down just as quickly as it had appeared. The winds calmed and the forest fell silent again. Everything was back to how it had been just before the ritual- everything except for the presence of the lone figure standing in the center of the clearing.

There was no doubt that he was a knight- that much was certain. But the moonlight illuminating the proud figure revealed a frightening appearance that made Ayaka ask herself if she had botched the ritual. The knight was clad in black armor from head to toe. And even though the figure and the armor it wore were certainly more slender than one would expect from a frightening black knight, his attire was still somewhat spiked and twisted. The blood-red cloth that was visible where the armor didn’t cover him didn’t help Ayaka think more highly of this newcomer either. Crimson was also the color of the waist-long tail attached to his frightening helm and of the cloth attached to his armor at the waist- it looked to her like the knight had taken the lower part of some trench coat and attached it to his armor just to be have something to billow in the wind in unison with the red decorative tail on his helmet.

But at a moment like that, the bespectacled girl was far from the thought of telling that to the black knight. Fear had taken hold of every fiber of her being and she could only gawk from her place on the ground as the black knight finally noticed her and started walking towards the scared girl.

The black figure stopped right in front of her, the visor of the helmet fixing onto her widened eyes.

“Are you my Master?”

The question of the man was left unanswered, his words lost in the nightly wind. Ayaka could only nod ever so slightly, almost hypnotized by the oppressive aura stemming from the black knight. It made her feel on the verge of passing out for real.

“I asked of you,” repeated the black knight, voice as cold as the first time. The summoned one was obviously unsatisfied by the reactions of his summoner. “Are you my Master?”

The thought that he may kill her if she kept on responding with incoherent mumbling struck even more fear into Ayaka’s heart but still, she forced herself to answer.

“Y-yes… I’m your Master. And you’re my Servant. Correct… uhm, Saber?”

The faint hope of him becoming friendlier or, at least, less ominous when she confirmed her power over him died out quickly. The black knight only kept on glaring at her from behind his helmet, probably judging what kind of Master he had ended up with. Ayaka had to admit that she doubted his first impressions of her were any good. Eventually, after what seemed like eternity, Saber answered.

“Correct.”

And the minutes started trickling down the hourglass of time once again, the strange duo as still as ever. If she couldn’t hear the breathing coming from within the helmet, clearly audible in the quiet night, Ayaka could have mistaken her Servant for a museum exhibit which had somehow ended up in the middle of the forest.

“If I may ask, Master,” said Saber with clear mockery and poison dripping from the last word. “How long do you intend on lounging on the ground while there is a War fought out there?”

His words left the black-haired girl blinking in confusion, her mind needing a few moments to process what he had just said. Ayaka felt even sillier when she realized she had completely forgotten why she had summoned Saber in the first place. After realizing that the black knight had no intention to give her a helping hand, the bespectacled girl stood up and dusted herself off.

“Now that we have achieved such progress, Master, mind telling me what is our plan for this War?” asked Saber, his voice once again cold and emotionless. Ayaka guessed that it was probably his usual way of speaking. Or at least, speaking to her.

“Well, we… erm,” the black-haired girl found herself at a loss. She actually had no idea what to do after summoning her Servant. Sure, it was obvious even to her she had to defeat the six other Masters but how exactly she could even find one was a mystery to her. The looming figure of Saber, waiting for her answer and being just creepily ominous overall, didn’t help her much either. In the end, she chose the only option she actually had. “First thing tomorrow morning, we shall visit Father Luciano and… inquire him about some tidbits of more intricate information concerning our current predicament and the War.. as… a whole? Ahem.”

Her plan to gain some respect by using bigger words in front of her Servant crashed and burned several seconds after its implementation.

“Well, I guess that it could have been worse,” said Saber, but without the tone of resignation one would usually use in such situations. “You could have summoned me on accident, considering how much of an amateur you look to be.”

Ayaka chose to let this comment go unanswered. After a quick glance at the clock on phone, she meekly asked her Servant to follow her back to her house. After Saber’s rather disinterested ‘Lead on’ Ayaka had fallen almost completely silent, save for a few comments about how they should be protected a bit by the bounded fields. The one she had placed around the house. The tiny fact that she had no idea whatsoever whether they worked at all was promptly left out.

And so the strange duo, the meek girl and the knight clad in black and crimson, began their nightly stroll between the woods. Whatever critters had scared Ayaka on the way there couldn’t even hope to measure up to the ominous aura coming from the man currently walking half a step behind her. For someone Ayaka knew she would have to trust her life to, Saber was quite the uninspiring person. And speaking of Saber, she realized he had never even told her his real name and identity. But just as the bespectacled girl turned around to ask him, she found herself shoved back with enough strength to send her flying back several meters down the road. Ayaka, finally getting angry at how her own familiar and Servant was treating her, was about to protest when she noticed the rail of black daggers embedded into the ground, the first one stuck where she had been merely a second ago.

Those were the strangest daggers she had ever seen. And they got even stranger when they disappeared into a cloud of tiny black embers afterwards. Saber wasn’t even looking at her, instead scanning the forest surrounding them, from the undergrowths to the highest of treetops. His voice remained unchanged when he asked her:

“Do tell Master, could it be that you remembered to secure your house but forgot to put bounded fields around the summoning site to hide the prana surge that could possibly reveal your location to every mage in this city?”

Ayaka was speechless upon realizing her own stupidity. She could only nod her head in shame at her lack of experience and hide her eyes behind her bangs. The girl opened her mouth in a vain attempt to protest a second later but her words died down her throat when she noticed the black bolt shooting towards her. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl and the girl prepared herself to meet her end, skewered by the alien weapon- a lance of black fire, somehow given shape and form. And then, in a blur of black and crimson, Saber appeared in front of her. Ayaka opened her mouth to shout, only now noticing her Servant had no weapon on him… and then matter just materialized out of nothing into Saber’s open palm.

With a single horizontal slash, the lance was cut in two from tip to end. Just like with the daggers, only a flurry of black embers remained behind when its two halves melted into the still night air. Ayaka could only watch in awe the back of her Servant, a black sword now clenched in his right hand. It was like no other sword she had ever seen- not only because of its unique design but because of the crimson… veins of brightest crimson that interweaved with each other all over the blade’s surface. It was like watching poison ivy grow in fast forward. And as she watched the dance of the crimson veins that adorned his black blade, Ayaka realized her Servant wielded a tainted blade.

But her awe at the protective figure of Saber was cut short when the hiss of the black flames once again filled the air. Surrounding them like vicious cobras, the dozen or so black tendrils rose high up into the air before lunging straight at the cornered duo.

Only an irritated grunt escaped from Saber’s lips when he jammed his tainted sword into the ground- and when the blade entered the Earth, Ayaka felt the surge of energy rumbling under her feet. Surrounding them like a shield, the dome of black and red prana erupted from below them and surged outward, disintegrating the flaming tendrils in the process.

“Are you done probing me?” said Saber as he pulled out his sword, his voice echoing clearly into the silent night. “Or do you intend to try killing the helpless girl several more times instead of facing her knight? Show yourself, Servant, if you have any honor as a Heroic Spirit at all!”

At first it seemed like Saber’s challenge would go unanswered- but then the cheerful voice of a woman rang through the cold night air.

“Aww, did I hurt your archaic feelings, sir Knight? Is your little mind unable to comprehend the fact that a sensible opponent wouldn’t want to face someone such as you in a head-on battle, hm?”

Ayaka looked at the direction into which Saber had turned his head. There, atop one of the tallest of branches, was perching a slender woman. She seemed completely unfazed by the black and crimson metal-clad warrior currently glaring at her and just dangled her legs in the air, like a girl sitting on the railing of a terrace. Her face was also obscured. An eerie bone-white skull mask covered her whole face except for the lower part- revealing her ruby lips, currently stuck in a seemingly permanent state of an arrogant smirk. To say that the woman was dressed provocatively didn’t even deserve to be called an understatement. Her shapely legs were clad in a weird combination of belts and bandages, with the long dark purplish skirt covering them having high enough slits on both sides that it made itself almost useless. Her upper torso, or rather- only her ample bust- was barely contained by the similar purple cloth wrapped around them. The woman had noticeably tan skin but that wasn’t her most exotic feature in the least. No, it was her hair, which one would certainly call fiery not because it was red, but because it was made of wreathing black flames reaching all the way past her waist.

“I should have guessed,” said Saber disinterestedly. “Assassin. Excuse me for not recognizing your cowardice from the beginning. I was expecting to encounter a more… worthy opponent.”

“And you call yourself a knight?” said Assassin and put a mocking hand to her chest. Her lips morphed into a fake pout. “These kinds of words can hurt a lady, y’know.”

“Then it’s good thing I’m not talking to one. The shame would have been unbearable, truly.”

Letting out a clearly audible hiss, the enemy Servant inclined her head at Saber and asked in an annoying saccharine tone.

“So, the knight is dead-set on bravely protecting the measly damsel in distress from the stunningly gorgeous witch?”

“I would have swapped the first letter with a ‘b’, actually,” countered Saber, his voice as even and cold as ever. “Otherwise you are spot on.”

Assassin twirled a lock of her flaming hair before she continued.

“But truth to tell, sir Knight, you do look like the kind who would rather ravage the damsel than be concerned about her purity. I’m scared what you would do to the poor girl if given the chance!”

“If we are going to judge by appearances, Assassin, they you must have been the most sought-out whore in whatever filthy brothel you’ve crawled out from. But if I were you, I’d be more concerned by what I’m going to do to you now then what will happen with my Master later on.”

The billowing hair of flames sizzled and a twin pair of black scimitars formed into Assassin’s waiting hands. She finally stood up and glared at her opponent from above.

“Fine then, sir Knight, I shall now indulge your earlier request,” she said as she bowed mockingly. “But don’t hold back, I like it rough.”

Before the last word had even left her lips, Assassin darted forward like black lightning. To Ayaka, it was a miracle that Saber had even managed to counter the dual swipe with his sword- but what followed after only amazed the bespectacled girl more and more.

She could say with total honesty that all she was able to perceive for the majority of the fight were to black blurs, one with undertones of crimson and the other- of purple. The blades in their hands didn’t stop moving even for a second. Showers of sparks erupted with each clash of their respective weapons and the air around them seemed to grow heavy, the combined killing intent of both combatants seeping into the nearby area. Ayaka’s clenched fist started bleeding as she dug her nails deep into her palms, scared for her Servant’s safety. On the one hand, the black knight looked to have a clear advantage. His heavy rapid blows were like a crimson whirlwind, shattering one black blade after another. But the magical fire of Assassin never ran out and she just kept on making more, sometimes even sacrificing them to try and get into a better position to stab Saber. At first Ayaka thought that only Assassin’s superior speed was what had been keeping her alive but then, when her eyes finally started discerning the motions of the two fighters better, she noticed that Assassin always seemed to be one step ahead of Saber. Each of his blows was countered, dodged or deflected as if anticipated and sometimes it even looked like the fiery-haired woman was outright allowing the black knight to strike where she wanted.

Still, the difference in raw power was clear. Assassin couldn’t hide how hard it was to deflect the whirlwind of blows that Saber was inflicting on her. Probably noticing his foe’s predicament, the black knight made one mighty horizontal strike to the right- and then, just as Assassin had once again positioned her blades to deflect it, his tainted blade let out the surge of prana from before. But this time the energy erupting from his blade just pushed him in the opposite direction, allowing the black knight to quickly do a hundred and eighty degrees turn and swipe at Assassin from the other side. Her torso turned into black flames as the tainted blade cut her in half and she disappeared into a swirl of fire.

Ayaka opened her mouth to congratulate Saber but her blood froze in her veins when his head jerked in her direction. The dozens of blades- swords, daggers, arrows and spears- all made from the blackest of flames- appeared seemingly out of thin air above her. One after another or at the same time, she couldn’t tell- all Ayaka knew was that the black blades had darted towards her and in the next second she found herself lying on the ground and pinned down by Saber.

Her scream of horror never left her mouth, because all the girl could do was choke upon sensing the hot blood dripping all over her face. Shoulder joints, knee joints, elbows, wrists… his neck- every area unprotected by his armor was penetrated by the fiery blades, the black knight now littered whole with various weapons piercing his body deeply, as if he was some grotesque human pincushion. Only a faint hoarse gurgle came from the knight’s helmet as Ayaka watched with horror the tip of the spear protruding from Saber’s neck.

“Thought I didn’t know he’d reach you on time, huh, sweety?” spat out the now dreadfully familiar voice of Assassin, her body reforming from the black fire next to the defeated duo. “I have to thank you, dearest, I could’ve never done this without you here to distract him and serve as bait.”

Ayaka didn’t even dry to struggle as the other woman dragged her out from below Saber’s body and slammed her against the nearest tree.

“Just look at you, darling,” whispered Assassin as she buried her face into Ayaka’s hair. “So full of prana, all of it ripe for the picking.”

Tears started swelling up in the bespectacled girl’s eyes as she felt the hand roaming beneath her sweater cup one of her breasts.

“Before I finish you off like my Master ordered,” kept on whispering the fiery-haired woman. “Why don’t we arrange a little prana transfer, hm? I promise you, little one, you’re going to be ecstatic when we get into it.”

But even the woman nibbling on her ear and the terror she had experienced in those few short minutes beforehand wasn’t enough to even compare to what the girl felt afterwards. Even the moon itself seemed to grow dimmer as the wave of killing intent washed all over the forest and for one seemingly endless instance, made Ayaka’s heart stop.

The roar that followed was the roar of the deadliest of beasts, finally unleashed from its cage.

[Alulim]

Ah, flame Assassin.


And berserk Saber.

[Aladar]

Saber's origins allow him to kinda work part-time as Berserker. It's in the blood... kinda. And Assassin's ability is tied to the jinns of Middle Eastern mythologies, creatures made of 'smokeless flame'.

Everything will be explained in detail when I post the Wise-up thread. Servant and Master info, info about Hartcroft and its five founding families, the factions in the city, the church's influence in it, the strongest seven of the city etc

[I3uster]

Short version: I like the characters so far. Ayaka works as "broken heroine", Nia feels fun although I hope you develop her character more as this moves on and not just rely on "she is trolling", but I trust you, since what I read to this point is just excellent.
Glen is sympathetic, I like him and his backstory. Cyrus is a bit annoying. Psycho Gradfather will be my favorite character, I feel it.
As for the Servants, lets wait and see.

Also, I have a bad feeling concerning Jeds survival.

[Aladar]

So no guesses about Saber's identity? I figured you'd try a few times, given that there aren't many famous black knights in history.

[Sherrinford]

Ok, let's begin.

I really, really like Ayaka. She may look weak, but I think she's just hiding her true nature.
I also really like Jed, I hope he won't be just a bystander.
Nia is a character still open to interpretation (I agree with I3uster, remember that Kotomine wasn't just the "resident troll", he had deep motivations. But again, I trust you).

“The” Cyrus may not be such an original character, but it's not bad. Wonder what will be his role and if he has ties with father Luciano. (WMG: he seems to be some kind of collector, and what better pieces than servants for his collection?)

And who is the red-haired “trap”? Grimaldi's older brother? One of the masters?

I think it's still to early to talk about the character's psychology. We still haven't seen their “life philosophies”in practice during the HGW, so…

The setting is ok. It's a 6th HGW fanfic with completely original characters so... yeah. I don't really know how to comment the setting.

Unless you give us some details (forexample, what is the style of Saber's sword?), trying to guess Saber's identitywould be like shooting in the dark. I'm guessing Sigurd, based on yourdescription of his sword (Nasu said that Gram is the strongest demonic weapon),but really… I don't know.

[Satehi]

Sigurd is the invulnerable dude, it wouldn't make any sense for him to be hurt by the smoke flame weapons.

[Aladar]

The 'trap' is Glen's grandfather- the one who is 500 years old and has lived so long by taking over the bodies of the Grimaldi family's Crest-bearers. After Glen's big bro got guilty for quitting on him and leaving the kid to surfer what should've been his fate, he got him out of there. But since even his 'guilt' is twisted by the Grimaldi 'family values', he left Glen's twin sister there and old man Grimaldi was desperate. He is even forced to keep her appearance because otherwise the body would disintegrate far more rapidly- the only stable host for him is Glen as the Crest-bearer.

On the matter of all Servant's identities- every one of them has something in similar to their respective Master. It was precisely similarities like those that made them answer the call. The similarity may be based on behavior- say, a trickster summoning a trickster- or on similar events happening during their lives. Sometimes it's even their reasons for pursuing the Grail that coincide. And as it is pointed out in the Wise up thread, Saber's appearance is changed by Innocent Monster, since history hasn't been kind to him.

And about the hidden depths of some characters- when all the wise ups are posted, an observant reader can pick up enough clues to guess the major points of some character's- like Nia's backstories. Also, lotsa names are Meaningful Names. Or Theme Names that can help guess relations to someone. Also, lots of Wonderland allusions. And shout-outs. And twisted Wonderland allusions.

[Sherrinford]

... you know, one of my first guesses (before the actual summoning) was that Ayaka would summon the real, male King Arthur.

Sigurd is the invulnerable dude, it wouldn't make any sense for him to be hurt by the smoke flame weapons.

Eh, point. Fafnir, then? *shrugs*

The 'trap' is Glen's grandfather

Ah, so they are related. Good.


At least for now, the names don't tell me much. But I'll wait.

[Aladar]

@Sherrinford: Close but no cigar.

[Sherrinford]

@Sherrinford: Close but no cigar.

Dunno, then.

now that I think about it, I wonder how Ayaka will handle such a troublesome Saber (it's the first time we see such a Saber).

Interesting...

[Aladar]

Yeah, there's like this unwritten rule that Sabers are always noble knights and such and I just thought, hey- here's a black knight and his backstory can relate easily to Ayaka's. Go-go black knight dude!

[Spinach]

Is Saber Hogni/Hagen? You say 'close' to the Fafnir guess, so I assume he has a relation to Sigurd or Fafnir in some way. He also killed a king, Sigurd, although he did not do it entirely willingly, and is made to be the villain, thus Innocent Monster? Other accounts say he was descended from a not entirely human line, I think on his mom's side. It's been forever since I read anything from the Nibelungelied, so I could be wrong.

[Aladar]

I said 'Close but no cigar' referring to both guesses he made. About which one precisely... well, 'tis for me to know and for you to find out.

[Sherrinford]

Both... my guesses?...

Male King Arthur and Fanfir?

/ confused

[Aladar]

Yep. One of those two stories are what you should be combing down.

[Spinach]

Welp, I don't feel like pulling out any of my books on the Arthurian stories. I give up on that front, and will just stick to my guns and keep guessing Norse heroes, specifically the ones most commonly involved in Sigurd's story.

Regin, Fafnir's brother? Meh, he never killed royalty, not that I know of anyway.

Gunnarr/Gunther? Some versions have him assist in the killing of Sigurd.

Guttorm? Half-brother of Gunnarr and Hogni, he's the one who's most often the killer of Sigurd.

As you can see I'm very dead set on the Sigurd thing. I'm probably wrong, though. Don't think any Norse heroes dressed in full plate. He's probably from an Arthurian legend.

[Sherrinford]

Welp, I don't feel like pulling out any of my books on the Arthurian stories.

Eh, me too. I don't do research for my guesses. I happen to know something about different mythologies (although mostly Greek) and this helps. If I find some hint that makes me "lighbulb" fine, otherwise... I do the same for that other fanfic, btw.