The past, in a certain country
"Sigma, have you ever thought about living a different life?"
When Sigma was asked this question by a girl in the same class of the same training facility where he was being raised to become a spellcaster spy—a girl assigned the name Tau—he couldn't come up with anything.
He had the will to give her a response, but couldn't think of any.
No matter how seriously he tackled the topic of a different life, he didn't have a reference pool to pull any ideas from.
His head contained only what he had seen with his own eyes. He lacked the bare minimum knowledge and experience necessary to imagine the world unknown.
While waiting for Sigma's answer, Tau continued.
"See, the teachers made a promise to me. If I'm the number 1 in this drilling grounds, they'll
give me a dad and a mom. People very important to the country will take me as their daughter!"
"Important people?"
"They said they're 'seniorstaffs' on the factory that makes our food. People who make food must be the second most important in the country, only behind the sovereign!"
"Are they? ...yeah, sounds right."
Tau and Sigma were children who didn't even know the meaning of "senior staff" at the time.
It was before his 10th birthday.
They spent their days training to forcibly run their Magic Circuits and learning how to use basic Mystic Codes, handle weapons such as knives and firearms, and survive in harsh environments.
The children were thoroughly drilled with the knowledge and experience necessary to be a spellcaster, aside from being sometimes forced to take practical lessons on how to kill a living being.
Although the instructors' way of talking was always kind, the training was always brutal.
A large number of children, Sigma included, learned to read their situation like machines, but sometimes they had someone like Tau, who still had a sparkle in their eyes.
"They say that when you have a dad and a mom, you can sleep tighter. They sing you this thing called a lullaby, make you good food, and take you to parades to celebrate the sovereign!"
"What's a lullaby?"
"When you hear it, you sleep tighter. Can you believe it? It makes mom and dad guard you during your sleep!"
"Now I'm a little jealous."
Sigma finally found an emotion he could verbalize.
Sleep was the greatest pleasure in the boy's life. He was indifferent even to the flavor of food, but to him, the moment he fell asleep, the sensation of falling into the giant night's embrace was not only his one hobby but also the one source of hope that kept him going.
"Oh, Sigma, you really only think about sleep. Your magical energy path switch is the only one different from everyone else."
"Is it?"
Most mages use the mental image of an on/off switch to open and close their Magic Circuit paths to circulate magical energy. Almost every child in this drilling facility forces theirs open with this mental image as instructed. Sigma, however, is the only one that uses the moment he falls asleep as his mental image.
"I bet you want to believe that the world is a dream. Both when you're using magecraft and when you aren't."
"..."
Sigma couldn't answer.
Because he didn't know if what she said was right or not, but beyond that, because he didn't think finding the answer would amount to anything.
He thought only about how Tau sounded so much more mature than him despite being a year younger.
He was sure she would become the best student in the facility and accomplish her dream.
Confident things would go well, Sigma felt a hint of envy over how she would get to hear a lullaby.
He didn't take long to forget this minor emotional instability.
Eventually, Tau was gone.
She was seriously injured during training, damaging what little Magic Circuits she had.
He didn't know what happened to children who had to leave the facility.
The only concern in his mind was whether not she was able to sleep well after leaving.
It didn't take long before she was replaced by a new Tau... and so the life-threatening training uneventfully resumed.
This past didn't hold any greater meaning to Sigma.
Tau's name and face sunk always deeper into his pile of accumulated memories.
The process was identical to how the memories of a dream fade away after one wakes up.
X X
The present, in a Snowfield back alley
While a Servant was fighting a mysterious demon in the skies far above the city
Sigma, still unaware of what was happening, suddenly remembered a past conversation.
The babyfaced mercenary thought further about the memory, an attitude he considered
unlike himself.
He was now enough of an adult to understand it.
Senior staff in a food factory was far from the position of social authority she thought it was, and the whole story about her adoption was a trick the instructors were employing to evolve her further.
Regardless, the timing of the memory resurfacing might be tied to how much Tau resembled Kuruoka Tsubaki.
ーI'm going... to destroy this system, the Holy Grail War.
Minutes ago, he made his decision in the Kuruoka residence and announced it to the Shadows serving Watcher. Remembering that, he thought about his words as he checked his surroundings.
(No... I think the one that looked like Tsubaki was the new Tau that came after her...)
His memories were no longer clear.
Nonetheless, the significant refrain repeated in his brain.
(Having parents doesn't make a difference, Tau. Is there anything we people born as mages can do...? Yeah. I admit. My goal in destroying the Holy Grail isn't saving Kuruoka Tsubaki. That's the means, not the end. Is it because the red-clad Natural Spirit entrusted me with Tsubaki? No, that's another secondary reason. Can saving Tsubaki even free her from her fate? Would changing the world for Tsubaki make any difference if she's trapped in her fate to sleep forever? And most importantly, will I be satisfied with this in the end? I don't think I can change the whole world. I'm not important enough for that. I only want to know if I can change my and Tsubaki's subjective worlds. Yeah, I just want an answer. It's for that selfish reason that I started my Holy Grail War.)
Sigma's thoughts were interrupted by a voice coming from the osteophonic transceiver in his ear.
--Cattle calling Famine.--
"..."
--Cattle calling Famine. Famine, do you copy?--
In this back alley unlit by the sunset, Sigma heard the voice of his superior on the transceiver.
Faldeus Dioland.
Only a temporary superior, but still one of the masterminds of the Holy Grail War. A dangerous man with heavily armed forces under his command in addition to his skills as a mage.
Yet Sigma wasn't responding to the transceiver.
Since the transceiver was magically converted into a Mystic Code, he didn't need to worry about being wiretapped.
But long-range telepathy is obviously beyond what it can handle, so Sigma thought Faldeus wouldn't know his circumstances as long as he ignored the call.
He came all the way from the Kuruoka residence to this back alley by using the Shadows' information to choose the paths unobserved by any cameras.
But the timing of this call was still worrisome.
(Did he notice I escaped the isolated world? No, actually, did Faldeus even know I was dragged inside it?)
Regardless, the question now was whether or not to take the call.
His idea of destroying the Holy Grail War ritual was something Francesca might like since she enjoyed unpredictable developments, but Faldeus was guaranteed to oppose it.
Feigning obedience to gain Faldeus's trust is a valid strategy, but if Faldeus knew how Sigma neutralized the Kuruoka couple, Sigma could be jumping into a trap.
Sigma was a mere spellcaster with no real ancestry. He had no Magic Crest capable of resurrecting him from a fatal wound.
(I'm laughably powerless in comparison to Faldeus.)
This thought naturally crossed Sigma's mind despite his awareness that he never had an honest laugh in his life.
What he meant to say is that someone else would laugh about it.
But his path was already chosen.
He wasn't following anyone's orders. If anything, his client for this job was himself.
He lived thus far completing life-threatening missions because his life had no meaning.
It took him long enough to start his first reckless fight.
(But...)
The faces that crossed his mind were Kuruoka Tsubaki, who sacrificed herself to stop Rider's rampage, and the nameless Assassin, who reacted to that fact with genuine rage.
(Now it's my turn to choose to be reckless. I don't want any regrets after this fight.)
Now, more than ever before, any missed move would seal his death.
But Sigma has grown devoid of impatience.
He was immersed in his own world with more calm and depth than ever, slowing down time to search for the best move.
(Faldeus. Should I take the call and probe his intentions?)
While Sigma thought, a considerably emotionally charged voice reverbed from his transceiver.
--Famine, do you copy? Answer me,
Sigma--
(?)
The radio transmitted his standard designation instead of the codename chosen for this operation.
Sigma was puzzled by Faldeus's uncharacteristically fretful delivery.
In reaction to his doubt, a Shadow appeared behind his back. A man wearing an old-fashioned captain outfit let out a jolly giggle before addressing Sigma.
"I won't tell you whether or not you should pick up this call, but I'll give you a hint."
"...?"
"If you play your cards right, this is your chance can fake your death to that Faldeus fellow. Ever thought about that, lad?"
"What do you mean?"
Sigma asked him to explain his logic upon confirmation that he didn't press the pick-up button. Another silhouette took the captain's place to answer this question—a knight with the appearance of a child.
"It means the board changed. You can't afford a shred of carelessness moving forward."
Faldeus's cold voice echoed in the transceiver, as background noise for the boy knight's words.
--...from this moment onward, this line is frozen. We are cutting our support to you. Over.--
"!"
After a short static cut, Sigma's transceiver went fully silent.
(Did I confirm my betrayal to him?)
The boy knight shrugged as he denied Sigma's thought.
"Not really... He concluded you were eliminated by the monster."
"You mean the Cerberus in the dream world?"
In reaction to Sigma's question, a boy with a snake staff manifested and answered pointing at the sky.
"Wrong... A completely different kind of monster. Although I'm struggling to describe it in words because it's a kind Watcher is not used to detecting."
This indecisive silence was rare for the Watcher's silhouettes.
After sorting out his thoughts, he eventually nodded and slowly delivered his carefully chosen words.
"He... or it... is probably the scar resulting from an ancient mage's struggle to sink their claws into the world. At the same time, he's
something with the potential to be new prime species... born too late into a planet that can break down at any moment."
"Wait a second. Who is this 'he or it'?"
His question caused the boy with the caduceus to disappear, and a woman with an aviator suit to appear above the alley, sitting on an emergency exit handrail.
"You were lucky, Master. If you were in the main avenue, you would have been collateral damage."
"What avenue?"
Presumably the central street in front of Crystal Hill.
Sigma felt a chill down his spine, considering how close he was to whatever was it.
Most of the time with the Shadows, they only warned Sigma of danger of their own initiative when he was one step away from death. Sigma still hasn't pieced together what Heroic Spirit Watcher was, but he had a great deal of trust in the information provided by her silhouettes.
But even then, the next piece of information he received made him doubt his ears.
"Your coworkers were exterminated. All 38 members of the 3rd squad... By what once was Flat Escardos.
"... That's that Heroic Spirit's power... Jack the Ripper?"
"No, the Heroic Spirit didn't do anything here. He tried, though."
"..."
It was getting hard to believe.
He never interacted with these so-called coworkers, but he knew they were a team of very individually capable combatants under the leadership of Faldeus, a strategist far more clever than Sigma.
He could understand if they were taken down by a Heroic Spirit.
He had no doubts after witnessing the extraordinary abilities of Assassin and Tsubaki's "Mr. Black". But here she said they were taken out by Flat Escardos, the young Master instead of the Heroic Spirit.
(Flat?)
Hearing that name, Sigma reviewed his information about the young man involved in the battle in front of the church. One of the jokers in the El-Melloi Classroom deck, although that deck has more than a dozen jokers shuffled into it. Epithet: The Unwanted Blessing.
Sigma saw him as a person that demanded special caution, although not as much as the Red Evil or the World's Most Elegant Hyena.
Most Clock Tower mages studying in the El-Melloi Classroom are famously remarkable, countless of them serving as subjects of horror to a mere spellcaster like Sigma.
One Japanese Bajiquan fighter formed a pirate organization of allegedly tremendous magical and military power in the Singaporean coasts, and in response to it, a noble lady created a private military company of rivaling magical strength and remarkable capital strength. Those two risk figures are known by the two monikers above.
And one rank below them on the scale of absurdity, there were Flat Escardos and the equally dangerous "Beastclad" Svin Glascheit.
It's common knowledge among spellcasters that they must never fight Flat with magecraft, they have to hit him physically. And for Svin it's the opposite, they must never fight Svin physically, they have to kill him with a trap. So the standard tactic for when Flat and Svin are together is retreating immediately.
(Actually, many spellcasters go beyond and say "attacking Clock Tower people is not always a bad idea, but never lay a finger on someone from the El-Melloi Classroom".)
After a few seconds of running the compressed information in his head, Sigma asked a question to reconfirm something with the silhouette.
"Are you sure Flat Escardos did it? He wasn't using the Heroic Spirit's power?"
Sigma's question was like double-checking a map. He didn't doubt it was the case but needed to make himself sure.
At that point in time, Sigma no longer held any suspicion for the Shadows. He trusted them as a reliable combat tool he'd be dumb not to use.
But naturally, even the most regularly maintained gun can still jam.
Sigma already saw discrepancies with reality coming from the most accurate informant, and betrayal coming from a spellcaster who grew up eating from the same pot as him. To him, it never hurt to be cautious.
A mage's battlefield is a crossfire of illusions and Charm magecraft. Not even his own eyes and ears are trustworthy there.
But even then, entrusting his life to them had more value than trusting the magecraft he can do with the little magical energy he has or the conveniently selected information he received from Faldeus.
Sure enough, he already stepped into the battlefield at this point, so it was already
too late to think about trading the cards in his hand.
Those circumstances led to Sigma's semi-rhetorical question, but...
The old captain silhouette returned with an answer he wasn't expecting.
"No. Pay more attention to what you hear, don't miss the keywords. This kind of mistake can be fatal sometimes, got it?"
"?"
"She said '
what once was Flat Escardos, did you forget?
Flat is dead. This a completely separate individual."
X X
Coalsman Special Corrections Center
"Should I consider Sigma also out of combat? ...No, he's Francesca's pawn first and foremost. I can't discount the possibility he cut communications with me on her orders."
Sigma's provisory boss Faldeus theorized about his loss of contact with him.
But he never reached the idea that Sigma could have
rebelled of his own volition, and ultimately held off his final judgment until he was able to get in touch with Francesca.
"The central surveillance system was physically destroyed... and in all other sectors, the cameras were magically hacked and had their spells destroyed... Who would have thought processing the surveillance cameras with magecraft would have backfired like this...?"
Faldeus was impressed with how calmly he read the surveillance system's damage report.
Perhaps a major factor behind his composure is the presence of Assassin—Hassan-i-Sabbah. Assassin could perfectly hide his presence if he so chose, so if he was intentionally letting Faldeus feel it, there was a reason behind it.
(He's watching to see if I won't misspeak... That's what he's trying to say, maybe.)
The murder of Galvarosso Scladio, boss of the Scladio Family. When Faldeus passed this order, he was reminded of a question. ー"Have you the resolve to see that faith through, even if it means ending another's life?"
Faldeus considered it a hypocritical question but never made light of it.
No matter what nuance the words concealed, it was an agreement with his Servant. Even unofficial pacts could potentially rebound as a form of curse if broken.
And questioned or not, his faith was unshakeable.
He can still confidently say eliminating Galvarosso wasn't a mistake.
It caused political and financial damage to America, but it prevented the greater future damage that would be caused by the Scladio Family's schemes.
But he needed to be careful in how he utilized Assassin.
After all, he couldn't verify what skills and Noble Phantasms he had. He could force him to tell with a Command Spell but he couldn't carelessly use that, as it was possible he would be inviting a betrayal on himself with that act.
But the results confirmed Assassin was wonderfully skilled.
Being asked about his faith might have subconsciously strengthened Faldeus's mental state. Otherwise, he would be humiliating himself in this sudden situation.
"The first order of business is to get the surveillance system back online. Please call Head Officer Orlando for it. Request him to forward us the footage from the normal, non-magical city cameras. We'll have three systems up: the repaired form of the one we've been using, one for digital images, and a network of surveillance familiars for magical images."
Faldeus gives order after order, restoring a semblance of order to the situation.
"...? Francesca's workshop was damaged? She's doing... an emergency landing on the south desert? Was this also Flat Escardos...?"
For convenience's sake, he gave his orders on the assumption that the one who attacked the snipers was Flat Escardos.
He always thought of Flat as someone with the potential to be as dangerous as the Heroic Spirits depending on the circumstances, but he had no idea how right he was.
The magical energy splashes from his battle with Lancer in the skies were tangible from where he was. Faldeus's instincts screamed that Flat was without a doubt a greater threat than a low-tier Heroic Spirit.
In fact, he had caused more damage than any Servant.
"I demanded the general sent a replacement squad immediately but I don't think they'll make it still today."
Washington was apparently facing its own set of problems, so Faldeus was unable to get in touch with the general he answered to.
Considering the timing, Faldeus found it hard to believe the two cases were unrelated, and this thought further strengthened his wariness of Flat Escardos or whatever was possessing his body.
"We'll receive a decision about this from the outside before we come up with our own... Though I wish the control was in my hands until it's all over... With how ridiculous this got, I can't make fun of my predecessor in Fuyuki's 3rd..."
As Faldeus grumbled these almost complaints, Aludra returned from another room and handed him a document.
"The analysis team's report, sir."
"Thank you. I was waiting for it."
He took the file with a shrug and skimmed it.
The data was so good it could be considered unfair for the Holy Grail War.
It contained the result of a system analysis for spells set in advance all over the city, displaying all signals of magical energy from Heroic Spirits, the individuals linked to them, and their general location.
A mage specialized in magical energy detection could somewhat locate enemy Masters, but having that as an information network large enough to link with the city's surveillance system was a feat only possible with the cheat that was building the city for the sole purpose of the Grail War.
A Master with a fortified workshop wouldn't mind their location being detected, but some Masters prefer the strategy of lurking in the city and not letting the opponents know where they are.
If, for example, an Archer team receives this data, they could potentially snipe a Master from a distance too long for their magical energy to be detected.
This is not even hypothetical. Bazdilot's Archer shot at the Master of the other Archer, Gilgamesh, from outside the city.
Under normal circumstances, this priceless information would be enough for him to go for the win with his Assassin, having all he needs to plan how to assassinate all Masters.
But one piece of data made Faldeus squint.
"I see. Looking back at the older data, I assumed that was the case."
As Faldeus confirmed his correct guess, Aludra, who had previously read the documents, raised an indifferent question.
"
The number of Masters doesn't fit the number of Servants... What could this mean?"
The data listed all beings with high enough energy levels to be assumed to be Heroic Spirits, as well as all linked individuals with magical energy, but the numbers didn't match.
The majority of these individuals entered the city by unknown means, and the surveillance cameras couldn't identify them.
Someone could be hiding their face with illusions but the idea that it was a single person disguising themself as multiple individuals couldn't answer every question the report raised.
"One possibility is that a
stray Servant cycled through multiple Masters after losing their original one..."
Reading the next page, Faldeus's mouth twisted into a pained smile.
It contained the Class list of Servants who switched Masters.
The first was Fake Assassin.
The Servant who attacked the police station. She was receiving her energy supply from a different Master from the one she initially connected to.
The surprise was that her new Master was the outside mage assumed to be contracted to Saber.
Faldeus found himself weirdly intrigued by the girl when he first saw her through the cameras, though even now he still fails to get an idea of what she could truly be.
"She's... contracted to multiple Servants with no external support? And not any two Heroic Spirits... those two Noble Phantasm spammers? I can't say that's unprecedented, but if she has this much magical energy, then..."
Faldeus's system could detect magical energy put into action, but it couldn't estimate the amount inside one's body.
"She might have the same qualities as Lord Trambelio... an abnormally high Od recovery quotient. We'll need to raise her place in the threat ranking. Please redirect any surviving squads to her surveillance."
After passing his order, Faldeus turned his eyes to the next concerning file.
"And the other Heroic Spirit trading Masters multiple times is... oh."
After reading the whole file, Faldeus whispered with a serious expression.
"Doris Lusendra... Could she have lost when I wasn't looking?"
The Heroic Spirit listed there was the Rider manifested by the true summon.
If his information is correct, this Servant claimed her name as Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons.
Countless mages were gathered in the city.
It wouldn't be farfetched to assume some among them are trying to steal Master rights from others.
"I don't believe there was any fight involving Heroic Spirits, but it is possible her new Master killed the old one in a magecraft battle while Rider was away."
"It's possible. In fact, her magical energy became untraceable by our sensors the day before yesterday."
"To be able to defeat her, the new Master must be another heir candidate of the Lusendra family or some powerful figure in town... That reminds me, Flueger has been spotted in Snowfield. Someone with his level of power could do the job, though only if teamed up with a fellow conspirator."
"Will you dispatch a surveillance squad to locations where Hippolyte's signal was detected?"
Faldeus paused to think about Aludra's words.
It was obviously a good idea.
But now he found himself in a sudden shortage of pawns. He shouldn't spread his forces until the backup squad arrived to refill his numbers.
With that in mind, Faldeus sighed and ordered Aludra.
"One more thing to mention when calling Orlando. We're leaving her surveillance in Clan Calatin's hands."
"Will they accept this?"
"They don't like elements of uncertainty either."
Confident that Chief Orlando Reeve would accept his request, Faldeus skimmed the rest of the information.
"Someone moved Kuruoka Tsubaki away from the hospital... I'm curious as to what happened to her Heroic Spirit. Let's stay vigilant on her case."
Lastly, he sighed as he saw the image on a figure in front of the hospital: the pawn that had just refused to report.
"Sigma... All the way from the moment of his summon, there were no clear signs whatsoever of the magical energy from the Heroic Spirit he was connected to."
And then Faldeus remembered that the Servant contracted to Sigma was the comedian Charlie Chaplin.
"That explains the barely noticeable magical energy trace..."
Faldeus was assuming this was some kind of misunderstanding on Sigma's part, but now his mind was dominated by the idea that maybe Sigma did indeed summon the Comedy King. As this thought took root, Faldeus expressed his unattached condolences to his lost subordinate.
"Well, without a doubt, he wouldn't last one second against Flat Escardos.
Regardless of his skill as a spellcaster, he clearly wasn't cut out for the Master role."
X X
Back alley
"...is what he said. Oi, lad, we ain't getting any respect in here."
The captain's silhouette repeated Faldeus's words in real-time.
It was the most convenient ability imaginable, but Sigma didn't know how to deal with it being used to convey someone's badmouthing of him.
"Don't look so down on yourself, mister. He valued you enough to hire your mercenary services, did you forget?", said a muscular warrior shadow to bring some positivity into the conversation. "This your big chance, get it? You're seriously got the chap thinking you're dead."
The shadow said "thinking" instead of "convinced" because Watcher can't read minds to be sure Faldeus believes it.
Sigma agreed.
Faldeus was not the kind of man who would call something confirmed just because it was highly likely.
His creed was there is no kill like overkill when it comes to eliminating a target.
But the more important piece of information to Sigma was what the Watcher shadows told him about the fight between "what once was Flat Escardos" and Lancer Enkidu.
"Tell me your honest opinion. Do I have any chance against either of those two?"
"Right now, none. Trying would be dumber than flying to the sun.", spoke the young man with mechanical wings.
Hearing his self-derisive laugh, Sigma started thinking.
"I guess my only hope of winning the Grail War really is targeting the Masters. But my goal is to destroy the ritual. I'm better off avoiding all enemies while I destroy the base foundation of the Holy Grail."
"Ah, but the foundation is deep underground. As Watcher is now, you could get a bit of static if you go down a step too deep, so watch out. Though you could improve our signal quality by making some progress on your evolution."
Heeding the returned captain's words, Sigma lightly shook his head.
"I can't make a plan with uncertain elements. I guess really need more secret alliances."
"And what's more uncertain than an alliance? Most other Masters want the Holy Grail. I don't think they'll agree to the ritual's destruction."
Sigma asked a question about what the boy knight silhouette said.
"Most? What teams aren't after the Grail?"
"First there's Francesca Prelati, Faldeus, and the police. They're more intent on analyzing the ritual than on getting the Grail, so if they get it, that's just a lucky bonus."
"Rejected. You didn't even need to list them as candidates."
"Saber and Ayaka apparently found their will for it in the dream world. It's still possible to persuade them, but it's highly likely they'll ultimately oppose you."
"I won't discard them as a possibility just yet. What are my other options, though?"
He was surprised by the sudden change in their situation but didn't let the shock show on his face.
The boy knight continued, despite noticing his internal state.
"This one goes without saying, but Assassin. Her goal always has been destroying the ritual."
"Yeah, she's worth to keep cooperating with. I was planning to wait for the night and regroup with her where the cameras can't see us."
Hearing his own decisiveness, Sigma was surprised by how much he trusted Assassin.
He knew this was a dangerous omen for a spellcaster mercenary.
"Also... Hippolyte's team was a possibility until a few moments ago... Things changed for them. They'll probably change directions and go after the Grail."
"Ok."
He never had any points of contact with Hippolyte's team, so the low hopes of allying with them were no big deal.
That said, "things changing for them" was a curious tidbit he kept in mind to ask about after he was done sorting out alliance candidates.
(Tine Chelc's team and Bazdilot's team are out of the question... Who is left? Haruri?)
Haruri Borzak.
He had no direct points of contact with her, but her mentor, the mage with the moniker "Yatagarasu" was a recurring employer of his.
"I would not recommend Haruri. The girl herself is not a problem but if you do anything that displeases the person with her, you're dead. Although I won't say it's impossible, and besides we are mere silhouettes. We have no right to stop if you still want to try."
"Got it, I'll stay away for the time being."
"However, if your only goal is to destroy the ritual, supporting her team from the shadows is a valid option. Though said option has a high chance of incurring major changes on the city."
"Thanks for the completely hopeless information."
Sigma's words cause the boy with the caduceus to appear next.
"Oh, good to see you learned sarcasm."
"Me...? Sarcasm?"
"I can't say if it's a positive change or not, but if sarcasm is what doesn't let the despair get to you, then it's good. Your mental health affects your physical health. Ah, it's such a shame that I'm summoned as a shadow. If I contracted with you in my prime Servant form, I could thoroughly heal both your body and mind. Oh, what a real shame. After a good diagnosis, I could even combine Age of Gods and present age techniques to operate on you if necessary."
"I'll... pass."
Uncomfortable with the silhouette's heated rant, Sigma politely refused the offer.
(They're just shadows, but their unique personalities are quite faithfully reproduced.)
It once again hit Sigma how little he knew about Watcher's abilities. Fluctuating between trust and caution, the thought about his next move.
"First of all, I need a safe base. Do you know anywhere that isn't surveilled?"
"A building in this area has an underground performance stage. The security system ain't finding you there. The main avenue is locked down thanks to the scuffles in the past few days, so you won't find a soul in the place."
Sigma nodded to the old captain and stood up from the road bump.
"Yeah, now that the cameras are broken is the best time to move."
Seeing Sigma's attitude, how much he changed in the past few days, the old captain shadow appealed to his Master with a short laugh.
"You're behind the curtains, waiting for your chance to take the stage. Don't you forget to learn how to use the thing on your back before the time comes."
The captain pointed to the ancient arcane crossbow resting on Sigma's back.
He brought it with him from the Kuruoka house but since then, whatever was assumedly possessing this crossbow never appeared again. When he asked Watcher about it, her only response was "This was here before we manifested, so we can surmise what it is, but can't say for sure".
"You place a lot of importance on something you don't know what is."
"If Watcher's guessing right, that's a bona fide trump card you got. Though only if you can see your growth through."
"Ok."
Seeing how Sigma was intending to act in pure cold rationality, the captain made use of stirring words to fire up his Master, trying him with a daring smile.
"This is an audition. I can't tell if your play will end as a tragedy or a comedy, but... You gotta be careful as you'll choose the actors who will share the stage with you, got it?"
He sounded like a theater director trying to determine Sigma's right to take the stage. Said Sigma's only reaction was scanning the main avenue to see if it was safe to leave the back alley.
"This is another one of Watcher's trials."
X X
At the same time, in a deserted building outside Snowfield City's perimeter
An old hotel built outside Snowfield's urban perimeter.
The building is currently abandoned, as far as the public knows. In reality, the place was made to be used as a provisory base for Faldeus's subordinates during operations.
It's boundaries constantly drive people away, and on top of that, the entrance is locked shut to prevent youngsters from coming in as a test of courage.
However, the lock was currently broken, and two figures stood in a room where the sun wouldn't reach.
"Yikes, you’re persistent. Look, I totally get the thrill of chasing the subject of your passions, but give me a break. Love needs some time to breathe. Can you hold your urges for just a moment?", spoke a large werewolf covered in fur red like the sunset. "I promise it won't take long. You know how long it takes for a person's body to collapse after their lopped off head hits the floor? How long a body takes to understand it's over for them? If you close your eyes for just that long, I promise I can make both of us happy."
He was one of Jester Karture's multiple "faces". The one specialized mainly in speed and rushdown combat.
But he was far from his top speed after being weakened by Flat Escardos's attack. He had no chances of winning against the Servant in front of him—the Assassin girl.
"..."
Meanwhile, the Assassin in front of him was no longer hearing his words.
Because by this point, she already knows his words are nothing but poison to her, not to mention the possibility of a spell or curse being mixed in them.
All she sees is an impurity she must exorcize.
She polished her mind to specialize itself in this one purpose and deployed her Noble Phantasm to crush her debilitated prey's Spiritual Core.
Delusional Heartbeat
Zabaniya
A red hand covered in magical energy sprouted from Assassin's back, approaching Jester to imprint doom onto him.
As this same Noble Phantasm already crushed one of Jester's Existence Cores before, he predicted he might need to sacrifice multiple other Existence Cores to escape this situation.
Another option was to use one of his remaining Command Spells like he did when he transported her far away from the police station, but he couldn't immediately commit to that idea because he didn't know if that would still work now that her magical energy path was connected to someone else instead of him.
His Existence Cores or a Command Spell?
Without the time to make a more well-considerate decision, he went with throwing away his Existence Cores.
Before Assassin's eyes, the red-haired werewolf's claws pierced his chest... and then gouged his heart out.
"!?"
This forced a choice on Assassin, as her aim was locked on the werewolf's heart.
Should she make her Noble Phantasm's curse eradicate the gouged-out heart or should she consider this a discarded Spiritual Core and aim for the next one that appears?
Assassin already knew the unique properties of the vampire Jester but she moved through instinct rather than through calculations.
And her instinct chose the path of further extermination: to chop the heart away with her right hand and save the Noble Phantasm for the next body.
But Jester saw her rush-in move coming.
As such, the dying werewolf figure smiled.
The cylinder-shaped emblem in his chest spun and Jester started morphing into his next form, all with a peal of eerie laughter mixing attachment and lust.
It was a humanoid mass of steel. Not human... not even organic.
Perhaps some form of golem.
The only things the current form shared with the previous one were the smile on its mouth-like hole and the cylinder-shaped emblem on its chest.
The next thing Assassin saw was some kind of magical symbol appearing in the werewolf's heart.
(...! He's offering a tribute...)
It was already too late by the time she realized it.
As the spell was already active the moment Jester gouged his heart out, Jester's victory was determined more by his own resolve and less by Assassin's misjudgment.
One second later:
a giant explosion flashed in the abandoned hotel, engulfing part of the building in its blinding light.
X X
"Kehe... I wasted two bullets on this... Goodbye for now, beautiful Assassin, my beloved."
A few minutes later.
Jester could be found within Snowfield's urban area, wandering the back alleys, concealed.
(The sand or the shades of the forest trees are no places to hide from my dearest Assassin. It has to be among a human crowd. Her treacly sweetheart couldn't exterminate humans to weed me out.)
That was the thought process behind Jester's choice to make it back downtown.
His current appearance was the one he fought Hansa Cervantes at the police station with.
He offered the werewolf's heart as a tribute for the self-destruction spell, which he activated point-blank using the golem figure as a shield for his escape.
He took a huge gamble, not knowing if that was enough to shake Assassin off, but since she already had an offensive Noble Phantasm active, he managed to run away in the time it took her to switch Noble Phantasms.
If the Noble Phantasm she had active at the time was the search one, she would have immediately given pursuit no matter how thoroughly Jester hid.
(Shaking her off was easier than I expected, though... Maybe my dearly beloved is more damaged than I imagined. Ah, that's worrying. Someone might kill her before I do...)
For all Jester was concerned about Assassin's health, his male vampire form was doing worse.
His wounds from Hansa's consecrated howitzer shells weren't healed and his face had a burn mark.
"What's my next move? Thanks to that brat's spell, the Cylinder is almost unusable."
Jester walked dragging a leg.
He took one more step into the deep darkness.
The uniformly concrete-colored back alley walls started to mix with an aged stone wall.
Something was wrong but Jester didn't notice it.
One more step.
Eerie vines started creeping on the wall, but Jester didn't notice them.
One more step.
A pumpkin-colored cartoon spider started building a heart-shaped web above his head, but Jester didn't notice it.
One more step.
The asphalt street was suddenly replaced by a gravel road.
That's when Jester noticed the discrepancies and raised his head.
"What...?", he reflexively voiced his shock.
He thought the back alley he went into would still continue for long, but that wasn't the case, as the whole alley disappeared and in its stead, a completely different scenery was unveiled before him.
In the distance, his eyes saw the birth of an aged European castle atop a hill.
He could recognize the castle.
He never went there, but he knew a lot about it, as by following his Ancestor's example, he developed the hobby of studying humanity's culture and history.
The castle where the noblewoman nicknamed The Vampire Countess committed her atrocities. Csejte.
Not even its ruins.
The colors in the castle sitting atop the hill far above Jester were as vibrant as they were the day the castle was built.
Furthermore, no normal civilian could be found on the streets, only several plushie animals roaming around the castle with movements resembling stop-motion animation.
Many plushies carried ukeleles and trumpets to play indescribably annoying music, and at the center of this parade, there was a starfish plushie dressed up as a clown juggling skulls and eyeballs.
"What's this? How... No, don't tell me..."
Jester immediately figured out the truth of his current situation.
Previously, an abnormal weather phenomenon occurred in Tsubaki's dream. The pastry rain.
This level of illusion is easy for someone with enough skill to cause that rain.
Meaning he was trapped in an illusion world created by someone else.
(If I were unhurt, I could have instantly rejected and escaped this pathetic illusion...!), Jester grit his teeth.
A light flashed on the castle's rooftop and a voice only he could hear reverberated in the center of the world to mock him.
"Sup! Are you ready for some obnoxious nonsense? The festival is about to begin! Countdown: 9, 8, 7, 6, 1, 0, DON!"
"AH, AH! Mic check, mic check! It's time to have a blast on the most fun pirate radio station in Snowfield, All Days Blackbeard & All Nights Bluebeard! From the Caribbean seas all the way to Orleans, we deliver heartbreak from dusk to DON! (Dawn.) Kehe! Great fun, great times! ... Hey, are you sure this is how you do radio? For real? Is this script really okay to go on record? Also, who is Blackbeard?"
First, a female voice blasted into Jester's right ear, followed by a corresponding male voice on his left.
The sudden event left Jester dizzy despite him being a vampire.
The voice on Jester's left ear addressed him with remarkable cheer.
"We finally caught you! Welcome to our jolly parade! May I see your ticket? Oh, you got the free pass, which means you can go on any ride and eat all you want with no restrictions! The only catch is that you can never leave! What a deal, huh, Jester?"
(!!)
Jester reacted with dread to the fact he was addressed by name. Nonetheless, the male voice continued its overblown speech.
"Oh boy, do you have any idea how much work it takes to trap a high-rank hematophage in an illusion? I thought it would take my Noble Phantasm at full power to catch you, but weakened as you are now, I can easily get the job done with just my base power! Funny how many hoops I have to jump through for something that would have been effortless if I had Mystic Eyes of Roses. Thank you, whoever weakened him! As a symbol of my gratitude, you can pick either one of us as your lover!"
"Sounds more like a punishment than a reward."
"Oh, how can you know? Some people enjoy having their lives worn down by trickery little by little... Oh, but I'm more devoted than you'd think, so if you seriously want to ruin your life, I'll be with you to the very end, got it? That'd be because I'll be the cause of your death, but pay no mind to this detail! Though in Gilles's case I was more of a friend than a lover."
The nonsensical dialogue filling his left ear made Jester want to scream, but he gritted his teeth, letting out only a quiet groan.
"What do you pests want? Why are you making me see this castle?"
The girl responded with a visibly puzzled voice.
"Huh? Uh, you didn't like it? Hmmm, it took me forever to decide what was the best Romanian castle to use here, but then I remembered, ah, you're actually
Dorothea, the one who was in Van-Fem's place a long time ago, no? And that settled it, Elizabeth Bathory's castle was the best pick for you. Oh, before you ask, no, this choice is not a gender thing. I just thought blood baths were more your thing than the impaler stakes!"
Dorothea.
Hearing this name made Jester creak his teeth even harder, but the male voice completely ignored his reaction, talking instead to the female voice.
"Yeah, I was also not feeling it either. The castle decoration is pretty low-effort. I also feel like it's lacking something really important... We need to stack another castle on top of it... Maybe the Teutonic Castle of Malbork..."
"...? What the hell are you talking about, François? Was I doing alright back then?"
"...??? Oh, sorry, I don't know either. What the hell I was talking about indeed? I just get this weird feeling that the picture would look perfect if you stacked the other castle on top of Csejte, and then stacked the Lighthouse of Alexandria on top of the other castle..."
"Does becoming a Heroic Spirit gives you some extra loose screws...? If so, I'm looking forward to being one!"
Jester screamed after exhausting his patience with the voices' stream of non sequitur.
"Pick a better audience for your jokes, you insect husks staining the planet! You, the two are nothing more than Earth's waste-"
"... look, it's the Assassin girl."
"!"
The girl's words soothed Jester's anger.
Any conversation about his dearest Assassin is not one he can bring himself to listen to with turmoil in his heart.
"Wow. The way this immediately restores your temper is immensely creepy. But that's exactly why I ship it! Don't worry, my bloodsucking monster friend. She and I support you in your love endeavors."
"Ignore the popcorn in my hand! He and I are on your side, gotcha?"
(With what proof do you expect me to believe this bull...?)
Before Jester could say this thought out loud, he realized it.
(When exactly was I caught in the illusion world?), he asked himself.
"Oh, you realized it? You finally figured it out?"
"Yup, we hid you in the illusion world... during the explosion."
"In other words, we helped you get away from Assassin! Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fish for gratitude by spelling it out! That came out bad, let me rephrase it.", said the female voice before lowering her tone for the next part. "You still...
haven't moved a single step from the place where you blew up your heart, you know?"
"...!!"
(I underestimated them! Could the origin of this illusion be old enough to approach the Age of Gods...?!)
Raising his caution several levels up, Jester studied his opponents' attitude.
It's possible that once they undo the illusion, Assassin is still right in front of him in the real world.
Meaning the voices weren't there to force a debt of gratitude on him, they were there to threaten him.
"Don't be so on edge. Did you forget what we told you? We are rooting for you on your one-sided crush. We only have one thing we want you to do for us in exchange!", she told him in the laxest tone possible. "See, there's this nasty workshop in the west forest... No, that goes beyond a workshop. Some scaaaaaary god is trying to mess with the laws of the world to make a temple and its sacred grounds!"
The insides of the plushies squirming around Jester and Csejte burst out all at once, spilling large amounts of flesh and blood instead of cotton.
The flesh and the blood were phosphorescent pink rather than red, and after they were done gushing out, they converged at the center of the parade.
Then they gathered around the skulls and eyeballs that the starfish was juggling and formed a humanoid blob of oversized slime mold engulfing the props.
The next thing Jester saw was the bright pink recoloring itself into bluish-white to manifest a beautiful young woman where the blob was.
"We made this Grail War
for the humans, you know? So when we get you gods and Dead Apostles messing with it, it's kinda ruining the point. Our first plan was to get Saber to do the job, but that was not the best idea. Having the human slay the gods and the monsters all the time gets boring and predictable, right?", said the girl with a curtsy and an umbrella twirl.
With a hedonistic smile, she—Francesca Prelati—asked Jester a favor.
"So, to shake things up... can you go bust
the god and her temple a bit?"
" ... What are you saying...?"
Her unexpected claim made Jester squint.
He's been devising plans to escape this mess, but the magical composition of his surroundings transformed faster than his head could keep up with.
In reality, it wasn't changing at all but the illusion was making him think it was changing.
Not that it makes a difference for an illusion of this high level.
There were only two things he was sure of.
First: he had not a shred of trust in the girl's claim about supporting his love life.
And second: he couldn't ignore any talk about his beautiful Assassin, no matter how unfounded.
The girl cackled at Jester's teeth-gritting.
"The timing here is super important. Ideally, we'd want to you lay low for a day and go wreck the temple the day after tomorrow."
"...?"
"Yeah, with him already this close, I think this will work.", said François watching the western sky.
"Right, if he gets too close, the Grail's foundation is not making out in one piece..."
The owner of the male voice had appeared while Jester wasn't looking. He whispered his comment from Csejte's rooftop as he watched the distance.
Jester could also faintly feel what was coming.
A giant mass of magical energy assumedly not directly associated with the Grail War slowly approached from the west. Whatever this was, it's so grand that its presence still could be felt even within this world made of illusion.
The boy and the girl—the two Prelatis—shifted their attention away from Jester and into the mighty energy cluster approaching from the distant west. With malefic yet enchanting smiles, the two say the same phrase.
| I wanna mix that into the Grail... |
I wanna mix that into the Grail... |
But there's one thing the masterminds still don't know.
The collateral damage from the battle occurring in the stratosphere roughly at the same time as this conversation started spreading chaos into the world. Whatever is approaching from the west has grown even more powerful because of that, but that's a fact they'll only come to learn a few minutes later.
Originally Posted by CO9p5JMGv!p9
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
