It all happened in the blink of an eye.
An overwhelming pressure which set the earth aflame, tremors rattling your bones as buildings collapsed from the force of the impact. Even now your brain struggles to form thoughts, the scent of smoke wafting through the air, stinging your eyes as loose pieces of gravel rained from the sky.
Hello, little one.
My, they have been working you to the bone lately, haven’t they?
Standing over you, floating over the scene of carnage, was a man.
A simple man, your senses told you.
There was nothing out of ordinary about him save for the manner in which he dressed. Even then, you’d grown accustomed to the eccentricities of Divine and Heroic Spirits alike. Nothing about the man spoke of power. Nothing about him appeared threatening. Rather, you had a hard time believing this Man was a Servant at all if not for what he’d just done.
Forced to fight and risk your lives to save humanity over and over again. First against the fake King of Magecraft, then against the Crypters and their puppeteer. It must have been a horrible experience, little one. To fight and kill so many. To deny others their chance to usurp our rightful place.
I’m sorry you had to face them.
All along.
But that’s fine.
The way he spoke, focused solely on you, was intimidating.
As if the devastation. All the death and pain he’d casually inflicted was less interesting than a conversation. Being adressed by this man, this thing wearing the form of a human, sets you on edge. As if he were being studied, judged for his word while under the lens of a microscope.
You don’t need to worry about fighting anymore. You don’t need to fret over whose life you must take next or the next dream you must crush in order to defend us. The time has come for you to put your sword to rest. Yes, you have suffered enough in these past years, haven’t you?
You have put those beasts out of their misery.
Put a world of childish innocence to bed.
Rebelled against a peaceful nation without heroes or war.
Set fire to the very circle of reincarnation.
Defied the will of ancient gods and pruned a world of invaders threatening to encroach upon our own.
An excellent job.
That wasn’t right.
It wasn’t what he was thinking about. Not about their fight against the Lostbelts. Not against the Crypters and the different worlds they were forced to cut off. It wasn’t something to be relished. It wasn’t supposed to be congratulated.
Yet the man sounded genuinely impressed.
Being praised by this thing made your stomach roil, blood boiling within your veins as you glared at the man.
But you're no longer needed.
Rest, Master of Chaldea. Your role has come to an end. Don’t worry about the future of humanity. Don’t worry about the enemies to come or the sacrifices needed to be made.
Bad.
This was bad.
You need to do something to stop this man. Even now, as it turns to walk away, you can feel that allowing this creature to walk unsupervised would mean untold disaster. Just being near it repulsed you, sending chill crawling up your spine. Breath coming in harsh puffs.
Yet he was no more than a simple man.
And that fact alone… terrified you.
So you resolved to do what you’ve always done. Standing shakily, the creature wearing the guise of a man watches you in fascination, as if pleasantly surprised. Walking towards it, you feel the ‘pressure’ building up around you.
It was like slowly sinking underwater.
What a stubborn child you are ~
His laugh threatens to make you retch, the scent of blood overpowering the smoke as you stand before the Servant. It was no different than before, you tell yourself. Just another servant to partner up with until he could find the others. So long as he kept the man from doing anything else, they would be okay.
Very well, I’ll allow you to join me.
You greet him in turn, asking for a name.
Hmm… I suppose merely addressing me as ‘King’ would be too patronizing. There’s no harm in telling you then. Consider this a gesture of goodwill from one human to another.
‘As if you were human.’
You wanted to say.
But accepted the creature’s rationale, freezing in place as it finally names itself. The gravity of the situation becoming all the heavier as your mind connects the dots regarding this monster wearing the face of a man.
Now then, shall we get started?
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