Among the Servants summoned by the Assassin-class Chiyou and her
Grail of unknown origin, she was the one summoned in the Rider class. A voluptuous woman in the garb of an exotic dancer, she would normally walk upright, proudly presenting her beauty and her regal elegance. At the moment, however, she was skulking in the alleys of the ravaged city of Rome, seeking to avoid drawing the attention of any of its maddened citizens. Dealing with wanton beasts would be an unnecessary hassle. Even if there were not a need for stealth, Rider would probably not walk placidly through the city streets. Her shoulders were slumped and a thumb was squeezed between insidious teeth biting in frustration.
She was in a terrible mood.
Capturing the amnesiac Assassin should have been a walk in the park with Saber as an escort. However, the Chaldean pests got in the way and Saber somehow ended up beaten by the demon brat of all people. Upon returning to Rome, she was unceremoniously left behind by her Master with a single instruction. She infiltrated the city and had the good fortune to find the Master of Chaldea unguarded. Instead of delivering his head to her Master, she was betrayed by that infuriatingly smug Caster and sent running with her tail between her legs.
Her blood ran hot beneath her skin. It demanded retribution for her humiliation. She wanted to grab that puny Assassin girl by the horns and rip them off her head. She wanted to grab Caster’s hair and run her face along the ground until it became unrecognizable. She wanted to rip the Chaldean brat’s tongue off with her own teeth.
Spitting the blood from the thumb she had bitten, she skulked her way towards the Aventine Hill. Then her retribution would begin.
***************************************
Night had fallen. He was exhausted, to the point he could only offer halfhearted thanks to Momu as she massaged his tense shoulders.
He had already plenty of experience witnessing horrible things, but it still took a toll in his mind. He guessed it was good not to become too accustomed to evil; it was just exhausting. There were only so many scenes of people killing, raping, and even eating each other he could take.
And he just couldn’t stop it. Rather, he couldn’t stop everyone. Even if he did something about those standing in front of him, scenes like that were taking place throughout the entire city. He couldn’t send Lancer Alter and the others to stop every single maddened Roman. He was tired, and following the fights against the Lancer Waldemar Atterdag and Rider Chiyou, his legendary companions were also tired. Even worse, Lancer Alter was not receiving magical input from Chaldea—he had to take the entire burden of sustaining her.
They needed to rest. So, they sought an emptier part of the city where they hoped not to be bothered, until a people-repelling bounded field grabbed their attention. Inside, they found an unexpected helper.
“Caster!?” Momu, who recognized the small figure for who she was, also showed herself the most surprised by the Servant placidly sitting by a bonfire in the middle of an empty market square.
“Hmm. I doth not bethink there is enow meat f'r everyone, but feeleth free to rest by the fire. We shall not be bother'd hither.”
A part of him thought he should stop being surprised by the physical appearance of Servants. So the Caster-class Chiyou Momu had spoken so highly of turned out to be the littlest girl Servant he had met thus far. No biggie. Really, whatever, she had roasted chicken.
So, they rested and ate. Most of them did, at least. The albino Caster and
the Servant following them from the shadows for a while kept an eloquent distance, neither partaking from the meal provided by Caster Chiyou.
“Master,” Lancer Alter finally opened her mouth to speak, having just finished devouring a whole chicken. “Without Chaldea’s backup, we have to think carefully about our next move. I managed to defeat Lancer, but…”
“I am utterly ashamed,” said Momu behind him. “I was not decisive enough, and Rider retreated after her dragon made the breach in the wall.” Her words and voice were regretful, but there was a fire in her eyes visible through the mask. “You can rest assured I will make up for this failure.”
That was when he tried to make sure he was not bothered by her failing to defeat Rider Chiyou, but his Servant spoke before any words could leave his mouth.
“The matter is, at this point I do not even know how many Servants we are dealing with.” She shrugged, and the young man pointed avoided staring the excessive sway of certain parts of her body. “In the end, it matters not—I will crush anything that stands in our way, but there is value in knowing who the enemy is and who is not.”
“Indeed, at long last you bring up a decent point, Black King of the Wild Hunt. In recognition of this, we will grant the privilege of our knowledge.”
The albino Caster haughtily walked closer to the fire, her steps dainty like a princess walking down the stairs to the royal gala.
“Didn’t she just want to join the chat?” he muttered, and he could swear something like a snort came out of Chiyou Caster. While he could not see through Momu’s mask, he was almost sure she was smiling. For whatever reason, it was almost as fulfilling as the meal just consumed.
“First of all, it is about time for you to come out, Assassin. Even the boy is aware of you by this point. Either he possesses privileged perception, or your capabilities as an Assassin are simply that lacking. In either case, do us all a favor and reveal yourself.”
What emerged from a nearby alley was an apparition of terror: a figure clad in black armor and a hooded skull mask. With not a single inch of skin exposed, it was difficult to tell the gender of this new Servant. Then again, King Hassan was way scarier.
The newcomer sat down where Caster had been moments earlier, clearly not intending to say a single word. Apparently satisfied, Caster turned to address the rest of the group.
“Thus far, five aspects of Chiyou have manifested as Servants: Assassin, Lancer, Rider, Caster, and Archer, in that order. Assassin brought with her a wish-granting device, which she used to summon seven Servants under her command.”
“So Archer is here, after all?” Momu pondered.
“That one hath her own priorities. It would be delusional to desire f’r that one’s cooperation.”
“Yes, you’re probably right. And we are all better off without Berserker around. Saber…”
“If 't be true that one wast hither, there would not be a crisis to begin with.”
“…Your Eminence, please do forgive me for asking, but why do you keep talking like that?” Momu finally asked everyone’s question.
“…I fav’r ‘t.”
“Well, you are obviously not doing your Master’s bidding, Caster.” Artoria pointed out, ignoring the Caster Chiyou averting her face with the most adorable pout.
“We have no master but ourselves,” declared the other Caster, dressed in the elegant black dress contrasting with her clear skin. “And now that the Assassin Chiyou has departed to parts unknown, the others too have chosen to act true to their selves. Ironic, to a degree.”
“Except for Rider,” pointed out the Master. “When I saw her with you she seemed fairly loyal to Assassin Chiyou.”
“That is to be expected of a pathetic wench whose only hope for survival is by kneeling at the feet of the strong,” Caster declared, her voice and her expression clearly declaring their disgust towards the exotic dancer.
“In any case, Saber and Lancer have been defeated,” said Artoria. “Caster and Assassin are right here. Then there is Rider who we met at Germania, and Archer who attacked us when we arrived here. Where is Berserker?”
“There is none,” replied Caster. “
Assassin Chiyou summoned a second Caster. But she is gone; left right after Chiyou. So did Archer, for that matter. Do not mind her—her true identity is that of the King of Magic’s Queen; she would not become an enemy of Chaldea of her own free will.”
The young Master was left hoping for the chance to meet the original Servant Naamah.
“What about the other Assassin?” Momu pondered. “The one who traveled with us?”
Indeed, there were three Assassin-class Servants in that realm.
“That one was the very first to arrive,” replied Caster. “If anything, we could say
Assassin Chiyou manifested in this timeline because that one was already here. Why or how she came here…we do not know the details, meaning they are irrelevant.”
It made the Master roll his eyes. Either she truly dismissed them as unimportant to her, or she just would not share them. He was not so slow or so dumb as to not notice the way the two Chiyou swayed between staring at her as if mesmerized, and then looking away in something like a mixture of fear and disgust. Being honest to himself, he also could not take his eyes from the albino girl, but he was too acquainted with Stheno and Euryale to know this wasn’t a Charm effect, or Mystic Eyes or something of that nature. He was not enamored with her—the very opposite: her albinism aside, she looked as plain as a girl could be.
Yet there was something about her.
“Refrain from staring that much, Master, unless you wish to throw away your humanity.”
His questioning look was everything Artoria needed.
“I do not see it as clearly as those two,” she said, gesturing towards the Lancer and Caster Chiyou. “But I can at least understand the uncanny pull she has on you, for I also feel the same.”
Lancer Alter’s choice of words brought to his mind the concept of the “uncanny valley”, and then it clicked.
And it terrified him.
“What…is she?” He whispered to his Servant, his voice hollow as if he had just been drained of all hope.
“I do not know who she is, but she is utterly inhuman. No, she is
an existence that erodes humanity solely by existing. I must ask you to stay away from her, Master.”
“We cannot feel insulted by your words, but you should nonetheless refrain from speaking so rudely in my presence.”
Realizing that not a single word of their hushed conversation had escaped Caster’s fine hearing, the Master and his Servant stared at her in deep alarm. An instant later, they both realized
they were staring again and promptly turned their faces away. Caster smiled quietly.
“So-ahem, so the threats remaining here right now are the two Riders,” Artoria Lancer Alter said after clearing her throat. “But that is only if we care about this city at this point. Master, I say we dedicate our efforts to locating Assassin Chiyou.”
“Only death awaits at the end of that path,” immediately refuted Caster. “We do not mean to insult, but it is a fact that you cannot defeat her.”
Momu turned to her Caster-class counterpart.
“Can you defeat Assassin, Your Eminence?”
“…normally, I would be confident in mine own ability to overcome that one, but there is something regarding this particular iteration that keepeth bothering me. I cann’t come to an understanding of that one’s purpose.”
“Isn’t she aiming to become an Evil of Mankind?” honestly wondered the young man, going by his exchange with the original, Heroic Spirit Chiyou.
“Absolutely not. Chiyou hath no interest in becoming one of the Seven,” Chiyou Caster promptly refuted, even sounding disgusted by the idea.
“Then you answered your own question,” replied Caster. “She aims to become
something else.”
The two Chiyou nodded in unison, clearly understanding something that still eluded the Master and his Servant.
“But that still doesn’t tell us how she is doing it. What does she even gain by destroying Rome?” Momu then said, but the Master of Chaldea already had part of the answer.
“The Cornucopia.”
“Indeed,” agreed Caster. “Having used her own wish-granting device for the first part of her plan, she needs a second one for the second part. As for the attack on Rome, it has already fulfilled its purpose.”
“What do you mean?”
The young man asked intently, but he only got an intent stare in response, framed with that smile that, he already knew, projected her believed superiority over all things. Caster fixated her penetrating gaze on him, her (red? Gold?) eyes paralyzing him without any magecraft. Again, it was not beauty that struck him, but the unconscious awareness of there being something
awfully abnormal about her. Now that he had become aware of the issue, it was brought out more starkly upon catching sight of her mathematically perfect features.
“I need not answer that question,” she finally declared. “Am I wrong, Black King?”
The Master looked at his Servant, whose eyes were wide open, both alarm and restrained fury visible in them.
“She wanted us here,” she concluded. “She wanted us to come here, Master! Her objective is Chaldea!”
“More precisely, her objective is the ‘present time’ of a world along the proper axis,” Caster added. “The original form of
Banner of Chiyou is a red comet, shining high in the sky. Now that you have seen the fall of this Rome, what do you think would happen, boy, if that red radiance shone over an entire hemisphere of your world?”
It did not need description. He did not need to think about it. It chilled him to the bone. And Caster wasn’t done.
“Chaldea is the only think that could get in the way of that plan, yet it is the only means through which she can execute it. The attack on Rome was a lure to bring you here, and the means through which she removed this timeframe from the established History of Man, effectively isolating it as a reality designated for removal. She further used her Grail to block any outside interference, all to ensure the success of her plan.”
“Damn it!” Artoria punched the hard soil. “It’s just like Solomon!”
Caster nodded, visibly satisfied that Artoria got it. The two Chiyou watched with nervous excitement, as they too came to realize the magnitude of the plot laid out by their Assassin counterpart.
“We ask a new question of you, Master of Chaldea: what do you think will happen when Assassin removes that block?”
He knew. Of course he already knew.
Chaldea would immediately strive to make contact with him, definitely led by an overly worried
kouhai. And the moment communication was established, Chiyou Assassin would be able to locate Chaldea.
“The Cornucopia…is not just for her ‘transformation’,” he concluded. “She needs it to leyshift.”
Truly, nothing good ever came from wish-granting devices.
Caster nodded, and he somehow knew she needed say no more.
“Master!” Artoria stood up abruptly. “Then it’s all the more urgent we find her and beat her—”
Any thoughts of going after Chiyou Assassin were blown away by a surge of light and a powerful, beastly roar, both from the same direction.
“That…was way too close from here,” Momu said while quickly moving to protect the Master. Her words carried the sense of “too close to be a coincidence”.
“It’s…a Servant?” Artoria was surprised yet another time. “A new Servant is being summoned?”
Neither Caster moved from their seated positions, instead the albino gestured the skull-mask Assassin to do so in her place.
“Hmph. It seems Rider has made her move, after all. Assassin, go with them and keep an eye on things. Assist them only if you think your own life is threatened otherwise.”
“Yes, M—um, ma’am.”
Caster looked up, and so did the Master. The rumbling storm clouds—which he had completely forgotten about inside Chiyou Caster’s bounded field—moved ominously, crashing with and merging into each other, while lightning flashed in their depths.
“You are saying that was Rider’s doing?”
“Have you already forgotten, boy? Rider had a mission in this city, as commanded by her Master. Now move already. Even if you do not go to her, she will come to you.”
She then looked to the east, where the roaring of beasts echoed from far beyond the city’s walls.
“And you would be mistaken to assume Chiyou Rider is finished for the evening. She already breached the wall; she probably thinks the city in her grasp. Either way, do not expect to sleep tonight, child of Chaldea.”
“Will you fight with us, Your Eminence?” Momu asked her “sister”.
“Not yet. I will when I must.”
“Let’s go, Artoria, Momu.”
“Yes!”
“Whatever it is, it will be crushed by my lance, Master,” assured the black-armored Lancer, already atop her mighty steed.
Two Casters watched the group depart towards the source of the light, closely followed by an Assassin rather poor at stealth.
“Hmph. He is not bad for a human, that child,” Caster spoke, perhaps to herself, and seemingly uncaring of Chiyou Caster’s attention. “He listens carefully to what is said, and pays attention to what is not said. He might entertain us, after all.”
“Ye hast magnanimously partaken of your wisdom, Mistress of the Highest Throne, but ye hast purposely omitted sharing just what it is you art after.”
For the first time, Caster laughed. Briefly, but powerfully. Vividly, yet malevolently.
“As we thought, you know of us. Accept our praise with pride. Nevertheless, the answer to your question is the exclusive privilege of the last Servant standing in this dying world.”
Chiyou shook her head at the unfathomably evil disdain emanated by her fellow Caster.
“But we could voice the same thoughts concerning you, Sequencer of the Seasons. How long will you wait before making your move?”
“I am a-hiding nothing,” refuted Chiyou, turning her face away from Caster to stir the burning wood of the bonfire with her bare hand. “I fight when I must.”
With those words, the petite Caster stood up and began to walk in the opposite direction to the Chaldeans.
“While they engage Rider and Berserker, I will defeat the Rider aspect of Chiyou.”
Caster studied the small Servant’s profile, concealed as it was by the skull of a massive bovine she wore as a helmet. After a few moments, she shook her head disdainfully.
“You…have divined your own fate in this manifestation. A most foolish thing to do. Oh well, I shall seek for enjoyment in watching how you face your demise.”
***************************************
Indeed, it was as Caster had said. Despite the alarming information he had received, and the new emergency they were moving to investigate, the thoughts of the Master of Chaldea were directed towards what remained unsaid; the answers yet unrevealed. There remained issues such as where Chiyou Assassin got her first Grail from, or the nature of her impending transformation, but there was a different, tiny detail, that refused to leave the forefront of his thoughts.
When he, Artoria, and Drake first leyshifted to this timeframe, they did not arrive to Rome.
Not Rome, but Germania.
The disturbance Da Vinci first detected
was not in Rome. It was in Germania.
Chiyou Assassin was about to execute a plot that could truly destroy mankind, but his thoughts could not shake off a different Assassin-class Servant.
Originally Posted by RoydGolden
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