1,933"-And as the 57th hour since the tear in the sky opened over the gulf of the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea passes, the death toll continues to grow. Within Japan, 'Mystic Heart Attacks' have claimed a total of 18 million lives while deaths due to the as-of-yet unidentified beasts leaving the tear has grown overnight to a total of 4.5 million. As of midnight, last night JST, the worldwide death toll remains only at 98 million but is expected to climb rapidly when the tear makes landfall in mainland China in the province of Zhejiang within the next 3-4 hours."
Irisviel sighed as she listened to the news channel freshly dedicated to all things 'Mystic Tear', her fingers playing idly with the bottom of her shirt as she sat on the couch.
It was unavoidable since the tear in the Textures still couldn't be repaired, but the sheer scale of death –and the steep incline it was expected to hit rather soon– weighed on her like a block of tungsten. While her children had gone out to fight against the Yggdmillennia and their Servants they had stayed here alongside the members of the Chelon Canticle Brigade to try and keep an eye on Fuyuki.
Not only had they failed at that task spectacularly, but their failure had directly led to the wish for the Grail that had created this tear in the Texture in the first place. So, on at least some level, all of these deaths felt like something that she had allowed to happen.
At times like this, she wished she could be as cold-hearted and logical as her husband, so she could convince herself that there was nothing more that she could have done. Though, in saying that, it's not like Kiritsugu was taking this any less hard than she was, he was just a lot better at keeping it hidden.
"Once that hits, the death toll is going to skyrocket. Especially if that dragon is still protecting the tear." Scathach muttered, leaning over the back of the couch that Irisviel sat on while resting her forearms on the actual spine of the couch itself.
"It would be the smartest decision, from its point of view, to do so." Heracles grunted, arms crossed and lips curled into a deep frown as he leaned against the wall nearby and stared at the TV.
From a few cushions over on the couch, Waver frowned and crossed one leg over the other, mulling the situation over in his mind and choosing his words carefully.
"That tear in the Textures is the only thing allowing it to continue existing in this Age. The longer it's open the more that things are going to stabilize and allow it, and everything else that came through, to exist without its presence."
"This is terrible. So many people are going to die once it hits China…" Both Heroic Spirits frowned at Irisiviel's weak words, more than understanding as to her internal plight.
For all their power, even including Scathach and her new incarnation, the Fuyuki Alliance simply didn't have enough power at the moment to deal with the Dragon protecting the tear, let alone whatever else was bound to come rushing to protect it once they realized what they were doing.
The reason for that became rather simple when one took into account the situation regarding the Masters and the fallout of their possession and the ensuing battle.
Olga had come out of the situation the best, and even then she had been bedridden for an entire day after the battle due to the intense pressure she had been placed under from the ambient mana and continued to have strange issues with her vision even now.
The next best, in an extremely dark twist, had been Illyasviel. The girl who had had her heart ripped out of her chest. Through her battle with Gray and Manannán she had managed to regain her sense of self and control over –most– of her urges as a Dead Apostle, but the conversion had not been a clean one; it had undoubtedly left its scars. While the girl was back to acting like her usual self, she had become far more vindictive and easier to anger, and her thought process had become noticeably less human. Something noted particularly by Bazett and Morgan due to the sheer difference in the jump between how the girl had been previously and how she now was.
Though, in a brief moment of levity, the reaction when she had walked in on Jeanne praying to her God had been something that had gotten more than its fair share of chuckles.
However, after Illya, the remaining Masters had been ruled out of strenuous situations entirely until their conditions stabilized further.
Bazett, Rin, Luvia, and Sakura were all awake and moving around. In fact, there had been no issues with spontaneous possession since the night of the Battle of Kings, but that did not mean that their problems were over. The possession of a human via a Divine Spirit was something that had not been documented in history, and therefore Semiramis and Morgan had been certain to look over the four women thoroughly to make sure that nothing was going to go wrong.
What they had found was reassuring and worrying in equal measure. While the four women were currently in control of their own bodies, and noticeably stronger, faster, and more durable now too –though not to an egregious degree– their minds had not received the same buff. The girl's minds, for all the strength that their bodies now held and the insanity that had caused it, were still remarkably human. Both in actual composition and build but also in a more personality-based, psychological sense too.
The four of them had been granted this strength with none of the mental fortitude to go along with it and that mismatch was dangerous.
Thanks to the Divine Spirits currently located inside them, pushing against their souls and connected to their minds constantly, the girls had essentially been turned into pressure bombs of thaumaturgical might.
It had taken Morgan only a minute into her mental scan of the girls to realize the danger that they were now in and inform the entire alliance, much to everyone's worry.
For the current moment, their bodies and brains were still heavily burdened by the recent 45-minute possession of the Divine Spirits and left incredibly weak but that would eventually come to pass once they were able to recover enough. The real danger came afterward, where they would be able to push themselves once more.
The dangers had been laid out by the two Servants plain and simple, with as much subtlety and tact as a sledgehammer in the hands of Heracles and just about as much lack of remorse as well.
If the girls ever began to fall into self-doubt, depression, or grief, their control over their bodies would incrementally decrease until a full switch would occur, with the potential destruction of their Egos a real possibility.
If the girls ever pushed themselves past their physical and/or thaumaturgical limits the ability to hold back the overwhelming strength of the Divine Spirits would falter and/or fail. Leading to one of three possibilities for the girls; either their bodies turned into literal bombs of pure True Ether, their Egos self-destructed entirely and left the Divine Spirits entirely unchecked, or in the best-case scenario their bodies and minds incurred additional damage on top of what they had already incurred and left them utterly incapable of doing anything else until they made a full recovery.
The girls retained the ability to switch out control of their bodies at will, but doing so would begin to destroy their bodies and minds slowly. In the worst-case scenario, once again, they exploded. In the best-case scenario, once again, their Egos self-destruct and leave the Divine Spirits in their place. For the safety of the girls and their continued existence, Scathach herself had suggested a 180-second maximum on 'safe' switches with the Divine Spirits and an absolute maximum of 300 seconds before the chances of self-destruction reached 25%.
To their credit, they had taken the news and warnings in remarkable stride, though the Heroic Spirits had no doubts that the sheer exhaustion that still clung to them stubbornly even now played a heavy part in that. The one who had taken it the best, in their own unique way of handling stress, was actually Sakura. The purple-haired girl had dove headfirst into caring for and watching over Shirou in the wake of the quite literally lethal warnings.
As for Shirou himself, an argument could be made that he was still the worst to come out of the engagement. Since the teen had been in a coma for the last fifty-six –and a quarter– hours, when he had collapsed after his battle with Ishtar and Kama.
Ever since then, the teen had been confined to the Muramasa Estate with a revolving door of help and protection in the form of his guilt-stricken girlfriends, Gray, and Artoria. Though Sakura and Artoria were easily the two that put the most time into their chosen tasks, caring and guarding respectively, to the point that strong-arming had already been necessary once to make them rest.
The front door to the Emiya Estate opened and shut just loud enough to signal their entrance to the inhabitants of the building, snapping Irisviel out of her mental spiral over the state of her children and their friends and partners.
"Oh, Gray." Heracles nodded at the silver-haired girl, getting a small nod in return from her as she walked into the living room and easily hopped the back of the couch to land on the cushions between Waver and Irisviel.
"Where did you learn to sit down on a couch like that?" Waver asked, like a disappointed parent.
"Shirou; when we had that movie marathon." She answered simply, giving him a small grin when he sighed deeply and put his face in his hands.
That little hellion had completely corrupted both of his students to the bone and there's nothing that Waver could do about it. He felt like he was being tortured for something that he had done in a past life.
"Is Shirou okay? He hasn't gotten worse has he?" Irisviel asked, her speech clear yet fast and her eyes shimmering with as-of-yet unshed tears.
Turning to look at the Emiya matriarch, Gray's teasing smirk softened into a far more calming smile as she reached up and finally lowered the hood that had previously been over her head.
"He's ok, still asleep though. Semiramis thinks that he'll be awake sometime between today and Thursday, but she doesn't know when that might be. Just try and stay calm, Irisviel. It doesn't matter what it is, I don't think that anything can keep Shirou down for long. He's strong like that."
"…You're right. He is. But a mother can't help but worry." Irisviel muttered, rubbing her eyes slowly to try and get rid of the built-up tears before they actually fell. "I hate seeing my children hurt in any way. And to see him come back covered in that much blood and covered in that many burns…"
"It's a hard thing for any parent to go through, seeing their child come back from battle." Scathach muttered, her gaze sliding from the three on the couch to the floor as her fingers flexed subtly. "There's no shame in your worry, it only makes sense for you to act this way."
"Y-You sound so mature, Scathach." Irisviel giggled, rubbing one of her eyes to try and get the remaining moisture out of it.
"Well, I've been a Queen, Mother, and Teacher. I've sent many off to battle and seen many that have come back in less than stellar condition. Times may not be as hard as they were back when I originally lived here, but that kind of worry is never going to change, regardless of the time or era."
"I guess that's nice, in a morbid way. That I'm not alone in feeling this way."
As Irisviel and Scathach smiled comfortingly at each other, Gray cleared her throat as politely as she could and tilted her head over the back of the couch to look between Scathach and Heracles.
"Everyone involved in the battle is having a dinner at Shirou's house tonight to go over and compile everything that happened, by the way. Bazett and Illya asked that you come and join."
"Dinner and intelligence compiling? Who could ever say no?" Scathach chuckled, getting a small round of chuckles from everyone else in the room as well.
"I'll be there as well, Gray. I'll let Master know." Heracles replied, tilting his head a few degrees a moment later as if listening to something.
"Why tonight, though? Did something occur?"
"Well, actually while I was over there-"
XXXxxxXXX
Fifty Minutes Earlier, Muramasa Estate
"How is he?" Semiramis leaned back slightly as both Luvia and Rin launched their inquiry at her the moment that the door to Shirou's room closed behind her.
While she could hardly blame them for being worried, she also couldn't help but be annoyed by the sheer speed and intensity of their questioning whenever she checked in on him.
It was part and parcel of being in love, she understood that quite well. But it was also that inherent irrationality that it instilled in them that reminded her of why she had a distaste for marriage in the first place.
"Muramasa is fine." Semiramis finally bit back, forcing both girls back as she thrust her palms into the vicinity of their faces, just narrowly missing them as their reflexes kicked in just in time. "However, I cannot overstate the stress that he put his body through that night. Between myself, Morgan, Scathach, and Avalon he'll undoubtedly make a full recovery, there's no doubt of that. But he just needs time to recover from the ordeal now."
"I understand, thank you greatly, Semiramis." Luvia muttered with a deep bow while Rin just placed a hand over her chest and sighed in relief.
"Look at you, lovesick over that boy. How shameful."
"Ishtar…. you've created and shattered three separate stone tablets while waiting for her diagnosis."
"Shut UP, Eresh!"
'Please, both of you. Quiet.'
Rin groaned and rubbed her temples with her fingers, getting an understanding look from Luvia beside her as Semiramis just scoffed slightly and rolled her eyes.
"I can only imagine what those Divine Spirits must be saying in that head of yours, Master. Trying not to anger them too much, hm?" The Queen of Assyria grinned mockingly, her index and middle fingers ghosting over her lips as her eyes sparkled with dark glee.
At their other side, Gray only deadpanned as Semiramis began to get herself going. The silver-haired girl not quite understanding how Rin had managed to even make it this far past the initial Holy Grail War if this was the kind of Servant that she had ended up summoning. There was a limit to the number of caustic insults and mocking that two people could throw at each other before it began to genuinely affect their teamwork, after all.
She would know, she had had a front-row seat to all seven years of the evolving hatred between Shirou and Kristiina, after all.
"Oh, believe me, I don't need to do anything. Ishtar makes a comment and it's off to the races."
"Don't you dare put this all on me!"
"Well…."
"Oh, go to Kur- Wait."
"Hehe…"
Riiiing Ring! Riiiiing Ring!
The high-pitched jingle of a mobile phone ringing suddenly broke everyone out of their own conversations and mental bickering, their gazes caught on subconscious swivels as they all turned to look at its source.
Which, worryingly enough, happened to be Shirou's room.
Gray mumbled something under her breath as she walked forward and opened the door to Shirou's room, blinking rapidly a couple of times as she saw Sakura hit the call button on the phone and raise it to her ear. Some small bags under her eyes and the paleness of her skin were evident to anyone who looked at her but the tone of her voice was steady and strong as she answered the phone.
"Hello, Muramasa Residence. Sakura Matou, speaking. Whom might this be?"
"I believe I called Shirou Muramasa's private line, not some landline. Care explaining why I'm speaking to you now and not him?"
"Apologies, but I require the name of the caller before I can hand out such information." Sakura responded simply, her pale expression pulled into as polite of a smile as she could possibly make it as Gray walked into the room, followed shortly by Rin and Luvia.
With her back to the wall and both of her hands resting atop the pommel of her invisible blade, Artoria just watched the proceedings silently. Her gaze slid between them and Shirou on near-perfect timed intervals, not only watching them but also making sure that her Master's condition did not become worse.
This wasn't her place to jump in or speak up. Her position as Servant and guard of Shirou was far more important than any kind of politicking that phone call was bound to devolve into, regardless of how well she may do in said task.
"Lorelei Barthomeloi. And who exactly might you be, Sakura Matou?"
"I am the personal maid of Senpai."
"I see, at least proper procedure was followed since I can only assume that Muramasa is in his forge yet again?"
"Unfortunately, not, Lord Barthomeloi." At Sakura's words, the three Magi beside her froze up and paled a little.
This was just what they needed at this moment in time. Lorelei Barthomeloi of all people poking around in their business right after the largest fuck-up in thaumaturgical history.
'Wait. Hadn't Sherou come to an agreement with her right before the Battle of Kings?' Luvia's expression perked up just a little, remembering the conversation over the phone that he had had with the Vice-Director of the Clock Tower a few days earlier.
"Senpai is currently still recovering from the events of two days ago. If you have any messages for him, please speak them and I shall inform him once he fully recovers."
"I see….So Muramasa is entirely out of commission after whatever it was that occurred that night."
The purple-haired young woman froze at the cold, calculating words that came out of the speaker of her beloved Senpai's phone. The tips of her hair began to turn silver and the slightest twinge of red entered her eyes before they disappeared entirely as the phone was snatched from her grasp faster than she could react. A small squeak left her lips as she looked over to see Luvia now holding Shirou's phone, giving her the briefest of warning looks before holding it up to her ear and speaking.
"Vice-Director Barthomeloi. How surprising to talk to you on this day, you'll have to excuse Sherou's maid, she's had to tend to him urgently."
"I see, a valiant excuse if nothing else." Luvia had never been more glad that phone calls couldn't transmit video as well, otherwise, the Barthomeloi head would have seen the violent twitch of her eyebrow at that backhanded shot. "And whom, now, am I speaking to?"
"Luviagelita Edelfelt."
"Ah, I see. Very well, this is workable. I'm sure that you're aware of the deal that I struck with Muramasa before the morning of February 27th?"
"I am, indeed. Am I to assume that recent events have struck a crack through said deal?"
Listening to the phone call through a more than liberal amount of Od poured into her ears, Rin merely hummed and crossed her arms, mulling both women's words over in her mind and trying to figure out the most optimal path forward.
Before now, while both the Tohsaka and Edelfelt names held significant political power and sway, it had undoubtedly been Shirou himself who had been shielding them from the worst of the backlash of the Holy Grail War and the subsequent Great Holy Grail War. When it came to negotiating deals, trades, subterfuge, or blackmail the girls undoubtedly held the reigns, but the sheer danger that Shirou represented had been a shield that stopped the most power-hungry and aggressive of the thaumaturgical world from just steamrolling through them and Fuyuki.
But now, he wasn't the only one with such a high degree of power as to be a shield for the rest of them. They just needed to bide their time to properly recover from the stress that their bodies and minds had been put under before they could properly stand up to such a threat.
Therefore, the most optimal path, at least this far into the conversation, would be to try and delay whatever backlash Lorelei was going to throw at them as much as possible so that once it arrived, they would be ready. And as much as it annoyed her to admit it, she knew that her rival would have realized this as well.
'Don't mess this up, Luvia. Otherwise, this is on your head.'
"Quite the opposite actually."
Everyone in the room, save for Artoria herself, stumbled on the spot at the Vice-Directors words. Though the King of Knights herself did raise an interested eyebrow at the woman's words.
However, it escaped none of their attention that everyone in the room –apart from Shirou– reacted to those words, revealing that they were all listening to the phone call.
"Oh? My, how surprising. I would have thought that your agreement with Sherou would have been fractured on the spot."
"Do not mistake my acceptance for a lack of anger, Edelfelt." The girl gulped quietly at the steel in the Vice-Directors voice, more than aware that this situation was far from a casual one. "However the tear in the Textures-"
'So, they've already figured out what it is. Likely one of the Magicians or the Directors handy work.' Rin thought to herself, biting her lip gently.
"-has become a situation that can no longer be covered up or made to be forgotten. Every family and faction in the Clock Tower are out for blood and an opportunity has opened itself. Despite your families position as a member of the Democratic Faction, I'll extend this blanket protection to you and everyone allied to Muramasa within the city if you agree. Get me the details of the event, in as much detail as possible, and include anything involving the Einzbern and Yggdmillennia families and their involvement."
"The Einzbern and- Vice-Director are you truly planning to-"
"Say no more, secrecy cannot be guaranteed at the current moment. Now, do you agree to my conditions, Luviagelita Edelfelt?"
"I see…Yes, I agree to those conditions, Vice-Director."
"Excellent. Reports are to be hand-written and sent through familiars to 'Gremburgh's Tailor' on Savile Row."
"I understand. I'll have a report sent by tomorrow morning local time at the latest, Vice-Director."
"See to it that you do. Additionally, do not get in the way of the Brigade members within the city, they have their own orders."
"Of course."
Before Luvia could even try and give a farewell, the call cut, getting the briefest of frowns from her before it spread into an ear-to-ear grin with sparkles practically flowing out of her eyes.
"….You're already planning to raid the ruins of the Einzbern and Yggdmillennia aren't you?" Rin sighed, her eyes half-lidded and her lips slightly ajar.
"The loot that will be left behind will be worth millions."
"Ladies and Gentlemen. The Crystalline Hyena of the Clock Tower." Gray deadpanned, doing a full-body gesture towards Luvia, who had already 'borrowed' some sketch paper from Shirou's work desk and had begun writing down some plans and ideas.
XXXxxxXXX
Emiya Estate, Present Time
"I see, an interesting turn of events." Scathach propped her elbow up with one of her hands and held her chin between her thumb and forefinger.
"The politics behind Magi has always been something I wasn't a fan of, but I suppose that engaging this time is only to the Alliances' benefit." Heracles sighed, rubbing his face with one of his hands.
"Thank you, Heracles, it means a lot to have someone like you looking over my daughter." Irisviel clasped both of her hands together and gave the mountain of a man a grateful look, getting a small nod of his head in return.
"Speaking of Magi, where is Morgan currently? I wished to talk to her about something." Scathach bumped herself off the wall and placed a single hand on her hip as she leaned her weight on one foot.
"She went out again, saying that she'd 'found another one'." Gray responded simply, shifting a little to block Waver's arm before he could instinctually reach for one of his cigars.
"We're inside, Master."
"I know, I know." He grumbled like a petulant teen, getting a loud giggle from the Emiya matriarch.
"That's the second one now, right?"
"Indeed, it is." Heracles nodded at Scathach's question. "And in this case, I can hardly fault the speed of her disappearance."
"I can't say that I disagree with you there…"
XXXxxxXXX
Reality seemed to shift and warp with each footstep that Morgan took, her form phasing through doors, walls, furniture, and apparati as if they weren't even there.
Because, quite simply, they weren't.
"I truly will never understand her. All these backups and she still showed that much fear that night. Where exactly did we split off so harshly?"
Rings of mana began to coalesce and shrink between her two palms, the reality around her shuddering and creaking ominously in a way that made her skin crawl.
Though, of course, even that was but an illusion cast by her other half when she had created this facility.
Her palms met with a sharp crack, the rings of mana exploded out of her tightly pressed together palms and struck everything around her in a shockwave that shattered the reality around her like a thin pane of glass. Finally allowing her to see exactly what it was that actually surrounded her.
Blank, glassy eyes stared into hers as the creature in question, a twisted amalgam of limbs, eyes, mouths, and hair, reached out desperately towards her. The fingers of its largest hand, all eight of them, twitching and jittering in mindless effort as it tried to complete his task.
The reason for that effort, and its failure to complete its task, came in the form of glowing rings wrapped around its largest and most developed limbs. Their forms glowed and brief whisps of fractured light flowed along its warped, lumpy, and malformed skin towards every other ring.
An automated defense that Morgan had developed in preparation for this exact scenario after the first time that she had come across one of her other half's workshops. Though she had been expecting automatons not….this.
"Oh, you poor thing…"
She reached out and brushed her fingertips over the edge of a bump on his torso that looked far too distinctly like a human head to be comfortable. Its main head snapped back as all the eyes along its body started to dart around frantically and a myriad of screams tore their way out of the mouths littered across its form.
"The first workshop had been an automated setup to siphon the soul into a puppet. This time…"
The woman turned around, utterly uncaring of the screaming goliath of flesh and hair as her gaze coolly slid over the rows and rows of glass tubes, human bodies suspended inside a thick, oily red liquid in varying states of maturation and health.
The first of Morgan Le Fay's workshops had been based around puppets and automatons, undoubtedly one of the easiest and safest ways to save her soul should her Servant body come to pass.
The second of Morgan Le Fay's workshops, that which Morgan Pendragon now stood inside, was based around nothing but the development of what appeared to be soulless homunculi. A veritable Frankenstein's mansion of oily red suspension liquid, human parts, and viscera that would make even a seasoned nurse lose their lunch.
And the creature behind her, despite its proclivity to violence and its attempt to end her life before she'd even gotten through the illusion protecting this workshop, was not a guardian developed for this facility. It was a waste bin, of sorts. Where Le Fay threw away her failures and her spare parts by simply adding them to the growing amalgam of incorrectly sized limbs, necrotizing flesh, and failing organs.
It made the Queen of England sick to the depths of her soul and whipped up the winds that fed the flames of rage inside her. Her gaze narrowed as the workshop around her began to rumble and groan, wisps of prana dancing off her as her eyes began to glow and her hair began to wave ominously behind her.
Morgan Pendragon may not have had the same proclivity for Black Magic as her other half, or the kind of mindset needed to properly use and delve into the magic of the Fae as Vivian did, but she did not need those things to be a mage of equal power as the two of them. And whereas she would never be as strong as Vivian within the suffocating constraints of the Caster Servant class, the raw power under her control could not be underestimated under any circumstances.
The oily suspension liquid began to bubble and broil around her, cooking the homunculi inside 'alive', and quick, thin, arcs of lightning began to dance through the workshop. Their heat scorching metal and cracking stone just from proximity.
She did not know how many of these contingencies her other half had managed to create and get operational, she did not know why she was so desperate to cling to a life that did not love her and a history that did not favour her.
"Y-YOU WILL NOT B-BE RID OF ME SO-" Squelch!
The memory played through her head like the scene of a car crash in an action movie, repeating over and over again as the glass of multiple tubes around her began to crack. A high-pitched whining sound grew in both volume and pitch throughout the entire workshop as the grotesque creation behind her screamed with all its might at the prana filling the air around it.
Morgan Pendragon did not know a lot of things about her other half, Morgan Le Fay, but she knew one thing for sure and one thing for certain.
She had finally rid herself of that vile Witch and her machinations. And she didn't care how many workshops she had to raid and what contingencies she had to shatter; she would grind them all to dust to keep it that way.
"Blæst."
In an instant, it all came to a stop, the rumbling, the lightning, the whining, and the screams. A bright white light filled the workshop and wiping it all from existence, never to be seen or heard of again.
XXXxxxXXX
That Night, Muramasa Estate
"Thank you for coming over." Sakura smiled and bowed politely as Bazett and Scathach walked through the entrance to the traditional-looking estate.
Out the front of the estate, two men in well-made suits walked by; a baseball bat slung over the shoulder of one and a katana sheathed at the waist of the other. Small tiger-print bands wrapped around the right arms of both of them.
'A lot of them patrol around this area. I can't be too surprised, the Emiya family are rather close to their leader. And Kiritsugu and Rin have been lending them a hand since the Battle of Kings I heard…' Scathach thought to herself, looking at the two of them over her shoulder from the corner of her eye before turning back to Sakura and smiling politely.
"The pleasure is all ours. The food already smells delightful."
Sakura merely smiled at the two of them and gestured towards the dining room as she quietly closed the door behind them and trailed behind the two of them. A subtle reminder not to go anywhere that they shouldn't and that they were being watched.
Of course, neither woman was particularly worried over this traditional custom, knowing that there were very few places in this estate that they wouldn't be allowed in. Though while Bazett just found her intention to follow the age-old tradition commendable, Scathach also found it quite amusing.
Here she was, a teenage girl in the midst of developing her own Reality Marble with two Goddesses trapped inside her and she was leading guests to a dining room. She could only imagine what Shirou's reputation might look like overseas if even half of that information leaked to the wrong/right people.
"Here we are. Please take a seat where you wish." Sakura spoke, drawing the Queen of Shadows out of her musings as she and Bazett sat down beside each other.
At the table already sat Rin, Luvia, Illya, Olga, Fiore Yggdmillennia –of all people–, their Servants, and Gray. However, even then the table was not at full capacity, with a few seats still left unfilled and a comfortable amount of space between everyone.
At least if your neighbour wasn't Heracles of Greece it seemed, poor Illya and Xuanzang.
"Thank you."
"Appreciated." Scathach nodded at Sakura before looking around, seeing a few casual conversations already struck up between some of the table occupants.
"You're finally here. Welcome!" Xuanzang said happily, the complete opposite of Fiore who silently sat in her wheelchair hunched in on herself.
Not that anyone particularly blamed her, she had had only a few days to meet everyone here and wasn't particularly close –on any level– to anyone here except Xuanzang and Shirou, though to a lesser extent. Yet here she now sat, surrounded by people who didn't mean her harm, yet decided the fate of her future as a Magus and could snap her in half like a dry twig without even thinking about it.
Though, she had been invited here for a very particular reason. Which was, quite simply, to provide information on the Yggdmillennia's side of the Battle of Kings and what they had done before, during, and after its commencement.
"Yes, we took a detour to deal with some nameless spirits that the Fujimura couldn't push back on their own." Bazett responded simply and professionally, which only got a happy smile from Xuanzang as she clapped her hands together quietly.
"How compassionate. I thank you for aiding those people."
"You're acting like they're some of your people, Xuanzang." Scathach chuckled, only getting a peaceful smile from the woman in response as she slowly shook her head.
"No no, of course not. But the Buddha cares for all people, and so I should do my utmost to do the same."
"How noble." A couple of conversations came to a stuttered halt at the sound of a new, and mostly unfamiliar, voice from the entranceway of the dining room.
The sight of Sakura, hands folded in front of her politely, calmed the nerves of the most trigger-happy of the table, but the unfamiliarity with the young woman was still a wary surprise.
Her long blonde hair fell behind her back in two thin twin-tails with long, somewhat spiked bangs and a fringe that neatly nestled between her startling bright blue eyes. A rather nice, frilled shirt and leather handbag adorning her upper half, and a long-length, deep velvet skirt adorning her lower half. Her face held in a polite mask that was just a hair too fragile to hide the despair and confusion swirling inside her mind from the Kings and Queens of the room.
"What a greeting." Semiramis scoffed, resting her chin on the back of her palm and grinning. "And who would you be to say such a thing in our presence?"
"May I introduce-" Sakura quickly, but respectfully, cut in. "Another guest invited by Rin Tohsaka, Angelica Ainsworth."
"My-…Something using the body of my brother was the one that made the wish on the Grail." Angelica spoke, her voice cracking slightly at the beginning before smoothing out as she explained why she had been called here.
Instantly, the tension in the room skyrocketed. Though they all had to give Angelica her dues, she handled it far better than they were certain 99% of Magi could have, given the circumstances that brought her here.
"Please find a seat where you wish, Miss Ainsworth. Dinner will be out shortly." Sakura informed the young woman, getting a curt nod from her as she went around and sat down in a seat beside Fiore.
Finally, after a few more minutes where the more casual atmosphere from before began to bounce back and recover, the food began to be delivered to the table by Sakura and Leysritt.
'That's the first time I think I've ever seen her doing maid work.' Rin snorted to herself.
"Cute face, nice figure. It's a mystery why Shirou never used her. Might have given her a nice incentive to do the rest of her work."
'First of all, Shirou isn't like that. Second of all, maids aren't something for their master to just grab and fuck.'
"Of course they are. All throughout history. And with that purple haired one too."
"Sister, you know that that's not what maids are for."
"Maybe not for you. There's a reason I only chose the most beautiful to serve me, not that they came close to my own charms of course."
Whatever Ishtar said next Rin never heard, mentally shutting out the voices of the two Goddesses trapped within her as she looked over the table and saw that not only was all the food placed in the center, but everyone was seated as well.
"Alright. It looks like nearly everyone is here. I'd like to begin-" The Tohsaka Head began, only to grind to a halt as a few knocks on the front door echoed through the house.
"…"
"I'll go greet the guests." Sakura excused herself, standing back up to go answer the door.
"…Snrk."
"Shut up." Rin whirled around and pointed an accusing finger at Luvia, who gave the girl such a blindly sweet and innocent smile that it almost made her believe that she hadn't just heard her snicker.
Almost.
"Luvia…That's not how you should be acting right now."
'I know Astraea, I know. It's just funny is all, I couldn't help it.'
The deep, tired sigh of the Goddess inside her only served to bring the blonde-haired young woman slightly more joy, though this time it was merely in the form of a small, self-satisfied smile.
"Introducing, from the Faction of the Holy Church, Executor Ciel." Sakura announced, as a friendly and polite-looking young girl with short blue hair and glasses bowed politely at the side of Sakura and Jeanne.
At the head of the table, Rin blinked in confusion as she just saw the two of them, tilting her head a little to see if she could find the expected third member and finding absolutely nothing. Her gaze turned back to Jeanne and Ciel as they sat at basically the complete opposite end of the table to her.
"Jeanne, Ciel, could Caren not make it?"
"Ah." Ciel straightened up a little in her seat and smiled nervously, looking nothing at all like what Rin would expect from a woman with the kind of power that she could sense broiling off of her form, "Well, there was a bit of an issue with that when trying to enter the property…."
XXXxxxXXX
Step… Creee…
Caren –Super Caren– stared blankly at the entrance to the land that the Muramasa Estate stood on. The white-haired woman stepped back two steps and watched the incredibly oversized swords slide back into the ground as if they had never existed in the first place.
The girl hummed lowly to herself and took a rapid step forward; the swords rising vertically out of the entrance in perfect synchronicity with her and stopping their ascent as she stopped her advance.
Step. Step.
Creee. Creeee.
The swords had now risen to be about equal height with her chest, and she still had about three more steps to go to actually reach them. An annoyed click of her tongue left her mouth as she took three steps back until the blades completely disappeared into the ground again.
Up, down. Up, down. Up, down. The pattern repeated no matter how many times the girl took a step forward and a step back. Her prana surged around her as she took two steps forward, her eyes widening in surprise as the blades didn't rise even a single centimeter out of the ground. A satisfied grin made its way across her features as she realized that she had finally gotten around the-
Step.
CREE-UNK!
A white, slender eyebrow twitched as she took a single step, and the blades suddenly burst out of the ground and rose all the way until they hit the top of the entrance, as if mocking her for her inner monologue.
"I see…"
The girl hummed loudly as she suddenly sighed, shrugged, and turned around.
"Oh well, if that Devil-spawn truly wishes me not to enter his property-" She spoke aloud, walking away from the entrance until she didn't hear the sounds of the swords lowering anymore and launching herself backward with her newfound supernatural abilities.
CLONG! GUNGUNGUNGUngungungungnnnnnnn…
She had thought that she had outsmarted the automated defense by facing backward and approaching, only for it to suddenly sprout blades from the top of the entrance instead. The girl stared blankly at the blades as she lay sprawled out on the ground, a fire surging in her eyes.
XXXxxxXXX
In response to Ciel describing the automated defense, seemingly designed specifically for Caren, Rin could only stare blankly at the blue-haired young woman.
She hadn't even known that Shirou had implemented that. When had he implemented that?
The soft sound of a giggle seemed to snap the entire table out of its silent surprise, everyone's gaze turning towards the suddenly very nervous Fiore, her eyes darting around like a deer caught in headlights.
"O-Oh, I'm sorry. I just found the situation slightly amusing…"
"Hehe, no no. Don't apologize." Rin shook her head and smiled, "It is pretty funny."
She should have expected Shirou to have something planned if Caren ever tried to enter his house. The fact that she hadn't expected at least something was honestly a small hit to her ego.
"So then-" Rin smiled and flipped some hair over her shoulder, one of her eyes flashing red for the briefest of moments before her other hand snapped out to grab her wrist in a grip tight enough to make a vein in her hand bulge and whipped it under the table. "Sorry, don't mind that."
The words were quick and hurried but didn't seem to have any kind of panic behind them. So, no one was too worried about a potential possession from the Goddess of War and Storms, at least those who knew about her condition, but the worry in their eyes was clear for the teenager to see.
Taking a moment to close her eyes, breathe in slowly, and then exhale everything she had in her lungs at once, she opened her eyes back up. Her expression stone-faced as she tried to use everything she had picked up from Shirou, Luvia, Semiramis, and all the other Kings and Queens over the years.
"Now, everyone please enjoy the food. And as we eat, let's discuss the Battle of Kings."
XXXxxxXXX
Side Story: The Clocktower Chronicles V
[The following program has been terminated due to the actions of the Discord.]
(You know what you did.)
XXXxxxXXX
Hello hello! After a month break its me, the magic typing man!
Man, the support on the last chapter was really great (mostly), thank you guys so much! That arc really taught me that taking my time, while painful at times, is really something that's necessary to make something stand out. I even had a reviewer who thought that I was trying to rush to the end of the story with the last arc.
I'm not, I still have like 2-3 arcs to go depending on how writing and time management goes.
Regardless, I'm back and starting things off somewhere around second gear with this chapter. Things are still happening but it's still undeniably a downtime chapter, y'know?
In other news, the job hunt is still going terribly, my original story is still going along really well (I'm thinking of putting its name/a link to it in my author bio) and I convinced a friend to buy factorion to play it with me. HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH Anyways, speaking of my story, its time to shill! And now, ONTO REVIEW REPLIES!
Discord: ctMzhq3 OR plasmaassassin
Original Story: Young Swordmaster's Journey (On Royal Road)
Silverhawk88: Yeahhhhh, you'd think so right?
AngelicWisdom: Do not worry, you will see soon.
Artyk04: I don't promise anything but that sounds pretty funny.
Faertios040: You aren't wrong XD
4: I'm glad that you enjoyed it and that things came across how I wanted them too. I'm always super worried about that.
Voidicus: Well aren't you just prophetic?
SentinalSlice: Territory is the superimposition of his RM over the same space that Gaia occupies, instead of creating a Bounded Field and separating them. Control is a creation of Sakura's RM brought about in a similar vein to how Iskandar could summon a singular soldier without having to deploy his RM or how Shirou can project his weapons. And finally, he froze the ocean through a creative use of his heat transference spell, which is why flames shot out of his feet a moment later.
Silence of Mind: You have no idea how much of a shitshow was started on my discord because of that issue. But as you can see, death of the main characters isn't the only possible downside that can occur xP
Roland Tepes: Yeah, that's a bit of a thing. This story was started before it was confirmed that Be'ze had the Sword IB so I decided to give it to Enhance and have been suffering ever since XD
Nagato Angelo: I'm glad that at least one of us has faith in me. And I'm also very glad that you enjoyed the chapter.
Dain1270: Thank you, its very nice to hear those words and I'm glad that at least a few people haven't forgotten some stuff that I've set up.
YuukiAsuna-Chan: I understand where you're coming from, and I know that this chapter probably won't change your mind. But please understand that death isn't the only consequence that exists.
Adro-Sama: Congrats, you called it. You get a cookie. And you're very welcome for the chapter.
Rajo: You have no idea how hard I laughed at that joke about Illya being held off the ladder, that really got me good. And the implications for everything going forward are certainly interesting. Things have gone off the rails and the world, both regular and thaumaturgical, are about to be shaken up something fierce.
AdrianVnz: Thank you for your review, there isn't a massive amount to say since a lot of it is massive spoilers or just comments on your end but I will answer that the gods that rushed for Shirou were Hephaestus, Susano'o and Höðr. Which is mostly just a nod towards the gods that make up Muramasa when he's a High-Servant. Also those side story ideas are really good, I may end up using a couple.
Pop manga mondeluz 1945: Hi. Thank you for your review, it was really thorough and really helped put a few things into perspective. I'm going to try and only hit the big points to keep this reply short and not rant, but know that I really appreciated the entire thing. Yes, the pacing absolutely got worse in the GHGW arc, I can admit that. I definitely should have slowed it down a bit more. No, I wasn't actually trying to rush the arc to get to the end of the story, I was just trying to get to the end of the arc itself. Morgan was in a really tough position because she was facing an extremely unified front and had multiple powerful Casters and magi in said group that could shut down things that she tried to do and knew roughly where and what to look for. Another thing to keep in mind is that Servant containers are, essentially, caricatures of their living selves due to the extremely limiting nature of the Servant summoning ritual. As for Angra-Kirei, he just wasn't able to keep up. Kirei is a great villain in FSN due to the relative power levels of everyone and the split-apart nature of a lot of the fighters, in this world that's really just not the case. He did everything he could and would have done more if he could have taken out Caren, but unfortunately he couldn't. As for your argument about the powerup, I'm curious to see how that's changed, if it has, after this most recent chapter since its not just a "congrats you're stronger" with no strings attached anymore. Regardless of that I'm glad that you can, at least narratively, follow the through-line and my thought process and I'll try to keep some of your criticisms in mind going forward.
Zukafew119: Hello once again! Really enjoyed the month break from having to review, huh? XD Once again I'm glad to see the amount of thought that you put into the chapter but have a few corrections for you. Sakura's RM didn't overpower Shirou's, UBW shattered at the end of chapter 37 (named Unlimited Blade Works). Olga didn't break the barrier for Astraea's pseudo-reality, it ended on its own. Unfortunately if I had Illya be possessed by another God(s), then the Dead Apostle thing never would have come to pass and all that time spent in previous chapters would have then gone to waste. And no I didn't, I remember because I posted both the anniversary chapter and that months chapter in the exact same month. Thanks for the review once again and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Ryperion: You're welcome!Od Artupas: Nah there is, don't worry. Usually chapters come out on the 28th of each month but I always say 28th-30th/31st of each month purely for reasons like what happened this month (I was busy).
AAAND THAT'S THE END OF THE REVIEW REPLIES! Stay safe, stay warm, and know that the chaos caused by the tear in the Textures has only