Chapter 177: Chapter 169
POV Assassin of Red (Semiramis)
"Foolish brutes." I hissed as I cast my Healing Spells over Rider's body. Achilles, the man with a body that was impenetrable by anything not divine, had a gaping wound in his chest. "Stop hovering over me!" I snapped at Archer who would not cease her invasion of my space.
I allowed them into this place, and even left my Throne just to heal him, and they treat me like this? If not for Master, I would have tossed them out already.
She frowned but took a step back.
Even with my good mood, I was still annoyed having to deal with these idiots.
"Fastest Hero." I scoffed, the wound was taking an annoying amount of time to heal. He was lucky that his spirit core was not overly damaged otherwise this would have been fatal.
"It would have killed me if I wasn't fast enough." Achilles coughed up some blood, trying to laugh.
"Quiet, your prattling makes it increasingly difficult to heal you." At least his passive defenses did not resist 'every' type of power that it came in contact with, seemingly only hostile ones. But that just made it all the more concerning that he had a massive hole in his stomach.
"Dear me, what a terrible wound." Caster walked into my Throne Room. I had noticed his approach, but I was otherwise preoccupied keeping this idiot properly alive.
"Caster." Archer growled. "Speak your usual nonsense and I'll fill you with holes."
Well, one of them has a brain I suppose.
"Touchy, touchy." Caster seemed unperturbed at the threat. Well, even cockroaches had methods for survival. "What happened?" He asked as he took out his notebook with quill in hand.
I rolled my eyes at his words, but I was a little curious as well. Achille's invincibility was something I had pondered how to deal with myself, but I don't think I could create a wound such as this.
Rider was about to speak, but I pressed on his chest, giving him a glare. "Make it worse and I'll stop my healing." He should be thankful I allow him this privilege.
Archer let out a sigh. "He fought Saber's Master." She revealed.
"Ohoh!" Caster perked up. "This Wilhelm continues to impress." He began jotting down notes quickly. "I'm very curious about his story now. Do you still have those long-distance Scrying spells active?"
"If they will keep you quiet." I scowled, swiping my hand through the air, allowing the view to manifest infront of him.
If watching those ants scramble around after we stole the Grail would keep him quiet, then by all means.
"Continue speaking." I ushered towards Archer.
She looked annoyed at my command, but complied all the same. "My focus was drawn away from the fight many times due to interference, but I caught the important moments." She stated. "Saber of Black appears to be Siegfried the Dragon Slayer."
"The information is helpful, but why does that matter?"
"He called Wilhelm a Dragon." Archer replied.
"....A dragon?" I repeated her words in confusion. "Preposterous." I scoffed. "Dragons no longer exist in the greater world, there's no way for one to be walking around under the guise of a human."
"He had a Gauntlet, it spoke and called itself Y Ddraig Goch." Archer continued, the name eliciting something similar to remembrance in my head. The Grail's work in giving me information and my subconscious recalling it. "It was able to increase his combat ability and he somehow used it to pierce through Achille's protections."
I wanted to call her a liar, but looking down at this wound, I guessed there was some kernel of truth in her statements. "Some kind of device that has a remnant dragon's soul inside? Or maybe some small piece of it to utilize." I muttered. Maybe I can take a better look after taking it off his corpse.
"That wasn't all." Archer interrupted my musing. "He had a Noble Phantasm and what appeared to be a Divine Construct in the form of a staff as it was capable of harming Achilles."
"What!?" I blurted out unintentionally. A dragon in a gauntlet, I could possibly believe as something ridiculous but possible. A Noble Phantasm and a Divine Construct being preserved into this era!? Even if he was a Magician or related to one, that was simply unthinkable. But this Archer servant wasn't one to spout lies or exaggerate truths. If it was Rider I could imagine him embelishing the tale to seem more impressive, but not this huntress.
Rider's breathing returned to normal, enough that I could withdraw my Magecraft. That was the most I would do even on Master's orders.
"Bastard was strong." He grunted, sitting up from his position as I stepped away. "Had a lot of tricks too, things I've never seen before. Saber called him a dragon, but I don't even know if that's the truth."
"Forgive me for not trusting the insight of a Servant who lost a battle to a living person." I drawled.
"Atleast I fought." Rider countered. "What did you do? Skulk around and steal the Grail under their noses while we had their attention?"
"It's called being productive. We succeeded in securing victory while you wallowed around in the mud with that pathetic Master." I sneered. "When I left, It was with him glaring up at me. When you left, it was he who was looking down on you. That's the difference between us."
That's right. There was no point in this farce of a War any longer. We have the Grail and Master devised a way to utilize the Grail and attain a wish without the required 'rules' to be engaged. I assisted, of course, but with this, we had won.
"What'd you say, witch!?" Rider shot to his feet, regardless of his previous wounds.
I could feel my poison come to the surface. "Did I stutter, or maybe he beat you a little 'too' senseless, hmm?"
"I'll show you a 'beating'." He growled, spear materialized in his hand.
"You want to challenge me in my place of power?" I couldn't help but laugh, snapping my fingers, Magic Circles filling the room. "By all means, make a move." I goaded the demigod. These foolish men, always so easy to rile up.
"Stop, both of you." Archer stepped between us. "We're not here to fight each other."
"Looking down on him, huh?" Caster spoke up for the first time in several minutes now. "You think he might have held a grudge?"
"What are you talking about?" I barely gave him any attention.
"Oh, he does not look happy." Caster began to cackle.
"Let him stew in his anger." It was pleasing to know he was upset after I poisoned his little rodent. He deserved far worse for what he did to my Master.
"Yeah, don't think he's 'stewing' unless that involves casting a giant tree over that castle." Caster looked much too interested for me to ignore him any longer.
I quickly swiped my hand to bring the vision up before me. I was taken back by the massive tree that emerged from the castle, towering far above it and towards the heavens.
That was not an ordinary tree.
Danger.
I quickly jumped to my throne, the Mystic Code that assisted in controlling the entirety of the Gardens of Babylon. I began powering up the long-range offensive spells, targeting that overgrown shrubbery.
"Hmph. I don't know what you're up to, but it's useless. Be reduced to ashes along with that faction." I commanded.
Master didn't wish for any unnecessary bloodshed since we already acquired the Grail, but this situation called for action. For some reason, that Tree gave me a foreboding feeling.
The concentrated beams of Ether and Magical Energy descended upon them like divine judgement. "Still just –" I paused when a golden light shot out, intercepting them, obliterating my magics that held them together into nothingness.
"And, scene." Caster snarked. In any other situation, I may have had the words to retort, but my attention was completely occupied by this magical phenomenon that was occurring below.
I enhanced the visual scrying, focusing on the tree. It lit up in 9 patterns, and I realized what I was looking at. I slammed my hand on the armrest of my throne, actualizing all the defense capabilities of my Noble Phantasm, shields by the dozens sprang up all around, even at the obscene cost to maintain them.
It was clear he was doing something aimed at me, but it was useless.
"Let see you break through my –"
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
"What the hell!?"
"What's going on!?"
The other Servants shouted and panicked at the sudden attack.
The Garden shook, the sky dyed red, and a fiery hell burst through my gardens.
"Wonderful, wonderful!" Caster began a mad cackle, the others braced themselves even as the Gardens tilted, and began falling from the sky.
I pulled up a visual image of my Gardens, to see the damage. A good third of it had been entirely cut off and burned away.
My hands trembled....was it rage or something else. How could my Noble Phantasm possibly suffer this kind of damage at the hands of a mere boy!?
Magical propellants were deactivated, their sequences destroyed and altitude was dropping quickly.
Defenses were down, burned away at impact.
Majority of offensive capabilities were destroyed as well.
I grit my teeth, expending all the magical energy I could to make sure we didn't die in a fiery crash.
***
POV Archer of Black (Chiron, Mentor of Heroes)
"Dammit!" Lancer slammed his fists on the table, cracking the marbled furnishing. "We were made fools of! And to make matters worse, the Grail was stolen from right under our noses!" He snapped his head around the room. "Darnic! What happened to our defenses!?"
How strange. The relationship between those two had seemingly been reserved and the Master was being subservient to the Servant.
"The bombs that erupted around the castle took our full attention to quench. There were lingering effects that persisted long after the initial shock. Most our defenses were brought down in the ensuing chaos." Darnic calmly explained.
"That damn brat did this." Gordes, Saber's master, grunted, a clear distaste for that young man on his face. "Who cares if he's related to the Kaleidoscope, we should have dealt with him when we had the chance!"
"As much as I'd like him begging under me." Rider's Master gripped her whip tightly, her hands straining against the leather. "Did you forget what we just saw? I've never seen Runecraft like that! And that's not even considering the apparent Primordial Runes he used." Her head snapped to Saber. "You, Servant. You said you know about them, explain properly."
"Don't order my Servant!" Gordes shouted.
"Then be a better Master you fat lard!" She countered.
"Both of you, cease your childish bickering." Lancer slammed his fist down, conveniently forgetting his previous outburst. They were cowled immediately, despite their pride and their assumed status over their own Servants, angering one they did not hold a contract with was unwise. "Saber." Lancer turned to Siegfried. "A proper explanation, please."
The sword-user had been leaning against the back wall, he perked up after being addressed. "I'm sorry but I'm not a Magus." He quickly apologized, I could recognize him as the type to do so under every circumstance, even if he was not at any fault.
I never had such a problem with my own students, if anything, they were a bit too prideful and unwavering in their actions.
"A different perspective then." Lancer added.
Saber looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. "It's said that Lord Odin hung himself upon the World Tree, and gouged out one of his eyes as a sacrifice in a Ritual to gain Wisdom. This resulted in what's known as Primordial Runes, keys that interact with the rules of the World."
Saber paused for a moment, allowing his words to sink in. "If I'm not mistaken, he used them as a basis to bring about the world Tree, Yggdrasil, which supported the existence of both Gungnir and Laevatein from legends."
It would be like calling upon Lord Zues's Thunder Bolt. It wasn't the true legend, but it was a Myth overcast on the catalysts he provided to structure the image. Everything was carefully thought out to bring the Old Age onto the Modern World for a brief moment.
Primordial Runes were a powerful magic. They were similar to the Divine Words that were more prominent over in Ancient Greece during my time. Written languages were not something very popular in the magical communities in my part of the world, so my knowledge was even more limited here.
I'm a little glad my Master was still in her room, away from this atmosphere, even if she is viewing everything through my eyes.
"I thought Primordial Runes were all gone! The only rumors I've heard about them have been brokens pieces popping up every now and then." Gordes clenched his fists.
"His teacher." I decided to speak up, drawing their attention. "He said the Immortal Witch of Dun Scaith was his teacher."
"That title was familiar, but I couldn't place it." Darnic look at me.
"Scáthach." I said plainly. How amusing that she raised the 'Irish Hercules' and I'm now facing another of her students. I guess one could say she was the 'Irish Chiron', or perhaps I'm the Greek Scáthach? It was an amusing idea.
"It makes sense." Lancer spoke up. "The Grail gave me her information, the basics at least. She was a master of Runes, and a warrior queen who taught Cu Chulainn of Ireland."
"Shouldn't she be dead? The Age of Gods ended, how did he learn from her?" Rider questioned, standing happily near his master. I think many couldn't tell his gender, but maybe my teaching days gave me some insight into the matter.
"The legends say she retreated from the world into the Land of Shadows, nothing about her ever dying." I shook my head. "It's probable he had gone there if he is related to the Manipulator of Parallel worlds." I couldn't claim to know what went into that Magic, but it seemed to line up with what we know so far.
Many strange things about him, from Noble Phantasms to Divine Weapons, and even a dragon. It was strange to see Achilles, another of my former students, suffer such a grievous wound at his hands.
My hands itched looking at the young man, the desire to give him some instruction.
Was I a bit envious of his teacher?
I don't think I ever had a student who exceled in Magecraft like this young man did. It would have been an interested time teaching him properly if he lived during my era.
"Tsk." Gordes clicked his tongue. "Maybe if Assassin hadn't disappeared, we could have used them to kill the bastard."
Unlikely, but not impossible. Still, having the Assassin Servant around would have been greatly appreciated. We're already missing our Caster because he's hold up in his workshop for a project I'm not privy to.
But I guess we have him to thank for the Golems, otherwise the Dragon tooth warriors would have been an annoyance to deal with along with the Servants.
"And what would Assassin have done about that spell!?" Rider's master snapped. "It took down that huge damn fortress in the sky." She was clearly still on edge after that ordeal, I couldn't blame her. Such blatant magical sights were not common these days. "Is the division that researches Onmyoji still around? I want to ask them some questions."
Darnic shook his head. "They were sent away along with the others for the duration of the war."
"Archer." Lancer's voice resounded throughout the room. "You lived during the Age of Gods and had interacted with Greek Pantheon."
"Yes, I was familiar with various Gods during my years." I was taught my skills by both Lady Artemis and Lord Apollo when I was younger and had spoken with several other gods throughout my long years.
"That spell." Lancer said quietly. "What are your thoughts?"
I see, even the King of this land was shaken by the display. "I believe even Hecate would have nothing but praise for that display." I was honest with my words. If I was his teacher, I would have been proud of him for something like that. To use the Norse's entire cosmology into a singular spell with multiple branching possibilities, it was impressive. "But there was a fatal flaw."
"The casting time." Lancer tapped his finger on the cracked table.
"Indeed." I nodded. Though I felt that such a problem would be rectified in the future by the young man, just not in this War. "I don't believe we need to worry about such a thing being turned against us unless we give him time to prepare."
"So nothing changed." Gordes huffed. "All he has to do it cast it as soon as the sun goes down, and aim at us from wherever he's hiding. We're sitting ducks!"
"He already revealed he would not take that course of action." I held back a sigh. Gordes was the type of person I disliked dealing with the most. Quick to anger, quick to lose their patience, and quick to become helpless in the face of adversary. "If he wished to do something like that, you would have been dead, as he had pointed out in our talk."
Gordes pursed his lips, as if he wanted to retort, only to mumbled under his breath and back down.
This Wilhelm had his own pride, and I doubt he would step on it himself.
"We need a better plan of attack." Lancer said, his voice not loud but carried over the room. "He has another Servant allied with him, meaning they have three individuals capable of fighting us head on. Yet, even with our numbers advantage, we can't deny we lost this night."
"Is he going to be our focus?" I asked.
"No." Lancer shook his head. "Retrieving the Grail takes priority. They took it for a clear reason. It's as the boy said. They could potentially use it for something or maybe bypass the restrictions somehow." He turned to look at Darnic. "Darnic. In your opinion, how long would it take to crack the defenses and restrictions on the Grail in their shoes?"
He blinked at that questions, looking deep in thought before answering. "Three days, possibly less. But it's merely theory, even after having examined it myself for many years. We simply did not have the ability knowledge to safely do so, but a Caster class Servant utilizing resources like that flying fortress....."
"Good." Lancer looked pleased at Darnic's expertise. "Then we'll be the ones attacking this coming night, the roles have been reversed."
"I'll fight him." Saber spoke up, standing up straight. "Wilhelm. I will bet myself against him."
"Are you confidant?" Lancer stared at the Dragon Slayer.
"No, I cannot' give my guarantee of victory. He is not like the Evil Dragon I slayed in my life. And my instincts are telling me that the dragon within him would easily trample Fafnir, but.....It's something I must, no....something I wish to do." He looked steadfast in his decision, a look in his eyes that mirrored the resolve within him.
"I'll leave him to you then." I couldn't help but smile. Saber was someone who I would gladly fight shoulder to shoulder with.
Gordes scowled at his Servant's decision. "You barely held your own with help, and now you want to fight him yourself!?"
"I will be utilizing my Noble Phantasm to its upmost this time." Saber tried to reassure his master.
It was perhaps a fatal flaw in our battle strategy the previous night. We were all too grouped together, it was unlikely that Saber could safely utilize his Noble Phantasm without harming another of our number. Wilhelm certainly made use of our proximity to his advantage. And despite my ability to exploit their openings, I was still hindered to some degree by my teammates being within reach of my targets.
Lancer leaned, back in his seat, once again surveying the room. "We suffered a defeat, but this War has not ended. It's time to plan our next attack."
Well, I can't say Lancer is a bad leader.
***
Wilhelm POV
I took Raikou back to our little hideout, my Bounded Fields still active. I yawned and almost immediately I was enveloped by Raikou again. "I'm exhausted." I let out a tired breath.
"It was an impressive spell, Master." She praised.
"Well, it's what they get for hurting Sir Wiggles." I harumphed, allowing myself to fall into her embrace. Sir Wiggles was resting in his little spot inside my hat right now, but he should be fine. "How are you?" I looked up into her eyes.
"I'm fine, master." She gave a bright smile, but something felt off.
"Raikou." I poked her. "What happened with the Lancer you fought?"
"He's....." Raikou paused. "I will deal with him the next we meet." She stated.
I looked into her eyes, and she looked away, not wanting to meet my gaze. I pursed my lips and poked her side, and she still didn't give in. "Raikou, we're a team."
She made a little noise, but still didn't answer.
"If you tell me you want to fight him, I won't tell you no. But you need to be honest with me."
"Karna." She said quietly. "He is Karna, the Indian Hero."
"Oh." I replied plainly, until the truth finally set in. "And you're the daughter of Gozu Tennou – Who is Indra." It started to make sense now.
Heroic Spirits were more than just human or mortals. They were their legends, that meant she was being affected by her half-brother's link with Karna due to sharing Indra as a father, being intertwined in the same 'sphere' of influence. Was it another reenactment of legend? Concepts so similar that certain outcomes were inevitable.
If they were both living people, not Heroic Spirits, this situation wouldn't have occurred. But there was a force basically telling them to fight, deep within their cores.
Regardless, I would not allow Raikou to die. I've enjoyed her presence and I want her to stay by my side even after the War is over. "We can make plans later." I let out another yawn.
That spell took a lot out of me, more than I realized at the time and was probably hopped up on the adrenalin. So many things to do, plans to make, notes to take.
"Rest your head on momma's lap." She beamed, patting her thighs.
I'll call Artoria in a few hours after a nap, and meet up with Mordred at some point during the day. But for now, I would enjoy my Servant's lap pillow.
***
Early chapter, woo.
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