To most, there is no real evil in the world as human beings are incapable of being pure evil. Though the distinction seems to end when it comes to Mages. Whether it is the fact that they are no longer considered to be human beings or that they are the only ones capable of true evil, thanks to their connection to a world what is not human. To most who knew of mages this was all conjecture, except for those small few who found themselves at the mercy of the magic they were able to wield.
To them, mages were the source of pure evil in the world. This was especially true for Emerald Sustrai who had been kept as a mages servant for her entire life. As far as Emerald knew, she never had a family, she was just a tool for the man who owned her and the other children he kept locked away. It was a workshop from what she had been told by one of the older boys there. She would have wanted to know more, to understand why she was being kept there; but in the end there was no real need to ask. She watched the only people she knew in life be hexed and being torn into by Magecraft insects until they were near death. From there, six of them were loaded into large tubes and their bodies turned into a thick red goo which was drained into a large machine which became brilliant crystal.
This was perhaps one of the most horrific things that Emerald had ever seen, watching the pain on their faces as the people she knew were pulled into near nothingness. What she saw from thing was disgusting, she could see every last moment of horror on their faces, their bodies being twisted and ripped apart. Every bit of flesh stripped away as muscle and bone were liquefied. There was even a moment as their organs and forms were pulled apart like they were made of clay before they were reduced into whatever they became.
The mage, only laughed as he grabbed the crystal and handed it to one of his assistants who was always with him. Now the hooded assistant nodded and took the crystal before walking away, Emerald knew where they were going, a metal door which was usually sealed and only opened for the mage or the workers that he used to 'care' for the children.
The fat man began to trudge forward, having to use extra effort to heft around his extreme weight to get to those few kids who had seen this. Stopping at Emerald he looked down to her with a rather malicious sneer. Snatching her up by her mint green hair, she was pulled to the machine and tossed down in front of one of the tubes which now slid open.
"Clean this up would you, don't want the mess to clog up my machine." The mage ordered as he started walking towards the metallic door his servant had went through. All Emerald could do was what she was ordered, after all those who didn't ended up feeding the man's pets. She had to hold her breath to keep from gagging, there was a rancid smell, like rotting meat and overly melted vegetation which came together in an overly thick stench of fat.
Reaching in she pulled on a thick glob of the liquid, which was almost like slime in her hands came off rather easily. Pull after pull, she could feel it clinging to her skin and trying to onto her. Yet after she ripped out a glob she would throw it to the ground and let it slip into the vents which surrounded whatever the machine was. It was taking a while, especially with the liquid now collecting on her hands and clinging to her skin like it was trying to devour her.
Shuddering at the feeling Emerald began to try and scratch it off, but the liquid only continued to stay on her, nothing would pull it off of her. Still she tried, crying out in destress as she continued to pull and scratch, not even stopping when she managed to scratch through skin. The moment blood touched the liquid, it started to burn before worming into her cuts. Her entire body felt like it was on fire, even her blood boiled as she nearly screamed in agony. Still her voice was lost in her throat as the large veins pressed up to her skin and rippled. Twisting up, she started to seize before dropping hard to the ground.
Her blank almost black eyes were burning, thick tears spilled from her eyes as there was a sound like a soft pop and thick blood welled as she covered her eyes tightly. Another few breaths and she opened her eyes once more, her eyes now shifted to a near ruby color, shimmering with sparks of mana as she took a few soft breaths. While the pain was intense, what she felt next was an extreme rush of power, like lightning shooting from the base of her spine up towards her head. A dull throbbing in her head was quickly replaced by a buzz which settled in pure clarity for her.
She had felt the reverse affect, it was when she was hit with one of the mage's hexes that left her in writhing in pain for hours afterwards. If the liquid was able to keep her strong, maybe it would be enough to help her to fight back against her keeper. There was still a sickness about it, whatever it was, it used to be her friends, and the few people she knew and cared for. There was something so very wrong about taking their lives just using them for herself.
Taking a breath, she looked to the torn beddings which acted as the places where she and the other children slept at the night or day, they never actually knew what time it was. She knew that this would continue, like the beatings, like the children being pulled into the thick pits filled with the large insects that the man harvested. A hard breath and she ripped at her own palms with her nails, pushing herself forward, pressing another hand into an empty tube as the liquid rushed into the open injuries as she grit her teeth to deal with the pain and keep from crying out.
Less than thirty minutes later, she had managed to pull all of the liquid from the tanks, she felt so much stronger than before, her muscle tone had filled out even just a little, she no longer looked so malnourished as the rest of the children there. A few hard coughs, she managed to pull herself up, the dull throb was gone completely as she started to feel stronger than before.
Emerald could hear the metallic door opening nearby, the man returning with an assistant who dragged a child behind them. They looked almost like a corpse, the soft rise and fall of their chest was the only thing showing they were still alive. They were covered in overly thick welts and marks across their body, they had spent time within the insect pit. In truth it was a horrible and efficient system, raise the children and occasionally feed them to the insects that would pull out their mana very slowly as their bodies were eaten and defiled. Eventually it would burn out their magic circuits and make the insects unable to feed on them, so the only step left was to turn them back into basic elements and turn that into more mana.
The mage then returned, looking over the tubes with a large smile. "You did will child, perhaps you will be given extra this evening." He spoke, more than happy to offer her some extra food thanks to her job. Not even looking at her, or rather looking past her, the mage didn't even notice the changes in her appearance. Walking away he left the assistant to drop the child and leave with the man. Emerald gave a sigh and walked over to the small child, pulling them into the tightly packed room and laying them on the mattress.
Again and again the process continued, but Emerald she knew what to do, she just needed to keep herself from dying, she needed to do whatever she could. So for years, she spent her time doing as she was told by the mage, it kept her from being eaten by the insects and she even offered to clean the tubes after each use, really all she was doing was pulling more of the liquid into her body, using it to grow even stronger. It continued like this for a while and eventually the Mage entrusted her with more and more, allowing her help him control the insects. There was a deep sickness inside of her, each and every time she was tasked with putting another child in there, watching each of the creature feed and defile each person they were slipped into their pits.
Still, it continued like this, she was even able to work her way into being one of the assistant to the old man. This came with her being able to eat well, sleep on her own, she was even taught to read properly to assist the mage and not burden him. At night, she would often sneak into the room stored his mage craft books in and read over them for hours on end. While she could not practice any of it, knowing it would awaken the others and seal her fate, she ensured she knew every passage by heart. She was strong enough to pull off these spells, strong enough to challenge that decrepit old man, but she would need to find the right time.
This continued a she kept herself busy with work around the facility, she even went so far as to find where the red liquid ended up before draining into the sea. Even though she didn't need to, Emerald would go so far as to continually feed it into her body. While she did not need it, she wanted the power to ensure that she could decimate the mage when the time was right.
Best of all, she was able to find out the perfect way to hurt the mage, to strike him down and to finally free herself and the others. Something called the Holy Grail War was coming and the fat mage would be preparing to summon a Servant so that he could join into the war. Thanks to the amount of work that she had done for the man, Emerald was entrusted with helping perform and complete the ritual.
Thick tubes of glass and metal were set up in the exact pattern needed for the ritual. Mana generators were placed along the four directions along the seal and the crystals were placed into them to strengthen the spell. Thick iron and silver, still molten was pumped through the heated tubes which allowed the liquid for the ritual. Emerald watched, wondering what would go into the main seal before she heard something in the distance, the screams of the children in the other room as thick blood spilled in from one side and the red liquid, now fresh poured into the other.
Emerald didn't know that the man had planned to use the children to feed the magic seal, to strengthen the power of the ritual. The seal lit up a bright red and blue, as pure mana exploded outwards from it, it was as if peeling back the layer of reality which separated the physical and the Grail. Now, everything was shaking as Emerald watched in horror as the man continued the ritual, he was almost to the last few lines, which would bring a Servant forth and bind them as one.
She refused to let him do that, to even give him the chance to gain something that would give the cruel bastard even more power. In a blind rage she released a hex, firing it into his back and knocking him forward. She hadn't studied enough so the Hex did nothing but stop the man and knock him back. He was about to yell at her betrayal, to kill her but he was stopped.
He had crossed the boundary into a seal fed off of living mana and souls. Magic like that took in anything that it could, devoured without reason or repentance. So she watched as his skin blistered, thick welts forming and bloating before exploding in thick blood which scattered into mana. His clothes and muscles were set ablaze, leaving him to scream as plasma danced around the seal. It actively pulled him apart, what bits of him weren't melted into a foul smelling liquid. She knew what she had to do, she would finish this, and she would make sure another person like him never existed.
Walking forward slowly, she took a few soft breaths as she knew she could pick up the ritual from where the mage left off, she could become the Master of the Servant the Grail would summon forth. Reaching out very slowly, she kept her hand at the edge of the sparkling mana which acted as the barrier between the world and the seal. She refused to push forward knowing that it would kill her like it killed the mage.
"I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world, that I shall defeat all evil in the world. You seven heavens, clad in three great words of power, come forth from the circle of binding, Guardian of the Scales!" She invoked the words needed to summon a Servant as she felt pain burn in her left hand as the Command Seals were burned into place. All of the extra mana was pulled into a physical form, the servant she summoned would be much stronger and more mana to expend than the others.
The mana filled mist spun apart as the Servant stood in the center of the seal. The servant appeared like a vision of royalty, wearing an overly long pink Chinese dress, with lotus blossom forms which was done around either of their legs. Still overly long sleeves slipped forward to cover their hands, even just a little with the stitched sleeves going down to the Servant's hips. There was more to the dress, which slipped down to their feet, there were black lotus symbols which done at the bottom of the dress. A hand moved forward, and the overly long black silk sash pulled forward from the Servant's side, billowing like long wings of fabric. Pursing their lips, the Heroic Spirit looked from the floor, tilting their long black hair, done into an overly large ponytail fell to the side of their bead.
Dull pink almost purple eyes locked onto the woman who would be their Master as the mana flourished around their form, dancing along their skin, illuminating the Servant's pale complexation the usual ionic blue before turning into a bright pink, the same color as lotus blossoms.
"Are you the one who created such a disgusting system?" The Servant more demanded than asked, clear disgust and anger in their voice as balls of energy formed in their palms and sparking along the tips of their fingers. Their voice was so soft and soothing, it seemed to pull the anger from Emerald who looked to the Servant, still unable to believe she was able to call them forth even though the mage was the one who started the ritual.
"No I didn't, the stains on the ground is the one who created all of this. I ended him, I murdered that fat, repugnant bastard!" Emerald retorted with an anger in her voice she didn't even know she had inside of her. She was so used to bottling up her emotions, to never letting them spill out and simply nod at the requests of the mage. Now that she was free, of that man, now that she no longer had to keep herself as the composed servant girl, the emotions that she was keeping within her since she was four years old spilled free all at once.
The Servant watched this with a sot hum, the pink energy burning away into wisps of mana. They stepped forward and over what remained of the body, their pink silk shoes pressing to the ground outside of the seal with the pink magic sparking below them.
"You must have been rather brave to have stand against someone who would commit such a vile act. Tell me what caused you to gain such power to continue this ritual?" The Servant questioned calmly, not reaching out for their Master but watching them with a mix of interest of the subject and a sort of indifference on the entirety of it.
"I've been his captive since I was a child, every time he did these disgusting experiments I used what was left my entire left to get stronger than him. I needed to, I needed to kill him." She wasn't ashamed to admit what she had done, she had come to terms with it for years. There was still a fire within her, knowing what she did about the Grail, she knew that it wouldn't end; she knew there were probably other mages exactly like the one who kept her.
"Then my Master, you shall call me Caster and I shall help you obtain your wish in this upcoming battle." Caster spoke evenly and moved forward to bow to their new Master. Emerald began to smile, truly smile for one of the first times in her entire life and for once she knew that she had power; true power all to herself.