Heeeeeeellllooooooooo everyone! How are you today? I am here today bring you another chapter of Fate/gungnir. Now, I know that it doesn't have the slash in the title, but that's just FFN being dumb and not submitting properly. This is the chapter that will get the ball rolling, and will introduce the Saber we all know and love to a world she never expected.
Anyway, I want to address the flame that I got for this story. Not only was it unfair and hurtful, it is also physically impossible without extensive surgery, a surgery I have not and WILL NEVER HAVE! How in God's name can I suck MYSELF off? What you did, who ever you are, using a anonymous name and account that you hid to get around the fact I have anonymous reviews turned OFF for this very reason, is called bullying. I knew and knew of several people who have KILLED themselves because they were bullied. If bullying others over the internet to avoid repercussions is how you get your jollies off, I seriously question the way your parents raised you. And yes, that was a jab at your parents and I'm unafraid to say that you'll get you just desserts later on. You will make a mistake, and I will blacklist you, meaning, you can't PM me, or review (read: flame) any of my stories. So get your head out of your arse and smell the roses once in a while. Maybe then you won't have a seriously screwed up life and actually have a chance to make friends. Also, you're a fag. Good day!
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Chapter 2
My Master is a What?
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"Servant Saber, answering your summons. I ask of you: are you my Master?"
These words seemed to freeze time itself. Kieren stood stock still. He couldn't believe what had just happened. In his entire life, he never expected something like this to occur.
Kieren opened his mouth to respond, but was stopped when a sharp burning sensation ripped up his left arm. Looking at it, he saw three glowing red symbols that together made up an intricately designed sword appear on the back of his hand. The woman noticed, and her face softened slightly.
"I see. Then the contract is finalized. Please wait here, Master, while I deal with the other Servant," she said, before turning and leaping out in pursuit of Lancer.
"..."
[…]
Kieren watched from the doorway as Saber slammed her invisible sword into Lancer's spear. The shock wave produced by the two Heroic Spirits' weapons clashing kicked up a huge amount of dust, obscuring the two combatants. It was only the clang of steel on steel that told Kieren they were still going at it.
"Dammit! Hold still!"
"Why would I do that?"
The casual and frustrated banter continued, even as the dust started to settle, revealing the two locked together, Saber's invisible sword grinding against the spear.
"Quit hiding your weapon! And which class are you?" Lancer asked as they broke apart.
"Why should I?" Saber asked in reply. "And you never know. My weapon could be a spear, or even a bow for all you know."
"If it weren't for the fact that I'm the Lancer of this War, and I hadn't already encountered Archer, I'd almost believe you... Saber."
The two charged again, clashing in the middle and sending out a violent gust of wind.
"Gungnir...?"
[Intuens … Pugnatrix CONTIGER habet sequenti civitas: Volo – A; Defensio – B; FORTITUDO – C +; PERNICITAS – A +. Ipse sit etiam emittens C-praeferebantur Anti-Magia ager. Pugnatrix ACINACES habet sequenti civitas: Volo – B +; Defensio – A; FORTITUDO – AA; PERNICITAS – B + +. Ipsa est et excludens an A-praeferebantur Anti-Magia ager.] Gungnir announced.
Scanning... Combatant Lancer has the following stats: Speed – A; Defense – B; Physical Strength – C+; Agility – A+. He is also emitting a C-ranked Anti-Magic Field. Combatant Saber has the following stats: Speed – B+; Defense – A; Physical Strength – AA; Agility – B++. She is also emitting an A-ranked Anti-Magic Field.
"... AMF's...?"
Anti-Magic Field were a Mages worst nightmare. Depending on the strength, it could slow down mana collection, thereby slowing down charging time for spells that needed them, and adding a charging time for those that didn't, to completely nullifying any sort of magic. An A-ranked Anti-Magic Field was strong enough to halt the use of any spell below A-rank, and severely affected the amount of time it took to charge spells above. A spell of equal rank would take almost twenty times longer to charge than normal, and S-ranked spells would take on average five times longer. The only spell that Kieren knew of that wasn't affected by Anti-Magic Fields was Nanoha's Starlight Breaker, and that was only because it relied more on ambient magic in the air than the casters own supply.
Besides that, Kieren noticed something strange. Even with the AMF's, his magic was responding just fine. No sluggishness and no feeling of having a hot poker shoved down his spine. Everyone had a different reaction to AMF's, but the most common was the feeling of nausea. To Kieren, being near or in an AMF felt like he was having a red hot iron poker shoved down his back, so that told him one of two things: either the AMF the two fighting in front of him had worked differently, and only really affected active effects like spell impacts, or it only affected Earth mages. He was inclined to believe it was the former.
Kieren's eyes widened when Lancer got into the same stance that had almost killed him. Thinking quickly, he started to charge one of his more powerful moves to somewhat negate the effect of the AMF. The familiar red-orange square appeared beneath his feet. Pointing Gungnir's tip at the blue-clad Lancer, who had focused entirely on his own target, he started to charge.
"Never thought I'd have to use my own Noble Phantasm TWICE in one night!" Lancer said, a frown settling on his face.
Saber's eyes widened slightly, both at the fact Lancer was pulling out his Noble Phantasm, and at the fact he'd already used it tonight.
Saber gripped Invisible Air, when she heard three rapid clacks, similar to the sound of Kiritsugu's Thompson Contender being cocked. Magic saturated the air, condensing to a degree that worried even her. Turning her head slightly, she looked out the corner of her eye and saw her Master holding his staff, a glowing red-orange light emanating from the ground around his feet, a similar colored ball the size of a small melon hovering at the end. Four glowing red-orange wings sprouted from the ends of the four prongs. The look on her Master's face told her everything she needed to know.
She needed to move. Now.
Without thinking she leapt clear, surprising Lancer, but then his eyes widened when he saw what was behind her.
"Buster Three!" Kieren shouted.
The glowing ball increased in size rapidly, expanding to three times its original size in an instant.
"Apollo's..."
Lancer's eyes widened even further. Not many modern magi could produce a spell powerful enough to overwhelm an Servant's Magical Resistance (if they had one), and his own C-ranked Magical Resistance was nothing to sneeze at, but this kid! He was charging a spell capable of getting past Saber's own A-ranked Magical Resistance! On his own!
"SPEAR!"
A lance of red-orange energy raced towards him, screaming through the air. He canceled his Noble Phantasm and jumped. Just in time to.
The beam raced under him, gouging a wide trench in the ground just from its passage, kicking up a huge amount of dust and debris. It slammed into the walls surrounding the compound. Walls built to survive earthquakes and reinforced with magic to weather assaults from everything short of an Apostle Ancestor or a Servant.
A punched right through. The reinforcement counted for nothing under the tightly packed precision strike. The beam continued into the small woods behind the compound, knocking over trees and carving a path of destruction almost half a mile long before it hit something it couldn't batter down.
… And detonated.
The massive boom shook the very atoms of the air, jarring Lancer's bones. The winds were whipped into a frenzy. Birds that were previously asleep exploded into the air in a startled frenzy, fleeing from their perches. Dogs in the surrounding neighborhood started baying at the sky, all in the general direction of the detonation.
Lancer touched down and jumped back several times to get clear of the dust cloud, his eyes wide with shock and awe. He looked over at the teen who'd fired the spell, and saw him panting slightly. It seemed the kid did have limits. Summoning and maintaining a Servant was a costly experience, and using a spell of that power shortly afterward put even greater strain on the kids weird Magic Circuits. While he was no Caster, his experience with runes allowed him some insight into a magus' magic. Where most people had their Circuits in a uniform fashion from head to toe, this kids seemed to originate from a veritable mana battery in the middle of his chest. He could barely make out individual circuits they were that tightly packed around the core. It was if the kid had a Magic Core and Magic Circuits at the same time, or as if someone had given him a Magic Core and added the circuits as mere afterthought, given their relatively low quality in comparison to the core. The ones going through his arms were almost of the same quality as the core itself. Compared to a normal magus, his circuits were of a startlingly high quality, a quality that could only come from years of Reinforcement.
Lancer quickly refocused his priorities when Saber came down from above, a warcry passing her lips as she slammed her invisible sword down on top of him, sending up a veritable plume of dirt and dust.
Lancer jumped from the cloud, landing on the damaged wall section, panting heavily. He'd been pushed to his currently lowered limits, but he'd be fine the next time he encountered these two.
"Sorry. But I have to go. My Master's a bit of a coward. As much as I'd like to stay, my Master ordered me to return."
With that he turned and was about to leap away when Saber interrupted him.
"Wait!" she shouted. "We still have a fight to finish!"
Lancer turned slightly. "You're welcome to follow if you want to die," he said, before vanishing into the distance, nothing more than an indistinct blue blur. Saber huffed, and released some of the pressure she was exerting on her sword, letting the tip hit the ground. Meanwhile, Kieren finally caught his breath, straightening up from his slightly slumped posture, Gungnir hanging loosely in his hand. The motion, however, reminded him that he had a three inch long inch deep slice in his bicep, which angrily protested the movement, sending a dagger of pain straight through his brain. He gasped, Gungnir dropping to the ground from suddenly numb finger, and clenched the wound with his left hand. He fell to his knees from the pain. Normally, his pain tolerance would allow him to ignore most of the pain, only allowing a dull throb through, but the movement of such an important muscle, combine with the magic that saturated it, overcame that quite easily.
It was his gasp that caused Saber to whirl around to face a new enemy, only to spot her Master on the ground, his staff next to him, clutching his arm, his face scrunched up in pain.
"Master!" she shouted, dashing over to him and kneeling next to him, her eyes filled with worry. "Are you hurt? Did Lancer injure you?"
"What do you think?!" Kieren ground out through clenched teeth, his sarcastic side taking the fore in his current state. Normally, he was fairly calm, however, when injured, he tended to enter what Nanoha called "Sarcasm Mode". In this state, everything he said positively dripped with sarcasm, and people tended to look at him like he was bipolar, normally used to his calm, if blunt, personality. People who didn't know him looked on in confusion, question their previous thoughts on him. It was the same thing going through Saber's mind briefly before she saw the dark, crimson liquid that gave life to all beings leaking through his fingers, staining the skin red. She was quite confused when she noticed that his clothes weren't darkening from the blood, and reached out to pull his hand away so she could see the wound, only to blink in confusion as his clothes started to buzz, crackle and fade when her armored hand touched his.
His clothes are made of mana? Saber thought. Her own armor was also made out of mana, so she knew it could be done, but for an apparently normal human to have the reserves to do so? Admittedly, she could feel an incredibly large amount of prana being diverted to her from his circuits to keep her in this world, an amount that made it impossible for her to astralize her form, so she believed it could indeed be possible.
The slight contact however, had put a small amount of pressure in the wrong spot, which caused her Master to wince, a silent his escaping his clenched teeth.
"Sorry," Saber apologized. "I'm just trying to help."
"It's okay, really. Can you please pick up Gungnir."
Saber looked down at the black, gold and silver staff. The gem in the head had a slight crack, a crack that was close to vanishing from some kind of magic. Picking it up by one of the grips, she held it out for her Master, who thanked her and gripped it with his left, blood covered hand, marring the shiny metal with crimson streaks as the staff slid through his fingers before the grip caught on the side of his closed hand.
"Gungnir, get me a direct link to the Arthra," Kieren said.
[Etiam domine … Conexiones stabilientur.]
Yes sir... Connection established.
Saber jumped slightly and blinked at the Latin coming from the staff. The voice, which sounded male, had a strange mechanical edge to it, and seemed rather flat, but she could pick up the slight panic in its tone. Whomever had built this mystic code, which she now believe it to be, was incredibly skilled.
"This is Captain Kieren Gallagher to the Arthra. Do you copy?"
{Captain? Is that you? We picked up a massive magical discharge in your area. Are you okay?} A female voice, this time clearly human, suddenly emanated from staff. Saber's eyes filled with confusion.
"I'm fine, Amy," he Master answered with a hard edge to his voice. "Could you please lock onto my position for teleportation?"
{Ah! Y-yes sir! Locking onto your magical signature now!}
Saber's eyes widened as a glowing yellow magical array appeared on the ground for ten feet around them, centered on her Master. Even above the hum, she though she heard someone say in a cheery voice something about 'sarcasm mode', or something like that. Then, the world flashed, and the courtyard was suddenly replaced by a closed room with five, white walls, a single door off to the side, a pale blue ceiling and grey floor.
The glow quickly faded, even as Saber tensed from the suddenness of what had just happened, but her guard didn't drop, even as four people dressed in black outfits ran in and aimed long staffs at her. She clenched Invisible Air, ready for anything.
"Stand down!" her Master barked.
The three males and one female flinched, but lowered their aim, still ready for anything.
"Captain," the female spoke, apparently the leader from her gold epaulets, whereas the others had silver. "Are you alright."
"Have a slight scratch," Saber heard her Master say, this time picking up the large amount of sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Other than some minor magical exhaustion, I'm just peachy!"
The door hissed open, and a blue blur raced through and slammed into her Master with a cry of "Kieren!"
Saber blinked when she saw the cause. Holding her Master in a tight hold and fussing over him like a mother hen, was a blonde long haired, red eyed young woman no taller than Saber herself was, dressed in a blue suit and skirt. Gold epaulets adorned her shoulders, and several colored strips of fabric and medals took up a section over the left hand said of her jacket. A strange circular symbol was stitched to the fabric of her jackets arm.
"Are you hurt? Are you alright? You're not feeling sick are you?" the young woman asked at a rapid pace, causing Saber to wonder if she had even stopped to breath as she continued to fuss over her Master.
"Fate," her Master started. The woman continued to dote on him, causing a tick mark to form on his forehead. "Fate!"
The woman, now known to Saber as Fate, stopped and looked into her Master's grey-blue eyes.
"I'm fine. Okay. Nothing a quick visit to the medical bay can't fix."
Fate nodded, tears forming in her eyes as Saber watched her Master wrap her up in a one armed hug. The strange winged pack on her Master's back glowed before disintegrating into flecks of dispersing mana. Two more people entered the room, a brunette in similar attire to Fate, and a green haired older woman dressed in white clothing with black stockings and shoes. The brunette pulled the blonde away from her Master as the apparent doctor started to go to work on Kieren's arm, pulling out a strange device and holding it to his arm. Saber watched in awe as a stream of glowing red mana came from the wound and was absorbed by the device, before a green glow washed over the wound, sealing it and leaving nothing but a slight scar.
"There your go, sir. All better. But I advise you don't do anything to intensive for at least forty-eight hours," the healer said.
"Thanks for that, doctor."
"Any time."
"Kieren?" Fate asked, eying Saber with a slight glare of jealousy.
"Hmm?"
"Who is she?"
Kieren followed Fate's finger to Saber, who looked between him and Fate, trying to figure out the connection between them.
"That's an interesting question," her Master answered, before turning fully to Saber.
"Who exactly are you?"
"As I said before, I am Servant Saber," Saber stated, standing from her crouch. In a flare of light, her armor dispelled, drawing a few raised eyebrows from everyone gathered. "I was summoned to you side to take part in the Holy Grail War. As my Master, you are now involved in the War."
Her Master's eyes narrowed, before he sighed, and slumped.
"Not ANOTHER Lost Logia!" he cried, anime tears shooting from his eyes.
Saber could only watch in confusion as everyone face palmed or face faulted, or followed her Master's example. It seemed that whatever a 'Lost Logia' was, it frustrated the gather people to no end.
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Aaaaaaaaaand done! Finally finished the next chapter. I hope this clears things up for those who were confused by the last chapter, however, I expect it will entice more questions as well. Yes, Kieren will be OP, but he will have trouble with SEVERAL of the Servant's. As stated above as a human, he will get exhausted long before a Servant will. Lancer only had trouble because Kotomine ordered him not to go all out during the first confrontation he has with anyone, but to gather knowledge he can use to his advantage in the next encounter.
Read and Review! Flames will be used to light your funeral pyres!
UFJ123 – Beta 27 over and out!