They walked through that barren plane, nothing around them but white and dead trees. He was pleased. It was not Darkness. Being able to see a whole world before him was thrilling. He was content even with this landscape. She started to talk to him. She told him of her past, how her father killed her mother and abandoned them, as well as denying the reason for their existence. He could not relate. He does not remember a family or if he ever had one. She explained further. She recounted to him the role and legacy of the Einzberns. She told the story of the grail war and how he will fight for her. She explained the role of servant and master in intricate detail. There would be several other servants, each summoned under a different class, each with their own master. They would fight each other, hoping to claim the power of the grail. He found it humorous, how there were so many rules for what was described as a 'war'. But he was accustomed to battle; it was something he understood. Yet, he was hesitant to let harm come to this girl, his master. As she had mentioned, due to the power of the servants, a common strategy was to eliminate the master. In this battle, a servant cannot exist long without a master, and this would effectively destroy two adversaries at once.
"You needn't trouble yourself to worry about me," she said. "I am quite capable myself." He was unsure of this statement. Yet, if what she said was true, then it was by her power that he was bound in this world. Away from the Dark. He decided to believe her. But he swore to keep her safe. It is because of her that he is no longer in Darkness, and he would ensure that things will be kept that way.
"Why not tell me about yourself?" she asked. He supposed it was a natural question, as she had spent some time talking about herself. He would like to answer her, but his ability to do that had been lost long ago. And even if he could, what would he say? His memories were eaten by Darkness, and only a scant few had returned to him. She frowned. "You can't tell me anything." He nodded. "I know there was no problem with my summoning, so your memories must have been gone before then." He nodded once more. He would prefer if she did not learn of the Dark. She looked at him, a wry smile gracing her face. "Well it doesn't matter right now. As the Berserker you are the strongest servant anyway. We have time before the war starts, so I'm sure your memories will return. But before anything else…" They stopped walking and she turned to face him him. "Pledge your fealty to me as my servant." He was amused at his situation: being told to pledge himself to a little girl was not something he would have ever expected to happen. If he could, he would laugh. Taking a step back, he plunged his sword into the ground and kneeled before her. If this is what it would take to stay in this world, out of the Darkness, then he would follow her. He would make it his sworn mission to keep his master appeased.
She smiled again. "The pact is sealed. Now with that out of the way, let's see exactly what you can do." He followed her to a castle, where she said she lived. Upon their entrance, they were greeted by an old fellow, dressed in a white robe. Immediately, Artorias went on guard. Something about this one made him wary: perhaps it was his demeanor, or how he stalked through the hall towards them. Some aspect of the being in front of him enkindled a feeling of disgust as well as caution.
"It appears your summoning was successful, Illyasviel," he said.
"Naturally."
"But… this is not what I expected of Heracles' appearance."
"That's because he isn't. His name is Artorias."
"...This must be due to the relic we procured for the summoning. Ostensibly it held traces of magic that we could not identify. This must mean that your servant is more powerful than we had previously estimated."
"Is that so?" Illya smirked.
"You will win this war, Illyasviel." Without another word, he left.
"Don't worry about him," she said, taking note of his unease. "You won't be seeing much of him. Now come along," she said mischievously, walking further into her domain. "We have work to do." Nodding, he followed her into the deeper recesses of the castle. As he went, his mind wandered to the unease he just felt. It was as if the man's soul was deteriorated in some way. The man held none of the drive or passion his master had, almost as if he was focused on a single aspect which consumed all of his thoughts. That is when Artorias realized: the man was eerily similar to the cursed Undead. But that was unimportant at the moment. If that man became a problem, he would deal with it then. Right now, he was to attend to his master.
Illya led him into a wide, open room at the base of the castle. She wanted a gauge on his power, she had mentioned. He was to fight a number of her servants. With little warning, twelve of her servants, each wielding a different weapon, attacked him. He shook his head. If this was supposed to be a test of his strength, it would not measure him accurately. With two swings of his sword, the lot of them fell. "Hmm…" Illya hummed. "Yes, I think this will work very nicely," she said. With a gesture, she dismissed her servants. "Artorias, I can tell we are going to work very well together." Artorias hoped this would prove true.
Over the next few days, Illya tested more of Artorias' strength, which seemed to be limitless. Furthermore, what he displayed to her didn't seem to be even a fraction of his true power, as Illya could not detect a difference in the mana he would use from her. Although, there was also a drawback to this. Because Artorias was not being pushed to any limit, Illya was unable to see what he could truly accomplish. He could not talk, and she was only able to ascertain certain words and feelings from Artorias. Worse yet, she did not know the legend of Artorias, nor was she able to procure any such information on him, and she refused to use a command seal to force his memories to return. That would be wasteful. Regardless, Illya was quite confident in her Berserker. She made a point to spend time with him, even when she wasn't actively trying to uncover his mysteries. They would walk the area around her castle frequently, taking note of the sereneness of nature. Illya could tell that Artorias enjoyed these walks, he seemed so fascinated by everything he saw. She would talk to him about the happy times she had with her parents, before everything was ruined for her. She would tell of how her family fought in the previous grail wars, and how they plan to succeed after so many failures. But, most interestingly, she talked about the history of the world. She attempted to find if speaking of these matters would spur his memory and allow her to determine what time period he hailed from. She was aware that he was a knight in service to a king, based on what she could tell from the few memories he recovered. Yet, Artorias appeared to know absolutely nothing of the world, reacting with confusion and fascination at learning of the many wars and kingdoms that were fought throughout history. Days had turned to weeks and weeks to months. Before long, the Fifth Holy Grail War was to officially start.
You'll never guess who's going to fulfill the other servant roles. Or maybe you will because apparently I'm as predictable as a hot day in the summer. Place ya bets!
And someone please explain to me what kind of name is Jubastacheit.
