It's been a while, hasn't it? I didn't mean to stop writing, but school and life got rather busy and I didn't have much time to write.
I've upgraded Saber a bit. Nothing too major, but she'll be using all of her abilities, which will probably be upgraded, and she'll probably end up a lot stronger than she acted in F/SN. Don't worry, I made sure to pick some very strong Servants for them to fight, which will be upgraded quite a bit as well.
Anyway, here's the next chapter of Enemy of the Grail. Enjoy.
It was a cold night, in the middle of winter. A boy, no more than five years of age, though he looked much younger than that, stumbled to the bench. His tiny arms were wrapped around a ragged blanket which was wrapped into a bundle. He carefully opened it and tore off a tiny piece of bread, which amounted to half of what he had. It was barely a mouthful, but it was all he could afford to eat. He'd learned the value of rationing his food years before.
He hid what little bread he had left in his pocket before wrapping the blanket around himself. He was so cold, and the blanket so ragged, that he barely felt what little warmth it provided. He lay, shivering, on the bench. For once, he was thankful that his cousin was so much bigger than him. Though the clothes he wore were torn and tattered, there was so much extra material that he was probably warmer than he would have been with normal sized clothing.
He glanced up at the night sky to see a full moon. He was about to close his eyes when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a shooting star. He remembered his aunt telling his cousin something about that meaning that he could make a wish. He scrunched his eyes closed and made one. The same one he'd made every day of his life, as far back as he could remember. He wished for a friend. He wished that he had someone who cared about him, who would protect him.
With his eyes closed, Harry didn't see strange lights gather on around him. He ignored the strange warmth in his chest, even as it spread through his body. He didn't even notice the blood that came out of his hand, as three sigils were carved into it.
The lights gathered into a strange circle, which was filled with runes and strange designs. It seemed to glow brighter, before releasing luminous energies. New motes of light appeared above, before pouring into the center of the circle, gathering into single luminous entity. It was about twice as tall as Harry would be if he were standing up. The mass of light soon gained definition, taking a shape. The light burst away, revealing a human figure. She had golden hair, and wore a blue dress.
"I am Servant Saber. At your summons I have come forth. I ask of you: Are you my Master?" She asked.
Suddenly, the warmth that had filled his body changed. Half of it became burning hot, while the other half seemed to turn to ice. Harry's eyes rolled up into his head as he passed out.
They made good time getting to the island. Saber enjoyed flying at high speeds, and a magically enchanted plane would never run out of fuel. Now, if only he could find someone to put decent flying spells on a motorcycle, probably her favorite kind of vehicle. The last time they'd tried, the charms on the bike had failed, and it was only through Saber's skill that either of them had survived. The magus who'd done the enchanting had suffered greatly.
Saber extended the landing gear of the plane, and a gemstone embedded in each wheel ignited. The surface of the water stabilized into a flat plane, able to hold the plane's weight. After spending quite a bit of time searching for proper landing sites in situations much like this one, he'd had those gemstones installed and enchanted. With the amount of prana they currently had, they'd probably last for a few days of continuous use.
"Remember Harry, we don't have to hurt all of these people. We have to remove the Master and their Servant, but no one else." Saber reminded Harry after she exited the plane, who sighed before nodding.
"Sure. I'll keep it in mind." He agreed without really paying attention. Why would he care about these random people? The only reason he wouldn't just take them all out is the fact that Saber wouldn't like it.
The blonde woman sighed at her Master's disregard for the lives of others. She knew why he was like that, but it still hurt that this young man she had come to love was so broken that he cared nothing about most people.
Setting the comment aside, they made their way onto the small island. It was just the second largest island of a small archipelago, one that wasn't on the map, which itself wasn't very surprising. At least 40% of the areas of the world the mundane population thought were uninhabited were home to magic creatures or users. Islands hidden like this one were fairly common.
Harry closed his eyes for a moment as they walked, and allowed the burning light to surge through his body. His circuits ignited within his body as he began to tap them. It wasn't to do anything specific but, due to the nature of his abilities, it was best to have them active long before he entered actual combat. Emerald lightning arced between his fingertips for a moment as his magical circuits activated.
He concentrated on the marks on his hand. There were certain powers afforded to Masters, such as the ability to detect the location of the nearest Master or Servant. It wasn't anything major, but it did give a general direction.
They followed that sense through the forest to a small village. Saber's eyes narrowed as she surveyed the area.
"He's here. He's hiding somewhere in the forest, fairly close to where we are." She informed him. "I'll get the Servant."
Harry nodded. "Alright. Be careful."
She smiled back at him. "Aren't I always?" Harry chuckled at that as she leapt into the trees. He watched until she faded from his sight.
With his Servant gone, the happiness on his face faded, leaving him with an utterly expressionless face. Without bothering to wait, he raised one hand and a huge bolt of emerald light leapt from it. It roared as it shot into the sky, illuminating the entire village. The buildings soon emptied as the villagers poured out to see what the commotion was about.
A dark smirk appeared on his face as he saw the flaming spears in the hands of some of the larger men. Crackling light engulfed his hands as he prepared for a fight.
Saber leapt through the trees. She had no presumptions about sneaking up on an Assassin, but she could at least try not to be caught off guard. Her senses had been honed over the past ten years, and it had become rather easy for her to detect other Servants.
There! She ducked to avoid a dagger thrown at her head before she swung her blade, wreathed in her Invisible Air. She unleashed the bounded field, and the bladed wind shot forward, leaving her blade mostly unveiled. It tore through a tree, but the Assassin managed to avoid it. She drew it back to her blade even as she leapt after the other Servant.
She rarely had to release it enough to expose her weapon completely, and just a small amount of the field was needed to conceal the identity of her Noble Phantasm. She'd spent a great deal of time learning to manipulate it freely. With the amount of prana available to her, increasing the field's size was simple.
She stepped onto a branch before immediately diving to the side. She'd felt the prana left as a trigger, and wasn't surprised when daggers shot through her previous position from three angles. Clearly the Assassin was an expert at setting traps. She considered summoning her armor before deciding against it for the moment. The Assassin was already faster than her, and while her armor was light, it would still weigh her down.
She came to a stop in the middle of a rather large clearing. The forest around her was surprisingly dark, considering it was only late afternoon. Once she stepped down, she found out why. The shadows came to life, trying to spear her, even as daggers shot out of the darkness at every angle. She concentrated her prana, drawing power from her Master's circuits, which lay within her body, as well as her own draconic Magical core. Light erupted around her as her armor formed with a wave of power that destroyed every attack aimed at her. The Assassin tried another volley of knives, but with a swing of her blade she hurled them away from her body with another use of her Invisible Air.
To her great annoyance, she saw the other Servant fleeing from her. After a moment's grumbling at the lack of chivalry the other warrior displayed, she leapt after him.
The forest was growing even darker now, and Saber was being forced to move much slower. The Assassin's strange shadow-based attacks were becoming rather irritating. She could feel her enemy growing further and further away. It was trying to circle around and return to the village. Her Harry was strong, but she didn't want him having to deal with an angry village and an ambush from an Assassin Servant. Finally having enough, she decided on a new course of action.
With another blast of prana she drove the shadows away. Air swirled around her entire body. There wasn't enough of it to make her actually invisible, but it completely wrapped around her. She swung her blade behind her and it turned a glorious gold. She poured power into the blade as she leapt and it responded by unleashing a powerful blast of light which propelled her through the air.
Like a bullet she shot through the air, her bounded field shielding her from the trees. Even when she made contact with one, her immense velocity, in conjunction with the bladed wind enveloping her, allowed her to punch right through without even feeling the sharp spear-like pieces of bark that broke on the field around her.
She quickly caught up to the Assassin and swung her blade down. Searing golden light mixed with tearing wind and obliterated a group of the large trees that the Servant had been heading towards. Saber landed deftly and launched herself at the black-clad Assassin, unwilling to let it escape into the trees again. The Assassin raised two of its daggers and managed to stop an overhead swing.
Unfortunately for the other Servant, Saber's weapon was far more potent than most Noble Phantasms. Just blocking three of her strikes was enough to reduce the daggers they wielded to dust, forcing them to withdraw others from the shadows of its cloak or be killed.
It managed to narrowly avoid her eighth strike, before lunging at her, trying to circle around and catch her at a blind spot. Unfortunately, Saber's battle instincts were too strong for it. She managed to drive one of her shoulders into the Assassin's chest. She forced a huge amount of her prana into her shoulder, unleashing the largest prana burst she had used in weeks. The blow, rather than merely being a strike from a young woman's small shoulder, was akin to being fired out of an enormous cannon, sending the Assassin shooting out of the trees. Saber quickly followed.
Apparently, the other Servant was still capable of fighting, as their ability to manipulate the shadows into attacks harried Saber as she tried to pursue the Assassin. She hissed in pain as a blade of shadows managed to nick her cheek, before powering though the other attacks with another prana burst.
She managed to escape the trees, landing on a cliff. The Assassin was standing up closer to the edge. Saber could see the blood dripping from its back and, from the look of the wood jutting out of its back, knew that the Servant wouldn't have much more time without healing.
"You were a good opponent." She admitted quietly, before launching herself forward. The Assassin wasn't a bad fighter, but they were no match for Saber in open combat. After a few exchanges, Saber managed to drive her blade through the other Servant's forearm, severing their arm just below the elbow. It was only a few seconds later that she to cut through their other shoulder, the odd two dagger style not working very well with only a single weapon. She gave them credit for fighting through the pain of losing a limb, but this fight was over. She drew her blade back and with a single swipe clove the other Servant's head from its shoulder. Her armored foot came out and struck the other servant in the chest, another small prana burst sending their body over the cliff. It dissolved into light before it hit the water.
Harry's arm was wrapped in lightning as he ducked into the guard of another of the warriors. His touch tore through the man's arm like wet tissue paper. He swung his hand back, the lightning gathering into an emerald blade that seemed to devour the flames of the spear it cut through. He brought the sword back and neatly removed the leg of another man who attacked him.
His lightning leapt out from his body, consuming a haphazard attempt to blast him from afar from one of the mages of this tribe. He sent a reply of a lightning bolt that rendered them unconscious, with probably second degree burns.
He felt that he was doing a rather good job of restraining himself. At least he'd tried not to kill anyone. Saber would be happy, he hoped. He felt a tingling in his seal and focused on it to receive the message from Saber.
He saw one of the older women in the tribe drop to their knees, clutching their hand and smirked. At least he knew who the Master was. He shot forward, wrapping his hand around her head. One hand descended, gripping the hand with the command seals. Searing light severed the connection between Master and sigils.
"It'll be painless." He said to the fearful woman. He wasn't sure why, but Saber always said that sort of thing to people before she had to execute them. Well, that wasn't quite true. He understood why she would say it. He just didn't know why she wasted her breath on these people. He only said it because it would make her smile when he told her later.
Lightning erupted from his hand and the woman slumped to the ground, her head a charred mess. He glanced around, before plotting a path out of the middle of this mob of people. With a flash of light, he seemed to teleport away, even those with supernatural senses only able to see the trail of light of his passing.
Well, it was a bit shorter than I'd planned, but I hope it was alright. I may choose to rewrite it at some point, depending on the reviews I get.
I tried to give an idea of how Harry's distortion affects his thought process. His distortion is not as pleasant sounding as Shirou's 'I want to be a hero' is. It'll probably come out in a few chapters. If anyone has any ideas as to what it is, I'd like to see some guesses.
The plane thing I just put in there for a bit of fun. I enjoy coming up with enchantments.
Any guesses as to the nature of his Reality Marble? Obviously I haven't revealed much of it, but from what you've seen, what do you think its powers are?
How were the combat scenes? Too much violence? Too little? Obviously Harry's scene wasn't meant to be a major battle, but I'd still like to know how I did with the Saber fight.
Next time, a Servant is summoned at Hogwarts.