Fate On(e) Savior
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
A/N: Thank you for your review, coronadomontes.
Chapter 7: The Aftermath
"Why did you rush in just like that?", an outraged Waver wanted to know.
His Servant just stayed quiet and refused to meet his eye. That just angered Waver even more.
"I told you to wait until one of them was defeated! Yet you attacked just like that, disregarding anything I said! And what's worse, you left me behind, vulnerable to attacks from all the others! If Saber and that mysterious guy had wanted to, they could have killed me! Just why didn't you listen to me!"
Rider still looked down, a sorrowful expression in her eyes, while Waver stared down at her. She looked so fragile. You wouldn't believe this small girl to be a Servant. Waver remembered, how Rider attacked Lancer, after Kayneth threatened him and sighed. How could he be angry, while looking at this child? He sighed again and patted her head. Surprised she looked up. In her eyes were already the first traces of tears.
"Just try to listen a little bit more to me", he asked of her. "And please, don't leave me behind again."
Rider jumped up and hugged him, pulling him down onto her futon, refusing to let go. Waver just hoped, the MacKenzie's wouldn't walk in on him right now or it could be pretty ugly, since he was in no position to erase their memories right now.
Kirei, Risei, Assassin, Volquart and Avenger stood in front of a gramophone that was placed on top of a column. Interested Avenger was inspecting it from top to bottom.
"What's that? And what can it do?", she asked hyper.
"This is something that lets us to contact Tohsaka Tokiomi", he explained patiently.
"Indeed", came his voice out of the gramophone, "but why would you show this to someone else, Risei?"
Before the priest could answer, Avenger decided to take the matter into her own hands.
"Tokiomi, right? I am Avenger! Let's get along!"
"So, what, another one?", an annoyed voice made itself known onto the other end. Volquart dragged her away and addressed the Master of Archer himself:
"Greetings, Master Tohsaka. My name is Volquart Weissbach, a magus from the clock tower and the Master of the Servant Avenger. Someone else had been trying to violate the Holy Grail system and through a stroke of luck, I managed to summon my Servant, which saved my life. But I know that I will have no chance to reach the Holy Grail by myself. That is why I propose that we both join forced until all the other Servants are defeated and then let our Servants decide who will win the Holy Grail and reach the Root!"
Tokiomi stayed silent for a short period of time, but then accepted.
"Very well, let us proceed this way. I am looking forward to working with you."
"It's a great honor for me."
"Good, now that that's settled, can we go to the real purpose of this meeting and get this over with?!" It seemed, Archer was as impatient as ever.
"If I may", offered Assassin and after an affirmative nod from his Master, he began to summarize the important facts:
"Today we have encountered four Servants. First is Lancer, the one who issued the challenge. He is an Asian teenager and definitely not the King of Conquerors, wielding either a normal spear, a trident or an electrical lance. He claimed the electrical spear is his Noble Phantasm, but I don't think that's necessarily true. Why? Because he didn't issue ist name.
Further worrying are the other abilities he displayed. A large beam of light, fire, place switching with a voodoo puppet, transforming into an unblockable monster, suddenly shooting skywards or gaining speed, not to forget his ability to see through Saber's invisibility. That is the one, I would think about as the most worrisome. Why? Because it could find someone hiding himself, so it might work against my Presence Concealment, too. All in all, I think this Servant is not Lancer but Caster. Why? Because his great range of unnamed abilities and use of potions. Of course, there is still the question, why a Caster would announce a challenge and not hide within their territory."
"Indeed", added Kirei, "this Servant raises a lot of questions. But for now to Saber…"
"Yes, Saber, the Servant of the Einzbern, who was the first to fight against Lancer. His attire and weapon of choice, a katana, is clearly pointing towards Japanese origin. And opposite to his opponent he used only two abilities: Meikyō Shisui and Kyōka Suigetsu. The first allows him to become invisible, the second to create a mirage-like copy. Both of these abilities have similarities to "genjustu" or illusion techniques, as you may call it that are really fitting for someone of the Assassin-Class.
Yet it isn't possible for him to be Assassin. Why? Because only one Servant of each class will be summoned in each Holy Grail War and I can assure you that I am indeed, the Servant I claim to be. Still, his sword isn't a normal katana, but one that, after cutting an opponent, stops the wound from healing and rapidly decreases the targets health. The only known counter to that, right now, are the potions, Lancer used. Either Lancer knew this curse and had the right potions ready, or he has a potion against most curses and luckily it worked against this specific one, too. Now someone could argue that Saber might be a Caster in disguise, but he only showed two abilities that both activated only with a certain movement of his sword. It is more likely for him to be a Saver in disguise."
Now Risei interrupted him:
"But that itself is implausible, as the Einzbern are proper Master in this War and already had experienced failure with an irregular Servant. They wouldn't try that this time again."
"So, leaving Saber aside for now, the next would be Rider, a small girl with blond hair and again Asian features. This one is the most likely to really be the Servant as claimed. Why? Because her footwear of choice had been wheels, her civilian attire had been a wheelchair and she summoned a hug spider-like construct with wheels. Furthermore, the way Rider's Master addressed her leaves little room for doubt.
Rider's Master seems also to share an interesting relationship with the Master of Lancer. From what I have concluded, he stole Kayneth summoning catalyst, but still didn't manag to summon Alexander the Great and instead became the Master of that girl. The Servant in question didn't took gently to him threatening her Master to the point where she focused only on Lancer, even contradictory ignoring her own Master's safety, something that is definitely going to cost her her Master in this war. Rider's abilities include summoning an army of small spiders and the aforementioned construct, fully or partly, as her shield showed us. The construct itself is capable of unpredictable movements and shooting sweets bigger than a human. All in all, even if it is clear that she is a Rider, she is still an unusual Servant."
"Which leaves only the last one", continued Kirei.
"Right, the mysterious priest. The one we don't even know the class from. We only know that his features are Asian with white hair and he is wearing black and red priest clothes. That and his two Noble Phantasm. One of them being…"
"…Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum (Ninety-Five Theses), associated withMartin Luther", finished Kotomine Kirei for him.
How would he not know about it? Martin Luther was one of the most famous monks in Christian history. And with hearing the name, all assembled Servants received the information about him from the Holy Grail.
Martin Luther was a German catholic monk, who wasn't satisfied with how the church made money from its believers and spoke against that. He strongly distributed his opinion that atonement for one's sins should be given free and not bought. This lead to the Protestant Reformation and the splitting of the Christian Church. His Ninety-Five Thesis were the arguments he wrote down. And the mysterious priest used them as a Noble Phantasm. The logical conclusion would be, the real identity of the priest being Martin Luther…
"…but Martin Luther had clearly been German origins", Assassin refuted this theory. "And even if we assume that through some special circumstances he now has a different appearance, there is still his second Noble Phantasm: Als ich ein kleiner Junge war. No matter how much I look into the legend of Martin Luther, I can't find a book named that way."
"Could it be that's just something he used in life?", Avenger asked.
It was possible. More often than not the objects a person used in his past life could be used, when summoned as a Heroic Spirit, even if they weren't on the same level as Noble Phantasm. They were just treated the same way as their clothes.
"That is indeed possible", Assassin admitted. "And it would also explain, why he didn't attack Rider's Master, given the chance. Why? Because Martin Luther was averse to taking up arms."
"So, the priest could be Martin Luther. Although you failed yet to mention, what the effects of his Noble Phantasm were."
"Right, forgive me. Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum was capable of turning Rider's spider-like minions against herself and Als ich ein kleiner Junge war absorbed the sweets coming out of Rider's construct. Furthermore I don't think that are all of his abilities. Why? Because I could see him carrying a third book in the fight which he didn't use."
"Maybe it's the bible", offered Avenger, "he was famous for that, wasn't he."
Kirei thought about that.
"If he is using a bible, he might be capable of materializing 'Black Keys' from its pages, like some members of the Burial Agency. If that were the case he might have other Conceptual Weapons, too."
Risei nodded.
"I'll be asking if there are records of Martin Luther joining the Executors", he decided. "If this Servant really is the reformist and a member of the Executors, he might be the additionally summoned Saver, as he would be fitting as someone saving people."
"So", mused Tokiomi. "if he is Saver that would leave only Berserker and Lancer – or Caster, depending on whether the Servant lied about his class or not."
"Please continue with the surveillance of the Master and their Servants, Assassin", Kirei asked of his Servant and soon enough he faded from their view.
Kayneth was a little disappointed in his Servant. Of course he knew that he was rather good as a Caster, with his Territory Creation…
"…but what's the point in having the skill Double Summon, when you are weak in your original class?", he asked his Servant, not exactly expecting a satisfying answer.
"Well, excuse me, Master, but not everybody is capable of seeing through illusions!"
"Yes, that was one fact, but why would you want to issue a challenge against everybody, when you were clearly not capable of even keeping up with one Servant?"
"I just didn't want to show all of my abilities on the first day. And who was the one agitating Rider into attacking me without restraint?!"
"So, are you telling me that it is my fault that you lost that badly? Don't make a fool out of me! Your Noble Phantasm couldn't even compare one bit against hers!"
Lancer laughed, what irritated Kayneth even more.
"Stop laughing! Your incompetence is clearly no laughing matter!", he demanded.
"Please, Master, tell me, when I used this spear, did I ever call out it name?"
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, what I mean is that I may have used my Noble Phantasm, I never activated it once. That was all its passive effects. Please, Master, what does your Clairvoyance tells you, about my Rank in 'Noble Phantasm'?!"
Every Master had another ability granted to them by the Holy Grail. It was the ability, to see the Parameters of all the Servants. "Strength", "Endurance", "Agility", "Mana", "Luck" and "Noble Phantasm". Strength showed physical power, Endurance the tolerance to damage, Agility the speed, Mana the amount of prana one could handle, Luck the amount of Luck one had and Noble Phantasm the strength of one's Noble Phantasm. It was displayed with letters from E to A with E the lowest and A the highest, together with EX for "too high to be ranked". And his Noble Phantasm was ranked…
"A", Sola-Ui answered his question in his Master's stead.
"That's right: A. Do you really think, the ability to produce some little sparks would count as A? Although admittedly the Rank of my spear is only D, but it would still be higher than what you've seen."
"Still, Rank D is not very impressive. Rider's Noble Phantasm has to be at last Rank C!"
"Alone that might wouldn't have been enough, I know, but together with my abilities and summons, I am confident, I could have taken her. I just didn't thought it would be a good idea to go full out at the beginning with other Servants watching! But you had to agitate Rider so much that I had to show a lot bigger variety of attacks than I actually had wanted. Now no one is going to believe, I am not a Caster in some way! We can only hope, they think I lied about my class and take them by surprise with my spear or when the real Caster shows up, they would disregard my abilities as something not bound to my legend that I showed to keep them guessing about my identity, so that I can take them by surprise with this castle. Our only real advantage is that the other Master and Servants doesn't know about the skill called Double Summon and I would like to keep it that way! Get it, Master?!"
"You are getting ahead of yourself! You seem to forget who the Master is in this relationship!"
"Seriously, let's face the facts, you are only called Master because you have those fancy Command Seals on your hand. The one with the greater strategically thinking here is definitely me."
"You dare…"
"Oh, come on, Master, you're always only defeat this, defeat that, strong, weak. Not every battle is won with pure military power. Look at the concept of Assassin, he…" Suddenly Lancer grew silent. Kayneth, who couldn't mold words, because of his outrage at his disrespectful Servant, was surprised at the sudden stop in the talk. His wife too, was rather astonished. He stopped just like that, right in the middle of the sentence.
"What is it, Lancer", Sola-Ui tried to bring him out of his musing and sure enough, registering her voice he turned around to face her. With a loud and excited voice he spoke towards her.
"Assassin!", he exclaimed. "It was Assassin on top of that crane! It all fits! 'Search Eye' only shows what is hidden and it had to be a Servant and not a magus because of the place. Only someone who was still visible would choose that place and being both visible and hidden at the same time just screams Presence Concealment! So, it had to be Assassin!"
"But I saw Assassin dying", Sola-Ui objected. "Do you think it was just a trick?" Lancer snorted.
"Wouldn't be the first time someone doesn't stayed dead. You should have seen Dimitri. He feigned his death while possessing me without me noticing. Imagine my surprise when he appeared again. And copying my ability, that bastard. Well, he shouldn't have. Nasty experience, I can tell you, nasty experience."
"Oh, so what happened to this Dimitri", Kayneth wanted to know. Usually Lancer kept anything hidden that could lead to his identity, but right now he seemed to be in a rather talkative move. And he really wanted to know what would happen to someone, who tried to copy the abilities of this Heroic Spirit.
"You don't want to know. It had been ugly, really ugly. And painful, not to forget the painful. Well, to be fair, I don't know for sure about the last one, but it looked at last really painful. I mean, his ribcage exploded! That's gotta be painful!"
"Your old enemy aside for now", Sola-Ui interrupted his musings about the grotesque memory, "what shall we do about Assassin?"
"Well, as long as we remain inside this castle, he won't be able to attack us, as he wouldn't be able to get inside unnoticed, even with Presence Concealment. So we don't need to fear a surprise attack on the Masters. For now we stay inside our stronghold like a good Caster and wait for the others to take each other out."
"I really don't want to take such cowardly actions", Kayneth said scowling, "but with your skills, that would probably be the best course of action."
Kiritsugu, Maiya, Saber and Irisviel finally all met in the Einzbern Castle to discuss their new course of actions. Kiritsugu actually hadn't wanted his wife to be part of this military get-together, but there was no way she would let herself be singled out. Saber had reverted back to his Standard-Form and together they had come to mostly the same conclusions, as Team Tokiomi, with one exception. Saver. They just didn't knew, what this new Servant was going on about. Someone using magical books to fight would be most fitting under the Caster-class. Yet Lancer was the same. But there could only be one of each class. So, there couldn't be two Casters.
"Maybe Lancer really was, what he claimed to be", suggested Saber. "I mean, I, too, have some abilities that doesn't exactly fit into the Saber class! And he didn't even activated them as his Noble Phantasm!"
Saber was right and the gathered people knew it. He was the living – more or less – proof for that.
"What happened to Lancer and his Master?", Irisviel wanted to know. Kiritsugu looked towards Maiya who took out some notes.
"We managed to track down Lancer to his base of operations. As it appears, el-Melloi did buy a house, just for the Heaven's Feel. Although what is worrisome is that he doesn't appear to have brought any furniture for the house or let them deliver to him." This was indeed worrisome. A guy like Kayneth would never forgo his luxury. So, they either had to carry them in some sort of mystical bag or create them somehow themselves.
"But wouldn't that mean that Lancer actually is a Caster?", wanted Saber to know.
"There are no records of el-Melloi being capable of feats like that, so it has to be his Servant", Kiritsugu reasoned.
"But what class would that make the priest?", wondered Irisviel.
"The only ones who we can exclude are Saber, Assassin, Rider and Berserker. That leaves Lancer, Caster and Archer. For now we should focus on finding out the identity of the Servants with the given information. This includes Als ich ein kleiner Junge war and Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum. Do we know the locations of Rider's and the priest's Master?"
"Negative", Maiya responded. "They both noticed the familiars following them. Rider destroyed it outright, while the priest used again his Noble Phantasm, so that I had to destroy it myself. If my deductions are correct, it can make any familiar and maybe even other remotely controlled constructs turn against their master. A dangerous ability for any puppet master."
"Do you think this works one Servants, too?", Irisviel asked, looking concerned towards Saber. Kiritsugu thought about it for a moment.
"It is possible, but rather unlikely. He showed it far too freely for it to have such an overwhelming ability. But we should refrain from using any familiars around him."
"So, how did you like it, Master", Saver asked Akage as they returned to the warehouse they've made their make-shift home. After leaving Akage's parents behind, the next thing on the list was to find a new home. (Saver actually had a real list, but he hadn't been tall enough to read it, when Saver crossed out the first point.) As they had no money, they couldn't just rent a room, but luckily there still was the abandoned warehouse Saver was summoned. They just had to tidy up a little and soon their new base was set. Saver put some paper slips with strange symbols around, proclaiming that they would hide them from their opponents. So far it seemed to work, as they had yet to be visited by any other people.
"It was great!", he answered the question enthusiastically. "They just – zack, wush – and then – bumm, krack. And then the giant spider: Awesome! And then you like a boss: 'Stop!' Incredible! " Saver chuckled.
"Great you liked it. It's good to know that if you're dying, you at last die flashy, right?" This put a damper on Akage's enthusiasm, as Saver effectively got him down to facts.
"Right", he exclaimed. "They are our enemies. They are the ones we have to defeat."
"Well, three of the seven."
"Do you think you can defeat them?"
"All at once? Hardly. But it seems like I have good cards against Rider. Lancer is definitely hiding something, Saber is going to be a pain to hit and Assassin never moved once."
"Assassin?!"
"Yeah, on the crane. You probably were too captivated from the fight to notice him. Now that I think of it, here for you!" He reached inside his coat, took out a small book and gave it towards Akage. He curiously accepted it.
"What's that?", he asked and Saver laughed.
"Why don't you open it?" Quickly Akage followed his lead and uncapped it. He looked at the first page. Unlike novels, which were written in prose, this looked more like a character sheet. On the upper right there was a picture of Saber, or rather his head and shoulders. On his face there was the smug grin he had displayed earlier, too. And next to that…
CLASS: Saber
Master: Irisviel von Einzbern
True Name:
Sex: Male
Strength: B
Endurance: A
Agility: B
Mana: C
Luck: D
Noble Phantasm: B
Class Abilities
Magic Resistance: B
Cancel spells with a chant below three verses. Even if targeted by High-Thaumaturgy and Greater Rituals, it is difficult for him to be affected.
Riding:
Skills
Noble Phantasm
Meikyō Shisui: Ripples on the Surface
Rank: C; Anti-Army; Range: 0-20; Targets: 200 people
A technique that shifts oneself into the blind spots of ones opponents.
Kyōka Suigetsu: The Moon Reflected on the Surface of a Puddle
Rank: B; Anti-Army; Range: 0-20; Targets: 200 people
Noble Phantasm #3
Rank: B; Anti-Unit/Anti-Phantasmal/Anti-Spirit; Range: 1-2; Targets: 1
A Japanese katana. After cutting, the sword places a curse on its victim, forcing it to rapidly losing health and refusing the wound to close.
Every new topic was written on a new page. The page "Skills" was completely empty except the title.
"Hey is that…", Akage began and Saver nodded.
"A magical book on the Stats of all the Servants you encountered. It gets updated every time you learn something new about a Servant. Handy, isn't it?" Akage nodded and mesmerized read the book further.
CLASS: Lancer
Master: Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald
True Name:
Sex: Male
Strength: C
Endurance: B
Agility: A
Mana: A
Luck: D
Noble Phantasm:
Class Abilities
Magic Resistance: C
Cancel spells with a chant below two verses. Cannot defend against Magecraft on the level of High-Thaumaturgy and Greater Rituals.
Battle Continuation: A
Makes possible to fight even with deadly injuries and can remain alive so long as one does not receive a decisive fatal wound.
Skills
Collector: B
The talent to collect high quality goods.
Lancer can collect weapons, magical potions and amulets below B-Rank.
Noble Phantasm
CLASS: Rider
Master: Waver Velvet
True Name:
Sex: Female
Strength: C
Endurance: B
Agility: A+
Mana: A
Luck: D
Noble Phantasm: B
Class Abilities
Riding: A
All creatures but those of Phantasmal Beast and Divine Beast-rank can be used as mounts.
Magic Resistance: B
Cancel spells with a chant below three verses. Even if targeted by High-Thaumaturgy and Greater Rituals, it is difficult for him to be affected.
Skills
Noble Phantasm
Noble Phantasm #1
Rang: C; Anti-Army; Range: 1-99; Targets: 1000 people
A giant spider-like construct with wheels, capable of high-speed movements and turns. It is also capable of firing an unlimited amount of macaroons from its mouth.
CLASS: Assassin
Master: Kotomine Kirei
True Name:
Sex: Male
Strength: D
Endurance: D
Agility: C
Mana: B
Luck: C
Noble Phantasm:
Class Abilities
Presence Concealment: A+
It is possible to disappear completely and become almost impossible to be detected. However, efficiency will decrease once preparations to attack are taken.
Skills
Noble Phantasm
"That's funny", Akage commented. "You are depicted, too." He looked closer. "But you are the one, I have most information over."
Saver snorted.
"Well, duh, maybe it's 'cause I am your Servant. But be careful! This book depicts everything on the same level of your knowledge. So, even if someone is depicted as a Saber, because he stated he is one, doesn't mean it's absolutely true. And some things are ranked lower than what they actually ar, because of some sort of circumstances. Take as an example the Noble Phantasm-Parameter. It doesn't show up, unless you see them using one and even then he might still have a Noble Phantasm of a higher rank hidden. So, be careful while using that book!"
Akage nodded.
"Thanks, Saver."
"Don't think anything about it. I am just being a good Servant. Now get to bed, tomorrow you are going to have a very taxing day!"
"Yeah, 'day' is good."
"Just go to sleep already!"
A/N:
Hi guys and gals.
This chapter deals with the conclusions that the different parties came to, after the fight. I didn't show Waver's, since he most likely would come to the same conclusion as others. Tokiomi didn't think Saver could be Caster, because he didn't thinkof Disputatio as a magical book, since he doesn't know about Shakespeare and Andersen. Since Kiritsugu never heard of the 95 theses, he would conclude they are a magical document and thus make him fit for Caster.
The book I had Akage read, is actually a book that appears within the nasuverse and was the perfect opportunity to show the stats of the Servants that fought. I didn't include Saver, since Akage already knows more than I want the reader to know about this Servant.
This is also the last time I am going to include Akage's book within the chapter. Instead I'll put it in the author notes the next times.
If you somehow disagree with the stats of the skills and Noble Phantasm, please tell me! I am not so sure myself and if a lot of people disagree with my choices, I would change it. Of course it would be good, if you give a reason for your choice, too.
Gashadokuro Amanojaku
