I gasped for air when my eyes snapped open and I threw myself up into a seating position. Frantically, I looked around with my panicked breath, seeing nothing unnatural.
Letting out a mental sigh of relief since my breath did not calm down in the slightest, I checked over my body.
Normal black hair, normal flesh and skin…
After touching myself, I let out a sigh of relief and kissed my arm before lying back down on the grass, chest quickly moving up and down as my breath just wouldn't get still.
Thank god, I still have a body! Not sure how I still had it, but I didn't look into the gift horse's mouth. It felt nice to be...back on the ground so to say. Even if it felt like a small cage, but I preferred it right now.
It was like I was finally back home. Not that I was, I knew that for a fact.
Grasping the cool, wet grass in my hands, I tried to stop hyperventilating and instead focus on breathing while also processing what happened what felt like mere moments ago.
In...and out...In...and out.
With my breath finally calm, I shook my head and dusted the dirt of my hands, before covering my face into them with a gritted teeth and a loud groan.
I was in another world.
And just got Heaven's Feel.
Okay, maybe I should elaborate a little more…
/
First I died. Dunno why, but it just happened. I think heart attack, but I didn't pay much attention to it since I was in incredible pain.
While the cold engulfed me, I felt my...soul getting pulled out of my body.
That's when I saw it.
The reddish, black swirl that sucked me through it.
Not an expert on dying, but I was sure that was not natural.
The last thing I saw were panicking bywalkers surround my body and one even trying to revive my body. Then I couldn't feel anything anymore. Only thing I had were my thoughts and even that ability began to leave me when the energy tornado that sucked me in made me dizzy as hell. I didn't know how long I was in there, but it took everything out of me to not...black out.
Still, I managed to stay conscious and managed to get through the weird portal.
Once I began to gather my wits again when the chaos stopped, I opened my soul eyes.
If I wouldn't have been dead to begin with, the view would have been breath taking.
Stars were everywhere, reaching beyond what I could see. Galaxies, moving in harmony with their neighbor. Planets, full with life, protected in their areas, existing in peace. The vast void in between and beyond those places.
And there it was, in the middle. Don't ask me how I knew, but I saw the middle of this...place.
A great, bright and white area, with a small darkish spot in the middle, with an even brighter light in its very epicenter. Its swirl was creating such a strong force, it threw everything out and sucked everything in.
That's when I finally realized what I was looking at.
I saw the universe, no, the multiverse. And I saw its origin.
Akasha. The place where all souls go and where all souls come. Beyond time and space, it storaged all information. Past, present, future, it didn't matter.
It filled me with awe, seeing such a trancending, primal force. And I felt fear.
That fear fueled me as I tried to move away from it.
Despite its beauty, I tried my best to stay the hell away from it when I shook out of the awe. It was the origin, the root of all things.
And it would be my end as well.
I knew what would happen and I put all my meager power against the pull it had. It was futile, my efforts slowed me down only by a small fraction.
But I still tried.
My soul would get reduced to it's core properties. The person I was would never exist again. And naturally, I didn't want to die. Not like this.
Even if I would only exist as a wraith, I didn't want to cease. Hell, I didn't even belong there, so why should I go there? I knew that such thoughts wouldn't change the outcome, since Akasha didn't gave a damn who I was or what I wanted, but I would be damned if I didn't try at least.
I didn't know why, but fate decided it was not my time.
The pull stopped all of a sudden. No, it didn't stop. Someone stopped me. I was filled with gratitude back then, but it would be quickly be replaced by dread.
I was still outside in the universe. I could clearly see Akasha. But I also saw wires binding me, pulling me against the swirl of the multiverse.
Slowly turning my incorporeal head around, that's when I saw...it.
An effeminate looking person, barely bigger than your average seven year old child, was staring at me with mild amusement, playfully moving its fingers as it pulled me closer and closer to itself with the wires.
I had no idea what its sex or gender was, so I would just call the person in front of me an it.
Anyway, what grabbed my attention the most back then however was its head and its clothes.
White, long hair and red eyes. Bishop like, pure white clothes.
Einzbern.
Of course, it could have been a random albino child with pope clothing, but the fact that I knew at the core of my being where I was, there was only one explanation. The Einzbern family was one of the families that managed to discover a True Magic.
Heaven's Feel. The materialization of the soul. And as far as I was concerned, I was a soul and therefore belonged to its territory.
It would explain why the Third Magic couldn't be rediscovered again by the Einzbern.
Because the path was still in use. Because its user left the living plane and therefore was unreachable by others.
Considering all these hints, I decided call it Protobern.
"Oho, what a fortunate coincidence!" Its voice was young and a girlish giggle escaped it as it held its stomach in amusement, pulling me so close that I was mere inches away from it.
Still, something was off. The innocent demeanor had a...weird edge to it. As if there was more behind it.
I tried to speak up, but no noise came out of my throat. I tried again, frown clear on my face, but nothing came out. I guessed that souls normally couldn't talk, but it was counterproductive. I needed to know more.
Protobern simply eyed my antics with amused curiosity as it circled around me, arms folded behind its back.
"Usually souls return to the Root too fast for me to catch under most circumstances. But lucky me, fresh soul right here, with enough will power to not go in there instantly!"
I would have hummed in interest if I could. That would mean that some greater force, Alaya or Gaia, the will of humanity and Earth respectively, were actively working against her. Good to know.
The question was, why me? I tried to send my thoughts over to it as I concentrated with great force, grimacing and gritting my teeth in the process.
It just blinked for a moment, before making an oh sound and tapping its own head with a chuckle.
"Right, you can't talk here as a simple mortal soul." Crossing its arms, it leaned forward with a wide grin. "I guess you are confused. 'Oh powerful Sorcerer, are you not mighty enough to reach all souls?' Well, the forces of the universe don't like me do that thing, so they are often too fast for me unless I focus very hard or am nearby enough."
I sent it a glare. It was nice to know, but that was not my question. Also, the child thing was starting to get on my nerves. Still, Protobern ignored my frustration and petted my soul head with a nod, as if it made a big discovery.
"I guess you are a big enough anomaly to not get their attention too quickly."
Then, its voice gained a melody like tone and wiggled with its left index finger.
"Surely you question why I consider it lucky that I found you~!" Suddenly, the smile fell and for the first time, I saw it frown. "Quite easy, I...require your assistance." It stopped and made a contemplating expression, before shrugging and gesturing towards me. "I mean, not exactly yours, but since you are here, why not?"
Wow, I felt so special. My frown intensified, but instead of laughing, it ignored my irritation and surprisingly bit its lip.
"How to explain..." Closing its eyes, it let out a sigh before tapping its own forehead. "I've been struggling with a problem and I was torn on what to do. Should I or should I not? But here I see you and thought...I should!"
I gaped at the being in front of me, huffing in pride as its hands were on its hips, letting out a loud laugh.
Were all Sorcerers crazy people?!
As if sensing my thoughts, and I was sure it could, it sent me a knowing smirk before pointing its finger at me dramatically.
"Right, you don't know what to call me. Well, my name isn't very important, so call me what you want. What is important, is you!"
I tilted my head. What made me so special?
Protobern's smile suddenly got a more...honest edge to it I guess. It made me trust the Sorcerer more for some reason.
"Do you want to live? No matter the cost?" The smile faltered slightly. "I can tell you, there will be a cost. A big one, I wouldn't want to wish on any normal being. And I am not exaggerating."
That sounded a lot like a deal with a devil. But less douchebag devil, more honest business man devil.
Still, I let my indignation show on my face and tried to cross my arms, before realizing that I was still bound by its wires. So instead I was nodding frantically.
Protobern hummed in thought and stared at its right hand, shaking its head as its slowly moved its fingers as if playing with something.
"And what would you do if you would get great power?"
That...sounded rather random as I glanced upwards, wrecking my head. Honestly I would do...not much with it. Maybe make my life a bit easier, but I wouldn't go out and try to conquer the world or experiment like a mad man. I didn't have the ambition for that.
I wondered why it asked me that. Perhaps it would give me a power up when getting me out of here, but I couldn't know.
I didn't bother to be surprised when Protobern nodded in approval, happiness radiating from its small smile.
"Hm, hm...Good..." It gestured towards me and then pointed at my head. "You probably realized I could just read your soul like a book, but it's been ages since I had a good conversation." It let out a sigh. "Most are so...boring." Shaking its head, it glanced at me. "I mean, you are also boring in a sense, but if you met the people I met, the vain are a good change as well!"
So that must have been hell, I thought. Being sassed by a midget half my size. As if regaining some kind of social politeness, it dared to blush and scratched its head awkwardly with a small giggle.
"I went off topic. Apologies. Better hurry this up before someone notices." With its open palm, it presented it to me as if giving me a gift. The smirk similar to the devil almost seemed to taunt me. "Living. Yes or no?"
There was definitely something off. Not the smirk, the gestures, but its face. There was almost a plead in its eyes, as if begging me to take the offer. If I cared more, I would have asked why it was so insistent to give me this choice.
But all I thought was to survive. To not be reduced to pure mana or whatever else it was called.
With all my might, I mentally screamed 'yes' with every fiber of my soul.
The smirk almost split its face in half, but its eyes also became a bit misty for some reason.
"Perfect~!" It rested its hand on my forehead and leaned in, smirk reduced to a small smile. "Welcome to my world…my heir."
The whisper filled me with confusion, before my eyes widened in shock when I processed the last word.
Before I could voice out my concern, pure power began to fill me. It was as if lightning struck me, as energy exploded inside me.
And it was an absolute bliss.
No amount of happiness, no kind of entertainment could compare to what I felt at that moment. It was as if I reached Paradise.
And don't get me started on the knowledge. A...metaphysical path got crammed into my head. But instead of agonizing pain, it smoothly found its way into my mind. So did millions of memories, which I knew was about how to operate Heaven's Feel. But I couldn't grasp a single one of them, all escaping into the depths of my own head.
As fast as it came, it stopped. But there was still some lingering...glory.
That's when I noticed that my soul felt...more free. The pull from Akasha stopped entirely. And I wasn't near incorporeal.
It was as if I had a body. A body of a superhuman, but a body nonetheless. And my mind felt free, wide. I knew I could absorb entire libraries into it and it would not even remotely reach a limit.
What I felt...was limitless potential.
I couldn't help but giggle. Then it became a full on laughter. Only now did I realized how limited I was as a mere mortal. I could do anything, take on the entire-
I stopped instantly.
What the hell was I thinking?
I just said I wanted a simple life and now I wanted to pick a fight with everyone?
That...wasn't me.
Dread filled my face as I began to hyperventilate.
Power was corrupting. Only now did I realize its real meaning. Hugging myself, I let out a shaky breath and closed my eyes, afraid of what I could do.
Then I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. Turning to it, I saw Protobern, smiling softly at me. With pride. Somehow, it managed to calm me down.
"I believe in you to not abuse this power." A small chuckle escaped it. "Well, it's limited now anyway, so you have plenty of time to come to terms with this and learn about it."
I nodded weakly, understanding the safety measures for me. Considering I almost gave into the seduction of power, I needed that.
It took me a moment, but my eyes widened at the implications at this.
I had the Third Magic.
That meant Protobern didn't have it. Only one can have a True Magic. That's why it called me its heir. That's why it gave me the path.
It would explain why it started to become more and more transparent.
The more important question however was...
"Why…?" I absentmindedly realized I could actually mutter the word out, but I was too busy putting all my confusion and shock into this single word.
Instead of an answer, it sadly shook its head.
"Thank you...and I am sorry for the burden you have to carry now...I hope you will understand."
Longingly, it stared back to the Swirl of the Root. The indication of this froze my entire soul.
They wanted to commit suicide. But not before passing on the power to me.
It only put my mind into more of a frenzy. It didn't explain anything.
Before I could speak up again, it turned back to me and the most pure and grateful smile met me. It stopped me long enough for it to put a hand on my chest.
"Goodbye. And good luck."
With this whisper, it pushed me with its last power.
And I accelerated between the stars, loudly screaming in the meantime. Protobern got smaller and smaller in mere seconds, before it completely vanished from my sights.
Meanwhile, stars and galaxies went past me as I rushed in between them, no idea how to stop myself. Instead, I tried to turn my body to look into the direction I was flying.
Between the galaxies, I flew against a blue and green planet in extreme speeds. Closing my eyes, I expected impact with a scream.
Then I blacked out, last thoughts about how I wanted to know my predecessor more and the regret that came with it.
/
I took a calming breath again and rubbed my eyes that began to tear up when I woke up from my memory trip.
I wouldn't even try and understand why they gave me the power. Why they looked so...tired and somber. Why they wanted to die and waited so long to give up Heaven's Feel.
Were they stuck in a metaphysical prison? A geas perhaps? Did their mind break only now? Did they see something special in me or was I the final nail on the coffin?
Questions I would never get an answer now.
I should stop thinking about this. The least I could do was honor their memory. The small memory I had anyway.
Heaving a breath, I raised myself, shook my head and blankly stared at my knees.
Anyway, to summarize, Protobern dumped her or his Magic into me when I got in range, committed suicide in that way and now I was in Nasuverse with said Magic.
Somehow.
I won't even think about how I got near the damn Root in the first place. Won't help me anyway. I didn't have much in my own world anyway, so not time sulking about it.
Instead, let's focus on my Magic.
I had an instinctive knowledge of it. It would nudge me to the right path and tell me if I do something right, but for that to trigger I gotta experiment with Heaven's Feel myself. So it was true that my predecessor limited me.
But with the short time I had it, I realized three things.
One, I could leave my body anytime. Second, my soul form itself was limited as well. And three, I could sense and outright hear spirits.
It was like living next to a highway. Constant noise, that was a bit hard to ignore. Instead of engines, it were voices however. I couldn't make out anything and it started to give me a headache.
I shortly forgot about the limits of a human body, but it reminded me of my own mortality. I knew not much could kill me.
But not much didn't mean nothing.
Anyway, gritting my teeth, I willed myself to ignore the annoying droning noise in the back of my head. Shoo, ghosts, shoo!
A few minutes of grunting and gritting my teeth with closed eyes, blissful silence finally settled in. I wiped my forehead and let out a deep sigh.
Alright, got that done.
Now to where exactly I was. Only because I had Nasuverse powers didn't mean I was in Nasuverse.
Taking a look at my surroundings, I wondered where exactly I was and where I should go from here.
A grassy hill overseeing a town, that looked like your average anime city with the white buildings and stuff. The moon shined brightly and illuminated the spots not lightened up by lamps and the like. Almost no traffic could be heard, so it must be very late or very early, depending on the time.
To my right was a strangely flat rock and some trees. Left side was also a bunch of trees.
I scratched my head.
That did not tell me a lot where I was…
Wait a minute. That rock. Trees. Nice view on the city...
I think I was at the same place where Rin confessed to Shirou in the UBW route. Maybe, it did resemble the anime.
Either that or I was delusional.
Or I was too hopeful.
I clicked my tongue. I needed more evidence. Maybe I should go down to the city. But it would raise questions.
Not to mention the potential language barrier.
I winced slightly. That was a rather bad situation I was in.
A light growl escaped me as I crossed my arms and my forehead wrinkled. Gotta think my future steps through or else I could get into a lot of trouble.
Deciding to finish my round in the meantime, I looked behind me.
Surprise, more trees.
I let out a sigh. Course it couldn't have a sign that said "You are at X".
Since that was not the case, I started to turn around, deciding I had to go down there eventually.
But something caught my eye, and I did a double take.
There was...something red peaking out of one of the trees.
What was that?
I squinted my eyes, putting all my effort into my focus. Then, something moved out from b-
Quickly, my head snapped back into its proper place and I stared down to the city.
I blinked. Then I let out a small breath and nodded.
Nope, did not see a red shadow observing me creepily behind me in that forest.
My breath began to become more frantic as I swore to whatever higher power that was up there that my eyes played a trick on me.
But a large part of me knew that it was there. And it was dangerous.
Something in me told me that at least. Maybe the past knowledge of my predecessor. Or maybe I saw it when I surfed through the internet.
If my Nasuverse was better, I would probably know what that thing was.
Since I did not know, let's ignore it and hope it would go away on its own.
Easier said than done, as I sweat buckets and grabbed the grass in front of me to resist the temptation to turn around.
I didn't want any trouble, so why the fuck was it there?! My breath by now was in full panic mode, as several thoughts went through my head.
What was it, what did it want, what did I do, what could it do.
And the worse was, the temptation to turn around grew bigger. I knew it would be the death of me, I read Orpheus and knew it would be the worst thing to do in such a situation.
But I couldn't help it. I saw it and my curiosity won the battle. I turned around, screaming loudly at my own weakness, tears running down my eyes.
Aaaand it's gone.
…
What the hell, what the hell.
As my breath began to calm down and I rubbed my eyes, I squinted.
The shadow was gone. I knew for a fact it was there, but for some reason it was gone.
All my strength left me and I fell down on my back, my hand covering my eyes as my face was blank.
Guess the higher powers probably did not like me having the Third Magic. That might only be my paranoia, but I did not want to stay on this planet if there were more stalkers like the red thing.
Or universe.
Or multiverse.
Yes, out of the multiverse sounded nice.
That meant…
I grabbed my left arm with some pressure, determination filling my eyes as I stared to the moon.
I had to find Zelretch immediately if I wanted to get out of here.
"You are aware you are talking out loud, right?"
To be fair, after the red shadow, it was natural for me to scream like a girl as I jumped up several feet and frantically backed off with a half assed karate stance.
The old man simply leaned on his walking stick with mild amusement directed at me. With the black outfit, similar to modern Japanese military uniform, the white gloves, gray heir and the red eyes, it wouldn't be hard to confused him with some fit veteran soldier.
But I knew exactly who he was. It was like an instinctive knowledge again, as I pointed my shaking finger at him.
Predicting my reaction, he chuckled and slightly bowed in a polite manner.
"Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, the Kaleidoscope in the flesh. And you are..." A knowing smirk appeared on his face. "Heaven's Feel?"
I was about to answer, before taking a deep breath and scratched my head with an annoyed sigh.
"Apparently. My predecessor didn't even give me a manual for this crap. Anyway, my name is..."
Telling him my name, he nodded in interest. Then we stood there in silence for a moment, as he assessed me with a glint in his eyes. I on the other hand became a bit introspective.
I noticed that I was not as socially incompetent as always. Guess that True Magic boosted self esteem, who could have guessed?
Also, when I told him my true name it felt...off. Thinking about it for a while, I realized why.
By all means, I was not that person anymore. I left that life behind now.
I wouldn't just discard my name and forget it, but it felt wrong to cling to it either.
So I decided to pick a new name and cherish my original name. To remind myself.
I let out a chuckle, breaking him out of his musings about me and pointed at myself.
"But you know what? Since this is my new life now, new name. Obsidian Noir."
He raised an eyebrow, smirk still in place.
"Let me guess, that's your internet name?"
"Yeah. What about it?" I asked with a slight pout, crossing my arms. He raised his hands defensively, but his smirk didn't change.
"Nothing, nothing. It just sounds...very lame."
I huffed, making him chuckle slightly, as I gestured to myself with my right hand with a frown.
"Considering I have one of the True Magic, I don't think anyone can force me to change it."
Zelretch shrugged casually and then put his walking stick in his left hand, before pointing at himself.
"Hm, good point. And I don't really care what you call yourself. Either way, Sid. I can call you Sid, right? Anyway, what do you need me for?"
As the wind made the trees rustle in the background, I wondered how to phrase my request. After biting my lip, I shrugged and decided to be blunt.
"Survival training and preferably a ticket to a normal world like my own." I stopped momentarily and raised a third finger. "Preferably, preferably, without magi, Alaya or some other supernatural bullshit in the background."
The old man let out a loud laugh, making me nervous slightly, despite its lack of malevolence. When he finished, he wiped a tear off.
"Straightforward, just the way I like it." Smile still in place, he tilted his head and gestured to me. "But why should I? By all means, I have no obligation to babysit you."
Opening my mouth, I tried to form an objection. But I closed it again, when I realized that he was right. Why should he help me? It wasn't like he was a good Samaritan or a messiah. He was just an old man with super powers and sometimes helped out. It didn't mean he had to.
Wrecking my brain, I tried to find a way to appease him.
Money would be out, as did power. Maybe some good stories? Booze?
What did Sorcerers li-
I shook my head, ending these lines of thought. Thinking of the stereotypical old wizard wouldn't help me here. I had to treat him like a normal person.
A super human person, but it wouldn't help me to treat him like anything special. So...
"How about we talk for a while and maybe you take a liking to me?"
His smile faltered for a moment and tilted his head in confusion. I on the other hand tried to suppress my blush at how blunt I was. But it was the only approach that I could think of.
I'll just pretend this was a date and go from there. Not that I ever was on a date, but I could try.
Luckily for me, Zelretch shrugged and playfully looked at his wristwatch.
"Sure, I have some free time." He looked up and gestured to the flat stone I previously mentioned. When I sat down, the old man held his hand in front of his face, looking a bit sorry. "Do you mind if I get a chair? These old bones of mine aren't healthy enough to sit on this very flat rock."
I shrugged, not really caring, and took a deep breath while he conjured a chair out of nowhere. He sat down and crossed his legs. With folded hands, he stared at me in expectation.
I stared back, sweat running down my neck as we stared at each other in silence.
This felt like a damn job interview. I awkwardly scratched my head.
"So...what year is it?" I slowly asked, deciding that I might as well get some information while making a good impression on one of the most powerful beings on this planet.
"1992." He scratched his beard in interest. "I assume your dimension has my dimension as some kind of literature?"
"Anime, light novel, visual novels, all of it," I explained, lazily moving my hand around. Then I frowned slightly in order to remember some data from my memories. I snapped my fingers and slightly shook it as I pointed at the vampire with my right hand. "Two years before the Fourth Holy Grail War, right?"
"Indeed," he stated and didn't say anything more.
Mentally, I cursed. I wanted to get him to talk a bit more.
Zelretch probably wanted to see how good I was at holding a conversation. Or what I said wasn't much of a conversation line.
Damn it.
"Why did you build it in the first place?" I asked, before looking down on the ground with a confused expression.
Now it felt like I was interviewing him and not the other way around.
Surprisingly, when I looked up, he had a joyful expression as he delved into his memories, before shrugging nonchalantly.
"I didn't build it, I was there to supervise the whole thing. Nagato, the Makiri and the Einzbern build the thing themselves. The most I did was tell them how to reach the Throne of Heroes for their idea and that was it."
I hummed in interest and leaned forward with folded hands.
The more you know.
Still, something bothered me as my eyes squinted in thought.
"You knew it wouldn't be as omnipotent as they thought it would be," I stated, pointing my folded hands towards him.
He openly grinned in response and raised his hands in mock surrender.
"Of course I did. But for the goals they wanted, reaching Akasha and finding Heaven's Feel again, it would have been enough." His cheer got replaced by disappointment as he huffed and crossed his arms. "Of course, they and their descendants have to screw it up at least three times over for some reason or the other. Honestly, I am staying out of it until something interesting catches my eye."
His pout was a bit off putting. But I had to ask, as I mustered up a glare at his reaction.
"You are aware that the Holy Grail could be used for evil, right?" I asked in a heated tone, disbelief written on my face.
By all means I should be afraid, but it angered me a little that such a powerful being acted so willy nilly about such a dangerous device.
To my surprise, his face became more serious and I gulped as I backed off slightly.
"And I would intervene, if I really had to. Most of the time however, there are others that can do my job. I don't have to clean everything up if others can clean their own mess up," Zelretch said dryly. I tried my best to meet his glare, but I couldn't help but let out a whimper.
"If you say so," I squeaked out and avoided eye contact. I awkwardly tipped my index fingers against each other."Well, I can tell you, the Fourth one will be a cluster fuck like the Third one, I can tell you that."
I took a deep breath to calm myself. I couldn't get too pissed at him. It would be against my plans. When I turned back to him, I jumped back for a moment.
Instead of a moody Sorcerer, his small grin was pointed directly at me.
His mood took a complete turn, as his usual, interested face stared at me.
Did he fake his disapproval? I had no idea.
Before I could recover from, it was his turn to press me with question.
"Why do you want my training?"
I blinked and scratched my chin as he leaned back in his chair, awaiting my reply in light excitement.
Huh, getting right to the meat. Didn't expect that.
Still, I already thought about it and decided to share the truth with him. I leaned back, supporting myself on my hands and stared up to the stars.
"I already have True Magic and I might as well find out more about it and the other stuff. They do sound interesting. Not that I will use them much if I have a say in it. Just want the knowledge for the more you know and safety measures, then lean back and live an easy life." I frowned and let out a sigh before gesturing with my left hand a little. "Okay, maybe I help people here and there, but that's it."
"What, no search for glory or challenges? No, going to be the hero?" The Sorcerer asked, tilting his head slightly. I scoffed in response.
"Someone else can be the shounen protagonist. Not me," I replied before straightening up a little.
The vampire chuckled and shook his head. Opening his eyes, they were filled with empathy.
"How bland. But, understandable. At least you have more personality and honesty than any other magus I came across. Akasha this, Akasha that...no one who just wants to learn for learning sake or to better himself and the world." He frowned as he tapped on his stick to his right in slight irritation. "Hmph, my teachings are not simply a means to an end."
"Huh, didn't know that they pissed you off that much," I replied, blinking slightly at the show of emotions.
He lifted his right hand and waved it a little as his voice grew a bit tired.
"I have morals. Sure, I do prank people, but I do that to keep myself sane. No real harm done. I consider myself an overall decent person," he proudly pointed at himself with a childish grin, but I felt that he believed what he said.
Honestly, it intrigued me a little to know more about the Kaleidoscope in front of me. I almost forgot entirely about my original intent to convince him to train me. I began to care more about the person himself.
"Is that why you preferred Nagato Tohsaka?" I asked, leaning my chin on my right hand. I read that Nagato was different from the usual magus, but I couldn't remember much about him.
"Yup. I like other decent people and he was very decent back then." A warm chuckle escaped him as Zelretch looked up to the sky, floating in memories, before turning back to me. "So tell me...your world is completely normal. No magic. No mutants or super science. No aliens?"
"Aliens could be there, we just don't know it. But far as I know, no magic." After I shrugged, I raised an eyebrow when the Sorcerer pouted for some reason. "What, not different enough for you?"
He raised his right hand in a placating manner.
"Not really. I mean, it is refreshing to only hear of small changes, but I like the big stuff. Like metahumans. Or kaiju. Kaiju were fun to look at."
The way he said it was like different shows he was watching. But for me, it was stuff out of fiction. He snorted weakly when I lied down on the flat rock.
"I can't even imagine what it would be like," I said weakly, my imagination failing how Zelretch could experience the Second Magic like he did.
"It's basically like very good TV. Or VR," he commented in small amusement, drawing a TV screen with his fingers in the air.
"You don't drag other people off to spice it up, right?" I asked carefully as I raised my head slightly. He shook his head, thankfully for my nerves.
"Nah, I'm not that desperate for entertainment yet." He stopped momentarily and then gave me a frown. "Let me guess, fanfiction writers?"
Honestly, I should have felt slightly insulted as well, since I wrote fanfictions as well, but at this point, I weakly raised my hands in mock surrender while still lying on the rock.
"It's very easy to do in your case since there isn't much written about you."
My explanation only made him grumble like a child as he crossed his arms and muttered something about kicking Nasu's ass when he got the opportunity or something like that.
Though that made me question one thing, considering that there was a big lack of knowledge about Zelretch anyway.
"Speaking of magecraft and all that..." When I got his attention, I sat up again and folded my hands in front of my mouth. "Why don't you use anything more complicated? I mean, the only thing you ever used was that super laser."
"Story of my life?" The Sorcerer asked with a raised eyebrow. I shrugged in response.
"Was mentioned somewhere in the works. I read it on a wiki."
He made an understanding 'ah' sound, before leaning his head back as he actually glared at the moon, before looking back at me.
"Most of my attention is split on getting the energy in the first place. And anything above traveling and that energy gathering needs more focus. Nothing I can use in mid battle." For the first time, the vampire looked sad as his shoulders slumped slightly. "And that's in the past. With that body now, anything more complicated like omniverse or this fractional Gaeshi thing is beyond me now."
"What can you do now?" I asked. The Sorcerer let out a sigh, before starting to weakly gesture with his hand.
"Watch small parts of the omniverse. But I can't do anything with it. Not a clear picture either. Traveling to the nearest alternative dimensions, but that takes a lot of effort out of me. Simple magic spells that involve using other dimensions as fuel, but I am starting to get weaker. The battle against the damn moon man took its price. Too much energy in one go, without precautions can do that to you."
As his head hung low, his mood completely down, my eyes began to widen.
I got the bargaining chip I was searching for. Maybe.
He wasn't the only Sorcerer around now, was he? And unlike Aoko, I knew exactly what my Magic roughly entails.
"How about I fix your problem?" I asked, a sly tone creeping into my voice as I grinned with crossed legs and I leaned forward.
Zelretch looked up, blinking slightly with an unreadable expression. Then he gestured with his right hand.
"Continue."
Having his full attention, I began to elaborate as I tapped my chin.
"I guess since you can't go to more distant places, I assume you can't find any esoteric healing stuff?"
"Yup, everything I found here and other dimensions wouldn't do the trick. Why?" Zelretch asked in a suspicious tone. I chuckled slightly and crossed my arms.
"How about...Heroic Spirits?"
Unlike how I expected, he let out a tired sigh and handwaved my suggestion. Yet, my grin was still there. He rolled his eyes and looked down on the ground.
"Already tried to snatch one from a Holy Grail war. Not enough time nor power. Counterproductive if I used my energy and we made a safety that I couldn't participate in it anyway. Other magi can't sustain them enough to help me out anyway. It would take a lot of...prana..." He trailed off, the implications of my words slowly dawning on him. Hope lightened up in his eyes when his head snapped towards me. "But you aren't bound by the Grail, are you now?"
I grinned slightly. Gotcha.
"Exactly. I can get you a full Heroic Spirit, no limiters in neither prana, time or power." I stood up and opened up my arms in glee. "And I don't have to stop at one. I can go through the Throne of Heroes and find the best magi and magicians of humanity's history to help you."
"And in exchange I offer my service of my newly regained powers and train you." Zelretch's grin was as wide as mine as he stood up. "I'm impressed. I didn't think much about this meeting, but you convinced me." He extended his right hand towards me, with his left hand resting on his cane again as he dismissed his chair. "I, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, will tutor you and keep you safe. Until I found a safe place for you that is."
"And I, Obsidian Noir, will do my best to heal you of your wounds," I responded in an equal traditional, but happy tone as I shook his hand with my own.
The deal was sealed. I got my ticket out of this crazy multiverse and got a way to learn how to defend myself.
Which meant training.
My smile faltered slightly as we still held the hand of the other.
"The rumors about you being a hard teacher are a lie, right?" I asked, a nervous chuckle escaping me.
The vampire's grip became stronger on my hand and he leaned forward as his smile grew darker.
"Gee, I wonder..."
At his evil tone, I gulped.
"I need an adult," I squeaked out and he shook his head as his grip was like iron around my hand.
"I am an adult. Also, what do you worry about? You are technically immortal."
"Emphasis on technically," I protested weakly, but he just petted my hand with his free left hand. But instead of reassuring, it felt like a death sentence.
"Well, let's find out how much emphasis that term has."
I was so screwed.
/
Okay, I wasn't that screwed, but the next three months were still a pain with my fellow Sorcerer.
Zelretch wasn't that much of a troll as everyone made him out to be.
Trolls were complete nonsensical in their antics.
No, he was just a little sadistic.
I could tell that from the way he told me to do stuff.
Example. Reinforcement. Usually I should start with non living objects to empower, before slowly moving on to my own body.
Instead, he forced me to reinforce my body from the get go and simply healed it in order to make me learn faster. Also, he only explained it to me once, in a very abridged version, before telling me to just do it.
Apply that spartan way on almost every other art and you would understand how the Kaleidoscope taught people.
Alchemy, Alteration, Runes, didn't matter.
One time telling me, risking my body at it, all while making mocking jokes.
No wonder most people broke under him.
But it was efficient. The crash course made me adept in most common magecraft basics and honestly, it was fun in a twisted kind of way.
And I managed to get on first name basis with him.
Calling him Kischur was weird though.
I also got to know way more about the Moonlit World. Its history and gimmicks in general.
During those lessons (mostly happening during physical training sadly), I asked him about the red shadow from when I woke up.
He became awfully quiet. Then he made me promise to never mention it ever again.
I promised and hoped whatever it was lost interest in me permanently.
Anyway, beside the usual stuff, I experimented on Heaven's Feel.
I managed to find out I had in fact infinite prana thanks to my soul control, but had a limited output. My sensing and effective range for my Magic was almost as big as the country of Germany. Though it was getting harder and harder to pinpoint stuff the wider I went. But I found out one good loophole in this rule.
If I had some kind of anchor, I could trace all relations to that one soul. Pretty handy.
But it didn't go too smoothly in all stuff.
Interactions with souls were a bit iffy. I had to make sure I was mentally strong enough to communicate with a spirit or else they would try to overpower me, if they were malicious enough.
Kischur managed to save me a few times, though he tripled the training as punishment for my lack of attention.
Also, during my experiments, my body blew up.
Guess it wasn't made to handle the kind of training I did. Or Install, the art of summoning a Heroic Spirit into my body.
Probably Install.
Cu Chulainn was not amused to be thrown back into the Throne like that. Nor was the vampire, when he realized that I couldn't do conventional training, since it wouldn't have a purpose on a transcended soul like me.
Because of that, he decided to quickly adapt to it and find out how tough I was in soul form.
Answer, a lot.
I could tank several A-Rank spells from him and still survive. Sure, a few building busting attacks at once hurt a lot once he found out how to affect me directly and I was the soul equivalent of mangled, but I quickly recovered in mere seconds.
Offense wise, I had a much higher output than in my mortal body, able to shoot out more attacks than the Kaleidoscope himself. They were even more potent, despite being a bit crude in execution.
Considering that Kischur needed special magecraft abilities just to hurt me, there wasn't much that could defeat me in this world.
It was tempting to just stay here and mock others while beating them up. But I managed to erase such thoughts when I realized I had them in the first place.
The Third Magic was very tempting.
With the limiters in place, I wasn't going on the same power trip like when I first got my powers, but it still made me feel...non human.
Luckily Kischur promised me to get some spare bodies. The question was, from where, but he didn't tell me.
Anyway, with the experiments and basics down, I could finally get to doing my part of the deal.
Getting the Heroic Spirits needed to get the job done.
Which meant going to the Throne of Heroes and recruit them for maximum synchronicity rate.
With the small time I spent with the Lancer before my body got ripped to shreds, I could feel how I could only access a fraction of his powers, because I kind of Installed him without forewarning. Basically broke into his room and kidnapped him.
Suffice to say, it didn't make for good impression and therefore diminished the Install potential greatly.
Therefore, I needed the full approval from the Spirits to get full powers. At least I assumed that the same rules went for summoning as well.
So yeah, Heroes of ancient times, while I was a normal eighteen year old guy. No big deal.
I was a little nervous, naturally.
Anyway, it was my first time actually going to the Throne and it was not as I expected.
The Throne of Heroes was wonky as fuck on first glance.
It wasn't even a throne, it was just that weird mix of millions kind of different prana signatures in one metaphysical plane.
Thankfully, it didn't stay that way and became something that I could interact with much, much easier.
On the other hand, the way the Throne decided to appear was wonky itself.
It became a weird, magic dimensional equivalent of a...hotel.
I wish I was kidding.
Decorated in golden walls and red carpets, it looked like the kind of hotel that rich people went to for fancy parties. The reception was completely empty, but it had a guest book.
A very thick guest book. When I looked into it, I found it listed all the heroes.
Every. Single. One.
Dunno if it only looked like that to me because it adapted to my mortal mind or not.
Anyway, I had to go through the name list and then follow the instructions to get to their specific hallway and then the door.
Knocking in order to recruit some heroes was very weird.
It was very frustrating to spend what felt like hours to think of heroes that could help me out.
Before you ask, Zelretch forced me to find my own solution, since it wouldn't be very fair, according to his own words, if he had to help for my part of the deal as well.
Jackass had a point.
Thankfully, with my memories, I could think of a few solutions.
First of was actually someone who just a simple mortal in life, but became deified after death thanks to his accomplishments.
One of the first architect, engineers and doctors in humanity's history. Imhotep.
The main reason I picked him first was because I had to identify the actual problem of Kischur's injury. And why not get the best doctor on this throne to diagnose this?
The man was quiet polite and pleasant, who actually looked forward to such a challenge.
The Kaleidoscope was not a very common thing to research about, so the plain looking Egyptian was rather giddy about the challenge.
And boy, did he succeed.
Heroic Spirits were broken.
With the mass knowledge of the Throne itself, the man had all resources to make a solid diagnosis on the cause of Kischur's weakness.
After analyzing the injury and giving me a lot of complicated medicine talk during that, he gave me certain instructions based on the list of other heroes I had in mind in order to solve this.
With the diagnosis, I went on to get one of the major preperation stones for my plan.
A master in runes. And nobody was better in runes than the Irish themselves.
At least from the top of my head.
In order to get the best teachings, I went to Aife, the Queen of Warriros and sister of Scathach.
And before you ask, Scathach wasn't on the Throne of Heroes, because of her whole ascension bullshit. Next best expert on runes was her sister.
Even though she was more of a warrior and the worse rune user, she was still a knowledgeable master.
And I could confirm she could beat her sister at least seven out of ten times. Overpowered didn't even describe her.
Also, very harsh in her teachings.
I could confirm that Heroic Spirits could harm each other in the Throne of Heroes. They just couldn't die.
Anyway, she looked similar to her sister. Red eyes, dark reddish, short hair and a similar body suit apparently all Irish wore. Though it was a bit more modest than her sisters, with way more padding to make it less...revealing. And it was more brownish, for some reason.
She was very gruff and tomboyish overall, but taught me when she found out how I summoned the guy who beat her in an unfair manner just to have him experience the pain of a body exploding.
A very womanly laugh escaped her back then, which made her blush then and made me swear secrecy with a lot of killing intent.
Still, I made her day and she taught me in the usage of runes, mainly in the ones of healing.
Compared to the way I learned before, it was like she shoved the knowledge right into my brain and nailed it down.
It was a pity not many remember her, because she was a damn good teacher.
I think she took a liking to me by the end of it, because she acted more like a mother figure to me than before. Still a tomboy though.
Before I could leave however, she made one request for me.
"Please kill my sister."
When she uttered those words out, plead barely a whisper, I thought my ears were broken.
The literal incarnation of victory, an ascended being.
And I should kill her somehow.
When I questioned why she would want her dead, she sent me her infamous death glare.
"She fought long enough. She deserved to rest right here next to me," she muttered quietly.
We didn't talk about it any longer, but I realized how much she loved her sister, despite their differences. And since she couldn't save her...Aife gave the duty over to someone who potentially could
Still, I put this on the very bottom of my checklist. It would be very hard to accomplish that anyway, even with Heaven's Feel. Scathach killed monsters and gods almost on a daily basis, I didn't think anything less than Ea could potentially kill her.
Also, mercy kills left a sour taste in my mouth.
Moving on from that, I had one last person to get.
I got the internist and one of the machines for the operating room ticked of my list so to say.
Now I had to get the surgeon.
Only one person came into question in my head and it was the one person I was afraid of the most.
Medea. The Witch of Betrayal.
If someone could brew up a potion or use magical means to heal Zelretch, it was her. Divine Words were one of the key parts I needed and she had them.
Imhotep could use Divine Words as well, but after comparing it to Medea, the latter had way more experience in using magic. Magecraft. Whatever.
When we first met, I could feel how she was analyzing me, to find out a way to use me for her own gains. When she let out a sigh, I could tell how she lost almost all motivation to even interact with me. Still, she was courteous enough to hear me out.
There wasn't a hint of interest when I explained to her that I needed her service in order to cure Kischur and she refused at first.
But after I told her I wanted to go back to my safe old days, as much as possible anyway, she became awfully quiet. Then she suddenly agreed with the summoning, her expression completely hidden by her black hood.
I think I hit a nerve with the whole, wanting to go back thing. For what reason, I didn't know. Not very sure on that. Well, at least I didn't had to force her to help me.
With that, I returned to the living world and summoned in order to use her abilities.
Lucky for me, the Counter Force did not drop the hammer on me when I summoned her. But I could notice just how much prana she sapped from me just in order to exist in the real world.
Anyway, I summoned her a few times, so that she could plan out the whole healing thing. During all that, we got to know each other. For better or for worse.
She was slightly creepy. And I felt she would slit my soul throat every time I turned my back to her or let her into my...well, not body, but soul.
Also, the Caster constantly threw me weird stares. I assumed she was looking out for any kind of betrayal.
Not that I would have done that, but I guess her legend made her paranoid as hell.
Still, Medea was rather pleasant, once you get past the suspicious personality. We even managed to make some casual banter and she had at least a little sense of humor.
Perhaps she realized it wouldn't help her to betray me, since it would only get her back to the Throne or worse. She was very aware of the Counter Force and wouldn't want to risk it by using me to reincarnate again or similar. Because of that, she was very cooperative.
At least I thought so. Maybe she helped me out because she was just bored. Or the empathy thing I mentioned earlier was the reason.
Anyway, it took me another five months just to get the preperations done, but I could say that I was ready.
Which brought us back to this moment.
Somewhere in the middle of nowhere of Europe, we were surrounded by no civilization in miles as trees were our only companions.
The Kaleidoscope sat in the lotus seat position, surrounded by a runic field, as Medea made the finishing touches in a cauldron.
The Greek woman didn't talk at all, abruptly stopping the casual conversation about her early life and potion brewing days when the Sorcerer teleported in.
Memo to self, Medea was very shy around strangers when not in life and death situations. Either that or she went back into "expect betrayal at all times" mode.
Either way, the old man in front of me pouted like a child, grumbling impatiently as he tapped his left arm.
"I hope I get ice cream when this is done."
I rubbed my face and groaned at his childish muttering.
"Don't expect it from me, I'm broke," I replied dryly.
Kischur chuckled for a moment, before sobering up. After taking another of his million glances at Medea, he turned to me and sighed.
"Could you at least explain how this will work?" He asked while gesturing at the whole set up.
I shrugged and began to pace around the runic circle.
"First of all, this is not viable to anyone without a near infinite amount of prana," I explained in a lecturing tone, raising my finger. Kischu just dryly stares at me.
"So...us."
"Yup," I replied in an equally flat tone. Then I cleared my throat.
"Anywho, Heroic Spirits I hired for this job. I contacted Imhotep to find out the main problem of your condition and a good approach to fix that. Think of him as an expert on magical inner medicine." When he nodded, I continued on, pointing at the runes. "Then I contacted Aife in order to create a better surgery room, with runes and all that."
"I already tried runes, they don't work," the vampire interjected with a frown, but I waved him off.
"They are only there as amplifiers." I grinned and pointed at the Caster, who began to fill up a vial with her magic juice. "The main surgeon power comes from Medea."
Hearing her name, the Greek woman turned to me, with probably a raised eyebrow. I gave her a thumbs up.
"Really appreciate what you are doing."
Medea huffed in response, but I could see how her mouth corner twitched at the compliment. Then she carefully handed me the small bottle.
"It is done," she said in a professional tone and I nodded. Turning back to Kischur, I handed it over to him.
He eyed it in interest, observing it from all angles, before giving me a questioning look.
"Potion to make the healing stronger," I explained and he tilted his head in response.
"How many amplifier-"
"Last one," I quickly interrupted him. Then I pointed at Medea, who held her staff in front of her, face filled with focus. Well, mouth, but you get the point. "Now, she will speak some magical words and they should heal you the way Imhotep prognosis told me."
"It is not as crude as you describe it, but yes. I shall use my Divine Word Incanations to heal this man," the Caster responded dryly, as she sent me a flat stare, before letting out a sigh and turning back to her work.
"I am sitting right here," Kischur said slightly insulted. When Medea didn't react, he rolled his eyes before turning back to me with a slightly nervous expression. "So how likely is this going to work?"
"Very likely." I stopped for a moment before shrugging. "It might hurt a little though."
"You have a name for it?" The vampire asked dryly at my casualness of his potential suffering. I turned to Medea, who shrugged herself before focusing back on her own work, muttering like crazy in her ancient tongue.
By now, the circle began to softly glow.
"Not really. We just call it 'Healing spell for dead apostle suffering from overusage of the Kaleidoscope.'"
"That's a stupid name," my fellow Sorcerer said with a judging stare and I raised my hands in mock surrender.
"Still accurate."
Before any of us could say anything more, the circle was exploding in a sudden light, prana filling the entire area.
Thank god we made a Bounded Field before hand or else Gaia or Alaya would be dropping hot fury already.
As I covered my eyes, I could feel the energies filling the area, that Medea's words and the spell set up caused. Carefully, I adjusted to the brightness and what I saw was a rainbow colored master piece.
Scratch rainbow, it was almost every color in existence.
And each color had one domain.
Healing. But it was more than that.
Completion. Optimization. Reversal. Harmony. Empowerment.
And a lot of other components I couldn't remember. Suffice to say, a lot of concepts were used to give Kischur a perfectly healthy body that wouldn't suffer any big consequences like he did from just overexerting himself against Crimson Moon.
A literal miracle was created in front of me, as Medea's words almost reached shout volume and the light began to intensify. The pure Magic created in front of me was stuff out of legends, my eyes in awe as I stared directly in the sight of the different powers mixing with each other to create a literal symphony.
It would have been more epic if Kischur wasn't groaning in discomfort all the time. Or if I wasn't in constant mild pain from the prana getting sucked out of me to support this event in happening in the first place.
After what felt like a short eternity, all the light began to vanish.
Then the entire circle blew up into a dust cloud.
Medea and I patiently waited for the dust to clear as our ragged breaths began to settle.
Then a voice that did not belong to Kischur spoke up from the cloud and the Caster and I looked at each other with a small gape.
If it were in another situation, it would have been funny to see the Witch of Betrayal gape at something, but right now my brain was busy rebooting.
No way.
"I'll be damned, it wo-" The young voice stopped momentarily, cheer replaced with confusion. "Why does my voice sound so weird?"
The silhouette began to leave the dust cloud, slightly coughing.
When we could finally see the figure's full body, my jaw dropped completely.
"Holy fuck," I managed to speak out in a shocked tone.
"Oh my."
I could swear that Medea was blushing slightly when she sat that, because when I turned to her, she suspiciously found the rock formation to the left very interesting.
Anywho, the reason for my reaction.
Good news, Kischur was healed.
Why I knew that?
He became a goddamn bishounen.
Not a single facial hair was on his smooth face, as he rubbed his chin. His hair, now short, was shining like silver in the moon light. And he was very well toned, muscles decorating his body. Not overly so, but enough to call him very handsome. Because of that, his clothes were a little too big for him.
It was like I was looking at his grandson.
"I did not expect this," the young Kischur said in an astounded tone as he admired himself in a mirror he projected.
"Neither did we," I replied in an equally thunderstruck manner, nodding dumbly as my eyes processed the picture in front of me.
"Unexpected side effects. But not negative." Medea cleared her throat, shaking me out of my awe and turned to me as she bowed in courtesy. "I shall take my leave then."
"Thanks for everything. Maybe talk to you later," I replied in a cheerful tone and bowed slightly as well.
"It was...a nice change of pace."
With that, I released my hold on her and she vanished in the air, returning to the Throne of Heroes. I let out a relieved sigh, the pressure of keeping her on the real world lifted from my soul.
But I hummed in thought.
I had the strange feeling she was embarrassed.
…
Nah, that couldn't be.
Turning back to Kischur, I saw his bishounen self grin widely as he flexed his body, doing very stupid poses.
"How do you feel?" I asked in slight amusement. Hearing my voice, he stopped what he was doing and turned to me, hands on his hips as his grin threatened to split his body.
I could see his sharp vampire teeth glittering.
"Better than ever! I feel like I can take on the damn moon man again and this time without having a hard time!" He summoned up a small energy ball in his right hand, with the colors of a Kaleidoscope, before making it vanish. "It's like I got an overall 400 percent increase in performance! And I look hot on top of that!"
Then, he picked up his walking stick, before making it vanish to somewhere. After that, he ran towards me and crushed me into a bear hug before I could react in time.
"I never felt so alive since ages!" He exclaimed in glee. I would have shared that happiness, but instead I let out a strangled groan.
He quickly let go and at least had a sheepish expression on his face as I bend forwards to get my soul body back in place.
"If I weren't a super powered soul, you would have snapped my back ten times over."
After I managed to get back into normal body shape, the vampire chuckled awkwardly as he scratched his cheek.
"Sorry. Gotta get used to my new body." He paused for a moment and his smile became softer. "But seriously...thank you."
"Thank me by doing the second part of the deal." I awkwardly cleared my throat as my cheeks heated up and looked away. "D-did you find a way to fix my body problem?"
"Technically. One question." Kischur's trademark mischievous grin graced his face. "Can you speak German?"
"...We are going to see the Einzbern, aren't we?" When he nodded at my blank question, I let out a sigh before nodding as well. "Yes. Yes, I can."
"Good, so I don't need to jam the language in your head like Japanese."
I frowned at his joyful reply
"That still hurt like a bitch," I mumbled in annoyance, but he ignored it as he prepared some kind of warp portal in a few seconds.
Judging from his childish giggle, I assumed he couldn't do that so easily in the past.
"But before that, I need to make a stop at a clothing shop!" He exclaimed in an exciting tone before ushering me in.
Though I rolled my eyes, I was happy that I could help it. The sense of accomplishment felt...nice.
/
Why did the Einzbern family have to be located in the tundra regions of Europe?
Despite the thick bear coat I wore, my nose was still running as I hugged myself in order to stop the shivering and the cold latching on my body.
The body the Einzbern gave me via Kischur. I still had to get used to a body more powerful than a human being, but I was glad to have a body in the first place.
It was the first thing my fellow Sorcerer did before bringing me here, going to Jubstacheit, eighth head of the Einzbern family himself to get me a body.
Kischur didn't tell anyone of the Einzbern the reason for getting the body and kept being quiet when I finally took me with him to visit them.
The moment we arrived, he left with old Jubba to a private room, leaving me alone with the dozens of other homunculi of the castle.
Since it was done in secret, most residents in this building didn't know much about me except for the fact that I was one of their head's personal creations.
The worse was that all of them acted like damn drones. Sure, some of them talked with each other in somewhat a human way, laughing, scoffing and the like, but it was faked. Most of them however, were just staring blankly around the big room.
Speaking of room, the room I was currently in was definitely used for royal parties or similar stuff.
Bright red and golden colors decorated the area, while a bunch of chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The room was void from any furniture, making enough room for over hundred people maybe. The ground had nice patterns and the windows were clean and beautiful too.
On the other end of the room were gigantic stairs leading up to a overstyled, mamor balcony, overseeing the entire area.
Probably for power play sakes.
Overall, a nice party room in theory.
Naturally, I was suffocating in this place, so I made sure to be very far away from all the people. I was in the corner farthest away from the balcony, lonely sitting on a chair I snatched away from the entrance room.
For at least twenty minutes I've been sitting at my little corner, trying to warm my body up with the tools at my disposal, meaning shivering, clothing and a little bit of magecraft. It spoke volumes of the cold that my teeth are still shaking a little.
At least I was confident enough to hold conversations if needed. And I needed it very soon, because one individual began to approach me.
Thankfully it was the one who I knew had human emotions. With a cheerful smile on her face, the albino beauty stopped right in front of me, hands politely folded in front of her as she tilted her head, her long white hair swaying with the motion.
"How are you doing? It must be hard to be surrounded by so many strangers."
I chuckled weakly to her concern.
"Could be worse...They all could start talking to me at once."
She giggled at my dry answer and crossed her arms.
"Well, then I will make sure I am the only one you will have to talk to for now."
"It would be a blessing." A extended my shaking hand. "Obsidian Noir."
"Irisviel von Einzbern." she replied as she shook my hand with her own, rather warm hand. After letting go, she leaned against the wall next to me. "What brings you here? And if I may ask, who was that man with you?"
"Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg." As Irisviel began to gape at my blank response, I chuckled and nodded. "Yes, that guy."
For a while, the homunculus opened and closed her mouth a couple in times as her brain restarted and it took a lot out of me not to break out into laughing.
As she took a deep breath to calm herself, my lips were drawing blood from me biting them.
"I thought that the Kaleidoscope was an old man," Irisviel evenly said in the end, her smile returning to her face. Though I could feel some displeasure of me dropping that bomb.
Time for some secrecy then, I gleefully thought.
"He used to be. I...fixed it so to say," I said, trying to sound casual as I put my right leg on my left one.
As her eyes began to sparkle in excitement, I suppressed the urge to grin.
"Oh my, I thought his wounds from his fight against Crimson Moon were too great to solve with magecraft?" She asked gleefully, leaning forward with her...well curved body.
"Yeah...Let's say I found some methods nobody found yet," I said nonchalantly, pretending to check my finger nails.
Irisviel's childish, cute pout was my reward for my act.
"Okay, now you have to tell me more. You made me too curious!" She huffed annoyed as she backed off, putting her hands on her hips. I at last chuckled in response and wiggled with my index finger.
"You will know later. I promise. But until then, it's my little secret." As her head hung low, but accepted my decision with a sigh, I warmed up my hands with my breath. Rubbing them together, I cleared my throat. "So...how is...married life like?"
With that, her mood did a full turn as she visibly brightened up and excitedly told me about how great having a family was and how wonderful her husband was, with lots of stuttering and blushing included.
It snowballed from there, the two of us sharing some casual stories about our families and home life. Though I limited myself to my hobbies and experiences in the Nasuverse.
Old life was over and all that. No need to dwell on it.
Anyway, if it weren't for Third magic confidence, there was no way I could have hold that entire conversation with such ease. Oh, and Irisviel's natural conversation skills, but I shouldn't need to speak that fact out loud.
"...Speaking of them, there they are!"
Breaking the flow with her cheerful exclamation, I turned my head to where she pointed and couldn't help but gulp nervously.
A man in a black suit and trenchcoat, frizzy, spiky dark hair that seemed to slightly defy physics, stared at me with cold calculating eyes, fatherly cheer all gone the moment he laid his gaze on me.
Kiritsugu Emiya. The Magus Killer. A skilled assasin that was the representation of "The few for the many" mentality. The one who wished to be a hero, but didn't know how.
Honestly, if I were a mere mortal, he would be one of the scariest people to be around. Even with Third Magic, he was creeping me out.
But it was not he who I was afraid of the most.
A mini version of Irisviel ran towards my position in joy, some wooden butterfly in her hand.
The moment the little girl reached her mother, jumping into her arms and hugging her, I froze up quicker than the German tundra could ever dream of.
When the two homunculi stopped hugging each other, the little girl smiled innocently, ignorant of her father's blank look directed to me and presented the wooden sculpture.
"Mama! Look, Kiritsugu helped me make this!"
Said mother cooed in delight, observing her child's very well made work, before returning it and patting the girl's head.
"Oh, this is so good! Thank you!"
As the two of them giggle, I made sure to make a lot of distance between me and Illyasviel, before acknowledging Kiritsugu with a nervous smile. The latter's cold stare changed to a confused frown at me not reacting to his rather unsettling action.
To my misfortune, Irisviel turned her attention back to me and gestured towards her family in a cheerful tone, ignoring my discomfort.
"Obsidian, Kiritsugu Emiya and Illyasviel von Einzbern. Kiritsugu, Illya, Obsidian Noir. He is a guest that came with the Kaleidoscope for some business."
I waved lamely when she finished.
"I see," Kiritsugu said evenly after a small pause, probably not sure what to make out of me.
Illya on the other hand kept staring at me with squinted eyes, walking around me as if I was some animal.
A child was walking around me, in my personal space. My mortal enemy.
I took a deep breath, while trying to be subtle. The way Irisviel shot me a worried look, while her family raised their eyebrows told me I failed at it.
Okay, I had to be smooth here if I wanted to make a better impression and make the little girl go away.
"Heeeeyyy….small...girl...you..." I slowly ground through my teeth, the most fake smile appearing on my face ever since I arrived here.
While I could swear that her parents were choking back a laugh, the small homunculus stared at me with full, judging eyes, squinting even harder than before.
"You're weird," she at last said in an overly suspecting tone. A strained chuckle escaped me, as I sent a pleading look at her parents.
They were more content on talking to each other while enjoying the show in front of them.
"I...know," I said with a sigh, seeing that they have abandoned me to my fate. "Sooooo…" The fake smile back on my face, I tried to casually lean back on my chair to look cool. "How's it going, little...princess?"
Of course, that was the moment when she turned around and crossed her arms, huffing at my pathetic display and stared at her father.
"Kiritsugu, he's boring! Let's play!" She exclaimed and tugged at Kiritsugu's sleeve, jabbing metaphorical daggers into my heart in the meanwhile. But I didn't let it show on my face, instead rubbing my face as I felt exhausted from that small exchange.
When I raised my head again, the assassin hesitant to go with his daughter, glancing at me first, then to his wife with a frown.
Irisviel nodded to her husband with a soft smile. That assured him enough, as he let out a sigh and warmly smiled at his little daughter.
"Ahaha...If you insist."
With those words, father and daughter left the same way they came, leaving me alone with Irisviel, whose cheeks were puffed up and red, as she held her breath.
"Cute kid," I lamely said with a blush, averting my eyes when the woman broke out into open giggles, holding her stomach for a while.
"Not good with children?" She asked after calming down. I nodded weakly, burrowing my face into my hands. Then I felt a gentle squeeze on my shoulder and looked up to see Irisviel's warm smile again. "Well, it reassures me that you act like a normal teenager."
"I am eighteen, just so you know," I grumbled out, crossing my arms with a pout. As her amusement grew, I turned back to the door where her family went through with a frown. "I hope that your husband doesn't want to shoot me or something."
"He wouldn't do that!" After her exclamation, she paused for a moment, then laughed nervously. "Well, as long as you don't give him a good reason."
That did not fill me with confidence and I showed it on my face. She winced in sympathy, but before she could say something, the gates near the balcony opened. I straightened up and saw Kischur enter the giant room, together with the old leader of the family.
The latter looked rather grim, compared to my friend's shit eating grim.
I sweat nervously.
It couldn't be that world breaking, right?
/
It was very world breaking.
Old Jubba informed the entire clan of my abilities and made a speech of how their ancient goal was finally reached. But it was not that what broke my mind back then.
I was the official head of the Einzbern family, Obsidian Noir von Einzbern now. Apparently the whole family were under a geass to follow every order of Heaven's Feel, should he or she ever return. Since I was Heaven's Feel now, my word was absolute.
Acht was not happy about it at all and swore to me in private that he would find a way to rip the Third Magic out of my soul if he had to if I ever took it away again.
To be honest, he was more polite than I expected when he threatened me.
On the other hand, Irisviel was very ecstatic to have a little brother and openly accepted me into the family. Well, after I apologized for hiding the family heirloom, so to say.
Anyway, instead of the quick visit I imagiend it would be, I had to stay to deal with all the formalities and paperwork.
It was a major pain in my ass, even with the computer aid Kiritsugu thankfully provided.
Kischur had to leave in the meantime, saying that he had a lot of people to inform and said he would be back in a week.
It was a long week.
But I could say for sure I became good friends with Irisviel and the others. The former was easily excited by most stuff and it infected me. She was dead set on becoming like a sister to me and she succeeded, making sure I ate properly and ordered tons of clothing for me to look 'stylish'.
Her daughter was a little harder, but once she saw me getting along with her mother, Illya took that as a challenge and spent just as much time with me.
Suffice to say, we became gaming buddies, once I found out that they had a gaming console in the castle.
Let no one say that games were not a good ice breaker for me with children.
Lastly, Kiritsugu.
We weren't perfect brother in laws, but we could get along and stay civil with each other. Not that we talked much anyway and the silences were a little off putting. Naturally, I liked his daughter and wife more, but he felt the same, so no hard feelings there.
Kiritsugu didn't introduce Maiya to me, but I guess she wasn't interested or not in the general area for the week.
Once that week was over, the vampire returned at last from all his trips to finally keep his final part of the deal.
Getting me of this planet and grant me a safe sanctuary. Not that I would stay away forever, but I felt much, much happier to have a permanent residence outside this insane unisverse.
Kischur stood in front of the entrance gate with crossed arms, looking at me with cheerful expectation as I walked out with a lazy grin.
For once, it was a nice, sunny day. Still cold as hell, but I got used to it during that week.
"So, Lord von Einzbern. Ready to leave?" He asked, making emphasis to sound like a British butler as he bowed respectfully.
All I saw was mocking and I huffed as I put my hand on my left hip.
"Don't call me that, it sounds ridiculous."
He glanced up and raised an eyebrow with a grin.
"Not as ridiculous as Obsidian Noir."
"Fuck you!" I yelled, pouting at the insult. Kischur raised himself and waved his hand in front of him, smirk still in place.
"Sorry, not into young adults. Maybe when you are older."
As I spluttered for a while, causing him to laugh loudly, I heard footsteps behind me. Turning around, I saw Irisviel with her daughter in her arms, both grinning gleefully at my dispense, while Kiritsugu slowly trailed behind them, face in his usual stoic, but relaxed expression.
My face grew redder at their presence. Thankfully, my sister in law put her daughter down and turned to my fellow Sorcerer.
"Honestly, I expected the Kaleidoscope to be...different," she said in a respectful tone, successfully suppressing her amusement from my situation to an insignificant level. Kischur chuckled and bowed slightly.
"I work to impress." When he looked up, he raised an eyebrow. "Only you three?"
"The rest are still busy with your arrival and...orders," Irisviel chuckled, scratching her cheek in an awkward manner. I winced, considering it was my fault.
Maybe I shouldn't have made my first order in the first week I became their chief.
Granting homunculi sentient will and human emotions while securing their rights was a bitter bill for old Jubba to swallow and very complicated to accomplish. But my word had priority, so he was forced to do it anyway.
I felt kind of sorry for the old man and everyone involved. On the other hand, I could not deal with a bunch of near emotionless puppets around me all the time. And I did not regret to fix that issue.
Already the Einzbern castle was more lively and soothed my nerves to talk and spend time with human beings, not robots.
Soon, all the homunculi would be like Illya, Iri, and Illya's future maids from the canon routes.
I could not wait to return for a vacation to see what would happen to them. But it was far off into the future.
Until then, safe haven for me out of this universe.
"I hope for your safety."
Iri's gentle and worrying voice shook me out of my musing and I smiled. Still, I pointed at me and Kischur with a small smirk.
"You are aware you talk to two Sorcerers, right?"
"It doesn't make you unbeatable," the mother said in unusual disapproval and my smile wavered slightly. Glancing at my Sorcerer buddy, I saw him agree with a shrug.
I averted my eyes. I knew she was right, but it was not pleasant to know you could still be defeated.
But it kept me to the ground, so I nodded as well in agreement.
Then my legs got tackled by the smaller albino. As I let out a surprised wow, trying to steady my footing, the little girl giggled as she looked up to me.
"Let's play again when you come back, Sid!"
I looked down, crossing my arms with a playful smile.
"Only if you stop whining about me winning."
"I don't whine! Tell him, Kiritsugu!" Illya shouted with a pout, punching my leg without causing any pain before pointing at me and turning to her father. Said father blinked for a moment before clearing his throat.
"Uhm...yes. She isn't whining," he said in a blank tone towards me.
"Sound more confident!" The little girl exclaimed angrily and that broke the dam for all of us to erupt into loud laughter.
While her parents ruffled her head playfully as her cheeks puffed up even more and Kischur was holding his stomach in pain, I shook my head.
Still, the little girl had a point though.
Kiritsugu could need all the confidence for the Holy Grail War-
I froze up, cheerfulness seeping out of my body. Everyone present immediately noticed, though Illya and Iri were more confused than on guard.
Wait, Holy Grail.
Angra Mainyu.
How could I forget that?
I took a deep breath. No need to panic.
"Can I talk to you three in private?" I asked, pointing behind me while trying to act casual. My acting became a lot better, since Illya didn't seem suspicious, but the adults could hear the urgency in my voice. The three of them nodded, before the mother gently smiled at her daughter.
"It won't take long. Be nice, okay?"
After the little girl nodded, the four adults including me went a few meters away from the entrance. Once we reached a good distance, I gestured them to lean in.
"The grail is cursed. Because of Avenger the Einzbern summoned the last war." When shock began to settle into Illya's parent's faces, I stopped for a moment, scratching my chin. "At least I think it is. If I'm right, it will make sure to twist every wish to the biggest evil imaginable."
"Was wondering when you would spit it out," Kischur muttered back after a small window of silence. I and my siblings in law turned to him in confusion.
"You knew?" I hissed with a raised eyebrow. He shrugged in response.
"Not exactly, but what you said back then when we first met was really weird." His trademark, challenging grin was directed to me. "Let's fix that real quick before leaving then."
"Dude, I don't even have a year of a training under my belt!" I exclaimed while trying to keep the volume down. The vampire handwaved my concern away.
"Good enough for me. Don't worry, it's just a servant on grail steroids. You cut his connection while I cover you and all will be well."
I groaned at his casualness, but before I could object, Kiritsugu's eye met mine.
And they were full with worry.
"Will it still be able to grant wishes?" Despite his even voice, I could hear the despair creeping into it. And I bit my lip.
His dream to save the world. That was what he was concerned. Irisviel had the same look of worry.
"As much as it could before corruption, yes," I said after a small silence, hesitation in my voice as I began to curse my own cowardice. The guilt burned even harder when the two of them let out a breath of relief.
"Good...good..." Kiritsugu shook his head and a wry smile was sent my way. "As much as I didn't show it...It was...nice spending time with you."
He extended his hand for me to shake and I stared at it for a moment.
"You are not much for social stuff, huh?" I couldn't help but snark playfully back. The man scoffed in return.
"And you?"
"Point," I replied with a shrug and accepted the handshake. Immediately after that, I shared a hug with Irisviel.
After that, the parents returned to their daughter and waved to me and Kischur. I waved back, forcing cheerfulness on my face.
"Goodbye! I'll come visit you, I promise!"
Shouting done, we turned around, the same time my family closed the gates and began to walk of into the forest so that we wouldn't be intterupted.
Once we reached a good distance, castle barely visible, I turned around to the slower walking vampire, snarl on my face.
"Why didn't you tell him?!" I hissed to my friend, knowing for sure Kiritsugu saw past my word choice back then, but ignored it in favor for his own, false hope.
"Technically, you are his family. You tell him," Kischur said in a cold tone and I ruffed my hair in anger, pacing around in the snow.
Not calming down in the slightest, I turned back to the unimpressed Sorcerer and threw my arms into the air.
"What, tell him his wish is a pipe dream and everything he did so far was pointless?!" I screamed, but only received a blank stare as a response. I spit to the ground and began to count to ten.
Getting to angry won't help me. But it was still frustrating.
Once my breath began to calm down, Kischur put his hand on my shoulder, empathy on his face when I turned to him.
"He still has his family, you know? Just try to break it to him gently," he said in a calm tone.
"Can I do that later?" I whispered and when he stared at me dryly, my voice increased in pleading. "Much later?"
The vampire let out a sigh and let go of my shoulder
"Fine. But you can't puss out all the time." He raised his finger with a frown. "Before the war begins."
"I know, I know..." I muttered, before grabbing on his shoulder for the teleportation.
I couldn't believe I said it, but I was looking forward to fighting a super monster, if only to distract myself of my future responsibility.
If only the warping didn't make me sick...
/
The side trip to Fuyuki City was a fast one and I had to wait for a few hours while Kischur told the local families, Tohsaka and Matou, about what we planned to do.
Didn't know what happened and didn't really care. Once he finally came back, we got to the cite of the Greater Grail, in the cave of the city.
As if sensing our approach, Angra Mainyu was not pleased with us and tapped onto the local leylines to summon his grotesque shadows, filled with the world's evil.
Unfortunately for him, he had to deal with not only one Sorcerer, but two. If someone like Rin could cut her way through with the Jewel Sword, it was child's play with me and Kischur.
Carving a way through the army was a long and gruesome procedure, the two of us making sure not to touch a singly smudge of the goo. And we weren't even done there.
I still had to get rid of Avenger, which meant I had to focus entirely on the evil spirit.
It was like getting rid of a virus from a computer program. With me having the experience of a first year college student.
It still worked out. Zelretch covered my ass, using dozens of new applications of the Kaleidoscope like curving attacks, energy balls passing portals to trick them and a lot of other stuff. Thanks to his enhancements, he could pull all of that off without creating the same injury like against Crimson Moon.
Meanwhile I...hacked into the grail so to say to purge it. It was rather tough, but the spirit had no change against me, who was the fucking Heaven's Feel.
Boasting that out loud was more embarrassing than I thought though.
Anyway, I was reasonably sure we got rid of the black mud and Angra Mainyu after what felt like hours.
The Holy Grail should be clean and solid to work in the next war, even when the leylines were slightly exhausted from the combat.
Which meant no psycho Caster or corruption or world ending potential on its own.
Yay.
Anyway, with that done, I did my job in this world for now.
It was time to leave.
We were standing at the same spot where I arrived at first in the Nasuverse, meeting up after a day of rest.
Suffice to say, I was rather giddy to get this done and Kischur was visibly amused as he stood in front of me, hands crossed behind his back as I tried to not move my leg around too much as I sat in front of him on the stone.
I failed.
"I have good news and bad news. Good news are, I found a world for your standards. Not invadeable by aliens or something like that because a big dragon acts like a guardian. No one knows about Heaven's Feel there and it's relatively peaceful as far as I could see." I nodded in excitement, but then he raised his hand with a serious expression. "Bad news, it's very hard to get there, because of said dragon and I wouldn't be surprised if you being there would cause some kind of magic jumpstart in that world."
I frowned slightly. I didn't plan to abuse my power anyway. But the guardian worried me.
"If it's that hard to get there, how did you pass the dragon?" I asked, crossing my arms with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, about that..." Kischur scratched his hair awkwardly with a wry grin. "I brute forced my way through every time and ran away as fast as possible. Think the guy does not like me. At all."
I slightly gaped at him. Then I shook my head and waved my hand in front of me.
"Couldn't you just get in there by going to a universe where the dragon doesn't exist?" I asked in discomfort. My friend sighed in response.
"Problem is, the damn lizard exists everywhere. Or everywhere I was looking," he grumbled annoyed.
"Do we have to go that way?" I whined, my shoulder slumping.
Kischur patted my back a few times, shaking his head while shrugging.
"Well, that way, if you could talk about a way, is the shortest one I know. The other way, so to say, doesn't have any good places for...well, let's call them dimensional miles. It would take ages."
"So your plan is to crash through a dimensional gap, hope that a giant killer dragon won't see us, get the fuck out of there as fast as possible and reach our location, because that's how the multiversial highway works?" I asked in a dry tone, disbelief in my eyes.
"Essentially," the man replied with a chuckle and I raised my hand in surrender after standing up.
"Sure, why not."
Just as he was about to begin his work in amusement, I tugged at his sleeve while biting my lip in discomfort.
"Hey...Kischur." Having his attention, I averted my gaze and closed my eyes. "If I become too arrogant…call me by my real name."
For a while, he was silent. But then he hummed in thought. When I looked up, the vampire flashed me a wide grin.
"Hm, a safe word. Here I wondered when you finally decided to go deeper in our relationship."
"Phrasing," I grit through my teeth, my cheeks blushing slightly. His grin only grew wider.
"On purpose."
I rolled my eyes and that was the trigger for his explosive laughter.
Still, I knew he took me serious. I could see it in his eyes. I spent enough time with him to tell by now. Because of that, I managed to laugh with him, just like a friend.
Wonder if others felt like this. To feel at ease.
Still, everything had to end, so the two of us finally calm down.
"Let's get down to business." As he put his hands in front of him and called on the Second Magic, he directed his most serious frown at me. "Whatever happens, follow my lead. Don't do anything on your own, alright?"
When I agreed with a thumbs up, he let out a breath, before creating the gateway through the dimensions. Then he gestured with his hand to me and I put my hand on his shoulder.
Finally, the two of us took a step inside, hope dwelling up in my chest that I could get away from all the supernatural chaos.
The moment we entered through the portal, things went wrong however.
I could have described the place we were in, the colors resembling the ones that appeared in Kischur's Magic. I could have described the feeling of void I felt in this gap.
But I could not, because there was one supreme thing that had all of my attention.
A gigantic, red western dragon, easily bigger than skyscrapers glared down on us, mere meters away from us as its angry snort created a strong gust. His mere presence overpowered anything I ever felt before.
It was like being a rat in front of a hippo.
We blinked at it. Then we blinked at each other. Then we blinked back at it. It blinked back at us.
I let out an impressed "huh".
So that's what it felt like to be fucked.
I snapped my head to Kischur, who made the same, quick motion. We gulped at the same time, but it was my friend who shook himself out of his shock in seconds and grinned.
It was a strained grin, putting me on edge even more.
The next thing I knew was that he teleported us miles away, while a gigantic explosion shook the air. Slowly turning my head, I could feel the pure, raw energy the dragon roared out, easily surpassing any spell I experienced. That included my fellow Sorcerer as well.
And I could still see the red light flying off into the distance, easily passing miles in an instant. The fact that the dragon didn't even seem winded at all, as he turned to us, death promised to us in his eyes, I knew one thing for sure.
We were so going to die.
My fellow Sorcerer didn't waste any time and took of in supersonic speeds, grabbing me on my collar with him.
But despite the superhuman acceleration, I could see how the dragon rolled his eyes in annoyance and only flapped his wings once to shoot after us.
He was gaining distance faster than the Kaleidoscope could create.
Just as the phantasmal beast raised his claw to smack us down, I could feel my world shift as my vision became hazy.
The next thing I knew was that we were again, out of reach of the dragon, who swiped empty space.
The sheer force it created however was enough to off set the vampire's balance, so he had to create a small platform of prana to have an even footing. Then, a bright, colorful barrier formed in front of us as Kischur held his hands up before another dragon beam crashed against it.
I knew he wasn't blocking it, because I could see how the attack curved back to the giant beast, surprising it and hitting it for the first time since we got here.
As I hyperventilated and the dust created by the explosion covered the dragon, a cool, calculated look filled my fellow Sorcer's gaze. I noticed how his skin began to gain wrinkles, but I was more busy to panic.
"So much for pinpointing. Good luck!" Kischur quickly said, voice unusually grim when the dragon resurfaced out of the cloud, looking not even slightly damaged. It laid its eyes on us again, who cracked his neck, creating a loud boom noise.
"Wait, what?!" I yelled, still reeling from the fact that we could have died several times already. Instead of an explanation, the Kaleidoscope laid his hand on my chest.
"I'll come back for you. Try not to die," the man said, smiling reassuringly, before he pushed me.
I had a sense of deja vu, as I screamed while flying like a cannonball through the chaotic gap, before darkness engulfed, only seeing Kischur raised his hands, just in time as the dragon opened its jaw again to let out another stream of pure destruction.
/
I didn't remember the crash. All I could remember was pain and on my knees, head hitting against the ground to replace the terrible suffering I was in. But the pain in body could not compare to the damage that was dealt to my soul at that moment.
Voices, dozens, hundreds, thousands of them invaded my mind.
All of the shouted, roared, demanding freedom, peace, revenge, solitude and million of other stuff in my head. Their voiced combined to a chaotic symphony of agony for me, as if someone was cutting away in my brain, my very soul.
I screamed as I clutched my head, screamed until my throat began to burn as I did my very best to silence them, to push them out of my head before I went insane.
After what felt like an eternity, I laid on the ground, blissful silence, rubbing my head to get the after pain away.
I gasped for air, trying to process what just happened.
We entered the gap, joking around before that. Then a giant dragon-
I stopped.
Kischur.
I scrambled up, frantically turning my head around.
I had to help him. As powerful as the Second Magic was, there was no way he could take on a goddamn dragon.
First, I needed to find out where I was. Maybe I could find a way to get back to him or to support him.
I was in some kind of back alley, trashcans scattered around me. Taking a closer look at the buildings, I could recognize the traditional Japanese style. In general, this place felt rather...old in comparison to Fuyuki City.
Still, I needed to know more, so I slowly stood up and sneaked towards the light. When I reached the end of the alley, I peaked out.
And my eyes widened in shock at what I saw.
Oh no.
A man, crying in terror, tried to crawl away. But he was swiftly grabbed on his leg, a demon like giant throwing him against the wall, splattering his body into a scarlet mist.
Quickly, I hid against the wall, dropping on my butt as I covered my mouth.
I didn't silence the voices.
I released them into the open.
I started a ghost apocalypse with my arrival.
To prove my theory, I opened my supernatural senses up to the world. And the pure spiritual power was suffocating.
Compared to Nasuverse, where everything felt rather subdued, trying to hide itself, this place was way too open with it. Prana was all over the place and it made me dizzy for the moment. There was only a little hint of hiding, the supernatural had too much of a presence here to make sense in a modern world.
But I grit my teeth and focused on what kind of souls were around me and what they did.
The feedback forced me to interrupt my analysis. But that mere moment was enough for me to stare open eyed and blankly to the wall.
Utter carnage unfolded around me, as souls terrorized the public, flying through the sky, crashing through buildings or attacking the people themselves.
And not all souls were human.
Oni like the one from before, kitsune, tengu, any youkai I could think of and more fought against everyone, madness written all over their faces, their chaos fueled by my Magic.
And I couldn't stop them. Not the way I was. Not safely.
I did what any other person would do in such a helpless scenario.
Facepalming.
/
AN:
This became way too big, even cutting off the Old Jubba scene and several dialogue pieces. I swear this is the longest chapter you will get for a lont time.
