ACT XIV - Nevermore
On the rooftops of Misaki, Shirou thought about Enhance's answer as he watched him walk away.
"Sorry, can't do it. While technically we do have the same mission, I don't work well with other people." Enhance explained after Shirou explained the situation to him. "Besides, what does the Church need me for if they've got you." He said with a smirk before turning to walk away.
"That guy..." Shirou began. "He's pretty interesting." He watched Enhance walk to the edge of the rooftop and jump back to the ground. Shirou uttered a sigh and turned around to face the group behind him. "Might as well call Narbareck and tell her what happened."
In the office of the underground Burial Agency, Narbareck was filing a report when her phone rang. She strapped it to her ear and pushed the answer button. "What's the situation?" She asked immediately.
"Unfortunately Enhance won't help us. But at least we were able to convince Shiki." Emiya Shirou said over the phone. Narbareck had known Shirou for a couple of years now, having been there when he was recruited by Ciel and trained by her before running back to his hometown of Fuyuki City. He had proven himself capable in her eyes and so far has done everything that she's asked of him, it could even be said that she considered him a friend.
"I see. If Enhance is in that area but won't help us it must mean he's already on his own mission. There might be a Dead Apostle Ancestor in the area, I'd like you to investigate it and if possible eliminate the threat." Narbareck issued her next orders for Shirou.
"Will do. Keep an eye on those three girls for me will you?" Shirou asked, refering to the girls by the name of Rin, Sakura, and Rider that Ciel had brought in.
"Of course. Take care of yourself Emiya." She said before disconnecting the line. She was starting to become rather tired, not having slept in several days will almost make any person go insane. Somehow she managed to pull through, mostly thanks to extremely strong coffee. She let out a long sigh, ran her fingers through her hair and leaned back in her chair.
"Is Senpai alright?" Sakura asked. Her, Rider, and Rin had been sitting on Narbareck's office awaiting some kind of order or at least for something to do. Since the rest of the group left it had been rather boring for them.
"Of course he's fine. He's come a long way, he won't die on a simple recon mission. Even more so since Arcueid is with him." Narbareck said as if it should have been painfully obvious.
Sakura looked unconvinced at Narbareck's answer. There were always ways that Shirou could get into trouble, but she decided not to think about those at the present time. In the chair next to her Rin uttered a bored sigh and slumped down into her chair. She wished that there was something more exciting going on but since everybody had split into groups there wasn't much to do around Rome.
It was just then that Rin's phone conveniantly rang. She dug it out of her pocket and strapped it to her ear, pushing the answer key. "Hello?" She asked, knowing it could only be somebody from the team Narbareck set out.
"Rin-san? It's Merem Solomon. I have a situation here." Merem sounded a bit urgent, Rin guessed he was running after something.
"Yes, what's going on?"
"At the moment I'm Southeast of Rome clearing out some Shisha that have been devourering the nearby farmers, however it's not just one Apostle. There are several and I can't take care of this on my own in time to prevent more victims." Merem's footfalls could be heard through the speakers of the phone as he ran. "The Apostles are heading north towards Marino. How fast can you get there?" He asked.
Rin stood up to look at the large map on the wall of Narbareck's office. She found the area they'd been requested to go to and looked at Rider. "Rider, how fast can we get here?" She pointed to the town of Marino situated north of a lake.
Rider walked towards the map and thought for a moment. "My estimate would be around ten minutes."
"Is that acceptable Merem?" Rin asked.
"Yes, please make haste. I will meet you there after I've finished here." The line disconnected just then.
Rin's face looked pleased by the fact that something had conveniently turned up for them to do. "Sakura, are you ready?"
Sakura had been listening curiously and understood what was going on. "Yes. Let's hurry Nee-san." She stood up from her chair and prepared to leave. Before leaving Sakura turned to Narbareck, "Don't overwork yourself, Na-san." She said before leaving. After spending the evening speaking with her Sakura began to empathize with her position, Narbareck was passionate about her work and utterly devoted to her job.
Narbareck watched the three girls leave, uttering a chuckle at what Sakura called her. "Na-san, huh?" Her eyes brightened a bit and her lips cracked a small smile. "I can see why Emiya likes her so much." She said to herself and returned to her paperwork.
Outside the headquarters in the alleyway Rin and Sakura stood next to Rider. She knew she would have to be careful, if anybody were to see her Pegasus things may get a bit out of control. But then again some sacrifices must be made sometimes. In the dark alleyway a bright light could be seen as Rider summoned her large winged, white horse. Rider jumped on top followed by Sakura and lastly Rin. Sakura held tightly onto Rider's waist while Rin held tightly to hers. It was a bit of a tight fit on the beast, and they practically had to press themselves against each other to all fit on the Pegasus.
"Are the both of you ready?" Rider asked as she lovingly stroked the shining mane of the horse.
"Yes. Whenever you're ready Rider." Sakura said and tightly squeezed Rider around the waist.
"All set back here." Rin answered and held tightly to Sakura.
When the both of them answered Rider she urged the horse into the sky. A bright white light eveloped the Pegasus and the three girls riding on it and it flapped it's wings and began to streak across the sky. The wind whipped passed them as they flew, Rin and Sakura had no idea where they were due to the ground moving too fast. It was a good thing Rin had showed Rider where to go for fear of not being able to direct her properly because of the Pegasus's fast speed.
Soon the trio arrived in the port town of Marino. The town was situated on the edge of a large lake, Rider landed her Pegasus near the outskirts of the town so as not to attract too much attention. They walked into the small town to find it in utter chaos. The people were running about screaming for their lives as they were being chased after by Shisha. The town was full of them as well as a few minor vampires hopping about and pouncing on unsuspecting townspeople to drain their blood.
"Here we go." Rin only had a few jewels left and she wanted to save them for special occasions, however she did still have her trump card, The Gem Sword Zelretch. Unfortunately if she were to use it the innocent people could very likely get caught in the blast it created as well. Rider swiftly ran passed Rin and Sakura as they entered the chaotic streets behind her. Rider began by pulling the Shisha off an innocent woman and swiftly decapitating it with her nail-like weapons.
Rin delivered a swift roundhouse kick to a nearby Shisha as it attempted to charge her, once she had knocked it to the ground she caved in it's skull with a very powerful Gandr Shot, ending it's life. Sakura meanwhile had summoned wolf-like creatures from the shadows who helped her save some of the townspeople by biting through the legs of the Shisha, leaving her free to dispatch them with shadow tentacles coming from her feet.
The townspeople seemed just as afraid of the three of them as they had been of the Shisha, continuing to run to safety after being saved.
"Nee-san! Behind you!" Sakura shouted as one of the Shisha snuck up behind Rin while she was dealing with another. No sooner had Rin turned around that the creature lunged at her, grabbing for her throat. A nail came out of nowhere and impaled the demon through the head, which Rider easily pulled off using the chain attatched to her weapons. The Shisha disolved into dust and Rin thanked Rider with a nod.
Once all the innocents were out of harms way, Rin dug into her pocket to retrieve the Gem Sword. "Stand back you two." She said and Sakura pulled back her Shadow Beasts. The Gem Sword began to glow brightly as Rin used it's magic to pull forth prana from alternate demensions and gather it into the blade. Just as Rin was about to cut the air with it a man out of nowhere tackled her to the ground and kicked the weapon away. It was one of the Dead Apostles that had been praying on the town just like Merem said.
Two more jumped from the rooftop and faced them. Rin kicked the Apostle off of her and it retreated to stand with the others. "Well, isn't this lucky? Three beautiful women seemed to have wandered into our grasp." The Apostle in the middle said with a toothy smile. The man was not wearing a shirt, in fact the only clothing he seemed to have was a pair of black cotton pants.
Rin eyed the Gem Sword laying a few yards away, she knew going for it now would be suicide as she was sure that a vampire could run faster than she could. "It is lucky. These beauties aren't from around here." A second Apostle said. This one had a long, brown ponytail that hung down to the middle of his back. He was wearing a simple plain white t-shirt that had a few tears in it, along with a pair of simple jeans.
Sakura looked over at Rider and the two of them seemed to be exchanging looks. "Rider, release them." Sakura whispered.
The third Apostle began to approach Rider, "This one is strange though, I want to see what your eyes look like woman. Take off that blindfold." He addressed Rider with a command more than a request.
A hint of a smile crossed Rider's lips. "As you wish." She raised her hands and removed the violet leather eye covering that kept her eyes sealed.
"What the hell?" The three vampires exclaimed as soon as Rider's eye covering was removed. The three of them found that their movement was restricted. Rider's special Mystic Eyes were of the Jewel classification, meaning they are extremely powerful eyes belonging to beings from the Age of Gods. Rider's eyes were called Mystic Eyes of Petrification. Instantly petrifying targets upon eye contact. However Rider cannot control her eyes and therefore has to keep them sealed either with her Noble Phantasm by the name of Breaker Gorgon, or by the special eyeglasses she recieved from Rin.
Rin took the opprotunity to run the three yards to the Gem Sword and pick it up. It once again began to glow and Rin made a horizontal slashing motion through the air, sending a large blade of light tearing through the three Apostles like a hot knife through butter. The three of them screamed in agony and they were completely decintigrated by the massive amount of prana.
Once the three vampires were taken care of, Rider put her blindfold back on. The town was utterly silent afterwards, not a sound could be heard from within the blood soaked streets. Sakura heard something overhead and raised her head to the sky to see a large manta ray like creature flying above them. "Oh my." Those were the only words she could think to speak at the time as the creature began to decend. Rin and Rider readied themselves for combat once again as the large creature landed only to be met with the tiny figure of Merem Solomon.
"It looks like you three took care of things here." He said and began to step off of the creature's back on which he'd been riding.
Upon seeing Merem both Rider and Rin backed down and put away their weapons. "Yeah, there were a few survivors who ran back that way." Rin pointed behind her.
"I see, good work. The large influx of vampires and Shisha have to mean something. I've never seen them on this scale before. It's as if they don't care wether or not they expose themselves publicly anymore." Merem said with frustration.
Just then Sakura's phone began to ring, she took it out of her pocket and looked at it. It was Narbareck probably calling wanting an update. Sakura put the phone to her ear and answered it. "Yes Na-san?" She answered.
Merem looked curiously at Rider and Rin, "Na-san?" he mouthed the question silently to which Rin shrugged her shoulders.
"Sakura, is everything alright?" Narbareck asked, her voice was worn out indicating she was most likely tired and had been working hard all day.
"Yes, everything has been taken care of." She answered.
"Good, I need all of you to come back right away though. A Dead Apostle Ancestor by the name of Gransurg Blackmore has attacked the city. It seems he's looking for something. We need the four of you back right away." She said with a tone of urgency in her voice.
Merem had apparently heard Narbareck's conversation with Sakura. He clucked his tongue in frustration. "Bastard, he planned this."
"We'll head back right away." Sakura said and hung up the phone, shoving it back into a pocket. "Rider." Sakura looked at Rider who nodded, already knowing what to do.
Back at the Burial Agency Headquarters Narbareck sat in her office waiting for an update on what was going on with Gransurg Blackmore. If there was an Ancestor in the city it usually meant something big was about to happen. Apparently, Blackmore had broken into a museum to steal an unknown artifact. If the Apostles resorted to this kind of thing it must be related to The Dark Six. Narbareck had sent Ciel to Aylesbury to investigate and do some recon, she hoped Ciel would report back soon as she needed all the information she could get at the moment.
Her phone rang at that moment and Narbareck checked the ID, it was Shirou calling with an update on his new orders. "Emiya, did you find anything?" She asked.
"No, I tracked Enhance through the forest near Misaki but I got there too late. Judging by all the blood in the area, Enhance did what he came here to do and then left." Shirou answered.
"I see. If that's the case I want you to track down Altrouge Brunestud and eliminate her." Narbareck had full confidence in Shirou. He had been a part of the reason why Primate Murder was dead, if he could do that then she was sure that he, Saber, Arcueid, and Shiki would be able to eliminate Altrouge and her remaining two bodyguards which are high-ranking Ancestors.
"Alright. I'll report back in a few hours." Shirou sounded tired, he hung up the phone right after that.
In the skies above Italy, Rider, Sakura, and Rin followed Merem's large demon back towards Rome. It was a short flight and once they landed they were met with utter silence. Merem had led them straight to the musem where Blackmore attacked. There were many Ravens in the area, just like when Rin, Sakura, and Rider accompanied Shirou to the caslte the Burial Agency was previously located. The birds lined the top of the buildings and powerlines looking down on the four of them.
"I'm sure he knows we're here already." Merem said as he dismounted the demon he'd been riding. He looked above him and all the Ravens seemed to turn their eyes towards him.
"Why aren't they attacking?" Sakura asked as she looked up at all of the jet black birds. Their eerie red eyes staring back at her.
"Maybe he wants to meet us." Rin thought outloud and the four of them began to walk up the old stone steps towards the front door of the museum. The stone lions guarding the place could barely be seen under the blanket of Ravens.
Merem pushed open the door and held the door open for Rider, Rin, and Sakura. The entryway was thick with the smell of blood and bodies littered the floor. Blood stained the floors and carpets of the entire inside and it was difficult to avoid stepping in it. There was an immense pressure coming from the building, an eerie feeling like a dark stormcloud hanging over the area. The group was mostly silent as they walked through the doors leading to the main part of the museum, everywhere they went they were met with the same sight. It appeared as if Blackmore had massacred everyone inside before going to his destination. It was difficult to tell where he was as there was no clear trail.
"Merem Solomon?" A voice echoed through the hallways. Merem realized which direction it was coming from and jerked his head to a hallway to the right. Rider, Rin, and Sakura followed behind him. "It's been awhile since I've seen you. How is it being a dog of the Church?"
Merem ignored his taunts and kept running, turning a corner and following where the voice was coming from. Their footsteps echoed through the hallways as they ran until they entered one of the exhibits. It was based off of an Ancient Egyptian theme, made to look like the inside of a tomb. Fake torches lined the walls giving the area a dim yellow glow, here there was just as much blood on the floor as any other part of the musem. It must have been rather busy today, perhaps they'd gotten a new artifact.
"Well if you're just going to ignore me then there's no use keeping you alive for my entertainment." Blackmore's voice echoed through the museum again. The group ran through the Egyptian exhibit and made it outside, they entered a very large room that looked like your cliche room in a musem where there's nothing but a glass case in the center most likely with something extremely valuable in it. Floating above it was Gransurg Blackmore, clad in his odd bird like outfit and holding something that looked like a key in his hand.
"So one of the Crimson Moon's loyal followers has resulted in common theivery now?" Merem looked up at Blackmore and taunted as the four of them entered the room.
"At least my loyalty is not misplaced." Blackmore narrowed his eyes through his mask at Merem. "Enough talk, my business here is concluded, so I'll kill you for your insults and then leave." He raised his arm and snapped his fingers. From off in the distance a loud flapping noise could be heard, indicating Blackmore had called in backup. He uttered a yell who charged at Merem.
Merem jumped backwards as Blackmore's claws raked the air where where he was just standing. From the shadows expanding around her feet, Sakura summoned five shadow tenticles that whipped at Blackmore who flew upward to dodge them. Rider threw one of her nails and aimed for Blackmore's mask, however he easily dodged to the side and the nail pierced the air and was pulled back to Rider's hand by her chain.
Rin threw a jewel from her pocket at Blackmore, who deftly caught it in his hand. He held it up in his hand and examined it. "Hmph, so you're from the family the great Zelretch taught his magecraft to." Blackmore threw the jewel to the wall where it exploded, leaving a gaping hole in the wall. He then charged at Rin, who bent her knees but Merem jumped high into the air and delivered a straight punch to Blackmore's stomach before he could reach Rin. Blackmore coughed and landed on the ground.
"Wings aflutter, black as night." It sounded as if Blackmore had started to cast a spell. Merem's eyes widened as if he knew what was about to happen.
"Kill him quickly!" Merem shouted urgently and charged the Ancestor.
Sakura summoned a pair of Shadow Wolves that began to run at him.
"Let mine enimies be full of fright." Blackmore continued his chanting and the room seemed to get darker. "Strike like thunder, rend asunder, a thousand wings I call forth tonight." The flapping got louder, and soon ravens began to pour into the room from every direction.
Rin tossed a jewel into the air and hit one of the passing ravens where it exploded violently taking several more ravens with it. However it did no good as more of the ugly looking birds replaced it. Sakura's beats approached Blackmore but he dispatched them with a swish of his claws.
"Talons shred, the night turns red. Now thou shalt be filled with dread." Blackmore continued. The room seemed to be vibrating with energy, much like when Shirou used his Reality Marble.
Sakura created several more Shadow Beasts to charge Blackmore. She then began to concentrate her energy into her cursed arm, the shadow arround it unraveled and turned into a small jellyfish-looking objected. Sakura extended her arm towards the Dead Apostle and the curse lifted from her arm and sped towards Blackmore.
Blackmore had been dealing with Merem who had jumped into the air to aim a kick at him, so he did not notice the curse that attatched itself to his chest. The many ravens overhead were swooping down, leaving Rin to deal with them as best she could. Even Sakura had been trying to swallow as many as she could with her shadows. The room was filled with their screeching and hearing it constantly was almost enough to drive one insane.
"What the?" Blackmore looked down at his chest and tried with no avail to pull off the curse with his hands. It was stuck to him and had dug its tentacles into his flesh.
Rin had dug the Gem Sword out of her pocket, the dimly lit room began to glow brightly as the sword channeled energy from the infinite other demensions and gathered in the gem. She began to swing it, large swaths of light burning through the birds that were swarming around the group, giving them many cuts and scratches.
Rider, who had been helping Merem deal with Blackmore himself had backed away once she saw that Sakura's curse was on his chest. Blackmore pulled on it frantically as the thing dug further into his flesh, a scream passed between his lips and the blob of cursed material on his chest exploded violently sending him flying into the wall. A large hole was in his chest which was unleashing a torrent of blood.
Merem turned around and glanced at Sakura. "Nice job." he smiled and walked towards Blackmore's unmoving body. The hole in his chest had already begun to heal. Merem knowing it wasn't over yet prepared to crush Blackmore's head. He raised his hand and thrust it towards the unmoving Ancestor. At that very instant Gransurg's arm shot forward and grasped Merem's wrist.
"Another time Solomon." He said weakly and disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind only a gust of wind and a few blood soaked feathers.
Merem clucked his tongue in frustration after witnessing Gransurg escape with his stolen artifact.
As the battle concluded Rin walked towards the case in the middle of the room to examine what the thing was that Gransurg had stolen. "Alyesbury Key" was written in fancy lettering on a bronze plaque.
Merem walked forward and examined it as well, having to stand on his toes to see the plaque. "As I thought." He said with a worried tone in his voice. He turned to the girls, "We have to report back right away. Narbareck needs to know about this."