The streets have been empty where they walked; the desolate whistling of midnight wind provided the only relief from the tension of silence. Having split up with Archer and Ervin near Gray's Inn Gardens at the northwest edge of town, Brigit and her servant were now free to continue west in quicker bursts of nimble dashes on their own. It turned out to be a good idea after all to leave it to Saber's team to confront Caster; for the Cambrian residence was located in a small neighbourhood far out from the metropolis, towards the old Camelot House Hotel, a place that would have taken Ervin prohibitively long to travel to on foot.
Saber drew another deep breath to feed his parched magic circuits as he took point ahead. The ambient atmosphere felt sparse in his mouth, completely different from the mana-rich air that he knew so well from his own life and times. As he scouted on, a few paces ahead of his master, he knew well that his awareness wasn't in the sharpest shape. But that was okay - he could address that by getting Brigit to maintain a strong stance, while he himself walks in the fore appearing less prepared. He would likely attract a hit if an ambush came their way, but that would prove a most reliable warning.
He was nearing his wits' end. But what does it matter?
He continued to strategize to himself as he went forward, as though keeping a single-track mind somehow kept him sane. The meagreness of the air he breathed was a nagging reminder of his greatest handicap in this place and time. Unlike the land that he knew, this place has much less airborne mana to diffuse into his blood through wounds. This then, made it harder for him to use his own injuries as a resource in battle. But still, his opponents are from an age that isn't yet aware of the prospect of using magecraft this way at all, so he wasn't completely stripped of his advantage.
There was a lack of police patrol so far out from the metropolis, so their way was unimpeded. Following Ervin's directions to head due west along Oxford Street, and look for the lone cadet-blue house below Cumberland Gate, master and servant found their mark in less than half an hour's time since parting with Ervin. The residence before them looked just barely on generous side, with a moderate front yard behind a modest but elegantly painted wooden fence surrounding the small estate. From the other side of the barrier, they could not see if the light inside was on or off; and Saber gestured to Brigit to slow down and tread lightly as they approached the property from behind.
The first reaction, out of common sense, would have been to avoid passing by the front entrance. But both Brigit and Saber knew full well that as the enemy was Caster, it was impossible in any case for them to approach without being sensed. Deciding stealth as futile, Saber circled to the front and was about to enter through the gate, when Brigit grabbed his arm with her small hands, as a signal to stay put. The servant froze in silence, and waited for the master's opinion on how to proceed.
"No presence." She whispered, as if her regular small voice wasn't quiet enough. Saber too, has noted that the lights were off. "Any trip wires?" He asked, referring to the possibility that Elise might have left behind a bounded zone around the house that might alert her should anyone enter within. Depending on whether the empty house was a deliberate trap, Saber would plan their next move accordingly.
"With Caster's clairvoyance, we don't need to enter his bounded zone for him to notice us." Brigit supplied Saber with a knowledgeable answer, but she herself was slow to fully see what this knowledge actually implied. Since that Caster servant was a user of some kind of future-telling magecraft, should someone draw close to his zones, he would be able to 'foresee' it even before they entered. Of course Brigit understood that; but why didn't she remind Saber of this before they came so close the house? It was probably too late now that they have drawn so close. Even if they haven't felt themselves entering any magical zones, Caster might well have foreseen their entrance already. Saber sighed lightly, and mulled things over as they were. He saw that with their element of surprise now possibly negated, every moment spent idle will give the opponent more time to set up a killing strategy. The natural counter response was to move fast.
"We'll have to gamble a bit then." Saber motioned his master to move in as he dematerialized through the house door. He felt the nauseating weight of responsibility as he called shots on his master's behalf. Brigit was a knowledgeable being, but her strategic wits weren't the most acute. Her martial prowess made her a great servant back when she was still Lancer, but her tendency to lapse into being a follower was proving problematic as a master. Truly, some of her traits made her quite vulnerable. "If they left the house open for us..." Saber explained as he unlocked the door from the inside, "then we might as well break in and take a gleaning of Elise's magical studies. You never know what you might find."
Brigit nodded and followed Saber into the house, both of them scanning the rooms for any artefacts that might be of interest. The interior of the house itself was of the same cookie-cutter architecture as every other similar-sized dwelling of this age. Just like their own safe house, they would enter the front door to find the living room to their left, and a modest kitchen beside the basement door to their right. Past these chambers directly ahead would be the stairs to the second floor. Nothing in the construction of the house itself seemed particularly devious, so the pair of invaders boldly carried out their aimless looting.
Their first stop was the basement; Saber palmed on the lights as he led the way downstairs. The cemented chamber was rather spacious, with various exercise equipment lying about, mostly devoted to swordsmanship training. Enthralled for a second by the rack of master-crafted swords standing against the far wall, Saber briefly forgot about Brigit as he went over and toyed with each weapon, marvelling obsessively over their exotic designs. One arming sword had a short katara fixed to the hilt; another saw-like longsword sword was constructed piecewise by a chain of droplet-shaped razors; even more absurd was a half-sword, half-cudgel long weapon that had four blade edges instead of two at ninety-degrees apart, with the blade separated lengthwise in two sections by a second hilt. As Saber toyed with each weapon, wringing juices out of his mind to picture how these things could be put into practice, he began to believe that their true value simply lay in confusing the enemy. While your enemy is distracted with trying to understand your weapon, it was easy to strike at him where he does not expect...
Wait. Where did Brigit go?
A knot formed in the knight's throat as he realized just who the 'distracted enemy' might be at this very moment. He did an about-face from the racks and backtracked his way through the basement from where he came. Was it just him dazed by the sudden shock, or did this basement seemed larger and messier than it was before? Time seemed to slow to a trickle as Saber felt a slight vertigo from his racing mind. He could deal with being outmanoeuvred, but he was not used to being out-thought. He scanned the room frantically; there were no immediate signs of trap doors on the floor, nor hidden chambers along the walls; nothing extraordinary littered the floors beyond punching bags and bucklers. Several suits of lady's armour lay about in pieces; there were several pairs of thick-soled plate-linked greaves, linked thigh-plating that anchored heavy strip-plated steel long-skirts, reptilian-looking bracers that all but totally masked the daintiness of the wrists below...
Damnation! The small knight cursed to himself as he gripped the side of his distracted head. No time now for inspecting loose gear. He had to find Brigit. His breathing was becoming laboured, and his focus was slipping. He took off the helmet tied at the back of his massive girdle and jammed it over his head. The compulsion did at least calm him a great deal as he continued his search. The basement door from where they came was still slightly ajar in the same manner that Brigit has left it in behind her when she came down, so there was at least the possibility that she hasn't gone back up. He continued past the stairs, over to the other side of the basement, and saw nothing. But when he walked to the far end of this empty side, he found a well-concealed sliding door inside a pocket under the support structure of the basement stairs.
With his clarity returned to him, Saber reassessed the architecture of the basement before moving forward. The level he was on was built similar to the cookie-cutter basement of this age, but unlike the standard O-shaped construction featuring a steep flight of stairs leading up to the living room at the base of the 'O,' a gentler, longer staircase split the chamber into two halves, giving it an U-shaped construction instead. Hidden on the left tip of the 'U,' underneath the first flight of stairs, was an inconspicuous handle-less door that hid another flight of stairs leading further down.
Calling fourth Nightmare from his girdle, he hurried below with his weapon tightly in hand.
***Scene Break***
The second level was built like the first, but much of the chamber was occupied by a system of bizarre, though not obviously dangerous contraptions. The centrepiece was a clear tennis-ball container arrested by a skeletal iron frame. A simple tubular mechanical pump, seemingly operated by a hand crank, opened its mouth right above the tennis-ball container. A more careful look at the iron frame holding the tennis tube revealed motors at key joints, which would swing the tube like an artificial pendulum once they become powered. Cabling led out from the motors, crawling along the floor until they reached a small computer at the corner of the room.
Saber found Brigit sitting in the center of the room, in front of the whole machine. Her back was turned towards the staircase, and Saber could not see her face.
But at least he found her. That had to count as something positive; it had better. Not wanting to startle the master, Saber gently tapped the side walls until it seemed to have caught her attention. Brigit began to turn around.
"Ah-!"
She summoned her lance as she spun around, briefly spooked despite her servant's best efforts. Saber however, was simply relived to see the meekly steady expression on his master's face. "Milord." He nodded lightly before taking off his helmet for a deep breath of the basement's stale air. "What's happening?"
Brigit pointed to the device before her as Saber went forward. "What is this thing?" He asked, but realized that since Brigit has always been baffled by electronics, she wasn't likely to have an answer. Being no less curious about it himself, the knight went over to the computer, and found a screen full of code conveniently open, which he then tried to read and understand.
"This code randomly changes the turn speed of those motors." Saber raised his gauntleted hand at the corner joints of the iron frame after mulling over the on-screen symbols. Seeing how his master remained just as puzzled as before, the knight tried to explain again in simpler language. "Basically, when you switch the machine on, the tennis-ball container would dangle like a pendulum. But that computer will keep changing how fast it dangles, completely at random."
"Then I know what this does." Brigit declared quietly. Saber himself still didn't grasp the whole picture yet, so he scooted over to his master for his own turn to listen and learn.
"This must be a ritual that tests a mage's ability to control the future." She dumped the tennis balls out onto the floor, and loaded them into the base of the pump. "The intent of the ritual is to make all the marbles fall into the cup, like this." She turned the crank on the simple mechanical pump continuously, and one by one the balls fell out of the top of the pump and down into the plastic can. She then pointed to the computer as she went on. "But if that contraption disrupts the rite and moves the cup at random, the balls will not fall in, unless the mage has clairvoyance over just when the cup comes under the pump."
"Master..." Saber frowned slightly. "I don't mean to be a downer, but this toy could have been built by Elise simply to screw with our minds-" His voice was cut short by a curt silencing finger on his lips. "It's not a toy!" Brigit hissed indignantly. "This is serious magecraft! Look at the sigils carved into the floor." She lighted a small fire in her palm to illuminate the dark room, and pointed her servant's gaze to the cemented ground. A large circle of etched runes surrounded the machine, and a smaller circle of runes boxed the ground where Brigit sat on.
"I can read some of these." Saber pointed to a handful of symbols here and there. "They're just for general meditation, nothing too convincing." The servant became slightly exasperated as he continued to speak. "Master, we're wasting time. We haven't even looked upstairs. My plan was to draw them back home by tripping their alarm, but set up an ambush for them before they get here. I think we're getting behind schedule..."
Brigit silently put up with the grumbling boy as she searched around the basement, flipping through cluttered desks and dusty shelves. Saber was such a hard person to know, even for his own master who can glean his memories through the dream cycle. Unlike her previous servant, Saber's memories were impossibly confusing to piece together, and not at all informative. Maybe his weak hold on his own sanity was the one thing that he had in common with her, and perhaps the only link that raised their mutual affinity. He seemed loyal deep down; perhaps even caring; she wished the best for him, but could not guess what it was that he really needed...
She focused herself. It was clear now that Saber's original suggestion to search the house for clues was indeed correct, although she also saw that contrary to what he believed now, there was no need to search for anything upstairs. They've already discovered the mage's concealed study room, and every clue they might possibly find had to be right here.
Saber has meanwhile resigned himself to limiting the detective work to this basement, and began sifting through the shelves on the far side of the room. Books on magecraft lined those shelves; some were hardcover, others soft, and there were even occasional hand-written notebooks filled from cover to cover. He took out a flashlight from his archaic armour and tried to read their titles, but it was an awful chore in the dim room. But then, he found something that seemed out of place.
"Master." He called out to Brigit. "Come have a look." He looked uncomfortably at the embers in her palm; wondering how hard it was for her to keep herself from setting the shelves on fire. "There must be a light switch in this room." He thought out loud as he scanned the walls with his flashlight. Seeing no switches anywhere, he guessed that it must be hidden in some remote corner just to make life difficult for trespassers. Oh well, if that was the case, he wasn't going to bother.
The object of attention was one particular notebook on the shelf that seemed especially old. The frayed bindings were very poorly done, and it looked so frail that it might collapse upon touch. With her soft fingers, Brigit gently took the manuscript off the shelf, and held it gently as she examined the cover. Even with no fire in her hand, she could still see in the dark better than her servant.
"Why, this is the Les Prophecies!" Brigit whispered in excitement over finding such a relic. "Suits her rather well, I suppose..."
"What's that?" Saber had no clue about the rarity of the find. His own lives and times were just too far removed.
"The author of this manuscript lived in France, six centuries before this time. He was an apothecary who was reputed to have the ability to see into the future. He compiled some of his cryptic visions in this very work, and many people believe this book to have successfully predicted many disasters in the centuries after his life."
"Such as?"
"Many believe that this book foresaw the great war that happened a just few decades before this time."
"Poor bastard. I could see why he has a cult following." Saber was about to make some more irreverent remarks when something else dawned on him. "Wait, wait, wait." He tapped rapidly on the wooden shelf for extra emphasis as he pointed his other gauntleted hand at the manuscripts. "That old man; her servant; Caster...! Clairvoyance, right?"
"Right... so HE's the current Caster." Brigit mumbled a foreign name as she reverently gave the old book a slight wave.
"And this thing was her reagent." As Saber recovered coherent speech, Brigit noticed his excitement fading as fast as it came. "Let's grab the book and head out. We'll have to face them outside." Saber asked grimly, his voice sounding far away. Without waiting for his master's nod, he made his way up the two flights of stairs with Brigit closely behind, who was concerned for her own servant more than anything else.
"What an effort." She heard him mumble to himself under his breath.
***Scene Break***
They laid low under a child's slide in the park close to the estate, waiting for Caster to reveal his presence. But as the clock ticked past three in the morning, there was still no sign.
"What if they're not coming back?" Brigit asked her servant. "Like you said before, we don't have time to wait here forever. We need to get back to Ervin and Archer."
Saber was toying with nightmare as he stared blankly at the dimmed purple runes in his obsidian blade. "Wait a bit more. They'll come." He sounded more than a little agitated. "I don't think they have a say in that."
"You're not feeling well." Brigit put a hand on her servant's hunching shoulder. "Will you be okay?"
"I'm not used to the air in this time and place. It feels like travel sickness." The knight shook his head and managed a difficult grin. He in fact wasn't lying; he wasn't used to the air, and he did feel nauseated. Turning around to his master, he asked the same question in return.
"Will you be okay?"
Silence built up for several long moments before she gave her meek-voiced reply. "I've seen so much, I just don't know." Then perhaps seeing the implications of her own answer, she fell silent. The servant only nodded, meaning several things at once but without knowing which of them went through to her. Once more the only sound that hung in air was the occasional clanking of plate armour and the shuffling of wooden chips beneath bladed greaves. At least until the nearest chapel rang her doleful bells. Half past three.
"You told me that Elise's armoury hinted at a knight who played with the enemy's mind." Brigit broke the silence as a suffocating sense of unease continued to build in the air. "Then what if her plan all along was to waste our time here, while she went about in her night patrols without any fear of running into us?"
"Wait her out." Saber stretched his arms, and tried his best to straighten his voice as he did so. "She'll come."
"Saber." Brigit knelt in front of the fidgeting boy, her quivering voice a painful alloy of sincerity and agitation. "I know I'm a bad master with no ideas of my own, and you've been strained from the start to think on my behalf, and shoulder my disgusting problems. I can feel we're both frail spirits, and I can feel that you're about to crack, just like the way I did before. Now I must perform my duties as a master and do the thinking myself, just so you could rest your mind. Please obey me, so my petty conscience can be at ease." Her warm black eyes rested on Saber's face, and waited for him to lift his ghoulish yellow pupils to meet her gaze. At length he nodded, propping himself up with his sword, and solemnly donned his helmet again.
"Your orders then, master?" His distorted voice has always sounded haunting, but this time perhaps even more so.
"Let's get back to Ervin, okay?"
The knight bowed his head, perhaps trying to convince himself above all that his formal duties came first.
"Yes, my lord."
***Scene Break***
The air was tense in the still-dark early morning; but the angst and dread that clung to Brigit and Saber did little to raise their awareness as they began to move back east through the streets. As Caster's presence still could not be felt nearby, they had no inclination to remain vigilant and spread their minds even thinner. The night has been taxing, and they've fallen behind on their plans to take out a servant before dawn. They were despondent, and as such were caught unprepared.
From behind them, Elise emerged from her concealed stalking and broke into a viciously fast run. Brigit was the first to sense the impending attack, and she whirled around to ignite a narrow cone of blasting flame towards the assailant. But impossibly, Elise barrelled past the origin of the cone even as it was cast, and the destructive spell exploded harmlessly behind her back. The assailant's charge seemed to bear down on Saber, who struggled to react quickly. All eight different-coloured gems on his heavy girdle glowed hotly as he tried to decide which of his eight weapons to call fourth, for he was briefly at a loss on how to shield himself and protect his master at the same time. The weapons began to materialize in hands, but his focus wasn't total when Elise suddenly changed course, kicked him in the stomach, and propelled herself towards Brigit. Saber, who botched the usually-instant weapon summoning, tried to call out his weapons again; but the gems that held them disliked being interrupted during activation, momentarily becoming stuck and were slow to deliver.
Brigit was left on her own. Had she retained her full-blown servant existence, she would have been more than a match for a human mage. But as she was, thought she retained much of her raw power, her mental agility was no longer up to par. Without the effect of her cursed craze, her advantage might have been tenuous even if she was fully prepared. Now, she didn't even have that to fall back on. Reacting as quickly as she could, she hastily traced a trail of flame and forged it into a lance. She stabbed it towards Elise, using the charging figure's own momentum against her. When Elise came to an unnatural stop instantly without lurching forward into the impaling, Brigit continued to swing the lance in an arc, melting it and reforming it in the air so that its sharp heavy tip was on the other end. She then jabbed again on the backhand, and when Elise dodged out of the way she reformed her lance again for another forehand attack. Thus she retained the superior momentum of a one-sided spear, but still attacking nearly twice as fast as it would normally allow. Direct fire magic was unwieldy in close quarters, but for a moment it seemed that Brigit was doing fine without it. Elise did not stay under the flurry, choosing instead to leap backwards and disengage to deflate Brigit's momentum. Brigit seized the opening, and began casting a fire spell at range now that there was some distance between them, but then at an impossibly fast speed, Elise charged back and barged into Brigit, backhanding the lancer's face with a gauntleted fist. In a follow-up motion that wasn't as smooth but no less vicious, Elise made a stabbing motion, seemingly wielding nothing but air, yet left Brigit down on the ground in a disembowelled heap, regenerating in coma and clinging to life.
Elise then found herself caught in a forceful bear hug from behind. She twisted her armoured legs in a wrestling motion, tripping Saber off his feet, and violently bent her waist forward to try and throw Saber over her head. But the knight clutched onto her, and pressed down on her back while swept off in an attempt to break her spine. Forced to protect her own bones, Elise let herself fall over, protecting her fair face from the fall with her fully armoured arms. Between Saber and Elise, it should have been the latter that got up first, being the one who did not fall on his back. But Saber, in his frenzy, saw to it that it would not be so. As Elise lifted herself Saber was already up, barging back into her with tooth and claw to suppress her of any tactics. But he made the mistake of leaving Elise's arms free, and she promptly struck at his helmeted face as she went down. As the hardy woman suffered scrapes and bruises on the side of her face, she saw a single human teeth fall out from Saber's winged helm. The battle descended into a deadly brawl as she has made repeated attempts to attack his groin, and he has tried more than once to seize her by her hair. They became devoid of all but the basest of techniques as they rolled on the pavement, their heavy armours scraping against everything with grinding screech and flying sparks.
Elise's weapon, now left unattended beside Brigit, flashed into existence as its owner's focus briefly relaxed. Saber did not get a clear glimpse of the weapon due to the angle and brevity of the lapse, but he saw a gambit to break the vicious deadlock. He could not hope to precisely hold the invisible weapon, for it was clear that Elise had manual control over her weapon's concealment, and might deceive him into holding it the wrong way. But what he could do was to kick the weapon wholesomely away, forcing Elise to choose between Brigit and her own weapon. As he feigned a strike and leapt towards Brigit where he saw the apparition, Elise grabbed him by the legs, tried to trip him, and beat him to the weapon. Saber was tempted to try summoning his own weapons again, but he couldn't risk Elise jamming his belt again at such proximity. So he simply returned the favour and tripped her back. Deciding on a spur to alter his plan, Saber opted to move Brigit away from the weapon instead of vice versa. While Elise focused on her weapon, grabbing it and consolidating the magic veil that hid it from view, Saber dragged Brigit on the pavement and bolted several paces away. His master would suffer more burns and scrapes, but as she could regenerate from it, it mattered not.
Bruised and aching, Saber sized up his opponent, who no doubt suffered likewise, from a dozen paces out. Even beaten and bruised, Elise was a poster girl for any combat mage. Her blonde hair flowed naturally down her fair face and pauldron-bearing shoulders, and there was a sharp glint in her green eyes that ever so faintly glowed in the dark streets. Her graceful pose despite her crimson heavy armour spoke of impressive stamina, and on her faint frowns rested cunning as intelligent as her sinews were tough. For a moment Saber regretted setting her loose, for now it would be a match of swordsmanship, magecraft, and deadly wits. Nevertheless, Brigit's safety came first.
Or perhaps he didn't want to kill Elise with his bare hands; whatever the reason, the die was cast.
"Had fun in my house, didn't you?" Elise remarked coldly. "Did you find it?"
"No." Saber replied, after frown and pause.
Elise gripped her weapon and entered stance, having confirmed for herself that the battle would be partially fought with their minds. Her question was meant to fish Saber into revealing his character, whether he was straightforward or underhanded. Had he asked for clarification upon what it was she meant for him to find, then he would have proved to be a simple man. Answering yes meant he was either simple-minded or bluffing, which might indicate a suppressive and offensive personality. Answering no so simply could only mean that he either meant to disguise his advantage, or supply an ambiguous question with an equally ambiguous answer. Since no was his answer, Elise guessed that she was facing an underhanded opponent, who preferred to hide tricks up his sleeves. If so, then she needed only to carry out a balanced and cautious attack, depriving him of initiative and the room to use strategy.
She charged him and brought her weapon down, but Saber parried it aside with a greatsword covered in glowing purple runes. She has anticipated Saber to deflect her attacks with greater force than he did, so she leapt back and charged him again to test him. After several repeated moved like this, she guessed to her dismay that Saber has already grasped the nature of her blitz attacks.
"Thus is the nature of your magic." Saber taunted her beneath his helm, his words only confirming her concerns. "You will fate itself to move you fourth, preordaining your feet to set upon where you desire, and reality but obeys and catches up. Yet..."
Elise gritted her teeth and attacked him again, not out of spite, but to take advantage of possible lapses in his readiness while he was busy talking. Again Saber opted to parry instead of dodge, and batted the attack aside. Determined to demoralize Elise to gain an edge, he kept talking.
"Yet your power does not go beyond moving you where you wish, and at that, your unnatural speed doth not compound upon momentum. Quick are your movements, but weak are your attacks."
Elise spat on the ground, her crass gesture filled with fresh blood from her punctured lips. She barrelled towards Saber again, stopping a good several paces away from him, off to his side. As her foe turned to face her, she closed the gap with heavy steps. Saber met her with his most stubborn stance, judging she was going to forgo her speed for full power. But Elise made a stabbing motion at Saber's glowing runic blade, who found his weapon suddenly forced sideways somehow as the sorceress wrestled his arm down to the side. Saber was baffled and rightly so, for how could one sword physically deflect another with a THRUST?
During his blank-out as he was forced to the right from the waist up, Elise slammed his stomach with her left knee. Saber managed to muster himself there and then, and counterattacked with a flicking of his head, seemingly intent on decapitating Elise with his helmet's winged blades. It was poorly aimed and appeared almost hesitant, but Elise took no chances, and stepped far back. Being tied down to Brigit's comatose form, Saber did not stray away to press Elise further, inadvertently handing the initiative back to her.
As she charged again, this time ponderously and picking up momentum, Elise made a tossing motion with her weapon, and caught it with a weaving motion that was hard to follow. Saber then saw that she now appeared to be holding a sword in each hand. Of course, everything being invisible, it could all be a trick; but he had to choose his move carefully in light of the contingencies. Two gemstones flickered and Nightmare disappeared from his hands, replaced by a light pavise and his sword-shaped magnetic baton. Even as its inductors hummed to life, giving the weapon a light-blue sheen, he threw it at her left flank with a sideways toss. Elise bent her right arm over to deflect the projectile, which then became stuck to her weapon as it sent a stunning jolt down her arms. As she stopped in her tracks, Saber took note of the visible electric streak of his sword's discharge, which presumably ran down along the metallic body of Elise's weapon. Whatever contraption she held in her hand, it was very long, extending about a metre and a half in front of her hand, and another metre's length behind. Gritting her teeth and forcing her muscles, she gripped her weapon again with both hands, swung it in a jerking flick, and sent the projectile back at Saber. Far from expecting Saber to be jolted by his own petard, Elise simply hoped to lure Saber into awkwardly retrieving his own weapon and presenting himself in a poor stance. Ignoring the sight of Saber effortlessly tapping his girdle twice to recall the weapon instantly to his hand, she swung her blade at Saber's unshielded flank. The knight turned in time to block the attack, and metal clashed loudly upon metal. Saber reeled for a few steps before regaining his balance, proving that Elise's attacks could easily be forceful if she so wanted.
Elise's weapon continued to echo in a pure tone, as if singing or wailing, until Elise gently brought it against her cheeks. The metallic beast damped, and came to a hush.
"It's elegant craft." Saber called out to Elise as he switched his own weapons back to the two-handed Nightmare. "A twin-bladed greatsword held upon a shaft, at once a deadly blade and a beauteous tuning fork. Will you be so miserly as to keep it concealed?"
Elise grudgingly let out a faint, crooked grin. As if unsheathing from under an igniting envelope, the shroud around her titanic sword began to burn itself away from the blade's twin tips. The body of the blade was split laterally into two symmetric halves, leaving a strip of gap in between. Beneath the twin blades of polished silver lay a crossguard of crimson raven wings, fading at its ends to reveal burnished gold. The shaft shone with the bony, whitened gleam of enchanted steel, but gradually fading to grey and chaos black towards the rear tip. In the nightly streets it seemed as though the pole continued forever, stretching invisibly into the concealing darkness.
She could not help but feel both touched and uneasy. Here was a stranger who understood her designs and spoke on her wavelength, even more so than Ervin did. But she kept herself in check, for the pup was in her way. Be he a servant, magus, or lunatic, he had to be cut down - for the sake of her research, and ultimately her little brother.
They clashed again, no longer disengaging at the first sign of uncertainty. As Elise freed herself of the prana needed to upkeep the sheath on her sword, Saber too has committed to a more direct set of techniques. Sword met sword, pitting strength for strength, skill for skill.
Confident of a servant's natural advantage over a mortal in terms of brute strength, Saber feigned a glaring slip and allowed Elise to fork Nightmare between her weapon's twin blades. He had been certain that he could easily negate Elise's attempt to disarm him like before so long as he saw the move coming, but as he struggled at the predicted exchange he realized his miscalculation. Elise's sword had a polearm's shaft; by shifting one hand back down to the weapon's rear end, she had a long-armed lever that allowed her to apply her force very far away from the pivot. Saber had hoped to counter-wrestle Elise and turn the disarming back against her, but he recognized now that the physics of this exchange simply wasn't on his side. Still, even with a lever, she had to be powerful far beyond mortal standards to make good on it, and Saber could only wonder how Elise can become this strong.
In the urgency of combat he had to put his question on hold. If she couldn't be brute-forced, then he had to adjust tactics. As Elise orbited him for several steps in an attempt to bend him out of shape, Saber held his weapon with a single hand and rotated in step with Elise to deflate the strength of her twisting pressure. Then, focusing his mind on his gemstones to make sure his weapon switch was instant, he let Nightmare dissipate from his right hand, and conjured a different longsword in his left. As Elise suddenly lost the opposing weapon to wrestle against, she was thrown off balance; Saber took advantage of this and cleaved at her with his new sword held in the left. She twisted her body awkwardly in an attempt to dodge, and the attack grazed her arms, cutting through her arm-plates and drawing gouts of blood. She fell to the ground and quickly rolled away, before standing up again and regaining her posture.
"Why do you persist?" There was a clearly sarcastic and inciting tone in Saber's taunting, loaded with the intention of demoralizing Elise while she was no doubt trying to regain her composure. "Your brother already made his choice. He isn't yours anymore..."
"SHUT UP!" Elise cut him off with a shrill scream. For better or worse, Saber has managed to place down the last straw to drive the once-cool Elise over the edge. Elise's enraged gaze now drilled through the air, locking directly onto the helmeted face of the servant of her most hated master. "I WAS going to hold back for the fights ahead." She shouted, her voice boiling with venomous resentment. "But your death... KEEPS DEMANDING MY UNDIVIDED ATTENTION!"
She vaulted up into the air with her magic, and then allowed physics to take its course on her way down. She brought the weight of armour, steel, and muscle down towards Saber in a massive cleave, who did not risk meeting it head on. As the servant moved out of the way, the sorceress's sword crunched into the pavement as if it was biscuit. She wasn't done though, and used the dug-in pole to propel herself back up in a flying kick, denting painful boot-prints into Saber's plated chestpiece. Then, before she could fall back down she used Saber's body as a tiny foothold and threw herself back up a third time. Expecting a chain of fast and brutal physical attacks, Saber withdrew several steps back - enough to give the space needed to bleed out her momentum, and at the same time luring her away from Brigit's direction. He felt almost smug then; enemies who have lost their cool are open enemies, and their attacks are no better than mere death throes. He readied his shield of lifeblood in his hands now, expecting to take a few hits before she burns herself out. So long as he heals through the damage, the fight would be his.
But this time Elise did not give chase as she fell back down. Ignited prana surged through her weapon, and an angry, incandescent glow burned between its twin blades, starting at the crossguard and quickly gauging up to the tip.
"Victory-rush-" She began her incantation. As she dug her heels deep into the ground, with one leg slightly forward poised in a position to absorb massive recoil, she swung her weapon in a downward cleave.
"Strike-of-fate!"
Even as her incantation finished, a wave of bright raw energy burst out in a cone, its wavefront as sharp as any blade. The knight servant was caught directly in its blast, with no possibility of moving out to either side. The world around him exploded in a blinding, agonizing flare, before dying back down into the blackness of early morning.
His helmet was blown away, with a broken piece lodged in his skull. Blood streamed down his forehead, adding to a mess of cuts and bruises. His right side was a charred crater at the waist, emanating the sickening smell of roasted flesh even as he struggled to lean against his sword to halt his staggering fall. Too overwhelmed to muster enough prana to heal himself in the right places, he only mended his face wounds, so that he could re-open his sickly eyes. Elise locked gazes with him from a distance; his face seemed to carry words, but there was no way to decipher what they were.
"Still a beginner... at tricks and traps." Elise wheezed between heaves and pants, with lactic acid biting at every strand of her muscle after her all-out exertion. "Did you really think I would… lose my head?"
"_..."
Saber couldn't even respond. His answer came in a hoarse, indistinct gurgle. But his mind felt sharper than ever, if only to fully meditate on the irony. With so much of his bloodstream and innards exposed to the airborne mana, the conditions were finally ripe for him to fight at full power, like he did in his own timeline. But he was too injured now to make good on it. He only wanted to have a word with her now, but it seemed as though he wouldn't be able to do even that.
"SABER!"
Brigit, having recovered while Elise was kept occupied, now flew to her servant's side. Even as Saber collapsed and clung to life by a thread, his body slowly mended. Not quite in the abominable, gushing fashion brought about by his lifeblood shield, but a process more smooth and natural, albeit more slow. As he lay quietly on the ground, Brigit confronted Elise once more.
"How much of that apothecary's potion did you expend just now?" The healing goddess was in her usual meek voice, but with a slightly vindictive certainty that was not too subtle for the opposing woman to miss. "Or is your natural strength really this high?"
"You're the real cheater here." Elise spat even as she kept struggling to catch her breath. "A healing goddess with a defensive servant, you have to be pretty stupid to stumble as much as you did."
"No need to be bitter about your brother." The same remark, spoken so softly from one girl to another, sounded more poisonous and hurtful than Saber could ever manage by virtue of its tone.
"And why shouldn't I be?" Elise wasn't the kind to really throw a fit, but in her subdued seething she was genuinely hateful. "Your kind decides destinies for entire bloodlines at whim, and watch in stoic amusement as we squirm under your designs. As if that wasn't enough, you interject yourselves into our lives for fun, to disrupt our efforts to repair what you've dealt. Have you no shame?"
"You're talking to the wrong soul." Brigit's voice remained placid. "The prime cause of things lies in the Root, not with any deity. And even if you win the chance to commune with It, believe me, It might not even begin to understand your words. Furthermore fate, like all supernatural phenomena, is often self-fulfilled. Much like how my existence in this form is a product of human belief, your fate's existence is also a product of your belief..."
Elise remained bitterly defiant. "I don't expect the Root, or any of you spirits and gods, to neither see the gravity of, nor answer for, your own whims. If you lecture me on belief, then I don't believe in free wishes. But so long as I win, I can conduct my research with unlimited funds, and find the real answer on my own. So long as I win... and believe me, I STILL CAN!" Before anyone could react, she undid a small metal flask hanging beneath her belt, and drank its contents. Her jaws and hands quivered, and she shook briefly before steadying again, her posture once more solid like stone. She prepared to face off with her opponent, but another voice from behind stopped her short.
"Elise, stand down."
"Sir?" Elise spun around at the new arrival. The man was tall and thin to the bone, clad in a lean frock coat and dressed black from collars to boots. His magical presence could be clearly felt, which made Brigit wonder why she never sensed his approach. Saber too now, eyed the stranger uneasily as he rose to his master's side, undecided of what to make of him.
"You've done well, Elise. Your mission is complete. Others will take it from here."
"Sir?" Elise addressed the man who appeared to be a superior of hers with more than a little doubt. "But there are still servants at large. The Grail-"
The man held up his hand. "Believe me, you're already been instrumental in securing the Grail for the Association. These enhancement potions are killing you, and you're no good to us dead. As promised, you'll now be taken into custody, where you'll continue your research under our watch. Your role as a master is over."
"But I AM the master of Caster. What is the meaning of this?"
As Elise questioned her apparent paymaster, Brigit and Saber eyed one another, each looking to the other for a cue on how to react. Brigit for one was cautiously glad that Elise got what she wanted without having to fight Ervin again, so she decided to give a discouraging shake of her head when Saber anxiously tried to step forward and cut in. The servant grunted uneasily, and observed the opposing mages with strained ears and weary eyes.
"...of course, to each his own." The bony magus continued to speak in a voice that, despite the formal words it carried, sounded mellow and down-to-earth. "But you're the type who cares more for the ends, so it's more true to your nature to not focus on your servant, but rather the goal that you used him towards. It's harshly put, but you know better than myself what is it that you truly care for."
"Of course, I understand." Elise lowered her head and gestured towards Brigit and Saber, which made the pair all the more uneasy. "I want a word with them."
"Sure." In a move that was almost humorous, the mystery man turned himself away and covered his ears. Elise strode towards Brigit, boldly stopping just a few paces short.
"You'll take good care of him." She wasn't asking a question or making a request. She was giving an order that only allowed yes for an answer.
"Yes." Brigit's affirmation was a bit more puffed than her usual meek speak, and she held her hand up solemnly, in a gesture often used by mortals to make oaths. "You have my word."
Elise made an about-face and stepped away, her boots clanking wearily on the ruined pavement as she no longer bothered to move with any grace. As she drew near her superior, the man effortlessly opened a small portal right in front of their eyes. Out from the foreboding black-blotted purple swirl came a pair of tendril-like chains that bound Elise's hands in front of her, tying them at the wrists. Stoically, she began to walk through.
"STOP! DO NOT GO THROUGH!"
It was the first time Elise heard Saber's voice clearly without his muffling helmet. Despite striking a chord somehow, its ring was so off that she was barely able to tell which of the figures has just spoken. For a brief, frozen second, she turned towards the helmless youth, her wide eyes and open mouth unsure of whether to shape themselves into an expression of surprise or confusion. And then she was gone, swallowed into the empyrean.
****************************************************************************Chapter End**************************************
********************************************************************Servant Stat Unlocked: Caster********************************
Class: Caster
Master: Elise Cambrian
True Name: Michel de Nostredame
Sex: Male
Height/Weight: 165cm, 50kg
Alignment: Neutral
***Parameters:***
Strength: E
Magical Energy: A
Endurance: E
Luck: B
Agility: C
Noble Phantasm: C
***Class Abilities:***
Territory Creation: B+: creates a magical zone that undermines enemy effectiveness. While inside his own territory, the servant receives a bonus to all his skills, as the zone is considered his workshop.
Item Construction: A: capable of making very, very powerful potions.
***Skills:***
Apothecary: B: enhances the versatility of Item Construction; which may now be used to strengthen or poison various imbibers. A skill of rank B allows the servant to mix magical serums that will last in the human body for up to a day.
Clairvoyance: A: allows the servant to sense approaching danger, across both distance and time. A skill of rank A allows the servant to not only predict outcomes of events, but actively manipulate them by magic.
***Noble Phantasms:***
Les Prophecies: originally written during Caster's mortal life, this book is often thought of as a collection of his greatest historical prophecies. As a noble phantasm, it contains an inexhaustible supply of blank pages at the end, so that Caster may continue to manipulate and predict the future. At any time while away from the distractions of combat, he may choose to predict the outcome of a specific future event, or attempt to actively influence it at a much greater energy cost. However, Caster has a drastically decreased chance of success at controlling events that have already been decided by greater forces, and he cannot know ahead of time what those events are. Furthermore, target-specific prophecies are subject to the influence of that person's luck.
Rank: B
Type: Varies
Range: Varies
Target: Varies