Chapter 54
Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation.- Max Euwe
Rin found Harry in his workshop setting up his alchemy equipment and other supplies for item creation. Shirou and Saber had been gone for about an hour now, so she guessed that he hadn't maged to bungle the date right from the start.
"Back into production mode?" she asked.
"Yep," he said. "Given Barnett's skill, I want you to have another escape potion in case he decides to be more direct in his next attack. I doubt Medea will expect it, either, so that's all the more reason to have that at the least." He turned to face Rin. "Something up?"
"Sort of," she said and nodded her head toward the scale model of Fuyuki. "I was wondering if you'd give me the explanation behind the model there."
Harry raised his eyebrows. "Really?" he asked.
"I'd be an idiot if I didn't take advantage of your knowledge," Rin said. "I've watched you work with it and I want to be sure I have the basics understood before I see if it's possible to replicate it."
"Fair enough," he replied and sat down. "The principle in itself is pretty simple. The model works to amplify my use of thaumaturgy. By making something happen on a small scale, you can, with enough power and a proper channel, make that thing happen on a large scale."
"Simple enough," Rin agreed. "Though I've never heard about magecraft like that before."
"Sure you have," Harry said. "When you hear stories about voodoo dolls, that's an example of thaumaturgy in pop culture. If I got a hold of some of your hair, blood, or fingernail clippings, I can use that as a way to send magic out in the world to affect you specifically. With just those, I can whip up a spell to track your location and guide me to you. But if I have something else to incorporate into the spell," he nodded toward the model city, "I can do a lot more. I can track where you've been, or watch what you're doing in real time. If I have your hair on something like a sacrificial animal or a doll, I can do all sorts of other nasty things to you."
Rin was rocked by the potential possibilities. "Such a simple art can do that?"
"It gets really technical the more you try to do with it," Harry explained. "Maintaining something like Little Fuyuki takes a considerable amount of time and resources. Thaumaturgy is all about making connections to things. When I was alive, I had to go out into the city and take pieces of everything Little Chicago modeled. Bark from the trees, chips from the buildings, asphalt from the roads, that kind of thing. And I had to keep updating it as the city around me changed."
"So, what if you worked with something smaller?" Rin asked. "Like just a model of my house?"
"It'd certainly be a lot easier to keep up to date," he answered. "Your range would only affect the house, but it'd be easier."
"So thaumaturgy is extremely versatile," Rin murmured. "How viable do think would it be using magecraft?"
Harry opened his mouth and then his posture went completely stiff. His staff was in his hand in an eyeblink and then Rin felt what had set off the wizard.
Less than a second later, there was an explosion from somewhere else in the house and the crack of an extremely powerful rifle.
Rin and Harry ran out of the guest house and saw part of Shirou's home on fire, the kitchen, if Rin remembered the layout correctly. Her gaze shot around, assessing the situation on the run. She caught a flash of red as an armed and armored Pyrrha shoved someone into the dojo and slammed the door shut. There was a large hole in the wall beside her.
Fire and what looked like a bullet hole. Tony Barnett and Sinon, Rin thought. It looked like the Cowboy had decided to come to them this time.
"Rin," Harry growled. "Move!"
Rin sprinted toward the main building and the ample cover it provided. It might not matter with the powerful rifle that was Sinon's Noble Phantasm, but it was certainly better than what the guest house provided. Pyrrha passed her as she ran, not moving toward the house instead making her way to the front of the property.
The Lancer's logic was obvious. If she'd shoved Sakura into the dojo, then she had to make herself a more appealing target in order to keep the girl safe, regardless of the risks toward herself. Granted the fact that an Archer with a rifle had missed the Lancer spoke volumes of her ability to sense and evade danger.
Harry all but shoved Rin through the porch and into the house. "Get that fire out," he told Rin. "And make sure Illya is alright."
"Right," she said and hurried toward the kitchen. She threw open the door to the living room and saw that the kitchen was a destroyed ruin. The explosion, likely a spell from Barnett, was probably supposed to be more explosive than something meant to burn. The fire that had started had been a side effect of the detonation, not the intent.
Rin quickly pulled on her gloves and ran mana through the channels worked in to the white fabric. Moisture was pulled from the air and water streamed out from her hands and began to douse the fire before it could really take hold.
Emiya's going to be pissed, Rin thought. He loves that kitchen. At least the house wouldn't burn down.
There was a rushing sound as a green blur passed the still open door to the living room. Link was taking to the field as well. At least Miss Fujimura has already left the house, Rin thought. We won't have to worry about erasing her memory. Granted that had probably been part of Barnett's plan as well. He followed the rules of the War: no witnesses. Apparently he had interpreted that as a challenge to fight when no one was around, regardless of what time of day it was, so he wouldn't have to hurt anyone or mess with their heads. Rin could admire that. It was the sort of planning she often took into account.
Something nagged at Rin and she chased the thought down as she finished quelling the fire created by the explosion.
Barnett had decided to attack their stronghold. Harry's defenses hadn't gone off, which meant neither he nor his Servant had actually stepped onto the property. There was no way that the wards could have been torn down without either of them noticing.
But, even if they had torn down the wards, there were three Servants here. Four, actually. The only reason that they had three was because Saber was out on a date with Shirou right now. They were heading for New City, so there was no way that either Saber or Shirou had sensed what was going on.
Even without Saber, three Servants were more than enough to stop just about any assault. So what was Barnett thinking?
He's too smart to attack without a clear plan, Rin thought. So why would…
There was a surge of mana in the air, with a power and intensity of focus that could only mean one thing.
A Noble Phantasm, Rin thought. There was no distortion of the world, so it couldn't be Dresden's. Is it Link's or Pyrrha's? she thought. She hadn't seen either of theirs yet, and given how many of the Secondary Servants worked, she couldn't even hazard a guess to what they could be.
A woman's voice called out as the pressure from the mana grew. "Bullet of Bullets!"
The sense of Harry, Pyrrha, Link, and Sinon all vanished from Rin's perceptions. Rin froze as the fire was finally extinguished and the truth of the situation fell on her.
Someone had just deployed a reality marble. Given the lack of an aria, it must have been one of the Servants. Given the targets, it had to have been the enemy Archer. If one of their Servants had decided to use the Marble, they would've left at least one Servant out to try and deal with Barnett himself or whatever Servant he had as his primary, except that he didn't have a primary. They'd either been accounted for or couldn't be his according to Illya.
She ran for the front of the house. Things had just gotten very bad, very fast. Their only choice now was to try and take out Barnett before whatever was in that Marble destroyed their only way of winning this War.
Rin's irritation was reaching its peak by the time she neared the front of the house. It was a brilliant plan. Daring and risky, but brilliant. Get a bunch of Servants in one spot and then deploy a powerful Noble Phantasm to wipe them all out at once. That strategy, if successful, would almost always knock at least two Masters out of the War, and force them into competing against each other for any Servants who lost their Masters. It would also leave multiple Masters vulnerable to attack, without their Servants to defend them.
Another voice echoed around her, the familiar drawl of Barnett's accent.
"The world is but a reflection of that which we hold dear," he chanted. "Every surface shows our fears and hides that which we love."
An aria, Rin thought with alarm. Spells with actual arias were far more potent than spells with single word incantations or with no real incantation at all. The more lines the aria contained, the more powerful the spell was. Arias weren't much more than a form of self-hypnosis, a way to trick the mind of a mage into performing the magecraft they wanted to do. The more the mind needed to be persuaded to do something, the more daunting the result was going to be when the spell took off.
"The mirror can tell no lies but those we tell ourselves. A world of endless hearts, a world of endless hells."
Rin reached the front door and her hand suddenly lost strength as she felt what was happening around her.
"He's," she said, her voice awed. "He's empowering a ritual as he's building it?" The flow of mana around her was too dense to be a mere spell. It was far more powerful than anything she'd seen from him yet. Rituals required set up in order to work, special materials and rites to help the spell gain momentum. The world fought against magecraft, and the more powerful a spell was, the more the world pushed back against the mage.
But Barnett was doing most of the ritual work on the fly. He had to have set something up ahead of time, or else he wouldn't even be able to try and pull the ritual off. But he was doing something like 70 or 80 percent of the work right there on the spot.
Because of Harry, she realized. If he had sensed the spell being built, he could have torn it apart. That why he deployed the Marble, to keep the one person who could stop him away from his working.
"Welcome to my Origin, welcome to my fate."
Rin forced herself to admit something. Barnett was more than just good, he was amazing. This act was undeniable proof of that fact. He was a first class mage who had at least as much power as she did. And he clearly had a hell of a lot more experience than she did.
Iron will made her grip stronger on the door and she started to open it. It didn't matter if this guy was the most capable and powerful mage in the universe. It didn't matter if he was better than Merlin a dozen times over.
He was in her city, and putting her Servant's life in danger. She would confront him and destroy him.
"This is my world of truth and lies, my heart of love and hate."
The world seemed to shimmer and became flashing light and crystal.
Harry stood in a vast chamber of utter darkness. He spun around, his shield bracelet out and ready to shield in an instant. But there was nothing. No enemies, no sign of friends, nothing except the darkness. He couldn't even sense their positions or presence.
That in of itself wasn't a good sign. He'd been with Pyrrha and Link not a moment ago. He'd been preparing to attack and then there had been a blast of powerful magical energy and now he was standing in the cliche room of darkness.
Hopefully they were alright. Now he just needed to get his bearings.
He quested out with his magical senses and didn't pick up on anything odd. All he sensed was the vast emptiness. The only form of life around him was himself.
Lash? he thought.
I am here, my host, came the reply.
Groovy, he thought. Where the Hell are we? What happened?
It would appear that we are in a reality marble, the shadow replied. Sinon apparently has quite the Noble Phantasm at her disposal.
A reality marble? Harry asked. A literal pocket dimension? Servants can use those?
It is less a pocket dimension, the Fallen's shadow clarified, Than it is a projection of one's inner reality onto the world around them. This marble represents the core of Sinon, the crystallization of what she is, what she has done, what she believes. It is a different affair when it comes to Heroic Spirits, but the principles are the same. It might make more sense to you to think of this as Sinon's own section of the Nevernever, such as what any mortal has when they dream.
So she'll have the home field advantage, Harry thought. Even if she doesn't know it. Which she likely does since this is her Marble.
White light suddenly shone from behind him and Harry turned to see a glowing white number counting down, square icons circling the display like the hands on a clock.
The countdown started from the number 60 and progressed down, lowering each second. That meant he had one minute to get something like a plan together for whatever hell was about to be unleashed in his general direction.
Sixty seconds is a ridiculously long amount of time, when measured in the units of life and death. Harry readied himself for mayhem.
50 seconds. His staff was ready in one hand, his blasting rod in the other, both shining with light.
45 seconds. With a shake of his wrist, his shield bracelet was free of the duster's sleeve and the metal shield charms were ready to employ magical defenses.
40 seconds.
"I was born from blood spilled," Sinon's voice echoed around him.
The aria, Lash supplied. The words tied to this act of high magic.
"Forever stained and forever scarred."
35 seconds. The revolver was in his pocket. Harry was regretting not having a holster. It would shave a precious second off the time it would take to draw the gun and use it. Thankfully it didn't need to be reloaded. The Grail was funny like that.
"Forged from gunsmoke and steel,"
30 seconds. Something rippled through the air around him and his body felt… lighter. Not as if gravity was lessened, but more as though his physical form simply didn't weigh down on him. It was an odd sensation, but easily dismissed.
"Reborn within the virtual world,"
25 seconds. Something flickered into existence at the bottom right corner of his vision. A display of some kind. Three dark squares next to three dark rectangles. The topmost square had an image of a pentacle while the rectangle next to it read Harry Dresden with a white bar below it and a blue bar below that.
"I am two souls within one mind,"
20 seconds. The second square was collection of small images that, Harry realized with a flash of insight, corresponded to the elements he worked with in his evocations. The rectangle next to it was a small white image of his staff.
"Two hearts with one will,"
15. The third square was a white image of a flame and the rectangle was of his blasting rod. So the display had his name and the weapons he had at the ready. So what the Hell did that mean?
"Two names, now one,"
10. Something appeared in one of Harry's pockets. He jumped, not expecting the sensation and reflexively reached in and pulled it out. It was a small electronic device made of a tough, light plastic. It was leaf shaped, starting at a rounded point at the bottom before flaring out into a broad shape and rounding out to circular lense shape at the top. A button on the back was flush with his finger for easy access.
"Join me in the world that set me free,"
5. This was going to be a long, bad day Harry decided.
"Welcome to the Bullet of Bullets III."
Author's note: Surprise! I'm doing an American Thanksgiving special! Also: Surprise! Our favorite mage cowboy has stopped by to say hello to all the Servants who thought they were getting a day off. :)
Lord of Memory: Let's face it, Shirou's never going to change. At his core, he will always be that loveable dork. :D
PasiveNox: I'm really happy that you're enjoying this story. I was also quite surprised by the sudden, and still going (even as I write this note) review bomb. I also need to shout out you for dropping and then surpassing my 100th review on this story. Thanks. :)
Pun Meister: Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. There are some very subtle hints as to who it is, but there will be a clear answer in time.
It's American Thanksgiving, everyone. And I have to say thank you to you all. Things have gone up and down as I've been working on this story, but every review, every follow, every favorite, and every view from you guys is something I am thankful for. Not everyone leaves a mark saying that they're enjoying this story, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I know you're there and that means the world to me.
Let's keep going on this adventure together. Let's see this Holy Grail War to the end.
If you're in America or are American, enjoy your Thanksgiving. If you're not, have a wonderful day.
We all have things to be thankful for, and today is as good a day as any to remember and celebrate that. I'll see you guys on Sunday.
Thanks for reading!
