First of all, I would like to wish all my readers a happy New Year. May your health and dreams flourish.
Sawtooth44: I'm sorry, what are you talking about?
Akasha Bloodriver: Yes, Waver and Iskandar have no Knowledge of Hakuno. And yes Hakuno is... very very shy. Above all, her stay in the Moon Cell made her very aware that her decisions could lead to the death of others and she is more than happy to leave this kind of responsibility to others. Shinji, Alice, Rani... she already has a lot of ghosts with her. Archer is very fond of his little Master... after a difficult start. I believe that the gift (not blessed by the gods) of always finding oneself in the wrong place at the wrong time or finding oneself making difficult choices is not for nothing. They find things in each other's lives in common with theirs. They can understand each other. We could say that they speak the same language.
Boyzilla: It's not the "classical" Namless of Extraverse it's the Archer of my last game party. I focused on increasing his attack and defense capabilities... and I neglected his luck which even in the end was still E-rank. For the conter-attack and the Hakuno victorious come-back... it's Hakuno. Isn't it obvious ?
Wild Hunt
Tick-tock, tick-tock...
Tick-tock, tick-tock...
It was an ordinary pendulum as seen everywhere, with three hands. Fixed to the wall, it indicated the passing time. Each second followed precisely, mechanically, the previous one by the play of the cogs.
It was on the wall next to the blackboard. The pastel painted wall classroom of the Tsukimihara Academy remained similar to what it had always been... a reconstruction of a real classroom in the digitized world of Seraph. The tables lined up peacefully in front of the professor's desk, the windows facing the courtyard below.
Yet only one student was there.
Hakuno Kishinami, in her brown uniform with a blue ribbon, looked at the teacher. At times, she frowned. Her mind hardly emerged from the mist. She did not remember what she was doing before this class and she was uncomfortable with a sense of urgency. The girl was sure she had something important to do and...
- Kishinami-san, I am trying to explain something important.
The little squirrel blushed and turned to the blackboard. Professor Archimedes had not raised his voice, but she shivered because his eyes were soulless windows open to a mind of cogs and calculations. It was a man, a Mediterranean-type European with brown hair that was not disciplined and formed a crown of peaks all around his head. He was wearing a sort of long black and purple overcoat on the outside, yellow on the inside, widely revealing the top of his chest. A scarf was used as a belt and a chain with wide links beat his thigh. His hands were gloved.
- I was saying, there is only one universe, but it is made up of several "harmonics".
Chalk in hand, Archimedes drew a tree pattern on the blackboard. From a common trunk began several branches which in turn divided into secondary branches.
- A harmonic is a parallel reality. The destiny of each man multiplies the points - like the switches of a railway network- where he is given the opportunity to make choices that will change not only his life, but even the course of history. However, a man is only aware of living in one of these realities... On the contrary, the Moon Cell travels through them all. When it reaches one of these switches, he leaves a kind of beacon that will allow it to find that position during a...
Hakuno suddenly cut him conscious of already knowing this Moon Cell ability:
- A Quantum Jump!
Archimedes nodded his head.
- Exactly, a Quantum Jump. The ability of the Moon Cell to move from one harmonic to another is called Quantum Time Lock; it is in fact the most important function of the Moon Cell. Without this function, the Moon Cell would be reduced to being able to travel only one harmonic in the history of the Earth. On the contrary, the Quantum Time Lock opens the possibility of knowing the infinite variants of the history of this planet.
As Hakuno listened to Archimedes, a kind of tearing occurs in her mind... With her head in her hands, she remembered the Fog, Velber, Altera, her defeat... What was she doing here?
When she looked up to talk to Archimedes... the classroom had disappeared... she found herself immersed in a meaningless spectacle. A spiral of energy surrounded her, made of wires that were born and disappeared forming a kind of tangled web whose connections were constantly changing. She seemed suspended in the middle of nothingness and no longer felt her body... Rather than panic, Hakuno was fascinated. The I.A. looked around her and came to understand that it was a representation of the harmonics Archimedes was talking about. By focusing on one of them, the Sovereign of the Moon Cell saw the appearance of scenes from the life of a male Hakuno Kishinami who had a female fox as principal Servant. Each ephemeral wire contained variants... infinities of variants... a female Hakuno in a fantastic medieval world... another with a radioactive giant lizard like Servant... another where a male Hakuno Kishinami had remained in the Seraph... a world where Hakuno had died while facing Lu Bu, the Servant of Rani VIII... others... so many others... too much for a human mind.
Hakuno Kishinami was at the center of it all!
No, she realized, not her.
Hakuno turned around, feeling connections she had not yet been really aware of becoming crystal clear.
She was in the Photonic Abyss of the Moon Cell. She always was in the Photonic Abyss. She never quit it.
The Main Core was a huge unfinished crystal cube, showing a sphere of golden light floating above a surface covered in water, from which emerged numerous stone pillars like some sort of funeral monuments.
Hakuno Kishinami was not at the center of the spiral formed by the harmonics, it was the Moon Cell. Since Rin Tohsaka had explained to her that she was an A.I. Hakuno had gone through various stages: refusal, depression, resigned acceptance... However, she never really thought about what that really meant.
Hakuno Kishinami was a program that ran on the supercomputer called "Moon Cell"
She was an integral part of the Moon Cell.
The others "Hakuno Kishinami" (which did not all call themselves so) was variants of herself in other harmonics. But all of them were Moon Cell programs.
Wonder "why" is to ask the question to the Moon Cell. Its answer stunned Hakuno.
The creators of the Moon Cell had tried to design a computer capable of recording the entire history of the Earth in its infinite variations. However, they had encountered impossibility. The more they made their computer smart, the more data it absorbed, which required more intelligence to make decisions. As a result, the necessary computing power tended towards infinity.
The multiple iterations of the Holy Grail War had no other purpose than to... Hakuno shivered by "listening" to the Moon Cell ... Twice H. Pieceman had not come very far from understanding everything! In fact, as Twice had guessed, it was a Darwinian selection, a sieve to distinguish intelligence capable of making a decision.
Rather than give an infinite intelligence to the Moon Cell (which was anyway impossible) the creators of the supercomputer had decided to split the decision-making between units created according to the events encountered in each harmonic: A.I. like Twice, she or... Sakura Matou.
As this flood of knowledge poured into her, the victor of the Grail War shook. It was not the most important, for the moment. Kishinami finally remembered what she was doing there.
She had just used the Quantum Time Lock to return before the battle opposing her to Altera. This journey of her soul and spirit into the circumvolutions of the Moon Cell had enabled her to understand the real relationship between the Sovereign and the Divine Automatic Recording Devise. However, this revelation did not change anything to her goal; she had to go back in time thanks to a Quantum Jump to arrive at a variant of history where she triumphed over Veber.
Hakuno Kishinami's soul and spirit had performed the Quantum Jump as a Moon Cell program. Once the operation was completed, she was downloaded once again into the Delta-Core of the Mental Model of Surcouf... just at the end of the conference the day before the battle against Altera.
For the Moon Cell, it was practically a standard maintenance operation, as an update of a program after downloading a newer version. The soul of both versions of Hakuno was identical and the spirit of the "recent version" contained just new information.
Hakuno Kishinami's "restart" lasted a few seconds. For all the conference participants, the Japanese teenager in school uniform had simply immobilized, hand outstretched, staring at a virtual screen that had appeared at the-above her ring then... she clapped her eyelashes before looking at them all with a stupefied gaze:
- The fleet must not be divided.
Shozo Chihaya showed no reaction, apart from a glance towards the holographic projection of Musashi, showing the disposition of his ships.
- Why?
- I have just returned from the future.
Hakuno raised her hand and dozens of virtual screens appeared along the walls of the room. Each one showed a film of the battle, a plan, and diagrams of fleets on the move. We saw Iskandar destroying the fighters leading the first strike mounted on Gordeus's Wheel or the attack of the Black Fleet of Velber as one of the three armadas separated by the tactical decision of Shozo Chihaya.
His son, Gunzo, went from screen to screen and nodded at the moment:
- I sensed something like that.
Then the Blue Steel Force Leader turned to Hakuno:
- How can you know the future?
The girl hesitated and replied:
- To me, that's the past. That's what happened. I just went back.
Hyuga looked at Hakuno with a dreamy air:
- I had heard that the Moon Cell had lived the whole history of the Earth several times. Is that how it is? He goes back in time to explore the variations of history?
Hakuno simply nodded:
- It's called Quantum Time Lock.
Shozo Chihaya had looked at several windows focusing mainly on the re-enactments of the battle, showing the movements of the wings. He was an excellent naval tactician; his plan was classic but brilliant, logically exploiting their advantages to achieve success... He simply ignored the abilities of the Heroic Spirits. For against the enemy Servants, it required the experience of someone who had faced them. He turned to Hakuno:
- Kishinami-san, how to beat them?
The Sovereign of the Moon Cell unwittingly showed a determined face:
- First of all, I must invoke an additional Servant.
Behind her, Drake left the chair where she had collapsed:
- Master, give me command of the fleet. My Voyager of the Storm skill is equivalent to the Military Tactic skill in a naval confrontation, and I have it at A+. Altera and Iskandar are just amateurs next to me. Ah... and you will certainly need my Noble Phantasm... so don't forget that his power depends on my fortune. And you haven't paid me much, so far... how about a small extension... gold, girlie, a lot of gold... in the interest of the outcome, of course.
Hakuno nodded and sighed. Of course, Drake did not seek to enrich herself... How could an idea like that get through her head?
Without worrying about this part of the dialogue that escaped him, Shozo Chihaya turned to Rider:
- Do you have a plan?
It took Francis Drake a good half hour to convince the other leaders of the alliance that her idea was capable of defeating Velber.
Hakuno Kishinami was in the English countryside, only escorted by Archer. The night had fallen and only the full moon lit the grass waving towards the hills in the distance. She had chosen a deserted place that she felt full of the memory of the world.
She held out her hand where the Regalia ring shone.
A magic circle encircling a six-pointed star appeared. Hakuno didn't need to utter an incantation, just focus on what she really wanted. After all, the Holy Grail gave form and substance to the heroes and she was the Sovereign of the Moon Cell... the most powerful of the Grails.
She closed her eyes.
She needed a great hero.
The color of the circle changed from blue to orange
A hero eager to defend the British Isles against an invasion.
A light was emitted towards the sky by the circle which passed through various colors, red, green, then again blue. There was a trembling and the grass; the trees were covered with golden light. Particles, like golden fireflies, rose up.
A hero wielding a weapon powerful enough to defeat the Mars sword of Altera, valiant enough to challenge the Scourge of God, and strong enough to fight even against the King of the Huns.
Archer opened round eyes. Never before had he seen such an impressive reaction at a magical ceremony. Worried, he prepared to trace Kanshou and Bakuya while keeping his eyes on the circle. The air, the ground seemed to resonate as if the country itself responded to the invocation. A golden light merged forming a humanoid silhouette that became denser.
Brutally drained of her energy, Hakuno fell on a knee gasping before raising her eyes, feeling a formidable presence a few steps before her.
Bathed in lunar light, a figure stood in the middle of the circle. A crown inlaid with precious stones glittered at his forehead and a blue clak woven with gold threads, lined with white fur, draped her shoulders. Her hands were crossed on the knob of a sword whose guard and golden handle were inlaid with blue enamel.
From all her being emanated a regal air.
The rising voice evoked the sliding of a steel blade into a velvet sheath:
- Servant Saber, I answer your summons. I ask you: Are thou my Master?
Stunned by the woman facing her, wearing a silver breastplate inlaid with blue enamel, gauntlets and a skirt of metal blades on a blue and white dress, Hakuno forgot to breathe.
It was Archer who replied:
- Artoria?
He had never forgotten this beautiful stoic face, her eyes like emeralds and her golden hair tied in a mat in the back of his head... as in his memory.
- A Servant?
The eyes of Artoria Pendragon creased dangerously as she pointed Excalibur towards the one who could only be an opponent.
But Hakuno had jumped on his feet and stepped in:
- No, I am your Master, Saber, and Archer is also one of my Servants.
Completely in shock the Heroic Spirit who once... so long ago... called Emiya Shirou was always looking at the legendary King of Brittany. She was the Servant he invoked during the Fuyuki Holy Grail War... but at the same time she was not her. The energy that emanated from her was incredible. This Saber had to be three or four times more powerful than the other!
- Yes... Saber was invoked on the British Isles to protect them! The origin of King Arthur's power is her dragon core... linked to Maglocunnus.
Hakuno turned to Archer, who soliloquized as if in shock:
- Maglocunnus?
- Master, have you ever seen the Wales flag? It's a red dragon on a green background. This dragon is an earth dragon representing the leys lines that travel the British Isles. The birth of King Arthur was prophesied by Merlin after he saw a red dragon (Maglocunnus) fighting a white dragon representing the Saxon invaders. You managed to summon Artoria Pendragon in her incarnation as Rex Que Futuram.
The Inheritor of the Moon was completely lost and Archer found out:
- The legend of King Arthur is in two parts. There is the first part that everyone knows: Rex Quodam, The King Who Reigned. The sword in stone, the Round Table and its defeat in Camlann... this is all part of this legend. But the second part of his legend says that "The King Will Reign" (Rex Que Futuram). When the British Isles face an invasion they cannot face, King Arthur will return. You just fulfilled that prophecy!
Artoria watched Archer and Kishinami with interest, listening to their discussion. She then lowered her sword and knelt down:
- Master, my sword is yours. I cannot thank you enough for this opportunity. For centuries without number, I have been crying on the red hill of Camlann, amidst the remains of my friends, waiting for the day when I will finally be offered a chance to redeem my failure.
Archer nodded and then a strange expression passed on his face:
- Master, I just remembered that there is another Hero who is supposed to come back to life on the day when England will again be invaded...
Hakuno tilted her head with an interrogative expression. A vision so cute that Artoria had her first real smile:
- Are you talking about Sir Francis Drake?
Archer laughs stupidly, shaking his head with amusement:
- Believe it or not, King Arthur but... Hakuno also invoked Drake.
After looking at the Servant and the Master with disbelief, Artoria put a gloved hand of iron in front of her mouth to hide her laugh:
- Arrogance is the knight's first enemy. However... I think I can say that our enemies have already lost. It's just that they still have to find out.
At the first light of dawn, the coalition fleet faced the Black Ships of Velber. The Allies applied the order of battle devised by Rider, advancing in line and blocking the Irish Sea. With supply ships in the order of battle, Drake seemed to have opted for a wait-and-see strategy and attrition conflict, a cautious tactic that swears with the pirate's habits. After all, Francis Drake was famous for the commando operation that allowed her to take Cartagena and the harassment of the Spanish.
But isn't the art of war all about lying?
Of course, Drake didn't want to prolong the confrontation. She just wanted Altera to believe in that tactic so she could look for a quick outcome.
Her deployment in line also allowed Drake to make the best use of her numerical superiority. It forced the King of the Huns to choose between two alternatives. Either Altera was deploying her fleet on such a broad front... with fewer guns to cover an identical front, or she was concentrating on a restricted perimeter and thus letting her opponent free to turn it on a flank and can be even to surround it.
Drake's last advantage was her Master. Hakuno had questioned the Moon Cell to learn about the history of the Servants she faced, a habit she had taken during the Grail War. The Inheritor of the Moon then told her Servant what she had learned. For example, Altera had been beaten by Roman general Flavius Aetius at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.
The Roman general had countered the Huns' usual harassment tactics by being as mobile as they were. If Altera decided to resort to this strategy, her ignorance of the war on sea would hand her over to a pirate master of naval guerrilla warfare.
As for Iskandar, he was much more dangerous. First, the King of the Conqueror had a reputation as a land war genius, having repeatedly defeated armies perhaps ten times in number. His style was known, eagerly commented since antiquity. He loved the lightning cavalry maneuvers that he drove himself. He carried the attack on a flank, before falling back on the enemy center and aiming at the enemy command. In addition, Admiral Nearchus of Leto was one of his subordinates.
The drones launched by the English did not survive long despite their anti-radar capabilities, but each loss was replaced by another aircraft. In practice, the cover of the Black Fleet was never broken, allowing Drake to inspect in real time the enemy who was maneuvering.
Drake agreed to that.
Iskandar was in charge.
The enemy fleet had adopted a formation that resembled the naval counterpart of the Battle of Issos. Velber's forces formed a thinner battle wall than that of the Coalized, but the Italian fleet's fast cruisers were all assembled on the right wing. The side where the king of Macedonia would attack... as usual.
- Master, tell Archer to move to the left wing with the mobile reserve.
In her command chair, Hakuno nodded, focusing on her telepathic connection with the Servant of the bow.
The confrontation began in a very classical way, the fast cruisers of the Regina Marina focused their fire on the first ships of the left wing. The Allies retaliated and soon the sky was invaded by missiles, shells, lasers and plasma projectiles, while allied submarines crept in the wake of the Black Ships to attack them with Corrosion Torpedoes.
Ships from both camps, Klein's Field which had been destroyed, were soon drifting into the boiling cauldron that had become the Irish Sea.
Allied casualties were greater. However, their numerical superiority outweighed it.
From close to close, fight now ignited the entire battle line. Slowly, the Allies took advantage.
It was at this time that Iskandar invoked the fleet of Nearchus of Leto, to strengthen its right wing. The biremes carrying on their sails the sun of Macedonia reversed the course of the battle. The soldiers of the Ionian Hetairoi, taking the coalition ships to board, were tearing apart the effigies and aggressors that were defending them.
Allied casualties soared and only weapons upgraded by Hakuno could destroy Minor Heroes like Iskandar's warriors.
Nevertheless, Velber's forces were not the only ones able to resort to Noble Phantasms.
Rider had gone up on the Surcouf kiosk and called, looking up at the sky:
-Remember my name by the death from my passing! Temeroso el Draque! I am the woman who set the sun! You rascals, it's time! The King of Storms, a swarm of ghosts, this is the beginning of the Wild Hunt!
Suddenly, the weather changed radically, the wind turned to storm and the sky rolled with black clouds covered with lightning which struck the waves. A storm of the end of the world preceded the materialization of the Golden Hint. The flagship of Francis Drake, red wooden hull and white sails, appeared in the sky, as carried by the infernal storm where the cries of demons resounded accompanied by the moans of the damned.
Rider jumped to the prow while about twenty ghost ships surrounded the Golden Hint. She unloaded her black powder guns at the same time as the culverin from her fleet were firing.
Caught in a veritable flood of destructive rays, Macedonian biremes and Black Ships were burning, melting or exploding. The titanic waves and lightning falling from the sky finished dismantling them.
Although the battle is not over, the miracle of the "Night Storm" had just recurred. As in the past, Drake had succeeded in defeating the Invincible Armada, which threatened England.