CHAPTER 13:

CLASH

Trying to track down Ruler was a wash. It seemed that he or she weren't in Sighişoara. And with one of their Servants currently out, it was decided to wait until later to try anything else.

Harry decided, as did virtually everyone else save for Kairi and Mordred, to get some sleep. Kairi was busy working on a pickled hydra, claiming it made a potent antidote for most poisons, while Mordred was griping about not being with Altera to fight.

Harry woke up in a by-now familiar cavern. The Titaness form of Altera reaching down and placing him on her shoulder held no fear for him now. Indeed, the gesture was an affectionate one. Though something occurred to him. "Altera…are you able to cope with controlling this body and the one you have outside?"

"It's difficult, but far from impossible," Altera said. "Keep in mind, my own mind is considerably more sophisticated than yours. This doesn't necessarily mean I am a genius per se, rather, my brain processes and stores far more information than the human mind can."

"Why is that?"

"…When Velber re-engineered me into Sephyr, I was designed not just to destroy, but to absorb," Altera said. "Velber, for all its intent on destruction, does not destroy without absorbing useful information. That would be wasteful. I was designed to absorb and retain considerable amounts of information. In addition, my mind can process information at a fairly fast rate, particularly when it comes to body movements and sensory perception, in order to optimise my ability to do battle. As I can't really do much within my prison, there's actually little trouble between my talking to you here, and running my avatar in Romania." With that, she gestured, and they saw a forest at night appear as an image hanging in mid-air. "And you arrived just in time. My avatar has sensed the approach of a pair of Servants close to my position, with Atalanta giving me fire support."

"…Maybe I need popcorn," Harry muttered, even as a pair of figures emerged from out of the trees. One appeared to be a red-haired young woman, anywhere from her late teens to her twenties, dressed in a bridal gown, her eyes obscured by her fringe. However, what looked like metal headphones covered her ears, a horn of the same material protruded from her forehead, and she wielded a rather large mace that looked vaguely like a Tesla coil. She was growling quietly at Altera, the avatar.

The swordsman, however, was tall, with tanned skin, and silvery white hair framing stern but handsome features. A glowing sigil was visible on his bare chest, while the rest of him was armoured. Altera gasped. "Of all the Servants to be summoned…it was him?"

"Who? You recognise him? He's a Saber, right?"

"Yes…and I knew him. I met him once in life. He is Siegfried, the hero of the Germanic epic you know as the Nibelungenlied, the one that man Wagner adapted into The Ring of the Nibelung. He came to visit me at what passed for my court at the time, and I helped his widow get revenge after he was killed by Hagen, and I agreed in exchange for treasure…just a moment…"

Then, her voice came from the image they were watching. "…Siegfried," Altera's avatar said. "A perverse jest of fate, this is."

"Indeed, Altera. I remember how you preferred that name to Attila the Hun," Siegfried said. Then, after a moment, he sighed. "My Master is not happy that you revealed my name to the other watching Masters. I believe he hoped to retain an advantage of some sort. My apologies, but Berserker and I have orders to stop you from assisting your own Berserker."

"…That is the nature of a Grail War," Altera's avatar said, before the tip of Photon Ray pointed at them. "So, let's begin."

Harry watched as Altera clashed with the two enemy Servants. His eyes all but bugged out of their sockets when he saw the blade of Photon Ray all but extend into a rainbow-coloured whip, lashing out at Siegfried's own weapon, and entangling it. "I never saw it do that before, even when you sparred with Semiramis!"

"I believe the colloquial term is, a girl's gotta have some secrets," Altera said with a smile, as Siegfried managed to pull Balmung away. "Still…Siegfried is no pushover, and neither is the Berserker. Balmung is a successor of the infamous cursed sword, Gram, wielded by a man many consider to be another aspect of Siegfried, the hero Sigurd. Siegfried is a powerful fighter, and Balmung is dangerous. I may be more powerful than either Servant, but overconfidence is the breeding ground for defeat and death."

After a period spent fighting, Altera's avatar broke away from her opponents. "Both of you fight well. I expected no less from you, Siegfried, but you, Berserker, despite your class, fight well in concert with an ally," Altera's avatar said on the image. "A shame you fight for such unworthy Masters. Which one is yours, Siegfried? The sadistic whore? The blustering oaf? Either one would be unworthy of your talents."

"Nonetheless, I fight for my Master," Siegfried said stoically.

"Honourable fool," Altera's avatar said. "That's what got you stabbed in the back by Hagen in the first place. And many Magi would make Hagen look honourable himself. The only reason why I would stab you in the back is because that is the only place you are vulnerable, save to weapons of a high enough power. But the Sword of Mars is one of those exceptions. Still…I must apologise in advance, Siegfried."

Siegfried frowned. "For what?"

Altera raised Photon Ray in a salute, and an arrow, presumably shot by Atalanta, smacked into Siegfried, pinning him to a tree. "For that. It may not be enough to kill you, but it will buy me enough time to deal with Berserker." The red-haired girl was growling at her. "Your ability as a fighter and in concert with Siegfried is good, Berserker, but for one of your class, your strength is somewhat lacking. I would suggest putting your all into it, unless you intend to either retreat or die by my blade. I am sure Yggdmillennia have already put paid to our Berserker. An eye for an eye, perhaps?"

However, Siegfried was getting unsteadily to his feet, and activated his sword, a pillar of blue flame belching into the sky. Altera frowned. "Something's wrong. Look, he's fighting against it. His Master must have used a Command Seal to force him to use Balmung."

Harry nodded, accepting that. Siegfried certainly looked like he was struggling against it, his eyes wide in shock. "Are you going to get out of the way?"

"If necessary, but…" Suddenly, the pillar of flame cut out, and Siegfried all but collapsed. "…His Master changed his mind. Two Command Seals, out of three? He isn't prudent. Or she."

"…I think I know who it'd be," Harry said. "Gordes is probably his Master. Celenike wouldn't hold back, and Fiore and Caules wouldn't force their Servant to do that, I hope. Roche is the Master of Avicebron, and Darnic is Vlad Tepes' Master…"

As Siegfried Astralized with an apologetic smile, Berserker seemed about to attack, only to pause. "…Her Master is talking. Maybe he has a plan. Or…" Altera's eyes widened, and on the image, Photon Ray lashed out in time to swat an arrow from the sky. Berserker took the opportunity to dash by Altera, and only a hail of arrows from, presumably, Archer of Black, prevented Altera from doing anything via her avatar.

Altera grimaced. "So, let's see if I can spot Archer of Black. Releasing Fairy Snow Photon Ray for flight." The image on the screen showed Altera rising above the canopy. More arrows shot her way, but she deflected them. In the distance was the Yggdmillennia castle. Altera frowned, and the image zoomed in on a distant pair of figures on a balcony. Harry recognised the wheelchair-bound form of Fiore, blurry though the image was, while next to her, a brown-haired man in Grecian dress wielded a bow.

"Know this, Archer of Black!" Altera's avatar called out. "I can sense your divinity from here! But I have destroyed gods! You shall be no different when the time comes!"

With that, the image blanked out, and Altera sighed. "I'll Astralize my avatar and withdraw. I believe Atalanta is doing the same. It means Spartacus has either been killed or captured, but…"

Harry nodded. Altera's avatar was as durable as any Servant, especially now that it had gone through the summoning process, but that didn't make it indestructible. "Archer of Black must be pretty damned good to snipe you through the trees from his position."

"Yes. And there are few Greco-Roman Servants with his skill in archery, to say little of his divinity," Altera mused.

"He's also Fiore's Servant," Harry muttered. "I hope I'm right about her, and that she's a decent person, even amongst Yggdmillennia. She and her brother were good people, or so I thought."

"They are also our enemies," Altera pointed out. "While I will attempt to spare them where necessary, it may be that I need to kill them."

"I know, it's just…don't get me wrong, after what Darnic, Celenike and Gordes put me through, I'm more than willing to kill them. I think I'm more willing to kill in general. But…"

"I understand. Maybe it's time we said goodnight, though. Even in this shared memetic construct, your mind is still active, and you need a period to rest it."

"I guess so," Harry said, before, on an impulse, he kissed Altera on her cheek. "Good night, Altera…"

As her ally faded, Altera put a hand to her cheek where Harry had kissed her, and blushed. True, they had been affectionate to each other before, with her avatar and Harry giving each other hugs…but this was something else. Not as noteworthy as a kiss that brought lips to meet lips, all but impossible in this state anyway due to their respective sizes, but still…

Altera frowned. While she was not immune to the concept of attraction, anything like romantic love was, admittedly, alien to her. True, she had wed as Attila the Hun, but those were generally for political purposes, as well as the fact that the leader of her people had to be seen as such, despite the fact that she was a woman, and so were those she wed…for the most part. However, as Attila, she was actually…well, asexual wasn't quite the right word, as she could feel desire, but it was utterly secondary to conquest and destruction.

And yet…now, she felt something. At first, when she felt affection for Harry, it was almost like that one had for a pet, albeit one who was intelligent and powerful in their own right. And then, she realised that she actually valued him as a friend. A friend suggested some sort of equality in the relationship, and while she was doubtlessly the more powerful of the two, the fact that, after some understandable initial wariness, he treated her like a normal person was heartening.

What's more, he seemed to desire her. Her human form was beautiful, and despite the race memory of Sephyr, which must have resonated within the soul of the Homunculus fused with Harry (he came from another world, after all, so unless an alternate version of herself ended up there, it was more likely to be the Homunculus), he seemed to find her form as Sephyr beautiful too. So that was heartening.

Altera knew, with a somewhat dispassionate view, that what they felt at this time was not romantic love, but rather, feelings that could potentially evolve into it. What was more, they had a LOT of obstacles to overcome to make the relationship work. He was a wizard from another world shoved into the body of a Homunculus, and she was a millennia-old alien superweapon. That in itself was daunting, given the psychological issues both brought to the table. The problem of Velber influencing her was also a major problem, one that they needed the Grail to fix. Her size was not so big a problem: once she was free, she was confident she could change her shape and form to one closer to human dimensions.

If anything, the greatest obstacle, aside from the Velber issue, was ageing. Harry was 18, having been in the final months of his 16th year when he ended up on this world. Altera was…well, over 14000 years old, depending on how old she was when Velber harvested her from her homeworld. But it wasn't the age difference that was the issue. Harry was now an adult after all. Rather, it was the ageing difference. In all likelihood, she could probably live for many times longer, but humans could only live for decades, not millennia. To her knowledge, only the likes of Dead Apostles and the True Ancestors could live for as long.

Admittedly, it was too soon in their relationship to consider such a thing. But if there was one thing Altera had come to loathe in her imprisonment, it was loneliness. Even her discussions with Justeaze only came about relatively recently. And even with her sojourns into the real world using her avatar, she found herself set apart from humanity. She felt like an onlooker, on the outside looking in. Then again, she was an alien.

She needed to win this Grail War. That way, once she was free from Velber's influence, she could actually live. Whether that life was with Harry or not, well, who knew? However, she hoped it would be…

CHAPTER 13 ANNOTATIONS:

Oh dear. The first proper clash in the Grail War…

Review-answering time! Tenzo51: Not going to happen. Anyway, anyone who hurts Tonks is going to be on the receiving end of Maria the Ripper in short order.

Dragon Man 180: I'd pick Morded. Arturia would try to maintain manners even as she ate, and I doubt even Ron could keep up with a Servant…

No numbered annotations this time.