Fate/Innocence
Chapter 1War. inconceivable before it happened and when it did no one wanted to believe it. The Mage's Association and the Holy Church began open warfare across the world. It was unknown how it started but now the two sides were at each other's throats it seemed.
Nathan, A mercenary, reviewed the contract again. A key individual of the church was located in a church in Germany. It was normally fortified since the war started, but the Mage's Association was preparing a major offensive against it. Nathan already had a grudge of sorts against the man and taking the man's head would fetch a fair price, thus why he found himself outside said church. Nathan continued through a side door while the sound of spells and swords clashed around him.
This door led him through a hallway into the chapel area, so much for avoiding the front door. A young woman in church robes walked up to him.
"Executor, how fares the battle?" she asked. Nathan had almost forgotten he was wearing his Executor mantle.
"There has been a new development, I need to speak to the head priest." This was of course a lie, but Nathan wanted to do this quietly.
"No, there isn't anything new." The two turned to the pulpit. The Executor who just spoke removed his hood. "You are an assassin and a traitor." They must've known he was coming somehow. The young woman ran from him as more Executors emerged around him.
"Guess I have no choice." Nathan activated his black keys. With a spinning jump into the air, he tossed his weapons at his opponents while avoiding theirs. Only some of the blades defeated his enemies while the others were blocked. As he came to the ground he drew more of his keys while the remaining combatants began to move to avoid being an easy target.
On landing he threw the blades again. Those unlucky enough to be hit or get glanced by these were immediately engulfed in flames. Nathan smiled as his rune training seemed to have paid off.
He moved quickly to avoid blades as they were thrown at him. Most of them were novices when it came to using their weapons so avoiding getting hit was quite easy. He flung a new blade into an executor as he tried to charge him. The executor fell from black key that had pierced his skull and Nathan then hugged the left wall.
Nathan pulled his FN Five-seveN from its holster while his other hand prepared more black keys. He turned to deflect a blade from behind him but not before noticing one of the remaining 3 executors attempt to charge him again. After deflecting the incoming sword, Nathan turned and unloaded 3 rounds quickly into the charging executor. The man didn't expect a modern firearm and thus fell dead to the ground from the shots.
After shooting the man who had charged him, Nathan moved to the center of the room and flung 4 keys toward one of the executors as he leaped over their keys. This one blocked the first 2 blades easy but the spinning blades of the other two would find their mark. He readied 4 more keys and faced the remaining executor.
The two stood there watching each other. They were trying to anticipate the next move of their opponent which told Nathan that this man was experienced in combat. To their surprise the church shook from some sort of massive impact.
Nathan hadn't looked away from his challenger, but the impact was too strange to ignore. The Association hadn't deployed anything powerful enough to cause such an impact and the church was in the same boat. He raised his handgun.
He fired 3 rounds before flinging his keys. The man deflected the bullets before tossing his keys to intercept that which was thrown at him. Nathan took this chance to charge his opponent. With new keys in hand he thrusted at the man, however the man used martial arts and thus forced him to discard his blades. The two then engaged in a melee of martial arts, both being skilled to the point where neither seemed to be winning.
The man suddenly made an unexpected grab for Nathan's throat who tried to block it. Nathan however was just barely too slow and was grappled against the wall behind the pulpit. Now choking Nathan did his best to avoid passing out. The executor placed the tip of his black keys against Nathan's stomach.
"Any last words before the lord?" the man said.
"What do you know of God?" Nathan managed to say. "Most gods are dicks. you serve a being you know nothing about."
"We know more than you,"
"I doubt it," Nathan spat back, "if you did you would follow his teachings more. Actually read the book you proclaim to be his gospel."
"Give him my regards then," Man tensed up ready to impale Nathan.
"Do what you will," the man hesitated as Nathan spoke, "but the innocents you destroy will stack up. Can you call yourself Clean?!" he would've felt the tingling on the back of his hand but was too busy choking to notice. However he did notice something happen in the middle of the room.
A bright light flashed from the center of the room and the man looked to see what it was. The man had no time to react to what he saw much less realize what had happened. Nathan was released as the man's head was separated from his shoulders in a quick clean cut from a scythe like weapon.
After coughing for what seemed like ages, Nathan looked up from where he was on the ground to see that he had been saved by a young girl with purple hair put into a long braid. She wore a hooded cloak and wielded the scythe like object that had just decapitated the last executor. She was looking toward the door as if waiting for something to barge through it.
"Are you my master?" she asked in a beautiful voice, giving Nathan the impression that she was part Siren or something.
"The Holy Grail war," Nathan began putting the pieces together. "The Mage's Association must have weaponized it somehow." Nathan got up.
"An accurate guess yes," the girl continued watching the door.
"I guess I'll have to accept you as my servant then. You may call me Nathan." he began heading toward the nearby door that would lead farther into the building.
"How did you summon me master?" she asked. Nathan stopped at the door.
"You mean the catalyst?"
"Yes, I'm not supposed to be summonable at all yet here I am. Only a specific catalyst could do so." the girl finally turned to him. She was a beautiful girl beyond any that Nathan had seen. This made him feel awkward as she looked like she was 10 years old. Despite this there was something about her eyes that Nathan couldn't quite place.
"I'm not…" he was interrupted by the servant.
"Oh," she spotted a vase with flowers in it sitting on the pulpit. "These flowers, me and my sisters used to pick these all the time." Nathan detected a hint of sadness in her voice.
"So you're a Lancer class servant?" He said trying to change the subject.
"Yes," she was holding the flowers and staring at them. He noticed a single tear slide down her cheek.
"Do you need a minute Lancer?"
"No, master, sorry," she wiped her face with the back of her gloved hands. She placed the flowers back.
"I'm sure you've noticed but this is going to be a warzone pretty quick." Nathan opened the door in front of him and the two continued into the church.
"What is your objective here?"
"The assassination of my former teacher." Nathan replied.
"You are unallied aren't you?" Despite her size she kept pace with him pretty well.
"You could say that. His name is Gabriel Orthan." the two entered a small empty courtyard and continued along surprised at the lack of opposition they faced.
"He wronged you in some way didn't he?"
"That's a good summary, yes."
"I see."
"Is there a name I can call you other than your class name?" the two entered another door that led into another room as he spoke.
"You can call me…. Ana," she said.
"Thank you, Ana." Nathan knew this had nothing to do with her actual name. The two continued through several more doors until they found stairs that led down under the church.
"Most of these churches have an underground cathedral for some reason." Nathan said as he started down the steps.
"Why,"
"Most likely to practice their form of magecraft." As he thought the stairs led into a larger room designed like a grand cathedral. As the two approached the pulpit, Nathan could make out the figure of an old church high priest with white hair, the man whom he wanted dead.
"Do you wish for me to kill him?" Ana asked as she readied her weapon. They were in range for Nathan to throw a black key now too, but Nathan sighed.
"No point this is an Illusion." Nathan pulled back his hood revealing his short black spiky hair as the Illusion of Gabriel turned toward him.
"Quite right Nathan Sanctuary," the man smiled. "I was expecting to catch most of the Association's forces in this trap, but you beat them to the punch."
"You should have left me out in the desert," Nathan said.
"Maybe, but you have proven that my teachings were effective. Who knew teaching an outsider the ways of an executor would be so effective in securing my ascent." Nathan was enraged but he knew there was no point in reacting out of anger.
"We will find you." Ana tried to sound threatening. Gabriel turned to her.
"Ah yes the servant. We of the church suspected the enemy to deploy the grail system, so we made a change to it so that anyone on either side could use it." Ana grimaced. "I guess it is time for me to summon my own then. Please enjoy the death we have prepared for you." the Illusion then faded.
"How did you know it was an Illusion?" Ana asked.
"It didn't have a shadow when it should have." he looked up at the ceiling of the room. As he suspected the roof had explosives strapped to it. They meant to demolish the entire place on top of their enemy.
"Ana run!" As he spoke he heard an explosive detonate. He didn't look dare look instead giving all his energy to get the fuck out. Dust and debri started falling around them as they ran and Nathan could vaguely hear more explosives going off.
"Es ist gross," he started up a spell to strengthen his legs. He spotted Ana a little bit ahead of him, "Es ist Klein, Vox Gott es Atlas!" his legs immediately felt the much needed boost of his strengthening magic. He reached Ana in less than a second and swooped her into his arms before darting into the stairway.
In a single bound he jumped half of the stairs, the few footsteps he took were marked by small craters. At the top of the steps, he charged shoulder first through a door that led outside. He stopped once he reached the nearby treeline that stood a good 50 yards from the building.
He let Ana down and turned to the church while bending over for air.. It hadn't quite collapsed yet but Nathan knew it wouldn't be long.
"Master… thank you," the girl strangely enough wasn't mad at him.
"It was no problem," Nathan said exhausted. He watched as the last explosion went off and the building fell leaving no evidence of what had just transpired there.