* Rain (pick any rain track you want)
* Umineko - red leaf
* Rose Guns Days - Majo no Hoodzue
* Umineko - Melody (instrumental)
* Trianthology - Last boss
This was a memory from over a decade ago.
It was very vivid in Bruno's mind, one of the moments he considered to be turning points in his life. What had changed at that time wasn't him, nor had it been it the way he lived.
Rather, what had changed forever that day had been someone else's life, and he had been there to witness it. Now that he thought about it, he had always lived his life according to others, and unless he witnessed them change he too remained the same. So, maybe he indeed had changed that day as well.
That day had not been anything extravagant.
No battles.
No stakes.
No fanfare.
It had been a peaceful sunday morning, on an ordinary week, in a quiet neighborhood. Likewise, the task he had been given was probably not all that uncommon, yet, to him, it had been one the most painful experiences to go through. That peacefulness...had somehow made it worse for him. Since in the end, he had come to end it.
From that day, he mostly remembered the rain; and him waiting under the porch.
* Rain
"..."
The sound of the rain falling was drowning out everything else.
In this part of the world, downpours were almost always heavy and pretty common in this season. It wasn't cold though – on the contrary, the air was warm and heavy, as the monsoon had just about started. In this country, this was the season when everyone had an umbrella when going out, and the streets could turn into a colourful procession at times.
As for Bruno, his umbrella was closed in his hand. It wasn't thin fabric that protected him from being completely soaked, but a robust wooden porch above his head. He wasn't about to leave under the rain – on the contrary, he had finally reached his destination.
A wooden door, painted white just like the porch.
That was it.
He had dreaded every step of the way, but he had nonetheless arrived here.
And now he couldn't open that door.
He wouldn't dare.
He had found the courage to come all this way on foot, but the final obstacle was too much for him to overcome. All he had to do was ring the bell or knock, but the mere thought of it drained all the strength from his arms. His left hand was resting inside his pocket, whereas the right hand was the one holding the umbrella – Bruno was looking down at the latter.
As a poor excuse to think of something else, he was watching the water drip down in drops from the tip of the umbrella onto the wooden planks.
Plock. Plock. Plock.
"...Haaa..." And as soon as he realized what he was doing, a heavy sigh.
How long had he been here?
A quick glance at his wristwatch told him he had been standing under the porch for almost ten full minutes. Somehow, he felt like it had been much longer than that. Irritated by his own indecision, Bruno pursed his lips and moved – but not toward the door. Instead, he simply turned around to look at the world on the other side of the curtain of rain.
It was a quiet suburban neighborhood, with barely anyone in the street. Most of the houses here didn't belong to locals. Rather, they were being rented. Soldiers who brought their families along with them usually have them live closer to the base, but there were a few who prefered it around here. Bruno didn't have children and he wasn't even married, so it wasn't something he had ever thought much about – the comfort of the people you dragged around to the other end of the world. He had come here a few times before though.
After all, this specific house had been rented at the name of his friend Philip.
He had never really thought about it before, about how Philip had thought this would be a better place for his son to live in. Not that it made a difference in the end: whether it was here or near the base, they'd be away on the job most of the time anyway. Soldier wasn't just a job but a dedicated way of life, after all.
But looking around this place, it looked nice, especially on a morning like this...
"... ... ...Tch." He clicked his tongue.
There he went again, trying to think about something else. He turned around again, returning his attention to that damned door. All he had to do was simple, on paper.
Ring the bell.
Greet Alexander.
And tell him his father had lost his life in the line of duty.
"... ... ... ... ... ... ..."
He couldn't even go through with the first step.
He didn't even want to think about the second one.
As for the third step, it was something that still didn't feel real even to him. It had happened a few days ago only, an experience still vivid in his mind, but like a feverish dream. Maybe it was because of the lack of sleep; he had barely gotten any. It wasn't a dream. And if he couldn't face that fact, he wouldn't be able to deliver the news to Alexander.
"... ... ..."
It sounded so simple.
Bruno had known Philip for a long time; he had visited him and his son several times. That was why he was the one who should break the news to his family, but that was his first time doing that.
"How do you even tell a kid that?" He grumbled. "I wouldn't even want to show him his father's face..."
Because there was no face to show; only the jaw was intact. Even though Philip had died 'in the line of duty', it hadn't been an important mission or anything glorious. Their daily routine as soldiers was to live with the possibility of a guerilla attack in mind, at all times. When it did happen, it would sometime claim lives. This time, it had happened to be him. That was it, just dumb misfortune, and his death had accomplished nothing in the end.
How was he supposed to tell that to his son?
Was he supposed to tell a pretty lie?
Bruno tried to remember what the boy looked like – at least the last time he had seen him. Whenever he saw Alexander, Bruno was surprised by the intelligence sparkling in his eyes. He was smart, more so that the other children of his age. But he was still a child through and through: he innocently looked up to his father more than to anyone else in this world. Bruno didn't think he had ever seen that kid without a smile on his face whenever his father was around. Likewise, Philip had adored his son; it didn't matter where they lived, Alexander was...had been the home he'd return to. His son had been Philip's only family, and he had been the only family Alexander had.
As far as the latter was concerned, it was still the case...
...
...
Could he really look him in the eyes and tell him how his father had died? How he had died meaninglessly? People died even if there wasn't a meaning, even if they had no reason to. In fact, Bruno couldn't think of a good reason off the top of his head, not at the moment. Maybe that would be the reason they were fighting in the first place? But none of them wanted to die. They wanted to fight and live for something.
Probably/
There were many reasons why a man might enroll, but Bruno had never met anyone who had come here to die.
...
What had Philip been fighting for?
The subject may have come up a long time ago, but whatever the answer had been at the time might not hold up anymore. If only Bruno knew, maybe he would be able to announce his death in a more comforting way... Although, ironically, he was the one craving for comfort right now. He wished he knew. Why Philip had died. There was probably no answer, but that was exactly the answer he couldn't accept. And yet, he had seen it with his own eyes, how his death and many others had been: short, sudden and brutal. No way in hell he could have had the time to look back on his life and decide he was satisfied. His last thoughts had probably been something along the lines of panic.
That was the baggage Bruno had brought with him to this porch.
...
...
...
What was Bruno fighting for?
He didn't have a family left to protect.
No real home to return to.
Simply, he had always felt as though he was doing the right thing: there had to be someone out there he was protecting, whomever it might be. And of course, there were his fellow soldiers. After enough time in the military, it was normal for someone like him, who had nothing but himself, to get attached to his comrades-in-arms, and in the end he had felt his place was here.
But Philip hadn't been the same.
If he had been fighting for something, it was surely the place he couldn't return to anymore.
To Bruno, he had first been his comrade, then his friend, then a brother, and now...he was a question. A riddle about his friend, which had now become a question to Bruno himself, something he had never considered up until now.
"Oh, for the love of...!" He muttered irritatedly. "That's not what I came here for! All I have to do is notify his son and..."
He realized something.
All this time, he had been tormenting himself over his friend's death and how to face it, but only now did a different question arise: what would Alexander do now? He was far from his birth country. His mother...the subject had rarely come up, but Bruno didn't think she would do anything. Neither would Philip's parents: their son had joined them in the afterlife. It truly wasn't an exaggeration to say Philip had been his son's sole family.
So now what?
Philip had joked a few times about how Bruno should become Alexander's godfather, but that was silly...
"Oh, that is it."
Bruno was dwelling on so many things at once, all of sudden the idea of opening that door and to stop brooding on this porch was very attracting. In a fit of courage he grabbed the handle and pulled on it.
*rattle* *rattle* *rattle*
"...!"
But it didn't open.
"Right, this isn't my house..." In his hurriedness, he had completely forgotten to ring the bell.
Drrrriiiiing!
"... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..."
But no one answered. Maybe he simply couldn't hear them coming because of the rain; but after several minutes had passed, the door was still closed. Could it be Alexander hadn't heard the bell? No, it was a door bell, you were supposed to hear no matter where you were. In fact, Bruno had heard it clearly from outside. There was a window on Bruno's right; he walked up to it and peeked through. The curtains were open, but all the lights were off, even though the cloudy sky made it pretty dark inside.
"...He's not here."
Alexander wasn't there.
Bruno had been waging a war against himself in front of this door for half an hour, only to find out nobody was home. All he could do was stare at that white door in stunned silence, his cheeks reddening from the embarrassement. His rush of courage had lasted three seconds at best.
Now he was just puzzled.
"But today is sunday, right? He can't be at school...and the curtains were open, so he must be up already." Maybe he was out to do groceries. Or maybe he was over at a friend's home; but Bruno remembered Philip voicing concern over his son's lack of friends, so that didn't seem likely. "Well, in any case he's not here. I don't even have his number, so there's no helping it."
He would have to come back another time.
That made him feel even more embarassed, but at the very least the surprise had washed away his negative thoughts. As he turned around and opened his umbrella, his body felt lighter. Whether it was now or later, Alexander would have to learn of his father's death, but that was a thought for another day. At least, this allowed him to leave on a more light-hearted note amongst all his brooding.
... ... ... Or rather, he had been about to leave, when he suddenly felt a strange ticklish sensation.
It wasn't a shiver because of the rain. It was a feeling he couldn't explain, as though his instinct was warning him of something.
Somehow he had a hunch, and turned his head to the left. This neighborhood was not completely urbanized, and one could find patches of trees here and there. They were not wide enough to call woods, but they could probably be turned into small parks if someone had the patience and dedication. And next to Philip's house was one such patch, and Bruno had an inexplicable feeling in his guts that this ticklish sensation came from that direction, if that made sense.
"..."
Bruno hesitated. He didn't know why he even stopped to think about that; he should just leave. But it was such an unusual feeling and he was still lacking sleep - and thus his curiosity nudged him more and more to go take a look.
"...Oh, well. I came all this way anyway, might as well."
* Umineko - red leaf
He opened his umbrella and made his way over the trees, making a wet sound with each step under the rain. But because of said umbrella, all he could hear was the sound of droplets hitting the fabric. The trees would offered enough protection from the rain, so he closed his umbrella and kept his ear open.
(... ... Hm? There's someone else here?)
He couldn't see anyone yet, but he could tell someone else had their umbrella open. Using that sound as a guide, he headed deeper into the patch of trees. Although he called it a patch, they were packed together so tight that, after stepping deeper into it, you could forgethow small it was. Whomever was there probably didn't want to be seen. Bruno just hoped it wasn't someone taking a leak, or worse...
In any case, he got closer to the origin of the sound with quiet footsteps.
The rain made it easier for him to mask his approach, and he would soon know who was there at last. He heard ushered voices, but because he too had to listen through the rain, he couldn't really tell how many voices nor what kind. By stepping a bit closer though, he could tell there were two people speaking: a boy and a girl.
He still couldn't make out what they were saying though, they were speaking too low.
But if there was a boy there, then...
...
Bruno stopped in front of a tree – they were on the other side. They were still talking to each other; they hadn't heard him. Bruno was filled with too much curiosity to feel embarassed: slowly, he peeked from behind the massive trunk. He saw their two figures among the trees and the roots: the boy was crouching down and looking at the ground in front of him; Meanwhile, the girl was standing up with her umbrella in hand, protecting the two of them from the raindrops. But she was bending forward, looking intently at the same thing as her friend.
Bruno tried to have a look at their face – the girl wasn't familiar, but it was a different story for the boy. As he had thought, the one crouching down really was Alexander Lendric. But that thought had barely skimmed Bruno's mind – the soldier hiding behind a tree was stunned speechless. And the reason for that was because of Alexander's hand: his open palm was turned toward the ground, and it was... emitting a bluish light. Bruno's brain had initially identified it as a flashlight, but there was no mistaking it: his skin itself was glowing. It was emitting a weak light which, thanks to the dim sunlight that couldn't filter through the leaves, gently filled the area around the two of them.
In front of this inexplicable phenomenon, Bruno stopped thinking; he too had his eyes fixated on what was at Alexander's feet.
There were reddish flowers, the likes of which grew around this area – Bruno had seen some on his way. But these had probably been planted there randomely by the wind: because they were growing between the trees, with very little sunlight, they were small and feeble.
But not anymore.
It was a crazy idea but, it seemed to Bruno as though these flowers were...absorbing the light from the boy's palm, as a substitute for sunlight. The effects were instantaneous, and the plants grew as they drank more light. Their colors brightened, their stigs straightened, and before Bruno could make any sense of it, they had become perfectly healthy. No, they were more than healthy: they were bigger than they had been before, more than the flowers he had seen earlier!
The boy and girl were watching this miracle is silent admiration.
The light illuminated their faces, and their eyes filled with wonder. Bruno shared that sentiment; this atmosphere and mystery had bewitched him. But he was much less calm about it – still in stunned silence, he stepped out of his hiding place. Alexander didn't notice him, but the girl next to him heard the footstep and looked up. When she caught sight of the soldier observing them, she held back a gasp of horror and tapped her friend's shoulder in rapid succession, urging him to look up as well.
"Alex...!"
Alexander complied with a confused look, but when he too noticed Bruno he was just as shocked as she was. The light vanished instantly from his hand, and he stood up abruptly. Bruno saw various emotions pass through his eyes: first there was panic, coupled with fear, but then it was replaced by suspicion and animosity, which were then succeeded by bewilderment. Bruno might have had a similar look on his face. Slowly, as they stared each other off, the teenager slowly recognized who Bruno was, and his expression lightened up a little.
"Mr. Blackeye...? What are you doing here?"
"Ah..." Bruno was taken out of his daze.
He stood there with his mouth agape for a souple of seconds, then shook his head.
Everything he had seen just now had been...an illusion from his mind, nothing more. He was still tired from lack of sleep and emotional fatigue, and his imagination had made up the mystical part. That had to be it. Alexander probably had a flashlight or something else that Bruno couldn't see. And looking down again, he couldn't find the miraculous flower anywhere anymore (or rather, he didn't know that the boy had purposely stepped on it).
Now he just felt ridiculous for sneaking up on a couple of teenagers.
"I...ehm...you weren't at your house." The soldier fumbled an explanation for his presence. If Alexander asked him how he had managed to find them though, Bruno wouldn't be able to answer: it didn't make sense to him either. "I rang the bell and waited, but since you weren't coming, well..."
"Ah, I'm sorry!" The boy replied politely. It sounded a bit forced, but who was Bruno to criticize? "We're often playing here, but I can't hear the bell from here."
"Right... And this is...?" The soldier turned his eyes to the girl standing behind Alexander.
"I-I'm Loïa...Beddway." She was still tense, or maybe suspicious. But maybe Bruno was simply intimidating, especially when he appeared out of nowhere. "Nice to meet you..."
"Loïa, huh?" The name sounded somewhat familiar. Or rather, both the name and her face together were giving Bruno a vague feeling of déja-vu. Then, it occured to him that it was because he had seen her before, years ago. Even though he had gone quite a few times at Philip's house, he had only seen her once, when she had been playing with Alexander. "You've sure grown up since that time."
"Excuse me?" She asked confusedly, unaware of the monologue in his head.
"I, uh...Sorry, I was thinking out loud." He scratched his head.
Still, what a surprise. So after all this time, Alexander and Loïa were still hanging around each other, huh? Well, that was putting it mildly: they looked very close. So that boy had someone like that here, huh? He hadn't just followed his father around, but had started turning this place into his home as well.
That boy... no, it was belittling to call him that. Like always, Bruno could see his quick-wittedness in the way he looked at him. He was older than he remembered - too young to be called an adult, yet too old to be called a child. But more than anything, he... looked so much like his father. It wasn't something the soldier had ever thought about up to this day, but now he couldn't help seeing how closely they ressembled each other.
For a moment, as he stared at the boy, he thought he was facing Philip.
But that was wrong.
"Mr. Blackeye? You're acting weird." Alexander spoke up, which once again pulled Bruno out of his reverie.
"Ah, uh, my bad. I've been out of it lately, so I get lost in thought." He was making him visibly uncomfortable, but he could hardly help it. "I'm sorry for coming here without telling you beforehand, I should've...called..."
Now he was just fumbling words out of confused politeness, and of course that made the teenager increasingly suspicious.
"I don't mind but, why are you here? Did my dad come too?" There was a small glow of hope in his eyes when he asked that, and Bruno's heart sank into his stomach.
Ah, that's right...
That was the reason why he had come here in the first place.
...After breaking the news to him, what would Bruno do? What about the life Alexander had made here, what about the future he had been looking forward too? Without his father, he...
Without his father...
Without Philips...
"..."
"Mr. Blackeye...?"
Without Philip, but not without Bruno.
It was becoming clearer to him now – he hadn't come here to deliver him the news of his father's death and then abandon him. Until now, Bruno had worried about Alexander's future as though it was something that didn't concern him? But a feeling was growing inside Bruno's chest: the same kind of feeling that had made him become a soldier in the first place. A feeling which had been rekindled when he had seen his father in him, as though Philip had been sending him a message through his son.
In the end, maybe that guy hadn't been joking about becoming Alexander's godfather.
The reason Philip had been fighting.
The reason Bruno was fighting.
That boy's future might just be the answer to both of them.
Philip's death was not meaningless – Bruno would not allow it. No matter what, he would make sure that boy could be proud of his father, even now.
"...Alexander." After taking a deep breath, the soldier looked right into the teenager's eyes. This time, not with dread but with determination. "There's something I need to tell you."
* The rain has stopped falling
Chapter XXXVII: Bruno Blackeye
So many things had happened after that day.
In any case New Edge had become a participant in the Holy Grail War. Obviously, that wasn't something Bruno could have ever imagined ten years prior. He was better off not thinking too hard about everything he had discovered ever since that, about thaumaturgy, Mystery and the other aspects of this world he had been unaware of. Some people had a talent to think about life and its deeper meaning, but he was just a soldier who lived his life fighting.
The years had piled on, and even now as a retired soldier he was taking life in as it came. It wasn't to say he followed behind others blindly, but humans had a frightening ability to adapt to change, simply by accepting it without thinking too much. Thanks to Philip's testament, it had been much easier for Bruno to become Alexander's legal tutor; thus had beginned this singular life between all three of them. He couldn't pretend he had become family for Alexander and Loïa, but they had nonetheless stuck together for better and for worse. He had watched them grow up and, gradually, he had stopped watching over them and began walking alongside them.
When Alexander's family on his mother's side had taken contact with him, everything had changed, yet they had always remained together. Bruno had always had a hunch about Alexander's magical powers or whatever it was called.
He had still been surprsied to learn how much of this world was a mystery to him. But that hadn't detered him in the slightest – by that point, the meaning of his life had already become to look after these two, whether they liked it or not. It was a meaning he had decided for himself, not some god-given fate. That feeling had never changed; the intuition that he knew what to fight for, what to live for, and die for. He was not a young man anymore, but even now he had no regrets whatsoever about choosing that path.
Without that, he wouldn't have been able to make peace with so many aspects of his past.
...
However, as long as you lived, you would find new things you had to face and make peace with.
As mentioned before, he was someone who wouldn't change unless he witnessed the people around him change. That didn't mean he automatically evolved as soon as someone he cared for did – but he was sensible to it. He had realized long ago how he was living in response to others, and not for himself. He was fine with that, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to come all this way. But that meant accepting he couldn't easily ignore others and move on, even when they were people he would only know for a short time.
This was a much more recent memory, barely a few months ago.
* Rose Guns days – Majo no Hoodzue
"What are you looking at?"
Those words were spoken with irritation by a certain six-armed Saber, toward Bruno of all people.
Immediatly after being summoned, Saber immediatly sat down cross-legged on the table at the back of the room, as if that was completely natural. Her arms too were crossed, or at least two of them – the one that looked human.
Her other arms were... moving around aimlessly. She was opening and closing her hands, waving her demonic arms around and stretching her fingers. It was as though she was waking from a very long sleep. Likewise, only one pair of eyes was glaring at Bruno, while the other pair was looking around frenetically. It was a strange sight which conveyed both order and chaos, and that wasn't even the most disturbing to Bruno.
Just as Saber's annoyance implied, the soldier was staring at her with an incredulous expression.
How would be the best way to describe his feelings at that moment? Surprised? Aghast? Actually, he might have stopped thinking completely – that was how taken aback he was by his Servant's appearance.
In the first place, he couldn't believe he had actually summoned a supernatural entity from a suspicious magic circle. He had spent over a decade in the company of Alexander and Loïa, so it wasn't exactly the first time he was using something related to magecraft. But he was still a normal human, both in mind and body, and this summoning ceremony had been his first ritual. For comparison, up until now he had consumed some shady product, at best. But now it could be said he had actually used a spell for the first time.
Despite what he knew, that experience hadn't felt real to him, and he had half-expected for nothing to happen. He should have known better: after he had hesitantly recited the summoning chant, the contract had been sealed and his Servant had appeared in a flash of light. That was the first reason why he was so stunned.
The other reason was, well, Saber herself.
Saying he hadn't known what to expect was an understatement.
Since Bruno didn't have a preference for any legendary figure in particular, he had left that up to Alexander. As a result, he had ended up with the strangest Catalyst of all: an arm. As in, an entire, genuine skeleton arm which had visibly withstood the test of time. If that wasn't ominous enough in itself, that arm was clearly something otherworldly. It wasn't something Bruno could say for certain, but he could tell just how much pressure that arm had been exercizing simply by holding it. Apparently, it was a powerful Catalyst Alexander had gone to great lengths in order to secure: the arm of the legendary Chi You, unearthed from one the latter's tombs.
Or so Bruno had been told anyway; he wasn't really familiar with Chinese mythology. Supposedly, Chi You used to be a warlord who had waged war across the land known in present day as China. A bonafide monster with six arms, four eyes and the head of a bull. So you could say Bruno had at least had a vague idea of what was supposed to come out.
And... he had certainely gotten what he had expected... in a way...
Speaking of that Catalyst, it was now gone. As soon as Saber had been summoned, before her Master could say anything she had it picked up and eaten it. That's right, she had swallowed it whole without a second thought, and from the looks of it the skeleton arm hadn't gotten stuck in her oesophagus. It was her arm to begin with, so it was not like Bruno minded what she did with it, but this sight had contributed to his confusion.
"What is it? Were you not expecting a monster?" Saber inquired with a pressure that sent a chill down his back.
"Well... it's not... how should I say..." Bruno tried to form a coherent sentence to express his feelings, only to realize he wasn't exactly sure himself.
He had been expecting a monster – in fact, he had been expecting more of a monster than that! There were six arms an four eyes, that much was the truth. Were those bronze horns supposed to stand for the bull head...? ...in any case, no matter how he looked at her, she was a woman! A human!
Or... was she? His eyes were telling him she looked human, but his instincts were telling him otherwise. That presence was unlike anything he had ever felt before. Yet, at the same time, it was familiar. A tension in the air; a knot in his stomach; his dry throat. Somehow, it reminded him of his first time on the battlefield.
That Saber was simply sitting on a table, yet it felt as though she was filling the entire room, and a feeling of dread was rising from Bruno's chest. Because of that, his senses were screaming to him that this was no human. Even if she looked like a normal woman with a few more limbs, his impression was neither than of a human, nor a monster. Instead, what Bruno felt was... reverence? A form of acknowledgement owed to a force of nature: something that could only inspire awe from its sgeer magnitude.
And now, he was trying to reconciliate that impression with his prior expectations, and with the appearance of the Servant in front of him.
But eventually, Saber's intensifying glare incited him to say something, anything.
"You, um... don't have an ox's head." Maybe that about summed up his feelings, in a very roundabout way. He had a hunch that saying he had expected a complete montser would not end well for him.
In any case, after hearing his answer Saber raised an eyebrow as though she had just heard the stupidest thing ever.
"Obviously. I don't have an ox's head, because I am not an ox."
"...Probably, but-"
"At the beginning, I used to be a human as well. Therefore I have a human's head. Do you have any other inane question, brat?"
"... ... ... ...Eh?"
Hadn't she just casually mentioned something pretty important?
Bruno was not aware of how Servants were not always summoned with their original appearance. There were so many things that were complicated to grasp anyway, he felt it was completely hopeless for him to understand. Since he couldn't rely on his logic and knowledge, he might as well give up on it and go with the flow.
"Well then, can you tell me why you're... moving around so much?"
"That? I am getting used to those new limbs." She explained, while her arms were still moving as though they had a consciousness of their own. One of them was tapping the table she was sitting on lightly, while another grabbed the edge before crushing it. A third one was even waving in front of her face, annoying her to the point she swatted it aside with her human hand. "Having more than two arms and two eyes is a first for me. I need to use them as much as possible in order to coordinate them better. Otherwise, they will can be nothing but dead weights to me."
"...What do you mean, 'a first'?" He asked, confused.
"Have I not just told you I used to be a human? Humans have two arms and two eyes." Saber squinted her eyes in anger, an anger which Bruno could feel physically. "Do you happen to know humans with three arms and two heads?"
"N-no... but... you said... fine, fine." He held back from pointing out she just called herself inhumane, but he refrained. Even though he had already decided to surrender his logic, it wasn't that simple... So instead, he gave in to curiosity. "Then, how does it feel? Having six arms I mean?"
"It feels like having six arms." Saber replied bluntly. Was she making fun of him, or was it her way of saying it couldn't be described? "I am used to fighting with only two, and I would have prefered it that way. However, somehow they don't feel like they don't belong on my body."
She didn't seem happy with that fact, for whatever reason. Would she rather have a wretched body that looked like a Picasso painting? At any rate, Bruno's curiosity wasn't exactly satisfied. Hearing her say that it didn't feel amiss so casually was astounding, in a way – it was something he absolutely couldn't empathize with on a basic level.
"Wouldn't they get in the way when you're fighting?"
The question was legitimate; after all, there was only so much space to move around, regardless of your number of limbs. But in response that concern, Saber merely brushed it off with a scornful puff.
"That would surely be the case for a human like you, but do not compare me with the likes of you: I am power. I am might! If something appears to be a weakness, then I shall turn it into my strength. To this goddess of war, there is no such thing as weakness, and I will crush my opponents regardless. However..."
Suddenly, the arms that had been flailing around froze on the spot.
She was bringing them under control, finally putting an end to these sickening motions. Her eyes struggled a little bit longer, but soon enough all four of them were staring at Bruno. But then, her attention turned to the wall on her right – in the blink of an eye, she had disappeared from the table to reappear next to said wall. She raised one of her hands and knocked lightly on the concrete wall, the same way one would knock on a door.
Yet, instead of leaving it intact, this made the wall cave in a little.
A large impact was left on the otherwise flat surface, and cracks were spreading. Bruno thought his heart had stopped for a second – it was his first time witnessing the absurde power contained within the beings known as Heroic Spirits. He had been told about it, but seeing it firsthand was a different thing altogether. And because of this, Saber's next words sounded even more as though she was making fun of him.
"...I only have this much power." She clicked her tongue. "Hey, brat. You are no magus, are you?"
"Can't say I am."
"So you can't even support me at my full potential. Tch, what did you even summon me for?"
And now he was being admonished for something he had had no control over. On top of being called a brat several times by someone who looked younger than him, Bruno had a feeling that this discussion was mostly about bashing on him. He didn't feel insulted – he was an adult after all – but he did feel like they had made zero progress so far.
And he wasn't the only one.
"Alright, this isn't going anywhere." Alexander interrupted them and stepped forward.
He had been here from the beginning – obviously, he wasn't going to let someone inexperienced like Bruno deal with thaumaturgy without watching over the process. He had kept silent until now to let the ex-soldier become more familiar with his Servant, but things had quickly gone haywire. As the objective-oriented man he was, Alexander probably hoped to get this done with as fast as possible.
"I don't think it needs to be stated, but I want to confirm it with you: are you really the general Chi You? What is you class?"
"Hm?" Saber turned her head to Alexander, with a less than welcoming look.
Alexander didn't flinch, but Bruno had a bad feeling.
And for a good reason.
"As the leader of the Black Faction, I–"
"Silence."
Alexander didn't get to add another word: in less than a second, Saber had appeared front of him and had seized his throat. The next instant, his feet left the ground; the way she lifted him with one hand, it was like he weighted as much as a feather.
The contempt and ire in her glare was something Bruno had never seen before. On his end, Alexander hadn't flinched and was even smiling a little – it was his specialty to show sheer audacity under pressure. But even he had visibly been taken by surprise and was suffocating. Even if he could speak, Bruno doubted he had enough bravado to talk back to her face.
Chi You bared her sharp teeth and spoke thus:
"Who gave you permission to speak? You are not my Master. Until I acknowledge you, you are nothing! Do you understand?" She had been giving off a dreadful aura ever since she had been summoned, but this was on another level. Both Bruno's and Alexander's bodies stiffened up instinctively.
Alexander, who still managed to surprise Bruno, manage to get a few words through his squeezed throat.
"..We... We are allies... in this Holy Grail War..."
"Allies are unnecessary. Since you have to die eventually, I may as well get rid of you here and now. You knew you were summoning Chi You, and yet you believed you could forge an alliance with me? You may have the mark of a Master, but you are worthless to me. Be they alone, tens or hundreds, I will defeat my opponents whomever they may be!"
"I... If you do thi...s..."
"Then what? Your Assassin will attack me? I was planning on killing him as well anyway."
"...!"
"Did you think you could hide from me?" Saber's voice deepened and seemed to permeate the room with its authority. "Come out now, shadow. I can feel you seething with rage."
As soon as she had ordered him, the second Servant inside the room appeared out of thin air, right next to his Master. The red oni mask covering his face must have been a very good representation of his feelings – even though his presence was usually subdued, in this very moment Fuuma seemed on the verge of exploding. In more than one way in fact: his muscles were bulging, and you could tell at a glance that his height was increading.
"Kill... ...I'll kill you..." Fuuma Kotarou was muttering, but only because the anger was threatening to overwhelm him.
"As if." But Chi You was not the least bit impressed. "Did you not hear me? Chi You does not lose. You are far too weak. Even if I don't have a weapon yet, even if I am far weaker than I should be, I can kill you. In fact, I should devour you, right after I break your Master's neck!" Saying so, she showed even more of her sharp teeth, implying it wasn't a figure of speech.
"...Kill...!" The shinobi could not take any more, and he was about to rush at her weapons in hands.
But before he could...
"No, let's stop here. Calm down, Assassin – and you too, Chi You."
* Stop music
The one who had spoken up and halted the two Heroic Spirits before they could kill each other was none other than Bruno.
He was just as surprised as they were by how serene his voice was – he had tried to speak calmly as he could to make them hear reason. Using an authoritative tone would definitely not work on someone like Chi You, and a voice of panic would go unheard once the heat went to their heads. That was why he had decided to stop that meaningless quarrel as a responsible adult and to mediate them.
It was a wonder as to how he had managed to stop Fuuma, who was going berserk; but he had a pretty good idea as to the reason why, since Alexander was keeping his calm and looking at the ex-soldier expectantly.
And he wasn't the only one.
Maybe it was because he had called her by her real name (he still hadn't confirmed her class), or maybe the mere thought to preventing a fight was inconceivable for her – at any rate, Chi You had actually shown genuine surprise for a second, but soon enough she was radiating anger toward her own Master.
"What do you want, brat? As my Master you're allowed to speak, but that does not mean you may give me orders." She warned him.
"Listen to me, please. What he said is true: we are all allies here, and we should treat each other as allies. If you don't wanna be bossed around, that's fine. However, putting the lives of your teammates in danger is off-limit." He was speaking not only as a Master, but also as someone who had a soldier's lifestyle engraved into him.
"And who decided that they were teammates?" Chi You still replied with hostility. "This is just a pretentious facade – there can only be one victor, and it will be us! Why would you want to embarass yourself with other people's incompetence? What more could you need than my strength?!"
"...Very well. Since that approach doesn't work with you, let me put it another way." Bruno answer with a sigh. He'd have rather it didn't come to this, but unless he was completely honest with her, he would not get across to Saber. "If you so much as hurt him, I will kill you."
He had said those words with the same composure as before, without any intent of sounding threatening.
Nonetheless, his gaze was unbending – it didn't matter how those four demonic eyes of hers stared at him, he would absolutely not budge. As for Chi You, for a moment she looked as though someone had punched her in the stomach. She wasn't scared because of his threat; rather, she looked like she genuinely doubted she had heard him right.
"What... did you say?"
"I'm pretty sure I can do it if I use those." He showed the Command Seals in the form of a three-layered shield on the back of his hand. "So, will you please calm down?"
"..."
She was still looking at him as though he had made the most bewildering statement imaginable. Her eyes were scrutinizing his face, looking to confirm whether he was truly serious. But he was confident she wouldn't find a trace of hesitation. He might be putting his lives on the line for this – she was that unpredictable to him – but if he hadn't made that resolution already, he wouldn't be here in the first place. This intense eye contact kept going for an unknown amount of time.
* Umineko - Melody (instrumental)
Eventually, although Saber was still irrate, she had this to say:
"Not bad." She let go of Alexander's neck, and the latter fell on his butt with a grunt of pain. "I can't tell if you are too stupid to feel fear, but you are definitely a fool. A fool with some guts, I will grant you that."
"Thank you for listening."
"I don't need your gratitude."
She promptly turned away and walked back to the table. She must have found it to her liking, for she was now sitting on it again. Her mood hadn't really changed though: she was giving Alexander the stink eye, with all four of them.
"And I don't need your presence. Begone, and remember that your life was spared today thanks to another's strength, and not your own."
...That Servant was going to be a piece of work.
But what mattered was that Bruno had managed to settle this situation before it could blow up. Before Alexander could even think of accepting or refusing her command, Fuuma kneeled down next to him, and they both vanished. It had happened so fast, Bruno wondered if they had even left through the door. It had been a wise decision on the shinobi's part – there was no way to control Saber for sure, and allowing any possibility for the situation to derail again would be thoughtless. Bruno could certainely take her down with his Command Seals, but there was no telling how much damage she could do before that.
And if he was honest, he would rather not have to do that at all.
For some strange reason, even though she was by far the most unreasonable person he had ever met, Bruno didn't hold any negative feelings for her. Maybe because she was such a curious existance.
"Well then." He allowed himself a small sigh of relief. "What were we talking about again?"
"Hmph." Saber was still staring him down from her improvised throne, all six of her arms crossed. "Servant Saber, Chi You. I don't really care who my Master is, but I will win no matter what. If you fulfill your role, I shall grant you victory."
So she wanted to start over? It was true they hadn't even greeted each other yet.
"Alright then, my name is Bruno – Bruno Blackeye. You can call me whatever you want, though. And I don't know about winning, but I'll need to borrow your strength from here on out."
"Hmph, at the very least you understand your place." It was very subtle, but it seemed his introduction had improved her mood. So she really was that proud of her own power... "But I needn't call you anything but Master. That is all you are to me, and all you need to be. You desperately need my power, and I need an anchor in this world."
"Well, you're right that I'm desperate. I wish I were strong enough on my own for this..." He glanced at the wall that had suffered from Saber's whims. "...but if I keep thinking that way, I'll end up like that poor bastard. I can't do anything without someone like you. But that doesn't mean I will lick your boots or grovel if you order me to."
"And what would I do with a dog?" Saber raised both left eyebrows. "If you had no pride, I wouldn't even call you Master. Make sure you are at least worthy of that name."
"Sure..."
What exactly did it take to be worthy though?
"You are no magus, but you are no farmer either. Although your body is quite weak, you have the gait of someone who has fought, so you must be a warrior."
"'Warrior' is a bit..." The image this words inspired him was that of a blood-thirsty barbarian with a knife between his teeth. "But yeah, I used to be in the military. I can't do anything to Servants, but I can hold my own against humans."
"Good. Then you should have no difficulties with killing."
"..."
Bruno winced.
He already knew that the Holy Grail War was nothing more than a battle to the death. And, well, he had not spent his time in the army shooting up in the air. He wasn't a saint who could do no harm. But the way Chi You had said those words... was blood-curling. She had not said it with any more intensity than before. On the contrary, she had mentioned it so casually that something finally connected in Bruno's mind: she was ready to kill anybody, with little care whatsoever. All that mattered was the objective in sight, not who was sacrificed for it.
And she expected him to naturally feel the same way. But that was not something Bruno could affirm without a second thought.
Who would they be faced with?
Would all the other Masters be just like the terrorists he had killed throughout his life?
Could Bruno kill a child?
Could he kill an elderly?
Even if those people came with the intention to kill him...
"...I will only kill if it cannot be helped." There was no other answer.
Although he had nothing against her and was ready to bear with her fiery personality, cracks were finally appearing. And obviously, she was not happy to hear that at all.
"...Have I heard you wrong?"
"I'm ready to defend my own life, but taking another is different. I will only kill if I deem it necessary."
"Is there such a thing as a warrior who refuse to kill? What is so complicated about taking a life?" Saber's expression was a mix of dissatisfaction and genuine confusion.
"I'm a soldier, not a warrior."
"What difference is there?!"
Bruno had been right on the mark: it wasn't that she enjoyed killing – she didn't even believe it was something worth pondering about. Her thought pattern was radically different from that of a modern human; maybe even from that of her contemporaries. She didn't believe there was anything wrong with taking lives like you were plucking a flower, and thus from her point of view Bruno was the one being unreasonable.
"Do you even realize what you are saying?" Her body tensed up, and he could even see veins pop all over her face. "If they aren't us, then they're the enemy. If they're the enemy, then they have to die! And you're telling me that there are some enemies you just refuse to kill? Are you planning to make me follow your reasoning as well?!"
"...I probably will." Bruno admitted. "If I allowed you to kill just anyone, it would be the same as killing them myself."
"...brat, do you want to die?" Those words were as sharp as a knife, as if she had already stabbed him in the throat. "I thought I could at least rely on you to understand your place. Do realize what situation you're in? Do you understand what not killing mean in the Holy Grail War? It's the same as giving up on victory! You, do you even want to win!?"
Bruno's answer was short and blunt.
"No."
"... wha..."
"As I already said, I'm not thinking about winning. And for that matter, I don't really feel the need for something like the Holy Grail. I'm fighting because there's someone I want to protect."
"...You ...yoooooouuuuuu...!" The table was torn apart. She had grasped it in her anger, and it had broken apart like a dry twig. She might not even have noticed. "So you only summoned me in order to sacrifice me afterward...!"
"..."
She wasn't wrong.
Bruno had never had that intention in mind even once, but wasn't that the truth in the end? If a Servant didn't win, it meant they had to die. The plan was to make Alexander the winner of the Sixth Holy Grail War, but that also meant Bruno would not even try to reach the Grail. And if it came down to a situation where only his and Alexander's Servants remained...
"..." He said nothing, but his silence was already an answer.
"You...! I take back everything I said before... You are no Master. Magus, farmer or soldier, whatever you are, you are also a traitor! If you plan to get rid of me once you've accomplished your objective, then you are no Master of mine!"
...
...
Indeed, there was no other way to put it. It was probably something he shouldn't have let slip; he had said to her face that lives couldn't be taken lightly, but he had technically decided that he would kill her. Even if she was only a ghost, even if she was a villain by all right, even if Bruno was only realizing the consequence of his actions now...
Could he be content with that?
...
"In that case, when that time comes, you can kill me." He announced eventually.
"Wh... ... ...at...?" Chi You was stunned speechless. She was more than a little stunned: he had taken so off guard that, for a moment, anger had completely faded. "What are you saying...?"
"If I don't have someone like you by my side, I'll be too weak to follow behind the people I need to look after. I don't care about the end result as long as I get to achieve that objective. When the time comes, when I've decided that my wish is fulfilled, I might think that it's better to get rid of you. If that's how it is, then I will let you kill me. But until then, I absolutely need someone to be my Servant."
"..."
"You said it yourself, didn't you? I desperately need your power, and you desperately need a Master. Our relationship is a compromise already, so I think we can compromise some more. If you're willing to listen to me more often, then you can kill me whenever you wan-"
"Silence." Saber cut him short. He hadn't known how she would react to his offer – he had thought she might be happy to dispose of his life as revange. But on her face, he saw nothing but disgust. "I thought you had some pride, but I was wrong about that too."
"But I do have pride, since I'm making that deal on my own accord."
"Silence, I said!" She stomped her foot on the ground, fracturing the latter. "How dare one willing to throw away their life speak of pride!?"
"...Is that really what you think...?"
So it wasn't simply that she valued strength. Bruno couldn't fathom what his Servant really believed in, but at least he was starting to understand that.
"Then you think I should be desperately fighting for my life no matter what?"
"That is what power is for!" She shouted back, as though it was the most obvious fact in the world. "I thought you were a fool, but not to the point of asking my power only to die in the end!"
A struggle of power.
A struggle of life against death.
"... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...No, looks like I was the one wrong about you..." Bruno muttered under his breath. "Anyway, my offer still stands. I can't deny anything of what you've said, so the least I can do is keep my word. With that, I hope we can work together."
"..."
She ignored him – she turned away, and since there was no table for her to sit on anymore, she moved to the corner of the room. She might have lost any respect she might have for him, and it was his own fault in a way. If he had so much as had a wish for the Holy Grail...
The Holy Grail... even though he had heard about it from Alexander, Bruno still couldn't believe something like that existed. It probably did, but it felt surreal. If he thought deeply about it, there were probably many desires that came to mind. Many regrets he had had... people he missed... decisions he wished he hadn't taken... moments when he had been too weak to act...
Was it...truly alright to aim for those things? To depend on an almighty device to overturn them?
Probably not.
No, definitely not.
Bruno was weak in the grand scheme of things; he was only human. But if he didn't use what little strength a human had to change the world, if he passed that right over to something like the Holy Grail, then life would lose its meaning. That would mean erasing the struggle of many, including himself. Yet at the same time... knowing that he could was making him think about every opportunity he was willfully letting slip between his fingers. He couldn't allow himself to do it, but not doing it wasn't liberating either.
The Holy Grail... was such a cursed existance.
"...Hey, Saber." He called out to the demon who was sitting wordlessly.
She couldn't blend in with the background even if she had wanted to. Even when she was hiding in a corner, her presence was permeating the room. But it was colder somehow; she was clearly ignoring him.
"..."
"Say, what is your wish?"
"You're still here, fake soldier?" She wasn't really good at ignoring people; one of her eyes turned toward Bruno.
"Just because you look away doesn't mean the rest of the world stops existing." He had meant it as a light joke, but it came out more like preaching. She gave him the stink eye, but he was used to it by now. "If you can afford to be disgusted at me for having no wish, then surely you must have something in mind? How are you going to defeat your opponents otherwise?"
She took his quip as a serious statement though.
"Victory is a matter of course. There is nothing but victory, I shall never accept defeat. I have won merely by being summoned! The reason is only to fight, and that is also my wish!"
"You wish... to fight? Then, you want to be reborn again?"
"Think before spouting nonsense." She chided him. "In this era, I am unmatched because everyone is so weak. What good would it be to have many weaklings come at me and to kill them all?"
"Hmm, you're not making this easy." Bruno scratched his head. "...Knowing you, it has to do with how you died."
"Ha! Knowing me? Do not make me laugh. ...But you are right about it, fake soldier. I have a revange to take on another traitor. No matter who my opponent is, they will be defeated by me in the end. Even if I died... I shall never accept it... Huangdi, you bastard..."
A new kind of anger was dwelling inside her, something Bruno couldn't describe. Saber seemed almost lost in her thoughts, focusing on her wrath.
"'Huangdi', huh. I don't really know who that is, but he's the one who you couldn't beat, right? So you want the Holy Grail to make you win over him?"
"As if! I needn't overturn fate, all I need is to fight him again – and I shall win! I can never forgive him...! Because of him, I have this hideous appearance!"
"Heh, I'd thought someone as pragmatic wouldn't be affected by that..." She had boasted she could become stronger with it, so he had conluded that she must have appreciated it. But it seemed Saber truly despised her new appearance. "Did he put a spell on you or something?"
"Spells are nothing, but words are powerful. I am remembered as a monster, and thus I have the body of a monster. That bastard! After killing me and cutting me apart, he must have spread lies about me! It has to be him...!"
"...If you say so..." So he replied, but in his mind Bruno couldn't help musing about how, with such a fearsome presence, there were probably many who had genuinely taken her for a monster. "So that's your reason for fighting?"
"What an inane question. What reason is needed for fighting?"
"...I figured as much."
There was probably nothing more to be said. Bruno held back a sigh, as he had been heaving those all too often recently – and he turned around to leave. He wasn't sure what he had learned from this meeting, or what he had hoped to learn. He had the vague feeling that something inside him had wavered, but he wasn't sure what, nor in which direction.
"You're leaving, fake soldier?"
"That's what you wanted me to do, wasn't it?"
He passed the door, not knowing what to think – not knowing if he should think.
He was just tired, that was all...
* Trianthology – Last boss
Bruno was completely out of breath and his heart was racing.
But at least he was still alive.
He had already met with Charles Pendleton once in the Himalaya, but he had never gotten a glimpse of how the old magus fought. Fighting against an opponent of unknown power, in those conditions, and at close range no less, was terribly dangerous. In Bruno's eyes, a magus was capable of virtually anything with their hocus pocus magic. Even if he was told that they each had their own limits and their own specialty, it didn't really help him ascertain what his opponent was capable of.
In the end, the only way to know was by risking his life.
It wasn't like he could run away anyway once he had encountered the elderly magus, so he had braced himself and fought with all he had.
Which was made even worse by of the environment they were fighting in: because Bruno's only way to survive spells was by dodging, he had a lot less space to do so. The same applied to his opponent, but it wasn't very comforting. Nonetheless, there was a way to use that same environment to his advantage: Bruno's greatest weapon in this battle were the hallways corners, which offered perhaps the best cover he could hope for. The walls in this place were unusually sturdy, so they could withstand even explosions. In fact, this was honestly the only reason Bruno was still alive: as soon as could, he had taken refuge behind a corner and has held his position.
Thanks to this limited protection, he could think more calmly and analyse his opponent's fighting style more safely.
First of all, there was Charles' crossbow. It was a ranged weapon, which was devastating for Bruno, and was the entire reason he had to take cover in the first place. The magus could reload fast, and for ammunitions he was using those gemstones magi filled with magical energy. Supposedly, they had various effects, but so far Charles had only used destructive magecraft. Maybe he wasn't taking Bruno seriously enough, and he might not have been wrong.
Thankfully, the magus wasn't using other spells while wielding his crossbow, probably because he couldn't.
Alexander had told him about it – that even if most magi knew how to defend themselves, it didn't mean they were experienced fighters. If they spent most of their life inside a study and rarely got to apply their knowledge in a real life-or-death situation, then of course they wouldn't be as dangerous as they could be.
Did that mean the ex-soldier could afford to take him lightly? Absolutely not.
Because even with that knowledge in mind, he hadn't managed to hit Charles even once. And that was because of the shield: the crossbow could change to a shape vaguely reminiscent of a buckler, which would then project a magical barrier. It could take bullets as though they were paper planes, and so whenever Bruno wanted to return fire or come out of hiding to press the assault, he was faced with that impenetrable wall.
But it wasn't all bad – in fact, it was somewhat comforting to know that Charles was afraid of his bullets just as Bruno was afraid of his magecraft. It was easy to forget about it, but firearms were the epitome of mankind's affection for war. They were the perfect killing weapons: fast, precise and easily lethal. And whether you were an average human or a magus, one bullet could send you straight into the afterlife. Servants escaped that rule, but that was what Chi You had made the anti-Servant bullets for.
Unfortunately, they had already ran out of those; Bruno had wanted to intimidate Charles with the possibility of breaking through his barriers, but somehow the old magus must have known he was just bluffing.
"Hohohoho~! Playing cat and mouse at my age isn't recommended, but it doesn't stop being entertaining!" The elderly magus laughed as though they weren't fighting to the death – all while shooting rubies that turned into red beams of light.
Bruno always had a ticklish sensation when someone was using magecraft, so he could tell when Charles was going to shoot. But it was nonetheless unnerving to hear him laugh in that situation. It was simple psychological warfare: the magus was showing cheerfulness to throw him off, and it was working. It was depressing to see how full of vitality that man was. Bruno should have known already that no ordinary old man could hike through the Himalayas, but it was almost ridiculous that he was more exhausted than Charles was. The magus was more buoyant than his age should allow, but Bruno was still his real age, and even if he had kept a training routine after leaving the army, he was not a young man in his prime anymore.
Charles had already cut off his path of retreat, and Bruno was being slowly pushed into a corner. It was easier to face an army of familiars than a single old man – the ex-soldier was starting to doubt whether he had the strength to pull through.
(I'm not planning to kick the bucket now, though.)
He still had something to fight for.
And in this very moment, someone else's life was riding on his shoulders.
He could feel it – frequent tremors were shaking even this underground passageway. Chi You was fighting somewhere in there, both his soul and his body could tell. But if he died here, then she would disappear as well. And he couldn't allow that; it was ironic that he cared more about her than about his own well-being, but he had come to accept that side of him a long time ago. To fight, he had to be fighting for someone – he needed to know there was someone he was protecting, even when that person was much stronger than he was.
And he was counting on that will to defend Saber's life in order to pull through.
(Even though I was the one who didn't want to fight against old people...)
And it was also thanks to Saber that his precarious situation managed to change. It was certainely a coincidence, but Bruno liked to think they were looking out for each other.
But how was she helping him even though they were not in the same place?
As said before, the tremors from the battle Chi You was waging could be felt all the way here. In other words, this hallway was not safe from the collateral damage the war god was causing: it was faint, but fissures were appearing along the walls, in particular after unusually strong tremors. And, at one such occasion, a particularly large crack spread through the wall on Charles' left. The magus was distracted and turned his head with a concerned expression.
That was all Bruno needed as an opening to spring from behind his corner.
"Just kidding! Hoho!"
"...!"
But the magus immediatly turned his attention back to Bruno – he had only pretended to be distracted! Experienced fighter or not, Charles Pendleton was undoubtly a veteran. There was too much distance between them; Charles aimed his crossbow at the defenseless Bruno before the latter could reach him.
(If I can't dodge...)
Then he had to make him miss.
Bruno had no other solutions, and no time to think: he lifted the assault rifle in his hand overhead, and then threw it as hard as he could toward the magus. This emergency maneuver didn't fail to throw the old man off, enough to make him falter for one second. And in that second, the thrown firearm hit him – at the same time, maybe by mistake, the crossbow fired. Fortunately, Charles' aiming was completely off thanks to the rifle hitting him: a beam of green light shot from the crossbow and missed Bruno by less than a metre to hit the wall. The ex-soldier still had to roll away to avoid being caught in the explosion, but the worst case scenario hadn't happened.
Bruno pulled out a handgun even as he closed in on the old man. But Charles wouldn't make things that easy for him.
"Draconis Tertium: Vitae!"
The crossbow answered to the magus' call and changed shape – it turned into that annoying shield. A screen of magicall energy appeared in front of the magus and blocked off all the bullets fired at him. At the same time he had deployed his shield, Charles stepped back in a hurry as to increase the distance between them.
Did he know about Bruno's trump card...?
No, it must be because he wanted to stay as safe as possible. But at this rate, Bruno will once again miss his opportunity and lose.
Thanksfully, his lucky star was still watching over him: an especially brutal tremor occured, and he was almost thrown off his feet. Bruno managed to keep his footing by a hair's breadth, but the magus was slightly less lucky – even though he didn't fall, he had lost balance.
"Oho...!"
"Hah!" That was Bruno's opportunity.
The ex-soldier lunged toward the magus, but he didn't aim his gun at him; it would be pointless. Instead, he pulled out his trump card: the combat knife Chi You had made for him. It was nowhere near as strong as the weapons she had made for herself, an E rank knife at best. But it was nonetheless a Noble Phantasm she had created, a weapon worthy of having its own legend. If he used that, then...
"Hh...!" Bruno braced himself and thrust the knife toward the magical shield protecting Charles.
"Gh...!"
There was almost no resistance – the knife pierced through the screen like a hot knife through butter and it fell apart. Because she had known he would most likely be fighting magi, Chi You had endowed this knife with and Anti-Magecraft trait.
Charles stared at the knife with wide eyes, too stunned too react. The blade ended its course by embedding itself into the elderly magus' shoulder. The latter grunted in pain, but that same pain brought him back to his senses. The shoulder Bruno had stabbed was on the same arm holding his Mystic Code, but his other hand was free – free to grab the Bruno's arm.
"Ignis autem."
Bruno's arm was wrapped in heat and pain.
Charles' palm had quite litterally caught on fire: the skin had turned a bright orange and had instantly reached a temperature the human body wasn't meant to bear. Yet only Bruno suffered – the area of his arm grabbed by the old magus experienced intense pain the likes of which he had never felt before. Over the course of his life, he had gotten wounded in various ways, but never had he felt such a high-degree burn. His mind blanked out as the surface of his arm was charred and his skin burnt off – his teeth dug into his lower lip so hard warm blood trickled down his chin. All he wanted in this moment was for the pain to stop ; he lost grasp on the knife that was his life-line.
When the magus' hand finally let go, Bruno pulled his arm back in haste, trying his darnest to settle his panic.
While he was doing that...
"Draconis secundus: Mortem."
The shield resumed the shape of a cane, except for one detail: it ended in a short blade meant for stabbing. Because his shoulder still had a knife in it, Charles switched hands for his Mystic Code, and while his opponent was desperately pulling himself together, he aimed the sharp end of his cane at him for an estoc. It was a sure kill technique, one that would destroy the target's flow of vital energy – in this case, a spell that would make a human's blood vessels burst. It was a terrifying power that could even kill a Servant if it connected.
At this range, it was a sure k–
Bam!
"...n!"
But sheer luck intervened in the soldier's favour.
Just when the elderly magus moved to stab him, another tremor occured and deviated his attack – instead of stabbing straight into Bruno's guts, the cane only scrapped him. That was a wake up call for Bruno – he had received training for more than firearms.
His free hand moved instinctively to grab the cane that had just missed him – his arm was still hurting like hell from this action alone, but he had to endure. Meanwhile, his other hand swung toward the magus' face. But he wasn't about to hit him with his knucles: if there was one thing Bruno would never be caught doing, no matter the amount of pain, it would be dropping his handgun. The gun-butt slammed violently into Charles' face, breaking his nose and sending blood flying in every direction.
There was no such thing as enduring a hit like that: Bruno was still holding the cane, but the shock made Charles lose grip and stagger backward dangerously. Bruno was dumbfounded that he even managed to regain balance before falling, but there was no point being surprised by this old man's vitality anymore. On the other hand, his knife was still stuck in the elder's shoulder.
"Hoho...you're making such a comeback..." Charles was still speaking as though it was all fun and games, but the tone was off. His expression was a dangerous one, and the cold, sharp eyes staring at Bruno would usually be enough to send a chill down his spine.
But, well, that wasn't much in comparison to Chi You.
"...pant ...pant" Bruno was too out of breath to answer – even if he had wanted to.
There was no need to waste time chatting. The cane was a dead weight, so the ex-soldier let it drop on the floor; Charles had been deprived of his fearsome weapon. All he had was the knife still stuck in his shoulder, but Bruno was ready to bet he couldn't use it efficiently. Actually, a glint in Charles' hand indicated he was probably holding jewels. But it was too late – a bullet would be faster than any hocus pocus he could pull now.
The gun's barrel was already pointed at the elderly magus.
Even with his trembling body, Bruno knew he wouldn't miss.
So it was just a matter of pulling the trigger...
But something hit him first.
It wasn't Charles – the old man had yet to make a move.
And it wasn't anyone else for that matter. Indeed, what had struck him was his luck, which had suddenly decided to give up on him: a falling rubble hit his head. From Bruno's point of view, something unknown had hit his head hard, and intense pain drilled through his skull. His sight blurred, and in the end he couldn't fire his weapon. He had completely forgotten how this hallway had been suffering more and more collateral damage – both he and Charles, in fact. The magus didn't take advantage of this unique opportunity, because he was just as taken off guard as the ex-soldier losing balance.
(Shit...)
That was all Bruno could think, his mind was too fuzzy; to the point he fell over helplessly. But somehow he had a feeling in his heart, a hunch if you would. A hunch that something big was coming, something even stronger than the tremors for before. Probably because of his link with the culprit, someone who didn't care if everything was reduced to ashes.
And his hunch couldn't have been more on point: the earth shook violently. Bruno was already on the ground, so he didn't hit his head against the wall. But it was still a hard blow, especially after taking this rubble to the head. His ears were ringing and the world was spinning. He could feel his consciousness wanning, and he already couldn't tell what was happening around him.
Charles had been brutally thrown off his feet and against the wall, but still had his senses – and thus only he witnessed how the hallway collapsed on itself, on the two of them.
Thanks for reading.
No walls were harmed in the writing of this chapter.
Hey everyone, been a while, hasn't it? Well over a month in fact, so I guess a short explainationis in order. Last chapter I said my exams would start pretty soon, which is why this chapter would have been late anyway. But because of the strikes that went on in Paris during this winter, especially in january, most universities had to either cancel their exams, or push them back. As you can guess, mine went for the latter, and my exam period ended a whopping half-month late.
And since it had been that long anyway, I had thought "how about starting with a light chapter?". Obviously, that didn't happen, because it never happens. I had originally planned for this chapter to be only the battle between Bruno and Charles, but I saw an opportunity for character development good ol' Bruno who had barely received any. Slowly but surely, we're approaching the point from which on I'll stop being a merciful author and heads will fall. So the characters should get whatever they can.
I also have an announcement to make, an important one I guess. If you remember, some times ago I asked whether you guys wanted to see a change in publishing pace: I would make shorter chapters, and thus would upload them more often. The few people who answered said the current pace was fine, so I maintained it. But now I am going to opt for it anyway - Fate/Rongodamiant is far from finished, but I've been feeling a lack of dynamism, in part because of the time between each chapter.
In other words, starting from the next chapter on, all chapters will be one scene short, or two depending on their size. In exchange, I will be able to do pseudo-weekly updates. I will both be able to focus on each chapter individually, but it will also make proof-reading less of pain, thus saving me time.
Once again, thank you for reading. As usual, I welcome reviews and comments, and I'll answer question as best as I can.
I look forward to this new year and new decade writing more.
~Legends Storyteller
