"So how do you feel, Berserker?" Caster asked as the mad servant sat up from the table that she had been laying on for the past few hours.
"Uuu."
Berserker made a groan as she stretched her limbs, feeling them move once again with a satisfying stretch. Since Caster prided herself on being a professional magus, she had spent several hours working on her body, constantly making changes and modifications whenever she found it unsatisfactory.
She would have complained if she could, but she didn't want to be rude to the nice lady. She was a lot nicer than her original creator, anyway.
"No abnormalities? No pain or discomfort?" Caster prodded on like a doctor, scribbling random words that she couldn't understand on her clipboard.
"Guu."
"That's good. It's a step towards scientific success!"
Having spent much of her time alone with the quiet servant, Caster had been able to soon understand the moans and grunts that came out of Frankie's mouth. 'Guu' usually meant no, and 'Uuu' usually meant yes, or good.
"Now then, we must quickly begin testing your noble phantasm at once," Caster said as she pushed open a door leading into a vacant courtyard. "Lord Darnic wants me to boost our defenses as quick as possible, so we better hurry!"
Frankie nodded in agreement as she began to follow the energetic Caster, flipping the nearby light switch on her way out to save energy.
The courtyard had originally been quite vacant of anything other than a few trees, but Caster had ran out of room to store most of her experiments. As such, the grounds were littered with golems, mystic codes, and magical generators that powered most of the magical defenses protecting the castle.
Humming a tune to herself, Caster grabbed a nearby golem that had half of its arm missing, and propped it up in the middle of the courtyard.
"There we go. That should be a suitable test subject." Caster said with a nod of approval. "Now then, you see that mechanical devices strapped to your waist?"
Berserker looked down to see a metal object that had been strapped to her waist. It glowed faintly with electricity and seemed grafted to her skin.
"Uuu."
"Great! Make sure to take good care of it, it'll assist you in the release of your noble phantasm." Caster instructed as she stared proudly at the invention. "Now, seeing as your body normally couldn't withstand the amount of voltage that your noble phantasm shoots out at once, I have created that device to be used as a conduit instead!"
Berserker tilted her head in confusion while Caster continued on, completely oblivious to Frankie's own obliviousness.
"The device is magically enhanced to hold electricity that would normally kill you. I've also gone through the process of adding some new changes to your arms and legs." Caster said.
Looking at her arms and legs, berserker's eyes widened when she realized that an extra plating of yellow armor had been placed on those areas. Like the object on her side, they seemed to be quite similar.
"Those pieces of armor will basically do the same thing. Instead of using your body as a conduit for electricity, those pieces of armor will do so for you! It basically halves the electricity that your body releases, and utilizes it themselves! Now you won't have to worry about overloading yourself! They're also able to absorb electricity so you won't be in any danger of getting shocked!"
"Uuu." Frankie muttered as she grasped what she was saying... Sort of. Basically, the armor would take care of the burden on her body, and allow her to utilize her noble phantasm at full power without the risk of death. Pretty much all there was to it.
"You don't have to worry too much about them during battle. I've enhanced them to the level of C ranked armor, so there shouldn't be too many problems. If they get damaged, though, make sure to see me first, got it?" Caster said with a big sister look that was really odd coming from her. Especially since Berserker towered over her by a full head.
"Uuu."
"Now then, please release your noble phantasm! Should any accidents happen, I shall swiftly intervene on your behalf." Caster promised as she activated the golem and ordered it to stand still in idle preparation for its destruction.
Frankie nodded and closed her eyes in preparation. Planting her Bridal Chest into the ground, she felt electricity swell up around her as her body's limiters are released for maximum potential. Normally, the stress this would place on her body would cause her to shutdown and overload, but she could feel the energy leaving her body and into the mechanical armor that had been placed on her. There was still some stress there, but it was still far less than what she should have originally been feeling.
Caster backed off slightly as she felt a light current shock her a bit. There was so much electricity in the air that a mini-cyclone was starting to form with Berserker herself at the epicenter of it. Even the clouds overhead seem to flock above their location as they were attracted to energy that Berserker was omitting.
When Berserker released that energy, it simply looked like the earth and the Golem had disappeared instantly in a flash.
A second later, the crack of thunder reached her ears and she could feel them ringing as they processed the sound.
Her mouth hung open as she stared at the calamity in front of her. It was nothing like a bomb that had been dropped from altitude, but rather like the entire area had been vaporized down to the cellular level, not leaving anything left to show what had happened other than the ground being slightly burnt.
Taking her Bridal Chest out of the ground, Berserker stared at Caster as she awaited her thoughts on the shocking amount of power that she had just been able to release. When she didn't respond for several moments, Berserker was starting to get slightly worried until Caster broke out into a happy grin.
"Excellent! That was absolutely incredible! That was nearly on the level of a 'quasi-like space-time dislocation'! I have never seen such a spectacular use of electricity before! Well, it wasn't really given to the public during my time, but still!" Caster bubbled with excitement as she danced around the destruction in a happy manner. "With this, we have surely gained an edge against the red camp!"
"Uuu"
"Yes, yes, I'm proud of you too, Frankie." Caster said with a smile as she stood on her tiptoes and gave the advanced homunculus a pat on the head, causing the girl's face to turn slightly red from act of kindness she had been given.
If only her original creator had been like this...
"What is going on?"
Caster and Berserker jumped in surprise at the unfamiliar voice. Turning around, they both found Siegfried standing by the door with a curious look on his face as he surveyed the smoldering crater that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the courtyard.
"Saber?" Caster blinked in surprise. "You can talk?"
Saber's eyes twinkled in amusement. "As of now, yes. Due to the revelation of my identity from the rogue servant, my Master has no longer seen any need to keep me from speaking. As such, I decided to go and speak to my fellow servants."
"That's obviously nice of you and all, but aren't you usually busy doing jobs for Mr. Gordes?" Caster asked with a curious look. Every single time she had seen Saber around the castle, he was usually delivering errands while his master worked on Homunculi in his chambers.
"I do not have anything at this time." Saber said with a small smile before he frowned as a familiar voice popped into his head.
"Saber, come to me posthaste! We have need of your assistance!" Gordes' voice popped into his head through their connection. Sighing, Saber decided to go see what his master wanted. After all, he usually gets very cranky whenever he doesn't arrive on time.
"Never mind, it seems that I must go." Saber said with an apologetic smile. "Well, let's talk later, shall we?"
"Yes, of course." Caster agreed with a smile while Berserker gave him a friendly wave as he disappeared into spirit form.
"What do you suppose we do?" Gordes asked the Magus Killer as they stared at the conundrum in front of them.
"I do not know." Kiritsugu answered truthfully, looking equally perplexed and confused at the situation. Standing in front of them was their residential Rider over a downed homunculus with a determined look on his face. The homunculus that was on the ground just so happened to be one of the several created as a prana conduit for the servants, allowing the Masters to act at full capacity without having to give more than the bare minimal energy to the servants to operate.
Through sheer will and some kind of miracle, one of the Homunculi managed to somehow break out of the glass capsule that he was stored inside by using some kind of destructive magecraft to blow apart the glass.
Due to the Homunculu's purpose of a living battery, he was practically a newborn baby and couldn't really get anywhere due to his undeveloped organs and body. Luckily for him, he just so happened to run into rider, who decided to help him make it out of the castle.
Rushing to intercept them, Kiritsugu and Gordes soon found themselves stuck trying to figure out how to get Rider off of the Homunculi.
"Why don't you two just leave him alone? I'm not leaving him!" Rider declared stubbornly as he stared at the two adults.
"Look, Astolfo, Vlad isn't going to be happy about you causing a scene like this, and we're already out of Asprin as it is." Kiritsugu said, trying to placate the paladin.
"I don't care! I keep telling you, I'm not letting the old man have him!"
"Old man?!" Gordes fumed, annoyed at being called old. He wasn't old, damn it! He was at least middle age! True, he was developing some wrinkles, but it was only natural due to the stressful nature of his work!
He was about to just rush in their an pummel the paladin, heroic spirit or not, when Siegfried suddenly appeared out of spirit form. Immediately, Gordes completely forgot about being angry and was relieved that his servant could deal with this mess instead of him.
"I have arrived, Master." Saber announced. "What is the problem?"
"It is good to see you have responded, Saber." Gordes said with a pleased expression. "As for our problem..."
"We just can't seem to convince Rider to move from the Homunculus." Kiritsugu cut in. "The homunculus is defective and we were charged to correct this as quickly as possible."
"I see..." Saber muttered as he stared at Rider and the downed homunculus, making the paladin tense in preparation.
"If you choose to take the Homunculus, Saber, I won't let that happen. Even if all of us have been summoned once again for the sake of a wish, we are still heroes at heart! Would you go against your morales for the sake of your own wish?" Rider asked as he drew his sword, causing Kiritsugu and Gordes to back away in alarm and Saber to just stare at him with a blank stare.
"The thing looks like he can barely walk far. Even if he somehow gets out of here, where will he go? Homunculi don't live long, you know." Saber pointed out, but Rider's defiant expression didn't drop for even a second.
"So? That's better than letting him get waste away in a tube after gaining sentient thought." Rider argued.
Saber stared at him for a moment as a thought crossed his head. Turning to his master, he decided to voice his inner thoughts.
"Master... Would he still be suitable as a prana battery?"
Gordes paused for a moment as he felt all eyes on him. Letting his eyes wander over the battered form of the Homunculi and study his physique and magical energy from a single glance, he soon let out a tired sigh.
"No, not really." Gordes admitted. "It just won't be the same now that he has escaped. Of course, we could cram him back into the tube, but the quality won't be as good since he has damaged his body this much. Honestly, he wasn't even created to do anything a newborn baby can do! How he managed to break out of the chamber is beyond me."
"Perhaps it's because you accidentally left some kind of program inside of him." Kiritsugu suggested, causing the professional alchemist to give him a glare. "What? The Einzbern were better. I've never heard a single instance of any of their homunculi disobeying them."
"So it seems the rumors were true... you do have connections to the Einzberns." Gordes muttered with an annoyed sigh. "It is no matter. The house of Musik will surpass them soon enough with the help of the Yggdmillenia!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Kiritsugu said with a wave of his hand before he turned to the pink paladin. "You hear that, pinkie? We have no reason to harm the kid, so can you stop glaring at us?"
"Be that as it may, I won't leave his side for a second. I don't know if you're lying or not." Rider said distrustfully, causing Kiritsugu to face palm in annoyance.
"Look, kid, just take the boy to Caster. She'll patch him up when she has the chance."
"Why should I believe you?" Astolfo asked as he crossed his arms, causing Kiritsugu to smirk as a monotone voice spoke from behind the paladin.
"Got it, daddy."
Spinning around in surprise, Astolfo could only watch in horror as Assassin carried the unconscious homunculus down the hallway towards Caster's room at full sprint. Without even turning around to yell at the smug magi, Rider already began to give chase after Assassin while she giggled like a toddler.
"Saber, chase after them and make sure Rider doesn't do anything stupid again. I am going to go for a lie down." Gordes ordered as he swept out of the hallway dramatically, leaving Kiritsugu and Saber alone together.
"How do you deal with someone like him?" Kiritsugu asked, making a small smile appear on the dragon slayer's face.
"It's actually very easy, really." Saber said as he disappeared down the hallway, leaving the magus killer with a confused look on his face.
"What does Mr. Buddha mean by asking the priest?" Jeanne asked as she and Naruto walked through the streets of Trifas.
"Who knows? We've never met him, so we can't just ignore my friend's warning." Naruto said with a shrug. "He's very cryptic and smart, but he never makes it his goal to involve himself with humanity too much. After all, even he doesn't have the right to just do whatever he wants with humanity."
"But aren't you basically doing that?" Jeanne asked with a tilt of her head, making Naruto chuckle.
"Not really. I have the authority to do many things in this world, but I have to constantly put limits on myself. For example: I have the power to bring the dead back to life, but I can't just go around and revolve every single dead person I see. Immortals like me have to play by certain rules to keep Gaia happy."
"And if she's not happy?"
"Last time she got angry resulted in Pompeii." Naruto said with a small chuckle as he saw the saint's expression. "Don't be surprised, Gaia is the entire earth after all. Whenever she gets angry, volcanos tend to erupt. Just be glad that she usually remains asleep half of the time."
"So... She basically causes massive global warming whenever she wakes up?" Jeanne asked with a curious expression as she thought about such things.
"Pretty much, yeah." Naruto said with a sigh. "Those mortals and their global warming... bah! As if they could ever come up with something as stupid as that."
"It's not like everyone knows about magic, Naruto." Jeanne scolded with a cross look.
"Sorry, sorry." Naruto grumbled as he ran a hand through his hair. "So what should we do when we get their? If this priest is a suspect, we can't just walk in there and ask him with all of them around. Without proof, they won't believe us."
"I'm still having a hard time believing it myself." Jeanne admitted with a downtrodden look. "I just find it hard to believe that a person handpicked by the church could potentially be linked to all of these anomalies that have been plaguing this war."
"The church has changed quite a bit since your time." Naruto said with a shrug. "It's not like the crusades, but it's an organization with many holes in em. Several of the churches sections have gone so far off the deep end that the Pope has lost any form of control over them."
"Blasphemous..." Jeanne muttered in disappointment. To hear that the house of God has been tainted with people who commit such atrocities would do so in the name of their lord. Granted, people had a different view on worship, but it should be clear cut on where to draw the line.
"Indeed. To be fair, the most heretical group of the Church were created a really long time ago. Perhaps a little bit after you died, I think. The rest of the sections aren't too bad and are mostly dedicated to historical artifacts and maintaining holy grounds across the world. Those are the ones that the Pope has any control of."
"And the heretical section?"
"The magi community calls them the Executioners, or the members of the Burial Agency. Those that undertake rigorous training and earn the title of Executioners are known as first-rate murderers who are sent upon people that the Burial Agency find as heretics. They can be either vampires, demons, or other humans, and they will still kill them without hesitation."
"How does the pope not have any hold over these people?" Jeanne asked with a frown, making Naruto sigh.
"It's best not to think of them as part of the Church. Most of their members aren't even catholic, leading others to simply turn their back on them as one of the most heretical sections in the church. In truth, they're more like a separate organization entirely where the Pope has no jurisdiction." He paused for a moment before smiling. "But enough about that. Let's talk about more happy stuff. Seeing you look depressed like that isn't doing wonders for my health, you know."
Jeanne giggled. "You're such a gentleman. Were you always like this?"
"No, not really. I was quite the brat when I was younger, always looking for attention." Naruto said with a nostalgic laugh as he remembered his childhood days that have long since passed. "What was your childhood like?"
"Hm? Well, it's not like it was anything interesting, really." Jeanne said with a sheepish look.
"Nonsense! Heroes come from strange places all the time! You don't have to be so shy about it!" Naruto prodded on with a smile.
"Well... I wasn't really much different from a normal girl my age. My family and friends were usually working in the fields as farmers and ranchers. As such, I usually spent most of my time taking care of the animals and helping my mother on the farm." Her nostalgic look suddenly turned quite embarrassed. "Also, it may sound strange, but I never really learned how to read much when I was a young girl."
Naruto blinked. "Wait... you couldn't read?" He had heard of being unable to talk and see, but unable to read?
"Embarrassing, yes?" Jeanne said with a small chuckle. "Of course, my mother always read to me verses from the Bible, so I was content with it. It's probably thanks to my mother that I encountered God in my life."
"So she's what made you decide to go and join the war effort?" Naruto asked with a curious look.
"Partly, but it all came to me after I received a vision of God. It was a vision that moved my heart so much that I was convinced joining the war effort was my calling. To soothe the cries of my lord, I devoted myself prominently to the French cause and to end this war as quickly as I could. I succeeded, of course, but it all came at a price." Jeanne said with a bitter smile. "It was all inevitable, I suppose, but it was a fate I gladly accepted."
"You are quite wise. To live with regrets is something that would destroy a normal human being. No matter the outcome, you should die knowing you did everything you could." Naruto said sagely as he remembered some of the people he hadn't been able to save. For all of the people he had changed and saved throughout his life, there were some who were just too stubborn.
"Ah... I wouldn't exactly call myself wise." Jeanne said with an embarrassed smile. "You are most certainly wiser than I am."
"Ha! That may be true, but you are far more mature than I ever was when I was your age." He gestured to himself. "Ever since I gained my immortality, my body has reverted to that of my 21 year old body, grounding it to a halt. So you could say that I am over a thousand years old, but my mentality hasn't changed a single bit."
"I can certainly see that." Jeanne said with a joking smile, causing Naruto to smirk in amusement, happy to see that he had been able to cheer her up. Continuing on with high spirits, the two of them headed towards the red camp's base of operations.
"It seems that Ruler and her Servant are making their way towards our location." Assassin commented as she watched the young saint and her servant interact with each other through a crystal ball.
Shirou bit his lip and looked up from the bible. "It seems that they have gotten suspicious and have come here to investigate. I fear this would have happened sooner or later."
"What do you suggest we do? Sending out any of our servants to confront them will only result in unwanted attention from our... comrades. If that happens, it'll most definitely draw their attention to you."
"It does not matter any longer." Shirou said as he stood up and walked over to peer into the crystal ball. "Now that your noble phantasm is created, we have the power to wipe out the entirety of the Grail war combatants in a single day. The biggest threat to our plans, however, is Ruler's servant."
"Indeed, he will be our most powerful challenge to acquire the grail." Assassin said in agreement. "All of our servants will have to be directed towards him if we have the slightest chance of taking him down."
"Correct. We shall have to unleash our most powerful servant if we are to stand a chance." He stood up and began walking towards the door. "Contact the man of the mountain. Tell him we finally found a person for him to kill. I will personally make sure that our forces are positioned nearby."
"And if he disobeys us? You know that he hates us even more than the mad dog. The first Man of the Mountain is a heroic spirit that abides by his personal code, you know." Assassin said with a tense look normally not found on her.
"I'll issue several command spells on him." Shirou replied, pulling up his sleeve to show the numerous command seals that ran up his arms. "The first one will to not strike against our allies. The second is to kill himself when the job is done. And the third..."
He smirked and pulled his sleeve down.
"...Is to kill Naruto Uzumaki using any means necessary."