I don't own HSDxD and gain no profit from this writing.
Chap 16
Issei heard a booming sound from where Lancer headed. He knew she was venting her anger, which was understandable. Anyone would be angry if they heard what he said.
Issei lay on the ground, unconcerned about the fact that his shirt was dirtied.
"What have I done?" He slapped himself on the left cheek since the right one still hurt.
Why did he say that? Lancer obviously had to work hard to become a ruler, she didn't just pull the sword in the stone and everyone automatically recognized her as a king. She had trained day and night, learned the codes of chivalry, etiquettes, maths or whatever science or magic back in the day. She had done quests for peasants, nobles and supernatural. She had slain bandits, rogue lords, wild animals, monsters, giants and even dragons. She had led her small band of knights against larger armies and achieved victories after victories.
All the while, Issei recalled, being distanced by her own people because of her destructive powers and perfectly inhuman executions. Yet she still cared for them, she still fought with all she got when the world was against her little kingdom. They could say whatever behind her back and she would continue to fight for their sake.
Lancer alone carried that burden on her shoulders. Issei admitted that he hated how she had chosen to walk that path of kingship, but he couldn't help but admire that part of her ideal.
"I'm the worst." He shut his eyes.
He had denied Lancer because he couldn't stand that one mistake of her. No, he had no right to call it a mistake. After all he was never a king, never put into such a situation to understand what they had gone through. The outcome might be the worst, but he was not allowed to call it a mistake.
Guilt filled Issei's mind as he recalled how he insulted Lancer. Issei found out that he was no different from Assassin, because they both assigned a role to Lancer, 'a female', without caring who she was and what she wanted. So what if Lancer was a woman? If she had the strength, dignity and wisdom to rule a kingdom then who had the right to judge her? Who was allowed to trample on her pride when she brought good results?
"I'm no different from those who criticized her huh?"
He had seen how the people started to give Lancer the cold shoulder when one of the knights claimed that she did not understand the hearts of men before leaving the court. As her master he should have sympathized with her, and yet he chose to reject her just like them.
An asshole to his savior. That was what Issei had become.
"I have to apologize to her no matter what." He signed.
If Lancer decided to abandon him for Akeno due to his stupid mistake then so be it. He would let her go. In the first place he was a common highschool boy who by chance was dragged into this war. Other masters knew what they were doing, they had the powers to achieve their goals. He meanwhile only did what he thought the best selfishly, and forced Lancer to compromise. If Lancer was under a better master she wouldn't be put in this circumstance. That was certain.
"But first, I should find some food for her. It's the task she gives me after all."
Issei stood up and brushed off the dust on his clothes. The two teeth that fell out earlier disappeared from his mind.
In the next hour Issei searched for that lonesome vending machine they saw earlier. Kuoh Town is not a populous town, so people barely check on these. But to be sure he looked around to check if there was any camera.
"Alright…" He summoned his gauntlet. Even if his mana was bleeding out it was still possible to use his Sacred Gear as a blunt weapon.
However before he could punch the machine Issei felt a strange sensation behind his back, he immediately turned around and saw a man in dark green.
"Oh? That's good. Usually common folks have troubles detecting me." The foreigner's eyes were hidden under the shadow of his hood, but Issei could see the rest of his face.
"You are… Archer." Thanks to him being a master Issei instantly recognized this being before him as supernatural, though this was the first time they met face to face.
Archer looked more of a beggar than a proper bow wielding warrior, those that he saw in anime, but Issei was not going to dismiss this man. He knew how dangerous a servant was, and to underestimate them was no different from killing himself.
"Relax, lady-boss of my boss has ordered me not to hurt you or Lancer." Archer stepped up and inserted cash into the vending machine. "Coffee?"
"Uh yeah." Issei put down his arms. If Ms Suzaku had ensured that Archer wouldn't harm him then there was no reason to be hostile, and he wouldn't be able to fight Archer by himself anyway. "Thank you."
"You know we didn't have this back in the day." Archer had a gulp himself after giving Issei one can. "Not even the wine of the local noble tastes as good as this. Man I'm glad I get to enjoy these."
Archer then pulled out a cigar from his pocket. "You smoke?"
"No thanks." Issei shook his head, he had his can of coffee but he didn't want to drink it yet. "Highschooler is not supposed to smoke."
"My master told me that I would get cancer if I smoke too much but bah! I'm a servant, our bodies never change when we are summoned to this world. I don't even know what cancer is."
"Uh yeah. So… what are you doing here?" Issei asked, there was no way Archer was here just to buy him a drink.
"Why to give you a place to sleep of course! Already saw how Saber fought you. My master told me to find you two before the church side could start hunting you. But eh… that lass of yours has encountered them so you should be careful."
Issei raised his eyebrow when he heard that. "What do you mean?"
"I'm saying that two people from the church side have gone to offer Lancer a deal in exchange for being their servant. I couldn't come close enough to ear drop it since Lancer is way too sharp. She's gonna behead me if I try something funny, that cold knightess. So my advice is that you should not trust Lancer completely. Don't want to save you here just to have you die by your servant later." Archer then pulled out a piece of paper and a card. "You know this place?"
"Oh that place…" Issei scratched his head. "Yeah I know it."
"Good, when you get there give the owner this piece of paper. He will let you in a secret hideout. You two should be able to survive for at least a week if you don't come out. Don't worry my master will pay for the bill." Archer put his cigar away and finished his coffee. "You still have your command spell right? Use that to save your ass if your blondie decides that you don't deserve her. Don't expect me to come to rescue you though. See ya."
Archer then disappeared into the forest, leaving Issei alone in the middle of nowhere.
Issei looked at the paper and the card again and put them in his pocket. Now he needed to find Lancer so they could go together. Since he was a master he should have the ability to feel the general location of his servant. However his mana was unstable so said ability couldn't be used. While he was considering following the path which Lancer had taken Lancer was the one who returned to him first.
"Issei, I sense a servant nearby. We should go before they engage us here." Lancer came close to him as if she were shielding him from harm.
"Oh uh yeah, we should go." It was awkward. Issei thought the first thing he would do was to apologize to Lancer, but she was in such a hurry so he missed the chance to say it. "Anyway Archer just gave me a place to stay."
"Archer? You met Archer?" Lancer raised her tone in suspicion.
"Yeah, he said that he wouldn't attack us according to the order from Ms Suzaku." Issei quickly explained.
"Fine, since Caster has refused to collaborate let's go to that place."
The good thing was that nobody attacked the two of them when they went back to the town. Issei shared his coffee can with Lancer so that they would have some energy to keep going. After 3 hours of walking they arrived at the destination.
"Oh right, now let's see…" Issei pulled out the card again.
There weren't many people at this time, and if there were they would usually keep to themselves. The reason was simple: currently Issei and Lancer were in the 'adult zone' of Kuoh Town. Any healthy school boy knows this place and dreams of going here at least once during high school years, so Issei wasn't an exempt. It's just that he didn't expect his first time to be with Lancer.
The shabby hotel that Archer introduced themselves to was in a rather shady alley, and with a foreign beauty by his side they attracted a lot of eyes from the bystanders. They quickly entered the hotel the moment Issei found it.
The receptionist was smoking and reading some porn magazine, he didn't even bother to greet Issei and Lancer until they presented the piece of paper on the counter.
"You two are VIP guests huh? Alright, just to make sure that we are clear: I don't know you, you don't know me."
"Are you the owner of this place?" Lancer asked.
"Yes, but that isn't important. Now repeat what I said."
"We don't know you, you don't know us." Issei and Lancer replied.
"Good, the fridge and the storage will have enough food and drink for 5 days, if you need anything you can use the inner line. Dial 007 to contact me." The owner gave them a key. "Try not to use any big spell in the room, I'm not gonna pull another one out of my ass if you destroy it."
"Thank you." They were instructed to get to the basement through the stair, and into a room beneath it.
"This room is built with the involvement of magecraft." Said Lancer when they unlocked the door. Although Issei was not sure whether it was important since he couldn't conduct any magecraft ritual.
The room was not bad, as far as Issei knew. It was a standard 1DK room, and definitely bigger than the room he got at the shrine. There was a monitor in the dining room which showed the entrance of the hotel so that they would know if their enemies had come to this place. Issei could also see an emergency exit in the bathroom, which led to the storage room of the hotel in the back in case they had to escape. There was also a washing machine so they could wash their clothes, and there were also a couple of new sets of clothes to be worn after bath.
Both master and servant were very tired. However that was not an excuse for Issei to postpone what he must do. The first thing he did when he and Lancer entered the dining room was to prostrate before her in the famous Japanese dogeza style.
"I'm sorry for what I said!" Issei sincerely said, his forehead touched the wooden floor. "I was stupid back then, I insulted you without caring about your feeling!"
"It's fine, please stand up master." Lancer helped him up. "I was also at fault for overdoing it and hurting you. Is your cheek still hurting? What about your teeth?"
"Thank you and please don't worry about that, it barely hurts now." Issei got up taking Lancer's hand.
He was glad that Lancer accepted his apology. There was the matter of what Archer had said but Issei truly believed that Lancer wouldn't betray him, so he saw no reason to confront her about it. It could lead to another heated argument between them if he was to say something stupid again. What Issei wanted the most was to have Lancer stay with him, so making her think that he doubted her loyalty could result in a disaster.
"... I have something to report. Earlier back in the outskirts two people had come to recruit me to their side."
Did she just read his mind or something?
"However I have shot them down. I don't see why I should go to their side. So please rest assured that I will continue to be your servant, master."
"Thank you Lancer!" Words couldn't contain his joy when she cleared his doubt.
"Good, now that we are clear about that there's something I want to ask you Issei. I want you to tell me the truth. What did you do on that night?" Lancer asked in a serious tone.
"Huh? What do you mean?" He was taken by surprise when she said that, but Lancer's eyes were looking straight into him.
"Increasing your magic circuits through your Sacred Gear sounds plausible. But your base was incredibly low, so low that I doubt you actually had any magic circuit. You would need to turn all of your blood vessels into magic circuits to produce the amount of mana that you have supplied me, which frankly is impossible. So that was not what you did." Lancer firmly explained.
Issei could only look away when he heard it, his eyes could not meet Lancer's gaze.
"When I am close to you I can sense a familiar feeling. A feeling that only occurs when you are with your kins, which doesn't really make sense even if you are my master. After eliminating all the possible answers and analyzing your mana I have reached my conclusion. You grew a dragon core, didn't you? Only a dragon core could give me that much mana to heal and remove the dragon-slayer damage Rider inflicted on me. Said dragon core is also the reason why your body was leaking mana left and right recently. Pure magic circuits could never do something like that, no matter how great a mage is."
Seeing that he couldn't hide the truth Issei reluctantly nodded to Lancer's words. Once again he failed to keep a secret from her no, he should have expected her to find out the truth in a short time.
"You… Do you know the consequences of such an action Issei? Do you know what will happen to you if you gain a dragon core that way?" Lancer asked with worry.
"It's fine. When we get the grail I can fix it, I only have to make a wish so that my body would return to the state before I grew a dragon core." Issei waved the problem away.
He had already learned what would happen to him on that night when he decided to grow a dragon core using the power of Ddraig. It was not his only option to save Lancer, but he made that choice himself. Issei never regretted that.
They both knew it was a cheap excuse from Issei. Before they had Saber as their allies, and they would fight the church side as a team. But now it was down to one against many, because Akeno was no longer their ally, and neither was Caster. That did not count the fact that Issei could not support Lancer properly, and he only had one command spell left.
Winning the war in this state was not possible unless a miracle came to them.
Yet Lancer didn't say anything. She looked at him with pity, but that was only a second before she returned to her usual cool demeanor. To change the mood Issei quickly went through the content of the fridge. Since Issei was too tired he grabbed two boxes of milk and two snack bars, one for him and one for Lancer and called it a day.
They had their midnight dinner in silence, as it was too awkward to talk after Issei apologized to Lancer, and Lancer confirmed the truth from him.
"Let's go to sleep first. We won't be able to discuss anything properly in this state." Said Lancer.
Issei nodded at her words. The pair of master and servant went to the only bedroom there. Issei used his last strength to put the futon on the floor. His body was reaching its limit. He just wanted to lie down now. All the fatigue and mental exhaustion were hitting him hard.
Since she was a servant Lancer shouldn't suffer like him, but she still chose to sleep to recover from the mental fatigue.
"Good night Lancer."
"Good night Issei."
Ah, so it's here.
Issei was on the hill in the long gone days of the past again. The red dragon was next to him, calm and composed like usual.
Issei did not have to waste time to search for that figure, because he had seen it too many times to know where to look.
The King was alone on the brutal battlefield. The corpses of men and animals had filled up a hill, and blood had flown into a river on the green grass.
Underneath the King was one of her Knights of the Round Table. It was obvious who that was. The King's lance had pierced through the heart of her opponent, but she also received a fatal wound from that red sword of said infamous traitorous knight. A deep slash that went through her left shoulder and reached her heart.
The cry of men and the clash of steel were no more. There were only the winds of sunset now. No cheer from the victors, and no lament from the lost. Only solitude.
10 years of fighting, of ruling, of sacrificing. Now she was here, all alone.
This was the reward for her effort to save her kingdom against the harsh world.
Issei walked toward the King who was still kneeling and breathing hard. From where he was standing she looked surprisingly small and fragile. Her silver armor was cracked in multiple places by arrows, swords and spears, and her blue attire was darkened with blood of herself, her once allies and her enemies. Her helmet was broken, showing her face. Even though she was in this state there was no sorrow but indifference to her expression.
It was as if this battle mattered not to her.
Issei spreaded his arms to hug the girl in front of him.
It's okay, everything is over. You have done well. You can rest now.
But the King stood up, she took the lance and grabbed her sword which lay on the ground a little to the right. She walked through his body like he didn't exist. Because he did not exist in her world, and his words did not reach her.
A one arm knight in silver had come, the last of the legendary Knights of the Round Table. He was the only surviving knight of this battle. The King heard his voice, and got on the horse that he brought to her. Together they galloped away from this place, leaving Issei and the dragon behind.
The King still had works to do, and she would continue to fight for the sake of her island regardless of what happened to her. A perfect machine in the flesh of a perfect human.
But Issei knew there was no way for her to recover from that battle, and that faraway place would be where the King took her final sleep.
Does it have to be this way?
[It has to be this way.] The dragon answered.
Issei woke up to the boiling sound of water, but he went to the restroom first. He didn't want to show his face to Lancer after that dream, he had to make sure that Lancer wouldn't know that he had seen her last battle. When Issei was done he headed to the kitchen which doubled as the dining room. Lancer was there, looking at the electricity kettle in fascination.
"I can't believe it's possible to boil water at such a high speed with electricity." Lancer said. "I must ask Merlin to replicate this with magic when I return."
Besides the kettle Issei could also see two plastic cups of instant ramen.
"Good morning Lancer."
"Oh good morning Issei." Lancer turned her head to him. "I'm preparing breakfast for us."
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it." He laughed, to think that one day he had a royal cook breakfast for him.
The kettle let out a blip to indicate that it had done boiling the water. When Lancer was about to pour the water into the two cups and put the season powder in Issei stopped her. He then grabbed two eggs from the fridge along with a package of sausages.
"Do you want to eat fried eggs Issei? Or… is it possible to boil eggs with the kettle?" Lancer was not surprised when he stopped her, but she was curious of what he was going to do.
"What? No, nobody uses an electric kettle to boil eggs." Issei shook his head, although the idea intrigued him. "Here let me show you how Asians have their instant ramen."
Issei cut the sausages into pieces, then he broke the shells and put both sausages and raw eggs into his and Lancer's cups. Finally he poured the boiled water in.
"Oh I see, so there is a way to eat eggs like this." Lancer clapped. "Back then we either had boiled eggs or fried eggs. It's interesting that you can eat cooked eggs with soup."
"Come on, let's dig in." Issei gave Lancer a pair of chopsticks.
Lancer happily ate her instant ramen, even though it was junk food. Needless to say Issei was happy to see Lancer enjoying breakfast. He too dug in his ramen cup. It was not bad despite being a brand that he hadn't tried before.
Breakfast was over in 20 minutes. When they were drinking their canned tea Lancer began the conversation.
"We need to find a way to remove your curse Issei. We might have a place to hide, but if Akeno or the church side discovers this place they will not hesitate to break in to eliminate us. Worse they could demolish the entire hotel or this block as their opening move."
Issei had to agree. He understood that it was a matter of time before they had to fight Akeno and Saber again. However during that battle Akeno could have cut his neck, but she chose to use a curse on him instead. Akeno might hate him for his failure, but she did not want to kill him. So at least he would do his best to help her survive this war, because the path that she was taking would only lead to her self-destruction. However the mana disruption curse of Akeno was too powerful. It had neutralized him and Lancer which forced them to hide in this place. The church side was their enemies, and to this day Issei still hadn't figured out a way to help Rider and his master, much to his dismay.
"I wonder if Archer's master knows how to cancel the curse." Issei said.
"It's possible. If he is a subordinate of the Himejima clan leader he should know about it. However I don't think we have a way to contact him, and I don't trust the hotel owner nor Archer's master to have them help us."
There was this issue of trust too, especially after Akeno turned against them. Since Issei's condition was critical to Lancer's performance it was not wise to let many people know that they were in a weak state.
"Let's see… I recall that Akeno said that this curse is for humans, so it might be different if I become not-human."
"... Do you have any idea what you are talking about master?" Lancer stressed.
The dragon core was what gave Issei a huge amount of mana to support Lancer. But it didn't come without a price. Simply put a dragon cannot, does not accept anything but itself. Similarly the dragon cells of the core are extremely aggressive, they will consume the human cells inside Issei's body to convert them into dragon cells. Otherwise it will not be able to function. Eventually the dragon core will turn every part of his body into that of a dragon to match its power. In just a week his blood had become dragon blood, and the two teeth that he lost last night had been growing back into dragon fangs.
With this rate in less than a month he would lose his human body if he did nothing to stop the core.
It sounds cool at first. Who doesn't want to be a dragon? They are the symbol of power and greatness. They are the legendary creatures that humans both worship and fear. However in reality becoming a dragon is a very, very terrible idea. Ddraig had explained to Issei that when the Age of Man came anything that does not fit within the Will of Mankind will be crushed by their belief. Supernatural creatures like winged horses, trolls, giants, hydras, etc… They do not exist. Science has shown that, lots of people have said that. Thus they are crushed by the Will of Mankind. Dragons are no exception, despite sitting at pretty much the top of the food chain.
When Issei became a full dragon he would be crushed by the Will of Mankind, turned into nothing but 'dinosaur bones'. It was the reason why Lance worried about him, and why it was necessary for Issei to get the grail to remove the dragon core to turn back into a human again.
Issei nodded to Lancer's question.
"Yes, I do. However we don't have any options left. Since the curse is made for humans if I am to change multiple parts of my body into a dragon's it's possible to overload the curse. It will also increase my strength and endurance to fight other masters so we can kill two birds with a stone."
Lancer could see the determination of Issei so she didn't try to change his mind. Issei began to discuss with Ddraig to see which body parts can be changed into dragon's ones to overload the curse. When they were done Issei told Lancer that he would need to sleep for half a day for it to work. For the time being Lancer would watch over Issei, she would check the monitor too to see if other masters had found them in this hotel. If the enemies came here she would wake Issei up and escape with him.
With the plan set Issei went to take a bath and then slept in his futon. Ddraig said that forcing multiple parts of his body to become dragon's would hurt quite a little, so if he was sleeping it would mitigate the pain.
There was no dream when his body was changing, just like that night when he grew a dragon core.
When he got up and left the bedroom Issei saw Lancer was coming out of the bathroom, looking fresh.
"... I see that you have awakened. How do you feel Issei?" She dried her hair with a towel.
She had changed into the clothes prepared by the staff since the old white blouse and jeans were too dirty. The light blue shirt looked good on her, and the shorts certainly showed off her toned legs.
"I am… fine. But it would take a few hours to get used to this." Issei stretched, trying not to smell Lancer.
"Let me see… Good, looks like it has worked as intended, then we can rejoin the war tomorrow." Lancer flexed her body a little to check the mana inside her.
The curse Akeno put on him was broken by the amount of mana and the inhuman parts of his body. Lancer now had gone back to her top form thanks to the mana that Issei gave her. In this state they would be able to fight any servant, so that absolutely was a great news.
"So… dinner?"
"Yes, we should have dinner." Lancer put the towel away and sat at the table.
Issei went through the fridge and the small storage which was located in the bedroom. Last night he only looked for pre-made food so this time he needed to look for fresh ingredients too. But most of them were canned food or instant ramen, they would be living on junk food if they continued to stay here which kinda sucked.
"Huh?"
To his surprise Issei discovered a bag of rice lying at the bottom of the storage.
"Well I know what to do now." He chuckled.
The next hour he prepared dinner for two while Lancer continued to watch the monitor. The room was good enough to live, but besides sleeping and eating there was not much to do.
"Dinner's here." Issei brought the two plates to the table.
"I see. This is the same dish that you made for us last week."
"Yep, omurice. Don't worry this time I have seasoned it unlike last time. Please enjoy it."
It was the same omelet on rice dish that he had made, but it was not a failure like the last time. Issei had gone through each step carefully, so the eggs weren't overfried and the rice was cooked at the right time.
"Yes, it is delicious master. You certainly have improved compared to your first time." Said Lancer with a smile as she had a spoonful of rice.
This was an amateurish dish no matter how he spun it, yet Lancer still enjoyed the meal. It was a genuine smile on her face, that Lancer could have such a smile when she had to uphold her duty as a king was something that Issei failed to imagine. But he knew that she could smile, and her smile was so brilliant to him.
It was that moment Issei was reminded that he would never have enough of this beauty before him, and in spite of everything he was glad that she was here with him.
Issei would do everything just to see her happy smile like this, even if Lancer never answered his feeling. Although just thinking about it made him a little sad.
"Did anything happen when I was sleeping?" Issei asked, he didn't want to dwell on the thought that Lancer would reject him.
"Nothing major. Some people came in and out but none of them seems to be supernatural."
It seemed that this hotel was not a popular one, but that should help them avoid the curious eyes.
"Now what should we do first?" Issei started with the tough question.
They had removed the curse so the next step should be fighting other servants. Since they were all by themselves it would be difficult to attack other masters, because that meant they would have to fight 1v2. Against the shrine side it would be Saber and Archer, and against the church side it would be Rider and Assassin. Strong as Lancer was fighting against two servants at once would still be bad for them, not to mention Issei would have to defend himself against two masters..
"Lancer, do you think it's possible to ally with Caster now?"
"It's possible since we are now in a better position to negotiate with them. However they will continue to look down on us since they have rejected us once. If they don't trust us and we don't trust them it will be hard to fight together as a team, and our enemies will target that weak link."
What Lancer said was true so Issei found it hard to think up a plan.
"For now we should wait to see which side makes the first move." Lancer explained. "Akeno will become impatient since she doesn't know how long before they find out she has betrayed the Himejima clan. I believe she will make the first move, and we will find our opportunity to fight either her, Caster or the church side afterward when they are weakened."
"That doesn't sound bad to me." Issei kept his promise since the plan to rescue Ms Shuri was a failure, so now it was Lancer's turn to be in charge. Even still if it was possible he would like to spare Akeno and Asia.
"Archer's master might help us now, but we shouldn't rely on him. So for tomorrow we will go to the town where you showed me the horse race so that I can get us some money so that we can stay at a different place."
Issei nodded to Lancer's plan. "Yeah, let's do that."
It was almost 9 o'clock in the evening after they finished dinner. Issei had washed the dishes and taken out any trash, so they were idling in the room. If Lancer still had her books she could read and note them down, and Issei could probably read something or play his portable gaming device. However all of those were at the shrine, and Issei had to wonder if the fight between Saber and Lancer hadn't ruined everything in his room.
"Issei, look at the monitor." Lancer said in a hurry.
He did as Lancer said and saw a man carrying a familiar girl on his back who just entered the hotel.
"Was that Akeno?"
"Yes, it looks like her." Lancer replied.
While Issei was wondering what happened there was a knock on the door. Lancer immediately summoned her armor and lance. She peeked through the hole on the door to see who was outside.
"I know you guys are in there. I'm Archer's master, I promise that I won't do anything to you."
Still Lancer only opened the door after she had confirmed that there was no servant in this hotel besides her. Archer's master was around the age of a college student, his attire was what Issei would expect from a ninja manga. Like what he saw earlier he did carrying Akeno on his back.
"Is she alright?" Issei helped him put Akeno on the futon.
"She's fine, just overstressed and exhausted." Archer's master also sat down, he looked at Issei in confusion, but since he was too tired he didn't comment on it. "My name is Tobio Ikuse, just call me Tobio. You are Issei Hyodo and Lancer right? This is the first time we met."
Sensing that Tobio had no intention to harm them Lancer dismissed her lance and armor. Issei gave Tobio a cup of water for him to drink.
"Thank you." Tobio gulped it down. "That was too close even for me."
"What happened?" Lancer asked. "Where is Archer?"
Tobio then told them the whole story.
"Wow, that… that is unbelievable." Issei scratched his head.
"So to sum up: Saber and Archer killed Caster, Saber killed Archer, but then Saber and Akeno got cursed by Caster's noble phantasm. The church side came with Assassin and Rider along with a new Berserker that was somehow summoned by them. Saber and Rider fought them to give you, Akeno and the nun a chance to escape. Is that right?"
"Yeah, that's right." Tobio had another glass of water. "I didn't see Rider's master afterward but it doesn't seem like she has been captured by the church side. Reynare, the master of Assassin, has killed her comrades so she is low on manpower now. I doubt she can afford to have someone chase after Asia Argento."
"Let's hope that she is safe." Issei said, remembering the innocent nun. "At least she is no longer under the control of the geas."
"Oh and before I forgot: Caster's master wants to give her thanks to you for telling her that she would be attacked by other servants."
"I take that you didn't kill her?" Lancer asked.
"Nah, no reasons to do that since Caster is dead, although the Killing Stone is still there I think." Replied Tobio. "Besides Caster's master is carrying her wounded sister to run away from this town so it's a bad thing to kill her. I might do dirty work but I'm not that cold-hearted."
"So there are only three servants left: Assassin, Berserker and me. Tobio can you describe the appearance of Berserker again?"
A swordsman who had the horns, wings and tail of a dragon. Even with those details Issei could not guess what kind of servant he was.
"That's not necessary, because I can confirm his true identity." Tobio took his phone from his pocket and searched through it. "Here."
On the picture was the back of who Issei assumed was Berserker. It was as Tobio said before, he could see the dark grey wings and tail.
Lancer however grimaced when she saw it.
"That is a tough enemy."
"Huh?"
"Look at his back Issei. Can you see the imprint of a leaf?"
Now that Lancer had said that he could clearly see a leaf-shape mark on the back of Berserker.
"There is only one servant who is this strong with these characteristics." Said Tobio.
"... Siegfried. Berserker is Siegfried." Issei came to the conclusion.
"Yes, he was a famous hero in Norse myth who had slain the dragon Fafnir with the demonic sword Balmung and bathed in his blood to gain the impregnable skin. Earlier Tobio also said that he could take multiple attacks from Saber headon without any visible wounds. That description does match his legend along with his weakness."
'But if Berserker is really Siegfried then Lancer is at a disadvantage against him.' Issei frowned.
Since Lancer has the dragon trait and the noble phantasm of Berserker contains the dragon-slayer effect it can greatly hurt Lancer if it hits her.
"Well, you two figure a way to deal with Berserker and Assassin. I have a job to do." Said Tobio.
"Shouldn't we team up to fight them?" Asked Issei.
"No, it took me a long time but I have finally found out that those magic circles that the church side has been making all over this town are used to drain the mana of the entire land. If they keep this up they could turn this town into a wasteland. Since they have taken over the hill they would use it as their new base to flow the mana there."
"Mana? They are draining the town to support their servants?" Lancer wondered. "No, they have those mana crystals…"
[They are draining the mana to forcefully summon the grail.] The Red Dragon Emperor opened his mouth for the first time. [The Grail is the holy miracle device that requires a lot of mana to operate, that's why it's possible to force it to appear if you feed enough mana to it.]
"I didn't know that." Tobio was shocked to hear Ddraig's voice, but quickly recovered. "Amazing, to think that your Sacred Gear hosts a sentient being. Mine is just a dog."
'So Tobio also has a Sacred Gear like me.'
"Geez if we have more time we could talk more about our Sacred Gear." Tobio scratched his head. "Anyway even if you two do nothing they can still get the grail to win this war. So it's best that you try to stop them as fast as you can. I will do what I can to disrupt the mana circles to stall for time, but don't count on it."
"Don't worry, we have a score to settle with Assassin." Lancer answered. It was natural that she would want to kill Assassin after that day at the supermarket.
Tobio stood up and prepared to leave. "One last thing: Lady Suzaku has declared that Akeno has been killed in action since her servant is eliminated, she is planning to neutralize the group that uses Akeno to participate in this war. Therefore she is free from the Himejima now. However since Akeno won't trust my words it's up to you to talk to her."
"Yeah, leave it to me. But do you know when she will wake up?" Asked Issei.
"She should wake up after a proper rest. Her life is not in danger, but her mental health is not good, so be careful when you talk to her."
Tobio finally left the hotel.
"That's nice of him, but now we have the big problem that is called Berserker." Lancer said. "We shouldn't have a hard time dealing with Assassin after Berserker is dead."
"He has a dragon-slayer noble phantasm like Rider right? I can see that you will have a hard time fighting him. Although you should be in your top now unlike the last time when we fought the first Berserker and Rider at the warehouse."
"Yes, I won't let his noble phantasm hit me. However on top of his dragon-slayer sword he has theoretically unlimited mana thanks to those crystals, so we cannot drag out the fight to have his master retreat. The best way to defeat him will be killing his master, but I doubt Freed would just let me do that when he has Berserker at his side."
"That's where I come in. You fight Berserker, and I will fight Freed." Issei concluded.
"I don't really see any other choices for us, so you will need to do your best master."
Issei inhaled. This would be the second time he fought another master, and a loss would be the end for them. They could not screw up and run away now, because if they did the church side would get the grail before them. They were running out of time.
"We should assault the hill before they can recover." Said Lancer.
"That we will do, however I think we do need some preparations if we want to increase our chance at winning."
"You sound like you have a plan."
"I do."
Freed Sellzen wanted to sleep, but that superior bitch of him forced him to guard this place. If he was not in a mood of testing Berserker he would kill Assassin right there and rape that cocky bitch.
The hill had become their new territory after Berserker destroyed the big curse stone with his noble phantasm. Currently he and Berserker were stationing at the foot of the hill to prevent anyone from reaching the top.
"Heh, hahahahahahahahahahaha!"
He couldn't help it. All of his life he had been waiting for this chance to get his revenge, and now he had it. The legendary Siegfried was nothing but his puppet now. Serve that fucker right!
A day earlier old crow Dohnaseek was supposed to summon a new Berserker, but he wasn't keen on getting one himself.
'Servants are a pain in the ass.'
So Freed used that chance to trick him into a bet. He claimed that he could summon the hero Siegfried in the Berserker class, to which Dohnaseek laughed at him and pointed out that the Norse warrior had never gone mad during his life. Freed couldn't stop laughing for a minute when he proved that old crow that he was wrong, and Siegfried did appear in a Berserker form. Dohnaseek could only shrug and let him take control of Berserker.
If one is to bath in the blood of a mad dragon, then is it not obvious that he will inherit the madness of said dragon?
Such a simple truth that nobody understands, but Freed knew it, and he did it.
"When this shit is over I will have this chump murder everyone at that facility. Every of those fuckers…!" Freed muttered in hatred.
Freed was not a human but a homunculus, created by the mages as an attempt to resurrect a certain hero in the past. However he was deemed a failure, and was to discard. Yet he somehow survived. Born with nothing but power and the talent for killing Freed had fallen in love with violence. Because he was born to kill, and so he would kill, he would keep killing and killing and killing and killing and killing-
"Huh? Oh it's them bitches again."
Freed stood up. Thanks to the familiars left behind he could see Lancer and her sissy master coming to this hill. And that was good, Freed got bored having nothing to do.
First he ordered Berserker to intercept Lancer. Freed knew that the only way for them to defeat Berserker was to kill him, and he would have fun with that brat who dared to humiliate him the last time.
Freed rushed into the forest, but not before showing his appearance so Lancer's master would know where he was.
On a branch of a tree Freed pulled out his favorite metal tube, an assault rifle that was based on the AR15 model, but built for superhumans like him. 1m long and 7kg heavy, it packs enough firepower to go through a man like fire through weed, and with the rate of fire of 900 rpm it rivals a light machine gun. Freed even used a custom magically enhanced magazine which looked just like any 30-round magazine for the purpose of quick reloading, so that he could unleash 200 metal candies at anything. The accuracy is good enough that it could function as a marksman rifle, and Freed was confident that he could put a hole in the head of some fucker at over 1000m in less than 5 seconds.
It was a product of the organization that he had been working for, and they had a whole lot more fun stuff that Freed had yet to get his hands on.
A normal assault rifle wouldn't trouble any Vatican special murder force, but this gun here could kill them just fine unless they belonged to the most powerful department. Freed didn't recall the name but he knew those guys could catch bullets like some kids throwing balls at them. Still against this underage bitch this metal pewpew was enough.
Normally mages would need to use magecraft on their eyes to see in the dark but Freed's eyes were genetically modified to do it without any spell. He could see that Lancer's master was smart enough to take cover behind a tree. But the gun in his hand had no problem penetrating through thick wood.
'Oh I can't wait to see his expression when he realizes that cover means nothing.'
But Freed held back, there's no fun if he just headshot this bitch right here. No no no, there was more fun waiting for them in the forest.
At the distance flash of light and sound of explosion could be heard, it looked like Lancer and Berserker were in a stalemate. However that would just be a matter of time before Berserker burned Lancer to dust just like how he killed Saber. Those bitches were nothing before the might of Berserker.
Lancer's master then threw a rock which resulted in an explosion.
'Ah that brat finds out I plant mines everywhere.'
Originally Freed planned to have Lancer's master run around in this forest to trigger the mines so that he would lose an arm or a leg, which would be hilarious to watch. Yet he somehow discovered that.
Lancer's master threw a few more rocks to clear out the mines and move from tree to tree. It didn't seem like he had discovered where Freed was.
'This is no fun.' Freed decided, he squeezed the trigger and shot a bullet at the tree where Lancer's master was hiding. Doing so would reveal his location, but what could this kid do to him? His only tool was the weird Twice Critical, but it was only useful when his whore of a servant was with him.
He could see Lancer's master became panic as he tried to make himself as small as possible behind one of the trees, but against this assault rifle and Freed's eyes it was useless.
Freed could barely contain his smirk when he was making up a plan to dick around, but then a blur hit him right in the stomach. Freed was thrown into the air and flung away from his original location at over 100m. Thanks to his years of combat experience he was fast enough to use the gun to block the attack, yet not only the gun was destroyed but half of his ribs was also broken. The rough landing didn't help, and he knew had it not been for the protection spell he would lose his limbs too.
"180 seconds Boost, motherfucker." Those serpent-like green eyes sneered at Freed.
Now he could recognize that the blur was in fact Lancer's master. The brat had his Sacred Gear out, and he was about to finish Freed off.
Yet he was too late.
"Return here Berserker!" Freed ordered through the blood in his mouth.
Freed had to thank that stupid fucker for being a sheltered kid, otherwise he wouldn't miss the first strike and let his opponent a few seconds unharmed like that. Berserker teleported right in front of Lancer's master due to the command spell, and he definitely knew who to cut in half.
Lancer's master instantly tried to run away, but in his frightened state he tripped over some rocks. Berserker didn't miss that chance. The servant growled, and with one thrust he pierced through the chest of his fallen prey like a hot knife through butter.
"Serve you right fucker!" Laughed Freed madly.
1. Servant: Lancer
True name: Arthur Pendragon
Master: Issei Hyodo
Strength: B
Endurance: A
Agility: A
Mana: A
Luck: B
NP: Rhongomyniad-The Lance that shines to the End of the World
2. Servant: Saber (dead)
True name: ?
Master: Akeno Himejima
Strength: B
Endurance: B
Agility: B
Mana: C
Luck: C
NP: ?
3a. Servant: Berserker (dead)
True name: ?
Master: Freed
Strength: B
Endurance: B
Agility: C
Mana: D
Luck: C
NP: Spinning Axe (?)
3b. Servant: Berserker
True Name: Siegfried
Master: Freed
Strength: A
Endurance: A
Agility: A
Mana: C
Luck: E
NP: Balmung-Phantasmal Greatsword, Felling of the Sky Demon
Armor of Fafnir-Blood Armor of the Evil Dragon
4. Servant: Assassin
True name: ?
Master: Reynare
Strength: B
Endurance: B
Agility: A
Mana: A
Luck: D
NP: Iron Maiden (?)
5. Servant: Rider (dead)
True name: Saint George
Master: Asia Argento
Strength: D
Endurance: A
Agility: C
Mana: C
Luck: A
NP: Ascalon-The Blessed sword by which Force is slain
Bayard-The Phantom War Horse
6. Servant: Caster (dead)
True name: Tamamo-no-mae
Master: Black Nekomata
Strength: ?
Endurance: ?
Agility: ?
Mana: ?
Luck: ?
NP: Killing Stone-Curse of the Unfulfilled Wish
7. Servant: Archer
True Name: ?
Master: Tobio Ikuse
Strength: C
Endurance: C
Agility: B
Mana: B
Luck: B
NP: Long Bow (?)
No Face May King-Green Hunter
AN: Thank you for your support.
EDIT: Sorry I forgot to include the bet in Freed's section so I have to update the chapter.