The Return of the Neterou
Silence reigned for a few moments, but in this situation, it seemed an eternity. Scared and furious, Hakuno looked at Archer, Ausblach, and Tamamo. Tamamo worried her more and more. Caster could not speak and could hardly breathe, kneeling on the sand, shaking both hands on the arrow that had passed through her belly... the wound must have been painful, and the blood continued to flow. Among the many insights that the Moon Cell had found it useful to provide to the Seraph NPC was a rudimentary knowledge of first aid. So she knew that bleeding could kill you in minutes. Hakuno had to help Tamamo very quickly... or nothing could be done.
With her hands clenched in a gesture of unconscious supplication, Hakuno Kishinami turned to the Werewolfs. The neo-Nazis looked at the scene with the arrogance of those who have weapons and know how to use them when they are faced with unarmed and terrified people. There was nothing to expect from them, these bullies were just waiting for an order to kill them all.
Jeanne d'Arc spoke. The Servant stood calmly in the front ranks of the prisoners. Her banner was slamming in the wind, sowing small flakes of light:
"What is your intention, Master of Archer?"
The baron von Ausblach made a careless gesture:
"Well, finish Caster, kill her Master and the witnesses, take the tablet of the gods and leave to continue the Holy Grail War and win it. What else?"
An expression of annoyance appeared briefly on Ruler's face. Suddenly, with the heel of her banner, she broke a rock in two:
"I would protect the innocent! Let the witnesses go, they are not concerned by the Grail War."
Ausblach was hardly impressed:
"I see. I suppose I am obliged to indulge you, mademoiselle... because knowing your legend, you will defend them with arms in hand."
Jeanne did not answer, but her resolute attitude left no doubt about what she would do, if any. The disfigured baron had a small unpleasant laugh:
"So, to make you happy, I agree to leave alive the spectators of my victory... after all, have they not just seen the greatest demonstration of talent of a Master that they will never see? Let them peddle it and make the world happy with the story of my victory and my generosity to the inferior beings."
Although they have just been insulted by being treated as "inferior beings," a whisper of relief roamed the survivors of the Superstition Mountains combats. Only Tomoko Tohsaka gnashed her teeth, but Petrie-Smith leaned over her to whisper something in her ear. She painfully calmed down...
Ruler nodded slowly:
"I thank you for this. Nevertheless, I must also forbid you to take the tablet that Ubbo-Sathla kept."
The eyes of Ausblach, the only visible part of his face behind his bandages, shrunk. He was furious and his vibrating voice also showed it:
"And what right do you have to deny me my loot? I was already hoping to take all the tablets, but you are denying me the only one that is within my reach."
Always calm, the French saint acquiesced:
'I was invoked by the Moon Cell for maintaining the human history and preserving the secrets of the Age of Gods. This tablet violates this second imperative."
The atmosphere seemed to cool down. Hakuno had guessed that Ausblach had waited for the defeat of Ubbo-Sathla to intervene because he could seize the tablets of the gods before the creation of the world. What he had just said confirmed this. Doubtless, that defeating Caster was only a secondary objective, some sort of icing on the cake.
Baron von Auslbach spoke again in a cool tone. At his side, Archer raised his bow.
" You want to deprive me of my loot, the fruit of my victory?"
"If need be," replied the saint, hardly moved by the threat.
Jeanne d'Arc was now surrounded by an aura of white light and seemed ready to fight. Nevertheless, Ausblach had regained his composure and had a small laugh. In a gesture, he showed the Werewolves who always surrounded the prisoners:
"I am aware that a Ruler-class Servant can use command seals on other Servants of the Grail War. Nevertheless, I still have the advantage... you care about the innocent... don't you? I doubt these poor examples of humanity will survive if I order the Werewolfs to shoot. Even a Servant can't be fast enough to stop the bullets from dozens of assault rifles firing simultaneously."
Jeanne d'Arc was now furious but hesitated.
A voice then rose... or rather a croaking of pain:
"Jeanne... "
The eyes turned to Tamamo no Mae who was trying to get up, holding the tablet whos was the source of the current animosity, the other hand pressed on her bloody belly.
Forgetting the situation, Hakuno wanted to rush towards her, but a neo-Nazi intercepted the teen master, violently hitting her on the ground. Immediately the pain was replaced by the anger on the face of the Kitsune, she groaned, and a trickle of blood ran down her chin.
On the ground, Hakuno began to cry:
"Tamamo, no, don't move, you aggravate your wounds."
The situation must have been really tense because Caster neglected the order of her beloved Master. She turned again to Jeanne, who looked at her with a confused mixture of feelings.
"Ruler, you owe my Master a debt," painfully explained Tamamo. "We helped you protect the people of the region and fulfill your duty. It had nothing to do with the Grail War. We had no reason to get involved. Am I right?"
The French saint was too honest to deny the evidence and she simply acquiesced. But on her beautiful face, a touch of mistrust appeared... she suspected what Caster was going to ask for.
"In that case, trade the tablet for my life and that of my Master."
Ruler shook his head... there were things more important than her sense of honor or even the lives of those present. The tablet was too dangerous. In the wrong hands, it was a tool that could trigger the end of the world.
"Jeanne..." Tamamo stopped to cough, spitting blood. "Jeanne, trust me."
Tamamo's gaze was for once very serious. We read a plea but also... yes... Jeanne trembled. Caster seemed to want to tell her something. The tablet... Caster asked to believe in her when she asked to give up the tablet to Archer's Master. As if... the tablet would be useless to them?
A multitude of emotions passed through Ruler's eyes, but she had made her decision. She turned to Ausblach who had looked at the scene with interest.
"I exchange the lives of the innocent people not concerned by the Grail War, as well as that of Caster and her Master for the tablet of the gods before the world began. Does this agreement agree with you?"
The German baron burst out laughing:
"The life of this pitiful Master and his insignificant Servant against the secrets of the gods? Who would hesitate? I accept of course."
Ruler nod to this:
"Then we have a deal."
As Archer took the blood-soaked tablet from Tamamo's fingers, he spoke for the first time:
"To revive the Neterou era!"
This term meant nothing to Hakuno, probably an ancient Egyptian word. However, it must have been an important clue.
Ausblach had just boarded the chariot of the king of Egypt. He finally turned to Hakuno whom he had not looked at once during the discussion with Ruler:
"Well, I look forward to seeing Miss Kishinami again... and to undoing you again, if your Servant survives her wounds, which is far from certain."
He burst out with a mocking laugh, waving to his Servant that they could leave. The Werewolfs, who had climbed back into their vehicles, followed the war chariot, raising large clouds of sand in the American desert.
Cyberspace was a virtual space created by a series of supercomputers, copying the technology implemented by Moon Cell to create the Seraph. Virtual forums of associations, online games site, banks, and administrations had all their extensions in the Reality Marbles created by the photonic crystal computers managing this strange universe.
The gigantic labyrinth consisted mainly of sort of corridors and rooms with translucent walls, floors, and ceilings. Outside these passageways, voyageur of the cyber universe could only see an ocean of binary numbers where traveled strange objects of various shapes that were in fact the materialization of data packet exchanges between computers.
In a bag-end corridor, a whirlpool of violet computer particles and photonic crystals gave birth to three silhouettes.
Supported by Jeanne d'Arc, Tamamo no Mae was barely conscious. Caster had to be taken as quickly as possible to the base of archaeologists... hoping that she would survive until then because the only hope of saving the Servant was to bring her into cyberspace. Fortunately, with the destruction of the Bounded Field raised by the Mighty Ones, the archeologists' means of communication were working again.
Hakuno Kishinami wore back the brown uniform of the Tsukumihara academy, closed around the neck by a blue ribbon. Her avatar in cyberspace was actually the one she used in the Seraph's grail War. Seeing the glassy eyes of her Servant and her livid complexion, she held back tears. This did not prevent her from taking a small device out of one of his pockets. The Portable Terminal was both a communication device, a sort of G.P.S., and... an inventory. The stored objects were accessible by a simple menu. Hakuno only needs to select the desired object from this menu and...
In the hand of the Victor of the Moon appeared a large crystal. A Pure Ether, a mysterious crystalline substance that completely restores a Servant's HP.
Hakuno focused on Tamamo while squeezing the crystal and the object was diluted into data particles that surrounded the wounded Servant. In an instant, it was a miracle. The wounds disappeared as if they had never existed, even the clothes were repaired. Life returns to Casko's gaze... and with life, her habitual behavior. Escaping Ruler, she threw herself on her Master to hug her effusively:
"Nyaaa, Goshujin-sama! Thank you a lot, your humble bride is fully healed!"
A little embarrassed, Kishinami smiled... as for Jeanne, she turned away her eyes, the cheeks as red as an apple. But after a few minutes, as Caster continued to purr, curled up against her Master... without thinking about the situation, Ruler gathered her courage and faced the outrageous duo:
"Tamamo, why did you want me to leave them the tablet of the gods?! You must be well aware of the danger it represents?"
Without ceasing to purr, the Kitsune opened an eye to look at the saint:
"Jeanne, the survival of my Master was at stake. It was the only leverage we had."
Hakuno's reaction was hardly enthusiastic:
"But we left him a very dangerous object, I feel responsible. To save me, you may have put the world in danger."
Ruler nodded strongly, supporting the teen girl.
Tamamo was not particularly impressed by the vehemence of her "husband":
"Master, when you take a long journey, you climb one hill after another and you don't worry about the next one before descending from the one you have climbed. If I hadn't traded our lives for the tablet, we wouldn't have the opportunity to worry about anything else afterward."
Hakuno Kishinami looked thoughtful for a moment and then approved vigorously. After all, despite their defeat, they were alive. So they could still fix things.
Nevertheless, Jeanne d'Arc seemed particularly stubborn today:
"But this does not prevent Baron von Ausblach to have one of the tablets of the gods. The knowledge they contain..."
"He can't do anything with it." Cut off Casko.
As Jeanne stared at her with surprise, the Kitsune spread her arms with a smile:
"When I held the tablet in my hands, I felt my divine part answer... but very faintly. The Heroic Spirits invoked by the Moon Cell Automaton are stripped of most of their divine heritage. The Servants participating in the Grail Wars are... " She had a grin that was both mocking and painful "... series-built versions of the Heroes of the past. As such, their capabilities are degraded. Whoever Archer is, even if he has a divine legacy, he won't be able to use the tablet. After all, I was forced to sacrifice all but one of my tails to become the Servant of my beloved Master."
As she turned to her Master again, obviously in search of a reward, Hakuno smiled and reached out to caress Tamamo between the two ears. The Kitsune closes her eyes of contentment and restarts to purr to her heart's content.
Ruler sighed. Tamamo no Mae was... a monster. She was fiercely selfish and didn't care what could happen to the rest of the world as long as she didn't suffer from it. However, when Jeanne saw her like this, she was unable to resent Caster. Did Hakuno Kishinami realize that she could ask her Servant to destroy this world and that Tamamo would only ask in exchange to be fondled between the ears?! It would have been scary if Hakuno were not so innocent and so kind. The meeting of these two was one of the greatest miracles.
"But the baron must have known that only a god can use the tablet. So he has a plan and..." the saint paused for a moment as evidence struck her. "He wants to use the wish of the victor of the Grail War to..." She frowned without finishing because she did not really know what Ausblach was looking for.
But Tamamo agreed:
"And my husband will defeat him. Once again, she will remain the last Master."
Caster had just said this as if it was really obvious and Ruler shook her head, puzzled by her assurance:
"He beat you, how can you be so sure to win next time you meet?"
The remark did not detract from Kitsune's enthusiasm:
"Each time we lost the first fight against an opposing Servant during the Moon Cell Grail War... But we ended up triumphing over all our opponents."
Ruler turned to Hakuno with a somewhat panicked expression, but the Master merely nodded to confirmed it.
" Code Cast: hack"
Hakuno had just reached out to the wall. For a Spiritron Hacker, the entire Cyberspace was just a playground. The wireframe structure of the corridor seemed to fluctuate and screens appeared on the surface of the translucent wall.
The serious face, the Victor of the Moon concentrated. Images appeared... horse-drawn chariots... they were bas-reliefs drawn from inscriptions in Egyptian temples or tombs. Hakuno was looking for a war-chariot similar to Archer's. At the same time, she went through archaeological journals, theories on the history of the war chariots.
The first of these war machines had appeared in the hands of the Hurrians, de jure enemy of the Sumerians. The latter had then copied it. This technology had then spread during the Bronze Age, arriving in Egypt around - 1660, at the time of the invasion of the Hyksos. When the Hyksos were driven out, the pharaoh Ahmose (1552-1527) founded the 18th dynasty this was the beginning of the period know as the New Kingdom.
The Egyptian war chariot was probably used from that time until the last true Egyptian dynasty, the 25th one, and the conquest of the Nile valley by the king of the Persian Cambyses. Nevertheless, this war machine continued to be depicted on the wall of temples built up to the Ptolemaic era.
Archer could be any pharaoh - with the exception of Hatshepsut who was a woman- between the 18th and 25th dynasty... i.e. for nearly a thousand years!
Hakuno began to think. Had she noticed anything else important in Archer's clothing and armament?
A few steps behind, Tamamo turned to Jeanne, she sounds needy and possessive:
"Hakuno is a genius tactician. My sooooooo cute Master keeps the slightest detail and then researches to discover the secret identity of the Servant she faces. It is as if her adversaries taught her all she needs to beat them."
Hands on cheeks, the kitsune covered her "husband" with kind eyes:
"Look, look... she's so cute when she's so focused."
But Ruler shook her head, she had just removed her headband to rub her temples... Caster's excessive enthusiasm gave her a headache.
Unconscious of Tamamo's antic, Hakuno focused on her memories of the encounter with Baron Ausblach. Ah yes... Archer wore a conical blue helmet as high as a tiara with a cobra head on his forehead. Once again, she searched for images on different historical sites devoted to ancient Egypt. The iconography was incredibly rich and she recognized this helmet on several wall frescoes, some of which showed the pharaoh on a war chariot.
This confirmed that both had been used simultaneously and therefore that she had not ventured on a wild goose chase.
The oldest representation of the helmet showed it worn by Ramses II (also known as Ozymandias) at the Battle of Kadesh, but its use seemed to have remained until Pharaoh Psamtik III, the last pharaoh of an Egyptian dynasty, deposed by Cambyses.
This covered a period from - 1290 to - 525... More than seven centuries and 56 pharaohs (1)!
As for the term "Neterou" ("Neter", in the singular), it meant... "gods" in the Egyptian language.
Kishinami frowned.
So, Archer wanted to restore the Age of the Gods! No wonder the Moon Cell Automaton sends a Ruler-Class Servant. Such a wish would put an end to the Human Order...
Ruler seemed worried when Hakuno summed up the results of her research. She shook her head, appalled:
"Restore the era of the gods? Are you sure?"
Hakuno nodded strongly:
"That's what Archer said: 'Restore the Neterou era'. The Egyptian gods..."
Jeanne always seemed to have doubts, but the Master insisted:
"That's what he said when he took the tablet of the gods from Tamamo's hands."
Caster understood that Ruler still doubted:
"Jeanne, if my Master was so clever that she had planned in advance the attack of an Egyptian servant and invented all this, don't you think that she wouldn't have started by telling me? You have just spent several days in our company, you must have understood that my husband is too honest to lie, too kind to let me be hurt... and especially too naive for such manipulation."
But Jeanne d'Arc still did not seem determined to believe them and Caster allowed a little anger to pass:
"You can't doubt any longer! You said it yourself your duty is to maintain the human history and preserving the secrets of the Age of Gods. And the tablet of Ubbo-Sathla endangers both! If Archer is the victorious Servant of this war, he will use his wish to bring back the Egyptian gods and give them the tablet. Can you imagine the disaster? So tell us who Archer is?"
One of the gifts given to the Rulers by the Grail is the class skill True Name Discernment. During a direct encounter, a Servant's true name and entire status information will be automatically revealed to Jeanne d'Arc.
After a last hesitation, the saint ended up speaking:
"Ramses III"
Far less known than Ozymandias, Ramses III had been a great pharaoh... in fact, the last pharaoh of the New Empire to have had an important role. His successors will experience a long decline. Subsequently, Assyrians, Persians, and then Macedonians will dominate the kingdom of the Nile, before the Romans end its history.
As Hakuno read the story of Ramses III, she understood why the Servant Archer desired the return of the Age of the Gods. Even as he had the ambitions of a great king, Ramses III was crowned in the midst of the surrounding political chaos of the Late Bronze Age collapse. The Paleo-climatologists explain that the Middle East experienced at this time a phase of acceleration of the desertification begun at prehistory. Outside Egypt, the Hittites, Nineveh, and Babylon collapsed. The people driven away by the disaster that ravaged the regions set out for the Nile and Egypt was beset by foreign invaders. Domestically, Egypt experienced increasing economic difficulties and internal strife which would eventually lead to the collapse of the Twentieth Dynasty.
The heavy cost of these battles slowly exhausted Egypt's treasury and contributed to the gradual decline of the Egyptian Empire.
But these difficult realities are completely ignored in Ramses' official monuments, many of which seek to emulate those of his famous predecessor, Ramses II, and which present an image of continuity and stability. Despite economic difficulties, Ramses III marked his faith in the gods of Egypt in building important additions to the temples at Luxor and Karnak, and his funerary temple and administrative complex at Medinet-Habu is among the largest and best-preserved in Egypt; however, the uncertainty of Ramesses' times is apparent from the massive fortifications which were built to enclose the latter. No temple in the heart of Egypt prior to Ramesses' reign had ever needed to be protected in such a manner.
But the end of Ramsses III life was not peaceful. It was the consequence of a plot against his life, a result of a royal harem conspiracy during a celebration at Medinet Habu. The conspiracy was instigated by one of his wives over whose son would inherit the throne.
The conspirators used sorcery to end the days of the old pharaoh, but this maneuver failed. The plotters were captured, tried, and were robbed and their names erased to prevent them from enjoying an afterlife.
The plot failed, but Ramses III was still assassinated, having his throat cut by an axe under unclear circumstances.
Hakuno nodded slowly. Like all Servants, Archer had received the necessary knowledge to know the current world from the Moon Cell. And what did he find out? A world plagued by an ecological disaster and a collapse of civilization identical to the one it had experienced during its lifetime.
Worse ancient Egypt had disappeared and the temples of the gods were abandoned.
No wonder such a believing man wants to save the world by using his wish to return their ancient power to the idols abandoned in the desert sand. But it was also a selfish desire which counted for nothing the desires of the people now living on Earth.
While the Master reading the biographies of the pharaoh available in cyberspace, Tamamo and Jeanne had discussed at length Archer's characteristics and skills. But as the Victor of the Moon approached to join the conversation, the voice of Professor Petrie-Smith rose from her Portable Terminal:
"Hakuno, can you hear me?"
"Yes, Professor, I hear you..."
There was a pose, and then the voice of the old man sounded a little less anxious:
"Ah, it seems incredible to me that your mind is in the cyberworld while your unconscious body rests on the sofa... " He changed the subject: "Do you know a man named Sezuku Minamoto?"
Of course, she remembered him...
"Yes, I know him; he's Tomoko's ex-husband. He's a police officer."
"He came and not alone, he wants to talk to you."
Hakuno almost asked the old archaeologist to repeat. Inspector Minamoto belonged to the Tokyo police what was he doing here? And especially who were those who accompanied him?
As she asked the question, Llewelyn Petrie-Smith answered quickly:
"Army helicopters landed with journalists and scientists. Apparently, the Bounded Field raised by the Mighty Ones was visible from space. And since the region was cut off from everything for three days and four nights, this has raised many questions. That's all we talk about on every TV channel."
Quite uncomfortable, Hakuno was sitting on an iron chair in a plastic bungalow that had been dropped off a few hours earlier by a helicopter. Through a small window, she could see the comings and goings of military trucks bringing more and more soldiers into the Superstitions Mountains.
[Calm down, Goshujin-sama, your devoted wife is near you. I will not let anyone examine you as a strange animal. ]
As soon as they returned to the real world, the Kistsune had taken her astral form to remain near, invisible. Knowing that Tamamo was close to her was indeed a great comfort to Hakuno. Nevertheless, the Victor of the Moon startled when hearing the door open.
Two men entered, greeted by the guard at the gate.
The first was a man in his forties who she did not know. He wore a desert camouflaged fatigue and a gun to his belt. Given the insignia on his chest and shoulder pads, he must have been an officer. The second...
"Detective Minamoto! Why are you here?"
The policeman had the chin covered by a five o'clock shadow and feverish eyes. He smiled as the teenager stood up and raised his hands with an amusing gesture of defense:
"A lot has happened Hakuno-chan... Where to start? It's all because of what happened here and in the Badlands..."
Hakuno made a head tilt:
"The Badlands?"
The army officer forgot to breathe for a moment. More accustomed to this tic of the young Japanese, Sezuku Minamoto forgot what he wanted to say anyway:
"Uh... oh, yeah, why am I here? Well, I didn't have a choice... I couldn't stay in Japan anymore. Not after Kimata took power in a coup."
Hakuno blinked:
"Because of what happened here and in the Badlands? But what is the Badlands?"
The officer coughed in his fist and stretched out his arm so Hakuno can shake his hand:
"I'm Colonel Cooper of the US Army. Just after the Kimata coup, two Servants clashed in an area called Badland, bordering South Dakota and Nebraska. Apparently, the French corporation CFRT was conducting secrets researches in these states. They had pierced a very deep tunnel and brought something back... but we don't know what. Because an unknown Servant arrived and attempted to destroy everything, another Servant intervened to stop him. Miss Kishinami, we need your help. Our weapons are useless..."
Amazed to hear of the Grail War as a known fact, Hakuno turned to Minamoto. The detective shrugged his shoulders:
"I explained everything to my superiors... I'm talking about my superiors in the resistance, including Colonel Cooper. But anyway, we can't hide what's going on. Not when an army of the undead is raised by one Servant to fight another... Humanity woke up yesterday morning with images of the Badlands fighting filmed by mobile phones and broadcast throughout the cyberworld."
Author's Note: Difficult episode for Ruler... do you think she's gonna have a nervous breakdown? As you probably understood, we are leaving the Superstitions Mountains. In the next episode, we will discover... the Badlands. New events, a new playground, and a new Servant...
(1) Excluding usurpers, not counted in the official lists.