Next Arrival
Rin arrived as the battle was drawing to a close. The rebels had won the day and the army from the city was routing and escaping.
Now she just had to find Shirou again. That shouldn't be too hard, all she had to do at first was to wait for the army to cool down and then follow her sense for where Shirou was.
She had ordered her demons to dematerialise after they had all reunited with her. She didn't want to cause a panic by bringing demons into a war camp.
The evening was going to come in a few hours and she wanted to meet up with Shirou before then. Rin waited until there was no longer any yelling going on and the soldiers were all coming together at the base of a hill.
When she checked her sense, there was a strange result. It said he was quite some distance from the camp. She turned her head slightly to face the direction he was apparently in and set off. Hopefully she would meet up with him as he was walking back so he could introduce her to the army.
That ended up her standing atop a hill and looking around, she had realised that he was actually moving away from the camp in the opposite direction of the city that was the army's target.
She would just have to ask him in person. She set off down the hill in his direction.
When she started getting close she slowed down. Shirou hadn't moved in a while so he might be waiting for something. Rin was now standing in a small forest. Even refering to it as a forest was a bit too much, it was just a few dozen trees that sat atop a hill.
As she climbed the hill she began to hear voices. Two women were talking to each other somewhere higher up.
"Does she really think he's worth that much?" A cold voice that sounded annoyed was the first that was close enough for understand. When she heard it, Rin stopped and dropped low to listen for more.
The second voice was ragged, an old voice that had been used for an entire life "Of course! Did you not hear her? The moment our lady saw his face she made her wishes clear."
The first voice sighed "I wish we could have just kept going here. We haven't even opened any shadowlands unlike Winters's circle."
"Our lady believes another knight is worth more to her than an opening on the isle that anyone can use. Do you disagree with her?" The second voice seemed tired somehow as if they had been having this arguement for a while.
The first voice growled "I get it, she wants something for herself rather than to make an opening that someone else will take. She doesn't have many knights and I get it but it is still frustrating." After a moment the woman cursed again "What are we doing? We've had this argument already, I didn't think you would bring it up again Dust."
The second voice, Dust, laughed at that and it sounded like her throat was full of the dust in her name "Don't mind me, just catching us some food."
Rin froze as the first voice asked "What? Is someone nearby?"
"Of course there is," Dust answered as Rin turned quickly "They are a little bit down the hill, I started the argument to lure them close. Chain, Hunt!"
There was what sounded like an explosion behind her as rin quickly shifted into a bird from the south and flew up.
Behind her she heard the woman shouting "It's a Lunar!"
A man appeared next to her, standing in mid-air over twenty meters up and he slashed at her. Rin squawked in alarm and dived, dodging out of the way of the scythe he swung down.
Suddenly an arrow shot up and pierced her wing. Rin began to fall before shifting twice in quick succession, first into the flaming form of a Gilmyne demon and then into her form as a snow owl. The arrow fell out during the first transformation and due to the heat it made, the second was able to rise quickly on a thermal current. She sighed as she soured higher. It felt like she had shifted a few more times than she had so she suspected that they were using soulsteel weapons.
Considering the boat from before that left only one real possibility. They were Abyssal Exalted and they had captured Shirou. If it was him they were talking about earlier then it seemed their boss wanted him brought back to them.
She had to stop them somehow. But how?
She was a Lunar, her mentor had told her that she was of the celestial exalted. The Abyssals were formed from the shards of Solars which were on a different tier entirely. Normally she wouldn't worry about this but they were able to subdue Shirou, they were clearly well trained.
She would have to find a way, maybe she could recruit some people from the army to help?
With that thought in her head she tilted her avian body and began to fly towards the army.
End of chapter
Not too many chapters left till I put this story on pause/the arc ends. I already have quite a few other story ideas I want to try out in this time in future weeks so that will be fun.
