I had wanted to keep questioning Caster about everything he knew, but after I got my answer as to how he knew all the languages I knew, I bid him a good night and left him to his own devices. For one, I was already disappointed that I didn't get all that stuff we just talked about on record; it meant I would have to type it out myself at some point, if I ever remembered to do so. Reason number two was that, simply put, I was exhausted. The adrenalin from having summoned him had long since left me, and I was running on empty; even I couldn't go forever without some sleep.

By the time I did manage to get myself home, plug in my camera and phone, and crash out on my bed it was already a bit after five in the morning. Considering just how tired I was, my usual two hours per day probably wasn't going to be enough to get me through the next day, so I set my phone's alarm for eight, giving myself an extra hour of sleep. Thankfully, that did seem to be the correct call, and when my alarm triggered at eight, I grabbed my camera and plugged it into my computer.

"Time to get to work" I yawned, stretching a bit as my computer booted up. First things first: check the footage quality. I hope it's visually salvageable, but even if I can only really keep the audio… yeah, that'd be good enough for now."

I combed slowly through the video footage I'd managed to capture. There was a lot of it, most of it boring and ultimately not worth keeping. Bit blurry too; I had forgotten to optimize its settings for nighttime recording. Was kicking myself for that blunder all morning… Beyond that, while the footage from when the camera was hanging from the branch was relatively stable (thank god for there being no wind last night), the footage got really shaky when I was doing my final walk around the summoning circle before it activated.

"Damn, that's really bad" I laughed a little, playing back that bit again. "Absolutely mucked; that's getting cut as audio only! And this next bit here!"

When the summoning circle did activate, the footage just… well, died, effectively. Just a full screen of white light.

"Ok, yeah, so from when I grabbed the camera till the end of the lightshow, just keep the audio" I made the mental note as I skipped ahead. "After that… not really anything of noteworthiness to keep, visually. Though, I suppose having some footage of the blueish haze in the file wouldn't be a bad idea; might give the circle working some more credibility, if they can see a before and after change in the scenery…"

Yes, ultimately, that's what this was about now: preparing a gigantic file of everything I can record of the Holy Grail War. The idea had come to me as I fell asleep last night. Er, well… this morning, I should say.

How do I survive this thing?

See, knowing that this was a game came in handy; it meant I understood the difference between primary and secondary objectives, and how they both fit into the bigger picture. The way to win the Holy Grail War was to be the last one standing and have your wish granted, no? Thus, as killing the other six servants was required to power the grail up first, working off the assumption that Heaven's Feel worked as an add-on to this ritual by ways of killing the seventh servant and not its own process in its entirety, the elimination of the other servants was the primary objective.

Now, as any good player knows, a game can be won by purely focusing on the primary objective, technically speaking. Objectively speaking. But! But… by working on doing whatever one needs to do to the secondary objectives, dealing with the primary objectives becomes easier; significantly more so. Now, as Caster so helpfully pointed out, Heroic Spirits, or servants, are anchored with assistance by the grail itself, but the majority of said work was done by the master. So, it stands to reason that by eliminating the master of a servant, you also eliminate said servant. That, or significantly weaken it for the duration of the war.

Masters are the secondary objectives…

I was no mage. I, quite frankly, didn't belong in this, realistically speaking. I was the outsider. The interloper. That should inherently put a big target on my back. Caster as well, presuming that what I know about him from his legends holds true (I really do need to figure out the exact nuances of these Heroic Spirit things too… ideally today at some point. Should make a mental not of that as well…) wasn't going to be much good in a fight. Now, I loved Caster in his stories and stuff, but I don't ever recall him doing much, if any, fighting. I think at most he assassinates King Minos in a bathtub, but that's not even in every version of his myth; other versions have the three daughters of that king who was sheltering Daedalus kill Minos instead. …Another thing to ask Caster about, now that I thought about it: how do conflicting versions of their stories affect a Heroic Spirit…? But that was besides the point here!

Point was, I needed a way to either a) fight back, b) hide, or c) shield myself from danger. Fighting back against magic… that was basically just a death wish. I couldn't do magic of my own, and hell if I knew how to use a gun; I was Canadian, not American! Hiding also seemed like an unrealistic approach. Now, I was good at shadowing people, both online and offline. Were skills I had developed back in high school; took great pride in them. But against magic… how would I get that to work? Surely a mage would know a spell to detect life forms in an area, or have something else to that effect, right? It's a really common ability in most games, at least.

That left only one option: shield myself from danger. Question was how though? Again, I was not a mage. Maybe Caster could forge me some armor or something; knowing him, it should be of good quality… Ideally, I'd rather just not get attacked at all though, rather than rely on some armor to hold firm and save my life. And what just so happened to now be my greatest source of power?

My knowledge; specifically, that concerning the world of magic.

Humanity, by and large, apparently didn't know magic existed. There had to be a reason for that. Natural assumption being that those who did know about magic, mages …and maybe the Catholic Church as well, were doing their best to keep it a secret. I now had the ability to leak knowledge about that aspect of the world to the rest of humanity with my recordings. Thus, my recordings were my shield: mutually assured destruction. Keep recording, dump it all in a file, send it to the cloud on a timer to drop onto all the forums and servers I'm active in on the web and dark web alike, and hope that, should I run into a mage (and I likely would, considering I wanted to talk to them myself), they valued me being alive to reset the timer and prevent the file from going out more than the benefit of killing me as an opposing master.

It wasn't perfect by any means, of course. My assumption could be wrong; they could simply not care and just kill me regardless. Maybe they don't respect mutually assured destruction, or don't trust I'm only using the file as a shield and fear I'll drop it once the war is over regardless, which… yeah, I absolutely will if I'm still alive after all this. But it was the best I got, and something was better than nothing. Also, one doesn't have the right to complain or call bullshit on bad luck if they don't play optimally to eliminate as much variance as possible first. It was just a basic rule of playing games: minimize risks, maximize consistency.

"Excellent" I smiled, unplugging my camera from my computer when I had all that I wanted from it. "Now to get the bit from my phone, set up the file drop, and then… hmm… let's see what Caster has been up to today."

It always amazed me just how busy the roads got in America. Granted, they weren't all that much better back in Canada during rush time either, but still… American car culture was ridiculous. Looked like everyone driving was doing so in slow motion, and the car horns; as if honking a hundred times was magically going to get things moving faster! You'd think that America would look to other countries of a similar population size and realize that having a reliable public transportation network would be a massive boon. But no, the personal freedom owning a car gave you was treasured too highly. Americans…

In an attempt to a) stay away from the sounds of blaring car horns and b) just stay out of sight in general, I took the longer walking route to Glenwood Park that involved sticking to the quiet residential neighborhoods and walking trails between them, rather than walking down the main arteries of the city. Wasn't going to wait around only to get stuck on the bus for an hour or two in that traffic, that's for sure…

There was a bit of a chill this evening; unlike last night, the wind had decided to come out and play. I can't stand the cold in the slightest; number one reason I wanted out from Canada for basically my entire life. The blessed warmth and sun of California had been by goal, years ago. Sadly, I never made it; hello Virginia… What had the weather app said for tonight? 49 degrees Fahrenheit, if I'm remembering correctly? That was, what... 9 degrees Celsius, roughly? Damn the Americans on this too; switch over to proper units already!

"Too freaking cold" I shivered, jostling my backpack a bit. "I need that sweet, sweet 30 degrees Celsius…"

Sadly, Virginia never got even close to that, outside of maybe in the summer months of June, July and August for a few days. At least with all my electronic stuff crammed into my bedroom, and my personal heater, it stayed around 33 degrees Celsius basically all year round. So nice, so warm… a bit of a pain to try and prevent my stuff from overheating, on the rare occasion that issue did pop up. The thought of returning to my room and simply not going out tonight was compelling, not going to lie. After all, even from my room there was still so much beauty to witness. Though none of it would be magic…

As I weighed the pros and cons of such an action, I ended up nearly tripping over a block of concrete. Thankfully, I had managed to save myself from faceplanting into the gravel. Foot I kicked the block with throbbed like a bitch though. That's what happens when you walk about with your head in the clouds.

"Ow, ow, ow, damn it…" I hopped around on my good foot, trying to shake away the pain in the other. "Who the hell puts-"

It was only then, taking a good look at the ground, that I realized where I was walking.

"Oh, it's to designate a parking spot. So, this is a parking lot; explains the gravel."

Not even realizing I had strayed off the sidewalk and into a parking lot… I needed to start keeping my wits about me: losing track of where I am like that could very easily get me killed in the Holy Grail War I'd imagine, to say nothing of just in general.

"Oh, it's a church parking lot. Must be nice for the people living around here, having a church so close to home."

I was legitimately just going to continue on my way, but something nagging at me, way at the back of my mind, got me to hold up for a moment.

"Wait… this is a church parking lot."

Maybe a bit of a stretch, but if the Catholic Church was connected to the Fuyuki incident, and the Fuyuki incident was connected to this Heaven's Feel/Holy Grail War stuff, then could it not also be true that the Catholic Church is playing a role in this Holy Grail War too? Seemed like a reasonable assumption to me, at least. Taking a quick look around, I spotted a sign for the church by the main entrance to the parking lot. The glass casing had clearly seen better days, and it was only up close that I could finally read what it said.

"First Assembly of the Father. Pfft, where do they even come up with these names…"

Silly as I thought the name of the church was though, I did notice that there were a few cars in the parking lot. May have been rush hour and closing time for most business, but maybe the church was actually still open? I wouldn't know; never set foot in a church for all my time in America. Last time I did… would have been my trip to Rome. Well, for this case the Vatican City, back when I was still in middle school… Man, that brings back memories of better days… For all the shit I give the Catholic Church, I'll give them this: the Vatican is a one-of-a-kind beauty.

"Ok, no, stop getting distracted" I told myself, shaking my head vigorously. "Actually need to focus if I'm going to go poke around for magic related shit!"

Camera would probably be a no go inside the church, but maybe I could sneak a recording of inside the building on my phone. Just tuck it into the breast pocket again and… there. That should get good enough footage. Again, even if it was just good for audio, I'd take that as a win.

Opening the doors to the church and stepping inside, I admit, I was impressed by the building. I was always told that, if nothing else, just to see the beauty of the interior of churches made it worthwhile for me to go inside them. The Vatican had been very beautiful, it was true, but then compared to it, how could any of church compete? This church though… I wouldn't say it was close to the same magnitude of beauty as the Vatican, but it did have its own… charm; its own beauty.

I could see a couple of people sitting on the benches up close to the altar, presumably praying. Another fellow was sitting a bit further back, seemingly just lost in thought as he gazed at (I assumed) the wall mounting depicting Jesus nailed to the cross. Very quiet too; my footsteps on the aisle carpet were the loudest sound in the place. Won't lie, I didn't like that. Put me on edge; as if there was a spotlight on me.

Upon reaching the middle of the aisle I came to a halt, looking at the depiction of Jesus for a moment before starting to look around elsewhere. By all accounts, it seemed to be just like how I'd pictured a church to be in my head. Didn't see a priest around, which, ok, that was off from my imagination. But beyond that, nothing stood out to me. Maybe the place had a back or side office? My grandmother used to do volunteer at her local church in her retirement, doing administration work. That's what I needed to try and find; poke around in there if I can-

"I don't believe I've seen you in here before, child."

Upon being called child, I instinctively wanted to greet Caster. Thankfully I was focused, or I most likely would have let that slip out. Instead, I restrained myself and turned to face the speaker behind me.

A priest, judging by the attire. Older gent; mid to late 40s at a glance. Immaculate black hair. Brown eyes. Well built. By accent and skin tone… Mediterranean background. As to if he himself was born around there or in America remains unclear…

"Sorry" I put on a fake, bashful smile, scratching the back of my head. "I'm not a church member or anything. If I'm disturbing something I'll get out of your hair."

"Not a problem at all, sir" the priest laughed before returning my fake smile with a smile of his own. "All are welcome in the lord's house, member of the congregation or no. If you don't mind my asking, did you come in just to have a look around, or were you looking to start your own journey into accepting our lord into your life?"

"Oh, just to look around" I laughed slightly, doing my best not to vomit at the idea of doing such a thing. "I've been told by many that the interiors of churches are very beautiful and worth seeing. Having now stepped inside, I can see they were correct; it is a very beautiful place."

"I see… By all means, look as long as you like. At least until closing time at 6:30, that is. Though, if I could request that you please stand off to the side of the aisle, rather than in the middle."

"Oh, of course. My apologies."

"Out for a walk, I take it? I noticed you have a backpack on."

"I was, yes. Just around the neighborhood. Fairly new to the area; moved here from Canada."

"Ah, I was trying to place the accent" the priest nodded. "Nice place, Canada. Bit cold for my liking in the winter, but beyond that, a very nice place, the few time I've visited."

"Indeed; the cold was the main reason I had for moving away."

"Not built for the cold, are you? Didn't quite manage to tell earlier, but it seems like you have gloves on."

"Not at all" I laughed, showing off my gloved hands. "Even this is too cold for my liking, if I'm being honest. Bit ironic, I suppose, but despite being Canadian I prefer the sun to the snow."

"Surely the inside of the lord's house is warm enough for you to remove them."

"It is, yeah, but I don't plan on staying much longer. Want to finish my walk before the sun fully sets and it gets even colder, you know?"

"Completely understandable… Ah, my apologies, but I don't believe I got your name."

"Nathan."

"Nathan… A good name for you, if you don't mind me saying. As for myself, please, call me Father Gallo."

Gallo… no expert, but that does sound Italian. Suspicions… Did the Vatican send him here for the Holy Grail War, then? Too early to know for sure, but definitely need to keep him and this place in mind...

"A pleasure to meet you, Father Gallo."

"Likewise, Nathan. Though, if you'd please excuse me, I fear that I do still have some matters to attend to before we close for the day. I pray you have a pleasant evening, and to remember that you may return here anytime you wish."

"Thank you, Father. May you have a pleasant evening as well."

With a polite nod, Father Gallo left and walked along the right side of the church wall, opened one of the side doors, and disappeared beyond it. Hmm… That might be where the office for this place is. Not that I was going to follow him. No, for today, this was good enough.

"Ugh, I feel so dirty, playing civil with religious nutters" I shuddered once I was outside and back on the sidewalk. "Farther Gallo… I don't trust him; that conversation dragged on more than it really should have. Felt like he was fishing for something; trying to get me to remove my gloves… Definitely have to keep this place in mind, and remain vigilant around it. Seemed to buy the lies I weaved in there easily enough though; looks like I haven't lost my silver tongue from my high school days."