(4)
Professor Elongate unwrapped his turban and Wiped the cold sweat on his forehead as he readily received his trusty tool from his trusty assistant, they were stuck in this suffocating Babylonian desert for two weeks straight and the excavation was finally on it's last stage of completion.
As only a four man team, the prof had always had doubts about the this particular excavation mission, but even with all the impossible odds he still had to do this, to regain his honor as the Deferred archaeologist and even more importantly, to unravel the real truth behind this seemingly delusional world.
Professor Elongate is definitely not your average ordinary professor. Sure, he is Asian, considering the fact that most of the famous profs are white, that fact itself really stood out, but that wasn't all there was to his peculiarity, he was Mad, Mad in the sense of normal human beings.
He believes in fairy tales, myths and even in the existence of Mages. What he believed in was the truth, but if that truth isn't supported by the general consensus of one's social unit. That truth can never blend in. He isn't Mentally ill, knowing too much was definitely a sin, And that sin caused him to spiral down the path of failure.
It all started about three years ago in the month of July, back then he was a world renowned professor unlike the scotch gobbling life-failure he is today.
He had succeeded in many of what his colleagues had only dreamed of achieving. Proving the true identity of the legendary figure Arthur, uncovering the mystery of the shroud of Turin were just few among myriads of archaeological feats he had succeeded in accomplishing.
Even the aristocratic High-Magus of the Magi association didn't bother to hide their awe at the sheer talent of this particular individual.
Of course, Nobel Prize seemed not a feet away from his grasp. He himself was sure of that as he always set his retirement date to Post-Nobel prize. But that day three years ago at Swiss Geneva, the almost unthinkable happened.
Professor Elongate was eagerly sitting at his seat for the announcement to be made. He was pretty confident about this particular nomination since early that year he had successfully uncovered the remains of Babylonian lost garden from the depths of the Tigris river.
The discovery of the lost garden of Babylon was immediately hailed as the greatest archaeological discovery of mankind in the 21st century, the media hype was enormous and the greatest minds of the scientific field didn't hesitate from declaring Norton as the top ten greatest individual in the history of mankind.
The result of the nomination seemed obvious; no other discovery could match or top his. But that expectation was soon, utterly crushed.
He knew that some white Amateur archaeologist discovered the whereabouts of the Emperor Qin's tomb. That is a great achievement but even that couldn't possibly have any hope of winning against his grand discovery, but for some his discovery was discredited as a scam overnight the media claimed he had a mental issue. In one fell swoop was kicked out of the Academic circle.
However he was a strong individual and that little loophole in his successful career didn't allow his passion to wane He soon personally set out on other, more daring archaeological quest to further scrutinize Babylonian wonders, but as all who delve too deep in things come to experience, the truth isn't as pretty as it seems.
In the end of his Mind-Consuming career, the final conclusion he made of this world was so absurd, that even he, the most composed man he himself has ever seen in his life tumbled on his back when he finally came to that:
-There are Mages in this world and they live, breath, eat and sleep among us-
Of course realizing it is one thing but actually meeting one didn't turn out to be an easy task. It wasn't long before he was caught by the interpol and thrown into a mental hospital. But he didn't give up, he was desperate, so desperate that he didn't think twice about joining these kids on a quest to unearth the chamber of Gilgamesh.
"Assistant Saber, Brush please...and Assistant Shiro...uh... I suppose we didn't bring any knife have we?"
The prof was still thoroughly occupied with his duty. Seeing this as a chance, Shiro didn't think twice about tracing a single Swiss knife on his palm.
walking back in the heat wave to get back something as easy to trace as a Knife was something not to be repeated, as he painstakingly realized five days ago when he unintentionally found himself Fainting in the middle of the desert with an acute heat stroke, only to be saved by Saber who sensed Shirou's Diminishing presence in a moment's notice. ever since then, Shirou made it his agenda to be Better safe than sorry.
"Here you go Professor, I suppose we haven't reached the Gate haven't we?"
The Professor didn't care to roll his head behind and answered his assistant as he continued to gouge the debris off the wall with the knife Shirou gave him.
"I believe we are just a millimeter away from our destination. Beyond this wall of dry sand is an epitaph. The rest we have to do is demolish that final barrier. The problem is, this tunnel isn't made to fit any heavy tools you see. It might take hours just to make a hole big enough for an ant to crawl through, for people to cross we might have to take a day, maybe two."
"Oh...for the love of..."
Shirou was about to give up and lie down on the ground when Rin held him up and waved her Book on his eyes, it seems salvation was still not too far away.
"Well Well, What do we have here, an ancient acadian code written by King Gilgamesh himself."
After five more minutes of dull sound of knife scratching the surface and brush weaving through the debris on the wall. The professor finally stopped and let down her equipment in content.
He let out a sigh of relief and spun his eyes to Rin, the woman in charge with translation of ancient linguistics in this bunch.
Considering that as a sign, Rin tucked the book between his right arm and her chest and slowly tried crawling her way through the narrow passage, both saber and Prof Norton did their best to make enough space by leaning on the side of this tunnel but even that wasn't so helpful in making enough space for her to crawl past.
In the end they they had to get all the way out of the tunnel and rearrange their row, Rin up front and Professor following right behind. As they returned back to the dead end of this dim tunnel, Rin slowly approached in a military ducking position,Wiped the rest of the dust with her hand and took her time to read through the engraved markings.
This was definitely an ancient Locking mechanism sealed with a certain two count locking spell. It wasn't exactly impervious to force, but as all people without magical background like to put it, stuffs like this were usually dealt with by force when Prana channeling and some simple interpretation was all that was needed; countless valuable mystic languages were often lost with a method of force. And Rin wasn't really fond of that unrefined way of handling things.
"Alright, here we go."
The Professor, Saber and Shirou gulped as they nervously observed Rin, Interpreted word by word in a broken order, with her book open she'd give a second peep at the book and look back at the walls.
After repeating that monotonous movement for several time, Rin roughly Closed the book and smirked with a rather annoyed complexion on her face.
"This actually tells us to Leave..."
Rin folded her arms and twisted her lips, as if she was troubled
"That's it?"
Shirou tilted his head sideways in confusion.
"What is it Rin?"
Asked saber, sharing Shirou's curiosity.
"Professor , It might sound a bit ridiculous, but believe me, this is an authentic inscription from the king of hero himself."
The professor responded with a big Nod.
"Anyway, Ehem... I will start with the translation first before the actual dialect...Please be calm, I need to concentrate."
Rin Pushed her palms on the stone tab, before closing her eyes To Shirou, this action was clear. She was actually channeling her Prana into the stone tab!
stabilizing the Prana flow from the edge of her fingers, she started translating these words as a means to get into her trance.
- I am the king of Heroes, Gilgamesh. My Civilization has stretched to the far ends of the world. From the far west, where the seas fall down the abysmal vertigo, to the rim end of the east, where I have conquered beasts of heavens with my mighty weapons. The path before you is the sacred chamber of Babylon. If you are a mere mongrel, then leave now! The king's treasury is only to be called upon by the king himself! Dare set foot on this throne and ten of my immortal beasts that hunger for flesh shall unleash their Mongrel eating habit! Go and let the world fear my might!-
"Uh...huh... that's Gilgamesh alright..."
Shirou scratched his head and eyed on saber, who was definitely sharing the same opinion as professor was well, Mesmerized by that silly poetry.
"Shut up, I'm getting into the real business now."
The chant actually ended with a two line long paragraph. The ancient languages sure had lesser complex paragraphs than present day spells Shiro finally realized what it actually meant when he realized the true purpose of that.
If interpreted to Normal thaumaturgy that spell could be classified as a five count locking spell.
His thesis was proven true when the stone block disintegrated by itself and revealed an enormous chamber. The professor gasped his breath in sheer amazement; Of course, He had actually seen magic unfold right before him!
"Ah! Finally! Space!"
Rin Shouted as she set foot on the giant chamber. The rest of the team followed close behind, Shirou lay down as he felt an outpour of relief, saber followed immediately, stretching her arms on the air, rejoicing on their impending victory, The professor though didn't care to take a breather and continued on with his examination of the Behemoth chamber.
There were actually light shining down from the countless little holes on the Ceiling. Ten giant columns made a perfect crescent line, The room itself was half circular with the entrance placed in it's origin. the radius was around fifty meters while the height reached up to around seventy meters in length. There was a Golden Carpet made of golden wool that stretched from The entrance to the edge of the Chamber, every walls, every ceilings and every floor was coated with pure gold, And on the edges of the circle were eleven smaller gates.
Only one among them leads to the Artifact. The rest...are undoubtedly death trap.
"This... With this, I can redeem my title!"
The professor enthusiastically clamored, the arrogant gramps of the Nobel committee, that Amateur white puke. His Ignorant UCLA Know Whats! He is going to show his worth once again! with this!
"I am deeply Sorry for this, Professor Norton...but we really have to"
"Huh?..."
He turned to find saber behind him, making some really awkward kendo stance, of course, he thought of it as a joke since...well,there weren't any swords there to say, there was just two hands seemingly grabbing onto nothing in particular. One particular question didn't leave his mind though, Why is she making such a sorry face?
"I'm sorry!"
The Professor watched as saber powered to land a seemingly harmless imaginary blow. He was never good at humors so he never knew how deal with this situation. Should he...laugh? yes…a laugh maybe.
But then again that might've been a wrong decision
-Clang!-
he felt a strong hammering impact on the tip of his head, just like that his visions started to blur, his body slowly lost balance and it wasn't long before he started to lose his sense of hearing, soon after that his visions started to blur and turn hazy, then, with a rough forward crash on the face, he plunged into a deep collapse.
He swore he saw a golden sword on the grip of saber as he fell to the ground...he knew that figure from a picture he found in his past expedition to unearth an Arthurian legacy...That was definitely...Excalibur?. That definitely had to be it.
"Bastards..."
Was the last he could say before that darkness finally set in, deep in his subconsciousness he was happily smiling, and somehow this experience was better than anything he could ever possibly encounter.
He was finally able to see the truth right before his eyes even brainwash wouldn't scrape this memory off his head, he was sure of that.
"We're Deeply in sympathy, Elongate of Texas, You were a very honorable figure worthy of a seat in the Coveted chamber of the seven round table knights, but the time wasn't nigh. Instead, as a gratitude to your servitude. Alas, I present you my mark of honor."
Saber stuck the invisible air on the golden floor with a loud crack and knelt on the ground in a knightly fashion.
Her left shin touching the ground, her right leg bent by ninety degrees and her head bent on the hilt of the invisible sword.
She delivered a quick session of Knighthood speeches in a minute and returned to the attention of Shirou and Rin, who were rather amused by Saber's improvised Speech which had plenty of holes to say.
"Rin, What is it with that Smirk?"
Making a stoic expression, Saber spoke.
"Oh, nothing. Just admiring how elegantly king Arthur delivered her speech."
Saber made a deep sigh at that and twisted her expressions a bit, before replying back.
"Sigh- , you're teasing me again aren't you Rin? Even a foolish peasant would've laughed at that horrible presentation. I could imagine merlin throwing away his meal at this abomination by now."
"It's Okay Saber, It's already more than a thousand years you know, and you still remember that much of it."
Said Shirou as he pat on Saber's Head. Just Ten years ago this would have spurred a deep anger within Saber but lately, that has changed much.
"By the way, what are we going to do about the professor Rin?"
Shirou diverted his attention to Rin who was walking towards the unconscious professor. On her Belt was a holster and a Crystalline dagger placed inside.
She stopped a few feet off the Professor and turned to face her husband. She folded her hands and let out a shallow humph before turning to face Shirou.
"Magi regulations state that anybody who has come in contact with the mystic has to be killed."
Shirou scratched his head and shook his right to left. His face wasn't all that happy by that statement. It wasn't that funny of a joke too.
"I know I know. You thought I'd actually do that? Sheesh I was just joking.."
Rin lowered her body on the Professor and gently held up the professor's head up. She opened the professor's eyelid and concentrated her eyes onto them.
They had discussed about this the day the plane landed on Baghdad, they both never agreed on the killing stuff so instead they accepted the option of using suggestion.
Rin's eyes weren't as strong as to completely remove an entire memory of the event but it should be strong enough to erase the memory of mystic encounters and the details of him Ever meeting Shirou, Rin and Saber.
The memory of him finding this ruin is still going to be there. But it wouldn't matter since by that the time he wakes up the place will be void of magic.
"But then how do we deal with the beasts?" Asked Rin.
the beasts were surely something they'd not expected. But it was a path they needed to take nonetheless by choosing to let the professor live.
"We'll have to defeat them."
Said Shirou as he traced Kanshou and Bakuya on his hands. There was confidence in his eyes that could never be seen in his time in the Holy Grail war.
"That's easy to say, but how do we actually DO THAT?".
This time Rin fought back with a stress on the last two words. They were actually talking about Gilgamesh's Divine beasts of the ancient time! Dragons which still existed as of Arturian time possess an EX rank Power. If the Beasts fall in any of that category, they're sure to be dead meat. But Shirou Replied, Fully confident and eager for a fight.
"They are beasts Gilgamesh sealed, Then they have to be weaker than him. I defeated that guy before remember?, Which makes them a piece of cake."
Shirou made a smile, He wasn't joking, he was ready to take them on and he was definitely going to win, that in turn created an air of calmness among them.
Rin shook her head, glad at the fact that Shirou has never changed a bit, Always helping those in need, never letting anybody get hurt, even if he's someone who he barely even know, That's why he loved him that's why he vowed to protect him and never let him falter.
"You know you still had that in you dear."
"I know, probably the effect of this pendant, and by the way don't get me wrong I'm still the dumb Shirou you know, just trying to be cool at times is well…cool I guess."
Shirou Pulled out the pendant placed in between his collar. Somehow, this pendant was going to be his lucky charm for today, he just knew it.
"That's our Shirou there Rin,. I'm glad I had the chance to be your sword Shirou. Even if it was only for a short moment. I promised I'd watch over your progress, and you've never let me down even once."
With a gust of light, Saber wore her armor and stood guard for battle.
"I'll fight side by side with you Shirou, to the day the soil takes what's left of our Bone, to the day our soul becomes one with the world."
"Thanks Saber, What about you Rin?"
Rin Shrugged briefly at the inquiry and made a Sigh.
"I guess I have no choice then"
Smiling, she released the holster strap on her waist and pulled out the crystalline dagger from it. Her left hand gand crest glowed with bright red light, painting the chamber in dazzling red light.
"A sealing duty eh? Interesting. Now, Shall we go for it then Hero of Justice?"