Fate/Avalon
By Elkat
Prologue:
"Am I going to die?" For a girl so weak that she could only turn head, this was a question that plagued her thoughts on a daily basis. She remembered days when she was like any other child, able to run and jump to her hearts content. Those days were long gone. Ever since she she fell ill, her hospital bed became her most intimate companion, lacking the strength to leave it or the sterile room that had become her prison.
At first she experienced occasional weakness and became exhausted more easily than she ever remembered before. Her parents reassured her that it was nothing to be concerned about, but the girl could tell they were lying; both to her and themselves. Every day in which her strength weakened a little more than the day before, they repeated the lie with increasing conviction, as if chanting a spell. She wanted to believe them. What child didn't? The truth stared them all in the face. A month passed and she was bed bound with barely the strength to sit up. Now, a year later, opening her eyes took so much energy she rarely did so completely. The darkness of eyelids brought her more comfort that the thinly veiled grief and pain of her parents' faces or the looks of intrigue and confusion on the faces of the doctors.
Because she rarely opened her eyes or respond to others when they spoke to her, many assumed her to be fast asleep when she was in fact wide awake. This allowed her to over many a conversation directed at her that the speakers would never dare to have if they knew she was awake. Oh how the nurses liked to gossip about her, brainstorming fantastical sounding diseases she may have and how horrific they are. Then there was the time the doctor spoke to her parents, telling them that he is not only unsure what is devouring her stamina, but his fears that she may not live to see the end of the year. Her parents, naturally, were grief-stricken with this news. Then, when the doctor left the room, they began blaming each other for her state, an argument that grew in volume until they were hysterically shouting at each other. They even argud over how long they could continue paying her hospital bills and whether they should just take her off life support. Thankfully, security guards arrived to escort her parents out of the room, ending the conversation. Sometimes she wished that her hearing would go the way of her limbs and stop functioning. Silence would be preferable to the sound of the sick and dying.
"What a rare sight." It was not until she had a rather unusual visitor that her life changed for both the better and the worse. She didn't need to see the man to know that was quite old; impossibly so. Each word slithered from his lips were drenched in a such a venomous sadism that it made her skin crawl. Maybe her hearing had improved from keeping her eyes closed so much or maybe she was merely imagining things, but she swore she could hear hundreds of small creatures wiggling beneath his flesh. "To have so many high quality magic circuits is a truly wondrous curse. So much prana flowing through your body looking for release, but with nowhere to go. Spoiling into a poison that eats away your body from the inside out. It's a truly slow and miserable way to die, isn't it?"
Prana? Magic circuits? The girl knew neither term, but the old man spoke with such certainty that she couldn't bring herself to accuse him of making up words. More importantly, he knew what was killing her. If he knew that much, then he must surely know how to cure her. "...Are you...here to...save me...?" Her words came out in gasps. It been so long since she last spoke and the act of merely opening her mouth brought her so much pain that speaking more than two two words were impossible.
She didn't have to see his face to know a cruel grin stretched from one ear to another. "Your parents no longer want you. Isn't that sad?"
A month ago she would have likely been heartbroken, but any love or affection she once had for her parents had shriveled up and died. "...Are you...here to...save me...?" If this old man wasn't here to bring her hope, she would simply give up on breathing altogether and allow herself to die. The sweet release of oblivion was such a pleasant exchange from the agony of living in such a crippled state.
A dry, raspy cackle was her reward. "Self-preservation is all you care about now, isn't it girl? Family? Friends? If given the opportunity, you'd readily sacrifice them both to live! You wouldn't even shed any tears watching they die, would you?"
She couldn't deny his accusations. They were all true. Living with one foot in the grave so long, she wanted to either end it all here or steal the vitality of another. The latter was a dream, a fantasy of dying child driven to desperation. Yet he spoke as if that was possible. If it meant leaving this bed, would she be able to make a deal with the devil?
"I can save your life, but you will loose your humanity. Are you willing to go that far?"
The sickly voice of the old man sounded so much like sweet honey with his venomous offer that the girl couldn't possibly think about the consequences of her choice. No. She didn't even want to think about it. It didn't matter how many people had to die. She was going to live! "...Yes."
To the girl's dismay, she traded one bed for another. This one hard and stiff, lacking all the comforts of a hospital though the room smelled no less sterile. Strangely enough they bound her wrists and ankles to the table with leather straps. What good would those do? She was already paralyzed up to the neck. Not even the pain of blades carving into flesh could cause her to flail about.
The old man had stolen her away. To where she didn't ; she only knew that she was no longer in the hospital and that countless strangers now stood over her, drawing her blood and slicing through her like a hot knife through butter. They talked among themselves, using terms she didn't understand that sounded as much like fanciful nonsense as the old man using the words 'prana' and 'magic circuits'; 'Holy Grail'; 'Heaven's Feel'; 'Heroic Spirit'; 'Pseudo-Servant'. It all sounded like gibberish. For all she knew, they could have been speaking a whole different language.
While she was curious to what effect slicing open her body would relate to her alleged recovery, she dared not to open her eyes. The sight of blood would surely cause her to faint and the last thing she wanted to do was drift into slumber. Strange creatures haunted sleeping mind, showing her images she had no words to describe. If opening her mouth wasn't such a burden, she would've surely woken up screaming.
No. No matter how much the cold steel kissed her flesh and the warm blood seeped onto her skin, she wouldn't let herself fall unconscious. After a while, she began to notice that the cuts were rather unusual in nature. Neither straight nor short, they seemed to form designs on her body. Patterns she could imagine in her mind. The shapes formed made no sense to her, but then as a child, she had only so much knowledge. Could these symbols be something adults knew of?
"Let silver and steel be the essence.
Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation
Let green the colour I pay tribute to / Let my great Master Zolgen be the ancestor
Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall
Let the four cardinal gates close.
Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate.
I hereby declare.
Your body shall serve under me.
My fate shall be your sword.
Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail
If you will submit to this will and this reason…Then answer!
An oath shall be sworn here!
I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven.
I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell!
Yet, though serves with thine eyes clouded in chaos
Thou, bound in the cage of madness.
I am he who command these chaos
From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three greet words of power,
Come forth from the ring of restraints,
Protector of the Holy Balance! "
Before she could question the meaning of the chant, her body grew incredibly hot, invisible flames igniting in the wounds the strangers had carved into her flesh. The pain was, but she was distracted as images flickered through her mind; a castle so white the snow that sat atop it looked garish and gray in comparison; a circular table where armored individuals sat' a handsome boy with a feminine face, looking upon a new comer with intrigue; an impossibly green man wielding an axe; a head held in its own body's hands, separate from its neck; a look of ghastly shock on the gathered party; a white clad knight slowly approaching an emerald chapel.
For the first time in a very, very long time, the girl opened her mouth and howled in pain. Strength like she never knew before flooded through her atrophied muscles, straining against the leather restraints only for a splint second before ripping themselves free and flailing about wildly. The strangers tried to hold her down, but they were rewarded with the gift of flight. Some of them flew into walls, others into tables that sent beakers and sharp utensils flying. They all laid motionless after slumping to the floor. Whether dead or merely unconscious, the girl neither knew not nor cared not.
Emerald eyes gazed into the bright light that hung above the operating room table as hot tears streaked the her cheeks. Pain so great, so unexpected filled her head and the girl needed to release it in some way lest it explode. The agony of sudden brilliance searing into eyes too readily familiar with darkness hardly compared to having a whole other's life shoved into her body. The pain was too great; she could hardly think. Screaming as loud as her hoarse voice would allow her was the only release to the agony ripping through her brain. If it continued, her mind was bound to snap!
"I'm sorry child. This was not how I expected to be summoned." A deep, gravelly voice bellowed within her head, bringing a sense of soothing calm despite its thunderous volume.
"Who are you?" What should have been spoken were sadly a mere thought, replying to the newcomer in her skull in the same fashion as it had addressed her. She was baffled by the voice she hardly noticed that small, green roots had begun sprouting from beneath her flesh only to bury themselves a few inches across her newly made gashes, stitching her wounds shut.
"I am Sir Lord Bertilak de Hautdesert, the 'Green Knight'. It may not be of preferable terms by which we have come to meet, milady, but I fear we are bound by fate. May I have honor of knowing your name?"
The girl opened her mouth to speak, as if to reply to the voice in her mind aloud, only to close it shortly afterwards. The title by which her parents had bestowed her upon birth was gone. It was only then that she realized she had no memory of her what her parents even looked liked. Not when they abandoned her nor even before she had fallen ill. It was almost as if she lived her entire life with her eyes closed; not just the last few weeks. "Who...am...I?" Even though her it no longer pained her to speak, her words came slowly bit by bit, as if each syllable weighed a ton.
"...Experiment number six," hissed gleefully the wretched voice of the old man who she had met the girl at the hospital. Naturally her newly opened eyes were drawn to his shrunken and shriveled body. She had imagined him to be quite hideous from his voice alone, but she wasn't prepared to look upon mummified wretch standing before draped in exotic robes from a far away land, a gnarled hand clutching the top of a wooden cane. Black pools of darkness flowed around two pricks of whiteness that couldn't possibly be called eyes. There was no doubt in her mind. The man who stood before her now was in no doubt the devil to whom she had sold her soul to. "What a wonderful success!"
Six, as the strangers in robes had come to call her, was initially overjoyed with being freed from the dreary existence of wasting away within a hospital bed. The glee she felt was quickly replaced with a new and sudden sense of dread she never thought possible. She could leave her bed, but she couldn't walk more than five feet in any direction before meeting with a cold, hard wall or a door that lacked anything resembling a handle or lock from her side. The strength she possessed was like that she never had before, allowing her to lift her bed and throw it with enough force to shatter it against the door, but that didn't free her from her new prison. It merely caused the air around the door to ripple for a few seconds as splinters of wood and tattered bed sheets fell to the ground.
Punching the door, the walls and the floor only caused blood to fly from her knuckles. She was even so brazen to headbutt one of the barriers...and regained consciousness several hours later. "Green", as she had to come call her body-mate (his proper name being too long and wordy for the girl to remember), had a hearty chuckle at her attempts to break free.
"These walls are fortified will sorcery I doubt not! No way would mere stone and steel could resist the strength of a servant, even be she only a wee lass like yourself!"
"Servant? You adults like to use words I don't know! I'm getting sick and tired of it!" Pouting, the girl threw herself on what remained of the sole piece furniture in her cramp, little cell.
"I be no wizard or witch. The mysteries of magic are beyond my grasp, but I do know what little the grail told me. I am a heroic spirit."
" A heroic spirit?"
"I am a ghost of a hero from the past. I have been given a body to live again."
"My body."
"I'm truly sorry, milady. But if I am not mistaken, it appears that I may be the reason you still live."
Six couldn't argue with his logic. The moment he became apart of her, she regained mobility she had thought to never recover. Of course, that didn't make any sense. Whoever heard of a person getting better after being possessed by a dead person? That's just weird!
"While I can't take back my summons, I'm grateful that it saved a life! If only I hadn't been given the body of a woman." Green's sigh made the girl upset for reasons she didn't understand.
"Why do you want to live again?"
"I, myself have no reason to return to the world of the living, but it seems another desires my skills."
Six growled in frustration at the man's difficult words. "Who?"
"I know not. The last time I dealt with magic, it was at the behest of that witch. I doubt she be the one behind my conjuring. If she were alive still, she'd be far more wrinkled than that ghastly corpse of a man."
The girl cringed, trying to imagine someone more hideous than the old man who had tricked into her current predicament. It was far too much for her mind to envision. Yet, the image of a ghastly woman did crop into her mind. It was a memory, though not one of her own. It seemed the moment Green had entered her body, half of his memories had replaced hers. While she didn't mind too much, she felt a small tinge of regret at the idea that she lost the few happy moments in her life. "Who is she?"
"She be a cruel and wicked witch who enlisted my aid to pull a horrid jest on her brother and sister-in-law."
The image of a head rolling on the ground, only to be picked by the body from which it was separated from flickered through the girl's mind with such clarity she had trouble believing it wasn't. She touched her throat. "Why?"
"I cannot say. There's only so much a man can understand a woman."
This was an unsatisfactory answer to her question. Sighing in frustration, Six laid on her back and stared up at the ceiling of her little cell. It was as bland, smooth and featureless as about any other surface in the facility. Sterile and uncreative. Compared to the hospital, this place was far more boring. At least there was a television she could watch and listen to back at the hospital. The best the girl could now was sleep. Whether she wanted to or not, her body and mind was tired. Who knew sharing your body with a ghost could be so exhausting.
When Six, she found herself not in her cell, but in a large, circular room with a high roof. The floors and walls, which should have been smooth and featureless, were gouged and dented, stained with rust brown splotches of dried blood. This room was different from the others, but not in a way the girl appreciated. It reeked of death.
The sound of a loud screech drew her attention to the opposite end of the room where a large section of the wall raised into the sealing, revealing a dark void behind. A large animal like none the girl had seen before emerged from the darkness. It's upper body and one of its two heads belonged to a lion while its lower body and its second head belonged to a goat. It even had a snake for a tail. This creature was nightmarish in form and unnatural to this world. The girl had no knowledge to suggest such beasts roamed the lands in a time long lost. To her, this creature was something altogether new and horrific. As the beast finished entering the room, the secret door slammed shut far faster and louder than it opened, insuring neither the beast nor the girl was escaping the room.
Fear as she had never known before engulfed her body. Terror stripped her of new found strength, freezing her in place with such a paralysis stronger than when she laid in the hospital bed, dying. Death ever so certain stared in the girl in her face and all she could do was stand still. She couldn't even open mouth to scream.
"Don't give in to your fear child! You possess my strength. A beast of this caliber should problem for you."
Green's voice soothed the girl's panicking mind, freeing her from the shackles of terror that sought to restrain her. While there was much doubt whether she could defeat a fierce foe such as that before her, she choked back fears and chose to fight. There was only one problem. She had never fought before and the idea of punching a monstrosity such as that with her bare fists was all but comical. "How do I fight?"
Before Six could be given an answer, her opponent began charging with the fangs of all three heads bared hungrily.
"Quickly! Manifest my armor! Imagine a suit of steel armor encasing thine whole body!"
She had no time to respond. The beast's jaws wrapped about her and snapped shut. Yet, instead of drawing blood and breaking bone, it was met with emerald plates of solid metal, causing the creature to jerk back its heads in shock and confusion.
A miniature knight in solid green armor stood where Six once was, staring at her own armored body in as much awe and surprise as her predator. Before she could question who the armor had appeared, a large paw struck her with such force she was sent flying across the room. She landed against a wall with enough force to indent the reinforced steel before falling to the ground with all the grace of a stunned rag doll. While no bones were broken from either the paw's strike or colliding with the wall, her muscles were certainly bruised. "OW!"
"Good. My armor should protect you from most injuries...save decapitation. But don't worry; losing your head shouldn't kill you."
"What?!" Six's armored hands wrapped her throat worriedly. There were many things the girl didn't know, but there was one thing she did: People die when they are beheaded!
"Now's not the time to worry about such things! We must attack if we wish to survive. Call forth my axe."
"Your axe?" Six imagined a fireman's axe and wondered how such a small tool could harm such a large beast. She realized this wasn't the time to be pondering such things as she spied her opponent quickly closing the distance between them. Reaching out with one hand, she called forth the object in her mind. Light gathered in her palm, forming a long shafted weapon with a large, wedge-like blade. The light solidified into a poleaxe whose shaft to be crafted from a trees branch with leaves sprouting forth here and there. It wasn't the weapon she had expected and nearly dropped it the moment it appeared. It was as tall as her if not taller. Surely it was heavy for a girl of her size and strength, but felt as light as a feather her in grip.
"Don't just stand there gawking! Defend yourself!" Green's rude command spurned the girl into grasping the pole-arm's long shaft in both, she flailed the it before herself with as much proficiency as one would expect from a green-eared amateur. The axe's blade connected with the lion head of the beast as it enclosed on her causing blood to gush from the newly made gash in its face and the beast to roar in shocked pain.
Emerald eyes widened in surprise. For the first time in her life, she struck another created and drew blood. The sensation coursing through her veins was a nauseating combination of shame and glee. For whatever reason, the act of violence brought her such satisfaction the kind she had never felt before. It was both wondrous and frightening. Her heart raced and her thoughts became clouded. Don't think, just attack!
Almost upon instinct Six leapt into the air, raising the poleaxe high above her. The beast's snake head shot fort to intercept her only to be cut through cleanly the moment it touched the axe's blade. Landing on the creature's back, the girl spun about and spied the goat head inhaling. Uncertain of what was to come, six simply swung the oversized weapon at its throat, severing the head from its body.
Grievously wound and rapidly losing blood, the beast threw itself on its back in attempt to crush Six, but she rolled away as soon as her body touched ground, escaping a grisly fate of becoming grounded meat. With its legs now skyward, the girl took the opportunity to cut them off, swinging the poleaxe with great ease. The creature howled in pain before rolling to its side in defeat. Unable to stand with only one of its heads remaining, there was little it could do before death claimed its life. A crimson puddle had begun to form around it from its several open wounds.
Six looked the beast in its eyes, all the fear she had felt for it replaced by apathetic blood lust. She raised the axe in the air before bring it down one last time, ending its suffering. As the creature laid still, the girl blinked and looked about her surroundings in confusion as if she had just woken from a trance. The fog that had consumed her mind the moment she drew first blood dispersed, allowing her to take in the fact she had claimed a life. She ripped emerald helm off her head and doubled over, vomiting up the contents of her stomach. With the adrenaline gone, her fear and anguish took root.
She wanted to scream, but sobs came when she opened her mouth. Tears gushed down her cheeks and fell into the puddle of the vomit and blood that stained the floor. The armor and axe dispersed into fading light. Curling into a ball, she began to apologize to the creature she just slew even though she knew it was the only way she could have lived. Yet she couldn't shake what she saw in its eyes moments before landing the final blow: pain and desperation. She didn't know what it was or where it came from, but she could tell it didn't want to here. It as much a prisoner as she was and she stole its life away.
"Thus is the cruelty of life, lass. Don't look away or you will be the next to die." Green warned the girl as her vision blurred. The last sound she could hear before sinking into the darkness of dreamless slumber was the slow screech of the large door opening once more.
For several days, she was transported back and forth between her little cell to the arena, slaughtering fantastic beasts she had never seen before in her life. Occasionally Green would recognize one or two and give her a name for it and advice how to best fight it, but alas her body-mate was as baffled by the creatures as she was. Every time a battle began her mind was engulfed in a fog of blood lust that restricted thoughts more and more until one day she stopped thinking altogether. When she regained consciousness, she found she hadn't stopped with the day's challenger but also slaughtered the robed strangers who came to collect her. She was given a whole week off from these cruel games before they began again, this time with precautions put in place to prevent more needless sacrifices of her captors.
Her originally weak body grew stronger as long unused muscles restored themselves. The few times she received injuries they seemed to knit themselves closed within seconds. The drab hospital gown she had come to accept as her only article of clothing were now tattered, dulled and stained. She had to be careful to not move quickly or exert too much strength so that the rags didn't get torn off of her completely. Her wardens had no interest in clothing or bathing her. If she wanted something to wear, she had to forage for herself. It took some practice, but she got accustomed to skinning the beasts she fought and, while not exactly a tailor, she managed to wrap the hides about her in crude attempts to preserve what little modesty she had.
An assortment of trophies had began to accumulate in her in tiny prison. Wings of wyverns, the claws of multi-headed beasts, horns from bicorns and such. She even began tasting the flesh of her kills. It would taste much better if she had access to fire and seasoning no doubt, but at least it was more satisfying than the slop she was served by the robed strangers. She began to even experiment with mixing different meats together (provided they hadn't gone bad) and inventing new grisly culinary dishes. Before she knew it, she became overly accustomed to her life as a child gladiator, fighting for reasons far beyond her grasp.
Yet life was unpredictable and the course of the river of fate had become altered. One night she woke to a cool breeze touching her skin. It was the type breeze she felt only when her cell was opened. Opening her eyes, she looked about for her keepers who would often have staves outstretched and wands waving, but they were no where to be seen. Instead there was a small girl that looked no older than herself standing in the doorway. Her hair was silvery white and her eyes a deep crimson. A new and unexpected face caused the prisoner's heart to momentarily race.
"Hm... This isn't what I'm looking for either. Where they put that stupid Holy Grail?" The silver haired girl furrowed her brows in frustration. Turning away, she began to walk down the hall before she was stopped by an unexpected voice.
"Who...are...you?" Six asked, curious to see another child in a place like this.
The silver haired girl who had began to turn away looked back into the room, staring at the room's pelt clad inhabitant with surprise. "It speaks?" She reached into her hair grabbed a few strands. In the dim light that filled the room from the hallway, she couldn't see there was a human girl beneath them.
Six discarded the blanketing pelts and stood at her full height, repeating her inquiry. "Who...are...you?"
"A homonculus?" The girl seemed to relax a little.
"A...what?" Six cocked her head to the side in confusion and askance.
"You must be a homunculus. Humans don't have green hair."
Six reached into her hair drew a few strands before her eyes. The silver haired girl was truthful. Her hair was green. Had it always been that way? Alas, that was among the memories she had lost when Green had moved in.
"It doesn't matter. You're not what I'm looking for," The girl turned away and walked off.
Six was intrigued by the girl and desired- no needed, to follow her. Fearing the girl would leave her sight, she rushed forth with all her speed, turning into the hallway as she escaped her cell and nearly barreling into her target shortly afterwards.
The girl dodged to the side and looked at with bemusement. "My they must have greatly reinforced your legs to move that fast. You could peace with a servant!"
"A...servant?" That word. Even though she was a child, the silver haired girl used a word Six only ever heard the adults using! Was this girl older than she looked?
"They surely didn't bother giving you much information, didn't they?" The silver haired girl frowned. "I don't suppose you'd know that old bastard is keeping the Holy Grail."
"Holy...Grail?" Another word she had only heard from the lips of her captors! Green had tried to explain these things to her, but they made no sense! Servants; heroic spirits; holy grail; noble phantasms! They were all gibberish to her. She wanted to yell at the girl, but she was that would scare off her (soon to be) friend. It was the first child she had ever remembered meeting (any previous memories having been woefully lost with those of her name and parents). She couldn't afford to send her running.
"Boy, you're useless. Maybe I should kill you here." A silver strand was plucked from the girl's head and tossed into the air. Quickly it was transformed into a lattice-work construct shaped vaguely like a bird. Without warning the bird summoned forth a ball of energy and shot it at 6.
Sensing danger, Six subconsciously summoned Green's armor and poleaxe, leaping away out of the magical missile's trajectory and swing the polearm straight at her foe. The mystical construct was cleft cleanly in two, falling to the ground in separate pieces before dissolving into mana.
"Is that projection magecraft? No. It looks more like how servants summon their arms..." The girl's eyes widened realization. "That old bastard has already summoned a servant! No fair!"
Her mind dulled with blood lust and adrenaline, Six couldn't recall her goal befriending the strange girl before and raised the axe to strike her down.
Realizing the danger she was in, the silver-haired girl deftly dodged the axe's swing, allowing it to crash into the ground enough force to crack the concrete. She needed to escape before she followed in her mystic code's fate. Without shame, she turn about and ran off.
The battle-blinded Six wasn't going to let her prey escape. With a burst of speed, she quickly closed the distance between the two of them only to wind up shooting pass the girl as turned a corner. The blade of her weapon as a makeshift anchor, she came to a sliding stop that left a long scar in the floor. Charging back into the intersection, the armored assailant searched for her the fleeing girl, but she was not insight. She must have turned another corner at the next intersection, but which was beyond the unthinking berserker's ability to guess. She could hardly navigate the labyrinthine halls in her mind. The number of twists and turns that she traversed between her cell to the arena and back was too confusing to make heads or tails of the facility's layout.
With no foe to cut down, the girl's battle frenzy faded and she recalled she had attempted to do with great shame. Head bowed, she cursed herself, the old man and her mysterious handlers
"Raise your head lass. For reasons unknown, we've have been freed from our cell." Green made a good point. Her handlers were strangely absent, giving her the opportunity to roam freely. She had to act now or regret it. Picking a direction at random, she ran at full speed, hoping that where she was going that she'd find some kind of exit.
After what must have a hour, Six was fairly confident that she was lost. Hallways lead to other hallways and every door she encountered with a visible handle was locked. She could tried to break the doors, but she didn't want to risk meeting whatever was on the other side. Surely there was a clearly marked emergency exit to be found...somewhere.
The silver haired girl was no where to be found, but 6 did find countless corpses of the robed individuals that were responsible for turning her into what she was now. Half of them appeared to have holes in their body where a some round ball of force struck them while others appeared to have been cut open by bladed weapons. In the end it, mattered little to the girl. She held no love for them and seeing their bodies brought no tears to her eyes. "It's what...you all...deserve."
A sadistic thought crawled into her mind and she kicked one of the corpses with enough force that it flew across the hallway into a wall where it formed a crimson ink blot. The grisly art she created brought her little satisfaction beyond retribution against her captors. Instead she was reminded the fragility of humans and how easily she could rip them to shreds with her inhuman strength. Loosing interest in the corpses, the girl continued her wandering about the maze of steel walls and concrete floors.
Turn left; turn right; turn left; turn right; turn another left. Wait did I see this hall before? Six was getting quickly frustrated with her fruitless search. "Green, do you have any ideas?"
"You could use something to mark places your have been."
"Something to mark the walls?" The girl looked about, searching for something- anything that she easily spread. It didn't take long for her to spy her earlier grotesque art work and the remaining corpses. Walking to the wall, she drew an arrow in the still wet blood. "This will do." Grabbing one of the countless corpses littering the hall, she dragged it along behind her, trailing a streak of red behind her.
Little did she realize how endlessly interconnecting hall ways there were. As one corpse ran out of blood, she quickly ran back to get another; then another; again once more. Eventually she settled on taking a total two at a time, being limited by the number of hands she had.
After an immeasurable length of time wasted running back and forth collecting fleshy ink pots and making markings, she finally exhausted her macabre supply and had to rely on her own intuition. In no time at all, she was just lost and was a little a clue where she was before. The only difference was that she found a door that opened this time.
With the light illuminating the unlit room coming from the overhead lights in the hallways, Six could make out a stairwell leading down into foreboding darkness. A strong stench of death permeated from within and she could hear faintly the sounds wiggling creatures. Somewhere in the back of her mind a tiny voice told to close the door and continue her search, but morbid curiosity got the better of her. Slowly she descended into the darkness. The stench of death grew stronger and the sounds louder the further descended. The moment the scent and sounds grew the strongest and most nauseating her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, revealing a sight most sickening.
Countless young children were chained to the walls of a room larger than her cell, but far smaller than the arena. Countless large, phallic looking worms crawled about the floor and onto the naked bodies of the children. The girls appeared to writhe in a sickening combination of pleasure and pain while one of side of each of the boys' body were horribly disfigured. There eyes were glossed over with despair and hopelessness. She could tell be scent alone not all the children were still alive. It took all of Six's strength to keep from vomiting.
An all too familiar and disturbing cackle drew the girl's attention behind her. "My, my, I was wondering where our little Berserker went. I highly doubt you were the one who killed my assistants. Their corpses were left too well intact for your butchery." The wretched old man stood atop the stairs, grinning perversely down at the girl.
"This is...your doing...?!" Six growled angrily, manifesting her pole-axe in her hands.
"Those children you see here were other candidates for Berserker...and Caster; but it seems like that is no longer possible," The old man frowned. "I no need any of them now." With a snap of his fingers, all the children writhed in pain before falling listless, the faintest signs of life now gone.
"YOU...MONSTER!" Enraged, Six leaped into the air, clearing the stairs in a single bound. Raising her pole-axe into the air, she swung down at the old man's head, slicing cleanly through him. His body fell in two parts, yet neither half landed on the stairs or tumbled to the ground below. Instead they transformed into a hideous horde of large flies with blade-like wings. Confused, Six manifested her armor in preparations of being attacked.
The insect didn't attack but instead clomped together and transformed into back into the old man, showing no signs of where he been bisected. "You may be a pseudo-servant, but you are young and still developing. It'll take far more than your blade to kill me!" He cackled at the girl's futility.
Six stumbled backwards, unconsciously crushing one of the ill-shaped worms beneath her feet with a sickening "Splat!". "What...are...you?"
"It's been fun watching you, Experiment Number Six, but I'm afraid that I must be parting. There's no point in staying here. Once the Mage's Association catches wind of our activities, they'll be sending in more than a homunculus whose outlived her usefulness and a third rate magus." Turning on heel, the old man left.
Dispersing her armor and pole-axe, Six fell to her knees and began sobbing. So many children died and she couldn't do anything to protect or avenge them. She didn't want to be a hero, but seeing them suffer was enough to make her want to help. A worm crawled towards her only to be smashed into a bloody splatter in her frustration. She couldn't kill the old man, but she could destroy these filthy worms.
Six lost track of time she spent crushing the worms and shattering the chains. While she had a new supply of corpses for her bloody markings, she had more pity for the children who did nothing wrong compared to the adults who sought to bring her misery. Instead, she gathered the corpses and piled them atop of the stairs, crushing any worms that crawled out from their orifices. Once she could find a way out, she swore she would give them proper burials.
She was done milling about the labyrinthine walls. Channeling as much strength she could muster, she charged at the nearest wall. Upon impact, she felt the rippling barrier that lined the walls and floor of her cell. But that didn't stop her. Determined to escape this grisly maze, she backed up and threw herself at the wall again; and again and again. Green would probably told she was mad for expecting a different result, but it appears that he was holding his tongue. No doubt he realized she had been driven half-mad with grief and rage. Scolding her would not calm her nor change her mind. She was going to break this barrier!
After ten or so tries, the barrier rippled its last and faded away, causing the girl to collide with the now unprotected wall with enough force to tear right through as if it had been made of paper. Not thinking far enough head to plan what she was going to do once she succeed, Six stumbled into adjoining room with all the momentum of a charging bull. Unable to slow herself, she came to a stop only after colliding with a table and sending the objects that were on it flying across the room.
Landing on her face, Six contemplated how fortunate it was that her fall didn't hurt. Lifting herself up from the girl shaped indent she left on the ground, she looked about the room that she now found herself in. There were many computers and machines she didn't recognize and didn't care about. There was various items scattered about the floor, all of which seemed entirely random. A piece of wood; a shatter vial (she wasn't sure if it broke before or after landing on the floor); a very old and priceless looking tome; a piece of a ceramic vase with a what appeared to words of a foreign language scrawled on it; a sheathed tanto. The last item caught her attention. It was difficult to carve the meat of her kills with a pole-axe. A smaller blade would work wonders. Grabbing the dagger, she kicked the other items aside and looked for a door.
It didn't take long, the table she displace was leaning half across it. Effortless lifting the table, she tossed it aside, causing it crash into another table with the sound of splintering wood and shattering glass. Now the door was freed, she grabbed the knob and turned it. It was locked.
Grunting in frustration, the girl pulled on the knob with enough force rip into it out of the solid steel door and tossed it aside. Without a mechanism to keep the door closed, it swung open with very little effort. A new hallway opened up for her and another door on the other side of the hallway. Cracking first her knuckles and then her neck, the girl prepared herself for some serious demolishing.
After what felt like hours of smashing through walls, doors and whatever other objects dared be in her way, she eventually entered a large room. The walls were adorned with computers, tables and shelves lined with books and jars but caught the girl's attention was a large glass cylinder far off in the room's center. It contained a translucent liquid of an unknown nature where in which floated the body a beautiful, blond woman. No matter at what angle the girl peered, the woman's face was seemingly obscured from sight, leaving no signs of discernible details beyond the color of her golden hair. That was only a small concern, as the rest of her bare body was completely on display much to Six's amazement and bewilderment. "So...pretty..." she whispered as she reached out to touch the glass.
"I would not do that if I was you." Green's voice was so unexpected the girl jerked her hand back. "I know not what she is doing here, but no good shall come from it."
"Do you know her?" Six thought back.
"...You are better off destroying her."
"Really?" Six pouted. She had seen enough death for one day and didn't want to have to kill the beautiful woman.
"Do as you wish, but heed my warning. Letting her live will only bring a lot of suffering."
The girl looked at the cylinder for a long moment. Running over to fetch a chair from one of the tables, she chucked it with all her might at the woman without looking. Hearing the sound of glass shattering, the girl quickly ran to the nearest door, not wanting to stay and admire her vandalism. She just wanted out of the maze of halls and mysterious rooms.
The blonde woman laid in puddle of mysterious liquid riddled with glass shards, yet she didn't appear the slightest bit harmed. Picking herself up, she sat upright and sighed. "Well that was a rude awakening. How typical of a berserker."
Having broken through innumerable she was surprised to see a floor of freshly packed snow and a wall of evergreen trees. Having been built a great momentum in her charge, she wasn't prepared to stop so suddenly and wound up flying head over heel into the snow. Rolling onto her back, she sucked in a long, cold breath that burned her lungs before releasing a hot, steamy exhale. The dark night's sky was lit by a pale moon and several twinkling stars.
"I need to go get the bodies..." Even though her body ached from using it as a battering ram, she forced her tired muscles to move. She can collapse once those poor children were buried. She groaned internally and stepped through the small, child sized hole her body made from her escape. Unlike the adults that she carelessly dragged along behind her by whatever clothing or limb she grabbed, she carefully carried the children's corpses out of the facility, one by one, burying them in the snow. She wanted to dig further, but she doubted her body could manage the stress and she didn't want to spend too much time digging a single grave. She knew the bodies will become exposed once the snow melted and animals would likely dig them out, but this was the best she could provide for them at the time. Several hours passed and by the time the girl finished her grim service, her body was too sore to even think. Stumbling a couple feet from the last grave, she fell face first into the snow and drifted into a dreamless slumber.
Even before the girl opened her eyes, she could tell something was wrong; she was warm. She had no recollection of bringing her pelt blankets with her and the she could have sworn she had collapsed in the cold snow. She shouldn't be alive, much less warm. Curious, she opened her eyes and studied her surroundings.
She laid amongst several wolves, one of which had wrapped their body around hers and was sharing its warmth with her. This was surprising. Wolves weren't particularly known for their love of humans; that was something even a child like Six knew. This was very unusual, but at the same time, she was grateful. She didn't want to die after finally escaping her prison and if wolves showed her kindness, she shouldn't think about it too much. Maybe because she was a child and her innocent mind could accept such bizarre situations without too much thought, but it was a benefit to her. Spying a large grey wolf laying the cave's opening, the girl felt need to greet her savior. "Hello..."
"You wake," The beast responded, turning the attention of its deep blue eyes from the flurry raging outside of the cave to the girl sitting amongst the sleeping wolves.
"Did that wolf just talk to you?" Green sounded quite surprised.
"Is that unusual?" This didn't seem to weird to the girl. She couldn't remember accurately, but she had faint memories about holding conversations with animals in the past. She couldn't recall when or where. Whether this part of her lost memories was something suppressed other by other events she wasn't sure.
Green sighed deeply. "I know I stole from you some of your memories, but shouldn't this be common sense?"
Six stopped to think, uncertain how to respond. Her stomach suddenly growled, loud and rudely. How long was it since she last ate?
The large, grey wolf got to its feet and dragged the carcass of a deer over to her. "Eat."
"Thank...you..." The girl fondled about her person, trying to remember where she had stashed the dagger she had found earlier. Drawing the blade, she dropped the sheathe onto the ground and began cutting away the deer's pelt. Once there was a sizeable amount of meat exposed, she dropped the dagger carelessly onto the ground, causing it to clatter loudly. Lifting the carcass to her face, she began ripping into it, eating furiously. Blood covered her mouth and dribbled down her chin, dripping onto the rags she wore.
"Eat well. You are pack mate now." The large wolf laid back where it was and resumed watching the snow storm outside of the cave.
Ten years had passed and Six had grown in size and strength. With the wolf pack's help, she became a skilled hunter, bringing down game with ease. Her skill was so great that the pack's alphas were amazed. "Deer don't run. Why?" they once questioned her, but she had no answer for them. Green often remarked on how woodland animals seemed to react strangely around her. Bears taught her to fish; foxes taught her how to evade pursuers; owls taught her how to hunt at night. Yet none of them could provide her with the company she craved.
When was the last time she had contact with a human who didn't want to cut her open or have fight some mystical creature to the death? How long had it been since she could hold a conversation with a person who didn't live in her head? She often thought back at the silver-haired girl that freed her from her prison and wondered if they could have been friends. Or if she could have saved those poor children. Even the beautiful woman floating in the cylinder often crept into her thoughts.
At first the image of woman brought the girl admiration, but as she got older, the sight of the woman's naked body made her own body grow hot and her groins grow moist. It didn't help that some the memories she inherited from Green include him taking an equal beautiful woman to bed and doing things she did her best to not recall.
Six contemplated leaving the forest and finding other humans, but dissuaded herself time and time again. She was no longer human, but some kind of monster she can't begin to describe. With little effort she could rip trees out of the ground by the roots and shatter boulders with her bare fists. Her wounds, whenever a rock or broken branch was sharp enough to pierce her nigh invulnerable skin, were healed almost instantly. She could outrun the fastest of the wolves and leap to the top of the tallest trees from the ground in a single bound. For all intents and purposes, she was superhuman. No human would be willing to be her friend. Worse yet, whenever her life was put in danger she lost control of her body and flew into mindless fury. That alone drove the silver-haired girl away from her.
No, it seemed her fate was to live the rest of her life in solitude.
The course of the river of fate that had been altered once had become altered again.
It was late spring verging on early summer. The air was getting increasingly warmer by the day only cooling when it rained. The forest that became Six's new home was green and lively. Game was ever so easy to find and not she nor the pack was went hungry for long. Many new litters were born to replace the wolves who laid down and closed their eyes for the last time, gently cradled by death's embrace. It was Six's responsibility as much as the rest of the pack's elders to rear the cubs and insure they contributed to the pack's survival. Outside of her personal loneliness, her life become peaceful.
Waking one morning to burning a sensation on the back of her right hand, the girl investigated the source of her pain. Three red symbols, resembling leaves arranged to form a triangle, now marked the back of her hand. Was this some kind of rash? A rash shaped like three leaves? "What...is...this?"
"Command spells." Green's voice was grimly solemn.
"Command...spells?"
"The Holy Grail chosen you to be a master."
"Holy...Grail?" Wasn't the object that silver-haired girl was looking for? "Master?"
"Do you remember the ritual those people used to summon me into you?"
"...Yes?" It wasn't a total lie; she remembered parts of the chant.
"I am no wizard so I don't know the exact details, but I can instruct you in what little I do. We'll need a circle."
Finding a stone large and smooth enough to serve as a even ground, the girl began drawing a circle with the blood of a slain deer that the pack so generously provided her. Several wolves, including the alphas, sat and watched her with much curiosity. They've encountered humans before and they, instinctively realized Six to be one of them, but this was something humans rarely did. The girl did her best to ignore her audience and began adding the runes she had felt carved into her flesh so long ago. She had no idea what they meant; she just figured they were important. After several minutes, the girl stood her full height and admired her handiwork. The circle and runes were visible misshapened, but she didn't mind. She doubted whatever ritual she was performing required an exact recreation. Magic wasn't that picky, right?
"Let silver...and steel...be the...essence...
Let stone...and the...archduke...of contracts...be the...foundation
Let green...the colour...I pay...tribute to.../ Let my...great Master...be the...ancestor...
Let rise...a wall...against the...wind that...shall fall
Let the...four cardinal...gates close...
Let the...three-forked...road from...the crown...reaching...unto the...Kingdom rotate...
I...hereby...declare.
Your body...shall serve...under me.
My fate...shall be...your sword.
Submit...to the...beckoning...of the...Holy Grail...
If you...will submit...to this...will and...this reason…Then answer...!
An oath...shall be...sworn here...!
I shall...attain all...virtues of...all of Heaven...
I shall...have dominion...over all...evils of...all of...Hell!
From the...Seventh...Heaven, attended...to by...three greet...words of power,
Come forth...from the...ring of...restraints,
Protector...of the...Holy Balance...! "
Even after ten years, the girl's ability to speak was no greater than before. She forced the words from her mouth with all the effort she could manage. She could feel something warn and thick fill her mouth, tasting of iron. Had she hurt herself trying to speak so much?
"...I know you did your best, but I reserve some doubt to your acurracy."
Six couldn't argue with Green. Her memory was far from her strong suit and she wouldn't be too surprised if the ritual she was trying to perform failed altogether. As if to reinsure her, the circle of blood began glowing with an arcane light. Dim at first, it grew in brightness quickly, becoming blindingly radiant after a few seconds.
The girl's stomach lept into her throat as she watched summoning commence. This was the first time she used what Green called "sorcery". It was exciting and frightening, like her first battle in the arena. In the back of her mind a voice- primal instincts of self-preservation given form, cried out to her to leave the circle, but she didn't. She was equally uncertain of what would happen if she did. It was possible that leaving the circle could hurt her or the pack and that wasn't a risk she wanted to take. So instead she stood still and waited for the blinding light to fade.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood tall as she sensed the air around her change. There was another presence in the circle with her. It just donned on her that there may be a chance another so called "heroic spirit" would wind up in her body and she wasn't ready to have share her mind and memories with a third person. Green was tiring enough. Falling too her knees, she clutched head between her palms and shut her eyes tight. Unbeknownst to her the light faded and a newcomer stood within magic circle where she had not before. It wasn't until she heard a soft voice ask "Are you my master" did she open her eyes and look up to the individual.
Six's eyes widened and her mouth gaped open in surprise. The woman that stood before her was by all account gorgeous. Raven black hair framed a porcelain face with the gentlest of brown eyes. The small woman wore several layer of kimono of varying colors with the lowest layers enclosed with a obi. Geta gave her the impression of being few inches taller than she actually was. In one hand she held an elegantly crafted naginata. "Are you my master?" The woman repeated, her voice as soft as the whispering wind.
Six's face burned with a fever she had never felt before, her heart aching intensely. She tried to speak, but no words came out no matter how hard she tried. She simply stared in awe at the woman before her.
"Answer the lady, you knave! I know not what addles your brain, but show some respect!" Like a bucket of cold water, Green's voice snapped the girl back to reality.
Six got to her feet, standing a whole head above the woman and did her best to look the newcomer in the eyes. Only a few feet apart, she picked up the faint scent of a flower she hadn't encounter before. It was gentle and relaxing yet strong and refined. "Y-yes..." The girl forced words from her lips, trying her best to not be frightened by the divine creature standing before her.
The woman smiled and for a whole second Six swore her heart stopped beating. "It is a honor to meet you, milady. I am your humble servant...Lancer. Please take good care of me." There was a momentary hesitation before Lancer introduced herself, but this was lost on the infatuated girl.
"Lan...cer...?" Six weighed the name on her tongue. She recalled a time when Green had tried to explain about servants and classes to her. Servants couldn't use their real names for reasons the girl couldn't understand and instead used their class as an alias. As Green (and by extension 6 herself) was a Berseker, the woman before was a Lancer.
"Milady, could I have the honor of hearing your name?"
Six was uncertain how to answer the question. The old man called her "Experiment Number Six" or "No. Six" for short and Green used a number of different titles as the situation seemed to call for, knowing only she would be able to hear his voice. Most of the robed figures didn't even adress her. The wolves and woodland animals had no use for names. According to them that was something humans did. Shamefully she looked to the ground. "I...don't...know..."
Lancer frowned; the most heart wrenchingly beautiful frown the girl had seen ever seen. As much as she wanted the woman to smile once more, she couldn't possibly ignore the majesty of her disappointment. "That's unfortunate." The woman placed a curled finger on her chin in thought. "If I had a daughter with such beautiful hair, I'd think I would name 'Midori'."
"Mi...do...ri?" Six had no idea what the word met, but coming from Lancer's lips it was the most majestic and noble sounding word she had ever heard.
"If I had eyes, I'd be rolling them now. Between you and my wife, I don't know who thinks with her loins more." Green had mentioned having a wife from time to time. Six had assumed that she was the beautiful woman who appeared in many of his memories- the one he laid with, but he had never spoken of her with such jealousy as just then. Unfortunately, the girl's mind was too preoccupied to notice the change in his tone.
The woman smiled. "In my homeland's language it means 'Green'."
"Well this is going to be awkward."
"Mi...do...ri..." The girl liked her new name. It was not a title given to her drenched in cruelty and bloodshed. It was a name woven from a compliment, full of kindness and warmth. For the first time in a very long time she smiled. It wasn't the sadistic grin of blood lust as she often donned in the heat of battle, but one filled with genuine happiness.
"Lady Midori, if I could be so bold as to ask you for a favor."
"Yes...?"
"Could you present me with the relic you used to summon my humble self?"
"What...?"
"When summoning a servant, a master often uses an object of historical value to insure summoning a specific heroic spirit." Green exposited.
"I don't even understand a single word you just said."
"The dagger, you knave! Give her the dagger!"
"Oh, why didn't you say that sooner?"
Green sighed deeply.
Midori rummaged about the pelts that served as her clothes and drew the tanto she had come to rely on so much. Gingerly she handed the dagger over to the woman.
"Thank you very much, milady," Lancer tucked her weapon in the crook of her arm and took the tanto from her master. Slowly she unsheathed its blade. Its was rusted, chipped and dulled. Worse yet, the tip of dagger was strangely missing. The servant's already pale face grew translucent as her eyes rolled back into the back of her head. Ever so gracefully, the woman collapsed to the ground in a unconscious bundle.
"Lancer...?" Midori blinked, taken by surprise at the woman's fainting spell. "She is beautiful when she faints!"
Green groaned. "I'll be frank here, lass. Your chances of winning the Holy Grail War are slim."
Little did Midori know that she was being observed. A tall mirror within a darkly lit throne room reflected her visage on its silvery surface. A woman draped in black sat in one of two velvet adorned thrones placed in the far end of the room, an amused grin crossed her veiled face. "So Lancer has been summoned; only three remain."
"Milady," A knight adorned in black armor kneeled before the woman, head bowed in reverence.
"Yes, my king?" The woman didn't take her attention from the mirror when dressing the knight.
"As you wished, I have tasked the treacherous cur with delivering the package."
"Great. Now come forth and take your place beside me, my king." The woman gestured to the throne adjacent to hers.
"Yes, milady." The knight removed her helm, revealing a pale face framed with snow white and piercing, golden eyes. Rising to her feet, she strode forth and sat in the empty throne.
"I'm curious to what pawns the Mage's Association will choose..." The woman in black rolled a golden figure resembling a robed man holding a staff within the palm her hand. Fourteen other golden figures sat a checkered board located on a small table beside her throne: A knight holding a sword skyward; a soldier wielding a spear; an archer with bow drawn; a cavalier with reigns in hand; an assailant with draggers crossed against his chest; a savage wearing the head of some fierce beast; seven humanoid shape pieces standing before each of them save for one who stood whose mate was currently in the woman's hand; and a chalice of great majesty.