Percy POV
Percy and Caren were now headed to the church for… reasons Caren hadn't yet explained to him.
"Don't tell me we're going to church to pray. It's not even Saturday!" Percy complained with his arms crossed.
"No, we're not going there to pray, the supervisor of the Grail War should be there, and we can properly register there," Caren said with an odd amount of disdain.
Does she have history with the church or something? I knew she had problems with someone, but I didn't expect it to be the place she works at.
He had no clue as to why since Caren was very secluded and whenever she did answer anything it was usually so vague it barely gave any answers and only brought more questions.
Though, that could be chalked down to her almost robotic nature which was something she probably couldn't control. Not like he was judging of course; he was far from a normal person himself.
"So, mind telling me some things about this church we're going to?" Percy asked curiously.
"I guess I can indulge you. The church is not actually a proper church and is instead an organization to hunt down supernatural heresy's like Dead Apostles or anything demonic and purge them as they are not holy and do not follow the will of God," she stated proudly.
"And… What are Dead Apostles again?" He briefly remembered her saying something about them in their conversation but couldn't remember.
"Vampires." she informed him.
Percy gasped. Vampires were real? And were hunted down by priests and priestesses? He visualized in his head a man with sharp fangs and dark clothing being impaled by wooden stakes and being served garlic bread.
He shuddered. He was very fortunate he hadn't faced anything like that in his career.
"They are very dangerous creatures, especially their elite like the twenty-seven dead apostle ancestors where some have been alike before Christ some say. " she said with a amused face seeing him drop his jaw.
"Are they on servant level?"
"No, some might be able to handle a very low-level servant if they play their cards right but against a high-level servant like you, they can't do anything." she said.
Percy blushed at the praise. While he had received praise many times before from very gods and goddesses it felt...more fulfilling when she said it.
Probably because ever done a quest he's always had help or assistance from the gods and really wasn't as great as people played him out to be.
The camp expected him to be some fearless, invincible and badass leader but in reality, he had his own fears and some of them were quite laughable like drowning despite the fact that he's the son of Poseidon.
Even with the curse he never thought of himself as higher than a demigod and always stayed as humble as he could.
If he didn't his mom would beat his a-
"We're here," she told him quietly.
He looked ahead and saw that there was a gate and a church behind it. For all intents and purposes, it looked like your ordinary everyday church one would go to.
"Huh, so this is it." he said unimpressed. He expected like-some secret underground base that had a lever that was disguised as a church but he was greeted to… this.
She must have seen his disappointment because she sighed. "I bet you were expecting a secret underground base with traps and stuff. But sorry to inform you that's not here"
She didn't even sound sorry at all!
"The church while fake is still used as an actual church for those who wish to hear the voice of God."
"Hmph, anyway do you know who's the 'father' of this church?" he asked her curiously and she didn't respond.
When he looked at her, he saw the darkest look yet from her startling him.
"Master?!" he said concerned at her change in mood.
"I know him," she said coldly. "His name is Kirei Kotomine."
Something told him she didn't want to talk about it any longer, so he respectively dropped it and walked forward.
She held a hand out in front of her, stopping him. He looked at her confused.
"Servants aren't allowed in the church as it is neutral ground for those who wish to seek shelter." she told him curtly.
"Okay, so are you going to go in by yourself?"
"Yes."
"I don't think that's a good idea." he advised as he got a very weird vibe from this church and not a good vibe but a bad one.
He felt some sort of aura emanate from this church that almost compelled him to turn back and go somewhere else.
It reminded him of those scary movies he used to watch with his mom that still scared him to this day.
He wasn't scared for himself but more so for his master then he was. If he let her out of his sights for just a second it could all be over.
Though, the lights were on as far as he could see so that probably meant that the priest who Caren said was named Kirei was home.
Or he forgot to turn off the lights in a hurry to get a discount at the grocery store.
He couldn't lie. He was disappointed he couldn't come in because he wanted to meet the man who grinded on Caren's nerves.
Maybe he could receive some tips from him?
She bravely started walking forward. "Just wait out here it shouldn't take too long" after she said that she headed in and he stared at her back.
"She better not take too long or I'll die of boredom." he wished he had something to do to pass the time like talk to someone.
The way she said 'it shouldn't take too long' unnerved him for some reason and he didn't know why.
He liked his master, and despite their disagreements she was easily the best person he's seen since he'd gotten here.
He tried to calm his nerves and reassure himself that she would be fine.
She has command seals Percy, if she needs help then she will use one and I will be there in but a second. Screw the rules.
He'd broken so many rules he felt he should be named Rule Breaker having broken so many prophecies and fates.
He leaned against the gate in boredom and started whistling a tune his mom always played in the car.
Before he could lose himself in his memories an arrow was shot at him at surprising speeds which he blocked with his arm guard he manifested.
He was instantly on guard and sharpened his senses for the assailant. He didn't uncap Riptide yet and wanted to keep it a surprise for as long as possible.
Four arrows suddenly shot at him aiming for his chest which he blocked by crossing his forearms.
Whoever the person is certainly packs a punch I'll say that much.
He could feel the mana that was stored in that arrow and he had to say he was impressed. Not a lot of things could make him feel pain nowadays.
Whoever this person is is definitely an Archer no doubts about that. That perfect accuracy, could only belong to them.
He hadn't met the Archer of this war yet, so he had no idea what to expect from him.
Being cautious, he summoned his full Celestial Bronze armor equipped with helmet, armguards, chest plate and leg guards.
"So, you're actually a servant huh?" a familiar voice said and he looked to see Rin Tohsaka herself approaching closer to him in an almost carefree manner.
He narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, you got me. You're also the master of Archer?"
She smiled. "That's right. What class of servant are you?"
"Classified," he said in the most militaristic voice possible which wasn't much.
She didn't look concerned at him keeping secrets. "Well, I guess I should show you, my servant, now. Percy-san. Meet Archer."
Her servant suddenly appeared from spirit form and Percy took in his build cautiously.
He had white hair though he didn't look any older than twenty, gray eyes and tanned skin. He wore black body armor of some sort also equipped with black pants, black metal-plated shoes and a red coat that only went down to about his shins.
All in all, he looked very professional but didn't strike him as an Archer especially not when he was holding a black sword a little bigger than his own.
"If he's an Archer, then why is using a sword?" he asked confused though they couldn't see his expression under his helmet.
"That's irrelevant right now, you should be worried about my servant right now," Rin said so kindly that he briefly had an image of Annabeth.
He was ruined from his thoughts when Archer dashed towards him at impressive speeds and aimed his blade straight for his heart
Percy leaned back in an impressive display of acrobatics and kicked at Archer's chest who blocked it with the flat side of his blade although it did send him back a few feet.
Can't use too much mana as Caren can't supply me with much!
Percy rushed forward this time with easily C-ranked speed and was behind Archer before he could even react and yet when Percy stabbed forward with Riptide that was suddenly uncapped, the servant was able to react in time and block it.
The two were now at a stalemate that Percy was slowly winning with his superior strength and his attacker was on one knee gritting his teeth.
Before he could completely gain ground, Rin threw gems at him kicking up a large explosion that shook the earth that obscured everything in smoke.
XxX
Caren had to say she was not ready for this moment.
She was finally going to confront her father for the first time since she was born, and she didn't know how to feel about it.
Sure, she'd had dreams about it every so often depicting how it would play out but those were just that, dreams not reality.
If she'd learned one thing over her time as a member of the church it was that God always played out things way different from how you expected him to.
This was but one example of this.
She knew her mission quite well. Confront Kirei as he was currently under suspicion by the church of betraying them as he'd been out of contact with them for quite a while and hadn't reported back to them.
When they were going over the candidates, she immediately offered to go confront her father in person to see if they were right.
She accepted mostly because she was curious as to what kind of person her father truly was as he did send her to her grandparents and didn't even leave a message or anything really.
She'd heard things like he was finally losing his faith in God and committing heresy, he was the cause of the fire that happened ten years ago or even the craziest one yet, he derived pleasure off people's suffering.
Of course, as his daughter, she immediately dismissed those claims with a wave of her hand but nevertheless, a seed of doubt grew in her mind.
It only grew as time went on and he never came to visit or anything.
Shaking her head from her thoughts, she opened up the church doors that were familiar in a way yet completely different.
There sat the man she'd been thinking about for the past half-decade, Kirei Kotomine, her father.
He was reading a page out of the bible as far as she could see and when he saw someone enter, he put on his smile.
"Welcome to Kotomine Church how may I-" he paused as she stepped out of the shadow to reveal herself completely.
"Claudia?!" Kirei said more emotion then she thought he would have had.
"No, I'm Caren. Caren Hortensia." she stated as confidently as she could. She knew she couldn't show any weakness in the face of her father.
She didn't know why he was so surprised as he was clearly the master of Lancer and was probably informed about her beforehand.
"And you are Kirei Kotomine, the church Executor who hasn't reported to the church in over five years." Caren said emotionlessly.
Kirei looked at her stunned for a second before snickering. That snickering then went on to chuckling and soon enough full-blown laughter.
"What is so funny?" Caren demanded confused as to why he was laughing.
He wiped away a fake tear from his eyes. "My lord, I've not seen you for so long I mistook you for Claudia."
"Well I'm not," Caren said with her arms crossed and glaring at him.
"Yes, I can clearly see that too you developed a very different personality from her too." Caren frowned. While she didn't mind being compared to her mother, it still made her feel uncomfortable.
"And you've also gone and become an esteemed member of the church too. Oh, how the lord has decided our fate."
"Stop changing the subject. Why have you not been in contact with the church? They are starting to believe you are committing treason" she questioned.
"Oh? I've been… busy these past few years working on something that I kind of… lost contact with them." he said.
Caren narrowed her eyes "The report you gave as to why Father Risei died was very vague too, mind clearing that up?"
"He was killed by a mage named Kayneth Archibald," he stated emotionlessly almost… disappointed? She couldn't quite tell what he was thinking through those dark eyes of his.
Father Risei was a high-ranking member of the church that everyone liked. Not because of his kindness of course but because of his decades of experience that made him an excellent Executor.
Unfortunately, she didn't get to meet her esteemed grandfather since he was long dead by the time, she knew about him.
She gave a quick prayer for him to reach Heavens where he can live in peace.
"Yet, you didn't inform us until four years after. The church is getting wary of you and your actions. While you might be one of the best the church has ever had, they can only let you go so far." She said looking at him straight in the eye.
It would be very scary if Kirei suddenly decided to quit the church because he was one of their best and most ruthless.
She didn't know as much as she wanted about his abilities besides, he picked up a martial arts style a few years ago and is one of the top five best Black Keys users.
Which was quite the feat since even wielding them could be a pain but throwing them was another question. She knew how to use them but preferred not to because she wasn't very good with them and was at best, average.
"I told you already, I simply lost contact" Kirei waved off nonchalantly.
She didn't like how he wasn't even the slightest bit concerned even though he could potentially be fired from the church and she would probably have to take his place as the supervisor.
Not that she would mind taking over, but it would mean she would have to terminate her contract with her servant because the supervisors had to stay neutral sadly.
"So, is that all the questions you have for me O' dear daughter?" Kirei questioned with a smile.
"I-" she was cut off by the sounds of steel clashing onto steel. She quickly looked out the window to see… her servant fighting another servant and Rin Tohsaka standing by?
She grit her teeth. She couldn't do anything at the moment and if she left the building which was the safe zone she would probably be killed.
"Oh? That's your servant Caren?" Kirei said, walking next to her to see the fight.
She ignored him and instead focused on contacting her servant.
'Percy, who are you fighting?' She questioned urgently.
'I'm...Fight- Fighting Archer. He came out of nowhere." he responded slowly.
Caren quirked an eyebrow. Percy said he was an Archer class servant and yet here he was using a black blade with a good amount of proficiency.
Caren could see the parameters of the Archer which weren't very notable and most of them were in the C's and D's at best. Which made it quite the mystery as to how he was keeping up with her servant who hardly had anything below B.
Though, to her they were just constant blurs that were moving around constantly with the Tohsaka helping occasionally but throwing gems which released high-ranking magic at her servant who managed to dodge most of them.
She hoped he could win despite the odds.
She needed him too.
XxX
Archer had to say he was terribly confused with the results of this war so far.
He'd fought before in this war as a master before and while his memory was very cloudy he could still remember key points that changed somehow.
Starting off with Berserker who was still Heracles and yet he was different in a way.
Namely, because he had a bow despite not being of the Archer class like himself. Then he also had sanity unlike what he remembered of the mad servant who could only growl and roar angrily.
When him and Saber fought against this Berserker he was a completely different person to the point where they couldn't do anything against him let alone get close to him which would be akin to suicide.
He uses his Noble Phantasm Nine Lives expertly to where anytime he fired any arrows at the not-so mad servant he would simply shoot it down with a rain of arrows.
Caladbolg? Shot down before it could even get close. Hrunting, easily caught with his bare hands and crushed like it was apple juice. Durandal? Hmph that was easily tossed away.
Saber tried to fight him too and yet she could barely get close even when using her powerful mana burst and whenever she did get in close he just switched to his sword-axe in but an instant and fought her off.
Nothing seemed to be effective against the servant which left only one option; defeat Illya and it would be over.
Of course, not him, Shirou, Saber could find it in themselves to hurt her for varying reasons.
Rin of course, was all for it and almost demanded for him to just shoot her down but he couldn't.
Despite all his years as a counter guardian he still thought of her as his sister and still cared about her immensely and that hasn't changed no matter how many years went by.
So, eventually Illya got bored when Saber started to weaken, and Archer ran out of ideas on how to harm the servant and left promising to return to kill Shirou Emiya.
After that, they instantly teamed up with Saber and her master so if they were to ever encounter the servant again, they could do it together.
He wasn't too happy with it but Rin told him to suck it up, so he did. Reluctantly.
And now, here was the second problem; the servant that he was fighting currently.
He was definitely a servant that much was for sure, but he just felt… different to the counter guardian that he couldn't put his finger on why.
Nevertheless, he was an extremely powerful servant and was leagues above him and could possibly even contend with Saber even if she had Rin as her master.
He could get nothing off the servant's armor and sword because it apparently wasn't of a material he knew of and until he knew the name of it, he couldn't analyze it.
Though, to Archer it looked like he simply used bronze which was of a weaker material then most swords in his Reality Marble. And yet despite that, it didn't break on contact with Kanshou and even matched his blade.
Archer decided to try a new strategy and projected his large black bow and an arrow and shot it at his opponent who easily dodged, and they clashed again with their blades.
The servant suddenly kicked him in the sides with surprising strength sending him backwards, but he decided to use this to his advantage and threw Kanshou before projecting another one.
He needed to see everything the servant could do before pulling out his trump cards. So far, he could see he was outmatched in parameters and the servant was better than him when it came to swordplay.
This wasn't anything surprising however, as most servants did tend to be stronger than him except for Assassin and Caster.
He knew just how to get on their nerves and make them slip up.
"You're quite the strong fellow, aren't you?" Archer questioned with an easy-going smirk.
"I can say the same to you, Archer," he responded.
Archer couldn't see his expression behind the helmet but could feel he was also smirking.
He needed to get as much information about his identity because if he could figure out his cause of death, he would be able to project a Noble Phantasm that would fit that.
"But I would like to know why you and your master are attacking me?" the servant asked him.
Archer scoffed. "Do we need a reason to attack?"
"Good point," he admitted before getting serious. "Rin. If you stop attacking now, I'll let you and your servant go"
"Why would we give up now when this is a prime opportunity to take out a servant? Especially since your master isn't here with you." she pointed out.
He only sighed at his master's words. She could be as stubborn as a rock sometimes and once she makes a decision, she hardly ever backs down from it.
Either way, he would follow her diligently. Mostly because she knew what she was doing most of the time.
Though he had to say if the servant was holding back, he was in for a rough ride. The only thing keeping him going was his Eye of the Mind skill which let him react according to experience.
This is also how he managed to fight Lancer to a standstill and do it with ease.
But now, he had to bait this servant into using his Noble Phantasm so he could figure out his identity or at least narrow it down.
He readied multiple blueprints of Noble Phantasms should the need come to use it. He was a big mystery, so it was only appropriate to treat him like one.
XxX
Percy had to say that he was not expecting to fight this much today.
First Rider then Archer it was all too much for one day.
He was running low on mana and would have to hit the beach right after this to replenish his mana.
At best, he could use one Noble Phantasm but if he uses it and it doesn't prove to be effective, he would be drained dry.
He would have to choose wisely what his next action would be.
'Master. Should I use my Noble Phantasm now or what?"
'Use that Pegasus you were talking about yesterday that should finish it off.'
He nodded. If he was being honest, he was excited to summon his friend again as it's been too long since he's seen him and he's the one person who he could truly talk too about things.
He dropped his stance confusing those around him and placed a palm on the ground and suddenly, the ground underneath them shook as if something was arising from the earth which it was.
Archer tensed up and stood next to his master, ready to defend should he attack.
"W-What's happening Archer?" Rin asked, confused and looking around.
"I don't know." Archer admitted.
"I'll show you right now." Percy said as he chanted the words to bring out his Pegasus
"From the depths of the underworld I announce thee. Rise my faithful Pegasus!"
Suddenly, a magnificent midnight black Pegasus erupted from the ground shocking all the onlookers including his master, Caren.
He smirked seeing his companion once again.
"BOSS, BOSS YOU CALLED? WELL IF YOU DIDN'T TOO BAD CUZ I'M HERE!" Blackjack said loudly, making Percy frown.
Everyone's jaw dropped at the talking Pegasus.
Percy only facepalmed while sighing.
"Never change."
XxX
AN: Remember when I said that Blackjack will be appearing soon? Yeah, I meant sooner than you thought xD.
Let me know what you think about his introduction and if you laughed, cried, felt sad or… nothing.
Anyway, as you guys can see a lot happens in this short chapter including; Archer and Percy duking it out, Caren and Kirei having quality time together, Archer's information about what happened to Berserker and yeah.
Btw if you don't know already, Berserker can now freely turn on his Mad Enhancement on and off. He also has a bow that's strikingly like Berserker and possibly more who knows.
I'll talk about why exactly it is he has this later on of course.
Blackjack: Faithful Black Pegasus A+ (Anti-Army): Percy's faithful companion that has been with him for many years. Blackjack transcended along with Percy to the Throne of heroes and became a Noble Phantasm that can ? The Pegasus can be used in conjunction with (?)
Until next time, wrath.