November 20th, 2004 – Animusphere Castle
Ruin had come to the main branch of the Animusphere family. Their entire castle looked like it had been attacked by an army, and the Animuspheres hadn't gone out without a fight.
But it hadn't been enough.
Standing in front of what had been the main entrance to the castle, Waver Velvet and his two companions could see the scope of the devastation. If the place hadn't been so remote, the Association would have had a field's day keeping it all under wraps.
One of the castle's towers had fallen, crushing an entire wing under its weight. Almost every window they could see was broken, and the great gates of the Animusphere, reputed across the Clocktower for the artistry of their gold and silver engravings, laid in pieces where they had fallen after being blown off their hinges. A corner of Waver's mind noted that the gates had fallen outward, meaning that the attack that had destroyed them had come from within the castle itself.
He didn't know what that meant yet, but he filed that titbit away for later.
"Lord El-Melloi II," a man in a sharp suit and wearing sunglasses politely called out. There were tiny runes engraved on the glasses' frames where a brand name would be on a mundane version, which Waver recognized as a Mystery of true-seeing, meant to pierce through basic illusions. Another, almost identical man stood next to him, guarding the entrance. "If you would follow me, I will take you to the scene."
Waver raised an eyebrow, before gesturing at the desolation on display. "I rather thought this entire castle was the scene."
"Yes, but we have found the epicentre of what happened here. Miss Adashino is waiting for you there."
"The epicentre, huh ? I see …"
Waver took one more moment to take in the sight of the ruined castle. He had been told this would be bad, but he hadn't expected it to be quite that bad. The situations in which he was called in as a consultant were generally smaller in scale. Thefts, murders and intrigue – not outright warfare.
Then again, he had never intended to somehow become the Clocktower's equivalent of Sherlock Holmes. He still wasn't sure how he would punish the student who had first introduced the nickname in the Association, but he would find a way to make that miscreant regret it if it was the last thing he did.
Regardless of how it had come to be, the nickname – and the reputation – had stuck, somehow growing every time he left his classroom on an errand for Reines and ended up barely surviving another confrontation with a lunatic Magus bent on reaching the Root, or achieving immortality, or settling a grudge against their rivals, or something else equally asinine.
Nevermind that in almost every case, he had only gotten away thanks to his more martially-inclined associates. He was the one on whom the dubious prestige kept falling. He was the one who was whispered of in closed circles, the one they called the Dissector of Mysteries, with something between contempt and dread.
Before his second – and, it seemed, last – trip to Japan, that perception hadn't been nearly as widespread. It seemed that Fuyuki City was fated to always be a crucible of sorts for him, a place where his life was upended whenever he was foolish enough to venture there. His first trip had ripped his youthful arrogance and preconceptions to shreds; his second had obliterated any chance of his dream ever becoming real and granted him the wish he had once held.
Truly, fate had a dark and twisted sense of humor.
The same nobles who sneered at him for being an upstart were all too willing to call him in when they needed his help. Once, that fact would have made him jump in pride and joy – now, it just made him more aware of how likely it was that reputation would get him killed one day. If he had any sense, he would have left the Clocktower, severed all ties to the Association, and become a shoemaker or something in a countryside village that had never so much as heard of Magecraft.
But then, Waver Velvet had long since accepted that he didn't have much sense. And though he knew he would never be reunited with the lord he adored, he still pursued his shadow, hoping to one day reach the same stage he had.
Today, that path had brought him here, to the Animusphere castle. And he wouldn't – couldn't – turn back.
"Lead on, my good man," he said out loud.
They walked over the broken gates and into the castle that, until recently, had been forbidden to all but the Animuspheres and their invited guests. Everywhere, there were more signs of the battle that had raged here. The air tingled with the echoes of the spells the Magi had unleashed in defense of their home, drawing upon their knowledge of the stars themselves to power their Mysteries.
The walls that still stood were cracked and covered in blood, or blackened by fire. Priceless artworks and relics of the Moonlit World the Animuspheres had collected over their two thousand years of existence laid in pieces where they had fallen after a stray attack had knocked them from their pedestals. The floor was covered in craters from where spells had hit, and the entrance hall was parted in two by a great trench dug into the ground that led directly towards the broken gates.
They passed through a corridor whose walls had been covered in portraits of the various Heads of the Animusphere. Not a single painting remained intact : every piece of canvas had been torn to shreds. Waver paused to examine some of the wreckage, and found that at least one of the paintings had been subjected to enough heat to cause the gilding on its frame to melt.
And the smell … the smell was everywhere. The reek of gore reminded Waver of Caster's lair during the Fourth Grail War. He had seen many things since then, but none had matched the grotesque horror of what Gilles de Rais had wrought in the sewers of Fuyuki. In truth, even this latest devastation could not rival the nightmare Caster had created back then, but the thought did little for his stomach or his nerves. It was all he could do to keep himself from vomiting, and he could only manage even that much because of the need to present a strong front for his companions.
At least the victims aren't children this time, he told himself as he forced himself to take it all in. It helped a little, but not a lot. Maybe it would be a different matter if only Magi had perished, but a castle of that size had to have had human servants.
Even Bazett looked shaken by the sights. The former Enforcer and current bodyguard for the Clocktower's youngest Lord stood on his right, while Gray was on his left.
On the outside, Bazett looked exactly as she had before her ill-advised trip to Japan : her suit and gloves kept her new arm covered. Waver had kept his word to her, leading his students in a group project to build her a prosthetic arm that was just as good as the one she had lost. The combination of different styles of Magecraft that had gone into its construction meant that no single Mystery could break it or usurp control of it, and the bones of the original arm that served as its skeleton allowed Bazett to channel her Magecraft through it without much difficulty.
After her rehabilitation period had come the healing of Bazett's Magical Circuits. Waver's friend had not asked questions as he restored the damage the Enforcer had suffered at Emiya's hands, but he had idly mentioned that whatever was responsible was not something he wanted to trifle with. In total, it had taken six months between their return from Japan and Bazett's full recovery.
The moment she had been back at full strength, Bazett had offered her services as Waver's bodyguard, claiming that she owed him her life. The young Lord's protests had gone unheeded, and Reines had formally hired Bazett away from the Enforcers and as a personal retainer of the Archibalds, assigning her to Waver without him having a word in it.
Gray had been even less enthusiastic about that than Waver, though he had been forced to admit her presence had saved his life more than once since then. The two of them hadn't exactly grown close in the intervening months, for reasons which baffled him and seemed to amuse his adoptive sister to no end.
Right now, the grimness of their surroundings were keeping both of them quiet. Bazett was pale, and Gray … Gray was trembling. Not for the first time, Waver mentally cursed himself for bringing his spiritually-sensitive apprentice to a place like this. In his defense, he hadn't know what they were going to find. The message that had brought him here had been frustratingly, if unsurprisingly vague.
"Gray," he spoke loudly, making her jump slightly as she was pulled out of whatever funk she had been slowly sinking into by the sound of his voice. "What can you tell me of the spiritual atmosphere here ?"
"It's bad," she whispered, barely loud enough for Waver to hear. "It's not just that so many people died here … we have visited places where far more deaths happened. The terror the dead felt in their last moments still resonates here. None of them died swiftly, or cleanly."
Under the fear and the nausea, there was a current of anger in Gray's voice. Waver's apprentice had originally been a grave-keeper, a guardian of the dead's peaceful slumber. To her, something like what she was describing would be an abomination like few others.
"And there is something else," she continued, "under the wails of the dead. I hear a sound like a broken machine trying to start, sputtering out and failing, before trying again."
"I see," said Waver, focusing on the last part of his apprentice's words for now. "Then it is as I thought. The Workshop of the Animusphere is broken."
Gray looked at him, and he saw the question in her posture.
"The Animusphere family was the one responsible for the foundation of the Department of Astrology in the Clocktower," he explained. "Since then, one of their own has always served as its Lord, and almost every Magus lineage practicing a variation of Astromancy is descended from them. It is no exaggeration to say that the entire field of Magecraft originates with them … at least, as it is practiced by Magi affiliated with the Clocktower."
"Here, in the demesne of their House Head, centuries of their craft went into maintaining and enhancing their Workshop. From the continuation of their research to their defense against the outside world, this entire castle could be considered one enormous Mystery."
He extended his right arm in front of him, and snapped his fingers. The Mystic Code embedded in his gloves reacted, and a small flame briefly appeared at the tip of his index.
"This is nothing but a party trick I use to light my cigars when I have forgotten my lighter or it has run dry," he explained, "but if I had tried to use it here before, the Workshop would likely have blocked the actualisation of the Mystery. Now, however, the Workshop had been broken by the conflict that took place here – broken, but not completely annihilated, hence what Gray is sensing."
"That sounds dangerous," interjected Bazett. "Are you sure we should just be strolling into that ? By your description, isn't this place a giant magical hazard ?"
Waver considered that for a moment, before shaking his head.
"We should be fine. I wouldn't have gone in here first, you understand, but since Policies has already a presence here, I expect any immediate danger has already passed." He didn't say out loud that he expected the Clocktower's team to have taken several casualties to precisely such perils, but he knew both Bazett and Gray had gotten the message – and, given the sudden stiffening of their guide's shoulders, so had he.
The Animusphere castle was huge, and the destruction it had suffered slowed their advance. It took almost half an hour before they reached their destination, and their guide stopped before a broken arch-stone whose rubble had already been cleared away.
"In here, sir. Miss Adashino is waiting for you."
Leaving the man behind, the trio entered a vast domed chamber, almost a hundred meters in diameter – Waver had no doubt that the actual number had been precisely calculated to serve some arcane purpose.
The floor appeared to be made of a single piece of white stone, though that was difficult to tell : the damage in this room was far worse than anything they had seen outside. Lines of silver, gold and mercury could be seen on the larger pieces of stone. The walls were covered in blasted geometrical figures, circles and orbits representing the motion of celestial objects. A dozen individuals in white robes were walking carefully amidst the rubble, examining every pile of stone.
The ceiling of the dome matched the floor's ruined grandeur. It was made entirely of glass, great panels arranged to form a perfect half-sphere of tinted glass that showed images of the constellations as they would shine down at night during certain times of the year. There were holes in the glass now, as if something had punched right through, but the structure had been designed well enough that the entire thing had yet to collapse and flatten everyone in the room.
And there, near the entrance they had come through, was Hishiri Adashino. Waver had had the misfortune of encountering her before. The Asian woman, whose position in the Department of Policies was unclear but clearly of some authority, was dressed – as she always was – in a classic, luxurious kimono that was entirely at odds with the suits of her minions. Her long, silky black hair reached the low of her back, and her glasses shone in the sunlight that filtered through the broken ceiling.
It was her who had asked for Waver to come here from London, contacting him directly rather than going through Reines. That was a first : in their previous encounters, she had either already been there when he arrived, or come after him and forced him to accelerate his investigation to stop her from going with the politically expedient solution and blaming whatever crime had occurred on whoever was the least influential person present.
It was also the first time Waver had ever seen her not smirking or looking smug. She actually looked concerned, and that worried Waver more than he liked to admit.
"Hello, Miss Adashino."
"Lord El-Melloi II," she greeted him with a curtsey. "Miss McRemitz, Miss Gray. Welcome to the house of the Animusphere, such as it is."
"We saw the destruction on our way in. I agree that whatever happened here is a matter Policies should be interested in, but I am not sure why I am here. You have your own investigators, and this is far beyond the scope of my meagre abilities. Why did you call me ?"
"I will explain in time," she replied. "For now, I would like you to examine this room, without any preconception, and see if your conclusions align with ours."
He stared at her for several seconds, but her smiling face gave away nothing. Eventually, he gave up, and turned his attention to the room.
There was blood here too, he noted. It was more difficult to see, given how thoroughly the floor had been wrecked, but here and there he could see scarlet stains on the broken white stone.
"This entire chamber was a giant magic circle, wasn't it ?" asked Bazett. Waver nodded. "What purpose could something that huge serve ?"
"None in particular. From what I can see, it was an amplifier," Waver explained. "This place allowed the Head of the Animusphere to draw upon the power of the stars through the glass ceiling, with the circle on the floor managing the flow of energy. In that way, a single Magus can manipulate levels of power far beyond what their mortal body could handle. The circle also contained secondary control positions, allowing for several Magi to lend their assistance to the Mystery. And all of that power was directed to the center, which is kept empty so that any type of ritual can be … conducted …"
Waver trailed off as he saw what was at the chamber's center. Unlike the rest of the room, the floor was intact there, a perfectly circular island of stability amidst a sea of debris. In that circle, another magic circle was traced, black lines and runes burned into the white stone. The inside of that circle was charred black as well, and as Waver navigated his way through the rubble, he saw that there was just one, minuscule spot of white left at the disc's exact center.
"Oh," he breathed. "So that is why you asked me to come."
"Indeed." Adashino had followed him across the room, same as Bazett and Gray, and stood at his side. "Can you confirm that this is indeed a Formalcraft array designed to summon a Servant, in accordance to the standards set up for the Heaven's Feel ritual ?"
"It is. Damaged as it may be, there is no mistaking that design. A Servant was summoned there."
Waver straightened himself, pulled a cigar from his pockets and lit it with a snap of his fingers. With his eyes closed, he took several deep puffs, letting the Mystic Code's enchantment do its work, clearing his mind and banishing all fatigue so that he could focus. The smell of tobacco surrounded him, briefly eclipsing that of bloodshed.
He opened his eyes, and looked at Adashino.
"Alright. You already suspected this was the work of a Servant. I agree with you that this is the most distinct possibility. What else do you know ?"
"One week ago," she began, "several invitations were received by members of the Animusphere's extended family. Nine Magi belonging to the Astrology Department were called to this castle, to witness and participate in a ritual that would 'secure the Animusphere's place in the annals of Magecraft forevermore'. All those invited came, along with their entourage – apprentices, bodyguards, consorts and the like."
Waver did not miss the way Adashino's gaze lingered on Bazett and Gray as she mentioned the last type of companion a Magus might be accompanied by, nor the brief small that twisted her lips. He refused to rise to the bait, and she continued her explanation :
"Then, yesterday, we received word that potent Mysteries of a destructive nature had been detected in the area by the Clocktower observatories. Given Marisbury's status as a Lord of the Association, we immediately went to investigate."
She gestured at the ruined circle, and the Formalcraft array at its center.
"When we found this, I thought I recognized the design from the files the Department of Policies kept on the Grail War that occurred ten years ago. You, Lord El-Melloi II, have the most experience with the summoning of Servants and the Holy Grail War in the Association, and so I asked you to come to confirm my theory, and help us find out what happened."
"That 'experience' you speak of was gained merely by surviving by the skin of my teeth," sighed Waver. "But I suppose that is more than anyone else you could have called. Let's start with the most obvious question : even with the support of this chamber's structure, the summoning circle would be useless without the assistance of the Greater Grail in Fuyuki. Which means the Holy Grail War has started again, hasn't it ?" he asked, trying to hide the sense of overwhelming resignation he felt.
"Yes, Lord El-Melloi II. We at Policies received word from the Einzbern to that effect a few weeks ago. Why ? Are you hoping to participate once again ?"
He sensed Bazett tense behind him. The former Enforcer had a good idea as to why he couldn't have been selected by the Grail as a Master. The geas he had sworn as part of the price to save her life kept him from ever returning to Japan, where the War would be fought once again. Only by the permission of Fuyuki's Second Owner could that interdict be lifted, and as the last descendant of one of the three founding families Rin Tohsaka was almost guaranteed to be selected as a Master herself. Surely the Grail could detect such bonds between possible participants : otherwise, a potential Master could have tracked down all others and bound them to his will before the Command Seals were distributed.
Bazett knew this, and knew that by accepting Tohsaka's terms, Waver had sacrificed all chances of every fighting in a Grail War again. He had known that when he had accepted the deal, and he had made his peace with it.
Another year, and perhaps he would even believe that.
He snorted, letting none of the inner turmoil he felt show on his face with practiced ease. "After what I went through last time ? No, Miss Adashino. I am not that much of a fool. I have learned my limitations. No, what concerns me is that as far as I knew, the next Grail War wasn't supposed to occur before a few more decades. Given how the last one ended, I suppose it isn't beyond the realm of possibility for the next one to start early …"
He looked at the blackened circle, thoughts running wildly in his skull.
"Let's put that aside for now. Do we know what Marisbury was planning to use as a catalyst ?"
"We have no idea. He didn't want any of the other Masters to learn it, and went to great pains to conceal his efforts. But the Animusphere family did make a series of financial exchanges of a … momentous nature, and our services picked up the motion, if not the intended destination."
Waver looked at her. In the Clocktower, the use of the term 'momentous' to describe any sum of money meant a lot.
"How much are we talking about exactly ?" he asked, bracing himself.
She told him, and he had to hold back a coughing fit. That … that was near the total amount of the debt Reines had foisted off on him when he had taken over as official head of the Archibald !
And as far as he knew, the Animuspheres were about as wealthy as the Archibalds themselves had been, before the whole debacle of the Fourth Grail War. Such an expense wouldn't have bankrupted them, but it would definitely have put a notable strain on their finances.
"So," he managed to say, "Lord Marisbury spared no expense in the pursuit of the Holy Grail. Whatever Heroic Spirit he sought to summon must have been immensely powerful, especially if he thought it would require the assistance of other Magi. Which begs the question : how did he know that the Grail War would start early ? I could accept that coming from one of the three families that created the Grail, but the Animuspheres shouldn't have any special connection to the Heaven's Feel ritual."
"Perhaps he didn't ?" suggested Bazett. "Maybe he was thinking ahead, and thought that it was better to start searching for a suitable catalyst as early as possible ?"
"That's ..." he paused. "That's actually very possible. Magi can live for a long time, and even if Marisbury didn't think he would get the chance to participate himself, he might have wanted to secure a powerful catalyst for his Heir to use. Let us say that is the answer. Next question : why did he ask for the help of so many other Magi ?"
"What do you mean ?" asked Adashino. "Surely their assistance could only be useful ?"
Waver shook his head firmly. "I saw Gilgamesh in the Fourth War, and the King of Heroes was summoned by a single Magus. The Grail itself is supposed to perform the summoning, with the Master serving purely as an anchor and a source of mana to help fuel the Servant's abilities. If Marisbury was selected as a Master, then he wouldn't need any help to summon his Servant. But perhaps he thought he could alter the summoning ritual to give himself an edge. Given the damage, I doubt we will be able to identify what those alterations might be, though."
"Which reminds me … Miss Adashino. We haven't seen a single body so far, though we passed plenty of evidence of violence."
"We found many corpses when we arrived, some of them in several pieces. We are still collecting them, and running tests on each of them."
"What have you found ?"
"So far, we have identified fourteen different individuals, none of whom possessed Magical Circuits of the level expected of even a minor branch of the Animusphere."
He frowned.
"That is not enough, and not just because we know there were more people invited here. The amount of blood we saw on our way here alone is far too much to have belonged to only fourteen people. Which means that, for some reason, whoever did this took the bodies."
"Couldn't they still be alive ?" asked Gray.
"With the amount of blood we saw ? Unless potent Mysteries were used to keep them from death, that is highly unlikely."
"Indeed," interjected Adashino, "and we have already gotten confirmation that some of that blood belonged to the missing Magi. We do not have access to samples from the guests to compare, but we arrived soon enough that the prana charge of the blood hadn't dissipated yet."
In Waver's mind's eye, he could see the different pieces starting to form a coherent picture. There were many holes left in it, many details that could change the significance of what had happened at the Animusphere castle completely, but he could start to see the general shape of what had taken place.
"At first glance," he began, and the two women and the girl turned sharply to look at him as they heard the shift in his tone, "what happened here is obvious. Marisbury Animusphere summoned a Servant, but could not control them. Given the destruction in this room, the Servant's attack was almost immediate after its summoning. Perhaps Marisbury didn't have the time to reel in his Servant with his Command Seals, though I can say for experience that even that might not have been enough, especially if he had summoned a Berserker-Class Servant."
He paused and looked at Gray, thinking back on what she had told him on their way to the dome.
"Then again, given the culprit's deliberate cruelty, the chance of this being the result of bloodlust and blind rage gets lower. We know the culprit must be a Servant, for only a spirit from the Throne of Heroes would have the strength to defeat so many Magi, especially here, in the center of power of the Animusphere."
"Aren't Servants supposed to obey their Masters ?" asked Bazett. "I thought the Grail only selected Heroic Spirits that were somewhat compatible with their summoner, precisely to avoid stuff like this."
"I thought that was the case as well. But remember : Marisbury was trying to do something with this amplification circle and the help of his relatives. Perhaps he tried to force the summoning of a certain Heroic Spirit, regardless of affinity, and ended up paying the price of that hubris."
"There is also another possibility," he continued reluctantly. "It is possible that Marisbury ordered his Servant to slaughter the other Magi."
"Why would he have done that ?"
"I can think of several possible reasons. Perhaps some of them sought to steal his Command Seals, and he was forced to defend himself. Since some of the bodies are missing, perhaps his Servant possess some necromantic skill that would increase their chance of victory in the Grail War. Or, since they must have assisted in the summoning, perhaps he wanted to suppress all knowledge regarding his Servant. Clues as to an enemy Servant's True Name are one of the most valuable resources of the Grail War."
"And, of course, there is the possibility that Marisbury went mad. It is a common fate of astromancers, I fear. There is something about the field that tends to make its practitioners go insane as they delve too deep into the secrets of the stars, and he was – or is, I suppose, if that theory is correct – one of the foremost practitioners of Astromancy in our era. Still, to destroy his lineage like that …"
"The Animusphere lineage will survive," interjected Adashino. "The family's Heir wasn't present at the gathering."
"The Heir … that was, Olga, right ?"
"Olga Marie Asmleit Animusphere," confirmed Adashino. "She received her father's Magic Crest in a successful transplant five days ago, and is still recovering from the surgery in the Clocktower."
"I see Marisbury was smart enough to learn of the Archibalds' mistake," noted Waver. "He made sure his legacy was secured before joining the Grail War." He would need to check on the girl – she was, what, twelve years old ? Thirteen ? Reines had been even younger when she had become the Head of the Archibald, but surely there couldn't be two girls like her on Gaia. "That … actually make the possibility that he slaughtered his clan even more likely, doesn't it ?"
"Perhaps. I … excuse me a moment." Adashino left, moving back across the shattered floor and toward the entrance, where one of her men was discreetly gesturing for her.
"You mentioned necromancy," said Gray, much more willing to speak out now that Adashino was out of earshot. "But surely the Grail wouldn't summon a Servant like that ?"
"Gilles de Rais was summoned in the last Holy Grail War, Gray. If Bluebeard is considered an acceptable Servant for the Heaven's Feel by the Grail, then there is no telling what other so-called 'Heroic' Spirits might be called down from the Throne of Heroes in order to participate."
"How could someone like Bluebeard end up on the Throne in the first place ?" asked Gray. Waver could see that she was clinging her own wrist, where Add was hidden by her outfit's loose sleeve. "Aren't only heroes supposed to go there ? Shouldn't all Heroic Spirits be good people ?"
"The definition of 'hero' has changed greatly over the years, Gray. It is only in recent times that the word has become associated solely with good persons. For most of our history, anyone who left their mark on Human history, for good or evil, could be considered a hero. What mattered was the power they wielded, and that power could take many forms. Some Heroic Spirits ascended to the Throne because of their talent for Magecraft, others for their great feats of arms …" He shook his head. "Of course, Gilles de Rais was a special case. As far as I was able to piece together after the Fourth Grail War, he ascended to the Throne due to his deeds during the Hundred Years War, when he fought alongside Jeanne d'Arc. Being the right-hand man of the Maiden of Orleans – and truth be told, he did fight well and loyally at her side – was enough to secure his legend."
For a moment, Waver considered how different the Fourth Grail War might have been if that had been the version of Gilles de Rais the Grail had summoned. A knight of the Hundred Years' War, who had rallied Jeanne d'Arc's banner out of love and devotion for her …
At the very least, a lot of children would still be alive who had instead met horrible fates at the hands of the mad Caster and his demented Master.
"Unfortunately, it was his self at the end of his life, after his descent into homicidal madness, that was summoned as a Caster. By all rights, he shouldn't have qualified for that Class, but apparently he had become an amateur demonist before being executed. Given that he was summoned by a serial killer with no previous relation to the Moonlit World, I am forced to admit that the Grail's pairing did make some sense."
"So," said Bazett, "given the history of the Caster class, you are saying that Marisbury could have summoned a necromancer of that Class, and offered up his own relatives as materials. I know that the Department of Spiritual Evocation has several necromancers in its ranks, so it's not as if that attitude would be completely unexpected of a Lord … but even so, I cannot think of any legendary figures known for their practice of necromancy."
"Oh, I can think of several that could qualify," replied Waver. "Remember, Gilles De Rais' own penchant for demonism is hardly recorded in his public legend. Vlad Tepes in his incarnation as Dracula, the Witch Morgana, Joseph Curwen … any of them could have theoretically been summoned as a Caster with that sort of abilities. In fact, if we don't limit ourselves to outright necromancers and merely to Servants who could make use of Magi body parts, pretty much any Caster with access to ancient Mysteries could …"
His explanation stopped when Adashino returned. She was frowning, Waver noted.
"I have received word from one of Policies' investigation teams. I sent them to a private airfield in the area where the Animusphere had a private jet after we concluded that Marisbury Animusphere's body was missing."
"What did they find ?"
She gestured to the devastation around them. "The same thing as here. Everyone in the airfield was dead, though at first glance, no bodies seem to have gone missing there. They have secured the area until the clean-up crews can arrive."
"And the Animusphere jet ?"
"Also missing. No flight plan was submitted, of course, and the plane is warded against radar detection. But then, we already know where they are going, don't we ?"
"We can make a strong guess," corrected Waver.
"If Marisbury is the one behind those deaths, he was technically within his rights as a Lord of the Clocktower," said Adashino, with perhaps the slightest hint of distaste. "But in case he is not – in case there is a rogue Servant with the corpses of several high-ranking Magi on its hands – then we should still take appropriate precautions."
"And what do you suggest ?"
"I can have a team leaving for Japan in a few hours. They can track down the plane, and …"
"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Waver. "Even the best combat mages of the Association would only get slaughtered by a Servant. You could send an entire battalion and it wouldn't make a difference. Trust me on this : the difference between a Heroic Spirit and a mortal practitioner of Magecraft is simply too great."
"Oh ? Then are you going to go yourself, Lord ? You do have … particular advantages in that area." Adashino very carefully did not look at Bazett and Gray – one a user of the Fraga's Noble Phantasm, and the other the wielder of the physical form of Rhongomyniad itself.
"No. I cannot go to Japan myself, nor can my associates." He did not say why that was, and Adashino at least respected his authority enough not to ask. "But I know someone in Fuyuki, the city where the Holy Grail War takes place. If anyone can deal with whatever it is Marisbury summoned, it is them."
"I thought you said even a battalion of trained combat mages wouldn't make a difference," pointed out Adashino, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes," replied Waver grimly. "I did."
AN : DONE. Gods of the Warp and Gaia, this one was difficult to finish. I still feel there are things I could change/add/remove, but if I don't stop at some point, I will still be working on this chapter by the time the Sun explodes and engulfs the Earth. So, given that I spent the week-end either writing this or playing through the new content for Fate : Grand Order, I think it's time I stop and publish this.
Initially, this Interlude was going to be like the others, showing the actual summoning of the Servant. But I decided that this perspective would be more interesting instead. Those of you who have played Fate : Grand Order might already have realized who Marisbury was trying to summon, and might have an idea as to what went wrong.
In the next chapter, we will finally arrive at the scenes that inspired this entire story to begin with : Shirou, Rin and Sakura summoning their own Servants. Finally, after over 100,000 words of prelude, we have actually reached the point of the Holy Grail War ! ... Oh gods, the pressure.
This story has passed 1k favorites on FFnet, which I will do my best not to let go to my head. There are many, many other FSN stories and crossovers who can boast far more success, after all. Better to keep writing this story as I started it - doing as I please, just to have my own fun.
Thanks you all for sticking with this story so far. I know my writing isn't the best in this fic, since it's a type of story I am definitely not used to writing ... But what's the point of writing fanfiction, if not to try new things ?
Zahariel out.