Chapter XI
Standing on the roof of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one Father Shirou Kotomine was standing on the ledge as he watched the scenery below. Birds chirping, the wind blowing the branches of the trees, it all reminded him of his home back in Japan. It was peaceful, adjust. But unfortunately, this was all a prelude of the events that were to come. Feeling his cell phone buzz, the young priest reached into his pocket and pulled out the device.
Yggdmillennia's territory remains unchanged. Avoid the forest if possible, besides mage traps, there may be possible hundreds of golems lying in wait that will surround a Servant and provide exposed targets to the enemy's Archer if we're not too careful. No other defenses on the Citadel walls have been detected, magecraft in origin or otherwise. With their Saber gone and Assassin AWOL, this provides the best opportunity for an attack.
"Well, in that we can agree, Crimson Wolf," Shirou chuckled as he began typing a reply.
"You say something, Master?" came the regal voice of his Servant as she materialized behind him.
"Hmm?" the priest turned, "Oh, I just received a scouting report from Ashford, the Black faction has no possible defenses that can respond to what we're planning. In fact, if we can line everything upright, they won't even know what we'll do until the Greater Grail is within our grasp."
"As expected," Semiramis smirked as she joined her Master's side. "Though what will you do about the Master of Archer?"
"What of him? He doesn't pose a problem," Shirou shook his head, "and even if he does, my research done on the young man states that he is a one that will understand what I'm trying to do for the world. His past speaks of great evils done to him as a child, so if anything, he would encourage me to go through with it."
"If you're sure," Semiramis gave her Master a dubious frown.
"Even if he does reject my goal," Shirou continued as he finished his reply and sent it to the man in question they were speaking about, "by the time he realizes what I'm trying to accomplish, it will be too late to stop us."
"I see," smirked the Queen of Assyria.
Pocketing his phone, he turned to properly face his Assassin Servant, "Have the familiars call Lancer, Rider, and Caster. The time grows near, does it not?"
"Indeed it does," Semiramis nodded as she raised her hand to the sky, upon which a dove perched on the back of her hand, awaiting the command of its master.
Looking back to the beautiful scene of nature, Shirou smiled.
His dream was close to coming true.
…
"Hey Master, you mind me telling me something?" said Saber as she lounged on her sleeping bag within the hideout her master made from the inside of a crypt.
"What's up?" replied Kairi as he continued the ongoing process of preparing the hydra.
"That Ashford kid, what's his story?"
The necromancer paused momentarily, "What do you mean?"
"Well, I remember him talking about vampires and working for his boss at the Mages Association," the "son" of Arthur Pendragon frowned as she stared up at the stone ceiling of the crypt. "But I dunno, something about him feels off about him."
Kairi was quiet for a long moment, "Probably has to do with the residual effects that still plague him…"
"Residual effects?" Saber turned her head towards her master quizzically.
"Yeah," he nodded, "I won't go into the full details about what happened to Faelan given it's not my story to tell and I respect the kid too much to breach his privacy like that."
"Fair enough," she nodded.
"So about a decade back, give or take a year, Faelan was kidnapped by a crazy cult that got interested with one of the Lesser Grail Wars in the state of New Mexico in America," the Japanese man sighed as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, the memories of that event came back to him. "The cult was made of regular humans who discovered they had a penchant for magecraft but lacked the magical circuit quality to use it. They wanted to compete in that Grail War in order to make a wish to obtain magical crests to become just as powerful as other mages."
"If they lacked the magical circuits, how'd they hope to compete then?" Saber frowned.
"Exactly," Kairi frowned behind his sunglasses, lighting up his cancer stick, and blew out a plume of smoke. "The Ashford family is old and they have been proven to create heirs with exceptional abilities and skills, so the cult wanted to use Faelan as a battery to provide their Servant with mana while they themselves had the Command Seals. The previous head of the Archibald family had done it in a Lesser War with his wife providing the Servant with mana while he had the Command Seals."
"Wait a sec, wasn't the kid like ten years old or something then?" Saber asked incredulously, outrage growing on her features.
"Less actually," he nodded. "At that age, he wouldn't have been able to sustain a Servant for very long, much less an entire Grail War."
"How repugnant," scoffed Saber with an angered frown, "I myself may have my own hands dripping in blood, but I would never stoop so low as to use a child like that!"
"Yeah, I'm glad we can agree on that," he nodded. He himself was a mage and mages weren't exactly known for their compassion, if anything it was their lack of it, but he wasn't cold-hearted. "There's more to the story obviously, but like I said, I won't betray the kid's trust. You can ask him if you want, but don't expect him to tell you, he's still dealing with the psychological effects, much less the physical ones. Whatever you feel is off about him, like you said, it's because of what happened in New Mexico."
"I see," she frowned. "Well, I guess I got another reason to make my wish on the Holy Grail then!"
"Another?" Kairi raised a brow.
"Well, he's from England, right?" the Saber of Red grinned.
"Uh, yeah?"
"Then that makes him one of my subjects!" she nodded emphatically, arms crossed. "So what kind of king would I be if I couldn't even protect one of my own subjects? A bad one, that's what! So if I'm going to draw the Sword of Selection, to be a competent king I have to save at least one person, right?"
Kairi blinked from behind his shades before he chuckled. "Yeah I guess so," he replied before going back to preparing the hydra.
Satisfied with his answer, Saber lied back down and got comfortable, content to spend the rest of the time in silence.
However, unknown to the Servant of the Sword, her Master had glanced over to the side, idly staring at a note. One that he got before he entered Romania, and it was signed by the current head of the Ashford family.
...
Within the cave that contained our camp, I was currently sitting at my work table with all my firearms having been disassembled for cleaning and maintenance before me. However, the weapon that currently had my attention was Mugetsu. Due to the rather peculiar properties of the metal, sharpening the blade was only possible with a special whetstone. Still, sometimes I wonder where the metal my blade came from. My parents had said they purchased it from Touko Aozaki, a Sealing Designate, when I had graduated from the Clocktower two years ago and hired a top-tier Mystic Code creator who hailed from Japan, forge the blade.
Mugetsu had taken a year and a half to create as the Mystic Code creator forged it both traditionally and had added spells in addition to the process of its creation. 548 days of painstaking work had resulted in the blade and its properties were still yet unknown. I had discovered by pure accident that the sword's edge glowed red when mana was channeled into it, the sword itself had yet to break even against a Dead Apostle's strength, and despite the fact that I sharpened it regularly, it never seemed to really dull, it just enhanced the sword's properties.
"A peculiar sword," said Atalanta as she materialized somewhere behind me.
"Its name is Mugetsu," I replied as I continued running the whetstone along the blade's sharp edge. A red glow, similar to the one made when mana was channeling it, following the whetstone as it went. "It means "no moon" or "moonless sky" in English, I thought it fitting after seeing the coloration on the blade."
"It does fit," said Atalanta as she neared.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her brush her fingers over the disassembled parts of the 5.7 Custom and Custom Eagle. Her weapon, the bow, was the progenitor to two of the weapons I used regularly in my hunts and fights.
"And these, no offense Master, but there seems to be a lack of grace when it comes to these weapons," said the Huntress.
"None taken," I chuckled as I finished the last pass on Mugetsu's edge before sheathing it and placed it to the side. "Still, they offer an element of surprise against Dead Apostles. They never see a gun coming when fighting a fellow magus because they think modern weapons are beneath them."
"Is that so," said Atalanta, a frown on her face. "While I myself may find firearms distasteful, it is demeaning that mages can be surprised like that."
"I say let them," I shrugged with an amused smirk, "makes my job easier."
"Hmm, a fair point," she shared in my amusement.
Hearing my phone buzz, I grabbed from where it lay on the table and check it.
Agreed. We attack Trifas Citadel tonight. Be ready. Archer will make the opening move. Then have Archer support our Lancer as he will engage Lancer of Black.
"Well, well, well," I murmured before sending a confirmation text, placed the phone back, and looked over to Atalanta. "Looks like the war is done with small skirmishes, the priest just informed me that our Faction is going to attack Yggdmillennia's home territory. And you get to make the first move to start it all."
"I see," she smirked.
"Well, don't get antsy yet," I chuckled as I grabbed a nearby rag and started cleaning the parts for the 5.7, "the attack won't be happening until tonight." I frowned upon finding a smidge of dirt on the slide that just wouldn't get out. "Hey, Atalanta, can you give the spray bottle to your right?"
"Of course," she replied and handed it to me.
Spraying the slide with a puff of gun oil, I managed to get the dirt out. "So that said, it's best to rest up and gather as much mana from the leyline as we can." Me more than Atalanta given that I was the Master who was responsible for providing her mana. Especially if I ever needed that just in case.
"So what will you be doing when the battle starts?" asked Atalanta as she found interest in one of my books on runecraft and started perusing through its pages. "As a battle between Servants, your best option is to stay hidden."
I gave her a deadpan look to reflect how I felt about that.
One that she understood given that she sighed a bit in frustration. "Master, I understand how you feel, however, I must remind you that you are still human. Even if you are able to keep up with Servants such as Rider and I in terms of speed, that does not mean you can take an attack from a Servant, even from an Assassin, and expect to come out unscathed."
I maintained my stare with her for a long moment, as I contemplated arguing with her before I sighed and placed the parts I was cleaning on the tabletop. "Fine, you've made your point," I relented, rubbing the back of my neck. I mean, she did have a point, even with Atalanta's D-rank in Strength, she could backhand me into the cave wall without a second thought.
"It's good that you see my point," she nodded with a satisfied smirk as she put the book back. "Otherwise, I would've called your mother."
That caused me to jerk in surprise, nearly choking on my own spit.
…
I knew Mom meeting Atalanta was a bad idea from the start, but I never thought it would be for this reason. I had thought that the threat would be from Mom, never would I ever have thought the bigger threat was from my Servant using the threat of my mother against me. If I were any other person I would've applauded such audacity. Now all I feel is grudging respect, that, and a little fear given the fact that Atalanta has a weapon up her sleeve against me if she ever wanted to keep me in line.
That didn't mean I couldn't toss in a curveball…
"Fine, I'll just sneak into the Millennia Citadel then," I sighed, looking through the corner of my eye to gauge her reaction.
Complete surprise.
"I beg your pardon?" her brows narrowed into a frown.
Turning to face my Servant again, I gave her a lopsided smirk. "C'mon, Archer, with all the Servants fighting outside the Citadel, that will leave the place relatively unguarded. So yeah, you're right that I can't take on a Servant, but I can take out homunculi and golems no problem."
I could see the alarm growing on her face with every word I spoke. I had to admit, I got a little vindictive enjoyment out of it.
"If I can find the Masters of the Yggdmillennia clan and take them out, it makes things easier for you Servants, right?" I continued. "Of course, I figure the other Servants like Achilles and Saber might take issue that I cut their battles short, but we are in a war and anything can happen."
Atalanta placed a hand on her forehead, rubbing her temples with her thumb and fingers in an attempt to either alleviate a headache or prevent one.
"Master, the other Servants are the last thing I'm worried about," she shifted her hand enough to level a glare at me. "We are talking about the enemy's citadel here, their base of operations! You would have no backup if I am to fight on the field of battle tonight!"
"And they'd never expect that," I shrugged before giving her a lopsided smile. "C'mon, Archer, there's little doubt they'd sent the bulk of their homunculi and golems into battle tonight. The only Servants that I might find there in the Citadel would be their Caster and maybe their Archer, but if you and the other Servants can draw them out, then that gives me a shot at their Masters. And that's one step closer to the Grail, to ending this War."
She continued to frown at me, regarding me with those green eyes of hers with her arms crossed. And for a long moment, we stayed that way, staring at each other. Waiting for which one of us was going to back down. To be honest, it was like staring down a lion… oh wait.
"Fine," she relented, shaking her head. "It's not as if you'll listen to me either way and if I push too much, you might use a Command Seal."
"As if I'd do that," I dismissed with a wave of my hand before going back to cleaning the ol' 5.7 Custom.
From the corner of my eye, I saw that Atalanta's expression had been one of surprise as she stared at me for a moment. But then she must've seen me looking and my smirk that I couldn't hold back. For she sighed, walked over, and leaned against my worktable. Crossing her arms, she gave me a look with a smirk of her own.
"I fear I have spent far too much time with you, Faelan," she chuckled.
"You say like that's a bad thing," I grinned.
"That remains to be seen," she shrugged, still smirking.
…
Hours later, after night had fallen, Atalanta and I were waiting atop the ridge we had been using as an observation point for our recon tasks, awaiting word from the priest of when to strike. We had absorbed as much mana as we could from the nearby leyline and I had prepped all my gear. Ammo for both my firearms, some flashbang and smoke grenades, and I even pulled out that hidden gem I kept in my backpack this whole time, having stuffed it into an inner pocket in my blazer. Custom Eagle had been placed into a holster on my right leg while the 5.7 Custom was put in a holster on the back of my gear belt.
Atalanta was spending the time keeping an eye on the Millennia Citadel for any signs of movement while I was kneeling on the ground meditating with Mugetsu laid in front of me. One thing you pick up from a Japanese sword master, besides sword techniques, is an appreciation of the skill of centering your mind. Especially if the swordmaster in question also happens to be a magus.
"Master, not to disturb your meditation, but did the priest mention as to how to inform us of when to strike?" asked Atalanta.
"All his text said was that we would see it clear as day," I responded, unperturbed.
I sent a text asking for clarification, but the guy didn't answer. So either the priest was being cryptic for whatever reason or he was just plain ol' ignoring me. The prick.
"That in itself could reveal too much," I heard my Servant sigh.
Not that I didn't share the sentiment. If the guy sent up a flare, you might as well scream it out loud instead of using surprise as an advantage. After all, the best fights are ones you put down in the first hit, especially in siege scenarios, which this is.
"What is that…?"
Hearing the surprised awe in Atalanta's tone, I opened an eye and peered over at her. Seeing her shock at something far off into the distance behind us, I opened my other eye and turned around. And found myself just as surprised as Atalanta. For in the distance was a floating fortress getting closer and closer. Who could have created such a… oh, of course.
"How could I have forgotten?" I chuckled, shaking my head.
"Master?" Atalanta frowned at me.
"That," I gestured to the fortress, "my guess is, is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. One that is either thought to have been lost to time or never existed at all." How could I have forgotten one of Assassin of Red's greatest triumphs in her legend? "And according to legend, the Queen of Assyria was the one to oversee its construction as well as designed the blueprints herself. Of course, that would be her Noble Phantasm. I'm actually a little disappointed in myself that I forgot about it. Though given that she was summoned as an Assassin, I thought it would be impossible for her."
"She is deploying Dragon Tooth Warriors," said Atalanta, peering over at the Gardens.
Even I could see that something, or rather a lot of them, were falling from the flying fortress but my eyes weren't that good even with a rune. Not at this distance anyway.
"How many?" I asked.
"Thousands," she answered, "enough for a match of the army of golems and homunculi the Black faction has garrisoned within its walls."
Well, I could see why the priest was being quiet about this, he had a flair for theatrics. Not the worst trait in a person. But still, the Hanging Gardens, I had to give the man and his Servant their due. I had feared we would constantly be the attackers in nearly every scenario for the War and become a war of attrition as all sieges are. But with the Hanging Gardens, a castle versus a castle with flight capabilities gave us an already higher advantage than we already had with their Saber dead.
"What're you waiting for?" I turned to my Servant. At her perplexed expression, I chuckled. "Well, you are the one that's supposed to raise the curtain for this battle. Go, I'll be fine." With a gesture of my head to the Hanging Gardens, my smirk was still in place. "The Gardens would be the perfect perch to fire your Noble Phantasm from."
The Huntress frowned at me for a moment before turning her gaze to the Babylonian flying fortress and shared my smirk. "Ah, yes, forgive me, Master, it's just seeing a flying fortress in this modern age had caught me off guard for a moment," she bowed her head a little. "It won't happen again."
"Think nothing of it," I waved off, "go, bring us victory."
"As you wish, Master," she smirked. "May the twin gods of the moon and sun, Artemis and Apollo, watch over us both."
I nodded in answer before she dematerialized, off to join the other Servants of the faction of Red. Grabbing Mugetsu, I fastened it to my back so that I could reach for its handle over my right shoulder before turning my gaze back to the Millennia Citadel. I still had no idea what I would even wish for if our side won tonight and the secondary Grail War system activated to find the one true winner. Unlike other mages, I still had no aspirations to become an ultimate magus, gain wealth, or even reach the Root. And honestly, there was nothing I lost that I wished to get back. And if I did, I wouldn't use the Grail to get back that of which I've lost. Bad things happen and accepting and letting things go is a part of life. Living a life of regret benefits no one.
"Still," I mused aloud, "the golden cup would be one helluva bargaining chip…"
…
As I made my way to the Millennia Citadel, I had to take the scenic route as the battle between the Servants of Red and Black had extended beyond the plains of where Atalanta had fired the first Noble Phantasm of the night and decimated quite a large number of homunculi soldiers and golems. And calling my route scenic would be an understatement, even from my distance away from the battles, I saw in the distance Rider of Red in his chariot trampling over homunculi and golem alike before Dragon Tooth Warriors followed in his wake. Strained my head high as I watched Rider of Black fly by, riding atop their hippogriff. Watched as Lancer of Black impale several Dragon Tooth Warriors before being engaged by Atalanta and who I assume was Lancer of Red.
It just occurred to me that the only Servants in the Red faction I hadn't officially met or seen were Lancer and Caster, or rather it was only Caster now. Though given that Lancer of Red's output was a bit off the charts in his battle against Count Dracula, what with his extended use of grandiose flames, he must have a Master with outstanding magical circuits. Maybe his Master, or Masters, were the Pentel brothers. Maybe one provided mana while the other was in charge of tactical analysis and providing orders. Though if that was the case, it could be a potential weakness to exploit should our Faction win against the Yggdmillennia clan and the secondary Grail War took place.
However, as I neared the Citadel, I found myself in front of a Yggdmillennia homunculus who instead of attacking me on sight, was regarding me with confusion.
"Wait… who are you?" the homunculus frowned at me.
I raised a brow in turn, "Better question is, who are you?"
All the homunculi that Atalanta and I had seen typically wielded a halberd or spear and didn't keep a sword at their belt. Which made sense, besides being easier to make and maintain, training with the spear and similar weapons was a lot easier to be introduced and trained in. There wasn't much finesse and skill required to be proficient in the art of the spear unless one were to be specialized in it. It's why many common foot soldiers all over the world in ancient times were trained with such weapons. A sword most often was a symbol of nobility and the sword that this homunculus had seemed too extravagant for Yggdmillennia to spare on one homunculus.
"I'm Sieg," the homunculus replied. "I ask again, who are you?"
"Faelan Ashford," I replied, seeing no reason to keep silent or lie.
…
As the moment of silence continued, I came to a baffling realization. "You don't know who I am, do you?"
"No," Sieg shook his head, "should I?"
"Well, I am a Master of Red, if that helps," I replied slowly. I know I should be fighting this guy to make sure my presence remained unknown, but honestly it felt like talking to a child that learned to talk yesterday.
"Oh," was Sieg's simple reply as he frowned.
"Shouldn't you be raising the alarm or something?" I asked exasperatedly.
"What for?"
I couldn't help but palm my forehead. For the love of… this confirmed my theory that the Yggdmillennia clan stole the homunculi blueprints from the Einzberns. I had only met the Einzberns once when Dad took me for a business meeting with them and while some homunculi had the personality of a cardboard box, they weren't stupid, or rather in this case, naive.
"To alert your masters that there's an intruder besides a Master present?" I sighed.
At the tilt of the head by the homunculus, I had to suppress a groan of exasperation and fatigue. Now I really couldn't kill the guy! He was worse than Caules Forvedge, killing this homunculus would be akin to killing a dumb, yet curious puppy!
"I don't have a master," Sieg shook his head, surprising me with his statement. "I have been freed and left the Yggdmillennia clan."
"Oh… wow," I was at a loss for words. There had to be extenuating circumstances there, or else why would a mage clan let go of an invested resource. "You mind telling me how that came to be?"
Sieg blinked as if considering how to explain his story. "Saber of Black took out his heart and gave it to me when I was dying," he replied. "Last night, I was a regular homunculus who only had three years to live and a desire to be free. When the Masters of Black discovered my escape with Rider of Black's help, Saber of Black and his Master had managed to find me before I could have left the forest. I had fought back, but… I was no match for a trained mage. I don't know how Saber gave me his heart as I was unconscious, but when I woke up I had his heart in my chest."
That's how Saber of Black was killed off? Elimination by suicide? And how the hell was it possible that a Servant, a being made of mana, had plucked his heart out, a heart that technically doesn't really exist, and give it to a homunculus? Though maybe, that's why it worked. If the Servant had implanted his heart into a human or mage, the person would've exploded by the large influx of mana. Eh, something to ask the Spiritual Evocation and Biology departments back in the Clocktower later.
"Ruler managed to force the Yggdmillennia clan to allow me to leave," Sieg continued, "and took and left me somewhere I could rest and figure what I wanted to do with my life now that Saber's heart gave me the life expectancy of a human."
"So you decided to go back?" I raised a brow. Kinda backwards that.
"No," Sieg shook his head, "I wanted to free the other homunculi. I was given freedom and a new life, is it wrong that I want to give the same kindness that was given to me and help my fellow homunculus?"
I blinked. Oh wow, Mom should never get near this guy, she'd spoil this kid rotten.
"So if you're a Master of Red, then I assume you want to go to the Citadel to attack it from within, right?" Sieg surmised, frowning.
"That's the idea," I shrugged.
Sieg's frown deepened for a moment before looking at me beseechingly, "Please, I beg you, don't hurt the homunculi. They're only following orders of the Masters. Give me some time to evacuate the homunculi before you begin your attack, please."
I blinked once, then twice, before sighing as I pinched the bridge of my nose. You know what, maybe Atalanta was right, I should've just stayed back in the cave and waited for the battle to end.
"Please."
Peering through one eye, I had to hold back a groan of frustration when I saw that Sieg had gotten on his knees to beg.
Me and my stupid bleeding heart…
"Fine," I sighed, shaking my head, "let's go help out your friends."
Sieg's head snapped up, "Wait…? You want to help me?"
"Let's just call it my good deed for the year," I grumbled as I grabbed the homunculus with a Servant core by the arm and pulled him to his feet. Part of me couldn't help but baffled as to why I would be doing this, while the other part of me was just telling me to shut up and stop being moody about it. "So I have no idea where to go when we get to the castle, so lead on, I'll follow your lead."
Getting over his momentary surprise, Sieg nodded, "Right." Turning on his heel, he began running towards the Millennia Citadel while I followed after him.
On the way to the Citadel, however, we passed by numerous fallen homunculi. I wasn't perturbed by the carnage before me, given that as an Enforcer I had seen such battlefields, or worse, before on Dead Apostle hunts. But the homunculus, Sieg, his face tightened into a besieged grimace with every dead homunculus soldier we passed. That is until we found one that was still alive, wounded and unconscious, but alive.
"We have to help her," stated Sieg as he got down and checked the wound on her leg.
"It's your show, dude," I shrugged as I watched him pull out a roll of bandages. Did he really think only that would help? "Okay, move aside, it's clear you don't know anything about applying first aid."
"Ah, no, I don't."
In the, like five minutes I've known the guy, this guy seemed like the rest of his fellows given their apathetic facial expressions, but that was the first time I saw he was sheepish. I shook my head before writing runes of healing on the air close to the female homunculi's leg and it wasn't long before the wound slowly began to close, leaving only bits of blood as evidence that the injury occurred at all.
"Amazing," Sieg was awed, evident by the widening of his eyes.
But I just turned my face toward my "patient" and rolled my eyes. If this was amazing to him, then he should see what Bazett or my old tutor could do. My fellow Enforcer was a better runecraft user than I was, which was unsurprising given that she hailed from Ireland. Hell, she gave me the odd lesson or two while on the job if we were ever paired up or saw each other whenever our respective missions ever crossed.
"Nggh…"
Both Sieg's and I's attention were caught when the female homunculus woke up, but her eyes latched onto Sieg when she saw him.
"It's… you…" she seemed surprised by his presence. "What're you doing here?"
"I couldn't just abandon you," Sieg shook his head. "I wanted to help."
"You escaped, why come back?" she frowned. "Being thrown into battle and then expended, that is the life of a homunculus. We were born solely to fight in this war."
They must have short lifespans then. Which did make sense, homunculi were expensive to create, much less mass-produced, and the Einzberns so far were the only ones capable of creating homunculi with the lifespan of a regular human. To top it all off, they also had the wealth and resources to sustain such projects while perfecting their craft. The Yggdmillennia clan may be wealthy as well, but not at the same level as some mage families as the Yggdmillenia had to see to the needs of the numerous families that the clan was comprised of.
"That may be so, but that doesn't mean we were born to die," said Sieg resolutely. "I have freedom now and I think everyone should have it too."
Holy shit, I figured that this guy was a bit naive, but I didn't peg him as someone who was born yesterday. But I kept my thoughts to myself as I kept channeling mana into the healing runes.
"Astolfo and Siegfried helped me," Sieg continued, "and I want to pay that forward. I beg you, lend me your help to make that happen." Though I raised a brow in intrigue at the True Names being dropped. This homunculus had the core of the Legendary Germanic Dragon Slayer? The one who bathed in the blood of the Evil Dragon Fafnir? If the Clocktower had ever gotten wind of this kid, they'd salivate over the prospect of opening him head to toe to figure out how his body wasn't blowing by now, regardless of his status as a homunculus.
She regarded him with a contemplative frown for a long moment before nodding. She then turned to me just as the wound on her leg closed up.
"And you?"
"Just a good samaritan who decided to take pity on that guy," I jerked a thumb over at Sieg. "Your leg should be fine now, there may be some soreness and a little discomfort, but you can walk on it and even run on it for short distances. Not for too long though, or the wound may reopen internally."
"I see," she frowned before bowing her head, "thank you, Master of the Archer of Red."
I raised an inquisitive brow at her, "You know who I am?"
"Yes, Faelan Ashford," she nodded, "Lord Caules informed the head of the clan of your status as a Master of the Red faction earlier today. They then briefed us homunculi as we had been previously informed that one Rottweil Berzinsky was the initial Master of the Red faction's Archer. Did you kill him and take his Command Seals?"
"Yeah… something like that," I said stiffly as memories of my fight with Berzinsky came to mind. Though if the homunculi I had found company in noticed, they didn't say anything about it. "We should continue on, yeah?"
"Of course," the female homunculi nodded.
From there, there weren't any more diversions on the way to the Citadel. I had managed to convince the other two that we should keep to the forest line for cover in case a stray Noble Phantasm got too close or an attack by Archer of Black targeted me as I was still a Master of the enemy faction despite my current status as good-doer for the moment. Though the female homunculus had said that Archer of Black had taken to the forest on the other side of the field after the homunculi army was deployed. Still, at this distance, a shot from an Archer Servant was still possible for them. In fact, such Servants of the Bow could do it so effortlessly it might as well be a simple intake of breath.
And speaking of Archers, I had to wonder how Atalanta was doing. Given that she had Independent Action, she could operate freely without access to my mana for a week or more if she wanted to, given how much mana I gave her prior to the battle. And in a fight, she could fire as many arrows as she wanted and maybe even a few Noble Phantasms before she fully opened the link between herself and I to draw more mana. I hadn't seen her use her Noble Phantasm besides the one that was fired off at the beginning of the battle, so maybe she didn't see a reason to after, especially given her role as support to Lancer of Red.
"Straße gehen!" intoned Sieg, his palm on the glass of the energy supply tank.
With the spell cast, the glass became so brittle and broke into fine dust, releasing the homunculus inside. This had been just the latest in line as Sieg personally went about breaking his fellow homunculi out from their containment. I had offered to draw runes to break them out, but the guy had stubbornly refused everytime I offered. Since standing around was boring as hell, I instead went about tending to the recently freed homunculi.
I recognized this type of energy supply tanks, a lot of mages with even less of a conscience regularly used them on mundane humans or rivals, to power their research. As I grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around one of the homunculus' shoulders, I went to his neighbor beside him and checked her status, and I couldn't help but sympathize with them. The… my kidnappers in New Mexico had initially wanted to do the same thing to me in a Lesser Grail War that was happening there, to use me as a battery to provide their Servant with. And even as young as I was, it didn't take me long to figure out what they wanted to do with me from the beginning, after all, Mom and Dad raised me as a typical magus kid. But I also knew at that age that supporting a Servant as young as I was would inevitably kill me, for opposite of Lin, as a child I had a larger than average amount of magic circuits, their quality was average and it was only later that I got them to a higher quality through magical exercises.
"Th-thank you," gasped one of the homunculus as I helped her into a seated position and wrapped a blanket around her.
"You're welcome," I couldn't help but smile.
Back then, during the kidnapping in New Mexico, as those people played around with my body like a curious child to a dead body, all I had wanted was someone to save me.
…
I should really unseal the last of those memories soon. Leaving it unfinished as it was… well it was uncomfortable.
"Why are you doing this? What is the point of it all?" the female homunculus we had saved on the battlefield asked Sieg with a deep frown. "Surely you realize, we're not going to live any more than three years anyway."
"I'm aware of that, but even then…" Sieg spoke with conviction, enough so that even I couldn't help but feel drawn, "it's a lot better than living as a tool of war." As he helped the next homunculus, he looked over his shoulder at the homunculus girl behind him. "Or would you rather be left to die?"
The homunculus stared at Sieg for a long moment before she stepped forward and helped her fellow homunculi up.
Looking at the large number of homunculi, I realized they wouldn't be able to make it without someone distracting their former masters. Even with the War going on in the plains beyond, eventually, a Yggdmillennia member would figure something was up if these homunculi were chosen to be batteries for Black faction Servants, especially if they stopped generating mana for said Servants.
"Hey, Sieg, this is where we split ways," I called out as I made my way to the other entrance.
"You're leaving?" he frowned.
"Yeah," I nodded, "the Yggdmillennia clan will figure out something's wrong if these guys aren't providing their Servants with mana and send someone to investigate. And given the number of people here, it would take time for a group of this size to leave the Citadel grounds. So I'll head up to make some trouble and provide a distraction." I turned to the homunculus who we saved first. "Which Servant is still within the Citadel?"
"Lord Caster," she replied.
"Given the lack of old, sophisticated traps, would I be correct in assuming that this Caster isn't that well trained in magecraft?" I asked, drawing Mugetsu and tapping its back edge against my shoulder.
"Yes," she replied, "he specializes in making golems."
"I see," I grinned as I neared the door. "Thanks, that's all I needed to know."
"Ah, uh, thank you, Faelan Ashford!" I heard Sieg call out.
"Don't mention it and take care of yourself, dude," I waved lazily with my free hand.
Making my way through the halls of the Citadel, I had noticed that there weren't many homunculi around, only golems that resembled skeletons. At least these things were slow to react, so taking them down was a piece of cake. Plus, now I think I'd actually feel bad if I put down one of the homunculi here given how I saw the Yggdmillennia clan treat them. Sure, the Einzberns weren't any better, but at least they treated their homunculi like art and didn't throw them away carelessly.
Still, what could I do to give those homunculi the time they needed I wonder…?
Looking around at the many doors that led to just as many rooms, I got a wild idea. Fire was always fun. Slipping into a room and finding it empty, I began writing a line of runes on one of the walls. The fun thing with long lines of runes was their versatility, a fire rune here, an altered time rune there, and voila, I basically turned the line of runes into a timer. One that would unleash the Sowilo fire rune and cause a fire. And of course, one fire wouldn't do, many were needed to be a real distraction. And by the time this place either burned to the ground or the Masters of Yggdmillennia managed to get the fires out, Sieg's little band of homunculi would be home free.
Leaving one hallway and into another, I kept on grinning as a few small fires began to blaze behind me. I wonder if I got my destructive tendencies from Mom… I know Dad prefers screwing around with people than watching something explode. Then again, maybe he doesn't like explosions given what happened to my aunts and uncles on his side of the family, having died from mana overloaded hunks of metals.
Though as I entered the hallway, I noticed a bright green light off in the distance. A light that resembled… a tree? Oh, a Noble Phantasm, I wonder whose it was.
"Huh, not that many Noble Phantasms have been used so far in the war," I mused aloud as the green light tree continued to light up.
And it was true, so far I had only seen Atalanta's Phoebus Catastrophe, Semiramis' Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and this green tree so far in this war. You'd figure the other Masters would be dishing them out, especially the Yggdmillennia clan given that they have, or rather had, homunculi to provide the Servants with mana. Doubly so for Lancer of Black, given his legend as both a hero of Romania and as Count Dracula, he could probably toss Noble Phantasms left and right. Or maybe there was some other circumstance that prevented him from doing, a few minutes later, as if someone decided to prove me wrong, two large founts of mana, one red in color and the other blue lit up the sky.
"Wait a sec," I frowned, "who are the ones fighting there?"
Only a Saber-class Servant could be capable of unleashing such a destructive type of Noble Phantasm. And given the red light, I figured that one belonged to the old man's Saber. But Saber of Black was dead and the other Servants of Black besides Caster were fighting other battles. Who was Saber of Red fighting?
It was then I remembered that blue fount of mana, I had seen it back when Atalanta and I assisted Achilles in trying to get Spartacus back. Was Saber of Black not dead?
"This Grail War just keeps getting weirder and weirder," I shook my head before I noticed the smell of smoke getting closer. "Oops." Guess I spent too much time in my own thoughts. Eh, well, the small number of timed fire runes were enough.
"Stop right there!"
Ah, hell…
Sighing, I turned around to see a young woman… with four robot arms coming from her back?
"Doc Ock?" I blinked.
"Who?" she frowned.
Right, magus. She probably never even heard any of the pop-culture comic book heroes. A shame that.
"Er, nothing," I shook my head.
Getting a good look at the young woman before me, I recognized her face from the files Dad gave me. Fiore Forvedge Yggdmillennia, the chosen heir of the Forvedge family and Caules' older sister. Intel reports said that she used a Mystic Code called the Bronze-Link Manipulators, but there wasn't a picture of what they looked like. Well, guess I know now.
"Here to attack us while our Servants are away?" she frowned at me.
"That's the idea," I shrugged with a smirk, slowly drawing Mugetsu from my back. "C'mon, any competent mage would've done the same."
"Oh, I'm not rebuking you," Fiore smiled. "For you are indeed right that a tactic like this is very much within a mage's behavior. Which is why we were expecting it. Mars, open fire."
To my surprise, one of the mechanical arms pointed itself at me and its fingers spread to reveal what looked like a gun barrel. Fired like a gun too, because I had to duck into one of the rooms to avoid the mana bullets that were fired at me.
"Okay, mage version of Doc Ock, got it," I muttered from the floor as I closed the door shut with my foot, only to roll out of the way to avoid more mana gunfire.
Hoping to catch the enemy magus by surprise, I slipped into a corner parallel to the door, having turned the lights off on my way there. Pressing myself close to the wall to minimize my profile, I watched from the shadows as the door was blown to bits by the mana bullets. And like something from a horror film, mechanical fingers gripped the door frame before Fiore came in, squinting into the darkness before her.
"Come out, Clocktower mage!" she demanded.
Smirking, I channeled mana into Mugetsu, causing it to dimly glow red in the shadows. Leaping right at her, I attacked with my sword in an overhead swing and had missed as her robot arms moved so that she evaded my strike.
"You didn't say please," I grinned savagely before dashing forward.
"Saturn, strike him!" Fiore commanded, causing one of her arms to snap forward.
Undeterred by the Mystic Code about to hit me, I spun on my heel to sidestep its strike before bringing Mugetsu down on the robotic arm, cutting it cleanly.
"Grn," Fiore grunted in frustration. "Mars, open fire!"
Uttering the name of the haste rune on the soles of my boots, I had managed to duck under the fire of her mana bullets and dashed into the hallway. I preferred close-quarters combat, but I wasn't stupid enough to take on bullets completely made of mana up close. With the rate of fire those robot arms had, it was similar to an LMG.
Oh, wait.
"So that's what the old man had to face against last night," I grumbled before ducking and rolling under another line of fire by the Yggdmillennia master.
Running into an adjacent hallway, I had to pause as I found myself in front of a group comprised of small golems and homunculi. Huh, guess some of the homunculi in Yggdmillennia were okay with their lot.
"Surrender, you're surrounded," ordered Fiore with a frown as she arrived behind me.
Looking behind me at her, then at the squad before me, I weighed my options. I'd feel bad if I killed any of the homunculi here given that Sieg wanted to free them all, even if they weren't with the wayward sword-wielding homunculus.
"Surrender," frowned Fiore, "I will fire upon you if you call your Servant here. You have no other choice!"
"There's always another option," I grinned at her from over my shoulder.
Drawing a flashbang and a smoke grenade from my belt, I threw them both down at my feet, covering my eyes before I could be blinded by the flashbang.
Hearing the surprised yelp from Fiore I channeled mana into Mugetsu, its edge glowed red once more as I cut a nearby window to the outside open and jumped out of it. As I fell to the ground below, I caught sight of two things. One, Semiramis' Hanging Gardens was getting closer and closer to the Citadel. And two, I saw what could only be described as a meat balloon beginning to explode.
Master? Are you alright?
I'm fine, I replied as I landed on the ground and had to dive into an alcove to avoid being seen by a group of golems, sheathing Mugetsu at the same time. Why wouldn't I be?
When I saw the fire and smoke coming from the enemy's Citadel, I grew worried.
I couldn't help but grin, Aw, you do care.
"Master now is not the time for jokes!" Atalanta growled as she materialized in front of me, giving me a rather piercing glare with her bow in hand.
"I was worried about you too, Archer," I gave her an easy-going smile. Not really though, I had full faith in her. "What was it like fighting Count Dracula?"
She glared at me for a moment longer before she sighed as she palmed her forehead, "Nearly impossible. I gave as much support as I could to our faction's Lancer but the strength of Vlad Tepes III in Romania is unparalleled."
Figures.
"Though unfortunately, I had my hands full with another matter," she continued. "It was as we feared, control of Spartacus was taken by the enemy and was set loose on us. I had used my Noble Phantasm on him, but that monster just regenerated his wounds and turned into a large mass of what seemed like multiple corpses."
"Wait," I blinked, "you're telling me that meat balloon was Spartacus?"
"Meat balloon…" she tried the phrase for herself with a sardonic grin. "Yes, that fits what became of Berserker of Red remarkably well."
"So what'd you do?" I asked curiously. "Given that he isn't rampaging our way, I assume you did something to get him off your tail. Err, no offense."
"None taken," she shook her head, "I saw an opportunity when I saw Ruler in the distance and had her take Berserker of Red off my hands."
"Ah, well, shit happens in war," I shrugged. This was a proxy war conducted by mages, playing fair was akin to suicide. And honestly, Atalanta throwing Ruler under the bus to lose Spartacus from her trail was probably a cleaner move than what most mages would do. Another mage would probably have Atalanta stay some distance back to fire potshots at both Servants until either one was defeated before taking out the survivor.
"I agree," she nodded before her lion ears twitched.
"So what do you think-"
"Get down!" she yelped as she pushed me down behind a stone pillar and covered me with her body protectively.
I couldn't get a word in for a large explosion of mana that could only come from a Noble Phantasm detonated accompanied by a blinding light and an ear-piercing bang. When the light died and the ringing noise in my ears began to fade, I looked up to see Atalanta still holding herself protectively over me, her eyes rapidly moving back and forth for any other immediate danger.
"Argh, what the hell was that?" I grunted, rubbing one of my ears.
"A Noble Phantasm," Atalanta answered absently as she moved off of me before pulling me to the stone pillar we took cover behind.
Well, what was left of it anyway. For the upper portion of it that had supported a part of the Citadel plus that portion had been obliterated in the wake of destruction that came from a Noble Phantasm.
"I meant; Who from?" I tapped my ear as a dull pain remained in it.
"Berserker of Red," she replied as she peered from behind cover. "Master…"
Feeling my cell phone buzz, I reached into my pocket and pulled it out. I frowned at the notification that I received a text. From the priest…?
Head upstairs.
The hell? What did he mean by "head upstairs"?
"Master."
"Yeah, what is it?" I asked her absently as I continued to frown at the text message.
"You might want to look up."
Frowning at her, I saw that she was looking up with a contemplative look on her face, so I decided to look up as well. And was pleasantly surprised to see the Hanging Gardens above us, or rather, right above the Millennia Citadel. And from its center, a purple band of light emerged. Magecraft. And its purpose was soon evident to everyone who could see it as a tornado of wind emerged from it and struck at the core of the Citadel.
"Archer, can you get the both of us up there?" I asked her as I stood up.
"If I can catch the wind at the right angle, of course," she nodded, standing up as well.
"Make it happen."
Grabbing me, she shot up into the air, using either the side of the Citadel or floating debris to correct our approach. And in a few minutes, Archer had gotten us close to the flying fortress before we were picked up in midair and I fell back against something metal in a seated position.
"Hey there, Master of Archer," said a familiar voice.
"Rider," Atalanta acknowledged with a frown as she stood beside me.
"Sorry to ruin your moment there," Achilles grinned sheepishly as he held the reins to his chariot, "but when I saw the two of you heading to Assassin's Gardens, I couldn't help but decide to give you two a hand."
"It's cool, dude," I waved off as I leaned back against his chariot. "Like you said, we were heading up here anyway."
"You know, I'm kinda surprised to see you in the heart of the battlefield," said Achilles, looking over his shoulder at me with a grin. "Speaks volumes that you'd be willing to come out here even if you wouldn't be a match for us Servants." He then glanced at Atalanta. "You sure lucked out in terms of Masters, Archer."
"... I'm still not trading Masters, Achilles."
"Feh."
When we reached the top, I was surprised to see another Servant there; a tall, pale man with white hair wearing golden armor and wielding a gold spear.
"Would I be correct in assuming you are Lancer of Red?" I asked in way of greeting.
"Indeed," he nodded, "my True Name is Karna, Child of the Sun God Surya. Greetings, Master of Archer."
I raised a brow in intrigue at the Servants before me, "Huh, the priest wasn't kidding, the quality of Servants on our side is outstanding. An Indian demi-god, the invulnerable Greek hero, the Queen of Babylon, a Huntress of Artemis, and, despite the fact he was later turned, the Hero of Rebellion. I met Saber but I don't know her True Name, so the only one I haven't met so far is Caster."
"Take that as a blessing," Achilles shook his head as his chariot dematerialized.
"Why? Who is he?" I asked curiously.
"Perhaps another time," Karna interjected, "the Servants of Black will soon respond now that we have the Greater Holy Grail in our possession."
"We have the what now?" I raised a brow incredulously.
"The Hanging Gardens wasn't just a convenient way for us to attack from," shrugged Achilles. "Assassin wanted to use the Gardens to strike the enemy's Citadel at its core and retrieve the Holy Grail from their hands as this place is a viable container of the Grail. Or that's what she told me."
Made sense, the Holy Grail was a large artifact. There was no way anything short of heavy-duty construction cranes was going to be able to lift it.
"Which is why we must prepare for the enemy's counterattack," nodded Karna.
"Lancer's right," Atalanta agreed as she peered down from the ledge at the crumbling Citadel, "the enemy won't take this unanswered."
"Then what are we waiting for?" I grinned. "It's rude to ignore the door when guests are knocking, isn't it?"
AN:
No omake this week, and this chapter was a bit more fluffier than I had originally planned, but honestly I couldn't find see any opportunities for Faelan to do more after watching the episodes over and over. Next week, Faelan will join the Servants of Red in the battle against the Black faction in the Hanging Gardens and a surprise that really shouldn't come as a surprise if you've read this story from the beginning.
For FGO, I hope everyone is doing well in the Seraph event. I've got my BB up to NP5, just need to level her up a bit so she can be useful. As for you crazy Sakura-face hunting psychos, I hope your luck is holding up. I for one will be saving my SQs for the rest of the year until the end when Achilles will get his rate up so that when the Fate/Apocrypha event rerun happens next year, all I would really need is Atalanta due to the 5-star ticket giving me Mordred.
On an unrelated note, I have another fanfic in the works. It's a RWBY one where I will make yet another O.C., but this one is loosely based on the Fate version of Karna, emphasis on LOOSELY BASED and FATE VERSION of Karna. It will probably release next week or the week after and I will be alternating in releasing chapters between the two as school is on a roll and I now have tests and projects to prepare for, which eats up on my free time for writing. But to put it in laymens' terms, the plan will be to release a chapter of Cats & Dogs one week and the next week will be the new story.
See you all next week!