Ryuuto woke up in a field of flowers.
More specifically, a field of what appeared to be apple blossoms in pastel pink, white, and pale purple, but that couldn't be right. Apple blossoms grow on trees, not on the ground! In any case, Ryuuto was lying beneath a vast, blue sky. Clouds lazily moved about, and a gentle breeze stirred the sweet-smelling air.
It looked, felt, and smelled like paradise, or at least a natural scene straight out of a storybook. He pressed his hands against the soft ground and rose above the flowers, gazing into the land beyond. A forest of pine trees stood in the distance, but not much else could be seen.
The Master took a deep breath. This had to be a dream, right? The area was too...pretty. But he guessed he could enjoy himself a little. Ryuuto stood up and walked around aimlessly, until a slim object on the ground caught his eye.
"Is this some kind of staff?" He walked towards the ornate pole, or maybe it was some kind of symbolic marker. The Master was a few steps away from reaching the object when he realized there was a presence behind him, following his footsteps.
"The bells...the bells are ringing."
Ryuuto turned around to find a girl with blond hair and a white outfit, topped with a blue hat. Her stern yet unsure green eyes met Ryuuto. She said the bells were ringing….but all the young man heard was the wind's fluttering of the flowers.
"I don't know what you mean. I don't hear anything." She looked familiar. Where had he seen a face like that before?
The girl stared past him, eyes focused on the staff. "One day the star of hope will shine...huh?" She finally seemed to realize the stranger near the staff. "Who are you?"
"Me? My name's Ryuuto…" His voice trailed off, uncertain of what to say next. It didn't matter, since the whole area was suddenly becoming brighter than sunlight. Great. Now he was waking up at a crucial introduction! Curse his luck!
"My name is Ryuuto!" This time, with more confidence. The world was fading quickly. "I'm a Master of Chaldea!"
It's not like saying where he was now was going to help, but oh well.
"This is...bad, isn't it?"
"Si."
"Well, it looks like following those French soldiers was a bust. Guys, are you seeing this?"
The fort ahead of them was in a nice, lush clearing, and would have been a great place to take a picture if not for the fact that its interior was completely in ruins, smoke faintly escaping from the inner depths. However the one redeeming trait of the fort was its somewhat sturdy outer wall.
"You really can't call this a fort, huh?" Dr. Roman's voice resounded from Alpha's bracelet. "There's nothing but wounded soldiers here." Mash silently nodded in agreement. "It is wartime after all. If this really is 1431, then Charles VII of France should have signed a peace treaty with Phillip III, an English ally. But even so, there were probably skirmishes-"
"Like the one we're about to face?" Naughty pointed to an incoming French soldier, causing Alpha to groan. "They found us already?"
"I'll handle this," said Mash, glancing back at the two. With a calm stride, she approached the tense soldier. This time, her voice came out in French. "Bonjour. We are travelers, and not here to harm you. Please lay down your weapon, monsieur."
The man looked nervous, but his shoulders relaxed and he lowered his spear. "You're not the enemy?"
"Of course we're not," muttered Alpha under his breath. "We spared you all a while ago. If we really were their enemy we'd go harder than that." Naughty snickered in agreement. Mash however, was conversing with the Frenchman and was hearing things far more concerning than a misunderstanding.
"You mean Charles VII did not sign a peace treaty?" Oh no, this was bad. Mash began to feel uneasy.
"You don't know? The king is dead! He was burned to death by a witch!" This was very bad.
"Dead? By a witch and her flames?"
"Oui. It's Jeanne D'arc, who was burnt at the stake and rose again as the "Dragon Witch". England retreated quite a while ago," said the man with a small sad smile. "But where do we have to run off to? This is our home, the land we defended with our lives. And now we will die here too, by a false martyr's flames."
"Whoa. The Saint of France is a witch now, AND she's roasting her own country? I want to meet her," whispered Naughty to Alpha. "She sounds like my kind of woman."
"Guys, I thought your mission was to SAVE France, not meet the local arsonist and help destroy it. Also, what did the French ever do to you guys?" A new voice emanated from the Master's bracelets: Chiaki.
"Well you see Chiaki, as Europeans we really dislike this country for future reasons. You're American, right?" Naughty waited for Chiaki's response.
"Well, yeah. What does that have to do with anything?"
Alpha and Naughty snorted. "Then, you wouldn't understand. Maybe Ryuuto would. Speaking of which, where is he-"
"Alright, break up the conversation! Multiple magical signals are approaching!" Roman's voice broke into the conversation, alerting the Masters. "They seem to be undead familiars- skeleton soldiers. Unlike last time, you can go all out."
The clinking of bones and metal grew louder as the bone-white figures approached the group. The french soldier grabbed his spear and stood beside Mash. "If they are really skeleton soldiers, I can handle this." The two Masters shrugged and looked towards the horde of skeletons.
"Alright! No mercy to those who refuse to stay dead! Get em, Mash!" Naughty cheered her on, but really, he was admiring her behind...from behind.
The demi-Servant readied her shield, eyes focusing on the targets ahead. "Your orders, Master! I'll pulverize them!"
While her choice of sudden aggression was spontaneous, Naughty grinned at her outburst. "That's the spirit!"
They made decent work of the undead group, smashing their bodies to individual segments. The french soldier dutifully picked up the weapons while Alpha walked towards the skeletal remains, hoping to find something useful. "Huh, some of these bones are red." He picked one up, examining it. "Say, doc, can we use these bones for something?"
"Oh wow, Evil Bones. Yes, go ahead and pick those up, please. They will certainly be useful!" Instead of the doctor, it was Da Vinci who had responded. Alpha picked up all the red bones he could find, and stuffed them into his brown bag. Amazingly, the bag never felt heavier no matter how many bones he stuffed inside. However his bone hunt was interrupted by distant roars from above.
The French soldier panicked. "Come on, dragons are coming! If you don't resist or run, they'll eat you!"
"Larger magical signal incoming! Wait, this can't be! Those are…" Romani stared at the screen.
"Dragons…?" From Chaldea, Chiaki could not believe what she was seeing. "Y-you mean to tell me dragons are REAL?!"
"Visual confirmed! There are three of them! It's unbelievable! They are wyverns, a subspecies of dragons." The doctor turned to face Chiaki. "And yes, they are very real and very dangerous!"
Mash grit her teeth. "This will be different than those old bones from earlier, Master."
The large, emerald-green body of a wyvern cast a shadow over the group, and the observers from Chaldea could only watch in anticipation. "Will they be alright?" Chiaki said to herself in genuine concern. The feeling grew worse when she noticed something else on her screen. "Ah, doctor, there's another signal heading their way!"
"Soldiers! Douse yourselves with water! You can momentarily defend against their flames!" A blonde woman was running towards the group. Her pristine banner swayed in the wind heroically, as did her blonde hair in a braid. Her blue eyes held intense resolution. Surely, this was a heroine arriving at the nick of time!
However, the lone frenchman in the group could only gape in shock. "Eh?"
"You there!" cried the woman. "Please pick up your weapon and fight! Follow me! Together with me, we will engage the wyvern!" Yes, there was no doubt this woman had the aura of a hero, or at least a person of inspiration.
"Oh, she is a Servant! But what's this, her energy readings are rather low...what is she…" Roman was analyzing figures with intensity while Chiaki was glued to the action happening.
"Impossible, no, no it can't be-" The soldier was staring at the woman, his face no longer shocked, but in fear and confusion. "You're the witch! You brought that dragon here!" He was shaking his head in disbelief, and started to back up from everyone. Alpha sighed, and Naughty rolled his eyes. "Don't be a lâche. You want to act like a little garçon who hasn't grown a pair? Don't tell me all French are like that."
The Frenchman only understood maybe two words from the Italian, but it was enough to anger him. "I am not associating with a witch! Especially if that dragon is going to kill us all!" He ran off into the destroyed fortress, leaving the wyverns to the Chaldeans and the Servant.
"Well, crap. Looks like we have to deal with this ourselves," grumbled Alpha as three wyverns descended, roaring and breathing sparks of fire from their mouths. "Kill me now."
"Show your corpses to the three thousand worlds..."
A flash of light manifested in the sky, and dimmed just as quickly. Two figures descended from the burst, one in garments of red and gold and the other cloaked in black. The red one began summoning a myriad of rifles in mid-air, covering the sky in weapons.
"Behold, the Demon King's Descent! Three Line Formation!"
A sudden burst of gunfire came from behind the flying reptiles and perforated their wings. Mash immediately moved to cover the Masters with her shield, letting the bullets deflect harmlessly off of it. With inhuman wails, the wyverns crashed to the ground in agony. The assault did not stop, and the rain of bullets slowed the movements of the wyverns. A small figure weaved through the aerial gunfire, landing on the back of a wyvern with a hefty stab of her knife. The creature let out a terrible shriek and slammed its neck onto the ground with a lifeless thud.
As for the third target, the woman furled her banner and launched a flurry of attacks, lancing the wyvern to death with swift slashes and strikes. The gunfire accelerated the process, and soon all three wyverns lay dead and full of holes, their corpses emitting smoke.
"Hahahaha! Those poor excuses for dragons are no match for my genius tactics!" The Demon Archer Nobunaga cackled as she approached the group. Naughty couldn't help but smirk back. Amidst all of the smoke, his Servant looked hot in every sense of the word.
"...Mommy! Are you ok? We fell out of the sky to save you!" The little Assassin detached herself from the dead draconic beast and ran towards her Master, hugging him. Alpha ruffled her hair, sighing in relief. "I'm fine. Thank you for killing that monster, Jack. You...you've made...Mommy proud." Screw it, he was taking his new motherly role in stride. Naughty and Archer snickered at the sight while Mash sighed.
She then noticed the woman from before approaching and gestured for everyone to pay attention. The blonde woman in armor carried a neutral expression. "Um...Thank you very much."
"Hmph! That was nothing I couldn't handle," said Nobu with a confident smile. Mash came forward with a soft smile. "No, it really was nothing. By the way, are you-"
"Ruler. My Servant class is Ruler." Upon hearing those words, Jack involuntarily stiffened and squeezed the hem of Alpha's uniform. "My true name is Jeanne D'Arc."
"Jeanne D'Arc?" Mash's eyes widened.
Alpha frowned. "You mean the one that soldier said resurrected and became a witch?"
Jeanne's face fell. "We can talk about that later." She glanced at the fortress behind everyone. "It is nothing we should say in front of them." With her flagpole, she pointed towards a nearby forest. "If you will, please join me. We can discuss the situation at hand there."
Mash turned to Naughty and the others. "We've been invited, Senpai. Shall we join her?"
Naughty looked at the Ruler, and back at the group, shrugging. "Let's follow her." Nobu nodded. "A wise decision, retainer. Always follow those who know the area more than you do." That being said, the Archer pulled out a rifle and kept it close.
The little Assassin looked at Alpha with uncertainty. He stared at the forest ahead. "To be honest, I don't trust Jeanne. It could be a trap." But did he really have a choice? Before he could mull over his thoughts some more, a beep emanated from his bracelet.
"Hey, following her is a good idea. I'm sure she knows about the situation, and we can get details about this Singularity." Roman's words emanated from the communication device, but it did nothing to shake the feeling of suspicion from Alpha's mind.
"Let's tag a little behind them, Jack. Just in case."
"Ok Mommy. We know how to be sneaky, just watch."
Ryuuto woke up to the bright light of his room and the scent of his aromatherapy device. Some kind of dream he had. Was that supposed to be prophetic, comforting, or just plain weird? He sat up and rubbed his eyes. That girl looked familiar, and he had an idea of who it could be...but she looked far kinder than the King of Knights.
"Hmm," he mused to himself. "I have to stop thinking about her." He didn't really mean it. She was such a regal lady with those sharp eyes, the blond hair, the way she yelled-
"Master!" Okita's voice jolted Ryuuto out of his reverie. "They need you in the Command Room, it's time for your shift."
"Alright, I'm coming." One splash of cold water to the face later, he was walking alongside the Sakura Saber through the halls. "I take it they let Naughty and Alpha's Servants go to Orleans?"
"Yes. That Archer made a big show of it, too." Okita was pouting now. "And that Master girl said it was some kind of "Big Damn Heroes moment", but I think I could have done the job faster."
"You definitely would. No doubt," replied Ryuuto. "One day those two are going to get cocky and we'll have to go save them.
Finally, they reached the Command Room. Everyone was too busy focused on the screens and data to notice the newcomers except Chiaki, who weakly waved hello. "Hey, you two. My eyes are tired from all this watching." She stood up, stretching her arms. "They've been asking for you, by the way. Oh, that also reminds me- why do you guys hate the French so much? As far as I know, they were allies. I mean, we kinda got them into debt after the Revolutionary War but aside from that-"
"Don't think about it too hard, Chiaki," Ryuuto sighed. "It's one of those things where you don't have an explanation. It's just a feeling."
"A gut feeling?"
"Yeah, whatever you wanna call it. Now go get some rest before you ask something that silly again."
Chiaki smiled, but it resembled more of a squiggly line on her face than a genuine smile. "Alrighty!" The female Master ran off, probably to her room or to go find Berserker.
Okita watched her go, then turned to her Master with a small smile. "Let's see how that Demon Archer and her Master are doing."
"...and basically, we are here to restore the Human Order and destroy the cause of the Singularity, which may or may not have to do with a Holy Grail being around here somewhere."
"I see," replied Ruler with a serious look on her face. "I understand now. To think that humanity as a whole had been incinerated, and "myself" being a "Dragon Witch", this is truly a dire situation."
"Do you have any idea of how she's controlling them?" Mash looked at the Ruler. "To summon dragons is a high form of magecraft, and with so many...it doesn't seem possible, not even for this era's magecraft."
Jeanne shook her head. "I have no idea how she's controlling them. I never thought about those things in life, and my own skills as a Ruler have either been greatly weakened or outright deleted. At the very least, this is my homeland...I can still figure out the lay of the land and speak the native tongue."
"Well, to be able to bend the rules like that would require an object with immense power," said Doctor Roman from the communication device.
"So like a Holy Grail," mumbled Alpha. "Great. We're dealing with an enemy that has basically won, aren't we?"
Everyone turned to look at the blond Master. "What do you mean, Alpha?" Jeanne asked, but it earned her no smile from Alpha.
"The Dragon Witch is going to use everything in her power to probably destroy France. If she's Jeanne, or maybe some twisted version of her, she probably hates the people. And while I'm personally alright with that (this earned some looks of shock from Mash and Jeanne), I know we have a mission that spans the greater picture." Somehow, it didn't sound so motivating and the mood severely fell. "Even so, we're just a handful of Servants, humans, with no army and no resources. We can't ask other countries for help, and we can't bring over the rest of the team either. You all saw how those soldiers reacted to Jeanne. We're boned in every sense of the word."
There was a moment of silence for the rant Alpha had unleashed. From Chaldea, Ryuuto watched silently. Wow. I didn't know he had it in him to say all of that. Although some points were agreeable, he decided to steer the group back on course. "Alpha, it's as you say: in the long run, saving France will help with restoring Human Order. So while we may have grievances, just this once, we're going to rise above that and help these people."
"Yes, let's help Jeanne," said Mash. "Although we are a small group-"
"I say we make an army." Nobunaga stood up and walked to the center, overshadowing the campfire. " This "Dragon Witch" aims to take over the land and destroy it, right?" The Demon Archer spoke up, her eyes gleaming mischievously.
"That's right," replied Naughty. Mash and the others nodded. The firefly light highlighted the Demon Archer's face and gave her hair a crimson sheen.
"Then there is one thing we must do. Our next course of action. If we cannot make ourselves a benevolent force that defends France due to personal grudges, we will become our own faction. We will find like-minded soldiers from every town and fort we pass on our way to the Dragon Witch's lair, and crush the enemy forces utterly. We will show no mercy to these monsters and become monsters ourselves, razing the land before the witch has any chance to do so."
"In other words, I say we conquer France ourselves!"
Author's Note: After a hiatus that I didn't really expect to happen, I'm back. The Orleans Arc should, and I say that tentatively, should go smoothly now. After some consulting about how the characters would act, this was the (sort of?) happy medium I ended up with. Prepare for plot divergence because some people will not be happy about Nobunaga's decision. Or Ambition. :)