I do not own FATE or GAENSHIN IMPACT.
English is not my strong suit so apologies.
Ok so a few things to address, first being why was there no upload last week. The reason was because halfway through writing the chapter I decided to scrap it as a result of not liking how it was going, and so I decided to rework the order of the next few chapters.
Second lack of action. Ok really sorry about this one but there's still a good way to go before the first battle. With that being said I do have the chapters planned till the first battle and so here they are.
Next chapters: 1) Wavers first dream sequence.
2) Waver arrives at the church with Zhongli.
3) Banquet of the masters.
4) Banquet of the servants
5) First battle
That's all so I hope you all enjoy!
Tokiomi Tohsaka closed the box containing the snakeskin and put it on the shelf alongside the Azoth blade. The magical circle on the floor behind him let off some last whisps of smoke from his earlier successful summoning, as his current pupil Kirei Kotomine walked down the basement steps into his magical workshop.
"How is the king of hero's liking his surroundings?" Tokiomi asked as turned to look at Kirei.
"He seems rather unsatisfied with them and is growing impatient as to why you are not before him." Kirei answered with his usual steady, and deep voice.
The red magus nodded his head "Yes I supposed that is my fault, but I had just gotten word from Father Risei. Lord El-Melloi and the other masters should be meeting with us tonight to unofficially form our alliance with the other masters if events dictate such actions as necessary.
"Should?" Kirei asked as he picked up on a little disappointment in his mentor.
"Yes, if all goes to plan. Although that hardly is the case in our world as I've recently been reminded." Tokiomi motioned his hand to the device that he had used to communicate with father Risei in reference to his previous plan for the Grail War. The plan which had now long since fallen out of date leaving Tokiomi admittedly with a little bit of frustration, but a magus had to be adaptable and Tokiomi would not fall behind. "Come let us not keep the king of hero's waiting." He grabbed his jewel staff and the two men proceeded to walk up the stairs.
"If I may ask why did you continue with the plan to have me summon the Hundred Faced Hassan. With a god now in the war wouldn't it have been appropriate to get a more powerful assassin so we could gain an advantage no matter how small."
By the time the question was said the duo had reached the top of the basement stairs and had begun walking across the main floor to reach the main stairwell, "While that may appear to be true at first glance not all strength is physical. If this divine entity becomes our opponent, then assassin won't be able to do much in a physical battle regardless of how powerful they are. But the hundred faced Hassan's multiple personalities will allow us to scout and gain information without fear of losing a servant."
"Will we still be going forward with the initial plan in some form then?" Kirei asked as they began to ascend to the top-level step by step.
"Sadly no. As for any future planning that will have to be put on hold till we get a clearer picture of how the war is shaping up. The first step is observing this new god."
Tokiomi's face took on a look of worry but before Kirei could wonder about it they reached the door to the head of the house's office.
"I'll take it from here Kirei, thank you for the help and any trouble it caused you."
Kirei nodded his head as he left back down the main stairs and eventually out the front door towards his father's church leaving Tokiomi Tohsaka alone.
Instead of entering his office immediately Tokiomi took a moment to mentally prepare and flatten any wrinkles in his red suit before knocking on the office door, from which an irritated voice on the other side responded with, "Enter."
The first thing which caught the attention of the master was naturally the King of Hero's himself who leaned against the wall behind the desk with a bored and angered look on his lips. In his right hand a golden cup containing wine which likely didn't come from the Tohsaka house as all of the bottles were still in place.
"You waste my time Tokiomi, I answer your summons and then you ask your servant to whisk me away to this dreary place." Gilgamesh said as he stood up and walked directly Infront of the office windows. The sun light from outside bathing him and his armor in golden red like a full-fledged war god. "If it weren't for your servant telling me that you have something here to make my appearance worthwhile, I would has severed this contract with you already."
"My apologies your majesty but the reason I had do such a thing was in relation as to why I called for you to begin with." Tokiomi made a mental note to give something extra to Kirei for his extra help in dealing with the King of Hero's again. Perhaps his favourite meal when the Black team officially meets for the first time.
"And what would that be Tokiomi?" Gilgamesh needless to say doubted anything could excuse the perceived disrespect shown to him thus far.
"An opponent who we might be facing in the Grail War. A divine creature from the Age of Gods with all of its ancient power possibly at its disposal." Tokiomi said with a bow.
Gilgamesh was silent for a time with Tokiomi being unable to see his face due to his bow.
Eventually a reply came from the king's lips in the form of a single chuckle before he replied with. "My that does sound important. However please explain to me then why I cannot sense such a Mongrels presence in my Garden. Even a divine spirit on its own should have immediately caught my attention."
Tokiomi straightened his back and stood up right, "Yes I admit it seems hard to believe now as everything has returned to normal but when the god arrived every mage and even the general public where aware of it. I can provide proof if you desire it."
Gilgamesh was once again silent as he was previously but this time Tokiomi could see his face. Previously, and now he had expected the King of Hero's to deliberate in trusting him with a cold calculated look. But instead, Gilgamesh had the most savage, excitable, and somehow pleasantly enraged grin on him that the Magus had ever seen. A look which immediately transformed into a lion like roaring laughter.
"You speak the truth! Tell me what you know of this mongrel who dare go against the order of the world I laid down." The king said as he refilled his cup with more of the blood red liquid.
"Unfortunately, not much my king, Gaia and Alaya are-" But before Tokiomi could finish Gilgamesh interrupted.
"No, no I have no interest in the functioning of those two systems, tell me of what you know in regard to the mongrel itself." He said as he took another sip of his cup his eyes desperate for more information.
"As stated before not much aside that its somehow capable of hiding its presence completely."
"Yes, how peculiar." Gilgamesh thought as he seemed to reminisce, "Then rejoice in this piece of information that I shall bestow upon you Tokiomi. This god is not one from my pantheon for none of them had the mentality or patience to be this subtle. It appears this upstart is wiser than most or is simply not as powerful as its introduction suggests."
"Thank you your majesty this information will be greatly beneficial." He'd have to inform father Risei of this as soon as possible.
"Of course it would be. This was to reason that you requested my gracious aid to begin with was it not?" The king already knew the answer, but he wanted to see what his subject would say in return. The god may have made his appearance in this era necessary but clearly Tokiomi had wanted him beforehand. He doubted that a mage from the far east could have gained that snakeskin in a short amount of time or easily for that matter.
Yes, the King of Heroes didn't know when this (second) most offensive of mongrels had appeared but based on Tokiomi's wording and body language it was most certainly recent.
"Yes and no your majesty. Originally, I had hoped that you would answer my summons for the Holy grail war alone, and still do, as you are the most powerful heroic spirit in human history. The appearance of this new god only cemented that decision as you were the one to complete the separation between the gods and humanity."
Gilgamesh kept his expression neutral once again as he asked, "Do you think your words of flattery will appease me Tokiomi?"
Tokiomi didn't waver in his stance or speech as he calmly replied with, "Not flattery your majesty, merely a statement of fact. You are humanities first hero, and you ended the age of gods."
Gilgamesh's neutral expression turned into a pleased one as he looked at his subject, "It appears you know your role as a subject in my garden. Get a bottle of wine from your collection and fill a cup." The king commanded and Tokiomi complied. As he did so Gilgamesh added, "still as a mage you must have some disagreement with my decision to end the Age of Gods do you not?"
Tokiomi knew that he had to answer this question truthfully. Still, he couldn't help wondering why all of this attention on himself now, shouldn't more attention be put on the god which had broken every rule of the world including the kings very own. Gilgamesh had wanted every speck of information beforehand.
"I admit that as a mage I inherently look upon such an era as being far greater than the one I live in now, and as a result anything from so long ago drives me to want to preserve it." He said as he opened the wine shelf doors, "But I know the danger involved and that you will not allow for such a thing without permission. Thus, I would have to consult you on such issues before hand."
"A part of you wishes to study the deity then?"
Tokiomi paused for a moment as he grabbed the wine bottle in his hand, "Yes I suppose so. If I may propose something your majesty?"
Gilgamesh nodded his head silently.
"You stated that this deity may not be as powerful as it appears to be. If that is the situation then may you allow the other servants to battle it first? Or if it's negatable will you allow it to form an alliance with us if possible?" The wine shelf doors closed cautiously as the magus shifted his eyes to the side to look at the king.
Gilgamesh quirked an eyebrow at that, a slight frown on his lips, "You summon me here to defeat a god and now you ask me to ally with it. If I hadn't been the one to ask you for your opinion on the matter, I would treat such a request as an insult to all I accomplished."
Two glass cups were put on the table in the middle of the room as Tokiomi filled them, "My apologies, but if another heroic spirit is capable of taking down such an entity would it even be worth the effort to do it yourself?"
"Whether something is worth my effort or not is mine alone to decide." Gilgamesh said bluntly. "But you have a point, if one of the other mongrels in this war can beat the god then let them. Let this war be my test for humanity in how far they have come. If they are unable to beat the beast then I shall recreate a battle of legend with all the world to see." Golden portals opened next to Tokiomi as a stone tablet came out and was placed gently on his table. "And you shall be the assistant to record it all." Gilgamesh finished with some sadistic glee.
Tokiomi physically paused for a few seconds as his mind took in the words that were just spoken. He had wanted the King of Hero's aid in the defeating the god if necessary, but an all-out battle royal in the open! If such a situation were to occur then the city would most assuredly be destroyed, with a death toll easily surpassing anything in Japan's history. He could not let that happen.
But those would only be the initial effects of such an act. If the world saw such a thing, and they would! Then magecraft and mystery would shine brighter than it ever had in centuries during the battle and then fade into nothingness soon after.
It didn't take long for Tokiomi to see where such a situation would put him, and he did not like it.
The best-case scenario would see the other servants and the god dead with the grail filled well over the top thanks to all the mana the divine being possessed. There would be no need to kill Gilgamesh and risk his own skin at the last minute.
The second situation still involved killing the god but as the first death of the war and again the grail would be filled likely. But that would leave the question of who would get the wish and more fighting would ensue after.
Finally, the third had the god killing everyone and that left a world where nobody was happy.
Eventually the fire mage regained his composer and spoke up, "Thank you, it will be my honour my king. I'm sure that the participants of the grail war will impress you."
"Once again that will be for me to decide. But do tell me of the modern mages in this war. I wish to know who humanities champions will be." Gilgamesh let the top half of his armor disappear leaving him shirtless as he casually walked over to the couch and plopped on it with a thud, drink still in hand.
"Well, we have the two other founding families of the war. One of them the Einzberns are renowned for their homunculi an-."
"Puppets." Gilgamesh ruled with a snort.
Tokomi nodded although a little disgruntled at seeing such complex and renowned magecraft disregarded, "There's Lord Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald who's family goes back cent-"
"An entitled mongrel who benefits from previous generations work and not his own.
Never mind I'll view the contestants both master and servant myself. It appears mages are as dull as they are in any era of history." Gilgamesh interrupted without a care.
"If I may ask why don't you wish to hear about them now?" Tokiomi asked with a raised eyebrow on his face.
"Simple, because I do not want to. You focus to much on the future Tokiomi, and while it is a good quality to much of it can be quite detrimental. Not to mention it's the epiphany of boredom, one must learn to simply enjoy the moment as their instincts desire." The king explained as he gazed upon his mage. A long-term view, that was the Tohsaka heads strength but also his weakness. Despite his efforts to compensate and adapt his mind was simply to geared towards planning and long terms schemes, such was the world of modern mages. "Now drink." The king demanded.
Tokiomi nodded as he handed one of the glasses he had filled earlier with wine to Gilgamesh, who simply observed it with insult. He then lifted his gaze to Tokiomi and gave a look which said, really?
Seeing his mistake Tokiomi put the offered glass down and used it as his own cup. Gilgamesh once more filled his own goblet, "you know the basics of a good assistant, but you still have much to learn about how to interact with your king. I don't expect you to meet the mastery of Siduri as I supposed it can't be helped given my millennia of absence from the world." Gilgamesh then proceeded to take his goblet and tap it against Tokiomi's wine glass with force causing the far more fragile glass container to crack a little, "Now listen carefully your king shall instruct you on the ways of court. First, when the king offers you a drink you accept." He said as he pointed to the Tohsaka's own wine, and so Tokiomi did drink.
On both individuals minds was what sort of master could summon such an entity to the modern world.
"You can't use Mora as housing decorations!" Cried a drunken Waver.
"But Zhongli said Mora had a multitude of uses." Glen said.
"Ya but, but," Waver tried to say.
"Oh, does it not look good here." Martha asked as she pointed to the top of the front door.
"It's fine but it would look better if you put them in a pattern around the living room window." Honestly Non-magi when will they ever learn the young magus thought.
