I'm dropping this fanfic; I'll dump the rest of the chapters I'd already completed here today, but fear not; from the ashes of a dead story, a new one shall arise.
If you've enjoyed reading my stuff I'll be uploading a new fanfic, it takes place in RWBY, that I've been hard at work on.
My original Systematic Soul Sorting is also now live on my (Early Access) and Amazon.
So I'll be moving on to my next original as well, and the preview chapters will be uploaded here every Friday in place of SSS. The next chapter drop will be on the 28th of August, sometime before 12:00, AEST.
Enjoy!
Fuyuki City, Japan.
January 30th, 2004, 10:54 AM.
Blake had no intention of dealing with the emotional woman's gratitude, so he spent his time doing what the scouting team would have done had they made it here unscathed. The city was in a dire state, and the sky was filled with dark smoke, generated from the countless fires that littered it. There were no buildings nearby that would remain safe for long with the fires present.
"Are you sure about this Director?" Mash said quietly.
Ritsuka watched them both quietly, unsure how to act, given that the woman apparently was dead.
"I'm no longer the director," Olga said firmly, "After this incident, I could only imagine the response we-Chaldea will receive from the Association, at the very least I cannot allow you to return empty-handed..."
"Do not worry Director," Mash said seriously, "We will find a way to solve this situation and return home with you."
"Yeah!" Ritsuka said firmly. "We won't leave you behind, Olga."
"A-ah," Olga said flustered, before crossing her arms. "I never thought the day would come when I'd have to rely on a commoner."
Blake was still attempting to discern where the closest leyline was with the methods taught to them, but Gudako found it be he had even made any progress.
"I found it!" Gudako cheered, before starting in that direction. "Let's go!"
Blake immediately followed her.
"H-hey!" Olga called out, alarmed, "Wait for us!"
It only took a few minutes to reach the area, and Gudako was halfway through creating the summing circle when the communication module on Olga's wrist abruptly projected the doctor into the air.
"Romani!" Olga said scathingly, "You are being very annoying-"
"Please get away from there right now!" Director Romani said panicked.
Blake immediately started scanning the environment; something moved over on the roof further down the street? It was gone before he could register what it was.
"I'm detecting signs of an enemy! It's a Servant!" Mash said worriedly.
"What the heck?!" Ritsuka said, alarmed, "What's a Servant doing here?"
"It's because this was a Holy Grail War," Mash said seriously, "It's been confirmed that in 2004, that special ritual took place in this city."
Blake recalled reading about it in passing.
"The Fuyuki System," Blake said evenly, looking for further signs of movement. "Gudako, do not stop to gawk."
"S-Sorry!" Gudako yelped, before continuing her preparation.
"Seven Heroic spirits were summoned to fight for the grail, with each additional death working as further fuel for its main purpose," Olga interjected, "The survivor obtained the Holy Grail, but the conclusion isn't recorded anywhere."
"It could have succeeded, or it could have failed," Mash continued quietly, "Whatever the outcome, the Servant's actions ended without anyone knowing about them."
"I'm almost done!" Gudako cried happily before she stepped into the middle of the circle and abruptly vanished.
Fou, apparently, the name of the creature that was still riding on Ritsuka's shoulder started making some kind of noise. There was a distant rattling of chains, barely present, someone was here. Blake felt a slight change in the air before a massive grid of chains suddenly appeared blocking off the road they had come from completely and leaving only the ability to continue further up the street.
"Are these chains?" Ritsuka asked in wonder.
Ritsuka reached out to touch one of the chains, and Blake stared at him in complete disbelief.
"Don't touch them!" Olga shouted in alarm.
The chain abruptly lashed out with a single loop in the air and tried to snag his arm, but Ritsuka managed to throw himself back to avoid it.
"Master!" Mash called worriedly.
A voice echoed from across the road from them, on top of the rubble of a burning building.
"Such a shame, he got away." A woman's voice said, amused, "So many newcomers! There's even an unknown Servant and an Unknown Master! You are all so young and fresh…"
Blake studied the woman intently, taking in everything about her in an instant.
Torn black hooded cloak, shining yellow eyes, an absurdly large mound of pale purple hair trailing down her back and fanning out behind her. Red belts crisscrossed her otherwise naked legs, and what was at most a corset with a flap of material hung down to cover her thighs. When she lifted an arm and brushed the cloak aside, he could see that each hand was tipped with purple fingernails filed to a point. The thing he found most interesting was the scythe she carried, the design was something he had never seen before.
"A servant, but where is her master?" Mash said hesitantly.
"This world has already gone mad," Olga said in response, "A servant wandering around without a Master doesn't surprise me in the slightest."
The servant laughed with genuine amusement.
"You've wandered into my hunting ground. I'm afraid," The servant smiled, "That means that I am free to treat you however I please, am I not?"
Blake lowered his stance and readied himself for the coming conflict, not having a weapon was going to make this extraordinarily difficult.
"I am overjoyed!" The servant laughed. "Now, I'm going to have four new statues!"
"Our only option is to fight," Mash said quietly.
"Fight?" Ritsuka said hesitantly.
"Can you take her?" Olga asked seriously.
"Yes," Mash said firmly.
Blake grinned at the sudden confidence she was displaying as she stepped towards the unknown servant.
"Oh, how bold! How fresh!" The servant said happily, "Is this your first time fighting as a servant? Then as your senpai, it's my duty to teach you!"
The servant swung her scythe out in a blistering flourish that ended with the blade almost resting against the ground. Mash pulled her shield up in response before shifting forward another step. Blake immediately stepped up alongside her.
"Blake." Olga hissed. "Get back here."
"Oho!" The servant laughed at his presence. "Are you sure? Once you've declared your intention to fight, I don't think I could possibly hold myself back!"
The servant vanished in a burst of speed that his eyes struggled to register, and he reinforced his perception as high as he could for a single moment and witnessed as she hovered in the air in front of Mash before slashing out with obscene speed, he let the reinforcement drop before his eyes were hit with any backlash, and time sped back up, the scythe slashed across her shield in a vanishing arc of purple sparks before it shattered the ground beneath them.
Blake stepped behind Mash to avoid the debris as he lost track of the scythe wielder again as she used the momentum to spin into the obvious next attack with a straight thrust of her scythe that dragged the shield slightly off-center. Mash couldn't even recover before another slash rocked back the other way and sent a blast of wind rocketing away from them both with the force.
Blake wished he could have traded blows with either of them at the height of his power.
"You're desperate!" The servant laughed, "Excellent! But be careful! My weapon is the Lance of Immortal Killing! Any wound this it delivers cannot be healed by any means, do you understand? If you make even the slightest error, you'll become ruined for the rest of your life!"
The massive stab that followed was so obvious that Blake almost couldn't believe that it wasn't a feint, just a single overpowering stab with the other end of her scythe, telegraphed in such a way that even an amateur could see it coming.
Mash somehow didn't see it coming.
Her shield was rocked out of place in front of her, and as she fought to return it between them, the other servant spun the scythe and hooked it just over the top of the shield aimed straight at her head.
Blake had already stepped up to the inside of the shield and reinforced himself far beyond what was safe before he struck upwards at the haft of the weapon with all of his force, his hand crashed into the pole and sent the weapon upwards at an angle and safely over Mash's head.
Blake felt most of the bones in his hand shatter from the backlash of the obscenely overcharged reinforcement, but Mash immediately capitalized on the off-balance servant and crashed into her with the shield, sending her hurtling backward through the air, but she managed to arrest her fall by spinning and recovering enough to land on top of her chain blockade.
"That is very grating, you know…" The woman said wryly. "To think you could even see my movement, how interesting!"
The servant placed her hands inside her hood, as if she were about to draw it back before suddenly spreading her hair out in the air, it lashed out, first turning to snakes and then more metal chains in the air and snaking past them to cut off the other direction so they couldn't retreat.
Mash glanced at him worriedly before she moved in between the Servant and Ritsuka. Blake followed her left hand, dangling by his side completely unusable.
"Blake, come here!" Olga said harshly. "That is an order!"
Blake frowned before angling towards her.
"You aren't even the director anymore," Blake said, annoyed. "Must you ruin my fun?"
"Fun!?" Olga hissed, snatching his injured arm to hold it before her. "Is this from her weapon!?"
"No, it's the backlash from an overcharged reinforcement," Blake said sullenly, watching as Mash faced off against the scythe wielder alone.
"I don't think I'm a match for her." Mash called worriedly, "You should all attempt to retreat while I hold her off."
"Retreat is impossible given the chains." Blake said evenly, "Have confidence in yourself, we will fight her."
"You are a very interesting one!" The scythe-wielding servant laughed, "So fearless, you even deflected my attack."
"You're lucky I don't have a weapon," Blake said immediately. "You'd be desperately trying to deflect mine."
The woman merely laughed at his audacity.
A new voice suddenly washed over them.
"You've got some courage pinky, and you do seem pretty strong, but a little girl is still a little girl!" The voice said, amused, "I suppose I can't leave you like this."
"Oh?" The scythe-wielder said more seriously, "Who are you?"
"Who? Look at me, and you'll know." The voice said easily, "Old friend."
Blake stepped between the new man who had just appeared in a column of blue light and the others. Stating you are here to help wasn't any type of guarantee that you actually intended to. The newcomer's clothing was just as strange as the firsts, albeit the style was completely different. Blue and white hooded mantle, pants, and a half skirt, wrapped with belts around his waist, a gnarled wooden staff in his hand, the man took a moment to pull his hood back.
Blue hair?
"Caster!" The first servant hissed. "Why do you side with these wanderers?"
The man suddenly swiped his hand in front of him with blistering speed, and a series of glowing symbols flashed into existence in the air in front of him.
"Because!" Caster laughed. "It's better than being on your side, of course!"
Countless orbs of orange light flickered over their heads and crashed into the wall of chains that she had been standing on. An explosion rocked the street, sending waves of force away from the impact area, and Olga's braid slapped Blake in the side of the face.
Blake felt a flash of annoyance as he tracked the blue-haired servant's path that led him to stand in between them and the woman's last known location, with his back towards there group. The smoke cleared, and the purple-haired woman was crouched on the ground looking ruffled and annoyed but otherwise unharmed.
"I'm a Caster Servant, and for a certain reason, I consider her an enemy." Caster said easily, "While the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my ally, you may trust me, for now, at least."
Blake glanced down at Olga's fussing.
"Are you quite done?" Blake said, annoyed. "I wish to rejoin the fight."
"No, I am not." Olga hissed as she continued to work on his hand. "Stay still."
Blake sighed, what the hell was Gudako doing? She should have only taken a few minutes at most, but the circle remained on the ground glowing faintly.
"Get in position, young lady." Caster said easily, "Skill aside, your courage is second to none."
"Y-yes!" Mash said quickly. "Thank you!"
"Which one of you is a master? You?" Caster glanced back at Ritsuka, "I'll form a temporary contract with you, so you take care of the command spells, got it?"
"But…" Ritsuka said hesitantly.
"Be a man!" Caster snapped, "Steel yourself!"
"Y-yes," Ritsuka said in alarm, before continuing more firmly. "I'll take care of it."
The purple-haired woman watched them curiously, before smirking.
"That's fine by me," The woman said, amused, "It just means I can kill you earlier than planned."
The remnants of the chains still scattered around suddenly came to life again, twisting into two massive spikes as the woman performed another dazzling flourish with her weapon. The spikes lanced through the air and stabbed into the ground where Caster had been standing a moment before.
Blake's eyes snapped upwards under the power of another burst of reinforcement, catching the moment Caster twisted through the attacks before the woman appeared above him in the air with another burst of untraceable speed, and he was forced to block the deadly scythe with the thickest part of his staff.
Blake was surprised the wooden staff held up under the strike, considering how much the woman had bragged of its power only minutes prior, the staff must have been just as powerful, in its own way.
Caster landed crouched on the ground, his knees absorbing even the massive force of the attack with relative ease, even as the road shattered beneath his feet.
"What class is this woman?" Blake said, frowning. "Lancer? Archer?"
She was attacking at range with her chains, but her primary method of combat seemed to be related to physical combat.
"When we first arrived here, Archer attacked us," Ritsuka said honestly, "I couldn't really see what he was firing, but they looked like very large arrows, and there were hundreds of them."
"You were engaged by a servant already!?" Olga said alarmed, "Why didn't you mention it before you stupid-"
"This woman is likely Lancer then," Blake interjected, "Caster is at a massive disadvantage in close combat here."
"H-hey!" Olga said immediately, "Don't ignore me!"
"He has Mash helping him," Ritsuka said firmly, "They will win."
Blake glanced at him for a moment, having faith in your allies was a good trait, another explosion rocked the buildings from just out of sight, but he was far more interested in the fact that Gudako suddenly returned.
"Blake, I did it!" Gudako cheered, "Look!"
Gudako had also succeeded. The woman accompanying her was very short, five and a half foot at best. Long black hair, a red dress wrapped tightly around her stomach, which ended mid-thigh, and black leggings. A series of belts, armored plates, as well as bracers, adorned her clothing. Her eyes, much like the servant they were currently in conflict against, were glowing yellow.
"Well done," Blake said blandly, "We have gained a temporary ally, a servant from the war that was taking place before we arrived, Caster, he wears blue. Send your servant to assist him and Mash to defeat the woman with the scythe."
The servant in the red dress studied his face for a long moment before glancing over to Gudako.
"Please!" Gudako pouted at her servant.
"As you wish, Master." The servant said quietly before vanishing.
"Gudako!" Olga said harshly, "What took you so long?"
"U-um," Gudako said embarrassedly, "I couldn't get the canister open, it was damaged."
"What?" Olga said in disbelief.
"It wouldn't open! I had to whack it on the ground like a hundred times!" Gudako cried, "Look at my hand, Olga! It hurts!"
Gudako held her hand up, and a small red mark was present on the bottom of her palm.
"For the love of-" Olga hissed.
"Whoa!" Gudako abruptly leaned down to stare at his bleeding and swollen hand that was still being held in a tight grip by the former-director. "What happened to your hand!"
"I had to break open three damaged canisters," Blake said dryly, still scanning the environment. "Olga, are you done now?"
Gudako looked shocked at the comment.
"No!" Olga shouted, "You're not fighting that woman again, stop asking."
"You made a joke!" Gudako said, amazed. "I've never seen you do that before!"
Blake completely ignored her.
"I will follow your orders because I keep my word," Blake said darkly, "I will be fighting the next one, do you understand?"
"Fine!" Olga snarled, "But you are not fighting anyone in this condition, Gudako assist me in treating this."
Blake just scoffed, it was just an injured hand.
"I'm not really good that type of thing." Gudako said sheepishly, "Can I just supply the magical energy?"
"Fine," Olga said, annoyed.
Another massive shockwave sent debris scattering into view from around the corner, and Blake narrowed his eyes in annoyance. The pain in his hand was slowly fading through the combined efforts of the two.
"We haven't been following the protocol at all," Blake said plainly. "We didn't find a base of operations, we failed to immediately move towards a leyline, we summoned a servant out in the open while under attack."
"I am well aware of the failures of this mission," Olga said quietly. "You do not need to rub it in."
Blake rolled his eyes at the tone.
"I am not saying this to make you feel bad," Blake said evenly, "I'm making the point that the protocol is too rigid given the uncertain nature of the environment, we need more room to make decisions in the field that would increase our effectiveness, instead of being completely chained by the restrictions."
Olga was silent for a while, and Gudako was watching them both with wide eyes.
"I don't necessarily disagree with you; this entire experience has been eye-opening," Olga said eventually, "It's a moot point, however, as I will not be in a position to enforce any such changes, you will need to speak to Doctor-Director Romani."
"Do not concede defeat before you are defeated." Blake said easily, "You are still here now, Olga, giving up without doing everything in your power would be a waste of your potential."
Olga ducked her head, allowing her hair to block his view of her face, but Gudako was staring at Olga with wide eyes.
"Blake…" Gudako said with sparkling eyes, "You're so cool!"
"How did I end up surrounded by such fools?" Blake said sullenly.