Chapter 113
Rushing down the stairs, the group was met with the sight of the twisted metal doors and loose cables that used to be the elevator shaft, mangled beyond use at this point.
"Assassin, take me down."
"Don't jump so suddenl-aaaaAAHH!"
Taking Gray in her arms, Assassin went into the hole and jumped straight down, easily absorbing the shock of the fall while avoiding the sharp thorny plants and the cables entangled on the top of the elevator box, ignoring the screams of Add as he rocketed inside the cage from between the iron bars.
El-Melloi poked his head through the hole and yelled down at them from the top.
"Search for Org, Caules and Ayaka and get them to safety if you can! We'll get down from another way."
Nodding, Assassin and Gray disappeared through the broken hatch on top of the elevator carriage, entering the base.
El-Melloi pushed open a wooden door with a crash bar across it, revealing a long flight of stairs leading down. Along with Flat and Zouken, they descended into the bowels of the Earth, heading towards the underground base.
It didn't take long for Rider and Avenger to sense the presence of Assassin, with Avenger growling as she extracted herself from the cramped escape passage, turning towards the general direction of the newcomer, while Rider hesitated, gauging her own present state, as well as her Master's energy reserves, before turning into spiritual form, her body fading away into thin air.
Assassin stood in front of her Master, raising her hilt, the glowing golden blade extending out of it to form the shape of a regular longsword, the yellow light illuminating the wrecked hallway that Avenger had passed through, the lights blown out from the air pressure formed through the sheer speed she was travelling with, the wind smashing the bulbs into pieces.
Both Grey and Assassin could sense the naked presence of Avenger, the hatred directed to them almost palpable even through the concrete walls, prompting Gray to manifest the scythe into her hands, Add for once silent. A sheen of sweat appeared on Gray's nape, her hands clammy as she gripped her weapon of choice. She had fought many things before, both human and non-human, having witnessed horrors that no normal human would ever see in their life. But had she never felt such a deep animosity directed at her before, a pressure so intense that she felt like it came from the deepest pits of loathing, a heavy weight placed upon her shoulders.
As long as they looked like Artoria, Avenger's enmity would fall on them. The rage against her father for not recognizing her, rejecting her, disowning her, and ███████. There was nothing that could satisfy it's ravenous appetite, even if she killed a thousand Artorias. All it would bring her was a moment of calm, and then it would consume her again. As of now, her focus was locked on the closest equivalents to Artoria, Assassin and Gray. No matter who they might actually be, their physical make-up and Conceptual Weight were tied to Artoria, Gray as an artificial product to become Artoria, and Assassin as an alternate version.
Avenger's eyes glowed brighter, her Artoria sensor 'nose' twitching as it caught the scent of the two, so similar, yet so different. Without a doubt, they were also targets of her hatred.
Unleashing a howling roar in the empty, abandoned hallways, she advanced, heading straight towards the two as she got down on all fours and ran like a maddened beast, a hound in search of its prey.
Echoing through base, her cries reached them, only a faint echo at this point, yet still enough to make them even more vigilant.
Assassin's ahoge trembled in response, her legs settling in a wider stance.
"Master, be prepared."
Gray nodded, the metal flowing in her arms to a different shape from before, two prongs extending out of the shaft of the scythe as the blade retracted into the body, becoming a slender curve that fitted snugly in her hands. A bow with ridges that resembled Add, a blue thread that served as the bow string, glowing with an intensity like sapphire flames stretched into a string. Her scythe was too unwieldy in these tight corridors, so using a bow to support her Servant from behind was her best bet, since she couldn't match her Servant in close combat to fight together with her, unless she used the backup cores.
The two advanced, lightly jogging as they entered the bowels of the once comforting base, now shrouded in darkness and ruined.
El-Melloi and Flat raced down the stairs, with Zouken left aboveground. He had simply stated that he would deal with the police that had almost arrived at the mansion as well as the other mundane folk, and so they had left him there. It wasn't like they could force him to come along with them, and it was true that someone needed to do so, until the Church mediator arrived to sort it out.
"Is her tracker still active?"
When they had set out, they had each been issued a stone that would serve as trackers for their position, in case they were ever kidnapped. Though normal mages would promptly refuse such measures due to their pride, the students and associates of El-Melloi were all perfectly willing to go along with it, setting the stones inside their bodies by ingesting it, with Org's water magecraft creating a protective bubble around it that prevented it from being excreted or dissolved.
They had noticed that Org and Caules seemed to be leaving the manor through the main escape route, though calling their phones didn't seem to work, leaving only Ayaka who was still here. Without a way to contact the two, they decided to rescue Ayaka first, then contact the other escapees. She seemed to be currently wandering around the lower level, somewhere close to her own Workshop.
Strange...why isn't she heading towards the escape passage or barricaded in her own Workshop?
El-Melloi thought as the two of them snuck through the hallways, trusting that the presence of Assassin would attract Servants, allowing the two to search the base unimpeded. Wandering around like that with Servants around didn't seem logical, unless her Workshop had been broken into or she was being chased. She didn't seem to be moving very fast either.
"She could be injured huh…"
Flat remarked as they closed in on her location, noticing the same thing as his mentor.
In a dark corridor filled with potholes and gashes from Avenger's trail of destruction, Ayaka leaned on a wall for support, dragging her battered body along with her trembling legs, blood dripping with every step. She could barely remember what happened after the old man's voice sounded out behind her, with hazy sounds and images flashing through her brain, like the sloshing of liquid, and grey, something grey and shiny. All she knew was that she had woken up, lying on the floor, with her body seemingly untouched aside from her earlier wounds. She could have hallucinated it and simply fainted on the floor, but she couldn't help but have a bad feeling about it. Even so, she did all she could to esca-meet up with El-Melloi and the rest of them. They were coming her way after all, so there was no need to go for the secondary escape route. That's right, regrouping was the right thing to do here.
She took no notice of her glasses falling to the ground, her feet crushing the thin wire frame remaining lens, as her brain became focused on finding her way to them. The wounds and pain seemed to be forgotten as her shuffling became faster, her movements more animated, all in an effort to reunite with her important mentor.
Far behind her, outside the gaping hole that was once the door to her Workshop, the fallen tree inside it still imposing even when lying on it's side, was a pool of viscous, clear slime.
Note:
Sorry for the lack of updates recently, had term papers to deal with. As an aside, a Christmas chapter will be written in the near future.