Great Holy Grail War Online
by Saber_Art
Chapter 3: Saber and Ruler
The house they lived in was a small castle-like villa, located within the woods of the Shinto district of Fuyuki.
Inside, it wasn't decorated with luxurius stuff like one would expect, but rather with the normal goods you would need in everyday life.
Jeanne followed after Arturia, as they walked up a set of stairs. The light breeze played with her long blonde hair. Having let them free from the braid she usually had them, her hair reached down to her mid-thaights.
Stepping inside the building, Jeanne sighed. She was still unfamiliar with the new house. Closing her eyes, she continued walking after her friend, only to bump into her back.
"Huh?" Arturia let out the sound, as she felt something against her back. "Jeanne?"
"Sorry, I was not looking!" Jeanne apologized. "But, why did you stop?"
Arturia ran a hand through her hair.
"This is strange..."
"What?"
"The second we stepped foot in Japan, all of a sudden we become Video-Game players." the young Pendragon started. "And we just bought a game we had never even heard about."
"And what is so strange about it?" Jeanne tittled her head in confusion, but then smirked. "You don't think we have been possessed by the Video-Game Demons, do you? Oh no, what do we do now!" she added dramatically, and then chuckled.
When the two had first met, they had one thing in common, their belief in God.
"No, of course not."
"The Great Holy Grail War Online..." Jeanne trailed off, as she stared at the poster the girl had given to them. "What really caught my interest was this one character here." she added, pointing her finger at an avatar in the poster. "She looks just like you."
And true to her words, there was a knight with shinning golden hair, kept in a bun warped with a small braid of hair, wearing a blue dress underneath silver armor pieces. Looking between the two, the only differences would be the hairstyle and clothes. Maybe, if she could convince Arturia to change her hairstyle from the ponytail she currently had into the bun, they might look exactly the same.
Of course, there was also the shining golden Sword that the Avatar was holding.
"Really?" Arturia looked at the poster. How come she hadn't noticed it earlier. Looking at the other avatars, she raised an eyebrow. "And this one looks exactly like you."
"Say what?"
...Ecpeacially because of that headpiece.
A Full Dive system...
"You ready?" Jeanne asked. Arturia nodded, as she checked the Hardware and Software systems for the last time. "Let's do it then. This Full-Dive thingy..."
Everything went black. It felt as if they were falling. Yet, she couldn't tell if it was from up-down or down-up. It felt so strange, and her pazzled state could not tell where left and right were, or even up and down in this case.
And then, it all came to a stop.
Her feet lightly touched the ground. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw nothing but black.
Confused, she started calling. Maybe her friend would hear her.
Yet, no sound came out.
Just for a second, a chill ran up her entire body. It felt as if something had gone and scanned all her being, as if something had looked straight into her soul.
Turning around, she ran at a random direction, yet her feet weren't really moving.
Then, a blinding light illuminated her path out of nowhere.
Raising her hand, she made to touch it.
She gasped, filling her lungs with as much air as she could. Scanning her surroundings, the girl saw nothing else than trees. She could tell, that it was...
A Forest.
"Arturia!" the girl screamed, yet no answer came. Staying here would not help her situation, so getting out of the forest was the best solution.
She raised her foot and made to run. However, for some reason, her entire body felt heavier than normal.
"Wha-?" Surprise stopped all her thoughts, as she looked down at her clothes.
Or what should have been her clothes. In their place, she was wearing a blue dress, with armor pieces here and there on her body. It was the same attire the Avatar in the poster had been wearing.
Then she remembered. "Of course, the game." she said, placing her hand on her head. It all of a sudden started aching. "Where is Arturia?"
Moving with slow steps, she walked further into the forest.
"What was that?" Arturia asked, as her eyes roamed around the forest. She had suddenly gasped for air, and all she could remember was
"I pushed the ON button of the device..." she murmured to herself, and her eyes widdened. "Jeanne?!"
She ran around, trying not to panic. It was a game, nothing bad could happen to them. Still...
Stopping in her tracks, she tried to clear her mind. She would find Jeanne and than continue with the game.
The new set of clothes she was wearing did not even bother her.
Welcome new player!
This is a Message from the game's main System.
As a new player, we present you to the rules of the game.
Firstly, every Avatar created, randomly get under a class of Servants. It could be the Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, Berserker, Ruler or Avenger Classes.
Secondly, the Game's playing system is composed of what are called the Singularity Missions and the Boss Missions.
The Singularity Missions are missions aquired in Villages or Cities, ranked as the Easy Missions.
The Boss Missions are missions aquired after completing a certain amount of Singularity Missions, ranked as the Normal and Hard Missions.
There is also something important: If you were to be defeated in future battles, your server will be deleted and you will have to start everything from the begining.
The message continued down below, and the two girls continued reading it. Just at the end of it, it said: This game recommends using alliases and not your real names, as it may affect relationships in real life. If you agree to our rules, you may continiue.
Typical of all games.
"Now, to find Arturia." Jeanne told herself, as the message closed. It was in a panel that had appeared out of nowhere before her. "But how do I do that...?"
Yep, Jeanne was lost.
A sound like water hitting the soil was heard through the forest. Turning towards where the sound had come from, she saw a card flying at her.
Catching it in mid-air, she looked at the front-print.
It was her.
"Ruler?" Jeanne read aloud what was written under her picture. "Wasn't that one of the classes?"
Flipping the card backwards, it was completely golden colored, with a gold lined image that seemed to be the trademark picture of the Ruler Class.
The card slowly started to fade, until it was nothing more than golden particles. Said particles soon turned into water, and a map was suddenly formed.
"Huh?" Jeanne was confused at first, but than she remembered something. This was one of the Ruler Class Servant Skill. "[The Spirit Board]. This may help me in finding Arturia."
A few miles away from her location,-which was marked by a small golden sphere- there was a blue sphere, signifying that there was a Servant at that position.
Arturia liked the blue color, so she followed the road that the Spirit Board showed. Even if it wasn't her, she could use some help.
Let's just hope it wasn't an enemy.
"Arturia!"
A voice suddenly shouted. It came from behind her, so she quickly turned around.
"J-J-Jeanne!" she managed to say, as she couldn't believe her eyes. Jeanne stood before her, breathing heavely, with her hair in a long braid and wearing armor.
"Arty!" Jeanne suddenly blurted, and jumped at her dear friend.
Catching the flying girl in her arms, and lightly embracing her, Arturia sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?"
"Hahaha, sorry!" Jeanne laughed, and looked her friend up and down. "Isn't that armor heavy?"
"No."
"By the way, Saber-"
"Saber?"
"Yeah, that's your Servant Class." Jeanne answered. "Aren't we supposed to call each-other by our Classes?"
"Yes, but..." the message she had read earlier, clearly stated that a Servant couldn't find another Servant's class simply by looking at them once. Expecially without looking at their weapon. It said that keeping your Class and your Avatar's true Historic name hidden could give you an advantage against other players. "... but, how did you know?"
"Another class skill, I guess."
"Class Skill? I didn't read in the message about a Servant Class possessing the ability to tell another Servant's Class simply by looking at them. Wait... you don't mean..."
"...Ruler?" Arturia's eyes widened for a second, hearing Jeanne reply with a "Yep, Ruler is my Class."
The Ruler and Avenger Classes.
The rarest Classes, given only to a lucky few.
And Jeanne d'Arc was one of them.
"Are you sure the village is this way?" Arturia asked. Jeanne's [Spirit Board] was able to tell the location of every Servant within a certain radius, and the locations and places too.
Currently they are heading to a Village that was supposed to be a few miles from the woods.
But, they had been walking for hours.
"Yes!" Jeanne answered, looking at her Map. With every passing second, her body seemed to tire up. "Heh?"
Muffled sounds came from the bushes.
"Get down!" Saber shouted as a skeleton flew out of the bushes. It went forwards directly at Ruler, and Arturia kicked off to cut it in half with her sword, one only she could see and wield.
However, before she could reach it, several golden swords fell from the trees, impaling themselves in the body of the skeleton. The sword and the Skeleton then disappeared.
"What are Skeletons doing this near to the village?" a male's voice came from somewhere in the trees.
"How am I supposed to know?" another voice, this one a girl's replied.
"Maybe it is part of the new Singularity that released last week." yet another male's voice stated his thoughts.
"Who's there?" Ruler shouted to the trees, but no answer came.
"They are gone." she added after a few seconds passsed.
"Okay, let's continue towards the village." Saber said. Ruler remembered the direction, luckily, since she could not materialize her [Spirit Board] anymore, having lost it during the skeleton's attack. "At least we know we are near it."
"We are here!"
"Yes we are."
Dropping to the ground, the two girls sighed with relief. They had tried to remove their armors, as they were weighting on them, but it was impossible.
"Hey Saber..." Ruler started, getting her friend's attention. "In the message, it didn't say anything about Rulers not being able to fight, right?"
"No."
"Then why don't I possess a weapon?"
"*Sigh* Maybe you do, but don't know it yet. It co-"
"Excuse me miss," a Villager approached. "Please, you have got to help my son. He is fighting those skeletons. Please help him!"
"What?" The girls were up on their feet. "Is there no one helping him?"
"No, only Servants can fight them, but my son went recklessly there."
"Come on, Saber."
The two girls ran at the forest again. The villager had told them about her son, and the location they should be heading to.
"Jeanne wait." Arturia called. "We are tired, and we still don't understand everything about this game. How can we help?"
"This is a Singularity mission, I know it." Jeanne answered without looking at her. "Even if the Villager was just a NPC, we can't just leave behind someone we could have saved. We must at least try. I am sure we will find a way to beat them."
Saber gave a nod, and the two continued running. Soon, they arrived at a clearing, were a young man, in mid-twenties, was fighting with several skeletons. He was injured and more skeletons came out of nowhere.
Drawing her invisible sword, Arturia rushed at one of the skeletons, who was attempting to injure the male from behind. The sword covered by wind, cut through the bones of its opponent.
Ruler looked at her Card one last time. In the picture, her Avatar was holding a banner; a flag. She also had a rapier around her waist, sheathed in a shining scabbard. Yet, she had none of them.
She heard Arturia let out a battle-cry, as she swung her [Invisible Air], cutting every skeleton in her way. The young man they were to help, didn't question their arrival and continued to punch and kick his way out of the attacking Skeletons.
"You are not bad for a woman." he called out to Saber. "How about a contest on who kills more?"
Saber didn't answer, but the man understood. Ruler however, could not do anything but stare. She had no weapon, no power, yet, there was something more to this.
The Skeletons, she could tell that they were 'weak', created only to 'attack' those in their way, and never 'defend' or 'retreat'.
She could tell Saber's Stats were high and enough to defeat them with only one swing of her blade. However, she would tire more and more, eventually passing out -as the game gave the Avatar the same physical strength the player had in real life.
[King Arthur], that was the name of the Hero Saber was. The once and future King of Britain, whose legend ended in Camlan, were he was killed by Mordred, his son.
Or rather, her son.
[Joan d'Arc], was the name of the Heroic Spirit she possessed. The Holy Maiden of Orleans.
But, even if it looked as if everything was in their advantage, one Skeleton stood differently from the others.
All of them possessed old 'clothes', a short sword and shield, but this one was clearly stronger. Its build was bigger and It was holding a spear.
With one powerful thrust, it connected with Saber's armor. The later had been cornered by the number of Skeletons surrounding her, and was unable to dodge.
Her armor disolved, leaving her only with the blue dress.
Ruler did not make any movements to help, even though her being screamed the order 'move'.
She could feel that there was something else which would help Saber more than she.
This 'special' Skeleton was a Lancer Class Singularity Servant, and it raised its spear to pierce Saber's chest.
But a barrage of arrows thought otherwise.
All the arrows stabbed the skeletons in different places, all of them raining from the sky.
Ruler sighed with relief, as she heard the voice of their saviour.
"Didn't that skill look similar to yours, Lancer?" even though she wasn't talking to them.
"Come on Archer, we must leave."
"I know Rider."
"Maybe we should start with the easy Singulariries." Jeanne sweat-dropped, as her friend shook hands with the man they had helped and after a few words, watched him leave. After she made sure no one was watching them, Saber dropped to the ground, breathing heavily.
"Yeah..."
Edit: 2/1/18 Ah, the nostalgia is real. Time to get my fingers working again