Trenton

The evening dinner was perfect. Noone talked, but that was how dinner had always been since Trenton's mother had died. Honestly, he missed those times, and, for the past few days, he had completely avoided this ritual altogether. Them both being magi, and Trenton supposedly having lost his servant, this seemed almost like he was seeking refuge.

But he wasn't. Rather, he was seeking simply another advantage in his little game. Bathory, Caster, was very much alive, and harvesting new essence from the civilians of London. An accidental death was actually quite easy for her to achieve. A heart attack was easy for that sorceress of blood to achieve. In that manner, Caster had disappeared, and Trenton isolated himself from giving her that source of prana, at least for now. And, with simply hiding the symbols on his hand, the deception was complete.

"I need a new servant…Father." Trenton wondered if his father was smart, or extraordinarily stupid. He had seen a glimpse of the command seals on Gerold's hand. For someone who was supposed to be a supervisor, Gerold certainly seemed to be up to no good. Sure, it was a move that went around the Church, to have a magus as the supervisor, and to keep it all secret from the Church's accomplices, but to outright summon a servant as the supervisor was another level of betrayal for the position. His face seemed to betray surprise. Trenton had been right.

"What makes you think I have that sort of thing? I am the supervisor of this Holy Grail War, not a repository of extra serv…" Trenton waved his hand. "Not as a supervisor, but as my father, or as yourself? Why else would you have the command seals on your hand right now?" Gerold had his own wish, it seemed, though Trenton couldn't comprehend what it might be. Perhaps he wanted his master back from the dead. That seemed about right. He smiled. Check.

Gerold looked at his son in surprise. When Trenton had come back to the estate, he had wondered what to expect. He never predicted this. "Yes. I have a servant. And, I have been keeping him in reserve. He is Archer, and I imagine he could do well, though he isn't as strong as Caster. Then…how did she die?"

"I was double-teamed, you see. First she was fighting Saber, then Lancer, who I have identified as Perseus, stabbed my Bathory with that prana-draining spear of his, and she faded away. That's about all there is to it." Gerold frowned at him.

Of course, it hadn't happened that way. Bathory had left a chance for her body to regenerate. The loss of prana was a major concern, but there had been ways to fix that. "And why does that mean I should give you command of my servant, Trenton?" And here was the gamble, but, there really wasn't one. Trenton knew his father too well.

He grinned this time, his manipulation perfected. "Why, you are a supervisor, are you not? So, for you to have a servant is something that must remain in the background. They don't know that I was Caster's master, and I am your son, so I'll fulfill your wish, whatever it is that you desire. That way, your manipulation remains in the shadows, and you maintain your chance of winning this Holy Grail War without chancing the loss of your own life. How does that sound?" After all, he didn't really care for the result, the wish, but the battle that resulted. He already had an older wish to adhere to.

But, Gerold's expression was incomprehensible to him. He was…smiling? "Trenton…" And Trenton was drawn into an embrace he hadn't felt for almost a decade. "F-father?" Gerold was no doubt still warmly smiling at his son, showing emotion that had almost seemed long-forgotten.

"I haven't told you the truth about this war, Trenton. It's not as noble as it might seem, it's more…a sacrifice for the greater good. And at the expense of you young magi." Trenton was baffled. He had thought that it was a much simpler gambit, but what was this he was talking about? "What do you mean?"

"Trenton. Carry on my wish, reach the Root, and win, so we can reclaim the magic that has been taken from us. Many have lost their lives to reach this point. But, I believe you can carry this, where I might fail. I'm old, son. I can't carry this any longer." Trenton realized his father was crying. "Y-yes. I will." He felt his heart warming for a second, until Gerold's next words were spoken. "This War has been fixed from the very start. The wish will always be what we have determined it, so just win, bring all the servants prana to the Grail, and then the world will be whole again. That is all." When it was a choice, a wish to be fulfilled, Trenton felt wonderful, but now that it didn't matter, he found it…distasteful. He hid that look from his face, and wondered at what he would do next.

?

Knowledge. Holy Grail War. Participant: Lacie. Location: Confirmed.

It was still hungry. Fifty-two meals of meat and bone and prana, but it craved something more wholesome. The soul of the average person was worth only himself. A magus was worth ten to a hundred times that. An excellent magus of the clocktower was worth even more. A servant was worth thousands, maybe even tens of thousands.

It classified this location as the least defended, though the pulsating hunger seemed to render all tactics unattainable by any of the minds it had consumed. Nonetheless, it slipped through the cracks in the front entrance. Someone screamed out briefly, then was silenced. Vaguely, the thing comprehended it had eaten something simply by passing by. It did not matter, the soul was weak, and did not even dent the all-encompassing hunger. It had greater prey on its mind.

Albert/Lacie:

Considering that both of them knew everything about the others servant, it was quite easy for Albert and Lacie to maintain a professional magus-to-magus alliance without having to worry about the information one ended up giving out. Other servants were the only unknown factor for either of them, and that was something that could be doled out on an equal basis.

They were seated across from each other in the local restaurant. Albert couldn't recall the name of it, and he didn't particularly care. Maybe Lacie might remember it for its good food, her being a foreigner without a family, and her own cooks. Albert didn't really need to worry about that.

"So, have you encountered Assassin as well?" Albert reached out and took a piece of the French cuisine, some meat dish that he didn't know the name of. It tasted good. Maybe it would be worth finding out the name of this restaurant. It would certainly help to eat away from his family now that he was a little…estranged.

There was a delay in Lacie's response. She finished taking a sip from her expresso and began in a dull tired voice: "Yeah, he seemed to be Japanese samurai like in the last Fuyuki Grail War. The only way I can tell he's a different one though is because of his facial hair...He's different from other Assassin's he attacks Servants directly gauging their power levels, doesn't go for the Master apparently. The strangest thing about him though is the way he fights. He attacks in a fluid but almost unpredictable fashion allowing him to keep up with even Saber."

She paused to yawn and take another gulp of her drink. It was morning and she wasn't in a very active mood, which was the reason she had an expresso to get her going. "What about you? What information do you have on the Servants you met?" Lacie had forgotten for a moment in her current state about something. "Oh, yeah, by the way I fought Caster followed by Lancer the other night. Caster went down quick she used blood magic. She mentioned 'Trenton' had warned her about Roland. We should keep an eye out for him. Caster may be gone but he's still a Master. As for Lancer, he was pitiful, to say the least. I realized immediately upon his appearance that he was Perseus. My Saber cut through him with ease but he eventually got away." With that Lacie was done with her report and awaited Alberts reply.

Albert had to restrain himself from swearing and giving it away. She had been busy. He had faced only two servants in total. That wasn't as many as she had faced. Albert shook his head slowly. "Just Berserker. I didn't get anything on his name or Noble Phantasms, but I have his stats. They're...impressive. And the reason I sought an alliance with you."

"There's still something else though. When I was escaping from Berserker, before I could order him to retreat, Assassin caught me on his own. He didn't kill me, and it's completely baffling why." Albert left it unsaid that perhaps Albert deserved it for running away, but clearly Assassin's master was more merciful than smart. For the master of Assassin to be like that...whoever it was, they were lucky this was not a normal Assassin. "Can you think of a reason for that?"

Lacie watched as Albert fidgeted and gave his reply. She only assumed, for now, that his frustration was that he felt 'inadequate' in some way. Perhaps this was his first time eating out with a girl? Or maybe he was just an idiot? For now Lacie decided to spare him and only went on with business.

"Assassin...was odd. To say the least. As I said before he only attacks Servants not Masters, or at least thats what he says. Which is strange for the Assassin class. He fancies himself an 'honorable' man. So he probably didn't kill simply because it be no different from a man smashing an ant underneath his boot. In other words he didn't kill you because there was no honor or glory in it."

Lacie stopped to think for a moment. "How well did Charlemagne hold up to Berserker, also did you see if Berserker had any Magical Resistance?" Albert grimaced, as he remembered back and realized he hadn't actually tested magic out against Berserker. "Unsure. But, he was quickly overwhelming Rider. If we combine forces though, then we can double-team him. The big problem is we don't know his Noble Phantasms." Albert continued eating his meal, remarking how good it was in his mind. It was irrelevant, but delicious.

Lacie had nearly spat out her coffee in Alberts face. "How could you not know that? Every Master learns the basic attributes of a Servant the second they see them. The only thing you shouldn't know are his Noble Phantasms and identity." Lacie shrugged "You're lucky I agreed to be your ally."

"Ah, yes, but, um, yeah." Still, there could be a Noble Phantasm that does something, but really, he didn't know. That was unlikely anyways, he was Berserker. In fact, he had completely made a fool of himself. How disconcerting. He brushed his hair back and looked away slightly, realizing he was probably betraying his embarrassment. "Yeah, my mind's a bit muddled when it comes to that."

"Anywa-" He froze, as a sense came to him. He was lucky he hadn't had food in his mouth, he probably would have choked. His complexion likely was pale. It was only natural, he had just sensed a prana output over thirty times his. In fact, he could sense it just outside the restaurant, as if it could hide its prana output until its prey was close.

"…you feel it, right?" Rider was ready to materialize. "…that has to be a servant." As Albert appeared to whisper to himself, Lacie was busy preparing herself. She put on her glasses and got a few rune rings off her belt. Only stopping to say "What a surprise!" almost as if in reference to the new presence but she continued "You do have some semblance of a brain." Getting up from her chair to look at the new arrival she whispered. "Get ready, Saber."

There was no response. It didn't have a shape, just a borrowed one, and it didn't use the function of a 'brain' to process a response. It just had hunger. The far side of the restaurant, two moderate sources of prana, unmaterialized, two huge sources of prana. Three minor sources closer at hand.

If it listened to something called 'tactics', it would have gone straight for the larger sources across the room, but instead, it revealed its hand. The blonde man standing in the doorway walked three steps, before a black substance spilled out from his boots, flowing quicker than any normal liquid to entrap and ensnare the three innocent patrons.

A moment before this, Albert noticed the lack of sound outside the restaurant. He hadn't looked, but now, when he did, he saw another, thrashing black...thing outside. It had eaten before, and that was why it had released prana. Vaguely, he heard a crunching sound, as both Rider and Saber materialized. He didn't notice that though. Instead, he thought over the report he had heard of the previous Holy Grail War.

An unexplained shadow, that ate and ate without regard, servants, innocents, and magi. Considering the mysterious circumstances under which the last war ended, anything could be possible. Even that shadow living through these interim years. Even that shadow coming to witness the next Holy Grail War.

"It's not a servant." He said it out loud, even though it was just an intuition. The rune-clad magus replied, "Original. But it does come from the Holy Grail" Lacie continued to pull rune-cards from inside her coat, they all had one symbol on them. "Algiz!" the cards lit up with power and she threw them onto the power-less people around her including Albert.

"That is the rune of protection, it should help everybody a bit." She turned to Saber and gave him the command. "Don't let that thing escape." In response, the 'thing' occupying a host that was a tall, blonde man with dark, studded clothing, raised one arm, and pointed.

Semblances of a magical circuit fuelled this, but it didn't need the magic crest of the original magus. Just the knowledge he had for using his magical circuits in a certain way. If it was prana, it had more than enough. Ions in the air realigned, and prana was channeled through. This method was a simple way for achieving a powerful strike of lightning. Cost-efficient, and powerful.

Rider blocked it easily. He had the Magical Resistance attribute, due to his Protection of Faith, so magic wouldn't do much to affect him, at least not something as simple as one strike that he was ready to defend against. However, in that flash, many black tracks went along the ground, like crisscrossing lines in an art drawing, except they bulged out, and had life. Several each now pointed to each of the civilians, racing along the floor like spikes ready to impale them.

The imposing paladin yelled "Lacie!" Signaling her to defend some of the citizens he couldn't. He charged up in an arc to the strange creature slashing at the weird black extensions, while his Master bolted out in a semi-opposite direction attempting to stop the tendrils in their tracks with the rune of Hagalaz, the rune of controlled crisis. Meanwhile Roland was now near the source of them, ready to cleave through them with his peerless blade.

Durandal cleaved the black veins with ease, even as some parts of them seemed to stick to the blade like some sort of glue. However, perhaps due to the Magic Resistance of the Saber class, they didn't stick for long, falling to the ground like discarded trash, before they thrashed and retreated to strike again, to be fended off again.

The couple that Lacie had moved to protect though, weren't so lucky. Against a normal opponent, this rune would have an effect, but to this dark shadow, it was just another source of prana. Something like a nut, covered in a hard shell, which could nonetheless be cracked by the usage of the power it had received. A black shell surrounded the rune as the black lines reached it, and the shell compressed to a single point. A faint crunch could be heard, then it continued on, leaving a half-sphere eaten out of the ground.

The process took about half a second, before reaching out for the couple. Now that Lacie and Albert were closer, they could see the spikes approaching from the tendril as it surrounded them in a sphere, and even their bodies being obliterated in the split-second they could still be seen. The thrashing had stopped for the people further towards the entrance of the restaurant, and the tendrils returned to the 'thing' still standing in the doorway.

Albert smirked as he finished gathering his prana. Using his magical crest as a regulator, basically an extra container past his own body, he could release a large amount of prana at once, maybe twice what he could regulate normally. Flame seemed like something that would work well against this creature, perhaps stopping the…regeneration he guessed it was. He wouldn't admit it out loud of course, but he had been a fan of horror films during his rebellious stage. Trenton had given them to him, and even noted how flame always seemed to work against the monsters who feasted on human flesh.

But…that wasn't what ended up happening. The flame worked well enough scouring away the tendrils around this thing, but when it reached the main body, something strange happened. The body burned…too quickly. Like dust it blew away through the force of the expanding air, obscuring what happened after that. A moment afterwards, the obscured black point expanded through the air to absorb all the prana that was used to create the flame, then retreated back into a sphere form for a few seconds.

Rider stepped forward through the flames, approaching the sphere as it assumed a different form. This one was a woman in a purple dress. Apparently, it created the clothes as well, so it didn't need time to prepare a new form. Rider didn't care about that. With one attack he chopped her in half, just as Saber sliced her head off in another motion, as the things defenses were gone. It was overly fatal in just about every form, but the form just collapsed to the ground, unnaturally weaving backwards, in defiance of anything a normal skeleton could do.

Rider stepped forward once, and then it flinched back, like a predator on guard. Sighing, he had an idea. In one smooth motion, he stabbed it through the heart. It collapsed, giving off the impression it had worked. The magi felt the prana retreating, but there was a flaw in their sense of victory. Retreating, or fading away, the effect seemed the same to them. The body crumbled away, revealing a hole in the ground. It appeared to have slithered through after burrowing out. Judging by the speed with which the presence faded, it was going quite fast.

Pursuing it would require a long, drawn out chase through unknown terrain, likely destroying good amounts of public property. Even then, they weren't guaranteed that anything they'd do would kill it. It had just taken several wounds from servants and magi without dying.

As a few normal people were still around, some in awe, some still panicking, Lacie reacted and casted a spell on them using the concept of reversing the rune of Algiz to erase their memory of the incident. She couldn't really be certain how much of their memory was erased due the rush job but it would have to do.

After which, she returned to her table and picked up her coffee, taking a sip. "So why didn't you protect those people?" referring to both Charlemagne and Albert. Rider turned to regard them, reasoning in his mind that if the thing survived all that, they would need more research. He put his hand on Saber's shoulder as well, to restrain his foolhardy nephew from charging off on his own.

"Eliminating the murderer comes first. A few peoples sacrifice to keep many from dying is the optimal course, and besides, you *were* protecting them, weren't you?" His steely gaze regarded her in a manner something like a superior judging his loyal retainer for a failure of skill. The gesture seemed to fit for Albert. The servant hadn't ever spoken much, but determination was obviously there in droves.

Albert shook his head at this. There was something more important. "The alive matter more right now. I assume you wiped their memory or something?" Lacie was too busy giving a defiant glare to Rider for looking at her as an inferior to give him an immediate response. Out of frustration she threw her expresso at Alberts groin. "Of course, dumbass."

She went on to state "You should report this to the Magus Association. You're on better terms with them than I am…Should we reconvene somewhere else?" Albert stepped back, as the expresso splashed on the ground, getting the hot liquid all over his well-made slacks and dress shoes. "Eugh…I…no. I'm not on good terms with them." He scratched his neck nervously. "I might not be on very good terms with my family anymore after this." He went over what he had in his mind. "Well, I suppose I still have access to my credit card to replace these clothes. I never did use that money much. Thanks." He started walking off, muttering. "Should've just let their memories be. It would have made a problem for someone." It was a simple matter of probability. It would probably be someone he didn't like.

"Yeah. Tonight, same place." He responded to Lacies up-until-now unanswered query. It was absent-minded. What he was really thinking about was the Shadow. It disturbed him to no end, and, the only explanation was that he didn't know. He didn't know why it was here, he didn't know how it was here, he didn't even know what it was. It was murdering innocents to get at them, seemed to blow through magic with ease, and might even pose a threat greater than any servant. His life, impossible as it seemed, had become more complicated.