-I know that Heaven's Feel Bro-
"An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything;
and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men."
-Thomas Fuller
January 30th, 2010 ATB
Newport, Rhode Island, Area 1 (Britannia Proper), Holy Empire of Britannia
They say that the men and women who live on the south coast of Rhode Island were too rich and powerful for mere gossip.
After all, the row of mansions that stretched across the coast belonged to some of the most wealthy men in Britannia: nobles, old war heroes, plutocrats and businessmen of every sort.
Surely they would be above the petty gossip of the common people.
Of course, that was not the case.
Wealth does nothing to satiate curiosity, and rich or not, the men and women who lived along the misty New England coast talked and gossiped with each other as much as anyone else.
One of their favorite topics was the occupant of the Mansion on the Cove.
It wasn't the walls that intrigued them—many of the more paranoid or the slightly poorer lived in walled complexes.
It wasn't the style—not everybody preferred the amenities of a modern mansion.
It was the fact that none of them had ever seen the occupants. In all their walks, jogs and travels, they had never seen anything save for the servants. The lights were on at night, but nobody ever answered the gates, and the distance was too far to see any human shapes. When they approached the servants, they gave no response.
Some of them theorized it was some kind of Gatsby-esque romantic who was looking for his love. Others just assumed the owner was elsewhere, and the house was simply being maintained by a housekeeper.
Others thought it was some Foreign aristocrat living in exile.
Let them wonder, Lord Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi thought to himself.
A magus of a noble house such as himself had no obligation to answer to those who lived outside the world of Magecraft.
It would be silly to allow them to presume that their money and peerage could make them his equal.
Just like that stupid student of his.
To run off with his Catalyst.
Possibly holding a grudge from Kayneth's rejection of his thesis, the boy had stolen the shipment destined for Kayneth's hands and run off.
Most of the association had mocked the boy—surely such a weak magus could not know about that rock's significance. Surely he was simply venting his anger by stealing an item that he himself did not know how to use.
But Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi knew better.
He knew of Waver Velvet's tenacity, his stubbornness, and the inordinate pride that he held.
Let's be clear, Kayneth does not think any less of pride.
But pride requires the peerage to back it up—and for a third-generation magus like Waver, that much pride was dangerous. The pride of this peasant was that of one of the lords.
It was the kind of pride that would, when bruised, compel a boy with little to no practical experience as a magus to take part in a battle reserved for bigger men.
Kayneth almost felt bad for the boy.
It was like a rabbit that had willingly leapt into a battle between wolves.
Though it was still rather obscure, the Fuyuki Holy Grail War was still going to be a battle between powerful magus—the thousand-year Einzbern, the Tohsaka—and now Archibald.
Given, Waver Velvet now had the catalyst that Archibald had so painstakingly excavated under the eyes of the Church.
But a familiar can only be so powerful as his master—and any servant who had a low-class magus such as Waver for a master would be an apartment building expecting to be powered by a AA battery.
Both servant and master were doomed to fail.
But Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi was merciful.
He would allow Waver Velvet to participate with the servant that he stole.
He would let the little boy play in the game for adults.
After all, Kayneth had already obtained a replacement catalyst from the shores of the Aegean.
Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi would fight this boy who presumed to be a man as an equal.
He would be the one who would teach his former student his last lesson.
He would kill him personally.
After all, in the adult world of magecraft, there are no failing scores, only corpses.
Kayneth smiled in the dining room. It was early morning, and the joggers were outside.
He examined the object in his hands in the sunlight.
The old spearhead gleamed in the light, its rough bronze surface catching the glow. The shaft had long since rotted away, and the spearhead itself, while thin, no longer looked quite as sharp as it once had
Yet, Kayneth knew, it would be sufficient to summon one of Greece's greatest heroes.
One of the greatest heroes of the greek world, combined with one of the greatest magus of this age—Kayneth knew he was a match, even for the servant that his disciple would now be summoning.
On the intercom, a voice spoke. "Master El-Melloi, you have several visitors outside fo the gate."
"Magus?"
"No, sir, I detect no circuits." The servants of the El-Melloi household were not, of course, human—or at least weren't quite so any more. Humans are easy to bribe, to leak information, to perform erratically on minor whims. As a master of Spiritual Evocation and Summoning, Kayneth preferred familiars and spirits whom he could control at will. The "servants" he had were simply corpses which bound familiars—at his signal, these bodies could burst apart, allowing his familiars to assert their full deadly abilities.
Of course, Kayneth wanted to keep up appearances—he chose only the most beautiful of corpses and ensured with copious amounts of formaldehyde that they seemed to look and function the same as a regular human. There were a few actors and dissolute singers whose bodies were now working as his "servants".
"Don't let them in, they'll get bored eventually," Kayneth replied with a wave of his hand. He was not interested in talking with nonmagus, and this mansion was procured especially so that he could get away from having to meet so many of them.
"Master, they claim to be from the OSI, with information about heaven's feel."
"OSI?" The Office of Secret Intelligence was a nonmagus organ of the Britannian government, but it often worked to coordinate action between the Britannian government and the association. It was the OSI, after all, that had given Kayneth information about the other masters.
"Very well, let them in."
If their information wasn't to his liking, he would give them a good scare.
Within half a minute, a knock was at his office door. Kayneth was surprised—normally, the servants would take their time in bringing their guest upstairs.
"Come in," Kayneth said as he sat himself behind his desk. On top of the desk, a little dango-sized blob of mercury wiggled around on a stand, a miniature of the Volumen Hydragyrium he kept activated around him. Powered by his prana, 10L of modified mercury stood ready to scalp his targets or protect him at a moment's notice.
As they entered, Kayneth worried even less. Though he sensed some limited circuits among htem, none of them were remotely active.
These men and women weren't even a threat.
An uninterested-looking dark-skinned woman, a happy-looking Asiatic man, and at their head a tiny blonde boy flanked by other children. This looked like an orphanage's trip to the zoo, except that all of them were wearing suits.
Kayneth looked up at the smiling Asiatic man. Something about that cheerful smile seemed to suggest something predatory, but Kayneth wasn't cowed. "I wasn't aware today was bring your kids to work day."
It was not the man who responded, but the blonde boy at the front. "Pardon their intrusion. They're my…bodyguards."
"Bodyguards?"
"They can be surprisingly vicious in a fight," the blonde boy said with a smile that seemed older than his years. Kayneth suppressed a frown. The boy annoyed him for some reason. Nevertheless, it seemed like he was in charge.
"Well, Mr…"
"V.V. will do."
"Oh, I thought aliases were only in spy movies, Vivi."
V.V.'s smile didn't waver. "I do get confused for a girl sometimes."
"Well, no matter. What is your information?"
"Waver Velvet has arrived in Fuyuki City, and a servant has been summoned in the Tohsaka household. The war has already begun."
Kayneth shrugged. It wasn't news to him—though it was surprising that a servant had been summoned this early for the Tohsaka, it meant nothing to him. He would have to fight htem eventually anyway.
V.V. looked at Kayneth. "I assume your preparations are ready?"
Kayneth sighed. That these nonmagus would assume he potentially wasn't…"Of course, V.V.. My catalyst is prepared, and all that there is to do is to finalize my provisionary contract with my wife."
"Provisionary Contract?"
"A modification of the master-servant system," Kayneth explained proudly. "An innovation that I made to the Einburn's obsolete system. This way, I as a master will be able to perform to the best of my ability without sacrificing prana or compromising the abilities of the servant. My wife will provide the prana, and I will hold the command seals—this way, the prana drain doesn't affect me, while the servant will reflect my abilities."
V.V. nodded. "Ahh. Interesting."
His lack of impressment was irritating to Kayneth, but not unexpected. Nonmagus sometimes didn't understand the magnitude of this kind of thin.
"Well, I suppose our business is done," Kayneth said, "My servants will show you to the door." He clapped his hands for one of the servants.
"I don't think they're coming, Lord Archibald," V.V. said with a smile.
Kayneth blinked, nonplussed. "What are you sayi—"
"No matter how many times this happens, it's really weird," Ryuunosuke Uryu noted lightly as he looked around at the frozen humans around him.
Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi and the children V.V. had brought were all frozen in poses, Kayneth's mouth left slightly open in midsentence.
Next to Uryu, the dark-skinned girl, Nalika Sarasvati, walked outside the room. Outside, human bodies were strewn across the floor in various states of decapitation.
"This whole immortal thing takes the excitement out of killing," Uryu muttered.
Uryu Ryuunosuke is an Artist.
He doesn't kill because of some old grudge, or because he hates his targets, or even because he's greedy.
It's because death is beautiful.
When you're born, you're in your most basic state, the most undiluted form of humanity.
Yet when people grow up, they start hiding themselves. Society and law compels people to put on masks, build up walls around themselves, to hide their true selves so that they're molded into a form palatable for society.
Death changes that.
When you're faced with death, sometimes cowards become brave men, and great men become blubbering messes.
When the only thing you can see is your extinction, all those walls and masks you've built are stripped away.
The only thing left behind is raw humanity.
And, no matter how it looks like, for Uryu, it's beautiful.
If he's anything, Uryu Ryuunosuke is not biased.
Regardless of race, gender, or upbringing, being put in the face of death reveals the most beautiful in you. You are a piece of art.
And Uryu consideres himself an artist on the level of Da Vinci.
Using Geass to hide that takes the beauty out of death.
"We're no different from petty killers when we do this, V.V," Uryu called as he stepped towards Kayneth.
V.V. smiled. "You'll have more than enough time later. Rollo can't hold the geass forever. For now…"
He turned back to the boy with the blank eyes whose face looked increasingly drawn.
"Fine, fine." Uryu reached into his jacket and pulled out a handgun. He didn't like these weapons either—making art with a firearm? Something that explodes doesn't go well with a work of art.
Almost idly, he pointed it at Kayneth and pulled the trigger—and instantly flinched as, with a loud richochet, the bullet shot past him, nearly grazing his head before embedding itself into a bookshelf.
Where Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi once stood was now a large sphere of reflective metal.
It was a perfect sphere, made of some kind of solid metal. On closer inspection, though, one could see the swirls of liquid that crisscrossed the sphere. This was not solid, but a liquid.
Unsteadily, Uryu reached out with his hand—and then suddenly snapped it back.
But not fast enough, not nearly. With the sound of rushing water, a tendril of the sphere shot out, stabbing right through Uryu's hand before withdrawing.
"Cooooolllllll," Uryu said with a painful but enthusiastic gasp as he stared at his bleeding hand. Almost instantly, though, the bleeding stopped. Uryu knew it would heal in a few seconds, but he stared in wonder at the hole in his arm during the time.
Volumen Hydragyrium – Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi's mystic code. Composed of 10 L of mercury and infused with Archibald's own prana, it formed an absolute defense for its master, a 1 mm thick layer of hardened mercury that could block an artillery shell without even bending.
V.V. smiled. The assassins he had sent to kill this man had failed, but they had left behind useful information despite their deaths.
V.V. took a quick look at Rollo. Pumped with drugs, the boy's body would run for some time more—but a body can only operate so long without pulmonary innervation.
"Nalika, is it ready?"
"Yes, sir," the girl responded blankly. Unlike Uryu, this girl showed no enthusiasm for her job, something that V.V. didn't mind. Her lack of personal initiative did make her somewhat more reliable then her (quite literally) trigger-happy fellow immortal.
Nalika was currently holding a common blowtorch, a propane-based tool found in many a workshop.
With a hiss, the blowtorch activated.
Mercury, in its elemental form, has a melting point below zero (~-39 Celcius, to be exact), the reason for its common occurrence as a liquid in room temperature. Its Boiling point is similarly low, at a mere 356 celcius (In comparison, high-quality paper ignities at as high as 450 Celcius, while Iron doesn't even melt until 1500 Celcius).
When fighting a pyromancer, a master of fluid manipulation such as Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi can easily adjust Volumen Hydragyrium to form compounds with higher boiling points or pressurize the mercury to increase its boiling point and defensibility.
Of course, with its master completely frozen in his moment of time, Volumen Hydragyrium could only try to pressurize itself in an attempt to loyally defend its master.
As the mercury was evaporated with a slight sizzle, Volumen Hydragyrium attempted to cover the sphere by rerouting more mercury in the direction of the breach.
Even with his immortality, V.V. couldn't help coughing as he felt the faint metallic taste on his mouth.
Mercury poisoning in the long term in small amounts can lead to mental problems, fatigue and memory loss, hypertension and damage to the kidneys. When 10 Liters are being rendered into a vaporous form, effects will immediately manifest themselves.
V.V. took a glance at Rollo—and his face whitened.
Mercury poisoning is the most obvious in children, and immediate effects include pulmonary problems, tightness of the chest and accumulation of mercury in the lungs, leading to chemical pneumonia.
Rollo was clearly starting to suffer from these.
If Rollo Halliburton died before V.V. and the immortals could finish, Kayneth would be able to respond—and nonmagus V.V. knows full well he stands no chance against one of the greatest magus in the world in an open confrontation.
With a new sense of urgency, V.V. turned to Uryu.
"Is the barrier down?"
Nalika deactivated the blowtorch—on the ground, bits of bubbling mercury spattered the ground, hissing as it dissolved into vapor. But the barrier was down. Inside, seemingly unaffected, stood Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi.
"Uryu!"
"Alright, alright," Uryu said resignedly as he walked over. "Just disable his limbs, right?"
V.V. nodded.
"Hurry!"
The boy who had received the name Rollo Halliburton felt his sight darken and brighten.
Somehow, he suspected, knew, that he was near death.
But he knew he had a job, and he would do it, even if it cost him his life.
That was the cost of a name.
He had been expecting this for years—his years working for V.V. before he took control of the geass directorate;
The time since, when he had assassinated countless men.
Every time, he had been prepared for death.
That was the only thing expected of the geassholders of the geassorder.
Only the most powerful were even considered for eligibility for immortal. Those that were unfit were either left in a state of neglect or used by the order to pursue their own policies.
With a physical frailty borne of long periods of asphyxiation from a young age, Rollo could not have hoped to replace anyone.
This had always been his fate, no matter how long he lived.
And, somehow, he didn't feel unhappy.
He just felt a little tired[1].
In fact, he felt kind of happy.
Even as his vision faded, he felt excited.
As if there was somebody waiting for him on the other side.
As if he had accomplished what he had come for.
And, as the blackness finally swept over Rollo Halliburton, he felt as if, somehow, inexplicably, he had won.
"-ing—eurgh—"
Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi finished his sentence—and almost fell unconscious from the shock. His body, normal just a minute ago, felt as it had been soaked in ice.
Everything felt cold, deathly numb.
He blinked. He could feel himself gasping. He was looking up at the ceiling of his office.
"w-what…"
And then a blonde boy walked over him and looked down with a prod of his foot, a prod that made Kayneth's limbs feel as if they were exploding.
"Well, Kayneth, I am aware that you were looking forwards to your Holy Grail War."
From the background, he could hear other voices, echoing.
Why can't I hear them clearly?
Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi could not yet realize what had hapepend to him.
Seemingly unperturbed, V.V. smiled, surrounded by the children that had accompanied him.
The grin was that of pure pleasantry—not hate, not triumph, not even pity. Just a normal smile.
And yet, Kayneth, for the first time, felt fear.
"Don't worry. We'll fight it well for you."
And then, for the first time, Kayneth noticed that the children's eyes glowed with a bright purple.
On closer inspection, there appeared to be some kind of bird in their eyes—
February 1st, 2010 ATB
Fuyuki City, Japan
"God—damn—it—come—back—you…"
Waver Velvet tried to hide his embarrassment as he lay sprawled across the ground in a noticeably undignified heap.
The Valedictorian of Clock Tower, struggling to kill Chickens.
It was quite embarrassing.
Somehow, Waver imagined the process required to summon a servant to be a little more dignified than this. But liquid silver was hard to find, and apparently blood wasn't just on sale on the streets.
A more skilled magus like Kayneth would have simply killed the chickens…
Christ, what am I doing?
Here he was, all suited up for the Holy Grail War, and he was having trouble with the part that didn't even require magecraft.
Pathetic.
"Is everything alright, Waver?"
Waver turned around. "Yes, grandma, just fine!"
Waver shook his head. He couldn't lose heart now.
After all, it wasn't like he had managed a constant string of failures.
Finding an old couple like Glen and Martha Mackenzie and modifying their memory was one success.
Glen Mackenzie, a Britannian soldier who had been station in Japan following the war, had moved over with his wife Martha and son from Area 2 several decades ago. Their son, though, had never quite gotten use to Japan, and had moved back. It seemed as if they had fallen out of touch, and their son had never returned.
Even for a magus of limited talent such as Waver, it wasn't difficult to modify their memory so he was now Waver Mackenie, their long-lost grandson.
Now he had a home, a base of operations and a few chickens he had stolen off a nearby market.
He would hold the ceremony tonight.
He knew he would have the strongest servant.
The rock at the center, that worn piece of rubble, had been taken from Jersualem. Made of Lebanese marble and sculpted by the artisans of Byblos, the rock had once stood as the cornerstone of a temple, one of the greatest in its day.
A temple still held with respect by 2.8 Billion human beings across the world.
And its cornerstone would summon the wisest and the greatest of the Kings of Israel—the man whose wisdom and power awed the Jewish, Christian and Muslim world.
Tonight, the King of Kings would blaze open a path to the grail and victory.
He needed blood or some other spiritual medium for the summoning—the chickens would have to suffice.
Now if only I could catch them…
In the underground workshop of the Tohsaka mansion, a more elegant ritual was being prepared. After all, it was Tohsaka Tohkiomi who was in charge. Immaculately and elegantly, Tohsaka Tokiomi inscribed a circle with the molten essence of a liftetime's worth of gems, all liquidated for this one ritual, the one ritual that the Tohsaka had fought in for over 200 years. With a voice that could have melted the heart of any women, he chanted.
"Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Five perfections for each repetition. And now, let the filled sigils be annihilated in my stead."
Kirei Kotomine watched from the sidelines. The magic circle was shockingly elementary, of a lower level than some of the conjuration circles Tokiomi had taught him.
"It is a simple ceremony because we are simply the initiations," Tokiomi had said.
The Holy Grail System is not the same as magecraft, which draws its power completely from the user's prana reserve. The Holy Grail system is closer to eastern magecraft, in which the user draws from the natural energy and flow of mana of the earth. (Author's quick note: Remember, Od is the energy of the body, Mana is the energy of nature, and Prana is the unit used in magecraft, synthesized in both). In that respect, it is the Holy Grail that is performing the ceremony.
Like someone who turns the ignition key in a car as opposed to a man who pushes a wheelbarrow, a master is only activating a system that has been prepped into readiness from 60 years of peace.
In that respect, the activation ceremony is stunningly simple.
From the sidelines, behind Risei and Kirei Kotomine, a figure shrouded in darkness shivered.
Even now, the first servant summoned in the war knew that this servant would be his greatest enemy.
An old rotten snakeskin, preserved with the quality of faded parchment.
Who would think that it would be the catalyst to such a monster?
In her room in the Ryuudouji temple, Guan Tziling inscribed a circled with blood—her own, carefully collected through several months. In the center lay the heirloom that her family had treasured for centuries—the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
Surely, this would summon her ancestor.
"Ye first, O silver, O iron. O stone of the foundation, O Archduke of the Contract. Hear me in the name of our great teacher, the Archmagus Schweinorg."
Guan Ling was acutely aware she had no idea who Archmagus Schweinorg was.
In the Office of the Archibald mansion, surrounded by blood, V.V. smiled as he chanted, surrounded by the bodies of the little Geassholders, looked on by his two companions and the half-corpse that was the man who was once Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi.
"Let the descending winds be as a wall. Let the gates in all directions be shut, rising above the crown, and let the three-forked roads to the Kingdom revolve."
In the backyard of the Mackenzies, exhausted from his battle with the chickens he had stolen, Waver Velvet closed his eyes as he stood over the circle of blood he had created.
This battle would put his limited skills to their very limit. If he lost, he would lose his life, a nameless character in history.
But Waver Velvet would not turn back.
This was his battle.
This was his destiny.
And he would win it.
What Waver Velvet lacked in magic circuits, he made up in determination.
Pain began to seep into him through his arm, more pain than he had ever experienced, the feeling of the raw mana of the holy grail connecting with the circuitry of the body.
" – Set
Let thy body rest under my dominion, let my fate rest in thy blade.
If thou submitteth to the call of the Holy Grail, and if thou wilt obey this mind, this reason, then thou shalt respond."
In the mountains of Germany, surrounded by raging snow, Emiya Kiritsugu clenched his teeth. As the circle in front of him began to glow, he took a glance at Irisviel, watching from the side.
Her smile reminded Kiritsugu of what they were fighting for, and he closed his eyes.
Gritting his teeth, he ignored the pain that lanced through his family crest and the circuits of his body, that overflowed into his nervous system and excited each nerve ending.
" – I make my oath here. I am that person who is to become the virtue of all Heaven. I am that person who is covered with the evil of all Hades."
In the dark corners of the Matou worm chambers, a voice spoke with a quavering but strong voice, a voice strengthened only by the madness that it now conferred onto its servant.
" – Yet, thou serves with thine eyes clouded in chaos. Thou, bound in the cage of madness. I am he who commands those chains – "
Six masters each closed their eyes simultaneously.
"Thou seven heavens, clad in a trinity of words, come past they restraining rings, and be thou the hands that protect the balance – !"
A blast of divine wind, like the gales that brought down the mongols
The glow of lightning, with all the anger of the gods.
A great beacon, like a lighthouse piercing through the crowds.
A whisper, the whisper of a thousand men's passage into the afterlife.
And then the ceremony was over.
—The white face of a skull that watched the proceedings dispassionately—
—Golden Armor that shone like the sun—
—Green Tunic and flowing beard—
—Multicolored robes, lined with Gold and jewels—
—Black Armor, concealed by an ominous fog—
—the scarred bronze breastplate that gleamed in the lamplight—
—The the Silver breastplate and blue tunic that shone like moonlight—
Seven Servants stood before Seven Masters.
"I ask of you—are you my master?"
1 day ago
Tajikistan
C.C. walked through the empty temple with trepidation.
On the floor lay a mix of bodies—Mercenaries in flak jackets, but also V.V.'s Geass order troopers, in their heavy armor.
Many of them lay in states of decapitation.
Who did this?
This Buddhist temple had been built centuries ago, under the auspices of the local rulers.
C.C. was quite sure they hadn't intended this temple to be a battlefield.
She had went in expecting a fight from the Directorate Traitors—but it didn't seem as if there was anyone left to put any of that up.
Dashing against a wall, C.C. took a peek around the corner. Seeing nothing, she charged out—and then paused. Illuminated on the lamplight, a woman wearing a red jacket and a blue (Kimono?) stood over Sen.
Sen lost?
Sen, Immortal of the Khagan Thought Elevator, spotted C.C.. "You idiot—"
The woman instantly turned around—and instantly, the green-haired immortal and the blue-eyed woman locked eyes.
C.C. blinked, slowly. "Who…are you?"
It seemed an Eighth servant had been summoned into the war.
Notes and References
[1] Symptoms of Shallow-water Blackout – Rollo doesn't know this, of course, but this in fact can happen to you. The body doesn't allow you to kill yourself by holding your breath—at a certain point, it will force you to breathe. But the factor that affects this isn't the level of oxygen in the blood (well it partly is, but at very, very, very low levels of oxygen in the body, and it isn't nearly as strong). The factor that determines your breathing impulse is Carbon Dioxide (to be exact, the hydrogen dissociated from bicarbonate formed from CO2 in the fluid your brain floats in. You'll learn about this if you continue learning biology). Because certain actions (like physical activity or drugs) can lower the amount of CO2 in your body, people who hold their breaths after strenuous activity have lower amounts of CO2 than their should be. And since O2 and CO2 are consumed and produced at approximately the same rate, you may run out of O2 before your CO2 level rises high enough to trigger the breathing impulse. This, and pressure factors on the body, affect divers who don't use scuba gear, and leads to a phenomena called "Shallow-water blackout." People who suffer from it (and survive) report that they didn't feel like anything was wrong, they just black out and lose their memory. If they don't have somebody watching them, it's very easy to die. In Rolo's case, it's less hyperventilation than drugs that artificially force down CO2 levels by binding them into other compounds that aren't bicarbonate, lowering his breathing reflex. I'm not sure exactly what mental trigger Rolo uses to activate his geass, but I suspect that the strength of the breathing reflex is ususally what forces him to deactivate the geass after a certain time. I may not be right, but…well, I'm not sunrise. His feeling of light-headedness and giddiness comes from asphyxiation, by the way. What this means for readers is, if you're doing a holding-your-breath contest or diving, make sure you're not hyperventilating, and make sure, if you insist on doing it, make sure somebody is there with you to make sure you're alright. People HAVE died.
Author's Postface:
Once again, I do apologize for this week's delay, but I can almost promise you I will not have a chapter next week. It's Finals week in college, so Water Uganda Do? On the other hand, I do appreciate the reviews left behind this week, and I do hope more of them can be left behind. With the prologues done, I can finally get to the actual war, with all the knightmares and things blowing up and stuff, which was probably what you guys signed up for anyway, so I do hope this does whet your appetite, even if the next meal might take a while! Thanks, CaptainSparkles
D-Trav - Firstly, thanks for the review and the compliment-there was a dry spell recently where I got quite a few readers but no subscriptions or reviews, so I was worried that people didn't find the fic to their liking, and your review did come at the perfect time to compel me to finish these chapters (I could have spent another week trying to work out something I'd spent a month trying to work out anyway). The Prologues in general were meant to be a postface to the circumstances behind Code Geass Canon (i.e. Monica's backstory, the Glasgow project), especially since it's exploring territory that hasn't really been explained (as opposed to fate/zero, which is already written out-I'm going to do my best to make this a completely different piece, though). Honestly, China has a pretty bad experience with Eunuchs. Most of what happened in the THree Kingdoms period kind of started with Eunuchs - The Qin Dynasty ended with Eunuchs screwing things up too. But, as I said, there have been loyal and good Eunuchs too, so don't hate all the people without balls!
Phalanxx - While I wish you had said a little more, every review does help motivate me, so thanks for it! Even if you dislike it or don't have much to say, do tell me. I'm always willing to alter things i screw up on (especially grammar, as other reviewers have often pointed out). At any rate, I hope you keep reading!
AngrySanto - Thanks once again for the grammar mistakes, and yeah, I apologize about the Emiya chapter. My hands were kind of tied, and there were points where I was just rephrasing Canon, but I felt the chapter was important and couldn't really come up with something radically different. This chapter with the summoning was a little limited too, so do forgive me for that. I've told you this in PMs, of course, but don't lose sight of Kariya-he's going to be a major character, even if he's not a master! Taiga and Raiga's piece isn't done here either-in fact, you'll be hearing from both of them within I'd say 4 chapters. In the meantime, thanks for encouraging me via Private Messages as well! I'll do my best not to fail your expectations (It might take a while, but expect Saber and Bahsahakar to run into knightmare-related issues!)