Chapter name: Faith: the Saintess, Hero and the UNSPEAKABLE
"I heed your call and am your… servant."
Archer was reciting his usual mantra that he usually says when he noticed something was odd. He was inside a church that he had no memory of being inside of. He can tell it's one of those large Catholic churches from the architectural design. He also noticed that it was old and worn from the inside. It's probably centuries old, Archer thought. He turned around to see that he was at the foot of the altar that had three things: a loaf of bread, a wooden crucifix, and a silver goblet filled with wine. Behind that altar was a large cross that bore the Catholic interpretation of Jesus Christ with 'INRI' at the top of the thing.
"Where is my master…" Archer muttered as he circled around the altar. It's strange, really. To see these three items in a church is not unheard of. The problem at hand is that these three are the only things that look to have been touched by anyone recently. The pews are littered with cobwebs and dust, the hanging chandeliers have no lit candles, and even the cobbled floor is cracked and weathered. The only reason why Archer could see clearly was because of the fact that the windows are open. Allowing the crescent moon to dimly shine down into the church. That, and also his keen eyes.
Archer walked around in silence. He was at the centre aisle that led towards the main entrance of the church. He was calm, yet guarded. He knew that something was amiss. The fact that he had no master to introduce himself too was quite enough for him to tell. He noticed how the stone underneath him crumpled and cackled as he made his way towards the large wooden doors. There's this strange presence unknown to him pressing onto him from all sides as he walks. He can feel his breath stagger as tension consumes his body. Everything is so wrong here that it messes his senses up. What could be the cause? Would all of this be answered once he opened the door? Every step felt like a ton, he gritted his teeth as he fought against the alarm bells that rung at the back of his head. Archer's hand was about to touch the handle when-
"Hello? Are you my master?"
The bowman widened his eyes as he turned around to see a blonde woman standing in the same spot he had started out of. A quick glance to her feet showed the summoning circle that he hypothesised as the reason he was here before it vanished as suddenly as it came. His attention then returned to the girl in question. Said girl turned around and bowed in quick prayer at the sight of the altar and cross.
"...Oh divine master grant that I may not seek…"
Archer then quickly walked towards her and raised his hand in salutations. He was about to speak when he paused in step because of the girl turning around once more. With a clearer look through the help of the moonlight, Archer noticed that her blond hair reached close to her shoulders but nowhere near touching. Her closed off yet kind Lapis shaded eyes shone lavender under the night sky. She wore silver armour that covered her chest, arms and abdomen with skirt armour as her lower garments. All adequately covered by her blue fleur-de-lis surcoat. On her back has a long iron pole with a flag of some sort attached to it. However detailed this description of the girl may be, only one gave Archer the needed clue to realise who this girl was. It was the sheathed sword on her waist. It's the famed Sword of St. Catherine. Rumoured to come from Charles Martel of the Karlings, it was hidden behind a church and found by someone to use for warfare. There was only one name associated with this sword.
"Greetings." the girl smiled brightly. "My name is Jeanne'd Arc. I'm a Saber class."
"You may call me Archer." Archer replied in turn with a small smile despite his misgivings regarding the woman's lack of concern sharing her name. "It's an honour to meet you. I never expected that a woman as great as you would be here today. Your actions-" he quickly bowed in respect. But he was met with a waving hand of dismissal.
"Please please, the honour is mine. However, I cannot claim what I have done to be truly my own feat. I'm no different from my siblings who are farm children like I was. I lay all my actions to God and God alone." Jeanne then offered her hand, "Please, call me Jeanne."
Archer took a quick look at the hand before he shook it. "Jeanne it is, then. Now, do you know what we're doing here?"
"Hm? Is this not a Grail War?" Jeanne asked with a head tilt.
"Apparently not. I was summoned without a master in the same manner as you." Archer said as he walked towards the left window perpendicular to the altar. "I was about to leave the church to figure out what was wrong until you had come around."
Jeanne followed the man with furrowed eyebrows. "That is a suspicious happening. I know only information necessary to fight a Grail War and nothing else. This is certainly strange."
"Then we are at an impasse." Archer stopped a few steps away from the windowsill. "I suggest an alliance of sorts to figure things out before we start fighting."
"Alliance accepted." Jeanne said with a short giggle. "I had no intention of facing you within Holy Ground after all, so it is a pleasant thing to hear that you are taking a more diplomatic stance when it comes to this."
"You can never be too sure." Archer said as he turned around to see the outside world. And without any rhyme or reason, he suddenly grabbed the French woman and pulled her with him away from the window.
"Wh-wha?!" Jeanne exclaimed before she paused at the sight of a flying object hitting the side of the altar and then falling unceremoniously onto the ground. Her jaw opened wide when she saw that it was a severed deer's blood covered head with a sign of a demon on its forehead.
"What is that?" Jeanne whispered to Archer who was still pressing his ear towards the church wall. "Who threw that?"
"I don't know what they are, but they were wearing red hoods, holding torches and swinging pitchforks. They don't look friendly." Archer replied as he pushed all the prana he could towards his ears so that he could hear the rustling of the leaves as the red cloaked people moved ever closer towards the church. He knew that they were seen but it's strange that they haven't rushed into the building to dispose of them.
"Archer, look!" Jeanne exclaimed as another deer's head was flung towards the altar from the other window adjacent to them. It too was soaked in blood. "Why are they doing this?"
"I don't know." Archer grunted as he summoned his bow. "We need to get out of this church to get that answer."
SLAM!
Both servants instinctively drew out their weapons and rushed towards the centre aisle of the church and glared at the sudden entrees who forcefully opened the wooden doors. They look like the exact same ones Archer saw earlier at the window. And unless teleportation is a common thing in this timeline, the bowman realised that the Church is surrounded.
"Who are you?" Jeanne asked aloud as she tightened her grip on her sword. "And why are you here?"
The red hooded man in front of the pack tilted his head at the Saintess, as if he was looking at something behind the pair before speaking.
"We Are The ONES Who Seek The ONE." The man spoke cryptically. He had a hoarse and gaunt voice. His hands are as grey as bone and his eyes bloodshot under the torch he held. "You Do Not Belong Here, Disciple of GOD." He then looked towards the bowman. "You Who Lack Faith Shall Fall."
"What are you planning to do?" Archer asked with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't exactly the most religious, but that is still a weird thing to say to him.
"We Are Here To Finish What Was Told Of US." A woman beside the first man spoke up. "The Body Of The Mother Is Impaled On The Cross That Weakens It. But Only The Blood, Body, And Sacrifice Of The Faithful Can Awaken HER."
Archer only narrowed his eyes at the remark, meanwhile Jeanne gasped and widened her eyes at horror. Archer gave her a side eye glance to see what it was about when she suddenly took out her banner and stuck it onto the cobblestone ground with a shout.
"They're a demon cult!" And with that, a Holy Light emanated from the pole. It caused the hooded people to writhe in agony as the power of the Lord flooded the whole church. It also caused the demons within the cultists to react violently by tearing up their host's torso and flinging the innards out like tentacles towards the Saintess. They would've hurt Jeanne if it weren't for the fact that Archer had quickly destroyed the fast approaching entrails with her arrows.
"Do you have any idea what they're talking about?" Archer asked as he switched weapons to personally hack these demonic entities down.
"Not much." Jeanne replied as she decapitated the head of the lady that spoke beforehand. "I felt something was off with them and noticed the unholy stench."
"It's not just them, the whole church had that feeling before you came around." Archer said as he resummoned Kanshou so that he could use it to cleave three demons running towards him. "Something's inside this church and I don't know what."
Jeanne was about to say something when she turned around to see more than a dozen cultists climb up from the windows of both sides of the Altar. They started to convulse and deform into tentacle-like creatures that merged together to make some sort of wall that blocked the two servants from the Altar.
"What?!" Jeanne exclaimed before she became preoccupied with the demons before them. She looked to see that Archer had taken care of more than enough of them to start helping her out with her half of the pie. One more demon, and they're all dead.
"Roaaarrr!"
Or so they thought.
"My God…" Jeanne exclaimed as the rampaging monstrosity larger than the doors of the church barreled towards them with murderous intent. It was a red coloured demon that had three horns on its head whilst having a mouth as wide as a shark with numerous teeth to match. Archer saw the shocked Jeanne and knew that she would get hurt first, so he sprinted towards the Saintess to move her away from the demon's charge. The Demon then broke through the church and slammed itself onto the wall made of human body parts. However, it did little to no damage to the structure. They ran towards the entrance of the Church so that their backs weren't facing the demon. The Church floor was littered with demonic entrails and remains, yet they did not flinch in disgust. Even after the large being started feasting on the remains, they did not falter. They were about to engage when suddenly they heard a voice from behind.
"So this is where they planned it…"
Both servants turned around to see two men. A greying priest with a young man wearing the same priestly garbs but in blue. The old man had a shotgun while his partner held a Bible and a golden Cross. They looked battered and bruised but alright.
"Fathers, this is not the right place for you." Jeanne warned with worry. "There are demons here."
"Oh, do not fear, Hija." the old man said with a calmness that perplexed the Saintess. "We are in the place we need to be."
"Do you know what's going on here, then?" Archer asked with haste as he cautiously watched the still eating demon in front of them.
"Yes, we do." the blue garbed man replied. "And while this is not the place to be suspicious of you two for being where you do not belong, the Lord has given us a message that you are of good faith. We are here to end the Second Death - the coming of the AntiChrist."
Both servants' eyes widened at that. But they could not ask any more to the Priests because the demon had chosen this time to attack them.
To be continued…