Chapter 6: The Coming Storm

As Beryl shakes hands with me, he squeezes, as if testing my strength, before letting go and stepping back. The other two watch him with a hawkish attention that he seems more amused by than anything.

"I'm not sure why you all are so nervous. I'm an honest, employed man nowadays." Taking out an envelope from his coat pocket, he presents it to Kotomine and McRemitz for them to read before paying attention to me.

"You're from Japan, right? Your accent is a big giveaway." Friendly, he gives a look of curiosity at me.

Unsure on how I should deal with this person, I decide honesty is the best policy in this instant. "Yes, that's right. I've been trying to learn other languages and get the accents down as well."

His eyebrows shoot up in surprise before examining me more closely. "Man, I thought there was something interesting to you, but you sure are a different sort of kid. How old are you, actually?"

With both McRemitz and Kotomine finished with reading the letter, they turn to face our direction. While the young woman looks baffled, Kotomine seems the same as acting stoic.

"H-how did someone like you even get directly hired by the Animusphere family…?" While MzRemitz trails off in her confusion, Kotomine walks his way to stand behind me and puts a hand upon my shoulder.

"Beryl Gut, I'm sure you will have time to interrogate Shirou here later. But we have some important business to conclude today."

Uncaring about his reaction, Kotomine directs me towards a couch before taking one himself. Beryl's facial expression becomes empty for a second before he returns to his friendly demeanor and takes his own seat, with MzRemitz following soon after to return his letter to him. The only one who bothers to sit anywhere close to Beryl is Kotomine.

"I assume the two of you are aware of our target?" Kotomine asks. Both make sounds of agreement. "Then I shall keep this simple. Our target has their Workshop in the nearby in Mendip hill. McRemitz, Shirou and I are all suited more for up close fighting. That just leaves you Beryl, to take any opportunity that presents itself to you. I'm sure if any of the stories of your skill are true, taking our target by surprise shall be no problem."

Bemused, Beryl only shrugs. "Sounds good to me. So long as you all are as flashy as possible, I'm sure I'll work something out with this lady."

As Beryl is talking, an older man looking like one of those English guards all in black with sunglasses makes his way inside, clearing his throat once Berly had finished talking.

"Everyone, some of our investigations have had results. It looks as if we have had undead in the area. It appears as if those have also disappeared with everything else. Worst-case scenario, we might have a Dead Apostle on our hands." The man pauses for a moment, as if troubled by something. "In worse news, the Second Owner of Glastonbury is missing with the rest of those here."

"Any sign of how?" Kotomine is blunt in his questions.

"None, sir. Their estate was void of any magic or protections entirely. I've seen nothing like it, especially from one of the older families." Underneath his professional demeanor, the man has a slight frown on his face. Deep in thought from what he has learned, Kotomine glances away. McRemitz takes the time to adjust her tie with a frown. It's only Beryl who seems completely unbothered by the news itself.

"Someone also raided the tomb of King Arthur and stole the coffin."

At this news, Beryl lets out a whistle, impressed. "That thing was pure stone and magic, last I heard. Nobody could lift or open the thing, right?"

"That's correct, sir."

Confused, McRemitz furrows her brows to glance between the two men. "But I thought King Arthur was buried at some place called Blackmore or whatever?" McRemitz furrows her brows and looks between the two men.

"That is correct, ma'am. We aren't sure exactly what's in the coffin. But it's at least from around the time of King Arthur in age and mystery. It's more that it is the property of the Second Owner here."

"Who is the Second Owner?" I ask.

"Morgan du Lac."

There is a moment of silence. "Wait, I know that one. What's with them having the name of both Morgan and the du Lac last name?" My eyes squint in confusion at the guard.

"I wouldn't be able to tell you, sir. Most of their family have lived in obscurity around these parts." Quick and to the point, the guard continues away from my point before I can ask more. "We haven't found any other clues. We shall continue looking." Stoic, the man, gives a nod after that and starts heading his way outside.

Once the man is gone, both Beryl and McRemitz argue about the danger of a Dead Apostle. While they are busy, I turn to Kotomine. "I thought there were only us four going in?"

"The Gallista and Codrington families have paid mercenaries who are aiding us from outside. The Codringtons only had one heir from a branch family taken, but it is still enough of a slight to have them take care of the problem and recover the crest." My head nods in understanding. As he continues. "Some of them will stay here, some will stay here as a quick form of contacting others. Otherwise, their primary job is to make knowledge of what truly happened here, *stays* here."

As we quiet down, we hear the tail end of McRemitz and Beryls talk. "This is going to be a real pain if I have to deal with a Dead Apostle. That's going to be your job there, kid." With a shit-eating grin, he laughs in her face, not looking bothered by the idea of fighting.

Unamused by the idea, she stares down at Beryl. "I will not fight a Dead Apostle by myself just because it's convenient for you. If that happens, you better help, or I'm coming your way just to toss you to the vampire."

He sweats. "Point taken."

Inserting himself back into the group, Kotomine stands up. "If we come across a vampire, I shall deal with it. I'll expect the rest of you to lend your aid in that instance, but outside of that we shall carefully and with a steady pace make our way into this Workshop. I'll see you all in the next couple of hours before we head out. Make sure you have everything you will need ready."

Kotomine heads away, and with an awkward pause, I go to follow. "Where to next?" I ask.

"I shall head to the Church to pray. You may do as you wish for the next two hours. Call me if you need something." Briskly walking, I fall behind in surprise. It feels odd to be left just by myself like this, but I can only assume this is part of my training for self sufficiency or something like that.

In that case…

"I'm still not sure exactly what it is you are doing…" McRemitz asks. Following me into a hardware store, both she and Beryl, who had agreed to accompany me, look around. Taking my time to look through the unique items, a moment of guilt hits me before I ignore it. As long as I'm in a better position, I will help those who were missing even more.

"I'm looking for things that could be useful during the fight." Looking through the shelves, I grin as I find some ball bearings and take those.

"In a hardware store." Her tone is flat.

"Yeah, if you are resourceful enough, you can make use of a lot of things. If I had a gun, this could be even better, but I'll just have to make do."

"Guns, huh? I can see you have good taste there, kid. You any good with them?" Curious, Beryl follows behind me and looks over the shelves as well.

"I've had a lot of practice with my old man. Guns, bombs, sneaking around all that sort of thing." Distracted, I pick up a piece of PVC pipe before dismissing it. A metal pipe would be better and easier to carry as a backup weapon.

Turning back to look at the other two, McRemitz has a look of concern at me, while Beryl only looks more amused. Giving a laid back smile at me, he chuckles. "Training to be an assassin or something there?"

"I certainly hope not. It's concerning enough with one here." Muttering under her breath, McRemitz keeps her distance but stays close enough to hear us talk.

Opening my mouth to speak, I close it again as a thought occurs to me. "Is there a gun store here?" My excitement grows at the idea. "It's not as uncommon here to have guns for some people, right?"

Realizing I was being rude, I stammer. "I-oh. Sorry, no I'm not an assassin."

McRemitz mutters under her breath. "Could have fooled me." While Beryl shrugs in response to my question. "Not sure yet. I was going to have a look around before you came."

"Right." If there was a gun store around here, I'd have to look for it. Even after this, I could probably alter it to look like something else later if I wanted to take it with me. They might even have gunpowder there!

"Well, that will be our next stop then. Anything you all need?"

Bemused, both Beryl and McRemitz look at each other. "No, I think I'll be fine for now." McRemitz answers. Beryl continues to look around in vague curiosity. "Nah. I'm sure if there is something of interest, I'll just take it."

Making my way outside, I look to see any points of interest while the others walk beside me. After the silence only continues for a short amount of time, Beryl, unable to mask whatever odd curiosity he had in me, continues to talk.

"Actually, considering you are coming around with that Kotomine guy, are you part of, or joining, the church?" Moving to be in front of us and walking backwards to face me, he puts his hands in his pockets non-nonchalantly.

"Not really." I shrug.

"Wait really? What is Kirei teaching you then, exactly?" McRemitz falters a little in her steps in her surprise before lengthening them to catch up again.

"Bajiquan, and we spar every week, really." Now that I think about it. "Actually, what is it you two can do? We might as well have some knowledge of what we can do if we are going to fight together." The both of them take the time to think over the question before Beryl is the first to answer.

"Easy way to simplify mine is Witchcraft, but honestly, using guns is what I like best. It's just so much more convenient and fun, though knives aren't that bad either." He is pleased, as if remembering something pleasant.

"What is with you two liking guns, of all things?" Baffled, McRemitz stares at us both as she mutters under her breath. "Well, anyway." She raises her voice. "Close quarters combat here, with Runes as well, to help."

Both Beryl and my interests peak. "Oh, that's really cool! I've been meaning to learn Runes myself, eventually. But for now, I've been trying to polish my curses off and work on the basics. After we are done with this, do you want to have a spar?" Excited, I'm almost bouncing on my feet as we walk.

Hesitating, McRemitz watches my excitement for a few moments before folding with an indulging smile. "Sure kid, but we'll just stick with hand to hand for now, okay?"

I nod.

The conversation after that turns more into small side talk on some of the other jobs these two have been on before. Some things they have done are quite eye opening, if not horrifying in some ways. It's as we talk I spot something in the distance. I grin.

As we stand across from Kotomine, he gives a appraising look over us as his gaze lingers on Beryl and I. Double checking that I had all the right ammunition that I wanted in side pouches and the right holsters I had changed with Reinforcement; I give him a thumbs up.

I had grabbed a Glock 17 and a double-barrel shotgun, but with how small I was, I thought it was better if I changed it down to size. So now it was without over half of its barrel. With some gunpowder I had scrounged up from the store, I had even made some pipe bombs. Though I made sure that they wouldn't work unless I used reinforcement on them to change their shape first, considering the mage could manipulate the elements.

Actually, if I could get great at Alchemy, I could make gunpowder anywhere, right? That's something to keep in mind for later, I think.

Beryl had seemed not as pleased by the selection of guns, but took some still anyway. I think he just wanted something heavier to use. But honestly, if we were going underground, it's probably for the best we stay light.

I assumed the lair would head downwards at least. Bad guys always have underground bases.

Taking all these changes in stride, Kotomine leads us all outside to a car before he gets into the driver's side. Beryl casually gets into the passenger side next to the driver, while McRemitz and I get into the back. The drive compared to the lead up for now is completely quiet as the buildings and eventually the countryside pass us by.

Both McRemitz and Kotomine stay fairly quiet as they wait, though in the rear-view mirror every once in a while she taps or shifts as if nervous. Beryl looks almost eagerly as he checks his equipment once again.

"We should be fairly close to a Leyline, right? What do you think are the odds they are siphoning from it?" All businesslike, McRemitz pulls on one of her gloves to put it on tighter before doing the same with the other.

"It's best to go in, assuming it's very possible. We know little about our target, even with the help of the Galliasta family. They were tight-lipped on information. I suspect it's likely they sent their own assassins to deal with the situation."

In the rear-view mirror, I see McRemitz give a suspicious look at Beryl. He puts his hands up in surrender. "Hey, it isn't me. I only have one boss at the minute."

"What would the Astrologers even want with this case, anyway? This sort of thing wouldn't have any interest in them." Still suspicious, she watched him raptly for any sign of deceitfulness.

"That's a good question, actually." With a pause, he gives time for it to sink in before hitting her with a finisher. "I didn't ask." Giving a smug look at his own lack of answer, his tone turns mocking. "It's not my job to ask why, just what and where."

Unsatisfied but unable to refute, she turns her head to ignore him before getting out of the car. The rest of us follow suit. Off the road lies a veritable ancient forest like nothing I had ever seen around this area. The inside of it was so dense and dark it looked almost as if it was at night in there. We all stood in silence for a few seconds before Beryl breaks it.

"Man, ain't this a piece of work? I'd hate to be whatever poor bastard who has to deal with the paperwork for this."

Confused, I turn to face him as both McRemitz and Kotomine look grim. "What, why?"

"Hey kid, what if I told you this was a place with a lot fewer trees around here?" Even Beryl sounds bothered by this as he scratches the back of his head. "The amount of shit you'd need to do for whatever this is stumps me. The amount of magical energy this must have taken…" There is a tone of awe in his voice.

"This is unlikely to be the work of Galliasta then. Botany of this level is practically unheard of." McRemitz sounds grim as she surveys the area warily.

"So, does that mean we aren't entering?" Following McRemitz example, I pay attention to the surrounding area. Honestly, there isn't anything around I can see near it. It's got something eerie about it I can't quite put my finger on.

Shaking his head for no, Kotomine takes the time to pull out a phone and make a call. It rings for a few moments before it cuts off, and he places it to his ear and speaks in English. "Hello, yes, it's me, Kotomine. Yes, something unexpected has happened. I'll be needing someone down here to help with cleanup of the location. It's at worst the size of an entire hillside being changed. We'll go on ahead."

After clarifying a bit more about who he's on the call with, he hangs up. Taking the time to take a photo of the location before putting it away. During the talk, Beryl had walked close enough to the forest to be just outside of it, crouching down to inspect something on the ground even as a couple of other cars park behind us. Different men and women I had seen in part from the town get out to look at the change in scenery with various looks of surprise, worry, and fear.

"This is a lot worse than we initially feared. Completely changing a known and noticeable landscape like this is going to cause a lot of headaches. How the hell are we even going to keep this quiet?" Sounding worried, McRemitz watches the new arrivals with a frown.

Finished with a different call that Kotomine had quietly taken, he motions for us to follow before coming closer to what Beryl was inspecting. Having dug his hands into the dirt, Beryl almost has a wistful look on his face as he rubs it between his fingers.

"I thought this looked familiar. Take the time to look at this forest. Like *really* look at it." We all turn to take in the forest's sight itself. Outside of having something unsettling to it, it was actually really beautiful to look at. There were a lot of trees with apple growing on them, with these awesome trees with white flowers growing on them. The only one that didn't seem to fit in with all the others were these gnarled, bony looking trees. But as far as I could see, there were only those three types.

"Why are there so many apple trees, and what is that doing with Eldar of all things...?" McRemitz seems a bit confused and seems to ponder picking one apple before dismissing the thought. Beryl rolls his eyes and laughs in her face. "I guess that's a part of it. But the real big kicker of this is that there are only apple, yew and eldar trees here. This." He motions towards the forest. "With the amount of magic in it? It's Witchcraft. Real old type Witchcraft too."

McRemitz nods, ignoring him enough to keep her professional demeanor. "Eldar and Apple, I at least know a fair amount on. It's worrying to see something connected to the Faeries here."

"Not just the Faeries, death, too. It shows a connection to the Unseelie."

The eyebrows of McRemitz raise in his response. "You sure seem knowledgeable on trees and Fey." Beryl shrugs with an easygoing smile. "Thanks."

Dropping the dirt to the ground, Beryl stands up from where he was crouched. Cracking his neck, he then turns it to look behind him to look at us with a hungry grin. Apple trees have some sort of connection to Avalon, or at least that's what some people believed in the past. Isn't that interesting?"

Stoically listening as the two of them had talked, Kotomine speaks up. "Is there something wrong with the soil, Beryl?"

Frowning, he dusts off his gloves. "Not yet. I'll need more clues once we go inside. The only reason it was so easy to discover this much is because it's such a well-known connection."

"Then we shall make our way inside. I trust you will handle yourselves from here on out?" Turning his question towards those in the distance, he doesn't wait for an answer before we head inside. Passing the threshold of the trees feels almost like a physical feeling as it passes over on my skin. My pause is noticeable compared to the others, even as we all look about. The forest itself is a completely gloomy affair that I wouldn't be able to see within without already having my eyesight reinforced.

With an appraising eye, McRemitz lets out a grunt in dissatisfaction. "We should have noticed a bounded field there way earlier than just walking straight through it. It didn't seem to do anything though, as far as I could tell."

"It could be an alarm system?" I said. Sort of like the one we had at home now that I think about it.

She makes a non-committal sound as we make our way further within.

The worst thing about going through this forest, I thought to myself, was that it was confusing as we had had to travel up and down various parts. After what felt like an hour of us all being mostly quiet and focused, it seemed like we had made no progress at all. At first, I my nerves died down and a vague sense of restlessness and slight hunger had lingered in its absence. Apples were nice this time of the year, so it might not be bad to grab one.

After reaching towards one, McRemitz slaps my hand and glares at me with a stern expression. "Don't eat food in the middle of someone's possible Workshop kid. Especially if it's grown there."

Sheepishly, I duck my head down before continuing on my way. The sense of hunger only grows, but with a force of will, I force it down. It was easier compared to how something like that would have been months ago. Since I entered this place, a sense of relief has washed over me, as if someone has taken away a heavy burden from my shoulders. I experienced a sense of lightness, both emotionally and physically. So it didn't take long for me to get over myself and paying more attention.

"Well, on the bright side, I can say we should be close at this point. This whole place confuses you and makes you get lost. We just got to it before it grew too much." Moving around one tree to come in and out of view, Beryl, compared to the rest of us, looks as if he is at home in such a place. "Even so, this is at least the work of years with how much they put behind it."

"You think the Second Owner was in on whatever this was?" McRemitz grimly scowls as she brushes some leaves that fell onto her off.

"Probably, would suck for us though."

It's as they talk that the still forest gives the impression of coming to life. A freezing brush of wind comes through the entire forest with a howl, chilling me to the bone and shaking the leaves of trees around this. I jump in surprise as a couple of nearby apples fall from trees, only dodging most of them and catching one about to hit my head.

Compared to me, the others weren't all that affected at all, only taking the time to survey their surrounding.

"The weather had no warning of such a drop in temperature." As if to punctuate his words, there is a rumble of thunder up above before I hear rain. "Or that." His tone is flat.

"Weather manipulation too?" McRemitz chokes on her words before becoming grumpy. "Great, I love being drenched in rain."

Deciding haste and caution was better than talking about it more, we sped up as Beryl mentioned he was sure it was close at this point. Water dripped its way down onto us under the great cacophony from the trees being shaken under whatever storm we had going on above us. We would get glimpses of light through the leaves above us as lighting would flash. But the thunder was the worst of it. I had never been exposed to so much of it in my life.

As I dodged another apple and caught an additional one that was determined to give me a concussion, my frustration mounted. This rain was going to be awful for my guns, too. If I ever did something like this again, I'd get a cloak. Super heros had the right idea about these things no matter what the old man said.

With a sense of relief, we made our way to the outside of what seemed to be a deep drop into an empty ravine, which led to a man-made cave. It would have been almost impossible to spot without knowing it was there. Beautiful and strange writing adorns the archway on the outside, which is made of ancient, almost black stone. They looked familiar, but I couldn't remember from where.

McRemitz is the first to come closer to read the writing. Moving near enough to touch but without getting closer, she writes glowing symbols in the air. She tilts her head and studies it with furrowed brows. "I don't know this writing. Do any of you recognize it?"

Silent ever since the storm started, Beryl brings his head down from looking up above to stare at the writing. Kotomine had also already turned his gaze towards him as if anticipating a response. "Its Fairy language. It says 'The Once and Future King, the King of Britain and the Lord of the Storms."

Appearing as if a thought had crossed his mind, Kotomine appears entertained. McRemitz looks more confused than anything. "The lord of the storm isn't something I've heard before."

"It's closer towards something north of here in Scotland believes in. It is uncommon, but not completely unexpected to come across such a mention regarding King Arthur." Kotomine responds.

Becoming more engaged in the conversation, I chime in. "Since King Arthur went neither to heaven nor hell as one of those 'Mountain Kings', there was something about them joining the Wild Hunt, right? Does that mean that's true and we can meet them?"

"Unlikely. Even if possible, meeting the Wild Hunt would be a bad time for all involved in this time and age." Kotomine shakes his head. "Regardless, let's make our way inside. McRemitz, you go inside first. I'll cover the back and Shirou, you can go in the middle. Gut do as you wish. I'm sure you can figure out how to get the job done."

Laughing at Kotomine's comment, Beryl takes off his glasses to wipe some of the rain off of them. "Don't worry. By the time you see me next on this job, it'll be like it's over already." His grin turns smug before he throws finger guns our way. "Try not to die before then. It'd be a real shame."

The last I see of him before we go inside is his gaze lingering on me.

Making our way through the dark hallway with only my reinforcement letting me see, I use Structural Grasp to check the integrity of my equipment one last time before turning my attention to checking out the building itself. Thankfully, the rain itself had been light and not long enough to have much worry about making anything more difficult on my end.

"Bazett, you can dismantle any protection we can't avoid. Shirou, check our surroundings." With a casual movement of his hands, Kotomine has some of his Black Keys I had heard so much of in his hands. I nod. I was already onto it.

Using my Structural Grasp like sonar, I get a fairly good idea of where we are going and help to direct where we should go. The more we explore, the more obvious it becomes that this place resembles a labyrinth with tight corridors. Everything looked the same no matter where we went, but I could avoid most dead ends by having a mental image of where everything was as we walked. One benefit of having trained with Justeaze so much was that illusions were very easy to avoid for us. It helped that they were so poorly done and didn't look anywhere as realistic as Justeazes.

More and more than we made our way through simple magical traps that were so obvious even I could tell. McRemitz was getting frustrated. "I know this is probably to make me underestimate whoever did this. But treating such trashy spells with any worry like this is so frustrating."

McRemitz stews in silence for a moment after she had destroyed some sort of minor heated floor magic before we move along. Extending my arm, I move to pat her on the back before reconsidering. "Well, letting them win would be even more frustrating, right?" Taking the Rin approach for problem solving would probably help McRemitz more here.

A small smile is all I catch from behind her as she continues her relentless path forwards. "You aren't wrong there."

Before she can continue saying anything, my Grasp has something come up odd on my senses. Various hallways the further we got down seem to have spots that were distorted. I take a second before realizing what it is. "Looks like we have things with magical energy coming up. Not sure what they are, but it's probably a fair few of them."

Approaching the corner, we encounter what strangely appears to be statues crafted from the same material as the nearby walls. Impeding the way, it's only when they shift that I realize there is something more to them. All wielding plain shields and stone swords. It's as I see the white glowing orbs where their eyes should be that they move.

A low hum of sound fills the air as they come closer that I only catch because of my reinforcement on myself. The only problem is, I do not know what that could even mean.

The tightness of the corridor means both of us and they can only move in single file as they charge towards us. As I back up to get out of McRemitz way so she doesn't get trapped, Kotomine periodically calls out to her as he throws his Black Keys to score on the joints of the knights as the blades sink in easily.

"Left!" As she sways to the right, dodging the clumsy swing of the stone knight and taking the chance to kick their shin and shatter it, one of Kotomine's blades sinks into its head. Before it can even react, she punches the hilt of the blade so hard its skull explodes with a flash of white light that leaves spots in my eyes. The launched blade sinks into the next one behind it, piercing it in the throat.

McRemitz gloves have smoke coming from it before she rears back for more strikes.

Explosives or any of my weapons that I have here won't help at all because of how tight the hallways are. Not including the fact it won't be as useful against these stone knights. Sending my magical energy through my feet into the ground, I reinforce the ground I had already been studying well before this fight. Where I reinforce, part of it turns into a rough spike that launches into the back heel of the knight furthest at the back. With a flash, the spike crumbles after connecting in a explosive manner.

The knight trips, landing on to the knight in front and causing an effect like dominos as they fall slowly, becoming tangled. Internally, I wince. Even if I succeeded, that wasn't anywhere fast enough or sharp enough to do damage like I originally wanted to do.

Not as efficient as reinforcing a regular dagger and stabbing something, anyway.

Before they can recover, with a grim efficiency McRemitz moves through the stone knights and rapidly cripples and crushes parts of these knights before backing off. Each time she would hit one of these knights, there would be that same light and a smell like something burning. Even with some of them missing heads or limbs, they still crawled or attempted to come towards us to attack. The only one not moving was the one that had its head exploded by the black key.

By this point, both hands and feet of McRemitz were smoking from where they had struck the knights. She clenched her fists tighter and squared her shoulders.

"Kirei, use your black keys on these! They don't stay down otherwise!" McRemitz shouts before tripping another knight and dodging a clumsy swing of a blade coming from the tangle. By maintaining her body frame as compact as possible, I observe Kotomine hurling a black key into the crowd, narrowly avoiding hitting her each time, and instead striking another foe until they finally cease moving.

My fist clenches and I grit my teeth, watching from the sidelines as they dismantle the enemy one by one in rapid fashion without so much as getting a single scratch on them. I wanted to help, but taking any action now would waste energy that could be more effectively utilized later.

Scowling, I send another pulse just to make sure nothing is sneaking up on us. When I redirect my gaze, the fight has already concluded.

"Good thing I had some protection." McRemitz sighs, still keeping her distance and taking the time to shake her smoking hands. "I would have been well and truly fried by touching those things." Turning to look at the two of us in her periphery, her face looks severe. "I can see why they made the corridors tight and winding like this, so you'd get stuck in the melee with these things. Unless you have something to protect yourself from electricity kid, stick to staying at the back."

Closing my eyes in defeat, I nod.

McRemitz puts a hand on my shoulder and pats it before turning back to the remains of our enemies. Kotomine had already moved forward to inspect them before pulling out his weapons and stowing them away into his coat.

Actually, where did he stow all those things? Man, I wish I had something like that to carry more.

"Initially, I thought these to be like standard golems, but considering how the Black Keys worked on them." Kotomine muses, before McRemitz finishes his thought for him. "Some sort of demonic spirit or something like a ghost must power them, right?"

"Or some form of undead, which we can find if we inspect the remains." Completely businesslike, Kotomine takes an almost entirely intact torso and starts prying it apart with his bare hands. Inside, as if cocooned, are the fractured remains of a skeleton. Kotomine takes the time to lay it back down gently on the ground before shaking his head. "Necromancy."

"It wouldn't be just necromancy. They had powers based on lightning and the whole outside of it. So probably some mix of Transmutation, Golemancy and Necromancy?" McRemitz says unsure before moving ahead. "Regardless, let's get a move on. And make sure not to get complacent. These things might still move."

Gingerly, I make my way through the carnage while following the others. We reform our formation as we move, though I can't help but thinking over what's happened so far.

Although I hadn't started yet in using magic in those three fields, I still at least knew enough about them to piece together some things. Just like Justeaze, whoever we were dealing with here was some sort of alchemist. Though the type of alchemist, this was is very different compared to how most would normally act. Golems made using Alchemy for the conversion of elements, with Necromancy to direct and power it. It's just more of a question about what the goal of someone like that is for?

It's only after a couple more minutes of constant travel and occasional fights that I make sight of a room that's different from the endless hallways that seem to keep leading further and further down.

Describing it as a room doesn't quite capture its true size, as it is much larger than my house. It might be multiple rooms, actually.

Out of all of us, I'm the one in the best shape, with McRemitz having her clothes all looking frayed from the edges and even her hair sticking up in parts. Kotomine has come out of it better, but had a few of his black keys break because of being used on stone so much.

"Up ahead, everyone, we should reach a much larger room. I can't quite make out what's inside it, only the outside." I say.

Even with Structural Grasp, the room ahead is completely closed off from my senses. It's almost like trying to grasp people, but even more absolutely, to the point I get nothing. My brow furrows.

Brushing her hair down with a murderous expression, McRemitz cracks her knuckles and then her neck. "I'm going to kill her." She growls.

Kotomine only looks amused at the whole situation until we come across the entrance of the new room.

I take the time to wipe the sweat off of my face from my circuits warming up my body and all the moving I've been doing while the other two check it over.

Where the hallway ends in a complete dead spot lies a bone white wooden door. Someone carved out parts of it into four different sections to depict different scenes.

One has a beautifully drawn young person standing over what looks like a stone with a sword in it. I recognised the face immediately as the same blond-haired girl from my dreams.

One has what appears to be that same girl on a throne and in armor, with various knights all kneeling in front of her. Her warm expression makes me almost want to smile because of how lifelike it is.

The next shows what looks like her lying on a hill filled with corpses, sorrowful and wounded, as what looks like the back of Merlin slowly makes their way up the hill. A lone knight stands next to the girl with a hand on his weapon, as if wary.

Last lies a much more ominous view. A knight in armor similar to what I saw of the girl but in greens rides a dark horse, with various odd human-like creatures all sporting spears, bows and other such weapons.

It doesn't take long for Kotomine to conclude. "The life of King Arthur, depicted in four stages."

I nearly choke. "K-king Arthur is a girl?!"

McRemitz continues looking at the drawing while Kotomine gives me a chastising look that is ruined by the smile that tugs at his lips. "I never said that. They could be just a beautiful, effeminate man."

"People like that exist?" Confused, I shift my gaze between Kotomine and the art. McRemitz lets out an involuntary snort at my question.

"Indeed." Kotomine says.

Motioning for us to get further away, McRemitz rolls her shoulders. "I'm fairly sure this fourth one." She motions towards the one we were just discussing. "Is supposed to be the wild hunt. Which means whatever this is, has to be something to do with King Arthur and it without a doubt. There's way too many connections to make it a coincidence. But if they are trying to connect to the land of the Faeries, I do not know how they are going to even make that work."

She shakes her head. "If it was that easy, plenty of people would have done it before. For better or worse."

Closing my eyes, I think about what's happened so far. "But Beryl also mentioned that the forest would have also been incredibly hard to do, right? If you can do one, can't you be able to do another?"

"Not necessarily. It's just a matter of time and resources, right? So it's unlikely they would have been able to do something like all of this at once, no matter how talented they are."

"Which means an accomplice." Kotomine nods his head as if not surprised. McRemitz nods along in agreement with his words.

"Likely being our missing Second Owner. So come in expecting one or more accomplices. Just remember, we are entering the heart of a workshop, which will be very dangerous. We won't get a second chance like this. If things get too dangerous, we might have to retreat if we get the chance."

McRemitz gives a thumbs up after checking the door, mouthing something I can't quite read to Kotomine. He takes the time to slide more black keys into his hands as he walks forwards from where we had backed up. "McRemitz, if there are any more of those Golems or there are undead, I'll handle them. Any Magi, I want you to focus on first and deal with them."

Turning towards me, he visually evaluates me from head to toe before nodding in approval. "Try to stay back, Shirou, and take any opportunity you can see. Based on what we fight, I want you to help the person who would be in the more difficult situation. If possible, see if you can hide if there is any cover, and the situation calls for it."

Nodding in response, I draw and hold the double barrel in one hand and my cane in the other before a thought comes to me. Placing my cane against the wall, I retrieve one of my pipe bombs for inspection. "Do any of you want one of these in case you want to save some of your resources?"

Their mutual assessing glance redirected towards one another, communicating without words. After a moment, Kotomine nods and holds out a hand for it. I take the time to use Reinforcement to let it be usable again.

McRemitz gives me a second glance before shaking her head. "It'll work as a slightly more lethal way to blind them, at least."

I shrug. "It should help with any other golems, right? The old man always told me Magi would underestimate things that aren't magecraft."

Afterwards, it dawned on me that people could use this to kill others. Uncomfortable, I shuffle on my feet before shaking my head. There's no way they'd use it like that.

Displaying a brief moment of introspection, McRemitz takes a deep breath before placing a hand on the door. "It's clear of any danger on the door, going in three."

At the point of three, she pushes the door open silently and with light, quick steps runs into the room, with all of us following behind.

Inside, it appears to be all one area with no additional spaces. The black stone, which seemed endless, is gone, and instead, we are greeted with what feels like the forest we had just stepped out of, with the only difference being a lack of rain and wind.

Confused, I take the time to examine the walls, but the doorway we emerged from appears to be situated in the middle of the forest with no visible connections. With no one besides us in sight, we slow down to get an idea of the area. Using my Structural Grasp inside of here it instead gets no information.

"Is this... a Bounded Field?" My voice comes out in a whisper.

Mana in the air is dense here to the point it reminds me of Justeazes Workshop. It seems as if we have entered a completely different world.

With motions that seem almost desperate in how fast they are, McRemitz rapidly writes something on themselves as they get more and more pale. Kotomine takes the time while she is doing so to stay alert. Cautious, but worried, I make quick strides towards her to see if I can help her. Worst case, I'll try to use Structural Grasp on her.

Reaching a hand towards her shoulder, she finishes whatever she was doing and lunges towards me in a shaky, desperate attempt. Quickly ducking and barely getting out of the way, I keep backing up.

"Stay. Still... you idiot! Mana poisoning!" Baffled, I shake my head, but stop backing up for now. Kotomine hasn't reacted negatively to her actions so far, so I don't know if it's any kind of mind control. But mana poisoning is something I've never heard about before.

Once she catches up to me, she takes the time to catch her breath before giving me a *look*. That look slowly turns into confusion herself as she looks me up and down. "How are you still doing completely fine like this? The mana is so dense here anyone would start dying if they stayed too long in it. "In fact," her gaze shifts towards Kotomine and transforms into realization. "Kirei, is this something the Church can do that's letting you both be so fine?"

After considering the area to be safe enough, he turns his head towards her before shaking it in denial. "I am fine because of the gift of a friend. I'm not sure how long it will last, so I would appreciate any help."

Initially, I was going to tell her it can't be that deadly since I spent time in places full of mana this dense all the time. But thinking about it, it's probably better if I just say nothing if it's something that extraordinary. With a place like the Clocktower, they would use that as an excuse to kidnap me.

With McRemitz looking at me, I shrink into myself and avoid meeting eyes. "It's just some magecraft my teacher taught me I have on before most fights. It helps with stuff like this." It makes me feel awful lying like this to someone who has genuinely been helpful so far. Hopefully, if I just call it Magecraft, she won't ask further on it, since that would be basically asking to weaken its mystery.

With a sigh, she ruffles my hair, getting me to look up. "Well, isn't that lucky? I'm going to help Kirei first and then we can continue, okay?" Even in the pitch black nature of this forest, I can barely make out her kind smile until she turns her back on me and makes her way over to Kotomine.

While the two of them talk and she does more Runes that light up the area in brief flashes, I take the time to put away my weapons and climb up one of those bone like trees to get an idea of what's around.

It's as I climb that the fact I'm climbing a tree registers in my head. Didn't McRemitz just tell me that people would die in Mana this dense? So how do modern trees live in such an environment too?

Such thoughts are driven from my mind as I see the sky up above. Where I can only assume there would have been a roof, instead lies a roiling, spinning mass of storm clouds that circles rapidly, lit up by occasional small arcs of lightning. Despite how it moves, I can't sense any wind at all.

I take a couple of seconds to collect myself before climbing back down. "You two have got to see-" I cut myself off in shock.

There's nobody there anymore.

"This... is going to be a problem." Sighing to myself, I make my way quickly to where I saw them last. Making sure my footsteps are silent, the first thing I search for is tracks or any evidence to explain the situation. Annoyingly, most of the things I would typically have used to help track someone in a forest like this just aren't around. Covered in grass with little else on the ground, there aren't even any footprints to hopefully make heads or tails of.

Experimentally, I step gingerly on some grass to press my weight on it before lifting it again. Despite the pull of gravity, the grass gently rebounds into its previous shape without any evidence of harm.

"A real big problem, huh? What's even the point of this?" Muttering under my breath, I roll my shoulders and prepare to move towards the center of the storm overhead.

My fists are clenched by my side even as I try to stay more focused on moving in obscurity. If I just told them what I was doing, I wouldn't have gotten into this problem.

Venturing on my own, in the Workshop of a ruthless Magi now that I have the opportunity to reflect on it more and truly contemplate it, seemed like a awful time. Every once in a while I'd have to wipe my sweaty palms on my pants just from the nerves of it. The main thing I was hoping for at this point was at least being able to rescue any of the people that were taken.

After what seems like an eternity, in the dark, silent forest, I perceive the faint sound of voices. When I first heard it, I froze. Listening intently, I can't quite make out what is being said, so I start slowly following where it's coming from, making sure I don't get taken by surprise at anything that might be lying in wait.

Once within proper hearing range, I hear a gruff woman's voice with an odd accent I've never heard before. Through the trees, I still can't see anyone or much of anything. But I still take the time to duck behind a tree and see if I can hear more. "...will work, I can guarantee it. It's not as if we are using magic here. We have only moments before we see the fruits of our labor here."

Much softer, I can barely make out the response of a different woman. "...your sake... expect... heart... cat..."

Frustrated, I cautiously make my way forwards so I can hear and see whatever's going on. As I get closer and closer, the people who are speaking are in what I think is the only clearing in this entire place. A field about the size of my house. A magic circle covers the entire area, glowing with an ominous green color and illuminating everything within its boundaries.

On the opposite side across from me, I can barely see the faint outline of some sort of cabin at the edges outside of the circle. Two silhouettes near the cabin seem to be the ones talking. But most of my attention lies on the figure kneeling in the center of the circle in front of an almost nostalgic scene.

A knight in black armor, with a helmet themed like a lion with a gray mane. You can see hints of green throughout the knight's attire, which includes a mostly dark green cloak with black fur at the top and gold around the edges. Clutched in the gauntlets of the knight is something golden that shines in the light.

Across from this knight is a beautiful sword that takes my breath away. Ornate in gold and blues, I don't think I've ever seen a weapon that even compares to it before. It appears stuck partway into a block of stone in the ground.

Standing there and so close, my heart rate picks up and my whole body aches again out of nowhere, like after I've woken up. I take deep breaths without taking my eyes off of whatever is going on as my vision swims briefly.

"Succeed or fail, I'm getting paid for this and getting out of this shitty country. You're the one who risked everything on a long shot." The gruff voice says.

With careful movements, I pull out my pistol and take aim in their direction. My hand shakes for a moment before I stabilize it with a scowl. The thing I had to remember is these are monsters who will hurt many people if I don't stop them.

Thinking better on it, I lower my aim and start quietly making my way around to come closer to them both so they have less time to possibly react and to see if they already had some sort of protection up. I'd hopefully be able to hit them with a less lethal shot?

This whole situation drove home how much I missed being able to Structural Grasp, but everyone being unable to sense anything through the dense Mana also made it easier for me to sneak unnoticed.

"I know." The other voice sounds resolute, but unhappy.

Now close enough to see them both, I take stock of the two women across from me as they face each other. Both of them, while exhausted, seem to pay attention to their surroundings with nervous energy. Even with the earlier bravado of the gruff woman. Now with being able to see her, she looks only younger than Kotomine. With brown skin, black hair, blue eyes and tall for a woman, she also dressed in baggy pants held up by a belt, a turtleneck, sandals and a modern lab coat over it all in shades of white and gray. This woman is what Makidera would call a fashion disaster.

Her companion in comparison is just as shocking, if not more for a different reason. A young, short girl in black unremarkable armor, if not for the fact it seemed to draw in the light, is the one with the soft voice who I had heard. With light purple hair and eyes of the same color, she stares at the magic circle with clenched jaw and grim stare, pale.

She looks almost the same age as McRemitz.

My hand raises with the gun to point towards them, considering my options. I don't think I can shoot through her armor, so that just leaves the one option. Aiming for the leg of the older woman, I take my finger off of the side of my pistol and put it on the trigger. Just as I get ready to fire, the dark-skinned woman laughs.

"Yes!"

With that, a bolt of lightning flashes down and strikes the form of the kneeling knight in front of the sword. I flinch from the shock, causing my shot to go wide and miss entirely as I press the trigger out of reflex. Ducking behind cover with a tree to blink the spots out of my eyes, I peek again to see what is going on.

Feeling ill, with shaky hands and now embarrassed at my failure, it's only natural things would get worse now. The density of the mana had taken a massive dip, meaning I also had less energy I could use from there.

Once kneeling, the Knight now stands slowly up to its feet with the same energy as someone who only just woke up. They slowly clench and release their gauntlet before facing toward the two girls. Where the eyes would be on the helmet instead has two dimly lit glowing blue orbs glimmering out of it.

While the quieter girl still looks weary, the woman in the lab coat grins in satisfaction. "I told you that this was the right call with sympathetic magic." She whispers softly to her companion before addressing the Knight.

"Welcome back, King Arthur. I'm sure we have a lot to talk about, but I'll need you to do something for me."

As she talks, I move around just enough to look for other avenues of backing off because this looked *terrible.* The worst part is, it felt like I knew where that knight was just from how powerful it felt. Like something at the back of my head, I just can't let go.

"Can you please pull out the sword from the stone for me?"

My heart sinks when instead of following her directions, I realize that the eyes of King Arthur now follow me into the forest regardless of the cover I had.

End of Chapter 6:

Howdy! This one was a struggle for a bit. You can start seeing how some things have wildly shifted compared to canon at this point with quite a few lore drops. This seems like quite a dire situation for Shirou, huh? Let me know on what y'all think it might be.

Reviews:

General Morgan Comments -

Whoops, I might have intially made Morgan comments even more confusing here until the end of the chapter haha. I can't give too much away, but do remember Morgan mentioned how she's a very good actor. I suppose it depends on where you think the act begins and the real person shows. Or if somebody is being impersonated.

one hand, I'm excited to write with him in it because he's fairly simple and I have a good idea of something I think is interesting to take him into. But also... Beryl is pretty obviously unrepentant scum. So we shall see what terrible things he's been up to I suppose.

Dimihd -

Ohhhhh, okay that makes more sense. Thanks for clarifying!

Guest -

Wow, glad you liked it! It's always heartwarming to see people like some of the character interactions.