Moon Cell Irregular
By psychored1911
Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/EXTRA or Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei
Chapter 6
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First High faded away.
Plaster walls turned to stone. Ceramic tile floors turned to brick. Light fixtures turned to rows and rows of torches. Classrooms turned into iron cells. And the students at their feet? Their uniforms became armor of steel, becoming soldiers straight out of a European museum.
And at the center of it all was Caster, standing in front of him, casually flipping his tome open while the world around them became a medieval nightmare.
"You know, I really wasn't expecting to find a magus in this place, especially not a remnant of the Holy Grail War. Do you still call yourselves mages? Eh, it doesn't matter."
Hakuno's eyes widened in shock, and Caster smirked in response. "Oh, who are you fooling, magus? I can sense the connection between you and your Servant, clear as day. Besides, those magic circuits of yours were the only thing that protected you from my little spell."
Hakuno bit back his shock and steeled his resolve. He wasn't the clueless Master he was at the start of the Grail War. Panic wasn't going to save him. He needed to calm down and analyze his situation.
Okay, what does he know? Caster turned the world around them into something out of Dark Souls, either through his magecraft or his Noble Phantasm; definitely a red flag. The fact he clad his unconscious classmates in armor is also an unpleasant sign; they might not even be fully 'unconscious'. Mental Interference magic- magecraft? Possibly. He can never rule anything out when it comes to Servants. Odds are, Caster is expecting and/or going to instigate a fight. Yeah… he's probably gonna need a Command Spell for this.
"So, tell me, magus, do you know what's going on?" Caster asked, nonchalantly stepping over the unconscious students as Hakuno backed away from him, "Because one moment I was getting deleted alongside that asswipe of a Master of mine, the next I'm standing over the moron as he and a few of his associates were busy doing some back-alley dealing. Jackass had the gall to act like he didn't know who I was, the little..." The Servant began to rant on and on for a brief moment before remembering Hakuno was there, "Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. What do you think happened?"
"...I don't know." Hakuno hesitantly shrugged, pretending to be more terrified than he actually was.
Caster's expression dropped, his body language conveying little more than a mild, exaggerated annoyance, "Ugh, figures. I swear to God, there's something wrong with that stupid moon of ours. Ah well, you're no use to me then."
Caster snapped his fingers, and the armor-clad students rose to their feet, their eyes vacant and empty, before grabbing him, each pinning him against the nearby wall with one hand, and throttling his neck with the other.
[CONFLICT_INITIATED]
[MASTER_{Hakuno_Kishinami}_AND_SERVANT_{Ruler}]
[VS]
[MASTER_{Atrum_Galliasta}_AND_SERVANT_{Caster}]
[Live_or_Die_by_the_Sword]
[What_power_do_you_hold_in_your_hands…?]
[Dancing_Flames,_Decaying_Earth,_Withered_Ocean]
"Hahahahahahaha! Sooooooo sorry, magus!" Caster suddenly giggled madly as he comically threw his arms over his head and twirled on his heels, not sounding the least bit sincere in his 'apology'. "As much as I would love having someone with actual Magic Circuits under my wing for once, it will bring me far more joy to see another fellow Servant suffer, collapsing to their knees in despair upon their failure to save their precious Master before they fade into oblivion! Oh, the look on their face as their spirit shatters upon seeing their beloved Master's broken, lifeless form, powerless to save them from their horrible fate! Oh, what I'd give to see such fresh despair! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Caster twirled in ecstasy, laughing madly all the while before boring his pitch-black eyes into the young magician, "So go ahead! Call upon your Servant, magus! Use a Command Spell if you have to! I'm more than happy to wait if it means watching a hero's spirit break, live and in person!"
Hakuno glared daggers at the smug Servant, his struggle for answers, to free himself, or even to breathe secondary to the contempt he felt towards this bastard before his eyes.
He was going to make Caster regret ever giving him a fighting chance.
With his consciousness fading away as the 'knight's' grip tightened around his neck, Hakuno's resolve remained steadfast, unleashing the power of his Command Spell and beckoning his Servant to his side.
[COMMAND_SPELL_ACTIVATED]
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"...-a-te-!"
"...M-s-r!"
"Master!"
Once he fully came to, Hakuno found Ruler cradling him in her arms, a look of panic on her face as she desperately shook him back to her senses.
"...R-Ruler?" Hakuno croaked as he awkwardly sat up, rubbing his throbbing neck. That really, really hurt.
Ruler sighed in relief as she embraced her Master, "Thank Heavens you're alright! What happened? What did Caster do to you? What did-"
"C-Calm *cough* down!" Hakuno wheezed, giving himself a moment to let his windpipe return to normal, "W-What... happened to Caster?"
Ruler frowned, avoiding his gaze, "He escaped. It was either saving you and letting him flee, or assaulting him and risking your life; I chose the former. However, I can sense his presence somewhere below us; Lord knows what he's planning."
"Did you *cough* identify him?"
"...Yes. Yes, I did." Ruler said, clenching her fists together tightly, "Master, I know you're hurt, but I need you to tell me what happened."
Hakuno rubbed his neck, cringing in pain as he told his faithful Servant everything that transpired in the past few minutes.
Once he finished going over every detail, Ruler's expression turned troubled, "I see." she rose to her feet, pulling him up in the process. "Master, I need you to vacate the premises as soon as you can; I shall handle Caster alone from here on out."
She tried to let go, but he held onto her hand anyway. "No way, I won't leave you here alone with that psycho."
Ruler flushed red for a moment before immediately shaking her head in the negative, "Master, I appreciate the gesture, but there is no Holy Grail War in place; you are as valid a target for Caster as I am, if not more so. I'm unsure I will be able to protect you completely while engaging him in battle."
Hakuno didn't like it, but he understood her intentions. He would have been a liability to her at best and a hindrance at worst. Hell, even if his neck didn't feel like a crushed soda can, he still wouldn't be able to help her; he had no access to his old Code Casts and psionic magic was useless against magecraft anyway, much less a Servant. Still, that didn't mean he didn't want to be there to support her. If only there was something he could do...
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Ruler froze as her amethyst eyes wandered to Hakuno's left hand, "Master, when and where did you get that?"
"Get what?"
"This." Ruler took his left hand in her right and brought it up to eye level, revealing a crown-like ring on his ring finger. "Where did you get this ring? Tell me right now."
Before Hakuno could even respond, the ring began to glow, engulfing them both with a blindingly bright light.
[SYNCHRONIZATION_IN_PROGRESS]
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...Okay, that was weird. The crushing pain in Hakuno's neck was gone, so that was a good sign, but that didn't tell him where he was… At first, everything was black, devoid of any sights and sounds, but gradually, his senses began to clear up, and he began to see… Ruler, standing alone in that stone hallway. She removed her gauntlet and stared at her bare left hand, which was now wearing the enigmatic ring on her ring finger. It was strange; one second, he felt like he was standing right next to her, holding her hand, the next he felt his consciousness wrapped comfortably around her body, holding her in a warm, loving embrace.
He actually kinda liked it.
"Oh dear…" Ruler stated, staring at the ring with wide eyes, "Master, if you can hear me?"
"...Okay, I'm here," Hakuno said reassuringly, despite his bewilderment. "What just happened?"
Ruler massaged her temples, clearly frustrated at the recent turn of events. "The Moon Cell's lousy timing is what happened."
"What do you mean by that?"
"The ring you were wearing- well, I'm now wearing- is called the Sovereign's Regalia, otherwise known simply as the Regalia." Ruler explained, "It's a special Mystic Code that was supposed to be granted to you, the champion of the Holy Grail War, but for… obvious reasons… you didn't receive it." she glared upwards for a moment before continuing, "Look, your consciousness is currently within the Regalia, so you'll be out of harm's way so long as you don't will yourself out of there."
"Are there any other functions of this Regalia thing that I should be aware of?"
Ruler nodded in affirmation, "You have no idea. I'll be sure to teach you how to use it as we go along, but for now, taking down Caster is our top priority." With that said, she slipped her gauntlet back on as the Sovereign's Regalia transformed into a golden armlet, the ornate accessory clasping perfectly over the steel plate. Summoning her standard to her hands once more, she dashed down the hallway, determined to take down the rogue mage once and for all.
As she left, Hakuno spared a glance at the two 'knights' she left behind; both were slumped against the wall, limp, unmoving, definitely unconscious this time, and with their 'armor' dented in some very painful-looking places. She obviously didn't kill them; that would've gone against her beliefs (it also helped that they were still breathing, too). However, well… one thing's for certain:
She sure was scary when she was upset.
It was a labyrinth.
The 'castle' twisted and turned as Ruler traversed through its treacherous corridors. So many doors. So many halls. So many distortions that only righted themselves as Ruler passed through them, the magecraft warping the campus dissipating as she marched onwards. Yet despite pressing on, the castle felt emptier and emptier with each moment, the deafening silence that echoed throughout broken only by the rapid rhythm of Ruler's greaves clanging against the rugged rock floor. They could not find nary a living soul as she proceeded, but that was not to say that the labyrinth was empty. Everywhere they looked, they found dozens upon dozens of medieval torture devices, all covered in blood and rust, simply scattered about like children's toys. And against the walls were… were human corpses, all so horribly disfigured that they were barely recognizable as human. Some were dismembered, others were mutilated, some were dismembered and mutilated... and then there were the ones charred and smelted onto the walls themselves. Their eternal expressions of suffering ensured that whoever they were, they were alive throughout the whole ordeal.
They weren't real, Ruler kept assuring him so as she passed them by with a look of horrified disgust, but they served as a grim reminder of what may await his classmates if they didn't hurry.
He didn't want that on his conscience. Neither of them did.
It didn't help that Caster was deliberately stalling them with all this bullshit; the longer Ruler was occupied with the illusory maze, the longer Caster had to enact his plans, whatever they were. They had no idea what Caster was planning, but if the whole medieval dungeon imagery surrounding them was of any indication, it wasn't any good.
Now, while Caster's (probably) nefarious schemes should've been troubling him more (and it probably would; he was gonna have nightmares about this place for weeks), there was still something gnawing at the back of Hakuno's head. Caster already made clear he was a participant in the Holy Grail War, so…
Were all Master and Servant pairs downloaded by the Moon Cell?
Hakuno shook his head. While that was probably the case, they could focus on that later; Caster was their top priority now. Still, this kind of thing was just really… wrong… "Jeez, Caster must've been really sick in the head to come up with all this."
"You have no idea." Ruler grumbled, "He's not too strong in a one-on-one fight, but using Territory Creation alongside his magecraft like this is right up his alley."
"That bad, huh? Actually, now that I think about it, you never told me his identity. Is there something wrong?"
Jeanne paused, giving a glance at the Sovereign's Regalia, her sad expression unbefitting of the Grail War's administrator. "...Well, you could say that Caster is a bit of a personal issue for me."
That piqued his interest "Personal? Did you know Caster when you were alive?"
Jeanne shook her head, "No. I've never actually met him in person, but-"
"Damn that… God forsaken… Dauphin!"
A slurred, hate-filled curse, obscured into echoes, shattered the silence that permeated the stone walls.
Ruler froze upon hearing that voice, "No… it can't be..."
"Ruler?"
Within moments, Ruler ran, no, sprinted towards one of the iron doors, only to find herself unable to open it, no matter how hard she struggled. All she could do was watch through the thin, peephole left so conveniently open for her to see.
The room was a mess. There were dozens of books and loose pages scattered throughout the room, with a couple in particular dangerously close to a pair of lit candles sitting on one of the wooden desks. Two barrels (empty or not, it was hard to tell) of what could only be alcoholic beverages littered the area, with all sorts of cups and goblets, either intact or broken, scattered haphazardly across the room. But the most striking thing about this room was the two adults in the room, positioned across from each other. One was unusually pale, with surprisingly well-toned skin and large, bulging eyes, dressed in robes befitting a mourning nobleman. The other was notably even more muscular, having a piercing gaze and a rather impressive beard, garbed in plate and leather armor and having a large broadsword sheathed on his hip.
"Gilles, would you please stop this madness?" The large man complained, saddened by his counterpart's drunken stupor.
The inebriated, large-eyed man, Gilles, glared at him, angrily slamming his alcohol-filled mug on the nearby table, "I most certainly shall not!" He roared, "That stupid Dauphin killed her! She put that fool on the throne and as thanks, he left her to die with those damned Englishmen! She was a Saint, yet he left her to burn like an unholy heretic!"
The large man sighed, groaning as he massaged his temples, "Gilles, that was years ago. You need to let it-"
"SHUT UP!"
Gilles roared as suddenly stood up and tried to smash his mug at his friend's head, only for the latter to simply grab his arm mid-swing, staring at him with an almost pitiful expression on his face.
"Gilles, I will only say this one more time." The man pleaded, despite the steel in his voice, "Now I'm not saying that what happened to her was a tragedy beyond compare. I am saying that obsessing over her death for this long and guzzling wine like there's no tomorrow is injurious to your health. And if someone such as myself is telling you to hold off on your excessive drinking, then you know it is bad. Please, if not for me, then for her memory; just accept her death and move on with your life. She definitely wouldn't want to see you becoming a drunken hermit throwing your family's riches away. She would have wanted you to live your life to the fullest, helping others as a man of God is wont to do."
A brief silence ensued, the two men staring at each other tensely as the mug slowly slipped out of Gilles's fingers, clattering on the floor and spilling what was left of its contents on the ground.
"Y-You're right, La Hire…" Gilles uttered, his arms hanging limp as the large man released his grip, "Perhaps I have dwelt far too long in the past. Maybe I should just let it go and try to replenish the fortune I've lost." he chuckled as he turned towards his friend, "I never knew you to act so... paternal during the war."
The large man, La Hire, simply shrugged in response, "What can I say? The lass had quite an effect on me as well." He walked over to a door on the left, presumably the exit, "I've got to go now. While it has been good to see you again, the battlefield is my true calling. I'll be back to visit at a later time."
"I shall show you out." Gilles offered.
"No need, I think I've figured out the layout of your estate, at least well enough to find the door." La Hire mused, waving off his friend, "May our friend smile upon you from heaven, chum."
La Hire left, leaving Gilles alone in his study. He glanced at one of the books, a bible, sitting at his desk. He picked it up and stared at it, reminiscing of a time long past, "...Would you have really wanted me to move on, Jeanne?"
Before he could open it, another voice spoke up. "That man has such a naïve viewpoint if I do say so myself."
Gilles flinched, dropping the bible onto the floor as he reached for the dagger sheathed on his waist, "W-Who goes there?!"
He turned back to the door, where a hooded figure- no, Caster, stood behind him, grinning ear to ear as he approached, holding a leathery spellbook in his hands. "No need to fear, my dear sir. I am merely a traveling cleric. Your servants welcomed me into your home and I wished to introduce myself to my gracious host."
Gilles stared at him warily as he sheathed his blade and gave a brief bow. "A cleric? In that case, I am Gilles de Montmorency Laval, Baron of Rais. Forgive my manners and the appearance of my abode, sir, but I have been going through some troubling financial times as of late."
The cleric, Caster, somehow managed to grin even wider, "Is that so? If that's the case, then we have so much to discuss. Fufufu..."
The door opened.
The illusion faded, and everything within the room disappeared, leaving behind a single staircase to the floor below.
"Gilles… the Baron of Rais…" Hakuno said slowly, recognizing the name from an earlier conversation he had with her, "You mentioned him before; you said he was your friend during the Hundred Years War."
Ruler nodded gravely. Outwardly, she was as fine as ever, but he could feel her shuddering to the core, "Yes he was… but Caster… Caster was the one who took my dear friend away from the road of virtue and onto the path of ruin. Caster was the one who subverted a righteous man in his moment of weakness and turned him to madness. Caster, no, Francois Prelati was the accomplice of Gilles de Rais, the mentor of the infamous Bluebeard himself."
Ruler descended down the staircase, silent, gripping her standard tighter and tighter with each step. She probably would have unconsciously crushed the standard had it been any other object, not that she would've noticed in her current condition. She wasn't acting like herself. He could feel her shaking with each step, shivering with each breath. She wasn't afraid; no, that look in her eyes was not of someone with fear. No, she was saddened, or even mortified. She knew Gilles back when she was alive, and she knew his fate by virtue of the Moon Cell's databases. But seeing… it was completely different than simply knowing about it. After all, watching someone die is far different than hearing about their death from word of mouth.
And Caster… he must've known this. He must've figured out her identity the second they saw each other. Now the bastard was using his own memories to screw with her head; he wouldn't put it beyond that jerk to show her Gilles' downward spiral into madness if it meant making her suffer.
Hakuno could tell his Servant was unnerved by Caster's illusions. Jeanne's racing heart, her trembling shoulders, her wavering eyes. Hakuno couldn't bear to see her like this. He had to say something.
"Jeanne, can we take a break for a moment?"
Jeanne stopped in her tracks and glanced at the Sovereign's Regalia, now an armlet bound to her gauntlet. "Master, is something wrong?"
Hakuno sighed. Always leave it to Jeanne to worry about him when she's the one under duress. "Jeanne, are you okay? You seem upset."
Jeanne's gaze shifted uneasily. "The Gilles I knew in life was a good man, Master, and an even better friend. Back then, there was no hint of the monster history would have immortalized him as. But as you saw, he fell into despair after my demise and Prelati… he preyed upon him during his moment of weakness..." She paused for a brief moment before continuing. "However, I have made my peace with what became of him and the heinous crimes against mankind he has done. I pray for him and the people he has slain with equal measure. Prelati, on the other hand…I'm almost certain he's been running rampant right under my nose. This," she gestured to the 'castle' around them. "is just the tip of the iceberg. I can't believe I let this-"
"I'm gonna stop you right there, for just one minute." Hakuno cut her off, surprising the young saint. "Jeanne, you didn't do anything wrong; you couldn't have known any of this would've gone down. Caster will get everything that's coming to him, but you need to snap out of it! It's not your fault Gilles went insane, it's not your fault he killed all those people, and it's certainly not your fault that Caster was free to do as he pleased this whole time! IT'S NOT! YOUR! FAULT!"
It took Hakuno a second to realize he virtually screamed right into her ears. Jeez, where the hell did that come from? He didn't even know he had it in him. He was about to apologize when-
*SMACK!*
Jeanne smacked herself across the face, absolving herself of doubts and worries, invigorating herself with newfound resolve-
"Argh!"
Only to regret it the moment the pain was registered, reeling back as she nursed her now reddened cheek with a string of French curses. "I... probably should've removed my gauntlet first…"
Hakuno winced. A Servant-level smack to the face, self-inflicted or not, had to hurt. "Ouch. You okay?"
"Quite a bit, actually." Jeanne snickered, putting up a brave smile as the swelling subsided. "Thank you for that talk, Master. Perhaps that was all I needed."
"Don't mention it. Actually, I've been meaning to ask: how does La Hire fit into Caster's story?"
"Well, now that you mentioned it-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH- *snap*"
A bloodcurdling scream, one that could have only belonged to a child, echoed through the air before suddenly stopping with a sickening crunch, sending the conversation between Servant and Master to an abrupt halt.
Ruler paled, but bit back her shock, mentally bracing herself as she turned to the nearby door, "Master, prepare yourself for what you're about to see."
"After that scream, I wouldn't know what else to do," Hakuno muttered as Ruler went to the door's peephole.
There was a large, crimson-red summoning circle inscribed on the ground, marked with what could only be blood. At the center of it was a spear sticking out from the ground, with a severed, rotting boar's head impaled on its tip. Everything else was pushed to the walls: the books, the furniture…
And the bloody, desecrated corpses of children tossed haphazardly to the side, crudely piled on top of each other, all rotting with an ungodly, ferric stench.
At the other end of the room were Gilles and Prelati. The latter was standing, towering over a kneeling Gilles, holding the corpse of a bloody, recently deceased child in his hands, the child's face forever frozen with excruciating suffering.
Prelati smirked, clasping that skin-covered spellbook in his hands. "See? What did I tell you, friend? Terror is at its best when fresh, when hope is granted ever so briefly, only to be crushed, stomped into the ground without mercy. The horror in their eyes is magnitudes better, is it not?"
Gilles laughed maniacally as he crushed the poor child's throat in his hands. "You're right! It's so… euphoric! So… blasphemous! So… so… COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
His laughter increased as he mutilated the corpse, dismembering the body limb from prepubescent limb until it was no longer recognizable. "More…" he raved, cackling horridly, his clawed hands twitching in an arrhythmic pattern. "We must do more! We must do more blasphemous acts! We must do more to refute the existence of God!"
Prelati blinked, seemingly genuinely surprised. Pleased, but surprised nonetheless. "Really? What about all that stuff you said about your fortune?"
Gilles scoffed, standing up and tossing the mutilated corpse aside like a broken doll. "What is money when we have the chance to disprove an entire religion and its God?! After all, He can't possibly be real when we perform all these atrocities without divine retribution! And even if He is, He deserves to see his disciples suffer! After all, he made Jeanne abandon me for him, and she burned like a witch, after all, she did in His name! He deserves to suffer for all he's done!"
Prelati could only chuckle in response, smirking as he opened his spellbook. "I knew we were going to get along, Gilles. I believe I have just the thing in mind…"
The illusion faded once again, and the door swung wide open, the stone staircase almost inviting them downwards.
Ruler could only frown in response, gently taking a deep breath. "Master, are you okay?"
"...Yeah ...I'm probably gonna have more than enough nightmares to last me a lifetime, but I'll live." Hakuno hesitantly replied, thanking his presence in the Sovereign's Regalia (probably) prevented him from vomiting his lunch in disgust.
Ruler's expression turned disheartened. "It is horrible what happened to these innocent children, but unfortunately, these atrocities were in the past; there's nothing we can do for them now." She quickly made a sign of the cross and made a quiet prayer. "Master, allow me to teach you how to access the Regalia's true powers. They may come in handy during our final confrontation with Caster."
This was it. Caster was on this floor. There was nowhere else for him to run and hide behind illusions.
"I know you're nearby, Caster. You'll only be wasting time and prana by delaying the inevitable." Ruler called out, her voice echoing throughout the halls until eventually, a steel door materialized to her right.
"Are you ready to see what lies beyond?" Ruler asked, if only in concern for her Master's psyche.
"Let's just get it over with," Hakuno stated as Ruler went over to the peephole. He did not care about the coming nightmares these illusions would bring. The sooner Caster showed this last card, the sooner he will appear. The sooner Caster appears, the sooner he and Ruler can take him down. The sooner he's taken down, the sooner this sick game of his will all be over.
The circle was still there, as was the boar head on a pike; the maggot-infested flesh had long decayed away, leaving behind a bare, pale porcine skull in its place.
However, that was the only thing that had stayed constant in the change in times. Hanging from the walls were barely-living children, their hands and feet nailed to the walls in groups of three, sacrilegious parodies of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Saint Dismas, and Gestas the impenitent thief. Against the wall were furniture, but not ones of artisanal wood and stone, but of human bodies. Severed arms and legs made the base structures, bloody torsos made cushions and tabletops, and twisted bodies, some with their limbs and heads swapped, were made to become what could only be sick, demented statues. Hanging over the crucified children were trophy heads, not of any game, but human heads, their wide-eyed faces forever frozen in agony. And sitting on the flesh-borne furnishings were more limbs, or to be more precise, tools and inventions fashioned from tendons, organs, and bones.
Gilles and Prelati were nowhere to be seen, with only the sound of approaching footsteps from the side door being the only signs of life.
"Gilles, old friend!" It was La Hire, holding a lit candelabra over his head in one hand and a small cask of mead in the other. "It's your old friend La Hire! None of your servants answered me at the door so I showed myself-"
La Hire stopped in his tracks, the cask and the candelabra clattering to his sides as his mouth went agape in shock. He was an experienced soldier for France's campaigns, a war hero and veteran through and through, but nothing could have ever prepared him for something like this. "W-What in God's name?!"
"Who goes there?!"
Gilles, now draped in a bloody red apron, came out of another side door, holding what appears to be an adult human femur over his head menacingly, only for his hostilities to drop like a hat upon realizing who he was talking to "Oh, La Hire. What a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect to see you here."
His tone was friendly and polite, fitting more of a fine nobleman greeting a comrade of the past rather than a depraved murderer confronting the intruder of his lair. Of course, the dissonance between his demeanor and the gore surrounding them only served to horrify the hardened commander even further.
"Gilles, what is this?!" La Hire demanded, gesturing to everything in the room with outraged fury. "What is all this horror?! What have you done to all these people?!"
Gilles blinked and pointed at the crucified children almost matter-of-factly. "Well, I'm not sure if you can see it, but over on that wall there-"
"I can see what's on the walls!" La Hire yelled, "I can see everything in this whole God-forsaken room!"
"Then why did you as-"
"What is wrong with you, Gilles?!" La Hire screamed into his old comrade's face. "Why would you do this to your fellow countrymen?!"
For some reason, Gilles had the nerve to be stupefied by the question. "Why, to refute the existence of God, of course," he said matter-of-factly.
La Hire couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Don't you hear the madness of your words, Gilles?! You are actively aspiring to go against the Church by slaughtering your people like cattle! Why on earth would you want to do something as stupid as that?!"
"Well-"
Before he could finish, Prelati barged into the room, carrying the ribcage of a recently murdered child in one hand while holding a knife and his spellbook in the other. "Hey Gilles, what did you do with that femur? I just got this great idea-" He paused as he turned at La Hire. "Oh, I didn't know you had company over. I would've cleaned-"
"YOU!" La Hire grabbed Prelati by the neck and slammed him against the wall, forcing him to drop the ribcage, knife, and spellbook. "I remember you! You were there when I last came to Gilles' abode! You must have been the one who has corrupted him with this bloodshed, to destroy his faith in the Lord above!"
Despite suffocating under the commander's large, plated hands, Prelati only smirked in response, boring his pitch-black eyes at La Hire and whispering so only he would hear. "And what if I am? What are you gonna do about it?"
La Hire glared at Prelati as he tightened his grip. "YOU SON OF A BITCH! I SHOULD KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND, MONSTER!"
La Hire began throttling the deranged cleric as Gilles tried desperately to separate his two friends from each other. "La Hire, what is the matter with you?! Stop this madness!"
"Madness?! This monster corrupted you and turned you into a murderer and desecrator of human lives!" La Hire raged as he reached for the dagger on his belt. "Jeanne would have been appalled and ashamed at what he transformed you into!"
Gilles trembled in suddenly spiked fury, sputtering inaudible nonsense until he screamed at the top of his lungs. "SHUT THE HELL UP! HOW THE FUCK WOULD YOU KNOW?! SHE COULD BE BURNING IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY FOR ALL WE KNOW!" He grabbed the knife Prelati had dropped and stabbed him in the back of the neck, furiously pounding the blade through the commander's body over and over again until there was no doubt the latter was dead, falling onto the ground in a bloody, nearly headless heap.
Once his rage died down, Gilles stared at his friend's corpse in shock, his blood-soaked hands trembling in realization. "W-W-W-What have I done?! I just killed him… I-I just killed one of the few friends I had left in the world..."
Gilles began crying, weeping over La Hire's body only for Prelati to pat him on the shoulder. "Yes, you did. You just committed a great atrocity." He crouched down, plucking the knife from Gilles' hands and piercing it into La Hire's heart, as if his death by near decapitation wasn't inglorious enough. "But y'know what? If God does exist, there's no way He would've let this go unpunished. And look," Prelati gestured to the room around them. "No divine retribution, no angel from heaven to strike us down. And best of all, no God to smite us down from whence we came."
Gilles wiped his large, tear-ridden eyes as he met Prelati's gaze. "*sniff* Yeah, I guess you're right. Ha… Haha… HahahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The two howled in maniacal laughter together as they rose to their feet in perfect unison, dragging the 'corpse' of La Hire towards the side door.
At first, the two thought that the illusion would fade once again after the 'show' was over.
But it didn't.
The room, as it was, remained long after the door opened; only Gilles and Prelati vanished, leaving the 'corpse' of La Hire to fall unceremoniously in a sanguineous, forsaken heap.
Dear Lord, Caster sure did not like the poor guy.
"..." Ruler silently walked over to La Hire's 'corpse' and, knelt closed its eyes, before clasping her hands together in silent prayer. She knew it wasn't the real La Hire, but that still didn't mean she wouldn't take a moment to mourn an old friend, illusion or not.
"Farewell, La Hire." Ruler quietly said as she stood up, making the sign of the cross. "You were a great mentor and friend. And while this is not your true fate, you shall be missed all the same. May we meet again in another life."
"...Farewell, La Hire…" Hakuno prayed, echoing his Servant's heartfelt goodbye. He did not know the grizzled warrior personally, but Jeanne spoke very highly of him, almost as high as she had with Gilles. It was only right he gave the man his last respects as well.
Once the two said their goodbyes, Ruler stood up, fixed her skirt, and went over to the side door Gilles and Prelati headed towards, finding yet another staircase heading downwards.
They were praying.
The room Ruler entered was a twisted effigy of a cathedral's main halls, with the missing students, all garbed in robes identical to Caster's, praying incoherently in the parallel pews towards the stone altar at the hall's end, with Caster cheerfully leading them on, playing the role as the spiritual leader of his own congregation.
[RESUMING_CLASS_DATA_RECORDING]
[44.76%_COMPLETE]
Caster looked up, smiling cheekily as the unified 'prayer' came to a halt with a wave of his hand. "Welcome, Saint. Do you like what I did with the place? I think it looks much, much better."
Ruler just pointed the spearhead of her standard at Caster in response, glowering at him contemptuously. "The game's over, Prelati. Stop this nonsense right now."
Prelati raised a brow, holding his tome under his arm whilst lazily leaning back on the altar. "Stop? Why would I stop? I'm having the time of my life toying with these so-called 'magicians'. Besides, I thought you would enjoy seeing our mutual friend again."
"You were no friend of Gilles, Prelati. You just corrupted him for your sick game." Ruler retorted, her amethyst eyes glaring daggers into Prelati's pitch-black orbs.
Prelati only snickered in response. "Au contraire, my dear Saint. I had Gilles' best intentions at heart."
"By tempting him into killing innocent lives?"
"By giving him a form of release from all the pain he was enduring." Prelati corrected, making sure he kept his smug, know-it-all tone. "You see, when you died, he was left all alone in the world, angry, broken, unable to lift a finger against those who wronged him. All that resentment and rage bottled up, festering for months, nay, years on end, just waiting to explode. It was… breathtaking…" Prelati's face flushed red, almost swooning at the thought. "So, I took the sad man under my wing and taught him all that I know, and let him release his fury against the God who took his precious Saint away from him." He chuckled. "Actually, if you think about it, it was you who caused his spiral into madness. Fufufu..."
It was beyond obvious Caster was trying to get under Jeanne's skin, to piss her off, to break her spirit. It was the card he's been playing ever since she arrived.
"What are you really here for, Prelati?"
But, play the same card over and over again, and frankly, it just gets annoyingly predictable.
Prelati raised a brow. "Oh, so you don't care about Gilles? Some friend you are."
Ruler ignored him and continued. "My Master and I were talking it over for a while after your second illusion and it got us thinking about your goals. First of all, even though the Grail War has long since ended, I am more than careful enough to know when myself or my Master are being watched, Servant or not. Not to mention, according to my Master, you were just as surprised as he was. No, you found him out by chance. Once you found out he was a Master, you thought you could get a cheap laugh out of getting him to call me over and killing him before I had a chance to rescue him. But you didn't. The moment you saw me, you saw a golden opportunity not to break just any Heroic Spirit, but a Saint. And not just any saint: the very Saint that fought alongside Gilles de Rais. So you made all of this up as you went along just so you could see me fall into despair, just as you did with Gilles. But as you can see, you failed, Prelati. I shan't be broken, not by the likes of you, nor by anyone else."
The tables have turned. Each word that came from her lips pierced through Prelati without discretion. The scathing analysis, created by both Hakuno and Ruler, tore away at Prelati's psyche without mercy. The rogue mage now found himself at the receiving end of a speech meant to break apart his actions piece by piece, getting angrier and angrier with each word.
But she wasn't even done yet.
"You know there were so many things wrong with your 'story' that it was almost laughable." Ruler said, her tone mimicking the snarky demeanor of the Master whispering in her ear. "I was actually startled for a moment, but then I noticed a couple of things wrong. First of all, why on Earth would Gilles say 'Cool' back in the 1400s? Not to mention, La Hire dying by Gilles' hand? Please, he died years after Gilles perished. Those few clues alone told me you were intentionally stretching the truth in order to get under my skin. Once a lie is seen through, it doesn't take long for the rest of the illusion to shatter."
Prelati gritted his teeth, gripping his tome so hard his fingers were digging into its leathery cover. "Oh, so you care not for all the lives we've taken so far?"
Ruler shook her head, twirling her standard behind her back. "The lives you've taken in the past are in the past; I can do nothing more than pray for them. As for any lives you've taken in the present, I'm more than sure you'll be more than eager to confess your sins once I'm done with you."
At this, Prelati slightly regained his composure, grinning maliciously as his tome opened wide, pages flipping rapidly as it floated out of his hand. "Oh, hoping for a confession, are you? If that's the case, you're gonna have to kill me first."
[CLASS_DATA_RECORDING_COMPLETE]
[100.00%_COMPLETE]
[{Caster}_CLASS_DATA_RECORDED]
Ruler dashed over to Caster, twirling her standard over her head as one of the 'disciples' impeded her way. Undeterred, Ruler planted her standard into the ground and vaulted over the 'disciple', only to find that Caster disappeared from the other side, replaced by another one of his 'disciples'.
"KILL THAT SAINT, MY DEAR DISCIPLES! KILL HER! KILL HER NOW!"
The pews disappeared as a pair of wicked knives, no doubt another one of Caster's illusions, materialized in each disciple's hands as Caster's voice echoed throughout the hall, his unhinged voice reflecting his anger and madness. The 'disciples' themselves fared no better, their entranced, empty eyes contorting with an unfounded rage.
"BURN THE WITCH!"
"BURN THE WITCH!"
"BURN THE WITCH!"
"BURN THE WITCH!"
...So, they have knives, but they still want to burn her at the stake? How exactly would that work for them?
Ruler didn't even flinch. "Master, your orders?"
"I'm gonna cast that {extella()} Code Cast. Beat Caster's mind control spell out of their systems."
"Understood."
[CASTING_{extella()}]
*FWOOSH!*
A digital event horizon erupted from the Sovereign's Regalia and engulfed them all, transforming the illusory stone hall into the Spiritronic Sea itself.
"You're in my world now!"
With the 'disciples' trapped inside its wake, Ruler flew towards the nearest 'disciple' and slammed her standard into his shoulder.
*THWACK*
All of the disciples recoiled upon contact, taking the same impact as the receiving 'disciple' by the will of the Reality Marble.
But she wasn't done.
Arms, legs, shoulders, limbs, she kept up her assault against the disciple, taking care not to cause any permanent damage, until the Reality Marble closed, with each and every single 'disciple' collapsing onto the ground, bruised and broken, but free from Prelati's spell.
Shortly after their 'disciples' were defeated, Prelati reappeared by the altar, clearly in pain. It seems like he was caught in the Extella Reality Marble alongside his 'disciples'.
"Y-You bitch…" Prelati snarled, staggering backward as his pitch-black eyes glared daggers at the Saint. "I-I'm gonna kill you… and when I get ahold of that Master of yours, I swear-"
"You know what's sad, Prelati?"
Ruler calmly walked over to Prelati, letting that smug bastard know she was the one in control. She and her Master had been analyzing everything that had happened since he first revealed himself, and both came to the same conclusion:
"You barely qualify as a Servant. You barely qualify as a Heroic Spirit. Your sole claim to fame is being the 'mentor' of Gilles, and even then, you were barely even that. At your core, you are little more than a pathetic, cowardly bully."
Jeanne dismissed her standard, the banner of the Lord dissipating in a shimmer of white light.
"You prey on those who are vulnerable, those at their weakest, and you manipulate them for your own amusement. And once you establish your power over them, you exploit your victims for all they're worth."
Jeanne then removed her sword from her hip, still sheathed within its scabbard, and held it inverted by its covered blade, with both hands gripped tightly around it. She would never draw the God-given sword out of its sheath for this bastard or any other scum like him.
But that didn't mean she wouldn't use it to beat the ever-loving shit out of this unrepentant sinner.
"And once you find that one person you can't control, you run and hide like the coward you are." Jeanne bored her amethyst eyes right at the rogue mage, her expression one of complete and utter contempt.
"I may still forgive you for all your sins, but after all I've seen, after all, you did to those innocent people, after all, you did to the ones I love, there is no way I can let you go unpunished!"
As Jeanne's declaration reached its conclusion, Prelati finally realized he picked a fight with the wrong Servant. He turned and ran, the illusion surrounding them fading as Prelati tried to make his escape.
Jeanne would have none of it.
"This is for Gilles, whose grief you turned into madness."
With both hands cocked sideways behind her back, Jeanne swung the inverted sword with all her might, the crossguard becoming a makeshift hammer aimed at the back of Prelati's head, sending him sprawling onto the ground.
"This is for La Hire, whose life you claimed to have taken."
Grabbing him by the collar, Jeanne then threw Prelati into the far wall, strong enough to leave a human-shaped crater.
"This is for all of your victims, whom you've toyed with from one era to another."
With one hand on the sheath and the other at its proper handle, Jeanne leaped into the air and thrust the shrouded sword into Prelati's chest, giving him no time to recover.
"And this…"
With Prelati peeling off the wall and onto his knees, Jeanne towered over him, holding her sheathed sword properly as the rogue mage futilely tried to push himself back to his feet.
"This is for my Master, whom you've dared to lay your hands on."
Clasping both hands tightly around its grip, Jeanne brought the sword down upon Prelati's pathetic, broken body, striking the Servant down for the count.
[CONFLICT_RESOLVED]
[HOSTILE_{Caster}_HAS_BEEN_DEFEATED]
[INITIATING_DELETION_PROCESS]
[_]
[{Illusionism}_MAGECRAFT_RECORDED]
[{Mental_Interference}_MAGECRAFT_RECORDED]
[{Caster}_CLASS_DATA_RECORDED]
[{summon(Caster)}_STANDING_BY]
A/N: Wow, am I late on this! Yeah, sorry about that. I kinda had a horrible semester in college and had little time to work on this fic. But it's done now, so yeah. Though honestly, even though I like the final product (and I know you'll do), there were a lot of parts I wanted to include but that didn't make the cut. For example, for that final fight scene between Ruler and Caster I wanted to create an epic fight scene resembling a cross between the Deacons of the Deep from Dark Souls 3 and Stefano Valentini from The Evil Within 2, but instead, I turned it into what can only be described as 'the ultimate comeuppance for one of history's largest bullies', which is just as satisfying to read, if not moreso, and far easier to write. Now I know there will be a lot of questions, but I'll be sure to answer them in the next chapter. Now that all has been said and done, please review!