Hello everybody and welcome back to the start of chapter 94 of the story! And urgent and very important advise for your future life: Never ever decide to eat ice cream in the middle of the night! No matter how hot it is! Just turn on the AC and try to sleep instead of doing that mistake!
And with that advise given, let's start it!
DISCLAIMER: All of the Nasuverse characters belong to Nasu and are property of Type-Moon, with the exception of the OC's that belong to me, the author
"Knights of the Round Table. After a nice stay at your city for two months, my mind has finally decided on my next course of action."
In the middle of an immaculate room of white marble floor and walls, blue tapestry and clean giant windows that reflected an almost heavenly light, a woman speaked up to four figures in front of her. Judging by her clothing, the woman looked to be a monk from the Far-East, wearing adresses typical of followers of buddhism such as the red mala necklace and the jade colored staff with four golden rings attached to a bigger one at the top of the staff. The woman wore a golden, red and dark purple chinese monk hat on her head with two normal sized white cloths attached to each side. A long golden cape accompained by her short white dress, giving visibility to her equally white bra and long white thigh socks with golden sandals. She also had long dark bown hair, being tied into two circles by the end.
"The honored guest sure is a wise person above all else, knowing that our major duties should not be disrupted for a reunion if not for equally important subjects such as this one." A man, standing on the opposite side of the woman in a circular pristine and polished white table, replied. He had short dark hair, nicely kept and brushed to the back. His entire armour was also of a tone as dark as shadow, having only a blue royal cape as additional prop. Pale eyes to a tiresome face. A combination that could give anyone else the sensation this man rarely or never once laughed in his entire life, having a serious and stern look. Rigorous and demanding of others but also himself. A man who'd prefer doing his duty several hours straight over relaxing a minute. A person of absolute authority. "Do tell us what is thy answer."
"To start, I have to say, this holy city of yours was a true pleasing abode. The people were pacific and law abiding. The knight soldiers gentle and attentive. The buildings crafted with professional expertise and care. And of course, the food meals were also top notch and perfectly cooked. Having come across this city during my journey felt great." the monk woman stated, seemingly satisfied with the overall quality of the place she had decided to rest for some time. "With all that being taken into account, I have chosed to leave the city alongside my pupil."
"Hm?" The serious looking man slightly lifted up his eye brow in reaction. "So you are leaving? Even with all the accolades you have pointed out? That sounds contradictory. Could I know the reason that led the honored guest to go with that intention?" He firmly asked to the monk woman, a small hint of surprise in his voice despite his stoic look.
"Simple. My heart is just telling me that my path doesn't revolve staying here in this utopian city of yours. It might look and be a wonderful place, but that's not what I'm exactly looking forward in my journey." She explained, a smile on her lips. "All in all, I just can't fathom myself to stay permanently in a single place. I'm much more of a traveler, ehehehe. Sorry about that."
"Don't use that 'traveler' bullshit on us!" An angry shout was released as one of the four knight figures stood up from their seat abruptly, the chair falling on the ground. "We gave you and your disciple the best of treatments we had! You even stated to have enjoyed it! So what the hell are we missing here?! What are we or this city lacking for you?! Don't tell me you want us to serve morning coffee at your doorstep, you twat!"
"Enough with the gebbirish, Mordred!" The man knight in black armour told to the younger knight with an imperative voice, demanding control and composure from her. "Lashing out at our honored guest like a rabid hound won't make her change idea."
Getting midly scolded by him, Mordred reatrained her own anger, backing down, much to her own dissatisfaction. "Tsk! Whatever you say..."
"But that's still a dissapointment of sorts." Another knight speaked. He had a stout body structure, the clothes hiding the muscles he clearly had. The looks of an ideal and handsome noble young knight. Short blond hair and blue eyes with a well-built face. A black uniform shirt with golden traces and green cape, also wearing gauntlents and greaves. "Are you seriously fine with not wanting to join forces? We have an empty seat among us currently. You could be the one to fill it." He entreated to the foreigner woman.
"Beseeching won't do it, Gawain." Another knight said to the blonde one, standing next to him on the table. A beautiful long red hair with a serene face and white cape on the outside but red on the inside. This knight's armour was mainly white with some golden and black in the mixture. Yet as calm as he looked, the knight gave an ambiguity of sorrow as well, despite his eyes being closed. He also talked with a melancholic voice. "I know it's sad for our guest preferring to leave after creating such expectations for her to unite with us. There goes a good worthy candidate. Truly dismal."
"I appreciate the understanding, Lord Knight Tristan." The monk woman replied to the red haired knight, before slightly making a respectful bow. "Do not misunderstand me, righteous Knights of the Round Table. I assure that my time spent in this city of yours was-"
"Yet, are we honestly going to let you go without further knowing your plans of what to do next?" Tristan told to the monk woman, suspecting of her. "For all that we are aware of, you and your disciple could be leaving this city for motives that the 'honored guest' does not wish for us to know."
"Right! How can we be sure that you are actually a spy working for our enemy uh?!" Mordred raised her voice, accusing the woman with the same suspicion as Tristan. "You're really hopping for us to just let you two go without questioning a thing? Do you seriously underestimate our intelligence!?" She summoned her sword, preparing already for the possibility of the woman trying anything funny now.
The monk woman in reaction kept her calmness and smile despite being under accusation and threatening. "I didn't knew there was a term that stated once I entered the city, I was automatically forbidden to leave it from that point onwards. If there is, then the blame is on you for not having told me about it sooner." She gave a quippy replied, pretending to be air-headed and genuinely oblivious, resulting in pricking Mordred's anger a bit.
"Deep down we do not want to perceive you as a potential enemy. But we will certainly hesitate in letting you go if the honored guest does not explicitly explains the reasons of her exit beyond vague heart feelings." Gawain tried to be cordial with her, dreading that this conversation could result in a fight in a quick short time. "It might sound bothersome to you, but that is only cautious measures being applied to prevent any possible future attacks to our city. We cannot risk a-"
"Let her go." The knight in black armour and seemingly the one with the highest authority out of all the four knights, ordered, much to the others relative surprise.
"Hm?"
"What?!"
"A-Agravain?"
"I comprehend your worries about her decision. But the king has already granted his permission for the monk to leave freely. And as knights, we mustn't oppose to his will." The black knight, Agravain, explained their liege's order to the other three knights before staring at the monk woman. "As such, you and your disciple may leave, follower of Buddha, Xanzang Suanzang."
"Oh, so I can leave. May your king be blessed then! Tell him he has my gratitude and compassion!" The monk woman, Sanzang, replied, hugely relieved in hearing that she could go. "Well, I'll be on my way. I can't tell if our paths shall cross again or not. My journey is a long one after all. But if they do, then you should consider becoming my traveling companions!"
"Where will you be heading next?" Tristan asked her.
"Wherever the west is! Therefore, the great dry desert located miles away from here!" Sanzang replied, sharing the next stage of her journey.
"Be careful then. I warn you that in the desert, there will be hostile creatures that won't greet you with the same formality as we did." Gawain alerted Sanzang to the dangers the desert had in store for her once she arrived to that place, no longer protected by the city's walls.
She however didn't seemed much bothered by it. "No need to concern about me. Trials and obstacles aren't new things on my journey. As long as I have the right guidance of Shakyamuni, it won't be a problem." Sanzang replied, sending a farewell to the knights before walking away. "May your kingdom continue to live in prosperity, gracious Knights of the Round Table!"
And so, the four knights watched the monk exit the room, the gates guarded by a pair of soldiers. Once she left, Tristan speaked to Agravain.
"Should we send someone to chase her?" He proposed the idea to his fellow knight, still staring at the room's door.
"Yeah. Her personality just gives me the wrong vibes. She has to be up to something." Mordred replied, also being of the opinion Suanzang couldn't be a trusty person after deciding to leave them and the city.
"I still want to believe she doesn't really mean to pose as a real threat to us. Still, I am not sure if it was the wise decision to just let her go without much explanation." Gawain expressed. "I know it's the king's orders but...what if she is the one the stars prophecized about?"
"Do not bother with her." Agravain told not only to Gawain but also to Tristan and Mordred, having accepted the Sanzang's outcome. "That monk is not the one. If the king says so and lets her walk away, it's because he has deemed so and saw it as such. She cannot be the traitor, even if she is a foreigner."
"Hmm, do you still remember about what the prophecy told about, specifically." Tristan replied to Agravain, wanting to be reminded of the details of the star prophecy.
Looking at him for a moment, Agravain simply moved his head away and closed his eyes. "When the foreign star shines, the bond if the white wall crumbles, the king's power wanes, and the divine tower falls." He recited, word by word. "That's what the prophecy told us."
"Pff, they can never make those type of messages simple to understand, do they? It all has to sound like a damn riddle instead of giving us an answer already." Mordred commented, disliking of the way prophecies were written overall.
"And when exactly do you think that star will arrive?" Gawain asked to Agravain.
"Very soon." Agravain said as he looked up to the ceilling, being sure of his words. "Whoever will that person be, they will try to disrupt everything our king has worked so fiercely and adamantly for. As he will have to shoulder the burden of the entire world on him, we as His Majesty loyal knights, shall handle all the other trivial matters and continue to stay vigilant of upcoming foreigners. All in the name of our king and his utopia."
"You spoke with a well established conviction. As expected from the king's right hand." Tristan replied to Agravain, liking his dedication to their ruler.
"Yeah, yeah. Not like he's the only one of us without a Gift or anything." Mordred said to herself.
"Speaking of doing our duties, Lancelot as yet to arrive from his of finding out the imposter. It has been taking quite a while now." Gawain pointed out, referencing the single knight that was missing on the room, currently outside the city. "Even if he still hasn't found that person, Lancelot should be back from the desert by now."
"Meh, the sandworm must have got him or something." Mordred replied nonchalantly.
"Knowing his skills, it's higly improbable. Lancelot is well aware at what hours he and his troops can avoid Olgoi." Tristan replied to her. "As for our king's imposter, it could be anywhere, hiding under or noses or in the furthest corners of this...what is it called again? Singularity?"
"That imposter...it couldn't be the king of the crusaders we fought before in order to take this Holy Land, could it?" Gawain reminded of past events that he and his fellow knights went through earlier in time.
"Certainly not. I, like you and the rest, saw him perish right in front of our eyes after the battle. This imposter must be someone else. A new outsider from beyond this land." Agravain told to Gawain before putting that topic aside. "However, all of you should not worry about it as of now it is only Lancelot's job to find them. And like him, I do not expect such task to be of an easy nature. Meanwhile, you should concentrate in your tasks and only on your tasks alone. You are all dispersed! Go and check the city's residents as well as its defences!"
Giving an order, Agravain put an end to their reunion, commanding the other three knights of the Round Table to leave. They all obeyed, with Gawain and Tristan bowing respectfully while Mordred just rolled her eyes and walked out before being followed soon after by the other two, leaving Agravain alone.
The lone knight then walked to a balcony of the castle right behind him. Stepping out to observe the hot and clear blue sky with no single trace of cloud in it, Agravain gazed down below at the majestic and clean Holy City of Camelot. An architectural beauty of white conservated medieval buildings, protected by the walls that surrounded it, with the palace standing tall above everything else. A saintly place meant for the benign, built and rised on three layers.
But not everything of the view was pleasantry.
Agravain moved his gaze from the buildings and put it onto some far-off destroyed and dry land to the northeast, its ridge drenched in a vast black corroded substance that looked to be advancing at slow steps torwards the Holy City. The black knight could tell that what he was seeing, was a bad omen. "...Because the Blight approaches once again."
"Ufff! What a hassle that was."
Walking torwards the exit gates of the Holy City, Sanzang sighed, thankful that the king of the knights allowed her to go despite of the very own knights suspicions about her. "And I really wasn't in the mood to fight back then..." She murmured right before spotting the person she was looking for standing near a spice store. "Aha! Toutaaaaaa! I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack!" She called for her disciple.
"Hphm?!" Tasting a dish at the store's entrance, a young man with a green hair tied into a long pony tail was surprised by the shout of his name. Wearing a purple bandana on his head and orange kimono, exposing his chest a bit, and purple hakama pants, the man carried a big straw bag with him. "H-Hey! Don't shout it like that out of nowhere! I could've choked!"
"And if you were, I would be here to prevent it of course!" Sanzang replied with a bright dumb smile, much to the young man's slight dismay.
"The blame would still be yours." He replied, putting the dish aside. "How did the reunion with the Knights of the Round Table went anyways?"
Sanzang made him an okay sign with her hand. "All good and great! They gave permission for us to leave!"
"Wait! We're leaving?" The man looked at Sanzang like she had something on her face.
"...Y-Yeah? Didn't I told you about it?" Sanzang replied, thinking her disciple knew about it.
"You just said you were gonna talk with them. Nothing else." He said sadly, bothered by the news. "And just when I was thinking about opening a rice shop in the Holy City. I guarantee we'd make some bank with that idea!"
"Hummmm, so, you're staying? My heart can't handle having to separate from my disciple!" Sanzang exclaimed, tears running down her face comically.
"Easy there! Don't make a scene you fool!" The man implored to the crying Sanzang as onlookers passed by. "Of course I'm going! If I want my future business to have success, I'll have to explore and analyse other areas in order to expand it of course! Or else I wouldn't be called Tawara Touta!" He said happily, picking up his enormous straw bag as he stood up from his seat. "Plus, like I stated, you'll be needing someone to protect you until you reach the journey's end."
Sanzang immedialty wiped out her tears. "Oho! Welcome back my dear disciple! I tought I had lost you for a moment there!"
"I never expressed I would be staying here..." Touta replied, a drop of sweat falling from his head. Putting the straw bag above his shoulder and on the back, he asked to his leader and traveling companion the following: "Where are we heading next?"
Smilling, Sanzang pointed her khakkhara staff to the main gate's exit, sure of her answer. "To the big smoldering desert out there!"
"Is that...a sandworm!?"
Ritsuka said, completely appalled as he and the party watched on their vehicle a giant like worm creature emerging from the sandy soil in the middle of the storm, reaching to such a tall height.
"It doesn't look to be firendly." Da Vinci remarked, watching the enormous sandworm finishing from arising, letting out a whiff from its mouth. And after that, the creature turned its eyeless head around, the body having sensed a vibration a mile away from it, spotting the lonely vehicle in the middle of the sandstorm, having disturbed the sleep.
With no hesitation, the sandworm let out another deep, loud and rasping sound, shaking the area for some instants before quickly contort the body and charge agressively at the vehicle with its gigantic mouth of a thousand sharp teeth.
"Because it isn't friendly!" Peko shouted in alarm.
"Foot deep on the reverse, Da Vinci-san!" Mash exclaimed as Da Vinci did just that, the wheels of the buggy car starting to roll against the sand as the car moved backwards, distanciating from the wild sandworm that was now chasing it.
"Brace yourselves! We really perturbed that worm!" Manuvering the vehicle by rotating the wheel, Da Vinci managed to do a 180º with it and now drive the car away from the sandworm without being in reverse.
As the italian inventor drived their escape through the harsh storm, not being an easy thing to do, the rest of the group were all observing the terrifying sandworm still after them, getting closer within each five seconds.
"No good! This thing can outrun the car!" Nala said, knowing that it would be a question of time until the sandworm was close enough to swallow them with its circular mouth.
"We have to make it slow down or give up from chasing us!" Ritsuka exclaimed.
"I'm doing the best I can here!" Da Vinci replied.
Peko then had an idea. "Hope this helps!" Pointing a finger at the sandworm, the boy fired a charged light bullet straight into the creature's mouth, exploding inside it, resulting in the sandworm coming to a brief halt and the car gaining some distance.
"That's it! You slowed it down, Peko!" Mash commented, seeing her friend's idea had somewhat worked for a moment, gaining them more terrain from the sandworm.
Despite the hit, the sandworm didn't retreated. Instead, it looked like it was now chasing them with way more intensity and focus now.
"And you've made it angrier in return!" Nala added.
"Fou fou!"
"Furious or not, you have to keep shooting!" Ritsuka told to Peko, leaning a hand onto the boy's shoulder. "Fire as much as you need to, Peko! I'll supply you back!"
"Aye!" Peko replied back, preparing to fire another light bullet at the monster.
"You guys can continue doing that! I'll see if doing some more manuevers will be enough to disperse it!" Da Vinci said to them on the driver's seat, taking an hard curve to the left in order to change directions suddenly with the objective to make it more hard to the sandworm to follow them. Yet, despite the constant attacks of Peko's light bullets and Da Vinci's skills at the wheel, the creature kept ruthless on its chase, still maintaining a relatively close distance to the vehicle with its long invertebrated body.
As the options and time were running short, clearly not being able to keep up with this much longer, Peko decided to go with everything. "Alright! Let's see if this makes better work!" He exclaimed, proceeding to power his entire arm with mana running across his veins, lightening it up as he prepared to unleash the blast of light on the sandworm. However, as he was about to do that, the monster decided to do something different and bury its head into the ground. "Uh'"
"What is it doing?" Nala asked, watching the sandworm's entire body go under the sand, dissapearing from sight.
"Did it got bored from chasing us?" Ritsuka tought, things having apparently gone calm.
"Looks like it." Da Vinci said before feeling a sudden shake under the car, trembling the entire vehicle.
The quietude was short lived as the sand beneath and around the buggey begun to go down as if it was being drained.
"W-What's this?!" Peko tried to maintain balance as the car was being dragged down.
"Some sort of quicksand?!" Ritsuka pondered.
"It can't be! Quicksands usually aren't this large!" Da Vinci replied, figuring out they were inside an enormous hole that was lowering the sand.
Mash was quick to realize what truly was it by noticing the diameter of the big circle. "The sandworm is swallowing all this sand with its mouth and trying to suck us inside!"
"This thing really want to make us its lunch! We have to get out of this hole!" Nala exclaimed as Da Vinci tried her best to get the car out of it.
"Already planning on it!" The italian inventor said as she put more speed on the vehicle, its wheels driving against the falling sand. But so far it was looking futile, with the way out of the hole getting further and further.
Ritsuka noticed the sharp teeth of the sandworm's mouth beggining to appear from the sand, the monster ready to close its mouth at any second now. "Da Vinci! Hurry!" He exclaimed in the back.
"I'm trying my best!" Da Vinci shouted back, doing her best to not let out a curse. Seeing that they wouldn't get out of this by maintaining this speed, she made an all-in. "Here goes nothing!" Grabbing the gearbox, she set it to the highest speed possible while also stomping her foot on the pedal, immediatly giving a boost to the vehicle and reach closer to the hole's border, getting out of it as they barely avoided the sandworm who quickly closed its mouth a second after before rising the body from the ground again.
The car still went into some wild zigzags and skids before Da Vinci was able to get the complete control of it and put to a temporariy stop near some rocks, all the others having hold themselves tightly in order to not fall off.
"It won't stop until we're dead, will it?" Mash said as she and the rest saw the sandworm getting up in the distance, ready to continue going after them.
"I fear as much. This sandworm won't let us be until we can leave what I assume to be its territory. And even then, the creature itself and this sandstorm ain't making such thing easy for us." Da Vinci replied, trying to see a clear path ahead in the middle of the strong winds, not having a great view of it while preparing to restart the engine of the vehicle while the sandworm was yet to come.
Hearing that, Nala decided to do something else. "Okay! I've had enough of this!" She landed her fist into one of the seat's headrest, proceeding to walk up torwards the italian inventor. "Da Vinci, Drive me closer to that worm!" She requested, gaining a surprising look from the others.
"What exactly are you thinking about doing against that thing?" Peko asked, wondering what his sister had in plan to fight against the sandworm.
"My armour of course! Have you already forgot it?" Nala replied back, reminding him. "If things are looking difficult, might as well up our game! Besides, the attacks of my ascension state will surely be more effective than normal ones!" She told to the group with a confident smile, ready to test out her new set of skills alongside her knightly armour.
"Hmm, that actually may work." Ritsuka gave his opinion, acknowledging Nala's good point.
"In this situation, we have to give it a shot!" Mash agreed, seeing not many other options available.
"Well, guess we'll have to go with that." Da Vinci said as she saw Ritsuka and Mash approving of Nala's idea. "That sandworm must sense the car's movement through the vibrations it causes on the ground, using it to track us. Therefore, what it's after isn't exactly us but the vehicle instead." Coming to that conclusion, she looked back at Ritsuka, Mash and Peko. "You three, get out of the car and take refuge from the sandstorm on the rocks right there! Me and Nala will head straight to the sandworm!"
"What?! Then how will we spot each other in the middle of this storm when you return?" Peko asked before receiving the answer in the form of a flare gun Da Vinci showed him as well as to Ritsuka and Mash.
"When we come back, I'll use this flare gun to signal our position. When you see it, Peko, fire one of your light bullets into the sky to also give me and Nala your position. That way it won't be hard so to reunite." Da Vinci explained.
"Quick! That creature is moving up again!" Nala exclaimed, seeing the sandworm preparing to charge at them again.
"Okay! We're counting on you!" Ritsuka said to both Nala and Da Vinci before exiting the vehicle alongside Mash and Peko.
"Show it what you got sis!" Peko told to Nala as he stepped out off the car, wishing her good luck.
"Copy that!" Nala smiled as Da Vinci accelerated the vehicle which called the sandworm's attention, completely ignoring Ritsuka, Mash and Peko heading and sheltering near the solitary rocks in the desert, confirming to go only after the car.
"Got everything in check?" Da Vinci asked to Nala as the girl stepped into the passenger's seat next to the driver's one.
"Yeah! Tell me when to go!" Nala replied as she leaned half of her body out of the vehicle, hanging on it while summoning her sword on the other hand and watching the sandworm getting closer.
Through the rearview mirror, Da Vinci watched the sandworm shorten the distance between them gradualy. Waiting for the right moment, she gave the order to Nala. "Now!"
Instantly jumping out of the vehicle in movement, in that split slow second, a powerful light shinned inside her body to illuminate the entire area as Nala ascended, calling out her armour and powering up her body overall, gaining back the appearence of a divine royal princess.
"Guardian Armor of The Rosen Garden: Kristallblume!"
Blitzing through in a blink of an eye, the girl made a powerful slash on the side of the sandworm's body, startling it as it left a giant cut on the skin as well as dissipate some of the violent winds around. "Alright worm! It's showtime!" Nala hopped in midair before going back to the sandworm, delivering it a second and even third slash, all in the space of one second. She was so fast in this form that the monster couldn't even figure out where the attacks were coming from.
"Eh! Looks like someone's having fun." Da Vinci looked to the fight in the distance as she was driving the vehicle away from the combat.
As Nala was seemingly taking care of the problem while putting some show-off into it, air stepping and hopping around the enemy while easily and incredibly avoiding the creature's attacks with its mouth or sand projectiles that she would easily repel it before slashing the monster again. Fighting with the armor and the power that her entire body and nerves felt when using it, made Nala feel great and that she had now reached to a whole new world when it came to fighting, gaining a new perception of it. No longer restrained to her basic moves or form. This was indeed the next step for her and she was glad to finally be able to use it again after the brief use on the fight against Cú Alter and the tests she went under in Chaldea.
However, the gigantic sandworm wouldn't simply let the girl continuing to have her fun. Being at its limit, the sandworm let out a ferocious roar at Nala, the agressive quivers surprising an unexpected Nala, sending her some far meters away.
"W-Wha-gnghg!" Taking the impact, the girl made some forced landing on the sand, her body having went through a dune during it. A great distance was created between the two as Nala looked up and forward to the sandworm, seeing it go under some changes.
Also deciding to take the matter more seriously, the skin of the sandworm transmuted from a dirty brown to a blodish vibrant red, five long looking fangs growing out from the border of its mouth, taking a more scary appearence.
"It has changed?!" Da Vinci had stopped driving the vehicle, now that the sandworm's attention was clearly on Nala and not the buggey car.
"Hm! So you've decided to also stop playing around." Nala stared at the mutated sandworm in the distance, setting her legs up for a full sprint at the monster. "Good. Otherwise, it would be way too easy!" With a slight shine of her light blue eyes, she charged at a supersonic speed torwards the sandworm who fired a purple looking smoke cloud torwards her.
Initially deciding to just blast through it, Nala quickly changed her mind as she noticed something from the purple cloud the sandworm had released. "Is this..." As she was avoiding it, Nala still saw a bit of the gaseous substance scrap a small part of her armour, melting into it. "Poison?!" With that accquired, Nala immediatly hopped torwards the ground, avoiding the poison cloud as she begun fastly running on the soil, aiming her eyes at the sandworm. "Almost had me! Take this instead!" Jumping at the sandworm, Nala slashed its now red skin. Unfortunately this time, it didn't looked to have made as much damage as previously. "H-How?!"
Not giving her much time to think, the sandworm liberated the poisonous gas from its skin, urging Nala to back away while also blocking and dodging from its stretchy fangs.
Parrying an attack, Nala tried again to slash the sandworm's skin, proving once more to be barely effective. "It's as if its skin had become more resilient!" Nala pointed out to herself while having to distanciate even more from the sandworm now, its poisonous smoke slowly contaminating the air. Having to find a solution to beat this creature before becoming impossible to approach it, Nala opted to give her all. "Okay! You've asked for it!" Glowing up the blade of her sword, Nala stared at the sandworm who was also ready to charge at her with one of its fangs, covering it in posion.
"Time for a purge."
As if a command had been activated, Nala's mana runned fervently across her veins, the magic crest of the crown tattoo on her back shining. About to deliver her most powerful attack, Nala blitzed at the sandworm in a snap of fingers, with her enemy doing the same. And once her sword and the sandworm's fang collided into one another, the shockwave spread through the entire desert area.
Seeing and hearing the clash from afar, Da Vinci embraced herself as the shockwave was about to reach her.
"Desk job really pales in comparison to thi-"
Shielding themselves from the storm, Ritsuka, Mash and Peko all heard the strong noise in the distance.
"Did you guys heard that?" Ritsuka asked to the other two.
"I did, master." Mash replied. "It was quite loud and metallic."
"I wonder how Nala and Da Vinci are faring up against that worm." Peko said before noticing a sudden change of direction on the wind of the storm as he heard an approaching noise. "Hm? Is the sand being-"
The entire sandstorm and poison smoke was vanished away the moment the impact happened, pushing away the sandy curtain over the desert and revealing the complete blue sky above it, kilometers of distance becoming visible now.
Nala looked at the sandworm, having took down one of its giant fangs from the body, falling to the ground. Now the sandworm was with a gushing wound on the place of its missing fang, having been unable to defeat Nala but so was she unable to defeat the creature despite the huge blow she deliver. However, it seemed the sight of its cutten off fang made the sandworm think twice. Letting out a frustrated deep growl, the creature moved its body, plunging the head into the sand before dissapearing totally from view, having went away.
Nala managed to repelled it off. "Eh! That's...That's what I...thought." Feeling the energy having been partially drained from her body after using such attack and mana quantity, Nala went back to the ground, panting a bit while taking some rest.
Shortly after, her ears heard the noise of an engine as she watched Da Vinci arriving to her position with the vehicle in order to pick her up.
"What do you guys think that worm was?" Ritsuka asked to the others, the party reunited and taking a pause on top of a dune.
"Hmm, most likely a Phantasmal." Da Vinci replied, giving a guess to what the sandworm they just encountered was.
"Phantasmal? What's that?" Peko asked to her.
"Magical creatures of mythological nature. Technically, animals species that you'd only find in fantasy legends or fictional works, way far from the average animals a person knows." Mash explained to Peko, having a good knowledge on the topic.
"Soooo, pegasus and unicorns?" Ritsuka replied, thinking of them as perfect exemples of that.
"Pegasus, unicorns, dwarves, giants, dragons, even other monsters we have faced before." Mash listed. "Since their origins are fantastical and therefore, magical, such creatures go under the classification of being Phantasmal species."
"And all of them are divided into three ranks: Magical, Phantasmal or Divine Beasts. Trying to guess just by the looks and fictional background, perhaps that sandworm falls under the Phantasmal Beast category..." Da Vinci murmured, rubbing her head for a bit. "Tsk! If we could establish contact with Romani, he would have the proper readings of the creature's signal!" She said a little confounded before staring at Nala. "But anyways, it's true that creature used poison against you?"
Nala, who was sitting next to the car while drinking a bottle of water, having come back to her normal state, replied to Da Vinci. "Yep. Not only that but how the thing's skin become more resistent to being cut after turning red." She shared that aspect to the others as Fou was sitting on her lap.
"A sandworm who releases deadly poison. I think I've heard of such thing before somewhere..." Da Vinci put her mind to work after she heard the additional detail from Nala.
"This Singularity's start definetly wasn't with the right foot." Peko said, seeing the problem they had to dealt with shortly after their arrival.
"Well, we've had it worse begginings before." Ritsuka shuddered a bit, remembering of the cannonball he took at the start of the previous Singularity.
"At least we're all still here in one piece!" Mash said, being positivist. "I believe that the worst has gone through for now. But I don't know if we could've escaped the sandworm if you didn't fought it, Nala. You've done well!" Mash said to her, smilling.
Nala however didn't shared the same happiness. "I just did what was best for our survival..." She replied, not even looking directly at Mash. For a moment, all the rush and adrenaline from her battle with the sandworm made Nala forget about Mash's fate, her mood having been brought down by that painful reminder.
"..." Mash again remained silent to the willful ignorance of her friend, questioning inside her own mind what did she do for receiving such distant responses from Nala lately.
Even Ritsuka and Peko stood silent upon seeing Nala barely giving an interaction with Mash, having the context to understand what Nala was feeling as well for Mash's. And before an awful silence could arise between them, Da Vinci quickly changed topics.
"I'm going to begin scanning a map of this desert, since the communications are still off! I'll see if there is any human settlement nearby to our location." Da Vinci told them.
"Nice thinking, Da Vinci! I'm sure we will find someone or something in the middle of this desert!" Ritsuka replied, turning around to see the large view of the arid terrain ahead of them. "I'm having that feeling y'know?"
"I'm also feeling it too!" Peko replied, staying next to Ritsuka as he also stared at the view. "That our luck has changed from now on!" Looking to the desert for a bit, Peko moved his gaze more down and to the left, spotting what appeared to be another group of rocks, not so far in the distance from them. And as he was about to take his eyes off the rocks, Peko thought he had seen a human looking figure moving in the middle of those rocks. "Ah?!"
"What was it Peko?" Ritsuka asked to his friend.
"I think I saw someone moving near those rocks over there!" Peko told to the party, pointing at that exact location, causing a sudden surprise on them.
"Fou?!"
"What? Another person? Here in the desert?" Da Vinci said, mildly perplexed.
"Wow. That was fast." Ritsuka commented.
"If its really someone we could take the chance to ask it for directions." Nala thought.
"Or perhaps a person in need of help?" Mash pondered.
Da Vinci immediatly entered the car, inviting the others to join in. "There's only one way to find that out!"
"The worm looks to have gone quiet, boss! We can get out!"
Standing in the middle of what seemed to be ancient ruins, long deteriorated by the passage of time and the desert itself, a figure with skull mask and dark skin speaked torwards someone else, in the direction of a small improvised shelter.
Two other figures with skull masks came out of it, bringing a bag alongside.
"Humm, how weird. Olgoi doesn't generally gets out to eat at this hour." The skull mask with a long purple hair tied into a pony tail and female voice said. She looked like to be the leader of the trio.
"We were even careful to not make much noise while on its territory. It had to be someone else." The third figure with the skull mask said, looking to the sky. "It's also strange how the sandstorm ended all of a sudden."
"Don't give it much thought. We have more important things to worry about." The skull mask woman told to the other two skull masks, putting a foot on the human sized bag. "Transport this person to our village so that we can extort an alliance out of the Sun Kin-"
"Oh, this aren't actual rocks looking closer!"
"?!"
All the three skull masks figures freezed as they heard a group of people approaching.
"It seems to be more like an abandoned decaying temple. How interesting."
"I wonder if there's some type of treasure chest in here."
"It was here where I spotted someone moving, Peko?"
"Yeah. I don't want to think it was my mind playing pranks but-..."
Walking around the corner, Peko and the party went silent as they bumped into the three figures. The boy wasn't expecting the person he had briefly seen in the distance to be accompained by other two, nor having a slight menacing look with those skull masks and skin as dark as coal, having quite some muscles too.
"...H-Hi?" Peko greeted the small group, wondering what they where doing here on the desert. "Are you lost or something?"
"Not really. We were just waiting for the storm to pass as well as avoid the sandworm." The skull mask woman explained. "Have you guys runned into it?"
"Yeah. It tried to eat us." Ritsuka replied.
"You must have been lucky for having escaped it then." Another one of the skull masks responded.
"Well, we had to fight tooth and nail for it tho." Nala said. "Anyways, what exactly are you doing here?"
"And what's that bag you have over there?" Da Vinci pointed at the sack belonging to the trio. "It looks quite big."
"We're...merchants." The skull mask women replied, having took some time to reply. "And this bag has a lot of goods that we plan to trade once we reach to the nearest market."
"Oh, I see." Da Vinci replied, not having trusted very much on what the skull mask woman told her. "If so, can you guide us to that market place you where going? We have a nice transport that can get us to your destination in a jiffy even if it gets a bit too overcrowded."
"Unlike you, we are kinda lost in here." Peko told the party's situation to the trio of skull masks. "So we would be grateful for your help as we in return give you a ride."
"Hmm, that sounds good. It would spare us of some more hours of long traveling." One of the skull masks said. "What do you think about it, boss?"
"Yeah. We accept your hitchhiking as well as lead you to the nearest city from here. Just make sure to handle this bag with care. Its a bit...fragile." The skull masked woman took the party's offer, lifting up the big bag wit her hands. However, she was a bit reluctant about them. "But I've never seen travelers wearing the type of clothes they're wearing. Plus appearing out of nowhere and having survived the worm. I don't know. We should be cautious about these people." She gave a good look at the group.
"Then may I help you carry that into the vehicle?" Mash walked torwards the skull mask trio, offering help. How unaware she was of the reaction the three of them would have upon seeing her.
"Hm?! What the hell is this?!" The skull mask woman took a step behind, denying Mash's aid in an instant.
"Eh?" Mash was confused in return.
"You're with one of those knights from the Holy City!" The skull masked woman exclaimed.
"Crap! They're working for them then!" The other skull mask said, taking out some daggers, the tension between the groups having surged.
"Working for who? The knights of the Holy City?" Mash said, not understanding who they were talking about.
"You are getting it wrong! We're not working for anybody here!" Ritsuka tried to clarify.
"Is that it? Then why is this girl wearing a knigt's armour? Some type of fantasy?" The other skull mask person said, also taking out his weapons. "You think we are dumb enough to believe that?!"
"Whatever you are accusing us of, it's just a mere coincidence! We really have no idea who these knights you are mention about are!" Da Vinci insisted that they were only mere travelers, which was partially true.
"Good try! But we aren't falling for it!" The skull mask woman refused to believe in the chaldeans. "Why else would someone be parading around with a set of armour equally to the ones those bastard knights wear?"
"Mhmm hmm..."
"Eh? What was that sound?" Nala questioned, seeming to have heard a weak noise from somewhere.
"Mhhmmm! Hphmmphm!"
"It's that sound again!" Nala said, now with everyone having heard it.
"It's coming from that bag!" Ritsuka stared at the source the muffled sound, seeing the bag moving as well.
"What exactly do you have in there? I doubt it is valuable items or anything of the sort!" Da Vinci said to the trio of skull masks, raising suspicions about their bag's content.
"As if we are gonna tell you!" The skull mask woman replied, trying to get an hold at the restless bag in her arms.
"Hphmmmphm! Mhmphm!"
It looked like someone was crying for help.
"We weren't asking you gently either! Show it!" Nala exclaimed as she went torwards the skull mask woman and grabbed the bag, struggling to get it ouf of the woman's hands.
"H-Hey! Back off!" The skull mask woman shouted, struggling against Nala for the bag. As the two fought over its posession, one of the other two skull mask men swiftly went behind Nala and raised his arm, ready to strike the back of her neck with his dagger.
"Nala! Watch out!" Ritsuka yelled to the girl.
"!" Sensing the presence behind her, Nala quickly evaded the attack, lowering the body, resulting in the skull mask to cut open the bag instead, a bounded person coming out of it and hit the back of her head into the ground, going unconscious.
"Damn it!" The skull masked woman cursed, the Chaldea team having now seen what was actually inside the bag. A woman with both her wrists and ankles tied up and gagged as well, her eyes swirling from the dizziness.
"Looks like you aren't merchants either!" Peko gave them a look of aversion before summoning his sword.
"Much less so good people!" Da Vinci added, preparing to fight the skull mask trio alongside the group.
"Tsk! Can this day get any worse?" The skull masked woman slightly complained before taking out her small and sharp knives as well. "Guess we'll have to kill you and stole your vehicle afterwards! And maybe one of you alive for intel."
"You wish!" Ritsuka replied to them defiantly before having Da Vinci telling him and the rest of the group something.
"Let's not kill them. Instead, try and knock them out so that we can make questions later about this Singularity." She requested the others to fight the three enemies in a non-lethal way.
"Roger it, Da Vinci-san!" Mash prepared her shield. "Initiating combat systems! Ready, master?"
Ritsuka nodded. "Forward!" He shouted, having given the command for the group to engage in the fight against the skull mask trio.
Having to fight in a way to prevent killing their opponents, they were doing their best to not deal such fatal damages but to incapacitate them as well. Nala went for the leader while Peko, Mash, Da Vinci and also Ritsuka fought the other two.
"You'll regret picking up a fight with us!" The skull mask woman threw some fast daggers at Nala, being easily deflected by the girl who advanced.
"I can say the same about you and your gang!" Nala swinged her sword at the enemy, almost hitting her. Being told to hold back, she wasn't using her armour nor she had the mana fully restored at the moment. The girl could tell the leader was quite agile and acrobatic, dodging the attacks while stepping quickly to attack her in return. Everytime she would attack Nala, another skull mask person would step out from her shadow and attack the girl before vanishing, as if the leader was housing more skull mask members inside her body, forcing Nala to not only be cautious of her but also the second attacker the skull mask woman would call out.
Meanwhile, Peko and Mash were working together to bring down the other skull mass member.
"Yah!" Mash charged torwards the other skull mask person, looking to hit him with her shield. Her enemy dodged however, jumping above her and sending two throwing knives at her back before landing.
Thankfully, Peko blocked both of the attacks from hitting Mash, firing a light bullet from his finger at the adversary. The enemy leaned his body sideways, thinking to have avoided the bullet before Peko sent it back with a gesture of his finger, hitting the skull mask member on the back. Having been surprised, the enemy lowered his guard for a moment, giving the space Mash needed to advance and bash him with the shield and kick him in the stomach, sending the enemy to the ground by some meters.
And as for Ritsuka and Da Vinci, they were also doing decently well, with the master of humanity giving support to the italian inventor. Applying a robotic gauntlent for combat on her arm, Da Vinci released an icy wind from the palm torwards the skull mask enemy, freezing the floor near him, with the enemy dodging it by taking several hops back before managing to avoid the breeze and ice, charging torwards Da Vinci with a small blade in hand.
"Careful Da Vinci! He's advancing!" Ritsuka warned her.
She didn't looked too worried however. "Perfetto! Just in the right position for my..." Closing her mechanical arm into a fist, she activated some mini rocket motors that were built inside it, launching the fist straight into the skull mask man. "Leonardo Punch!" She exclaimed as the robotic fist was sent flying, hitting the enemy.
Ritsuka got impressed by it. "Amazing, Da Vinci! Since when you could do that?"
Da Vinci giggled in return. "One of my creations! Crafted and specialized to fight! Pretty cool, don't you think, Fujimaru?"
"You really don't play around in your office, do you?" Ritsuka replied, seeing that Da Vinci, much like Tesla, was a genius worthy of the title.
With the battle dragging on for another minute or so, the chaldeans were gaining more and more the upper hand against the trio of skull masks. Nala was even giving some hard time to the leader to dodge her attacks. The girl had spontaneously increased the speed of her blade's movement, getting closer to anticipate on how the skull masked woman would try to dodge them. And after getting used and adapting to her enemy's speed, Nala managed to deliver a small but significant slash on the enemy's face, cutting her skull mask in half. "Take it!"
"Ghng!?" The leader frowned as the splited mask fell from her face, revealing the woman's purple eyes and lips. A very pretty face but also sharp and deadly of an assassin.
"Boss! Your face..!" One of the other two members exclaimed, seeing a bit of blood running down from his leader's face.
"You know, you should feel honored." The woman told to Nala, seeing the blood on her own fingertips. "It isn't everyone who's able to see one face from the assassin Hassan of the Hundred Personas and live to tell the tale!"
"Hassan...of the Hundred Personas?" Da Vinci scratched her head, thinking to have heard the name 'Hassan' before. "Ah! You mean the legendary assassin, Hassan-i-Sabbah?! The Old Man of the Mountain!? You're him?"
"One of them." The leader replied. "That is but a title, and we Hassans are many, many more than what you can imagine. I alone, am a Hundred." She said in a cold and deadly voice.
Nala lowered her weapon and took a look around. "A hundred? I'm only seeing three of you."
"Yeah. Pretty dissapointing if you ask me. If you said a hundred, where exactly are the other ninety-seven of you?" Ritsuka also told to Hundred Personas. "That sounds like misinformation to me!" He accused her.
"W-What the hell are you talking about?! Misinformation?! I can really summon all of my other personas!" She yelled comicaly, not liking having her enemies doubting of her credability. "I just don't see the need in using all of our power against you!"
"Then you're lying!" Ritsuka replied.
"Egh?!"
"Liar! Liar!" Nala joined Ritsuka in the accusations, slowly pissing off Hundred Personas.
"ALRIGHT THEN! You asked for it!" Hundred Personan shouted, having decided to summon her other personas. But first, she had to warn the other two members that were with her. "As for my already two present personas here, watch over our abductee and make sure she-" Looking to the side, she saw that the figure of the bounded woman was gone. "SHE DISSAPEARED ALREADY?!" She yelled comically, in total bewilderment.
"Here! We got her!" Mash exclaimed as she and Peko had finished carrying the unconscious tied woman over to their side.
"Great distraction you two gave her!" Peko told to both Ritsuka and Nala.
Hundred Personas was in total shock by it. "...What?"
"Sorry boss. We tried to stop them."
"But we weren't able to."
Her two other members said, apologizing.
"And now that we technically achieved victory by taking away your kidnapped victim, how about you start telling us what is this whole business about the knights of the Holy City?" Da Vinci demaned to Hundred Personas, she and the group wanting to know what was the deal with it and overall scenario of this Singularity.
"We are not gonna tell you a thing!" Hundred Personas replied. Cooling her head a bit, she realized that they couldn't waste time here fighting the chaldeans as it could be a matter of time before the sandworm was disturbed again and emerge from the sands. "We still got the other bags with food, don't we?"
"Yes boss. They're still here." One of her two personas said.
"Then that's better than going back empty handed. We're leaving." She said before giving another look to the Chaldea team. "Plus, the risk of having trouble with Ozymandias would be on them now." As the other two skull mask persons grabbed some bags with food and begun to walk away, Hundred Personas gave a bitter farewell to the chaldeans. "Next time we meet, I won't have forgotten nor forgive any of you! I'll make sure you pay instead! Remember, you have got in the way of the Hashashin!"
And with that said, Hundred Personas took a quick step back and dissapeared into the shadows alongside the other two, having left the Chaldeans with the bounded woman.
"'Hashashin' eh? Their presence here wasn't a thing I was expecting from this Singularity." Da Vinci remarked about the last words Hundred Personas said before dissapearing.
"The infamous Order of Assassins, the Hassans, are somehow envolved." Mash stood by Da Vinci's side. "But how so? Could some of them have taken part in some Crusades?" She wondered.
"Think about that for later." Ritsuka said to the two from behind. "Let's check first on the person they kidnapped."
Surrounding the unconscious woman, the chaldeans saw Da Vinci go and remove the restraints around the woman's ankles and wrists as well as the gag, freeing her. And right on time as she was recovering her senses.
"She's waking up!" Peko said, he and the rest giving some space for the awaken woman to get up from the ground, still feeling a bit dizzy.
"Uhmm...my head..." She had a tanned brown skin and a long pear shaped purple hair, being tied up with a red ring at the end, as well as two purple bangs on each side of her face, all that fitting her purple eyes. The woman had two painted red marks on her face cheeks. She was wearing what seemed to be some type of egyptian necklace and earrings. She also had a piece of white cloth to cover her boobs and other small golden chains around her belly and tights, securing a long thin blue thin veil, covering her nether region alongside two pink silk veils. The most striking aspect of the young woman besides the Heka sceptre or the revealing clothes, was the two jackal ears on top of her head, giving the young woman an even more egyptian appearence.
"How are you feeling? Everything okay?" Nala asked to the young woman as she was still recovering her senses.
"Y-Yeah, I suppose..." The young woman replied. "How could I have let those scoundrels-AH! BACK OFF!" She yelled all of a sudden, swinging her staff torwards the party.
"H-Hey! Easy there!" Ritsuka replied, not having predicted that type of reaction out of the young egyptian looking woman.
"You're the ones who kidnapped me, weren't you?!" The young woman accused them all of a sudden.
"Uh?! Us?! Y-You're mistaken! We're the ones who rescued you from the true kidnappers!" Peko tried to explain.
"It's true! You saw who your kidnappers were, didn't you?" Mash asked to the young woman.
"I haven't! But since I woke up surrounded by you lot, it must mean you are my kidnappers!" The young woman stubbornly insisted, not wanting to give them ears.
"What kind of bad judgement is that?! How can you proof we are the ones who abducted you?" Nala questioned the young woman's thinking.
"Easy! You're with one of them!" The young woman pointed her staff at Mash. "Only a knight from the Holy City would dress like that!"
"Good assumption! The thing is, no one has yet explained us who those guys are!" Da Vinci exclaimed, already tired that everybody they've met so far hasn't still explained to them who these knights of the Holy City were and why Mash was being mistaken as one of them.
"I'm sorry to inform you but despite the appearence, I have no idea what you are talking about!" Mash told to the young woman, trying to prove her innocence.
"Maybe I should have made one outfit for Mash as well if I knew it would avoid such dumb conflicts." Peko said inside his own head.
"We aren't here to do any harm! You can trust us!" Ritsuka told her, trying to change her opinion about them.
"Oh? You want me to really think you weren't my kidnappers? To gain the trust of the great ancient queen of Egypt, Pharaoh Nictoris? Is atonement and confidence what you want?" The young woman, having introduced herself as Nictoris, rised her voice, still sure of her own reasoning "Fine then! I'll give you a chance to redeem yourselves! Pass this trail if you wish so!" Hitting with the staff on the ground, the egyptian pharaoh summoned a large mythological flying sphinx, landing right in front of the chaldeans.
"You have to be kidding! Another misunderstanding leading us to a fight!?" Nala protested, seeing the large creature Nictoris invoked. "And my mana is still not fully restored in order for me to use the armor! Just wonderful!"
"We can't catch a break, can we?" Da Vinci said, the Chaldea team having fought the sandworm, the trio of the Hashashin and now a sphinx. All within the same hour.
"Guess not!" Ritsuka replied, looking at the monster they had to defeat in order to gain Nictoris trust.
But as they were all preparing to confront the large sphinx who was also about to attack them, a sudden golden slash came out of nowhere, slashing down the huge sphinx, much to everyone's surprise.
Nictoris widened her eyes in bewilderment. "What?!"
Same for the chaldeans.
"Where did that came from?" Mash asked, amazed at the single blow that was enough to defeat the creature.
"You got it all wrong, queen sorceress."
Hearing some footsteps from the side, Peko moved his head as he saw someone else approaching them. "There!"
All eyes stared at the new figure that arrived to the local. A man in a silver knight armor, his right arm being of complete steel. A soft white cape on his back and a light green vest under his armour, the lower part of it covering his legs. A short silver white hair nicely tied into a bun, with green eyes on his face. The looks of a gentle and tender knight, no harmful intentions in his soul.
"These people do not wish you any ill."
To be continued...
And that was it for chapter 94 of the story!
Basically all of the participating knights of the Round Table in Camelot have been introduced (apart from Lancelot. But you know what they say: always save the best one for last) As well as Sanzang, Touta, Hundred Personas and Nictoris. All of that into just one chapter! Now this one is where the Singularity finally, properly, starts.
About the sandworm? A concept that had been on my mind for quite a long time. Like, Camelot is cool. But y'know what would make it cooler? A giant poisonous deadly sandworm in the middle of the desert! Now that's a thing I would've liked to have happened in the game. It kinda gives more emphasis on how hard and dangerous this Singularity will be compared to the last ones. (And we didn't even reached to the Gawain portion yet!)
But anyways, that's all I wanted to say, and see you next time on chapter 95! Peace!
P.S:
Nala (Walking around smuggly in the halls of Chaldea while wearing a hood, bumping into Kama): Sup' BaKama.
Kama: Hm? What's that annoying look on your face for, airhead? Finally got to force someone into complimenting your flat chest?
Nala: Hphm! Even better...(Removing her hood, Nala reveals her new super glorious hair) Ahoge transplant.
Kama: (Going blind from the sheer radiance of the ahoge.) N-NO! THAT CAN'T BE!