Hello everyone and welcome back to the start of chapter 57! You might be finding weird how this chapter is shorter than the others.
I originally planned for this chapter to be a tad longer but ended up having a flood inside my house this week, damaging the floor and some pieces of furniture. Had to spent majority of the days cleaning the mess up and try to fix the situation. Adding that with this also being a week where I went back to collage and I was having barely no time to write or with small motivation for it. So that's why this chapter is surprisingly shorter than what you've been used to as well as a bit rushed.
But anyways, I'll always try to give you my best and with that out of the way, let's start it!
DISCLAIMER: All 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
"Don't just stand there like some fools and get inside quickly!" The boy, and also Jekyll's informant, told the group with his deep voice, waiting them at the door of the bookshop.
Everyone complied and wasted no time in rushing to the entrance. Once everyone was inside the store, the boy quickly closed and locked the door, taking a peek on the outside from the window to the left. "Thankfully for my already downright terrible situation, your nitwit screams didn't attracted any monsters."
"We're all here?" Romani asked, counting each member of the group with Jekyll.
"Yes. Everybody's inside." Jekyll said.
"But our group didn't reached here intact..." Ritsuka responded sadly, still thinking about Faust. And he wasn't the only one.
"That dumbass." Mordred cursed with some frustration. But the knight was also feeling hurt inside for the apparent sudden lose of an ally. "He should have run for it dammnit."
"However he didn't. He shoved Ritsuka away from something and stood still afterwards." Nala replied before looking to Ritsuka. "He much probably saved you from something."
"Then that black line was nothing more than a trap to catch us." Mash responded, realizing what the purpose of that line was.
"And it could have got Ritsuka if it wasn't for Faust." Peko added. "He must have saw something that none of us did."
"Still, I wished I could have saved him too." Ritsuka told the group, having the sensation that they could have avoided the alchemist's vanishment. "Faust shouldn't have sacrificed his life for mine."
"We all did." Mash told him, not wanting Ritsuka to feel guilty in loneliness.
Nala let out a small sigh as they all stood silent. "Faust..."
"Hum, sorry if I'm in the middle of your grieving and mourning, but we have more important matters to attend." The boy said, totally interrupting the sorrowful mood of the group.
"Can't you read the room jackass?" Mordred turned around to insult him.
"If there's a thing I know to do is reading. A thing that I suspect to be impossible for an illiterate like you." The boy responded back with class and keeping his demeanor.
"What the hell did you just said?!" Mordred shouted at him.
"Hey now. Don't need to be rude please." Peko told the boy while Mordred tried to contain herself. "We're here to help you after all."
"Well, of course you are. What else would you come here for? Steal books that a kid like you certainly wouldn't bother to read unless it had images?" The boy replied, being unnecessarily mean to Peko.
"Look who's talking." Peko said to himself, seeing that the boy called him a kid despite looking as young as him and only some few centimeters shorter than Peko.
"Why don't you decide to shut up instead?" Nala confronted the boy, putting herself in front of Peko.
"Or else what?" The boy asked, completely unfazed.
Nala rised her fist. "A punch in the face. Right into those stupid glasses of yours." She threatened.
"Then go ahead and do it. I gain a new pair of glasses and you several cuts in your hand." The boy kept responding back in the same unrelentless manner. "And I thought girls were supposed to be educated and smart and not some total morons like you."
"She's my sister idiot!" Peko said, not liking the way the boy was now treating Nala.
"Oh really?" The boy looked to the two siblings. "Honestly, it doesn't baffles me. You look as moronic as her." His tongue was quite sharp.
"Look, if we arrived a bit late to help you, we're sorry." Ritsuka approached the kid. "But can you please stop with that and gives us your explanation of the problem here already?"
The boy gazed at him with a clueless look. "And you're supposed to be?"
"I am this team's leader." Ritsuka responded.
"I see." The boy adjusted his glasses. "If it wasn't for this precarious situation, I'd probably die of laughter right now."
"Please, just tell us what's going on inside this bookshop." Mash requested, still maintaining a nice behaviour to her best efforts.
"She's right. We can't waste anymore time in here like it was nothing while lives are in danger." Jekyll agreed with Mash.
"Alright. I'll share the information with you but only because a writer like myself knows how valuable time truly is." The boy responded, ceasing with the insults for an instance.
"Thank goodness. I was this close to strangle him." Nala whispered to Mordred.
"Same here." The knight whispered back.
"To make a brief resume." The boy cleared his throat. "You must already know about the magical book that has been attacking people at this point. If you wonder, where it may be now I am more than pleased to tell you that tome is currently within this very one building."
"Really?" Peko said surprised.
"Indeed. And on the room next door no less." The boy said, pointing to the door that would lead them to the library.
Ritsuka suddenly caught glimpses of an hand behind the receptionist's desk and approaching his head to it, saw the boy of an uncounscious old lady on the ground. "I-Is she alright?" Ritsuka asked, about to check the poor lying elderly woman.
"What happened to her?" Nala asked to the boy.
"She fainted shortly after seeing that tome flying around. Must have confounded it for a ghost. And you know, at such advanced age, even the smallest of scares can be harmful to the heart's condition." The boy replied, explaining the why for the old lady's current state.
Mash goth slightly concerned when hearing that. "Then you're telling us she..."
"No. She's alive." The boy responded. "And she better be or else I'll look like a fool for doing all that effort in dragging her ancient body to safety."
"What matters is that she's not in critical condition." Romani said. "She'll recover her consciousness in an hour or two."
"By that time we will already have cut that book to a million pieces of paper then." Mordred responded, moving her sword.
"To say is much easier than to do. This tome is unpredictable." The boy warned them.
"And do you have any plan in mind so that we can defeat it?" Mash asked him.
"I do." The boy walked torwards the door of the room where the hostile book was. "Follow my instructions."
Following him, the group entered the library, replete of entire bookshelves. The ground was messy with some few books that had been dropped from the shelves.
"There surely isn't shortage of books here. How will we know who's the magical one?" Nala questioned as they stepped into the room.
"Easy. Normal books don't fly. This in specific does. But the cursed thing went into hidding here. We'll have to attract it out of its hideout." The boy replied back, informing them that the tome was concealed within the library.
"How we're going to do that?" Ritsuka asked him before seeing a book flying in front of him and being thrown torwards his head. "Woah!" He shouted, moving his head out of the book's trajectory. And that wasn't the only book floating as more begun to levitate from the ground and shelves.
"The books are surrounding us!" Peko exclaimed. "Are their all magical tomes too?"
"No. I don't detect a magical presence of their own." Romani replied.
"Then they are being controlled by the true magical one." Mash realized. "It's probably among the other books that its controlling to attack us!"
"Guess the only way is to tear apart every single one of these until we find the main one!" Mordred yelled, defending from one of the books magical blow and sending it back to it, destroying the book. "One down!"
"Good. Because there's still a lot more up!" Nala replied, watching all the hostile books in her and everyone's surroundings.
"They appear to be three tenths!" The boy informed them, seemingly counting the number of enemies easily.
"They may be many but their still just posessed books." Jekyll told them. "A couple of hits should be enough to defeat them."
"Okay. Hope it means it will be faster." Peko responded, summoning his sword.
"This will be a the only time I'll have fun envolving books!" Nala speaked, drawing out her sword as well.
"Figures that you'd be that type of uncultured." The boy criticized Nala's distaste for books internally.
Mash stared at Ritsuka, putting her shield up. "Preparing to combat master!"
"Any description of what the magical book looks like?" Ritsuka asked to the boy as everyone else started to fight the possesed books.
"It is an Alice in Wonderland book with a red back cover! Quite destinguishable from the rest of these plain and simple ones." The boy described the magical tome's appearence.
As they fought, the books would shoot over them from all the directions, turning the entire library into a chaotic battlefield with everyone taking cover and dodging from the magical attacks of the enemies.
"Go over that table master!" Mash said as she protected both Ritsuka and the boy so that the two could rush torwards a fallen table that served as another shield from the books attacks.
"Ggh! How are we gonna find the magical tome with all these books attacking us?" Nala said while slicing a book after blocking its attack.
"No worries! Me and Jekyll have found it!" Romani told them, having discovered where the magical tome was hiding. "It's right ahead of you!"
Being careful, Ritsuka took a quick glare above the table, spotting the magical tome that had Alice in Wonderland as its cover and staying at the end of an hall filled with more possesed books. "It's there!"
"Now all we need is to reach for it!" Peko exclaimed. However, it wouldn't be so simple.
Knowing that it had been spotted, the magical tome reunited all of the books it had given life to and concentrated them all in front of it. The recent made wall proceeded to open all of its books who begun to charge their spells in the several pages, aiming torwards the opponents on the other end of the hall.
"What are they doing?" Mash asked.
"Nothing good by the looks of it!" The boy replied.
Nala was about to charge at the defensive wall. "Like if a wall of paper is-"
Mordred interrupted the girl by grabbing her arm and doing the same to Peko. "Just take cover quickly ya shorties!" She rushed to a shelf on the side with the twins, just in time to prevent them from being hit by an intense and continuous shower of magic spells from the wall of books, hitting every object ahead.
"Damn things transformed into a gatling gun!" The boy shouted as he and Ritsuka were trying their best to maintain their entire bodies covered by the table.
"What we do now?!" Ritsuka speaked loudly so that his voice could be heard in the middle of all the shooting noise.
"Not staying here waiting to be fuzilated, that's for sure!" Mordred responded, trying to stick her body out of the cover only to have a shot passing closely to her face, forcing the knight to keep in place.
The seconds passed fastly, with more of the library's furnishing being desintegrated to pieces. In a short time, they would be out of cover to protect themselves from the blows.
"We need to think of something fast!" Ritsuka shouted.
"But what?" Mash questioned, defending herself with the shield.
As they were trying to come up with a solution, Peko looked at his right arm. He deemed to be one of those situations again. "I know what to do!" Peko exclaimed, closing his right hand into a fist. "And I'll need your help to do it Mash!" He requested the shielder's help, starting to charge his arm.
Not taking much to understand what Peko wanted to do, Mash moved to his side. "Going already!" Stopping by the shelve where Peko, Nala and Mordred were covered, Mash signaled to the boy to get behind her while tanking the books shoots.
"You sure you can pull it off?" Nala asked to her brother.
"At least I think it won't hurt as much as the first time!" Peko responded, now behind Mash, with the two of them standing in the middle of the hall. Mash continued to make sure the shield's defense would stay impecable while Peko was charging his entire arm into pure light.
"Is it ready?" Mash asked him while the attacks wouldn't stop coming at them. Despite that, the shielder was doing her best in securing the defense.
"Almost!" Peko felt the mana flowing inside his nerves and veins, condensing into pure energy. He however had to be careful to not overheat it.
Mash's arms were starting to get tired as well as the muscles. Every hit of the book's shots felt like an heavy bullet that would pass its strenght of impact onto Mash's bones. Still, Mash wouldn't dare to let the fatigue get to her body. "Peko!"
"It's done!" Now with the arm fully charged, Peko aimed the magic shinning arm to the wall of books at the front as Mash leaned her shield to the side to give better aim of the target. "Take this!" With a shout, Peko liberated the entire mana power of his arm into a beam of light, desintegrating the magical shoots of the books as well as blowing up with the wall composed of them, putting a stop to the rain of attacks.
"Great job Peko!" Ritsuka exclaimed, exiting of his cover like everyone else.
"You did very well." Mash complimented the boy, seeing his grip on the arm that had released the beam which resulted in her getting a bit concerned. "Is it hurting a lot?"
"N-No. Just some tingling sensation on the nerves. Nothing else." Peko responded to Mash, happy to see he was making progress on the technique who initially hurted like hell if used.
"And now we slice that stupid book before it has any chances of doing this trick again." Mordred said, observing the book wall vanish all carbonized with the magical tome behind trying to fly away while moving a bit clumsy.
"Meanie."
"Hum?" Peko's eyes moved to the left and right. "Did you all heard this?"
"Yeah. It sounded like a voice." Nala confirmed Peko's suspicions.
"It must surely be coming from the tome then." The boy begun to elaborate. "Having observed and analyzed this identity up close before, I can tell you that this book is actually some kind of servant."
"What? A book being a servant? What kind of reasoning is that?" Nala asked to the boy, surprised to hear the revelation.
"Reasoning of intellectual people." The boy replied, aggravating Nala. "To be more precise, the book is a sort of Reality Marble that when activated transforms its psyche into of its master instead. But the problem is that this tome was summoned here with no master in the first place. So I assume that in search of a new master, this magical book attacks the inhabitants and puts them to sleep in hopes to use their dreams as foundation and basis for its manifestation as a pseudo-servant."
"That was quite confusing to hear." Peko speaked.
"But he's right." Romani told him. "The signals that I'm getting is of a incomplete Saint Graph. Which means that the theory of this book being actually a Reality Marble looking to become a servant through some sort of connection with a person's mind is correct."
"So this magical book is looking for a body in order to take a more physical human form eh?" Mordred thought. "Well, too bad that we came in to foil that plan!" She stared at the book trying to fly away. "Now let's finish it!"
"Shapeshift!"
The tome however casted a spell on itself, creating an imaginary shield to protect itself from Mordred's sword and throw the knight to the ground.
"Crap! Guess that even badly hurt it will still give us fight!" Mordred told to the rest as she landed.
"Let's see if it can handle this!" Nala jumped torwards the tome, charging her sword for the blow.
"Precise Stroke!"
Using her special attack, Nala managed to break the tome's illusory shield but was unable to deal damage on it. "What a- It didn't do any damage?!"
"But that doesn't make sense. Nala broke through its shield." Ritsuka commented. "How did the tome wasn't affected by the slash?"
"I also can't comprehend it." Mash told him. "The sword didn't affected the book at all as if it was made of wind."
"Perhaps because it doesn't has a proper physical form." Jekyll told them. "The book is only but a fictional and temporary appearence of the Reality Marble's magical energy. We won't be able to hit it if it doesn't have a proper form!"
"Then how are we going to defeat it if we can't do any sort of damage?" Ritsuka asked, seeing that this fight wasn't turning out to be in their favour.
"Thankfully, that's when authors like me do their part." The boy told, summoning a quill in his hand and a leviating book in front of him. "If it's a proper physical form this tome is looking for, I'll give it one."
"How so?" Peko asked him.
"Yeah. You're just another shortie." Mordred told to the boy who looked at her indignant.
"I beg your pardon! You know who you are talking to? I'm not a boy you callous brute! My name is Hans Christian Andersen!" The boy revealed his name angrily to Mordred and everyone else.
"Christian Andersen!? The renowned author of fairy tale books?!" Mash speaked in surprise.
"Yeah. Fantastic I know. But save all the excitment for later." Hans said to Mash, proceeding to stare at the magical tome. "Alice in Wonderland. Hm, another childish fairy tale. Created for kids to read and express their imaginations with it." Hans observed the cover of the tome, analyzing it. "A work loved by countless children who hop onto bed to read it before sleep. Yeah, I've just came up with a perfect name for you." The book in front of him opened and the small author started to write on it. "Hereby I label you this fitting name: Nursery Rhyme!"
"Nursery...Rhyme?"
With a name being bestowed to the magical book thanks to Hans, the object started to mold and take an appearence of a small girl in a full black dress with an equally bulky black hat and black and pink bows, tied up white hair with long side braids and deep bright pink eyes. The tome had managed to take a human form.
"Great job Hans-san!" Mash congratulated the writer.
"Now we will be able to land our hits!" Mordred said, about to go torwards the girl named Nursery Rhyme. However, any fighting was out of the window the moment they saw the servant's body starting to dissapear.
"Hm? She's dissapearing already?" Nala put her weapon down. "But she didn't suffered any damage."
"Guess it must have been something else." Ritsuka told her.
"Hmm, this body. How fitting." Nursery Rhyme smiled as she look to her own fading hands. "It feels...correct to me. Yet, the person it replicates from isn't here. There's no meaning to continue existing in this place."
"She's unsummoning herself? Is that even possible?" Peko asked confused, not understanding how Nursery Rhyme was vanishing without even having her Spirit Core destroyed.
"My bet is that the tome's mana has mostly run out due to using majorily against us." Romani tried to explain from what his brain could grasp. "And now it tried to use what little magical energy remained to form a body. Hence why she's dissapearing. The tome has no more mana left to maintain a physical aspect, let alone an entire human body."
"So it burned out." Peko realized it thanks to the doctor's explication. "But why isn't she doing any effort to keep that form?"
"She herself has said it Peko." Ritsuka responded. "There's no motive for her to be here."
"Kinda of an anti-climatic way to end a fight if you ask me." Mordred sounded dissapointed.
"Don't you actually feel relieved for having a fight end eariler and in victory?" Hans questioned the knight.
Before dissapearing for good, Nursery Rhyme talked to the author. "It was you who gave me this name right?"
"Yes. Why? Hate it?" Hans replied to wich Nursery Rhyme shakened her head.
"I like it to be honest. It sounds sweet." Nursery Rhyme told him. "I think...it reminds me of a purpose."
"In advance, sorry but I can't help you remember of your specific purpose." Hans responded a bit dismissively, receiving a slap from Nala shortly after.
"At least try to be kind to her idiot!" Nala rebuked him.
"It's alright. No need to get upset. A book can be even better if you dont know its content." Nursery Rhyme smiled.
"Why you put it like that?" Peko asked her.
"Because a story is much more than getting to the conclusion." Nursery Rhyme told him. "And I'll find this purpose again on my own! Goodbye!" And she was gone completely.
"Nursery Rhyme has vanished for good. The enemy has been neutralized." Mash reported.
"And now the citizens of London have one less problem to worry about. Good job everyone!" Jekyll told them.
Meanwhile, Mash approached Hans. "I have to say it's a pleasure to have the chance to meet you in person Hans-san. I've read your books many times during my life." Mash shook hands with the author way effusively.
Hans reluctantly took his hand away from the hand shake. "T-Thank you. But I'm afraid you're not the target audience of my literature works."
"Then who is it?" Peko asked curiouslyl.
"Simply put, stupid and dumb kids like you. That's who I write my books for." Hans responded, seeming like he wasn't able to slow down with the insults.
"You can't be nice can you?" Peko replied, a bit jaded of Hans's behaviour.
"Nice way to say your writing is stupid then!" Nala told to the author.
"Oh, don't go thinking that just because the audience is dumb, my writing would be on the same level." Hans argued back. "I always make sure to write with quality, even in the most simple and dumb stories. Why do you think my tales are still memorable till today?"
"I haven't read a single work of yours just so you know." Nala replied, showing that she couldn't care less about the author's high quality writing and tales.
"It isn't my fault that you don't know how to spell a two syllable word." Hans told her, upsetting the girl.
"Please, let us all just calm down now." Ritsuka told them before anyone could start throwing hands at Hans.
"Ritsuka's right. We should be leaving this bookshop for start since..." Romani sweated a bit as he saw all the destruction across the library. "...A lot of these books must have been expensive."
"Ain't that true?" Mordred chuckled. "I certainly don't wanna be here to get blamed on all of this. Let's get going!"
As they passed the entrance door of the bookshop, they noticed Hans walking along with them.
"Hm? You're coming with us?" Jekyll asked to the danish servant.
"Of course I am! Sticking with you is a lot better than being alone." Hans said. "Show me the way to your hideout, it's all I ask."
"The more the better. Welcome to the group Hans-san!" Mash said happily.
"Hey now, I'm mainly joining you because I too don't want to face the owner's wrath when she wakes up." Hans admited to them.
"Oi oi now! So you are all into insulting and bad mouthing others but don't want the same to happen to you when you rightfully deserve so?" Mordred mocked him. "Heh, good luck with that because I have no intention of having you tagging along."
Peko and Nala threw a smug at Hans, joining the bullying.
"Exactly! You better get your ears ready for it."
"Don't forget to stop being a jerk to others if you don't want to be treated the same way."
"H-Hey now. We won't actually leave him behind. will we?" Mash questioned, thinking that doing that would be cruel to Hans despite of his gift for insults. "What you say about this master?"
"I'm not very sure about it..." Ritsuka responded, staring at Hans while putting his hand under the chin.
Hans ended up sighing, understanding the situation he was in. "Do you want me to apologize for those insults?"
"No thanks. I don't want them." Mordred responded.
"It's too late for that." Peko added.
"Should have done it earlier." Nala also speaked.
"I gained some new haters it seems." Hans looked at the three with discontent, seeing that he didn't left a very good impression on most of them.
Ritsuka had already made his mind. "Okay, you can join us."
"WHY?!" Peko, Nala and Mordred all shouted in shock and revolt once they heard Ritsuka's decision.
"Petition to invalidate that!" Nala exclaimed.
"I always think of you as a good leader Ritsuka but this decision was a complete miss!" Peko also protested.
"As Mordred, The Knight of Treachery and of The Round Table, all I have to tell you is...screw you!" Mordred yelled her distaste.
"C'mon guys. I'm trying to be fair here." Ritsuka told the three. "Wihtout him who knows how long it would take us to defeat that magical tome? He gets to join us because of that."
Hans nodded his head. "Good to see this group's leader has at least a reasonable mind instead of shredding everything with critics."
"That doesn't mean you will get to bad mouth everyone evrytime. Pipe down on that." Ritsuka advised Hans.
"Okay then. A decision with those terms is fine by me." Hans replied.
"Seems you will need to get more space in that appartment." Romani told to Jekyll.
"As long as Fran isn't breaking anything..." Jekyll responded with some fatigue from having to monitor Frankenstein alone.
"So we should be getting back to the hideout." Mash speaked, about to start walking away.
"Not yet." Ritsuka said, making Mash stop. "We need to know where Faust is." Everyone got a bit surprised from hearing that. They weren't even sure if the alchemist could still be alive. Yet, that didn't meant they were willing to just forget him.
Nala tried to speak with Ritsuka. "He could be anywhere in this city if alive. It could take us some-"
"Aww, looks like we arrived late to the game this time." A familiar voice speaked as the clouds of fog around them turned denser.
"Oh no! It's her again!" Peko wasted no time to summon his sword.
"Show yourself Jack the Ripper, you damn brat! We already know it's you!" Mordred shouted to the mist, being cautious with her and everyone else's surroundings.
Jack's voice giggled with echo. "And ruin the initial game we had planned for you? No chance! This game is very good! Very good we promise!"
"We are getting sick of these games!" Nala responded.
"Really? It can't be. Oliver likes them, don't you Oliver?" Jack asked to 'Oliver' who in fact was Peko.
"Humm...I'm also a bit tired of them if I'm being sincere." Peko responded, not wanting to be brutally honest with Jack.
"Oh? Guess we are running out of ideas for new games then..." Jack said sadly. "But it doesn't matter! We will make finnish thid quick so that we can move to the next game then!"
"Doc, any detection of where Jack's signal is coming from?" Ritsuka asked to Romani so that they could know where Jack was hiding behind all this mist.
"My sensors are currently unable to find her Spirit Core! Jack the Ripper has totally hidden her presence!" Romani warned them. "You ha...ve...To...be...CaRefuL..." Both Romani and Jekyll's transmisson started to fail as the two's holograms shortly dissapeard.
"Doctor!? Jekyll?!" Ritsuka exclaimed.
"The concentration of Demonic Fog has become stronger master! The communications must have fell!" Mash told him.
"Hmmm, who do we chose?" Jack wondered as her voice continued to echo around the group. "It certainly can't be Oliver. Nor his sister. Perhaps the new kid? He seems fun to play hehehe."
"How many times will I have to tell people that I'm not a child?!" Hans said angrily, not liking to have been called a kid by Jack.
"Hmmm. Oh! We know it! We know it already!" Jack laughed as her victim had been choosened.
The group in that instant formed a circle and got close to each other, looking at all the directions of the mist from where Jack might appear. The adrenaline was pumping high inside their hearts.
"It's you!" Jack jumped out of the misty curtain, spreenting torwards Mash's neck as the shielder was facing the other way.
"Mash!" As Nala screamed and was about to go for a block on Jack's attack, Mordred acted faster, preventing with her blade Jack's lethal knives from cutting Mash's neck.
"You sneaky little demon!" Mordred told to Jack before pushing her away from the group.
"Hehehehe. You beat the first game! Well done!" Jack laughed before staring at Peko. "Was it fun Oliver?"
Peko looked to the side. "I wouldn't exactly discribe it as 'fun'."
Jack pouted. "Don't tell us you are starting to think our playtimes are boring. You always liked it!"
"I'm just tired. That's all." Peko invented an excuse.
"I think it would be better if you tell her the truth at this point." Ritsuka advised him, seeing that Peko wouldn't be able to keep pretending to be Oliver to Jack for that long.
"No worries! This next game will make you feel a lot more energetic!" Jack said with joy, holding various scalpels on her hands. "Come here and catch us!" She threw the scalpels torwards the group at the same time she jumped back into the mist.
Nala blocked the scalpel coming torwards her and went immediatly on the chase for Jack. "Come back here!" She runned quickly torwards the mist, dissapearing behind it.
"Nala wait!" Peko tried to call his sister back but it seemed she was already at a distance from them.
"We need to go after Jack and Nala fast!" Ritsuka told to the group as everyone escaped from Jack's scalpels.
"Didn't even needed to say it! I'm on it!" Mordred replied, about to run forward and into the mist, only to be stopped by a shadowy tail suddenly erupting from the ground. "What the hell!?"
On the black pond that was now on the ground, a lot more of those appeard and surrounded the group, with demonic looking monsters coming out of it.
"Those are the same monsterd we saw in the previous Singularity!" Mash exclaimed, remembering that they had seen this type of enemy before.
"They appear in here as well?" Peko said surprised.
"You know these things?" Mordred said, slashing one of the creatures and watching it reattaching its body back to normal."Cuz these cuts are doing nothing on them! Any trick on the sleeve to defeat them stuck up shortie?" Mordred asked to Hans.
"No idea what these things are! Only that they look to have come straight from hell!" Hans replied.
"But we do!" Ritsuka told him before looking at Peko. "How's your mana?"
"Enough to stun and defeat them!" Peko responded. "These creatures main weakness is light!" Peko told to both Mordred and Hans.
"Make sure to not let them pull up a sneak attack on you! Since they are mostly made of shadows their bodies won't be greatly affected by normal attacks!" Mash added. "Ready for combat master!"
Getting behind Mash, Ritsuka made his thoughts clear. "I fear that Nala alone will have some difficulty against Jack. We should hurry if we want to help her! Let's try do defeat these things as fast as possible!"
To be continued...
And that was it for chapter 57!
Once again, sorry for bringing you a short chapter.
The battle with Nursery Rhyme was supposed to be a little longer but I decided to end it like that since I thought it would be a a better end for her rather than to get blows and slashes in the body before being defeated.
And so the charismatic and lovable Hans joins the group, Jack is back once more to torment our protagonists just like that one annoying enemy that is always coming back to fight us in any game and the Imps of the Null appeard again at the end.
Anyways, that's all I wanted to say, and see you next time on chapter 58! Peace!
P.S:
(Nala is seen in the cafeteria cleaning up the mess she made on the floor)
Emiya: And don't forget to put the broken pieces of the plate on the bin when done.
Nala: I know, I know.
Kama (Watching it while hidding at the entrance with a smug): Pff, looks like that airhead got into trouble. Brushing and cleaning floors looks so fitting for her hehe.
(Before walking away, Kama is stopped by Parvati)
Parvati: And where are you going young lady? Someone stole food from the fridge this night. Care to explain what you were doing in the meantime?
Kama: Who gives? It certainly couldn't have been me.
*Some minutes later*
(Kama 'Mistake' is now cleaning the floor with Nala against her will)
Nala (smirks): Looks like someone got busted.
Kama Mistake: You shut up! Why does it always have to be left for me?!
