46: Having standards is important.

The blood spears clatter and shatter against the white wall generated by [Lord Chaldeas], ricocheting off the wall, most of them ending up embedded in the ground. Rattling in place, they melt into streams of blood, flowing through the air and into one central point as Vlad III's body regenerates once more.

But I'm not worried about it. All the despair I was feeling a moment prior is gone. For a second, I glance behind me to confirm - Carmilla has been utterly defeated. Cratered into the road, limbs bent at unnatural angles, her body twitches as she begins to disintegrate into golden mist.

"-Senpai, Mordred, are you both okay?" Mash asks, ending her Noble Phantasm and readying herself to fight.

I breathe a sigh of relief. "I am now. Thanks, Mash. I was seriously thinking we were gonna die there. You too, Jeanne - I'm really glad you guys dealt with her so quickly." With three Servants ganging up on him… we probably still won't be able to kill Vlad III. So with that in mind, there's only one real option, isn't there?

"Anyway, let's retreat for now." I conclude. "We can't kill this guy, and there's no telling when his friends might show up, so it can't be helped."

"YoU thi-ink I'll alLOw thaaat!?" Dracula screeches as his body twists, spears erupting from his wrists and feet to anchor his weightless body to the ground as he scurries towards us.

Murak's not gonna work anymore, so… "[Vita!]" I expend the last reservoir of mana in my mystic code to fire Murak's opposite counterpart, a spell that increases gravity's effect on the body. The vampire roars with anger as his limb substitutes break under his own weight. Of course, his limbs start re-forming immediately, and knowing how this guy works, he'll find a way around it soon. "Now would be a good time to-!"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Mordred says, tossing me over her shoulder as Jeanne picks up Mash.

"This is starting to get embarrassing... " The Shielder mumbles - and then we're gone, rocketing away from La Charité with all the speed that B-rank Agility augmented with Mana Burst can muster. That is to say, a lot. Jeanne is faster than Mordred, thanks to her A-rank Agility, but it goes without saying that both of them are moving incredibly fast.

I almost miss it, because of the speed. Within the span of a blink, she appears - A Jeanne d'Arc with black armor and platinum-blonde hair. Behind her, I can see the silhouette of a man with his back turned, staring over his shoulder at us, his entire body cloaked in smoke that seems to be coming from nowhere.

"Tch." The dark Jeanne scowls, raising her hand into the air - and a trio of black spears, cloaked in purple flame, shoots after us.

"Mordred!" I call out.

"I saw!" the knight replies, jumping to the side without losing any momentum - but the spears correct their course, homing in on us.

"They're locked on!?" My mind races. I still have a command spell, but I'm not sure EMT will work on these, and EMM will immobilize us and let the enemy catch up. I could use it to cast an [El Minya], but can I rely on that to knock all of the spears off target? Maybe, but if I miss, we're in trouble. What I really need is something with precision. "If only Da Vinci had had time to make that whip- wait, hang on!"

My epiphany comes at the perfect time. Just as the spears are closing in, just as they enter my range - I grab the Holy Shroud wrapped around my neck and whip them out of the air. The spears dissipate on contact - I guess they're some kind of curse, and being hit by a Holy Shroud dispels them? Good to know.

...As far as the shroud goes, it's surprisingly easy to use. Between it having different weight than my old whip, and my lack of recent practice, I was expecting to maybe need two or three hits in quick succession to get all three. Could it be an intent-based thing, since the shroud is technically a Mystic Code?

"In any case, I guess I'll call it [Heaven's Lash]." I nod to myself.

"Call what now?" Mordred asks.

"My new whip."

"Your new - wait, you're gonna use that holy scarf as a weapon? That's hilarious!" Mordred laughs at my new partner. Don't let her hurt your feelings, [Heaven's Lash]. You're more than just a scarf to me!

Regardless, it seems we've gotten awa-

"Oh goddammit, there's more!?" Mordred shouts, and I look ahead of us to see another pair of Servants, a man and a woman, sitting on what appears to be a carriage drawn by crystal horses.

But as the blond, somewhat shifty-looking man stands, brandishing a wand in his clawed hand, and the three Servants I'm with brandish their weapons (I, meanwhile, am dumped unceremoniously on the ground) -

"Okay, calm down, everyone! We're all on the same side - don't look at me like that, Amadeus! See, that Saint Jeanne isn't wearing black, so she's clearly not the bad one." The woman, a beautiful silver-haired, blue-eyed girl with the goofiest hat I've ever seen, interrupts the impending battle. "I'm Marie Antoinette, a Rider, and this is Amadeus Mozart, a Caster. It's nice to meet you all! Vive La France!" She gives a blinding smile, and my heart skips a beat.

-Calm down Natsuki Subaru! I know she's cute, but stop racing, damn traitor heart! Emilia! Emilia is the one I love! So what if she's a beautiful, cute girl with silver hair - she hasn't even used any outdated slang, so calm down! I have standards, dammit!

"Uh, s-sup." I manage to say while standing up-

"Ah, yes, modern slang!" Marie says, clapping her hands. "Whassup! My homies!"

Oh god she's meeting all my standards!

"...They deflected it, huh? What a pain in the ass." Jeanne d'Arc Alter sighs. "Count, hurry up and heal Berserk Assassin, and we'll pursue them."

"I refuse." The man standing in shadow replies, white teeth flashing in a cruel grin. "That woman doesn't deserve my Noble Phantasm, so I won't show it to her. Unless you want to try your luck in compelling me by command spell, my so-called master."

The Dragon Witch scowls, and unseen by anyone, a red light glows from one of the tattoos on her back. "-By my command spell, I order you-" she begins, and Avenger's grin grows wider, sparks flashing from his visible eye. "-Berserk Assassin, repair your body."

"Kuhaha! You'll never be my true master, with a spine like that!" The count's derisive laughter echoes over Berserk Assassin's renewed screams of pain.

"Shut up. This way is better, anyway." The false saint snaps, and from among the bat-like shadows that had just recently begun circling over La Charité, a green form many times larger than a wyvern descends. A true dragon, the pinnacle of Phantasmal Beasts descends, landing next to where Carmilla lies writhing in pain.

Jeanne Alter walks up to the beast, heels clacking on the cobbled road. And then, the fantastical monster that had obeyed her unspoken order so diligently - with one blow of her sword, she carves its chest open. As if it were nothing. As if this army-killing monster didn't matter to her in the slightest.

A geyser of lifeblood erupts from the creature's wound, flooding the city streets, pouring into the crater Carmilla had been left to die in. She hasn't noticed yet, still writhing from the agony of her body correcting itself.

"-This is the only help you'll receive from me. Next time, I'll just summon a new Berserk Assassin." Jeanne Alter says, gazing down on the vampire.

Carmilla, of course, says nothing, her screams long since silenced by the dragon blood she's been submerged beneath.

Compendium: Heaven's Lash

An improvised Holy Shroud created by Jeanne d'Arc from a torn piece of her cloak, using her [Saint] skill. Because it happened to be long and thin, Natsuki Subaru has weaponized it as a whip. It still retains the properties of a Holy Shroud, including its intended purpose - the suppression of curses. Of course, it's ultimately just a mystic code, so an invoked Noble Phantasm will still blow right through it, curse or not.

On a related note, tearing the shroud requires a significant strength check for any Servant with strength C or Lower. Unfortunately for Subaru, pulling the shroud out of his hand is a trivial affair for any Servant who doesn't have some effect dropping their strength below E rank.

A/N:

Bit of a shorter chapter this time. Next one's coming in a week or so, which means I really gotta get around to finally locking in the Servant summon for this singularity. Kinda torn between two at the moment.

Subaru mistakes Mozart's conductor's baton for a wand. To be clear, I am aware it's technically not a magic wand, even if he does shoot caster balls from it.

Not sure how outdated "homies" actually is with the youth nowadays, but considering I haven't heard it used once in the past five years or so, I'm assuming it's been phased out.