Chapter 1703: 17
Jeanne and I leave the Greater Grail chamber in silence, climbing up the staircase to the ground floor of Black's castle. From the main hall, I can see the remaining homunculi of Black forming up as a guard of sorts around Caules and Fiore. Fiore is walking on her own two feet, albeit unsteadily, and I can see on her back the backpack containing her Bronze Link Manipulators. I guess there's no reason she'd have to discard them, even with her legs now working. We're too far away for words, but we exchange nodded acknowledgements before that group moves to leave and I turn the opposite way. Once this was over, I'd have a chance to talk to them, as well as the surviving homunculi of Black, properly.
The table and chairs I'd hastily thrown up is still there, though even with Jeanne there'll still be one seat empty. The rest of White is already there, and there's some tussling about seating going on that probably doesn't make us look the most serious force for Jeanne to have allied with; Artoria is contentedly sitting to the right of where I had been, and just looking over the proceedings with a sense of vague amusement.
'This bring back memories of your table?'
'The occasional moments chaos of that came with it, at least. Atalanta wishes to keep away from Berserker, citing her 'oily smell', while Sir Astolfo is bothering Mordred- he is repeatedly trying to guess Mordred's identity, and Mordred is refusing to lower hi- her helmet. You have recruited an eclectic force, Master.'
Jeanne and my arrival, it seems, spells an end to the ongoing drama, with Mordred taking the seat to Artoria's side, and Fran taking the next along. Atalanta plants herself on my other side, on the opposite end from Fran, and Astolfo takes the seat next to her and opposite Mordred. This leaves Jeanne opposite me, next to Astolfo and Fran, which she takes with only a moment's hesitation.
"Right. First things first; Atalanta, I need to come clean about something- I nearly messed up your Wish."
There's no instant verbal response, but I can both see and feel Atalanta's shock; as she sits straighter, her ears prick up and through my link I feel Atalanta forcibly clamp down on a burst of fear and anger. Thankfully, she seems to have noticed my 'nearly' and what that means. In any case, time to lay out what happened; it'll be handy for Jeanne also, just so she knows what happened. With Atalanta silent I continue.
"The way I've been dealing with Servants- Jack, Chiron and Siegfried specifically, was to defeat them in such a way their essence didn't reach the Grail. This was only brought to my attention thanks to Ruler noticing how Vlad's essence entered the Grail when no others had done so and investigating, so it's thanks to her this is salvageable."
Jeanne seems a little surprised at my admission, but gracefully accepts Atalanta's gesture of thanks.
"The issue is that that method is how I was planning on repaying the debt I accumulated in preparation for the assault on Black, and while it's mostly paid back from the…energy I received using my method, I haven't fully paid the cost back yet. So. In addition to going over the Servants of Red for our new comrades, we're also going to be working out who needs to be killed properly, who could join up and who I need to deal with."
Mordred, voice distorted by her helmet, speaks up.
"So why is Ruler here? She's been sitting out of the War so far, not doing more than looking on. Is she finally stepping down from her Church to help clean this mess of a War up?"
It seems Mordred still hasn't gotten over Jeanne landing a bullseye in the park in their last meeting. Jeanne, however, handles the obvious hostility with aplomb.
"As…Saber of White says, I will be assisting White in this upcoming battle. While normally it is the role of Ruler to sit back and oversee, the Red Faction cannot be allowed to emerge victorious- they are being led by a Ruler who is clearly breaking every aspect of their assigned role, and I received evidence that indeed their Wish would prove a danger to the world if made."
Hold on- Jeanne got evidence about why Shirou's Wish is dangerous? How? When? I'm about to ask, when Astolfo's hand shoots up. With an internal sigh, I nod at him, and he begins to speak, one finger raised to his cheek.
"So, Red's a bunch of cheaters who are a threat to the world. I can get that, but Black doesn't know that much about Red's capabilities. I fought their Berserker and we all saw Percival fight golems waaay back at the start, but Red lost Berserker and Lancelot left, so…."
Fran nods repeatedly, with small affirmative grunts. Right. Ruler's stuff can wait for a bit. I look to Artoria, seeing if she wants to take over here, but she remains seated and gestures at me. A look at Atalanta also has her ceding the floor, so…
"Right. The Red Faction got hijacked by the rogue Ruler of the last War; the one back in Japan that Darnic fought in. He incarnated somehow and has spent the past six decades planning for how this War would go down. He had a pretty good plan, and probably would have won fairly easily were it not for unexpected events overturning his sixty years of planning."
I pause for a moment, then open a portal on the wall behind me and, with a raised finger, step through. I'm back a moment later, carrying the notes from the study about the Red Servants.
"The two biggest threats of Red are their Lancer and their Rider. Their Lancer is Karna, who is an absurdly powerful Servant mostly constrained by having a ruinous mana cost. Outside of his general skill and strength, and his ability to cover everything in fire, he has three main Noble Phantasms- one is his armour that reduces damage by 90%, one is a spear that he can throw as a powerful flaming missile and the last unlocks the spear's true firepower, supposedly anti-Country, in exchange for losing his armour."
I look up and see Astolfo with eyebrows raised.
"Huh. From Saber's report, he didn't seem that absurd. They clashed once, back when you fought Atalanta and Achilles."
"He also has a skill that makes it so that people who don't know his identity underestimate him. He's nuts. I'll be honest and say that out of all of White, I'd say only Artoria or myself could handle him with any real chance. You could stall him with your Hippogriff, but couldn't hurt him, and Atalanta might be able to hurt him through his armour, but she'd need to charge her shots like with Siegfried's Dragon Armor and she's only get the one shot before the area was a firestorm."
I slide Karna's paper forwards, to the center of the table, and place the second sheet where Karna's had been.
"Which brings us to powerhouse two of Red; their Rider Achilles, though Chiron might have already told you about him. Atalanta, do you want-"
"Fine. Achilles is only able to be hurt by divine attacks unless his heel is damaged. He's about as fast as me, and he claimed to be able to have bursts of even faster speed if his heel hasn't been damaged. He has a chariot, but he complained about its mana cost as well as how he doesn't like to use it against worthless enemies. He has a shield that can block Excalibur."
Atalanta's fairly clinical description of Achilles' prowess once again causes Astolfo to react.
"Man. So if we hadn't had Chiron, Red's Rider could have just walked right over us?"
"Yeah, this is what I meant by Red having prepared for this and was probably going to win a straight up fight. Oh, and Achilles has one more Noble Phantasm- he can throw down a duel field that forces his foe to fight him one-on-one, with no blessings, outside help or even luck playing a part. I…Achilles is going to be Artoria's foe. With the duel field, he's probably the closest thing Red has to a counter to me and Excalibur is the only tool we have to pierce his skin without getting a heel-hit."
Another sheet slides forwards, and another one comes out.
"Next up in threat is Semiramis, their Assassin. Though it would be fairer to say she's their Caster and Assassin. She's almost certain to have her Hanging Gardens up, which can throw out lots of skeleton mooks and shoot long-range EX-magecraft lasers. If you reach her on the Garden, she's all about magic laser and poisons and monsters and poisonous monsters that she can summon."
This time it's Mordred who speaks.
"I wanna fight her."
She doesn't miss my wince when I saw that, and if anything I feel her get more serious about it, eyes looking right at me through her helm's eyeslits. I know it won't dissuade her, will probably make her more likely to go for it, but I can at least give her a head's up.
"In my…vision, you and Semiramis achieved a mutual kill, even with the help of your Master curing the poison she got you with."
"I figured. Last time we talked about that stinkbug empress you had to hold back something when I mocked her. I guessed it'd be that- that's why I want to fight her. Even if you're busy with Lancer, your mana should make up for the lack of support."
I sigh, and nod. "If it's possible I'll have you fight her, but she's the last Servant whose Wish I could grant. Also, she's definitely going to stay in her Garden. In my vision you used a plane, but we don't have one. Can you even get to her?"
I can't see Mordred's expression, but I can feel her smugness.
"Oh, I thought I'd take a page from your book, Master, and just jump up there; with your mana, getting that high should be a cinch. And even if it's too high even for me to get there in one bound, I do have another idea."
O…k. Mordred doesn't elaborate on what her idea is, and I can't see where she's looking with her helmet up, but I suppose Mordred is set on this, which I guess covers Semiramis. With that, there's only two more pages, and I might as well cover them both at once.
"Red's Caster is Shakespeare. He's a crap Servant whose best trick is a mind-attacking Noble Phantasm. Anyone other than Fra- Berserker should be able to take him easily." I catch myself before Fran growls again. "My vision showed her being…seriously affected by the Noble Phantasm. Finally for Red, their Ruler is Amakusa Shirou. He's a mediocre combat Servant whose best tricks rely on having an unlimited mana source like the Grail to power his magecraft. Again, anyone here should probably be able to take him."
"---Uh?" ("Caster of Black?")
"Ah, right. Avicebron and Spartacus. With Artoria having destroyed his golem, Avicebron's not much of a real threat anymore. His main worth was tied up in either prep time or his super golem, and he's lost both of those as well as the days of work he put into the Golem. However, he's likely to try and get revenge- his whole purpose this war was to complete his Golem and create an artificial Adam to turn the world to Eden."
Fran's loud growl breaks my train of thought- with my Communication Talent not kicking in, I guess Fran isn't actually saying anything and is just actually growling. Thinking back on it, Black didn't know what Avicebron's real deal was- Chiron was fairly surprised by the reveal, and the idea of having worked with another wannabe-Prometheus probably wouldn't make Fran that happy. Still, I need to keep going.
"In any case, Avicebron isn't a threat in combat and, like with Shakespeare, anyone here could kill him. Spartacus is trickier; he's not much of a threat as-is, but the more damage he takes the more powerful he becomes. The best way to handle him is to either kill him in one shot or disable him without killing him-" Here, I nod to Astolfo, who preens. "-and letting him run out of mana after his Master is killed."
Atalanta speaks up "I notice you're now talking about killing our foes rather than defeating them. This is our new engagement orders to achieve my Wish?"
"Yeah. Now we come to the next part of this meeting- in the spirit of Shakespeare, we're going to be creating a proscription of our opposition." No one seems to get it, but sometimes we make jokes just for ourselves. "We need at least five of the seven Servants to die for the Grail to be powered; Spartacus, Avicebron, Shirou and Shakespeare ('damned with a spot') are the obvious targets. Karna is the best shot to clear my debt, and I'll probably be Selling- from my vision, I know Karna is loyal to his summoner above anyone, even people who become his Master later. From there it's down to Achilles or Semiramis."
Mordred lets out a scoff.
"Master, you know my vote. Kill Assassin."
"I'm not sure I'm putting it up for a vote; trying to get Semiramis and her Gardens onboard was one of my main reasons for intervening in this War. I'm fairly set on at least making her an offer; after all the utility of a massive, flying castle with lasers and its own army is really hard to match."
Mordred seems to hesitate a little at that.
"I…guess I get the appeal of a big, tough flying fortress, but couldn't we steal it from her? I'm a fair hand at just taking over castles. Or just make our own over time? We don't need-"
"Master. What precisely is Achilles' wish?"
Atalanta's question, cutting through Mordred's…somewhat ill-advised rambling that had drawn Artoria's glare, surprises me; I would have thought she knew it.
"I think it was something like 'to live and die a hero'."
Atalanta pauses and takes a breath before speaking.
"I'd prefer him to Assassin, obviously, but…I can try and talk to him, see if he would join, but I don't think he would. He wants to shine brightly and briefly, to go out in a blaze of glory."
Again, I'm not sure this is up for discussion. Even outside my shallowest reasons for wanting Semiramis to join (she's by far the most attractive Servant of Apocrypha), rounding out the party with a magecraft and intrigue focused mastermind with a flying fortress was just too tempting. Still, I guess I should plan for if she refuses…
"If Semiramis turns down the offer, then we can try for Achilles, but Semiramis gets priority."
As I look up, I notice Jeanne's been silent this whole time.
"Ruler, do you have anything you wish to add?"
"Oh, no. I didn't wish to intrude on your group. With the abilities of Red outlined in such depth, my own skills as a Ruler were not needed. As for the tactics to be employed, during the battle, I will personally attempt to confront Amakusa Shirou. I suppose I should ask; where do you plan on this battle being held?"
That's a fair enough question.
"There should be a large field, several square kilometers in size, north of here. That should have enough space for both Factions to go wild without putting Trifas in too much danger. Once we're set, we can move to intercept Red there, rather than let them bring the fight too close to the city."
Jeanne seems appeased by my answer, and returns to her silence. Thinking on it, I do have a few questions for her…
"If that's all, can I ask you some stuff?" She nods, and so I continue. "First up, are you willing to use your Command Seals on Red's Servants?"
"I am, though the orders I am unwilling to force them to commit suicide outright. However, I am limited to only two Seals per Servant. You previously indicated Ruler of Red has taken the Command Seals of all his Servants, and so he would be able to counter my Commands."
"That's fine. Just removing two of his Seals should be good enough." Oh, there's a though. "What about Spartacus? I don't think Avicebron has any Seals- in my vision he only got the one seal from Gordes after the fact."
She gives me a somewhat disappointed look. "The remnants of Black are not allied with Red, and so are not my concern. In that matter, I cannot help you."
I…guess that's fine, and I should have seen it coming. I don't expect Black's death throes to be able to accomplish that much.
"Ok, second point. Can you do anything with these free Seals I have? I have three 'unlinked' Command Seals from previous contracts that…got cancelled. Any chance you could reassign them to my other Servants?"
I retract my Shroud-coat from my arm to show Jeanne, pointing to the two seals left from Chiron and the one left from Siegfried. She pauses a moment, thinking.
"I can try to reassign them- retrieve them and then return them to you, as it were. Your preference would be?"
"One to Berserker, one to Astolfo, and one to…Mordred, if you could." Mordred was insisting on charging into Semiramis' lair, and so she got the spare Command Seal over Atalanta. The instant I say Mordred's name, her helmet swivels towards me like a turret and I feel a burst of surprise and joy from Astolfo, and aggravation from Mordred. Fuck.
"Very well. Any more questions?"
"Just one more- could you explain what you said previously about 'receiving evidence that Shirou's Wish was dangerous?"
That causes Atalanta to slightly stir, while Jeanne doesn't notice or acknowledge the movements, and speaks calmly.
"The head of the Black Faction's magi passed on a communication they received on the matter. I could not understand the academic contents of the letter, but what I did understand backed up your prior claims. I'll show you the letter after this battle is done- it is in the church, alongside Laeticia's possessions."
-
With the planning out of the way, our group breaks up; Astolfo takes to the skies, and while he says it's to scout the area I have a sneaking suspicion it's just to take advantage of his new infinite mana source to fly around on his mana-hog of a mount, and the rest of the Servants disperse around the remains of the fortress to do what they can before contact.
With nothing else to do right this second, I pull up the mental character sheet Fran, and find the thing I'm looking for. It turns out, as I had thought Fran doesn't have a Magic Resist skill of B or higher. The reason she had been able to tank my laser spell was because of her Galvanism, which converted non-physical magic attacks into electricity that her Bridal Chest could absorb for power. That mystery solved, I move to where Fran is; a bed of white flowers by one of the walls of the fortress that had miraculously survived our combat. She's kneeling down with her back to me, inspecting the flowers, but from the way her body tenses up she knows I'm there.
"Fr- Berserker, do you know how long your Galvanism lasts?"
"-Uh?" ("What?")
"Like, if I were to shoot you with a laser, would that power you up for seconds or minutes or hours or what? I'm trying to work out if we could jury rig a Mana Burst-lite for you before the battle."
"Uh. Uuuuh." ("Depends on the laser. The effect won't last long, though.")
I suppose if Fran could just infinitely gain power by plugging into a power grid or have her master shoot at her with spells, she would have been a little more key to Black's plan than she was. It's a disappointing, but unsurprising answer.
"Fair enough. I'll try and power you up before the battle starts, but with Karna occupying me I probably won't be able to do it mid-battle."
Fran shrugs, as if this had nothing to do with her, and returns to the white flowers. Oh. Right, one more thing.
"Berserker, I'm following through with Caules' order; no using your Blasted Tree Noble Phantasm at full power. I'm aiming for this to be a flawless victory, after all."
Fran's head tilts at the sentence, a little surprised at both my knowledge as well as the command. When she sees I'm not moving until she responds, she growls something even my Communication Talent doesn't catch and nods twice before making a shooing motion over her shoulder and sending me away from where she's kneeling. I lightly smile, shrug, and turn, to find Mordred right behind me in her casual clothing of red jacket and shorts. I don't jump, but it is a surprise.
"Mordred."
"Master. Berserker."
Fran growls at Mordred's voice, and turns while standing to glare at the Servant, stepping forwards so that she's between the flowerbed and Mordred. Mordred seems a little taken aback by the hostile reaction and puts her hands up.
"Calm down. I'm just here to talk. You shouldn't have hard feelings about your legs, it all turned out fine, after all."
From the way Fran's glare intensifies and her foot stamps (just outside the flower bed), apparently she does have some hard feelings over whatever Mordred did to Fran's legs back at the lake. I'm missing context, but…
"How can we help you?"
There's a pause, as Mordred gathers her thoughts. Her feet don't shuffle on the ground, but it feels a near-run thing.
"I wanted to talk to Berserker there. You said a bit about her, but it was pretty vague. Some of the stuff you said made me want to get to know her better. That's all."
Once more, Fran growls and Mordred seems to wilt a little.
"Fine, fine. If you're that fragile about losing your legs once then whatever."
Did...Mordred cut off Fran's legs? Like, minutes ago?
"Mordred, have you…said sorry about that?"
"Huh? It was a Grail War. Why would I be sorry about attacking an enemy? I even held back from killing her, so really she should be thanking me."
"If she's on our side now, it'd be polite to at the very least say 'Sorry for cutting your legs off back there, but it was a Grail War so I hope you understand what happened'."
"Come on, Master. What kinda-"
Mordred cuts herself off when Fran nods at my sentence, staring in honest confusion at the pair of us.
"Really? I don't get it. Father didn't make mistakes, and Morgan never would apo- huh."
She cuts herself off, pauses a moment, and then looks to Fran.
"Sorry I hurt you back there. I won't apologise for fighting you, but now that you're on our side I'm glad you're ok."
I feel Fran's glare lessen, and she takes a step back into her flowers and once more sits down, patting the ground outside her flowerbed for Mordred. Mordred, still a little confused, moves to her. Before Mordred can seat herself, I can't hold back from the question I've had on my mind for a while now.
'Mordred. I've been meaning to ask- you don't have a problem with me calling you a girl, right?'
'Huh? Nah, obviously. If Father was a girl, then obviously I'm a girl too. It's common sense, right?'
I mean. Kind of yes. But also not at all. There's more I want to talk to Mordred about, but if she's going to try and talk with Fran I shouldn't interrupt them. As I turn to leave, I hear Mordred's voice call out to me, and I make my turn a full 360 one, returning to face the two Servants.
"Master, make us some snacks, will you? I get we won't have time for a full meal, but I'm sure you can make something in a few minutes for m- us to eat."
"I mean, sure. What'd you guys like?"
"Uh, uh. Uuh, uh." (I'd like bread, cheese and milk. Just berries or nuts would be fine, though.")
Mordred gives Fran a look.
"Really? Just bread and cheese? You don't want something better? Master's a real good cook, and the house seems to have anything in it he wants." Her head tilts, and she turns to me. "Hey, Master, what about alcohol; we should be celebrating imminent victory, right?"
"I don't drink alcohol. There's probably some kind of spirits I could summon up in the house, though."
"Uh, uh." ("I don't like wine, or any alcohol.")
"You guys are weird. Beer and ciders are great- I drank them all the time with the other knights."
I shrug; I hadn't really expected my joke to land, and even back before all this I've never enjoyed drinking alcohol, barring some dessert wines. Fran reacts by rolling her eyes behind Mordred, though the way her hair falls in front of her eyes makes it hard to tell.
"So. Cheese platter for Berserker. Mordred?"
"Gimme meat. It can be dried or as simple as you like, but something meaty."
Probably some kind of sliced salami, like Cacciatore or hunter's salami, would be easiest, and would also go well with the bread and cheese. Heck, Mordred could even just take it with her; the point of dried hunter's salami was to have something to slip into one's pocket to eat on the fly with a knife, after all. I dip my head in acknowledgement and open a portal to leave the two to their talk.
-
It's a matter of moments to prepare the requested food- Mordred's food is as simple as just reaching into the fridge to grab the salami 'sausage', and Fran's is just choosing which cheeses to put on the platter (triple cream bream, goat's cheese, camembert, and blue cheese). Pouring myself and Fran a glass of milk is effortless, but it does take a few seconds to call up a cider for Mordred, which is time I use to finish my milk and vanish away the cup. Putting it all on a tray, I leave the portal and instantly-
'Hey! Hey Master. I can see them! Boy, that's a big thing to be flying in this era, huh?'
Astolfo's telepathic words reach me immediately- I guess he must have been trying to contact me when I was getting this in the house. Wordlessly, I place the tray down for Mordred and Fran and step away, reaching out to Astolfo as I turn and move towards the main building of the fortress.
'Good job. Do you mind if I look through your-'
'Nah, that's fine, Master.'
With that, I stop, close my eyes, and reach out towards where I feel Astolfo is. When I open them, I can see the massive black bulk of Semiramis' Hanging Gardens slowly but inexorably floating through the air. Astolfo is below it, on his mount, looking up at it, and seeing it I can't help but feel that something made of metal and black stone, over a kilometer in diameter, shouldn't be flying but there it is, far above ground.
'Should I dive closer for a better look, Master?'
'Nah. Semi has all kinds of defences, from EX-ranked magic to flying skeletons.'
'Sounds creeeeeepy. Still, it's a real floating sky fortress. For some reason I can remember seeing one of these before, but I just can't place it, which is weird cause normally I have a pretty good memory.'
'I'm sure it'll come to you in time. Anyways, up to you if you want to come back or stick around- just make sure you don't get too close and keep an eye on those floating obelisks- those are what Semi uses for her long-ranged beams, which should be what you need to worry about if you keep your distance. '
'Gotcha, Master. I'll stay here and give Hippy here some air-time. It's been a while since he was able to just fly free like this!'
I'm about to close the link and move on when I remember something.
'Oh, and also watch out if you see green lighting or red fire and pull back instantly using your Mount's dimension-shift if you do. Those'll be Rider and Lancer respectively.'
Astolfo doesn't 'verbally' reply, but I do get a sense that at least heard my warning. As-is, he seems to be entertaining himself and his mount with aerobatic stunts and spins, and so I leave him to his fun. With Astolfo having been checked on, I open myself and get a feel where the other Servants are. Atalanta is distant and seems to be using the time to heal her wound with my mana.
'Atalanta, you need help with that? I have healing magic, if you'd-'
'No, I'll be fine, Master. With this mana supply, it'll be healed soon.'
'Ok. Mordred asked for snacks for her and Fran, and I got them some. You want an apple or something?'
'...Tempting, but that will have to wait. Once I'm healed, I'll be trying to find a position in the forest or the mountains to set up for the fight.'
And with that, it's just down Jeanne and Artoria. With no link to find Jeanne, I move towards Artoria, who seems inspecting the walls of the fortress. Well, the wall is more hole than wall at the moment, so maybe it's more inspecting the breaches. With my focus on Artoria, I almost don't notice Jeanne, kneeling on the ground…oh, I'm an idiot, of course that's where she'd be.
Altering my movement, I approach Jeanne and the corpses of the homunculi. She doesn't speak, or even acknowledge my presence, and so I turn my attention away from her and towards the bodies. They…still aren't all whole. Vlad's stakes had forced them up through the earthen bubbles I'd put up, and the…physics involved had been rough on the bodies. I take a shaky breath as I look over the forty-odd corpses. And that's just the ones here; I'm sure the lakeside is going to be even worse, where I'd let Atalanta go wild with only minimal verbal protest.
Should I bury them now? With earth magic, all at once? That seems…rude, as weird a thing as it is to think. I know some of them had names and distinct personalities despite it all, so should I wait until I could talk with the homunculi who had left with Caules and Fiore? But leaving them out doesn't feel right either.
I'm shaken from my thoughts when a hand is placed on my shoulder, and half expect a somewhat cloying speech about the responsibilities of a leader, about the need to burn the sight into my mind or something else. Instead, Artoria is content to silently stand next to me, as a quiet and supportive presence; she seems to get that, even if I'm not happy about it, I get all that already. The two of us wait in silence until Jeanne finishes. When she does, she stands, turns and meets my gaze.
"Master of White. Saber of White."
"Jeanne. Could I speak with you a moment?"
"Of course you may. I had hoped for a chance to talk with you also."
'Master, do you wish for privacy?'
'...yeah, I would. Before you go, will you be wanting anything before the battle?'
'No, but thank you for the offer. Though I will be expecting a fabulous victory feast.'
With that, Artoria gives a slightly bow and excuses herself, leaving the two of us alone. Time to swallow some of my pride, I guess.
"To begin with, I'd like to…apologize for my rudeness towards you in our second meeting. I still disagree with you on the issue, but I could have definitely expressed myself better, without belittling you."
Jeanne studies me for a moment before speaking.
"Of course I forgive you. From what I've seen, the news of the death of the homunculus was a shock to you."
"It was, but that isn't an excuse for how I snapped at you."
"Well, in any case you do not need to apologise further."
There's a brief moment of silence, before Ruler speaks up, her words catching me by surprise.
"I notice you have not made me an offer yet."
It does take me a second to understand what Jeanne meant by "an offer".
"I…no, I haven't. Should I?"
Jeanne shakes her head.
"No. As long as I am the Ruler of this War, I cannot be bound to a Faction."
"Thought so. And after the War?"
"...After the War?"
"I mean, even when we win and end the War, the plan isn't to instantly use the Grail to make Atalanta's wish half-cocked. It'll need to be formatted properly and I'm going to want to shop around for ideas on how to do that, as well as making sure about how far the Wish can be pushed. I…imagine that as long as the Wish isn't made, the Grail'll have you stick around."
Jeanne pauses a moment before speaking. "You know I am temporarily making use of Laeticia's body with her consent, so what would happen to Laeticia?"
"Laeticia would be separated from you when you joined and took a physical form yourself."
Jeanne hmms at that, giving a small nod. "You put some thought into the matter. Were you planning on asking me after the War?"
"Right at the start, not so much. I hoped to support Shirou, which would have had us in conflict. However, when that fell though I was going to offer it to you as well as Sieg- the homunculus who died a few nights ago and would have joined the war as an independent Saber. You two would have…gotten romantically involved, and by joining you both could have stuck around."
Jeanne seems taken aback by that, expression turning into one of wide-eyed surprise.
"I would have- I could not! That would have biased me!"
I roll my eyes a little.
"Come on, you're not unbiased- your opinion on what Wishes Servants should be able to make is yours alone. In general, you interpret the rules in a very morally good way, trying to limit casualties and prevent disasters and so on. Which, I should be clear, I feel is great. But it isn't unbiased: the Grail and the War don't care about the deaths that could occur as collateral."
"I suppose my actions could be seen such a way, but I do not feel that I am so biased as to utterly favour one participant over all others. Could it be due to Laeticia's feelings carrying across?"
"Maybe at the start, but I'm pretty sure you continued having those feelings for him after you separated. Though I could be wrong, I guess. To be honest, my understanding of your character and philosophy is more fragmented than someone like Artoria. I have the stuff from my vision of this war, as well as minor bits and pieces of…general trivia. Like, you're not good at maths, you want to see the ocean, you'd like to be an older sister, stuff like that."
"And a significant part of your knowledge of me is relates to this supposed relationship I had?"
"Something like that."
Jeanne looks me in the eyes.
"Would you want me-as-you-understand-me to join you? I was under the impression that you did not enjoy my company, like other members of your Faction."
Heh. I have a feeling I know who she's talking about.
"Mordred is just mad you landed direct hits on her both times you talked." Wait, have I not- "Oh, right. Thanks for that, actually."
Jeanne's head tilts, quizzically. Right, that probably wasn't understandable and needs some elaboration.
"When you first met her, apparently you drew attention to Artoria enjoying my food. That helped get through to Mordred and remind her of her real wish."
"No thanks are necessary, but I am glad it all turned out for the best in the end. And Atalanta?"
"Atalanta's issue, like mine, is mostly about your philosophy regarding Wishes and Servants; you have a worse falling out in my vision, but that's off the board now."
"And you? You have talked about your Servants, but not much of yourself. Would you want me to join?"
I pause to think, weighing up everything. I…don't agree with Apocrypha-Jeanne about a lot of stuff, to the point where I find her point of view hard to even grasp. On the other hand, I'm hardly only recruiting people who I 100% agree with; Mordred, Atalanta and Semiramis if she joins all have beliefs I don't agree with. I'm not at all romantically interested in Jeanne, but again see Fran and Astolfo.
"I…yes, I would like you onboard. I don't agree with you, but having some disagreement is fine, and yours would come from a sense of benevolence. A voice to remind me that there are other options or perspectives would be good."
I'm about to continue, when Astolfo's voice intrudes.
'Hey, Master. Red is getting fairly close- right on the edge of the field you mapped out. We might wanna get in position ourselves.'
I turn to Ruler, who seems to have a fairly good idea of what caused me to cut off.
"Astolfo said Red is getting closer; we should get moving."
As she nods, I reach out to the other Servants and let them know that it's time to form up.
-
The sight of the Fortress is somehow more impressive in person despite the distance. We've mostly arranged ourselves in the barren field before Black's Fortress, and Semiramis' Garden is floating over four kilometres away, but still seems to be the size of a ruler in the sky. With some effort, I enhance my vision and make out the dozens of small bones falling from the underside of the Garden into the ground below. Looks like the Dragon Teeth are coming into play, no matter how useless they'll prove against us; with our ability to infinitely spam Noble Phantasms, mooks are about the least effective way to fight us.
My enhanced vision can also pick up movement towards the front of the Garden, and I see the two expected Servants of Red, perched on the lip of the Garden poised to attack. Shirou, Semiramis and Shakespeare are all hidd-
"Hey Master, what's that thing?"
Astolfo's voice, no longer telepathic, catches my attention and I pull back to look at him. He's pointing towards the top of the Garden, where a half-centimetre of the structure of the garden seems to be moving. I follow his finger, enhancing my vision as…
As a massive dragon lifts from its perch on top of the Garden, where it had previously been camouflaged as part of the Garden's various dark spikes. It's covered in black scales, except for a glowing white-green sigil on its chest that I catch a glimpse of as it spins into the air. The sigil instantly brings Siegfried, with his similar glowing mark, to mind, which in turn reveals the identity of the dragon. However, this does nothing to explain how the hell Red got Fafnir!
Notes:
I wanted to write this chapter as a breather between action scenes, but it actually turned out to be annoying; the time limit was too short to go into large-scale and in-depth character interactions, but long enough to be something I couldn't just skip over. Catching up the new members of White followed by shorter check-ins on the new allies was an unfortunate compromise, and one in the future I'd try and avoid doing by either shortening or lengthening the time between fights.
The Jeanne bit especially was hard because she's…similar to Astolfo in that I have a hard time grappling with her character, but from the other direction; Jeanne is much closer to the objective-minded serious business character who I can normally understand. But I just can't click with her- some of the stuff she says in Apocrypha is fairly antithetical to what I believe. OTOH, her stuff that I found in my research outside of Apocrypha is a lot less…nuts (well, Summer Jeanne is more nuts but not in the same way), so it might be an issue with Apocrypha's writing, or it could be Jeanne-As-Ruler-Of-Grail-War presents a different side of herself to Jeanne-As-FGO-Servant. I'm choosing to go with the second (kinda similar to how I tried to reconcile Artoria's opinion on Mordred in the other direction), where Jeanne trying to be an unbiased-Ruler shines a different light on her compared to how she would act without that role hanging over her.
Also, yay finally Fafnir reveal to White, throwing out pretty much all of Rein's planning (which had assumed Red would only have two, or three with Semi, 'real' combatants) into the dirt. The Grail War is definitely coming to a close now, with probably only two or three more chapters specifically about that, though that won't be the immediate end of this world- there's a few things Rein has planned outside of the Grail War (a certain cemetery is due a visit, for one), in addition to the Wish Brainstorming stuff.
I would have liked to take a day or two to iron things out more, but I'm likely to be falling ill in the next 1-3 days and so felt I should post this now where at least I could do some comment responses and on-the-spot tweaking and editing- last time I posted when ill and without being able to look things over, things sorta went off the rails.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone