Chapter 21: Volume 1. Epilogue
"—tair, wake up." I felt Morgan gently shake me awake, causing me to raise my head and blearily open my eyes.
Rapidly blinking, I brought a hand to rub the sleep out of my eyes before giving a tired sigh.
To say that my sleep had been anything close to good would be an over-exaggeration to the highest degree.
Reliving the memories of a young Morgan wasn't very pleasant, and I found myself thankful to whatever greater power had stopped me from dreaming about her life these past few months.
"Morning?" I said sleepily, while absentmindedly surveying my surroundings in the cave that had been transformed to look like Avalon.
How she did it was currently beyond me.
The theory behind it was 'simple,' as she was using Fay runes to create a bounded field similar to a reality marble, something called a 'mirror world,' where she was reflecting an image from Avalon and superimposing it on our current location.
Basically, a massive asspull only possible thanks to a fuckton of Fay runes, her territory creation skill, and her Fay blood working in tandem to superimpose a part of the reverse side into our reality.
Naturally, it couldn't reflect Avalon's effect onto the occupied space, but it did saturate the area with a higher density of mana, similar to the time right after the Age of Gods, as well as giving those occupying the space a soothing effect while staying there.
Unfortunately, trying to comprehend the Fay runes only left me with a headache, as well as an amused session of teasing from Morgan.
So trying to analyze it again was off the table.
Glancing down, I let out a small grunt of annoyance.
Apparently, I had fallen asleep on my desk again.
Pushing myself off the desk, I started a few stretches, causing my back to give a few popping sounds.
Giving a contented hum, I glanced over at Morgan, who was floating around the Greater Grail.
Apparently, she had used one of her shadows to wake me up, meaning that something important had happened, as she would usually try something 'amusing' to wake me up every day.
Walking away from my desk, I slowly made my way towards the floating Greater Grail.
"What's happened?" I asked in a serious tone.
Morgan barely moved her head in my direction before refocusing on the Grail.
"Four servants were summoned in quick succession," she explained.
The news caused me to frown.
"So five of the original seven have been summoned," I mused aloud.
A few Fay runes wrapped themselves around the Greater Grail before disappearing, causing Morgan to click her tongue.
"Indeed, it would seem so…" she said begrudgingly, before gliding over to me.
Gracefully, she landed on the lime green grass and slowly made her way over to me.
"Can you tell where they have been summoned?" I probed, causing her to give a light shrug.
"I am unable to pinpoint an accurate location, but three of the four summonings drew from the Fuyuki leylines, meaning that we can confidently conclude that three of them are here," she mused.
"I can only speculate that Berserker, Archer, and Rider have been summoned here, while the one abroad is probably Saber, if your memories of the first few episodes are anything to go off," she explained calmly.
Humming slowly, I gave a nod. "So Kayneth and the serial killer will soon summon their servants."
Bringing a hand up to my chin, I gave it a good scratch.
"I guess that means we'll need to clean up shop and ensure that everything is in order for the war," I commented.
Glancing up at the Greater Grail, I gave an imperceptible furrow of my brow.
"How's the security? Any issues?" I probed.
Morgan gave a shallow nod. "I've managed to put a few restrictions on the Grail, so Angra Mainyu won't be able to transfer himself into the Lesser Grail unless it is completely full," she said offhandedly.
"So hopefully, something like the end of Fate/Zero won't be possible, as the Grail won't be able to manifest without the equivalent of seven heroic servants having been killed," she said reassuringly.
At her words, I gave a small sigh of relief.
I'm fairly sure that the confusion of the Grail not manifesting will give Morgan and me a great opportunity to kill the remaining servant with ease.
As Morgan came up close to me, she raised her hand.
Slowly, a bracelet made of stone beads floated out of her shadow and placed itself into her outstretched hand.
Walking up to me, she gently grabbed my hand and slid it onto my right wrist.
"This should help us with keeping the summoning of Caster hidden," she said calmly, while tracing a finger over the back of my hand.
Smiling, I retracted my hand out of her grip and fiddled with the bracelet.
"Does it do anything else?" I asked offhandedly, causing a slight scoff to come from Morgan.
"Well, it does turn you into a pseudo-leyline, so expect to feel a bit drained when you use it," she said with amusement.
Eh?
Wrenching my gaze away from the bracelet, I was met by Morgan's void-like veil.
"Excuse me?" I said reproachfully, causing the witch to give an amused snort.
"You are excused, my dear Alistair," she said with amusement.
I slightly squinted my eyes at Morgan, who gave no perceptible reaction to my apparent displeasure.
"Couldn't you have come up with a less excruciating workaround?" I said with mild reproach.
Morgan only shook her head ruefully.
"To ensure that the Church and other masters don't notice the summoning, you'll need to take the leylines' burden onto yourself, as then there won't be a trace of the leylines taking a hit for the summoning," she explained with amusement.
I have this odd feeling that she is enjoying this… maybe I shouldn't have been so insistent on the whole 'ensure that the majority have a happy ending' requirement that I have for the war.
While I was sure that Morgan could probably wipe out most, if not five of the seven servants with ease, I'd prefer less bloodshed if possible.
As in, I'd not like to kill any of the masters, other than the serial killer and priest, obviously. As well as doing a few side-quests, like killing the worm, and hopefully creating a new body for Irisviel.
Call me overly naive, as I'm sure that I'll probably not be able to do most of what I've laid out, but I think it's worth a try.
Practically everyone that participated in the Grail War got their life horrifically ruined, or died in a terrible way, so I'd rather give as many people a second chance if given the opportunity.
But being used as the leyline is going to suck, like a lot…
There is a reason why I did my summoning at Stonehenge, where five leylines intersect. Servant summoning should be impossible, something only the Counterforce should be capable of.
Meaning that to do it, you'll need something capable of connecting to the Throne of Heroes, and then a FUCKTON of mana to drag a copy of a Hero into our world.
Hence why the Greater Grail is in Fuyuki, where three leylines cross, so it can bear the lion's share of the cost when summoning a servant.
And now, Morgan, in all her eternal grace and kindness, has decided that I should act as those three leylines and bear ALL the cost of the summoning…
I mean, I can do it… but it will suck, and I'll feel like shit for twenty minutes…
Keeping them tethered to the world is considerably 'cheap' when put into perspective of singlehandedly summoning them.
As in, I could probably have four… maybe five servants of a similar caliber to Morgan when summoned as a Caster or perhaps an Archer. As they are the cheapest thanks to their Independent Action skill, or their ability to draw mana from the land.
Though my combat ability might be hampered, thanks to me overheating like a motherfucker thanks to all the servants taking so much Od from me.
"And you couldn't think up any other way around this… like storing mana from a different leyline, like the one in Tokyo, and then using it for the summoning," I said dryly, causing Morgan to raise a hand and place it under her veil.
"Why didn't you suggest something so smart earlier?" she said with mock astonishment.
"I would have been willing to do it in a heartbeat," she lied with contemptible ease.
Sighing dramatically, Morgan gently shook her head. "Too bad that we don't have the time to do it now, or else we might lose the chance at sabotaging the summoning," she said in such a genuine tone, that I'd have believed her if it wasn't for the tone she had used earlier.
"Yes," I said dryly. "Truly a shame…"
Ignoring her clear attempts at sabotage, I decided to move onto our next course of action.
"Do you have the homunculi bodies ready?"
Morgan merely gave a hum before walking past me.
Turning around, I watched as three human bodies that looked more like window mannequins—meaning they had no distinguishing features, like facial features or genitals, float out from her shadow.
Morgan prodded one of them with a fingernail, which punctured its skin with little resistance, drawing some blood.
"Yes, they should work as convincing dummies," she said before healing the wound with a snap of her fingers.
"Though I'll need a few minutes to calibrate them before our dearest prey comes across them," she explained.
Walking up to them, I gave the one closest to me a poke.
It felt like a normal human, in that it somehow wasn't as cold as a corpse despite not breathing; it just looked kind of creepy.
"And there will be no issues with using the blood for the summoning?" I asked, causing her to scoff.
"Blood is blood, so there should be no issue," she said dismissively.
Nodding at her words, I moved past them, back to my desk, and picked up a backpack.
"Then, I think it's about time for me to 'return' to Fuyuki," I said, making Morgan give a slight nod.
"I'll dispose of your body double in Kyoto, so you won't need to go too far—just take a train out and take the first one back," Morgan suggested, making me nod.
"Sounds good," I said, before glancing at my watch. There should be a train or two that goes around 7 AM, so I shouldn't need to wait for long.
Turning to glance at Morgan, I spread my arms. "Goodbye hug?" I suggested with a hint of amusement, earning a lighthearted snort from the witch.
Seemingly gliding over to me, she invaded my personal space and snaked her arms around my torso.
"Come back before midday, and I'll give you more than just a 'welcome back' hug," she whispered into my ear.
Not feeling confident about giving a response, I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a light squeeze, before patting her back and letting go.
Morgan held the hug for another few seconds before letting go and sinking into the shadows.
{See you later, Master…} Morgan's voice whispered into my ear, causing the hair on my back to stand on end.
As alluring as she is, she gives me the shivers, both in the good and bad ways…
I'm not sure if my luck with women is amazing or terrible, as both of the ones interested in me are borderline insane and certainly psychotic.
Shrugging away my discomfort, I snapped my fingers, causing a gust of wind to surround me and slowly wrap around me.
Invisible air was certainly a useful magecraft, and I could only thank Morgan for teaching me it, or else I'd probably have been discovered a while ago when buying groceries.
Smiling to myself, I started to hum a tune.
I wonder if the trains go anywhere interesting… Perhaps I could buy some local specialties… it would be nice to be a proper tourist for a few hours, and not a glorified caveman…
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263 Hours, 48 Minutes And 34 Seconds Until Zero
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A/N
Welcome back, my reader Overlords, please add this to your library and give me some comments, stones and Reviews, as it would be much appreciated.
Now that the mandatory begging is done, time to ask the hard hitting questions.
What are your thoughts on the chapter?
This is the last chapter of Vol. 1! Woop Woop! Only took a bit over 80K words!
Sorry that it is smaller than usual, but the prologue and epilogues are meant to be 'short' in my opinion, so the next one should be around the same length. but the one on Friday will be around the usual 4K.
Now, I'd like for you all to send some suggestions or anything similar that you'd like to happen in the Grail war! As if it's interesting and makes enough sense, then I might add it!
Btw, I have made a Discord server for the fic, come on and chat with me!
https://discord.gg/eJpSFD4H
Now I'm tired, so have a nice day, and send me some stones or some shit, I need motivation, or some shit like that.
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