章 32: 32. Ren Makes Progress?
*crunch* *crunch* Ren told herself it was like walking across autumn leaves. *crunch* Except it wasn't very much like that at all. Leaves didn't pop as they disintegrated. And it didn't help that Hyde was gleefully enjoying himself, twisting his foot to grind the shells to powder, and occasionally hanging back so he could dash up to her and skid on the carapaces of the dead insects.
As they approached the source of the breeze, the bug rug thinned, presumably the result of the fitful wind. But the wind, too, died away, and that made Ren nervous. "Did we lose it?"
"Maybe whatever it was flew away," suggested Hyde, shrugging.
"Why couldn't the wind blow away this stupid fog?" Ren demanded. She then called, "Hello? Is anybody out there?"
The mist swallowed her voice, but a moment later, something loomed out of the dimness: two feet taller than her, and twice as wide, with a snarling tusked visage and a battleaxe. It roared at them and swung the battleaxe at Ren.
She jumped backward with a squeak, evading its initial blow. It didn't have a chance for a second swing before Hyde bounced in front of it, grinning manically. His hand flashed and the leather covering the monster's abdomen slit open, red spraying out. The monster shrieked, but the shriek cut off abruptly in a bubbling sound as crimson foam bubbled under its chin. Then, although there was still no detectable wind, the monster simply blew away, turning back into mist again.
Hyde turned to where Ren crouched, still grinning, his eyes wide with delight. The monster's blood hadn't vanished when it did, and the spray still decorated the Servant and dyed his knife. "That was perfect. Even Jekyll couldn't argue with that. No mess to clean up after! Shout again!"
Ren narrowed her eyes and then cupped her hands around her mouth. "Anybody! Can you hear me?"
Hyde cocked his head, listening as the mist once again swallowed her voice. Ren only had a sense of a shadow moving when Hyde suddenly lunged forward, swinging his knife in a wide arc. Something clanged and jangled. Then Hyde ducked and skidded, sweeping his leg around as another oversized man-beast, this one with horns, staggered past him, its chainmail gaping from a horizontal slash. When Hyde hooked his leg around the minotaur's, it fell flat on its face and Hyde finished it off with a knife in the back.
It faded away as he knelt on it, and he sprang to his feet again. "I could do this all day," he said. "Hmm. But should I?" He gave Ren a sidelong look.
"You think it's bait?"
"Yeah. Pretty primo stuff, though." He kicked at the mist. "Totally solid, until it's not."
Ren crossed her arms on her knees, looking up at him thoughtfully. "This is what you want out of existence?"
Hyde's expression darkened. "It ain't so different than what the rest of them want, is it? When you get right down to it, all those so-called Heroic Spirit Servants are just murder machines, same as me."
"Jack likes eating and sleeping. Astolfo wants to explore. And Cú likes fishing—eek!" Ren squeaked as Hyde grabbed her arm and hauled her up, his face twisted with anger.
"Shut up. Anyhow, all those heroes ran off and left you, and only I stuck around, right? So don't knock the murder machines."
His grip on her arm was very tight. Her heart pounded and she was keenly aware she had no Command Seals, but she kept her voice mild as she told him, "You're hurting me."
"Hah!" he said, but he released her and turned away to look into the nothingness of the fog.
Ren hesitated, recalling a conversation with Cú. Then she put her hand on Hyde's back, under his vest, with only his thin white shirt between her fingers and his hot skin. She scratched lightly, trying to show him that she did value him. His muscles jumped against her palm.
"My self-control's huddled in a ball hallucinating right now, Master," said Hyde, his voice even harsher than usual.
"And yet something's holding you back," said Ren, continuing to move her fingers. "What's that?"
Hyde twisted his head to look down at her, and a toothy grin stretched his face. "Conflicting interests. Don't go putting your thumb on the scales unless you want to deal with the fallout."
Ren's hand stilled but she didn't withdraw it. "Jekyll basically said the same thing."
"No, not really."
"No? Well, anyhow, you're clearly not just a murder machine either."
Hyde snorted. "'Course I am. I'm proud of it."
Ren responded by scratching his back again. It was, under the circumstances, a mad thing to do, but she was in the realm of madness and fairy tales now. Or maybe she just empathized with his constrained existence.
In any case, he responded instantly, turning to her so that her arm was wrapped around him and his arm wrapped around her. His eyes gleaming, he traced her mouth with his thumb and then drew his fingernail lightly down her jaw to her jumping pulse. He lowered his mouth to hers, but instead of kissing her again, he said, his breath tickling her lips, "Aw, don't try to make me into a good guy, Master. My only other interest is just as bad, isn't it?"
As soon as her lips parted to answer, he licked them, licked his way between them, touched her tongue with his. Then he moved his mouth to her ear and said, "Or is this do me, Hyde already? Easier than I thought it'd be…"
Breathlessly aware of every movement of his hands and mouth, and of his body pressed against hers, Ren said, "You know this is the local summoning magic, right? It makes you want to touch me."
Hyde nibbled on her ear. "Makes me want to fuck you," he corrected. "Don't really matter if it's that or your gorgeous legs, or your sweet ass, or your pushy mouth, does it?"
It took Ren a moment to process that, a moment extended by Hyde moving his hand under her tunic to the skin beneath. He'd almost done that before, she remembered, before Jekyll had burned Merlin's charm to seize back control. This time, nothing stopped Hyde and the feel of his palm against sensitive skin was very distracting. A small, distant internal voice shouted at her about enemies, about man-beasts, about Ritsu, and she'd have to pay attention very soon…
"Yup, yup, yup," said a much louder external voice, and two heads suddenly popped up beside them: one with a pink braid and one with a hooked beak. "It's good to be straight—" Astolfo and the Hippogriff smoothly evaded Hyde's flashing knifestroke as he released Ren and struck in a single move. "—forward about these things, at least in my experience. Hi, Master!"
Dazed, Ren didn't resist as Hyde dragged her behind him and lunged at Astolfo again with a growl. Effortlessly, Astolfo and his mount once again sidestepped the attack, as if by accident. "But it doesn't really matter why, or even how we want you, Master, does it? I think what really matters is why… or how, I guess, you want us. We're the Servants, after all."
The Rider's words barely made an impression on Ren, but his presence finally did. "Astolfo!" She grabbed Hyde's vest and pulled hard. "Stop!"
Grumbling under his breath, Hyde relaxed. "Wasn't gonna be any fun anyhow without…"
Astolfo snorted. "You say that but look at her." He jumped off the Hippogriff and elbowed Ren, whispering to her, "I mean, I know the appeal. Look at Hippogriff there. You know what makes a Hippogriff? It's when a Griffin mates with his prey instead of devouring it. Heh heh heh." Astolfo's cheerful grin took both sting and lechery out of the remark.
Totally bewildered, Ren said, "How are you…. Why are you here, Astolfo? And how are you powering your Noble Phantasm?"
"What do you mean, why am I here?" asked Astolfo. "Everybody else ran off here, right? Even you're here now!"
"She ain't in the story," said Hyde sullenly. "Just like I'm not. Pretty sure you are, though."
Astolfo narrowed his eyes, and then abruptly wrapped his arms around Ren from behind. He was shorter than Hyde, short enough to easily rest his chin on Ren's shoulder, and he did so. "Hah! I see!"
"Cut it out, asshole," Hyde growled, fidgeting with his knife.
"Me?" said Astolfo innocently, before Ren shook him off. He laughed, leaping backward.
"What do you see?" she asked.
"What you see, I think. Pretty bleak! Mist and stone and Mr. Sharp there all bloody. I can sort of see it, if I squint, but there's all this other stuff, too. Wanna see?"
Ren thought for a moment. "Soon. But—Astolfo, can you tell me what happened last night? Hyde's…"
"A Berserker, yup," said Astolfo. "Sure. Okay, storytime!" He plopped down on the ground and the Hippogriff stretched out behind him. "Cú showed up in the middle of the night and brought a little kid with him. The kid had a fairy attached to him somehow. You got really upset and used a Command Seal, which kind of… broke Cú, maybe 'cause the fairy had already put the whammy on him. So Cú went on a rampage, but Merlin convinced him to take it out on the guys outside, and while he did that, the fairy put the whammy on everybody else. You and Tora fell asleep, and the fairy yanked everybody else into its spell and then went out and picked up Cú and the others too and now we're all here together working on this other thing." He looked up at Ren. "How's that? Better than Hyde's explanation?"
"Uh," said Ren, overwhelmed by the rush of words. "Other thing?"
"The fairy's thing," said Astolfo vaguely. "It's kind of… a ritual thing?"
"It's what's draining 'em," said Hyde.
"I guess," said Astolfo doubtfully. "I mean anything we do as Servants is gonna drain us somehow, right?" He brightened suddenly. "But Master's here now, and she can keep us recharged! The other Master's going to love that!"
The other Master, thought Ren with a cold chill. But something else was more important. "Astolfo, Ritsu and the locals aren't Servants. Are they being drained too?"
Astolfo's face fell. "Uh… I think so?"
"They are," said Hyde, almost smugly. "I told you, didn't I?"
Ren's hands curled into fists. Even though she still felt uncomfortable and uncertain about her missing memories, her goals clarified. "Right. Take me to this other Master."
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