บท 14: Chapter 12.1 - May Fate Never Chain You Again [1]
'Why couldn't I have done more?'
It's the only regret Gareth has over her life as a knight.
She wondered, had she trained for longer, fought and learned harder, would she have saved Camelot from falling apart? Would she be able to prevent Sir Lancelot from losing himself?
Sometimes, she dreamt of such scenarios, of worlds where she is known as a brave knight of the round table, and the kingdom she served known throughout the entire world. But alas, the dream soon ends, and she'll wake, forever reaching for that impossible dream.
Will she wish to change all that?
No, no she won't. Her kingdom may be mere history, but its legacy remains. Britain stands today, tall and with pride, and no doubt her king and the other knights would be pleased to see it. Honestly, it's too bad there is a War she must compete in at the moment. She so wants to go visit her motherland, but doing so now is impossible.
And she isn't going to complain, because she's a big girl now!
That aside, this Holy Grail War is…interesting. The grail had supplied her with foreknowledge on the world before her summoning, and she was fairly sure the servant was the one to fight other servants, while the masters are the ones commanding them.
Which was why she was so outright shocked to see her master and her male companion spar with speeds and power that rivaled or even surpassed most servants. Sir Shirou is fast, incredibly so, and she had a hard time trying to catch his blurring image as he sped around the empty field. His constant forward momentum reminded her of Sir Lancelot, and she couldn't help but imagine what would happen if the two met.
Hanami, her own master, did not lose against him. The speed and strength she lacked, she made up with her immense magical prowess, casting spells and altering the landscape with hardly any trouble. If Sir Shirou reminded her of Sir Lancelot, then her master resembled Merlin with his incredible magical strength and cheery personality. She hasn't quite seen if she also has his pranking tendencies, but she dearly hopes her master isn't a prankster.
Actually, she's somewhat convinced that the two aren't humans. Sir Shirou's injuries heal far faster than possible, and her master's magecraft is far too powerful for a spell cast in an age far past the age of gods.
Gareth doesn't know why, or how, or the way this war will go on. But one thing is for sure.
'This will surely be quite the bizarre adventure.'
~~~
"Hmm…so they don't have these either…" Waver frowns, looking at the slip of paper in his hands, giving a cross over an item Caster had asked him to get. They aren't all that rare, but all the stores were oddly empty of the items he wanted. He'd only managed to get some herbs and roots to use for healing potions.
He sighs. He'd gotten into his flow too!
Lamenting his loss of progress, he continues onward, looking for any other stores he can possibly buy the needed items from.
Then he feels it, and all his hairs immediately stand on its end.
'A-A servant!?'
"It seems like it. Should we see who they are?" Then Caster's voice suddenly sounds from behind him, and it's only barely that he manages to stop himself from falling over.
'When did you-!? N-No, never mind.'
It isn't time to be freaking out over this. A servant had sent a signal, and it's now his choice to see who it is. It's a heavy dilemma. Stay too passive and get eaten, or go aggressive and jump into the fire? He let the turmoil bounce in his head, slowly assessing the possible scenarios, but then he remembered something he read from that book.
'Do not try and reason with servants. Their existence is above our reality.'
"Let's go." He sees Caster's astral form nod, and the two make their way towards the signal, splitting from the crowd and beginning to enter a forest at the far west. Sounds fade, a sign that they'd just entered a Bounded Field, and Caster immediately materialized, drawing out a wooden bow from thin air.
Just in time to block a large cannonball, the force sending her back and away from Waver.
"Caster!" But there isn't any time for him to follow her as he quickly jumps back. The ground he stood on before exploded, and out from the dust comes a girl. She's beautiful, incredibly so, with her glistening gray hair and her red eyes, but he sees the fanged teeth she has, and the stains of blood all around her dress and he realizes.
'She's a dead apostle!'
"Ho~? What's a young boy doing here, hmm~?" Her red eyes flash, and she forms a cruel smirk.
"Oh well~"
And then she rushes forward, mouth open. She was far too fast for him to follow, too fast to react, so Waver can only wince as he feels her teeth sink into his neck, drawing blood and quickly beginning to drain the liquid that gives him life. He grits his teeth, staring at the manic amusement dancing in her eyes.
Suddenly, pain flashes through the dead apostle's body, and she jumps back to see a small green dagger stabbed into her abdomen. "Oh, so the little boy can fight ba-"
Then she suddenly falls, and it's to her horror to see her pale white skin beginning to turn black, like a plague is slowly eating her body away. "W-What is this!?" But no matter what she does, no matter how much prana she tries to force into the wound, it isn't closing, and the taint isn't slowing down.
"Of course I can fight back. It would be kind of embarrassing if I can't." She quickly snaps to the boy, growling as she sees him drink a vial of red liquid. He throws away the empty vial, and with rubbing his neck, he stares at her. "Never underestimate an opponent." He says, smiling as steam begins to rise out from between his fingers.
Casually, he removes his hand and stretches it out, the bite mark no longer there.
'W-What the fuck!?' Understandably, the dead apostle is shocked. Before she became a dead apostle, she was a magus, and she knows of the potions alchemy can make. But never had she seen a potion that can heal a wound so quickly and cleanly!
"Who…are you!?"
"Waver Velvet." Two more daggers are thrown, and she can only dodge one and let the other one stab into her left shoulder. Immediately, the same taint begins to spread, and strength leaves her left arm, letting it dangle uselessly at the side. She growls, pulling out the knife she recently receives and throws it back at the offending human.
Only for it to shatter in the air, leaving only motes of light.
Any further thoughts are interrupted as a glass of white liquid smashes onto her face. The liquid hardens, blocking her sight. No longer caring for her appearance, she tears off the white solid with bestial ferocity and bends forward,
"Gräm!" Just in time to receive a ball of blazing fire to the face, which is further powered up by the sudden splash of oil on her body.
"GYYYAAAAAAA!" An inhumane scream leaves her throat, loud enough to send shockwaves out through the forest, knocking Waver back slightly. But that was enough for her, and she quickly leaps forward, her nails extending to unsightly claws, and she makes a deep gash right on the boy's chest.
He flinches from the sudden pain, before he pulls out a vial of red liquid, the same one he drank earlier, and flushes it down her throat.
She blinks, confused, but she smirks and stabs her claws through his chest, delighted at the expression of pain he gains. "So~! How does it feel!? Hurt so much you used to wrong potion, hmm!? That's why-!"
"That's why you're so pathetic." Her eyes pop open, suddenly realizing that the voice that finished her words isn't hers, and to her horror, she realizes that her speech is missing. Waver raises his feet, visible circuits of prana glowing on the limb, and he kicks her, hitting the hilt of the knife and driving it further into her stomach.
"My potion heals the living, giving them life. You're a corpse living on past its time." He smiles. "Then what would happen if you drink my healing potion?"
Scalding heat burns in her lungs, but she can't scream, the throat he'd poured the potion in turning black. "Cancer cells live on because they're faulty, and when they are healed, they die." He levels a stare at her. "Your body is an organism living past its prime. You cannot heal, only regenerate. Isn't that right?"
Any remark she has goes silent. All she can do is hold on, gripping tightly to the remnants of life she has as the potion reaches down into her bloodstream. Patches of black are appearing all over her body now, mixing together with the others.
'H-How…?'
How had this gone so wrong? She is a dead apostle, a superior being to humans! She had many grand ideas, so many things she wanted to do. And the grail had chosen her as a master! Fate must truly be on her side, wasn't it!?
'I-Is this…?'
Is this her punishment for tampering with life? Is this the work of fate? Pitting her against this elusive magus to defeat her?
'Damn…it…'
And so she closes her eyes, and the rest of her body crumbles down, turning into black chunks of rock, crumbling away and returning to the earth it once came from.
Waver sighs, popping open another potion of healing and taking a drink. Just like before, the stabs and scratches her received closes, steam rising out as the wound disappears. But it doesn't remove the pain, and he barely stopped himself from screaming as the stab through his heart closes.
He stares at the ground the dead apostle once stood, before giving a shaky breath and backing up onto a nearby tree.
That was…both the most awesome and terrifying thing he'd ever gone through. He never thought he'd be able to defeat another master, let alone a dead apostle! Then again, she isn't as strong as the Clocktower says, which means that she's a particularly new dead apostle, but still! A dead apostle! And he killed it!
Had he been the Waver from a couple months ago, he surely would've died instantly. He isn't a spectacular magus, and being the first from his family, he doesn't have much backing to further his research.
Which is why he only holds appreciation for Caster, the woman who'd accepted him as her disciple. Sure, she trains him more on alchemy and battle than actual magecraft, but the effects show.
Now, to find Caster…
~~~
"Not bad!" Caster sighs, lowering the bow and taking a look at the attacker, a boisterous woman with a scar across her face. She wears an excited grin, made menacing by the pair of pistols held in her hands.
Caster does not react.
"Hmm…a silent type, huh." The woman frowns, before shrugging. "I don't mind that."
The two pistols fire, but the bullets are swiftly intercepted by a blast of…light pellets?
Rider swiftly turns and leaps away, barely in time to avoid the sudden pillar of light crashing down. Pellets of light begin to shred out, firing away in all directions, some of which Rider shoots down. Most are missing? Rider raises an eyebrow, wondering if this opponent of hers has impaired eyesight, but she looks at the scattering light pellets again, and it's to her…surprise? Yeah, surprise, that the pellets are forming a pattern.
"Forgive me. From where I'm from, introductions are done after the bout, but this isn't that place anymore." The pillar of light fades, revealing Caster, floating high above. "Servant Caster. As it is unlikely for you to be Assassin, I assume you're Rider?" She says, but something about that seems off.
"Yep! Francis Drake at yer' service!"
"Isn't revealing your true name ill-advised?" Rider scoffs at that, looking towards the forest where Waver and Rider's master seemingly are. "Honestly, I just want this war to end. My master's boring as hell, and she's a psycho." The pirate sighs. "And she's not even using her command seals. It's kinda sad really."
"I agree." Caster curtly says, and Rider grins. "Not much of a talker, are you?" She says, and Caster shrugs. "I find talking in battle rather tiring."
"Well-" Light shimmers behind Rider, and the air seems to tremble. Caster forms an arrow and notches it, aiming it at her. Rider smirks. "Let's continue!"
"[Golden Hind]!"
A large red ship forms from the light, its cannon bared and ready to fire. Rider fires her pistols, the cannons of her ship following in tow, and Caster fires her arrow, charged and shimmering with rainbow light. The two forces clash with a bright flare, but the firing continues.
Rider maintains her cannon fire, while Caster begins to move, flying around as she fires back at the Noble Phantasm. But as expected of one, the ship doesn't fall easily, and it takes several powerful shots to finally see some of the wood tear off.
Had this battle occurred at night, then this bout would've been much easier for her.
"[Sprout]." At Caster's command, sprouts of bamboo burst out from the earth, stabbing into the bottom of the ship and destroying one of its cannons.
Not ordinary bamboo then. Rider concludes, seeing the splinters of wood laying on the deck. With one of the [Golden Hind]'s cannons destroyed, and part of it stuck because of the bamboo, Rider's firepower decreased, and the ship's mobility is cut short. She could dispel the ship and resummon it again, but that'd leave her open to attacks, especially seeing how fast those bamboo sprouts grew out from the ground.
Oh well, she's dragged this out enough.
Rider grins. "Now! [Let the hunt begin]!" The words reverberate through the air, a physical manifestation of the power behind her words as the grass around them begins to violently sway. Ripples scatter across the area, and chunks of dirt and stone are ripped from their place, carried away by an unseen monsoon.
Waver is in there! Caster narrows her eyes, before moving right in front of the path towards the forest she'd been shot out of. She disposes of her wooden bow, letting it fade back into the world, and presses a hand down on the fertile soil below. "[The gates to the imperial sanctuary. Cast away those unworthy]"
"[Fire]!"
"[Golden Wild Hunt]!"
An army of a hundred ships, each armed with their own cannons appear out from the ripping air. Their cannons prime, and with power bolstered by their history, the cannons fire out beams of concentrated fire, following the fire of her ship's cannons. The hail of massive laser-fire quickly reaches Caster, but she does not move away.
She reaches out into the earth, invoking a mystery long past, and shouts.
"[Bamboo Forest of The Lost]!"
Sprouts of bamboo grow out, jutting into the sky with astounding speed. But as before only tens had appeared, this instance far surpasses the thousands, creating an interlocking layer of enchanted bamboo. The cannon fire meets the bamboo, and the world is blown away as the two forces begin to compete.
Slowly, under the combined heat, the bamboo begins to burn and snap away, one by one, and soon stack by stack. Soon, a third of all the bamboo had already burnt down, and more is following. The air grows thick with the heat, and the grass under Caster shrivels and burns from the combined heat.
Another third burns down, and the combined cannon fire has now become visible to Caster, and she gains an understanding of why the forest of bamboo burnt away so quickly despite its many enchantments.
But alas, the heat flows away, and the cannon fire finally fades, with the burnt grass around Caster being its only indication of ever happening.
"…Damn, I lost hard, huh."
'But that wasn't the full extent of her powers.' Caster deduces, looking at the slowly fading legs of Rider.
"Had your master not died that last second, you would've have broken through." Caster says in consolation, but Rider merely scoffs. "Bah. You probably have more things up your sleeve, don't ya'?" To that Caster says nothing, but the answer is clear, and Rider sighs. "Ma, even without being held back, I don't think I would've beaten you."
"…Well, this sucks." Rider says, laughing, and Caster forces down the slight chuckle building in her throat, instead giving a small wry smile at the scarred woman's little conundrum.
"Then do you want to have another chance, Rider?"
All eyes are immediately drawn to the new voice in the scene. It's a young girl, roughly around Waver's age. She doesn't look too out of place, but as she'd come to know, outward appearances are very misleading, and she can clearly feel the immense pool of prana the girl has inside her, one big enough to compete even against servants.
"Well, who're you?" Rider says, still sounding pretty annoyed from the entire experience. The girl smiles wryly. "What I said. Want to continue in the war?"
"…Girl. You're a master, right?" She nods. "And you've got a servant already, right?" Another nod. Rider sighs. "You want to kill yourself by having me?"
The girl smiles again. "Meh, don't worry about it, Rider! My prana's large enough to host you too!"
"She's telling the truth, Rider." Caster finally says. "The girl's prana is far above a normal mage. I don't think she'll suffer any consequences by having you as well." The girl gives a bright smile and a thumbs up at her support, and she's reminded of her a certain witch from the past.
"…huh." Rider looks to the girl, an eyebrow raised in suspicion. "And the catch?"
"None!" She says, before growing silent. "…Well, I guess just be ready, since some of the servants we're going to face is pretty crazy."
But Rider isn't convinced, and she retains her stare at the girl. Slowly, the girl's smile slips away to a much more serious look. She breathes out a sigh, before suddenly creating a Bounded Field around them. "Alright, I'm just going to say this. Right now, things aren't doing so well, and if things continue, we might just end up in some massive trouble."
"Like?"
"First. I don't think the grail's able to choose non-human masters." The girl says, looking around cautiously, before continuing. "Two. You're the second Rider in this war."
Caster's eyes light up in realization. 'How had I forgotten?' She'd gone with her master yesterday night to view the battle, and one of them was clearly a Rider. How had she forgotten so quickly?
And then, something in her mind shatters, and she loses her balance. It's only barely that she manages to regain her ground before falling. "…That's right. There'd been another Rider yesterday night."
The girl nods and turns back to Rider. "And third…well, it doesn't matter whether you want to join or not, but whatever you do, if things get out of hand, the entire world may just be swallowed by tainted mud, and, you know, begin to end of the world."
"…shit. So the grail's trying to fight back, huh." Rider says, her blue eyes now much clearer than before.
'It seems she's broken out of it too.'
But this brings up a worrying revelation. The grail is now actively sabotaging its own ritual, placing small, yet far-reaching doors in their mind to stop them from realizing the strangeness of this war. Why is it doing so? What does the girl mean by the 'world being swallowed by mud'? And why does she know so much?
"Yep." The girl says, playfully popping the end of her word, though her eyes are hardly playful.
"Sir Francis Drake. May I seek your assistance to end the grail once and for all?"
There are no lies in her words, no hidden intentions behind her back. Everything she says is the truth, and once again, Caster is reminded of her past, of a pair of humans who'd lived and reached the impossible, who'd accomplished deeds not even she could ever imagine.
The world falls silent, and despite the bottom half of her body gone, Rider hums in thought, rubbing her chin as she considers. Then, she shrugs and smirks. "I've never liked short voyages, so I'll take up that offer, master."
"I'm glad you agree."
Then, with the connection established, Rider's disappearing body immediately reforms. "Woah, you sure aren't kidding, Caster! This girl's loaded!"
And despite that, the girl doesn't look the slightest bit winded, and that's perhaps the most shocking of all. "Welp, nice you have you aboard, Francis!"
"Oh, and call me Hanami. I still can't get used to Lancer calling me master and all." Rider-, no, Francis laughs, giving a hard friendly pat at her new master's back. "Not one for formalities, are you, Hanami?"
Hanami then turns to Caster. "Oh, and Caster?"
"Yes?"
Hanami smiles. "Take care of Waver, alright? I don't want anyone in this war to die, especially him." Caster blinks, surprised, but she nods and returns the smile. "I will, Hanami."
"Alright then, I guess I'll go back now. See you later, Caster!"
"See ya', Caster!"
And so, the Bounded Field disappears, and Caster is alone, standing on a small patch of burnt grass. She takes a moment to sigh, internally reprimanding herself for being caught in such a trap. Had Hanami not appear before them like that, would she have been able to shatter the illusion herself? Would she be too late when it happened?
It's ironic really. For someone who is quite adept at illusions, she was caught by one so easily.
"Caster!" She then hears Waver's voice calling out to her, and she turns around to meet him, smiling slightly.
'Oh well.'
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