บท 18: Chapter 13.3 - One of Future Past [3]
Late at night, when the moon is at its highest,
"Ey~, I'm back!" Hanami pops in from…somewhere, a smile on her face. "So, how was your talk with them? Made any mistakes? Slipped up somewhere~?" She asks, though that last question sounded a lot more sinister.
"It was fine. I don't think I said something weird, so, no."
"Alright then, we're cool!" With her piece said, she sits down, joining him at the roof of the Einzbern castle. The snow is piling up all around them, but Shirou barely feels the cold. Is it because of [Avalon] or is it something else entirely? Who knows, but it does make cold showers impossible to enjoy now.
What a travesty…
"By the way," She suddenly says as an [Empty ID] forms around them. "We'll be busy soon."
"…why?"
She turns to him. "It's time to save Sakura."
"Sakura?" She nods and begins, "Matou Sakura, or Tohsaka Sakura as she was previously known, is the current daughter and heir to the failing Matou family, a family specializing on worm-based familiars. They were once a powerful family, being one of the three families to create the Holy Grail, but times have changed."
"Due to a…gruesome event." At that, she begins to frown. "Sakura was proclaimed dead, but the head of the Matou family, Zouken, saved her at the last second, but not for good intentions." And at this, her frown grows, bordering on a snarl. "The Tohsakas are known for being magi with large amounts of prana, and Zouken took her in and made her a living prana battery."
His entire body freezes, scenes shown by the Grail's mud surfacing in his mind. "Zouken's a fucking parasite, and the only thing keeping him alive is Sakura's prana. I-, we'll go and kill the guy tomorrow, but it won't be so easy."
He already has an idea, and the growing horror in his gut is growing heavy, but he pushes his question out. "…Why?"
"Zouken forced his worms into her, and they're feeding on their prana. Killing 'Zouken' is one thing, but he won't truly die unless all the worms in Sakura are killed. Healing Sakura up is easy enough, since we together managed to push Angra out of Kiritsugu's body, but saving her while Zouken's actively attacking us? If we're not careful, he could just kill Sakura and all our work will just go poof."
"So, you in?"
He doesn't say anything, though it's not like he needed to say anything anyways. Sakura is his friend, perhaps his only friend (excluding Shinji, though him being a friend is questionable), and knowing she is suffering and needs help is all the motivation he needs to go.
"Good! Good." Her voice lowers. "…good."
"Hanami? What's wrong?"
"…I'm-" She stops.
"…It's nothing."
"Hanami?" But she says nothing, and so he relents. He knows better to ask further, especially when Hanami is in a bad mood.
The atmosphere soon lightens however, and Hanami returns to her cheerful self, discussing future plans and several other random things as they sit under the night sky, surrounded by the falling snow.
It was a beautiful night, and Shirou made sure to commit it to memory.
~~~
…Magical elf zombies…not something I thought would work well, but I've been proven wrong apparently!
In real-time, it's actually about an hour or two past midnight. After having (forcing) Shirou to sleep, I decided to browse through the [Item Store] again, just to review what I can buy, and wouldn't you know it? Somewhere along the bottom of the list, I found an intriguing ID I can buy for a nice price.
Then I used it, and here I am now, standing on an expansive dune of purple sand. How lovely.
But what's most interesting is this world's history. Before all…this happened, the world was filled by people who had grown and attuned to the magic of nature. However, one day, a curious soul stumbles upon a strange artifact, and in his curiosity, accidentally unleashed what was inside.
A strange fungus-like being flowed into him and took over his brain, turning the host body into a factory for more fungus. As the man's body began to rot, spores were unleashed from his body, and it spread into the air. Immediately, the world was suddenly struck by sickness, and being so attuned to nature, they had never experienced massive diseases like this.
The sickness became a pandemic, and people were being taken over by this fungus parasite all over the world. Soon, not even a single soul is left.
Thankfully, since I have this thing called [Magic Resistance], I'm basically immune to the fungus' magical properties.
It reminds me a lot of The Last of Us actually, just that the infected could use nature magic to attack me. Heck, I might even be able to harness some of their properties and allow myself to use nature magic like them too!
I mean, I already have [Holy], [Dragon], and [Lightning]. Why not add [Nature] onto that list?
Now, aside from me just wanting to see what this whole ID's about, I'm here to test a certain perk my new [Voltaic Charge] has granted me. So, bringing out my staff, I hold it up, and I send a bolt of lightning upwards, before spreading towards the surrounding clouds. Then, slowly, using my prana to guide the clouds, I begin to gather them.
A blanket of clouds form above me, and with a smile of anticipation, I cause one last chain reaction,
And lightning begins to jump around, winds blowing harshly as nature begins to react.
A dry lightning storm has been made!
Oh, and hey, aren't my stats increased by 100 when a lightning storm is happening?
"Aah~" Mm, I can feel my power rising with the storm, and boy does it feel good!
[Due to certain actions, you have gained the skill [Call of Lightning]!]
"Guaaaaa…"
Hmm? Oh, turning around, I come to see a group of those elf zombies, standing there and staring at me, clearly surprised to see me with my flesh not rotting like theirs. Well, too bad, zombs~
Cause it's time to shock ya!
I pull my prana forward, and the magic rushes forward, swirling and moving into the staff. It dances around me, snapping back and forth, turning bright blue as it morphs into bolts of lightning. I look to them, and they look back, traces of fear seen lingering in their dead eyes. I smirk, and let go.
BOOM!
The bolt snaps forward, and in an explosion of electricity, the group of zombies is fried. Not even a shriek is heard as their ashes fly away with the rising winds.
[You have killed Rotting Gylphs x3. Gained 4500 Exp!]
I look to my hand, and my face begins to hurt from how wide my smile is.
Because I just zapped some bois out of existence! Yo, that was AWESOME! God, the normal one already felt great, but with the lightning storm going on? Oh, I feel like I'm on overdrive, baby!
I spend some more minutes just enjoying the feeling of the lightning bouncing around inside me, before finally sitting up and moving. Don't have any particular paths I wanna take, and I don't want to spoil myself using my Mystic Eyes, so I just decided to go east, zapping zombies and observing the area for anything of interest.
The purple dunes got boring after about 5 minutes, so I just began flying.
Eventually, after lots and lots of weak elf zombies being turned into ash, I come across a strange…uhh, satellite?
A structure made of green polished stone, shaped like a modern satellite dish, though much larger. I don't see any zombies around it, nor are there any inside. After entering it, the inside is surprisingly clean, with only some specks of dust latching onto the wall. The inside is mostly empty, with only a path leading to a rock at the center.
And inside it, a wooden dagger is stabbed, its edge stuck into the stone.
As cool as the dagger looks, all implanted into the stone-like Caliburn or something, it's actually just a normal dagger. Trust me, used my Mystic Eyes on it, nothing came up. Kinda disappointing really.
What pulling it out does is hardly disappointing though! From what my eyes can gather at least, the dagger's currently blocking the flow of some weird unknown energy, and the moment I pull it, the energy will flood this entire satellite dish, and it'll broadcast it out into the world, creating a pulse of energy and calling the gods.
Well, assuming the gods are still here of course.
But just pulling it out is kinda boring, so I create a [Prana Bullet] and shoot it instead, knocking the thing out of the stone and into the purple sand. Instantly, energy floods the satellite dish, and the building begins to rumble. Strange pulsing sounds are heard from above, and with it is the combined groans of what seems to be a legion of elf zombies, attracted to the sudden burst of energy.
"Well, more cannonfodder~" I say cheerfully as I skip my way out the building, lightning crackling around me. My Mystic Eyes flare to life, taking in all of the approaching elf zombies rushing in from all sides, and I smile.
More Exp for my [Voltaic Charge]!
~~~
[You have killed Rotting Glyphs x717. 1,075,000 Exp gained!]
[You have leveled up x2!]
[[Voltaic Charge] has leveled up x4!]
[[Prana Construct] has leveled up x7!]
[[Od Manipulation] has leveled up x2!]
Aah, what sweet, sweet bliss it is to stand atop the pile of ashes of my fallen enemies. Mm, tastes like very burnt toast, though accidentally tasting the ashes is better than breathing it in…Wait, since I accidentally ate some, does that mean I just ate the burnt remnants of a rotting zombie corpse…?
Okay, yeah, both tasting and breathing the ashes is terrible.
Anyways, I cleared out the massive horde of zombies with a combination of lightning strikes and prana whips covered in electricity. Actually, with how much I used the whip I'm surprised I haven't gained a skill for it yet. Well, then again, I don't think swinging the whip-like a sword counts as [Whip Mastery].
Or something else is happening, and my [Gamer] system's being weird. I don't know.
Now that all the enemies are fried, I finally look back to the satellite building, and the bright light ascending from its center, reaching up high into the clouds. Getting up from the pile of ash, I walk back into the building, shivering slightly from the sudden pressure in the atmosphere, but I continue onwards, before stopping at the pillar of light.
My Mystic Eyes activate, and-
[Gateway to [Yuriele] – Recommended Lv 45]
That comes up. From the lore my eyes can pick up, it seems this satellite building is apparently one of the many beacons the ancient people built to call down the heavens, or as I know now, [Yuriele]. There are more satellite beacons spread across the dunes, and I just happen to come across this one.
But, [Recommended Lv 45], hmm? Currently Lv 31 right now, but should I do it?
Meh, I went in the [Reave Jungles] back in Miki, and that one had a recommended level of 40. I think I'll be good.
Let's go!
~~~
[Transport confirmed]
[Activating warp drive]
[Initiating…]
~~~
…woah. Woah. Hol' up, where the hell's this!?
I was expecting some kind of cool, godly place, especially after reading the description from earlier, not some kind of weird blue void filled with static.
[Cyberspace]
It seems to be a strange gap between the warp drive. A blue void filled with numbers and information, all flowing and merging into one as you are whisked away.
Time until arrival: 4 minutes and 52 seconds
…huh, it's literally a loading screen. Ooh~, this gives me some Animus vibes from Assassin's Creed, though that one's white and is filled with translucent white boxes. Both are just as empty though, and just as trippy.
Since I don't have infinite stamina and MP, nor am I bored enough to run around in circles, I decide to sit down and browse the [Shop] again.
I've already looked at the [Item Store] one too many times, so I move on to the other two stores, though the [Skill Books] sold on the [Skill Store] are all boring, and those that look somewhat special need special materials I don't have yet. After a quick minute browsing, I move on into the [Pet Store], and this one is much more…interesting.
As the name implies, yes, I can buy [Pets] here. That's cool and all, but as take a look on the tabs, I notice a certain one that…well,
[Human/Humanoids]
Yeah, the name speaks for itself.
Now, I only have around 2 minutes left before the transfer, so I'm being quick here. This tab's structured a bit differently to the others. The, uh, 'commissions' don't have Ranks like the other pets, but they have levels placed right next to their names, which makes sense. Strangely enough, some of the 'commissions' go up to Level 200, which is…weird. Isn't the store limited and stuff?
Wait, that's only for [Ranked] items, isn't it? But shouldn't this count as-, ah, whatever. I can't afford them anyway.
Then, roughly a minute later, a certain one catches my eye.
[Brimstone Elemental – Lv 50]
One of the five ancient elementals. Once worshipped like gods, now barely a husk of her old self, clinging onto her form through the curses of brimfire she wields.
-?-
Costs 500,000,000 ¥
For one thing, the description's awfully short, especially for a living being. Then, taking into account the prices of other choices, this one's just awfully high, especially for a Lv 50. And that unreadable line of text at the end is just the cherry on top.
While it was quite painful watching 500 million disappear from my bank account, I don't regret it one bit.
Because damn, she is hot. Literally.
After my purchase, the area in front of me shines for a moment, before a large being appears, her form like a strange one-eyed woman, her body completely red, with flowing hair, sitting atop cracked black stone, carved and shaped like a rose.
[New item type has been added. [Familiars] is now unlocked]
Huh. Cool, let's see what this whole thing's about, shall we?
[Familiars]
-Brimstone Elemental [Lv 50]-
-Lancer: Gareth [Lv 150]-
-Rider: Francis Drake [Lv 170]-
Neat! So it's an-
"Wait, shouldn't I have gotten this when I summoned Gareth? What the hell? Is the [Gamer] system lagging or som-"
I don't quite get to finish my ramblings, as the void around me swirls, and light overtakes my entire vision.
~~~
[Welcome, Traveler]
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