Once Tarasque disappeared, Martha stayed still for a second before sighing. Spinning her cross-like staff she faced the defenders of humanity without fear, proving that her mission from the start hadn't changed.
'The similarities are starting to become too many to pass this off as a mere figment of my imagination.' He had reincarnated, plenty of times. Man, woman, monster... He went from one side of the spectrum to the other. To him, though, those were mere dreams—something that didn't define his sense of self, nor something that was easily remembered. It was just a fog. The problem was, that fog was being cleared at the moment, and he wasn't sure he liked that.
"Saber, leave her to me." Turning to Artoria, he lay down his request. Whatever the truth was, he felt the sudden need to put an end to this himself. The way she looked back at him, though, told the black-haired man that the said request was not well received by her.
"What is your plan, bastard? I'm the one who is fighting her. I am not some helpless little girl that would need your help to resolve my battles." To her, what he said was nothing more than insulting. If this was his idea of a joke, it was not funny in the slightest.
"Sigh... Consider it a favor, you can ask me for something later. Though, don't go overboard." He said making a glint appear in Saber's golden eyes that disappeared as quickly as it came.
"Fine, just this time." Saber's disinterested tone sure hid her true intentions. She was going to make him work like a mule. 'Come to think of it, wasn't he able to shapeshift into a mule or something? Fitting.'
A vein popped on Martha's forehead listening to the conversation between the two. "Can you stop talking like I'm not here?! Do you want me to use the holy knuckle?!" Madness Enhancement plus these two guys aren't helping to keep her patience at all.
"Master, be careful." Jeanne's tone was serious at the same time that it was hesitant. To her, fighting someone so respectable was a bit on the blasphemous side, not to mention that it left her with conflicted feelings. Meanwhile, Mash and Fujimaru nodded, agreeing with Ruler's words.
"Just remember to dazzle your opponent with a smile!" Marie commented from the side but for the sake of the world, Seth ignored her. In fact, it was probably going to be a recurring theme in the future.
Coming back to reality, Seth now properly faced his opponent. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Martha—No. Saint Martha."
Martha didn't say anything, she just closed her eyes and ducked her head a little like she was going to pray. Her staff glowed before a blue light covered her.
Seth felt something strange on his body after she did that, it felt like he became a bit weaker on the defensive side. 'Must be one of her skills.' He theorized.
With her staff still glowing, she dashed at him and performed a diagonal swing to the sky. Seth moved his head backward to avoid the hit.
Continuing to attack, Martha decided to throw a kick at him but he used his spear to block it. She used everything at her disposal, ranging from her staff to her fists.
Seth for his part only used his weapon, he didn't like using his body to attack. Of course, if the need arises he will not get picky.
As the battle progressed, cuts started forming on Martha's skin. Using his spear like a hammer, he did a vertical swing at her.
Despite blocking the blow with her staff, the ground beneath her caved in and cracked causing her to grit her teeth to withstand the attack.
Taking advantage of her predicament he quickly retracted his weapon and slashed at her stomach, creating a deep wound and sending her flying to a tree.
"Gah...!" After impacting the tree trunk she fell to the ground on her knees, her vision blurring. Looking ahead of her, she noticed the man she was fighting was standing in the same position as before, having not moved a single step since he attacked her.
Her vision blurred once again and when it returned to normal, a spear was piercing her chest. "Cough...It's enough, you...cough...did well..." Talking was extremely difficult, especially so with his weapon embedded in her.
"Listen well...you need to go to wh—cough cough...to what was once Lyon. There...there you will find what you need...cough...what you need to defeat Fafnir." Even if her body begged her to just disappear and make her suffering end, she knew she had to use her willpower to convey the message she needed to give.
"To defeat Fafnir? Are you referring to a Dragon Slayer perhaps?" Martha nodded at his questions. It was either that or a Dragon-slaying weapon, and he was not sure France had one in this era.
"I see... Thank you for the information." Seth thanked her genuinely. It seemed that even though she was a Servant for the enemy side, and even though she was under the curse of Madness Enhancement, her wish to help mankind was intact. Though her attitude might not be exactly Saint-like, her heart was.
The blue-haired woman smiled before asking, "Have we...met before?" It was strange. In her final moments, she had the sudden feeling that she knew this person, although she was sure she had never seen him before. As she said, it was strange.
"Who knows? I am also asking myself the same question." The Egyptian God couldn't really say it was him the one who was familiar with her. Similarly, he couldn't say it was this version of her the one that knew the other him.
"Mhm... If you ever find out...be sure to tell me..." With nothing more to say, and in turn, nothing that required her to hold on for, Martha finally disappeared once her mission was finished. The blue mottes of light joined the moon in illuminating the night soon after.
"...I guess we have a new destination now. She was right, a Dragon Slayer would be a big help." The hologram of Dr. Roman said, not really knowing how to process an enemy that wanted to help them, but she was still an enemy, and then perhaps she was a friend all along. It was too confusing for him.
They nodded in acceptance. The next day, their destination was already chosen.
Meanwhile, in the black Jeanne's castle, two new Servants had been summoned. This, however, didn't bring her any joy. Noticing this, Gilles who was by her side decided to ask.
"What's the matter, Jeanne? What put you in such a bad mood?" He asked with a soothing voice like that of a parent speaking to their children, even if his face didn't bring any comfort.
'If someone here isn't real, that would be you...you are just an amalgamation of evil...' Those words kept playing inside her head like a broken record.
"Dammit! Dammit!" Jeanne didn't respond, she just kept cursing and destroying the walls of the room they were in.
Despite the display, Gilles kept smiling as if nothing happened. In fact, he liked what she was doing. That was proof she truly lived for hate and revenge.
After breaking a few more things, she finally calmed down. Taking a deep breath she looked at Berserker Caster. "I'm sorry, Gilles. I'm okay now."
With the same smile on his face, he responded. "No, no. It's quite all right Jeanne. Now, will you tell me what is bothering you?"
"Gilles...I'm the real Jeanne D'Arc, right?" She answered with another question. Normally she wouldn't doubt it but the voice of that hateful man keeps messing with her head.
Without a change in his expression, he answered her. "Of course, you are the real one, Jeanne. You were betrayed and ultimately burned at the stake. If you can't harbor hate against the ones who did that, wouldn't you say that person was not human?"
"Yes...yes, you are right. I will get my revenge on them, I will make sure to destroy them until there is nothing left, starting from that man!" She said with blazing fury, especially the last part. That psychological scar seemed to run deeper than she ever thought.
Calming herself once more, she turned toward the two newly summoned Servants. "Now. shall we get going, Lancelot, the Knight of the Lake, and the Executioner Charles-Henri Sanson?"
Lancelot, the knight in black armor only responded with an ununderstandable growl while Sanson, the white-haired young man with a big sword smiled while saying, "Of course, if someone is going to take the head of the Queen, that would be me."
'Hmph. You can talk big all you want, but the important thing is that you don't go to get killed as soon as you hit the battlefield.' It was a good thing she only needed to inflict Madness Enhancement on them and then let everyone loose on the cities. She wouldn't be able to stand it if she had to have them by her side all the time.
"See that you do." With nothing more to add, she departed from there.
____________________________________
On their way to Lyon, Chaldea's group passed by an abandoned town. They decided to ask for information about the current situation as no one really knew what was happening at the moment.
Marie offered herself to be the one to enter the town and ask, the rest of the group didn't have any problems with it, and Jeanne herself couldn't enter as she would likely cause mass panic.
While Marie went inside, they decided to discuss a bit about their future plans.
"We have to search for the Dragon Slayer that Saint Martha talked about but what are we going to do next? If what we discussed yesterday about the black Jeanne summoning more Servants becomes reality, we are going to need more help. Especially if that person is busy fighting Fafnir." Mash said worriedly from the side.
"Our best option is looking for more Servants, maybe we will find some on our way to Lyon or even Orleans." Romani chimed in with a solution.
"What the weird Doctor says is right. However, nothing says those Servants won't be enemies as we said before so that option is not viable." Saber remarked without a change in her expression, causing Dr. Roman to cry internally. Although in all honesty, he saw that coming.
"Yes... As much as we need help, wasting unnecessary energy fighting someone who is not exactly our enemy would be foolish." Jeanne agreed with her words.
"We won't do much if we overthink things. Besides, there is the option to run if we don't want to waste energy. We can even lure them to fight against the other Jeanne's Servants." Seth added his two cents on the matter without much interest. They were making the mistake of thinking too much and doing too little.
Just as he finished speaking, a skipping Marie could be seen in the distance walking and waving toward them.
Coming to a stop in front of them, she said with a smile, "I found a good piece of information, guys!"
"So? What's the state of things?" Dr. Roman asked.
Her tone took a sad turn. "If I have to choose a word, it would be bad. According to the people I asked, Lyon was destroyed a while ago and its citizens have taken refuge here."
"Just as I thought..." Jeanne released a sad sigh. The more she continued in her quest to stop her other self, the more she found that the destruction caused by hands was becoming more brutal. If she wasn't stopped soon, nothing would be left even if they won in the end.
"I'm afraid so... They said Lyon is now plagued by monsters coming straight out of Hell." Marie shared Jeanne's sentiment. Unfortunately, there was not much — not to say nothing — that she could do about it.
With her next words, though, her tone became a little more cheerful. "However, not everything they said was bad news. They also said there was a knight with a big sword who defended the town from Wyverns and Skeletons."
Jeanne's face became a little spirited. "Does that mean he is the Servant that Saint Martha told us to find before she died?"
If he was, that meant they found their Dragon Slayer, and if he wasn't, that also meant they found a potential ally with a big enough sense of justice to defend the people of France. Whatever the case, it was a win-win situation for them.
"Were we to assume that the people in town did not speak about a mere out-of-the-norm warrior in Lyon instead then that's the most probable guess, yes." Dr. Roman brought needed clarity with his message. They couldn't get their hopes us before seeing the knight in person.
"As the mage from a distant land says, the people only mentioned him. The thing is, while he was defending the town he was overwhelmed by a group of powerful enemies and is now missing." Marie informed them further about her findings. Truth be told, she wasn't a hundred percent sure either, but they had nothing to lose.
"Great. Now we aren't even sure if he is alive." Exasperation was clear in Seth's tone. Still, he couldn't say he was a stranger to disappointments, so it's not like he was that much affected by it. With that said, though, it was true that it made things way more difficult than they had to be.
"Let's believe he is, we should trust the words of Saint Martha." Fujimaru was hopeful. No, he needed to be hopeful. Not only for the sake of France but for the sake of everyone on their team as well. If they didn't believe, who will?
The Kingslayer was not too keen on listening to the words of their enemy, but it was true they didn't have any lead besides this one. However, he was already formulating plans in case they were only walking into a trap. Not only that; he was also searching for a way to defeat Fafnir on his own in case everything else didn't work.
"Oh, I forgot to mention. They said General Gilles de Rais is gathering soldiers to attack Lyon and take it back from the monsters." That was the last piece of information she managed to get. People now were more focused on trying to find out what to do with their lives instead of answering the questions of a little girl.
"Gilles...!" Jeanne seemed surprised at the mention of the name. Her other self had mentioned his name when they met for the first time. That means that there are also two Gilles in this Singularity.
"Isn't that great? Jeanne could ask him to lend us a hand!" Marie seemed cheerful about the possibility. Unfortunately, Seth came to ruin her party.
"Not exactly, if Gilles also thinks that Jeanne is an evil witch then we would only be adding one more enemy to the count." Normal warriors, especially if he had to kill them, posed no problems, but that the problem didn't fall on that. If they had to face the French Army, he doubted the kids or Jeanne would give it their all, even if their survival was at stake. After all, they were just 'normal' people.
"...Yes. It's as Master says, it would only bring unnecessary complications." Her eyes turned downcast. Gilles was a man that fought together with her. It brought Jeanne not a small amount of sadness the fact they couldn't fight side by side again due to 'her' crimes.
"I understand. Then we need to hurry, if we get to Lyon quickly we won't have to meet him!" Marie's words were full of enthusiasm. It was not because she was happy about the development, but because she wanted to cheer the blonde-haired girl up.
Jeanne smiled at her passion. "Right, we will have to defeat the enemy by ourselves, just as we have been doing."
"Yes! We can do it if we try!" Fujimaru also shared Marie's feelings.
"That's the spirit! Here, let me give you a reward!" She skipped toward the Master and gave him a peck on his cheek.
"..."
It took a moment for everyone to react except Amadeus, he was already used to such sights. Fujimaru was blushing like a tomato, never having expected Rider to go for such a bold move all of a sudden. Seth distanced himself from her. He doubted he was next in line, but it didn't hurt to be careful.
Amadeus had a helpless smile. "Just ignore her, she likes to kiss everyone. It brought a lot of troubles in our time."
'I don't think that's something normal...' Was the thought on everyone's mind. Mash at this point was shaking Fujimaru senseless to make him come back to reality.
"Didn't you kiss everyone you liked in your time?" Marie asked Seth, Jeanne, and Artoria. Her voice and face denoted evident confusion. To her, what she did was something normal and it shouldn't be viewed with unfamiliarity.
"No. And a King mustn't indulge in such things." Artoria's reply was concise and to the point. If she wanted that in her life, she wouldn't have taken the sword out of the stone in the first place.
"I did not! Absolutely did not! I would only do it with the person I was going to marry..." She shouted the first part embarrassed while the second became a mutter.
"..." The rest looked at Seth waiting for an answer. The said man raised an eyebrow at their gazes.
"What? Don't look at me like that. No matter the era, it is uncommon to go around kissing people. What is there to answer?"
"The opinion of a married man is—" Before Saber finished speaking she was knocked in the head by a fist, making her bite her tongue by accident.
"Sorry, my hand slipped." The look of utter fury in Saber's eyes was truly hellish. However, Seth returned an equally annoyed gaze back at her. He didn't need to have his life divulged.
"You will pay for this..." Her mutter went unheard by almost everyone. Sadly, there was no time to take her revenge.
"I see soldiers over there and they don't look like normal ones, their intent to kill is high." It was convenient, but Seth wouldn't complain about it. If it worked for him, it was fine.
"Those soldiers seem to have become bandits after all of these attacks, we will have to defeat them if we don't want the people from this town suffering anymore." Jeanne was the first to rush at the enemy. Having been the daughter of a farmer, she knew how much bandits could affect the population with their acts, especially if they didn't have much to begin with.
"Are we going to ignore what Saber said?" Amadeus' question was muddled by the sound of battle cries. Sometimes, having better hearing proved to be unhelpful.