7: Hassan-i-Sabbah
I stir once again. Something is moving. Something more… fresh, than the skeletons aimlessly wandering about. The leyline has been a decent substitute - siphoning from it almost measures up to the thrill of crushing a life between my fingers.
Almost.
But now, two souls have come near to my resting place. Living. Living humans. I had thought that they had all been slaughtered already, but clearly that wasn't the case.
I give the corpse I'm attached to a mental nudge, and the husk of the man once named Hanam awakens.
Kill. Kill them. Rip and tear, devour their hearts. I, Shaytan, demand it.
The husk waits to strike, his training from before I devoured him still remembered by his body. It observes them. A normal human and a servant. And yet, the servant is not quite a servant, still being made of flesh and blood - I can feel her heartbeat from here.
Delicious. Wonderful. Kill them.
They both focus on a magic circle. Summoning. They wish to summon another Servant?
More life to snuff out. How wonderful.
But the husk is worried. A brief, animalistic fear, flaring up from what little of its mind remains its own. It believes we cannot defeat two servants at once. We could seek aid from one of the others, but then they might take all of the killing for themselves.
Unfortunately, the husk is correct.
Fine then. Kill them before they finish the summoning. It can't be helped.
The corpse throws a dirk at the master's throat as we materialize. The servant blocks it with her shield, but in doing so, she overextends. Her shield is out of position, and one of the husk's dirks finds its mark in her left calf.
My arm surges forth as what's left of Hanam mutters a faint "[Zabaniya]." Twisting, writhing, bending, it slithers around her shield, reaching for her heart.
Only, just before it reaches her, something catched it by the wrist. An invisible hand, grappling it and preventing retreat. Were I a human, such pressure would break my wrist for sure.
However, I am no human. The husk severs my arm at the elbow in one blow of his dirk, and we jump back, giving me time to regenerate, a new hand sprouting from my elbow. In the meantime, the severed hand continues to writhe like the broken tail of a lizard, still seeking the Shielder's heart.
The boy yells to his servant not to let my arm touch her - that it will kill her for sure. He has good instincts.
The servant engages us, her shield smashing into the husk and breaking a few of its ribs - not that it matters. So long as its spirit origin remains intact, I shall continue to exist. Any other injuries are superficial.
I reach for her heart again, with her only narrowly preventing contact by batting my arm aside with her shield. She takes a dirk to the abdomen for her trouble, but the wound seals up almost instantly. The master is healing her.
We'll have to kill him first, then.
Disengaging under cover of a volley of dirks, the corpse scuttles towards the boy. I reach out, only to be denied again by an invisible hand.
My previously severed limb has been released - perhaps the invisible hand can only grab one thing at a time?
In that case, then… I'll need my left hand.
The empty shell of Hanam reaches for the metaphysical binding upon my seal, and prepares to invoke our final Noble Phantasm - my right arm pulsing with energy as my body starts to be freed.
The boy's eyes widen, and he lunges for the sheath in the magic circle, which flares with golden light as he grabs it.
(My arm is released from the invisible hand's grasp - about three meters range, then?)
"Beast of hellfire, fiend of the desert…" mutters Hanam.
The girl swings her shield at us, but the corpse ducks beneath it, and she's forced to jump back to avoid my hand.
("Contract, sealed-!" the boy mutters).
"...devour their lives, great Accuser! [Iblis…!" Shouts my host, and my arm writhes as more of my body starts to emerge from his shoulder.
"Shamak!" roars the mage, pointing the sheath at me as black smoke pours out of it.
And suddenly, without warning, the moment the smoke touches the tips of Hanam's toes, I cease to exist.
…
No. That can't be right. I can still think, so I still exist. I can still sense the presence of Hanam's empty husk.
And yet, apart from that, there is nothing. Absolute oblivion. Sensory deprivation.
...So that's the nature of his spell. A sensory disconnect. I can still move Hanam's body, but I can't move my own, because I can't sense its presence. Hanam's shoulder is still jerking around - my arm is still there.
Right, my body has high magic resistance, so such a spell wouldn't affect me.
...So why can I only feel Hanam's body?
…
Oh. I get it now.
I'm... Hanam, aren't I?
Faintly, I hear the tolling of an old evening bell...
***
I, Natsuki Subaru, scramble backwards as the Assassin's crimson arm drags his body towards me. The rest of his skeletal form is limp, but the arm is still moving towards me! What the hell is going on here!?
I had managed to negotiate a provisional contract with the Fairies of Avalon, and cast Shamak in desperation since it looked like he was about to pull out something scary - but what's with this effect!?
Shamak is supposed to be a sensory deprivation spell, not a paralysis spell!
Mash-tan runs toward the Assassin again, pinning its crimson arm beneath her shield, and slamming into it again and again in an effort to break its bones.
Suddenly, the skeletal body, which had been limp since Shamak hit it, draws another of his daggers. Shamak should still be active, and yet - !
"Mash!" I yell, and she jumps back, moving to block the thrown dagger from hitting me or herself.
...But he doesn't throw it. He twirls it in his hand, gripping it like a kitchen knife.
And then, in a single blow, he hacks his own right arm off at the shoulder.
The crimson limb falls, and rather than a new arm sprouting from the Assassin's body, the end of the severed limb shudders, bubbling like a pot of water on a stove as a new, orange-red torso begins to grow out of it..!
"Shit!" I hiss. "Mash-tan, we're going to have to withdraw! We can't take both of them-!"
A head and face emerge from the bubbling red torso. The head is the same red-orange as the rest of its body, with burning crimson eyes and teeth as sharp as stilettos. It grins, and then, suddenly, it shoots forward, that damn arm slithering and twisting towards me -!
Squelch.
The Skeletal Assassin is suddenly between us, his knife embedded deep in the monster's throat. The demon gurgles, and for a brief moment I think I see a flash of blue flame erupt from the Assassin's blade.
And then, in a spray of blood, he removes its head.
…
"Eh?"
What the hell is going on!?
***
Servant Profile
Hassan of the Cursed Arm (Alter)
Parameters
Strength: B
Endurance: A
Agility: A
Mana: C
Luck: E
Noble Phantasm: B
Personal Skills
Projectile (Daggers) C
Self-Modification B+
Battle Continuation E
Class Skills
Presence Concealment B-
Noble Phantasm
Zabaniya - Delusional Heartbeat
Rank: C+
Type: Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm
Iblis Akbar - Glory to the Unbowing One
Rank: B
Type: Anti-Self Noble Phantasm
An absolute heresy. The complete release of the Demon Shaytan upon the world, to revel in slaughter and bring glory to Iblis - a being considered by many to be the same individual as the Hebrew Devil.
Profile
The Old Man of the Mountain, blackened by the tainted Holy Grail. He gave his right arm to the Demon Shaytan, in return for power. However, he underestimated the Demon's influence upon him, and slowly lost his mind.
Not two years after gaining the title Hassan-i-Sabbah, he had it stripped from him, and his head was claimed by an Angel of Death.
8: Occasionally, infodumps are necessary.
The skeletal Assassin stands in place for a bit, his eyes fixed on the creature he had just beheaded until it finally finishes dissolving into a pile of blackish-purple dust. Finally, he turns his attention towards me.
With a cry of "Senpai!" Mash jumps to my defense, placing herself between him and me. I don't sense any hostility from him, but he is an Assassin, so I suppose it's within the realm of possibility that he's still aiming to kill me. But that idea is thrown out pretty quickly.
Still heavily breathing, he kneels in place. "Lord Magus, I am in your debt. Please, allow me to offer my humble assistance."
Now, I'm no stranger to forgiving my enemies and turning them into allies. Hell, Rem killed me twice, and I wound up loving her almost as much as I do Emilia. But all of the enemies turned allies in Lugnica were hard-fought friendships, people I only won over through ridiculous amounts of conscious effort on my part.
"Ah… I didn't really do much, though? Or rather, what did I do?" I say, scratching my head.
"...Many years ago, I made a deal with a Demon named Shaytan. My right arm was traded for his, in order to give me the power needed to inherit the title of Hassan-i-Sabbah. But the Demon was able to influence me through its arm, and within a short amount of time I was completely possessed." He says, his voice flooded with shame and fist clenched tightly.
"Your… sensory deprivation spell, I believe it was? It only affected me, not Shaytan - and as such, our respective consciousnesses were split from each other for the first since the day I made my deal with him."
"And so you were able to rebel against him and free yourself!" I nod with a smile. Sasuga Shamak-san. Truly, you are my greatest and most reliable friend. "Well, it's not like it was intended, but I'm glad it worked out this way. I, Natsuki Subaru, will accept your contract… Hassan-san?"
The red marks on my left hand - command spells, I think the director called them in the first loop - gleam as the contract is sealed.
"You may call me Hanam, Lord Magus. The title Hassan-i-Sabbah was stripped from me when I went mad." He says. "I accept your contract. I may have lost my Noble Phantasm and my right arm, but I shall do my best to live up to your expectations regardless."
"R-right. Well, since you probably know, what's the current situation here in Fuyuki? Is it safe for us to focus on reestablishing communications with Chaldea, or are we likely to get jumped by another enemy servant?" I ask.
"What!? Master, are you saying you came from outside Fuyuki?" Hanam says, his mask's eyes appearing to widen in shock - how's he doing that? Is it like a Noh mask, changing expressions as he tilts his head?
"That's right. Mash-tan and I are from the future - this whole disaster is probably the result of someone messing around with time travel. So all that being said, we're kind of in the dark as to what's going on here." I explain.
"I… see. Well, this area should be safe for now. The servants that were 'blackened' like I was have staked out their own specific hunting grounds, and Caster was still skirmishing with Lancer the last time that I checked." Hanam says, stroking his chin. "The only enemies nearby are a handful of skeletons, so if you wish to contact your comrades prior to my explanation, that would probably be for the best."
"Right," says Mash. "I'll start the setup to re-establish communications."
***
"Alright, communications online! Mash, Subaru, do you read me?" Says Doctor Romani as a hologram of him materializes above Mash's shield.
"You're coming through loud and clear, Dr. Roman! Where's the Director? She's going to want to hear about this mess." I reply.
"...The Director is currently resting in the Medbay. She lost a lot of blood, so I've mandated a week of bed rest - and that's with us having magi with healing mysteries on tap. So, for the foreseeable future, you'll have to make do with me." He says with an easygoing smile.
"Understood, Doctor." Says Mash with a nod. "I'll begin a quick summary of our progress so far investigating Singularity F."
He nods, and she begins.
***
"...and that's about everything that happened up to this point." She concludes.
"I see, that all makes sense - not! Did you really think I'd say that!? Subaru-kun, I was going to hold off on asking this considering how complicated the situation is right now, but who are you!?" The doctor yells.
"You're casting spells even though all of our readings are saying your magic circuits are ruptured! You're chatting up fairies like it's no big deal! You're existing on several spectrums that Humans don't actually exist on! And our scanners keep picking up at least three additional soul-like contaminants within your body!"
...Man, he didn't even mention the future sight, and I still sound like some kind of terrifying monster, huh?
"...Well, I'll start with the important disclaimer that this is all the Wizard Marshal's fault," I begin. That's mostly a lie, but he'll probably cover for me at least a little. And besides, it is the old man's fault that I joined Chaldea in the first place.
"That's the kind of claim that needs some proof, Subaru-kun," Romani says.
I toss Mash my cell phone. "Check my call history. I spoke to him just before you and I met, Doctor."
Mash nods, and the doctor relaxes a bit. "Well, that old man would probably have annihilated you if you were some kind of villain. Still, I would like an explanation. All our records say that you should be a first generation magus, so this nonsense is a bit…"
"Right. In short, about three months ago, I wound up getting sent to another world, full of fantasy elements like magic and demihumans. If you're aware of the Isekai craze going on in the Japanese Light Novel market right now, it was basically that."
"What."
"Right? Anyways, some stuff happened, and eventually I wound up getting sent back to Earth, only with a bunch of extra knowledge related to the supernatural, especially when it comes to interacting with spirits. After I broke my ga- er, magic circuits, I wound up learning the Spirit Arts - contracting with a sort of local fairy equivalent in order to still use magic." I explain.
Romani massages his temples. "Okay, so none of that made much sense, but I'm just going to accept it and move on, because otherwise I think I'm going to get a headache. I'll just get Da Vinci to interrogate you later."
"Right. I guess that makes it your turn, Hanam." I say, scratching my cheek.
"Understood. To start with, the current state of the city is the result of the fifth Fuyuki Holy Grail War-" He begins.
"What do you mean fifth!?" Romani shrieks.
***
"So Saber went nuts and started turning everyone evil, which is how you wound up possessed by your arm?" I clarify.
"That is correct, Master. The unaltered Hassan of the Cursed Arm retained his sanity his whole life. It's safe to say that the other servants were altered in a similar manner, a dark twist on their legends."
"And as far as you know the only one who wasn't turned evil was Caster, who has somehow been able to keep up a run-and-gun style conflict for a whole month against six other servants?" Romani says, somewhat impressed.
"...Somewhat. In reality, He has only ever had to face two or three of us at a time, and only for the first week. Berserker is highly territorial and uninterested in cooperation, as Rider discovered. Saber has not left the site of the greater grail since her initial rampage, and Archer has stood guard over her for all that time. And after Rider fell to Berserker, Lancer and I went our separate ways - presumably she is still in her hunting grounds near the church in the eastern half of town." He replies with a one-armed shrug.
"Caster should still be in that area as well - I haven't felt either of them fall, and he's been putting enough effort into fighting her recently that I'd assume he's looking to finish her..."
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" something howls in the distance.
"...Or perhaps he's decided to poke Berserker. Perhaps now would be a good time to finish summoning reinforcements, Master?"
"...Probably a good idea, yeah."
***
After finishing the circle, I pause for a moment. "Hey, Doctor, I've been meaning to ask. Just how many servants can we actually support?"
"Hmm." He hums. "Well, with the power in its current state at Chaldea… I'd say we can manage one or two active combatants, not counting Mash - and their ability to use Noble Phantasms is likely to be impaired. And of course, that all depends on the power level of the servant - someone ridiculously powerful like King Arthur or Heracles would probably take up all of our resources, with no power left for their Noble Phantasm."
"Well, in that case, let's hope that we don't summon someone ridiculously powerful, right?" I say with a nervous smile.
***
The magic circle flares to life, and then in a flash of bright blue light, a Knight in red armor is standing there.
"Servant, Saber! I, Mordred, the true heir of Camelot, have arrived!" He proclaims.
Someone ridiculously powerful came!
9: Sometimes, video games are misleading.
As the light from the summoning dies down, Mordred's helmet clicks and shifts away like something from a transforming robot show - isn't that a bit anachronistic? He has blond hair and green eyes, and a somewhat effeminate face - but I won't be fooled! I'm friends with Ferris, so I'm able to see through at least this much!
"Yo! I'm Natsuki Subaru, and these guys are Mash and Hanam. Nice to have you aboard, Mordred-san!" I say with a wave.
"So someone like you is my master, huh? Well, your attitude is decent at least, so as long as you don't slow me down, we'll probably get along." He says before turning his attention to the other two. "And what's the deal with you two? You're definitely Servants, but I've never heard of either of you. Shieldy in particular is a bit…"
"Um, I'm actually a demi-servant - we don't know who the servant lending his power to me is, though…" Mash says.
"Oh! That explains it. Still, to think you'd get clothes like that… it seems more like something that Gawain would give you, not him…" Mordred mutters.
"Eh!? Does that mean you know who-!?" Mash exclaims.
"Sure, but I'm not gonna tell you. That's probably the type of thing you've gotta figure out on your own - I may not like the bastard, but he wouldn't kneecap you like that without a good reason." The Saber says with a shrug. "Anyway, skeleton guy. What's your deal?"
"...For a time while I was alive, I bore the title "Hassan-i-Sabbah. That is no lon-"
"Ehh? So a scrawny guy like you is the Old Man of the Mountain, huh? Well I guess that explains all the trash talk from Marco Polo, right?"
...There's a vein bulging in anger on Hanam's mask. I don't think that was there before, right?
"Anyways, that's everyone introduced!" I say, picking up the sheath from the summoning circle. "Doctor, how are the power reserves looking?"
"Not good, I'm afraid. Sir Mordred is likely going to be unable to use his Noble Phantasm without you powering it by command spell." He says.
"Tch. That's a pain. So what, I only get three uses of my sword for however long this shit takes to resolve?" Mordred replies.
"No, Chaldea's generators should be able to restore a command spell once every twenty-four hours." Romani says. "So don't be too stingy, Subaru-kun!"
"Right." I mutter. Well, I'm definitely not looking forward to running out of command and not being able to return to the point where I still had them. I know how this stuff works.
"By the way, master… that sheath…" Mordred says.
"Hm? Is it yours?" Fairies don't really seem his style, so that's a bit unexpected.
"No. It's my father's sheath. Avalon, the Everdistant Utopia. While he had the thing, not a drop of his blood could be shed in battle, so I stole the thing and buried it out in the middle of nowhere!" He says with a proud grin.
Wait, is that what Avalon is? I thought it was just some generic fantasy land, which is why it didn't mean much to me when the guys in the sheath introduced themselves to me.
Videogames and Anime lied to me!
"Well, if you summoned me instead of him, there's likely some serious compatibility issues going on between you two, so it's probably for the best!" Mordred says, resting his hands behind his head.
Hanam grunts. "That may not be the reason. The truth is… King Arthur was already summoned to Fuyuki. Saber may be of an unexpected gender, but that holy sword of hers was without a doubt the real deal."
"Heh." Mordred's mouth stretches into a feral grin. "Hah! Ha ha ha ha! Father! To think you'd be summoned here as well! This must be fate! Because, no one can defeat you! No one but me, father!" He throws his head back, letting out wicked laughter, with no sign of stopping-!
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅-!"
Suddenly, an impact rocks the area, and he's here. A hulking giant with no skin, its bare muscles glowing red and oozing blood. Here and there, scraps of torn skin are still present on its frame, and somehow all its exposed organs are remaining in place. Its crimson eyes scan the area, but don't focus on anything - he's blind, I realize after a moment.
He's right next to me.
"Woah, that's dangerous. Be careful, Master." Says Mordred, whose sword is already biting into the huge stone blade the giant is wielding. Somehow, he had blocked what I presume to be Berserker's blow, even with his guard lowered from his laughter.
The knight kicks me, and I'm sent flying backwards some thirty feet, only to be caught by Mash.
Mordred dodges a punch, freeing Berserker's blade, and then the fight begins in earnest.
Faster than the eye can see, their blades clash over and over again - and then, suddenly, a foot meets Mordred's chest, and the knight is embedded in a nearby building.
The giant heaves a breath, steam erupting from his jaws, and his head snaps towards the rest of us - only for a thrown blade to embed itself in his side. Mordred is upon him a second later, tearing free the sword in a shower of blood that Berserker doesn't even seem to notice.
"Shieldy, Skeleton guy, whenever you feel like helping out, that'd be great!"
"R-right!" Shouts Mash. "Mash Kyrielight, engaging the enemy!"
Before she can jump into the fight, Hanam grabs her shoulder. "Be careful. Berserker was arguably the strongest servant in the war prior to his blackening. Our foe is no less than Heracles, the strongest hero of Greece!"
For real!? Just how many stupidly rare historical artifacts did the people in this war have lying around, anyway?
"▂▂▃▃▅▅----" Heracles roars, as if relishing the compliments.
"Agh, for real!" Mordred yells in exasperation as he bats back blow after blow. "In that case, a command spell might be nee-!"
"▂▂▃▃▅▅■■■■--!!"
And suddenly, the fight is over.
An attack slips past Mordred's guard, too fast for him to react, cleaving him neatly from left shoulder to right hip, armor and all - followed by another equally lethal blow, and another, and another, and by the time the command spell on my hand has flared in activation, he's already long gone.
Luckily, command spells don't care about pesky things like "total bodily obliteration".
"[Clarent… Blood Arthur!"] Mordred roars, and even as his blade falls from his grasp, red light erupts from it, tearing a hole in Berserker's body equal to about sixty percent of his body mass.
{Sorry, Master. Seems I'll be tagging out early.} Mordred's voice emanates in my mind - and then he's gone, in a shower of golden particles.
**----!
Something explodes out of the rising mist of gold - an impossible mass of tendons and meat, still gripping a stone axe-sword. Mash deflects his first blow, but she staggers under the force - and then he flexes a muscle in his back, and his left goddamn lung smashes into her with supersonic force, sending her sprawling.
He raises his blade, and [Invisible Providence] is already in position, two hands spreading in front of me to catch the blade- and then Hanam kicks me to the left, placing himself in the path of the blade.
I scream out in horror. He can't die for me! No one should die for me, because I won't die!
Desperately, I stretch my invisible hands to their maximum possible range, to catch the blade, to make sure that this person won't die for me.
He doesn't die for me.
Heracles changes his aim.
The blade is suddenly swung to the left, towards me, neatly weaving below my first hand and then above the second.
Can he see them!? Or are his instincts just that good!?
Regardless, the blade leaves his hand, and despite Hanam's attempt to protect me, it finds its mark. The thrown axe-sword, spinning like a ceiling fan flies towards me - and then, with a sharp pain in my neck, I can't breathe.
I can't breathe, I can't move my body, and the world is spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning. Tumbling over and over, ground and sky switching places again and again as a faint scream splits the air.
My head hits the ground, my crumpled body landing next to it. There's blood pooling out of the cleanly severed stump of my neck.
As my vision fades, I see the Berserker exhale another cloud of steam.
I feel a faint pull, and then...
: No bloodhounds were harmed.
"Servant, Saber! I, Mordred, the true heir of Camelot, have arrived!"
I blink, taking a second to get my bearings. So my return point got moved again, huh?
"Yo! I'm Natsuki Subaru, and the two other servants are Mash and Hanam. I'm sure you've got questions, but they're gonna have to wait. That berserker's gonna be here in about five minutes, so we've gotta go." I say with a smile.
"Eh!? Subaru-kun, what are you- oh crap he's right!" Romani says. "We've got a servant signature moving towards you guys at high speeds - still around sixteen kilometers out, which is why I didn't notice it, but that's not super far for some servants!"
"He never leaves that forest… what could have agitated him..?" Hanam mutters, and then turns to me. "Master, our enemy is Heracles, of Greek myth. Of the three servants here, I'm the fastest, and he can still keep pace with me - but he has higher endurance. If we flee, he'll catch us for sure."
Shit. So our only choice is to fight him head on? That's so unfair!
"Goddammit! We'll fight, then! Romani, I'm going to need to use a command spell to let Mordred use his Noble Phantasm, right?" I say.
"That's right. He should be able to go wild otherwise - your master affinity is high enough to support a servant without Chaldea. But because of the setup here - !"
"...The energy for Noble Phantasms is sourced directly from Chaldea's generators, which are broken, right? That's fine. We'll figure it out." I say, interrupting him. "More importantly…" I grab Avalon from the summoning circle.
Mordred's eyes widen. "Is that..?"
"Avalon. Yeah. Hey, this thing is supposed to make whoever wears it immune to injury, right? How do I get that to work?"
He scowls. "You can't. It only works for Father - maybe if you were contracted with him, you could get it to function for you, but it's no good otherwise."
Well, in that case I suppose it'll remain a glorified magic wand. And not even a particularly good one, either - the fairies of Avalon are similar to the spirits of Lugnica, but they aren't the same - I'm limited to the spells that I know how to cast on my own. In other words, all I've got to my name is Shamak.
And I'm not so sure what sensory deprivation is going to do to someone who's already blind.
"One kilometer remaining! Brace yourselves!" Romani yells.
"Mordred! By my command spell, use your Noble Phantasm and annihilate Berserker!" I yell, and one of the icons on my left hand glows bright red.
"Gladly! [Clarent…" He responds, his blade engulfed with crimson light.
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" Berserker sails into sight, hurtling towards us at sonic speed, blade raised.
"Mash!" I yell, and she manages to get between him and me before the blow lands.
His stone axe-sword smashes into her shield, and he jumps back, landing a few meters away with his left hand on the ground and his blade held to the side. A cloud of steam hisses out from between his teeth - and then he whips his head to the right, staring directly at Mordred.
"...Blood Arthur]!" the Saber roars, and then a massive geyser of energy engulfs Heracles. A veritable wall of red light, shooting out into the distance some ten or twenty kilometers before curving up into the sky.
The battlefield is silent for a few seconds as the light dissipates.
And then Heracles erupts out of the ground, smashing into Mordred, the knight's blade barely deflecting the hit.
"He dug a hole!?" Mash exclaims.
His back is charred, a cylindrical cross section having been carved out of his shoulder blades when Clarent plowed a trench into the street. But overall, he's unharmed, and seemingly unfazed.
What the hell was that!? It seemed like he had fallen for it, but then-!
The steam. The same thing happened when he weaved through my [Invisible Providence]. He breathed out a cloud of steam.
No, more importantly, he had to have breathed in first!
He's blind, so obviously-!
"He's tracking us by smell!" I exclaim. That's probably what set him off in the first place - He smelled the Witch on me, just like the Mabeasts back in Lugnica.
"▂▂▃▃▅▅----" Heracles roars - the same roar that preceded his increase in speed and subsequent dismemberment of Mordred last time. Is it a Noble Phantasm?
No, focus. To have smelled me from the forest… his sense of smell must be ridiculously potent. But that just means he's more sensitive, right?
"Let's try this, then! I can use [Return by-!" I yell, and I feel a cold hand grasp my heart as the Witch prevents me from sharing my secret. But that's exactly what I want. With her presence, the scent on me will have intensified.
"Senpai/Master!?" Mash and Hanam cry out as I double over. But I grin at them, and they ease up a bit. This ought to seal the deal.
Mordred's nose twitches, and his eyes flick to me for a moment - so he can smell it too, huh?
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"
But most importantly, Heracles visibly recoils, grabbing at his face and flailing his blade wildly, thoroughly disoriented.
Like a bloodhound that just got a faceful of cayenne pepper.
Mordred sees his opening, and weaves past Berserker's guard, a burst of red lightning erupting from his feet as he does so - a flash of steel, a spray of blood, and the right arm of Heracles is sent flying away.
He retaliates with a snap of his teeth aimed at the knight's head, but the knight ducks, dodging the attack - and then, he plunges Clarent up, past Berserker's open mouth, and out the other side of his skull.
For a moment, I think it might be over, but then the giant backhands Mordred, sending the knight skipping across the ground.
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"
Heracles pulls the sword from his mouth, splattering blood and grey matter on the ground - but he remains standing. He grips it by the blade, and I see him inhale through his nose.
And then, he hurls the sword at me. Mash is already in position to block it, but it doesn't reach her.
Barely noticed, a pebble clatters to the ground in front of us, and then it glows with blue light, a magic circle appearing on the ground. Clarent bounces off the wall of the circle and clatters to the ground inside it.
"Algiz." calls out a voice I've never heard before, but Hanam looks noticeably shocked.
Berserker hurls himself at us, but he's repelled by another magic circle, as more and more of the things appear around him. There's a similar pebble in the center of each one - how long has he been setting this up!?
"Ehwaz." continues the hooded, blue-cloaked man as he hops down from his perch on the roof of a nearby building. "Sowilo, mannaz, fehu."
The magic circles flare red, merging together into a single shape. The man that I can only assume to be Caster grins as he strolls up to the circle, and taps his wooden staff to the edge of it. "Ansuz." Three lines appear in the center of the oversized circle, in the shape of a sort of bent looking letter 'F'.
"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"
In the circle, Berserker continues to flail around, hammering at the barrier - and under the force of his fist, cracks start to appear in the magic wall.
The blue-cloaked man gives a low whistle. "Man, if he still had both arms, he'd probably break free before I could trigger the thing."
On the other side of the circle, Mordred extracts himself from an abandoned bar and scowls at Caster. "I had him."
Caster chuckles. "Oh sure, give him another few hours of bleeding and he'd be down. But he revived himself from death a few too many times during the war for my liking! Let's just be thorough about this, yeah?"
"Fine," the Saber grumbles.
"An offering to the great god of wisdom - [Ochd Deug Odin]!" He yells.
And then, the whole circle erupts into a column of purple flames. In the center, I can barely make out the silhouette of Heracles as he crumbled into ash. Caster doesn't relax for an instant - but finally the blaze dies down leaving only charred ground. A few seconds later, the man finally drops his guard and lets out a bark of laughter.
"Whew! Glad that's over! Saber, Assassin, you guys are looking more sane than normal. And as for you two, welcome to Fuyuki, I guess." He lowers his hood, revealing a youthful face, blue hair, and red eyes. "Servant Caster, Cu Chulainn. Nice to meet you guys."