「 Alistair's Pov. 」
Hearing the sound of a new set of footsteps, I instantly stopped creating Runestones and slowly turned around, while using my arms to steady myself against the workbench.
Mom had seemingly noticed as well, as she too had stopped replacing the fully charged Runes and was instead facing the giant hole Iskandar had blown through the wall.
Slowly the sound of metallic footsteps grew, causing Mother and me to visibly tense up.
Slowly, an armoured figure in blue emerged from the hole.
"Artoria?" muttered Mother, causing the aforementioned Heroic Spirit to slightly stiffen before turning to look at us.
Fuck.
{Morgan!} I all but yelled into our mental connection, only to be met by another wave of total silence.
Stepping into the room, Artoria showed a relieved look before it quickly turned to a calm one. "It is good to see you all," she stated calmly.
Looking at her, I tried my utmost to keep the panic off my face while trying to come off as confused.
Something had gone horribly wrong.
Morgan was as quiet as the grave, yet I could still feel the connection between the two of us, albeit a tad bit strained. I hadn't gotten the opportunity to hobble off to a corner where Mom couldn't see me to summon her, but now that idea seemed even more impossible.
But no, that wasn't the worst thing going against me.
Artoria had somehow beaten Berserker… and for some reason, Morgan hadn't found Kiritsugu and forced him to order Saber to kill herself, as our contingency plan had outlined.
Gritting my teeth, I tried to think of something to do.
Morgan's Noble Phantasm is still ready to be deployed at a thought… but I'm not sure if it would even work on Artoria, as she isn't what the Bounded Field would consider evil…
Before I could say or do something stupid, Mom cut in. "Thank you, but didn't we see one another not thirty minutes ago?" she said with a teasing lilt to her tone.
Not deigning to answer the tease, Artoria instead turned her head to scan around. "Do you know where Vivian is?" she asked absent-mindedly, causing me to tense up.
Did she know?
It would explain why Morgan was MIA, but I didn't know how she'd be able to pull any of that off without Morgan at least informing me of their battle.
… I'm being too jumpy, I need to get my shit together and find a chance to go out and summon Morgan.
"She's on the lower levels, trying to contain the spillage of that," Mom answered for me, while gesturing towards the Grail.
Mom's comment caused Artoria to focus on it, only to grimace. "What happened to it?" she asked nervously.
"Other than the obvious?" Mom retorted dryly with a shrug. "No idea, we assume it is Avenger, but we are more focused on counteracting its effects."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked genuinely, which caused Mom to turn to look at me, as if asking me if I could find something for her to do.
Sorry Mom, but I need her to leave, lest she learn of Archer and Rider's deaths, as I am sure she'll be able to put two and two together and surmise that she is the winner of the Grail War.
"Nothing right now; we need to see if the runes are capable of reversing what's affecting the Grail," I stated, earning a nod from Artoria.
Now, time to convince her to safeguard Irisviel.
"I see, then I sha—" Artoria cut herself off and gained a confused look, as if someone was talking to her. "Wha—"
In an instant, a red glow encompassed her, causing her body to shake. Trembling, as if resisting her own actions, she grabbed her sword with her other hand.
Her face quickly morphed into one full of outrage and panic, the color draining from her face.
Seeing what was happening, I felt my heart start to hammer in my chest.
"Kiritsugu you— YOU BASTARD!" she yelled out in fury, before another red glow encompassed her body.
In an instant, the world slowed for me.
Looking at the situation, I knew that I needed to kill Artoria before she could release her Noble Phantasm. And unfortunately, time was not on my side.
Summoning Morgan was the best thing I could do—before I could even finish that thought, I felt the connection between the two of us snap.
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!
I didn't have time.
Knowing that I couldn't hesitate, I sprang into action.
Pushing myself away from the workbench, I launched myself towards Mom.
She was too close to the Grail, and if worse came to worst, she'd be safer if she was further away.
In a blink I was next to her.
Grabbing the collar of her armour, I felt my fingers dent the metal as I gripped it, before I flung my Mother backwards.
The action allowed me to gain some momentum, and I leaped forwards, close to bridging the distance between me and Artoria.
But as my foot made contact with the ground, an excruciating pain spread through my leg. Its bones, muscles and tendons screamed, followed by the feeling of blood spilling out from the puncture wound Gilgamesh had made in my leg.
Biting down on my tongue, I tried my best to ignore the feeling of my bones somehow fracturing. I could only guess that the weapons Gilgamesh had used must have weakened my bones, or something similar, as I knew that my body was too strong for such a thing to happen out of the blue.
Stretching my arm out, light gathered in my palm, before elongating and dispersing in a flash of light, Rhongomyniad reappearing in its place, allowing me to grip its handle.
Summoning all the strength I could, while trying my best to not lose any more momentum after nearly breaking my leg, I used my damaged leg to launch myself forwards.
Pain racked my body as my leg spasmed at the action. The strength I had put into it had been too much, causing the fractures in my leg to grow and for my lunge to turn into a dive.
Within a blink, I was about to lunge into Artoria.
I could see the fear and the slight pleading look she was giving me. It was clear that she was trying her best to stop her actions and was allowing me to kill her.
Raising the lance, I tried to aim for her head, but my body was too awkwardly positioned.
Before I could do anything to adjust my aim, I slammed into Artoria, and my lance easily punctured through her armour, piercing a large hole through her chest and Saint Graph.
Wheezing out a breath, I tilted my head up to look at her, only to meet pitying eyes.
"Ex—"
Fuck.
Before I could think, I felt a wall of wind slam into me, and in an instant I was airborne.
I couldn't react.
I felt myself crash through something hard, causing my body to be racked with pain, only for it to be blown out of the water by a burning sensation that seemed to seep into my very bones.
I— I couldn't breathe.
My vision was swimming, white blotches riddled my vision, and I could barely think. There was only one thing that I could feel.
Pain.
An overwhelming pain that refused to calm, instead growing with each second.
My body burned, and my bones made me feel pins and needles.
Suddenly, I felt some of the burning pain recede, along with my body being shifted to an upright position, before being lightly shaken.
With the pain receding, my head became far more clear, allowing me to see and hear properly once more… only to hear it.
"—cali–"
Feeling my heart race, my eyes frantically darted around, only to stop the second they landed on the person holding me up.
Wh—what was she doing here?
Mom's hair looked disheveled, as some of it stood on end, while some static could be seen crackling along her armour.
Meeting her eyes, I watched as palpable relief bloomed on her face as she looked down at me.
I didn't know why, but the look made my heart sink.
"Mom?"
Smiling reassuringly, her eyes wrinkled with a hint of tears showing. "Goodbye," she said gently.
Widening my eyes, I tried to move and stop whatever was happening.
But before I could even twitch, Mom hoisted me onto her shoulder, before I felt myself being slung away, while hearing a sickening, wet pop.
STOP IT!
It took all I could muster to twist my body in mid-air, allowing me to look back at Mom.
She was half-sat, half-slumped in a giant puddle of Grail Mud. One of her legs was gone from the knee down, with visible black lines flowing up her amputated leg. Her arms looked mangled, as blood seeped from large gashes—clear signs of overusing Reinforcement and pumping in too much Od, to the point of the limbs popping.
Please, no…
Despite all that, the clear pain she should have been in, her face showed none of it. Only a look of relief.
"buuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrr———"
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
In a blink, I watched as a giant stream of blinding golden light engulfed everything… followed by the outline of Mom vanishing with it.
Blinded by the light, I was forced to close my eyes.
Snapping my eyes open, I was met with a dark room, causing me to push myself up into a seated position.
Quickly feeling the familiar plush feeling of my mattress, along with the sound of me ruffling my quilt while moving.
Calming my breath, I felt my pulse start to slowly lower, and my body to relax.
Wiping my eyes with the sleeve of my pyjamas, I felt an instant moistness on the cloth, causing me to grit my teeth.
This needed to stop.
I couldn't even sleep for Christ's sake.
Taking in a shallow breath, I moved out of the bed and walked to the bathroom.
Glancing at the clock, I could only grimace at the time displayed. Three hours of sleep was not enough for the average man, but unfortunately, I wasn't sure if I would even be able to get any more if I tried.
Throwing off my clothes, I entered the shower and adjusted the valve to the lowest temperature available before turning it on.
The cool temperature did little but allow me to calm down faster while fully waking me up.
Shutting off the valve, I moved out of the shower before using a simple spell to expel the remaining water droplets on my body, other than my hair, as that tended to cause dry hair.
Not bothering to clothe myself, I entered my room naked, as Morgan would still be in Germany for a few days, so there was no one to 'appreciate' my nudity.
Pulling on a set of light training clothing, I left my room and headed for the training arena to clear my head.
Reaching the bottom floor of the manor in a matter of minutes, I easily opened the door leading to the garden, not bothering to put on any shoes before slowly walking to the section of the gardens dedicated for training.
Entering the arena, I brushed off some snow from one of the practice dummies before dragging it into the center of the arena, creating a long line in the snow.
Walking a suitable distance away from it, I got into a wide stance before opening my palm. Light gathered in my hand, which lit up the night as the snow reflected the glow, before I felt the lukewarm hilt of Rhongomyniad fall into my hand.
Raising my arm into position, I frowned slightly as I noticed something was awry.
The light hadn't disappeared.
Turning my head to look at the lance, I was met by an altered Rhongomyniad. No longer did it have the thirteen interlocking threads of steel forming the tip of the lance; instead, it was replaced by a thinner cone of light with twisting tendrils of light snaking around it.
…
The fuck?
Sliding myself out of my stance, I moved my hand closer to get a better look at my new 'glow-stick'.
Not caring if I was being hasty or stupid, I gingerly placed my other hand on the spear's shaft. My hand passed through the twisting coils of light with no problem, but upon making contact with the main cone of light, I was met with a firm and warm material that felt like silk, but it lacked its firmness.
All in all, it was incredibly odd.
Seeing that I didn't burn or disfigure myself, I started tapping the spear, trying to see if there was anything I could gauge from just touching it.
After fiddling with it for a minute, the only real discoveries that I made were that the spear itself was far warmer than I felt, as it practically evaporated the snow when I pressed it against the ground.
…
Yeah, probably shouldn't have touched it like an idiot, but it didn't feel dangerous to me… or at least it felt like it wouldn't hurt me.
… Why am I putting so much stock into my gut feelings? After all, doing so hasn't been doing me any favors recently.
Slumping slightly, I let myself fall backwards, causing me to land onto the thick snow blanketing the gardens.
My gut had admittedly failed me spectacularly recently, but now that I had summoned Rhongomyniad, it kept on nagging me to do something.
Seeing as poking and prodding at the thing hadn't sparked any new inspiration or done anything spectacular, I could only conclude that I was going about things from the wrong angle.
Glancing at the lance, I felt an intrusive thought start to form in my head.
… I could totally use my Pure Eyes on it to see if I could glean any more information from it… but last time I did that I had a headache for days, and Altrouge kept berating me and calling me stupid… though maybe in hindsight, she was mostly referring to the deal with Alaya, but I digress.
I'd refrain from doing such a thing until Morgan gave her two cents on the situation before committing another stupid mistake.
… Though I'd like to think that I had some sort of resistance or resonance with the lance, thanks to whatever it did to me, as the divinity it gave me must have some perks to it.
Lowering my arm, I dismissed the lance, choosing instead to focus on the link that bound us.
Ever since Morgan had bound me and Rhongomyniad together, there had been a small warm feeling around my Magic Core, but ever since I released all thirteen restraints, the warm feeling had exploded to a scorching heat, which had recently lowered to a mere uncomfortable heat lingering around my core.
Other than the uncomfortable feeling, it was clear that our bond had been strengthened, but what that directly meant wasn't apparent.
Focusing on the uncomfortable heat, I tried tugging on the feeling, without trying to fully summon Rhongomyniad.
Slowly, a golden glow encompassed my right hand, lighting up the snowy garden once more. Moving my arm closer to my face, I started idly studying my hand, twisting and turning to get a feel of whatever the glow did.
Frowning slightly, I felt a slight strain on my mind, as I kept up the lightshow. I didn't quite know what I was doing, but the feeling felt something similar to when you held a strung bow.
The longer that last thought bounced around in my mind, the longer I thought that pointing my hand straight at my face suddenly had a lot more in common with looking straight down a gun barrel.
Pursing my lips, I moved my hand away from my face and pointed it instead at the training dummy, before releasing my control on the bond.
Suddenly, all the light accumulating around my hand burst out of my body, forming a golden halo, before collapsing in on itself, creating a small golden orb of light, which was followed by another mental tug, causing its form to twist into a spiral-like shape. In a blink, it shot off, instantly obliterating and decapitating the training dummy, before vanishing into the horizon.
…
What are the odds of anyone noticing a big fucking glowing lance streaking across the night sky in the dead of winter?
Yeah, I might have just caused a bit of a fuck-up…
If anyone reports on it, I'll just hire some guy to dress up in a tinfoil hat and blame it on aliens. God knows people are still gullible enough for that to work, and it might even bring some tourism if it is marketed correctly…
Yes, yes, that was on purpose, a part of my genius plan to prop up the economy, and if anyone says anything on the contrary, then they are crazy conspiracy theorists…
Ok, now that I have a cover story for how I totally did not do something that could have exposed the Moonlit-World, I could confront the elephant in the room.
That move I just did, it was similar, if not identical, to what Goddess Rhongomyniad had pulled off in the Camelot singularity.
Tugging on that feeling once more, I watched as the glow re-appeared on my hand.
In hindsight, when I had used the full release of Rhongomyniad, it had a similar effect to that goddess's signature move as well, albeit far weaker.
My memories of the sixth singularity were rather foggy, but if I use her as a benchmark of what the lance should be capable of doing, then that does give me a few ideas…
As bad as my gacha pulls were in FGO, I did happen to consistently pull a four-star Craft Essence named 'Heroic Spirit Formal Dress: Artoria Pendragon', which I used for… reasons… Regardless of my dubious reasoning for the use of the somewhat underwhelming Craft Essence, the image depicted Lancer Artoria with a rapier version of Rhongomyniad.
Now, the question is, can I do something similar with my lance, or do I need to be an actual Divine Spirit to pull something like that off?
Tugging on my connection with the lance, the glowing spear appeared in the palm of my hand once more.
Looking at the thing, I could only bemoan that the damn thing didn't come with any instruction manual to get the thing to work. Scanning it with my eyes was still a stupid and dumb option, but a very tempting one.
Unfortunately, discretion tended to be the better part of valor.
The smartest thing to do would be to try and imprint my will on the lance, or some such garbage.
Rhongomyniad was ultimately the very physical manifestation of the Tower of Light that fastened the textures of the world onto the planet, somewhat like a really strong stapler clip.
The only reason it looked like it did was due to the thirteen restraints Merlin had placed on the world's anchor, subsequently turning a force of nature into a makeshift weapon that happened to hold the shape of a lance.
So, if I tried tugging on those restraints a bit…
Slowly, the lance's glow diminished, and the visible silver coils wrapped themselves around the lance, causing it nearly to return to its former shape. The only difference was that the metallic tips near the handle of the lance still shone gold, and some of the coils writhed and bubbled on the surface, causing some light to burst out between the cracks.
That was… progress…
Pushing myself up from the snowy ground, I brandished my lance and gave it a little twirl.
Tugging further on that feeling, I tried to see if I could further force my will on the lance.
My memories were foggy, but I still tried to picture how the lance looked in its rapier form.
For a while, nothing happened, and it felt like I was helplessly pushing against a wall.
No matter how hard I tried, the lance simply wouldn't budge.
Frowning, I could only come to the conclusion that I was missing something.
Mulling a few ideas over, I concluded that my gut had treated me well this past hour, and seeing as Artoria had an Instinct skill, I could at the very least try to convince myself that it was rubbing off onto me, rather than the fact that I was just acting on a whim.
I continued pulling on my connection with the lance, but this time I activated my Magic Core, pumping as much Od as I could into our connection.
The reaction was instant.
The uncomfortable warm feeling the bond between me and Rhongomyniad blazed with a renewed heat, causing me to fall to my knees. Letting go of the lance, I unhesitatingly sprawled onto the snow and desperately rolled around to cool myself.
The moment I touched any snow, it vaporized in an instant, causing puffs of steam to surround me.
Writhing on the floor, I couldn't stop myself, as I tried to cool myself.
Agonising minutes passed before the feeling suddenly vanished, causing me to pant in reprieve.
Groaning, I pushed myself up and hobbled over to the discarded lance.
As I got close to it, I felt a smidge mollified that it looked like the rapier from my memory.
Not caring, I practically face-planted next to the sword, allowing me to cool off in the snow.
After a whole minute of cooling off, I heard the sound of snow being compressed. Tilting my head in the direction of the footsteps, I braced myself for whatever reprimand Amelia or Altrouge had for me.
"Are you cold?" a soft and meek voice spoke, causing me to blink and push myself up from the snow.
Standing in a set of pink pyjamas, trembling slightly, stood a shivering Sakura.
Dismissing my rapier-shaped lance, I scrambled onto my feet and quickly scooped up the little girl, while applying a heating spell to her clothes. "Sakura, what are you doing out here?" I asked gently, trying to keep the worry out of my voice.
Tiredly rubbing at her eyes, she gave a sleepy look. "A bright light woke me up, and I saw you rolling in the snow outside," she explained, causing me to give an internal grimace while glancing up at the manor.
I could spot my former room's window—now Sakura's room—from here, along with Amelia's room as well.
I really hope I didn't wake her up… Amelia would shout at me for being reckless and for waking up Sakura.
Returning my attention to the little girl, I brushed some snow from the top of her head and fixed her with a concerned look. "I'm ok, but are you cold?"
Looking a bit abashed, she nodded while tensing her body, causing me to pat her back. "That's fine, you did a good thing, checking in on me. I'm not mad that you got cold because you did the right thing," I explained, earning a relieved sigh, along with the slight lowering of her shoulders.
Putting on a smile, I started walking back to the manor. "Regardless, I know just the right thing to warm you up," I said, causing the little girl to look at me with confusion. "What is it?"
Raising a brow mischievously, I gave a conspiratorial grin. "Ever heard of hot chocolate?"
~~Fate/False Order~~
「 Altrouge's Pov. 」
Looking down at Alistair shepherding Sakura into the manor from the second floor convinced me that it was a good idea to wake the girl up and hypnotize her to go looking for Alistair.
Watching him for the past hour hadn't painted the best of pictures for his mental health.
Waking up in the middle of the night, then choosing to train outside in the cold snow without bothering to put on any shoes or dress appropriately, was a big enough indicator of his lack of care for himself.
The fact that he started recklessly testing out the upgrades his lance had gone through, despite the clear risk to himself, was only the cherry on top.
Having Sakura 'stumble' upon him would likely cause him to stop whatever self-destructive garbage he was doing and instead cause him to fuss over the little girl.
The books I had gone over spoke of the five stages of grief, or whatever, and from how he acted, I wasn't sure if he was in Anger, Bargaining, Depression or all three.
Human emotions were confusing.
Why couldn't he just get angry, kill a bunch of people, and get over it?
That's what most of the fictional characters from the series Alistair has shown me did.
It's logical and straightforward, not all this 'ugh, I want to do partially harmful shit to myself, as a distraction to get my mind off things' shit Alistair was pulling.
Was there an angle I was not exploring, nor understanding… probably, but this still felt really long-winded.
Hmmm…
Regardless, I don't like seeing him like this, but I don't know quite what to do, nor how to fix this.
"Fou!" \[Pick me up!] came the light bark from Cath, who was circling my legs. Bending down slightly, I scooped him up and started absently threading a few fingers through his fur, causing him to purr.
Poking the lazy beast, I gave him a cursory glance. "Any ideas on how to cheer Alistair up?" I idly asked.
At the mention of Alistair, the little critter wiggled excitedly while wagging his tail. "Kyuu!" \[Give him food!] he cheered, causing me to give a dry hum.
What was I expecting?
He's a bit too simple-minded and cute to be of any real help here, not that his enthusiasm wasn't commendable.
I could read some more books, and then maybe I'd be able to comprehend the issue.
The only thing I could feasibly conclude was the fact that Alistair was likely angry at himself. It would explain why he is drowning himself in work while acting recklessly, all while ensuring that those around him were doing all right, effectively placing others over himself.
Luckily the last part doesn't seem to be that extreme, like a certain redhead, but it is worrying that it has started at all.
He had been a bit cagey about the last day of the Grail War, but with how things are turning out, I can draw a few conclusions. I can only assume he places most of the blame for the shit-show that was the ending of the Grail War on his shoulders, which is not totally incorrect, but it is a bit much to take all of the blame.
I mean, I'd just blame the slutty fairy.
She was the brains of the operation and far less likable than Alistair, so he should totally blame her, and not himself.
It's far more logical and would drive her out. Two birds, one stone, the ideal solution.
…
Unfortunately, the bitch was practically wrapped around Alistair's finger, and he was no better, though luckily he was not as infatuated.
…
…
…
Maybe it is time for me to pull on one of my favours.
Alistair's 'anime' or cartoons tended to have some scenes with the main love interest falling in love with the main character after a good and long heart-to-heart. I could totally pull off something similar!
I should invite him on one of those dates he owes me for the ring, and I'll say some sappy shit to make him feel better!
I'll have to do it after Morgan returns from Germany, and then I'll let her babysit the kid, and I'll drag Alistair with me on a flight for our date! Thus I won't have the fairy interfering with my date, and I can put the moves on him!
If this worked in anime, then it must have some basis in reality!
Sometimes, my genius… It's almost frightening.
---
A/N
Welcome back, my reader Overlords, please add this to your library and give me some comments, stones and reviews, as it would be much appreciated.
Yeah, not much to say about this chapter, other than we needed to go over the changes of the lance, along with a bit of context for the dreams Alistair was suffering through.
On the other hand, I am sorry for the delay, but I had 'jumped' over this chapter while writing, as writing anything with Rosalind is hella depressing. So I had to crunch through most of the chapters in a day, while preparing for exams as well… so oops, and I hope you all can forgive me.
Now, yeah, Altrouge is cooking something up, but that is between her and Alistair, so look forward to that.
Before I leave, if you have any question and the like, please put them here, and I'll try to answer them. Other than that, have a great day, and good luck with those preparing for exams!
Hop onto my Discord Server, I'd love to have a chat: [https://discord.gg/HAPhryp5M2](https://discord.gg/HAPhryp5M2)
Now, hand over those Power Stones, can't you see they are lonely when not used? Give them to me, and allow them to socialize, it's for their best... I swear...