Micheal rolled his shoulder testing the give of the dressing and bandages. He winced a bit as the wound he got from the golem burned when he did so. He looked over at his mom as she rummaged through the drawers on the opposite side of the room and then looked around the room as a whole. The Medical wing, or better called the Medical floor, was a sublevel below the main Lafaire estate. There were 5 sublevels that Micheal knew about but during his lessons on the Lafaire history he theorized that there were at four more below that based on various records from the family history books he had been reading.
The medical floor was one big hospital room that extended almost 150 meters away from the central elevator. Starting from the elevator the room changed depending on the level of medical complexity required to treat a patient as well as the potential level of curses a person might have on them. Micheal was sitting on a medical bed roughly a quarter of the way down the floor which meant that something warrented more intense attention. As for what that might be the answer was obvious: The wound he got from the golem carried a curse of hemophilia which meant that the gash wasn't clotting properly. He looked down at the biohazard bin sitting on the floor beside him and the copious amounts of bloody bandages.
"Alright I think I got a potion to reverse the curse but you'll still need to take it easy as the potion works on removing it entirely." Amelia said walking back over with a vial of blue-green liquid. Micheal eyed it warily remembering his mothers penchant for making horrid tasting potions.
"You do know that potions can taste good in the modern era...right?"
Amelia huffed and rolled her eyes as she gestured for Micheal to open his mouth,
"Yes and if medicine tasted good people would take too much of it. And what is too much of a good thing?" She asked as though he didn't know already. Micheal rolled his eyes, took the vial out of his moms hand, and downed it in one gulp trying his best to not taste it only to get the aftertaste of rotten mulch. He shuddered and shook his head making gagging noises as his mom rolled her eyes as well snatching the vial back, "Besides good medicine isn't supposed to taste good. Everyone knows that."
Micheal massaged his throat as he felt the potion work its way down and into his body. He glared at his mom as she walked back to the counter and deposited the vial in the 'to be cleaned' basket, "Yeah and I'm pretty sure artificially making the meds taste worse doesn't coincide with them performing better….seriously what did you put- On second thought I don't want to know."
Amelia had opened her mouth excitedly but closed it and pouted at him as he rolled his shoulder experimentally again. It already felt as though there was less strain on his muscles which he counted as a victory
"Alright 'Dr.' Lafaire. How often do I need to change these bandages?"
Amelia snorted a laugh. "Change them before you get into the shower tonight and then put them back on before bed. Be sure to sleep on your side if possible as laying on your back may reopen the wound."
Her face briefly darkened at the thought of his injury but Micheal quickly redirected her attention,
"Okay so….explain to me how Brevontile is supposed to get me into the Clock tower in four years. There's no way he has that much pull with Admin."
"Of course he doesn't," Amelia huffed, "I'm making him write that letter for my own benefit. No~ You were already accepted into the hallowed halls of the Clock Tower the minute you were born due to our lineage and the fact that you are the child of a Brand. Speaking of."
Micheal suddenly felt nervous as his mother narrowed her eyes at him. He swallowed and began to excuse himself only for Amelia to tap her heel on the floor and cause rocks to mold around his feet bolting him to the table. He sighed and looked at his mother wearily,
"Fine….I'll tell you. Just let me go."
Amelia huffed again but dispelled the restraints as she folded her arms,
"First of all: How did you know about the invisible golem controling the puppet. I'm sure I could have figured it out given time but you did so extraordinarily quickly."
"I put more mana into my eyes than I normally would and activated my mana sense at the same time. This caused sources of mana to 'bloom' in my vision like a heat map. Behind the puppet was a massive amount of mana that was tethered to the back of the puppet. I tried to see if my hunch at it being the control point by firing off a shot at it which led to the puppet attacking me in response."
His mother stared at him for a few seconds before nodding to herself, accepting the answer for now, then she asked,
"Speaking of shooting. What was that you were doing with your hands? What did you even fire? It looked white hot and the cameras barely caught it."
Micheal held up his hands so that his palms were facing each other and pointed his hands at the wall. He crossed his middle and ring fingers over his index and pinky fingers while he angled his thumbs to be couple centimeters apart. He then funneled mana into his hands and as electric arcs began to move down his arms and over his hands a humming sound sounded in the air that quickly turned into a rapid chirping sound not unlike cicadas. As the sound increased a blue glow began to emit between his hands as electricity shot between his palms. After a few seconds he stopped channeling and the lightshow dissappated. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a 1.5cm ball bearing that he tossed to his mother,
"Way back in the early 1900s there was a german scientist who came up with using magnets to propel objects. Flash forward about 80 years and the US is "working" on something similar for their warships. Its called a "railgun" and it uses electromagnetic fields to propel a projectile as fast or faster than a bullet with no gunpowder or residue left behind. By crossing my fingers and angling my hands I can do something similar by having opposing and rotating currents of electricity flowing down my arms into my hands."
Amelai looked at the ball bearing clearly examining it for any spells. She looked away from the bearing as Micheal continued,
"Then the faster I make those fields rotate the more energy I can put behind the bearing which means it has more kinetic force."
Micheal shrugged and winced as his shoulder filed a complaint with his brain. Rubbing the bandages he offered a lopsided grin at his mother, "Desmond helped me come up with it about a year ago. We tested the kinetic strength of the shot and at the highest power I can fully control I can put one of those bearings clean through level 1 kevlar."
Amelia looked down at the bearing clearly thinking as she turned it over in her hand. After a minute she shook her head and tossed the bearing back to Micheal who caught it,
"Putting a pin in that idea and coming back to my questions: How did you move like that? You were dodging by millimeters and aside from that one wound you were cleanly doing it too. Also how did you do all that near the end there?"
"Ah...this part you may not like…."
Micheal explained his mana electric field and how recently when training with Desmond he figured out if he reinforced part of his body and then fired electricity through it it would move faster than he could move it himself. As he explained all of this his mothers frown got more pronounced and when he finished she was glaring at him,
"You're an idiot. Do you know what you're doing to your nerves when you do that? You're frying them. If you keep doing it eventually you'll lose your sense of touch if not the ability to move the limb entirely. Don't do it again. I need to hear you say you won't do it again Micheal. ...Micheal."
Micheal averted his gaze from his mom and sighed before looking back at her,
"I can't do that."
"Why not. You're killing your nerve-"
"I know. Everytime I do it I briefly lose the sensation of touch in whatever part I used it in but it always comes back. Every time. I don't know why or how."
Amelia stared at him and he could tell she was fuming. He wasn't wrong though. He already knew the risks because of the loss of his sensation of touch the first time he tried doing it. When he explained it to Desmond, Desmond told him outright what he was doing biologically to himself to move that fast. The one thing he said was to only use it when Micheal knew that using it would secure the victory but otherwise to not use it. The fact that the sensation came back was bizarre but he didn't know why and neither did Desmond.
Amelia ran a hand over her face and looked at her watch, "I have a meeting I need to leave for at the Clocktower. Someone needs to report your victory and I'd rather it not be Brevontile. You are to take it easy for the rest of the week. I'm also excusing you from your training with Desmond because we don't want your wound opening back up."
She turned around to leave and then paused looking back at him, "Also my brother is coming into town to stay for a few days. You are to behave while he is here. Understood?"
Micheal rolled his eyes and smiled, "Oui, maman. Don't you have a meeting to get to?"
Amelia firmed her lips in a dispproving glare before she turned and left leaving Micheal to put his shirt back on.
-Several days later-
Micheal waited by the door with a grin as his Uncle pulled up the road in his sky blue Porsche 944 cabriolet. He pulled to a stop in the drive way and got out of the car smiling a grin himself as he caught sight of Micheal. They both moved towards each other and met halfway down the front walk.
"Arnehearte you look like you've gained 20lbs in muscle since I last saw you."
"And you look more like a twig than you did before."
They stared at each other for a five count before they both started laughing. Arnehearte pulled Micheal into a hug which he returned and then held him out to look at him critically. Arnehearte had apparently been a major fixture in Micheals life before he entered his coma and after he left it. It had actually been both Arneheartes and his mothers idea to implant the crest in separate pieces over the course of two years since Micheals body refused to take the crest as whole in any way. He had been just as fervant and obsessed with finding a way to bring him out of his coma as his mother was.
Micheal rolled his eyes and arched an eyebrow at his uncle who grunted and let him go seemingly satisfied with what he saw. He and Micheal moved to his car where he popped the boot and got out his luggage which he extended the carry handle of and let roll behind him as they walked back to the house,
"So how long are you staying this time?"
"A month or two. I have some leads I need to follow up on in Spain and Switzerland to help with my research. But lets not worry about me. Whats this I hear about you utterly mangling some lord prize golem?"
"okay if we wanna talk crap: How many women have had their hearts broken by you in the past two months?"
"Touche~" Arnehearte relented and they entered the mansion, "Same room as usual then?"
"Yep. Mom basically gave up trying to have it be a guest room anymore so its just your room from now on. Something about it being impossible to get clean even with Desmonds help."
Arnehearte laughed loudly and began to walk to his room. Arnehearte was Micheals Uncle on his mothers side. He didn't even know if his late father had any siblings which meant that he got attached to Arnehearte quickly. He was a tall man coming in at 195cm with shock red hair and violet eyes that seemed to always be sparkling with mischief. As for the rest of him, he was nothing but rolling muscles under his clothes to say nothing of his intelligence. He was one of the lead 'field procurers' for the Clock Tower. When a relic or an artifact popped up that needed to be contained and brought back they sent in people like Arnehearte to go retrieve them. These items could be anywhere from inside a musuem or a ruin or even an apostles lair. In order to do his job he had to be fast but be able to think faster.
Micheal followed his uncle into his room and looked around at what had basically become a second workshop for his uncle.
"Let me guess, You want to hear about some of the stuff I've dug up?"
"If you're willing to tell me, sure."
Arnehearte scoffed and gave Micheal a deadpan look clearly not believing his nonchalance,
"I'll tell you after I get unpacked. See you downstairs in a bit."
Micheal nodded and left his uncle to unpack. He went downstairs and into the kitchen to start boiling some water for some tea. He and his mother drank coffee almost exclusively but they kept tea leaves for times like now when Arenhearte came over. Several minutes later the water was boiling and he poured it into a teapot over some leaves. After covering the steeping leaves he got some tea cookies to go with it and right as he was about to carry it to one of the other rooms Arnehearte came in, ducking under the top of the doorframe and sniffing the air appreciatively.
"That was fast."
"Already had most of what I needed in the room already so its lucky that your mother and Desmond didn't clean it out. Speaking of, Where is the old man?
"He's in the US for a few weeks trying to get a hold of something."
Arnehearte raised an eyebrow as a timer dinged and Micheal poured the tea into some cups,
"I guess we're just drinking this in the kitchen then."
"Tea rooms are pretentious claptrap anyway." Arnehearte said smugly as he took his cup, sniffed it, and took a sip. He sighed, nodded appreciatively, and then looked at Micheal his eyes sparkling, "So why don't I start with the more interesting story. So I was tasked with flying into Peru to find a Jade dagger….."
#######
"….and then the entire building collapsed onto of the undead bastard. Didn't kill him outright but it did do a number on him. I shoved a blessed blade between his eyes and called it done."
After finished their tea and 'biscuits' Micheal and Arnehearte had moved to one of the living rooms and Arnehearte was finishing up a story about how he had stolen a relic from an Apostles lair. He sighed contentedly as he finished his story and leaned back into the plush seat.
"Its always neat hearing this stuff."
"I escape an apostles lair by the skin of my teeth with his wedding ring and all I get from you is 'neat'."
"Yep."
After a few seconds they started chuckling before settling down contentedly. After a bit Arnehearte looked over at Micheal appraisingly,
"So what did you do to beat that golem? I heard it was a right bastard to deal with."
Micheal sighed and closed his eyes leaning his head back onto the chair, "Alright so a few months back my mom accepts a duel request from some upstart lord…."
A while later Micheal and Arnehearte had gone to the training room so he could show his uncle what he was talking about. Micheal walked up to the wall by the door to the room itself and touched some runes in a particular order. After pressing a final rune he turned and waved his uncle into the training room. When they entered five targets made of hardened sand were just finishing constructing themselves at incremental 5 meter distances from each other with the farthers target being 30 meters away.
"Alright show me this 'railgun' spell you've been working on. I'll look at it and see if I can offer any tips to improve it."
Micheal nodded and pulled a ball bearing out of his pocket as he began to channel his mana into his hands. Several shots later and Arnehearte was muttering to himself as Micheal shook out the ache from his hands.
"There has to be a better way to do this than using your hands….Have you considered trying to make a frame for a gun or something similar?"
"Thats actually what Desmonds in the US right now trying to get. The US is 'supposedly' working on something similar to what I just did but for their battle ships. Its all theoretical but the idea is that a series of magnets paired in sequence with each other launch the projectile at ever increasing speeds each time it passes a magnet with the final magnet giving it a final push. Desmond is currently negotiating with the DoD to see if he can get copies or at least reference material to see if we can shrink it down to the size of a rifle."
Arnehearte grunted, "Well Desmond would be the best to teach you how to use a rifle after all."
Micheal tilted his head, "Wait why would Desmond be able to teach me how to fire a rifle?"
Arnehearte looked at Micheal eyebrows raised and then seemed to weigh his words before finally saying,
"Its not my place or story to tell lad. Now tell me about this field you use to dodge with."
Micheal decided to not comment on the obvious topic change but went through the rest of what he did in his fight with the golem. For his credit Arnehearte did have some excellent ideas on how to refine both spells so as to minimize potential damage and to increase their potency with roughly the same mana cost. After testing the ideas for a bit they broke for lunch and resumed working on the spells.
-Intermission-
"This is the stupidest ritual…." Amelia said turning a page in the book she was reading. During the recent meeting there was a report of historical relics being stolen from museums across the world. As the for the reason why….
"The Tohsakas, the Matous, and the Einzberns came up with this idiocy did they? Sounds like something they'd do." Amelia muttered as she closed the book and rubbed her aching eyes. She glanced at her watch and internally groaned seeing that it was 3 in the morning. She looked up at the numerous books she had gotten piled up around her and decided to get up to walk around a bit. As she left the library she felt a chill run down her spine as she sensed someone was scrying her. She set off in no particular direction, her heels clacking on the stone floors as she turned in random directions sometimes tripling back on herself as she tried to lose the feeling. Eventually getting tired of being followed this insistently, she loaded a gandr shot and right as she stepped forward whirled on her heel, brought her hand up, and fired the shot. A small shape fell from the ceiling and Amelia walked over to see that a bat had fallen from the ceiling with a smoking hole blown clean through hits head. She frowned.
"Scrying a Brand.. in the Clock Tower no less. Someone is either very brave or very stupid." She muttered as she drew a rune and the bat was immolated in a small ball of fire,
"I wonder…." Amelia had an odd feeling in her gut as she walked back to the library and to where her desk was only to find that a different book had taken the place of the one she had been reading and it was opened already. She narrowed her eyes and cast as many analyzing and detection spells she could think of at the book and got nothing back. She looked around and didn't see anyone. Slowly she sat back down and read the book noticing that it wasn't a book so much as a diary about-
"This is a record about the 3rd Grail war….." She looked around again and then read the pages that the book had been opened to, "and thus the ritual failed for a third time. One must wonder why the Eiszberns would have summoned such a weak servant to begin with. It died first after all. But even after its death I could feel its malignancy. Its utter hatred and rage towards humanity. Its been 30 years since the war ended and to this day I still hear its name in my nightmares, Angra Mainyu."
Thunder clapped directly outside the windows in the library and Amelia whipped her head toward the sudden noise her heart racing. It had started raining in the time she had been trying to escape the familiar. Taking a shaky breath, she looked back down at the book and let out a single humorless laugh as she closed it and began putting all the books she had taken off their shelves onto a cart to be put away in the morning.
She left the record of the 3rd Grail war on the table.
Whoever put it there can damn well put it up themselves.