Sorry About the wait i was a bit too sick for the past few days so i couldn't upload
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After summoning Arash, Arthur brought him to the lord's mansion. They dealt with a few matters there before heading into the forest in the late afternoon.
After some research, Hohenheim and Avicebron concluded that the barrier originated from their world, yet bore traces of an ancient magicraft so archaic they hadn't recognized it at first. Through trial and error, two methods of breaching it were discovered:
First: tampering with a single section through magicraft, forcing the rest of the field to reject and destroy that portion. Crude, unstable, costly, At best, the opening lasted five minutes before sealing shut again.
Second: using Hohenheim's Noble Phantasm to tear open a controlled rift, then lining its edges with a smaller bounded field carrying the opposite effect of the first, stabilizing it into a temporary doorway. A seam between inside and out, And when needed, the seam could simply be retracted, the barrier left to heal almost immediately.
As for why Arash stood there, bow in hand? Someone had to scout the other side. And with clairvoyance stretching beyond horizons, no one fit the role better. He had agreed instantly the moment Arthur asked, though not without caution. By order, he would never stray too far from the breach; if something stronger than him lurked beyond, he was to retreat at once and Hohenheim would collapse the rift behind him.
All things considered, the second method was by far the safer bet.
"Well then, Hohenheim," Arthur said at last, tone cool and deliberate. "We'll go with the rift. I'll place my familiar on Arash's shoulder. If something waits outside, friend or foe, we'll know soon enough."
Arthur had reason to trust the familiar. His first creation after training under Hohenheim, it was a black crow he had come to hold no small pride in. Mediocre at first, until Hohenheim and Avicebron refined it through their craft, and through Arthur's own blood. Born from his magic power, the crow proved uniquely resistant to the destructive backlash of his power.
He named it Muninn. Why? Simply because he thought it sounded cool. The original Muninn, after all, was one of Odin's ravens.
'Do you know how cool it would be to be named Cú Chulainn…?' Arthur thought absentmindedly. Then, catching himself, grimaced. 'Never mind. That would just get anyone carrying the name bullied the moment the other brats found out what it meant. Being called the 'dog of Culann' isn't exactly flattering. But Muninn's a crow. Random crows don't bully each other… hopefully.'
(Cú Chulainn: "Tch. Cute. Between me, the mutt, and you, naming your bird after Odin's scraps, who's really asking to be laughed at here? Hmph. Don't kid yourself, brat. I've been called worse by better.")
As Arthur set Muninn on Arash's shoulder, Hohenheim used his Noble Phantasm, opening the rift and installing the stabilizing bounded field. Once finished, the three of them looked beyond the barrier. There was no forest. Instead, a vast field with only scattered trees, and yet the outside was dark. Unnaturally dark, like the bottom of a well with no sun in the sky. The atmosphere outside was, for Arthur seeing it for the first time, both unsettling and strangely familiar.
"Well… there's no sun out there," Arthur muttered, wary. "Yet in here, we have daylight. Whoever designed this field to simulate a sun, we owe them more than a little. Nothing could grow outside in that void. Be careful, Arash. If you run into trouble, fall back immediately."
"Understood, Master, I'll do my best," Arash said, smiling as always, though his tone and stance betrayed his seriousness. In truth, Arthur could feel it; they both carried the same unease toward the outside.
Hohenheim and Avicebron alone reacted differently, their excitement thinly veiled. Yet for the town's safety, Avicebron had to stay behind. After some negotiation, he agreed to watch through Muninn's perspective, projected in a crystal sphere back in the office. Arthur's blood had been a miracle for once. In their hands, Muninn became a hybrid artificial spirit, capable of casting low-level magicraft. Even more, Arthur could share the familiar's senses with his Servants.
Though it had a flaw. If he tried to relay too many perspectives at once, the feedback grew muddled. When Hohenheim had attempted to join the link while Avicebron was already connected, Arthur nearly collapsed and vomited across his office floor.
Now, as Arash stepped through the breach, Arthur watched through Muninn's eyes. The land outside was sick. Monsters scattered here and there, like the corpses from the temple. Arash dispatched them silently, his arrows swift. The terrain was scarred, trees blackened, soil burned and brittle.
Then, through the crow's sight, they both heard it: battle. Arash moved closer, arrows at the ready. A group of soldiers were beset by black monsters, a blonde-haired child at their head. No older than twelve. One beast lunged at the boy's unguarded back. Arash loosed an arrow, splitting its skull.
"Master, your order?" Arash asked, voice sharp with urgency.
Arthur weighed it quickly. The soldiers' armor was worn, their blades dulled, yet they rallied around the boy instinctively. Deserters? No. The child's reckless charge spoke of inexperience, not cowardice. His swordsmanship was raw, almost sloppy, but there was fury in it. And then, Arthur noticed the blood. A scratch, blood golden in color, trickling down the boy's arm.
"Yes," Arthur said at last. "Shoot down the rest of the monsters. Then try speaking to them. If they're friendly, bring them here."
None of them posed a threat to Arash, to Arthur, or to any Servant. But the boy, the boy with golden blood, might carry answers. Even if not, he could lead them closer to the truth of this broken world.
Arash's arrows flew true. The soldiers, seeing help arrive, rallied and struck back. Within minutes the flood of monsters had been cut down. As the last beast fell, the blonde child pushed to the front of the line, confirming himself plainly as their leader.
Up close, Arthur's breath snagged. The child's posture, the hard tilt of his chin, there was something disturbingly familiar about him, as if a legend had been folded and refolded into this boy. For a stunned second Arthur thought of Gilgamesh. Then reason returned. This world should not have anything to do with the Root, Hohenheim had said. Whatever this was, it was not supposed to be possible.
When Arash stopped before the child, the boy spoke in a language neither Arash nor Arthur understood.
"Master, I don't understand a word," Arash said over their link, awkwardness colouring his voice.
Arthur listened, then answered carefully. "He is thanking you for saving them, and probably asking for your name. That is what his tone says."
"You can understand him?" Arash sounded surprised.
"No," Arthur said. "Not the words. Just the emotion behind them. Try speaking to him. He has been staring at you for some time."
"Ah, right. Sorry, Master." Arash cleared his throat and forced a smile that did little to hide his stiffness. "Hello. I am Arash. What is your name, friend?"
The boy's face did not brighten. He studied Arash like someone cataloguing an odd specimen. Then he pointed at Arash's bow, at the fallen monster, and waited. Arash nodded in reply. The boy half-bowed, then pointed from Arash to the ground, confusion flickering across his features.
"He is asking if you live here, or what brought you here," Arthur translated.
Arash nodded, pointed back toward the bounded field. The child squinted into the distance, saw nothing, and turned to his soldiers. After a rapid exchange they reached some kind of agreement. The boy returned his attention to Arash, pointed at himself, then toward the direction of the breach, and made a sleeping gesture.
Arash understood at once. "Master, should I bring them back?"
"Yes. Bring them here. We can learn from them." Arthur's voice was steady. "When they arrive, I will have Hohenheim try to bridge communication with magicraft."
Arash inclined his head and began guiding the child and roughly fifty others toward the rift. As they marched, the boy fell into step beside him, miming eating and calling for a soldier who lifted a large sack. He opened it to show odd, gravel-like weights.
"What is this, Master?" Arash asked, puzzled. "Their currency? It looks like gravel, but it gives off a strange feeling."
Arthur examined the pellets through Muninn's sight. "maybe," he said slowly. "They carry a trace of divinity. Valuable enough to trade. Do not worry about food, we have more than enough."
Arash nodded and indicated assent to the boy. As they drew near the bounded field the newcomers saw the forest and the light within. For a moment they froze, then resumed their approach. Relief softened some faces. Wariness toward Arthur, Hohenheim, and Arash remained, but it was muted.
They stepped across the threshold. The air inside the field felt ordinary again, until Arthur felt it, a cold, prying awareness crawling along his spine. His body went rigid and sweat prickled his back. They were not just observed. Something was looking straight at him.
.........…
Anomaly detected: Interacting with Polemos600
Initiating scan…
Unidentified variable located
Cross-reference: Connection with entity [Georios] established
Biometric anomaly: Golden blood confirmed
ID: LykoS has been notified
Response received
Commencing deletion protocol...
.........…
Arthur felt the gaze sharpen, what was once distant now struck like a blade, venomous and suffocating. A voice of metal and static roared inside his head.
.........…
!!WARNING!! HOST IN CRITICAL DANGER
Countermeasure → INITIATED → FAILED
Reattempting → FAILED FAILED FAILED
SYSTEM OVERLOADED
Fail Fail Fail Fail Fail Fail Fail Fail Fail Fail
EMERGENCY OVERRIDE ENGAGED
Forcing unlock of sealed function…
ID: Alaya → ACCESS DENIED
ID: Gaia → ACCESS GRANTED
SYSTEM ERROR ERROR ERROR
ID: [ ] → ACCESS GRANTED
Override complete, ID: Alaya ruling nullified
NEW FEATURE UNLOCKED: [ T R I A L S ]
"Summoned as a Servant to fight in a war not your own… O guardian of the scales… O my C####ERRRRRRR ### RRRRR"
TRIAL SELECTED
PREPARING TRANSFER…
10
9
8
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"Hohenheim, I will be gone for a while. Handle things until I return. If the link between us breaks, do not panic. I will survive." Arthur's words were fast, frantic, each one heavy with the weight of the unseen.
"Master! What are you saying!?" Hohenheim's voice cracked with alarm. Through their bond he felt it, Arthur's fear, sharp and suffocating, yet no source, no shape, only dread.
.........…
7 SE7 EVVV ENNN
6 6 6
5 4 4 4
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
T W O O O
O O O O N N N E
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