"Ultimate… One?" Albert and Mélusine said confused by what she even means.
"Yes, Ultimate One." She responded. "They are the strongest or shall I say the pinnacle, the zenith, the mightiest, the ultimate being on their respective planet. Thus they are named, for example, myself, Type Earth."
"What are we talking about, what does this have to do with other planets? Like does that imply there is a Type Mars or a Type Venus!?"
"Just to inform you. There is one other besides me on this planet. Ultimate One of the Oort Cloud of the Milky Way. Or simply ORT—One Radiant Thing, as they named it."
Albert turned to Mélusine for confirmation.
"I have no idea who or what is happening?"
"I don't know either but…" Mélusine made a unsettling, worrying expression. "Given how powerful this Type Earth is without even being a Servant nor a Magician like Kischur I am very much open to what she has to say."
Albert looked back at Type Earth and processed what she said as true as the curvature of the Earth.
"Very well." Albert nodded, accepting her and her words for now. "So… why are you here? I don't think a Beast Candidate such as I would warrant uh… you?"
"You hit the mark despite being blind of what I am. You are correct in that should a Beast fully manifest I would not even lift a finger for humanity."
"Why?"
"Because my concern isn't for humanity it is on Earth itself. But then again Earth—Gaia which is separate existence from myself."
"So you care only for the planet and not the people living on it? Hm. No I would think you would promote the birth of a Beast given how humans have been treating the planet for good couple hundred years by now."
"90%" She nods thinking of a someone special to 'them' long ago. "I think humans led by their forward way of thinking and will eventually leave their home for the stars." She then turned to Mélusine. "Do not worry I will explain why I am here my child."
"Your child?" Albert looked back at Mélusine.
Mélusine sighs and speaks:
"As I said when we first met I am a 'dragon' species fairy, the keyword here is fairy. We are a race of beings acting as extensions of the Planet, their… shall we put it 'sense of touch' of nature. Thus I could be considered technically her child."
"You certainly have changed, you are foregoing your fairy nature and embracing your origin." She smiled at her. "Wonderful, a dragon should walk their own path just like your master." She looked to Albert. "Galahad. I came here to see you."
She began to walk towards him.
"Well here I am, I guess." He said standing still, watching Type Earth walk closer to him. "Do you uh… need me to do something? If so I have to tell you I—"
"I know and understand." She raises her hand removing his helmet and holds his face, looking into his eyes. "You are a beast, playing being subservient to lull and then free yourself from your masters. As I said before I think humans led by their forward way of thinking are align well for my grace."
She had soft and slender fingers, yet underneath her flawless pale skin is the strength of an earthquake. Albert never felt more like prey being played and petted by a predator than this moment. She could rub his belly like a dog, and he would have to take it, that is how far the gap in their strengths are.
'She smells pretty nice.' Albert noted having her be so close to him.
"Hey! Don't hit on my lover!!" Mélusine shouted still bond by chains.
"I am not." Type Earth said making a frown.
"So…" Albert tries to think of why she would help him. "You want me to go through with my plan of overthrowing the U.S.A.?"
"Whatever path you choose will certainly threaten the peace of the world." Her expression softens towards Albert as she lets go of him and takes a few steps back. "I have a gift for you." She reaches into her cleavage and pulled out a small lavish bottle the size of a finger in width and length with a unique shape.
The bottle had a red liquid that shimmers with a moonlight hue. It looks divine, it's shimmering rouses a urge to drink it.
"What's that? A health potion?" Albert scrutinizing it with gimlet eyes.
"No, this is my blood. Consume it and you will gain power much like when you consumed Medusa's kin."
Albert looked at the bottle with eyes widen. The blood of a Ultimate One. One who could easily melt the polar icecaps or reform Pangia. This existence at the very pinnacle of the species of the planet is offering her blood to him, possibly the sole person who could fully reap the boons her blood offers.
He remembers the benefits he got from Medusa, they were enough for him to step up to a Servant and hold his own. What of this? He looked to Mélusine to see her opinion.
"This is your choice." She answered. She looked towards Type Earth and shouted. "Hey, get these chains off me!"
Type Earth with a thought got rid of the chain, vanishing into thin air. Melusine stood right back onto her feet, her eyes dead on Type Earth.
"So?" She looked at Albert. "Do you accept? There is no other who would benefit from this more than you."
"Before I give an answer. I wanna ask you. If you are the Ultimate One of Earth then that means you are the zenith of the dominate species, correct?"
"Correct."
"Then… are you even human to begin with? Sorry but I can't see nor feel that you are the peak of humanity."
She makes a smile.
"You are correct. There are—were other species on this planet much, much stronger than humans. I was modeled after the Crimson Moon and thus created great Faeries known as True Ancestors—essentially the apex existence amongst the species you know as vampires."
"…So you're the apex of a species of apex species… yeah seems about right. You have a sort of… detached sense of malice, like I would imagine a storm would have."
"60%." She nods. "It is not malice, what I have it is pure hatred. You simply feel and view it as sort of natural disaster because you are closer to me than you are to your fellow human."
"…. Huh." That did surprise him. "So if I drink this am I gonna be a vampire or…"
"Not sure. You are unique. You have another ancient blood in you along with some dragon-like qualities. You could very much well turned more chimeric."
"Okay… why are you giving this to me?"
"Call it insurance."
"Insurance…"
The word used did not exactly fill him with confidence in her.
"Yes. I want you to succeed, Galahad. But if the word is not to your liking how about… lending a hand? Would you accept this hand that I am offering?"
Albert made up his mind long ago. He would shed his humanity to gain it. No matter what she said he knows deep down he is human. After all he has seen the depravity of man and if he isn't human than no one is. He will accept this help.
"I do." He walks up to her and holds his hand out. "I accept your offering. Even if I cannot see myself in the mirror"
"Pfft!" She hid her laughter. "What a funny misconception. That only works on a certain, very expansive bloodline with silver being an allergy, which was prevalent in mirrors back in the day."
She makes a smile, perfect under the light of the pale moon and over the illumination of the field of moonlit flowers. She stretches out her hand and hands him the bottle.
"Until next we meet again, Galahad. Hopefully everything you wish for has been granted."
Whoosh~
A brisk wind brushes past them like an illusion everything fades away with the wind as Albert finds himself within his base with the bottle in hand and Mélusine nearby.
Mélusine looked to Albert and asked.
"Are you going to really drink it?"
"Yes." He nods. "She handed me power that can help me fast track my liberation."
"…If that is what you choose." Mélusine only nods.
"Mélusine, do you know how she took us to that world?"
"That is called a Marble Phantasm. Not the same as a Reality Marble."
"…Your gonna need to explain."
Melusine sighed before she went and sat down.
"A Marble Phantasm is the ability possessed by the Nature Spirits that are the Planet's sense of touch, allowing them to reconstruct the world through probability alteration. By connecting their will to the world, they can transfigure it into whatever environment they imagine. However, the same cannot be done with things like humans or animals, which exist independently of the world. Imagination realization is purely the ability to freely transform one's surroundings."
"That sounds unbelievably broken."
"As it should. Only the greatest of beings can deploy it."
"Do you have one?"
"Not really good at this magic stuff to be able to make one, and why bother with it when I am already so powerful. Bit of a redundancy, no?"
"Fair enough. And what is a Reality Marble?"
"It is one that centers around the materialization and projection of one's Inner World onto reality. The created worlds are completely cut off from normal reality, projecting their Inner World and sealing off the regular World."
"So how is it different? They sound the same."
"One is allowed by the world and has a wider range of capabilities, the other isn't and is specialized in only one thing."
"Ah… I see, I see." He nods. "I'll keep that in mind."
Albert holds the bottle in his hand and holds it up, it still retains its shimmer if not a bit duller now that it isn't under the light of the moon. He says no words as he returns to his true form and opens the bottle and drinks all of the content.
It had a rich, transcendent flavor to it. Albert felt as if he drank the pure essence of heaven and earth.
[Ding! Ultimate One of Earth, Type Earth's Blood has been ingested! Mutations has occurred! Undergoing Body Rebirth! Skills ranking increasing!]
Much like last time Albert's body reformed, his cells die, his bones broke, his veins burst, his muscles are torn to shreds, his skin flake off his body as a new layer of skin forms, his muscle reform into tight and compact strands of dense muscle, his veins reform into a sprawling network like the usage of the Slime Mold, his cells come back to life with a terrifying, sickening vigor.
The process took about an hour but to Albert it felt like a minute.
"Ahhh…" Albert breathe out a hot breathe. His body is covered—drenched in his own sweat, all the pores on his body were open, he felt like he was just born covered in amniotic fluid. He turns to Mélusine and asks her.
"How do I look?" He smiles at her.
Mélusine stares at him in awe, a blush flashes across her face.
"Ooh!" She floats over to him, she looks at him up and down. "Long curved horns that sprout like branches that glow with the hue of the moon, hair as brown as rich soil, if not a bit more lighter, with skin as flawless as Type Earth herself and bright and vibrant crimson and gold scales, your once gray hexagonally eyes are now a beautiful shade of wine red with triangle pupils."
"<
Name: Galahad, (Adam #101522), (Cain), (Hiroyuki Albert)
Title: Juvenile Beast, Ultimate Human
Race: Human → Liner (70%) Dragon/Beast (30%)
Servant: Lancer; Mélusine
Age: 15 (December 31st)
Monster Body: I → Ultimate Monster Body: I (Monster Veins Quality: H → G) (Monster Vein Quantity: I → H)
Albion's Skeleton: A- → S+ Dragon Heart: G+ → Liner-Dragon Heart: I Monstrous Strength: I+ → H Self-Modification: H- → G-
Mind: SS+ → SSS-
Mystic Eyes of Eschaton: I → Mystic Eyes of Causality: I
Soul: I → I+ (New!)
Mystic Eyes Resistance: I → I+ (New!)
Skills:
Running: SS- → SSS Acting: A+ Regeneration: A+ → S+ Swimming: B+ Temperature Tolerance: G → F+ Language: SS Martial Arts: S Cooking: S Cleaning: S Marksmanship: SS Weaponry: A Poison Immunity: G+ → E- Seduction: A+ Sex: S Stealth: SS+ Driving: A Piloting: F Engineering: S+ Hacking: B Mana Burst (Beast/Grain): I ■ega-■e■f■c■ion: ??? [Locked]
Albert looks through his status and then how he looks for himself.
"<
'I have changed quite a lot in such a short amount. At least I have my natural hair color back, how lucky Type Earth was a blonde, yellow and purple make brown.'
"So how are your status?" Mélusine asked patting his body to see how durable it became.
"A lot has changed, starting from the top the last title I have has been revealed as Ultimate Human."
"Very apt! The perfect description of you Albert!"
"Yeah well I guess I even evolved—improved? Into a Species called Liner, don't know what that is but I guess Type Earth's blood elevated me enough to somehow being more human now. But from the look of things it seems the Dragon parts and Beast parts combined with one another. Then there is my Mystic Eyes, they changed—err I guess mutated?"
"I didn't think they could mutate." Mélusine said.
"Well now their called the Mystic Eyes of Causality, so I guess they have something to do with the cause of something? I mean why would my Quirk name it that if it wasn't the right word to refer to it?"
"You don't sound excited? I would think it is an improved version of your last pair."
"That is exactly why, the last pair was rather… eh? It wasn't useful to me. Hm…" His thoughts go to the move that Type Earth did, and he thinks on how he could implement himself. But his knowledge on Magecraft is very shallow at the moment. "Ugh. Never mind." He will put that on the back burner. "Can we duel?"
He wanted to fight, an actual fight. He has long surpassed many on Earth, it has only been recently where he would admit his loss and that was to Saber: Siegfrid, Archer: Oda Nobunaga, and Avenger: Medusa. These three were forces of nature to Albert and they showed him the might of legends of old are capable of.
As for Rider: Ushiwakamaru and Assassin: Katou Danzou. If not for the early steps of Beasthood, Albert would not have had such an easy time as he did. Afterall even a Juvenile Beast such as him are a humanoid calamity with a power that could already scarp the very bottom realms of Heroic Spirit, this of course if how Albert views himself. Had Albert faced any other Servant, before becoming a Juvenile Beast, that didn't have the invincible skin he would surly at least draw blood.
"Duel? Not a spar?"
"No." He shook his head. "With this body, I wanna see how I will hold myself against a powerful opponent." He smiled at her.
"Hehe." She grinned. "Very well. Let's go find a place to fight it out then! But first you need a bath."
"Do I smell?" He sniffed himself.
"Horrible, you have this nasty stench on you, it reminds me of the last time when you ate the snakes."
"Guess I'll shower then, but does it matter if we are gonna fight?"
"Of course! I don't want the scent of you all sweaty to be tainted by this god awful stench!"
"That's weird that your into my scent."
"There are plenty of lovers who adore their partners scent! One day you will understand what I mean!"
"Alright I'll get going!" Albert hurried off to go shower, fearing that Mélusine's words will be prophecy.
Mélusine headed outside to get the loot dropped. When she opened the door she was met by a field of the flowers found within Type Earth's Reality Marble.
"Ooh… Show off."
South America. Somewhere deep within the continents jungle.
"So how was he in person?" Kischur said with his legs kicked up on a reclining chair.
"He certainly was something, I never seen such a piece of work in my life." Type Earth said casually as she sits down on the couch and kicks her feet up on the coffee table. "Hm. Their couch was better." She grumbled to herself. "Hey, change the channel, Tom & Jerry is on."
"I'm watching reruns of Police Squad, do you know how rare it is for the American government to even air true classics like these?"
"Mmph." She sulked. "What are his chances now?" She glanced from her peripheral at Kischur.
"20%. It is not the time for the subjugation yet so that number will rise."
"Even when I went and tossed some of that mud Tiamat has deep within the Earth on him?"
Kischur remembers that day, it was the day Albert killed those people in oil fields, and it rained oil. It took some work to have it all in the right place and time for him to get contaminated by Tiamat's mud.
"That has still to play a roll. But I feel it will soon."
"Then I will ask you again when the Grail War is over."
"By the way, where is Miss Aozaki?"
"She is coming soon, she just got off the plane."
"Why can't the two of you get along? You could have brought her over within the snap of your fingers."
"I can say the same to you."
"I'm old."
"So am I."
"You do not look the part."
"Is that what seniority is to you? a wrinkled face and grayed hair?"
He didn't answer that. Type Earth sighs.
"Why have you not called for the Grave Keeper? Her weapon would also be of help should the worse happen and we have a full-fledged Beast on our hands."
"You know as much as me she does not move unless it's a case. Which I why I went and gave Galahad Photon Ray."
"You have that much faith in that patch-worked, broken, weapon of a child to hand him the sword of the war god?"
"I do. Besides that Quirk of his is what makes this all possible."
Type Earth sighs again.
"At least when he uses a weapon it's for appropriate situations unlike that destroyer of a mage."
"After so many years, literal centuries and you still harp on her destructive tendencies."
"Would you not feel the same if Type Moon were still around causing trouble?"
"Fair enough."
"Say do you know who I miss?"
"Is it Void?"
"She was so wonderful. She would have been the perfect counter should Galahad break."
"We all know. But she made her choice when her other self lay on her death bed. The same as yours."
"If only she could have held on for a few more years when the Counter Force is no longer active from the depletion of mystery."
"Have you picked out your coffin?"
"I plan on unearthing them and laying between them."
"How beautifully morbid. Do you want me to pay you a visit ever now and again?"
"That would be nice."
The two sat in silence as they watched old reruns.
"Hehe. This is pretty funny." Type Earth giggled as she sits with the person who known her the longest.