Chapter 3: Chapter: 3
We were currently in an inn. While Master and the others were talking about what to do from now on I got out to pay the inn master and look around to make sure it's safe.
It was a really shabby town, barely functioning and on the verge of destruction. There were a lot of soldiers that were wounded. It seems they are struggling with the wyrms. Such weak people but nobody to protect them.
This made me think for a while. About what happened recently and what's gonna happen. I sat on the roof of the inn while looking at the slowly bickering lights. People laugh even in this situation. Did I really do the correct thing by taking every burden from my people? Maybe I should have really given them some portions of it and let them grow on it. Perhaps that would have prevented the sad ending I brought upon them. They did forgive me but can I forgive myself?
I looked to my left and saw Cu coming next to me, looking a little tired than usual. That's an unusual look and it doesn't suit him.
"Let me guess you used your runes to increase the defense of the Master and Mash's shield"
"That's a good guess but no, there was no need to do that. Rather I created these little golems to look out for us and warn in case of emergency" said while showing me a little straw golem. Weirdly enough they seemed to be on fire. Magecraft sure is weird to understand
(Flashback)
Inside the inn
"So you're saying you are the real Jeanne" Cu was the talking now
"Of course I'm the real Jeanne. It is really weird to be summoned right after i died but someone seems to be using my name to cause havoc and here i am trying to convince others I'm real" she seemed to be talking to herself with that last part.
"So Doc, can you guys check if what she is saying is true?" They can tell? Why was I not told anything?
An hologram appeared next to us again. This is getting really disturbing. Do they need to project a hologram everytime they speak?
"She is indeed correct. I'm not sure how there could be another Jeanne but our best guess is that she is some sort of Altered version of the Jeanne next to you. Similar to Arthur with us but at the same time different" So like parallel versions? gotcha
"Finally, can you guys untie me now?" Oh yeah we did tie her
"Well I'm going outside for a while. Do your own things i will come back" with that i went out of the room
(Flashback End)
"That is a good idea. Doing the first one would make it obvious we don't trust her"
"Let's forget that now buddy, what are you doing here sitting alone? Miss yer old home?" that's not wrong. I would be lying if I said I did not miss that place.
"That's not wrong but don't worry that place is always with me." it seems he did not understand what i meant by looking at his brows
"You did not look at my parameters right? To tell you basically I have a reality marble about my old kingdom. I can always just summon it but i do currently lack the ability to do so"
"A reality marble user huh. They were meant to be rare but look at that we already have 2 at Chaldea." was what he said while sitting next to me but another reality marble user? I'm guessing it's that Archer guy.
Of course assuming Arthur's sword being unleashed is her noble phantasm. That sword also has what I assume are really strong powers. Sucks that she didn't let me analyze it but it's sure to be better than A+.
"What do you mean by lacking the ability to summon it by the way? That Archer guy can do it without any problems from what i know"
"Exactly what I said. I can unlock it later on but I don't know the requirements for it. Could also because I never properly used it to fight before. Always used it when i wanted some quiet place to think and craft some weapons"
"That some weird Reality Marble there. Most I heard helped in some sort of the user to fight. Remember the Archer guy? he can summon his weapons way quicker and without really using much prana or shit. At least even before they died." that does seem familiar with what i currently have
"His verison does seem quite similar to mine. Mine also stores weapons. The reason I didn't use it before that much was because there was no need to buy now? I can't summon my most prized weapon and armors without first entering it" such a shame honestly. If only I could use my full inventory. I can't even access my potions because of it.
"Ah you're like those divine spirit's where they need to get weakened to summon. You did say you were a crafter right? So how would you rank that spear you gave me compared to your, let's say most prized weapon?" Is that even a question?
"Trash."
"...it was one of the best spears I ever saw and used though. What type of weapons you made that they needed to be restricted so heavily" he seemed sad for some reason.
"If it will make you happy one day I will show you a better spear. I must warn you I did not make many spears, my main aim was swords."and this put a smile on his face again. He sure does look better this way
Few minutes passed without any word spoken. Cu really was not acting like himself. I wonder why? almost 10 minutes and still nothing. Is he.. is he perhaps thinking about the spear i mentioned. No way right? Right?
I looked at his face to see a really weird smile. He really was thinking about that. Hahaha he sure is an interesting guy.
Maybe asking him is the correct move
"Say Cu if I wanted to protect someone would it be better to make that said person experience some of the pain that comes so he can grow or is it better to keep them as far away as possible and do everything yourself?"
"What's with that question out of nowhere? But if you want an answer it would be none of them" Huh? but…
"I will stop you before you think something wrong. To be a man is to experience all the things yourself. Preventing anything from happening or letting the said person not do anything will make it so he won't learn anything. I grew up with fighting. It was all life and death situation and even under Shishou's training I was facing death everyday but it made me into the men i'm right now. If you really have to choose between the two I would say pick the first one."
That's.. insightful. So I was indeed wrong back then, I should not have prevented their growth. Then.. then this time i will try to do as Cu said. I should let the Master handle her fair share then! But what is her share? I mean she cannot really fight and i cannot say i'm good at teaching magecraft. Cu's teaching is also out of the question so what can she do… how about i just left all the talking to her? If Arthur is willing to cooperate she can teach her how to make battleplans too.
"You seem to be thinking really hard now. Well I'm going see you tomorrow, bye" he waved at me and went inside the inn. I guess I should also go back now. There is a lot to think about but I should ask others first.
With that i went inside to see Master sleeping, she seemed to have some nightmare. She is also sleeping without a blanket.
I went next to her and covered her with a silk blanket I conjured. It's not the best but it does the job. She did grab it and hugged it so i guess she likes it.
Hah it seems we have a long way ahead of us. I hope she can endure everything and stay alive.
(Time skip to Morning)
"Senpai wake up" Mash seemed to get frustrated at how heavy Master was sleeping
"uhh five more minutes" She really is a heavy sleeper
"No senpai no more five minutes. If you don't get up now i will have to use some different methods" she sounded scary with that last sentence
"I'm up!" and it seemed work looking at how Master got up faster than i ever saw her before.
"C'mon master we are going for the next town now" and with that we went out and started our journey to stop the altered jeanne... What did they call her again? ah yes Jalter. Really bad naming sense i must say, we are not even sure if she really is an altered version of Jeanne.
Speaking of Jeanne she was still using that ugly robe.
"Hey Jeanne we are now going out but are you sure you want to go out with.. that?" I said pointing at the robe
"I must conceal myself for now so yes i don't have much choice" hmm i could always make her one. I still have quite a lot of silk. Simple looking one would be better right? no need to make it beautiful. Well i'm wearing quite the opposite of what i said but it doesn't matter
"Here Jeanne wears this instead of that" I threw her a robe made of silk. I did not have access to my dyes so she will be stuck like that.
She catched it midair and looked at it in disbelief for a second then looked at me and thanked me. With her changing the robes I must say this is way better.
"Cu are you ready?"
"Yeah, yeah coming" It seems we are ready to go out now.
"Doctor, can you tell us where we should go now?"
"You just gotta follow the road. There seems to be a wyvern attack close by so it would be better to rush towards it first" Look at that. First thing in the morning and we are fighting wyverns. After arriving at the road Cu did ask a question which now that i think about it makes much sense
"So Master, you are the slowest among us. Should we just carry you?" Such a great question. According to our last battle Cu seemed faster than me but how fast was Jeanne i wonder. I could also just conjure some boots, that way we would go even faster
"I can carry Master if you don't mind of course" After conjuring the boots ibelive my speed would be able to keep up with Cu at least
"Sure I don't mind" she came behind me so i kneeled for her to get into position.
"You ready Master?"
"Yes!" Well then here we go
"Call of The Armory: Elysian Tracers" suddenly a new pair of boots appeared outside of my leggings.
I would have rather conjured Celestial Tracers but it seems they are counted as A for some reason. I would rather take on another set of armors as well. Hallowed set is rather not easy to run in.
"Call of The Armory: Empyrean Armor Set" new black colored clothes appeared all over me. These are my fastest armor sets I can conjure right now. I have to be fast though it's draining prana at a higher rate than i thought.
"Well what are you guys waiting for, let's go!" we started sprinting with that shout of mine. We were still not going full speed since Master was with us and her body can't handle our speed.
Not much longer we saw the entrance but something was wrong. It was quiet, too quiet.
"Master, something seems wrong" I was gonna tell the group to be careful and first let Cu look around with his little golems but yesterday's talk with Cu entered my mind. Maybe I should really do like he said. After a brief pause i asked "...what should we do Master" which put a shocked face
"Ehhh but ahhh…" she was struggling to answer my sudden question since from the start she did not really make the choices herself. "You are our Master afterall. You should be able to make a plan for the unexpected" Cu butted himself in then turned his face smiling winked at me. Of course, what did I expect asking that question to him and not understanding I meant Master. At least he is helping me.
"Ehmm then we should approach carefully?" she turned to look at our faces while asking that. Well Master, your first fault is saying that in a question. She needs to be more confident as well but it's her first step so for now it should be fine "What you say Master" i did a little bow after that.
Our plan is not the best one, furthest from that actually but its our Master's plan. Let's hope nothing bad happens. I jinxed myself and us with that one right? Ah before I forgot I dismissed my equipment and was left with my hallowed armor set.
"Call Of Armory: The Sponge"
"Master here, take this before we go further. It will protect you. You can also make it so it stays invincible" thankfully i could conjure this one. It took more prana than expected but i should be thankful it was A- barely making me able to conjure it. Sadly it seems it was changed into a single use.
Master looked at the weird looking thing at my hand and took it. She seemed very wary of it, I guess it indeed does look ugly.
"What is this?" Cu also seemed interested in it. I guess he was wondering how this thing could not protect Master since it does not include any mana.
"Basically a shield generator. Don't ask me how it works. I also don't know but it does its job quite well. "Suddenly the Master seemed really interested in it and pressed a button on it. A shield appeared outside of the Master. She looked at it a bit more and pressed the button again. It turned invincible. It was indeed working correctly.
"Wow this is really high tech. How do you have something like this? even in chaldea this doesn't exist"
"Hahaha Master, of course it won't. Don't mean to offend you guys but from what i saw and how there is a problem with hologram function it is apparent you guys still have more room to grow on. This particular thing was obtained from someone I met. He was way ahead of you guys, his robots able to fight with gods and win. Possibly kill all of us right now but don't worry we won't be seeing him or his robots anytime soon." They gave me weird looks and they indeed had the right to do so but I pushed Master in front of me together with Mast and Cu. Basically forcing them to walk and not question anymore.
Master, Mash and Cu finally corporated with me and started to walk in front of me willingly and Jeanne. It seems Jeanne had a question to ask me but was finding it awkward I suppose. "Something wrong?" if she is not starting the conversation first then i may as well do it. "Ah no. I was just wondering, why did you let your Master do that?"
"That?"
"You know what I mean, that plan. I'm sure you or Cu could make a better plan than that one." Jeanne furrowed her eyebrows at my question. Am i annoying?
"It was a selfish desire of mine. I wanted Master to experience her fair share of the trouble so she can grow more and better. I'm probably not going to be with her everytime she enters a battlefield nor will be Cu so it's better to make her prepare for it."
"But doing this plan is basically suicide too. I'm not a master at this sort of thing but even I can see how bad this is. Is this truly the correct way?"
"I'm not sure. Cu was the one that told me mistakes make the man perfect so I wanted to try it once. Believe me I tried to just take on everything and protect them but in the end it didn't work." I can only hope this will all end better than before.
(third pov)
Jeanne was still not sure about this plan but it seems her compaine Ruler class servant was okay with it. She wondered who he was as he still did not introduce herself. He did say "them" so he lost some people. Even after that she couldn't really pinpoint said servant's identity. His actions did fit with some but his appearance, skills and what he shared of his story did not really fit any of the servants. His information did not exist among the information she was given. In the end who he was did not really matter. She finally looked in front of her and focused at the Master of the three servants.
'This will not end well, something doesn't feel right. and she was correct about her gut feeling.
When they got close enough to town barely away from the rather big doors they suddenly opened by themself.
"Well well well, look who came here. I got sad news for you as everybody is already dead!" A woman shouted towards Shirou's group. She had white hair and was wearing black armor with a banner on her hand. She was looking awfully familiar with Jeanne. There were two guys and one woman next to her. A man with not super long hair looking like he was limping was wearing purple with a book at his hand. To the next side of the white haired woman there was a white long haired man with mostly blue clothes. He was holding some sort of spear. Next to him there was a woman with rather lewd clothing protected by a cage? She was wearing mostly red and was carrying an iron maiden behind her strapped with chains.
"YOU! Who are you and why did you kill them?!" Jeanne suddenly screamed
"HAHAHAHA! Who am i?! I'm the real Jeanne you fake!" The white haired woman who called herself Jeanne screamed. Expect Jeanne everyone on Shirou's party taught 'So she really was Jeanne's alter'
"Wha- But-"
"Jeanne, let's not talk more. She is just trying to lower your guard by making you angry"
Shirou stopped Jeanne from saying something and possibly doing something dumb.
Jalter furrowed her brows at the remark "Why would I need to do something like that to defeat a fake? I'm the real one, of course I can defeat her. I don't need to do things like that" was what she said but she was also thinking something else inside 'Who is he and why are they already here? I was planning to leave and make Martha together with others stall them until I could summon Fafnir which would assure my victory. Gilles also didn't mention anything about that armored person. Wasn't there supposed to be some tanned white haired person with red clothes? Fucking useless. Anyways I can still go with my plan but first i need to figure out who this person is. I already sent someone to deal with the dragon slayer. If some other appeared out of nowhere everything will be for nothing' she used her authority as a Ruler to see the man's identity but something was wrong '...i can't see anything more than his name and nickname? Fuck this is not good, not good at all. I need to go back and use the grail to see more of him.' with that she changed her plans of summoning fafnir as soon as possible.
"Just look at her so weak. It's obvious she is fake. I don't even need to fight her myself to prove it. Gilles let's go back, you guys deal with them" with that she jumped on a wyvern together with Gilles and went back to a certain castle.
Shirou did not intend for them to escape so he tried his best to stop it. He took a stance like those of archers.
"Call Of The Armory: Blossom Flux" suddenly a wooden bow with leafs all around and a green gem in the middle on it appeared in his hand. He released the two bows resting on the bows, aimed towards the wyverns' wings.
The thing Shirou did not calculate was for fire to appear around Jalter and burn the leaf arrows before they could even explode. "Pathetic" and she went away after that. Shirou clicked his tongue at that and dismissed his bow.
"Sorry Master, I couldn't stop them" he apologized to his master but was interrupted by Cu's speaking.
"Sorry, not sorry but lets focus on the two servants ahead of us?" Before the group could answer Cu, the woman that wore cage looking clothing laughed at them.
"You fools. You can't possibly win against King Vlad. Just surrender and offer your lives to him" It did not exactly frighten the group as Gudaku seemed to not even remember who he was, instead the one to respond was Vlas himself.
"Dammit Carmilla you should have kept our names secret not tell them directly"
"But uncle! They should know your grace by alre-"
"Shh now you gave away your identity too. Well it seems it is already too late. Anyways.." Vlad turned his head to the group and asked in a more deeming voice "Let me introduce myself properly at least. Here stand before you is King Third Vlad Dracula otherwise known as Vlad the Impaler. Care to give us your names too? Let's make this more fair"
"I suppose that is right. You are facing Ethernal King, Shirou Emiya. Next to me by order is; Cu Chulainn, Hound of Ulster; Jeanne d'Arc, Saint of France; Mash and Gudaku." While Gudaku was wondering why he went with it, the others knew even if their names got out it won't matter as they already know who Jeanne was, Cu was known more about his skills with spear so him being caster changed nothing, Mash was a demi-servant. This only left Shirou as to why he would give away his identity but he, like Jeanne, knew other servants can't figure out who he is by his name because he is not among the information.
"Another King I see. Sorry I can't seem to recall any king by your name."
"No wonder you can't. Don't feel sorry about it as it's not known"
"Truly interesting. Let us two kings fight with each other, shall we?" Vlad was in a more inviting position than before, signaling Shirou to come to him. Carmilla was trying to stop his uncle but he went on "One on one. The king who wins the duel also wins the war"
"It would be rude of me to refuse another king's invitation. I accept." accepting Vlad's duel invitation he walked closer to Vlad and this also applied to Vlad as he drew closer to Shirou.
Shriou's group was a little nervous at how Shriou accepted the duel without even letting them talk. While they knew Shirou was strong, his enemy was Vlad after all. The one who was relaxed was Cu who reassured them saying it was going to be fine.
After both parties deemed the distance was enough they stopped and something unexpected was said by Shirou. "Cu can you block the vision and voice of what's happening inside to outside?" This question was left with an open mouth, confusion, interest and anger. "Are you sure?" was both asked by Cu and Shirou nodded his head at that. While Cu was preparing the spell Carmilla burst out "Uncle let's attack them right now, he is obviously gonna do something whe-" "Stop, I agree with him but i want to put a condition too" Carmilla was shut down but it was obvious she was really angry.
"King Emiya, I want to know who you are and your story" this time it was Shriou's group to argue about this but like how it happened with Carmilla and Vlad Shirou just shouted "I accept"
With the conditions set and a few more seconds waiting Cu to prepare the spell he finally casted it. Slowly a dome was around Shirou and Vlad with no other inside.
Shirou tested the dome with screaming "Master, can you hear me?!" but no answer came
"It seems it is working. Well then now it's time for you to uphold the other end of the deal"
"Of course but let us do it while fighting, no? It's not some interesting tale afterall"
"That's fine by me" and so Vlad entered his fighting stance.
"Call Of Armory: Majestic Guard" A fine weapon that can heal him with each swing if the enemy doesn't have any more defense. It was the best choice for him considering he just spawned another weapon so his prana was not the highest and with this he could at least make his armor better. He does have some weapons that interfere with regeneration but they were going to cost too much prana.
"Call Of Armory: Chlorophyte armor" Shirou's best performance and cost armor set was this currently. The others like Beetle armor and more were out of reach for him.
Now equipped with a purple sword that had wings for a guard and a green armor that was shining green light Shirou felt ready.
"That's some great equipment. Your blacksmith must work hard on them." Vlad gave his approval of the armor and sword as it was truly a craft from a mastersmith.
"Thank you. The maker of these would be me." Shirou smiled upon someone's great words against his works.
"Oh? A king and a blacksmith and a master at that. You truly are interesting." Vlad took his first step after that and striked Shirou. It was met with Majestic Guard's long purple blade."Do tell me you are not from this world are you?"
Shriou was a little shocked at that but then he laughed while sending Vlad away with a swing. As expected, Vlad was able to deduce it just from not getting any information about him."You are right. Do you know why you don't have any information about me? If you think it's just because I'm from a different world then the answer is wrong '' this time it was Shirou's time to strike. He dashed towards Vlad but was met with spikes. While they could not hurt him they did prevent him from getting close to Vlad. "Oh so there is another reason for that?"
"Indeed there is. The information we get is not definitive information, it's a combined information of what others have. I'm not a regular servant, instead of dying and going to Throne of Heroes i made a deal to be summoned as a Servant so my information doesn't count. Since no other people also know me this leads to me being an enigma" Among the spikes Vlad striked with his lance and hit the shoulder of Shirou but was also wounded from his leg by a cut from Shirou. "That is interesting. But still you did say you were from a different world. A world where no one ascended to the Throne of Heroes?" Vlad healed from his injuries in the blink of an eye but the same could not be said for Shirou. There was something wrong with him though, he could feel he was more vulnerable.
"None. You should already know that there exists a parallel world or things like that right? Well you see the place I'm from is not under the watch of Alaya or Gaia." Shirou before letting Vlad understand what has happened to him went for a strike one again. Dodging the stakes or destroying the ones that were inevitable. "It was also a place where no hero could be born because the people were nothing but food. You could also put it in a place where the age of gods didn't end and instead was met with more supernatural beings and more powerful gods." Smashing the last stake between the two he aimed at the head of Vlad but was met with the spear of Vlad. "That sounds like a pretty scary place to live in '' Vlad turned his spear and directed Shirou's sword to the opposite side and he threw a kick towards Shriou's stomach. Shirou did the same thing to Vlad but instead aimed at his knee preventing a free hit. "But you lived" Vlad seeing this close range disadvantage for himself created a stake between them again but was slashed again this time in his arm.
"Indeed I did. I also built a kingdom at that. But I also failed to protect my people.I slayed everything that could threaten them but I still couldn't stop their demise" Vlad felt that weird feeling again but this time stronger. He created another stake under Shirou's arm and managed to wound it. He was still at advantage as his wounds got healed again but that weird feeling was worrying him. "You even went against gods to protect your people, killed every danger for them, made your life as their guardian. Truly respectable but let me guess. You were the cause of their demise." Shriou did not falter with his injured arm and at Vlad's comment made a big slash towards his torso and gave him a quite big wound which was regenerating but not as fast. "You really are smart. Befitting of a King. Yes I was the cause of their demise. After killing a witch of calamity I was cursed by her. Looking back I was so obsessed with protecting and making my people safe I did not realize she was not really looking towards a fight. This ended with me killing everything till there was nothing left." Using this chance Shirou gave Vlad many small cuts at that moment but was also wounded from his leg because of it. Vlad now felt truly vulnerable. "Finally it seems your defenses are fully down" Shirou could finally heal now with "So this was what that cursed feeling was but it won't change the fact that i will win!" Vlad began to use his spear way more offensive than before. Making Shirou's armor almost completely fall apart and give him many wounds. "A pitiful life. Everything for your people but ended up with nothing but a dead planet. Tell me, did you ever think your people hated you?" Shirou countered most of Vlad's attack with the first chance he found striked at the chest once more, not letting the injury fully heal. This also started to make his wound heal. Shirou smiled at his question "At first i did but later on someone confirmed it for me saying they were all still happy their king was alive and well. Even if they died in their king's hands they still do not regret following me." The said person was also probably the one he made a deal with was what Vlad taught so he didn't really bother asking as doubting he would answer it.
After a few more exchanges Vlad was losing. It can't go on like this he taught. Finally it was time for his noble phantasm
"You truly fight great but it is time to finish this and he desummons his spear. "I offer here the blood-smeared life I led,Kazikli Bey! " Shirou seeing his opponent was not going off easily also while not as flashy aimed a strike at him where he was currently not moving. One last strike towards his hearth. Both of their visions blackened for a second.
Blood, everywhere there was blood and in the middle was two people. One with holes on his body that were healing at visible rate and the other kneeling with a sword pierced through his hearth.
"Heh, so you won. Your story was really interesting. I hope to see you later once more but as allies rather than enemies." Vlad's body was slowly dematerializing.
"You also fought well." Was what shirou said as she dismissed his set of armor and weapon. Now there stood a skeleton with black instead of white bones.
"You also gave away your body too huh. As expected you truly are a king i could never hope to become" This was Vlad's last words as his body completely turned into blue lights.
Shirou said nothing at his opponent's last remark, just stood still as if thinking something
Dome was starting to go so Shirou with the last prana he had summoned his hallowed armor set again. After this he couldn't fight but also did not want to worry his Master with his Skeleton structure. He really wanted Chaldea to fix whatever problems they have. As the dome almost completely went away he saw the others and waved at them to give them the message
He won
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