-Micheals PoV-
Micheal found the store room for the food easily enough but had trouble getting it to open since the door was sealed shut,
"Okay," He grunted as he put a foot up on the wall next to push against while he pulled on the doors handle, "I know Saber ate a lot but was all of this really necessary!?"
After struggling to open the door by force for several minutes he paused as he had to idea of using his mana sense. He closed his eyes as he sent out a pulse of mana only to immediately feel nauseous as the corrupted mana in the air flashbanged him. He snapped open his eyes and turned off the sense at the same time before shaking his head clear to glare at the door.
What else do I even have that could help me see-
Wait a minute… What if….
Could my faerie eyes could see hidden mechanisms?
There's no way this works...
On a gut feeling more than anything else he funneled some mana to his faerie eyes and felt them turn on followed by the world blooming in color while he felt his senses expand to the point where he felt his mind begin to stretch. He quickly turned off his eyes and blinked away the lingering colors,
"Okay…. Not trying that again for right now. Come on there has to be some way to open this fucking door."
After punching the door, which only led to him bruising his knuckles, he briefly wondered what would happen if he just put some mana into it as he shook out his hand a bit and glared at his current enemy,
"I swear if this works Jeanne has to never find out. She would never let me live it down…"
He placed his fingertips on the center of the door and pulsed it with mana causing the door to make a thunk followed by the sound of gears turning. Wuickly looking around to make sure no one had been watching he pulled open the door while holding an arm up to his face in response to the blast of cold air that blew out while he walked in. He whistled appreciatively seeing all the food lined up on the shelves and various meats hanging from the ceiling,
"How much fucking money did Kiritsugu even have to be able to get all of this… yeah it was sealed with magecraft but like…" He muttered as his eyes roamed the room, "Forget basic stuff I should be able to make an actual meal. The question is what to even make…"
He thought about it for a bit and then decided on a meal that was supposed to help with dealing with heat thinking back to what Jeanne had said at the house. He quickly found almost everything he needed bar spices, and left the room making sure to close the door behind him and reseal it. He then walked to the kitchen that he and Jeanne had found earlier, pushing open the door, and quickly channeled a bit of mana to use some medicinal magecraft to disinfect the kitchen surfaces as well as the tools he'd need to use to make the food.
"Alright so if I remember correctly…." He said to himself as he arranged the ingredients into their respective piles. He had boneless skinless chicken breasts, black olives, canned diced tomatoes, vegetable stock, butter, as well as some various spices and herbs he had gotten from a nearby cabinet. He remembered that the recipe called for a slow cooker but figured he could just use some magecraft to speed the process up.
He quickly cut the fat and tendons off the chicken breast and diced them into two centimeter chunks that he then put into a bowl. He then quickly deseeded the olives with a small knife and cut them into slices which he then put into another bowl followed by opening the can of diced tomatoes. After draining some of the tomato juice into a bowl that he then set aside he got some sea salt, ground black pepper, oregano, mustard seeds, and a bit of paprika into a bowl that he mixed into one single mixture using a fork. After that he looked around and found a steel pot with a fitted lid that he cleaned and set on the stove top which he turned on before putting a small pad of butter into the pot to lubricate it,
"Normally you'd use olive oil but we make do with what we have," he muttered as he pushed the butter around to evenly coat the bottom of the pot before turning the heat down. That done he got the diced chicken, olives, and spices to put into the pot. Once everything was nice and settled in the bottom he covered the pot with the fitted lid then got the vegetable stock and tomato juice he had set aside earlier. He poured in the vegetable stock at a ratio of 2:1 to the tomato juice and then looked for the secret ingredient: Low sodium Soy sauce.
He found a bottle and measured out a tablespoon that he then mixed into the stock/tomato juice mixture. While he was doing this he checked on the chicken making sure that every piece was at least browned. Once he was satisfied with it he poured in the liquid to where it just barely submerged the chicken chunks then put the lid back on.
Using some more of his incredibly limited mana he quickly sealed the lid to the pot with magecraft and then used additional magecraft his mother had shown him to heat the air inside the sealed pot to the point where the heat and pressure would cook the chicken more than the stovetop would. He maintained the spell, while keeping an eye on his own mana, and after he mentally counted to 35 minutes he very slowly decreased the pressure inside the pot.
"Okay so... I don't have one of those special lids my mom has with the mesh vent Which means I have to somehow get all the pressure out of the pot and then-"
He blinked as he had an idea, closed his eyes, and focused in on the mental image of the inside of the pot. Once he had it firmly centered in his mind he imagined a small shadow portal opening on the underside of the lid while the exit portal would be….
Opening his eyes to look around he saw that he could see the backyard from where he was. Refocusing he channeled the intent along with the mana as he felt the witchcraft spell respond and soon enough there was a spout of superheated steam coming out of a shadow portal a half meter above the ground in the backyard. He focused his mana on maintaining the portal, which took more focus than he thought it would, until he finally saw the steam sputter out. He closed the shadow portals and gingerly unsealed the lid breathing a sigh of relief when all he got was the pop of the steel separating.
As he took off the lid and smelled the food his stomach grumbled loudly as he stirred everything in the pot together into a single mixture,
"Jeanne? Foods done!"
He yelled into the house unsure if the Avenger would hear him only to jump as he heard a cough from behind him. He turned around and saw her blushing behind him with a bowl already in hand,
"It... smelled really good and you didn't respond when I came in to ask… what you were making…. Also I told you not to use mana."
She said with a light glare as her blush worsened while he took the bowl from her hand then dipped some of the food into it,
"Needed to use a bit to be able to make this. Anyway, enjoy your first real meal in Hell."
She snorted a laugh and took the bowl back when he held it out for her. He got himself a bowl and then got some forks for them,
"How'd you know they would have forks?"
Jeanne asked a few minutes later between bites of food as she leaned against the kitchen table and arched an eyebrow at him where he was standing in the kitchen,
"I distinctly remember Saber having issues with chopsticks during one of the meetings we had and given how much she eats it only made sense that they would have western cutlery."
He ate another bite and watched as her gaze unfocused off of him as she tried to remember. Eventually she laughed a bit remembering and they the fell into comfortable silence for a bit,
"This entire time has been insane."
He looked up and saw her frowning into her food as she said this,
"How so?"
He tilted his head at her as she gestured around the room,
"Alright here's my first question: How old are you right now?"
He paused as he remembered that his Birthday passed while they were in Avalon. Then he frowned as the unspoken part of her question hit him,
"I… don't know. I- I don't feel like I've aged past 20 but if we assume Merlin and Vivian are correct then-"
"Then you're at least 30."
They fell into more silence,
"Hey... Jeanne Alter?"
She looked at him stiffly as he used what she considered her full name,
"Do you… regret me summoning you? Shit that came out wrong- um…"
"Do I think my time spent with you was a waste?"
She asked quietly as he deflated and nodded. She seemed to think about it for longer than he would have thought,
"I'd be lying if I said there were parts of this that I wish didn't happen or had happened differently. You dying to enter and cleanse the grail being one of them."
She glared at him as he winced and muttered an apology,
"But overall? I've…. Had fun. Its been nice to… live like this. Like a normal person or as normal as we can get that is."
He hummed an agreement as he thought back to his own journey.
From him waking up from that coma….
To his various dreamwalks….
going to the Clocktower….
He glanced at the ashen haired woman opposite him,
To finding someone I….
"If you could do anything differently…"
He looked up at her, losing his train of thought, as she wrapped her fingers around her bowl and stared into it,
"Would you? I just…"
She shook her head and firmed her jaw before she opened it to speak only for Micheal to cut her off,
"No. No I wouldn't change a god damn thing. Sure… there were things that I wish could have gone differently same as you. Everything from taking my studies at the clocktower more seriously to avenging Arnehearte to…."
He trailed off as he felt that sense of lingering heartbreak. He shook his head softly,
"I know this doesn't mean much to say this to a servant but worrying and obsessing over what ifs and regrets isn't healthy. At least its not for living humans."
He blew out his cheeks and looked up at her to see she was staring at him. He looked into her golden eyes and felt himself smile,
"After all if I had done anything differently I wouldn't have been able to meet and summon you… which I consider one of the uncontested bright points of my post coma life."
He felt his smile widen as she blushed and averted her gaze. He pretended not to hear her calling him an idiot and instead looked around the room they were in,
"What about you?"
"I wish I had made a better first impression honestly."
He stared at her and started laughing as she glared at him,
"I mean it! The first thing I do after you summon me is plant my knee into your stomach, pin you to the ground, and try to stab you! Then once I remember everything I run off! Stop laughing!"
Her glare furthered and she pointed her fork at him,
"You cannot tell me that what I did was anything like what a freshly summoned servant should have been like."
He eventually settled into a series of chuckles as he looked at her with a smile as her glare dropped into a pout,
"But it was so you that I can't think of any other way for it to have happened."
She groaned and then grinned at him in a way that made him nervous,
"Oh but Micheal Lafaire~," She said in a singsong voice that sent a chill down his spine while also making his heart speed up, "If we're talking embarrassing then I should tell you I know all about your seventeenth birthday. Something about a Europe wide police chase a month after you got your license~?"
He felt a lead weight drop into his gut and immediately swore to himself he would have a word with his mom, Desmond, or both of them when he got back home. He glared at the Servant as she cackled and felt his lips twitch up at the smug smile on her face. They fell into silence,
"Its been a hell of a ride… Hasn't it Master?"
"Yeah it has… All the more fun for the company though."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
He watched her look away but not before seeing her smile a bit at what he said. He moved to put his now empty bowl into the sink and in the process his body finally told him it had had enough as he staggered a bit managing to catch himself on the counter. He blinked the sudden blurriness out of his eyes as he saw Jeanne walk up to him,
"You need sleep." Jeanne stated matter-of-factly as she grabbed his shoulder while the lights flickered above them, "Go refill the generator and then go to one of the guest rooms. You might be part god now but you still need sleep. Go. Shoo."
She pushed him out of the kitchen and shut the door behind him before he could say anything leaving him to stand there in the hallway for a minute or two before going to refill the generator. That done he want to one of the bedrooms, pulled out a futon, got some of the accompanying sheets, and laid down immediately feeling sleep drag him into its embrace.
=============
Micheal opened his eyes as soon as he fell asleep and they widened as he saw he was floating above the earth. He looked around to see where he was only to have his sight dragged back as a wave of fire swept across the entire planet evaporating the oceans and he could only watch as the light of humanity was extinguished. He watched helpless to intervene only to notice something was wrong as the planet spun under him while spots of blue light appeared out of the charred remains of humanity,
In Northern Italy he saw a blue light as the sounds that came seemed to be the sounds of church bells, crowds, and the hum of commerce. He faintly smelled the scent of paint followed by what sounded vaguely like the name "Borgia" before all the sounds faded.
France passed under him and he heard the sounds of cannon fire followed by horses being ridden like mad before that faded into rabid cheering as he heard "Hail the God Emperor! Hail the Divine Ruler of Europe!" alongside an anthem he swore he had heard before but before he could place it a blue light lit up where London would be.
He narrowed his eyes only to sense something reaching past him to try and get into the blue light. He couldn't see what it was but at the same time he heard words he didn't understand. He tried to listen to what was being said but the more he focused on the words the more his mind hurt.
He shook his head clear when the UK slowly went out from under him and the Atlantic passed beneath him.
Eventually two blue lights came into his view with one in the Caribbean that brought with it the sounds of seagulls, coarse laughter, and a woman yelling to man cannons while an ethereal laugh echoed all around him. Almost directly north was a second blue light that shown out from where he guessed Washington DC would be and he frowned as he heard the sounds of war, the firing of rifles, and cannons firing along with what sounded like people speaking Celtic followed by a womans laugh.
Eventually the United States passed under him fully and he was floating over the pacific wondering what the hell was going on. As the world spun under him he saw a new light coming from eastern side of the Mediterranean. It wasn't blue but was instead a brilliant yellow and seemed to come from where Isreal was.
He heard the sound of people talking followed by the sound of gates opening as the talking swelled only to be swiftly silenced with the sound of the gates closing. As the silence lingered he sensed someone or something was within it when he realized it was the silence of the grave that he was listening to.
The world spun again and then finally seemed to slow to its normal speed as a blue light so rich in its hue that it physically hurt his eyes to look at it passed underneath him,
"Thats… Iran or Iraq right…"
He muttered to himself as he heard the roars of demonic beasts and the yells of humans followed by an arrogant laugh he knew he had heard before.
The world slowly spun underneath him, all seven lights glowing steadily, until Japan slowly moved back into view after a few rotations and he noticed an eighth red light shining from it. As the light passed under him he began to fall, flailing around in the air, he covered his face with his arms while he felt himself start to burn from reentering the atmosphere and-
Micheal shot upright on the futon and frantically looked around the room as he felt his heart thundering in his chest. His breathing slowed down as he remembered where he was and he frowned into the empty room while his mind whirled,
"What…. Was all of that….."
-Jeannes PoV-
Jeanne leaned back against the counter and hugged herself as her emotions fought with each other. She scrunched her eyes together as she did her best to forget what Micheal had said just before she pushed him out of the room,
"Yeah it has… All the more fun for the company though."
She grit her teeth and stayed in the kitchen with the door closed for the better part of an hour before she opened it and walked into the hallway beyond. She moved past a room with a partially open door and paused, glancing inside, to see Micheal sleeping fitfully. She frowned, about to go in to make sure he was okay, when she caught herself and let out a shaky breath,
"I… I need to fall out of love with him faster. I can't keep- I can't…. focus or think when I'm like this…"
She said under her breath as she gripped her bracer with her hand and squeezed while closing her eyes. With the pain of feeling the metal bite into her wrist grounding her she moved on from the door and eventually found herself back in Sabers room looking at the bookshelf again. She idly took one book off the shelf and looked at the cover noticing that while the title was in a language she didn't understand she recognized the authors name easily enough,
"Homer…."
She glanced from the book in her hand back to the bookshelf before sighing, putting what she knew was likely the Illiad back into its spot, and then focusing her attention on a book with a white spine with gold trim. She pulled it off the shelf, noticing it had easily fifty bookmarks throughout it, and turned it to look at the cover noticing that the title was written in French,
"La vie, la mort et l'héritage de la jeune fille d'Orléans."
She read the title outloud as she dispelled her gauntlets and rubbed her thumb over the embossed title as she said it again but in english,
"'The Life, Death, and Legacy… of the Maid of Orleans'. Seems Artoria did quite a bit of reading on my original self once I told her who I was."
Jeanne ran her finger through the markers that Artoria had used to mark specific sections of the book and opened to one at random only to pause as she noticed writing in the margins. She squinted her eyes and rotated the book as she read it outloud,
"Ask… Jeanne Alter about similarities between…. Timelines. What was her life like outside of the reason for her creation."
She reread the note unsure how to feel about the fact that Saber was curious about her life outside of her duties as the Dragon Witch. She closed the book and held it under her arm as she quickly looked at the other books on the shelf to see if Artoria had bookmarked any other ones. She found three more and pulled them each off the shelf taking note of the titles,
"So she was marking 'The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne', the 'Alexander Romance', and…"
She paused seeing the title of the third book as she pulled it off the shelf and turned it over,
"The Legends of Charlemagne. This one has almost as many bookmarks as the one on Jeanne d'Arc… What was she looking for or trying to figure out…"
She put the book on Diarmuid and Iskandar on a nearby table before opening the book on Charlemagne to about halfway through the bookmarks. The section itself was on the exploits of one of his paladins but thats not what caught her attention. She turned the book a bit in her hands to read the note that Saber had written in the margins and narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she read,
"Micheal→ Reincarnation of Charlemagne w/ 'help' from Morgan? Ask about Lafaire lineage at later date. Additional Note-11/16/1994: Ask about Blessed Hellfire in relation to Rhonghomyniad. Finally figured it out."
She blinked and reread the note frowning as she did so,
"Putting aside the idea that Micheal might be the reincarnation of Charlemagne… what did she mean by 'finally figured it out' and why did she want to ask about Blessed Hellfire in regards to Rhongomyniad…"
She put the books on Diarmiud and Iskandar back onto the shelf but picked up the book on Jeanne d'Arc again. She carried both books out of the room, making sure to close the door softly, and then walked to the living room where she sat down on the sofa and started reading the book on "herself".
~~~~~~~
Jeanne closed the book and tapped her finger on the back cover as she thought back over her own memories briefly wondering which ones had been fabricated. She sighed and got up from where she was sitting, stretching as she did so, and looked at the clock seeing that about 8 hours had passed,
"Hope Micheal got some sleep…."
She said to herself right as the door opened and an exhausted Micheal slowly trudged into the room to collapse backwards into a chair,
"Wow. You look like shit."
He glared at her and then leaned his head onto the back of the chair,
"I slept like shit and there's no damn coffee in this house."
She scoffed,
"No 'coffee' or no coffee you're willing to use? Coffee prude."
He flipped her off without looking at her as she sat back down onto the sofa and groaned as he dug the heels of his hands into his eyes before pulling himself upright.
"Okay so, I… don't know if I could call it a dreamwalk but…"
He explained what he had seen and Jeanne felt a prickling at the base of her neck,
"And your sure there was a blue light in France? Was it over Orleans?"
"Positive and it was over Paris not Orleans. Why?"
"Do you remember the dream Eleanor had? The one where-"
Micheal sat upright like he had been struck by lightning,
"The one where 'Solomon' burned the world to ash-," He paused and gave her a look, "I just remembered something. When Gilgamesh asked that 'garden' question you answered before I could and specifically asked him if he 'knew about Solomon'. Is that…"
She winced and looked away,
"I… didn't think it'd be critical information since I assumed that I'd be going back to the throne at the end of the Fourth Grail war and its not like the topic has ever come up before…"
She heard Micheal blow out his cheeks and glanced back to see him thinking rapidly. She sighed and turned around to look at him getting his attention,
"Just so you know. I only ever heard him once, everything he said he did through Gilles who then told me so you can imagine how trustworthy any of it would have been."
"Thats…. Not what I'm worried or thinking about. Its just that…. God DAMMIT!!!"
He shot upright out of the chair and yelled for the first time Jeanne had known him as he stood there breathing heavily. She stared, feeling a bit of fear run down her spine, as her Master clenched his fist for several seconds only for them to go slack before he fell back into the chair to hold his head in his hands. After a few seconds Jeanne spoke hesitantly as she was worried she'd ask wrong. The words felt foreign in her mouth as she asked,
"...Micheal? Whats- Whats wrong? Talk to me…"
They sat there in silence for a few seconds,
"Its just… all so frustrating. I feel like I'm trying to piece together a puzzle with half the pieces missing and with no idea what its supposed to look like when its completed. I'm trying to think of a way out of where we are, how to make sure you stay around now that your grail core is gone assuming you still want to, where the fuck I got my fourth form of Blessed Hellfire, I'm worried about whatever the fuck Morgan gave me to let me use her witchcraft and-"
"Excuse me!?"
Jeanne shouted as she stood upright,
"YOUR WITCHCRAFT IS MORGANS!?"
He winced but nodded his head,
"AND MERLIN SIGNED OFF ON YOU USING IT!?"
He nodded again as Jeanne wondered how hard it would be to drag Merlin out of his tower and fill him full of holes. She shook her head as she dug her nails into her palm and bit her lip,
"You're- You're Morgans Heir and you're using her Magecraft… Does that mean you're not- that you're not Micheal anymore?"
She felt the dam crack as her vision got blurry while she stared at her sabatons as all the things she was worried about piled up on top of each other in her mind. She had managed to catch herself before she said that Micheal wasn't 'Her Micheal' but it was a close thing. She sensed Micheal stand up and move over to her before pausing. She looked up and saw him standing in front of her nervously,
"It... might not be much but… I'm here if you need to talk. I'd like to think we have that level of friendship."
She stared at him,
"What kind of idiot wants to be friends with a Dragon Witch?"
He pointed at himself and offered her a lopsided grin,
"This idiot does."
I love this man so much… and its because of that love that he needs to stay far away from me.
She took a shaky breath and stuffed her emotions into a box that she chucked into a corner of her mind. She smacked her cheeks a bit and looked at Micheal determinedly,
"Lets go. Once we take out the guy with the green hat we can go back to Gilgamesh and see if he'll be willing to tell us how to get out of here."
Micheal firmed his jaw and nodded to her,
"There's only one place where the Greater Grail could be and thats in the mountain behind the temple. Something like that would be truly massive and impossible to hide."
She nodded and reequipped her gauntlets in a flash of embers while turning to the front door,
"Lets do this. Its going to be a bit of a walk to the temple."
She heard him hum an affirmative behind her and narrowed her eyes as she walked to the front door of the manor and felt her chest hurt. She briefly placed a hand over her chest before curling her fingers into a fist and moving with more purpose than before,
He needs to get away from me… before he's killed or worse.
~~~~~~
"You know?" Micheal said as he hopped over another crack in the highway, "I think I liked this route better when we had a car and everything wasn't on fire."
Jeanne laughed a bit as she pulsed her legs with Mana to jump up on to the top of the small cliff in the middle of the roadway. She turned around and activated her witchcraft to summon lances that she then Modified into ladder struts that she sunk into the cliffside. Soon enough Micheal had climbed up and was dusting off his hands muttering under his breath. She coughed and got his attention before she turned around to look at the rest of the highway,
"So," She asked casually as she summoned her sword and spun it a bit in her hand, "Any thoughts on how to deal with them?"
She heard Micheal groan behind her as he saw the enemies covering the Highway that had given her pause. It was a veritable ocean of risen dead all meandering in place between them and the rest of their route,
"Before you even try I know you're running low on the mana you got from Avalon so don't attempt anything. Also remember that I forbade taking in mana from the air given that I don't want to potentially have to fight while carrying you as you try not to puke your guts out on my new robes."
She glanced over her shoulder to frown at him as he glared at her in response before they both turned their attention back to the horde. The fact that they didn't immediately respond to their presence was odd but what made it even more bizarre was that she didn't detect any controlling magic centers connecting them all.
Typically with hordes like this you had spaced throughout it various control centers that had a certain number of risen dead surrounding them. The more risen dead per control center and the more control centers themselves the more skilled and the more mana the magus or caster had but as she scanned the mass in front of her she didn't see anything that would be said control center.
She frowned and turned to Micheal just in time to see him bend down and pick up a rock before throwing it at the nearest skeleton. Her eyes widened as she tracked the stone in flight realizing she couldn't stop it without activating her mana. She grit her teeth and mentally prepared to fight as the stone impacted a skeletons head,
and passed right through it like a rock through water.
She blinked and looked back at Micheal to see a glow in his eyes fading which made her purse her lips. He saw her look and winked at her,
"Whoever set this up knew exactly what to do to make it seem impassable. Which means that we have a Magus or a Caster Servant who's skilled enough to make all of this seem real."
She narrowed her eyes at him,
"And how did you know that this horde was an illusion?"
He looked away and rubbed the back of his neck nervously as Jeanne tapped the tip of her boot onto the asphalt and glared at him,
"...A hunch that required me to use my eyes a bit."
She ground her teeth together about to yell at him when she sensed the spell cutting itself out and turned around just in time to see the horde wink out of existence leaving only a small handful of skeletons standing at regular distances. She held out her hand to stop Micheal and looked at him,
"Warn me before you use them next time. I-"
"I remember my promise to my mom. Don't worry. I won't ever look at you with them on… but I'd like to think you'd never make me feel like I have to. We're friends aren't we?"
She sighed and looked at him,
"There are some things I don't want to tell you or want you to know. About me, about Orleans, about… a lot of stuff. Frankly speaking the fact you know as much as you do bothers me so just- Let me keep my secrets and don't… don't try to pry them or me open. Please?"
"I promise but at some point I would like to know more about you. So I'd like to think you'd tell me eventually."
She heard Amelia in her head,
"Your secret is safe with me but at some point you will need to tell him yourself…."
He nodded and she let out a sigh of relief as she summoned some lances and dealt with the lingering undead their death cries eerily silent as they fell apart and dissolved into ash. They kept walking and after a bit she heard Micheal humming beside her. She easily placed the song and managed to mostly hide her laughter as she realized he was humming 'Mr. Blue Sky' but didn't manage to hide her smile as he glanced over and smirked at her,
"Come on. I know you know the lyrics."
She looked at him like it he was insane,
"You want me to sing. Right now."
He shrugged and smiled that damn smile at her as she felt butterflies in her chest. She glared at him,
"….Later. If we ever get to a point in all this where we both have the time and I don't have any other option then sure. ….I'd like to practice beforehand though."
"That works."
He looked ahead and kept humming happily as she mentally slapped herself for making that promise. She sighed and stared ahead of them as they kept walking through hell.
-Micheals PoV-
They got to the top of the final switchback and he bent over to rest his hands on his knees. He was still in pretty good shape but even then it had been a while since he had to walk that many kilometers.
I bet Desmond is shaking his head and clicking his tongue right now.
He thought wryly as he stood up to shake out his arms and legs while watching Jeanne move about the gravel covered parking lot. He frowned as his mind went back to something she had asked him almost offhandedly during their journey through the caves under Glastonbury,
"If I asked you to sign something like a contract between us. Something other than the Master-Servant contract… would you honor it?"
Not for the first time he wondered what she would have him sign. He trusted her to not have anything malicious in whatever it would be but he also knew that she wouldn't ask him that in the first place if it was something casual or without weight. He closed his eyes and examined his mana levels noting that they were basically unchanged from this morning still sitting around twenty percent. He opened his eyes and jumped a little to see Jeanne leaning forward and looking up at him with a pout,
"Erm- Yes? Jeanne?"
"I asked you if you noticed anything off but you ignored me."
"Sorry, sorry. I was checking my mana levels is all. I need to be sure I can at least shoot Blessed Hellfire right? To make the shot that I need to as well as get away once I take it. What have you noticed?"
She stared at him and then nodded before straightening up and looking around the gravel parking lot as the fingers on her sword hand flexed a bit,
"Someone else was here. I… can't tell how long ago but… try and single out mana for a normal servant."
He immediately snapped his gaze to her,
"You think it might be whoever performed that summoning you sensed?"
She nodded silently and shook herself a bit causing the chains to rattle,
"...What else?"
He saw her flick her eyes to him and then at the stairs leading up to the temple proper,
"Just…. Do you not feel that?"
He frowned and looked around before looking back at her arching an eyebrow,
"Nothing that I haven't been feeling for the entire time we've been here. What does it feel like?"
She seemed to brace herself as she inhaled a breath and closed her eyes while holding it,
"The feeling of Death being…. Everywhere. As we've gotten closer to the temple, and the mountain, its just been getting stronger. Like… a feeling that someone is less than a meter behind you with a knife but everytime you look behind you nothing and no one is there."
He watched as she dispelled her sword and hugged herself while looking around the area before he firmed his jaw and walked over to her. He gently grabbed her shoulder, making her jump, as she snapped her gaze to him. He smiled confidently at her,
"I've got your back. Just like I always have. Okay?"
She went still for a few seconds and he saw the fear in her eyes shrink to be replaced with something else as she firmed her lips and nodded at him. He gave her shoulder a friendly squeeze and then stepped away to summon Blessed Hellfire into his hand,
"We still have to climb the stairs so…"
"Right. Right, okay," the Avenger said shaking her head clear and summoning her sword into her hand again, "I'll lead then. You maintain enough of a distance to take potshots if you can otherwise you leave the fighting to me. Got it?"
"Crystal."
They walked over to the stairs and began to climb as Micheal started to understand what she had meant by 'Death'. It wasn't the same feeling of Death that he had felt before. This one was the feeling of the death of existence being more of a full body ache than the sharp chill that he had felt before. He rolled his shoulders and held Blessed Hellfire in a two handed grip as they continued climbing the stairs eventually reaching the top.
Jeanne paused when the gate came into view and then he saw her look to the left where he knew the mountain was visible. He came up alongside her and glanced over to see that the mountain was still caved in alongside what looked like a few construction vehicles,
"Can you see anything from here?"
He asked unsure as to how much detail Jeanne could see if she augmented her vision,
"A bit…" She said slowly, "I don't have an Archers vision but I think they were trying to stabilize the mountain around where it caved in. I can't tell from here honestly…"
She trailed off and then shook her head before looking back at the gate. She glanced back at him and he nodded before they both walked through the gate and into the temple grounds themselves. What they both noticed immediately after passing through the gate was the destroyed buildings along with a tree that seemed to be growing out of the middle of one of them. Micheal flexed his fingers around the grip of Blessed Hellfire, keeping his head on a swivel, as he followed a couple meters behind Jeanne.
They checked all the buildings and aside from a few scorch marks on one of them they all seemed to just be ruins.
"Which leaves the tree."
Jeanne said as she looked towards it while Micheal did the same. Seeing a fully grown, healthy green tree in the world that they were in was like lighting a firework in a pitch dark cave. They slowly walked over to it and Micheal noticed the air getting cleaner and more easy to breathe the closer they got.
"….Its a ward…"
He turned to look at Jeanne as she muttered this,
"Whats it warding against then?"
She made a sweeping gesture with her hand and gave him a look,
"Take your pick."
"Alright yeah, stupid question."
He admitted lamely as Jeanne reached out and the ward itself briefly flickered into existence as her hand passed through it. She frowned and stuck more of her arm through before Micheal could stop her and then she pulled it out while looking at it frowning. He looked from her to the tree content to let her think as he took a hand off of Blessed Hellfire and gingerly reached out. He felt a slight bit of resistance as his hand encountered the ward but then it easily slipped through. He blinked at the feeling on the other side,
"It feels…"
"Clean. Like its been…. As if the area within it has been sectioned off from the rest of the world around it. No not… sectioned off…."
She began to walk around the ruined foundation of the building the tree was in the middle of as Micheal debated activating his faerie eyes to look at the ward specifically. He glanced at her and decided against it.
If I'm going to piss her off by doing that then I'd want it to be about something where I literally had no other choice or where using my eyes is the only possible solution. Which leaves me with my normal scanning stuff.
He sighed and looked across the foundation of the building to see Jeanne had stuck her arm through the ward again causing it to shimmer into existence. Micheal looked at it and noticed that instead of the normal hexagonal structure that wards tended to take upon being deployed this one seemed to instead be more of a barrier or bounded field given that the surface was smooth,
"Which doesn't explain the weird green lines."
He muttered to himself, staring up at the green lines that seemed to be a part of the texture of the barrier. He tilted his head and looked at them as though that would force some inate understanding only to blink when he saw the surface ripple and then he looked back down to see that Jeanne had fully entered the ward. His mouth fell open and he was about to yell at her to leave as she got near the tree then looked at him and grinned before jerking her thumb at the trunk,
"Oh this is brilliant. Micheal, You can still read Japanese right?"
He looked up at the barrier before looking back at her as she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms,
"Just get your ass in here."
He sighed, braced himself, and stepped fully into the area only to blink as he felt his exhaustion melt away and a sense of peace envelope him. He looked at himself and watched as his bruises and scrapes seemed to partially heal before he looked back at Jeanne to see her grinning at him,
"Not quite as good as Avalon but damn welcome regardless. Come over here and look at this."
He found himself smiling as he went over to see what she was pointing at. He came around the trunk and furrowed his brow when he saw Japanese characters had been carved into it. They were glowing softly from within as he reached out to touch them and he sensed the power that was left in the characters that powered the ward as he read outloud,
"Rest your weary feet and be welcome/You are safe here for as long as the ward lasts/The Blessing of O'Watatsumi protects you."
He lifted his finger from the characters and rubbed his finger against his thumb before looking up at the tree and smiling a bit. He looked around and his eyes widened when he saw something a few meters away that made him to jog over to what he had seen. He quickly knelt to the ground and picked up what had caught his eye as Jeanne came over to see what had gotten his attention only to have her mouth fall open when she saw the silvery surface of the aluminium can in his hand,
"Someone else… Someone else is actually alive?"
Micheal nodded and placed the can back down,
"Jeanne. I want to use my eyes to look at this area to see if I can see anything. You told me to warn you before I used them."
He didn't look at her when he asked this but her silence spoke volumes,
"...Fine. Just-"
"I won't look at you. I promise. I just want to see something."
"I'm holding you to that promise."
"I know."
He stood up and funneled a bit of mana into his eyes causing the colors of the world to increase in saturation like before however this time he actively managed the mana flow so that his senses didn't overwhelm him. He looked around and noticed several things that he hadn't before. He walked over to one section of the ruined building that the tree was standing in the middle of and knelt down as he narrowed his eyes.
My eyes are saying that… someone laid down here but I can't tell for how long…
Making sure to keep Jeanne Alter out of his line of sight completely, he warned her to just stay behind him as much as possible as he stood up and looked at the other thing he had noticed once he had turned his eyes on. He walked over to a small indentation in the ground and got down on one knee to drag his finger through the black chalky substance lining it,
Okay so there was a campfire here… did they rest here? For how long? How many people were with the person who was resting?
He stood back up and stopped funneling mana to his eyes causing the saturation to go back to normal. He folded his arms,
"My eyes are off Jeanne. I have a question for you."
He heard cautious movement behind him and then saw the Avenger hesitantly enter his field of his vision. He nodded without looking at her and she let out a sigh of relief before she came closer,
"Whats up?"
"How much of the army life of Jeanne d'Arc do you remember? Specifically anything she or you did when finding an enemy's old campsite."
She looked at him and then around the area as it clicked for her,
"oh… OH."
She looked at him in surprise before she furrowed her brow and did her own investigation. A bit later she came to a stop and tilted her head as she thought. He was content to let her think and instead examined the ward some more to pass the time,
"A group of between four and six people. There isn't enough evidence to say if they ate anything beyond that one can but at least one of them slept for a good few hours based on what I could find. I also noticed that they had someone, or maybe two people, standing on opposite ends of this campsite. Presumably keeping watch. There isn't any sign of conflict either but based on how burnt down the fire is…."
She trailed off before she turned to him and looked at him determinedly,
"They stayed here overnight and moved this morning while leaving the ward active. Why they would leave it active I don't know but I'm glad they did. Whats the plan from here?"
He opened his mouth to answer when they both stiffened as they felt an all too familiar mana erupt from behind them. Micheal whirled in place, Blessed Hellfire already in hand as he felt mana surge off of his Servant,
"How-"
"I KILLED HER MYSELF. WHAT KIND OF SICK JOKE IS THIS."
Micheal glanced back at his Servant as she shouted and then made a decision,
"We're not waiting or taking this slowly anymore. I'm warping us to the base of the mountain and then to where the roof caved in so we can see inside."
Jeanne glared at him but walked over as he focused in on the intent needed to activate the witchcraft shadow portal spell. She came closer as his shadow extended forward and then a doorway of darkness slowly came out of the ground in front of them. She stepped up a bit in front of him and then waited as he moved his focus from where they were to were they needed to go. He did the mental math and the surface of the shadow doorway began to swirl until eventually through it they saw a view of the temple from the mountain.
"Go. I can only keep this active for so long."
He managed to get out as he felt something within him begin to tear. Jeanne needed no further prompting as she jumped through the portal and then shot off some hellfire once she was on the other side. He saw the flames in the distance and then stepped through the portal to fall onto the grass right as his concentration snapped and the doorway dissolved into shadows. He lay there breathing hard as his ears rang and the world seemed to spin above him. He saw four of Jeanne kneeling beside him and he focused in on her as he watched her yell at him.
"-icheal!?"
Must have hit some kind of biological limit for Morgans Witchcraft…
He thought to himself as he blinked and the ringing slowly got quieter before he sat up onto his elbows and coughed tasting blood in his mouth. He shook his head and managed to stand up as the ringing began to go away,
"Okay you aren't-"
He ignored her and focused on the witchcraft again focusing on the hole in the side of the mountain as another doorway opened in the air in front of them feeling that thing inside him tear further as the ringing in his ears got louder,
"MICHEAL."
"We don't have time."
He managed to get out before spitting blood onto the grass as they felt Sabers Darkened mana alongside two other sensations that had to be other servants. He frowned as he sensed that one of the sources of servant mana seemed to be a bit off as though it was mixed with something else. He shook his head clear and refocused on opening the portal seeing the rocks around the edge of the hole above them come into view through the other side,
"Go!"
Jeanne gave him a glare that told him he'd be getting a talking to later and jumped through the portal with him not far behind her. He got through the portal with time to spare and fell to one knee as he felt more blood in his mouth along with a full body ache ignored Jeanne to lower himself into a crawl so he could make his way to the edge of the hole.
As his line of sight cleared the edge he quickly took in everything he saw and one thing made his eyes widen while Jeanne swore as she came up next to him. Below them within the cavern was the remnants of a battle all in front of a giant stone orb floating above the ground on a stone dais.
On one side was the Darkened Saber who was gathering mana to launch off her blade towards a girl with pink hair holding a massive shield. Chained to the ground and missing an arm was a woman with long red hair and modern clothes who was clearly barely hanging on. He then noticed a young woman with shoulder length orange hair, wearing a cropped black hoodie and jeans, was frantically trying to make her way to the girl with pink hair as Saber launched all the mana off the Darkened Excalibur in a wave.
"Partial Release- Excalibur Morgan!"
"Lord. Chaldeas!"
He heard both yell and he watched as a wall of light expanded off the shield moments before the darkened mana impacted it. The girl with the orange hair made it behind the wall and seemed to position herself behind the girl with the shield. He then noticed a woman with white hair that looking at gave him a massive headache for some reason run forward behind the girl with pink hair as well. Shaking his head he looked over at Jeanne and saw she was gritting her teeth,
"Who-"
"Chaldea. Thats- There's another Chaldea!?"
He frowned and looked back at the group right as the darkened mana broke apart against the wall of light immediately before it fell apart and the pink haired girl collapsed to one knee while the girl with the orange hair fell backwards onto the stone floor. The girl with the white hair sank to her knees as Jeanne began to move only for Micheal to grab her wrist,
"Not yet."
She glared at him before moving back to how she was before as they watched Saber pause and speak. Briefly wishing he had the mana to augment his hearing he glanced at Jeanne and decided against asking her to do that given the boiling mana cascading off of her.
"What the fuck are you even waiting for!? We need to go help them!"
"I'm waiting… for that."
He said as he changed Blessed Hellfire into its rifle form, conjured the scope, and then aimed at the tear in reality that had appeared on top of the dias. He watched through the lens as a man clad in green walked out of the tear and even from this distance Micheal could sense the malevolence coming off of the man as he positioned the reticle over the mans center mass,
"I'll warp you down right as I take the shot."
"You're clearly hurting yourself with every portal you make so-"
"If you drop down normally you give him the time to escape. You also need to take on Saber before she has a chance to attack the group. I fire a shot at the man in green and drop you through a portal right on top of Saber at the same time. Yell at me later."
"Going to do a lot more than yell at you, dumbass. Fine. Tell me when you're going to do it."
He nodded and looked through the scope again only to frown as he looked at the man in green feeling like he was both there and not. He watched as the man spoke then a hole in the air above the Greater Grail opened through which he could have sworn he saw a flaming model of the earth. His attention was dragged back as he watched the girl with the white hair float off the ground and started screaming for help before she floated through the portal to then sink into the molten sphere.
Stifling his urge to help the white haired woman he refocused on the man in green feeling for the briefest of moments as though something truly massive was hiding behind the mans face. He shook his head clear and refocused in, hugging the rifle's butt to his shoulder as he mentally mapped out the spacetime coordinates for Jeannes portal while also waiting for the space between his heartbeats to take the shot as the man gestured madly and yelled something about seven nails and humanities coffin.
He waited…
and waited….
And then,
"NOW!"
He opened the portal beneath Jeanne who flared her mana to attack Saber while he pulled the trigger feeling the Blessed Hellfire kick against his shoulder as he fired the first of several shots.