London, Clocktower
"So you're a master now, Edelfelt." Lord El-Melloi II said, blowing off smoke from the mystic code pipe he's smoking with. A neat little thing that helps him calm his mind and think especially in dangerous situations which is a lot of years have passed by since then.
Being entrusted with the position of lord, put in debt by his former teacher's family and recognized by the Clocktower by his merits and intellect, Waver's life has gone from hard to worst. He's not expecting all this responsibility dropped on top of him at the get go in his return from that brutal ritual but that's his youth talking. Time passed by and everything became a regular occurrence for him.
He blames his king for this, that oaf is probably laughing his ass off in his throne while watching him try to make sense of the mess being thrown at him at the regular bases.
And speaking such mess, this one took the cake.
"I am Lord El-Melloi." Said blonde teen preened in pride, lifting her palm and displaying the set of command spells tattooed on the back of her palm.
Waver almost snorted at her eagerness. The command spells on her reminding him of the good and bad memories of his experience of the bloody event. The horror and disgust climbing from his stomach at the horrendous act done in pursuit of the coveted prize. A reminder of what those command spells truly embodied.
You either come out alive and scarred or don't at all.
"And you're here to ask me for help with my own experience and expertise?" The Lord tentatively asked. Not like he wouldn't deny her any help, he rather actually give her as much as she needs. The girl would definitely need it in the upcoming trial she's about to embark on.
The Holy Grail War is not something you simply walk into.
"I'm sorry professor but I'm actually hiring you in behalf of my family. My family have acknowledged your experience in the previous war. Your performance and...bond of your servant is something I would ideally learn from you." Luvia Edelfelt brushed her hair. It's a matter of fact in the Clocktower that in the 4th war that only less than half of the masters survived on the previous ritual. A rather concerning statistic especially when all mages associated to the Clocktower ended up dead or missing. Even with their own unique family trait, the Edelfelt is still concerned about the safety of one of their heirs.
Heirs, more than one heiress as the Edelfelt's sorcery trait allows twins to have access to the Family Crest, allowing much more leeway and preservation of the family magic crest at certain unfortunate events.
"You Edelfelt truly know your poison." Waver hummed. Standing up, he began walking out of the classroom they're having a conversation within.
"In my office, I have everything noted and preserved in my office, all of my accounts of my experience." Together they walked out and began their small journey.
"I'm thankful for your assistance, Lord El-Melloi II." Luvia said, grateful at the man's simplistic nature and cooperation. Of all the magi in the Clocktower, only Lord El-Melloi II that she can openly say as her favorite professor.
"It's no problem of mine and no need to be thankful. I'm only giving you what you want in our little transaction. Even without it, I would still give it to you. It would be shame if one of my best students perish in that accursed ritual." Waver dismissed her gesture, irking the girl at his bluntness.
"Not confident in my chances of winning, Lord? I'll have you know I'm the best of my current peers in both combat and theory, both in and out of battle." Luvia said, rather proud of her achievement at a young age. Already, she and her sister have taken mercenary work in the association to further their craft and establish reputations.
Only for the Lord to let out an unimpressed chuckle before taking a long drag in his pipe. Luvia can only watch as the Lord pauses and watch as he looks up and down on her before continuing to walk.
"You're just like me back then, arrogant and naive. Whatever you have thought of the Holy Grail War, forget everything about it. The Heavens Feel Ritual isn't something you can simply prepare or adapt with whatever skill, power or connections you have. The ritual is bloodbath, a slaughter house for the weak and where monsters eat each other. There's nothing to predict or prepare for because at the end of the day, you cannot tell what's gonna happen next with all the monsters participating in the ritual."
"You would call Magi as monsters?" Luvia asked, rather perturbed by the man's words.
"No, I'm calling humans monsters. Tell me girl, how far can you go with a wish at stake? What lengths of cruelty would you commit in the name of one wish? How far will your morality stay as you watch other participants commit vile acts against their fellows? I have seen it happen, saw what lengths humans would go for a single wish. Me? I'm just lucky. I survived out of pure luck and my servant's grace."
Arriving at his office door, Waver began unlocking the complex runes keeping it shut before finally opening it.
"And now, you're the unlucky girl that's about to enter this hell. So I apologize if I'm not confident with your chances of winning, Miss Edelfelt." Waver gestured her to go inside, inviting her to his office.
"All I can do is make sure you have what it takes to survive."
And so Luvia entered his office and began to learn the Horrors of the Holy Grail War.
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Paris, unknown...
"We sure we got the right place, kid? Better not be like last time." A woman with red eyes, long brown hair, clad in a long coat and with a fedora, said to her companion as they stood in front of a bar.
"Pretty sure and last time was your fault, don't blame me if your memory is getting spotty, Hag." The other woman looked a few years younger than the first woman, red short hair and wearing a crisp black suit.
"Hey, it's not my fault that gay bars have the same name as our target location." The first woman shrugged before grinning, "But you did enjoy our time there, right Bazette? All that meat in one place, mmm."
Bazette fought back the urge to punch her servant and unwanted teacher, the legendary Van Helsing, monster hunter extraordinaire. A famous figure in fiction and possibly in reality if she's in the throne of heroes but with her sex mistaken. If only she wasn't so gung ho in getting her hook-up to anyone. For a supposed vampire hunter, she's pretty flighty.
"Just prepare your Noble Phantasm. We're entering their den and I don't like my odds against a horde of thralls capable of human intelligence." Bazette ordered her, adjusting her gloves covered in holy talismans made by Van Helsing, very effective against vampires and their ilk.
"Already deployed, just waiting for the show. Shall we?" Van Helsing smirked at her before stepping forward to enter the bar.
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Their target is another magi who's been experimenting on immortality as usual, turning themselves as Dead Apostles, nothing new. The only thing unique to this one is that the Magus is very capable in mind arts, creating a pseudo hive mind with his victims turned thralls which grants them immediate intelligence, skipping a few steps into becoming a Dead Apostle themselves.
This is a huge risk to the secrecy of magic and the likelihood of joining the ancestors is real so the man is already a dead man walking to the mage association, literally.
"What a party!" Van Helsing announced her entrance to the ongoing festivities. Bazette noted the modern music and sound systems. Not to mention, the very clear acts of vampirism by the current party. Strippers servicing the patrons, either in flesh or blood. On the bar, cocktails of blood are coming to a very shoddy blood bank, stolen most likely. Then there's the security.
"They probably have guns. Hit it." Bazette signals to her Servant.
They found their target's den.
"With pleasure." With a flick of her finger, Van Helsing sent a small spark at the fire sprinklers on the ceiling.
In an instant, the entire floor was engulfed by a spray of water coming from fire sprinklers. Confused and wary, the patrons began to make a fuss at the sudden misfortune of being wet. That was until the first screams began. The water currently pouring on top of them is not just any water.
It's Holy Water.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" They screamed and panicked as they burned, their flesh melting like they had been doused by a very strong acid. Their dying scream and wild flailing to escape the downpour turned the entire floor into chaos.
Through the entire thing, both Bazette and Van Helsing waded through the dying thralls, not even giving the chaos a single glance as they stepped over the dying and burnt corpses of their prey. The Holy Water acts as protection to them but also getting them wet, a necessary sacrifice.
Yet there are still a few thralls showing high resilience, their skin burnt red and bubbling in acidic reaction, blinded by pain both literally and metaphorically. Yet in their heads, a single command was given.
Kill or slow down the intruders.
And so they attacked.
"Go for the magus, I'll take care of the rest here." Van Helsing tilted her hat as she ordered her partner/temporary student. Bazette didn't reply and simply rushed towards the group of thralls now barring their fangs at them with wrathful bloodlust.
The Magus' thralls leapt at the younger enforcer, arms and fangs barred to rip her apart. But in their blind rage, they never saw the silver daggers flying to their chest. Hearts exploded in blue fire as the dagger found their marks, allowing Bazette to continue unimpeded to the backrooms. With Bazette on the hunt, Van Helsing took position between the door and the rest of the surviving thralls.
A long sword appeared in her hand, made of blessed silver gleaming with golden shine.
"Shall we dance?" She smirked at the horde.
Their responses are a cacophony of guttural roars and snarling before leaping into action. Van Helsing laughs before flicking her free hand, sending a flurry of silver daggers at her left and finding marks on the skulls of three unfortunate monsters. She then jumped, meeting another thrall midair with a roundhouse kick, sending the poor bastard into the nearby aquarium. Dropping from the air, Van Helsing brought down her sword to cleave another from head to torso, splitting the unfortunate minion in half. She then stepped to the side to avoid a swipe from behind, turning around to lash out a fist. The burnt walking corpse choked as her fist found its mark on their throat before it began bloating up till it exploded in gore courtesy of the talisman left behind. Her sword swung in an arc around her this time, cutting down the minions around her and creating space for her as she found herself surrounded on all sides.
"Damn, you'll a handful for sure." The vampire hunter adjusted her hat before stabbing her sword to the ground, activating the ritual she is chanting under her breath while fighting.
The effects are immediate. All undead aligned creatures are attacked, engulfed in holy fire and turning them to ashes in seconds upon activation. It was a simple ritual for the vampire hunter; she had used the abundant Holy water raining from the fire sprinklers as a medium to effectively turn the simple exorcism ritual into a massive AOE effect.
Done with her work, she went to the bar and began to pilfer the drinks. She definitely earned her drink for the night for sure and the owner is probably dead by now so might as well help herself.
"Please tell me you're not gonna drink those?" Bazette came back, clean and unharmed despite her wet suit.
"Now don't be like that. My body can pilfer poison and curses rather effectively so anything nasty in these bad boys is ineffective for me." The servant dismissed the girl's worries, "What about our guy?" She asks, pouring herself a glass.
"Dead. The talismans worked in pinning down his consciousness." Bazette said as she took a seat on the bar and watched her servant make a cocktail out of the drinks she was pilfering.
"Told ya my teachings are worth it." Van Helsing turned her head to give her a smug smirk. Bazette rolled her eyes at the smug servant. Who knew summoning the servant would end up becoming her student, learning about exorcism arts, rituals and about monster hunting.
As for the said talisman? It was a portable bounded field meant to isolate a soul or demon which pretty much works against a mind jumping Magi to stop them from escaping to a body of one of their thralls.
"Our guy didn't try jumping on yours?" Two glasses were set in front of her. One for the servant and one for the master.
"Tried. It got his head scrambled by the charms I'm wearing. Thanks by the way." Bazette grabbed her drink and touched glass with her servant in both gratitude for the drink and charms. The guy got a jump on her one time, forcing skin contact in order to jump on her mind. He didn't get a chance before the charms for anti-possession began to literally melt his mind.
He was dead before he dropped.
"Damn, poor bastard." Van Helsing chuckled, drinking her own drink.
"So it's one week away from the Holy Grail War." Bazette said as she put down her glass, staring at it.
"Yup. To be honest, I'm not sure about participating in it." Van Helsing shrugged, jolting Bazette in shock at the servant.
"What? You've been summoned? Didn't you answer the summons for a wish?" The young enforcer asked.
"Meh, kinda? I don't know. My wish is really not that great. I kinda jumped the gun on this one, didn't even know I had to fight six other strong servants for the wish. I'm a monster hunter, not a hero, remember?" The servant admits.
Truthfully, her chances of winning the war are slim. As a monster hunter, her skills and abilities are tuned in hunting the creatures lurking in the dark. In a war against multiple genuine heroes, she's an outlier. She would be a poor match against someone with zero relation to monsters.
"But don't worry about me, I taught you everything I know so even if I die, you for sure will live and make a killing in monster hunting." Van Helsing gave her master a thumbs up.
Bazette didn't reply, not keen on her voice breaking in front of her teacher/servant. They have been together for a month now and vampire hunter is akin to an older sister for her.
"Just... Try not to die immediately, Lancer. Gotta keep our reputation, remember?"
"Gotcha!"
For now, they drank together.
In the morning, the clean up crew would arrive at an empty bar and Bazette now with a collection of high quality wine and drinks in Lancer's begging.
Yes, they stole the entire stock.
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Fuyuki City, Park
"How unlucky." The girl muttered, lazily swinging back and forth at the swings in the empty park as she stared at the sunset.
"If only you're here." She sighs, looking down at her legs slowly becoming transparent at the lack of mana. She would cease to exist in this world in a few minutes from now after killing her master.
It has to be done, the unscrupulous bastard is going to use prostitutes as mana batteries for her. To see how callous and immoral he was in his views, to see human life as nothing more than resources for him to harvest, he had to die.
She wasn't a vicious girl in particular but seeing him beg and cry for mercy as he was devoured by her sheep made her smile a little.
But now, her time in this world is short. Maybe it's for the better. With how cruel the master is, she doubts the other Masters wouldn't be as cruel as him.
Now she just has to wait till she goes back to sleep with her dear pets.
Then suddenly, someone found her.
Impossible.
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Shirou followed the smell of wool and sweetness like candy, a very distinct combination for sure. As magus, his expertise and craft is only third rate at best but his senses are very much tuned to magic.
In the form of his nose that is.
He doesn't know why but his nose has always been sensitive to the smell of magic. It's why he always avoided the park which was the site of the Great Fuyuki Fire. The smell of decay, the dead and rot is just too powerful for him not to ignore in long periods of time.
So when he suddenly smelled something new from passing by the park from his groceries, curiosity won and he began to track its origin.
What he didn't expect is to find a girl straight out of a fairytale. Bubblegum pink hair, long and wavy with an unworldly quality that he can't put a word with. She was dressed in what he can only describe as a fairytale princess dress.
Oh, did he mention that she's becoming see-through like ghostlike from foot up to her knees?
Is she a ghost?
"How? I made a bounded field, you shouldn't be here." The girl said in shock, staring at him with wide eyes.
"Uhm, sorry." As usual, Shirou didn't know how to reply to a girl. But it was more akin to not really knowing the question.
A bounded field?
"No matter, I'll simply fade away in a few more minutes so any questions before I leave this world?" She said, shaking her head.
"Wait, leaving this world? You're dying!" Shirou exclaimed in shock.
"In a way." The girl shrugged, "I'm a ghost from the past you see and without an anchor to this mortal world, I'll simply fade away." She explained briefly, not wanting to explain the entire intricacies of her existence.
What she didn't expect is for the young man to pick her up in a princess carry.
"You need help! How can I help you?! My workshop is not far away from here so may be-"
She didn't hear the rest as she stared at the boy filled with worry, panic and genuine fear for her own sake. She ignored them as they passed people, houses and more.
The only thing filling her mind is the image of someone else filling the boy.
Maybe, just maybe her summoning wasn't as unlucky as she thought.
Medea has found her True master.
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Author's notes.
Damn, this one got delayed due to holiday vacation and Xmas cold. Servant images are in the chapter comments.