11 Winged Valkyrie & Bets of Love

Europe is a place in which many magi call home.

Amongst those magi living in Europe, a great deal of ancient and powerful forces also dwell.

Magicians of old, and Magus of new.

Some remaining hidden even from the eyes of other magus, while others, choosing to participate in the conflicts of their own kind, hoping to advance their craft.

The general public, is usually completely oblivious to the existence of magic. As most magi work under secrecy.

This fact also holds true for those powerful magi families and organizations. Often making use of the thing in which they pride themselves on most, magic, to remain hidden.

Yet although they remain hidden most of the time.

Conflict is inevitable.

The Mage's Association; divided into three branches, the Clock Tower, Atlas Academy, and the Wandering Sea.

The Holy Church, an international religious organization styled after the real Roman Catholic Church. They appear to coexist peacefully with the Mage's Association, yet they often act as an arbitrary power in the Mage's Association's internal disputes.

Most often then not, one can see these two forces hunting down Vampire and Dead Apostles who roam the world. The Mage's Association hunt them for the sake of Knowledge, while the Holy Church, for their Religion.

Apart from those two organizations, however, exist many ancient families such as The Three Founding Families, the Tohsaka, Matou and Einzbern families.

These ancient families and powerful organizations often use conflict as a means to a better future for themselves and in attempts to gain benefits.

A selfish motive, true, but a motive which has lead to the advancement of magecraft as a whole.

The battle ground in which these magi fight, is known as The Holy Grail War.

Seven Masters, Magi chosen by the Grail itself with those of the Three Founding Families taking precedent.

Summon Seven Servants, legendary figures of the past, present and future, to do battle against one another.

They willingly participate in the ongoing conflict in hopes of a brighter future.

Whether that be for all, or themselves, only they truly know.

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Northern Europe, within the mountains of Germany.

One such ancient family, the Einzbern's, have lived in these mountains for years, as they await the arrival of the next Holy Grail Wars start.

Their territory is nearly inaccessible, even to other magus.

A Bounded Field, a topographic type of Magecraft that is formed by knitting a network of magical energy and spreading it around the base area, such as a piece of land or a building, to create a mystic boundary line that separates the inside from the outside.

The Einzbern's have made use of this ancient technique to hide their main castle in which they use to house, and create homunculi, for generations.

Yet at this moment, said barrier was shaking violently, as if threatening to shatter at any moment.

The cause of the shaking, was two figures who could be seen darting about in the forest.

Moving at speeds untraceable to the human eye, they shifted through the trees in an elegant dance, as the space around them distorted with their every movements.

Suddenly as if growing tired of the chase, the person in the front suddenly halted, only to reveal the figure of a women. She wore what looked like armor one would normally see donned by holy knights in battle.

As her arms, legs and chest were covered in durable, yet form fitting silver armor, reminiscent of that of a knight. Around her waist was a corset which only served to enhance the natural beauty of her figure even more.

Worn over her armor was a white robe with golden accents, lined with what appeared to be soft feathers. It left her legs and arms largely uncovered so she wasn't restricted when moving.

She also wore a white and gold hood, that connected to her robe, underneath a metal helm which rested on her head. The helm looked as if it was modeled after a bird of some sorts with 'wing' like protrusions on top and a sharp 'beak' like visor covering the upper part of her face leaving all but her mouth and chin bare. Yet that was all it took for one to notice her soft, pale skin and beautifully shaped face and mouth that looked like that of a dolls.

Inside of her hood, Long white hair could barely be made out, as it ran down her back, obscured by the robe she wore.

Behind her, two large feathery wings, could be seen coming out of openings left in her armor and robe. The wings were approximately 15 feet long from tip to tip when expanded to their full length.

The angel like women, was wielding a large, seemingly oversized, halberd in he right hand. The halberd had two axes on each side, with the front axe being of a much larger size.

The front axe itself was shaped like that of a crescent moon, with the top most part of the blade forming into a point, facing backwards. While the bottom part of the blade, curved downward parallel to the handle, before ending in a sharp point.

While the back axe, was curved, looking more like two daggers in which the blades were connected together.

A weapon which would classify as a war axe were it not for the sharp, duel sided spear like handle. The spear tips were roughly one foot each, making the total length of the weapon from end to end, nearly six and a half feet tall.

Aside from the large halberd the woman also wielded a large tower shield in her left hand. The shield was about four feet tall and two and a half feet in width, with two spear like protrusions on the bottom of the shield. This allowing her to stab the shield into the ground and cover most of her body behind it if need be.

The Valkyrie like women hovered above the ground, with her shield raised in a guard stance, and her halberd to the right side, pointing forward, as she waited for her opponents next move.

Not letting her down, soon a hooded man wearing a black cloak which obscured his features appeared from the trees.

No words were exchanged as the hooded man pulled out two long daggers from thin air.

The dagger in his right hand was pitch black in color, possessing a one sided curved blade like that of a scimitar.

While the handle of the dagger in his left hand was golden, with golden skull like carvings going up the center of the dagger. The blade of the golden dagger was also pitch black similar to the first dagger, yet rather then possessing a single curved blade, the golden dagger's blade was instead duel sided and straight, like that of a gladius.

The hooded assassin, quickly lunged at the Valkyrie hovering in the air while making use of the tree branches to maneuver. Once within range, the assassin raised his golden dagger before striking at that woman's tower shield.

The winged Valkyrie in an attempt to ward off the foe, thrusted her halberd forward like a spear, trying to impale the hooded man while he was in the air and couldn't change directions.

Yet although her plan was a good one if she was fighting a normal assassin, the opponent she was fighting was anything but normal.

As if already knowing how she would retaliate, the hooded man's body seemed to phase out of existence as he suddenly reappeared at the women's flank.

The women attempted to turn around and ward off the foe who took her by surprise, yet before she could complete her action, the hooded man wrapped his legs around her waist and brought his pitch black dagger to the women's throat signaling an end to the fight.

The women sighed in resignation, upset over her loss, to the hooded man.

Seeing her release a sigh, the assassin released her waist and dropped to the forest floor without even making so much as a sound.

Knowing their spar was over, the Valkyrie slowly floated down to the ground, landing a few feet away from the hooded man, before stabbing her shield and halberd into the ground.

She brought her hands up before removing the held and hood from her head. A beautiful woman with a doll like face and ruby red eyes was revealed.

She set her helm down on her shield before bringing her hands to her neck and running them backwards, bringing her hair out from the inside of the robe. She possessed long white hair that seemed glistened in the afternoon sun, it looked almost as soft as the feathers on her wings.

Feeling more comfortable, the women once more turned to look at the man who at this time had removed his hood as well, revealing a face, not inferior to that of the women's in the least, as well as long black hair tied in a pony tail.

The man slowly spoke after seeing the women was ready, "You did well today Iris, you're getting the hang of your abilities more and more as time progresses. It wont be long before you can match a servant in equal combat."

That's right, the two who were sparing were precisely the couple of lovebirds, Ryker and Iris.

Nearly every day over the past month, Ryker had spared with Iris in order to help her better adapt to her strength, with mixed results.

At the start, things were slow to progress as they needed to quite literally start from the ground up. Ryker needed to help Iris learn everything from how to walk again, to simple things like eating.

It took them a while just to get the basics down, but once she did things began to progress a lot faster.

By the third week, Ryker felt like she was ready to begin combat training. So making use of his two skills [Armor of Akashic] and [Blade of Akashic], he created a set of armor and weapons he felt suited Iris' new combat style.

The armor was created with the image of a Holy Angel like Valkyrie in mind, and the shield and halberd came into play in an attempt to make use of her insanely high strength parameter. They had first tried out many different weapons and variations of shields, everything from large two handed swords, to unique transformable shields, but they ended up settling on the tower shield and halberd as Iris felt they were the most comfortable to wield, and Ryker had to agree.

So for the next two weeks Ryker had spared with Iris using a mixture of different combat styles.

He imitated everything from a spear wielding lancer, to a spell slinging caster, he had rained arrows down on her, and threw knives at her. He put her through multiple different combat scenarios because he knew that the more experience she had, the less likely she was to face danger in the future.

If he could, he wanted to be by her side at all times, protecting her from harm, but he knew that if he wanted to bring Iris with him when he leaves to explore different places and worlds in the universe, then there may come a day when she is faced with a dangerous situation.

She needed to be strong.

There was no reason for Ryker to not help her become stronger either, as the stronger she was the better.

"Mmm I feel like messed up at the end though…I can't believe I fell for your phase walk ability again! Muuu…." Iris complained before puffing out her cheeks in a pout at the end as she looked at Ryker with an adorable face.

It was a face that was just begging to be teased.

Reaching out Ryker pinched her puffed out cheeks and mushed them around as Iris released an adorable animal like noise, before hitting Ryker's chest in an attempt to get him to release her.

Giving into her sad puppy dog eyes, Ryker decided he had teased her enough and let go of her cheeks.

"Meanie!! See if I don't make you sleep on the couch tonight! Humph!" Iris complained, refusing to look at Ryker as she attempted to nurse her red puffy cheeks.

Finding her words and actions to cute, he couldn't help but want to tease her even more, so pushing his luck he spoke out in an apologetic tone, "Yes, Yes my love I'm sorry for bullying you, but I think we both know that if you made me sleep on the couch, you would get lonely and end up sleeping on the couch as well, hahaha!"

"I would not! I am a grown women you know?! I can go a night without you in the bed!!" Iris snapped her head around and glared at Ryker, as if he was underestimating her.

"Ohh? Really now you can? Then why not prove it tonight? If you can make it the whole night without coming to me, we can take a break from training and go on a picnic tomorrow just the two of us." Ryker knew her too well, and there was no way she would make it the whole night.

"Really?? Okay, but you need to promise that you wont go back on your word!" Iris knew that if Ryker said he would do something, then most often then not he meant it, but she was to excited to take any chances, and wanted his promise.

"Okay I promise." Ryker said as he reached his pinky finger out, in which Iris then did the same, as they promised the heavily one sided bet, as Ryker wouldn't really be getting anything out of winning.

Once their promise was made Ryker held Iris' hand as he said, "Now then, lets head back home and take a bath before bed." Before leading her by hand, towards the castle.

"Hehehe, okay honey~! I look forward to our date tomorrow~!" Iris said as she followed his lead, practically hopping.

After returning to the castle, Ryker parted with Iris as she said she was going to check on Illya first. Iris' room was equipped with everything one may need, from a walk in closet to a private bathroom.

The bathroom in Iris' room was large and reminded Ryker of one of those Japanese hot springs, he remembered from his past life.

After entering the bathroom Ryker washed his hair with soap to the side, before rinsing the suds off and walking over to the bath itself. Standing on the side of the bath, Ryker looked over the edge at his reflection in the water.

He hadn't changed much, if at all, ever since coming here. He still had the same lean figure, with subtle yet defined and power muscles. His long black hair, which now flowed down his back freely, was soft and silky. His hair didn't seem suited to a male, and felt as if it suited a female more, yet on him, it strangely fit his overall image quite well. To the point where he couldn't even imagine himself with short hair.

*Sigh*

Releasing a long drawn-out sigh, Ryker slowly lowed himself into the bath.

Feeling the warm water against his skin always served to release the tensions from his body, as he rested his head against the side of the bath with his eyes closed.

*Creek*

Hearing a noise that sounded like that of a door opening, Ryker, without opening his eyes, checked who it was before once more relaxing.

Hearing the sounds of water and footsteps from behind him, Ryker still remained In his spot seemingly without a care in the world.

It wasn't until he heard someone getting into the bath, and a sudden weight on his shoulder that Ryker finally opened his eyes.

Looking to his right, he noticed Iris was in the water next to him, as she rested her head on his shoulder.

It wasn't the first time the two had bathed together, as they had actually done it almost every night in recent days, yet every time Ryker saw her enter he couldn't help but marvel at her beautiful figure.

As if sensing his wandering eyes which showcased a look of appreciation and pride, Iris lifted her head from his shoulder, before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply.

Ryker returned her kiss, as the two entered into a passionate exchange, before Iris slowly shifted her position as she lifted her right leg and straddled Ryker's legs.

The two remained like that until it was eventually time to get out of the bath.

Ryker feeling refreshed, moved a couple blankets and pillows to the couch before laying down on it and getting himself comfortable.

After finding the spot he desired, he sent a look Iris' way who was currently sitting on the bed, before asking in an amused tone, "Are you sure you don't want to back out? Now's your last chance?"

As if finding his doubt in her comical, Iris released a sweet sounding giggle before crawling under the covers, and sending a provoking glance at Ryker before saying a line of her own, "Are you sure you want to sleep on the couch? If you get lonely you can always come sleep with me darling~."

Ryker released a chuckle before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep, as he awaited Iris' eventual fall.

Sure enough, around 1 AM, Ryker was awakened when he sensed movement. He could sense Iris beginning to squirm about in the bed as she searched for the usual warm that was currently missing. Growing fed up, she got out of bed and began to move through the room.

Ryker thought to himself, 'hehe I knew you couldn't even last one night without getting antsy, yet to think you caved in so soon, come on then silly, even if you didn't make it through the whole night I still would have taken you out tomorrow, jeez.' amused at the antics of his women, Ryker slowly waited for her to join him, but after waiting for nearly 5 minutes, the expected scenario didn't happen.

Growing confused Ryker, sent his senses over to the bed, and noticed Iris once more in the land of dreams, 'Huh?' giving the bed one more sweep Ryker noticed something abnormal.

As he focused his senses on the thing that felt off, it didn't take long for Ryker to learn of what happened.

Quickly raising himself up from the couch Ryker said, "Ahh! You cheater! You can't use Illya as a replacement! The bet was that you needed to make it through on your own!" Ryker exclaimed softly so as to not wake up Illya who was now no longer in her crib but rather, resting to Iris' side on the bed.

Iris who was pretending to be asleep, had a confident smile on her face as she looked towards Ryker and said softly, "Uhh if I recall correctly you said and a quote 'If you can make it the whole night without coming to me', you never said I couldn't sleep with Illya, hehehe." Releasing a smile, like a kid who just got away with a prank, Iris continued, "Now, now my love~ don't be a sore loser. Its okay, if you want to come join us I wont stop you, but you lost so you need to pay up tomorrow~."

Feeling like he was scammed from the very beginning, Ryker decided to just accept the fact that his little angel was to smart for him and got off the couch as he returned to the bed, where a mischievous little birdy and an adorable bunny were laying.

Entering the bed with a sigh, Ryker snuggled up with the mother, daughter pair as he thought about how tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.

A thought shared by the women smiling contently to his side.

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(You guys don't need to read the Notes at the end, but I would appreciate it if you guys did, and give me your feedback on things I can improve upon. Its a long one this time.)

(Author's Note: A slight tease this chapter, there will be 18+ scenes in the future, but know that they haven't actually done it yet, not because they don't want to, but because there hasn't really been a time which felt right. Ryker and Iris are content with just being in each other's arms. Though they will take the next step soon. Also, some of you have noticed that Ryker and Iris both have [Divinity] and are wondering how that will come into play when fighting Gilgamesh. Some things to know for those who don't, Gilgamesh is the Archer servant summoned during the Fourth Holy Grail War which Ryker will be in. One of his weapons is known as Enkidu, The Chains of Heaven. Enkidu is nothing more then a sturdy chain, but when the person bound by It possesses [Divinity] the strength of the chains become stronger in correlation to the amount of [Divinity]. That doesn't mean they don't have a limit, or a max, to how powerful they can become. A good 'max' would be Hercules, while the chains are able to bind Hercules (normal), when Hercules is summoned into the Berserker class with the [Mad Enhancement] class skill, Enkidu is just barely able to bind him, during their fight, Hercules manages to surpass his own legend, thus giving him the last step needed to break free from Enkidu. So Ryker cannot be bound by Enkidu due to his [Divinity] and parameters being to much for Enkidu to contain, while Iris, can be bound, however due to her being a dragon her [Divinity] was lowered, meaning Enkidu's binding wont be as strong. If she uses all the skills she has she can break free eventually. Still the amount of time she would be bound, would be long enough for Gilg to rain down hell.)