3 An Unspeakable Bond

Seth was walking through the fire. Killing the occasional skeletons —read pests— that came his way.

Now that he met Archer, he was sure this hell was the responsibility of a Holy Grail War. But with the limited knowledge he has, what stands out the most for him is the fact that the war is fought in secrecy, far from human eyes. But, looking around and seeing all this fire doesn't scream "secrecy" to him.

As far as his information about this world goes, if a war escalated to the point of destroying all human life in the place of said war, Alaya would send something called a Counter Guardian or even a Heroic Spirit for the matter.

A Counter Guardian is similar to a Heroic Spirit in nature. No one worships them, though. They are utilized as mindless puppets in exchange for power during their lifetime.

In essence, Heroic Spirits are summoned by the hopes of men, while the despair of men summons counter Guardians.

'Something must be happening that I'm not yet aware of.' Seth thought while silently walking forward. If he needed to solve the problem, he had to do it fast. Coming to a halt to think of something, he closed his eyes.

Ten seconds later, he opened them again, and clarity flashed through. Without wasting any more time, he started destroying all the buildings surrounding him.

Finishing his weird actions, he started to look around him. All debris was now just a sea of "sand," just what he wanted.

[O Sand. Ascend and bring forth the storm!] Seth chanted, positioning his spear on top of his while spinning it.

All the dust from the surroundings started gathering in his position and circling him. More dust kept coming and with it, slowly but surely a tornado was forming with him in the center.

The tornado increased in height as more and more dust was accumulating, eventually reaching the clouds above that were so dark due to the smoke that was produced from the flames assaulting the city.

Gold lightning started appearing in the clouds bringing with it a sound akin to the roar of a beast.

In the distance, Archer frowned, remembering the incident that happened a few hours ago. Caster had a battle-hungry smirk, "Hah. Another bastard joined the fun," He said while moving to the direction of the tornado.

Lancer and Assasin had a little fear looking at it. Rider decided to wait and see what happened.

In the forest surrounding the Einzbern Castle, Berserker roared for a moment before ignoring it and continuing to roam around the area.

The Corrupted King of Knights, Saber Alter, couldn't see anything as she was inside a massive cave, but she sensed the disturbance. "I don't know who you are, but with power like that, you won't be able to accomplish anything," She stated coldly from her position before closing her eyes and rest to recuperate from her fight with Berserker.

Seth maintained the tornado for over a minute before making it disappear. After stopping, Seth fell to his knees, panting.

'Even though it was just to catch the attention of the Heroic Spirits and didn't have any attacking power, that move sure took its toll.' Seth thought with a helpless tone. He sure loved the free will of humans, but their weak bodies were something he didn't appreciate much, especially now that he had one.

Catching his breath, he decided to sit on the ground to recover some of his Mana in case some enemy arrived. He had to admit that ten seconds of thinking didn't bring him that many results.

He should have practiced his abilities on those skeletons instead of only focusing on the physical aspect. Had he done that, he would have made a less flashy, but less energy-consuming move. Well, the past is the past, not time to think about it.

Five minutes later, he recovered seventy percent of his Mana. It was the only perk he could think about having this pitiful amount. With little energy, the time to refill it was certainly shorter.

As he stood up, his body suddenly came to a halt. Looking at a particular direction, he noticed someone approaching. 'Took him long enough.' Seth thought while reading his spear to meet his foe.

What appeared before Seth was a tall man in blue robes. He had the same red eyes as him though they seemed more feral. 'Wait to meet the lancer one' A tan archer would say. His blue hair was tied into a ponytail revealing his silver earrings. He had a brown staff with runes here and there tugged into the crease of his arm. 'How lazy are you?!' He complained inside his mind.

Stoping a few meters ahead of Seth, the man spoke. "Good grief, you sure did something flashy there. Who were you fighting? And why did you stay here in the first pl-" Caster stopped when his gaze went from the man to his spear.

"Oh man, seriously? Why do you get to have a spear, and I don't? I swear to the Celtic Gods; this Grail is messing with me," Caster said while scratching the back of his head.

Seth just looked to the weird man in front of him as emotionlessly as always. But in his mind, he only complained, it was something that had quickly become a habit. 'I understand now, meeting these weirdos is my punishment in this lifetime, I knew there had to be a catch, damn it.'

"You carry no spear, nor bow or sword, so that narrows it. Your eyes reflect clarity, meaning that Berserker is out of the way, you certainly don't look like an assassin, so that leaves Rider and Caster. I don't see any mount around you, but you could summon it anytime." Seth analyzed out loud while pointing his spear at him.

"Eh, you don't have to think that hard. I'm a Caster, I know Riders have the most type of eccentric weapons, but I assure you that I'm not one" The now confirmed Caster said as he waved his hands.

'He is telling the truth.' Seth thought. He certainly is not a living lie detector, but people usually release some kind of "evil energy" when they lie, and who is better than him to sense Evil?

Seth relaxed his stance and put his spear on his shoulders. "So? What do you want?" Seth asked Caster, who was smirking complacently.

"The original plan was to come and fight the 'Servant' who produced that tornado. But looking at you, you are not a Servant. You don't seem to be human either as they just disappeared suddenly, and all that was left was us." Caster didn't know in what mess he got himself.

"Humans disappeared suddenly? What do you mean?" Seth's eyes widened a bit, hearing Caster's explanation.

Caster just shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me, even I don't know what happened very well. One moment there was a city full of people, and the next *poof* everything was gone." Caster sighed after saying this before continuing. "But more importantly, why did you do that? I don't get it at all."

Seth just pinched the bridge of his nose. "After my encounter with that Archer Servant, I intended to eliminate all the rest before going after him. I thought if I killed you all the problem would have resolved itself."

Caster just looked at him like he was an idiot, which earned a glare from Seth. "Listen, man, I don't know from which cave you came, but I assure you that just killing us won't solve the problem. You will have to get to the crux of the problem. The Grail itself," Caster stated while closing his eyes in contemplation. But just then, something Seth said came to his mind.

"Wait, wait, wait, you fought with that bastard Archer?!" Caster widened his eyes

"More like he sneaked attacked me, but yes, we exchanged one blow each," Seth said, a little surprised at Caster reaction. 'They seem to know each other.' He thought.

Caster was silent from a moment before asking. "An arrow to the head from behind?"

"An arrow to the head from behind," Seth affirmed.

"..."

They both looked at each other; at that moment, an unspeakable bond formed between the two, like two people who were part of the same accident. Seth even started to view the man in a new light. 'It seems he is not such a weirdo after all.'

That thought came crushing down more quickly than a plane that broke its wings mid-flight with Caster's next words.

"So, that, now that we share common grievances against that weird Archer. Why don't you lend me your spear? Man, I tell you. Caster class doesn't suit me at all hahaha." Caster laughed.

If he didn't have an image to keep, he would have fallen comically to the ground. 'This guy is something else...' Seth thought as the desire to punch him was growing faster.