Chapter 15

Two days ago, the other Jeanne or the Dragon Witch was sitting on her castle which she took after burning the useless king at the stake.

With the Holy Grail in her possession, she summoned a horde of Wyverns to burn down this despicable nation that had betrayed her.

But she was interrupted by the presence of several Servants suddenly appearing in the rural area of Bordeaux, marching towards her castle.

"Don't worry, my dear Jeanne. They are just minor obstacles in our path of righteous vengeance that you must crush." Her Gilles said and told her to focus on hunting down the Servant that can pose an actual threat to her, a Saber and Rider that have the Dragon Slayer trait.

However, a day later. She found out that a big number of the Wyverns she sent out to feed on another town was annihilated.

Thus in retaliation, the Dragon Witch led her army of Wyverns along with Fafnir and her Berserk Servants to attack the Chaldeans.

———

Archer or the Heroic Spirit Emiya is a rather powerful Servant with proper advantages despite what his Saint Graph may show.

His ability to copy Noble Phantasm itself makes Emiya able to counter a wide array of Servants and provide solutions to a number of situations. However, his biggest disadvantage is that copying Noble Phantasm is a rather Mana demanding action.

To copy one would drain substantial amounts of his reserve. However, with his Master's abnormally vast Mana reserve. He could trace a few more and only stopped by the strain put on his body.

When he saw the approaching rank of the Dragon Witch and her army, Emiya let loose one which exploded with the force of a tactical nuke.

Due to it exploding on air instead of on the ground, the effect is lessened but his goal to turn the enemy rank into disarray and confusion is achieved. Saber, Cu and his Master already acted and swiftly hunted down the enemy Servants he was forced to split off with his attack.

Emiya Traced another one of the Spiralled Sword, Caladbolg II and aimed it at the Dragon Witch that looked exactly the same as Jeanne except for the darker color scheme that differentiate the two. He hopes to at least injure or slow her down but her mount, Fafnir is a true Phantasmal Species which shrugs off the explosion and suffers only a minor burn on its scale.

'Enough harassing the Dragon Witch, Archer. Deal with the enemy Archer instead, Saber is getting pinned against three Servants including the Archer.'

"Roger, Master." Emiya replied before he used Reinforcement on his limbs and jumped between trees while shooting a few dozen arrows at the enemy Archer to draw her attention.

———

"Are you really fine against three Servants? Should I ask Ritsuko to send Jeanne for help?" The hesitant and worried Romani asked while looking at Adam on a stand off against three Servants.

To Romani's question, Adam gave a mirthful laugh.

"Just these three?" Adam sized up the three Servants. Two of them exude a clear taint of evil on their souls while another is much lesser.

"Hmn. It seems we had been looked down upon." The long blond haired man dressed in fine clothes only seen in nobility, mutters with a mild amusement as he eyed Adam like a prey.

"It seems so, Sir Count. At you obviously." The other Servant dressed like a Slaaneshi cultist and with a red and black parted dress, replied with an obvious taunt that irked the 'Count'.

"Can't the both of you focus on our enemy instead of on each other's throat?" The last one said, dressed like a noble lady and a fencer. Her presence itself evokes admiration. Although to a lesser extent and nullified by Adam's unshakeable will.

While the three bickers amongst themselves, Adam is silently channeling the power of the Warp. By the time they realize something is wrong, they will pay for their arrogance to look down upon him.

Powerful pressure suddenly exploded upon them like immense weight upon their body. Their reaction and movement stalled like they were standing in the depth of the ocean.

"You…!"

The Count was shocked when a giant palm caught his face and caused the silvery white lightning to electrocute his body. His body also starts to smoke and spontaneously combust as the purifying power in the special Warp Lightning burns his soul that is branded and tainted by his own sins.

The reason why Adam chose to eliminate the Count is simply because his intuition tells this particular Servant poses more danger to him than the two combined. Something about the Count's ability is dangerous and caused Adam to play safe instead of charging straight at them a moment ago.

But before Adam can move to the Slaaneshi cultist looking Servant, he sensed danger and immediately jumped away from his position when a dozen black spears burst out from the ground accompanied by a gout of blazing inferno.

But just because he dodged, didn't mean it's over as more spears burst out from the ground toward Adam and nearly stabbed him in the thigh but his Power Armor isn't just for show and the spear fortunately shatters on impact.

Adam looks at the Servant responsible for the attack. She looks exactly the same, a splitting image of Jeanne except wearing a dark and more sinister armor cloaked in a malevolent and baleful aura.

In her eyes is fear, a similar expression he sees numerous times when he is on an Inquisition to exterminate Demonic corruption festering within the Imperium. The same fear when those Cultists realized that their so-called gift from their Dark Gods aren't omnipotent.

"What are you? You are no Servant. No… that holy and purifying aura… you are an angel… no. Your presence is even greater than an angel…" She held her face with her right hand while another on the firmly planted flag stood on the ground as she laughed and laughed until she ran out of breath.

The Dark Jeanne let go of her hand as her amused face vanished and replaced with anger.

"Where were you when the Inquisition came and dragged me into the prison! Where were you when the Bishop branded me a heretic in front of the court? Where were you when they dragged me to the stake? When they stoned me for the sin I did not commit? When they burn me in front of the nation! The nation I defended! The people I fought for! Where! WHERE WERE YOU!"

Dark Jeanne screamed all her injustice, her suffering so vividly that would make others feel pity for her. But Adam merely stared at her without a shred of empathy to spare her behind the visor of his helmet. And that made her even more frustrated because she cannot convey her anger. She cannot make him understand. It is like talking to a wall.

She lashed out. She wanted to make her pain known. She wanted him to see it. To justify her act, her vengeance against those who betrayed her.

Unfortunately, Adam is not who she assumed he is. He isn't the one God sent down to punish her.

For what it's worth, Adam sees her vengeance as justified. He sees the shadow of Angron in her. He never fully knew Traitor Primarch to explain how and neither does he bothered to, but her anger at the betrayal is similar.

All Adam cares is that she is the key to resolving the Singularity and so his mind dissociates the useless pragmatism from his mind and sees her only as his objective and target to kill.

Dark Jeanne seeing that Adam's uncaring attitude of her only angered her further, making her even more firmly believing that she was abandoned by the Lord she worshiped, a discarded tool once her purpose had been fulfilled.

Neither of the two spectating Servants bother to interrupt their Master as she engages in mortal combat against the silver giant.

Adam swapped his arms in favor of a massive Nemesis Force warhammer as he smashed through all her tricks, summoning spears to impale him. Before he moved like an unstoppable force and smashed his warhammer at Dark Jeanne who grit her teeth and block it with her flag bearing spear.

The clash tore the earth asunder as crater formed where Dark Jeanne stood, battered by the evil purging Warp Lightning discharged on impact by the Nemesis Force weapon, leaving her tattered and disheveled while bleeding from numerous scrap and scratches while coughing up blood too.

"Assassin!" Dark Jeanne screamed with fear and helplessness in her voice when Adam was about to unleash another strike.

"Yes. Yes, my pitiful Mistress." Berserk Assassin sighed before she waved her staff.

"Phantom Maiden!"

Berserk Assassin summons an iron maiden to trap Adam despite its smaller size and equally confusing nature to be able or fit him. But before it could close and trap him in the spike filled torture device, a pair of giant silver gauntlet pried it open and tore it apart much to her lack of surprise.

Whether the iron maiden could trap Adam or not, her objective was merely to stall him for a brief moment as the three already got on Fafnir and escaped.

Adam stared at the three Servants, escaping with their tails tucked behind their legs with displeasure as his objectives were so close but escaped.

Refusing to let them go that easily, Adam swaps his arms for Psycannon and rains down Psychic charged bolts until they disappear from his sight.

While Adam is displeased that his prey escaped, he isn't that affected by it. Because he didn't expect to win either since his intentions were to get a look at the rooster of his enemy. Killing them is just the side objective.

Now that he and his group have gathered information on the enemies, he can start to make a proper plan to defeat them.

"Strange. I sense no Demonic presence from her." Adam mutters as he recalled in the previous Singularity, the Demon Flauros is the one enabling the Singularity.

Speaking of Flauros. He needs a way to properly dispose of or at least seal it with another method since he would need to free the Tesseract Labyrinth to be used for capturing another Demon.

———

After the battle, everyone regrouped back at the camp Ritsuko, Mash, Jeanne and Alina built after the battle had concluded. They wish to prepare a place of rest for everyone after a tiring battle.

Adam noticed the look of dissatisfaction from Cu who was taking a bite out of the piece of roasted boar Archer caught and roasted when he sat down near the bonfire while leaning on the bed of fur.

"What?" He asked while looking at Cu with confusion since he didn't remember offending him in any way.

"Ignore him, Master. He is just feeling moody because of his time of month." Archer snickered while tilting his head to avoid the stone thrown at him.

"I am not!" Cu snapped.

"Then? What did I do to earn your ire?" Adam asked while refusing the roasted meat offered to him by Archer.

"Allow me to explain, Master. Saber, who took Adam's share from Archer, said.

"We Servants exist to fight in our Master's stead." She said as Cu nodded and Adam could already see where this conversation was going. "I and Lancer felt that you had extended yourself too far when you went off on your own to fight against not just three but also the Dragon Witch. Alone."

Before anyone could react, Alina was already about to lash out at the disrespect of Cu and Saber for looking down on him but Adam stopped her with his raised arm.

"Hmn, let me get this one straight. You two think that I am endangering my life to confront three Servants and the Dragon Witch?" Adam asked like he just heard a ridiculous statement.

"Yeah." Cu said loudly while Saber nodded. Ritsuko and Mash also seem to share the same opinions although they didn't make it obvious because Alina is literally next to them and what stops her from drawing her falchion crackling with lightning is Adam's hand that was placed before her.

There was a long and pregnant pause before everyone heard a laugh. A genuine laugh from the depth of his heart as he finds it humorous.

"Ah… how long had it been when I last laughed this hard." Adam said as his laugh settled down.

"I believe it was eight thousand years ago, after the treachery of the Warmaster Horus, Milord." Alina dutifully answered much to the confusion and curiosity of everyone listening.

"Oh, it truly has been that long huh…" Adam's voice turned somber, echoing the melancholy in his tone as he fell into a brief daze.

Then Adam snapped back to reality and took off his helmet.

"Hmn. Cu… also everyone that feels I am needlessly endangering my life. However, I believe that your worries are misplaced." He said and everyone excluding those who know, immediately frowned.

Some might see Adam's attitude as arrogance. Some may see it as a lack of sense of self preservation. But those who do know, understand that what he said is a fact.

"Before you said anything further, let me explain what I meant." Adam stopped the lecture from Cu and borrowed his spear which he didn't want to lend. So, Adam turns to Archer who Trace Cu's Gae Bolg for Adam.

"Wait. What are you do— YOU IDIOT!"

Cu was ignored when Adam removed even his Power Armor and stabbed the cursed crimson spear into his heart knowing what curse it bears.

Everyone except Alina, Sif, Jeanne and Archer watched in shock when Adam suddenly stabbed Gae Bolg into his heart, triggering its fatal curse that spread from his heart to his body before he suddenly died as his body fell to his back and limp.

"His vitals turned flat. He really died." Romani announced with disbelief the chain of events that felt too random and absurd for his sleep deprived mind that he started thinking he was hallucinating from either the caffeine OD or the lack of sleep.

"You! What the hell are you thinking to copy my spear, huh? Because of you, Ma—"

"How about you turn around first before you start beating up an innocent man." Archer said and pointed behind Cu.

Cu looked at the even more shocked face of Ritsuko and Mash before he felt curious enough to turn around and see Adam sat on the ground instead of laying dead with a copied Gae Bolg lodged in his heart.

"Wha- How… Huh?" Cu spluttered and watched in disbelief.

"It's simple, I am a Perpetual. A biologically and functionally immortal human. Even if I die, chopped into bits or exterminated. My physical body will reform and repair itself and my immortal soul will revive upon my regenerated corpse." Adam said and winced lightly when pulling out the copied Gae Bolg like he is picking out a slightly bigger splinter.

"To many, they see this as a boon, a gift of the so-called next form of human evolution. But to me, I see this as a curse. No matter how I was killed, I will forever stuck the the physical plane, forever bound to my duty, the shackle upon my soul for my foolishness to bargain with being of higher planes of existence." Adam talks depressingly as he reveals one of his secrets that he talks only to those he truly trusts.

Archer definitely can emphasize with Adam and even share a sense of camaraderie with Adam.

"That's why, the last thing you need to worry about is my safety because nothing could ever destroy my soul without the permission of the being I am bound to and that also means I am forever cursed with this immortality." Adam said.

The atmosphere of the camp turned strange after the reveal and no one talked openly as everyone retreated to their own thoughts and rest.

Adam decided to meditate and reflect on the information he gathered from their encounter with the Dragon Witch's group while being hugged extra tightly by his furry companion, Sif, who sensed his depressing state of mind.

—————

AN: Yeah, Adam without his Immortality is definitely a prime candidate on the name list of suicide watch. The only reason he isn't is because he can't die no matter what he does.