Vol 2. Chapter 25. Ryuudou Temple

"I feel like I just watched something really private…" I grumbled while looking into Morgan's scrying orb.

Saber had just poured her heart out to Mom, cried, and was now seeking comfort from her… and watching this all from a spectator's perspective felt really intrusive.

Morgan only gave a non-contemplative hum, seemingly not caring all too much, as her focus was certainly not on her scrying orb.

I mean… it's getting really hard to act oblivious to her intentions, and emotions, when her veil covered face, that allows her to discreetly look at me, is not even facing the orb, but is pointedly looking at me in the tub.

Like, ignoring the raven familiar she sent to 'spy' on me, if something like a bird pressing its eye against the window can even be counted as discreet enough to be spying, when taking a shower after Lancer's attack was hard enough, but ignoring this clear signal makes me feel like an asexual man… an incredibly dense asexual man at that.

Ignoring the clear advances of a hot woman is oh so torturous, and cockblocking myself is oh so shameful, so woe is me, am I right?

Tapping the edge of the bathtub, I spoke up again. "Thoughts?"

Humming once more, she spoke in an uninterested tone of voice. "A thirty something year old woman, acting the age she looks, I suppose."

… Really?

Sighing, I raised a hand, and pinched the bridge of my nose while closing my eyes. "Do you truly have a good enough reason to despise her that much?"

"I have plenty of reasons," she responded somewhat snappishly, causing my brow to twitch.

With how well she had been behaving recently, I had totally forgotten how much she hated Artoria…

After taking a deep breath and releasing my nose, I opened my eyes and looked at Morgan.

"The only thing that I've seen in your memories that can be blamed on Artoria was the pulling of the sword, but we both know that it was more Merlin's doing, rather than her own, so how about you explain to me where all this animosity is coming from," I proposed in a neutral tone.

Morgan slightly turned her head to look away from me before responding. "She drove me out of my own kingdom, turned my children against me, and turned me into a pariah for something that was not my fault," she spat.

Well, I hate to admit that that isn't a horrible reason to hate someone… but her explanation is lacking in context.

…And I am fairly sure her 'children' didn't like her to begin with, but now's not the time to even touch that topic.

Closing my eyes once more, I sunk deeper into the bathtub while releasing an interested hum. "That's a pretty good reason actually, but I'd like to get some more context," I said in a calm tone.

There was a moment of silence, before she spoke up.

"A few years after her wedding, Guinevere received a beautiful mantle as a gift from an anonymous person, and before she could wear it, a maid secretly tried it on, only to burst up in flames," she explained in an annoyed tone of voice.

Naturally, I recalled the legend, though there were a few variations to it, but what happened after tended to vary.

"Arthur put out orders to investigate me, which was ridiculous, as Guinevere had already 'taken a dip in the lake', if you will, so I had no reason to hurt someone who was actively helping me," she accentuated her statement with a slight scoff before continuing.

"Thanks to the knights rushing into Orkney, I did not have enough time to cover the fact that all the nobles and important merchants were homunculi, and that Lot was all but lobotomised, as I had gotten tired of his constant attempts at getting us to share a bed," she explained the last part with a lot of disgust.

"Naturally, Gawain and Agravain, who had been conveniently sent on the mission, were devastated to see what I had done to their father, causing them to tear down my castle while looking for me…"

Sighing, Morgan continued. "I had to flee, as Mordred was too young at the time, and I could not take any chances of her being discovered prematurely. But me leaving so easily caused them to be less fearful of me, so they spread the news that I had used my magic and feminine wiles to ensnare the nobles, who committed suicide at my behest," she spat.

Ok… that's actually more than fair… however, I can still salvage this.

Humming for a moment, I turned my head while opening my eyes, causing me to see Morgan's veiled face looking at me.

"Soo…. let me get this straight," I said dryly. "Some 'anonymous guy'," I said while miming air quotes, "managed to sneak in a package into Camelot, which conveniently 'misfires', and then all the blame 'mysteriously' falls onto your shoulders?"

I could practically feel the frown she was hiding behind her veil, but she nodded her head in agreement at my short summary of the situation.

"Soo…." I drawled, "Who would be capable of creating such an item, slipping it through security, only for them to 'fail' at the finishing line…"

Waiting for a moment, I continued. "And, pray tell, even assuming that the person who did all this was a random man, who inside Artoria's inner circle would gain the most from blaming you, sowing even more discord in between the two of you?"

There was a beat of silence, and I could practically hear the cogs in Morgan's brain coming to a halt.

"Merlin…" she slowly entoned, frost lacing her words, followed by the shadows in the room violently fluctuating.

Ignoring the somewhat creepy display, I gave a low hum of agreement to her statement.

Was I sure that it was Merlin? No, not really. For all I know, it could have been some disgruntled magus. But after living under the same roof with Cath for over a decade, you learn that the 'blame Merlin' argument is as good as gold, especially when it comes to distributing blame.

Now Morgan is no Cath, but her hatred for Merlin should be somewhat similar to Cath's level of hate, so I might as well pass on some of the hate she has on Artoria to Merlin, as that will certainly do her some good.

Turning my head away, I closed my eyes and leaned my head on the edge of the tub. I was going to give her a minute or so to work through her newfound strengthened hatred of Merlin.

After waiting for a while, during which Morgan didn't interject or say anything, I continued. "My point is, most, if not all of your problems, or rather grievances, with Artoria can probably be traced down to Merlin's meddling," I explained.

A slight snort came from Morgan, before speaking up. "Do you expect me to break bread with Artoria thanks to this new information? I am afraid we are far past that point," she explained succinctly.

Her answer made me sigh. "Of course I do not expect, nor encourage such a thing, as there is too much baggage between the two of you, and even trying to 'act friendly' would probably end up with one of you dying."

And it would certainly be Artoria, as Morgan wouldn't fight fair when she 'explodes'.

"All I ask is for you to take it a notch down, take a step back, and think over your experiences with her, then try to judge them objectively, and or adding Merlin as a factor when evaluating her actions," I asked her in a somewhat pleading tone.

I mean, I know that she had some great reveal planned, probably just to fuck with Arotria even more, but I could do without it.

"You expect me to give her a second chance? Why should I d–" Morgan's words came to an abrupt halt, followed by the sound of her own jaw snapping shut.

It seems she somewhat gets it.

"You can choose to give her a second chance based off her own actions in this Grail War, as I am sure that it would be a good indicator if anything," I further explained, causing her to sigh.

"Even if," she leaned heavily on that word, "I were to give her another chance, that does not mean that I will be playing nice for the remainder of the war," she stated matter-of-factly, and I could only shrug.

"Fair enough, I suppose," I said nonchalantly. "Might as well get it all out of your system, and I've heard that doing similar things can help with overcoming emotional baggage and the like."

Pausing for a moment, I gave a slight hum.

I'm no therapist, but I'm fairly sure it would do Morgan some good if she let go of some of that resentment she has.

And while I think she is incapable of the 'forgive and forget' lifestyle, I'm sure that if she can vent a bit, and then heap most of that baggage over to Merlin, then I'm sure she'll do a smidge better mentally.

Is she losing all that resentment by placing it on Merlin? No, probably not. But having fewer people to hate should help.

But I think I've given her enough to chew on for now.

"On a slightly different topic, but still a smidge connected, how did the thing with Irisviel go?"

There was a slight pause before Morgan spoke up. "Ah, yes, if the suggestions worked as intended, she should have handed Avalon into her husband's custody, and they should be planning a raid on Ryuudou Temple," she explained casually.

It was a shame that she couldn't just snatch Avalon from Irisviel and replace it with her own, due to the fact that the enchantments she placed on Avalon when she got it had faded. Meaning that it would take days for her to jury-rigg it to work for her properly, so keeping her Noble Phantasm was simply more time efficient, and allowed her more safety than a faulty original.

Was it ideal, no, but it was certainly better to have something that worked.

"Good, anything else I should know about tonight's entertainment? After all, this was all made on short notice," I asked with some slight interest.

"Nothing much, you killing Lancer, stirring the pot a bit, kidnapping Irisviel, basically the same as before, just tweaked a bit," she said absentmindedly, before perking up. "Oh, yes, I do plan to have us all watch a movie before nightfall," she exclaimed with mild excitement.

Opening my eyes, I turned to face her while raising a brow. "A movie?" I asked with clear interest.

"You should be familiar with it, and it is incredibly fitting for what's going on right now," she voiced in a smug tone.

Humming in interest, I flashed a smile. "Cut with the suspense then, I'm interested."

"Simply Monty Python and the Holy Grail, of course!" She said in such an evil-happy tone, that I was sure that she was wearing an evil smirk behind that veil of hers.

"Never change Morgan, never change…"

~~Fate/False Order~~

Irisviel pressed the doorbell to Rosalind's house, causing the house to give a low ring.

Quickly retracting her hand, she placed it back in her pockets, trying in vain to keep them warm in the winter air.

After a few moments of waiting, the door swung open, revealing Saber… a really depressed looking Saber.

Her eyes seemed dull, her shoulders were slumped, and the small section of hair on her head that usually stood so straight now sagged, looking almost flat.

The sight made Irisviel balk in surprise. "Sa-Saber?" She stammered.

Footsteps echoed from behind Artoria, and a very smug looking Vivian sauntered up next to Artoria, and threw an arm over her shoulders, and leaned onto her as if they were the best of friends.

"Don't mind her, she's experiencing culture shock," she explained matter of factly.

The questioning gaze Irisviel sent her, caused Vivian to sigh. "She wasn't flattered by a popular, and somewhat historically accurate, if you ask me, movie, causing her to spiral into whatever this is," she said while patting her shoulder.

The action caused Artoria to stir. "Such mockery is not fit to be described as historically accurate," she rebuked in a somewhat knee-jerk manner, causing it to ring hollow.

Irisviel slowly blinked at the sight, before shaking her head. "Um… as interesting as that is, I'd like it if we could discuss the assault on Ryuudou as soon as possible, so may I enter?"

Vivian merely smiled, and pulled Artoria out of the way for Irisviel. "Be my guest," she said in a pleasant tone.

Irisviel smiled and gave a slight nod when she entered, then swiftly took off her shoes. Seeing that, Vivian practically dragged the catatonic Artoria towards the living room, causing Irisviel to feel bad for her unresponsive friend while following behind them.

As they entered the living room, Artoria seemed to regain some autonomy, and sat herself down at the dinner table with ease. Where Alistair and Rosalind already sat.

Irisviel moved over to the table, and she sat herself next to Saber. Vivian did not seat herself down, and instead gave everyone a little wave. "Well, I'll be babysitting Sakura, so make sure to enjoy yourselves!" She said in a happy tone, before turning and closing the door behind her.

As the echoes of her footsteps became softer with each second, Rosalind glanced over at Irisviel. "Well, I guess I'll start…"

~~Fate/False Order~~

Thank God for Irisviel being so terrible at driving, that the mere 'threat' of her taking the wheel was enough to knock Artoria out of her daze…

She had suddenly snapped out of it, grabbed the keys out of Alistair's hands, and almost glared at Irisviel, as if daring her to interject.

I was seriously afraid that Alistair would have needed to smack some sense into her, after all, if we were fighting Caster, we'd need her to be in tip-top condition, and not in her depressive episode she got from watching a movie.

Though it was a bit concerning to see how affected she got from a mere comedy about her reign… though I suppose that she isn't used to being made fun of, and Vivian saying that the movie was the general consensus on her legend might not have exactly helped.

…Not that I'd stop it from happening if I could turn back time, as it was still rather amusing, and it seemed to get her out of her negative thoughts on her end at Camlann.

So I would have to consider this an absolute win.

But, anyways… God how I hate stairs… I can now understand why Vivian was so quick to take responsibility for Sakura.

We had been walking up the long track to Ryoudo? Ryudu? I don't know, the large Buddhist temple atop a mountain, for the better part of twenty minutes.

We had all agreed to take it slow, as Caster had certainly littered the place with familiars to monitor the chokeholds of her base of operations, meaning that no matter what, we'd never have the advantage of surprise.

The sight was nice, I guess? I mean, nothing special when compared with Denali Peak, or the Dolomites, but this 'mountain' was rather short, so it was to be expected.

"Lancer," Artoria said in a calm and composed tone, causing me to turn my head around to look up at the stairway.

Standing atop one of the flat 'rest' sections of the staircase, we could see the tips of a red and golden spear poking over the horizon.

Pursing my lips, I started to feel a bit uneasy.

I knew what was happening next, and I hated it.

But if Alistair's words were true, then there wouldn't be a problem… but I'd force him to not go through with his plan if Lancer was sufficiently healed.

Alistair quietly made his way in front of our pack, and started moving up the stairs.

Artoria was only a few steps behind him, followed by Irisviel… leaving me in the back.

I knew it was the most tactically sound for the plan, but I'd have preferred if I was at least behind Alistair.

As the four of us got closer, Lancer's form became more and more visible, and boy did he look terrible.

There was a large hole in his stomach, large enough to where you could see the other side and his left eye was missing.

Looking him over again, I could only feel impressed at the utter thrashing Alistair had somehow dealt to Lancer.

The only odd thing was that Caster had not healed him…

As we got closer, I began to notice thin wire-like green threads that were haphazardly sown into Lancer's skin. As his missing eye and the gaping hole in his stomach had been stitched together with the thread in something reminiscent of a spider's web.

None of the threads seemed to do anything, other than covering the wounds, but seeing as they didn't even act or look like stitches, I could only try to come up with a reason for why Caster had done that…

As we got closer, Lancer's lone eye instantly locked onto our group, but he didn't move.

As we stepped foot on the flattened part of the staircase, where Lancer stood guard, he finally reacted. 

He parted his legs, and fell into a stance, moving his two spears, he pointed them straight at Alistair. "None shall pass," he said in a near robotic tone.

As he stood ready to pounce, fragments of ice started to shimmer into existence around Alistair, who gave Lancer an appraising look. "How much would I need to pay for you to say 'Tis but a scratch' if I ask if your wounds hurt?"

Artoria gave a loud grunt at the comment, and I felt a small smile make its way onto my lips.

Lancer didn't move, nor did he react, causing Alistair to sigh. "Whatever," he mumbled, before raising a hand. Extending his index finger, it began to glow at its tip.

Smoothly, he started writing in the air, quickly forming four runes.

First a capital 'Y' with its middle line extended, secondly a lowercase 't' with a slanted arm, then an 'f' with two similarly slanted arms, and lastly two 'x's' atop one another.

The runes Algiz, Nauthiz, Ansuz and Inguz.

As they finished forming, they glowed red, causing both Lancer and Alistair to momentarily glow in the same color.

Alistair had enacted Ath nGabla, initiating a deathmatch where two combatants are unable to leave or fight others until one of them is dead.

Despite how simple it was to form those four runes, that curse that it formed was most unbreakable once activated.

"Go have fun you three," Alistair said lightheartedly, while waving for the three of us to go.

"Stay safe, and good luck," Artoria remarked briefly, before passing both him and Lancer without a second thought.

Irisviel only gave a thankful nod towards Alistair, before passing him as well.

As I followed them, I patted Alistair on the shoulder as I was about to pass him. "Please be careful."

Alistair gave an amused huff at my concern. "Please Mom, you'll make me embarrassed if you fear for my safety when I'm fighting someone at death's door."

His comment made me smile slightly, causing me to squeeze his shoulder in encouragement. "Then I'll see you soon," I remarked before letting go of him, and following the two.

As I made my way up the stairs, I could hear the start of their confrontation.

It was so tempting to turn back… not that I could help him, but I wanted to make sure he was safe…

I was confident that he would win, but what would happen if he was skewered by one of Lancer's spears during the fight?

He could bleed out, or something equally unfortunate could happen…

God I need to stop thinking about it, I am about to enter what can loosely be considered a Workshop set up by a witch from the Age of Gods.

Focusing on the path ahead, I followed the two in silence as we approached the temple.

It took another few minutes, but as we reached the red temple gate, we all collectively stopped just outside of it.

None of us needed to explain why we had stopped, after all, the disgusting and vile feeling the barrier gave off was more than enough to give us pause.

"Took you long enough," said an unfamiliar voice from the inside of the temple grounds.

None of us spoke, but Artoria gained a deep frown.

"You're all welcome to enter, and you could even say hello to my dog."

The invisible barrier suddenly felt less hostile, and now almost felt inviting, which only made me feel even more uneasy.

"Baaa Gaw…" A hoarse, raspy voice sounded from inside the barrier, causing me to frown.

The hell is that?

Turning my head, I tried to locate the disturbing sound.

"GAH!" It echoed again, but this time it was followed by uneven steps.

"Saber…" Irisviel murmured her Servant's name with something resembling fear.

Turning my head, I saw that she was looking at a part of the courtyard that I had not looked at yet.

Focusing on the area, I reinforced my eyes to make out what exactly I was looking at.

It was a do—

What?

What the fuck?

I could only blink my eyes, as I felt that they were failing me, because what the actual hell was that?

It was a human whose limbs had been snapped, cut and sewn back together in the wrong spots. His front arms had been crudely modified, with bones sticking out, to resemble a dog's front legs.

While his legs were… switched, as in his right leg, had been swapped with his left leg…

His lower jaw had clearly been swapped out with a dog's jaw, but it didn't have any skin on it, only muscle.

What the fuck is that?

"Ugly isn't he?" Caster's voice echoed through the courtyard, causing me to shift my focus away from the poor experiment 'human'.

"His name comes from his immense stupidity, and the parts I used to make him," she continued in a somewhat amused tone.

"I named him Kayneth," came the amused voice of Caster from behind us.

Saber was the fastest, and she quickly turned and slashed the air behind us.

Turning around, I was met with nothing…

"None of you are smart, you know that, right?" Caster remarked with amusement from next to me…

Shit!

Not thinking twice, I kicked off to the side, slamming right into Irisviel, causing us to fall to the floor.

Quickly, I pushed myself off the ground, while pulling Irisviel up with me.

And right next to where I had stood, was a cloaked woman wearing a hood… Caster

She turned to look at us, a clear smile showing from under her hood. "Thanks for being distracted long enough for me to expand the barrier."

She accentuated her words with a snap of her fingers, and I felt the Mana in the air double, along with a feeling of great danger.

"Now then," Caster said with a smirk. "Who wishes to be named after my next dog?"

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57 Hours, 52 Minutes And 11 Seconds Until Zero 

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A/N

Welcome back, my reader Overlords, please add this to your library and give me some comments, stones and Reviews, as it would be much appreciated.

Ass-kissing done, now I can move on to more important stuff.

Ug! Writing while sick blows! This chapter took far too long to properly write, and i had to finish it now, which is 2:40 is AM my time...

Fuck being sick!

Anyways, hope it was decent, as my head either in the clouds or balls deep in a pack of tissues...

FML, am I right?

Anything you guys liked? Anything you'd like to see? Once again, sorry for being a smidge late, but the flue has hit me like a truck! So I hope you all don't mind <3 < p>

Btw, I have made a Discord server for the fic, come on and chat with me!

https://discord.gg/KakqQPyb

Now I'm tired and have a cold to duke it out with, so have a nice day, and send me some stones or some shit, as I need motivation, since I am losing this battle!