Chapter 153

I slapped aside Artoria's vicious punch as our swords locked and then slammed my helmet clad head into her faceplate visor knocking her back and disengaging her swords. "I thought this was supposed to be a pure sword fight Artoria." I grinned making my helmet disappear into motes of light as my helmet shattered Artoria's weird black visor.

"Hmph, I admit to bearing a bit of irritation towards you summoning my sister Morgan... Besides in a real battle you need to expect the unexpected." Artoria said nodding as though her excuse was perfect and Cu who was watching us spar chuckled.

"I call you dishonorable then for not keeping to the rules of the duel you called for." I shrugged, and my comment obviously made Artoria twitch, but I turned to Cu who I came to learn Runes for.

I checked in with Artoria earlier and she was just sparring with Cú Chulainn but they were terrible choices of sparring partners with how Cu didnt have his spear in his Caster form and the runic stones he threw at Artoria couldn't get past her magic resistance. But on the other end if Cú, got the time to setup a powerful runic chain, Artoria was guaranteed to lose as the powerful Norse constructed Cu could call upon would rag doll her.

"Alright kid... Sit down and let me give you a bit of a primer on runes I put together." He passed over a large stack of plates with each of the plates engraved with a rune and even as I was inspecting the runes, I listened closely to Cu's lecture.

"I have engraved those rune plates with extremely weak runes with the abilities to snap together with the other runes to try out simple runic combinations, and most importantly when you inevitably fuck up, they will repair themselves should you move all the pieces together after a bit." Cu explained proudly about the rune set he gave me.

"Alright Jake keep in mind there is twenty-four primary runes in the Nordic alphabet and eighteen Primordial Runes, I will only teach you about the Primordial ones once you master the normal ones... I would rather you not summon outer gods accidentally with the Primordial Runes." Cú Chulainn said smiling wryly as though he himself hadn't summoned a bunch of outer god entities.

Which I could see him doing and I bet Scathach wouldn't even punish him that severely should the entity give her a good enough fight.

Primordial runes were nothing to joke about as at least here in the Nasuverse it was literally the code used to govern said universe and basically directly interfaced with Akasha, the repository of knowledge of the universe as well as the swirl/center of the universe itself.

Whereas normal runes were almost a secondary program that would only hitch a ride on the main system of the universe and was thus severely limited in scope of their reality shaping in both strength and scope of effects.

Cu explained how to merge wind and fire runes to send powerful waves of flames in a certain direction and simply by flipping around the wind rune it turned the wind from making the flames into a flamethrower instead compressed the wind and flames into a bomb until the rune couldn't hold the compressed elements together and violently broke down allowing the compressed wind and flames to explode.

So, although there were twenty-four standard runes there was literally infinite combination's they could form as flipping the runes would change there effects as well as certain materials changing the effects of runes such as using fish bones would somehow make blue flames that could burn underwater.

"Alright that should be enough info for now... I need to get a drink anyway." Cu said as he stretched and got back to his feet.

"Thank you for your lessons Cú Chulainn." I said solemnly as such magical information was invaluable and people have literally been tortured for such secrets with how crazy Magi were.

"Meh... I owe you for accepting me so easily as a Castor instead of my Lancer form that could carry you through whatever may come our way, Haha!" Cú said proudly as he walked out of the room leaving me alone with Artoria who had been snacking on some chips and reading a book.

Artoria put down her book and now that I took some time to examine her, I noticed she was definitely relaxed here in Chaldea as she was wearing a black, backless dress that hugged her body, rather than her armored dress.

"Artoria how's your book." I asked as I sat down beside Artoria who turned to the side so she could maintain eye contact.

"Hmm. Its a fictional book about a retelling of my and Merlin's past... They got much of it wrong yet they captured the personalities of many of my knights correctly." Artoria said clearly in thought before shrugging.

I couldn't help but nod as much of Arthur's tales was purely hearsay and folktales at the best of times. "Yes, well despite you being one of the western world's most notable figure in history, we have zero idea as to when you were born, ruled, or died concretely. Though Merlin and Morgan probably had something to do with that as Camelot was a city beyond it's time and they probably didnt want petty nobles to later come and claim your great city."

Artoria seemingly shrunk hearing me mention the collapse of her kingdom but I had an honest question for her that has bugged me. "So how do you feel knowing Britain or otherwise known as the United Kingdom has stood for millennium and more as one of the most powerful nations of the world." I mean the fact that it was an island certainly helped but its surprising how Britain was never completely conquered as far as I knew.

Artoria paused and obviously chewed on her thoughts for a whole minute before she spoke with a sigh. "I am obviously proud of the Britain's accomplishments and stability, but I just wish Camelot and my own kingdom endured throughout the ages."

I couldn't really respond to that as that would mean likely she would have needed to make Mordred her legitimate heir, recognizing her as her own daughter or would need Merlin to give her a dick again and try to impregnate Guinivere if she hadn't already run off with Lancelot.

"Well with all this alternate timeline nonsense works, I am sure you will be seeing other versions of you and will be able to judge their forms of rule." Funny thing though was how the timelines she gave up her sword, revealed her gender, and became super busty. She lived a semi happy life in comparison to her main timeline that was killed by Mordred.

"Yes. That is something to look forward to in all these future battles, Hmm." Artoria lightly giggled and relaxed into the couch we were sitting down on.

But as we were relaxing in a companionable silence the rooms intercom sparked to life with Olga's voice coming through. "Members of the Crypter, Ritsuka Fujimaru and Jake Bariss, please come to the mission operations room as the next Singularity has been found."

Me and Artoria shared a look and she stood up with her armor appearing around her. "In that case, let us be off as I shall be your sword in this next Singularity." Artoria said majestically and I could feel her Charisma seemingly pulling me towards her and I embraced her encouragement.

"Hmm, my dear little sister is so fired up... But if you desire to be my Husbands beat stick, that is a fine fate for someone so focused on swinging a... Hunk of corrupted metal around." Even as Morgan laid her arms over my shoulders having teleported behind me and I felt her breasts pushing into my back I could feel her breath hitch as she 'attempted' to insult Artoria Alter's Excalibur.

"Did you tag me with some magic so you can always follow me..." I asked cutting off Artoria's coming tirade making Morgan twitch as she held me, and I could only imagine her 'oh shit' appearance as I instantly figured it out.

"Hehe well the future of humanity is waiting on us, so let's be off." Morgan said hurriedly and took both mine and Artoria's wrists into her hands as she pulled us along.