Spark of Life

When Frankenstein was seized by one of the creatures, he hacked off the tendrils, releasing her from its grasp. The swarm multiplied again, which made him pissed. “I don’t know. Every time we defeat a number of them, more appear.”

Quickly he severed the tendrils coming towards them. The creatures let out a unison of piercing screams as black blood gushed from where he cut their appendages off, and fell with a thud. Enraged, the swarm expanded their numbers by twofold.

Cu Chulainn assumed this was the case. He stopped in his tracks and inspected his environment. “Better get ready.” He told them as he gripped his Gae Bolg. Who knew if the being would strike at this moment using the now eldritch realm.

Whatever the creature was, it seemed to refuse being caught. Which explained the gradually thick air. Despite that, both Servants and their Master continued to march on.

Suddenly, the entire landscape seemed to change. Ritsuka wasn’t sure when it had happened, but there was no mistake: one minute things had been relatively normal, and the next, the whole world seemed to be made up of distorted colors and shapes. “W-What happened? Where are we?”

Her recoil was barely noticed by the knight. Was it his lack of sanity or the result of his excitement from meeting her here that caused her reaction to fly over his head? Likely a mixture of the two. Astolfo remained off in his own world until the flower she’d held out towards him suddenly brought his thoughts back to earth. What a sweet gift.

“Berserker, you’re far too kind. This is beautiful.”

He reached out and gently took the flower in his hand. He held it up, carefully examining the flower as if it were some form of precious gem. Yes, it really was beautiful. To think that even here, a castle that served as the home for such a cruel master as his, such beautiful life could grow. Was his mind more composed perhaps Astolfo would have shared some profound thoughts on this but instead he was content to simply admire the flower.

“I’m not going anywhere particular. Why don’t we walk together Fran? I can point out all my favorite spots to hide from my master.”

His reaction surprised her a little. Did Rider also like flowers? And then he called her kind... Did he forget who he was talking to? Evidently not, because he suddenly used that nickname again. Upon hearing him utter ‘Fran,’ the monster growled a little; a subtle reminder that she wanted him to use her Class name only.

“Yahoo!”

A voice called out loudly. It heralded the arrival of a certain paladin. Unlike Berserker, Rider was under far less supervision by his own master. Except for when she bound him up for her own interests he was free to explore the castle to his heart’s content. Something that led to him almost slamming into Fran as he skipped down the hall.

“Berserker!”

His voice called out as he skidded to a halt before her. Were he a normal human, without the agility and grace granted to heroic spirits, he probably would not have stopped in time to avoid her. Regardless of near crash, he began speaking as if nothing had happened.

“Funny to bump into you here. I would have thought you’d be with your master, it seems like the two of you get along better than mine.”

It seemed any hope for solitude that she had was dashed now that he was here.

Berserker froze upon hearing that voice. Rider... Before she knew it, the overly-cheery knight was right in front of her, causing the monster to recoil a bit. He... Unnerved her for some reason. No, unnerved wasn’t the right word. There was just... Something about him that she couldn’t quite place.

“Uh...” Berserker grunted in response. Well, she couldn’t deny his accusation, at least. Caules treated her well enough, but that was why she was alone; he trusted her enough to not feel the need to accompany her everywhere. Of course, she couldn’t actually communicate any of this with her speech impaired...

“Quit dawdling. We can’t afford to lose it.” And that was before he darted to where the thing had fled. Enjoying the tranquility offered by rural Poland could wait.

“Uh!” Fran wasted absolutely no time charging ahead to give chase.

A town full of people who could not trust outsiders due to previous awful circumstances that happened to them. Unsurprising. “We caught a glimpse of a mysterious object before it disappeared.” He told his Master.

Well, Ritsuka certainly wasn’t expecting to be run out of town so suddenly upon arrival. Still, this might be a good opportunity to sight-see and enjoy the Polish countryside... It never hurt to have a little extra positivity, did it?

“You did?” The mage had unfortunately been too busy with the townsfolk to notice himself. “Did either of you see where it went?”

Cu Chulainn too noticed the shape his fellow Berserker pointed at. Only when the man approached them did he turn to him. “We’re here to search for the source of the anomaly.” He told without revealing their identity.

Unfortunately, this did little to put the people at ease. “You’re here to do what? I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you all need to leave, now! Enough bad things have happened around here. We don’t need suspicious strangers like you roaming around!” The other townspeople seemed to be in agreement, though the look of fear in their eyes was all-too-evident to Fran.

The moment the townsfolk stopped attacking them, he did the same. “Were they under control or something?” He was almost certain someone manipulated them to do their bidding. “What… happened?” Asked one of the townspeople as he tried to clear his mind.

As the confusion seemed to subside, Fran spotted something in the distance: an unusual shape that looked to hovering on a nearby hillside. “Uh!” She pointed to the shape in question just as it vanished over the top of the hill, though before anyone could really address it, a young man approached the trio from Chaldea.

“Excuse me, but who are you three? You’re wearing some rather... peculiar outfits.” He paused, eyes growing wide. “Wait, does that young lady have a horn? Does that man have a tail?”

“Amazing Fran-san! That’s really incredible strength!” Kaban beams in encouragement, truly impressed with the Berserker’s strength. It was clearly much greater than her own as a human. Maybe they had a good chance to make it out without getting eaten. 

“I wanna help out with the fight too Kaban-chan, Ritsuka. What can I do?” Serval asks after a moment not wanting to feel like she isn’t being helpful. She isn’t sure she’s as strong as Fran is, but Serval thinks her claws are still pretty good weapons.

“Serval-chan, what if you get behind us in case the wolf like animals try to attack from the other side too.” Kaban suggests. 

A part of Ritsuka wished that Mash were here to help with defense, but as things stood, they might be able to make it out of here just fine. Serval wasn’t a Servant, but she possessed strength enough to fend off these monsters. “Right! Fran, we need you to clear us a path! Serval and I will focus on defense!” Though his magecraft was weak, Ritsuka was still a mage, capable of conjuring small barriers to help defend Serval along with a few other tricks.

Upon hearing her command, he put away his spear. Grinning as he punched into his palm, this would be the first time he had done unarmed combat. Of course, he must snap them out of the trance with gentle blows, not outright kill them. That was what Ritsuka wanted him to, right?

Ritsuka had no idea if it would actually snap them out of the trance, but knocking them out would more than suffice for now. Sure enough, the townspeople were quickly subdued with the combined might of the Servants, though there still seemed to be something off about them.

Suddenly, however, the fighting stopped. The people who had yet to attack all began to clutch their heads in confusion, stumbling around and looking confused. Fran paused. “Uh?”