--Micheals PoV--
Micheal walked up to the front door of his temporary home and fit the key into the lock. Before he could turn it he felt mana pulse from the key and heard the door click open. He pulled the key out and raised his eyebrows as Jeanne walked up and opened the door stepping inside without saying anything. She paused when Desmond told her to swap her boots for the slippers and looked back at him raising an eyebrow only to sigh when Desmond folded his arms and gave her a stern look.
After Micheal had done the same they had both explored the house noticing that while the doors, walls, and house as a whole were Japanese style the rooms themselves were distinctly American. There were four bedrooms in the house each with their own dedicated full bathroom, The living room had a sofa with a pullout bed, a large coffee table, and several plush chairs. The kitchen was fully furnished and even had a gas stove. The backyard was wide and open while the storehouse sitting off to the side had been turned into a workshop and was even more magically reinforced than the house itself was.
After a bit he and Jeanne were sitting in the living room after Desmond said he had to go and get what he had mentioned earlier in the car. Jeanne was reading a book she had found in the library while Micheal finally shut the grimoire as he felt a complete understanding of Japanese slowly sink into his brain like a lead weight sinking through thickened water. He shook his head a bit and blinked a few times before looking over at Jeanne,
"Do you understand me? Jeanne?"
She looked up at him and raised her eyebrows
"That was fast. Still feels like you cheated though. I at least put in the work to learn." She teased as Micheal rolled his eyes and swapped back to English,
"Yeah, yeah." Micheal rubbed his forehead as the effect of reading the grimoire continued. They sat in silence for a bit longer until finally Desmond came back with a wooden box. He sat down in one of the free chairs and stared at the box with an expression Micheal didn't quite understand before sighing, flicking up the latches on the box, and opening it. He reached into it and pulled out a pistol. Desmond smiled as he tested the weight of it in his hand before reaching into the box to pull out a magazine. He paused and then quickly slotted the magazine into the pistol, slamming it in place with the heel of his palm, and then racking the slide back before aiming at the wall. Micheal watched intently as Desmond smiled and shook his head a bit before ejecting the magazine, placing it back into the box, and then flipped the pistol over to hand to Micheal grip first.
"My old M1911A1. A good pistol made better by one of the mages in my old unit. It should enchant any rounds put into it to deal more damage or at least that was what he said. I could never get it to work so its been gathering dust in the backroom. Hold it in your hand and test the weight of it."
Micheal did so only for Desmond to reach over and correct his grip. After a bit he nodded and sat back down as Micheal looked down the sights,
"Put a little mana into it." Desmond suggested and as Micheal did so he felt his origin activate at a level it hadn't ever done so before causing him to bend over in pain as Jeanne growled, falling off her chair and onto the her knees on the floor. He felt his mana being drawn into the pistol at an absurd rate as Desmond stood up to try and help only to be shocked and blown back into a wall. Micheal squinted through his eyes and saw Jeanne slam her fist into the floor, barely able to keep herself up doing even that. He managed to activate his mana sense and saw that Jeannes mana was being drawn into the pistol at an equal rate to his. Micheal felt his mind start to slip as his mana kept being drained and he struggled to remain conscious.
Right as he reached the edge of passing out the feeling vanished as the room was suddenly drenched in enough mysteries and mana to make Micheal feel claustrophobic. He sat upright and shook his head as he saw Jeanne sit up on her knees holding a hand to her head in the process. Something drew Micheals attention back to the pistol and he watched as it glowed with his and Jeannes mana as its shape changed, The barrel and slide grew longer and thicker while the grip seemed to mold itself in his hand. The pistol continued to change as the mysteries in the room seemed to peak and then vanish in an instant right as the glow faded from the weapon. Micheal saw movement out of the corner of his eye and watched as a few flower petals slowly floated to the ground only to vanish into motes of mana. He stared at the spot and then heard groaning from nearby as Desmond staggered upright and slowly looked around the room.
(Micheal… did- did you feel that? It felt like-)
[Like someone stepped in to save us…the question is who…]
Micheal looked at the spot where the flower petals had been and then redirected his attention to Desmond scanning him for injuries but for some reason didn't find any at all. He blinked, looked at the wall seeing how damaged it was, and then back at Desmond who shook his head a bit as if to clear it and then fell back into his chair.
"Desmond? You okay?" Jeanne asked as she stood up and shook out her limbs. She experimentally conjured some flames in her hand and narrowed her eyes at them as she shuffled it through the color spectrum, "….Its like I never lost any mana at all…." She murmered causing Micheal to check his own levels and was surprised to see that where he had been sucked almost completely dry before, now it seemed like his mana was untouched.
"Yeah- Yeah I'm fine but…." Desmond said in response to Jeannes question only to narrow his eyes at his hand as he flexed his fingers experimentally. He stood up suddenly and then did a lap around the room. "Thats...bizarre…" Desmond said outloud as he did a shadow boxing drill, Eventually he stopped moving and looked himself over, "My arthritis is completely gone….Something your mom couldn't even do…."
Micheal raised his eyebrows as Desmond looked at him, set down the pistol on the table inbetween all of them, stood up himself, and moved a bit testing his own body. He was shocked to find that all his exhaustion from the past few days was gone. He moved around more and found that he was full of energy. Like he had had an excellent nights sleep and woken up perfectly well rested. Shaking his head he sat back down and glanced at the changed pistol noticing something engraved onto the slide. He reached over and picked it up holding it at an angle so he could read it,
"Feu de l'Enfer béni," He read out loud as he felt the sofa cushion next to him compress down and looked to his left to see Jeanne staring at the pistol, her eyes wide with awe, as she said the same but in English
"Blessed Hellfire…,"She murmured as she stared at the weapon. Micheal flipped it over in his hand to offer it to her to hold. She looked from it to him, unsure, as he smiled and nodded. Gingerly she took it out of his hand as if expecting it to bite her. She examined it carefully looking at it as she cocked her head to the side as if puzzled and looked at both Desmond and him in turn, "...I want to try putting some of my mana into it...if you don't mind."
Desmond just nodded still distracted by how he felt while Micheal gestured for her to go ahead. She looked down at the weapon as her eyes glowed a bit and a bit of mana cascaded off of her. Immediately the Pistol changed its colors and morphed in her hand. Whereas before the Pistol seemed to be balanced between white and dark colors the minute Jeanne put her mana into it the wood panels on the grip darkened to a charcoal black while the blackened metal changed into a fiery red-black gradient. The slide shimmered as the metal morphed and changed. It now was a blood red and engraved with dragon scales. The overall presence of it changed as well as it slipped from what it was before to something that seemed almost oppressive in its coiled power. She looked at it carefully, sighting down it, and blinked in surprise. Micheal watched as she stopped and redid the motion several times looking more and more confused. She shook her head,
"Somethings...coming out of where the sights were before…" She shook her head and handed the pistol back to Micheal, "I'm guessing you can aim with the-" Her eyes widened as the Pistol changed back to its black and white form.
"...Micheal. Try putting some mana into it." Micheal looked over at Desmond as he spoke for the first time in several minutes while looking at the pistol calculatingly. He did so only for nothing to happen. He tried a few more times and the only thing he accomplished was exhausting himself a bit.
"...Try Holy energy." Jeanne said as she scrutinized the pistol.
"You know I've barely ever used my holy energy right? Amelia told me not to on the assumption that it would stimulate my origin." Micheal said as he sighted down and saw what Jeanne had meant. Where the sights would have been normally was a floating ringed circle where the rear sights would be while a single dot hovered over where the front post would be.
"Just try." Desmond said as Micheal frowned and reached for his holy energy. Holy energy was much like mana and Magic circuits in that it was something inside a person that could be used with a mental trigger. However, unlike circuits which ran through the body as another set of nerves almost, the channels Holy energy flowed through came out from the persons soul. The few times that Micheal had used his holy energy the mental image that always came to him was a series of gates spread throughout his body that he had to manually open and then keep open so that they didn't close on their own. He had only ever gone up to gate five and that had put him into bed for a week straight on the first attempt.
Micheal closed his eyes, opening the first "gate", and felt warmth flow through his body. He directed the warmth into the pistol and frowned when nothing happened. He opened the second gate, causing the warmth to up itself in its intensity, and the pistol seemed to glow a bit. Openly glaring at the weapon he opened his third and fourth gates in turn causing the warmth to turn from a pleasant sensation into an uncomfortable pressurized heat. Immediately the pistol changed as it glowed white. The wood changed to a light grey oak color while the lower half went from black to a shimmering silver. The slide changed as well much like it had when Jeanne had held it but changed its color to a pearl white. Where there had been dragon scales before now feathers were engraved into the slide.
Satisified Micheal closed all the gates and the pistol quickly reverted back to its original black-and-white colors.
Silence lingered as they all mentally processed what had just happened. Desmond breathed out slowly as he leaned back into the chair, looking at both Micheal and Jeanne in turn running a hand over his face. Micheal saw Jeanne reach out her hand again for the pistol and he handed it to her grip first. Jeanne turned it around in her hand and looked at it critically. She sighted down it and then looked at the inscription again running a finger over it as she muttered to herself in what sounded vaguely like Old French.
"What can you tell about it?" Desmond finally asked into the silence only for Jeanne to shake her head,
"It...feels like my flames but….kinder. More patient and comforting….like….. sitting in front of a fire on a cold winter morning....I don't know how to explain it." She said haltingly as she handed the pistol back to Micheal who saw Desmond looking at him clearly expecting him to offer his opinion on it. He hefted it in his hand as he once again wondered at the almost weightlessness of the firearm. Out of curiosity he activated his eyes and as he looked at the weapon he felt his origin just barely activate which caused him to see not a pistol in his hand but a small golden dragon curled up in his palm sleeping soundly. He deactivated his eyes and the pistol was back in his hand. He swapped back and forth turning his eyes on and off just to make sure he wasn't seeing things before he shook his head explaining what he saw with his eyes activated.
Jeanne's mouth fell open while Desmond narrowed his eyes and steepled his fingers, his mind clearly racing,
"Micheal...imagine the pistol reverting back to its original form. The form it was before you held it"
Micheal concentrated and closed his eyes imagining it and he felt the pistol warp again. He opened his eyes and it had returned back to its original shape but…
"Its more clean than it was before." Jeanne noted neutrally as Micheal made to hand her the pistol only for Desmond to stop him, "Jeanne imagine the pistol going from Micheals hand to yours." Jeanne arched an eyebrow but closed her eyes. Micheal watched as the pistol vanished from his hand leaving what looked like embers behind only to reappear in Jeannes hand in a flash of blackened fire in the same form it had taken when she had put her mana into it. She wrapped her fingers around grip and stared at it.
Micheal looked at Desmond who nodded at him. Micheal closed his eyes and imagined the pistol going from Jeannes hand into his own. He heard Jeanne gasp and looked at her just in time to see white feathers fall past her hand and dissipate into white particles as almost at the same he felt the pistol appear in his hand. He looked down at it and saw that it looked the same as when he had poured holy energy into it. He quickly checked his gates and was relieved to see that the first one had barely opened. He closed the first gate fully and the pistol reverted back to its black-white form. Desmond blew out his cheeks and ran a hand over his face as he looked at both Micheal and Jeanne who's eyes were wide.
They were all silent with the exception of the ticking of the clock on the wall. After several minutes Desmond shook his head and got up from the chair, "I need to call your mother. She'll want to know about…." He stared at what used to be his old pistol with a mixed expression, "What just happened. Micheal if you could turn the pistol back into its...base form lets call it for now, and put it back into its spot in the case I'd appreciate it." He gave them both a stern look, "Neither of you even think about using it until I've confirmed my working theory on what just happened."
"And whats that?" Micheal asked as Desmond was about the leave the room. He turned around and looked at Micheal with an expression of concern,
"That you both somehow survived forging a Divine Construct out of my old pistol. ….One thats tied to both of you."
###########
-Jeannes PoV-
"So...thats the Matou Manor then?" She asked glancing at the photos laying between her and Micheal on the table in the resturant they were having lunch in. It had been three weeks since they had fully moved into the house and Micheal and herself had done the impossible in their new living room. In the three weeks since Desmond had all but confirmed that Micheal had indeed created a Divine Construct before he left to go back to the Lafaire Mansion to make sure his results were accurate. He promised he would try his level best to keep Amelia from flying over but in-between then and now Jeanne and Micheal had explored the city both on foot and via familiar. Jeanne picked up a photo and scrutinized the manor pictured in it running her golden eyes over the dilapidated and crumbling walls before eventually fixing themselves on one of the windows where she could see the faintest bit of bright purple standing out like a firework amidst the dreary browns, greys, and blacks.
Micheal hummed an affirmative as he stabbed his toothpick into another octopus ball and popped it into his mouth in one go. His eyes widened as he breathed out rapidly trying to cool his mouth as she just gave him a flat look. Eventually he was able to talk again, "Everytime I tried to get closer to the manor the bounded fields the familiar would be filled with so much blind panic and fear my connection to it would almost break. Getting what I managed to get I'm calling a victory."
Jeanne nodded still staring at the tiny bit of purple. She sighed and leaned her head on the hand holding the photo to look at her Master. She had expected more fighting by now instead of this constant game of scouting. She knew that they had been scouted as well due to the bounded fields around the house being tripped but they mainly tripped the notification fields and not the ones meant to detect hostility. From what Micheal had been able to figure out via the lingering magic traces alongside what few familiars that the fields had managed to kill outright from getting too close was that the Tohsakas and Matous at the very least had sent familiars to scout them as well as familiars from various third parties.
Not that they hadn't tried to respond in kind of course. The photos she had been looking at were proof of that but she expected something more….exciting to happen. This was a war between legendary heroes across time and space which made her flames stoke themselves in anticipation. She flexed her sword hand and then sighed standing up from her chair, "I'm going to go see whats taking our food so long."
Micheal glanced up at her and then nodded as he hungrily eyed another octopus ball. Jeanne shook her head and walked over to a waitress waving a little to get her attention then saying
"We've been waiting on our food for a while now. Do you happen to know whats taking so long?"
The woman looked up impressed and smiled at Jeanne, "Your Japanese is very good madam! Yes. Whats your table number? I'll go check whats going on."
"Our table is 43 and the order number is 113."
The waitress nodded and moved back into the kitchen as Jeanne frowned. About a week before she had been out on a walk because she was bored and wanted to buy something from a store. Between her appearance causing people to stare and her inability to understand or speak the slightest bit of Japanese she had resorted to pointing at the item, It had been embarrassing enough that she shelved her pride and borrowed the grimoire Micheal had used to learn the language. Jeanne sighed and walked back to her table just in time to see Micheal pop another octupus ball into his mouth and proceed to fan his face. She rubbed a finger on her temple and idly wondered how much longer it would take for something to happen.
She moved back and sat back down at their table pulling the octopus balls away from Micheal while looking at him pointedly as he finally managed to swallow and then blow out his cheeks.
"Maybe wait for them to cool before you stuff your face like a dumbass." She chided as Micheal nodded, "Also when is something going to happen. I'm so bored. We know where the five other servants likely are in the city so why not just go light up something, get their attention, and wipe them all out."
Micheal rolled his eyes at her, "I would like to remind you that we are not among the seven standard classes so revealing anything too early would be bad and inviting them to come to us would be tantamount to suicide." Jeanne glared at him and drank some more water as Micheal visibly sat up and his eyes widened at something behind her. Jeanne began to turn around right as Micheal said something through their bond
[Stay quiet, don't turn around, and follow my lead. Someone from the Clock Tower just walked into the restaurant.]
(Another master?)
Jeanne felt herself get excited only for Micheal to give her some side eye along with a shake of his head making her fall back down into her seat to pout at him. She stabbed an octopus ball and popped it into her mouth only for it to burn her mouth on the searing heat coming from it as she heard a voice from behind her,
"Micheal? Micheal Lafaire? Is that you?"
Micheal glanced at her and she felt his smugness through their bond as she quickly drank water to cool off her mouth. As she finished and glared at her Master she sensed someone coming up behind her to her right.
"What are you doing here!? Don't you know there's a-"
"Hello, Waver Velvet. Why don't you take a seat. I'll buy you something to eat." Micheal said a bit forcefully as he looked around the room in such a way that even a worm could figure out the subtext,
"Ah well- ...Sure. I guess."
Jeanne sipped some more water as she watched what could only be described as a twig of a person sit down to her left. He seemed to fidget nervously and Jeanne glanced at Micheal arching an eyebrow. He caught on and coughed to disguise his tapping as he set up a privacy and illusion bounded field.
"Alright. Now you can talk." Micheal said as Velvets eyes bulged out of his head in a blind panic.
"Micheal you need to leave the city. Don't you know there's going to be a war soon?"
"Oh I know. I'm planning to watch. Should be interesting at the very least." Micheal said nonchalantly while leaning back in his chair causing Waver to panic even more, "Whats got you all worked up anyway? Its not like you're taking part in it right? ...Why are you here anyway?"
"Micheal- If you stay here you might get dragged into the war."
It was at this point that Jeanne cut into the conversation. She added a sultry lilt to her voice as she spoke and gave Micheal a look, "And what about me~? Hm? Aren't you worried about me Micheal? If you could get dragged in then surely I could as well~."
Jeanne took a lot of satisfaction in the reaction she felt from Micheals end of their connection as Waver froze and slowly turned his head to look at her. She arched an eyebrow at the scrawny kid as she felt him activate his circuits to scan her. She took it in stride although she did let her grin widen a bit as she watched his face pale.
The problem with her being a servant is that if a mage scanned her or looked at her with any kind of magical scrutiny it would become very obvious that she wasn't human based off the amount of mana she had along with the fact that she had a saint graph instead of a heart. To fix this one of the things Micheal had done soon after he summoned her was craft a mystic code that tricked anyone looking at her with any magical method into thinking she was just a cursed human. It had taken him the better part of a month and he had almost gone blind doing it due to having to use his eyes the entire time but eventually he finished it. The form it took was a dark almost black ruby teardrop about a centimeter and a half long and 3/4s of a centimeter wide. Up to the point of her meeting Amelia she had just kept it in one of the folds of her armor but after Amelia saw her staring at it and asked what it was to which Jeanne gave a made up description of what it did along with how it was something from Micheal, Amelia had taken it and had it turned into a necklace. She'd been wearing it on the plane, much like she was now, when Micheal had been accosted by that man which is why he clearly didn't know she was a servant from her mana.
Jeanne let her smile take on a bit of an evil edge as she watched Waver swallow nervously,
"You- You should be fine Ms…?"
"Jeanne De Ruilly. Micheal and I are hoping to learn a lot from this war but I noticed you didn't answer his question about why you were here." Jeanne looked pointedly at Wavers hands and he quickly hid them under the table in response.
[Can you stop tormenting him? Please? He's technically my peer.]
(Absolutely not. This is the most fun I've had in three weeks and you will not ruin this for me.)
Jeanne felt exasperated acceptance from his end as he let her have her fun while Waver sweat bullets. Before she could needle him more their food came. Soon they were eating their food as Waver watched enviously. Jeanne pushed the octopus balls towards him and when he looked askance, she rolled her eyes and gestured to it. Before Micheal could stop him he had stuck a ball on the end of a toothpick and ate the entire thing in one bite. Jeanne snorted only to laugh outright as she watched Waver's face turn red from the heat as he looked around in a panic for water. Micheal gave her a look to which she stuck her tongue out at him as he quickly grabbed a spare glass and conjured water to fill it. He handed it to Waver who drank the entire glass in one go before taking a few shaky breaths.
"How was something so small that hot…" He muttered as Jeanne snorted another laugh before she dug into her food. She had ordered something called steak yakisoba and it looked to be fried noodles with strips of beef and cabbage along with red peppers scattered through it. She grabbed some chopsticks and quickly ate some savoring the taste.
She realized that Waver was speaking and mentally tuned back in to realize he was ordering food himself except he was ordering so much food that Jeanne felt her eyebrows raise,
"And if all that could be to go as well I'd appreciate it." He finished as the waitress scribbled madly on her notepad as she looked at Waver, back to her notepad, and back at Waver before shaking her head and almost running back to the kitchen.
Micheal spoke first much to her annoyance. She wanted to mess with the kid some more,
"Didn't know you were such a big eater Velvet."
Waver flinched a bit,
"I've uhhh..fallen in love with japanese food?"
Jeanne rolled her eyes,
"If you're going to lie try to at least sound confident while doing it. See I'll show you. Micheal~?"
Jeanne added a lilt to her voice again which, much to her continued satisfaction, got Micheals attention immediately, "There's a man taller than you and built like an ox loitering in the entrance of the restaurant, Micheal dear~."
Much to Jeannes surprise it was Waver who responded as he did a spittake and gave her a look like she was some kind of witch. Which to his credit...she was.
Of a sort.
Micheal glanced at Waver's reaction and then decided to play along rolling his eyes, "Right. And I'm the King of Egypt." Waver's face paled even further and he was shivering like nothing else as the Waitress came back and said in broken english that the order might take a bit to cook so if he wanted to come back later to pick it up he could but if he could pay for it now it would be appreciated.
"Ah yes. Thank you. I'll do that. Micheal, you and your….friend need to leave before its too late. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Waver stood up and tried to look casual as he walked to where the check out was. Jeanne and Micheal both watched him pay for the food and then leave. They let the silence linger for a bit before Jeanne leaned her head on her hand as she stabbed into her yakisoba with her chopsticks
"So Wavers obviously a Master in the grail war."
Micheal shook his head and began on his own food
"He might as well have had a neon sign saying as much given how he acted." He slurped some of his meal and then after a bit he paused and looked at Jeanne, "Was there actually a man who looked like that where you said he would be?"
Jeanne smirked and clicked her tongue at her master playfully, "Maybe~ You can't expect a woman to reveal all her secrets can you?"
He rolled his eyes and refocused in his food as Jeanne did the same.
####
-Micheals PoV-
Micheal grimly watched the replay of what his familiar had recorded. It was just after 2am and he was sitting in the living room of the house. He backed up the VHS tape and watched again trying to see every detail he could as Assassin nimbly wove a dance through what had to be wards, touched a ruby, and then him along with everything in a 10 meter radius was turned into a crater by streaks of golden light. The door behind him slid open and Jeanne walked in wide awake and wearing purple pajamas that clung to her just enough to make his mind conjure indecent thoughts. Normally Micheal would appreciate the sight while thanking his mom for her excellent taste but he just shook his head clear, firmed his lips, and waved her forward. She sat down beside him on the sofa as he replayed the video for what had to be the 50th time that hour.
"….So its started then." Jeanne breathed out slowly as Micheal saw her eyes begin to glow. He put a hand on top of hers just long enough to get her to focus but hopefully not long enough to make her uncomfortable. As he took his hand away he thought he saw for the briefest of moments disappointment but he figured he must have been seeing things as Jeannes face fell into a grim neutral look as she asked, "What else do we know?"
"Not much besides that I need to better position my familiars over each of the mansions. The only thing I caught was the streaks of golden light and not who launched them."
Jeanne leaned forward resting her chin on her hand as she stared at the video, "Rewind it a bit. I'll tell you when to stop."
Micheal did so and stopped as soon as Jeanne said to. She stood up and walked to the TV as though getting closer would somehow give more detail to it.
"It….looks like a bunch of swords…"
Micheal blinked and walked over to stand next to her. He narrowed his eyes and could just barely make out a few details in the various golden streaks. A hilt here. A golden blade there. Half a handguard in another place.
He stepped back and folded his arms as his mind raced. He looked at Jeanne who was still examining the screen,
"What do you think?"
"Of?"
She turned to looked at him as he gestured at the image on the TV
"What kind of servant launches swords?"
Jeanne tilted her head back and to the side like she always did when she was thinking,
"...Caster or Archer." Micheal gave her a look and she rolled her eyes, "Just a feeling I have. What else has come up?"
"I don't know but I assume that Assassins Master has sought sanctuary with the Church representative by now." He said disdainfully as Jeanne made a face. He shook his head and glanced back at the screen before walking over and popping out the VHS tape. He held it in his hand and pulsed it with mana destroying the recording and demagnetizing the tape. Nodding that he had successfully taken care of it he stretched and felt how tired he was. He had been up late working on Desmonds old pistol when the familiar he had watching the Tohsaka estate pinged him and he ran to the living room to look at what it had seen.
"I'm going back to sleep. I know you don't sleep but-"
"I'll be fine," Jeanne said as fire swept over her as she changed from her pajamas into her armor. She grinned at him and shooed him away, "Go back to sleep. I'll stay up and keep watch."
He gave her an apprehensive look to which she folded her arms and glared at him, "I promise I won't go out and look for a fight. Go to bed."
Micheal nodded and walked back to his room yawning. He was asleep before his head even hit the pillow.
~~~~~~~~
Micheal opened his eyes and looked around realizing that he was either in Jeannes memories or he had dreamwalked again. Where ever he was it was pitch black. As he took a step forward his foot collided with something. He hissed a bit in response and gingerly moved his foot as from the pain in his foot made it was clear that he was dreamwalking. He was about to spawn a small light when he heard off key singing getting closer and on pure instinct he cloaked himself in the shadows of the room. He watched as a man with orange hair came into the room holding a flashlight. The man swept the light over Micheal but didn't see him and then left muttering something in Japanese. As the man turned around Micheal saw that his hands were covered in fresh blood and he felt a lead weight drop into his stomach.
I need to leave. I don't know whats going on...but I need to wake up right the fuck now.
Micheal closed his eyes and focused on his internal mana trying to find the thread of mana that had carried him to wherever he was right now. Right as he found and was about to cut the thread to wake himself up, he heard a kid scream and before he even registered what he was doing he was running out of the room and towards the sound. As he was about to turn a corner his origin screamed at him to stop causing him to almost push off and fly backwards through the wall. Instead he stopped himself immediately by pulsing his electromagnetic field causing him to stop as though he had slammed into a wall instead.
Micheal watched, barely breathing as the man froze in the middle of what he was doing and looked over his shoulder behind him. He stood up, looked more closely, and then shrugged before turning back the way he was facing where a kid was lying tied up and gagged,
"...Anyway. Look when I summon the demon I figured it would be rude to just, y'know, not have anything for it. So I gotta beg a favor...Could you die for me?"
Micheal felt as though he was being ripped in half. One part of him wanted to rush forward and kill the man with the orange hair but his origin was preventing him from moving. He stood there looking frantically around the room eventually seeing a digital clock with the date beside the time,
So this was...three days ago?
His attention was pulled away as something on the floor started glowing and Micheal looked down to see that it was a servant summoning circle...drawn in blood. Before he could move away wind started ripping through the room causing paper to fly wildly as an explosion of mana erupted out of the circle causing Micheal to shield his eyes with his arms. As he held his arms in front of his eyes he heard the Servant speak and at the sound of the Servants voice he felt an explosion of cold furious hatred in his gut,
"I ask of you….Are you my master?"
No.
Not here.
Not you.
Anyone but you.
Micheal lowered his arms and saw the chameleon eyes, razor teeth, and blue robes of Gilles De Ray.
"-cheal!"
Micheal shook his head clear and prepared a bolt of lightning meant to kill,
I can fix this. I just need to kill hi-
"MICHEAL!!!"
Micheal froze in the dream as he felt as though a fish hook had latched itself into his core and was pulling him backwards. He yelled and tried to fire off something, anything to kill the man in front of him but he was soon enveloped in darkness only to wake up to someone shaking him. He flooded his body with mana and shot away from the person who was shaking him causing him to crash into the wall of his bedroom. He looked around wildly trying to find the person attacking him when he saw Jeanne looking at him worriedly her hand still held out.
"You...were letting off a lot of mana and you were shouting in your sleep… you wouldn't wake up…." She said haltingly as his heart beat began to slow down. He lowered the amount of mana running through him and sank to the floor wrapping his arms around his knees as he buried his face into his thighs trying to not think about what he saw. About who had been summoned. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up into Jeannes golden eyes as they filled with worry,
"Micheal...whats wrong. Talk to me."
"...I know who Caster is."
End of part 1