"Assassin, how does the new arm feel?"
Caster was a tall and full-figured beauty wrapped completely in a luxurious dark purple robe, and her voice carried a mature charm.
A witch.
Although Caster herself did not like being called that, it was without a doubt the most fitting word.
"Very good, much better than having none." Assassin replied with a half-smile.
Caster did not mind the sarcasm in her tone. She knew Assassin had suffered a heavy loss at the hands of the enemy and was in a bitter mood. It was better not to touch that sore spot.
"There is no choice. You have a connection with that Servant. It is not just about being injured. The stolen Saint Graph… recovering it is almost impossible."
"I know you have already done your best. But this is not enough. If I want to take revenge on that man, I not only need to recover from my injuries, I need to become even stronger than before!"
"Then I wish you can think of a way soon." Caster, Medea, did not comment further.
"There is a small favor I need from you right now."
"Hm?" Medea lowered her head in confusion and met Shuten's eyes.
The great demon giggled, but her voice was restrained and playful. "I really need something you have on you."
Medea's eyes hidden beneath her hood narrowed slightly. "What do you want?"
"That depends on what you brought with you!"
"It is that thing, right? My senses should not be wrong..."
"...something that attracts dragons!"
———
Eight in the evening. Outside a certain national museum, since it was located in a busy district, there were quite a few pedestrians coming and going.
For some unknown reason, from a certain moment on, people passing by suddenly felt a strange panic, as if some disaster was about to happen to them.
Yet they could see nothing unusual around them, so they could not help but quicken their steps and leave in a hurry.
The pedestrians behind them also subconsciously avoided the area. There was no special reason, just a simple "mood" issue.
Many people were even willing to take a detour and did not feel anything strange about their behavior.
In the security room, the guard let out a long yawn. His eyelids felt as if they were coated with lead, heavy and stiff.
Every time they dropped, he had to use great willpower to open them again. After repeating this several times, he simply lay down on the desk and fell into a groggy sleep.
Gradually, the area around the museum became completely empty. The only sounds were the insects chirping in the flowerbeds, and the only thing that could be felt was the gentle breeze blowing through the courtyard.
Snap!
At the end of the road, a streetlamp suddenly went out.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
Like the first domino being pushed over, the streetlamps went out one after another.
When the two large lights in front of the museum also went dark, this land completely fell into the embrace of darkness.
From high above, the entire city had lighting everywhere except here, as if the light of civilization had been swallowed by some invisible monster.
"Hmm~ hmm~ mm~"
In the darkness, a slender girl whose face and clothes could not be clearly seen walked over, humming an unknown tune to herself, the sound bringing a strange sense of joy.
She walked lightly across the long street, then like an ordinary visitor, stepped up the stairs and pushed open the door to enter the museum.
It seemed she could see even in the dark. The whole process was extremely smooth, without the slightest obstacle.
Behind the door was a structure combining corridors and exhibition halls. It was too spacious for a single person.
In the deep night there was not the slightest sound. Even the moonlight only faintly shone in through a few strands.
No matter how lightly one walked in, there would still be a faint echo, leaving an empty feeling in the heart.
Dead silence and loneliness. The museum in the darkness was like the palace of Pluto. The exhibits slept inside transparent glass cases.
Their worn and mottled surfaces seemed to gain a bit more mystery at this moment.
The blurred carvings on broken stone tablets, pottery painted with figures and beasts, statues missing half their bodies, lifelike animal specimens… everything was wrapped in darkness.
They were sleeping, yet somehow one could feel a hidden throb, as if invisible veins connected them, the lingering echo of history slowly flowing in a realm beyond human sight.
This atmosphere was no longer just eerie. It belonged to another era, a domain that rejected those of the present world.
But the girl did not care, because she was not a "living person" to begin with. In fact, most of these relics were not even older than her.
Just like shopping in a mall, she leisurely looked at one display after another. Sometimes she was curious, sometimes she let out a chuckle, sometimes she nodded in praise. She looked exactly like a girl out for a stroll.
Very few things caught her eye. Everything she chose was genuine. Replicas or fakes could not fool her.
The items she selected automatically floated up and followed behind her like attendants. After just one round around the hall, there were already four or five meters of various objects behind her, from bronze ware to ancient books. Her hunting range was very wide.
After finishing the main hall, she stretched out her hand and waved it in the air. A few strands of light flashed, and then a strangely shaped tin staff appeared in her hand.
"Oh my, come over here, my little spirits."
She waved the staff and tapped it on an exhibit of an ancient spinning wheel.
The thin threads immediately seemed to come alive, flying off the rack, weaving around and through each other in the air.
In no time, they automatically formed cloth with exquisite patterns.
The selected exhibits jumped inside on their own, and then a full suit of knight armor lit up with red light in its eye sockets, steadily catching the large bundle.
"Alright, next exhibition hall!"
In a cheerful mood, the girl led her newly recruited knight forward. In this way she looted three exhibition halls in succession.
Several more knights and wax figures appeared by her side, helping her carry the miscellaneous items.
After finishing this, when she passed through the central hall, her steps quietly slowed. A smile curled at the corner of her mouth.
"As expected… seeing you endure for so long, I thought you would not come out."
Buzz!
The atmosphere changed instantly. Invisible ripples of magical energy swept across the entire hall.
The familiars all lost their animating force and fell to the ground, and various objects scattered everywhere, leaving the girl standing among antiques of different eras and styles, as if she were at the final stop of history.
Bang!
The next moment, the glass dome was forcibly shattered. Large and small fragments fell down, mixed with dozens of ferocious undead made of sharp white bones.
"Dragon tooth soldiers?"
The girl raised her head and pointed her staff from afar. "How traditional."
There was no visible casting motion, nor any audible chant. That was because her way of casting had already surpassed human understanding.
For her, who served the goddess of the night, spells did not need to be carefully woven. All of her actions could become rituals.
That directly touched the underlying commands of the "magecraft" system. Its efficiency surpassed any modern magecraft.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Palm-sized miniature magic circles unfolded in the air, existing only for a brief moment before disappearing.
But in that short time, they shot out thin beams of light, accurately hitting the dragon tooth soldiers.
These familiars, as their name implied, were made from dragon teeth. Though they looked fragile, they were actually quite sturdy. Yet before the girl's attacks, they were meaningless, turning into scattered bones as they fell.
The girl did not stop. She lightly struck the ground with her staff. With a crisp sound, circuit-like patterns flashed, instantly breaking the strange barrier covering the hall.
"So crude. Is that all?"
"Really?"
"Hm?!"
The girl sensed something wrong. As the barrier was broken, a complex magic circle appeared beneath her feet without her noticing.
The symbols rotated like star tracks, coating the surrounding pillars, the ground, and even the air in an old bronze color.
"The first barrier was only a trigger… I jumped into it on my own?"
Realizing she had fallen into a trap, the girl was at first a bit surprised. She did not expect the other party's technique to be so refined, hiding a second layer so perfectly that even she failed to see through it.
But she did not panic. Instead, her lips curled up with interest. "It has been a long time since I had a proper magecraft duel. It seems you have the ability to satisfy me."
"Boasting shamelessly. Let me show you what true magecraft is."
The enemy Caster descended from the dome, holding a staff. Her cloak moved without wind, spreading like huge wings.
Similarly, the girl also raised her staff. A pair of hawk-like wings unfolded behind her, and her slender body lifted into the air.
Buzz!
Buzz!
Magic circles filled with powerful energy appeared on their wings, corresponding to each other.
In the next instant, dazzling beams of light tore through the darkness. Grand magecraft that modern magi would need to pay a huge price to use manifested in their hands without any preparation.
One after another they were released at will, firing at a speed comparable to automatic firearms.
The museum hall was instantly blasted apart. All kinds of precious exhibits were destroyed. After several fierce exchanges, the two of them stopped at the same time.
"..."
"..."
The girl snapped her fingers. Lights suddenly turned on in the messy hall. The enemy Caster in the sky also landed.
She wore a deep purple robe, the upper half of her face hidden beneath a hood. It was Medea of the Black faction.
The light also revealed the hawk-winged girl. She had beautiful short pink hair, a sweet yet mischievous face, and a thin figure dressed in a white gown with an ancient Greek style.
The Witch of Betrayal, Medea, and the Witch of Devotion, Circe, two blood-related magi, reunited in Romania thousands of years later...
As if.
They both thought at the same time, better pretend we do not recognize her and just kill her.
As the saying goes, meeting an old friend in a foreign land is one of life's great joys. But for Medea and Circe, it was not like that.
Medea's story is widely known in the world. She was the princess of Colchis. Because of the arrow of the god of love, she fell in love with Jason, then took part in the story of the Golden Fleece expedition.
But for that obsessive and extreme love, she committed terrible crimes and ended up with a very tragic fate.
Incidentally, the root of all evil in this story was the love god who randomly matched couples. It could only be said that Greece's number one troublemaker proved his value once again.
Circe's story is equally famous, though the sense of tragedy around her is less heavy.
She was Medea's aunt and also her teacher in magecraft. Both of them served the black moon goddess Hecate. As princesses they were also priestesses. In later images they became witches.
Circe was a famous witch of temptation and corruption in mythology. She easily fell in love with others, then used attentive hospitality to make them fall.
But it should be noted that this "love" was to a large extent possessiveness born from loneliness, so strong that it became twisted.
She would treat the human men who visited her island with fine food, and after they were full, turn them into lions, wolves, or pigs.
Then these sailors and adventurers would never leave her side. As everyone knows, Greece produces many yandere and odd characters.
In the famous epic "The Odyssey," after "entertaining" the protagonist Odysseus and his companions, this hawk-winged witch went through a series of events, fell in love with the wandering hero, and then experienced a dramatic heartbreak.
The two blood-related witches met in a modern Holy Grail War. There was not the slightest joy between them, only some awkwardness.
Neither of them wanted to see someone they knew.
Of course, although Circe was called aunt, she was more like Medea's foster mother. While she could not quite handle the Betrayal Witch in her youth, at the end of the day their relationship was still very close.
For example, just now they had both come up with the idea of killing the other at the same time. It could be said to run in the family.
Putting aside their complicated blood ties and bonds, Medea and Circe were roughly on the same level in magecraft.
As followers and disciples of Hecate, they were among the top great witches of the Greek Age of Gods. Looking across the entire Caster class, they were also among the best.
Neither of them was confident in defeating the other in a one-on-one fight. This encounter was destined to end without result.
"Aunt…"
"Call me big sister!" Circe knocked the ground with her staff in dissatisfaction. "How many times have I said it? Call me big sister. Just judging by appearance, you look older."
"After all, I cannot stay forever young like Aunt can." Medea said lightly. "It really makes people envious."
"… "
Circe's eye twitched. She always felt that there were hidden thorns in Medea's words. The young Medea had been a bit sharp-tongued, but at least she was straightforward. Now the Betrayal Witch gave her a dark and scheming feeling.
"Where did my cute niece go? I do not remember raising such a rude child… oh right, I heard you got married? No wonder you changed so much."
"… "
Medea's smile became forced. She quickly countered, "Oh, you cut your hair?"
"I remember you always had long hair before. Those beautiful and smooth strands made the younger me very envious. Why cut it? What a pity."
"… "
Both fell silent, staring at each other for a long time. Medea's face was hidden so her expression could not be seen, but Circe's expression changed several times before all her mixed feelings turned into a faint sigh.
"Sigh…"
Aunt and niece sighed at the same time. The tense atmosphere and clashing magical waves in the air finally faded.
"By the way, what is this supposed to be? A class reunion? There are way too many Servants from Greece this time."
Medea complained mercilessly, and Circe nodded in deep agreement.
Among the Servants summoned in this Holy Grail War, nearly half were heroes from the Greek Age of Gods.
And many of them were even connected to each other.