"I want... you."
A heavy silence fell at my words, stretching out for a long moment. Only Illysaviel's coughs echoed in the background, ignored by us both.
Justeaze's expression remained flat. She tilted her chin upward to meet my gaze, her crimson eyes holding mine.
The bracelet on my wrist had gone slack, but then it suddenly jolted, its silver threads frantically tugging at my sleeve.
"Is that your new wish?" She tilted her head, silver locks swirling with the motion as a slight furrow appeared between her brows. "... But why?"
"The optimal choice for a wish is to take the Grail itself. We can then use it to open a path to another world," I said while taking a step closer, hands still tucked in my pockets, tie loose from earlier.
Justeaze shook her head firmly. "That isn't possible. The Grail is a highly complex magic circle tethered to Fuyuki's leylines. If you tear it out, it will lose its means of accumulating mana and simply become a useless artifact."
"You aren't showing the entire picture to me. From what I've observed so far, the Grail is an enormous bundle of magic circuits, basically your silver threads that connect to both the Fuyuki leylines and form that magic circle carved into Mount Enzo's base." I glanced at some funnels folding back into flowers, then returned my gaze to her.
When she didn't reply, I continued. "Besides, if Irisviel can take this bracelet's form, theoretically, you should be able to as well."
Looking down, Justeaze stared at my bracelet for a few seconds before raising her eyes again.
Our eyes locked.
A new silence hung between us now.
More oppressive than before.
...
..
.
Invisible Air clashed against a katana, throwing sparks that lit up the dark surroundings like a flash.
Artoria's face was illuminated for a moment, five steps above the mechanical doll, swords locked above her crown in an X.
That doll climbed a step, grinding its katana downward across Invisible Air's length, more sparks erupted along compressed wind's edge in a diagonal line, revealing her invisible sword's length, before dark swallowed it again.
She retreated one step up. Her sword arm pulled back, elbow dropping behind her ribs, Invisible Air's length held horizontal beside her waist, wind gathering along its tip in a humming rotation.
Artoria swung.
A diagonal sweep rose from her right hip to left shoulder, wind carving a wide crescent through air. Tiles of the nearly twenty stairs beneath them peeled off and flew sideways, a cloud of mortar and dust erupting in their wake.
Gears whirred as that doll leaned back, precisely stopping at the exact angle where Invisible Air's edge passed an inch over its chest. The wind's tip scraped across its torso, shaving a bright groove into its plating from hip to shoulder.
But its free hand had already reached behind its back. A second katana slid free from a housing inside that construct's spine, blade rotating into a reverse grip.
Two katanas now. Left curving low, right arcing high. It climbed again.
Light bled through the seams of Artoria's gauntlets, fingers clasping the hilt of her sword tighter, blade held above her chest, vertical and pointing skyward.
That doll bent its knees, both katanas crossing in an X, detonating upward. The step beneath its feet shattered, launching shards of tiles downward.
Gold.
Mana blasted beneath her feet, cratering stone. She arced upward, clearing ten stairs in a single thrust, landing far above.
Its charge hit empty air, momentum carrying it five steps up before a flare of gold reflected off the metallic plating over its torso. It was still trying to bleed off leftover velocity when two green eyes peered into it from inches away.
Artoria was inside its guard, that step she'd landed on caving inward behind her, a crater blooming outward in fractured tiles.
Gold.
Another burst, from the accumulated mana in her gauntlets, and she blurred into a descending ribbon of gold, past the doll, heels digging furrows through stairs and soil alike, flinging them in two curtains that parted around her path.
Late embers erupted near that construct's neck. A seam of white light opened across its plating, shoulder to shoulder, the same stroke her descending pass had traced. Metal peeled outward at the cut's edges, wires crackling inside, gears exposed and seizing against each other.
Below now. Doll above her.
Its head rotated for one hundred and eighty degrees. Just the neck, tracking her position with torso still facing up the stairs.
Both katanas reversed grip, blades curving outward around its back, like a mouth splitting wide.
That construct tipped back from the edge of a stair, and dropped. Both feet leaving a step at once, body falling backward down the staircase, katanas angled at her.
Artoria rose onto the balls of her feet, heels flaring. Golden steam ripped up from her feet, and she slid two steps down, stone disintegrating in her wake. Those blades tore into the step she'd left a fraction ago, both tips drove through stone, cleaving that stair in half.
The doll seamlessly slid two more steps down, katanas already chaining into sweeps before its feet hit ground.
Left katana. A horizontal cut with its edge tracing the arc of her waist. Artoria's right shoulder burst with gold and her body yanked left, that blade hissing close to her hip, enough that she felt its shape through her skirt.
Right katana. Rising diagonal toward her ribs. Mana erupted from her left elbow, arms snapping right, gauntlet catching the blade on its frame and knocking it aside.
Left katana again. A lower sweep to take her shins, aimed at the space her legs would occupy if she dodged the way she'd dodged the first one.
She didn't dodge.
Her weight rolled forward, balls of her feet leaving ground.
Gold ignited beneath her toes, and she hurled straight up, clearing the katana's swing by inches, skirt ruffling, and she rose above the doll's head, out of its blades' reach.
Mid-air, her torso tipped forward, crown descending. The staircase spun beneath her in a smear of stone, dust, golden afterimages, and for one frame she hung inverted above the doll, face above face, Invisible Air hanging between them.
Gold.
Light bled from beneath her armour, creeping along her whole body to wrap her in brilliance.
From head to toes, she became victory. A silhouette so incandescent that for a breath, the dark clouds overhead reflected her gold.
Her arms locked. Invisible Air fell straight down, tip grazing the crown of the doll's head.
"Hammer Of The Wind King."
A hurricane of spiralling winds screamed downward, boring all the way through Mount Enzo underneath them.
...
..
.
***
[200 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[15 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
[Author's Thoughts]
Alright everyone, there was going to be no chapter today, because I didn't feel well. But then I pushed and completed it anyway, have fun.
And have a productive day, too!