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“What exactly did you have in mind?” Luviagelita asked the man who called himself Haqim, taking charge of the situation.
“You just saw my entire team get eliminated. Is it not reasonable to seek revenge?” Haqim questioned with a smile that held no warmth.
“For many others, yes. Dead Apostles? Not so much. You’d happily watch your allies get killed as they’re only competition at best, and enemies at worst.” Luvia wasn’t about to allow herself to get fooled.
The man’s smile turned into a mirthless grin. “Very hurtful, but also very true. We only really care about our own clan, if even that. That said, we are also spiteful bastards, so revenge as a motivation shouldn’t be too hard to fathom.”
“And what sort of alliance did you even have in mind? It’s not like we will be able to trust you and there can be only one winner. Are you even proper participants in this Grail War? Where are your Masters?” Luvia continued to interrogate the man.
“Well, answering the last two questions first, as a show of faith, the other members of my team were not. They did not have Masters either. They simply hijacked the system for their own benefit, which is why I assume the Ruler sought out those other teams to eliminate them. As for me, I am a proper Heroic Spirit, summoned by our ‘Caster’ who also functioned as my Master, as little power as that granted him over me. Even with Command Seals, Strauss was not strong enough, or foolish enough, to order me to do anything. Believe me, if he could’ve, many of you would already be dead.” The man grinned again, a little maliciously this time.
“Without a Master, you will quickly fade away.” Luthien pointed out.
Haqim nodded. “Granted, and I’m not especially interested in staying here anyway. Unlike many Servants, I have a life, or unlife if you will, waiting for me after this little event is over. I can sustain a bit longer by feeding on the civilians, but I just want to make my displeasure at being summoned like this known, which brings me to why I’m here. I find it quite interesting how even the Black team was invited to be a part of the attack on my former compatriots, but you weren’t. After all, judging by your attitude against my kind, at least your Masters would’ve been willing.”
“Speak plain. What exactly do you want, and expect from us, should we agree?” Luvia went straight to the point.
“I’d simply like to take out as many of the Servants that attacked us as possible. And if the Ruler happens to be among them, then all the better. You would provide a nice cover and a nice distraction to do my thing. I was still summoned as an Assassin, and thus my powers are somewhat limited in direct combat.” Haqim explained.
‘Say yes. He’s about as honorable as his kind become.’ Seraphiel telepathically messaged Luvia. Seraphiel was also the perfect example to show that Haqim was bending the truth a bit. She was a Caster and had no trouble in direct combat.
At the same time, she sent another message to Luthien, while allowing her to hear the first one as well. ‘Unless you use a Command Seal to stop me, I will be using my full power to strike him down at the first opportunity.’
‘Why?’ Luthien asked simply.
‘I’m fairly confident that if he is who he says he is, and I have no reason to doubt him, then he is the most dangerous participant in this war, even above and beyond The Lion King. And considering he’s of the Assassin Class, I will not be able to stop him from striking you down.’ Seraphiel revealed. ‘I can protect myself, but not others.’
“We can take your suggestion under advisement. I can’t make promises for my entire team, but I feel inclined to agree." Luvia decided. She'd been leaning towards accepting anyway, even if only to point the man at their enemy instead. Even if he eliminated a single enemy Servant, then that would be fewer enemies to fight.
"I suppose that's all I can ask. I'll have to find someone to feed on though. Surviving the conflagration took its toll on me." He explained, though he didn't look any weaker, and was likely somewhat feigning vulnerability to bait out an attack, if one was coming. Seraphiel was too patient to fall for it though.
“There seems to be significantly less prey around after the ‘conflagration’ as you named it.” Luthien pointed out.
“There’s some prey still, and by tomorrow morning, they’ll all be back. There’s a reason why this city was selected as the site for this Grail War.” Haqim stated mysteriously, before vanishing from sight right in front of them.
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As Barthomeloi and Saber returned to the base, they were not alone. They were accompanied by a blond female knight with a thick braid over her shoulder and carrying a flag that seemed vaguely familiar to Seraphiel. The woman was rather easy to recognize as the Ruler.
“Have you seen Rider and Lord Germaine?” Barthomeloi asked as soon as she entered the base.
"No," Luvia answered curtly. "Caster says that Rider at least is alive, but beyond that, we haven't looked."
“The others?” Barthomeloi asked, not knowing yet, and grimaced at Luvia shaking her head.
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“We have reason to believe Trambelio is alive, but his Servant is not. The other two are gone.” Luvia explained.
Seraphiel pointed at Ruler. “I’m more interested in why you brought her along. She created an alliance between the other teams. “
“The Blue team had to be dealt with.” The blond woman replied simply.
“And you didn’t see fit to approach us with these plans.” Seraphiel continued pressing.
“I judged that the gathered Servants were sufficient.” Ruler argued, not budging from her position.
“You thought it sufficient? You created an alliance that led to the deaths of two of our Servants, and at least one Master, an alliance that might find enough unity to target us next, and your excuse for this meddling is that you thought it sufficient, no matter who got caught in the crossfire? You really didn’t think things through coming here as you did.” Seraphiel flashed forward, lifting the Ruler up by her throat, strangling her in the process. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t remove your meddling from this war right now.”
The Ruler tried to speak but was unable to. She then tried to activate her powers, but even that was interrupted as eldritch lightning coursed through her body. "I'm not hearing any reasons," Seraphiel stated coldly.
“She can’t talk.” Luvia pointed out, not really wanting to get in the middle of this but felt compelled to speak.
Seraphiel flung the Ruler with enough power to send her through a stone wall, the woman’s armor shattered by the impact. “Talk, Saint Jeanne d’Arc. Before I decide your words are not worthy of listening to.” She casually revealed the woman’s identity.
“Cough! Hack! The Black team needs to be dealt with as well." She managed to squeeze out. It had to be mentioned that She was powerful enough to fight a Berserker in direct combat, but had been entirely helpless just now.
Seraphiel chuckled. “Oh, so your defense is to meddle further. Who’s next? Our team?”
“They are summoning Demons.” Jeanne of Arc squeezed out.
“Oh, I know. I’ve known since they started. Here’s the thing though. I’ve killed more demons in an hour than they can summon in a year. I’m not concerned about Demons.” She knew she was letting her legend affect her mentality a fair bit there. As an Aeldari, slaying Demons was much too common. She’d also been a lot more single-minded in that life before time had worn off some of the edges. She also had a bit of a habit for grandstanding back then “Let me show you the futility of your actions. Haqim!” She called out.
"You have something for me?" The old as dirt Vampire appeared out of thin air, only a few steps away from the Ruler, having never truly left as he’d seen the Ruler appear.
“You wanted an alliance of sorts, yes? How about you kill Gul’dan, the caster of Black, and we’ll take it into serious consideration.” She suggested.
Haqim, a lot smarter than most, could easily read her thinking and loved the idea of rubbing the Ruler's nose in her failure. That was a nice first step in revenge. Even better than killing Jeanne right away. “Consider it done.” He vanished again.
“So, you see, not only did you fail in eliminating the Blue team, you failed spectacularly since Haqim alone is more powerful than the other six dead members of that team combined.” Seraphiel mocked the Saint. In part, it was an act, though she’d never really liked Saints. They were all so convinced in their righteousness, blinded by their faith, often unwilling and unable to see the evil their actions were causing.
In response, Jeanne knelt and crossed her fingers in prayer. Chanting and asking for God to help, to strike Seraphiel down. As a Saint, it was unsurprising she had such powers.
This time Seraphiel didn’t bother interrupting. Instead, she stepped outside with arms wide open, as if welcoming any heavenly punishment. “Oh, let the heavens judge me. No? Nothing?”
Jeanne seemed shocked that it didn’t work, the Saint not used to her powers failing. “Oh, Father why hast thou forsaken me?” She beseeched the heavens again.
“Would you like me to tell you why?” Seraphiel asked in a mocking tone. “Mother, would you like to make an official debut appearance and introduce yourself on the big stage and tell her why her entreaties are not working?” She asked, knowing the entire event was most likely shown to at least many of the gods, and more than likely many mortal viewers, as such events often were.
Charlotte Richards appeared in response to her request, flaring her divine presence for effect, suppressing everyone other than Seraphiel. She had a gracious and awe-inspiring smile on her face, and her appearance definitely had a bit of divine enhancement when compared to the usual. “Of course, my dear daughter. I am currently known as Charlotte Richards, but more commonly I’m known as the Creator Goddess of All Creation.” You could hear the capitalization in her words. “All other universes have sprouted from the seeds me and my husband have created.”
She stepped closer to the kneeling Jeanne. “As it just so happens, the deity you’re praying to is the pale imitation of my husband, and when He first entered this universe, all other versions of Him were absorbed by Him. So, you’re basically praying for my husband to smite our beloved daughter, my High Priestess, the original protector and Paladin, and the Firstborn of All Creation.”
Seraphiel cursed a bit in her mind, as she’d asked Charlotte to introduce herself, not Seraphiel. Charlotte winked at her before smiling to the skies, where presumably they were being observed from, before vanishing in a flash of golden light. There was some stunned silence, but otherwise a fair lack of reaction from those present.
“Now that we’ve established that, and taken care of your Demon problem, begone!” Seraphiel psionically grabbed Jeanne and tossed her out of their base entirely.
She turned to Barthomeloi and asked. “Why bring her here anyway?”.
“Luthien, kindly reign in your Servant. I have no interest in being questioned.” Barthomeloi was dead tired and making bad decisions, something highly unusual for her. She also did not believe everything the Goddess had said.
“Master…” Saber said in a warning tone, sensing that things might be taking a bad turn, clearly having listened and believed the Goddess that had appeared straight after being requested by Seraphiel, clearly favoring the powerful Caster.
"No, I don't think I will," Luthien stated firmly. She was confused about what had just happened but was choosing to ignore it for now, knowing Seraphiel would explain if she chose to. “I’d like the answer as well.”
Barthomeloi realized that she’d overstepped, and decided tact was called for. “Because she asked to speak with us. I did not see a reason to shut her down out of hand. I obviously wasn’t aware of all the details.”
Arjuna leaned closer to Seraphiel. “About Haqim…”
Seraphiel interrupted him with a single lifted finger, before sending a pulse of power through the entire place and creating a field that stopped all sound from escaping. She knew how the Vampiric Discipline of Obfuscation worked. It wasn’t real invisibility. Instead, it was a very subtle form of mesmerism that caused everyone around the person using the power to ignore their existence. Even if those affected had to walk around the user to avoid them, their own mind would justify why they’d done that. She also knew how to counter the effects, even someone as strong as Haqim.
“Now you can ask.” She finally nodded, certain that the man was not about to pop out. She also felt the Ruler suddenly being snuffed out, knowing the man had just taken another bit of Revenge. That should earn some good will with the old Vampire, besides working as a distraction.
Arjuna continued. “You seemed very reticent of allying with him before.” He said reminding her of her own words before.
“I still am. But the Ruler did have one point. The Black team summoning Demons is not a good thing. While I wasn’t lying when I said I could deal with the normal Demons, things might get challenging if Gul’dan summons something like Archimonde or Kil’jaeden. And those two would leap at the chance to get revenge. I’m still going to kill him when I get the chance, unless he fades away first, but if the other teams still have even the semblance of an alliance, then he might become necessary. Especially if there are only three of us left, since Rider and his Master are missing. I still maintain that the little alliance between the teams won't last long, but we might as well take precautions against it until we know it no longer exists." She elaborated on her thinking. "According to what I know of him, Haqim might be as trustworthy as Vampires of that world come, although that doesn’t necessarily mean much. We should keep our eyes open and point him at our enemies, rather than having him attack us.”
After a moment of silence, Arjuna finally brought up what everyone else was thinking. “So…the Daughter of All Creation?” He added another moniker to her, which did summarize things nicely.
"As the son of Indra, you're the last person to talk." Seraphiel shot back wryly.
“But…how?” Luthien asked. “I could understand the daughter of Asuryan, but…” Her confusion was understandable, as nowhere in her legends among Aeldari was it mentioned that Seraphiel was anything but one of them. Mostly because she’d taken on their likeness at one point.
“You know what title I’m most known by? The name I have among the Grail System?” Seraphiel asked simply. “The Exile. Where do you think I was exiled to?”
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