King Cosmos

Fate/『 』Märchen

Archer Actaeon

Fomonar Workshop; Release the hounds

Archer approached the map and stood behind Mercedes as she worked. As she re-read her notes, skimming her hand over section of the map and speaking aloud her plans, the Servant was examining the map in greater detail over her shoulder. The idea of setting up additional bases was an appealing one, because as comfortable and this base was compared to being in the centre of the city it was also impractical. A number of locations dotted around the city, less full bases and more like small rest stops, would allow them greater mobility around the battlefield than having to start on the city outskirts each night; they were both hunters after all, they shouldn’t tie themselves down to one location and instead treat the entire city as their hunting grounds.

As for a perch, I was never the kind of Archer who would use that kind of thing. A good vantage point may make spotting or hitting a target easier, but a hunter can’t track their prey if they are stuck in a tree now can they? Instead they should focus on locations that would allow for quick movement to and from their safehouses; places that were connected to or near major routes of travel like motorways or subways, even rivers. If they happened to be located near tall buildings or areas with good line of sight then that was a bonus, but not necessary; with a hundred extra eyes at his disposal he didn’t need to be able to see a target himself to strike at it.

Mercedes stopped suddenly and it took Archer a moment to realise why. A slip of the tongue and an unfortunate bit of wording had brought the subject of his lack of speech back into focus and the mage turned and walked away from him, presumably out of embarrassment or awkwardness or something else. His Master returned to the table and picked up the journal she had been writing in earlier before turning around and extending a hand towards him.

With a smile and a nod he took the notepad and pen from her, immediately flipping it open to a fresh page and writing down his thoughts from before. When he was down he held the journal out to her, his hasty but neat handwriting visible on the page.

No perches. Routes of travel. Well connected. Hub Areas.

Although she still smiled at him, there was a subtle shift in the enforcer’s demeanour as she looked at Archer. Though the mage wasn’t exactly messing around earlier, the seriousness she showed now was a marked change that showed the importance of the question she was asking. Ah, I guess that’s a fair question. My Noble Phantasm isn’t the type to have a true name however; it isn’t a flashy, magical weapon or a powerful technique as most heroes have. They are just my hounds, nothing more or less than my companions in the hunt. I don’t need to speak to fight alongside them, we have that level of understanding between us.

Archer locked eyes with Mercedes, trying to convey the same level of seriousness as his Master was showing him as he nodded in response. Speaking of which, it seems they have found our enemies already.

@Yankee

---

Pterelas and Harpyia

Hibiya Park Field, Chiyoda Ward

Two hounds stood at the edge of what was left of the park field, manifesting physically in the world in order to better witness the end of the skirmish between Rider and Lancer. The fight had come to an abrupt end as the mounted archer drove the knight of the spear into the frozen dirt below with a mighty punch before flying away from his opponent.

It was fortuitous that they had arrived in time to see this spectacle, relaying brief images of the fight to their master, having rushed towards this location as soon as they had seen the flare of ice in the distance. Had it not been for that, or if they had not been as close as they had been when they had seen it, they would have missed their opportunity to learn something of Rider’s capabilities.

As Rider left, one of the hounds left with him, the two trained hunters coming to a consensus without any need for communication as Pterelas raced after the departing horse. The hound would follow the airborne Servant for as long as he could, attempting to keep pace with the flying steed and likely failing, but hopefully keeping pace long enough to learn which direction they were heading before he lost sight of them.

The other hound meanwhile stayed at the park, keeping a watchful eye and a keen ear out for any approaching danger as she waited to see what Lancer would do.

@Cu Chulainn@Reflection@Yukitamas

---

Laelaps

Tokyo Tower

Laelap’s slinked through the alleyways surrounding the Tokyo Tower plaza, nose to the ground and following an interesting scent trail a short distance away from a fight between Servants. He daren’t get any close than this after what had happened to Dromas, the hunting party quickly learning of the danger of Berserker’s aura as the swift hound had fallen, tripping over his feet as soon as the man had become visible to them; unconscious, fainted rather than dead, but forced to unsummon himself as he took the brunt of the Servant’s skill. If they hadn’t been so far away, if they had been closer to the source of the aura he might not have been so fortunate; as it was he still served as a warning to the rest of them.

Following the scent all the way to the rear entrance of a building, the scent of a familiar and mage both, the hound pushed the door open and let himself inside quietly. Now that he was past that barrier he could smell more scents, two mage and many more familiars, inside the building. He sent this information back to her master before proceeding further into the building in search of the scent’s source.

@KoL@Duoya

Fate/『 』Märchen

Cleo Forsberg

First Encounter

Cleo’s legs were unsteady as Shielder placed her on the rooftop. The mage lamented her lack of fortitude as she reached out a hand to steady herself on the top of the wall surrounding the building’s edge. Travelling by Servant might have been the singularly most unpleasant experience of her life; the Servant, in his eagerness to battle, hadn’t given much thought towards providing her with a smooth journey and the crook of a giant’s arm was hardly the most comfortable place to be in the first place.

The journey had left her with a pressure in the centre of her chest, a feeling of dread foreboding that had begun to form as they grew closer to Tokyo Tower; even now she found it harder to breathe. She had thought herself made of sterner stuff than this, better than to be brought low by travel sickness or fear or whatever this was and to accept otherwise was a bitter pill to swallow. Better travel arrangements would need to be made in the future; she couldn’t imagine herself winning this war if she arrived at every battle out of breath and barely able to stand.

If this is the most unpleasant thing happen tonight however, she mused, then I suppose I’ll consider this night a success.

Before she could compose herself Shielder leapt from the roof, communicating a war cry of sorts through their link before leaving her to her own devices. A glance in the direction he had gone, towards the ground and the plaza around the base of Tokyo Tower, showed her just how close to the action Shielder had brought her. Spotting the massed ranks of soldiers and archers below her, Cleo ducked out of sight and hastily threw up a bounded field to hide her presence, catching a glimpse of the shining presence that could only be a Servant leading them from the rear before her view was obscured. The brute could have left me somewhere further from danger. This is far too close.

The feeling of dread still hadn’t passed, even as she caught her breath and steadied her nerves, leaving Cleo to think that it was something more than just fear at work. There was a pressure in the air that felt as unnatural as it did oppressive, either the work of another Master or more likely an effect of one of the Servant’s below. Activating her magic circuits Cleo reached for the connection to the spirits she had brought with her, weak apparitions taken from the graveyard before they had left, and sent three of them out from her bounded field. Two she sent out to circle the area around the Tokyo Tower, searching buildings and alleyways for people or traces of magic, while the other she sent straight up so that she could observe the fight between Servants without needing to expose herself.

“Keep them occupied Shielder; find out as much as you can about their capabilities without putting yourself at risk” Connecting her vision to the spirit above her position, the Seidr witch watched as a woman in knightly attire lowered her weapon and began to back away from the fight. “Let her go and focus on the other tw-“ Cleo let out a pained gasp as he link to her spirit was shattered, the feeling of dread in her chest spiking in intensity as the spirit was torn to shreds by the pressure.

She fought to bring her breathing under control as the last image she had seen through the link lingered in her mind, the figure only visible for a brief split second before the pressure he exuded overwhelmed her fragile apparition. “Forget what I just said. Whoever that man is Shielder, end him.”

@Crusader Lord

Digimon Hackers: Jormungundr

Freedom.

Reiko clicked her tongue in annoyance. It was frustrating just how much that word resonated with her; a single inconsequential word in the middle of Manaka’s efforts to convince them to join, but it had so much of an effect on her. It was her entire reason for doing what she did, why she started ‘hacking’ in the first place, and the ridiculously-shaped woman probably knew that from her investigations. For her to use that word in particular had to have been deliberate, the language carefully chosen to appeal to her, to all of them, but just knowing she was being manipulated didn’t mean it had no effect on her.

Manaka didn’t try to deny that Jormungundr was evil or try to convince them their actions were for some greater good. She didn’t paint Thor in a good light either but from the sounds of it all the rival group wanted to do was recruit them as well, albeit in a more sinister sounding way. The hacker wasn’t trying to convince them this was a fight between good and evil, instead pitching it to them as a fight for their own freedom to continue doing what they were already doing without interference.

It was annoyingly effective. One by one the rest of the people in the room gave in and agreed to join the pervert’s crusade and against her better judgement Reiko felt her resistance failing as well.

“I’m in the ‘group of not caring’ as you put it.” Reiko crossed her arms across her chest and stared Manaka down defiantly. “I’m not a hacker, not a good one anyway, and Thor’s never bothered me before. If they come after me now… I’ll just quit.” Even as she said it, it sounded weak to her own ears; she couldn’t give this up without going insane from trying to keep up the façade on a daily basis. “But for now… you said I could learn from you, so I’ll stick around for a bit. As soon as it looks like things are getting dangerous however, I’m gone.”

@Pyromania99

I, the Demon King, Will Summon My Own Damned Heroes!

Almost as suddenly as it had begun the fight was over; the combined attacks of the four of them together was too much for the ROUS to handle and the creature died in pain while desperately trying to get away from them. As the last echoes of its shriek faded away and the only sounds left were the gentle babbling of the stream and the crackling of a burgeoning forest fire, Oberon couldn’t find it in him to feel happy about this victory.

Ash was the first to move, sounding a little too cheerful about the prospect of cutting the oversized rodent apart and bringing the Sprite’s attention back to the rapidly spreading flames from the Fireball he had thrown a moment ago. By the time Oberon had gotten himself together to do something about it, Torrent already seemed to have the situation well in hand, leaving him to just keep an eye on things and to lend a hand if needed. It probably would have been better to use earth rather than water to smother the fire, but neither he nor Torrent had access to that kind of magic as far as he knew; though the Lesser Wurm could probably just fling dirt over it given the way she could dig.

The sun was starting to set over their camp, the bright, clean light of day turning red as shadows began to stretch across the ground. It would probably be time for them to retreat to their cave soon, seeking shelter from the dark until the morning when they would need to deal with the meeting with the Goblin tribe from earlier; it felt like so long ago now since Rags Nar had found them after the Black Knight had blown up the mountain as a warning. It had been a long day.

He watched the long, thing shadows of the treelines as they grew, stretching towards him like skeletal fingers, and was reminded of something he had seen within the analysis of the Giant Rat. Among the creature’s weaknesses and strengths, the system had listed two new elements that he was not familiar with or had experienced yet; shadow and poison. The Sprite had already considered the idea of Shadow magic being a thing, in opposition to his own Light magic, but poison was new; possibly the system was referring to actual poison, like the globs and spit that Torrent and Ash used in combat, but the way it was worded made him think it was something else.

“Hey Ash?” Oberon flew towards the Pygmy Drake, pointedly ignoring what she was currently doing to the fresh corpse in front of her and focused on her instead. “Do you have any Poison magic? Or are your poison attacks all natural?”

Action Report

Nothing of note

@Rune_Alchemist

Fate/『 』Märchen

Cleo Forsberg

Preparing for war

“I had a feeling that would be your answer. I suppose I should do what I can to locate our enemies then.” Cleo stepped away from Shielder and moved towards the low table she had pushed aside earlier to make room for her circle, turning her back on the Servant who only moments ago had threatened her life. The suitcase she had brought with her to Japan still sat open where she had left it, clothing and various implements of magecraft visible inside, including the chalk she had used to draw the framework of the summoning ritual. Grabbing something from within the case Cleo turned back to Ajax, a short wooden tool of some kind now held in one hand.

Practitioners of Seidr had always been thought of as weavers of fate, so it was incredibly fitting that the tool most associated with them was one used to help ease the spinning of threads by keeping them tangled together. The distaff Cleo now held was one that had been in her family’s possession for what must have been centuries and it had been used in all of their most important rituals for almost as long; even just holding it she could feel the spiritual energy around her thrumming, while those spirits which had been bound to her workshop and those which was still lay dormant in the graveyard feeling that much closer to her. Or was she closer to them?

“This will only take a moment. Watch over me while I’m gone.” This was, she supposed, the first leap of faith she was going to take in this war; she was betting on the fact that Shielder would be true to his word and protect her as she made herself as vulnerable as she possibly could. Closing her eyes Cleo took a deep breath before, with a sensation like stepping off the edge of a cliff, she activated her magic circuits and entered a light trance. When her eyes next opened they were glassy and unfocused and what Cleo saw was not the room or Shielder, but a vast network stretching into infinity like the web of a particularly diligent spider.

When the elders and more experienced mages of her family came together, crafting a large ritual over the course of days and combining their efforts, they scoured this network for information about the future. They untangled the threads of fate, seeing which paths led to what outcomes and making sense of the near incomprehensible mess that came with trying to change the future. What she was doing now was nowhere near as complicated, merely glancing at the nearest threads to get a vague hint of an idea of what would happen in the next hour or so. Would she and her Servant find enemies if they went North? What if they went West? East? South? South.

She would find conflict to the South.

Coming out of her trance and finding herself still in one piece, Cleo focused her vision with some effort and found Shielder’s gaze. “Our enemies are to the South; only to the South, for some reason. Perhaps they are already fighting each other, or there’s only one pair brave enough to venture out tonight. We’ll find out soon I suppose. Let’s go.”

@Crusader Lord

Fate/『 』Märchen

@King Cosmos Any thoughts as to how we shall go about facing our foes this first night of the war? :3

@Crusader Lord

Aggressive scouting!

We'll be heading south, since everyone except Archer is grouped pretty closely together, and seeing what kind of trouble we can find. I'll let Shielder decide whether he wants to tussle with the group at the tower or the ones in the park.

Digimon Hackers: Jormungundr

There’s no way those are real. She must be messing with the settings.

Reiko was very much unimpressed by the antics of this woman who claimed to be the best hacker in Japan; the older woman was just as much of a creep as she had thought the person who sent that message would be and Reiko just considered herself luckily that she had decided to grope those two and not her. The idea that this was the person who had been spying on her, watching her, taking pictures or doing who knows what in the process made her skin crawl.

The others gathered in the cathedral raised their concerns first, most saying that they didn’t want to join a group that did bad things though the one girl’s Digimon raised an excellent point about why most of the recruits seemed to be young and attractive girls. For Reiko’s part, she couldn’t exactly claim any moral superiority over the hackers group, not when her hobby was most definitely illegal by anyone’s standards; that said she only did what she did for fun and maybe a desire to be a little rebellious, certainly not for money or for any ideological reason. She had nothing to gain from joining this group that she wasn’t already getting by herself.

She should just leave right now, before this ‘Miss Manaka’ switched targets; she’d only come to hear what they had to say and now that she’d heard it, and had no interest in it, she should leave. “Why should we care about helping you with your revenge?” As soon as she had finished giving this woman and piece of her mind, at least. “Your old group was taken out by someone else and now you want revenge. Big deal. What does that have to do with any of us?”

@Pyromania99

Fate/『 』Märchen

Archer Actaeon

Fomonar Workshop; Release the hounds

At the assent from his Master, Archer summoned three more hounds to join those already waiting, the small workshop beginning to feel crowded as the large hunting dogs with the aura of beasts filled the remaining empty spaces around the table. Snapped his fingers her drew their attention and alerted them to the fact an order was coming, though Laelaps and the three new comers were the only ones to respond, and pointed towards the most prominent circle on the map; Tokyo Tower. According to his Master’s notes it was both an important landmark within the city and also the site of an unclaimed fallen leyline; it demanded the most attention from his scouts and would therefore be the focus on this largest group.

A short, sharp whistle saw the four attentive hounds disappear as they became immaterial, fading from the senses as they ventured north towards the city centre; though invisible to most Actaeon could track their movement in his mind, like a sixth sense that felt strange yet comforting at the same time.

Summoning two more hounds Archer pointed to the next location on the map, further west than the last, before dispatching Dorceus and the pair with another whistle. Another two hounds went with Hylaeus to the north-eastern portion of the city, another two to the south-west, three to the south-east and another five given orders to simply roam and report anything unusual back to him.

In total he had sent twenty scouts into the city, sending hunting parties to the most notable locations with a few others running around freely for good measure. He was wary about putting too much strain on Mercedes by summoning too many hounds at once, but the sheer scale of their battlefield demanded at least this much effort on their behalf. Tonight they would hope that their enemies were being careless, fighting in the open or moving without hiding their presence, on future nights they would seek to narrow their searches down using the results from tonight and begin to home in on lairs and hideouts. Once they knew where to strike they would begin the final phase of the hunt and bring down their prey, but for now all they could do was wait.

While he had been organising his forces Mercedes had dug some kind of journal and a deck of playing cards out from somewhere and sat down at the table. Actaeon watched her write for a moment, her attention on her work and not him, before her question caught him off guard. I can’t say I played many games of any kind. My life was one of training and hunting and fighting and I was happy with that. The magus picked up the deck of cards and began to shuffle them as Archer watched, somewhat confused by both the line of inquiry and her current actions. I wouldn’t mind learning if you wish to pass the time, though how you expect to play when I can’t speak I don’t know.

Mercedes continued, drawing a card from the middle of the deck and slapping it down on the table before smiling as if at some joke only she was aware of. Circling something in her journal she tore out a page and held it out for him to read and Archer was surprised to find his own name within the circle, selected from a list of name of other heroes he could only assume were other candidate for his true identity.

He smiled and nodded, amused and relieved in equal measure that she had figured him out so soon; both his inability, as opposed to unwillingness, to speak and his identity had been revealed quicker than he had thought. As the scrap of paper burnt to ash Archer thought to himself I don’t know if I believe in prophesies, but I do believe that we’ll be fine together.

@Yankee

Digimon Hackers: Jormungundr

The phone on her bedside table lit up as it received another message, illuminating the dark bedroom as its vibration sent the device drifting across the wooden surface. From her position face down on her bed Reiko lazily lifting a hand up and stretching her arm over to it, dragging the mobile towards her and tilting the screen so she could see what it said; one of her ‘friends’ wanted help studying for an upcoming math test and of course it was her they came to first. With a sigh she quickly tapped out a response promising to schedule a tutoring session before throwing the device back down on the mattress and burying her face back into her pillow.

It was less than a minute later before the phone began vibrating again, no harsh light filling the room this time with the mobile screen down on the bed but she could feel the vibrations through the mattress. Lifting herself off of the bed Reiko flipped herself over so that she was lying on her back, giving up on the idea of having a moment’s peace and quiet. It was a different person this time, another ‘friend’ inviting her to a sleep over next week.

Reiko frowned at the screen, staring at the message with the obnoxious number of emojis before tapping out another response and dropping the phone onto her stomach. She’d have to attend the sleepover, there was no way around it; parties she could ignore with excuses about other engagements or wanting to get an early night, double dates she avoided with her usual excuse of wanting to stay single till college, but for things like this she needed to put in some effort if she didn’t want people to start asking questions. One whole night where she’d have to keep up the façade the entire time; at least it was on a school night so she could make an excuse to retire early if she was getting frustrated.

Her head dropped onto the pillow and she stared at the ceiling, eyes glazing over as she tried to let her mind just drift away. The spell broke when she felt her phone vibrate again, this time directly on her stomach. The screen illuminated her room with its searing blue light, revealing a room filled with typical teenage girl paraphernalia; the walls were adorned with posters for bands she’d never listened to, but whose albums she could all name from memory, and pictures of male models she despised but whose entire history she could recite if needed. Her vanity was covered with make-up kits and fashion magazines and the floor was home to a number of stuffed animals that had been thrown from her bed so she could slump down in their place.

Reaching behind her head Reiko lifted the pillow she was lying on out from under her and raised it above her face. She lowered it down till it covered her head, drowning out the sounds of the phone to an extent while also making it difficult to breathe, and held it there for a few seconds before easing up. Throwing the pillow to the side she reached down and recovered her phone, holding it over her face to see the screen, expecting to see another message with a request for help she would need to deal with or sending an invitation to something she would have to find a way out of.

It was neither of those. Instead it was a message from a name she didn’t recognise, the first few words of which sent a chill down her spine. Reiko sat up, swinging her legs around to set them on the floor and reread the message again and again to make sure she wasn’t imagining things. Whoever had sent this knew about her activities in EDEN, the break-ins and her less than legal trespassing on private places. They even knew about her life outside of the digital world, her lying and her ‘character’; was this a stalker?

No, this was from Jormungundr, and even someone like Reiko knew of that name. This was a hacker group, but weren’t they shut down years ago? Was this a remnant, or just a copycat or a fan reusing the name? They were a creep either way; the fact that this person was stalking her to recruit her instead of… other reasons didn’t make it any less disturbing. She should just delete the message and pretend she’d never received it, forget she’d ever heard about the Net Sheep Café and go on with her life.

But… would it be dangerous to ignore an invitation like this? Whoever this was could clearly find out enough about her to find out where she lived if they wanted to, if they didn’t know already. Would they just accept a simple ‘no thank you’ and leave her alone if she didn’t respond? Would it be better to go to this meeting, hear their offer, and then turn them down?

And, maybe, just a little bit, she was slightly interested in hearing what they had to say.

****

Reiko pushed open the door to the Net Sheep Café, sticking her head through the entrance and looking around warily before stepping inside and letting the door close behind her. As she walked up to the counter she pulled her cap lower over her face and placed her hands inside the front pocket of her oversized hoodie, one fist clenched around the small container of pepper spray she had brought with her and the other holding her phone with equal fervour.

To say that she was being cautious was a bit of an understatement; despite her online activities Reiko was not used to this sort of thing, sneaking around and attending illicit meeting after answering ominous messages from famous hacker groups. It had been two days since she had read the text and she hadn’t been able to stop looking over her shoulder since finding out that someone was apparently watching her every move; she hadn’t even been to EDEN since then and the whole situation was starting to wear on her nerves.

In spite of her fears the cashier greeted her warmly and his demeanour along with the fact that he looked like the kind of pretty boy some of her friends would go wild over felt entirely at odds with the way she was feeling right now. “Um, I received an invitation?” Her voice was lightly muffled by the face mask she wore, her eyes similar obscured by sunglasses, but he seemed to understand her nonetheless.

Without saying a word the cashier pointed her towards a set of cubicles that seemed to have signs hung on the doors, presumably to reserve them, and left her to it. Walking in that direction Reiko became aware of a small commotion in one corner of the establishment and was surprised to see the famous idol Yuzurin apparently conducting an interview right that moment. The sight was unexpected enough that Reiko stopped in her tracks; so far this place wasn’t nearly the wretched hive of scum and villainy she had expected it to be, instead resembling any other net café she had ever seen or visited.

She considered taking a picture of the idol, even though she absolutely hated her music, so she’d have something to impress her ‘friends’ with at school tomorrow, but then she’d have to explain where and how she’d found her and that would lead to more trouble than it was worth. Instead she just walked over to the row of reserved cubicles and found the one with her name on it, ripped the tag off of the door and stepped inside.

****

Reiko’s appearance within EDEN was almost nothing like her real world appearance. It was a different kind of disguise compared to the cliché face mask, sunglasses and hat she was wearing at the moment, but a disguise nonetheless. Her long hair had been cut into a short bob and dyed blonde, her eyes coloured blue by contacts and her clothing was a lot brighter and ‘out there’ compared to her usual fashionable chic look. It all served to draw attention to any place other than her general facial structure to the point that even her closest acquaintances would need a second or third look before they actually recognised her.

It was this altered avatar that people saw when Reiko arrived in the cathedral, having logged into EDEN and found the URL to the private server on her Digivice just as the message had said. She found herself in the middle of an expansive, ornately decorated hall of some kind with a distinctly religious feel to it and even she couldn’t help but gape in awe at the grandeur of it.

She wasn’t the only one here however and Reiko quickly schooled her features to something more neutral, hopefully before anyone noticed. There were five others besides herself in the cathedral, seven if you counted the nun-like figures but they matched the aesthetic of the place too much to not be part of whoever recruited them here. Every seemed to be around the same age as Reiko or slightly older and most of them, aside from one girl who appeared to be trying hard not to look like she was listening, were in the middle of conversations.

Having no interest in engaging with anyone until she knew what was going on here, Reiko kept her distance from the rest and did her best to look disinterested until whoever recruited them arrived.

@Pyromania99

Fate/『 』Märchen

Archer Actaeon

Fomonar Workshop

Archer followed Mercedes through the city, seeing nothing untoward in the crowds or people they passed and seeing even less once the mage started laying down runes of deflection, until the buildings and urban setting began to fall away. As she had said Mercedes’ base of operations seemed to be on the very outskirts of the city itself, far removed from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo’s special wards as one could be while still being said to be in Tokyo.

The dilapidated building with its broken fence didn’t look like something a regular mage would consider fit for living, let along something worthy of being their workshop, but the Enforcer didn’t seem to mind the humble setting much. I don’t mind it either; though we are still within the city it is much quieter here. I was always more comfortable in the forests than the cities.

The Servant rematerialized once they were inside and the door was closed. Then, ignoring the empty food containers Archer went straight to the map of Tokyo on the wall, looking at it with intense interest. This was to be their battleground and as Archer scanned each portion of the map his mind was filled with information about each area, dutifully provided by the Grail to assist him in this time period. It seemed his Master had already done some of the legwork towards finding their opponents, highlighting areas of interest or common gathering points as well as identifying several Master candidates.

Archer turned his head as his Master called for his attention, turning away from the map to face her fully. Finally, the question of his silence was being brought up and in response to the mages question Archer shook his head. No, I cannot speak. He raised a hand and pointed a finger at his chest, then raised it further to press his index finger against his lips in the gesture for silence. I am cursed to never utter another word, unless I want my life to end prematurely. Archer then placed his index finger under his chin and dragged it across his throat to make this fact clear.

But I can still be of use to you. My skills as a hunter have not been dulled and the throne saw fit to give me my companions back to me, even if our reunion is somewhat bittersweet. Turning away from Mercedes, Archer gestured to an empty space next to the wooden table and activated his Nobel Phantasm, three large hounds appearing from thin air, much as he did when he rematerialized; they sat at attention, their heads swivelling around the room, keen eyes moving from Actaeon to Mercedes and back again, but otherwise remaining absolutely still. Dorceus, Hylaeus and Laelaps; these three were the first to find me after I had turned into a stag. My finest hunters.

Pointing at the hounds then at the map on the wall, in particular indicating the areas that his Master had marked out, Archer tried to convey his meaning without the aid of speech. I can send my hounds out to scout and search for the other Masters. I have hunted prey that you can’t even imagine, the kind of prey that isn’t found in this world anymore, and these hounds were by my side the entire time. I trained them myself; they will not disappoint.

@Yankee