Chapter 23
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Illya's heart skipped a beat as the spell whizzed where her head was previously.
Unfortunately, she couldn't catch her breath as she dove to avoid the rapid spells that were fired at her.
Nearing the ground, she righted herself briefly before sharply turning left. The homing spells that were aimed at her person struck the ground and created a massive explosion.
Luckily, she was able to avoid the explosion and rapidly approached her opponent. The exorcist fired a lot of balls of light in rapid succession as she approached rapidly.
Not exactly keen on becoming minced meat, she halted her advance and summoned a strong shield before her. The explosion was minuscule in comparison to the one previously but slightly staggered her never the less.
Using the fact that the exorcist was focusing on attack, Illya immediately switched to offensive.
"Fuer!" she called out as her magical stick Ruby lit up in mana and a beam of pure magical energy shot towards her opponent.
Unfortunately, the exorcist had known what was approaching before she fired it and had dodged out of the way.
Knowing that now was the best to turn the tables on her opponent, Illya began to pepper the general vicinity of the exorcist from above.
After a dozen seconds, she subsided her assault and waited for the dust to clear.
Once it did settle, the battered body of her opponent was laid bare for the world to see. Plump, full breasts with a voluptuous body-
Illya's face lit up as she subconsciously studied her opponent, something that was first ingrained into her by Kuro and now by Archer. On one hand, it was useful in fights but when her opponent is naked... Yeah... It may be detrimental to her health.
Flying down, she nervously got closer to her opponent. She was unsure if the exorcist was conscious so she approached cautiously.
Luckily, she got close to see that her opponent was breathing and she too sighed in relief. She looked about, seeing if there was anything to cover the exorcist's modesty.
"I got the Excalibur, let's go," Archer abruptly said, scaring the living daylights out of Illya.
"Eeek!" Illya yelped as she whirled around with a fuer command just on the tip of her tongue.
"Rho Aias!"
Luckily, she didn't fire but unfortunately, it just made Archer's position a bit laughable.
"Attack the Excalibur Thief!"
Perhaps fortune decided to smile upon him for once but Archer soon found a way to justify his awkward position. He spun around and brought Rho Aias to take the brunt of the sudden first wave of attacks.
A portal opened up behind them and they both swiftly made their retreat.
-
As soon as they exited the portal to the other side, Illya was tackled by Le Fay as the bubbly young witch hugged the magical girl. "Are you hurt, Illya?!"
"Wah!" The said magical girl fell back and collapsed as the momentum from Le Fay's charge broke any stability she had. "Help meeeee!"
The forgotten wolf, Cu, soon joined in as it jumped up onto Le Fay's back and made himself comfortable.
"Hey! I just washed my cloak!" Le Fay childishly pouted as she tried to shake the tamed wolf from her back. This action only served to make Illya dizzy.
Archer looked at the sheer ridiculous comical relief with a sigh.
"Your sister is the first friend Le Fay has made in a while, so you may have to forgive her," Arthur spoke up as he approached the mess.
In response, Archer just quirked an eyebrow before disregarding the words and taking out the newly stolen Excalibur. "Here, I don't want to hold onto this thing any longer," he commented tiredly as he tossed an armband to the Pendragon.
Arthur caught the Excalibur with a look of confusion before exasperation took hold. "You know, with the way we are always taking the Excalibur's I am surprised that Heaven has not taken any steps to prevent it," he commented as he took out his recently acquired Excalibur Blessing.
"Well, I am going to report to Cao Cao, could you keep an eye on the runt?" Archer declared as he moved past Arthur and made his way down the hall.
Before he could go far, however, Arthur spoke up. "By the way... Why would a sword collector such as yourself give away the Excaliburs to me?"
The red and black themed bowman paused at the words of the descendant of an alternate version of the person he once deeply admired. "Do you think I am worthy?" he inquired lightly as a smirk shone on his face
-
As the Hero Faction was seen as inferior to the many other factions of the Khaos Brigade, its disposition and security were always at risk. Beings such as devils, fallen angels, dragons, and amongst other evil-aligned beings constantly prod at the faction with occasional raids on their weaker population to procure entertainment or other things.
Their reputation was not helped by the minuscule actions Cao Cao did for the people who had failed to awaken their sacred gears or balance breaker. Luckily, their said delicate reputation was slowly healing as said rejects became fewer in numbers with Illya now providing her "mysterious medicine" to them.
That is why the outline of the Hero Faction's base was made up of maze-like corridors, false rooms, and amongst other things to delay or repel anyone ballsy enough to raid this deep into the faction's territory.
Thus, Archer spent a total of half an hour scouring the place for Cao Cao. Much of the lackeys that meandered around were of not much help as they neither knew where he was or sometimes were lost as much he was.
It was only until he found a lead that his hunt could finally come to an end. "Jeanne, right?"
"Oh, Archie! What do you need?" the blonde French beauty, who supposedly held the spirit of the famous Maiden of Orleans inside of her, asked cheerfully.
Disregarding the nickname attached to him, Archer asked, "Do you know where Cao Cao is?"
"Hm... I cannot say I do..."
"Ah, then sorry for bothering-"
"Oh! I think I know where he and Georg went! Yesterday, they were speaking about going into a room..." Jeanne trailed off as something dawned upon her.
Archer quirked an eyebrow at the abrupt end of Jeanne's words. "Which room?"
The reincarnation of the maiden of Orleans slowly turned red as a sinful thought played in her mind. "G-G-Georg's r-room..."
The bowman was confused for a moment before it finally clicked for him. A smirk grew on his face as a mischievous thought took over his actions. "Why would they plan to go to Georg's room?" he inquired with as much stability in his voice he could conjure.
"I-I dunno..."
"Do you think that they were in that kind of relationship?"
"Eh?! Heavenly Father above, please don't let that be true!" the faithful Christain hero cried out loud with her hands clasped in prayer as her blood trickled from her nose.
Archer watched this spectacle of both sin and virtue with befuddlement. I should probably report to him later... Rather not cause a misunderstanding...
-
From around a corner quite far away from the duo, Illya looked on to the scene with a dead stare, her eyes trying to pierce a hole into Archer and Jeanne.
Behind her, Le Fay tried to calm her down with as much assuring words she could muster. "It's probably a misunderstanding! Y-Yeah! Don't think too hard on it, Illya!"
The poor witch's words fell unto deaf ears as the duo of the bowman and the swordswoman made their way down the hall together.
"Mu! Shirou's harem protagonist level is overpowering again!"
"Wah?"
Meanwhile, just a tad behind the two, Arthur felt his pity reach out to Archer.
-
Archer sneezed for the first time in years. Perhaps, the last time he sneezed was before he became a Counter Guardian.
"You have a cold?" Jeanne inquired curiously.
"I don't think I can get a cold," he replied smoothly as he kept stride with the maiden. "I think I am having an allergic reaction."
Jeanne quirked an eyebrow at his words. "What are you allergic to?"
"Hm... I believe I am predominantly allergic to rusting swords."
"Rusting... Swords? Wait, what are you insinuating?"
"What? You asked so I truthfully replied."
Jeanne looked at Archer with a look of disbelief. "So you are saying I have the stench of rusting swords?! For your information, my swords are fresh!"
Archer quirked an eyebrow at the weird claim. "Fresh swords, eh?"
"Yes, fresh swords! What, did you think that I summon rusty swords from my basement?!"
At the sheer intensity of the maiden's indignant cry, Archer felt a tad bit nervous and instinctively reached behind to rub the back of his neck sheepishly.
-
"Are they... Flirting?" Le Fay asked slowly in bewilderment at the sheepish actions of the usually cocky Archer.
Meanwhile, Illya gripped the corner of the wall tighter as a dark gloom overpowered her facial features. "Flirt... ing..."
Noticing this, Le Fay started to panic. "Wait! Wait! Wait! I am sure it isn't like that! Jeanne is a nice Christian girl so I think she doesn't know how to flirt!"
Arthur and the dog, Cu, deadpanned at Le Fay's naive words.
"What is happening? Why is big sis Illya gloomy...?" a new voice inquired curiously.
Illya quickly spun around and launched herself at the said person. "Leon! Sh- Archer is flirting with Jeanne!" she sobbed as she started to viciously shake the poor Italian boy to death.
"Illya! Calm down, you shaking Leo's soul from his body!" Le Fay said as she tried to restrain the magical girl from behind. "Arthur, help me!"
"Wahhhhhh!"
"Ugh..."
Arthur merely sighed as he fixed his glasses. "How troublesome..."
-
Cao Cao sighed as he leaned backward on his chair. "Looks like they are getting along well..." he grunted out.
Georg looked at the Chinese hero with an annoyed expression. "Are you satisfied now, Cao Cao?"
"What has been the response from Heaven?" Cao Cao inquired as he continued to look at the cameras.
"Nothing so far, but the collective Church sects are certainly in an uproar."
He tapped his chin with complementation. "Bring him into the fold then."
-
Meanwhile, in Heaven, a certain Seraphim was slowly having a mental breakdown as the realm was in an uproar.
Poor, Michael.
Chapter 23 End
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
So anyhow, as wished by the readers on FF.net and by my very own wish to simply move on, I have decided to skip the custom arc and move onto canon.
So yeah, I skipped over Leonardo's induction cause that was going to be boring as-... I missed an opportunity, didn't I?
Anyhow, I am going to do another poll, and this time I am going to include you guys.
Would you want some parts or a whole chapter or a few chapters to show Leonardo's induction into the Hero Faction by Illya and Archer?
Some parts.
Whole chapter.
A few chapters.
No, just do canon.
Comment on the one you like the most.
Hopefully, I will hold universal polls soon.
Now, to my venting and excuses... First off I fell into the Vtuber rabbit hole and my Youtube Recommendations are now flooded with Vtuber clips and I can't help but click on every single one of them. Then, I got Crusader Kings 3 and been playing that and trying to get achievements.
Then, I realize something... Something that seems to have been realized by a lot of people in the rabbit hole... Gawr Gura's voice is so familiar... Especially when she sings...
Also, I opened a Twitter account to notify progress on my stories as well as some random shit. Its name is SaveTheWeak.
Oh yeah, fuck Makima. Power best girl! Woooooo!
SaveTheWeak, out.