No, hunting down a magus would just be a waste of time and getting advice from Zelretch would take too long, you quickly dismiss those options with a shake of your head.
Looking down at your left hand you can't help but notice that the red marking looks disturbingly like a full moon, a Crimson full moon...
No, you won't be intimidated by this it's probably Roa just trying to trick you with some mind game to buy himself more time, even if this marking was detrimental you were confident your magic resistance would protect you from the worst of the effects and your resistance towards the marking would only grow with time if it wasn't already up to the task.
Whether this
Red moon marking does something or not it will avail Roa nothing in the end, you will kill his eighteenth incarnation just like all the others.
Your surroundings show the afterglow of the setting sun, it was almost time to hunt you can't help but grin in anticipation,
soon roa, soon.
"Len I'm going to hunt, stay out of trouble okay? I don't want you to get hurt." Len looks towards you and gives a nod of assent with a serious look on her face, looking quite comical with her cheeks still stuffed with cake.
With that out of they way you start your search, leaving Len to do whatever it is Len does when she's alone, you personally have no clue.
Search roll 84
The sun had already set when you finally found something, aside from the usual dead apostles starting to leave whatever hole they hid in, while this was Roa's work no doubt, they don't give you much information other than confirm that he's here; sort of like a grotesque calling card you muse to yourself.
What's odd is that there's a lot less than there should be, you could only find one or two every hour. The last time Roa had a similar amount of time to build up he made hundreds of them, so something was amiss. Perhaps it was because he had focused on creating the mark on your hand and thus had less time to create the usual amount of dead apostles? That was your best guess for this weird phenomenon.
You weren't having much luck until you spotted her, a small girl that couldn't be older than sixteen her fine features twisted into an inhuman parody of what she once was. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but her scent was what caught your attention, she was recently sired, couldn't be older than a day. Yet the only person's scent other than her own and her undead comrades, was that of a young human girl.
Quickly disposing of the living dead, you couldn't help but smirk at your breakthrough, looks like roa was a young girl, again. You would think he was forming a fetish for it, if you didn't know all he cared about was the ability and status of his hosts.
Giddy with success you continue searching as the night was still young, still the number of dead apostles in this town continues to be underwhelming as it takes you hours to find a group of three vampires gathered around a corpse.
They might be the last since this was the final location in around a mile that smelled of human blood, quite perplexing but not enough to give you pause. What was enough were three projectiles beheading the dead apostle's simultaneously and a fourth for the corpse the vampires had been feeding from. Black keys, you quickly recognize the projectiles as the signature weapon of the Church's executors.
Executors, agents of the Holy Church who's primary job description was to hunt down rogue dead apostles. Personally you didn't care too much about them unless they got in your way, like what just happened right now.
You look towards the source of the Keys with a frown, you didn't like people interfering with your business. Your expression tightens when you see their face, HIS face! It even the same blue hair and eyes, that face was
HIS!
Your body coils in preparation for the kill, then you stop. That was the face of his last host, the host you killed decades ago with an unchanged face.
Your head is starting to hurt with everything starting to make less and less sense. This is by far the most confusing day you've had in centuries what with the strange magical tattoo, oh and then the surprising dearth of dead apostle's and now the cherry atop the cake is an executor that looks just like Roa did years ago, near the same location where Roa should be.
You will not stand and be made a fool of, you want answers!
Before the executor can respond your right hand is already wrapped around her neck, lifting her off the the roof she was perched on.
"Listen carefully executor, if that's what you really are. I want you to tell me why you are here and why you look like Roa if you don't, well you won't like the consequences." You voice is like ice, you will brook no dissent.
"ahh mmkghh" she croaks back, oh your hand was a bit to tight on her neck, it was hard to find just the right amount of strength to use on humans when their abilities can vary so wildly.
"Just kill me I won't tell you anything." Well that was unexpected even the most hardened of individuals tend to spill when you threaten their lives, you can see she's not bluffing her features were determined, her heart was calm and steady. You knew you wouldn't get anything out of this girl.
"So be it." You snap her neck like a twig, her head messily falling off her shoulder's in a spray of gore. Still something didn't sit right with you, that was either the bravest human you've ever met or something else was going on. You could tell from her mannerisms that she wasn't an emotionless tool or a diehard fanatic as those were the types that could spit in the face of death so easily, yet where was this executor's lack of fear coming from?
You stare at the corpse for what seemed to be minutes pondering such a strange occurrence when you hear it, a heartbeat. So that's how it is huh? She was so confident because she knew she wasn't going to die even if she was killed, you were used to this but certainly not from a human.
You can see it now her head somehow attached back to her neck again, you can see her eyes starting to flutter in awareness, and as quick as her resurrection was. You were quicker, grabbing her by the neck once more.
"So you thought you could pull one over me huh? I admit I was almost fooled, if today wasn't so strange or If perhaps I didn't nearly wipe out all the undead in this town I would've left your cooling corpse where it was." you gloat with a casual tone. "Still I think I found an answer to one of my questions, the reason you look like Roa's last incarnation is simply because you were Roa's last host. This is a first for me, I mean this is the first time I've seen one of his host's up and walking about after I killed it. Still, I can't feel his presence from you so that means he's no longer within you."
The girl seems to be wide awake now, must be the pain from your nails biting into her neck.
"Okay you've got your answers, great detective, so let me go." That, that was true, you start considering it for a moment. She was probably here for revenge against Roa, with your questions answered by yourself there's no need to bother with her and you've already killed her for slighting you, your left hand rises to stroke your chin.
The executor's eyes comically widen when she sees your hand or more accurately the Red moon engraved on your hand, how interesting perhaps she has Roa's memories too. That might mean she knows what this red seal on your hand is, how convenient.
"Oh, alright I might let you go but only after you tell me what this moon shaped marking is, you know what it is don't you, don't bother lying to me I'll know." She purses her lips before steeling herself rattling away a similar response to last time. " I'm not scared of you White Princess, go ahead and kill me again it's not going to get you anywhere."
You simply smile back, "Oh such a brave little girl who doesn't fear death, but that doesn't mean you can't feel fear. How about this, you tell me what this little red marking is, or I put you in chains and lock you up in my castle for the rest of your immortal life" your tone is light, teasing but contrary to it, you're quite serious and the executor knows that too judging by her rapid heartbeat and the smell of fear.
"Fine! And my name isn't girl it's Ciel! Haah It's not like in matters to me, listen well because I'll only say it once that marking is a command seal, a mark that designates you as a master." You let her continue, so far this is quite interesting "A master is a participant of the Holy Grail War, which is where you summon a heroic spirit as a familiar to fight for you for a chance to win the prize of the winner's wishes being granted."
Finally, some answers "And how do you know this little executor?" she glares at you angrily before responding "It's because the church have been appointed as mediators of this event to prevent it from getting out of hand."
Your smile starts resembling a cat who just caught the canary "Is that why you're here, as a mediator for this so-called war? And here I was thinking we were comrades of revenge against Roa." Your voice takes an obviously exaggerated sad tone.
"Ye kghhh AHHH" she screams as your hand tightens in response to her lie "Kghh, No the appointed mediator is priest of the church by the name of Shirou Kotomine. That's all I know about it I swear" that was the truth it seems; her voice has a pleasurably defeated edge to it.
Still what to do, what to do; To be honest you're quite unsure, at first the wish didn't sound too tempting until you thought that maybe you could wish for roa to be unable to incarnate anymore, thus making his eighteenth incarnation his final one. Now wasn't the thought of that amazing, you couldn't help but widen your already comical grin at this fantasy.
Still Ciel, doesn't seem to know more such as how to summon a servant, you'd need to ask this Shiroe Kotomine man for more information. Yet doing such a thing might distract your search for Roa, hmmm decisions, decisions.
Now what will you do?
[] You will make Ciel guide you to this priest Shiroe Kotomine as you are interested in this wish, If only for the chance to rid yourself of Roa once and for all.
[] The wish is probably just a false promise, something that will only waste your time better used searching for Roa. Leave Ciel like you promised but not before you snap her neck again, for her impudence; besides lugging her around with you will be a hassle.
A/N: Heeer'es Ciel, Arcueid rolled pretty high on her search roll so she's getting stuff done, on the other hand if you rolled lower you might've gotten nothing at all or an encounter with a certain vampire who's name is very hard to pronounce.
By the way your command seal looks like a red moon, Arcueid should've made a connection to it with Crimson Moon in in the last chapter, but since it wasn't decided whether it was red or not, I couldn't really write that dialogue in there 