[X] Discuss the second Archer and his warning with Ilya and Deis.
[X] Play with Ilya when you get back.
-[X] See if she can use a Spell Card.
That you can't see Lancer doesn't necessarily mean anything, of course, and you climb a bit more and increase your speed. Not enough to affect any conversations, just to make it difficult for Lancer to keep up with you and throw his spear high enough to meaningfully affect you.
"… What is being a vampire like?" You glance at Ilya and shrug.
"What do you want me to compare it to? Being a human? A magician or a fairy? Something else?" Ilya shakes her head.
"Human." You look up at the sky and think for a moment.
"Well, vampires live a lot longer, of course. Properly fed, we live until something kills us, and a good magician can do something about the variable, so I hear. And killing a vampire is hard work, even if you're willing to throw the necessary number of bodies at one – after all, how do you kill something if it's healing itself by feeding on the slain? Hehe. And you have a lot of time to learn and do things, so different kinds of arts are common hobbies." Ilya frowns and shakes her head.
"No, I mean …. I'm not asking the right question." She growls and clenches her fists. You watch her curiously until she realizes what she's doing and pouts. You giggle and shake your head. "I don't know what I want to ask. I'm sorry." At least not without being rude or getting a possibly-misleading question by asking the wrong way. Maybe she wants to be one? Only you're not sure how it would work, her being a homunculus, and you don't know how to turn her into one, anyway. Maybe you could ask in Mid-Childa? They had that vampire … oh, but it would probably be easier to ask Remilia, since you'll be going home before you go to Mid-Childa again. You start humming quietly as the journey drags on, and Ilya starts to nod off a couple times before starting awake. She's quite cute when she does it, too! Soon enough you're back at the castle, although you frown when you see only Leysritt waiting for Ilya. She bows over her halberd when you set Ilya down.
"Sella and Deis are repairing inside." Ilya blushes, probably embarrassed by the reminder of her loss of control as well as having a guest fix her home. You follow her as she walks quickly through the castle, looking for Sella and Deis. Ilya pauses in one hallway, studying the walls and ceiling, and you can see where Deis put it back together, because the ceiling designs are slightly off. It looks like she wasn't creating something from nothing, only manipulating the debris and rubble, and some of the original material was lost so she had to make do with the deficit. A casual visitor probably wouldn't notice, but it looks like Ilya did. You keep moving and find the wayward trio in the bath room, where Deis is fixing the minor damage Ilya did when you talked to her. Deis smiles and Sella bows respectfully; Ershin just stands there. Maybe it's content to just be there, but you can't help but want to paint a large tongue or something equally ostentatious on the helmet. Maybe a series of paintings of Deis? Before Ilya can say anything, Deis flickers closer to her and curtsies.
"Lady Illyasviel, I appreciate the opportunity to help restore your home, and I only wish that my services are enough to allow me to fully repay my debt to you." She drops to one knee as Ilya stands flustered, and Sella looks confused. "I understand just how difficult it can be to keep up with Flandre when she wants to do something, and she can be oh-so-manipulative, with her cute smile and pleading eyes, and I want to thank you once again for showing her a good time tonight." Ilya seems to be having trouble processing what Deis is saying, but the magician grins when she sees your expression. She winks at you and adopts a pleading posture before Ilya. "And, if I may be so bold, you two were positively adorable together, and if it's not too much to ask – might you honor me by allowing me to design matching wardrobes for you?" You sigh; maybe you should have brought Tohsaka back with you, so you could put Deis in a body and hopefully let her calm down a little by indulging herself in reality instead of fantasies. Hmm … if 'Tohsaka Rin' is Archer's Master, what would happen if Deis took over Tohsaka's body? Would she become Archer's Master, or would Archer cease to have a Master, or would 'Tohsaka Rin' continue to be Archer's Master until her death? You wonder about it for a moment, then step to the side as Deis flings some water at you. "Aw, I thought you weren't paying attention!" You sniff disdainfully and look at the now-wary Ilya.
"If it's not a bother, I had hoped to talk about the other Archer with you. You seem like you would know more about Servants than anyone else here, and he seemed to dislike you in particular." Deis sobers immediately and Ilya nods slowly. If she recognizes how dangerous he is, that's a good thing – she keeps using Berserker's unmatched strength as a shield, and if you can get her to realize that shields aren't unbreakable, she might learn proper arrogance that won't break under stress. You return to the sitting room you had been in before leaving, and Ilya starts absently munching on some of the treats that are still out. Deis gestures for you to begin and you shrug. "… So, there is another Servant wandering around – an Archer from a previous Grail War, apparently. He has threatened and insulted Ilya, and he threatened and warned me." You briefly share your thoughts, although you continue to conceal the fact of your clones' existence. Ilya continues frowning after you finish, but Deis clears her throat.
"Well, as far as the whole 'visitor' warning, I think it's unlikely he meant that he'd be coming himself – at least, he seemed like the sort of guy who would've just come out and said that he'd be coming instead of 'a visitor.' And he probably warned you for the very reason he said: he wants to be entertained. If he was willing to show that much force in what amounted to a bluff, I don't think there's much that he considers a threat, so he's probably bored. He barely even looked at Berserker when he came out, so either he didn't think he would be attacked or he considered an attack irrelevant." If she's right, then he's a lot like you! The ability to kill anything does have the potential to leave you on a peak high above everything else, after all.
"The weapons he used in his demonstration were Noble Phantasms. If he has enough powerful ones, he could defeat even Berserker." Ilya clenches her fists, crushing a small cake messily at Sella's response.
"Berserker won't lose. He definitely won't lose to some worthless Servant who's been hiding for ten years!" You watch her as she starts to clean her hand.
"Well, if you want to put that to the test, may I suggest that you not let Berserker hold back, and stop restraining him? And keep in mind that even if Berserker can beat him, you're still vulnerable." She laughs bitterly and looks at you with a twisted expression.
"Oh, no, I'm not vulnerable at all. He knows – he has to know, if what he told Saber is true – and so does Saber. He won't kill me, not if he wants things to go his way. That's why he didn't attack me, only said that he should kill me." She giggles, a strange repeating sound unlike her normal laugh, and you frown at her. Sella and even Leysritt look unhappy as well, but she returns to normalcy quickly. "Anyway, he can't be very strong, and bringing out that many Noble Phantasms so quickly is going to drain a lot of his energy. It's not impossible that he's been here for ten years – there are ways to keep a Servant around even without the Grail – but the logistics of it would prevent anyone except a top-class mage from doing it for much longer than a few decades, let alone the sixty years between normal Grail Wars." You nod slowly; you don't quite agree with her reasoning about his strength, but she is the expert … even if she's rather biased right now.
"Okay. Any thoughts about who he is? A king with all sorts of magical weapons?" You sigh at the negative responses, but after a moment Ilya speaks up.
"Why not ask the Church? Kirei might have information on the Servants from the last Grail War." Sella clears her throat before you can respond and Ilya frowns at her.
"Pardon the interruption, but that may not be a wise decision. The Servant referred to you as a vampire, and said that someone would be visiting you soon. If the Church has become aware of your existence and nature, it may be that one of their agents is coming for you. The supervisor, therefore, would not be willing to assist you." You consider it, then shrug.
"So I beat up their agent and drag him to the priest and tell him that if he doesn't tell me everything he knows about this Archer, I kill the agent, and him, and then find out wherever his religion is based and wipe it out. As a sort of statement." Ilya and Sella stare at you, wide-eyed, and you shrug again.
"Flan, that would be the Holy Church in Rome. They have an entire branch dedicated to exterminating vampires!" You smile at her and she deflates, shaking her head.
"So, we have a Servant who is possibly getting ready to challenge Flandre to a fight if she doesn't 'entertain' him against what might be someone coming specifically to kill her, and we don't even know much about the Servant, except that he's probably quite weak. Anything else?" You glower at Deis and raise your hand. Ilya said something interesting, after all ….
"Ilya, you suggested I ask Kirei about the abnormal Servant because his organization helps with the Holy Grail War and would know about Servants from the last one, right?" She nods. "And you said that he was a Master in the last Holy Grail War, right?" She nods again, and Sella gets it immediately, but you have to gesture for Ilya to continue thinking about it before she gets it. "Of course, it might be a coincidence, but it's still odd, I think. Hmm." Deis shakes her head – whether she's amused, confused, or just sick of human conniving, you can't tell, but with Ilya as she is, you need either a change of subject or to put her to bed. And speaking of boredom … you take out one of your spell cards – the Forbidden Barrage "Clock that Ticks Away the Past." It's fun, if not quite as fun to slide through as the Maze of Love. "Hey, Ilya, can you use one of these?" You slide the piece of paper over to her and she frowns at it. Sella looks at it as well, then looks at you.
"What is this?"
"It's a Spell Card. They're used for games back home – you channel power through the design and it sort of puts you into a trance where you create the pattern the Spell Card uses. Good Spell Cards are complicated, but very pretty to watch." Sella stares at you and Deis shifts uncomfortably.
"You mean to tell me that you create Magic Crests to use as props for a game?" You tilt your head curiously.
"Before Flandre asks what a Magic Crest is, do you mind if I interject?" Sella blanches somehow – you didn't think she could get any paler – and Deis turns toward you. "Could you explain how this is different from magic, which you've said you can't use?"
"Spell Cards, despite the name, aren't spells or magic. They're manifestations of power utilized in complicated ways. If you're good enough, you don't need the Spell Card itself, but most people use them. I mean, I can do this –" A dozen danmaku bullets whirl around you in a complicated dance, then you add more while simplifying the pattern until scores of bullets circle you. "But that's not a spell card. Spell Cards are wonderful and beautiful to see. And it's not magic, either. Magic is doing a spell that does something, like create fire from nothing or transmutation, or teleportation or the like. Some Spell Cards do use magic, and those fail when I try to use them just like I can't use magic." Deis nods, but you get the feeling she isn't accepting your explanation. Ilya, meanwhile, looks … lost, almost, and you frown unhappily at her. She tries to smile.
"I … maybe some other time, when my mind is clearer? I … I need to think about some things, and …." You smile – she has had a rough night, between her breakdown earlier, a brand-new Servant, and apparently Spell Cards are something completely unusual. She starts to slide the Spell Card back to you, but you shake your head.
"It's okay, I can make more of mine, so you keep that one. If you try to copy it, though, make sure it's exact, because if you make it wrong, it's … well, it's kind of unpleasant. And painful. They're timed, so it should be fine unless you don't have enough power to use it, in which case you'll probably pass out partway through and the Spell Card will collapse –" Ilya just keeps staring at you, and you giggle. "Anyway, don't do anything with it tonight if you don't feel up to it. Just get some sleep and eat a good breakfast tomorrow. Sella, you make sure she does it, okay? Good. Deis and I won't get lost, so you two make sure Ilya is fine." You stand up and curtsy, then withdraw properly, wondering if you did anything wrong. Maybe you should have asked Caster about them first? Or possibly explained to Deis beforehand … hopefully Ilya's fine. She should be, humans are good at adapting to new things. You slow down and wait for Ershin to catch up once you're outside. Does it seem too much like you're running away? Should you have stayed behind to make sure Ilya really is fine? Maybe you should go back?
What do you do?
[ ] Go back to the temple.
- [ ] Discuss Archer with Caster.
- [ ] Discuss Spell Cards with Caster.
[ ] Go to the Church and see if 'Kirei' knows anything interesting.
[ ] Track down Tohsaka and bring her back to the temple.
- [ ] Make sure to kill Archer.
- [ ] Make sure to not kill Archer.
[ ] Other?
