As I arrive in the teleportation chamber of the castle, I am met with a fireball hurtling towards me. Without batting an eye, I attempt to take control of the fireball to extinguish it. To my surprise however, I fail and the fireball continues on its path towards me. Without panicking I easily sidestep the fireball.
"Azula." I say as I walk out of the chamber and into the corridor. "Hiding is futile. I know that you are here."
"Of course you do." comes her voice from ahead with a scoff. "I should have expected as much."
Approaching from around the corner of the corridor, is Azula herself no longer looking like Aife. Instead she now sports her original appearance, including her royal Fire Nation armor, with her age being the only different aspect as when we left her world. Rather than being in her teens, she now looks to be in her early twenties, the same age as Scathach, Morgan, and I.
"How did you know that it was me?" she asks as she approaches me.
"I taught you everything that you know that is worth knowing." I answer her as I grab her by the waist and pull her for a kiss.
"Besides,-" I tell her as we separate. "You and I are the only benders in this world."
"Perhaps." she answers as she looks up at me. "However, I could have been using magecraft."
"I have not once encountered a flame born out of magecraft that I could not control with bending. Not even Scathach's flames are immune to my control, and flames from magecraft are also far less controlled than those of a bender's." I reply as we walk down the corridor.
"I see." she answers simply.
"Now, may I know how exactly it is that you infiltrated my castle?" I ask her. "The defences are designed to stop anyone that is not as powerful as me from entering."
"You are not the only master of runecraft." she answers me with a smirk.
"Right." I sarcastically reply with a roll of my eyes. "Now, tell me the truth please."
"I know you Ambrosius." she answers. "Your training from Batman has left you with a certain mindset. You have failed safes for everything, even your teleportation array."
"That simply answers one question and brings new ones to light." I tell her as we turn the corner and make our way to the closest lounge where I sense Scathach's lifeforce.
"Well, I found out about your teleportation arrays in the Fraga manor, where I have been living the past twenty years since my arrival." she answers me.
"The Fraga manor?" I repeat with a frown. "How is it that they failed to inform me of your presence?"
"Of course I am guilty of stopping them from doing so." she answers with a smirk. "A rather complex hypnosis spell mixed with powerful charmspeak to make it slip from their minds did the trick. Although I am somewhat annoyed that it took such a complex hypnosis spell to work rather than a simple one. For reasons beyond me they have powerful defenses."
"It is only natural considering that I personally implemented those defenses." I tell her.
"Well, it was a rather formidable attempt for you, especially since those were never your specialty. Anyone lesser would have simply failed." she answers me with a hint of pride in her voice.
Before I can answer her we arrive at the lounge and someone else answers for me.
"It is a rather impressive set of defenses that he has arranged for his faction." says Morgan from a couch as we enter the room, a glass of wine in one hand and a book in another. "Especially since his origin is Runes, and that should severely limit his ability to learn other magecrafts."
"He always had a habit of making the improbable possible." says Azula as she joins Morgan on the couch.
"I do believe that introductions are in order." I say as I gesture towards Morgan. "Azula meet Morgan le Fay. Morgan this is Azula."
"We have already met." they answer in unison.
"Of course you have." I reply and make my way to the couch opposite of the duo. "Where is Scathach by the way?"
"She is currently giving our guests a tour of the castle." replies Morgan, still not bothering to look from her book.
"Am I correct to assume that she was present when you arrived in the castle?" I ask Azula.
"Indeed she was." answers Azula.
"Very well. Now,-" I say as I make myself comfortable on the couch. "-why don't you tell me where you have been, and what you have been up to. Perhaps you could even enlighten me as to how you were able to use my teleportation array without being keyed into it."
"Naturally I used your back door." she answers me. "It may have taken me a few months to solve how to, however once I did it was a simple matter to teleport myself in."
The failed safe that she speaks of is something that I implemented into all of my runic arrays should someone solve how to use them and attempt to turn them against me. It allows me to remotely control them to either self destruct by drawing in the magical energy from the environment and exploding, or allow me to activate or deactivate them. It is not something that any practitioner of runecraft can find, let alone exploit. Not even a master of runes can use them once found. Only someone who knows me intimately has even a slight chance to use it, and even then it would take years to solve without my aid.
As Azula awaits for my reaction, I cannot help but simply raise an eyebrow at her. She and I both know that it took her years, however her pride will not let her admit to this. Were I a betting man, I would bet this entire castle and everything inside that it took her at least ten years to accomplish. However, there is no need to vocalize this when she knows for a fact that I am not fooled at all.
"How did you stumble upon the Fraga manor?" I ask her after a few minutes of silence.
"Well, I did a drop in." she answers. "I had absolutely no desire to return to being a child, even if I was not going to be conscious of the fact. The city I landed in was Fuyuki city around ten years ago. I searched the city and stumbled upon a family of mages, the Matous."
"Oh." I say interestingly as I lean in. "You met the worm?"
"Worm?" Azula replies, disgust clear on her face. "That thing cannot even be classified as a worm. Unlike it, worms actually serve a purpose in the world. That being was a leech at best."
"Was?" I ask her with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course once I came upon that thing, and saw what it was doing to that poor girl, I had to do the world a favor and eradicate it." she replies.
"I see." I state as I lean back and cross my arms." Zouken's disappearance was due to your actions."
"Yes. Although, not before I interrogated him for every single scrap of information he had on the World of Magecraft." says Azula with a sadistic smile. "It is how I found out about the Fraga family being descendants of Setanta. I figured that they would know your whereabouts considering that the only other way to find you was through the Clock Tower, and I neither have the patience nor the interest in interacting with more mage's than needed. Especially since I now had an apprentice to take care of."
"Apprentice?" I ask her. "She would not happen to be one Sakura Matou would she?"
"Of course she is." replies Azula with a rare smile of fondness. "I could not leave the poor child in that burning mansion."
Choosing to ignore her statement about a burning mansion, I listen as she continues her explanation.
"Once I arrived at the Fraga family's mansion, I fought my way in and persuaded them to let me know of your whereabouts." she says.
"Naturally that's how you found out about my teleportation array and decided to see if you could replicate it." I state in exasperation.
"And once I found that I couldn't replicate it, I decided to see if I could make use of it like you do." she answers.
Of course she could not replicate it. That array is far more complex than simply writing the correct runes and activating it. One thing that many do not understand about runes is that every single rune has multiple meanings. That means that simply copying an array will not let one make use of it, rather one also needs to understand every meaning of the runes and correctly choose which meaning is in effect.
"You spent ten years hiding in the Fraga manor simply because you could not figure out my array." I say as I stare at her. "So you just spent ten years decoding my array, and what else?"
"Training myself, and raising my apprentice. It was only a few days ago that I solved your array. It is also the same time that our command seals arrived." replies Azula.
Before I can answer her however, the voice in my head decides to make itself known to me.
'Truly, she is an exemplary presentation of a child of ROMA.' says Romulus-Quirinus in my head.
'Should you not be dormant?' I ask him. 'Two consciousness cannot safely share a single body without one being unconscious.'
'Were you a regular being, I would agree.' he answers. 'However, you are no mere child of mine. Rather you, like your wife, are the personification of Roma's glory. You, who is akin to my little brother, can withstand the strain of my consciousness. Besides the merger has almost reached completion and I would very much enjoy spending the remainder of the time with you, who are my child.'
'Perhaps you should make up your mind.' I tell him. 'Am I your brother, or will you once again claim me as your child?'
'It does not matter.' he answers. 'A child of Roma is a child of Roma. Whether he be my brother or my child, it is all the same regardless.'
Of course only someone like him could state something so outrageous yet sensible.
"AMBROSIOU!" shouts Azula, bringing me from my mind. "Perhaps you would like to share with us what is on your mind."
"Apologies." I answer her. "Sharing my body with Romulus-Quirinus himself is no easy feat."
"Romulus?" she asks. "The founder of Rome himself? How?"
"It was an experiment." I explain. "Arron Animusphere, father of Marisbury, the now head of the Animusphere family, came to me one day with an idea. He had witnessed a Lesser Grail War and became interested in the servants. He came with the idea of merging a servant with a magus as a way of learning forms of lost magecraft. He thought that if he could successfully merge a magus with a servant, then the mage could learn everything that the servant knew, and in turn teach someone else."
"It sounds ingenious." says Azula. "If you could merge a magus with a powerful caster, such as Medea, they could learn magecraft from the Age of Gods. Even if they are unable to teach it, they would still have the theory of it that could potentially help with modern magecraft."
"Correct." I answer with a nod. "The experiment took years until Arron eventually died, but nor before passing the torch to his son, Marisbury. Marisbury and I managed to partially accomplish it by merging a wanted magus with Avicebron. Unfortunately the magus' consciousness was crushed by Avicebron and we had to terminate him."
"The project was a failure then?" asks Azula.
"Yes and no." I answer. "Realising that we were not progressing using our previous method, we attempted a different one. Simply summoning a servant and seeing if it was possible to have them possess a homunculus since they are essentially blank states before they experience life. However, something went wrong during the summoning, and I ended up with a second consciousness in my body."
'It was no mere accident.' says Romulu. 'Your soul has a certain compatibility with me, almost as if it is an extension of my very own soul.'
"As it turns out,-" I tell Azula. "-my life in PJO was a reincarnation of Romulus, thereby creating a certain compatibility that allowed the fool to safely share my body."
'Oh child of Roma how your words wound me so.' he says in his usual dramatic tone and voice. 'To be spoken of in such a way by my own child, truly it is disheartening. However, I shall love you all the same, child of mine, for you are ROMA.'
"What happened to the project, and when do you plan on fully merging with him?" she asks.
"The project was deemed a failure." I reply. "Between the difficulty of finding a compatible soul for the servant, there was also the problem of them surviving the process. In the end it was decided that continuing would be a waste of life, even if the subjects were magus who were wanted dead. As for the merger, it is almost finished. A few more days until it is complete."
"Good riddance." states Scathach as she walks into the lounge followed by Sakura and Bazett Fraga of all people.
Standing at five feet six inches, Bazett Fraga is 23 years old and the current heir of the Fraga family. She is a very demure woman who often wears a black, two piece business suit with a red-violet necktie. She has short, magenta hair and a mole just below her left eye. Bazett often accompanies her attire with two ovaloid earrings that were once worn by Cú Chulainn, her ancestor.
Unlike her cannon counterpart, Bazett has not run away from the Fraga family in pursuit of a life of action. This is mainly due to the difference between the current Fraga family and the Fraga family of canon.
In canon, the Fraga family are isolationists that prefer to conduct research and rarely leave their home. This time however, the Fraga family is not only very involved in the World of Magecraft, but they also make up the majority of my armed forces along with the Edelfelt family, similar to how Lorelei possesses her own forces in the form of her Brigade.
"Ambrosius,-" greets Bazett with a slight smile as she walks towards me. "-it's nice to finally see you after awhile. You haven't visited the manor in years."
"My apologies. I have been somewhat preoccupied." I tell her as I get up and shake her hand with a smile.
"Ambrosius,-" says Azula as she leads Sakura towards me. "I would like to introduce you to my apprentice, Sakura Matou."
"It's a pleasure to meet you." says the young lady as she bows at the waist with her hands behind her back, her voice holding far more confidence than if she were raised by Zouken.
Sakura is a young woman that stands at five feet one inch with violet hair, and eyes. However, that is where the similarities between her and her canon counterpart ends. Her hair which she usually styles with a red-pink ribbon on the left side, is now styled into a top knot similar to Azula. For clothing she wears the same armor as the Imperial Firebenders without the helmet.
"Now that we are all present,-" states Morgan as she looks up from her book for the first time and closes it. Followed by her finishing her wine and standing up. "I do believe that it is time for us to proceed with the summoning."
"I do believe that we are missing one master." I answer.
"Then they will simply have to do their summoning by themselves, for I no longer have the patience to wait. Besides we can always fully assemble later." replies Morgan as she walks out of the lounge.
With nods of agreements, the others and I follow her to the training courtyard. Once there, it does not take long for us to inscribe the summoning circles on the ground.
"I assume that we all have our catalysts?" asks Scathach.
Everyone answers affirmatively as we place our catalysts in the circles and begin to chant the summoning incantation and the summoning circles begin to glow.
Let silver and steel be the essence.
Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation.
Let red be the color I pay tribute to.
Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall.
Let the four cardinal gates close.
Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate.
Let it be declared now; your flesh shall serve under me, and my fate shall be with your sword.
Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail.
Answer, if you would submit to this will and this truth.
An oath shall be sworn here.
I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven;
I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell.
From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power,
come forth from the ring of restraint, protector of the holy balance!
As we finish the incantation, the light from the circles becomes overwhelmingly bright until it finally reaches a crescendo and bursts as the servants are summoned.
