Frederica Einzbern
Middle of Forest, Forest
An endless sea of snow and trees.
This place is in her element. There can be no argument here. The test of her strength as a vessel for the thousand old wish of the Einzbern was to survive conditions similar to this.
No, not similar. The place she had been in was far worse. It was like a special sort of hell. A normal person would've been swallowed up in an instant. But she isn't normal. She's a magus, much like most of the masters here.
Magi gain their power from knowledge. That is the heart of magecraft and the "mystery" it draws power from. It's because of this she knows that sacrifices aren't needed, and that the words she was about to chant had no meaning in the sense of summoning her servant.
That was the doing of the Greater Grail, naturally. No, this was merely a ritual to forge a contract with her servant. Unfortunately, the Einzbern family did not have the time to secure a artifact directly related to a Heroic Spirit. But that mattered little. In the end, even with a artifact, personal compatibility was what bound the servant and master together. A powerful servant who could not work with the master on equal terms was less than useless. The events of nearly one hundred years ago had proven that claim without a doubt.
Yes. Her body is close to monstrous. However, in the end she still had a humans soul and mind. That is the perfect template to summon "The Strongest Servant" of this war. The will and mind of a hero in the vessel of a monster.
That is the servant the Einzberns desired. No, that isn't right. That is the servant the founders, veterans of five holy grail wars, desired the most.
It would be granted.
The Einzbern let out a breath, then began to prepare the chant. Dozens of magic circuits whirred to life in a single instant to complete a single action. Mana from the surrounding forest was drained in that same instant.
That's why she chose this place. As a homunculus, it was tiring to use her own magical energy, and a natural place like the forest easily had much mor-
"Oh, so I get it! So that's why you came all the way out here!" A shrill feminine voice chirped up from at least a few meters behind her, loud and obnoxious enough to be heard over the snow and wind.
She didn't know what they were going to say. There was only one thing that person would say in a situation like this. And naturally, there was only one real reaction to that person.
"Not mooching off of mana must be
real troublesome for an
old hag of a defect like you, ri-"
Instead of completing the ritual, Frederica did a 180 at maximum speed. A cloud of snow from turn speed obscured eye contact with the certain idiot who said that. It mattered little. She had heard their voice, and that was more than enough for her to put them down with ease.
She simply pointed her finger in the direction she had thought the sound had came from. Enough energy to supply nearly contract level magic went flying in that direction, mimicking something like a laser or beam in appearance. The snow near it instantly melted into water before evaporating, leaving the ground barren and singed from heat. A magus could probably counteract such an attack with ease- at least, a competent one. But she knew that person couldn't use magecraft, and at this range even they couldn't get off scot free.
Naturally, with the lasers firing, the snow obscuring her vision was also gone. A total, clean miss. Instead of hitting the woman she was aiming for, it instead hit a branch on a tree a few feet away from her. The woman who had mocked her -a boisterous Einzbern homunculus with stylized, long hair- adopted a mocking smile and continued her attempt at harassment. Or, in Frederica's opinion, ear rape.
"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO" Instantly, the master covered her ears. Not to escape from the laugh
though that was half of her motivation she was used to hearing, but instead because of-
"AAAAAUUGH"
Frederica's neutral expression turned into a cruel smirk easily the sister of the one the maid formerly had.
"Kekekek"
Her attack had missed, certainly. But she had taken that into account and used an attack that had area of effect, with the heat from the magical energy being more than enough to light her hair on fire and singe their eyebrows. Afterall, she was counting on her 'maid bodyguard' to be capable of dodging such an obvious and flashy move. That maid dived head first, attempting to stop the fire and protect her precious ringlets.
She sighed.
Her smirk disappeared, a gnawing headache taking its place. At least she would have until the maid recovered -a few minutes at most- to live in relative peace.
Of course Grandfather suggested she "tagged along" for "her protection". The sadist. He knew what they thought of each other.
She rushed the chant out as fast as possible to get her servant and high tail it out of here asap. She hoped it was a rider so they could flee easier.
Or a berserker. She could really understand their struggle.
Caster
City outskirts, foreclosed shipping facility
Caster class. The most dangerous class to modern magi, and by extension, the Holy Grail itself. Their powers in magecraft skirted close to the Five modern True Magics. No, in the eyes of modern Magi they were indistinguishable. This is why Caster is so deadly, as not only do they have the crystallized mystery "Noble Phantasm", Casters also have countless other divine miracles at their beck and call.
However, Servant Caster wasn't just a user of magic in life. They were also a warrior, which supplemented their magical abilities and made them something more than someone who could make fireballs. No, unlike many casters they knew how to use those fireballs effectively in combat.
The wind and light of the Greater Grails summon faded away almost as soon as it had appeared. In its place, a far more grand mystery stood in its place.
A Heroic Spirit in the modern era.
Caster had a plain, almost neutral expression as the light faded away, though she stared intently at her master. Though her eyes did not move from Rose's eyes, an onlooker could easily see that Caster was seizing her up in every way. She stepped forward and came close enough to be within arms reach of the Master.
"So, you're the one who presumes to say they're my master? What, I wonder, gives you that right? It's certainly not that flimsy command mantra on your arm. If you spoke to use it, I could very easily end your life in half the time. I can deduct from the fact you need a servant that as a magus you are not skilled enough to even touch me. So then, what gives you the right to act like I'm your tool to reach whatever you desire from the Holy Grail?" Though Caster seemed expressionless, there was an ever so faint smirk that had surely appeared.
