Hollow/FGO Chapter 29 (Patreon)

Seeing as we didn't have anyway to teleport beyond my very mana draining space skipping. But that coudn't bring along additional people, we were reduced to flying or in Ritsuka's case riding Marie Antoinette's noble phantasm horse across half of France.

And by the time we had gotten close to Paris, Ritsuka was utterly exhausted from supporting half a dozen servant's running across a country in less than an hour. So we made camp for the night as Ritsuka needed to relax and regain her strength if we were to properly fight the army of undead and wyverns that we could see surrounding the demolished city of Paris.

"The population of Paris France, in the year 1400 was noted to being around a hundred and twenty-five thousand people... With a Grail giving that mad Caster infinite mana, he has undoubtedly raised all the people who died by the wyvrens and the twisted Jeanne's rampage into undead which is the case according to the sensors."

Olga was telling me this alone as I had managed to get Tiamat to go pamper Ritsuka as I sat off to the side to watch out for any hostile Servants that Jalter and Blue Beard summon through the night.

In response to Olga's words I said softly. "The undead aren't an issue... Except for Mozart, we are all strong servant's who can deal with them easily especially Tiamat can deal with the undead by summoning some of her primordial mud to wash over them." My eyes were locked deep within the burning sections of Paris as I could feel a maleficent soul so entrenched in evil and greed that even from this great distance. I could feel it's presence.

And I knew that was the dragon Fafnir... But I wasn't going to run around France looking around for the crippled Siegfried and that other dragon slayer knight I forgot the name honestly.

I was going to kill that dragon on my own if I had to. Or Tiamat could temporarily take on her beast form using her Noble Phantasm to bully the Norse dragon. As our goal was to kill Blue Beard and snag the grail so we could leave this false world behind. Nothing else mattered

"Have the other members of Team A woken up yet?" I asked to break up the silence and there was a momentary pause as Olga shifted on her bed as this was a private call she was making from her own quarters.

I looked with a raised eyebrow as Olga inadvertadly exposed some of her soft warm flesh as she moved her blankets around as she sat up slightly but there was no mistaking the odd expression on her face as she said with some concern. "Except for Akuta Hinako, the rest of the surviving members are all suffering from some amount of soul damage, so they are in a medically and magically induced coma being watched over by Da-Vinci... The issue is that Akuta is acting a bit oddly."

'The blood elemental is acting weird... That can't be any good.' I thought dryly before I sighed and said. "It should be fine... After all we plan to be back at Chaldea by tommorrow night at the latest unless Blue Beard has some other bullshit up his sleeve. So don't spook her though Olga." I warned her as I knew Akuta was easily spooked with her history but beyond that, I took a breath with a small smile crossing my face as I told Olga. "Alright, now get some sleep... We can't trust Romani to lead us into battle can we?" I asked teasingly.

Olga at my words flushed at teasing and was happy that I wanted and trusted her to be in charge... But then she went pale at the thought of having Romani leading the great battle to take the Holy Grail from the french necromancer who had summoned legions of undead and a horde of dragons with the help of a resurrected evil witch.

"I will take a sleeping aid to make sure I get the proper rest." She said firmly and then with determination to aggressively sleep to make sure the salmon-haired goober couldn't fuck anything up she hung up the call making me chuckle as I imagined Solomon's face at how little Olga trust him in the slightest.

A couple minutes later a crunching of dirt hit my ears and I relaxedly looked behind me seeing Artoria walking over to me and without a word, she sat down beside me with her arm taking my dragon hide cloak and throwing it over her shoulder as her armor dissapeared from her form and she leaned into me.

Silently I wrapped an arm around Artoria's waist and there was a moment of silence before she spoke and I felt her golden eyes staring aimlessly into the forest leading to Paris. "I hate that twisted Jeanne... With every fiber of my being, her disregard and insanity stroke my utter disdain with how her situation is so alike to my own."

And that... Yeah, that was a gut punch as although Salter, and Jalter typically had a sort of rivalry being depicted but without a shared master binding them together and an actual true Jalter not this one's twisted remains of the true Jeanne D'arc. Maybe it would be better.

But all I could say was. "That feeling will pass when she fades from this false world, Artoria. But you, are your own person now Artoria. As your noble phantasm has actually changed and your name upon the very Throne of Hero's is different." I was going to say different from the original, but who the hell knows which Artoria was the 'original' true Artoria.

For all I knew Archer/Swimsuit Artoria with Excalibur Vivian was the original...

I then said gently. "Alright Artoria, when we get back to Chaldea I will make us both some good food... Not the weird stuff the Chaldean workers will try to feed us."

Artoria looked up at me with her golden eyes catching the moon's glow and I saw a small smile cross her face as she looked away and then she leaned her head agaisnt my shoulder as she said softly. "I would like that... Could we watch another movie together as well?"

In response, I squeezed her side in a silent yes with her taking a deep breath and then fully relaxing against me on the tree we were both now leaning against with Artoria going into a light rest to gain her strength for the coming day.