First Contact

Hello bois and garuls, I wanted to tell you that next week my university will be closed (don't ask me why, not even I know) so I will be able to post 1 chapter per day as before! I don't know if they are going to be posted at exactly the same hour though. But they will come!

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"So we are finally here," Mash said while looking around, Fujimaru joined her to explore this new scenery.

"Why do you guys look that is your first time going outside?" Cu Chulainn asked the duo who was looking left and right.

"U-Um... Sorry, It's just that I always stayed in Chaldea so..." Mash looked pretty embarrassed right now being 'caught in the act.'

"It's okay; being able to enjoy the Lord's creation is a gift in itself," Martha reassured Mash, and Jeanne nodded in agreement while Jalter just scowled.

"Fou kyu fou!" The white creature released a weird cry to support the lilac-haired girl.

"Fou? You are here too?" Fujimaru asked in surprise. The little animal seemed always to find a way to accompany them to the Singularities even if it didn't show himself much during them.

"Well... He is not the type to like staying indoors." Shielder said unsurely.

"Fou aside, the same ring of light from France is present here, too." The Japanese young man set his gaze on the sky where the gigantic phenomenon was present.

"As always, we can't get a good look from here. We are still investigating it, though." Romani entered the conversation once he was able to communicate with the group.

"Hm? Where are you? You don't seem to be in Rome or even a settlement for the matter." He questioned as he didn't see any sights of buildings, only hills, and more hills.

"That is what we would like to know, too. Are you sure this is the correct time and place?" Caster asked, doubting the man's skills.

"I'm sure! I'm doing my job properly, okay?! The coordinates might not be correct, but the time is—" Romani was about to explain himself when Vlad interrupted him.

"Silence. I smell...blood." The white-haired man who had been silent all this time looked in a particular direction.

"Okay, that sounded creepy." The Doctor felt his whole body get filled with goosebumps at the Vampire's words.

'Why don't you ask the girl that has been eyeing me with weird eyes what creepy means?' Seth retorted inside his mind but decided to clarify for him. "He is talking about a battlefield. Two armies are fighting right now on the other side of the hill."

"Now that you mention it...I can hear the faint sound of battle. I can't say I'm not excited to finally have a good fight again." Cu Chulainn had a smirk on his face. Although he wasn't as wild as his Lancer counterpart, he still craved for a good battle.

They walked upward to the top of the hill they were currently standing on. There, the group saw two armies fighting each other some kilometers away from them. Both were adorning the same colors in their armors but with different designs. From their point of view, it looked like a rebellion was going underway.

One army was clearly bigger than the other. However, the smaller army had a young girl clad in a red dress who was commanding them. Her alone was taking care of the majority of the enemies' forces.

The Sage of the Forest whistled at this. "That young lady over there is not half bad."

Ignoring Caster's inappropriate remark, Mash squinted her eyes a little bit. "Doesn't she look like Jeanne or Saber?"

"Great! Another one, just what I needed. Damn" Jalter sarcastically commented making Jeanne look at her with a reprimanding look. "It's not good to swear!"

Ignoring the two as he was getting used to it, Fujimaru came to a decision. "We should help that woman, otherwise she will perish at the hands of the other army."

"Why should we help her? She could actually be a tyrant and the other army might be fighting for their freedom." Seth asked the young man looking deep into his eyes.

"W-well...a gut feeling?" He responded unsurely. Now that he thought about it, he didn't have any proof to back up his words. It just felt like the right thing to do.

Seth looked at him for a few seconds before retracting his gaze. "It seems your gut feeling was correct this time. We will be going ahead first."

Fujimaru heaved a sigh of relief. For some reason, being directly looked at by him always gave the youth a disturbing feeling. "What do you mean 'we'?" Mash asked while tilting her head to the side,

Seth didn't respond and just grabbed Cu Chulainn's arm. "Hm? What are you doing?" before throwing him flying toward the battlefield.

"YOOUUU BAAASTTTAAaaarrrrddddd..." His scream gradually got silenced by the increasing distance between them. The rest of the group looked at him strangely, except Lancelot who was as unmoving as a statue from the start.

Seth put strength in his legs making the ground under him crack, he then made a big jump, throwing dust all around him and followed the screaming Caster.

After shielding their eyes, they saw the 'flying' duo and Kiyohime running while muttering "I will punish everyone that runs from me." again and again.

"U-Um... I think we should get going, too." Mash said not sure how to respond to the situation.

"R-Right..." Fujimaru agreed and told his own Servants to help in the clash. Kiyohime has already gone there and Jeanne and Jalter didn't need his permission or anything, they followed their Master on their own.

Meanwhile, the falling Caster wanted to curse Seth until his throat became sore. Noticing he was already near the ground, he pointed his staff at the ground. Giant vines shot from under it and caught Caster before he crushed. 'Damn... He could have at least threw me with less force.'

"What's that?!"

"Enemy reinforcements?!"

"Damn it! Soldiers, be careful!"

All sorts of shouts filled the battlefield once they saw the strange occurrence that harmed the soldiers who were in the place where the vines emerged. Different from them, the smaller army took this as some sort of blessing due to it happening on the enemy side. However, they still didn't rule the possibility of it being a ploy to make them let their guard down.

Not long after Cu Chulainn landed, like a meteor, Seth crashed in the middle of the enemy army. Without further ado, he started attacking all the near soldiers.

"Oi! Don't get them all for yourself. Ansuz!" Caster jumped down from the vines that were holding him and wrote a rune in mid-air. The rune lit up in a fiery red color and released flames that impacted on the dumbstruck soldiers.

Seth didn't say anything but slowed down, It's not like he wanted to go all out against mere foot soldiers so he didn't mind letting Caster have his fun.

The young girl was confused seeing the strange newcomers but noticing they were helping her she got more motivation. "Soldiers! Don't fall behind. Fight with all you have got for Rome!" She put a hand on her chest while raising her sword to the sky. The soldiers cheered and got more aggressive in their fight against the enemy.

The sword of the blond woman got surrounded by fire and joined her soldiers and their reinforcements in battle cutting the 'traitors' left and right.

As if that wasn't enough for the enemy soldiers, Kiyohime came and burned them, creating a path to where Seth was fighting. Once she got to his position, she asked him with a low voice that sounded threatening. "Why did you run away from me?"

'Okay, this is getting out of hand.' The black-haired man thought as he turned toward Kiyohime. "Look into my eyes." He ordered and for some reason, unable to refuse, she followed his command. The moment she looked into his eyes everything went dark.

He put the motionless Kiyohime on his shoulders while continuing to fight the rest of the soldiers. "Hahaha! Man, you sure have trouble with women!" The Irish Hero laughed while using his runes to cause havoc on the battlefield.

Veins started popping on his forehead as he listened to Cu's words. "If you keep laughing I assure you that I will do everything in my power to summon Scáthach and use every Command Spell on my possession to make her 'train' you again as hard as she can."

A chill went down his spine making him stop laughing. "Okay, okay. It was just a joke. I tell ya, you don't have a sense of humor."

"Don't worry, I will be laughing soon the moment I see you begging her for mercy." Seeing as speaking any further will only make his grave deeper, Caster decided to shut up.

It was at that moment that the rest of the Chaldeans also joined in. If it was a one-sided battle before, now it was a massacre. So much so that it ended in just a few minutes.

"It's finally over. I praise you, warriors, for the way you fought. It was truly marvelous." The woman in the red dress approached them with two men by her side, possibly to serve as some sort of guards.

"Thank you, we are glad you are okay." Fujimaru was the first to speak.

"I thank you for your words, but there is no way I will be defeated by those impostors. The glory of the true Rome is eternal after all!" She seemed proud when she spoke about her empire. The girl then looked at the diversity of their attires.

"Are you foreigners by any chance? Well, no matter! I will reward you for your help. Sadly, I can't do it now as I only have this sword of mine. However, once we get to my capital I will personally see that you are rewarded handsomely!"

"E-Eh...right..." Fujimaru didn't know how to respond to the constant talk of the girl in front of him. However, as she was the only clue they had to what was happening right now, they decided to follow her and see if they could get some information regarding the situation.

{Who is your enemy, little kid?} Seth asked the girl in front of him. The rest of the group was confused about what language he used.

{Hm? Oh! I see you are a man of culture, knowing our grand language! Umu, I commend you. Now, to your question. My enemy is the United Empire, a bunch of fake emperors that want to tarnish my empire's reputation! Many of my soldiers had deserted to the enemy. Can you believe that?!} She said in indignation.

(A/N: Sorry for the meme/joke. I will be using {} when speaking in another language than the "universal" one that supposedly everyone in all eras speaks, even if it doesn't make sense at all...Well, game logic I guess.)

"Speak in a language we can understand, will ya?" Caster said with annoyance listening to their gibberish words.

"Our enemy seems to be something called the United Empire led by some fake emperors." Seth informed them.

"United Empire? I don't remember something like that ever existing. It may be the anomaly of this era." Shielder mused with a hand on her chin.

"I don't know what you are talking about but I will allow you to fight by my side, you have earned that right! You can rejoice all you want, that's fine!" The woman with the red sword interrupted them and the two men by her side nodded like it was the greatest honor.

"Can I kill this bi—" Jalter who was getting fed up with the woman's attitude wanted to ask something but Jeanne put a hand on her mouth. "Ehehe... Sorry, she is just tired." She awkwardly laughed while trying to justify her actions.

"Umu! I understand. I would like for you to rest but we need to keep moving toward Rome, I fear that wasn't their whole army." Totally oblivious, the girl simply nodded in understanding.

With nothing more to say, the group followed her and her soldiers to where Rome was. True to her words, not long after parting from the original battlefield, they met more enemy soldiers.

"Hey, Fujimaru. Catch!" The Egyptian shouted to the other Master before leaving to engage the new enemies together with his Servants and the girl in the red dress.

"What?—Gah!" The youth turned toward Seth only to have Kiyohime thrown at him.

"Master, are you okay?!" Mash asked worriedly as she got Berserker off from his body.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." It didn't actually hurt, it was the surprise. However, he didn't know what to do with the unmoving Kiyohime.

"For God's sake." Martha sighed while closing her eyes and pressing her staff against her forehead. A blue light descended on the girl with the kimono, bringing her back to reality.

"Huh? Where am I?" Kiyohime asked confused as he looked left and right. The last thing she remembers was looking at the man that ran away from her.

"It would be for the best if you don't concern yourself with a kid such as her, my Vassal. Now, be prepared, the enemy awaits us." Vlad couldn't care less about a little girl's problems. If it were for him she would already be dead.

"You are right...Kiyohime, can you at least wait to resolve your matters with him?" Fujimaru asked while rubbing the back of his head. To be honest, he didn't want to get between him and her.

"He is right. If you keep annoying him he will eventually kill you, take it one step at a time, will ya?" More than giving a piece of advice, Cu Chulainn wanted to fight already so he said the first thing that came to his mind.

Kiyohime frowned for a second before finally relenting. "Fine..." while in her mind she added a 'for now.'

"I'm glad everything resolved itself somewhat in the end but you need to be careful, I'm having readings of a Servant nearing your location." Romani alerted the group, they got serious hearing his words. This will be the first Servant they will have to face since coming here.