Chapter: 18

The silence brought by the wind was suffocating.

Jeanne felt the touch of Gin's hand over her cheek, promoting her body to tense; memories that should have been forgotten rushed into her mind, making the area around her neck tingle with a weird sensation.

"Aren't you happy that we met again, Jeanne?" His voice resounded in her ears, finally pulling her out of her reverie as the blond saint jumped out of his embrace and landed a distance away—between Karna and Gin.

She looked towards him, her face scrunched with fear and anger.

"Why are you here, Devil?"

"Oh." The smile on Gin's face widened. He placed his hand over his chest, and bowed; not too low, just enough to show his respect. "I am glad that you remembered me, Jeanne D'Arc. Eons have passed and I would have thought you had forgotten everything."

"As if I can…" She instinctively placed her hand over her neck, arousing a known look on Gin's face.

He licked his lips as if remembering the taste of her blood.

"You were the first ever person whose blood I drank. And I must say, I do not regret my decision. Even my familiars were jubilant and excited. Even now, it is hard for me to not just take a bite out of you."

"Indecent!" Jeanne gritted her teeth and pointed the tip of her flag toward him. "You… Your kind should not exist within this side of the world. Then how?"

"Ah, that." Gin made a knowing look before he answered, the same casual look of nonchalance present on his face. "I had to make some deals with Gaia, and now I am considered one of the Crimson Moon. As such, I can stay on this side of the world."

His eyes opened slightly, revealing azure pupils which shone brightly under the night sky.

"I had to give up so much for this trade, just so I can meet you once more. As I have said before, my dear saint, you shall belong to me. That was the pact."

"I don't remember signing any pact you speak of!" Jeanne vehemently rejected it, which only fueled the sadistic smile on Gin's face.

"And that makes this even more entertaining." Gin placed his finger over the fang that protested out of his lips. "Or have you forgotten how you willingly gave up your blood to me and moaned in the pleasure that was brought upon you by me?"

"That—!?"

Just then, her instinct flared allowing her to promptly dodge the spear strike thrown at her. Once more, the place where she stood was stuck by a mighty blow by the Son of Sun God's golden spear.

"I would hate to interrupt your love quarrel."

"That's not it!"

Karna ignored Jeanne's embarrassed and angered reply. He pointed the tip of his spear at Jeanne and uttered.

"With Saber of Black gone, I shall complete the order of my Master. Ruler. Ready yourself."

"And though I would love to play with you too, now is not the right time." Karna's eyes widened and he slashed horizontally at his behind, cutting nothing but the air. "You can go back, I shall allow it."

Turning back to look at Gin, who stood at his place—as if never moved—Karna's eyes narrowed.

"Very well. I shall inform my Master of the anomaly."

"Now then." Seeing Karna turning into particles of mana and vanishing, Gin looked towards Jeanne and smiled. "It's only us two. Let's bond together by (you) allowing me to drink your blood!"

1

It was a huge room, fully decorated with an equally big bed placed within it. One look and one could tell that this room belonged to a castle.

On the bed, Gordes was laid there. He was shirtless, with his upper body covered in white bandages. A small patch by the chest remained red, showing the place where he had been stabbed not long ago.

He was breathing heavily. It was as if he was on his deathbed.

By the side stood Saber of Black. His face didn't particularly hold much emotion while he silently stared at his Master.

"What happened to him?" Asked the man in his late twenties. He had dark blue hair, tied in a single ponytail. He was the Head of the Yggdmillennia Family, Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia.

Currently, his face had a dignified frown while he stared down at Gordes. Anyone who knew him could say that he was highly displeased right now.

The Great Holy Grail War had yet to officially start, and one of their Masters was already mortally wounded. It didn't bode well with him or his plans. And it didn't help to know that Gordes was the Master of the strongest Class. This will put them at disadvantage from the start, and he definitely didn't like it.

"He was stabbed." Saber of Black replied curtly. He felt responsible for Gordes's wound. As a Servant, the biggest mistake one could make was not being able to protect one Master. And yet he did the exact same thing.

A Hero and a Servant, he felt himself filled with guilt.

"Do not state the obvious, Saber." Darnic's face further showed his satisfaction. "I need to know how he was stabbed and where."

Saber closed his eyes as if reconnecting everything that had happened within his mind. After a brief pause of silence, he began to explain their side of the story in detail.

The plan of his Master to save Ruler and defeat the Lancer of Red with her help—the more Darnic listened, the more one could see the barely hidden scowl on his face. He knew Gordes was stupid and impatient, but even he didn't think he would make a such basic mistake.

Try to get the Ruler on their side… though it sounded good and all on paper, if one knew the rules of the war, he should be aware that such an endeavor would result in nothing but defeat.

Ruler was neutral. It was common knowledge. Yet to hear Gordes try to make her fight with him, he couldn't help but wonder why he chose him as one of the Masters.

"Tell me, what do you know about the person who stabbed him? Was he a Servant? To be able to stab Gordes in the presence of three Servants, and that too without any of them knowing, he can't be an unknown mage. The only possibility left is that he was a Servant."

"... I don't know." It was Saber's turn to frown. "I couldn't tell. He didn't feel like a Servant, nor did he feel like a Human. It was a weird feeling of good and bad. I could feel divinity from him but also demonic forces. It felt like he was the mixture of both."

"..."

Darnic frowned further. It sure sounded ludicrous to him, whatever Saber was saying, but he could not just ignore it. At best, he thought of Gin as but another anomaly. After all, this was the first Great Holy Grail War. And from his experience, nothing normal will come out of it.

"Very well." In the end, the best approach was to gather as much information as they could while also trying their best to avoid this anomaly. He looked towards Saber and stated. "Get him treated by a Healer. I want him healed before the war officially starts. As for… that anomaly, I'll have our scouts gather as much information as they can about him."

Saber nodded.

Seeing Darnic leaving the room, he looked back at his Master for a second before turning to particles and vanished. For now, all he could do was stay by his Master's side and wait till he heals.

2

"A being who identifies himself as one of the Crimson Moon you say? And he also knows Jeanne."

He had white hair and ageless golden eyes. He was kneeling in front of the worship altar, from which he stood and turned around to look at the Lancer.

"There seemed to be some form of relationship between them."

A moment of silence shrouded the church before Shirou asked, an amiable smile on his face.

"Can you defeat him?"

"... I don't know." That was his honest reply. From Karna's perspective, he could feel divinity as clear as the bright sun in the day from Gin. A being holding so much divinity shouldn't be present in the world. Karna would not be surprised to know that he is a God of some sort, yet the feeling of highly repulsive force, completely opposite of divinity, told Karna that he wasn't.

And from the way Jeanne called him a Devil, Karna couldn't agree less.

He felt like a being with a weird mixture of God and the Devil. Such a thing shouldn't be possible, and yet here he saw exactly one such person.

"Interesting…" Shirou's smile didn't recede. In fact, he seemed to take a huge interest in this entity that seemed to appear out of nowhere. And the fact he seemed to know Jeanne D'Arc, the chances of him being a Servant were very high.

In the same manner, Shirou couldn't ignore the fact he called himself as 'one of the Crimson Moon' as that itself revealed a lot about his nature. And if what Shirou thought was really true, things might get way too complicated for a Greater Holy Grail War; no one wanted to fight a True Ancestor after all.

'But it's alright…' To Shirou, Gin's involvement didn't matter much. As long as it didn't have anything to do with Grail, he didn't mind whatever Gin did. And if Gin was after the Holy Grail, True Ancestor or not, he will find a way to take care of him.

For his ambition, for his Lord, he will not let anyone interfere with his plans.

"At least we know that the Master of the Saber of Black is gravely injured. Though it won't matter much, it still gives us a slight hand against them." Shirou looked at his side, towards the woman with black hair and a black dress. "I will leave the collecting of information about him in your hands, Semiramis."

As an Assassin Class Servant, he believed in Semiramis's capabilities of gathering data about this anomaly.

"We might need to fasten the creation of my Noble Phantasm." She stated simply, to which Shirou nodded in understanding.

"All required materials should be reached today; it won't be long, at best, another day of waiting. Once done, we can finally start an all-out war with the Black Faction."

A smirk appeared over Semiramis's face in the anticipation of the coming war. She couldn't wait to trample over the other faction, though a little torture won't hurt.

"I shall wait for further orders then." Turning into red particles, Karna vanished.

3

"Mmng… S-Stop…" A weird sensation of ephemeral pleasure filled her very being as a moan of pleasure left her mouth.

Embraced in the hands of Nephalem, her back over his chest, she sat over his lap. The buttons around her collar were loose, showing her bountiful cleavage and silky smooth neck; the place where the Nephalem bit, his two pointed fangs pierced her delicate skin, drawing blood from it.

The urge to drink blood, for Primogenitors, wasn't a necessity to keep their sanity. It was more sacred than that as Primogenitors would never drink blood unless they felt sexually attracted to the person whose blood they were willing to drink.

It was an urge that manifested itself from the attraction toward their partner.

In a sense, the Primogenitors and Vampires only drank the blood of the person they felt attracted to.

For this very reason, whenever they drank blood, it was not the pain that was felt by their partner—it was pleasure. As if embraced within a warm cloth, the pleasure was more primal than anything they have experienced so far.

The red hue over her cheeks, the watering eyes, her glossy lips, and her slight panting; all indicated the sensual pleasure she felt.

Embarrassed, ashamed, and angry; the blond saint felt different emotions, yet all of them would soon be buried under the crossing pleasure throughout her whole body. It was a new feeling, something she had never felt in her whole life. And as a saint, for some reason, it felt forbidden.

Her mind was still clouded by the weird sensation that seemed to eat away her reasons, the Nephalem pulled out his fangs which soon receded into his mouth. He licked the part where he bit, taking all the remaining blood with it before giving another lick to his lips.

"Why? Do you want me to drink the blood of the innocent, my dear saint?" He softly whispered into her ears, a shade of red that reached even to them.

"You… vile… creature…" She had a hard time breathing. Her heart was beating too fast, which required her to take more and more intake of oxygen. "I shall never let you… hurt innocent people."

"How brave." Gin smiled, his hand deftly moving around her stomach and pulling the embarrassed saint further into his embrace. "That is indeed one of many things I love about you. But you need to fret not, as I would never drink the blood of just anyone. Only of those that hold a special place within my heart. And you are indeed one of them, Jeanne."

Feeling his breath that tickled down her naked neck and collarbone, Jeanne shivered. Doing a useless protest with her body, she struggled to free herself from his embrace.

"Let me go, please."

"If it's the Grail War you are worried about, then you don't need to do so. As I will personally take over it."

"... What do you mean?" Her struggle stopped as she turned to look towards the face of Nephalem, his crimson eyes staring into her beautiful pure gaze that seemed to arouse his sadistic side.

"You shall see." He smirked. "As you will be one of the overseers of this war."

Jeanne felt a looming danger. There was nothing she could do against Gin as she personally witnessed his strength during her little struggle to free herself from the clutches of this devil.

For him to participate in the War, she could already see mayhem spreading all over the place.

A look of determination flashed in her eyes. She cannot let him hurt innocent people!

"I shall not let you hurt people unrelated to the war!"

"Of course." Gin smiled. "As a devil, all I can say is good luck, my dear saint."

…

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AN: I am back! Yahoo! Anyways, Gin first entered Nasuverse by Essence to make a deal with Jeanne when she was about to be burnt alive. As such, that doesn't cost him anything. And then he entered by normal passage during the current timeline. But to Jeanne, it looks like he has been waiting for won't for her.

Anyways, that's all. Piece.