Chapter 139 : Heretics hunter

Alessandro and Friedrich left the Clock Tower after learning about the Mage's Association's insane plan to use a powerful uncontrollable relic to kill Sheol, Friedrich had a plan to prevent the death of thousands upon thousands of people and brought Alessandro Serpi at St Margaret's Church which lined the Abingdon road. Near the white church there was a garden and from this Alessandro saw the nuns come out who, when they noticed his band around the neck, were slightly confused, Friedrich said to his friend:
« The customs of the Coven are not known. »
« No. They give these bands to the archbishops but in the Coven it's an honor that identifies those talented wise men who, however, are not Elders. »
The two entered the church and then Alessandro asked, curious:
« Why we are here? »
« When I first came to London I had the pleasure of visiting this place, I did it just to do, I didn't have a destination, but I saw something really interesting. »
In the church there were two rows of tall white colonnades joined by arches that supported the windows that illuminated the place together with large golden chandeliers, the two boys stopped in the center of the main nave then Friedrich pointed to one of the columns and murmured, so as not to disturb the faithfuls:
« Here. »
Alessandro went to the column and saw that there was a small incision on it, it was not very visible but resembled the shape of a rose. Alessandro therefore asked:
« What does it mean? »
« The Confraternity of the Rose Cross was German but in the sixteenth and seventeenth there were many who claimed to have come into contact with or to represent the confraternity, among them there was a certain Robert Fludd who lived here in about 1606. He had a meeting with a German named Michael Maier, a scholar who wanted to know the secrets of the confraternity. I don't know the details of the meeting but my teacher picked up Maier's correspondence, or at least part of it, and learned of an important thing. »

Friedrich pointed to the rose on the column and explained:
« Fludd told Maier that he was working on a way to destroy the Cradle of Rosenkreutz without unleashing its terrible power. Here, in this place, Fludd and Maier met to talk about the relic and here there's a symbol of a rose ... I wonder what's in this church. »
« Maybe a magic weapon? »
« Maybe not. The members of the Confraternity of the Rose Cross didn't make weapons, generally they were alchemists, doctors and spellcasters. Nothing more. They never built weapons, perhaps the Cradle of Rosenkreutz was the first and last case. Their magic is based on the use of special ingredients to create magical circles, but it would have been stupid ... » Friedrich stopped talking and turned to a dressed girl who was dressed like a nun but without a headdress and with her skirt open on the right to show the leg.
Alessandro recognized the long red hair tied in a ponytail that descended in front of her right shoulder, the water-green eyes of the girl lingered, saddened, on him.
« This is truly a pity. » She murmured.
« Who's that girl? Do you know her? » Friedrich asked to Alessandro.

« I ... don't. »

« You don't? » She asked annoyed. « I tried to love you but you simply rejected my feelings and now you've also forgotten my name. »

Alessandro was visibly confused, he didn't know that girl and yet she spoke of him as if they had been friends and it was worrying him.

« My name is Elisa. Elisa Mancini. I'm a heretic hunter and I'm here by the will of the Grand Master Giovanni Monteverdi X. »
Alessandro was frightened, turned to Friedrich and exclaimed:
« Run! »
Elisa snapped her fingers and said:
« Aeterna Ferri Robora. » She conjured up a sword whose blade had three points arranged in the shape of a cross.
« Gladio! » Alessandro said snapping his fingers, a sword appeared.
The blades collided, the girl wasn't happy to fight it was clear from her expression but she had no intention of taking steps back. Elisa decided to attack Alessandro several times, but he wasn't an expert sword fighter and in a short time he was knocked down.

A wolf with an electric mantle was on the point of injuring Elisa but she moved away from the animal and then, snapping her fingers, she said:
« Dis. »
The electric beast was thrown against the wall and died. Friedrich helped Alessandro to get up and took him out of the church as quickly as possible. Elisa was ready to attack again but Alessandro snapped his fingers and said:
« Lapis! »
A stone hand came out of the floor which hit the girl and then immobilized her giving the two boys time to leave the church. Once outside, they noticed that there were too many civilians and in addition it was broad daylight, they had to avoid fighting at any cost otherwise they would have had many problems.
Alessandro then noticed that the nuns he had seen leaving the garden were motionless and there were priests with them, then he saw Elisa Mancini arrive and none of them was frightened.
« Shit ... we're surrounded. It was a trap. » Alessandro said, realizing the danger.
« But how did they know we were going to get here? » Friedrich asked, perplexed.
« We were following you. » Elisa replied. « The Grand Master Giovanni Monteverdi X has officially excommunicated you, Alessandro, you're no longer a member of the Coven and consequently you must return Saber, she's not yours ... she belongs to the Coven. »
« No … »

« Out of respect for the formality, I officially declare the Interdictio aquae et ignis for you. You will never be able to return to the Coven, you will not be able to ask forgiveness for your sins and you will no longer be able to rely on our resources. The symbols you wear are empty. You are an enemy of the Coven. »

Alessandro was shocked, struggled to keep himself upright, never expected an excommunication. Now the Coven considered him an enemy and wanted his head.

« Now, Saber ... » Elisa said.

« I can't ... I can't give you Saber. I cannot! »
Without wishing it, Alessandro used a Command Seal and called Saber, the moment the girl took out the sword the members of the Coven left and Elisa ordered Alessandro to return the Servant:

« Give me the Servant, Alessandro! She's not yours, she belongs to the Coven.

« I belong only to my Master. » Saber said. « I'm his Servant, not yours. If you have any problems, face me. »

At that moment Specter also came.

« Well, well, well ... I see that Christians have shown up, I can finally bring some interesting soul to hell. How you guys doing? Me? I'm fine. I'm gonna eat hypocrisy for lunch. »

« Glasya-Labolas ... » Elisa said, worried.

To fight at that moment would've been foolish, everyone present was aware of it. There was a moment of tension in the air but then the members of the Coven decided to withdraw, including Elisa Mancini.

Saber sheathed the weapon, turned to Alessandro and then the boy suddenly passed out falling into her arms. Frightened, she picked up her Master and carried him away.

Elisa Mancini by Bikowolf

Chapter 138 : The Cradle of Rosenkreutz

February 3, 2021 - Day 8

Alessandro and Friedrich went to the Clock Tower and there they met the magus Dorian Benard who had just finished a conference with colleagues from the Mage's Association. When he saw the two boys he approached them promptly, it was clear that he intended to speak to them, looked at Friedrich in the eyes and then, nodding, said to him:
« Maybe we have a solution. »
Friedrich and Alessandro had a moment of joy upon hearing those words, but Friedrich was the first to return with his feet on the ground and asked:
« What do you want to do with Sheol, then? »
« Maybe it would be better to talk about it elsewhere, follow me. »
Dorian took the two boys to a large antique-looking library, this was one of the two libraries that the Clock Tower was provided with. Dorian seated the two boys and then explained:
« You're probably aware of this: four days ago one hundred civilians were involved in the Holy Grail War of Yggdrasil. » Friedrich and Alessandro exchanged two worried glances, went back to listening to Dorian: « Such a large number of civilian victims is worrying, especially considering that the war has just started. The police and the army are still looking for the culprits, London is scared, but we can perhaps end the war immediately. »
« How? » Friedrich asked, perplexed.
« The Rote Mäntel have contacted us and have offered to help, they want to make a relic available to us: the Cradle of Rosenkreutz. »
Friedrich was frightened at hearing that name, got up from his chair and shaking his head exclaimed:
« No don't do it! It's dangerous! »
« Calm down, what's going on? What's this relic? » Alessandro asked, worried about his friend.
« Only the Rote Mäntel know this relic, it's a vase about fifty or sixty centimeters high, it's green and has golden engravings reminiscent of the branches of a rose, its lid has the shape of a rose. It's a unique object, it's impossibile to forget that relic. »

Friedrich was seriously afraid, he wasn't joking, his hands trembled and he hid them in his jacket pockets, then he continued:
« It was built by Christian Rosenkreutz, a German monk who visited Damascus, Egypt and Morocco. During his travels he learned techniques that allowed him to give magical attributes to some objects, making them ... special. Together with three confreres from his monastery he formed the Confraternity of the Rose Cross. Nobody knows their monastery but we know that these four monks used that magic to create an object capable of sucking the magical energy: the Cradle of Rosenkreutz. That relic, however, was used only once and from what we know killed at least seven dozen monks of the Confraternity of the Rose Cross. That object is out of control. »
« I know, the Rote Mäntel told us, but they also told us that everything is under control now. » Dorian said.
« They believe it ... but they're ignorant. They don't know the truth, the Cradle of Rosenkreutz cannot be controlled in any way, my teacher knew it. He had spent ten years of his life studying that relic and the conclusions drawn are these: that relic is a tool of death, nothing else. Once you lift the lid, the relic becomes like a black hole and sucks all the magical energy nearby, there is no way to contain that vortex. »
« But can it be stopped? » Alessandro asked.
« Of course. Just put the lid back on, but you  have to be ready to die doing it. So it happened the last time. The Rote Mäntel are crazy if they really hope to use the Cradle of Rosenkreutz  to kill Sheol. »
« I'm sorry. » Dorian intercalated with a sad look: « But there has been a broad consensus. Even if you were right I couldn't do anything about it. »
« But it's crazy! » Alessandro exclaimed shocked: « We will all die! We won't solve anything! We don't even know if Sheol can really be killed this way! You're crazy if you do such a thing! Idioti! »

«The Cradle can kill Sheol, believe me, but it will also kill thousands and thousands of magi. This is the sacrifice that you're accepting to make. » Friedrich said.
« What if we find a way to contain its power? » Dorian suggested.
« You can't, end of the discussion. »
« So what are you going to do? »
« We want to destroy the Holy Grail of Yggdrasil. Sheol is still tied to that Grail, if we destroy it she disappears. It's much better than genocide. »
« Well, Friedrich, first you have to be in front of the Holy Grail and we don't know where it is. We don't even know if it can be destroyed. You are betting with blindfolded eyes, if you were wrong it would be the end of the world. Do you realize it? »
« I don't think Sheol wants to destroy the world, though ... » Friedrich muttered to himself, then realized that Dorian was still listening to him: « Forget it, that's not the point. The point is, you risk doing more damage. No, I can't accept your suicidal choice. Only a fool would do it. »
« We're desperate, Friedrich, we must stop Sheol at any cost. Will two thousand, perhaps three thousand or perhaps four thousand magi die? Yes. So what? It seems to me a necessary sacrifice to preserve the human race! »
Friedrich slammed his fist against the table, got up and without saying a word left the library. Alessandro followed his friend to the outside of the Clock Tower, stopped him by taking his arm and asked him, worried:
« What can we do? »
« I don't know. I hate bureaucracy, I hate the fact that that fools make decisions for us. We're in the hands of desperate imbeciles, they have lost the light of reason. Maybe ... there's something we can do, but it is very risky. »

« What? Tell me. »

« Either we destroy the Cradle ... or we find a way to steal and seal it forever. »

« Time is against us. »

« I know ... »

Friedrich had the expression of a person who was haunted by invisible ghosts that Alessandro didn't know about. Concerned, gloomy and pensive at the same time, Friedrich had trembling hands, he was trying to hide them but his fear was revealed. Alessandro couldn't blame him but at the same time he didn't know how to help him, the best he could do was follow him and do what he said.

Friedrich Wolff by Bikowolf

Chapter 137 : The evil eye

« I don't believe in God, but I believe in this shit. » Murakawa Tetsuya asserted while he was smoking a cigarette sitting on an armchair that didn't belong to him in an apartment where he didn't live; at his feet was the corpse of a man. Lancer appeared, disgusted to have seen her Master commit yet another murder; the woman asked skeptically:
« Was this man also a member of that organization that wants you dead? »
« If he wasn't, I wouldn't have killed him, don't you think? » He said, smiling.
« What's so funny? »
« I see that you don't know what it means to have the evil eye, I've always been a unique, special case in T6: I've always had better contracts because of my original ability to kill and my colleagues have always been envious of my popularity among the clients ... and now here I am, victim of their evil eye, of their envy. I no longer have a job, I no longer have allies to rely on and no place in the world is safe for me. »

« That's the evil eye? »

« Of course. »

« You've a strange way of looking at it, Master, it almost seems that you've been cursed by a witch. »
« What do you think this is? If it's not a curse, it's a fucking joke of some psychopathic God. I had everything and now I have nothing. »
« Crocodile tears. » Lancer commented, disgusted. « You're playing the part of the victim, I find it pathetic considering what you've just done. »
« Do you think I want to be a victim? No, actually I like this situation because it's proof that I've always been right. » Tetsuya said with a satisfied expression.
« What are you talking about? »
« How do you think I committed my murders? » He asked, putting out his cigarette on the ashtray.
« I don't really care. »
« Wrong answer. » Tetsuya got up from his armchair and went to the table where there were glasses and a bottle of virgin whiskey. Tetsuya took off the cap and poured four fingers of whiskey then began to tell: « I've never liked firearms or cutting weapons, I've always felt a particular pleasure in doing my job with my own hands. »

« Like an animal. »
« More like a vehicle. » He corrected Lancer and then drank the whiskey all at once: « I was a vehicle for their aggression. When one wants another person to die, they don't want that person to be killed in an instant, they want to vent their aggression on the victims. A quick death is like a masturbation but what I offered was the equivalent of a coitus. All human beings want to let off steam over their fellow men: they want to kill them only after destroying them. I was a "destruction agent", I destroyed the victims little by little and then I killed them and my customers appreciated it. »
« Youìre even worse than an animal, Murakawa Tetsuya, I can't believe I'm forced to fight by your side. For me it's dishonorable. » Lancer's judgment was sudden and full of repulsion.
« Then you can go fuck yourself, Lancer ... unless you also have aggression to vent on someone, for example on the Servants fighting in this war, I could help you ... »

Lancer pointed her spear at Tetsuya's throat and exclaimed angrily:
« Don't you dare compare me to you, I'm a warrior with values! »
« I don't doubt it, Cleta, but I've inquired about you and I know that your Noble Phantasm draws strength from your anger. Your enemies destroyed your homeland, didn't they? What is your wish, Cleta? Do you have at least one wish or are you here just to vent your anger on your opponents? »
« Be quiet! »
« Or? »
« I told you to keep quiet! » She screamed.

« You're no different from humans. Heroes are just ideals, humans are actually violent, very violent ... because they love to be. Heroes like King Arthur were nothing more than fairy tales told to justify violence in the human heart. Aggressiveness, this is the true nature of mankind, everything else is just a lie. You heroes believe you're superior but you're only ideal, you're fairy tales ... little more than masks. No matter how wonderful your legends are ... they will only be excuses to continue killing. Point that weapon at me and prove that I'm right. Here's what you are. »

Tetsuya filled the glass with two more fingers of whiskey, drank it and then placed the glass on the tip of the spear which was aimed at his throat; he turned commenting with irony:
«You need an anti-stress ball. »
Lancer, moving the rod, threw the glass and then destroyed it in midair; she didn't say anything to her Master, she was still angry with him but in her heart she knew that Tetsuya was right about her.

Murakawa Tetsuya by Bikowolf

Chapter 136 : Gratitude

Friedrich was sitting on the sofa playing the guitar, he was rehearsing some chords, Specter was there close to him listening to his melodies that lasted a maximum of two minutes each, she was fascinated by his music because she perceived loneliness and sadness from it; the vibration of those strings was the voice of his soul communicating with the world. Specter had never heard of music in her entire life, that was the first time.

Friedrich realized that his Servant was listening carefully to every single note, she was quieter than usual: she wasn't bothering, she wasn't making idiotic jokes, she was like enchanted. With his hand he stopped the chords and asked, curious:
« Have you ever played a musical instrument? »
« No .» She replied with a melancholy look: « Not all demons live surrounded by luxury. I'm a bitch of a more powerful demon and therefore I've never had the pleasure of playing anything. »
« I'm sorry, it must have been sad. »
« You can't be sad when you don't have something you don't even know. I've never known music, this is the first time I hear it. »

Friedrich was slightly shaken by that statement, surely because he was human and didn't know the lifestyle of a demonic creature, it was strange for him to think of a life without music. Strange and sad.

« How does it feel to play an instrument? To make music? » Specter asked, intrigued.

« It's not simple ... it's something personal. »
« It's all right. Tell me. »
« Well ... music for me is like a language, a way to give voice to my interiority. There are things that cannot be expressed in words, there are things that not even science can understand ... and these things are human feelings and these are translated into music. Music is my life. That's all. »

« Who taught you to play? »

« I'm a sort of self-taught. I learned on my own. With the experience and advice of some, I followed my heart and found my music. When I travel ... I need to give vent to my emotions, otherwise I feel ... closed in a cage, which is silence. And I hate silence. »
« Why? »
« Because silence leaves room only for negative thoughts and I need to silence them. »

« So you play music only because you hate negative thoughts? »

« Yes and no. I hate negative thoughts, yes, but they have no control over my music. »

« What are these thoughts? »

« The fear of being nobody, the fear of being an intruder and of being harmful to others ... sorry, I don't want to talk about it. »

« It's okay. So you composed your music? »
« Ah, ah! I'm not an artist, I don't create things. Generally I play songs that I like. » He replied, smiling.
« Well, it's a little sad ... but I have no expectations. I leave you to your music. »
Specter got up from the sofa and headed for the kitchen but Friedrich, leaning the guitar, hugged her from behind. She, a little embarrassed, stammered:
« Wha-What are you doing? »
« Thank you. »
She blushed.
« W-Why are you thanking me? I didn't do anything. »
« You saved my life. I know maybe it was just your duty but ... I still wanted to thank you, Specter. »
« Tch! I'd do it another hundred times, Master ... now I'm getting attached to you. »

« That's fine with me. »

« Really? »

« Yes. »

Specter blushed, squeezed Friedrich's hands and said:

« Don't die. »

Friedrich by Bikowolf