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The next day came quickly, and before I knew it, Rin and I were on our way to her school. And while she was making small talk, I was not paying any attention as I was still wondering what I wanted to do with the dipshit known as Shirou Emiya.

 

I found it absolutely insulting that a worthless mortal with no talent but Plot Armour had my former Avalon. I was honestly considering just ripping it out of him the second I see him, but on the other hand I was wondering if he’d still manage to summon the version of myself in this reality if left alone.

 

Still lost in my own thoughts, I was brought out however when I noticed Rin waving her hand in front of my face and asking if I was paying attention to her.

 

With mild annoyance in my voice I asked, “What do you need, Rin?”

 

She huffed, crossed her arms over her chest and looked away while saying, “It’s rude to ignore someone who is talking to you.”

 

I merely scoff and say, “If any of the drivel leaving your mouth was of import, I would pay attention.”

 

Her head snapped to me in anger, but all she did was glare before scoffing herself and looking away. Ignoring the woman, I went back to my thoughts about Shirou and the others. While I was thinking, two thoughts suddenly forced their way to the forefront of my mind.

 

What exact timeline was I in, if any that I knew of, and could I even open a portal back to our Dimension since I was summoned here? Deciding to check the portal bit since it was easy, I was surprised that I actually couldn’t. I could still feel my connection to Tearwyn, the Dimension, and my System but I couldn’t interact with any of it.

 

With a soft hum to myself I thought, ‘I really should have asked Mother how many god/desses I am dealing with. Must be more than one at least if they can block my ability to open a portal.’

 

Rin suddenly facepalmed herself out of nowhere and turned to me while asking, “I just remembered. Why are you not in your spirit form?”

 

Tilting my head I asked, “I have no such form though?”

 

Her mouth hung open before she asked, “What do you mean you have no such form?! How are you supposed to come with me anywhere if anyone can see you?!”

 

With my head still slightly tilted I raised an eyebrow and asked, “But no one can see me? Did you not find it weird how none of the mortals we’ve walked by didn’t drop to their knees and ask to be stepped on?”

 

She immediately blushed up a storm and stuttered, “Wh-wha-what!?”

 

While she was stuttering, blushing and throwing all kinds of statements at me, even I was kind of taken aback with myself as I also registered what I had said. I quietly mumbled to myself, “Is Neo corrupting me? Is that possible?”

 

Shaking my head lightly to clear my thoughts I raised my hand to stop her avalanche of useless comments as I said, “Either way, no-one will see me but you. Well, they will see me, but they can’t register my existence in their minds. So, same thing really.”

 

With the wind still taken from her sails she released a massive sigh before asking, “What do you mean they can’t register your existence?”

 

I crack a smug smile as I say, “Just that. It’s a nice little charm I picked up rather recently. Simple and yet very complex magic from a generation of mortals that had no right creating such magic honestly.”

 

With her blush finally leaving her face, she raised an eyebrow in interest as she asked, “Would you be able to teach me such magic?”

 

Raising my hand to my chin in thought while closing my eyes I think for a few moments. With an eventual shrug I say, “Maybe. But I have no desire or reason to.”

 

With a slightly sinister chuckle I said, “You could use a command seal to make me try though…”

 

With a sigh and a wave of her hand she turned slightly and started walking again as she said, “No, not worth it right now. Now come on, I don’t want to be late for school.”

 

With a shrug I say, “Your choice.”

 

With that our conversation died and we walked in comfortable, to me at least, silence all the way to her school. As we passed the school gates and neared the building I couldn’t help the “Tsk” that escaped my lips.

 

Rin side eyed me as she asked, “What was that for?”

 

Releasing an annoyed sigh I said, “So many useless mortals. A few of them may be Summoners at least, but the vast majority of them are garbage.”

 

As we arrived at her locker and she started to put her things away and get others she said, “I didn’t take you for a king that would disparage the common folk.”

 

I could only scoff as I said, “I have long since abandoned my identity as a king. That chapter of my life was just as worthless as the rabble surrounding us.”

 

She looked at me with surprise as she asked, “You think that your reign as a king was useless?”

 

I nodded my head, but kept silent on the matter. Honestly, I could only remember a shard of my time as a King. And that is only because of what Great Red had done to check who I was. A few memories have trickled their way in since that event, but not much and most of it was after I was corrupted as a Heroic Spirit to begin with.

 

Rin finished gathering her things, closed her locker and started to make her way to class while mumbling, “I am starting to see why you’re a Foreigner class… beyond your broken stats…”

 

It didn’t take us long before we arrived in Rin’s classroom and she started to get herself situated. As she was prepping her stuff on her desk for whatever class she had I said, “I am going to go explore, and check the other mortals here that I feel are potential Summoners. Call if you need me for some reason, I guess.”

 

Since she was surrounded by her fellow students she just gave me a light nod as acknowledgment and left it at that. As I turned to leave I let my senses sweep over the school to find strong souls, and magic. I frowned slightly when I felt three rather strong sources of magic from the corners of the school, while a fourth one was growing slightly in power gently.

 

With a very gentle crack, I teleported (Apperated) myself to the forming power. Arriving with another soft crack sound I looked around and thought, ‘Even though I was able to reduce the sound generated by the spell a great deal, I couldn’t remove it entirely. It’s almost like it’s a part of the spell if I am being honest.’

 

Seeing that the area was clear I looked down at the rune that was etching itself into the ground while I continued my train of thought, ‘At least I was able to remove the awful feeling and distance limitations. Now, this is rather interesting. I have no idea what this rune means, but I can feel the malevolence of it clear as day. Who is etching this though, and from where?’

 

Closing my eyes, I extended the range of my scan to the maximum but sadly I felt nothing. With a deeper frown I thought, ‘I can sense a lot of strong souls and powerful magic, but none of them are linked to these runes. How very interesting. Another interesting thing is I can sense seven Heroic Spirits. But if I include myself, that’s eight…’

 

With a thought, I left the area with another soft crack and appeared next to Rin and gave her a little startle. She glared at me and in a low voice with a bit of heat she asked, “What in the world Artoria? Are you trying to scare me in the middle of class to embarrass me?”

 

I just gave her a dismissive wave of my hand as I said, “I care not if you are scared easily. But more importantly; how many Servants are supposed to appear in this Grail War?”

 

Giving me another glare, she turned back to paying attention to her teacher but still answered in a low voice, “Fourteen. Why?”

 

I raise an eyebrow in interest as I answer her, “I thought it was Seven?”

 

She merely shook her head and said, “No, it’s always been fourteen.”

 

With a hum I asked, “And what number is this War?”

 

She tapped a finger on her desk for a few moments in thought before she answered, “This will be the ninth if I recall correctly. Why all these questions?”

 

I just shrugged and said, “Just clarifying some things. So we got thirteen opponents to murder, eh. Well, it’s better than seven at least.”

 

I noticed Rin stiffed at the word “murder” and could only grin slyly while I thought, ‘Still a bit naïve it seems. Well, I’ll be sure to show her exactly what War is about…’

 

Not feeling like staying, I said, “Well, I got the information I wanted. I am going back to exploring.”

 

She didn’t get a chance to respond as her teacher had called on her to read some passage in a book, so I just teleported out. I appeared right next to Shirou, who had his eyes closed and was touching a TV. I could feel his pathetic amount of magic wash over the broken piece of technology as he was using his famous “trace” ability.

 

Even standing here I could feel the rage start to build as I was gazing on his clueless form. I could sense the reality marble just above his heart in the centre of his body. That bit was interesting at least, as it was truly massive in scope. I also felt a few threads of magic linking to the marble from his soul, and as I followed them it was no surprise they led to Avalon.

 

I narrowed my eyes as I thought, ‘No surprise there. Avalon is nourishing his soul, and even providing a bit of power to his reality marble. Or, maybe augmenting it is the correct term. But… something is off with this Avalon. The ambient mana it's giving off… is to.. “Bright” for a lack of a better word. Weird…’

 

That alone was reason enough to stay my hand if I was being honest. This universe was already weird, so if you add that along with the odd feeling Avalon was giving off? I was willing to bet something interesting would happen if I left him be.

 

So I pushed my rage down and focused on my senses again. Spreading them to the entire city and a bit beyond I focused in on the strongest magical presence and teleported myself there.

 

I looked around in curiosity, and noticed I was in some kind of cathedral. And before me was a woman in a purple robe with a black hood. Much of her face was hidden aside from her mouth and her blue hair that reached her shoulders. She was busy looking at some kind of spell that was generating an orb that had a projection in it. Looking at it, it seems she was spying on Shirou of all people.

 

She let out a random chuckle for some reason, before the vision switched to show Rin’s classroom. However, she was not focused on Rin, but rather her Teacher. If I remember correctly, that was her summoner and they have fallen in love. And if the sigh of longing that escaped her lips was any indication, I was correct.

 

I stood there for a good solid minute before I got bored, and annoyed, of her constant sighing. I dropped my Disillusionment charm and asked, “Why not take a picture. It’ll last longer.”

 

Her reaction was brilliant as she nearly jumped out of her skin with a yelp and vanished and appeared several metres away.

 

I couldn’t help myself as I laughed lightly at her while saying, “Now that was funny.”

 

She gazed at me for a few moments before she asked, “Who are you?”

 

With a cheeky sly grin I said, “Wouldn’t you like to know… Medea.”

 

She gasped, and while I couldn’t see her eyes I was willing to bet they were wide. She wasted no time before she jumped into the air and started to generate numerous spells around her. Seconds later, she let them loose on me while generating several more to pelt me with.

 

While her barrage of spells was rather impressive with how fast she was able to generate it, in the end however it was ultimately useless. All her barrage managed to do was kick up some dust and debris around me. Any spell that managed to hit my still form just exploded, or vanished, doing nothing at all.

 

When she was done with her casting, I waved my hand to cast a wind cantrip to clear all the dust away. As the dust was cleared I looked up at the floating form of Medea and said with a cruel grin, “Is that all, 'Caster?' My turn.”

 

I raised my left hand and pointed at her with my index finger. Nearly instantly a large amount of mana started to swirl around the tip of my finger before it compressed and a ball formed that glowed a black-red with purple lightning arcing around it wildly.

 

While the spell was merely an imitation of one of my favourite abilities in anime, I still called out the name, “Cero.”

 

The world was suddenly dyed in black with a tint of red as an absolutely massive beam of energy was released from my attack. The building gave no resistance whatsoever as it passed through the brick walls and roof. The only sound was the loud hum of magic as I sustained my attack for a few seconds before the beam thinned and petered out of existence.

 

I lowered my hand and put both of them behind my back as I relaxed. The ground around me was nothing but molten slag in an area of ten metres, as well as with the edges of the citadel. Molten rock casually dropped off what was left as parts of the building were still melting from the residue heat of the areas that were in contact with my spell.

 

As I looked up at the clear sky through the large hole I created in the building I casually said, “It would seem I missed.”

 

I had sensed that Medea had teleported away before my attack hit her, but I made no effort to correct the path or speed of my attack to make sure I hit her. One shots were boring after all, for the most part that is. And so, I had let her teleport to the side to avoid my attack. Though I did wonder why she didn’t teleport away, or even behind me to attack while I was busy releasing mine.

 

With a mental shrug, I turned my head to look at Medea as she said with a ting of fear in her voice, “Who are you… what… are you…”

 

I just gave her a mocking, crooked smile as I said, “Who knows? Well, it was nice meeting you Medea. Let’s play again sometime.”

 

With that, I tapped my foot on the ground while I silently cast the mending charm “Reparo.” I watched with mild interest as it looked like time itself was rewound on the building as it repaired itself. In a matter of seconds, it was back to normal. No, it was even better than what it was when I arrived if the shine of the floor and walls was anything to go by.

 

Sending another mocking smile to Medea, I recast my Disillusionment charm and teleported back to Rin. As I appeared next to her, the teacher Medea was in love with had just left the room, and the class was getting ready for its next lesson.

 

Rin glared at me, and in a hushed voice said, “I told you not to do that!”

 

With a sly grin I ignored her complaint as I said, “The teacher that just left is a Summoner. Shall I kill him?”

 

Rin froze in the middle of packing her books, and looked at me and asked, “What? Can you repeat that please?”