Waking up was a slow, arduous struggle and reminded me faintly of school days that seemed so long ago. I looked around as I slowly sat up, and the covers fell off me.
My bedroom was in shambles, the ceiling and a vast majority of the right side were gone, and the rest was heavily damaged. The bed and dresser had escaped mostly undamaged, as they were the farthest away from the ring.
Swinging my legs over the side, I realized that I was not wearing anything except a pair of shorts. Walking out, I saw that the rest of the house, while slightly damaged, had escaped far better than my room.
However, as I stepped into the kitchen where Komainu and Sola-Ui were eating, blackness overtook my vision as I dropped to the floor as my soulless form escaped the range of my soul gem.
Waking up for the second time, I felt a heavy weight lying on top of me. Blinking, I saw Komainu lying on top of me and scowling at my face.
"Be careful, you idiot!" She shouted, worry marring her face. "Do you know how terrifying it is to find you collapsed, surrounded by destruction, and you can't do anything about it?"
Raising my hands under the assault, I encircled them around her and gave her a firm, if awkward, hug. "I'm sorry; I didn't want you to get hurt."
Sniffling, she tightened the hug. We sat there for a long while before I started to squirm in an attempt to get out of her grip. While I liked(loved) her, I was not a very touchy-feely person.
She ignored that and simply tightened her grip, causing me to sigh and lean back, allowing the hug to continue. Eventually, she released me and sat up before speaking.
"I can't force you to stay inside because you would be miserable, but you need to be more careful." Nodding, I also sat up and allowed her to embrace me in another hug. This one lasted much shorter, thankfully but was no less sweet.
Hopping off the bed, she left but not before giving me a look that promised pain if I did anything stupid. Signing, I got up and shuffled over to the sock drawer where I stored my soul gem.
Rifling through it, I pulled out the small pen and peered at the green gem on the end of it. The gem was halfway corrupted; reaching back in the drawer, I grabbed the Shard and tucked both pen and Shard in my pocket as I walked back into the kitchen.
Sola-Ui was at the sink washing off the dishes while Komainu was helping to bring the cutlery to the sink. Sitting down, I rubbed my hands over the top of my skull like somebody would run their hands through their hands.
I needed to reforge the rings as I didn't want my soul to be on me, which was a massive weakness. I also needed to remake the ruby, which wasn't even about my magic circuits.
Poking them, I winced, projecting that Excaluber had done a number on them, causing most of them to tear themselves apart.
They weren't destroyed, merely heavily damaged, but that meant that even with my ruby, I would be down a ton of mana which meant my tactic of throwing weapons at people via Unlimted Balde Works or the Gate of Babylon.
Speaking of the Gate, I opened it, which caused me to wince as that took a considerable amount compared to the drop in the bucket earlier. Reaching my hand in, I went for the bottle that could revert time on the user.
I wanted to have it on hand just in case, as it was better to be weakened than dead. However, I felt nothing inside the Gate, not even as I searched for things I had used earlier. It was as if the Gate was empty.
Swearing under my breath, I realized what had happened. It seemed that the Gate was a unique deal and linked to Gilgamesh. I could piggyback off his with Blood of Kings, but when he was gone, all of his treasures vanished with him removing the main power of the Gate.
Without the vast array of treasures, it was just a hammerspace that could fire items. It would take forever to restock it, and until then, it would be mostly useless.
Pulling myself from my thoughts, I headed outside and frowned, seeing the lack of 5.0 or any of the other simulacrum. The only sign they had been here was a small bag of Dust accumulated over the past few days.
Picking it up, I sifted it through my fingers and strode over to my small forge. It had been damaged by Ea leaking into my home. It was terrifying how a sliver of a weak blast from the weapon had blown a hole in my room and damaged the rest of the pocket dimension.
Getting to work, I started to fix up the forge. The vast majority of it was sealing cracks and rearranging the tools and other items. However, a few of the tools, as well as the main forge, had been broken.
The tools were easy to replace, and the forge was a bigger pain. I was forced to break it down and rebuild it, which, while not very difficult, was time-consuming given my inexperience with this type of work.
I had plenty of information stuffed in my head, but it was similar to having a book next to you as you built a table. It would take time to flip through the 'pages' and figure out how to fix the forge.
As I finished, I took a step back and felt the Grimoire grow, and I felt a slight tug in my gut that quickly faded away. I didn't know what new power I had been granted, but I had other work to do before I figured out that new power.
Dusting off my hands, I decided I could take time to fix the house. It would, unfortunately, take a decent bit of Dust, but it was better than having a home sans the roof.
Pulling Dust out of the pouch, I got to work. The task was simple if time-consuming; I would toss the Dust towards the holes and mentally change it to what was needed to fix that missing part.
I knew that I was only papering over the issues, but seeing as I didn't know how to build a house and I couldn't bring a construction team in to fix it up.
Humming, I finished up. It had taken a few hours to patch over the holes. The makeshift repairs would be an issue with any ordinary house, but inside this pocket dimension that was always calm, I only had to worry about a stray breeze.
Only Artoria and Iskander were left, Caster had not been summoned, and Assassin would have faded without his Master. I only needed to kill one of them then I could command Lancelot to kill himself.
Following that, I would have to destroy the Grail. I could attempt to rules-lawyer a wish that would destroy it, but that was a firm last resort.
Tapping my fingers on the table, I stood up. I knew that Sola-Ui was quite good with spiritual surgery, so she might be able to help fix my magic circuits; she was no Kieri but better to try than not try.
Knocking on the door leading to her room, I leaned against the wall and waited. Soon the door was opened, and she curtseyed before waiting expectantly.
"As you can tell, I got into a bit of a scuffle and may have blown out quite a few of my magic circuits. Can you help?" I asked, rubbing the back of my neck somewhat sheepishly.
As I finished, Sola-Ui's eyes widened in a manner that may have been comical in any other context. She promptly grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside her room. I allowed her to pull me along.
"Lay down." She directed while pulling out tools and muttering under her breath as I followed her orders. As I was lying down, she slowly muttered mystical words as she examined me.
Hissing through her teeth, she returned to the table and grabbed more tools and reagents before speaking to me. "This is going to hurt. I can fix the less damaged ones, but quite a few are beyond my skill to repair."
Nodding, I placed my head back on the table and clenched my teeth. Soon excruciating pain surged through my entire being, and my hands spasmed. The sides of the table where I had been gripping exploded as my hands slammed shut.
I shuddered as the pain counted and attempted to take my mind off the pain by breathing through my nonexistent nose. It was strange to take calming breaths when you didn't need to, but soon it was over.
Staggering off the table, I saw Sola-Ui calmly placing the tools back. I saw a few marks from where the wood shards had hit her. However, none of them were bleeding.
Gently poking the circuits, I winced as the damaged ones pulsed with a dull throb. She had managed to repair six, which left me with nine. That was better but a far cry from the twenty top tier I had gotten from the power.
"Thank you, Sola-Ui," I said as I went to leave. As I opened the door, I stopped as she spoke behind me. "I would recommend being more careful next time, the circuits connect to the soul, and if the prana doesn't have an outlet, it may detonate inside your soul."
Gulping, I gave her a nod and walked back into the main room. I needed to be careful from now on. I had survived due to luck and Gilgamesh being arrogant as hell; if he had been serious, I would have been dusted immediately.
I needed a method to fight Artoria, she was easier than Gilgamesh but not by much, and if she got off Excaluiber, I would be in deep shit.
The best plan would be to kill the Master; I should be able to find him near or around Einzbern Castle. If he wasn't there, I could kidnap Irivesal and force him to reveal himself that way.
The issue was that Kiritsugu was an intelligent man and was already willing to let his wife die for his nebules goal of world peace. I didn't know if he would be willing to sacrifice her earlier.
That wasn't even getting into his accomplice, whose name I couldn't remember, or the fact that if I died before the Grail reached completion, that could spell disaster.
I decided to push the planning back. I needed to reforge the rings and get a new ruby; this time, the ruby should have better throughput.
Rummaging through the Dust bag, I frowned; fixing up the house and forge had used a decent chunk of the Dust, which meant that I would only have a pinch or two after my work was done, less if I tried to get fancy.
Striding towards the forge, I soon had it started up and working. The job was straightforward and didn't take much time with Master Craftsman. The enchanting process took longer and took the remaining day as I lacked the sheer volume of mana I could throw at it before.
The next step was the ruby. However, I decided to start from the basics as I had the time, and it would be enhanced by Master Craftsman if I did.
Humming, I started to work. The ruby itself I conjured from Dust but the surrounding mix of metals that I would use to allow more throughput I made from the ground up.
The task itself was simple, two rubies and small electrum wiring to allow better mystical conductivity. I would then wrap the red-hot wiring around the rubies and quench them.
I then placed the first ruby in the connection point for the batteries' containment circles. The other went inside my skull, and I soon had both up and running.
I was still down a fair chunk of mana from when I had all my circuits up and running, but it was better than nothing. As I stretched with a grin from a job well done, the Grimoire grew, and new physical information filled my mind as I decided to check out my two new powers.
Powers Gained
ANOMNOMNOMALIES
Covering Auriga are strange places full of strange things. These can be mushrooms that sing to you and make a delicious bread, giant spines of stone that erupt through the earth and are held in place by a base small enough for a child to wrap their hand around it, red barked trees that are covered in flames yet never burn to down, to a fabled "tree" a hundred feet tall, made purely out of wind blown Dust. You have a wonderful habit of finding each and everyone one of them. No matter where you are, there will always be some strange, Endless made wonder for you to explore, examine, and gain from. I happen to LOVE Mosspearl jam myself. You might be more keen on a Escaped Specimen X104 steak, served with ruby cacti fruit wine on a bed of sauteed redsang?
For ANOMNOMNOMALIES and Landscapist, an Anomaly is any thing, place, area, lifeform, that clearly breaks the laws of reality, or are so distinctly unusual they can not be considered natural. The Zone in STALKER is a good example of a nonEndless anomaly. The weirder and more unnatural a place is, the stronger its anomaly nature. One helps you find weird places, things, and items, the other helps you draw power from them.
Physical Enhancement
Magical girls have to be fit. But when a monster is bearing down on you on your first night, that's a bit late to hit the gym. Fortunately, your power includes some basic enhancements.
Muscles a dozen times as powerful, capable of letting you lift cars without hurting yourself, tossing people through walls, and running across rooftops.
A full-body reinforcement by the same factor, protecting you from your new strength, as well as making most enemy attacks into lighter punches. Not completely ignorable, but you'll take a good beating without going down.
Enhancements to balance and reflexes, as well as some acrobatics training settled into your mind so you can use your new abilities to roofhop and stand on telephone poles without issue.