"Do you know the tale of…"
.
.
.
"Hänsel and Gretel?"
"Hänsel and Gretel... the story with the two children and the witch?"
Abigail nodded, swung her left hand behind her, and drew two circles in the air. A violet, glowing shield appeared around us, protecting us from the effects of the reality marble—at least, as long as we stayed near her.
Slowly, we began to see more than just our hands.
And by "we," I mean everyone else. Strangely enough, I hadn't been affected by whatever was going on here from the beginning. It had simply gotten darker, but not unrecognizably so. I didn't feel lost, nor did I feel hungry.
[Effect of [Unnatural Existence] successfully negates the status changes.]
Oh so that´s why, interisting...
"They're here,"
Abigail spoke again, snapping us out of our trance.
At that moment, we heard a loud crack in front of us, roughly 20 meters away. There they stood—Hänsel and Gretel.
Dressed in a worn-out white suit, stained and full of holes, stood a small boy, no older than 12. He had short brown hair and a dirty face. He looked at us with an unimpressed expression, unlike his blonde-haired, 13 year old sister, Gretel.
She hung upside down from a thick branch to Hänsel's side.
Her clothing wasn't much different from her brother's; she wore an old, ruffled dress in the same dull color. Unlike her brother, though, she appeared more presentable, at least in terms of clothing. However, she had dark circles under her eyes and faint traces of heavy tears on her face. Yet her expression didn't match this image at all—she wore a cruel smile that quickly turned into an eerie laugh, echoing throughout the entire forest.
"What in God's name is that?" Pierre's words cut through the air, echoing the thoughts that most of us were having at that moment.
Soon after, Rin voiced the next collective thought: "I don't want to die"
In their fear, they seemed to forget that their Servants were standing guard, ready to protect them.
Don't get me wrong, I was scared too. I didn't want to die either. But that was about it.
Strangely enough, I felt safe and secure—and had felt that way since the beginning.
From the moment I woke up here, it felt as if I always had a Plan B, no matter what.
And this is a Holy Grail War, after all.
Whatever, the little brats vanished shortly afterward.
And being the geniuses we are, we quickly realized something crucial if we want to escape:
Forst + two servants that have something to do with fire = wildfire.
Well, at least we tried. But when Karna swung his spear and Nero played with her flames, successfully setting the trees ablaze, it didn't go as planned.
The trees grew back instantly—this time in double the quantity. After that, we didn't bother trying again.
Ten minutes after we attempted to burn down the forest, Hänsel and Gretel appeared before us again. This time, they seemed quite pissed off, probably because we'd tried to destroy their forest.
Now they weren't playing anymore. The first official attack of this Grail War began.
Simultaneously, they opened their mouths and began singing their "song" in sync:
"Hänsel und Gretel verirrten sich im Wald…"
("Hansel and Gretel got lost in the woods…")
After the first verse, I suddenly found myself alone—just Abigail and me. At first, I was worried, but when I saw my little Outer God´s vessel standing calmly by my side, I naturally felt safer. Haha.
Then came the second verse.
"Es war so finster, und auch so bitter Kalt…"
("It was so dark and, so bitterly cold…")
Suddenly, the surroundings turned pitch black, and the temperature plummeted. It became so dark that my visibility was reduced to barely three meters. Since it wasn't a status effect, my ability didn't kick in.
Fortunately, I had Abigail with me. Thanks to her powers, she could see without any problem.
Quickly, the final verse of their activation chant began.
"Wir waren so hungrig, und da war ein Zucker Haus, aber die blöde Hexe, aß uns nur auf"
("We were so hungry, and there was a candy house, but the wicked witch... ate us instead.")
I didn't know how to react. Isn't the third line of the first verse supposed to be different? But before I could think further, the surroundings began to crack.
I wasn't sure what it was, but Abigail raised her hand like a blade and precisely sliced through a nearby tree.
Don't ask me why—maybe the tree was black?
Maybe she's racist...I dont know....
Almost simultaneously, I was enveloped by her tentacles, which seemed to wrap themselves protectively around me.
An opening remained near my head, forming a bubble through which I could see the forest again around us.
The trees have hand?
Legs...and tentacles?
Are they trying to copy us?
I had no idea what was happening, but at least I could see what Abby was doing. She was beating the crap out of evil trees—lol.
However, there was no sign of those little pests, Hänsel and Gretel. The forest had also fallen eerily silent after they had finished their full activation chant.
Now cocooned within Abby's tentacles, I could feel the immense power she was preparing. Since her attacks didn't affect me, she wasn't holding back at all.
She snapped her fingers, and from a newly formed rift in the air behind her emerged an enormous black, violet-glowing tentacle. It rose high into the air before slamming down with terrifying force a few meters ahead of us. The impact leveled an area the size of ten football fields.
Moments later, the tentacle withdrew back into the rift, and the world went silent once more.
When Abby finally released me from her protective cocoon, I noticed something strange: the area of destruction where the tentacle had struck wasn't regenerating. Unlike before, the trees weren't growing back.
Abby explained nonchalantly that the ground and air in that area were now coated with a black miasma, which was effectively blocking any recovery.
"What the hell was that!?" I practically yelled at Abigail after I calmed down a bit. I mean, you don't almost die every day, right?
Her red-pink eyes gazed at me in amusemet. She responded casually, "a weak tentacle."
Funnily enough, the forest left us alone after that.
I immediately assumed it was out of respect for us. But then I remembered: we weren't actually in a "forest." This was a construct, a world entirely under Hänsel and Gretel's control.
So why would they stop unless… they had already gotten what they wanted?
Wait a second....oh fuck
Abigail used her quasi-omniscience to locate my teammates, and in the process, we also found the culprits.
They were engaged in a battle against a heavy injured Robin Hood.
Abby opened a portal that emerged near Hood and the siblings. But just as we were about to step in and help, I froze.
On the ground behind Robin Hood lay Tom, one of the two Americans in our group.
His expression was vacant, devoid of any reaction.
He was just lying there, motionless, behind his Servant.
At that moment, just as Robin Hood was about to unleash his Noble Phantasm, Hänsel and Gretel charged forward. They dodged Robin's arrows with ease or simply sliced through them with one of the knives they held.
Yes, knives. I was just as surprised, but whatever.
They continued to dodge the arrows, sprinting toward him in unison so quickly that I could barely track their movements. Then, they together leapt at him.
Robin Hood was knocked down, Gretel landing easily on top of him.
Hänsel, standing beside her, kicked Robin's bow away. With a snap of his fingers, an old iron oven materialized beside him.
Robin Hood screamed in panic, but his prana was entirely spent after his failed attempt to activate his Noble Phantasm. Before he could mount any sort of resistance, Gretel swiftly plunged her knife into his chest. The siblings dragged him to the scorching oven and locked him inside.
His cries for help and desperate pleas stopped shortly after.
Robin Hood was dead, killed by Hänsel and Gretel using their Hexenofen Noble Phantasm.
I collapsed.
Fighting and defending yourself is one thing, but watching someone die—so brutally and agonizingly—was entirely different.
The last thing I saw before blacking out was Hänsel and Gretel laughing grotesquely as they began feasting on the now "baked" Robin Hood.
A Holy Grail War isn't as laid-back as I thought, huh?
What I didn't see was how Abigail interrupted their feast with a flurry of eldritch magecraft and a barrage of tentacles. Her expression was just as evil and psychotic as the children's—terrifyingly fitting for the opponents she was fighting. And yet, she herself was barely younger than they were.
Abigail unleashed several low-tier eldritch magecraft spells that she mastered, and though she could only drive Hänsel and Gretel into retreat, because I was still lying there, and she didnt want me to die, she managed to sever Hänsel's left arm.
The energy coursing through her abyssal attacks + the miasma ensured it couldn't regenerate.
Shortly after, the children withdrew their Reality Marble, and everything returned to normal.
However, Tom could not be saved.
When Abigail reappeared on the stone platform, carrying me wrapped securely in her tentacles, the other Servants and Masters soon returned as well.
But not only was Robin Hood missing—an absence that immediately drew attention—but Tom was now just a lifeless body.
This time, he wasn't even breathing.
"Tom and Robin Hood… are dead"
Said Abigail soon after we all awakened.
Abigail described Tom's death as the loss of his soul.
Shortly after, I regained consciousness. Abigail stood next to me, calm as ever, and instructed me to analyze a leaf.
A leaf?
Like all Masters, I possess the ability to analyze stats and objects under certain conditions. With Abigail's assistance, I managed to extract information from a single leaf that had been part of Hänsel and Gretel's Noble Phantasm, which Abby saved with help of her powers.
[Forest of the Lost]
NP Type: Reality Marble
Category: Soul
Rank: A+
Effect:
Hänsel and Gretel can manifest their forest whenever and wherever they desire, as long both agree to summon it. Within the forest, they maintain absolute control over all aspects—except for their prisoners.
The longer one remains inside, the darker it becomes, the colder it feels, and the hungrier one grows. Slowly, memories and the reason for entering the forest begins to fade.
Once someone "forgets" themselves entirely, they become Lost. And once Lost, they are doomed to wander the forest forever in their sould forms.
Upon leaving the forest, all inflicted damage, except death, is nullified—both for Hansel and Gretel, as well as their captives.
Not long after, another global announcement reverberated through the air:
{A Green Assassin has killed the Blue Archer, Robin Hood.}
I stood, forcing myself upright, and addressed the team.
"We're all here now, right? This isn't a joke. This is reality.
If we don't want to die, we have to fight—and we have to win.
Rest in peace, Tom. But thank you for opening our eyes."
Everyone was shaken. Some visibly more than others.
Even Vladimir and Pierre—usually stoic and composed—were rattled. And John… what can you expact from someone, who just lost his brother?
I turned to face the group, my expression hardening.
"We've got a strong Servant on the enemy team, and a clever Master backing them up."
I pointed to Abigail. "But we've got a strong Servant too...and a hopefully smart master"
I pointed on me, trying to make a joke...
John stepped forward, speaking with effort, his voice heavy with emotion. "We have to stick together. No more secrets."
"Agreed," I replied, nodding. "So, what are your abilities..friends?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hansel and Gretel are an Assassin pair I created. (I used the German names because, its a german fairy tale lol)
They're strong, fast, and cunning—but in the end, they're still just children. To them, their Noble Phantasm is both a playground and hunting ground, much like the witch's hut.
If you haven't noticed yet, this version of Hansel and Gretel isn't one where they escaped the witch. No, here, they were eaten. Thats why they are assassin too, because they tried to flee but it didnt work till they got killed.
Their reality marble reflects this fate: the ever-present oven they carry and the Reality Marble that embodies the cold, darkness, despair, and sense of being lost.
The psycho comes from the witch they died by...
I hope you find them as fascinating as I do.
With that, I wish you all a great day or evening! 😊