thomasdarkrose
patreon
Fabricator v2 - Chapter 26
🕑 Added 2023-09-10 18:39:44 +0000 UTCIt took a while for Excalibur Ruler to calm down from its clear excitement, which led to another small problem. Ruler refused to enter any of Junichiro's many expanded pockets and pouches. Any time he tried to place the sword in one, it vibrated in a rough way that almost made him think it was growling at him. He was honestly shocked at the sheer amount of personality the sword was showing as he couldn't recall it ever being all that important or well used in the canon. The only real use of it that he could recall was Arthur using it on Fenrir. So, for all he knew, this was its normal behavior.
Though he was pretty certain that the proximity of Avalon to the broken piece of Excalibur had something to do with Ruler's attitude. Either way, he'd ended up shape shifting Avalon back into a sheath and placing Ruler inside of it so they both hung from his waist. Only after sheathing Ruler inside of Avalon was he able to outfit the sword with the same type of aura suppression trinket that Avalon sported.
The rest of the underground cathedral was sadly bereft of any further treasures. All the pair found were rotten supplies that had likely once been cloth of some kind, crumbled paper that nothing could be retrieved from, and a dry well. They left the proper entrance unexplored as a quick scan showed it to be filled with various enchantments meant to test anyone trying to get inside of the cathedral. Several showed they had lethal consequences for failure. With nothing left to explore, they left the way they arrived. Though Junichiro did take the time to fill in the hole he made for their entrance. Leaving it open would have just ruined the cathedral and it was such a nice place that doing so actually felt like a legitimate sin.
Between the flight to the mountains, the search, making the entrance, exploring the cathedral, and returning to the ATV the day was nearly over. With that being the case they retired to the trunk of the ATV for the night.
-----Line Break-----
Junichiro took in the sight before him with a smile. It'd been a few days since he'd snagged Excalibur Ruler for himself and it was currently resting in a secure place within the trunk of the ATV. Avalon, meanwhile, had been relocated to somewhere it couldn't easily be taken from him, his heart. Thanks to the ability of Avalon to shift into anything he could imagine, Junichiro had made it shift into a mechanical worm, dig its way into his chest, and then transform into a cage around his heart. The process was far from pleasant and rather painful, but the pain didn't last long as Avalon healed the damage it did near instantly. Now the only way to take Avalon from him, was to overcome it's defensive and regenerative properties to kill him and forcefully take it. Something a god on the level of Apollon was incapable of. On top of that, all his concealing items helped hide the aura of Avalon making it near impossible to detect without stripping him practically naked.
Of course, that didn't mean he couldn't still be captured, held, and tortured into losing his mind and giving it up willingly. Junichiro was fully aware that he was only very powerful defensively. While the abilities such as Transparency and Rapidly would give him some help in a fight, they were nowhere near as powerful as the defensive enchantments and wouldn't help him against much stronger opponents. For now, secrecy was his best option and only three living beings knew he had Avalon, Mittelt, Azazel, and himself. It would stay that way, for a while at least.
Junichiro glanced to his left where Mittelt was sitting next to him. The two racing style bucket seats of the ATV had been transfigured into a bench seat that allowed them to sit close together cuddled up. It was comfortable, but over the last few days of exploring Britain and seeing all the tourist-y sights, he'd realized that he had no future with Mittelt at all. While he'd been excited to see things like Buckingham Palace, Mittelt had found it all blasé and boring as she'd seen it all before. Even now, as they cuddled in the air, invisible to everything and everyone below, watching a wonderful display of fireworks in front of Big Ben, she didn't look too excited or enthralled by the display. Junichiro, meanwhile, was having the time of his life as he fulfilled a desire he'd had in both lives and never fulfilled, seeing Big Ben in person.
Oh sure, it probably didn't seem like all that much to some, but to him it was a lot. He'd seen Big Ben in some of his favorite movies, even in animated cartoons, and always wanted to see it in person. He'd never had the money to really travel in his first life, having never even left the East Coast of the United States before his first death. In this life, not only did he have the money to travel, but he could make amazing vehicles to travel and explore in!
This vacation wasn't just about collecting a bunch of powerful artifacts and hoarding them to give him every advantage against his future enemies, it was also about seeing things he'd never seen and experiencing things he'd never experienced. It was kind of a journey of self discovery type thing, maybe. Even if it wasn't, he had discovered he had very little of a future with Mittelt and thinking about it more deeply, he wasn't surprised.
For one, she was millenia old and he was beginning to realise what that meant for any kind of relationship. Even a millenia from now she would probably still consider him 'young.' For two, her job was to blatantly report everything he did to Azazel. Something he didn't begrudge her as he kept a lot of secrets and only let her know what he wanted her to know. For three, he still planned to join Rias' peerage and he was certain that would ruffle some feathers. Finally, the biggest issue he'd come to realize, he didn't know anyone but Mittelt really.
He'd spent all his time since moving to Kuoh with Mittelt and the occasional visit from Azazel thrown in since the soul eating Yokai thing. He literally had no other friends, not even acquaintances. He liked Mittelt because there was literally no one else in his life for him to like. He'd been so focused on other things that he hadn't realized just how alone and lonely he was. Dating Mittelt was more a cry for help or an act of desperation than any real feeling of deep affection or attraction. He thought she was a great friend and they had some stuff in common, but it he'd had another other friends, that's all Mittelt would have remained, just a friend.
Which left him in the rather awkward position of needing to break up with her.
…
After the vacation was over.
Until then, he decided he would enjoy the vacation and explore more places. He'd pick up one or two random magical items to keep Mittelt and Azazel from getting too suspicious, but he'd save his other potentially big treasure ideas for later. Such as abandoned dragon hoards.
As the fireworks display was ending, a complex magic circle suddenly formed not too far from where the ATV was floating in the air. A person rose from the center of the magic circle and was clearly looking in the direction of the ATV. Junichiro studied the person as best he could, but they wore loose robes with a hood so deep it hid all of the person's features, other than the long blonde hair that came out of the hood and hung down their chest.
“Attention unknown human and fallen angel, you are within Grauzauberer territory. Failure to announce your presence and intent within Grauzauberer territory is a punishable offense.” The unidentified mage lifted their hand causing another magic circle to appear.
As soon as the spell was cast it was clear to both Junichiro and Mittelt that it was meant to conceal the area around the mage and themselves from being observed, “You will reveal yourselves and follow me. Lord Mephisto would have words with you.”
Throughout the entire monologue, Junichiro couldn't tell if the individual was a man or woman. The hair hanging out of the hood might indicate woman, but the voice was so flat and neutral and the clothes to loose and plain that he just couldn't tell at all. By the time the mage finished speaking, Mittelt looked a little panicked, “Do what the mage said Juni. Mephisto is not someone we want to upset. While he doesn't give a crap about politics, he is still very powerful. As long as we're honest about just being tourists I should be fine.”
Junichiro nodded and reset the seats back into their base bucket seat form, “Weren't you supposed to tell me when we entered someones territory?”
Mittelt shrugged, “I forgot Mephisto was in this area. Grauzauberer moves around Britain and Europe on a pretty regular basis to keep their main base hidden from the other powers. They usually strike deals with the locals to do some favors in exchange for being allowed in other rulers territory. Mephisto is generally pretty hands off and just does his own thing while running his group. As long as we don't do anything to piss him off, we'll be fine.”
Junichiro studied Mittelt for a moment before nodding and lowering the invisibility around the ATV. The mage, finally seeing their target, nodded, “You will follow me and remain visible to me. I will maintain the spell hiding us from the mundanes.”
Junichiro just nodded in reply. The mage turned and began flying at a decent speed, Junichiro's vehicle easily kept pace. It was actually an extremely short trip as they only flew from Big Ben to the Tower of London. If the Grauzauberer's base was so close, it was hardly any wonder they'd been detected. Though Junichiro was still curious as to exactly how that had happened. His ATV was tricked out with even more concealment magic than his own body was. Then again, Mehpisto was supposed to be one hell of a powerful Devil so maybe the man just brute forced past all of that?
As they approached the Tower of London, the mage leading them landed on the ground in a parking lot nearby, “Park your vehicle here.”
Once the ATV was parked, Junichiro enabled all the security systems on it. The only items of any real value he was leaving were the ATV itself, and Ruler in the trunk. Avalon and all of his other items were with him and stored safely away. The mage ignored what Junichiro did and led them toward the tower without another word.
As they got close, they were led off to the side and through a magically concealed door that led to a nondescript hallway. The hallway went rather far, further than the tower was wide, and in a straight line with no doors along it. It took nearly twenty minutes of silently walking before they arrived at a simple looking door. The mage turned and addressed them, “Mephisto is awaiting you inside.”
Their job done, the mage summoned a magic circle beneath their feet and sank into it vanishing to who knew where. Junichiro turned to Mittelt, “So, who goes in first?”
The flat look he got in return was all he needed to know. It made sense, honestly, if Mephisto just blasted them the moment they stepped inside, Junichiro would be able to tank it while Mittelt would be dead instantly. Though, if they were wanted dead, they would likely be dead. Or at least attacked by that point. So, with only a little trepidation, Junichiro opened the door.
The room they entered looked like a nice living room. There was a couch, some chairs, a nice low table in the center, and a roaring fireplace to finish the vibe. Sitting in one of the chairs, the one that happened to face the door, was a unique looking man. The first thing just about anyone would notice about him would be his heterocromatic hair, a mixture of read and blue. After that would be his heterocromatic eyes, the left being blue while the right was red. Otherwise a person could be forgiven for believing he was just a rather good looking middle-aged man with an air of mystery about him.
As the pair walked in, the mismatched eyes of Mephisto quickly examined them. His eyes briefly looked over Mittelt before instantly dismissing her, almost as if she were irrelevant. His focus on Junichiro was rather intense, for a few moments, before he broke into a congenial smile, “Welcome. I am Mephisto Pheles, current chairman of Grauzauberer and you two are currently trespassers in my territory.”
Mittelt gave Mephisto a small smile and a light bow of her head in respect, “I am Mittelt and my companion is Junichiro. We were unaware that your organization had moved into London and apologize for not sending a notice before our arrival. We're just traveling to various places on out vacation.”
Mephisto's only acknowledgment of Mittelt was a quick glance in her direction before he focused back on Junichiro once more. Mittelt was simple to sense and figure out, Junichiro was not. Thus Junichiro was the more interesting individual for him to pay attention to. Mephisto let the silence drag out until it started to become uncomfortable, “I see. Well, we have only been back in London for about three months. It doesn't surprise me that the lazy crow at the top of your organization didn't see fit to inform his underlings of it. Normally, I honestly wouldn't care in the least about a little two winged crow and her current toy visiting the area.”
Here his eyes narrowed, “However, the vehicle the pair of you were in was quite... intriguing. The stealth abilities of it are quite impressive. If you hadn't flown so close to my location and sat still for so long, I might never have even noticed your existence. Even more interestingly, it doesn't seem to use any of the known magic principles that are required for humans to use magic.” Mephisto's grin turned predatory, “I've only seen such things once before. Who ever would have guessed that the ever illusive 'Artificer' to be such a young human child?”
Mephisto's grin only widened when Mittelt jerked slightly in surprise, even while Junichiro didn't seem to react to being found out at all. Honestly, Junichiro had expected something like this from the moment that they'd been approached by the mage back at Big Ben. He highly doubted someone like Mephisto would 'invite' a trespasser to meet him personally. Rather, a lower ranked member of the organization was much more likely to be responsible for such things.
Junichiro calmly slid his hands into his pockets, which were expanded spaces containing a plethora of interesting toys, and casually shrugged his shoulders. He was doing his best to give off a laid back attitude while trying not to freak out. He didn't have any fear of Mephisto killing him, what little he knew about the guy implied that wouldn't be an issue. It was more likely that Mephisto would offer him a place in his organization. Which wasn't tempting in the least. Human magic sucked.
“Not a bad deduction. Did you invite us here for a meet and greet, or did you have a request? If it's the latter, I am still on vacation and won't be done with it for at least another week or two. Even then, I've got a bit of a backlog.”
If his business wasn't so... unique, Junichiro would likely have a lot of pissed off customers with him randomly taking a vacation for a few weeks. However, unless there were special circumstances, he never gave a solid deadline on a project and did them by how he was either feeling, or what seemed more interesting to him at the moment. It was standard to warn customers that their orders could take months to get made.
“I was actually wondering if, perhaps, you might be interested in joining Grauzauberer?”
Junichiro rapidly shook his head, “No way. I greatly dislike standard human magic. Way too much effort for way too little results. I'm way more interested in getting my hands on Devil magic, to be frank.”
There was no hiding Mittelt's sudden look of shock as her head whipped around to stare at Junichiro with her mouth agape. Who could blame her? Despite Azazel's well known desire for peace among the Abrahamic factions, even with other pantheons, they were still technically only in a ceasefire. The wrong thing happening could easily see hostilities breaking out once more. If Junichiro joined a Devil, they would automatically become enemies.
Mephisto's smile became more amused, “Oh? Are you perhaps hoping to join my peerage? Tannin could use a... kohai, I believe is the Japanese word.”
Junichiro immediately shook his head in denial, “No thanks. I got my eyes on someone else closer to my age.”
“Oho? Closer to... I see.” Now Mephisto definitely looked predatory, “So it's either Gremory or Sitri you're interested in. Yes, I can see the appeal they might have for a young man such as yourself. Though, if you know they're coming soon... You must either live in, or very close to, Kuoh.”
Though Junichiro didn't outwardly react, he was silently berating himself for running his goddamn mouth once more. Was there something about being in front of super powerful entities that just made his brain disengage and let his mouth run free with information that he should really keep to himself?!
Of course, his lack of outward reaction wasn't helped by the almost panicked look on Mittelt's face. Even with Junichiro doing his best impression of a wall, her reactions were giving everything away. Which one of them was supposed to be the older, more experienced one, again?
Mephisto laughed lightly and clapped his hands together, “Yes, yes! I see. How entertaining.” He spread his hands and gestured to the chairs nearer to himself and the fireplace, “Come, sit, sit. I haven't had this much interesting conversation in quite some time. I would love to get to know 'The Artificer' and his traveling companion a little better.”
-----Line Break-----
AN
Yeah, took longer than I wanted to write this chapter, but I got it done!
By the way, I am slightly disappointed that no one realized (or at least pointed out) that Mittelt was the only female in Junichiro's life for him to grow any kind of attachment to. Was this a coincidence? Deliberate? I'm not telling, yet. I will say that Mittelt was never meant to be a long term love interest. It was pretty hard for me to keep quiet while you guys, and the people on FF.net make comments about her. So, at least now you guys who dislike the relationship can see it wont last.
Comments
King hand axe
A really good chapter. moved the story on well. Wonder if he's going to by their silence with a crafted item or just accept his identity coming out.
Lictor Magnus
Mittlet being the only female in his life seems natural. Yeah Azazel could have brought other women/girls through but he was trying to keep his identity private. He’s not in school so he wouldn’t meet people that way and trying to meet mundanes could end up with someone trying to force him to go to school.
