Boyzilla: The Moon Cell is a more powerful entity than Old Ones... and a more ancient one! And the Moon Cell is also more knowledgeable. It probably read the tablet that Ubbo-Sathla watched... and numerous over "secret" unspeakable source of forbidden knowledge.

Gideon Spilett

In the depths of the Lost Dutchman's mine, a room mingling huge crystals with disgusting living tissue bathed in a pale light.

Helped by her Servant, Hakuno Kishinami stood up.

The complexion was very pale, still wobbling on her legs; the young Japanese woman was recovering from a trial. Mechanically, her hand went to her forehead. The teen girl had a violent headache since she woke up... which was not surprising. The previous user of the communication headset was dead because of the sudden influx of knowledge. Only her Spiritron Hacker skills had protected her. Now her mind was filled with images and memories that traced over a billion years of Earth's history.
Hakuno shivered... not to mention his encounter with Ubbo-Sathla... A confrontation, even in a dream, with an Old One could lead to madness. However, the Victor of the Moon Cell Grail War did not feel changed. No, it wasn't quite right... Until then, Hakuno Kishinami had only had the knowledge implemented at all the Seraph NPCs and the few months of memories acquired since his awakening.
Hakuno had amnesia.

The reason why she had always learned at a speed that terrified these opponents was precisely this empty memory. Having no memory that cluttered her mind, Hakuno absorbed all information with remarkable speed.

Maybe using her Magecraft to interface with the communication headset didn't explain everything. Having a little cluttered mind also had to have helped her. After all, the communication headset did not need to "overwrite" the "Hakuno Kishinami file" to make room for the information it was responsible for delivering.

Still, the feeling was strange...

The feeling of being empty had been replaced by the feeling of being filled.

Even without a point of comparison, Hakuno knew that it was not what her friends felt when they talked about their memories. There existed as a boundary between the memories of Hakuno Kishinami and those brought to her by the helmet... they remained foreign, sometimes even incomprehensible.
It was disturbing. She was well placed to know that there was no difference between "personality" and "memory".

The Victor of the Moon repulsed these dark thoughts. Basically, Hakuno was this kind of positive personality that always focused on the obstacle directly facing her. What could happen later, she would take care of later.

Displaying a sudden determination, the Master turned to her Servant.

With her face tense in an expression of disgust, Tamamo no Mae looked down the tunnel. Mixing living tissue and crystals, the passage plunged into the depths of the hybrid of construction and creature. Slowly, the matter contracted as if at the rhythm of a heartbeat, while a warm and humid wind like the breath of a monster lifted from the depths.

At the idea of descending this esophagus, even the bravest could not hold back an instinctive movement of fear...

The kitsune's tail beat the measure like a metronome. Her Master, who knew her well, knew that she was nervous or worried... Caster turned and her expression changed at all. Now that she was looking at her beloved "husband", her eyes sparkled with warmth and affection. Her fox ears trembled, while she smiled:

"Goshujin-sama, once again you have achieved a feat that no one else had achieved before you. To contemplate the tablets of the gods who rule prior to the birth of this world, without going mad or find yourself hunted by monsters of the past, this is never seen. However, your humble wife reminds you that prudence is the best part of courage. I doubt we can learn anything more important by sinking into the bowels of this... " Something" from another world. I would suggest that we go back to Tomoko and Professor Petrie-Smith."

On the lookout, taking charge of keeping watch, Jeanne d'Arc approved:

"Hakuno, don't forget the monsters that ravaged the miners' camp. There was only one sentry at the entrance to this room. Nevertheless, others must be further inside. For now, our presence has not triggered an alarm, but risking further would be taking unnecessary risks."

Hakuno Kishinami, less gifted at explaining in words, was content to nod them through. Followed by her friends, she turned around, crossing the kind of airlock similar to a sphincter that communicated with the concrete tunnel.

The tunnel dug by machines behind them, the Master and the two Servants found the natural caves. However, during their brief absence, things had changed. A strange light without a visible source now bathed the place. The cold and damp had been replaced by a warm breeze that had nothing natural.

An evil wind swirled around their faces, pushing in front of them vegetal shreds... large plates of fibrous mosses that crawled on the walls and then detached to fall on them.

Disgusted, Hakuno struggled, repelling the strange plants that crawled on her face. But others continued to come, driven by the demonic wind. Stuck to her skin, the animated plants of a strange life converged towards her nose and mouth, as if to try to suffocate her.

Tamamo and Jeanne were also attacked. They defended themselves as they could, but even the strength of a Servant seemed powerless to repel those light creatures that were floating in the wind. More and more of these strange plants detached themselves from the walls of the cave and clung to them.

As Hakuno struggled, she saw a shifting form moving towards her friends. In the darkness, a veritable whirlwind of mosses was formed over the railway, blocking completely the passage through which the Master and the Servants had come.

Reacting instinctively, Kishinami stuck her hands crossed over her mouth and nose, running towards a rocky steep path that was not yet covered by the strange mosses.

The Servants ran behind her, striving to destroy the monstrosity. Alas, their blows were only repelling the mosses plates. The evil wind that pushed the strange vegetal forward was responsible for bringing them back to the Heroic Spirits. Something had to be done to stop this filthy thing. The solution appeared to Hakuno in a flash:

[Caster: Skill]

Tamamo no Mae's immobilized despite the vegetable fibers teeming on her face. An ofuda appeared between her fingers:

"Curse: Frigid Heaven!"

The paper marked with an ideogram raised a wall of ice that blocked the corridor where the bulk of the creature was. At once the demonic wind stopped blowing and the loathsome mosses sheets fell to the ground, twisting like amoebas. Hakuno, Tamamo, and Jeanne were able to get rid of the plants that were still crawling on their skins and clothing.

The maiden of Orleans approved Hakuno's reaction with a nod:

"Beautiful wit, master Kishinami, without you we would have been suffocated by this monster."

Caster holds Hakuno in her arms, visibly very proud:

"Mikon! Goshujin-sama is so extraordinary!"

Hakuno tilted her head with an expression of confusion:

"I don't see why you're congratulating me! The monster is still there and blocking the only way out."

The two Servants looked at each other with an embarrassing expression. All the joy of being rid of the creature, they hadn't even thought of it.

The natural caves formed an immense network. The miners of the nineteenth century had built part of it. Thus, in the beam of Hakuno's flashlight appeared a rusted iron grille closing a cave transformed into a reserve. Old barrels and rotten crates were breaking down in the humid atmosphere of the underground. Farther away from the steps hastily cut into a wall, it was possible to reach a natural gallery opening up high, on the side of a large cave.

This passage brought them to another smaller cave. There were two passages and, after a hesitation, Hakuno chose to follow a rocky ledge, thinking that it was first of all necessary to approach the surface.
Turning into the natural corridors that formed a veritable labyrinth, Hakuno guided herself to a rumor like thunder. This sound came from somewhere in the North. From turns to turns, the three young women ended up arriving at a small but very high cave. An underground river was falling from the heights, far above their heads before sinking into an underground fault. We could not see the ground; the water covered everything, coming to die in wavelets at their feet. It was the sound of the waterfall that had attracted them. In the cave, the roar was so powerful that it suffocated all the others sound.

It was a dead-end...

While Hakuno was about to turn around, a large black tentacle sprang up from the underground pond. Surprise, the teenage girl could have made a defense move. Fortunately, Tamamo had jumped between the threat and her "husband". Her mirror blocked the attack.

In an instant, the sinuous limb retreated. And - for a moment- the pond seemed to return to immobility... then the water rose up and bubbled, while a dozen tentacles struck furiously. Taking refuge behind Caster, Hakuno retreated towards the entrance while coordinating the defense of her Servant.
Ruler had to do as many tentacles as they did. In order to escape them, she chained dodges with a leap some tentacles and swirling her standard wrapped in white light to block the others.

The monster was terrifying powerful...

Its attacks were so numerous and so fast that it kept the two Servants on the defensive and pushed them back under the weight of the blows.

[Skill!]

An ofuda appeared between Caster's fingers:

"Curse: Frigid Heaven!"

The effect of paper marked with an ideogram exceeded the expectations of Hakuno. The cold wave seized the underground lake and stormed the waterfall, freezing the entire cave in a case of frost. Even the monster's tentacles, covered with a thick layer of ice, were congealed!

However, disturbing cracks were heard and suddenly the gangue of ice surrounding a tentacle disintegrated into glistening fragments. Released, the sinuous limb snapped like a whip! Struck in the chest, Tamamo ripped off the ground before hitting the wall at the other end of the cave and landing on the frozen mirror of the lake. The violent impact had left the imprint of the Servant's body in the stone wall!

As Hakuno uttered a cry of fear, running towards Caster, Jeanne leaped up and grabbed her to pull her back, stopping a second tentacle that had just broken free.

At this point the ice plug that had held the underground river broke under the pressure of the flood; a veritable wall of water was formed, sweeping Jeanne and Hakuno into the access tunnel.

Hakuno Kishinami regained consciousness... and immediately regretted it.

She was just in pain everywhere.

Coughing and spitting out the water that filled her lungs, she stood up. Her eyes perceived only darkness. Her teeth chattering, in her clothes soaked in ice water, she rubbed her arms. Nevertheless, the shiver that shook her owed nothing to the cold.

She had been separated from the two Servants by the wave that had pushed her here. She had lost her flashlight and was in the dark... all alone... and there were monsters in those caves. Mechanically, the young Master touched the Command Spell on the back of his hand... She had only two marks left.
The Victor of the Moon shook his head. No, she would wait to find herself in desperate circumstances to call Caster near her. She had to keep a cool head, not panic...

Kishinami used to say that, but she never found herself in such a terrifying situation. Being in the real world, Hakuno could not even use her arsenal of Formal Wear. She was just a sixteen-year-old teenager without a weapon... in the darkness... lost in a maze... populated by monsters.
She swallowed.

Stumbling on uneven ground, Hakuno followed a bumpy wall. Then her hand met the void. The Japanese woman knelt, feeling the air around her... without encountering obstacles. A cave? The teen girl explored the place for a time that seemed infinite and then found another passage.

Completely lost, Kishinami chooses to continue in this direction.

If the darkness was too deep for her to see anything, the young Japanese listened attentively but without hearing anything but drops of water. Hakuno had thought of calling... but there was no evidence that her cries attracted a Servant rather than a monster. Also, she remained silent. Only one thing was working in her favor. The bond between her and Caster was very strong. Of course, the distance was too great for her to call the Servant mentally, but she felt her presence and even the direction where Tamamo was to be.

The tunnel continued for a few meters... until the ground slipped under her feet. She screamed with terror. Fortunately, the fall was short. The teenager rolled down a slope of debris and eventually hit a large rock before collapsing.

This time, she had thought she would die and the shock brought tears to her eyes. She had escaped death so many times... and a fall into the dark could have killed her! She had defeated Buddha and Sir Gawain... and a fall into the dark could have killed her!

Hakuno curled up against the wall, trying to contain the sobs that rose in her chest. The teen girl felt that if she let go now, it would be over... she would die there. Moving forward on her knees and holding out a hand in front of her, Caster's Master searched the debris. She was just trying to get a sense of her environment.

But her fingers met something that wasn't stone... She removed her hand with as much alertness as if she had recognized a rattlesnake. Yet... it was fabric! Swallowing, Hakuno began again to probe the space in front of her. Her cautious fingers touched an old dusty fabric, straps...

The Victor of the Moon laughed when realized that she had just found a miner's backpack. How had it failed here? Shrugging her shoulders, she sat on a rock and placed the bag on her knees. Undoing the straps was complicated in the dark, but even more to identify the objects that bag contained... small glass bottles. Most were too light to still contain something. As Hakuno shook the only one who still seemed full, she heard a liquid sound. And this? Metal... glass and more metal... the glass part was moving... oh? Full of excitement, Kishinami recognized the characteristic shape of a petroleum lamp. In the side pockets of the knapsack, she found a small cardboard box with small wooden rods inside... the smell of sulfur made her understand that it was a match. Carefully, she struck a first match and... a yellow-red light appeared.

Blinking after the sudden return of her sight, Hakuno hurried to light the wick of the oil lamp.

Miraculously, the dry atmosphere of the gallery allowed the preservation of the equipment. After two hundred years, the flame burst forth, brightly lighting the tunnel where it was. Taking advantage that she could see again, the young Japanese made the tour of the treasures contained in the old bag.
In fact, it was limited to a few things...

A bag of oiled paper contained large grey-white crystals which, judging by their taste must have been coarse salt. The empty bottles were closed by shriveled-up plugs, only a little dust remained after the evaporation of the contents. The remaining small bottle was hermetically sealed by a glass cap reinforced by a copper wire.

Realizing that it was a dangerous product, Hakuno opened with caution... the smell that came out made her cough and tear: sulfuric acid!

Recovering what could be, the young Master inspected the place with the oil lamp. The tunnel ended with scree. The escalation seemed difficult. However, she could take the other direction...
Having light again, Hakuno suddenly felt optimistic.

The natural labyrinth of caves stretched over leagues and leagues. On several occasions, Hakuno Kishinami had heard rumors of fighting -probably between one of the Servants and a monster- without being able to approach, because the clashes drew to them groups of monstrosities eager for blood. Luckily, each time, the teenager managed to hide in time to avoid bad encounters. Unfortunately, it had helped her get away from Caster.

The caves looked like a museum of horrors. The young Master had not discovered two identical creatures, as if they were the result of a collection carried out by a kind of mad collector or the fruit of the experiences of a mad scientist eager for originality.

After several hours, while her watch clearly indicated that the night had long reigned on the surface, Hakuno felt that she was approaching a source of heat. Seeing a light reflected on one of the travertine walls, she immobilized to listen.

A sort of snoring sounds before interrupting... at the same time as the light. Showing patience, she waited and saw the phenomenon repeated. So the light and the noise were well connected. And given the warmth, it generated a lot of heat. Inevitably, it evoked fire.
Slowly advancing, Hakuno reached a column of calcareous secretion and leaned against it. Her throat was dry and her instincts screamed that a monster was close.

What to do? Step back? There was no way out behind her.

Drawing on her courage, the teenager advanced through a forest of stalactites and stalagmites. Suddenly, the oil lamp lit "something"... it looked like a kind of long cylinder, the size of a big tree trunk, walking on hundreds of short and swift legs. The monster crossed the last meters and stopped. The girl staggered backward at the sight of its head covered with triangular scales as large as shields.

Suddenly a presence began to weigh on the spirit of Hakuno... the monster had psionic abilities and resorted to it. Shaken by a violent headache that hammered her temples, Kishinami plunged her hand into her pocket to draw the amulet that Tomoko had given her. Brandishing it, she recited the formula that accompanied the Mystic Code.

The psychic strength of the monster was constantly growing, yet the pain was gone. Hakuno looked down at the Mystic Code in her hand. The object vibrated and radiated, absorbing the energy directed at it.

The creature pitched up and shook its head, pushing a kind of squeal that could well be a cry of pain. The monster arched, standing on its hind legs while the front ones waved in a disgusting manner. Suddenly a violent shock wave ran through Hakuno's arm. Shaken, she felt the amulet break.
The monster's psychic strength was revealed to be greater than the ability to protect the Mystic Code. However, the filthy creature continued to stumble with pain. Evidently, the ordeal had been difficult.
As the monster turned towards her and the chitin scales covering its head opened... Hakuno felt like vomiting... The head seemed to bloom like a kind of monstrous flower; the scales now formed some kind of "petals" filled with teeth that surrounded a filthy sphincter flooded with slime.

As always when she was in danger, the flow of time seemed to slow down. Hakuno Kishinami took the opportunity to analyze her opponent, looking for a weak point. Finally noticing the filthy, viscous body, similar to that of the slug, Hakuno remembers the bag of coarse salt. Feverishly opening the waterproof paper bag, the teen girl spread its contents on the mucus-covered skin.
Now, salt absorbed moisture.

The monster twisted as a simple slug would. Of course, given the size difference, it would have taken whole barrels of salt to kill the monster. Its body contained far too much moisture for it to be possible to dry it with the contents of a simple bag of coarse salt.

Nevertheless, its strange cry of pain shook the vaults of the cave. It hit the stone columns that broke. The Master took refuge further into the cave, trying to circumvent it. But - by chance or on purpose? - The horrible creature was now standing between her and the exit.

Finally, its convulsions calmed down. The abomination rose up, culminating just under the stone vault, and pointed its mouth at her and... spit. By reflex, Hakuno dodged... and saliva hit a pillar of limestone that was immediately wrapped into flames!

Feverishly, the Victor of the Moon searched the miner's bag to get the little bottle of sulphuric acid. In a precise gesture, she threw the vial into the mouth when it opened to spit.

She only had time to throw herself behind a big rock...

The explosion that followed was quite satisfactory! Packages of sticky and ignited stuff fell back on the walls and the ground releasing an oily and suffocating smoke.

Straightening Hakuno sighed; the flower-slug (slug-flower?) would no longer threaten anyone. The head was gone and a good half of the corps was disemboweled. The rest of it spasmodically twisted while burning.

Let no one ever say that chemistry classes are useless.

Turning on the oil lamp, which had been extinguished, the Master was heading towards the exit as a thought went through his mind.

For the first time in her life, she had defeated an opponent without help... and it was an abominable monster. Tamamo would be proud of her!

After walking for a long time, the lamp began to show signs of weakness. The oil reserves were at their lowest and there was nothing to be done. Worried, Kishinami pressed the pace. Ending in a small cave half-filled with a pile of schist, the teenager sees a man lying flat on the ground. She began to run but stopped after a few steps... Needless to hurry, the man had been dead for a very long time. His parchment skin and his hair dried to the point of being brittle were those of a mummy. His clothes dated from the late nineteenth century. Accustomed to deducing the identity of individuals from thin clues, Hakuno already suspected who she was dealing with. Nevertheless, she knelt in spite of her repugnance to search the deadman clothes, noting the empty holster and the belt lined with bullets.

In his jacket, she saw a chain passed through the buttonhole and connected to a small pocket... a pocket watch. The antique tarnished silver chronograph opened in her hand, inside was engraved a few words:

Gideon Spilett, 1875.

All along she had followed his trail. His bag with salt, the acid bottle, and the oil lamp had saved her life.
As Hakuno was standing again, she noticed that the position of the body was not natural. Spilett held out his hand, his index finger pointed like he died trying to show something... The teenager turned her head and frowned... feeling the night wind playing with her hair.

The finger pointed towards an opening where she saw some night stars.

Joining hands in a gesture of prayer, Hakuno bowed:

"Thank you."

Gideon Spilett had been an ordinary man, not a Master, not even a Magus, just a mining engineer armed with a colt and some knowledge of chemistry... Yet he had saved humanity and almost managed to reach the exit of this labyrinth. Entering with two Servants, Hakuno Kishinami had managed to survive only by following the passage that Spilett had cleared and thanks to the equipment he had left behind.
Hakuno Kishinami had met many heroic spirits. She was certain that Gideon Spilett had joined the Throne of Heroes.

The outside... at night...

The beating heart of Hakuno exuded joy; she broke her jail and tasted freedom.

The Master thought she was done with this trial, she was wrong.

Forms sprang up from the darkness, throwing themselves upon her, tending chitinous limbs and tentacles to grasp her.

The terror nailed Hakuno on the spot offering her as a helpless victim to the monsters' horde that had suddenly appeared.

Fortunately...
A disc of light passed near her before describing a vast arc of circle among the opponents, striking them and throwing them to the ground. The "disk" then returned to the hand of the woman in armor who had jumped at his side... It was only at this moment that Hakuno recognized the banner of Ruler. The latter had just drawn her sword and struck the monsters who wanted to attack her, cutting the limbs and forcing the monsters to retreat, squeezing stumps from where viscous chyle flowed.
Cheering up her blade, Jeanne d'Arc took her banner with two hands, making it twirl. The flag was surrounded by a white light that seemed to fall in flakes on the ground.

She raised Luminosité Éternelle to the night sky and the light that surrounded the standard became a pure pillar of light that leaped to the stars. A moment later, this light fell to the ground in the form of a real rain of Light Arrows.

The result was a slaughter in the ranks of monsters. Some were disintegrated; others were cut in half or shredded by the beams that cut down all over the canyon and the nearby massifs.

When the darkness returned, Hakuno turned to Jeanne and look at her bug-eyed. What a power, she had just destroyed maybe a hundred enemies in an instant... and yet... Ruler had not uttered a word! So it wasn't her Noble Phantasm...

"Master Kishinami, are you all right?"

In the darkness, the Japanese could not see the anxious features of Jeanne. But nothing could hide the anxiety in her voice. Yet Hakuno did not care about herself at this moment:

"Caster?"
"Sorry, I was separated from her at the same time as you. I haven't seen her since."

The Victor of the Moon sprang up, her exhaustion was forgotten. She tensed her hands on her chest, twisting her fingers. She felt Tamamo... but very faintly... Either she was far away... or her Servant had no more energy, perhaps she was dying!

The panic threatened to overwhelm Hakuno. Even in the dark... even pursued by the monsters, she did not feel so disarmed.

A multitude of images emerged from her memory.

Tamamo laughing...

Tamamo telling her to open her mouth, holding a spoon and a bowl of soup "cooked with love"...

Tamamo in anger...

Tamamo blushing and squeezing her foxtail against her chest...

Tamamo...
Tamamo was everything to Hakuno. The teen girl was just a vaguely aware NPC when this Magical Foxgirl came out to save her. Since then, Tamamo had always been there to support her, to love her, to listen to her, or to scold her when she self-pitying. By becoming a Master, Hakuno had become a person... losing Caster meant to say she lose everything. Hakuno would never have the strength to continue living without Tamamo. Her constant presence was necessary to her. She had never known anything else.

Hakuno's fingers touched her Command Spell, which Jeanne d'Arc seemed to guess her torments.

"I'll help you... After all, it's the least I can do. You came at my request. Show your Command Spell."

Intrigued, Hakuno let her take her hand. A red light filtered through Jeanne d'Arc's fingers. As she released her, the Master discovered that his missing Mark of Command had reappeared.

"This is a Ruler Class ability. I have two Marks of Command by Servant participating in this Grail War. Fourteen in total... thirteen since I gave you one. Come on, call Tamamo no Mae. "

Hakuno nodded silently and lifted her hand:

"By my First Seal of Command, Caster, I command you... Come to me!"

The Mark of Command forming the end of her Command Spell similar to a stylized fleur-de-lis radiated and disappeared... for the second time... leaving only a grey mark.

Simultaneously, a flash of red light released a humanoid form that collapsed to the ground. Hakuno rushed to discover Tamamo... unconscious! The kitsune was covered with wounds, her clothes torn. Her Master trembled with anger directed against the monster that had inflicted this on her precious Tamamo. Fortunately, the foxgirl was more resistant than her appearance could leave us to believe. Like all Servants, she recovered from all non-lethal injuries without any damage. Nothing could alter the Saint Graph of a Servant.

With a retrospective thrill, Hakuno realized that they were lucky to have come back alive. The horrors that resided under the Superstition Mountains justified that the Apaches see these mountains as the entrance to hell.

Author's note: Does anyone still think that the Mythos Creatures are easy opponents for Servants?