A Not So Evil God In Fate/Grand Order

Chapter 23 - Saint Martha II

Once Tarasque disappeared, Martha stayed still for a second before sighing. Spinning her cross-like staff she faced the defenders of humanity without fear.

'Same as always.' Seth thought while the memories of one of his reincarnations kept getting clear and clear.

"Saber, leave this to me." He said looking at Artoria. Those may not be exactly his memories but in their honor, he will be the one to slay Martha.

"What is your plan, bastard? I'm the one who is fighting her." She didn't like one bit what he had said.

"Sigh... Consider it a favor, you can ask me for something later." He said making a glint appear in Saber's golden eyes that disappeared as quickly as it came.

"Fine, just this time." Saber said in a 'disinterested' tone.

A vein popped on Martha's forehead listening to the conversation of these two. "Can you stop talking like I'm not here?! Do you want me to use the holy knuckle?!" Madness Enhancement plus these two guys aren't helping to keep her patience at all.

"Master, be careful." Jeanne said with a bit of a serious tone while Mash and Fujimaru nodded.

"Just remember to dazzle your opponent with a smile." Marie commented from the side but for the sake of the world, Seth ignored her.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Martha—No. Saint Martha." Seth said correcting himself.

Martha didn't say anything, she just closed her eyes and ducked her head a little like she was going to pray. Her staff glowed before a blue light covered her.

Seth felt something strange on his body after she did that, it felt like he became a bit weaker on the defensive side. 'Must be one of her skills.' He theorized.

With her staff still glowing, she dashed at him and performed a diagonal swing to the sky. Seth moved his head backward to avoid the hit.

Continuing to attack, Martha decided to throw a kick at him but he used his spear to block it. She used everything at her disposal, ranging from her staff to her fists.

Seth for his part only used his weapon, he didn't like using his body to attack. Of course, if the need arises he will not get picky.

As the battle progressed, cuts started forming on Martha's skin. Using his spear like a hammer, he did a vertical swing at her.

Despite blocking the blow with her staff, the ground beneath her caved in and cracked causing her to grit her teeth to withstand the attack.

Taking advantage of her predicament he quickly retracted his weapon and slashed at her stomach, creating a deep wound and sending her flying to a tree.

"Gah...!" After impacting the tree trunk she fell to the ground on her knees, her vision blurring. Looking ahead of her, she noticed the man she was fighting was standing in the same position from where she had hit her before.

Her vision blurred once again and when it returned to normal, a spear was piercing her c.h.e.s.t. "Cough...It's enough, you...cough...did well..." She said while coughing blood.

"Listen well...you need to go to wh—cough cough...to what was once Lyon. There...there you will find what you need...cough...what you need to defeat Fafnir." She said with difficulty.

"To defeat Fafnir? Are you referring to a Dragon Slayer perhaps?" Seth said to which Martha simply nodded to avoid unnecessary pain.

"I see...thank you for the information." Seth thanked her surprising Artoria, as far as she knew, this guy wasn't one to thank or apologize that easily, Mash and Fujimaru shared the same sentiment.

The Saint smiled before asking, "Have we...met before?"

"Not exactly 'me' and 'you'. But you could say I have received your iron knuckle before you became a Saint." He said in an emotionless tone contrasting his words resounding with familiarity, they weren't truly his memories after all.

Martha weakly chuckled. "Sorry that I don't...remember. Next time I will...be sure to give it to you...once more." And with that, she faded away.

"...I guess we have a new destination now. She was right, a Dragon Slayer would be a big help." The hologram of Dr. Roman said.

They nodded and went on their way to Lyon so they could meet this Heroic Spirit and see if he/she would lend them a hand.

Meanwhile, in the black Jeanne's castle, two new Servants have been summoned. This, however, didn't bring her any joy. Noticing this, Gilles who was by her side decided to ask.

"What's the matter, Jeanne? What put you in such a bad mood?" He asked with a soothing voice like that of a parent speaking to their children, even if his face didn't bring any comfort.

'If someone here isn't real, that would be you...you are just an amalgamation of evil...' Those words kept playing inside her head like a broken record.

"Dammit! Dammit!" Jeanne didn't respond, she just kept cursing and destroying the walls of the room they were in.

Despite the display, Gilles kept smiling as if nothing happened. In fact, he liked what she was doing. That was proof she truly lived for hate and revenge.

After breaking a few more things, she finally calmed down. Taking a deep breath she looked at Berserker Caster. "I'm sorry, Gilles. I'm okay now."

With the same smile on his face, he responded. "No, no. It's quite alright Jeanne. Now, will you tell me what is bothering you?"

"Gilles...I'm the real Jeanne D'Arc, right?" She answered with another question. Normally she wouldn't doubt it but the voice of that hateful man keeps messing with her head.

Without a change in his expression, he answered her. "Of course you are the real one, Jeanne. You were betrayed and ultimately burned at the stake. If you can't harbor hate against the ones who did that, wouldn't you say that person was not human?"

"Yes...yes, you are right. I will get my revenge on them, I will make sure to destroy until there is nothing left, starting from that man!" She said with blazing fury, especially the last part.

Calming herself once more, she turned toward the two newly summoned Servants. "Now. shall we get going, Lancelot, the Knight of the Lake and the Executioner Charles-Henri Sanson?"

Lancelot, the knight in black armor only responded with an ununderstandable growl while Sanson, the white-haired young man with a big sword smiled while saying, "Of course, if someone is going to take the head of the Queen, that would be me."

Having finished what she needed to do, she departed.

=====================

On their way to Lyon, Chaldea's group passed by an abandoned town. They decided to ask for information about the current situation as no one really knew what was happening at the moment.

Marie offered herself to be the one to enter the town and ask, the rest of the group didn't have any problems with it and Jeanne herself couldn't enter as she would likely cause mass panic.

While Marie was in the town, they decided to discuss a bit about their future plans.

"We have to search for the Dragon Slayer that Saint Martha talked about but what are we going to do next? If what we discussed yesterday about the black Jeanne summoning more Servants becomes reality, we are going to need more help. Especially if that person is busy fighting Fafnir." Mash said worriedly from the side.

"Our best option is looking for more Servants, maybe we will find some on our way to Lyon or even Orleans." Romani chimed in with a solution.

"What the weird Doctor says is right. However, nothing says those Servants won't be enemies as we said before so that option is not viable." Saber remarked without expression causing Dr. Roman to cry internally.

"Yes... As much as we need help, wasting unnecessary energy fighting someone who is not exactly our enemy would be foolish." Jeanne agreed with her words.

"We won't do much if we overthink things. Besides, there is the option to run if we don't want to waste energy or even luring them to fight against the other Jeanne's Servants." Seth said without much interest.

Just as he finished speaking, a skipping Marie could be seen on the distance walking and waving toward them.

Coming to a stop in front of them, she said with a smile, "I found a good piece of information, guys!"

"So? What's the state of things?" Dr. Roman asked.

Her tone took a sad turn. "If I have to choose a word, it would be bad. According to the people I asked, Lyon was destroyed a while ago and its citizens have taken refuge here."

"Just as I thought..." Jeanne released a sad sight.

"I'm afraid so...they said Lyon is now plagued by monsters coming straight from Hell." She said, sharing Jeanne sentiment.

Before her next words, her tone became a little more cheerful. "However, not everything they said was bad news. They also said there was a knight with a big sword who defended the town from Wyverns and Skeletons."

Jeanne's face became a little spirited. "Does that mean he is the Servant that Saint Martha told us to find before she died?"

"If the people in town didn't speak about any more out of the norm warriors in Lyon then that's the most probable guess." Dr. Roman said.

"As the mage from a distant land says, the people only mentioned him. The thing is, while he was defending the town he was overwhelmed by a group of powerful enemies and is now missing." Mary informed.

"Great...now we aren't even sure if he is alive." Seth said with a little resignation in his voice.

"Let's believe he is, we should trust the words of Saint Martha." Fujimaru said with unbreakable hope.

'Sure...let's trust the words of the enemy.' Seth rolled his eyes. Although he 'knew' Martha, he wouldn't bet his everything in trusting her words. He had already formulated a plan in case it was just a trap.

"Oh, I forgot to mention. They said General Gilles de Rais is gathering soldiers to attack Lyon and take it back from the monsters." Marie told them about the last information she got.

"Gilles...!" Jeanne seemed surprised at the mention of the name. Her other self had mentioned his name when they met for the first time. That means that there are also two Gilles in this Singularity.

"Isn't that great? Jeanne could ask him to lend us a hand!" Marie proposed.

"Not exactly, if Gilles also thinks that Jeanne is an evil witch then we would only be getting us one enemy instead of an ally." Seth didn't agree with her words.

"...Yes. It's as Master says, it would only bring unnecessary complications." She said with downcast eyes. Gilles was a man that fought together with her, it brought her no end of sadness the fact they couldn't fight side by side again due to 'her' crimes.

"I understand. Then we need to hurry, if we get to Lyon quickly we won't have to meet him!" Marie said full of enthusiasm.

Jeanne smiled at her passion. "Right, we will have to defeat the enemy by ourselves, just as we have been doing."

"Yes! We can do it if we try!" Fujimaru also shared Marie's feelings.

"That's the spirit! Here, let me give you a reward!" She skipped toward the Master and gave him a peck on his cheek.

"..."

It took a moment for everyone to react except Amadeus, he was already used to such sights. Fujimaru was blushing like a tomato and had a weird smile on his face. Seth distanced himself from him, he was really creeping him out.

Amadeus had a helpless smile. "Just ignore her, she likes to kiss everyone. It brought a lot of troubles in our time."

'I don't think that's something normal...' Was the thought on everyone's mind. Mash at this point was shaking Fujimaru senseless to make him come back to reality.

"Didn't you kissed everyone you liked in your time?" Marie asked Seth, Jeanne, and Artoria.

"No. And a King mustn't indulge in such things." Artoria replied.

"I did not! Absolutely did not! I would only do it with the person I was going to marry..." She shouted the first part embarrassed while the second became a mutter.

"..." The rest looked at Seth waiting for an answer. Said man raised an eyebrow at their gazes.

"What? Don't look at me like that. No matter the era, it is uncommon to go around kissing people. What is there to answer?"

"The opinion of a married man is—" Before Saber finished speaking she was knocked in the head.

"Are you having a mana fever or something? You are being delirious." He said in a tone that conveyed 'Agree or die'.

"You will pay for this..." She said to herself while on the outside she was agreeing with his words. "Right, right. What he said."

Fujimaru was already in the real world, asked a little concerned. "Are you okay? Don't you want to rest or something?"

Avoiding eye contact in fear of being discovered, she replied, "Of course, I will be fine with a little rest, yes..."

"I fear there won't be time for such a thing. I see soldiers over there and they don't look like normal ones, their intent to kill is high." Deciding to ignore the obvious lie that no one bought except for Mash and Fujimaru, he informed the group of incoming enemies.

"Those soldiers seem to have become bandits after all of these attacks, we will have to defeat them if we don't want the people from this town suffering anymore." Jeanne said and departed to meet the enemy.

'Misfortune strikes in unexpected places...' Seth mused releasing an internal sigh.

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