A Not So Evil God In Fate/Grand Order

As the attacks clashed, Jeanne's world turned white. Once it regained color everything became different. The desolated town was replaced by a crowded one and Seth was replaced by an angry mob.

"Burn the witch!"

"Heretic!"

"How dare you lie in the eyes of God?!"

Multiple shouts of anger were heard. The people on the side of the road said all kinds of curses all directed to a young blonde girl who was being escorted by two soldiers who from time to time kicked her so she could move faster.

Jeanne Alter observed everything from within the crowd with impotence, her fists clenching and unclenching without pause.

She watched as the girl never once complained, no matter how much she was insulted, how much she was hit or how much she was spat. She also watched how the girl was tied up to a stake and holding a cross, proceeded to offer a prayer for those who were trying to ostracize her.

"Nobody wants prayers from a witch like you! Are you trying to curse us?!" A middle-aged man in rags said before picking a stone and throwing it at her. The projectile hit her cheek and left a cut that slowly started bleeding.

Seeing this, impotence gave way to rage. "What do you think you are doing, you drunkard?!" Jeanne screamed before unsheathing her sword and slashing at him.

However, when the sword went through his body she didn't feel the resistance of the flesh, it was as if she had missed her attack.

"What?!" She said in surprise before the world turned illusory. Turning to look at the girl on the stake, she watched as she burned in black flames. The strange thing was, the flames that burned the girl at the distance seemed to be right in front of her at the same time.

Rubbing her eyes to see if she was hallucinating, she found herself in another place. It was a dark room with only a little window that only allowed a small ray of light from the sun to pass through.

In the room, the same girl than before was sitting in a pile of straw with wooden handcuffs around her wrists, her hands and fingers interlocked together in a praying motion.

It was like time had reversed to a time before the girl had been burned at the stake.

Suddenly, footsteps were faintly heard. She looked back to see a group of men opening an old and rusty metal door that blocked the outside world from the room.

"Oi! Get up, we don't have all day!" One of the men said.

"That's right, stop wasting our time! No matter how much you pray, you won't be saved." Another one followed up.

The tallest man in the group that appeared to be the leader got near Jeanne and forcefully grabbed her cheeks, squeezing them tightly. He gave her a creepy smile that showed some yellow and some fallen teeth, making the scene even more repulsive.

"Oh, Jeanne. Will it be today? Will it be today that you break and confess all your sins?" The man said, however, all he got was an unyielding gaze.

"Tch. Let's see how long you keep that up. Puh! Men, bring her to the torture room!" Feeling like he was being mocked, the man spat on Jeanne's face before ordering his subordinates and going out of the room.

"Yes, sir!" The men complied and grabbed Jeanne, some going as far as trying to take some liberties. She obviously didn't allow this and used her handcuffs to push them away.

"Don't think you are important, bitch! Here you are only a prisoner!" One of the men who failed to get his way slapped her hard on her cheek.

Even with all this physical abuse, the girl never complained. The Black Saint started breathing heavily out of rage, her face contorting to extreme lengths. However, every time she tried to look away, she couldn't. It was like something didn't allow her to.

"ARRRGHHH!!!!" Alter couldn't watch this scene anymore. With an enraged yell, he attacked all the people inside the cell except for the other girl. To her dismay, the same thing as before happened.

With the world burning in black once more, this time she found herself in an even darker room than the one she had been previously. The only things barely illuminating the room were some torches hanged on the walls.

She heard the crack of a whip from behind her. Turning around, she saw 'herself' being tortured. The leader of the group had one foot on top of Jeanne's head while he continuously whipped her back.

"Come on, Saint. You only need to tell us the truth and everything will be over!" The man said as he tormented her, his subordinates laughing on the side seeing her situation.

He was in for a disappointment, though. Jeanne didn't let out a scream from her mouth, much less a word.

Not getting a word out of her, the man kept whipping her again and again. Once he got tired he proceeded to use different methods, he submerged her head in water until she couldn't breathe anymore before pulling it out and submerging it again. He used loud instruments near her ear doing as much sound as possible and also used torture devices to crush her fingers and toes until her bones were about to break.

"There is no need to suffer, am I right? Tell me you didn't hear God's voice and all will be over, your suffering, everything. Tell me the voice you heard was actually the voice of the Devil and you won't have to keep being tortured anymore." The man slowly whispered to her after continuous hours of torture.

"I..." Jeanne for the first time said something.

"Hm? You are finally willing to cooperate?" The man smiled believing himself victorious.

"I...will pray...for your...salvation." The smile disappeared from his face as quickly as it came. Punching her face, the man commanded his subordinates once more. "Bring me a hot iron rod, it seems she still needs a little more 'convincing' to finally speak something useful."

It wasn't long before one of the men brought Jeanne's torturer an iron rod that showed a colorful red on its tip with a wet cloth surrounding it on the opposite side to avoid getting his hands burned.

"Now, let's see how long you will last." And with that, endless hours of torture began again.

Even when the sky darkened and the torture session was over she couldn't sleep. The men would take turns to hit the door of her 'cell,' making loud noises and keeping her awake.

Jeanne Alter was forced to watch everything from start to finish. In the room where the prisoner Jeanne was in, she was on her knees, shaking uncontrollably while holding her head.

"Why...? All of this again... Why? Why I must watch this? Stop it...I don't want." She said while tears were streaming down her face.

"Do you wish for it to stop?" A voice came from her side. Turning her head, she saw the man she was fighting some hours ago with arms crossed and his back against the wall.

Extending her shaky hand toward him, she managed to speak a few words. "Please...no more..."

Seth moved toward Alter who retracted her hand and returned to shake looking at his approaching frame. Once he was in front of her, he crouched down to eye level before asking. "Can you imagine a happy memory?"

"I—I don't know...I can't remember...why?" She said in confusion. Seeing her like this, a flash of sympathy passed through his eyes before quickly vanishing.

"I see..." He said in low voice before extending his own hand toward her. "Then, what do you wish to see? I will grant it to you."

"Anything...anything but this." She slowly said before slowly meeting her hand with his. At that moment, it was as if all her nervousness, all her terror and all her worries suddenly disappeared.

The shivering woman felt a sense of peace like never before. Blinking slowly, she entered a trance. She felt like she was n.a.k.e.d, being embraced by the warmest of hugs.

Its touch was so suave and gentle like it was afraid of hurting her. Jeanne felt like she could forget her revenge, her hate, her fear, her insecurities, that she could forget everything as long as she could keep being embraced by it.

'Yeah...this light...this heat. I want to keep it forever with me and not let it go...' She thought as a serene smiled formed on her face.

While she only experienced the happiest of things coming from this embrace, others will say the opposite. To others, she was not being embraced by the heat of life but by the warmness of death.

If she felt like it was an angel the one who was so warmly lending its arms to her, others the only thing they will see is a skeleton wrapping its arms around her body and stealing the life away from her.

On the outside world, Jeanne was hanging in the air being pierced by Seth's spear. Her eyes had lost all focus but you could see a barely noticeable smile on her face.

He pulled back his spear from her body making her fall to the ground. It was at that moment that Marie returned to the battlefield seeing as everything looked calm from the outside.

"Is she...?" Marie asked looking at the fallen girl.

"No. That's why I need to finish the job." He said, much to Marie's discomfort as she would have liked for the two Jeannes to sort things out but she understood this was something that needed to be done less she wanted the people of this country to suffer even more.

'I will at least grant you a painless death, consider it the mercy from someone similar to you.' He said in his mind before raising his spear to the sky. Flames were produced from the tip and flowed toward the end of the shaft like the wind.

Telling Marie to back a few meters, he brought his spear down. A big explosion followed up by potent by a gust of wind sent everything that was near flying away, even Marie had troubles maintaining her footing.

Once the phenomenon was over, all that remained was an enormous crater. Nearing it, Marie saw Seth in the middle of the hole.

Gently sliding down, she moved beside him. "Is it over?" She asked after a little sigh.

"No, someone teleported Alter before my attack got to her, I had a hunch before but now this confirms it, there is one more person behind all this war. Someone that may be equally or even more annoying than her." Seth said to Marie before exiting the crater, the Queen did the same.

"One more person...? Who could it be?" Marie asked with surprise and uncertainty.

"I don't know, but it's probably someone we hadn't seen yet. That's as far as my deduction goes. More importantly, we need to get to the others. I promised them that I will catch up but I came here instead." He said before noticing something buried on a pile of debris.

"I'm sorry..." Marie apologized, a little embarrassed.

Ignoring her, he blew away all the debris and dust in front of him. What laid beneath all of that was a single Wyvern Dread that barely breathed.

'Should I say you are lucky or that you are unlucky?' Seth thought while looking at the creature before him. Indeed, this red Wyvern was the one he controlled before when they were searching for Siegfried.

The Wyvern, noticing someone getting closer, slowly opened his eyes only to see his worst nightmare. The man he feared so much was in front of him.

Gaining strength from who knows where the Wyvern started squealing and moving erratically trying to escape.

"A Wyvern? I'm surprised it's still alive." Marie said, returning to smile again.

Seth grabbed its tail to stop his escape, not like it would go anywhere with those wounds. "Relax, this will only hurt." He said before transferring enormous quantities of his magical energy to the beast.

The Wyvern shrieked so loudly that even Marie got goosebumps, he started bleeding from all parts of his body, eyes, snout, mouth, ears, and even under his scales. Scales that quickly started detaching and falling off.

His torture only lasted a few minutes but for the poor phantasmal beast, it felt like an eternity. Soon, his scales started to grow back. This time, however, his scales and grand part of his body became black transforming him from a Wyvern Dread to a Wyvern Evil.

The Wyvern slowly got up, his frame became slightly taller. It was giving an imposing presence like never before in his life. However, all that disappeared when he looked down on the monster before him. Now, only fear remained.

Seth moved beside the Wyvern and jumped on top of him before sitting at the end of its neck. Looking at Marie, he said, "Let's go, we can still catch up to the others."

Marie nodded, a little shaken by the 'spectacle' that happened in front of her. Summoning her crystal horse, she mounted it before both of them parted in the other group's direction.

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In the throne room of an enormous castle situated in Orleans, Jeanne was laying unconscious. Gilles was kneeling beside her and gently holding her head with his hands.

"Oh, Jeanne. My Saint! What have they done to you?!" Sorrowful tears started falling from his eyes.

Arching his head back, his eyes bulged so much they looked like they were going to fall off. "Hyyaah! This is unforgivable! Is this God's will who is interfering with your revenge?! The people who did this to you must pay!" He released a weird shout before swearing vengeance against the authors of this crime.

"Gi...lles..." Awakened by the screams of the robbed man, Jeanne weakly said his name while slowly turning her head, her eyes still unfocused.

"It's okay, Jeanne. You can rest and heal, I will take care of everything in the meantime." Once he heard her, his face filled with raging madness transformed into a compassionate smile.

Hearing him, Jeanne slowly closed her eyes wishing to return to that place she had felt so safe before.