From Mortal To Divinity

"Ambrosius?" comes Scathach's voice from the doorway as she interrupts my train of thought.

"How is Morgan?" I ask her as she walks into our bedroom and sits next to me on the bed.

"Physically? She is alright and will awake sometime soon." replies Scathach as she gently takes my hands into hers. "Mentally however? I honestly do not expect her to recover from this, especially not after she finds out about Mordred and Artoria's death."

"I was complacent." I quietly whisper to her. "At some point during these centuries, I grew complacent, arrogant, and stopped truly focusing on the possible threats out there."

"You did." she agrees as she pulls me into her arms. "And so did I. I was glad that you were finally throwing yourself at a project that did not involve battle, or growing more powerful, that I did not take notice of the fact that you cut yourself off from the outside world. Perhaps it was because Morgan became somewhat of a sister that I could talk to about anything, that I also cut myself off from the outside world if it did not involve our little family. To the point that the caster of Morgan's curse only became an afterthought once all the contingencies were in place."

"Regardless of the reason why,-" says Scathach as she tightens her arms around me into a hug. "-we have been complacent and because of it our daughter, Mordred, paid the price."

"I do not understand." I say as I once again let myself feel the grief, and the tears begin to fall. "It never hurt this much when Setanta, Ferdiad, or Connla died. Not even leaving an aged Aoife hurt this much."

"Although they became like sons to us, we never did raise Setanta, or Ferdiad for that matter." she answers as she gently brushes my now fully white hair with her hand. "Connla was always a mature child that made one feel that he was a man in a child's body, and Aoife was very much alive and spry as if she were in her thirties when we left."

"M-Mordred was a different situation." she chokes out before she steadies her voice. "Not only did we raise her, but she was also the only one to have actually called us Mother and Father. She did not feel like a surrogate daughter, rather she has always felt like our very own flesh and blood and her death could have been avoided."

"She honestly always has felt like our flesh and blood." I say with a smile as I remember a particular event. "Do you recall her first martial arts training with me?"

"Of course." answers Scathach lightheartedly. "How could I possibly not remember, when it was the first time I have ever seen your love of unarmed combat be completely trampled upon."

"'Hand-to-hand combat?'" we say as together, as we imitate a five year old Mordred with a smile on our faces. "'Why would I ever need to learn that when I can use a perfectly good sword. That's such a downgrade and is sooo stupid. Give me a sword any day over something as unknightly as hand-to-hand combat.'"

"She was such a willful child." comes Morgan's voice, prompting us to look up towards the doorway. There, standing in the doorway is a disheveled and distraught Morgan as tears stream down her face.

Standing up from the bed, I make my way to her in an attempt to apologize for my failure, only for her to speak before me.

"There is no need for you to apologize. We have all failed collectively. I simply wish that our daughter did not have to die due to our complacency." she says as she barely holds herself together through her tears.

"Did you find out who was the caster?" she asks. "The only thing I remember is a shadowy figure completing an incantation before I blacked out."

"It was Vortigern." I inform her. "He cast the curse after hearing Merlin speak of Artoria. My hypothesis is that once you found out about Artoria, your hatred for her receiving preferential treatment while you and your sister were scorned would have made you fall completely to your hatred and attempt anything to rid yourself of Artoria."

"And he almost succeeded." replies Morgan. "Had I not found you two, everything would have gone according to his plans."

Honestly, the situation would have actually been much worse than today's outcome and canon.

In canon, Vortigern was barely defeated by Artoria with the help of the Knights of the Round Table before she claimed the throne of Camelot, especially since he is being powered by the very island on which we stand on, Britain. This time however, it is evident to see that he is far more cunning.

Using the curse, he planned on Morgan and Artoria battling each other until one remains standing or they mutually destroy each other. Then he would swoop in and claim the throne of Camelot for himself.

However, nothing went according to his plan once Morgan ran away. Instead of hating Artoria she instead came to love her as a younger sister, going even so far to completely ignore the curse with pure willpower because Artoria forbade her from having any altercation with Merlin, magical or otherwise. Eventually his patience wore out and he struck.

He colluded with Tiberius by magically enhancing his forces so that once they met in battle, Tiberius and his forces were able to overwhelm Artoria's forces, resulting in the demise of everyone save for Artoria and Bedivere. Before this however, he used the secondary function of his curse to make Morgan somehow obtain Avalon from Artoria. Judging by Artoria's lack of anger at the missing Avalon, I can infer that she used Artoria's trust in her to obtain it. Truly he was a cunning and fearsome opponent, and I can respect him for this alone.

Before I can continue to ponder Vortigern's schemes, Morgan's crying brings me back to reality and I make my way to her.

Hugging her, I lead us back to the bed where I place her between Scathach and I as we all hold each other and silently grieve together.

Eventually, Morgan wipes her tears and turns to look at Scathach and I.

"I want to bring her back." says Morgan. "I know that resurrection, true resurrection, is not possible, at least not yet. However, I believe that the three of us may be able to come up with something that is infinitely close to it."

Getting up from the bed, I begin to pace around as I think consider the implications of what she is currently suggesting. The only scenarios that I recall in which true resurrection is accomplished are by Asclepius during his lifetime, and through his noble phantasm, Resurrection Fraught Hades. However, Asclepius has been dead for centuries taking the complete secret recipe with him. As for summoning him as a servant, well I would not even begin to know where to look for a catalyst, and I do not trust my chances of summoning him without a catalyst.

Even if I were to summon him, there are variations to his noble phantasm, and the criterias to activate them are very difficult to achieve. Resurrection Fraught Hades is the Noble Phantasm of Asclepius, a medicine of resurrection. During life, it allowed for the ability to perfectly revive both humans and demigods, even those who died from "particularly unreasonable circ.u.mstances." From what I am able to remember to the best of my ability, it was used to revive the son of King Minos, Glaucus, and son of Theseus, Hippolytus. Its source was the Gorgon's blood, granted by Athena after she received it from Perseus. While the blood from the Gorgon's left side "destroyed man," the blood from the right side possessed the ability to save humans. The blood itself was not enough however, requiring the divine power of Artemis. As it encroached on the realm of Hades, its creation angered Zeus and led to Asclepius' death. Without the help of a god, it is impossible to replicate.

While the original cannot be made, there is always the emulation of it. Resurrection Fraught Hades: Emulated Medicine・The Obsolete Underworld's Grief is an imitation resurrection medicine Asclepius uses as his primary Noble Phantasm in a regular Holy Grail War. As the medicine he used in life required unique raw materials, it is not something that can be automatically replicated as a Noble Phantasm. However, it possesses a lower efficacy than the original due to being a counterfeit, so the ability to resurrect the deceased depends on conditions being met like the condition of the corpse and time elapsed since death. Unfortunately I do not know if it will work on a preserved corpse, nor which version of him I would need to summon for it.

The last variation of the noble phantasm is Resurrection Fraught Hades: True Medicine・The Obsolete Underworld's Grief. It is a complete replication of the medicine Asclepius created in life. It requires the blood of the Gorgon and the power of a pure god, among other secret ingredients to create it. Similar to the original recipe, this version would be useless to me as I have no idea where to find Gorgon blood, and even if I did, there is still the matter of the need for the power of a pure god.

Looking through my options, I can easily tell that the chances of the path of true resurrection working are slim to none.

Very well, since I cannot settle for true resurrection, I will have to settle for the next best thing, a copy. The easiest way to accomplish this is through summoning her in a grail war. a servant is but an aspect of one's personality at a specific time during one's lifetime. A Time manifested by the vessel and the age they materialize in. That is why the same servant will deploy entirely different behavior according to the age they appear as. Essentially it is a copy of what the hero's personality was like during that age. It would simply be a matter of summoning her in her prime, and alter her saint graph to make her as close to her living self as possible. The saint graph refers to the core of a spiritual being's existence, described as "their center, their heart, their CPU" that dictates their every function. Essentially their soul.

Altering saint graph of a servant can be compared to attempting surgery blind with rusty shears while being in drunken stupor. At least without mgic from the Age of Gods or Heaven's Feel magic.

"Scathach,-" I say as I stop pacing and turn to Scathach and Morgan. "-how well would you be able to alter a servant's saint graph?"

At first she simply stares at me with a blank expression before her eyes widen in realisation as she catches on to my plan.

"I can easily alter a servant's saint graph, however I would not know what to alter to achieve the desired effect." she answers as she ignores Morgan's questioning glances.

"Leave that to me." I answer her. "I have memorised the layouts of her soul, for lack of a better term, and with my incomplete Heaven's Feel magic I will be able to instruct you on what alterations to make."

While my incomplete magic would certainly make the process easier, it would still be akin to attempting surgery drunk. However, with Scathach's mastery of magic, it will be as simple as a surgeon attempting surgery.

"Perhaps one of you would like to fill me in." states Morgan.

"She deserves to know." says Scathach. "Besides, what would be the point of reviving Mordred if we simply leave them here."

With a nod I once again sit next to Morgan, and with Scathach's help, explain to her my situation with ROB and the jumpchain. Surprisingly, Scathach explains it much better than me.

"I see." says Morgan as I finish explaining the Grail War to her. "And if we can alter her saint graph to make her a perfect replica of Mordred, once we leave and go to a different world it should turn into her very soul instead of simply a copy?"

"Theoretically, yes." I answer. "From what I know, the saint graph is something that is unique to this world. The closest thing other worlds have to it is the soul."

"So all we would have to do is defeat the incarnations of myths and legends to win this battle royal?" asks Morgan.

"Indeed." answers Scathach. "It may sound daunting, however remember that we, including you, are legends in our own rights."

"Very well." replies Morgan after some thought. "If it will get me back my daughter then so be it. However, I would suggest that before then we find a way to get out of our current magecraft plateau."

"I agree." says Scathach. "We do not know who we may encounter in the grail war, as such it would be best to find a way to take either our magecraft or skills further."

"To be honest I do not plan on leaving who our enemies are, servant wise, to chance." I say with a raised eyebrow. "I have every intention of sabotaging the competition by arranging for the other magus' catalysts to be from specific legends and giving us the advantage. However I do agree that we cannot remain stagnant."

Besides, there is a power from my godly heritage that I have been neglecting out of fear of what it may show me. Now however, it can show me anything, and no matter what, I will not be phased.