Land of the Blades

48. Approaching

I woke up and opened my eyes, but I was immediately blinded. I closed my right eye and covered it with my hand, which allowed me to regain my sight on my left eye. Fortunately, my eyepatch was still on my head, it had just moved a bit to the side.

—Phosphophyllite-sama!

I heard a voice behind me, and when I turned towards it, I found Mantis approaching me. She was trying to run even in the low gravity of the moon, with a very distraught expression on her face. She jumped against me and hugged me strongly, only letting go of me to check if I had broken something.

—Thank goodness, I was so scared something might have happened to you —she said, letting out a sigh of relief—, is your eye still hurting?

—No, it's fine now. I still can't see with it, though.

—I'm sorry, I shouldn't have insisted on having it installed before our big mission.

I patted the head of the Lunarian.

—Don't worry about it, I'll get used to it.

That same morning, just before we embarked into the Sunspots, Mantis had given me an eye made out of synthetic pearl's shards they had gathered while processing the shards of our brothers. It was meant to represent their alliance towards me, and while I had had some doubts about it, it didn't seem to have anything suspicious when Shirou and I traced it, aside from the lack of inclusions. I would have liked to have Caster use a spell to check it out too, but she had been worked non-stop for quite a while to prepare for our invasion, and at that moment she had literally passed out. When I put the darn thing on my eye socket, however, it started hurting and I could only see a blinding white light through it. My inclusions must have not liked it, I think. I was very close to pull it out of my head when I noticed that covering it stopped its adverse effects. So I decided to keep it, at least until we got back home.

—Is anyone else alive? —I said in a deadpan tone.

Andersen arose from the moondust and threw a glare like daggers to me. Faust was making an "angel" on it. Ondyne was looking around confused.

—Where is everyone else? Where is teacher? —she asked.

—They probably fell in another place —Andersen said, dusting his coat off.

It was our plan to attack from different fronts to cause as much distraction as possible, but we didn't considered we would be shoot down from the sky. Still, we had taken some precautions. I took the radio that I had been carrying, a more compact and improved version that Caster had managed to finish and given to each "team leader". I traced its components, and thankfully, it didn't seem like it had been damaged during our fall.

—This is Phos, please report —I said.

—Anchin-sama! Kiyohime is fine, I'm sure fate will make us meet very soon, don't panic! —she replied—, The Amethyst, Yellow and Alexi are with me, as are most of the shadow servants and some lunarians.

—Berserker's here. I'm fine, but I don't see anyone around. Also, I lost my sword.

—Ah, about that —Kiyohime spoke again—, it landed near, we'll bring it with us... somehow.

There were a few moments of silence, and I started to get worried.

—This is Shirou, Bort is with me, and we can see Cairn, the Prince and the other Lunarians a bit further.

I was relieved to hear everyone was fine, moreover than Shirou was fine. I had been having a weird feeling, but it was probably just anxiety. I told them that we would proceed as planned, and to remember to place a stake every so often on their paths. They had been the primary source of Caster's all nighters since we visited one of the moons for the first time. Once they had been put in place, they will create a force field that would prevent the dust that our brothers had been turn into to escape into space. Each stake covered a pretty decent area. They were also solar powered, so unless removed they'll protect our brothers for as long as necessary. Hopefully, we would end up this whole ordeal soon.