Prisma LxL

Clueless

Chapter 5

Clueless

It was strange, being able to disappear and reappear not by speed but through actualization. Knowing that you were there yet not to another person without the wind speeding past your face and the adrenaline pumping in your blood.

"Fan out! Search the whole city," the gruff voice of the eldest executor said sternly. The group of executors, a dozen or so men or women in priest clothing, obeyed and dispersed.

Archer, for reasons that Illya could only guess, had chosen to not flee and instead to observe the interactions between the eldest and injured executor. The handle of the light sword he nabbed from the injured executor not making a noise as he flipped in his hand.

Illya silently watched as the elder executor gave a welcoming hand to the injured executor. "Are you hurt?" asked the elder.

"Yes, father, I do not feel my wrist and my light blade was taken away from me..." the injured one replied.

"Very well, can you stand?"

"I can."

"Good, we will make haste to the church."

Illya sent a glance at Archer, who followed them with his eyes but made no other moves. Once they were out of hearing range, he spoke, "Let's go." Archer then proceeded to push himself off the wall and jumped out of the alleyway and onto the roof.

Illya followed.

"So what are we going to do?" she asked as they hopped roofs.

There was silence from Archer for a bit before he replied, "Search for clues."

"Clues?"

"Clues on our summoning."

Illya looked at Archer with unhidden puzzlement. "Why are we now rushing for clues?" she inquired, having seen nothing of note that would have illicit the urgency Archer had imposed.

"The longer we stay, the longer we play with Gaia," he replied solemnly. "Without the protection of a grail or Alaya, we are exposed to Gaia's influence, making doing anything next to impossible," he elaborated.

It didn't take long to arrive at the cave where they were first summoned in. "Didn't we already search the area?" Illya inquired.

"We might have missed something," Archer replied smoothly. "If not, I'll cook up something for you."

"Using a kitchen?"

"Ah, good point."

They thus then settled into an awkward silence as they re-entered the cave and walked inside, Archer scanning the area for clues while Illya following behind.

-

Archer sighed, the search was a total bust, not even disassembling the summoning circles and deciphering them had led to any leads. All he was left with was mental tiredness and wasted time.

Illya, on the other hand, was just happy to be free from the confines of the cave and the immediate surrounding area. A tired yawn escaped from her restlessness. "So what should we do now?" she inquired with as much willpower she could muster.

"Well, for one, we can get a place for rest," Archer replied while stretching a bit. He looked towards the position of the sun and made an effort to calculate the date.

"We were there for a whole day," Illya sighed in defeat.

Archer sighed as well, "I will take the blame for that."

Suddenly, his ears picked up the slow and almost silent breaking of leaves all around them. His nose smelt the air for any prana in the air, to find none.

It was relatively hard to see within the forest as the shadows cast were thicker and longer, almost covering the whole forest in thick darkness, making it impossible to accurately determine their assailants.

Illya took note of Archer's alertness and the grip on her wand tightened its hold.

Howls suddenly erupted all around.

Wildlife it was.

Instantaneously, Kanshou and Bakuya were traced within Archer's hands and he flew into a whirlwind as he sliced two wolves in half.

A beam of magic quickly shot one that was going to pounce from behind, courtesy of Illya.

Archer then rushed through the brief smoke to meet the final wolf. He paused, his nose twitching as he picked up a distant smell of mana.

A distant relative to a phantasmal beast?

The magus within him, the one that Rin had repeatedly drilled into him, flared a bit as he looked at the wolf as not a nuisance but as a specimen of some kind. Now gaining a new sense of purpose instead of eradication, Archer willed for his married blades to revert back to mana.

He cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck, this was going to be an interesting experience, to say the least.

By now, the mana imbued wolf, had slowly backed away, now that all its kin had died and the aura Archer exhibited sent shivers down its spine.

Now that Archer thought about it, weren't red wolves a rare or endangered species?

If he were a lesser man, he would've undoubtedly heavily considered taking the wolf to the black market. But as an abnormally just person he was, his moral code and mindset had not let his mind even conjure such thought.

The wolf tried to run away, seemingly thinking it was a good time to run with its life. How wrong it thought.

Archer was immediately on the wolf, his arms scooping up the wolf as if it was a domestic puppy. He smirked, "Since we don't have a place for me to work up some food, how about a pet?"

His inquiry seemed to snap Illya out of her dazed stare. "Uh... S-Sure...?" The particular sight was so bizarre that immediately after she snapped out of her daze, she giggled a bit.

The wolf tried to scramble out of its captor's hold by squirming, biting, and at one point trying to howl for any nearby wolves in desperation. However, a stern look from Archer as well as a flare of his prana seemed to kick in primal instincts and the wolf stopped squirming, its head hung low as it accepted its fate.

Illya giggled some more before erupting to outblown laughter.

Archer smirked, but his eyes were soft.

The wolf tried to duck its head lower to no avail.

Chapter 5 End

Since all my friends seemingly are on vacations or just don't want to play with me... I have decided to focus more on Minecraft... Which includes loads of free time as I wait for XP from my skeleton farm, as such, I have decided to dedicate my time to finishing this arc and possibly the next.

God, I missed writing and all the imaginations it came with it.