Prisma LxL

Accommodation

Chapter 18

Accommodation

Archer frowned deeply as he stared at the leader of the Hero Faction, Cao Cao. The smug grin plastered increasing his already low opinion of the spear wielder. Damned spearmen are always assholes.

"So I am guessing that the exorcists had pushed you guys into a corner too soon?" the Chinese man asked, his school uniform swaying a bit as he leaned on the wall with arms crossed.

Archer rubbed the back of his head with a bit of annoyance. "Yeah, while I am confident in taking on Vasco Strada and I am confident that Caster could take on exorcists on a similar scale, the fact that they could easily find our little homes were beginning to become annoying," he said. "There is also the fact that they started to target Caster specifically in order to get ahold of the sword."

"Do you do not have the ability to use the Excalibur Destruction?" another man, a magician by the name of Georg, inquired.

Archer shrugged merely saying, "It does not fit with my style."

"I suppose that is a valid excuse but why do you not use it in order to obtain victory? Is it, again, your inability to wield it?" Georg pressed, reaffirming his question that Archer tried to deflect.

To that end, Archer shrugged again in response. "I only took it in order to deprive an asset of the Church, which in turn deprives an asset of Heaven," he revealed, lying through his teeth with the usual ease.

Cao Cao immediately latched on to his words and decided to divert the questioning back to him. "Oh? Do you have a vendetta against Heaven?" he inquired curiously.

Archer inwardly smirk but using his utmost acting ability, he schooled his face into a frown and crossed his arms while putting weight on his right leg as if frustrated at something. "Humanity is being chained by the supernatural forces that guide it such as the numerous pantheons and Heaven. Sure, their knowledge and protection were certainly useful back in the Antiquity and the Medieval Era. However, there is a point in which an institution that made up the foundation of society eventually needs to be done away with in order to achieve a greater goal.

"In this day and age where the moonlit world is separated from the human world, and humanity is slowly achieving feats rivaling certain aspects of the moonlit world, the greediness of the gods will impede on the Age of Mankind. Institutions like the Churches who rely on the waning power of Heaven in order to function need to be weakened and either reformed or dissolved."

Of course, Archer truly didn't believe half of what he had just said but he needed a clear motive to present to Cao Cao that was similar enough to be considered loyal to the cause as well not just a copy and paste of the spear-wielding jackass' ideals in order not to incur suspicion. It took him a whole day to come up with those believable ideas and was quite proud of the fabrication.

Cao Cao smirk widened as he leaned more on his spear, his posture relaxing at the reveal of Archer's faux motives. "Removing the chains of mankind, eh?"

Archer shrugged as he looked away, his attention briefly going to Illya who was chatting away excitedly with Le Fay and another woman. His thoughts briefly mulled over the past, a past where he had lost her.

"We once had a run-in with a demi-god in the past," he said, his frown becoming genuine at the distant memory. "He had scarred Caster quite badly in an attempt to use her as a source to power a relic," he frowned even deeper as he realized that perhaps something similar had happened to this Illya in her past.

Despite being siblings in both of their timelines, they were both different from their versions of each other that sharing their past was quite awkward for them. It was only recently that they started to share small stories with each other, slowly showing each other's pasts.