The North Quadrant Siege Capital was a massive structure when viewed from the outside.
It was reasonable that it was so large considering that it housed the bulk of the surviving population of what was once Asia on top of being both the capital of the North Quadrant administrative zone, and the central capital of the entire global government.
Even as understandable as its size was, it didn't make staring at it any less mind boggling.
Anyone standing out in the vast wastelands between the earth's remaining cities and looking towards it would first see the massive outer walls of the outskirts pseudo-districts.
Each of the outer wall segments was a mobile structure, designed to crawl across the barrenlands when needed and be anchored into place when ready.
The wall platforms were each dominated by their outward armor segment, the massive fortification that would serve to keep the wilds of the intercity wastelands at bay. Taking up the front of each crawler was a two hundred meter wide, thirty meter tall, and ten meter thick mass of hardened alloys and metals, honeycombed with gunports and cannon emplacements.
Behind the wall armor themselves, the rest of the wall crawlers length was taken up by the support equipment needed to operate it and house the soldiers stationed there. Engines, air processing systems, barracks, logistical hubs, ammo dumps and even bars and pool halls for some of the older crawlers that had been retrofitted by their crews.
Beneath them all were the massive treads and hydraulic pistons that let the segments function. Each time a new wall segment was constructed in the outskirts foundries every wall platform if the perimeter would be moved forward. When they did so all the wall segments around the city would retract their anchorage spikes from the earth and use massive hydraulic pistons to push their treads down into the ground.
When all the walls were ripped free from the muck of the wasteland they would move together in a massive choreographed dance to make room for the newest section. It was a process that could take days and would be filled with rampant fighting and blood shed as extra measures were taken to keep every last hungry or threatening thing out while the walls moved.
Once the new segment was in position, the entire network would retract their tread pistons and drop their thousand ton mass into the earth, their sheer weight holding them in place, along with help from hundreds of anchor spikes.
Nearly a hundred such wall segments served as the outermost expression of the city's scale and were the most visible part of it to any who were unfortunate or mad enough to be wandering out in the wasteland.
Despite their scale the outer walls were far from the most impressive part of the city.
Farther in, beyond the creeping and disorganized outskirts of the city was its main superstructure housing its core districts and the vast majority of its citizens. A solid wall of reinforced metal two hundred meters high and spanning a thirty kilometer wide circle cut off the city's core from the rest of the world.
One might expect the existence of such a far off walled garden to be cause for simmering resentment and unrest from the people outside its walls. It would be a sensible conclusion considering that the bulk of the city's land area was in the outskirts rather than the city core but oddly enough most of the population lived inside.
It was hard for anyone who had never been inside the city core to understand how you could cram over a hundred and fifty million people in a circle only thirty kilometers wide.
Anyone who was willing to pay the contribution credits to make it inside though would have all doubt ripped out of them.
While the core walls towered to an impressive height, it was only when you entered the city core and gazed out at the vast forest of kilometer high skyscraper pillars that one could truly appreciate just how many people could live inside.
The outer walls and roof were the most visible part of the city core, and they served a number of critical functions. Sealing the space inside to allow for clean and filtered air, providing a location to mount millions of solar lamps to light the city, and allowing the government to have tight control over entry and exit.
The walls and roof even had a morbid use as the last line of defense in the event Nightmare beasts swarmed but most tried to ignore that use.
Their most important function by far though was blocking out any high winds or really any winds at all from entering the city which allowed for full use of the natural space inside.
Resting beneath the roof was a gargantuan cone shaped depression, which the massive ceiling neatly covered like a lid to a saucepan. With no high winds and lateral strain to contend with, massive skyscrapers rose up from the floor of the space and connected to the ceiling, each one hundreds of meters wide and varying in height.
Along the outer ring of the city near the walls, the height from ground to roof was moderate, the many support structures looking less like towers and more like squat buildings.
Once you crossed into the next ring though you would descend hundreds of meters down and every tower would rise to match. Keep walking through each district and you would find the ground constantly dipping down all the while the dense forest of residential support towers grew taller.
By the time you reached the inner city the ceiling would be over three kilometers above you and be shrouded by clouds formed from enclosing such a vast space.
And there at the edge of the thirteenth ring of the city you would be able to stare inward at the core of the NQSC. A place that the common man would need to give up everything to even set foot inside of.
Entry into the outer thirteen kilometers of the superstructure was not beyond the means of most people. Residency inside was possible for the majority of the population and even those with moderate talent from the outskirts. That only applied to the dense forest of towers and buildings in the outer core though.
While the rest of the superstructure was a dense thicket of residential support columns and platforms, which at times seemed even more crowded and packed than the outskirts, the inner districts stood out for being empty.
A single tower dominated the city center, standing a kilometer wide and five kilometers tall.
Its more than five hundred floors were primarily occupied by government infrastructure and facilities, though the outermost edge of the massive cylinder was occupied by homes and services for the middle-upper class.
The lower-upper class, those with the most wealth among normal people but not quite true opulence, found their homes in the skyscrapers that bordered the inner city. Not wealthy enough to freely make it inside but still wealthy enough to enjoy the abundant solar bulb lighting and the perfect view.
The rest of the space in the inner city though? The remaining donut of space around the central tower. That was entirely covered with greenery.
In the core of the city, surrounding the central pillar was the most coveted twenty square kilometers of land in the continent that was once Asia. And rather than dense housing or tight packed buildings was pure open space and unobstructed air.
Covering the precious ground were parks and artificial rivers, palatial estates for the most wealthy of families and even homes that would have looked normal prior to the collapse and the onset of the spell. With the context of both those though, a simple home surrounded by a yard and clean air became a home for royalty.
Yes, the sight of the NQSC was truly something to behold. Though to some, all the beauty in the world couldn't hide the rot beneath.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Within the 367th floor of the NQSC's central tower walked a man, his eyes flicking out the window at the vast gardens below and the dense mass of residential towers beyond.
Despite the access hall he walked through being occupied by numerous people also using it, they each avoided the man and practically formed a bubble around him.
It was hardly due to something repulsive about him. In fact if one were to ask any of the people walking by to rate his appearance it would be universally positive. Even those with no interest in men would have to admit that the older man cut a handsome figure.
His face was only slightly marred by wrinkles and the lone scar on it was more flattering than disfiguring. His hair seemed in contrast to his face by showing not even a hint of gray or discoloration, and was instead a perfect sea of black. Those simple characteristics didn't even touch on the almost other worldly quality to the man that made even talking to him, rather challenging for a normal person.
All that aside though, the actual reason people were avoiding had nothing to do with his appearance but rather the fact that this hallway was within the part of the central tower taken up by the District 7 police station. That meant everyone here was a government employee and as such recognized important members of government.
That meant that when someone walked by wearing the uniform of the Central Government military and wearing the epaulettes and rank insignia of one of the government's Saints they were given a wide berth.
As the man strode through the halls he finally arrived at a door, and with a quick swipe of his badge it gave way and opened to a small conference room occupied by a dozen people dressed similar to him. At the head of those seated were two who were standing on either side of a projector screen.
The pair were a man and woman, both uncommonly attractive and beautiful compared to most but still not carrying the same oppressive air about them that the first man did. As soon as the man made his way inside the male at the front of the room snapped into a picture perfect salute.
"Saint Cor! It is our honor and pleasure to welcome you to NQSC District 7 Sir!"
In reply the Cor simply waved them off and took a seat himself. "At ease both of you. Despite my age I've never been one to waste time standing on ceremony. Now give me a sitrep and a briefing. I wasn't given any detailed information before I was pulled off transit duty."
The man saluted once more "Understood Saint Cor!" He turned towards the display screen in the room and with a push of a button flipped to a still image of some police station surveillance footage. "At approximately 19:37 NQST a young man identified as a outskirts denizen named Shirou Emiya entered the district 126 police station in the outskirts claiming to be suffering from the onset of the spell."
He pressed play and the footage above rolled on showing the Emiya entering the station and going through initial processing. The video feeds changed to follow him down below and then showed his final briefing before he slipped unconscious.
Up to this point everything Cor could see was extremely bog standard for the processing of a new Cleeper. Even that somewhat embarrassing video presentation went off without a hitch.
That all changed once Emiya fell asleep, and began thrashing on the bed. "At 19:48 almost immediately after the in-suite monitoring equipment confirmed that Emiya slipped into deep REM, an anomalous reaction occurred."
The footage continued and showed the sight of a spasming and twitching body on the bed, writhing against its restraints and flailing in a spastic mess. The sight of that alone occurring so early in the first nightmare was enough to leave the officers in the footage panicking but it was what came next that sent them over the limit of mere concern and into full blown hysteria.
"At 19:52 the Emiya displayed what has since been classified as Site Specific Spontaneous Combustion." The footage continued, police officers in the room seemingly paralyzed by indecision around helping Emiya, or trying to pre-emptively kill him to stop the emergence of a nightmare beast.
As they stood by, smoke began to rise up from Emiya's arms and legs. The smoking limbs weren't enough to catch the panicked officers' notice but moments later when the smoke gave way to gouts of blue flame, they all ran from the chamber.
Saint Cor's eyes narrowed at the sight playing out on screen. He had been starting to wonder what was worth dragging a [Transcendent] like himself in on this case but the sight of that reaction was certainly enough. There was no word to describe what he was seeing other than an anomaly and in this world something anomalous would always mean some new avenue for power.
The female officer stood at this point and gestured towards the footage as it continued to play and showed the police officers falling over themselves to get away and lock the room. "At 19:57 local officers contacted government forces directly to request backup. Master Sahar and I were nearby processing a gate suppression and responded to the call."
The now named Master Sahar took the verbal baton once again and continued the footage, showing a rapid timelapse of the young man on the bed. The fire covering him continued to burn as did his thrashing until finally both stopped, leaving a now naked Emiya laying on the bed looking far less wounded than he should have considering what happened.
"At 20:13 both anomalous reactions appeared to stop, and Emiya's body was once more catatonic. Although there was minor smoke damage to the in-suite equipment, the majority of it continued recording throughout the incident. Readouts showed that during the incident there was a massive spike in brain activity along with a staggering increase in body temperature. Following the event though the subject appeared mostly unharmed, other than severe yet localized burn wounds on the extremities."
He clicked the screen forward and showed close up images of Emiya's arms and legs along with EKG graphs and trends. All four limbs had seemingly been branded with jagged and almost mechanical black lines that criss-crossed in no clear pattern. "After myself and Master Diana arrived on scene we took stock of the situation and contacted Central Command to advise."
Diana clicked the screen forward once again and showed footage of both her and Sahar corralling the officers and examining Emiya's body. "Based on the recommendation from command we locked down the station and started implementing OPSEC procedures. Luckily the initial call from the officers was panicked and vague, referring only to the issue and a sleeper going wild. Thanks to that we had high confidence that only government forces were aware of this incident. Even still, command advised relocating Emiya to a more secure station and as a result he was relocated here."
Another slide was clicked which showed cut outs of medical reports and documents along with a full body x-ray scan. "We've also been conducting more thorough examinations of Emiya and collected blood samples. Beyond getting a much more precise map of the locations that are generating atypical heat we haven't gained any meaningful intel from these samples. There are still a number of tests being run on the samples we've collected though."
Sahar took the baton once more and began another round of footage, this time showing a different monitoring suite/containment cell that now held Emiya. "In the time since the initial incident, subject Emiya has had numerous incidents of more limited Site Specific Spontaneous Combustion, though none of them have been as severe as the initial occurrence."
Saint Cor leaned back in his chair and digested everything he had just heard, scenarios racing through his mind as he contemplated the worst case. Even then there was a whole other layer to this problem that hadn't even been touched on yet. "All of that makes sense as to why and how we've responded. What doesn't make sense to me is what has changed in the last 5 hours to justify pulling a Saint like myself away from transit operations. Every hour I'm not moving between here and the dream realm means a kilogram of originium that we weren't able to bring to the waking world."
Cor's words were delivered with a calm slowness, and despite their content they were not accusatory. He had been with the government forces since the beginning of it all and knew that not only were these two not the shotcallers, but the higher ups above them were no fools.
Every hundred hours he was here meant a hundred kilograms of that precious black stone that wasn't being moved, enough to suppress and lock down a class two gate.
Cor was hardly expecting to be here that long but given just how desperate for that rock the waking world was and how essential it is to maintain global stability, something important must have changed about all this which had the higher ups nervous.
Sahar and Diana both nodded and flipped the screen to a new slide. "You're correct sir. The situation changed this morning when a woman entered the district 126 police station. She entered her information as Tohsaka Rin and also provided no residence information, similar to Emiya Shirou. Approximately 2 minutes after entering REM sleep Tohsaka displayed the same anomalous reactions that Emiya did."
To punctuate her words Diana flipped the footage to show the visage of a black haired woman covered in the same fire that hand consumed Emiya, her decency spared by black bars. "That however isn't the reason you were contacted sir. Tohsaka was moved to this station like Emiya and Command is still confident that extra Masters like ourselves can handle two unawakened, even if they are anomalous."
Diana flipped the slides to show a still shot of Tohsaka's transport. The image specifically focussed on a strange horned woman standing outside the district 7 police station station. "The larger issue is that unlike the first incident, proper operational security was not maintained for Tohsaka's case. We have very strong evidence that both Babel and the Legacy clan bloc have become aware of the current situation, due to mishandling of Tohsaka's transport to district 7. These concerns were reinforced when both groups contacted the government liaison's office asking for information on the case."
Saint Cor let out a low hum of acknowledgement, any confusion or doubt about his being here vanishing entirely with those words. That certainly brought things into perspective then. It would be a literal and political apocalypse if any fighting were to break out between the government and those two groups, yet at the same time should they come knocking the government couldn't exactly turn them away.
In the game of politics pushing aside the two biggest support groups backing you would be suicidal. "I trust you have a set of orders for me from High Command then? Something they felt needed to be given to me in person considering I haven't been told about it yet.."
Both the young masters looked at the seated Saint with resigned expressions before Sahar bit the bullet and looked down at the tablet in his hand. "Officially sir, your arrival here is to supervise an unusual phenomenon for the safety of the city. In that capacity and in alignment with your status you are to behave cordially to the allies of the government and ensure the rights and freedoms of Mister Emiya Shirou and Miss Tohsaka Rin are respected, as deserved by two would-be Awakened."
Sahar handed his data pad to Cor who read over the clean and politically well written order. He then handed over the envelope in his hands. "However unofficially you are here to support us in ensuring that no violent actions take place in this station and to apply any pressures we can to get these two into our camp. There are enough eyes on them now that further direct scientific study is off the table, but getting working agreements with them both would allow us to collect samples and learn more."
Cor glanced over the document, its contents a window into the reality of power dynamics that no one wanted the citizenry of the world to know about.
On paper everything between the three great powers of the world was peachy and perfect. The government stood at the absolute top, helped to climb as high as it had by the ceaselessly selfless and generous actions of the Babel group. They had helped humanity during the onset of the spell and in the decades since had been an instrumental partner for ensuring the government remained strong.
Thanks to Babel's aid the government retained a firm seat at the top of the global power structure, in spite of the power held by the various clans of Awakened individuals that formed after the onset of the spell. There had been a time that the government seemed to be falling behind the clans. After all, life working under the fabulously wealthy legacy clans was vastly more profitable than dull government jobs were.
Before that trend could pick up any steam though, Babel's development of gate suppression reversed it. They granted the government control of the technology and suddenly the wealth and power of the government exploded. Young awakened were eager to join their side for the chance to perform the highly lucrative yet relatively safe job of transporting Originium back to the waking world from the dream realm.
The process was slow and debilitating enough that even as the population of [Ascended] and even [Trancendants] began to expand the work never dried up. Even with thousands working to move the stone back and forth, the sheer effort it took to transport it kept the flow to a trickle, and also made every gram of it in the waking world more valuable than gold.
With one bit of technology, Babel had effectively kneecapped the growth of the clans and handed a massive windfall to the government.
The Legacy clans adapted to the new state of affairs with grace and honor and took up roles as partners for the government through various conglomerate companies. Although they had once aimed to be on top of everything, the Legacy clans were now content to advance their crafts and support government advancement.
All of that was more or less the story found in children's textbooks today, and the one the media was encouraged to keep afloat. A story of a safe stable government keeping the world secure and being helped by smaller affiliate partners.
The truth was that all three groups were in a constant power struggle, endlessly looking for ways to remove the other two from the board.
None of them were nearly as squeaky clean as they projected to the public and none of them trusted the others. Despite that, they all knew that no single one of them were strong enough martially or politically to wipe out the other two alone.
The government's great failing was its desperation for legitimacy, stability, and the control needed to get both. They had a rather good reason for it in Cor's mind, the world after the collapse and the descent of the spell was a chaotic place in need of order after all.
Yet even with good reason though Cor couldn't argue that the government was blunt at times, and downright draconian at others. It could be seen as clear as day in every contract and trade deal written up that the idea of relying on others rankled the government forces even as they were forced to play nice by public expectation and perception.
Then there were the Legacy clans, fundamentally greedy and powerhungry familial organizations that sprang up from the most impressive of the first generation Awakened.
It was hard to argue that early on they were a force for good. After all, the early days of the spell were twisted and chaotic times when most thought all of humanity was about to be driven to extinction. In those days powerful families of talented warriors were anchors of stability for the people.
That use vanished once the government became the power house it is today, aided by the legitimacy of also having a civilian branch included in it. When Babel began propping up and elevating the government, the idea that random clans of the strongest person on the block should be in charge began to fall apart. Submitting to strength didn't make as much sense when proper law and order was also an option.
By the time the second generation of Awakened, like Cor himself, were teens and coming of age, the government had been fully formed and stabilized. With Martial support from Babel and legitimacy from the civilian population they became the de facto heads of the world.
That had led to the Legacy Clans making attempts at bolstering their power. The first of which was simply making the idea of working for them, far more lucrative than anything else.
In the time when Cor was becoming an adult and coming into his own almost all of his peers had shied away from government jobs. The legacy clans offered wealth beyond anything the state could which proved successful at pulling valuable Awakened to their side. That was until Babel intervened once more, and offered a veritable holy grail of technologic wonder to the government.
A means to reliably, and somewhat safely lockdown and even close nightmare gates in the waking world. All the fabulous wealth the clans could muster became meaningless next to the value of that service, which saw the government pulling in contracts and resources like never before.
The only bottleneck to shutting gates became the abysmally slow rate at which Originium could be brought back to the waking world. The work of doing so, although bone crushingly exhausting for the [Ascended] and beyond doing the work, was still worlds better than the other option of closing gates by plunging yourself into the gate's nightmare seed to overcome it.
Suddenly safety and money were offered by the government, which saw their power surge past that of the clans.
Even through it all though the legacy clans motives and aims hadn't shifted. They turned their attention inward in the years since the third generation of awakened rose up and began refining their own clan specialties as a means of securing power once more which led to them forming their various conglomerates.
If they couldn't overpower the government and Babel as they were, then they could court them both and make them reliant allies. Which is exactly what they did.
Clan Valor poured itself into refining crafting and construction processes until they became a cornerstone of global manufacturing. They served as not only the premier makers of artificial [Memories] but also the foremost experts in runic arrays and cybernetics.
Clan Song and its lower affiliate clans took to specializing in the manipulation of flesh and life leading to the foundation of numerous pharmaceutical companies Their holdings in the working world are mainly composed of genetic augmentations, boluses, and poultice treatments that alter the human body and were all borne from Song alchemy.
Clan Night became the lynchpin of global trade, not only by being undisputed masters of seafaring across the infested oceans of earth, but also by securing controlling interests is all inter-city over ground shipping companies. Beyond their position as the lords of global transport, the Night clan were also the premier practitioner of magic among the awakened, which earned them a high degree of utility and renown.
All together their well established Niches and roles served to make the clans ever more impressive, and ever more useful to the world, making everyone more reliant on them.
That said the clan's new grips on power weren't rigid and relied on public sentiment, but that fact didn't stop their old habits. It only made their attempts at gaining more practical or political power covert rather than overt, a reality that made them no less dangerous but at least made them somewhat predictable.
Which was more than Cor could say about Babel, the group he considered to be the least trustworthy of the three Great Powers.
No one could argue that their actions had been instrumental in stabilizing the era after the descent of the Spell and the decades since. Numerous members of the first generation of Awakened had been saved by the timely intervention of Babel operators and even Cor would admit to being rescued by them once when he was younger.
Then there was all the technology and information that they readily shared with the government. The technology for Gate suppression certainly stood out the most but it was far from the only thing given.
Advances in metallurgy, medicine, drone technology, electronics, and critical roles such as Originium use and handling all saw their origin from Babel. Half the materials used to construct the Siege Capitals were based on Terran advancements, and it was their engine technology that helped create the outskirts wall crawlers that were slowly retaking the wastes.
That all didn't even include the vast sums of resources they poured into training and arming every young Sleeper and Aspirant they could.
Almost half the instructors at the sleeper academy were Babel operators last Cor checked, and their [Memory] lending system was being rolled out across the world as fast as they could manage it.
All of their acts of charity were given freely and loudly, never asking anything in return. Yet always it happened where the press could see and the people could cheer.
Step behind the curtain though, in the way only high level members of government did, and you could see another side to Babel.
Their gate suppression technology?
It was effective to be sure, but by giving control of it to the government Babel had named the government the one responsible for closing gates. Resources were too thin to save your town out in the wastes? Blame the government for the lack of Originium. Only the major population centers are getting their gates shut? That's the government's fault, they operate the tech afterall.
The originium used to actually close the gates in the waking world?
Only Babel performed the mining and then sold it to the government, giving Babel a constant customer who could never leave.
Their advances in metallurgy?
All relied on ore deposits in the dreamrealm which had to be bought from them and brought back home.
Medicine, drones and electronics all played out the same. In fact if one looked just a bit closer they would find every gift Babel gave was a way to thread themselves ever more tightly to the government without ever actually integrating.
In the eyes of the people they were saintly and kind yet for the government itself Babel was a cold extortionist bleeding them for as much as they could and always keeping their cards close to their chest.
And all of that didn't even touch on the worst part, the thing about Babel that made Cor unable to ever trust them.
None of them were human! Instead they were all things that had apparently sprung up from the dream realm and only bore a resemblance to humans.
That claim might sound crazy or conspiratorial without context. If someone didnt know who he was talking about Cor had little doubt they would think he was a tinfoil hat wearing loon but the fact was you could tell just by looking at any of the Babel operators.
Every one of them looked like they stepped out of some blasted old world anime, sporting devil horns and cat ears or rabbit tails and razor sharp claws.
It should have been enough to turn the public away from them but the frustrating part was that none of those features were attached to monstrous bodies. Instead all the Babel operators that had been seen had the same otherworldly attractiveness as Awakened people.
None of that should have mattered though. The people should have still known that things coming out of the dream realm weren't to be trusted.
Instead, Babel's good deeds were more than enough to win hearts and minds, to the point that their public approval scores to this day sat higher than both the Government's and the Legacy Clans'.
The thought that the whole world was being swindled by pretty faces and good deeds often rankled Cor's feathers. It was as though the simple fact that they were kind and beautiful was enough to make the world forget that no one knew what Babel's end goals were.
They didn't have a population large enough to rebuild a civilization. There were only a few thousand among them afterall, which meant that wasn't their goal.
They didn't have any political interest beyond gathering wealth and serving as a powerful ally for anyone who was acting to help the greater good. If they did, any of them could have run for Government office and won by a crippling landslide.
They didn't aggressively recruit Awakened warriors to bolster their ranks. While they at this point had a hand in training thousands of Awakened, Babel only ever hired normal clerks and workers to support the space around their Citadel.
The only things Babel ever did was keep their industries running, and send out explorers into the dream realm which only clued the world in on the fact they were searching for something.
Whatever it was though they clearly had something to hide, and while none of the major players knew what it was they knew it was out there. Just as much as they all knew that Babel had both the martial, technological, and political prowess to tip the scales of any conflict that might arise.
Despite the doubt around them it wasn't as though The clans or government could act against Babel. They held too much of the world's supply chains in their hands and had vast public support on their side.
All of that taken together left the government and the Legacy clans in a tense stalemate. Both knew that they couldn't take any actions against the other without Babel stepping in to keep the peace they loved so much. Likewise they both knew that acting directly against Babel would see half their own and all the populace turn against them.
And so a tense cold war existed between all three, never acting overtly in any way but also never ceasing in attempts to poke and prod for any possible weaknesses or advantages they could grasp.
Emiya and Tohsaka were both unique cases, and could very well prove to be valuable assets for anyone who brought them under their influence. It also was enough to make the idea of removing them from the board entirely an appealing one.
Government command must have thought of that possibility too, which made the choice to move Tohsaka and Emiya to one of the most visible and prosperous districts in the center of the NQSC acrology a logical one.
Saint Cor hummed and looked at the document before pulling a lighter from his pocket and setting the paper on fire. "All understood. I'll find myself a room by those two and get comfortable then. The sooner they wake up or fail to wake up, the sooner I can act." As he stood from his chair and turned to walk away Cor stretched his back and let out a sigh.
While the taciturn Saint would never say it out loud it had been a long time since he had a break from hauling stone or fighting so a chance to rest and keep watch would be rather nice. Any thoughts of rest died when an aid opened the door.
"Sir! Emiya is awake!"