Somewhere in a desert.
Sand ahead, sand behind. Sand everywhere — at least a bush or a cactus for variety? And it's hot. The question of where I am and what I'm doing here has been tormenting me for a minute already. And in my head the song "Arabian Nights" is screaming. Well, in any case, this is something new — if I died, this is no longer the emptiness of nowhere. And a desert has to end sometime, right? That means there should be something beyond the horizon.
Plus, I'm in my own body, experiencing all the sensations of a living person — so I'm more likely alive, and I'm thirsty. But the question of where I am is still open. Considering the options, I settled on two that are somewhat equal: the first is that I'm still unconscious and this is a memory of the Servant — I remember there was something like that in the anime. But this theory doesn't fit because I should be seeing everything through the Servant's eyes, and it should all feel like a dream — unclear and so on. But I'm in my own body, and everything around is too realistic.
The second theory is closer to the truth — the heart. More precisely, the notorious soul: where it is located is a debatable question — either in the heart or in the brain. Logically it should be in the brain — well, I want to believe that. But I've heard a lot about the heart too. And again, they took my heart out of me… hmm. And heart transplant operations are done on people and nothing — personalities don't change because of it.
Ahem, got distracted. So — they transplanted a heart into me, the Illusionist died. But where did her soul go? To wherever the unsummoned other personalities of the Hundred-Faced are shuffled? Or did it cling to the heart? It feels like it clung, which means there are two souls in my body now, and here begins the classic genre — possession, struggle for the body, schizophrenia, and all that. Maybe all of it? Yes. Then I'm in my inner world? Consciousness? Or where exactly?
After rolling this thought around a bit more, I came to the conclusion that wherever I am, I'm most likely in an illusion. And the reason is simple — what other illusion could she cast but a desert? The appearance of Hassan directly hints that they come from somewhere near a desert. Egypt? Israel?
Hmm, and then where's all the action? Are we fighting for the body or what? Though… remembering how she looked and that their powers correspond to human levels — a 17-year-old girl won't do much against me in direct confrontation. But she probably has a knife, and that's better than nothing! I don't even have a knife!
I examined myself — in sneakers and jeans only, exactly as I lay down on the "operating table," so I appeared here. Hmm, since this is the inner world, then… I strained for a minute trying to imagine a knife in my hand — didn't work, too bad. So I again wondered — why hasn't she attacked me yet?
On the other hand, why would she fight me directly? In this heat I'll keel over soon, and without water I won't last long — then the body will be hers. A fight in the style of her specialty. Hmm, I looked at my hand — the command seals are still there. Heh, I have a way to solve the problem, but first I should still test my theory.
"Heyyy. Illusionist, are you here?" Silence. Okay. "Maybe we can talk?"
After shouting a bit more, I got nowhere. Could I be wrong? Yes. I was hoping for at least some response in the style of — gloating over the enemy, insults, villainous monologue, and other clichés — after all, conditionally I'm in an anime. But no. And the lack of any reaction makes me nervous and doubt.
Okay, I'll risk it. "By command seal, I order — Hassan-Illusionist, give me all your power and knowledge, then disappear forever!"
The world cracked.
Oh fu…
Frames start flashing like in a bad movie.
Moments of some girl's life in the slums mix with the life of a guy in a sect of fanatics. The frames are far from sequential: the girl is about 15 and some old woman is teaching her how to make a living with tricks, then the guy commits his first murder. Suddenly memories of how to sew shoes. Here the girl is 5 and stealing food. The guy is learning to throw knives. There were far more memories of the guy; from the girl only scraps related to magic and bright moments flash by. Sometimes frames appear that aren't connected to either of them.
This nonsense went on for a long time until the two streams of memories slowed down. The guy, as proof that he's ready to become the new Hassan, cuts off his own face, and the girl is kidnapped by clichéd ninjas. And now periodically the point of view switches from the girl to the guy — a gigantic cave with a ritual circle is visible. The guy is looking somewhere at a throne where the previous Hassan sits.
And looking at him, only one thought is born in me — what the hell is the Lich King doing here? This three-meter mountain in armor, with a two-handed sword and periodically puffing blue fire — looks very little like an assassin! And yes, he has magic too?!
The girl looks around in horror and sees dozens of bound people lying around. And I think I'm starting to understand what's going on, and I even recognized a couple of Hassan's personalities. And around them people in cloaks are monotonously howling something. There was only pain and an endless cacophony of different voices. All this caused me only a headache, and I continued watching — though I had no choice anyway.
Then there was no longer a division into different memories; there was only one line, and the memories were more or less whole and consistent. Nothing particularly interesting: whispers in the head giving orders, murders, theft, setting ambushes with illusions, using illusions on oneself for framing.
The only thing I noticed was that if no other "Hassan personalities" were nearby, the whisper in the head belonged to, say, the main one. But if they worked in a team, it turned into torture — dozens of people talking in your head. Undeniably convenient for teamwork, but you can't endure it for long.
But everything ends. And at some point the voices in the head disappear for a moment, and a second later she hears a wild scream and dies. The next frame — they're all standing in some hall filled with fog, knowledge comes that they have been chosen for the 5th Holy Grail War, knowledge of new abilities based on their deeds appears in the head.
And listening to them, I realize they didn't tell me a lot! Like the fact that they can not only become intangible but also deal damage to other Servants while intangible — and that's exactly their unique feature. Which means their attacks deal, um, spiritual damage? Seems minor, but important — there's a big difference between simple physical damage and conditionally magical damage.
Also, for the strength of their faith and for cutting off his face, Hassan — and therefore all of them — was granted the ability "Independence," which is normally only available to the Archer class. It allows them to remain in the world for 2 days instead of 2 hours after the Master's death. Of course, this time can be extended by devouring hearts full of magic. No, you can eat a regular human heart too — but there's only a crumb of magic there and it almost does nothing.
And also such a trifle as "shadow merging" — he can't dive into shadows or manipulate them, but while in shadow he not only doesn't spend mana on existence but even restores a little.
And with this knowledge I understand one thing — he doesn't really need me; he can exist perfectly well without me, with difficulties, but he can! For the most part, the Master is just a walking battery for the Servant — which wasn't news to me. I didn't know the exact time they can survive without a Master, but I suspected it wasn't that simple. In a way, I understand why he didn't tell me — I wouldn't have told either in his place, so as not to cause paranoia attacks in the Master. But as they say — the aftertaste remains.