DxD:the fake Dream

At the same time however he had become more charismatic to a small degree. He seemed to understand others better and gave them advice on occasion. This even applied to some Noble families, enabling him to gain more funds and resources for his research. He seemed to push forward with his work with a fervor of a man going to war. Once one hill of research was cleared, he pressed onward to a related subject as if it was not the end he was looking for…

Waver was in the middle of his research into a small realm of water element manipulation, attempting to create a spell that would automatically analyze the amount and composition of residual magic in existing bodies of water… something he had done manually with a pseudo chemistry set during the 4th war to look for the insane Caster and had actually worked surprisingly well. The spell itself would in theory be fairly basic, however the fabrication of the execution was a rather tedious task. Once he was able to finish this particular spell, he would attempt to make similar spells with the other basic elements… sans fire for obvious reasons.

He was returning to his workshop with several more books on water manipulation and sensory spells from one of the libraries inside the clock tower when he had bumped into something large while turning a corner and dropped his books.

"Ah! Sorry laddie." The giant thing apologized as it bent over to help the teen pick his books up. "Ahm a bit on ta big side so ah sometimes miss ta wee ones…"

Waver grit his teeth. He had been on the short side for the most part of his life, however his growth spurt had kicked in the past few years, making it so that he was at least of average height now."That's fine." He sighed as he took the books. "You aren't the first to…" He looked up at the man and momentarily faltered. The man's red hair and huge girth had instantly reminded him of his servant of 2 weeks, the great king of conquers, and his unofficial liege, Alexander the Great. He shook his head. "I'm used to it."

"I bet ya would." Chuckled the large man, patting the teen on the shoulder, bringing back some more memories of the teen's times in Japan. "Anyways, ahm lookin fer someone. Ya wouldn't know where… erm…" He scratched his chin. "Oh right, Waver Velvet is? Ah got sometin' fer him."

Waver rose an eyebrow. He had clearly never met the man before, although that was to be expected since the clock tower's population was rather large… however he was fairly certain that he would remember someone so blatantly different from the standard mould that walked around the halls here. "I'm Waver." The teen replied skeptically. "Who are you? What do you need to give me?"

"Ah! Finally!" The man grinned with a sigh. "Ah don't go inta the main tower dat much so whenever ah gotta look for someone ah sometimes get lost or come across some prick who doesn't give me ta right time o'day." He stuck out his hand. "Sirius McGinty lad. Pleased ta meet ya."

Waver's eyes widened. "The mystic code crafter? I've heard many things about you and your work, but I've never seen you in person before." He shook the man's hand, not wincing as his hand was slightly crushed under the strong grip. "Your research is well known and respected among my peers."

"O'course it is." Sirius grinned childishly. "What lad doesn't want some kinda gadget ta blow things up with? They demand and I supply! Ta more unique ta code is, ta more mah research is developed and ta more fun ah have breakin' things!"

Waver laughed sheepishly in conjunction with Sirius' blunt statement. The man was resembling Alexander more and more by the second and it was honestly unnerving him to no end. "… So about that thing you wanted to give me?"

"Ah! Right!" The big man nodded as he started to pat himself down to check his pockets. Once again Waver mused at how odd this man was for a magus, wearing a muscle shirt and casual cargo pants with a long sleeved shirt wrapped around his waist. There was no sense of pride or nobility in his attire at all. "Found it!" Sirius cheered as he took out a letter from one of his pockets. "Here ya are lad."

Waver raised an eyebrow as he put his books down and took the letter. "A letter? How odd. Why not just send me the message with magic?" He mused. He could already tell that there wasn't any prana flowing through the paper as he had casted a quick spell that checked such things. Sabotage was fairly common among some magi after all and his ascension in the ranks of the clock tower had irritated a few of the more ancient clan's youngest members…

Waver opened the letter curiously and scanned the contents, which was actually very sparse. At the top was a time, a date, and an address, all of which were relatively close by…

But his face paled dramatically as he read the 8 words written beneath that information.

No… He mentally repeated to himself, praying that each time he read the sentence the words or the meaning would change. No no no no… this can't be… it can't be possible. It's been so long… years in fact… even if the man had an A+ ranked independent action… he should be gone by now!

Yet the words on the paper did not change, nor did their meaning, nor the ice cold hand of fear that had gripped the teen's heart with a firm grip that prevented him from moving in the slightest.

The golden king still drinks among mortal men.

Waver quickly looked up to where Sirius had stood just moments before, only to see no one nearby at all. Looking around to see that no one was around, the teen quickly attempted to calm himself down and think things through. Obviously the writer of the message was aware of not only his participation in the war… but of the identities of the servants as well. He had doubted the possibility that he was the only master to survive the battles since he didn't win it in the first place… the only mortalities that he was aware of were of Caster's master, some non magical murdering sociopath, his bastard of a teacher, noble prodigy, and master of Lancer, Kayneth Archibald… and several months later he had heard that Tokiomi Tohsaka had passed during the fighting as well… who was the golden king's master…

Speaking of the other masters, Waver had barely been able to gain any other information on them since the war ended. Kirei Kotomine had belonged to the holy church and was an executor at that, so he heard rumors about the old master of Assassin every once in a while. The identity of the black and terrifying Berserker had never been disclosed to him… not that he wanted to meet anyone that could summon something so distorted…

However possibly the most dangerous master of all had for lack of a better term disappeared off the face of the planet. Kitsirugu Emiya, the rumored Magus Killer. A man who was still whispered about from time to time as one of the greatest and fearsome freelancers to ever exist even if the older clans, the Einzberns in particular, ridiculed him for being a hired dog that apparently made a habit of betraying his employers at the last moment. Waver was not a fool. The master of Saber was by all means the most likely to win even if the man had shown himself almost as frequently as Berserker's master…

He looked at the letter again. The golden king still drinks among mortal men. His eyes widened at the second hidden meaning in the message. During the war, there had been oddly enough a night when the three servants who had been kings in their past lives… drink among themselves and simply talk about times long past at the castle where Saber and her master had set up shop… until Assassin came and his Rider showed off his reality marble, killing the dark servant almost easily with his mighty army behind him. The message obviously came from someone who knew of that event…

Still that did not help much. It had been 3 years since the war and masters and servants were not the only ones involved in the war. Stories could have been told and passed many lips during that time… even if secrecy was one of the first things a magus practiced…

But the main message remained the same… Gilgamesh was still alive... and it terrified the teen to no end for good reason. The man after all possessed an anti-world noble phantasm… and he had seen it live up to the rank to the fullest in his servant's final fight…

Getting his head back on, the teen focused his mana to his eyes and brain as he once more read the entirety of the letter in front of him, committing it to memory so firmly that he could remember it as easily as he could his birthday before wordlessly burning the note in his hands. Fire was not his element, however something small on that level was none the less simple for him. It was something he attempted to learn as quickly as possible in order for his future research and studies to become more efficient.

He would have to at least finish some of his smaller projects in the next few days. After all, there was a good chance that he was going to die in this meeting. Might as well do something productive in his remaining time alive…

If meeting the one who wrote the message didn't kill him… he had no doubt that the events following the meeting would.

o. o. o.

Three days later:

Kiritsugu sighed almost contently as he rested in the comfortable chair in Sirius' office, drinking one of the beers the man had stashed under the desk. Reinforcing beer… why the hell didn't anyone ever market that before? It still tasted like piss but the buzz… oh the buzz...

It almost made him forget the ache of the curse that constantly plagued his body…

His relaxed state was interrupted as the door in front of him opened to give way to Sirius and Waver walking inside. "Oi!" The bigger of the two grunted. "Tat's me chair yer arse is in lad!"

"And it can tell that you've broken it in fairly well Sirius." Kiritsugu briefly smirked.

The owner of the house grumbled irritably as he walked to one of the guest chairs about being disrespected. Waver went for a seat as well, however he did not take his eyes off of Kiritsugu.

"You know who I am." The cursed man stated.

"Kiritsugu Emiya. The magus killer." Waver stated emotionlessly. "I was wondering where you went."

"Someplace quiet to slowly die." The man shrugged casually. "The grail was corrupted and me being the cold hearted man that I am angered it enough to curse me personally. I only have a couple of years left and I can barely do any magic anymore."

Both of the listener's eyes widened. "Ya fergot ta tell me tat part last night lad." Sirius frowned. "Ah thought ya just got grazed by some cursed noble phantasm."

"Must have slipped my mind." Kiritsugu nonchalantly shrugged.

The youngest of the three's eyes narrowed. Being cursed was a serious condition. Their effects varied between each one and for the most part they could be removed with enough time… however one that stemmed from the grail itself… "What do you mean by the grail was corrupted?"

Kiritsugu sighed. "Something's inside of it. Been there since the previous war if what I know is correct… waiting to be born. Angra Mainyu..."

"Tat's an ol' legend…" Sirius scratched his head. "Ta source of all ta evil in ta world… the bloody hell did he get in ta grail?"