A Nascent Kaleidoscope. Chapter 634:

Truthfully, I didn't know what the fuck I was looking at.

Forests don't just spring up out of nowhere, is what I would normally say. But here we are, a new forest that most certainly wasn't there minutes ago.

That, and it was starting to snow rather heavily and the forest was most certainly not normal.

Very eerie.

I feel like I recognized what was going on, but off the top of my head, I couldn't quite recall the details. Like a fuzzy mory I inherited that was never really relevant until now.

I pursed my lips and made my way back to the train.

The forest had seemingly stopped attacking , which was nice. But it didn't stop the strange eerie and foreboding feeling this place was giving off.

The Train itself had co to a stop not far away. Well more like, it couldn't keep moving any longer. The Forest had blocked the way almost completely with the massive spirals of twisted wood reaching up to the sky.

And there wasn't a hint of green to be seen anywhere.

It was like all life had been sucked out of the area.

Even the newfound cold felt pervasive

Regardless, I went back into the train through the back since I didn't see Waver or Gray outside any longer.

And even inside, where it should have been warr, it felt about the sa. I could see my breath turn cold as I exhaled.

Definitely a magical cold that perated the Train just as well.

Walking through the train cars, I eventually reached the first of many housing cars, and I noticed imdiately that a great many of the room were sealed up type. In that, there very visible signs of magical defenses set up around them.

I quickly found the room I was looking for and knocked on it polite before I heard the go ahead to co in.

Venelana and Salem were still inside, along with Trisha who was still unconscious – as expected. However, Olga was now awake, sitting up right next to Venelana.

Venelana was cutting up an apple for her as the smaller girl ate it without any words of complaint. If anything, she seed really happy even if she kept her expression blank.

Cute.

I had to resist the urge to snap a picture.

I wasn't surprised how close Olga beca to Venelana so quickly. The poor girl had almost zero affection since birth, and now soone was giving it without asking anything in return with sincerity and genuineness. It would be stranger if Olga didn't latch onto her at her age.

"You had fun." Salem eyed as I walked inside.

I grunted noncommittal. "Did I cause a commotion?"

"A bit." Venelana answered for her. "Olga here woke up because of your little fight."

"I believe most people on the Train could watch a significant portion of your battle." Salem added in. "Particularly where you used the Train as a weapon, it was rather loud."

Ah, so maybe that's why Olga was looking at weirdly.

"She was a Servant." I answered plainly.

"A Servant!?" Olga was the first to blurt out a response. "A Ghost Liner, a Heroic Spirit!?" She was genuinely surprised by my reveal.

Those little hints of the sa Olga that I knew that poked through her mask were adorable. "That's the one." I answered.

"B-but how!? Summoning a Servant is impossible without sothing like the Heaven's Feel ritual!" Olga exclaid.

"That's the question, isn't it?" I mused. "I honestly don't know how it was possible either because I know for an absolute fact that the Holy Grail was dismantled and there isn't one currently out and about in the world."

Gramps was very set on removing it once and for all. He even called it a 'Foolish youthful endeavor' on his part when he talked about how he took part in its original creation.

It's highly unlikely that soone would be able to manage one under his nose. And if soone did, then it's possible that a Holy Grail could perhaps be the secondary problem compared to a person capable of pulling that off.

"Wait! You fought a Heroic Spirit!?" Olga finally seed to realize that part. "B-but Father said that heroic spirits are sothing beyond any modern Magi!?"

"You'd be surprised. I know quite a few people that can fight Servants. Even on this train that Burial Agent could have probably beaten the Servant I fought."

The Servant was….certainly on the weaker end.

"Why would you do sothing so reckless!?" Olga puffed up cutely. "You could have died!"

I felt my lips twitch in amusent and I found myself reaching over and patting her head. "How could I let soone get away with making you cry?"

Almost imdiately her face flushed, then her eyes turned red and began to water. "I didn't cry!" She sniffled, covering her face. "I'm not crying!"

Venelana gently pulled her into a hug as the smaller girl silently shed her tears.

I was going to have a talk with her Father at so point in the future. It wasn't going to be pleasant for him, and it was most likely going to end up with him having broken legs and leaving her alone forever.

"So this Servant was one of the parties involved." Venelana asked, gentling running a hand through Olga's hair as she continued to hug her.

"Most likely. I didn't get much information out of her." I nodded.

"Did you try before or after you used the Train as a bludgeoning tool?" Salem said dryly.

I waved my hand flippantly. "She wasn't the type that would reveal anything even if I had the mind to 'torture' her." I wasn't really the type to do in depth torturing even if my conscious was clear. Cut off so limbs, give them excruciating pain? Yeah, I could do that if I was angry enough. But actually sitting down and torturing soone was…..not sothing for .

"She wasn't a straightforward type of person. She used Spells, sneak attacks, poison, and all manner of non-forward thods. I would be very surprised if she hadn't been trained in life to resist any kind of information retrieval." I added on.

"And what about this forest." Salem asked, gesturing to the window where it was still very clearly in view.

"Ah, yes. That." I acknowledged it. "I honestly am confused too. I feel like it's sothing I should know, like it's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't quite recall the information." It was an annoying feeling, but it's not like it's the first ti this has happened with my inherited knowledge.

Once I get a reminder, it'll flood into , I know that.

I was about to say sothing else, but sothing suddenly hit the window outside, causing all of hers to look over.

Despite my first reaction to blast it to pieces, I held back.

It was a…..tree person? Wood person? So kind of silhouette in the form of a person made of wood.

Like soone tried to carve a person out of a tree and didn't quite get the proportions right.

I would call it vaguely human shape.

It sort of just pushed at the side of the train card with its body, bounced back and fell over awkwardly, unable to get back up.

"W-what is that!?" Olga let out a near shriek because blood began to seep from the pours of its wooden back and it sort of deflated.

Okay, that was kind of terrifying.

From the blood, similarly to the large twisted tree trucks around us, a smaller one began to grow out of the ground a few feet before stopping.

"....I am intrigued." Salem broke the newfound silence as she expressed her sincere thoughts.

Olga looked utterly horrified still.

That is…..interesting.

What the fuck just happened?

I was going to ponder it so more, but a knock ca from the door. Being the closets, I went over to open it up.

"Waver."

"Lord Schweinorg." He continued to greet with that sa even politeness despite everything. "The Auction staff had request your presence if you're amicable. Along with anyone else that was willing to attend. They were going to discuss how to deal with the current situation."

"Very well." I wonder if they had information that would be beneficial.

"I'll co too!" Olga stood up. "I'm the Lord of the Animusphere family." She said proudly, having cald down.

Though, she looked at Trisha with concern.

"She should be fine, it's highly unlikely that soone will attack her again. And even if they did, the Talisman set up would alert if it happened." I gestured to the Talisman I gave her earlier that was sitting next to Trisha.

Olga nodded as Venelana got up with her.

"I may as well co and see what's going on too." My Grandmother stated.

"I too am rather curious." Salem's interest was a bit more…..positive in nature.

Waver didn't express himself to their compliance, but looked at . "Lord Schweinorg, may I ask. What beca of that Servant you fought?"

"Dead, or may as well be. Whatever is happening outside of her seed to have eaten her before I finished her off for good." I explained.

Waver's eyes dilated briefly.

"What?" I questioned him.

"Lord Schweinorg, may I presu that you are unaware of what's happening outside?"

"I admit, I find myself ignorant on this matter." I didn't really feel the need to hide it.

"Have you heard of the Forest of Einnashe?"

And just like that, everything seed to fall into place, and it was like I rembered it all explicitly.

"Oh, that's not good." I now shared his sentints. "It's a child of Einnashe, isn't it?"

Waver nodded.

Okay, that's kinda bad.

[Line Break]

We entered the original lounge area with a decent number of others gathered. Even the Church people had taken up a corner, keeping to themselves. I spotted Ciel scowling as she saw Salem enter with .

Even that veiled woman was sitting far off in the corner as well.

I think she looked my way as we entered.

Though, frankly, it seems like everyone look towards us as we ca in. In particular, I was getting quite a few looks.

Wonder why.

And then ca the whispers, I was able to pick up that most of them were talking about .

The staff were already there, patiently waiting.

"Thank you everyone for coming." The Auctioneer – Leandre who introduced herself before – started speaking. "We – "

There was a banging sound as everyone looked towards the source. Another of those strange figures walked into the side of the train and fell over again.

There were a few more loud 'bangs' as several more sort of wandered into the train and hit it rather hard.

It looked fairly obvious that they lacked any kind of true intelligence.

"Get on with it." Ciel finally forced the matter back at hand.

The auctioneer gracefully just smiled at her words. "Please allow to explain for those who do not know. It seems we've run into a Child of Einnashe. For those who don't know, there exists a carnivorous forest that happened to devour a corpse of a superior Dead Apostle so years ago. It elevated into a Phantasmal Species – becoming a Dead Apostle itself in existence. This is the Forest of Einnashe. It appears every fifty years or so to devour enough blood to satiate it until it needs to reappear again.Every so often, the 'seeds' of the main forest seem to disperse through so unknown thods. We call these the children of Einnashe. Unlikely the original, these 'children' only appear once before dying off. They lack any true intelligence and seem to operate off instinct."

That's about the sa with what I know as well.

It's a rather annoying Dead Apostle among those who could claim the title. I was frankly wondering if I could even kill the original. Not that it was too strong for , but that it was an utterly massive forest in scope and there was almost no way to track down its 'core'.

"What instinct does it operate off?" One person – a Magus – raised her hand and asked.

"Unknown, but it's theorized it seeks out large sources of Magical Energy. To be perfectly honest, we usually run into one of the Children every few years. They seem to be pulled towards Leylines. Perhaps instinctively, they know it's a large source of Magical Energy that can sustain them, but likewise, their instincts stop them from trying to pull from the Leylines directly for even the Children of Einnashe would be killed if they tried sothing so foolish." The Auctioneer explained.

"If you have experience with them, then why have we fallen into its grasp?" Waver questioned.

The Auctioneer's expression didn't change. "Our route would have avoided it, but at the last mont, sothing happened that forced the Train to turn towards it. That is to say, we experienced so manner of sabotage."

That elicited a few whispers among so of the faces I didn't recognize.

I wasn't surprised. I saw the Train to an abrupt turn and the Forest just suddenly spring up. I could more or less be confident that the one responsible is the Master of that Servant.

"We would like to request assistance in dealing with this trouble to get the Train back on track." The Auctioneer finished.

"It seems like the majority of the passengers have boarded themselves up in their rooms." I heard Waver speak, not openly, but more so to those around him. Particularly, his own group and myself who was sitting at the next table.

"Why can't we just wait it out? I heard that the Children of Einnashe eventually die on their own."

"We're safe in the train, right?"

"It hasn't attacked us yet, we should be fine."

I closed my eyes as I listened to the various voices picking up in the train car, so just blurted out, others directed at the Auctioneer.

Though silence returned when another banging sound perated the cabin. Outside, a few dozen of those things seed to gather and were sort of mindlessly bumping into the train car.

I freely admit, they give so rather uncanny valley vibes. Like sothing is trying really hard to be human when it's not.

"The Train is safe, for now." The Auctioneer finally said. "We've passed by a handful of Children of Einnashe in the past because the Leyline hides our presence from it due to its low intelligence. However, the longer we stay still and stuck, the greater the chance it has of detecting us."

"I have a question." Waver spoke up. "Did you know the location of this Child of Einnashe before coming here."

"No." She shook her head. "It took us by surprise as well. Usually, we're able to detect them as they set up close to the leylines we travel."

"So, sothing brought it here." Waver noted.

That's a good point; sothing drew it towards us.

Was it ?

If it feeds on Magical Energy, I have a lot.

But I had a feeling that wasn't the case. Maybe if i were much closer, it could sniff out, but, presumably, the Forest wasn't in the imdiate vicinity at the ti.

I could already see that it seed to travel through space in so way. It seems to sit in so sort of Imaginary Number's space until it finally decides to descend properly.

"So, it basically knows there's a al infront of it, but it can't quite find it." I mused out loud. "What are these things then, so sort of extra sensory 'organs' it's deploying to find its al?"

Who even knew what the fuck a vampire tree even was at the end of the day.

"Lord Schweinorg, Ihave so information." Waver looked towards , in a more hushed voice. "Lady Edelfelt told , at great expense to herself, that she discovered a secret. Soone was using the Train as a vector to absorb Magical Energy from the Leyline."

I felt my eyebrow shoot up. "You don't say?" That was….odd. Taking in Magical Energy from a Leyline is a very ancient practice, and not….hard in the normal sense. The difficulty cos from how much effort and setup it requires to do so properly without consequences.

Yasaka, for example, has the duty of watching over the Leylines of Japan that intersect in Kyoto. The literal gods there set up the thod to protect and utilize them in proper asure.

In Fuyuki, it took dea – a literally godly taught witch – to be able to access the Leylines with so asure of haphazardness. She did so in days because she's one of the most talented spellcasters every to walk the earth.

So now, Waver is telling that soone is using the Train as a vector to access a Leyline. The thought was rather absurd at first ntion, but I knew he was telling the truth from his end.

"I will have to pass my thanks on to Miss Edelfelt." I responded, still thinking this over. I did see Luvia enter the train, and she hadn't made any other appearances, as if she were avoiding . I would make sure to smooth things over, I think she was intentionally keeping her distance out of so sort of fear.

While I didn't particularly like her due to her antagonistic relationship with Rin, I most certainly wasn't targeting her or had so grudge.

One more clue to add to the pile, but I feel like….there's enough pieces to start making deductions.

I hadn't even had the chance to sit down with Waver and compare notes yet and already we had another ss dumped on our plate.

It was annoying.

While my anger cald a bit, the one responsible was still living, which was most certainly sothing I wanted to rectify as soon as possible.

"It's like a zombie movie." I heard Kay's distinct 'voice' coming from gray's bag before she shook it in annoyance.

For so reason, that made stand up as I walked towards the window.

"Lord Schweinorg?" Waver looked at weird, but he got up and followed. Seemingly, many people seed to stand up and sort of followed my lead.

I watched as one of those weird tree people ford for the first ti. About thirty feet off the ground, I could see it sort of expunge itself from one of the 'trees' in the distance.

It fell, hitting the ground, collapsing into a pool of blood, and another smaller tree grew in its place from the blood it let out.

"Fuck, those are Ghouls." I cursed out loud.

Waver's head jerked at in realization. I think he was about to question , but sothing else got our attention. "There are people out there."

A trio of three, I think I recognized them from the train. They were rather far away, I could see them clearly if I reinforced my eyes.

They started casting fire spells at the nearby trees.

It seed to work for a mont.

"Idiots." Salem said under her breath, shaking her head.

I glanced back at her, and she took a step to the side, conveniently right infront of Olga so Olga's vision was blocked.

A mont later, branches and roots shot out and tore them apart, pulling the pieces into the nearby foliage.

Salem was right, idiots.

Did they think that it would be that easy. If it were that easy, why would we even have been 'stuck' for this long?

"I've never seen a Child of Einnashe produce Ghouls before." The Auctioneer spoke up, as if the death of those idiots was uninteresting.

I glanced at her, then looked at Waver. "Waver, you're probably the foremost expert on Servants on board the Train." I wasn't just blowing smoke up his ass.

I could claim quite a bit of knowledge, maybe even a wider birth of it than him, but he was an expert in the field. Due to his past experiences, it was well known he has studied Servants and everything about them extensively.

"Hypothetical speaking, a Servant has the spiritual blueprint of what is 'human' within them if they were a human in life, right?" I chose my words carefully.

"....yes. A Servant's Saint Graph – " Waver responded as if it were an easy question, then it seed like realization dawned on him. "The Forest ate the Servant."

I nodded.

The Forest is a Vampire.

Unintelligent, but capable of so bullshit from devouring things.

These 'Ghouls' were created by referencing the 'Saint Graph' of the Servant it devoured. Essentially, it has a copy of 'human' to reference and is trying to recreate it instinctually.

Gradually, more and more 'ghouls' fell out of the trees. So from high, so from ground level. And plenty started stumbling towards us as if attracted by an unknown force.

Kay was right, it honestly looked like so warped zombie infestation.

The issue here being, the Forest was fucking massive.

From one of the taller trees, a particularly large 'Ghoul' seed to start to erge. Perhaps Eight to Nine feet in height compared to the five to six feet the others were.

It fell out, but rather than hit the ground and 'die', it landed on its feet intentionally.

It stood up, looked around, then saw the train and moved towards us with a purpose. Its steps weren't stumbling, or awkwardly shifting in our direction, it was walking with a purpose.

"Salem." I called out urgently.

A shadow infront of the train glowed red for a split second as an Alpha Beowulf crawled out and ran at the large Ghoul.

It tackled the large Ghoul. The Ghoul was….confused? I don't think it had proper emotions or intelligence, but whatever moved it, it seed to stumbled slightly in response to being 'attacked', but rather quickly it started to flail its arms and body at the Beowulf as it 'fought'.

The Beowulf clawed at it enough that it eventually stopped moving and began to deflated into a pool of blood.

That would have been fine, but just as quickly, another largest Ghoul walked out of a nearby tree.

And another.

And another.

All the Trees around us, they started to spit out more and more Ghouls. So of them were still the 'small' and 'stupid' ones in comparison, dying almost imdiately upon 'birth' but it seed like a growing percentage continued to turn out 'right'.

Olga let out an abrupt shout as a larger Ghoul hit the window on the opposite side. It smacked the window with its hand unintelligently, but the glass cracked.

"Does the Train have defenses?" Waver quickly looked towards the Auctioneer.

"It does, but in the face of increasing numbers, they will be insufficient." The stated.

Salem let out a snort and raised both hands up. The shadows beneath the train spread out from her, and very quickly, more and more Grimm began to climb out, charging at the oncoming ghouls.

"Amazing…." Olga whispered. "There are so many of them."

"Impressive." Waver said quietly as well.

Many others looked at the scene with the sa expressions.

Hundreds of Grimm colliding and fighting with the Ghouls all around the train, turning it into a warzone.

However, as many Grimm as there were, there seed to be an increasing number of Ghouls being spawned from the trees. Not only that, but when the Ghouls died, it seed to spawn 'smaller' trees that just expanded the forest to so extent.

"Allow to assist." Karabo stepped forward. "I have experience in dealing with Dead Apostles and Ghouls." He wasted no ti heading for one of the exists, black Keys in hand.

Ciel stood up next. "Let's go, we got work to do."

The Church Executors followed along with her as she went out the sa door as him.

Well, trust them to want to kill Dead Apostles over almost all else, at least.

"We will get started on prepping the Train to escape this predicant." The Auctioneer stated. "Please clear a path and give us ti to anchor to the new leyline we're on."

There were also quite a few people who ran back to their rooms, presumably to bunker up while other people deal with the ss.

"Let's go out there Gray, let's kill so zombies!" Kay said excitedly.

"Shush!" Gray flushed in embarrassnt, chiding him again.

"I can help too!" Olga declared.

"Stay close to then, we'll go out together, alright?" Venelana smiled, then looked at . "I seem to be particularly suited for dealing with these things, aren't I?"

That isn't wrong, her Power of Destruction is probably the best thing to use against these weird things that create more trees when they die.

However, despite this, I felt this weird feeling in the back of my mind, like I was missing sothing. The one responsible, I feel like they sent us this way to distract us at the very least. Maybe losing their Servant was enough that they had to throw out a hail mary to save any kind of plans they had?

The Grimm were matching the Ghouls enough for now, so it wasn't an ergency just yet, but more and more of the Ghouls were being spawned from the surrounding Trees.

"Waver, I have a question I need your input on." I asked him before deciding ot head out myself. "How do you think soone accomplished summoning a Servant?" Hell, I wasn't even sure I could summon a Servant without the assistance of a Grail.

Because that was a question that was never answered yet, and it was a glaring hole in all the information we had thus far.

"I admit, the concept bewildered as well." He looked outside, putting a hand on his chin. "Do you think it's linked to the usage of whoever is drawing Magical Energy from the Leyline through the Train?"

"Funnily, I don't think it is." I ca to the realization. "The Servant's paraters were….low, to be blunt. Even if she were a weak Servant, if her Master had sohow connected to a Leyline, just the sheer amount of Magical Energy would have been able to enhance her basic Paraters to a degree. The fact that it hadn't been so, leaves to believe that there's a separation there. Maybe the Master is responsible, but they're using the Leylines for sothing else."

Waver nodded at my words, clearly digesting them. "Perhaps a lingering remnant of the Grail left behind from the Fuyuki Ritual that soone was able to access?"

That would probably be the easiest explanation. Not even a physical piece of the Grail, but more like an imprint left behind, after so many years of the Ritual being placed there, there was so sort of taphysical fingerprint left.

I closed my eyes again and went over all the information.

Soone's accessing the Leyline, a genuine feat in this circumstances.

A Servant was summoned sohow.

The one responsible attempted to assassinate three people. The first being Trisha, a direct foil to the person's plans due to their Mystic Eyes being able to see the future. The second being Ciel, which is understandable that a Magi would see a Burial Agent as another possible enemy in these circumstances. Even if it was just taking a shot because 'why not', it was explainable. The last though, it was the veiled woman.

What linked her the person what made them see her as a threat enough that there was an attempted assassination?

And then, it was like things clicked into place.

I looked at the Veiled woman who turned her head to et my gaze.

"I know who you are." I finally understood. Why the 'Master' saw her as a threat. Why soone needed to tap into a Leyline. Both those are explained easily by one answer.

She's a Servant.

A Servant would be able to notice another Servant even if I couldn't at a re look.

A Servant would need a lot of Magical Energy to sustain themselves, especially if they didn't have a master, which is what I'm assuming in her case.

The Master of the other Servant would see her as a threat and try to eliminate her along with the other threats due to her being a Servant.

It all fit.

And for her true identity, there were also enough clues for to make a real guess.

Soone skilled enough to use the Train as a vector to secretly access the Leyline to sustain themselves. They would have to be near or on par with dea to pull that off on such short notice.

The feeling when I first saw her.

Even Gray and Kay's existence here.

Too many coincidences or clues that add up to one person I could pick.

And I nad her.

"Servant Caster – Morgan Le Fay."

[Line Break]

A/N

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