FATE\Deus Decipit

Chapter 109: North Star, Morning Star

...

Pigsy, as Saber and Athena hung in the sky for a single moment, before gravity could seize them, leaped out into the open air between them, "Wahooo!"

-BENG-

Athena felt herself tugged and surrounded on all sides by what could've been confused with a warm pillow, or a balloon filled with fat. Immediately following the feeling was a smell that reminded her of bacon grease run rancid. She would've plugged her nose in a moment, except that she was currently free-falling from a height of over ten stories and would soon platter against the ground below.

-Correction: she was not falling towards the ground.

She and Saber had been flung over an alleyway and were plummeting towards the roof of the next building over. This small digression, as one can understand, did little to quell her fears. Somewhere in her frightened mind she found her arms again and, as soon as she did, locked her hands over her eyes and let loose a shrill squeal, assaulted by the suddenness of her current predicament and its swift-coming end all at once.

Saber, understandably, found similar issue with their situation.

"Lancer! What the Hell are you doing!?"

-But the only response that came was a loud THWOMP, followed by the cracking of stone and the rising of a plume of dust that would've left his Master reeling had she not been holding her breath. Instead, her body lurched forward, but was held continually aloft by the fatty pillow, and she found that she was now moving, not downwards, but forwards, and was not falling but rather gliding, albeit in a jostling motion, across a horizontal plane.

She chanced a glance through her fingers. She once more saw a harrowing fall underneath her, but, before she could panic again, the alleyway disappeared and large, stumpy feet landed in stride across another rooftop. Below, she could make out the shrieking and howling of undead, like wolves on the hunt, many of whom were now flying towards them in a frenzied mob. She watched as a car careened off the streets, taking out several zombies before plunging into a building with a burst of rock and flame. Others stood vacantly, many even had weapons. Yet, here she was, safe far above them and flying in the arms of- who? Lancer? She couldn't get a good look from where she was, but she could see around her the familiar blue and white of Pigsy's robe, a large, protruding pink belly and could feel, around her waist, holding her aloft, a massive and thick five-fingered hand not unlike a slab of steak.

Ending her search of her surroundings, she saw, ahead of them, in the near-distance, the familiar Acropolis. Atop it was that very same pillar of light, but she could clearly spot, surrounding the mountain's peak, a thick, dark cloud, vaguely violet and crackling with lightning from within. It encased the Acropolis like a garden's hedge, not allowing any view within.

Not so entranced as she, Chrysaor, barely visible across the pink belly between them, slapped the barrel-gut with a sound like a banging drum.

"Lancer! What were you thinking!? You could've killed us!"

A thick, gruff sound like the grinding of gravel let loose above them. It reminded her of a revving engine or a growling tiger, but she soon realized it was a laugh.

"Reeheehee! -grunk- You were the one who said we didn't have time to lose!"

Ahead was a building which towered above them, but the man who carried them, apparently Lancer, easily leaped over twenty feet to land atop it and continued without slowing down even a bit.

They were making progress, that was for sure. They would arrive in less than a minute. The zombies below couldn't reach them right now, and once they got in the Acropolis, there would at least be a physical barrier to slow them down: the high fence that surrounded the facility on all sides. Still, both of the Servants were right: they didn't have time to lose. She had lived in and around the city for a while, so although it was slightly harder with the cloud obscuring the Parthenon, she could see that they were approaching the South-East side of the monument, whereas the path to the summit, as she recalled, was on the West side. Before she could rack her mind and scrutinize her surroundings enough to give precise directions, the rooftops were falling away underneath them. They were getting lower and lower to the ground, and just as she worried that they may have to go too far on foot, she saw the outer fence rise above in front of it, and this too was hopped with ease.