After listening to Shirou pour his heart out, Scathach had a better grasp of what was going on. She called in Merlin to help him dive into his own dreams and interpret them. With Merlin's help, he managed to remember a bit more about that dream. The weird thing was, even though Merlin had entered Shirou's dream, he couldn't remember anything. At his teacher's urging, Shirou described what he could remember.
Truth be told, there wasn't much. Just a pair of malevolent eyes. Eyes that seemed to lurk in the shadows, constantly watching him. As he pictured those sinister eyes, he sketched them out on a piece of paper. But what he drew shocked him to the core. As he focused on recalling and drawing those eyes, what emerged on the page wasn't eyes at all.
It was a whirlpool.
"What's this?" his teacher asked, looking at the drawing. He shook his head, just as confused as she was.
The drawing showed a counterclockwise whirlpool with tentacle-like appendages around the edges. The entire drawing had an unsettling, almost evil atmosphere to it. As he stared at it, he could almost feel a pair of malicious eyes gazing back at him, as if a sinister smile were hidden within the drawing. When he came to his senses, he had already torn the drawing to shreds. No doubt, this was his stress response.
His teacher seemed to think the situation was pretty serious. She figured someone had cursed him and was determined to help him get to the bottom of it. He was touched by her concern and felt bad about doubting her before.
The following day, they set off for Greece, a place renowned for its highly developed astromancy, in hopes of finding some leads. Of course, this search for clues was entirely based on the "Giant" card from Mother of Mifune. It was purely subjective speculation on Shirou's part, so it came as no surprise when they didn't find anything relevant in Greece. Instead, they ended up exploring the country like a couple on vacation.
But this trip to Greece was the first time Shirou had felt so relaxed and at peace since the nightmares began. And it was all thanks to having the most reliable and trusted person by his side - his teacher.
Just as they were preparing to head to Britain to continue their investigation, Shirou had an unexpected encounter. He spotted Mother of Mifune again. Or rather, someone masquerading as her! And he hadn't stumbled upon her by chance, but had been deliberately led to her. Led by that very same voice that had been haunting him.
"Fancy meeting you here, Doctor," she said with a wave.
"Cut the act. Who are you, really?" He demanded, his voice raised.
"If you're asking me that, I guess you've figured out that the real fortune teller had died a long time ago..." She replied, a smile playing on her lips.
Without a word, his teacher took out two Gae Bolgs and lunged at the impostor, ready to take her down.
Shirou could more or less guess what his teacher had in mind. Maybe she wanted to capture this fake Mother of Mifune first, then take her time interogating her for information. This whole situation had become a mental roadblock for him, and his teacher was determined to help him clear it. That's why she came out swinging with such a fierce attack right from the start.
His teacher wasn't just anybody - she was a legendary god-slayer straight out of Celtic mythology, a prominent figure in the tales of Cu Chulainn, the Child of Light. Her power was immense. As for this person posing as Mother of Mifune, her true identity remained a mystery, but she had to be some kind of magus. Still, what magus could possibly stand a chance against his teacher, a god-slayer from the Age of Gods?
But when his teacher launched her surprise attack, the fake Mother of Mifune pulled out a blood-stained long spear from beneath her clothes and swung it at his teacher. With a brief clang of clashing metal, his teacher was pushed back several steps, right before his disbelieving eyes.
Shirou couldn't believe what he was seeing, and neither could his teacher. But unlike his shock, what his teacher couldn't wrap her head around was the spear in the hands of the Mother of Mifune impostor.
"How is this possible? That spear... how can it be here?" His teacher stared at the fake Mother of Mifune, her expression grave.
"Ah, so you recognize it? But of course, as a Servant summoned into this world, you should know exactly what this spear in my hand is."
"That doesn't matter right now. Why are you here? How in the world did you manage to show up in the modern era, Odin!?" His teacher glared at the impostor sternly.
Shirou's thoughts were racing. Could this person pretending to be Mother of Mifune actually be Odin, the Norse god who killed the primordial giant Ymir and created the nine worlds?
"You're as sharp as Skadi herself. You figured out who I really am after just one short meeting. Impressive," the fake Mother of Mifune said as her body started to glow with a strange, otherworldly light. In a flash, she changed from a silver-haired old woman into Odin, the king of the gods, holding his spear Gungnir.
Scathach was completely shocked. "No way... That form... it's not a Servant, it's a true divine body... That's impossible! You should've died during Ragnarok, your body eaten by Fenrir... This can't be happening... Even if the myths were wrong, the rules of existence on this planet have changed towards the Age of Men. With the world suppressing divine beings... It's unthinkable for a god to appear in their true form... Even I, who am not a god, have already been rejected by this world."
"You're right, in the Pan-Human History, I've already been devoured by Fenrir during Ragnarok," Odin said, a hint of emotion in his voice.
"Pan-Human History? Are you saying you're not the Odin of this world? You're from a parallel world?" Scathach asked, disbelief coloring her tone. "That's impossible... Crossing parallel worlds... It should be impossible to do without the Second Magic!"
...
In this world, the only thing Shirou couldn't understand was the invisible vortex deep within his soul. It was the cornerstone of the birth of the "Mortal" series skills and the basis for creating the records of the Eternal King.
The vortex could absorb everything and create new records. Crimson Moon's fragment had been absorbed in this way too. What he didn't expect was that after eating the blueberries containing Skadi's divinity, he'd actually start having strange dreams about Scathach.
He already knew the effect the blueberries had on him, so he hadn't planned on ingesting them again. However, because of Saber, he ended up eating the old woman's blueberries again.
This time, the dream was even more incredible. The perspective was no longer from his own eyes but from a third-person view. More importantly, Odin appeared in the dream, which was pretty random. This had to be Skadi's influence. However, there was one point that deeply concerned him - the picture he'd sketched out.
A whirlpool with tentacle-like appendages. It was quite similar to the image of the bizarre god the sergeant had described earlier. They both possessed a whirlpool-like appearance and tentacle-like features. Well, this could just be a case of "what one thinks about during the day, one dreams about at night."
Moreover, the strange dream even had giants in it. Great, now it was adding stuff from reality as well. But with these connections, Shirou found himself genuinely interested in how the dream would end. It was like watching a TV show or reading a novel; wanting to know the conclusion was just human nature.
...