Eyes blurred, Shirou feebly looked around without moving any other portion of his body, not that he could even if he wanted to. Every part of him hurt so bad he didn't know what was genuinely wrong with him.
Avalon would heal him, eventually. Being gutted of everything under his ribs took half a night according to the notes. Regenerating his heart was only a matter of seconds. With everything he had now, a full recovery could span from ten minutes to an hour for all he knew. But until then he was a sitting duck. He couldn't move. He couldn't escape. He couldn't use his magic. If Caster came after him now, he was as good as dead.
But… but nothing. He couldn't do anything. Not like this. The best he could do now was simply wait in the pile of crushed VHS players and random devices that were poking in his back at painful angles and hope he wasn't discovered.
Personally he hoped Avalon would work on his ribs first. It was really hard to breathe at the moment.
Honestly. Here he was about to pass out and completely defenseless and he couldn't even enjoy the moon from where he was.
Things were gradually getting more blurry. He thought he saw something move in front of him, but at that point everything was just one big smear in the dark…
o. o. o.
Rider flinched as Archer's arrows prevented her from pursuing Shirou off the building. Personally, she wanted nothing more to help him seeing as he was barely conscious after Caster's blow. Unfortunately, she was shackled with so many orders and Command Seals that she would murder him as soon as she got close.
Enslaved or not, she was getting very tired very quickly of Archer's interference. His absurd accuracy from such a distance was something to marvel and compliment, but that could only go so far when she was the target.
The only reason why he didn't focus on Caster was because the now clearly unstable Servant had dropped into the hole she had subconsciously made during her outburst.
"███████████!"
WHAM!
As if the situation wasn't collapsing on Caster's head fast enough, Berserker had just landed on one of the buildings adjacent to the one they were on, and if Rider didn't see it for herself, even she would have trouble believing that he was vastly more enraged than he had been before… and sadly she was very likely the direct reason for it, what with obliterating his body and sending him halfway across town and all.
Thankfully, the Witch's commands did give her enough leeway to back away from the neigh unstoppable juggernaut so she could plan or keep herself alive for a tactical advantage.
Not that Rider could actually do anything to him by this point. He's died to Belleraphon. He's died to her enhanced strength. There was literally NOTHING in her arsenal that could get past God Hand outside of maybe keeping him in Bloodfort Andromeda for an unreasonable amount of time, and even that would only kill him once, if she was disgustingly lucky.
So she'd just wait and see what Berserker did first. If he went after her, so be it… and if he happened to come across Caster in his pursuit, well she didn't really talk much to begin with so she doubted anyone would expect her to complain.
"H-hah! I knew it. You're just like them, aren't you? Heracles!" Rider risked turning her attention off of the enemy to look at the clearly unstable Caster, who had begun to giggle uncontrollably and was cradling her crippled arm. The Gorgon didn't have much experience with reading the facial features of others, but she was fairly certain that Caster's lopsided grin and gleam in her eyes was not a good sign.
"███████████!"
Whether it was a rebuttal or a declaration of what he was about to do to Caster, no one save the Black Giant knew, but whatever it was it was clearly aimed at the Witch.
And then, the Witch yelled back.
"Ω٩ҀѰѳӁѧђ!"
For the second time that night, Berserker was sent flying back into the sky without any control or say about it. It was almost comical at just how something so disgustingly massive could be thrown about like a ragdoll if it wasn't so unnervingly terrifying.
Even Rider was genuinely surprised and wary of the display. She knew that Caster's power was next to limitless with the setup she had in the temple, but she never saw just what the Witch could actually do with it outside of making a never ending army of incredibly weak golems.
"Rider." Medea's left hand glowed crimson, the remaining Command Seals shining through her clothes effortlessly. "Activate your Noble Phantasm. Trap Berserker and the others inside, and don't let anyone out until they are nothing but sacks of meat and blood."
The Servant vanished before the order was even finished, leaving Caster alone once more on the unstable building. Her last spell had apparently been the final straw for the structure, as she barely registered the progressively growing groans and cracks it was emitting as the long seconds stretched out.
"H-haha. It's fine. It's fine. I'm still in control. I can still kill them all." She laughed through the pain, eyes not focusing on anything, and blood pouring from her mouth. Her grin widened as she felt the twisted and decay-like sensation of Rider's Noble Phantasm activate. Now the enemy forces were truly split off from one another.
Archer's arrow had only barely missed her core. It was a devastating wound to most Servants, but to her it was something that would go away soon enough once she began to heal herself. She had made a few compounds stored inside her workshop that could help accelerate the process. With the near limitless stores of power and the mysteries from the Age of Gods at her disposal, she was capable of healing from almost any wound quickly so long as her head and heart were intact and she didn't take too much damage in the meantime.
The boy was still around. Yes. She had hit him hard. She can kill him now. Wait. No. It was a trap. It had to be a trap. It was always a trap with that bastard. Just like coming up to the rooftops was a trap. But how? Oh, yes, the Vampire. He was probably still around. She didn't expect him to keep to his deal in the first place, only to keep the illusion of it until the boy was ready, so she had tried to get Assassin to get some easy kills off when he had the chance. Useless fool. She was glad he was dead.
It wasn't safe here. It wasn't safe. It was never safe. She had to go back to the Temple. Yes. She'd be safe there. She'd be strongest there. She'd win there. She'd kill the boy there.
She'd finish the Grail there.
o. o. o.
Luvia, Sakura, Illya, and Caster would have managed to get out of range of Bloodfort Andromeda by the time it had enacted…
… Except they had to waste the last few precious moments they needed to get out of the way of the ultimate projectile in the form of Berserker.
"Was that…?" Sakura, on top of a new bull, blinked in surprise as she turned to look back at the thing that they had all just barely missed.
"Berserker!" Illya shouted in alarm as her Servant plowed through the rooftop they were on without slowing down before passing through the edge and crashed into the building behind them. It didn't matter if she and the other Masters were on bulls the size of trucks, they still would have been totaled if they had been in the way of that.
"Wait, if he was sent all the way back here, then that might mean…" Luvia's complexion paled as she came to a vague yet chilling conclusion. "We have to get out of here before Rider… ugk!?"
The blonde choked on her words as her fears were realized in the form of an oppressive and stagnant sensation rolling over everyone there. The world became tinted in crimson, as if they were looking through a thin veil of blood. Veins of indeterminable size and width spanned the night sky around them glowing intensely enough that they had no issue seeing the irregular paths in the dark. It became laborious to breathe, and every movement they made seemed to take far more energy than it should.
But of course, looking at the sky, all of that was ignored in place of the titanic, monstrous eyeball with a square pupil towering above them.
"How?!" Illya grit her teeth in discomfort. Even with Caster's enchantments protecting her, she still felt sick. "Rider should still be at the mountain! We should have seen her!"
"She must have been sent here with a Command Seal!" Luvia was not faring much better. "Sakura!"
"I'm… ok for now." With Rule Breaker still stabbed into her leg, Sakura had none of the Princess' protections, so she was suffering the most of the effects. "We're close to the edge of the field, and you've been weakening it every day, so it's not as bad as it could be. But… I can't last long like this."
It was humiliating. She had come to be of help. To not hold everyone back. Even if she didn't have a Servant, she could have at least dealt with the Skeleton Warriors. But to be reduced to nothing but a person on the sidelines…
The Princess looked around warily for any sign of the enemy or traps but surprisingly found none. There was a subtle tingle going down her spine that wasn't being attributed to the Noble Phantasm… or at least, not directly. Something was off. "Archer! Hold off Rider! I'll set up a field to protect our Masters!"
As soon as the woman began to chant, the rooftop they were on began to glow with a bright hue as though it was alight with burning embers. At the same time, the group spied Archer from his perch firing off a nonstop spray of arrows at an area half a kilo away.
"███████████!"
The building that Berserker had crashed into had exploded upwards, revealing an unscathed but next to rabid demigod at the top as though he was the largest piece of debris from an erupting volcano. In place of magma, the only source of red in the cacophony was the burning intensity of his eyes that seemed to make all that looked into them wilt and burn away from the pressure of his rage.
"Berserker!" Illya was the first to notice that the buildings near them were slowly being overpopulated by more skeleton warriors. Much to her dismay, they didn't seem to be at all affected by Rider's trap.
No words were needed. The message had already been passed from Master to Servant, and it would be fulfilled.
It was untold chaos the instant the Giant landed among the first hoard of enemies. Bones flew in every direction at every speed and every size. The supposedly emotionless dolls there did not even have time to pay attention to the distracted girls as they were more preoccupied with stopping Berserker from killing them, a task that was akin to stopping the sun rise. His wrath and level of danger was so overwhelming that even the mindless golems on buildings next to his were distracted by his display of unmatched ferocity.
"Caster, can you open a hole for us to escape?" Luvia looked frantically between Illya's Servant and her own. One could hardly blame her. Berserker's performance was like a train crash. It was utterly terrifying and horrifying, but it was just so hard to turn away from it.
She still had two Command Seals on her… but…
The Princess frowned. "No. My counterpart has altered it since I last examined it. It would take too long to escape, and…"
"And what?" Luvia frowned, not like where this was going.
"The power that's absorbed. It's not going to Rider." Caster relented. "It's being diverted to the Temple."
"The Temple?" Sakura panted slightly, already feeling far weaker than she should. "But the only reason why she'd do that would be if, if…"
"If Caster is trying to trigger activate the Grail as soon as possible." Illya frowned, looking at the mountain.
o. o. o.
Shirou woke up to the sensation of something popping back into place. Painfully.
"Gagh!?" His eyes snapped open and he lurched his body away from whatever was holding his limb, causing more of his nerves to fire off in agony in the process.
"I told you to hold him still," a deep, calm, and familiar voice chided.
"I didn't think he'd be able to push me off! Look at how wrecked he is! I'm surprised he's even awake!" a more feminine one argued back from right next to him.
"Ung. R-Rin?" he rasped out confused, attempting to move his body more to look for her, only to collapse on the mess of trinkets and unknown objects under him as his arms gave way.
They seemed to notice him coming to as they supported his body and positioned him as comfortably as they could.
"Don't move Shirou, you are heavily injured. Especially your arms. We just relocated your left shoulder, but we still have to pop your elbow back into place, in addition to your other shoulder," Kuzuki instructed as his firm hands latched onto said left arm.
"What the hell happened to you?" Rin probed. "I thought you were going to hold off Rider, not fight her head on."
"They're practically the same THING?!" Shirou began to talk, only for the teacher to without warning pop his elbow back into place. He damn near bit his tongue off that time.
It hurt to breathe deeply, but he noticed that he could actually breathe again. His chest no longer felt impaled and pulverized at the same time. It was merely throbbing with a deep and dull ache that indicated that everything in his chest cavity was still rather tender.
"Easy there. I'm just glad you're alive. The last Archer told me, Caster had thrown you off of the building you were all on, which is collapsed now. We were worried that the worst might have happened." Rin sighed, taking note of the coiled indent that was practically embedded into his left arm so deep that she wouldn't be surprised if his bones were imprinted as well. It didn't take much to guess how he had gotten it. "You were down here for a good five to ten minutes before Sensei and I got here and you're still a mess with Avalon healing you."
"I told you what I was going to do was stupid." Shirou gingerly began to test moving his left arm as much as he could. Thankfully his fingers were responsive and he had full control over his wrist, but his arm's mobility would still take a small while to regain. Putting all of his weight onto it when he was swinging with Enkidu had seriously messed up his muscles and bones. He could even feel Avalon gradually work its magic on it, shifting splinters of bone and weaves of muscle fibers back into place. It was an uncomfortable, yet not unpleasant sensation. Truth be told, it still felt like Enkidu was pressed against his very bones all the way up his arm and it was only barely letting go now.
"Oh well if you say it, it must be true then." Rin rolled her eyes. "Sensei, you can do this arm now."
"You're a saint." Shirou grunted as he watched the pair switch places.
Kuzuki moved to his arm, but paused when he noticed something. "You didn't have this purple band earlier."
"Breaker GorgON!?" Shirou half shouted the end as Kuzuki popped his shoulder back into place. "Warn me next time!"
"Breaker… wait Rider used her last Noble Phantasm on you!?" Rin gaped.
"Guess they think I'm worth it." He winced as he slowly rolled his relocated shoulder before examining the seemingly harmless mystery on his wrist. "It's sealed off my world from the outside world. I can't project weapons like this."
"You mean to tell me you held off Caster and Rider without being able to project anything?! How are you alive?!" Rin looked at him incredulously, unable to digest what she was hearing.
"I asked for help, didn't I?" he dryly retorted before slowly and gingerly attempting to push himself back up. Thankfully most of the damage he had incurred had been above the waist, and there seemed to be no spinal damage, so with a little effort he managed to be successful.
"You shouldn't be moving." Kuzuki frowned, but made no gesture to help his student.
"I'll be fine." Shirou brushed off the warning. Carefully, he took a few experimental steps to make sure his balance wasn't shot. It didn't help that he found himself on more debris than actual flooring. "More importantly, what's happened everywhere else? I wasn't in a position to keep tabs on everyone. How's Sakura?"
"You infuriating…" Rin began to build herself for a tirade, but calmed herself down at the last moment. "Archer found a way to stop Caster from influencing her, but everyone back there and Berserker are trapped inside Bloodfort Andromeda now. You can feel it from here if you focus. Our Caster's set up a bounded field to protect them for the worst of the effects but it won't hold out forever. Saber and Lancer are still wailing on one another up and down the mountain, and Bazett's locked into place with a little help from Sensei and the rat."
"Rat?" Shirou looked at her in genuine surprise for a few moments before letting out a brief chuckle. "Hah. So that's how he's decided to contribute."
"I could offer more aid if you ask kindly." A fourth voice spoke up from the doorway, causing everyone to flinch momentarily as Merem Solomon walked out from the shadows. "Your plans certainly don't do you any favors, do they Shirou?"
"So long as I'm not dead, I like to think it means that it's working," Shirou snarked back, taking another, slightly stronger step forward. With every passing moment, he could feel his body growing stronger, recovering more, and functioning easier. "So how have you liked the show so far? Is it to your liking?"
White fanged teeth gleamed in the night. "Oh certainly. That bit with you on the rooftops was quite exhilarating. You almost had Caster a few times there too. A shame. You were so close."
"Yeah well, the night's not over yet." Shirou shrugged, wincing as pain spiked through them since they had just been relocated. "What's up? You wouldn't show up in person before the end unless you had something in mind."
"Just thought I might offer a small pick me up as a reward for making it this far." The vampire took out a small flask from his pockets and tossed it to his junior. "Careful. Strong brands from Ireland tend to have a kick in them."
"Ireland?" Rin blinked in confusion as she watch Shirou barely managed to catch the flask with his aching arms, and stared at it warily.
His nose twitched as he opened the container, and he almost flinched. "Lancer's Blood."
Merem's grin widened. "You certainly managed to pick up on that quickly. You certainly are a spoiled brat. I hope you realize that. Dragon. Monster. Now divine? Most of our kin would be after your head just for hearing about how lavish your diet is."
"Servant blood's already different than anything else, and I can practically taste the alcohol already." Shirou grimaced as he felt his nose hairs practically burn, ignoring Merem's chiding. How much booze did Lancer drink in his previous life to give his blood alcohol level such a naturally high value? "Why doesn't anyone bother to remember that I'm underaged?"
"What does blood have to do with anything?" Kuzuki inquired.
Rin shook her head. "Shirou's a… well just consider him a pseudo failed vampire. It's a long story, but bottom line, that's special blood and he can drink it to get a minor boost and heal slightly faster. I think. Nobody knows how his body works exactly."
"I feel like I won't be able to stand again if I down this." Shirou grumbled, leering at the flask warily. He never liked alcoholic drinks to begin with, and having a literal bloody drink only made it worse.
"I wouldn't dally if I were you. I know you wanted to wait a bit so that useful artifact of yours would heal you more, but time isn't exactly in abundance at the moment," Merem advised casually, but the existence of a hidden warning did not go over their heads.
"Meaning?" Rin had a feeling that Solomon knew more than what they did at the moment, which she was loathe to admit.
"Caster was busier than you thought when you weren't looking." The vampire shrugged. "While you were all focused on Bloodfort Andromeda, she had set up a good slew of bounded fields all over the city that mimics what it does to a lesser scale, all triggering when I assume Rider triggered her Noble Phantasm."
"WHAT?!" Shirou and Rin stiffened in alarm before the latter took a step forward accusingly. "How could that happen?! We have another Caster on our side! She should have been able to detect them!"
"She probably would have if she was allowed to explore the city. But outside of your respective homes and this area, you guys haven't gone out of your way to venture to other locations of note, have you?" Shaking his head as if explaining something obvious to a bunch of children, the Apostle Ancestor didn't seem all that bothered by what the Witch was doing. "From what I can tell, she's accumulating a good deal of power from all over Fuyuki back to the Temple. With that much prana flying all over the place, I couldn't even enjoy watching everything from above anymore. It's annoying."
"Geh." Shirou didn't bother listening to Merem's lamenting as he staggered out of the demolished shop and looked up.
Even though Fuyuki was on the southern end of Japan's main island, the sky appeared as though they were right below the Northern Lights. Streams of Prana from all over the city were silently flowing through the sky and conjoining right at the temple in front of them.
"Even I don't know how much longer she'll need before being able to at least reach the minimum needed to activate the Grail. Of course, it would only get faster if she uses her Command Seals to have Rider and Lancer kill themselves. More so if any of the Servants on your end die as well," Merem continued as though the display wasn't an issue in the slightest. "She was rather unhinged when she returned to the Temple, so who knows what's going through her head by this point… or how much she should have noticed."
"Son of a- Rin. We're going." Shirou grimaced as he pushed himself into the streets.
"We? Now? Shirou, you're a bloody mess! There's no way you can do anything as you are! You can't even project with that thing on your arm!" Rin argued as she followed him out of the building, followed by Kuzuki.
"We'll walk up the stairs. I should be able to be good enough to stay alive for a bit by the time we reach the top." Shirou grimaced as he took another step and a shock went through his ribs. "Besides, I'm not completely unarmed."
Rin watched as he flexed his hands again and allowed a few coils of golden chains to snake out of his sleeves before retracting them again. "Oh! Wonderful! What are you going to do, ask her to stay still while you tie her up? You said it yourself! Enkidu is a supplementary trick! It's not meant for attacking! You'll be a sitting duck!"
"I'll figure something out." Ideas flew through his head as he talked, and more flew out. There were only a handful of options he had left, and most weren't reliable enough to depend on completely.
"Yes. You do that. In that time, I'll do the smart thing and summon Archer," Rin snarked, lifting up her hand to show three Command Seals on it, two of which had been his until just a few hours ago.
"What?" That had his attention. "Wait. Rin. That won't work. Caster's bound to have modified her territory so that Projection doesn't work there just like the field we found earlier. Archer…"
"Will still be more useful than you, dumbass," She cut him off. "Unless you have the physical prowess of a Servant, he's our best shot when we go in there. Or is there anotherreason why you don't want him here?"
"Ngh." Of course there was a reason why he didn't want to be near Archer. Everyone knew that he couldn't stand Archer's mere existence. It was a miracle and a half he had trusted the bastard enough to supply long range support earlier when he was trapped. But given the situation he didn't have a choice. "Fine! Just wait a bit to call him so that he can keep supporting the others till then."
The girl crossed her arms confident that she had just won the argument and strode past him. "Good. Now let's go to the top. We're running out of time."
"… That's what we were doing before you stopped me," Shirou grumbled as he followed as best as he could. Already in a poor mood, he glanced at the flask still in his hand for a few moments before giving up on the mental war in his head and downed the contents as fast as he could.
"Heh. Its times like that that reminds me that he's really just a kid." Merem chuckled from the shop as Shirou barely stopped himself from throwing up and threw away the container irritably. "Poor brat can't handle the strong stuff. Adorable. Sumire would love playing with him."
"Is this all you intend to do?" Kuzuki walked up beside the vampire, his expression as unreadable as ever.
Merem blinked once, a testament to how surprised he was that he had actually forgotten the man for even a moment. His smile widened, as if finding something quite amusing. "Really. Where does he keep finding all these interesting people?"
The teacher didn't say or do anything other than continue to stare at him.
"Ah, fine. Yes. This is all I intend to do, because I have already done more than what Shirou has expected. Neither of us intended for me to do much in the first place. This isn't my fight. I suppose you could say it's our mutual way of showing respect for one another." Merem sighed. If he was going to talk to someone, couldn't it have been with a person that was more conversational?
"I see." Kuzuki seemed to be content with the reply, but it was hard to tell with the man.
"I assume that the reason you are here with me instead of with them is for a similar reason?"
"No. I was merely curious to see what sort of person you were to have so much of his trust. Emiya is not one to depend on others often." The former assassin looked at the vampire with an unreadable gaze.
"True. He is the type of person that prefers to do things himself when possible. Then again, perhaps that's just puberty taking hold. He does seem like the rebellious sort." Merem laughed merrily. The roads began to flood with black mist, and within it countless bodies began to stir. "It's best you join them, Sensei. They might need your help getting to the top if they have to deal with these numbers."
"And you?" Despite the supposed concern in the question, Kuzuki strode forward to his students without care, making no effort to hide where his priorities were.
"Please don't concern yourself. If there was one label that would accurately describe me for Shirou, it would be something along the lines of a very scary friend."
o. o. o.
Two erratic streaks of blue cut through the night on the mountain.
Where they met, crimson and gold splashed in all directions as though the point of contact birthed a geyser for but an instant.
"Hahahahaha! Great! This is great! You're brilliant! Saber!" Lancer laughed to his heart's content as his spear collided with her sword for who knows how many times that night.
"You are not a lacking opponent yourself, Lancer." Saber, while clearly not as battle-crazed as her opponent, was also enjoying their duel to the death.
It was a bit of a hypocritical match. Both were indeed trying to kill one another, and both were aware of the stakes at hand, yet at the same time, neither one of them were truly fighting all out. Lancer was not utilizing his runes, and Saber had yet to draw on the full potential of her reserves. They were drawing out the fight as much as they wished, yet at the same time…
Sparks flew in every direction. A crimson spear struck straight towards the King of Knight's chest at a speed that was comparable to the definition of instantaneous. The spear was launched up by the invisible tool of Saber with the force of a cannon, sending a quake down the arms of the spearman and forcing him back lest the opening made be exploited. Saber pressed forward, but in the time she had done so, Lancer had already retracted his spear and thrust it forward so fast it was akin to a machine gun discharging the shell of a fired round and firing off the next.
… This was no doubt a fierce battle to the death. There was nothing halfhearted about their exchanges, but they were not truly putting everything into the fight either. They had already sworn to do battle once again, and the warriors within them would not settle for anything less, but this was not what they had promised one another.
Among all the Servants summoned in the War, with the exception of the two Casters, it could be said that Lancer and Saber were the most evenly matched in raw ability and skill. Both were the greatest legends amongst their lands' circles. Both were renowned for their skill and their merit.
Both were enjoying their match far more than they probably should have given the circumstances.
Another flurry of blades tore through the space between them, and they once more skid apart along the side of the beaten and bruised mountain. The dozens of minor wounds they accumulated already vanishing as their Prana healed them quickly.
"Heh. I know we're supposed to be holding back, but it's still kinda annoying to keep up with your sword hidden like that, Saber." Lancer smirked, allowing his body to take a stance that enabled him to relax yet still move at a moment's notice.
"Should I reveal my blade, the battle would end too quickly, Lancer." Saber gave him a small confident smirk of her own.
"Oh? Cocky aren't we? Though I guess that's to be expected from the King of the Brits," Lancer joked.
"And ignoring the obvious outcome of things should be just as anticipated from one of the biggest names from Ireland. I can't tell you how many times I've had to beat your countrymen back. You lot really do have the worst timing," Saber jabbed back.
"Hey. Worst timing. Best timing. Least we have the balls to do what we say we're gonna do in the first place." The man laughed loudly, not at all ashamed of his homeland's occasional sketchy history.
The banter between the two stopped as a dark haze covered the ground and fighting was heard nearby. The pair turned to the commotion to see Shirou, Rin, and Kuzuki making their way up the Mountain at a steady pace with the latter two wiping out any and every golem they came across in an instant.
"Oh? Looks like things are finally reaching an end," Lancer noted. "Unless of course, there's something else happening that I don't know about."
"Perhaps. Perhaps not." Saber shrugged knowingly, though she frowned as she examined Shirou's condition.
"The kid looks like he's seen better days. Looks like Rider messed him up something good. I don't know why he bothered to go to the front lines like that if he can't even deal with those weak things." They could tell right off the bat that Shirou was exhausted and something was wrong with his arms.
"He knows what he's doing." She hoped. She had seen enough of her Master to know that sometimes he didn't go with the path of least resistance, for him at least.
"Hah! I know that look!" Lancer laughed, clearly pointing fun at his opponent.
"You certainly look like you're having fun. Saber. Lancer."
Well, they had been up until then.
"Oi. Nobody likes a third wheel Caster. Go bug someone else," the Irishman grumbled, his grin gone. He probably would have said something else, except suddenly his body stiffened as if he was electrocuted.
"I've had enough of your mouth, Lancer, and I've given you more than enough time to kill Saber on your own. Use your Noble Phantasm and protect me as you are supposed to!"
"Ngh?!" Gae Bolg suddenly radiated with power, causing not only both Servants to be on edge, but the three humans that were running up the mountain a short distance away. It was impossible to ignore the raw killing intent that the spear itself radiated, as it seemed to freeze the air around them with it.
Saber didn't hesitate to jump back quickly and extend the distance between the two. It was a vexing situation, as Lancer's spear was technically two Noble Phantasms in one, and the Witch's order didn't specify which. The thrust was both the easiest and hardest one to defend against. So long as she was out of its range when enacted and its name called, she would have nothing to fear. If not, then she would have to rely on every instinct and skill she had to avoid having her heart pierced.
In contrast, if Lancer threw his spear…?!
Saber looked back with horror in her eyes as she realized her mistake.
Shirou and the others were right behind her. If Lancer threw it, they were as good as dead under the force of the Anti-Army Noble Phantasm specifically designed and cursed to kill as many people as possible.
"Shirou! Run!" Saber didn't hesitate for an instant as she made contact with the ground again and pushed herself forward at Lancer once again, much to the latter's surprise.
Lancer had only just positioned himself into a running start in order to prepare using his spear's full potential when Saber changed directions and it caught him flat footed. Switching between uses wasn't exactly easy for him to do, but more than that, seeing someone run to him as he preparing to use his spear was something he had never seen before. It was insane, even by his standards.
With a quick twirl, his spear and body had switched stances to his more efficient use. If Saber knew what he was going to do, which was likely given how she reacted earlier, then she better have something up her sleeve.
She was closing the distance incredibly fast. The woman would have even less time than his normal opponents to do something to possibly not get killed.
"Hope you know what you're doing Saber," he ground out. It would really suck if she got killed now.
She threw her hand out.
"Gae-"
"Ava-"
"Bolg!"
"Lon!"
Saber winced as the sensation of her heart was pierced. Through her armor, through her chest. It reminded her of the pain she experienced as a knight…
… But the pain was only there for an instant.
Lancer felt incredibly confused and out of place as he felt his spear and himself seemingly skid countless times around Saber's frame as it shone a familiar golden light. It was almost as though the curse of his spear was circling a drain in an attempt to finally fall down a hole and complete its purpose, but for some reason the "hole" itself did not exist, forcing the process to continue endlessly. It was a slippery, and oily sensation that seemed to strip him of any control over what was happening for the entire duration of his attack…
And then he stopped. His thrust had ended. A chill ran through his spine as a paradox was forcefully corrected.
The laws of cause and effect had been reversed, but in that time, something had been thrown into the process. The spear thrust was a mere formality when compared to the result of the curse but it was a necessary formality nonetheless that needed to be fulfilled in one way or another.
And if it couldn't…
Saber had been stabbed through the heart.
Saber was in the land of the Fae.
The spear had st▄▄bed ▄ab▄r.
Error.
Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error.
The cause that was linked to the effect could not be recognized within the time frame given. The cause was an impossibility that transgressed into the laws of Fae, thus the cause transgressed the curse's authority. The effect was an anomaly.
Correct.
Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct.
"GHAAAAAAAAA!?" Lancer bellowed in pain as his spear contorted on itself and lashed out at him as if it was a wild animal, tearing apart his hands as the incomplete curse and the power he had poured into it revolted wildly.
Saber didn't waste the chance. With Lancer distracted, she canceled her own Noble Phantasm and rushed forward, slashing down and tearing him open from right shoulder to left hip.
It was cruel blow to be sure, lethal to most any other Servant, but Lancer's high rank in Battle Continuation would keep him alive.
"Ngh?!" The man in blue staggered as the damage set in and he realized what had just happened. "Ah. Shit."
Saber breathed out slowly to calm herself. She was of the same mind as he was. She did not expect or appreciate the sudden escalation of things either. "I agree."
"Heh." Blood poured from his mouth before he flinched again and looked at his spear, then to his warped hands. "Never saw it do that before. Most shields just put up a fight against the curse. Mystery vs. Mystery. Must have had something to do with the timing. Not sure I'd want to do it again though. I was getting dizzy there for a moment."
"Mmm." Saber rubbed her chest, right over her heart. There was no wound, but the pain of being stabbed was still there. "I am of the same mind."
"No kidding." Lancer didn't have to guess to figure out why she had made that gesture.
"Lancer! What are you doing!?" the Witch snarled from her progressively less secure location.
"Taking a break. I'm in no position to fight anyone right now, let alone her." Cu Chulainn huffed as he looked around, saw a large upturned stone a few feet from him, and sat on it nonchalantly. "Unless you haven't noticed, your brilliant idea just backfired. If you want Saber to join those brats heading for you know, make me fight again or kill me. Otherwise, keep your fucking dirty nose out of this already. You've messed up enough things as it is."
"Please don't push her. She might actually kill you. I'd rather you not die in such a dishonorable way right in front of me." Saber sighed, somewhat pitying Caster for trying to keep control over Lancer for all this time.
"Ngh! Fine! But once I'm done with the boy, you will be next,Lancer!"
"Yeah. Sure. Whatever." The man waved her threat away as if humoring a small child. "Seriously Saber, she's been all over the place lately. Between you and me, I think it's-"
"Lancer, I want you to think long and hard about what might happen if you finish that sentence." The King of Knights glared at him with a stony expression.
The culprit blinked a couple of times in confusion before coming to a realization. "Oooh. Right. Sorry. Forgot. Bloodloss and all."
Saber sighed and turned to the top of the mountain. She witnessed a brief flash of light, and moments later, there was a red figure standing with the other three. "Hurry up, Shirou. I don't think Lancer will last long if you don't."
"… Oi. What do you mean by that?"
o. o. o.
"You sure you know how to use that?" Archer glanced at Shirou skeptically.
In response, Shirou expertly twirled around the copy of Gae Dearg that his future other produced as though he had been born with it. Out of all the offensive Noble Phantasms that Shirou had used over the years, Gae Dearg was the one he used the most. As a result, he was quite used to handling the spear and downloading the skills of its former owner. In the ten minutes it had taken to get all the way up the stairs, he had recovered enough that his body had regained full motor function and could move without too much trouble. He still needed some more time before he was back to a hundred percent, but it was time he didn't have.
"Showoff." Rin didn't bother to hide her thoughts as she fired off another slew of Fin curses at the never ending army of skeletons. A little bit to the side, Kuzuki was utterly decimating the ones that she couldn't spend time focusing on with little trouble.
"Just checking. Most of the Shirou Emiyas I have to deal with are incompetent twits that don't know what the sharp end of a sword is. I don't want to waste my time doing nothing but keeping you alive." Archer brushed aside the accusing look that Shirou was giving him.
"Don't bother. You'd probably just-"
"Will you two stop your pissing contest and hurry up already!? I can't do this all day!" Rin snapped, sweat starting to gather on her face.
"Yes, Rin," the two answered in tandem before flinching and glancing at one another. Alternate timelines or not, something just didn't change.
"You're the one that's tweaked her off. After you." Archer made a sweeping gesture as if he was bowing to his other, only further annoying the teen.
Rolling his eyes, he walked forward through the main entrance of the Temple…
… And was instantly set upon by a titanic blast of pure Prana curtesy of Caster.
The beam that contained hundreds if not over a thousand units of Prana was dissipated instantly by the spear he carried the second the sharp tip touched it.
"I thought as much. It would have been far too easy if you had fallen just to that, boy," the Witch stated with half annoyance and half resignation as she floated in the air forty meters away.
Shirou was slightly irritated that she thought he might fall for the same trap Berserker did.
"It's over, Caster. Stop this mess that you've set up and we might let you live." Archer walked in as calmly as his counterpart, Kanchou and Bakuya already in hand.
It was a blatant lie and they all knew it. There was no way in hell they were going to let her live the night.
Personally, Shirou wished she'd just jump to fighting again. He was already getting a massive headache from being near Archer for so long.
"Ah. So that's how you managed to get another spear. The older "boy". I take it you are the one that so rudely interrupted me earlier." The woman's smile widened, as if just realizing something delicious.
"From what I've been told, you have a habit of taking it from behind, and the opportunity presented itself. I couldn't help myself." Archer shrugged. "This makes it the third time, right?"
"Really?" Shirou deadpanned, finally breaking his silence and taking a few steps away from the Servant.
Neither of them missed the strained muscles on the woman's mouth as she grinned harder. "Oh dear child. My apologies. It appears as though you don't seem to grow up at all in the future."
Over a dozen magic circles formed around the woman. Her cloak began to extend outward, underneath it was a dark black abyss that seemed to swallow up all light in order to feed the forgotten mysteries underneath.
"He's not me," the teen ground out reflexively as his hold on the spear tightened and his knees bent.
"I agree. I was better looking when I was at that age," Archer quipped, making a note of the younger Emiya's warped facial features.
"You were also an idiot with a stupid dream," Shirou shot back with some venom. The small amused smirk on Archer dropped instantly.
Archer probably would have said something in retaliation. However, he put that aside in order to jump out of the way of a genuine rain of prana that hailed down from above.
"Time Alter. Double Accel." Shirou reinforced and accelerated his body as he made his first moves as well, getting just enough speed to avoid most of the first salvo and using Gae Dearg to cancel out the rest.
"I'm not sure if the customs of this era have changed much, but in my time it was considered rude to ignore the lady of the house when she is addressing you!" Caster shouted above the chaos she bestowed upon them.
It was almost like fighting the weather to Shirou. Caster was far stronger in here than she was on the outside, and she had almost killed him out there easily to begin with. From her vantage point above and her near limitless stores of prana she was bombarding him in a manner almost akin to Gilgamesh.
Almost.
Caster was not Archer. The accuracy and refinement of her attacks lacked tremendously compared to the King of Heroes. The beams were sent in his general direction, but there was little more than that to it. Plus, all of them could be instantly negated with Gae Dearg so long as he hit them with the spear tip.
He wove between the pillars of rain, swiping at the violet lights that would obliterate his body to less than a memory if even one connected.
Downloading history and technique. Uploading and refining skill to body. Warning. Body types and structure don't match. Efficiency will suffer as a result.
That was fine. All he needed was enough skill to keep himself alive for now. Just focus on running, dodging, and defending.
Gae Dearg was a crimson flurry, dancing all around him with such speed that for a few moments it really could be perceived as its moniker as the "Crimson Rose of Exorcism". Its two meter length combined with Shirou's speed all but ensured that none of Caster's attacks would be successful in their seemingly endless strive to wipe him out of existence.
There was an ivory blur that shot past the woman, causing her to flinch and momentarily lessen her assault.
"Oi Caster! What gives?! Why are you focusing more on the kid than me?!" Archer shouted with Kanchou held in a reverse grip from the other side of the temple. "Don't tell me you're into that sort of thing!"
It was true, in hindsight. Caster had been focusing more of her attention on Shirou than EMIYA. Of course, she had not neglected the enemy Servant. She had unleashed more than enough power at him to kill him multiple times over, but in a mid to long ranged battle like this, such attacks meant little to the Servant who specialized in this style. He could follow and avoid everything she threw at him with almost pitiful ease. Getting close enough to her to throw his blades accurately was an easy enough task.
"Archer!" [t]he Witch snarled, but flinched and looked back at Shirou as though her momentary lapse had given him the opening needed to kill her.
Despite not liking the woman a single bit, the teen had a sick feeling in his stomach from her reaction. He didn't like people being genuinely terrified of him, acting as if he was the monster there.
… Even if she had been right.
Spirit and Technique. Flawless and Firm.
An ebony blade flew past the Witch, spinning like a buzz saw and melting into the night sky making it almost impossible to see. Just like before she had managed to get out of the way of the attack just in time…
"You annoying brat! You're resorting to throwing weak knives at me like a child now?!" The Witch snarled, what was left of her fake patient persona that she had managed to scrounge up earlier had wilted away. The bulk of her magic circles were all aimed at him again.
Our strength rips the mountains.
… But that in turn gave Archer the opening to throw his Kanchou full force at her, once more forcing the Servant to scream in frustration and seemingly glide a farther distance than before in order to keep both Fakers in her sights.
From her perspective, she saw Archer pull another copy of both blades out from under that peculiar red shawl of his and bolt straight towards her, while the boy chucked a copy of Bakuya this time, aiming at the area she was heading for in order to try to cut her off.
That must have been how the boy had been in possession of his version. The child had simply just stowed them under his coat, just like with that accursed golden chain.
Our swords split the Yellow River.
It was a simple matter for her to sway to the side to avoid the last thrown blade. It had been drifting slightly to her left, so she swayed to the right. It was a simple enough dodge when she knew it had been coming in the first place.
But she couldn't gloat as her attention was drawn to Archer quickly closing in on her, Prana flooding the blades he was holding, elongating and warping them into twisted imitations of an Angel's and a Demon's wings with feathers on the back side and edges of cloud and dusk on the other. Had she not been in such a rush, even she would have paused to marvel at their peculiar designs.
"Too slow!" The circles around her charged with power, lightning cracking about her as a mere aftereffect of the presence of so much active power around her.
Our names reach the Imperial Villa.
Perhaps if they weren't so loud she would have heard the first blade come down on her.
The Bakuya that Archer had thrown had glided in fast from an angle from Caster's left side, tearing into the soft flesh under her right ribs.
"Gh?!" Caster flinched as the pain reached her and fear once more flooded her system. Instincts telling her to run, but her mind still too busy trying to figure out what had just happened and remind her that Archer was closing in fast.
Then Shirou's Kanchou fell like a Peregrine falcon next, an assassin blending in with the night sky, carving into her left shoulder.
It was a perversion of the original technique, spawning from two wielders that wanted nothing to do with one another, but their skills and abilities in this one craft enabled them to enact the improvised version without flaw.
Caster turned to run, only for Archer's Kanchou to cut her off next. It didn't get her this time, but she was forced to stop lest the cruel blade embed itself into her skull.
"Enough!" A pulse of power jut out from the Servant, knocking away the final Bakuya before it met her, allowing her time to turn to Archer who was almost upon her with his own blades drawn. "I've had enough of your games!"
Dozens of magical circles loaded with power all pointed at Archer. Just one was enough to kill a Servant easily. Even Berserker would not be able to escape from such an onslaught unscathed.
"Heh." Despite facing certain death, Archer smirked.
Both of us won't reach Heaven together.
Caster lurched forward. Eyes and mouth wide open in shock, but no words came out. Her back was on fire as two blades embedded themselves into her body.
Shirou stood a good dozen meters behind her, panting heavily and bleeding from every orifice he had, his hands still down from his dual throw. Gae Dearg secured to his back. "Trace off. Square Accel."
It had been next to impossible, catching his and Archer's blades as they fell, more so without Caster noticing. Had Archer not masked Shirou's use of time magic by overpowering his final set of blades and charged straight at her, the woman would have noticed for certain. In fact he had almost been floored by that last blast Caster had used to protect herself from the last blade in their combo.
It hadn't been without sacrifice though. Shirou was certain his arms had just broken again, and something had shifted in one of his legs that definitely didn't feel right. The copies of Kanchou and Bakuya currently flying about were the only ones that Archer had on hand. They didn't have much in the way of trump cards left available.
"Haaaa!" Archer yelled as he swung down his blades hard, cleaving two deep valleys of flesh, bone and blood into the stunned woman, triggering the unstable prana in the blades he wielded to trigger and literally explode as a result. The end product was Caster being sent flying back to the earth and making a half a meter deep trough into the stone flooring all the way back to the temple.
Shirou breathed out slowly as he felt half his body contort on itself from speeding himself up four times his normal speed. He had been nowhere near fully recovered before, and he was pretty certain that he was going to take even longer to heal than he had been when he crashed into the shop earlier.
"Hm. Not bad. For a moment I thought you weren't going to be able to pull it off," Archer mused as he landed without a scratch and looked carefully at the body. The blades that he had used for the final blow had been destroyed from the overexertion. However, conveniently, the final two versions of Kanshou and Bakuya that weren't embedded into the woman's spine were sticking up together just a few feet away from him.
"Oi." Shirou frowned, glaring at the man for just a moment before once more scanning his surroundings.
"I know. You don't have to remind me." Archer sighed...
… Dashing to the side in order to avoid being decimated by a beam of power.
Shirou had barely managed to point Gae Dearg in time to cancel out the one aimed at himself.
"Honestly. You two are terribly stubborn. Forced to rely on limited resources, put into a position with your hands tied behind your back, and still you prove to be greater pains than even Berserker." The sickeningly confident voice of Caster echoed all around them as the corpse that resembled her split apart into countless violet butterflies.
"I don't want to hear it from the woman that's been speared through and slashed apart more than me since the War began," Shirou grumbled under his breath, more annoyed than angered.
"He's got you there, Caster. You really have to try to get thatmessed up. Or so I've heard." Archer shrugged, clearly amused with the assessment.
"You seem awfully confident despite your efforts resulting in nothing," Caster droned as she reformed above them. In a single instant, the sky above them was littered with magic circles. An absurd number that dwarfed what the pair had been dealing with just moments before. It was almost as though she had replaced the stars in the sky with something far more sinister.
"Oi. Oi. Overkill much?" Archer took a step back in genuine alarm. Even he had never seen the woman go to this length before.
"No. I don't think it is." Her voice dropped several dozen degrees from corrosively sweet to painfully cold. At once all of the circles began to brighten malevolently. Both males doubted anything in the grounds would be able to survive the onslaught they were about to experience firsthand. Even if Shirou was able to move, which he wasn't, it wouldn't be enough.
Thankfully, their part was over.
"I command you, Servant, with my seal!" a new voice broke the silence, causing everyone to stiffen in surprise.
"Cutting it close, isn't she?" Shirou sighed.
"You know better than to ask that." Archer smirked.
"The girl?!" Caster blinked in surprise, tapping into her territory's multiple functions to locate the intruder.
There, off to the side, away from the fighting, the Tohsaka girl was standing at the edge of one of the side buildings. Not near her workshop or anywhere of particular strategic value. She was simply there for cover.
The Witch couldn't help but wonder what the hell the girl was doing or thinking. Archer was already there, and he was next to useless in her territory. Anything accomplished by the Command Seal would be next to worthless when compared to the power accumulated here already.
"Come!" The red symbol on Rin's hand glowed dangerously.
That one word set all sorts of alarms off in the Witch's entire being. Her stomach dropped to the point that it felt as if it should be on the ground over a dozen meters below her.
Archer and the boy had been distractions. The girl. The girl had been the killing blow the entire time!
"CASTER!"
In a pillar of fire, the Princess of Colchis broke through time and space, through each and every bounded field and defense her counterpart had set up as though they did not exist.
And in her hands, raised up above her head, was a jeweled dagger, its blade twisted, zig zagging erratically to a blunt point.
The Witch's complexion turned ash white. Her skin clammy. Her hands shook. Her spine trembled. "No."
Rule Breaker was a peculiar Noble Phantasm. It could negate almost any form of thaumaturgy and mystical contract out there with just a brush of the tip.
The Princess gripped the tool she despised with all her being. The tool she had once used to slay her brother.
But it had another rather unique property as well. One that could be exploited by those that knew how to use it. By those skilled in magecraft from the Age of the Gods.
"NOOOOOO!" The Witch bellowed with absolutely none of the confidence or control that she had before. If anything it was akin to a death cry saturated in utter terror.
Each and every circle aimed at Shirou and Archer instead pointed at the Princess, the two men completely ignored for the new player in the game.
She had realized her mistake too late as she found herself less than a second later ensnared once more in a golden chain. Her attention drawn to the Princess had left her completely open to being exploited. A cheap shot that neither Emiya was above exploiting.
Yanked off balance, the Witch wildly flared the power she had available to her, shattering her bonds and blasting away Archer who had jumped to slash her apart while she was preoccupied.
She snarled at the interlopers but returned her focus onto the greatest threat of all…
… But it was too late.
"Rule Breaker!" The Princess called out the name of the Noble Phantasm she had abandoned, stabbing into the ground. Into the territory her other had established…
… And stole dominion of it, just as the Witch had stolen Rider. The temple now belonged to the Princess.
Shirou had been nothing more than a distraction from the very beginning. An over glorified, overhyped bodyguard for Rin to hide in the shadow of. Every attack thrown at him was one that Rin didn't have to deal with. Every eye on him was one that Rin didn't have to avoid.
In the grand scheme of things, killing him would not have mattered in the slightest once Rider and Assassin had been separated, all but ensuring that the Princess survived her challenges way back in the city. Where she was out of sight, out of mind, and too far to possibly be of any use.
All so the Rin could be in the right place, at the right time to deal the deciding blow, and steal the Servant's castle from under her.
And Caster had fallen for it completely.
"NO!" The Witch unleashed all the power she had accumulated for attacking at the thief of her territory. Thousands of units of Prana was unloaded at once at a single point. It was more than enough to utterly devastate even Saber's Magic Resistance had she been the target. No mystery in the modern era was even comparable in terms of raw power to it.
But the target was not from this era.
With but a word, a crimson circle etched itself on the ground under the target.
As though a volcano had erupted, a pillar of pure fire over twenty meters across burst from the ground with the Princess in the epicenter. Its heat so intense that Shirou and Archer were slightly burnt from where they were.
Power met power as the two forces clashed, but it was obvious from the get go which was stronger. Both forces stemmed from the same source, but the thousand pinpoint streams could do nothing against the enormous eruption that the Princess had enacted.
It was rather easy to see why from a theoretical point of view. The Witch had merely tapped into the Prana that she had stored here to activate her mysteries. The Princess on the other hand, had essentially opened up a giant converter in the form of a bounded field and was forcing the entire tank that was the temple through it. The pressure and quantity of power between the two was incomparable. A matter of Hundreds of units of power vs. Thousands if not more.
"Enough of this." The woman in the fire didn't raise her voice in the slightest, but it was heard by all there. In an instant the flames turned from volcanic to star like in brightness, blinding everyone there…
And when their eyes cleared up, they were standing on a wide open grassy plain. The temple buildings were there, but there were no forests or mountains at all.
"Reality Marble?" Shirou looked around warily before correcting himself. Luvia had told him about this earlier. It was similar, but not quite. This was merely an echo of Circe's island. A place in Caster's heart and memories, but one that still existed and she had a bond to.
"No! I won't have it!" the Witch roared at the top of her lungs, her voice mad with rage and insanity. She had lost the temple, but she still had the building that was her workshop. She still had the Grail that was her Master. She still had power. "I won't lose! Not when I'm so close to getting what I deserve!"
Hundreds of circles appeared around her. There were no specific targets this time, rather, she manifested them with the purpose of destroying everything rather than something.
All those times she was used, shunned, and thrown away. All those times she had tried desperately to live happily, to have a family, only for it to fall apart around her. All the times she had been forced to betray and was betrayed by those she thought she loved. All those times she burned while the world remained unmarred and beautiful…
She had had enough. She wanted her due. She wanted to be the one that was happy. She wanted to be the one who was unmarred and unconcerned while everyone else screamed.
She wanted to have the ideal life, watching with a casual yet satisfied smile as the rest of the world burned, envying her existence and her happiness.
From the other side of the property, a reflection stared back at her in pity. A woman that had not suffered as she did, but suffered none the less. A woman that had also cried. A woman that yearned. A woman that had lost.
The Witch didn't even notice the fact that in her hysteria, she had slowly been backing away from the sight that haunted her mind.
A woman that had run when she had not.
"No." The gentle reflection lamented, a hand reaching for the clasp around her neck. "You have lost your chance to run this time."
Countless beams flashed towards them, all supersaturated in raw power and capable of eviscerating almost anything in their path.
"Argonaut Coin."
A golden fire erupted from the Princess, swirling like a whirlwind around herself and those that fought with her that night. It gained size and form rapidly like a starving wildfire in front of a feast, roaring, consuming like a sentient force of nature.
Violet light burned brightly as though it was radioactive.
"███████████!"
And met with its metaphorical lead in the form of a magic resistant Dragon.
"Ngh?!" Shirou stumbled step back in genuine alarm and surprise as the tail end of a Dragon manifested in front of him, solidifying from live flames, defending him and everyone else from the deafening onslaught with little issue.
A shiver ran down his spine as he registered the green and black scaled surface in front of him. Dragon. This was what Saber had in her? Absurd. Impossible…
… But his nose and instincts told him otherwise. The blood in this creature was far too similar to that of his Servant's.
"RIDER! PROTECT ME!" The Witch's voice grew more and more frantic as she once more relied upon her unwilling slaves to work for her.
Her hysteria was warranted. In one move, she had lost her territory, a good deal of power, and the home field advantage, and in turn was suddenly up against two Servants and the very dragon she had once cared for when she was small.
"Archer!" the Princess shouted in kind, weaving and unraveling untold magics with a swipe of her hand. "Fight back!"
The Servant in Red felt the change in the bounded field around them immediately and smirked, his circuits began to warm up. "Yes ma'am."
The instant Rider had materialized, she was beset by dozens of arrows. None were lethal, but all forced her away from her opponents.
"Useless! All of you! In that case I Command Lancer to GAAAAAAH!?" The Witch was cut off as she was almost burned alive from the Dragon's fire bathing the area she was in. The woman barely managed to escape, but not unscathed. Her clothes were a sundering mess and her face was now completely visible. Her eyes were wide and dilated to mere pinpricks. Her mouth into an ugly sneer and her entire visage contorted to one of insanity and wrath.
"I said ENOUGH!" In contrast, the Princess was nothing but power and righteous fury, wielding nearly everything her other had gathered in the temple as though she was Karma incarnate. Above her, giant orbs that shone like the sun radiated as intensely as she did, much like the violet circles that resembled stars did for the Witch.
She was outnumbered. She was outgunned. Overpowered. Exhausted. Wounded. Afraid. Again. Again again again again again AGAIN!
Her eyes darted around frantically, looking for something to exploit.
Archer was keeping Rider away from the others, the latter too exhausted and wounded to do anything about it.
Rule Breaker was destroyed.
Lancer was locked in a curse.
Assassin was dead.
Archer's Master, now Caster's as well, was standing far back and well out of reach.
The Sleeping Dragon was glaring at her with primal fury, enraged from being attacked earlier. It didn't recognize her. It wouldn't hesitate.
There was pity in the Princess' eyes. Her reflection was committed to her end.
And the boy…
Was just standing there. Staring at her from behind the dragon. Leaning against that blasted spear to keep himself standing. Just waiting. Completely at ease with a completely neutral expression. Not doing anything but watching.
No hate. No anger. No glee. No hope. No happiness. No fear. No concern. No trepidation. No calculation. No expectation.
He didn't have to do anything anymore. The relaxed, unremorseful look in his eyes said all that needed to be said.
The game was decided. She had lost everything. Again.
"Ha. Hahaha. AhahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA!" she laughed. She couldn't do anything at that moment but laugh.
"She's gone mad," Rin voiced everyone's thoughts.
"Caster. Kill her now," Shirou ordered. His voice held no heat or emotion to them. No power or weakness. Just a dead even instruction.
"I was going to." The infernal orbs around the Princess grew brighter and more intense as she prepared her attack.
"ӁҀѰ!"
A bright light flashed at the Witch's command, blinding and stunning everyone in her final gambit.
Instead of attacking though, the woman turned and fled.
She could not win now. It was impossible to win. She had lost after all. Those who had lost everything could never emerge victorious. It was a truth older than even the King of Heroes.
But they could still lose too. She still had a card to play. Her Master. Her Grail. Her Wish could still be partially granted.
There, right in front of her was the main storage building that held her main workshop. Less than fifty meters away. The power and mysteries around it still strong and under her control. The Temple was lost, but it was still hers. She couldn't teleport inside casually due to the power her Master contained and the temple's fields no longer being hers, but once she touched the building, she would have the last laugh.
There was shouting behind her. She flinched as an arrow grazed her burnt cloak. Her defenses were only a shade of what they had been before.
"███████████!"
She flinched as the Sleeping Dragon bellowed in rage. She felt its flames fall upon her, forcing her to conjure a shield to keep her alive for just a few moments.
Her insane smile widened. She let herself get pushed back by the blast. Her shield slammed into her body. It hurt, but she didn't stop smiling. It had worked. She was almost there.
She heard someone shouting. She felt more fire come her way. An arrow pierced her right shoulder and left hand…
… But her right hit the doorway of the building hard enough to crush her bones. And she vanished.
Had she looked back, past Archer, her other, and the Dragon… she would have seen the boy, staring right at her, still with an impassive and unreadable look.
o. o. o.
In the room where Marjatta was held. In the room that Sakura had only been inside for the grand total of thirty seconds, was a magic circle specifically designed for the Witch to teleport to. The power radiating from the trapped girl was so intense that it was next to impossible for any spatial transportation to take place otherwise.
So, it stood to reason, that if someone were to try and escape to that room quickly, it would have to be through that circle.
And very likely, facing the giant container that was Marjatta Edelfelt.
The Witch manifested there and collapsed onto her knees. Tears fell down her face. Mad laughter escaped her bleeding mouth.
The Command Seals on her injured right hand glowed.
First Lancer would die.
Then Rider would die.
Then she would die.
And as she did so, the souls of the three Servants mixed with what she had accumulated and Assassin's soul would be enough to trigger the Grail.
She would imprint her Wish on the system with her dying breath.
And the World would burn.
Click. Click.
Or, at least. That was what would have happened.
BANG!
Had her head not been blown off from behind by a .30-06 Springfield bullet before she had the chance to utter a single word.
Her body collapsed lifelessly onto the floor. Blood, brain, and bone dirtying everything in front of it.
There was a slight, almost inaudible shuffle behind the body.
One to the head.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Three to the chest.
A professional double tap.