Earlier,
As the fight between Servants raged outside the barrier, Doctor Heartless quietly analyzed the predicament he and his unlikely saviour found themselves in.
Not a few minutes back, they'd been having a polite-yet-not-really-pleasant conversation. He'd only been threatened a couple of times, but at least Jubstacheit von Einzbern hadn't blown him off entirely. Now, the lord of the castle was gnashing his teeth as more dust and rubble fell from the crumbling yet still-standing ceiling. As far as magical reinforcement went, it kept them protected at the cost of marring the once pristine home that was now their makeshift shelter from what was apparently a non-magical artillery barrage.
'Hm… this is a bit of a pickle…' Still-smiling but with a furrowed brow, the Doctor was feeling somewhat troubled yet not entirely concerned. 'So long as whoever it is that rudely decided to attack them now is outside, I won't get any answers…'
Personally, Doctor cared little if a rival clan had decided to try their luck and oust the Einzberns directly. Rare of an occurrence in the modern day, but all the power to them. Should they have the guts to antagonize other Clock Tower members that would find such a direct means of competition concerning, then even he who held very little if any emotion should respect them.
But Heartless had come for information. A sudden attack on his conversation partner's workshop derails their attention on him and would keep them guarded for some time. No matter. He was confident it was nothing his Servant couldn't handle. Of course, one would think using a Heroic Spirit to intervene in a spat between magi is a bit intrusive. Unless he was allied to either, interference on such a scale would be akin to calling a hit on someone who disagreed with you in a debate. Fairly rude, one might say.
And yet, even if poking his nose in other people's quarrels was considered unnecessary, her opponent wasn't a mere magus. Quite the contrary, the red-headed demon managing to keep up with Alexander the Great's body double was very, very dangerous. More so than a squad of the Church's Executors. She was also intriguing.
Wielding old firearms and a curved blade of oriental designs, the power of fire she commanded was anything but mere magecraft. Not only that, but the autonomous golems that stood by and heeded her every command were of quite the unorthodox design. Heartless' eyes could instantly tell she was no mere Heroic Spirit. And the magic that created those golems were no mere magecraft either.
'Interesting. Very… interesting…' He whispered to himself, watching Faker hound the woman.
She didn't bother waiting for his commands. Typical for a warrior with more fight than contemplation, but then again, his Servant was not like him. Quite the opposite, really. What he lacked in heart, she made up for in spirit. And confidence. If his contracted Servant believed she could take on that woman, Heartless couldn't stop her. And he wouldn't bother to, not that she would allow him to intervene anyway.
'Quite a rebellious Spirit…' he sighed as she avoided fatal blow after fatal blow coming mere inches to her neck and back. Despite having little more than above-average stats for a familiar, she was living up her name to the Rider class. 'But with how she wanted to stretch her legs so much for quite some time, a little exercise like this could be good for her.'
"How dare they!" Sad to say, however, the Doctor couldn't simply wait for Faker to shoo away the unwanted guest. Not when his host glared at them from behind the barrier that protected this half-destroyed room. "Wretches! All of them! To think they'd have the audacity to strike at this sanctimonious domain… Fools!"
Jubstacheit von Einzbern was frustrated. No, it was more apt to say he'd been frustrated upon the Doctor's arrival, unfazed by all the defences he'd broken through. With how much damage the red-flame demon had brought upon his clan's territory, anger could not fit the rage that was Jubstacheit von Einzbern.
The old homunculi looked far more alive than the Doctor could've comprehended. He burned with hate and disdain, so much that the golem was spitting at the barrier that kept them safe from the continuous artillery barrage. On that note,
'Magnificent…' The Doctor glanced at the bounded field his host had erected almost immediately. Despite all the shouting and cursing at the new arrivals, Jubstacheit hadn't wasted time or mana casting the formidable barrier. As a former magecraft teacher, Heartless understood atypical yet complex formations and the basic rules of boundaries. With a careful gaze, he studied the incredibly powerful one the old man maintained against an onslaught comparable to a trench shelling of modern tech warfare.
"If I was still teaching, I would have given you an A, my lord." The Doctor half-jokingly commented, earning the irate glare of the ancient magus. "Worry not. I'm confident my Servant will provide us with enough time to escape—"
"I don't care about yours or my life! All that matters to me is the safety of my granddaughter." Jubstacheit's angered tone and facial expression made Heartless pause. "Whoever is attacking my home, they must be prepared. They should be surrounding the castle as we speak. If it was any other circumstances, I would have butchered them myself, but Illyasviel… the future of my clan depends on that girl. I must secure her safety!"
For a second, he would've mistaken it for parental love. Something few and far between the magi of today. But surely, there were exceptions. After all, he was a prime example of one, in a sense. Yet, he quickly withdrew that misconception as soon as the elder demanded of him.
"Listen here, you creepy brat! Order your tool to find my granddaughter! It matters not if she's harmed or near death. So long as she's returned to me alive and somewhat functional!"
"Oh? And what would you give in exchange for my prioritizing her life?" maintaining the polite veneer to maintain cordiality between them, he asked bluntly. "While it is not beyond me to do as you ask, the concern of my involvement in your quarrels with our attacker is another matter entire—"
"Do it and I will answer what I can about the past Grail Wars. That is what you came for, no? Classified information only we, its designers and maintainers, would be aware of?"
Doctor was genuinely surprised by how easy it was to push that topic. Earlier, he was looked down upon like a mere insect. Yet now, coming to his granddaughter's well-being, he was far fiercer, more direct. Also, very compliant. A heart of gold? Unlikely. Too much investment riding on the child's life? The doctor who could only smile continued to do so.
"Understood, I will forward the command to my Servant." Knowing and understanding a true magi family head's mindset, the latter was most definitely the case. He spared a gaze to Faker beyond the barrier. She was being pushed back and had suffered a small loss when her chariot's wyverns were hurt, but she still lived. She was doing fine. "About our escape—"
"I will deal with this interloper! As for you and yours, there's a labyrinth of tunnels under the castle. No matter how prepared the enemy is, they couldn't have known anything about our hidden escape plan." Jubstacheit then sent a glance at a pair of homunculi standing behind the Doctor. "Leysritt. Sella. You two will guide this man out of the castle. Ensure Illyasviel's safety as soon as she's been taken back! The rest of you, collect what can be taken through the tunnels. Burn the rest. Leave nothing for the scum to salvage!"
"But my lord, are we really gonna abandon the castle?" The one known as Sella asked concernedly. Despite being what stereotypically would be an emotionless doll, the fact that the homunculus maid and her many other kin hesitated for Jubstacheit's response was pretty telling as to how far the Einzberns managed in their research to create a perfect being.
Yet, it seemed the earliest variant of their brood that had carried out the research in lieu of the actual clan felt disappointed in the results of his endeavours.
"Do not question my orders. An unknown magus has managed to attack this impregnable castle. Because of some flaw or defected piece, this place has become worthless! Do you understand?" The implication that one of them was the cause for the breach went unheeded. He repeated. "We leave this place in ruins. Take anything of value we can escape with. Destroy anything else! Go!"
The maids and butlers scattered. Not panicking or flustered, more a horde of organized ant workers systematically grabbing items here and there, opening secret doors and compartments to orderly run through them to inform the rest of the staff what was to come or perhaps snatch what valuables were hidden within the rest of the castle to leave with. This all happened whilst the mural beyond the barrier endured even heavier shelling by the giant golem attackers.
For the last creation of the original family, it didn't matter if their home base was changed or destroyed. Once the Einzberns reclaimed Heaven's Feel, they would get everything back! Even if there were no human magi left to revel in said victory. That's what the Doctor came to conclude, at least.
"Now, the last question, if you'd permit me." His polite inquiry was met with a hateful glare by the elder. Pointing outside the one-way-transparent barrier, he gestured towards the two giant metal knights. "How are we to deal with those two?"
Jubstacheit didn't address him. Instead, he took his staff and stepped forward. Brushing past the Doctor, he held the ornate save up against the barrier. Od thrummed to the transparent surface as he muttered to the nearest homunculi which just so happened to be the one to question the elder earlier.
"Take Illyasviel through the southwest tunnel on the third level down, Sella. One of my copies will be on standby with a vehicle and what supplies you can utilize to flee the estate. After you get far enough, use Plan F to escape the country. Avoid being detected by anyone, magi or otherwise."
"Understood!"
"What are you waiting for, brat?!" He then turned to the Doctor. "She should've been training behind the castle in the same direction as the tunnel I mentioned. Waste no time and use a command seal on your pet already!"
"And what of you, milord Einzbern?"
"I will distract these mechanical abominations." With a wave of his staff, the barrier flickered momentarily. Then, like a wall made of water, the glassy surface of the bounded field rippled as he stepped out of it. Only through the parting words did he truly make his fury apparent to the rest of those present. "It is time I bestow upon unwanted guests a deserving hospitality."
Rubble and dust fell as he walked out onto the battlefield. The head of the Einzbern clan calmly marched past burning holes and bloody craters filled with the smashed bodies of his fellow homunculi. Approaching the two purple-armoured machines ransacking his home, butchering his creations, and staining his honour, he tapped the butt of the ornate staff to the floor to get their attention.
The reaction was swift, machine-like. As soon as they spotted him, they opened fire. Gunshots and explosions rang out as cracked stone and earth flew all around him upon impact. Several mangled corpses of Jubstacheit's own homunculi scattered like trash, deflecting off the barrier he erected before him. These dolls were of high quality. Seeing them turned to scrap so wastefully… it sent something that should've been absent in a doll burning and broiling within his chest. His artificial heart.
The old homunculi subconsciously vowed he'd make whoever was responsible for this insult pay for such transgression. But right now, he had to provide a distraction for the greatest instrument to be taken back.
"For the sin of wreaking unwanted havoc on this home, I sentence thee on behalf of our great head, Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern, to death!"
The Gloucesters, seeing their shots having no effect, readied their lances and ran the old man through. His powerful barrier, unbreakable by shells and shrapnel, wilted like jelly to a hot knife as they simultaneously skewered his form.
However, instead of killing him like any of the other dolls that littered the ruined castle grounds, his blood did not splatter. His bones did not break. It was not his flesh that scattered to the wind, destroyed and mangled. No. It was instead the metal of the lances, crafted by merely compressing rare metals with modern metallurgy, that sparked and crumpled when their tips struck the golem's open palms.
Numerous lines glowed across Jubstacheit's limbs as the resulting gale-force winds of their thrust ruined his grand attire. Aged limbs remained strong though, even as the metal weapons of the hulking giants turned from lances to clubs to smash his smaller form into the earth.
"Primitive. Unwieldy." Scoffing, the elder raised his arm to catch the double impact, simply reinforcing his form with more magecraft to handle the force. He did so while the floor beneath him shattered into a meter-deep crater. All the while, he looked upon that which destroyed his creations with contempt. "Whoever designed you two… was a mere fool. An architect who knows not the beauty of designing true life. A fraud. A fraud who dares to spit on our clan's prestigious name!"
A barrier sprouted from above, and multiple lines in the shape of a magic formation gracefully fell from the ceiling to fall atop the two lances like a sheet made of brilliant silver threads. But upon contact, the threads sheared through the metal as though they were the hot knives to the metallic butter. Weaponless, one of them even lost an entire wrist, the two golems retreated, drawing out giant firearms, and took aim. All the while, the magical threads Jubstacheit had created collected and reformed atop his torso, recreating his gallant and pristine attire once more.
"The great Einzbern clan has outlived Empires. It survived the First, Second and Third Reich. Witnessed the rise and fall of great magi clans. We have outlived many well-known names within the Clock Tower, instilled fear and garnered respect that has never wavered for centuries." Jubstacheit stepped forward. The old golem, no stranger to conflict or combat, readied his stave and magecraft. "I do not know who your master is, but he will learn the might of our wrath. It may not be today, but with certainty, we will exact justice upon—!"
Jubstacheit's words were drowned in a hail of gunfire. Despite managing to endure the weight of the lances, his body and protective barrier gave way to holes the size of a soccer ball as a shell after shell punctured his frame. He didn't gasp in pain nor cry out. Jubstacheit endured it all while standing, all the while stating a fact he wholeheartedly believed as the creator of all the Einzbern golems thus far.
"Worthless in design. I can only assume your creator is the same!"
Gloucesters had no pilots to converse with. No mouths to voice opinion, nor ears to heed taunts and insults. All they had was the programming to follow orders. They did just that. And, finally seeing their attacks have some effect, they rushed forward to exact their mistress' direct order. That being to 'crush the Einzberns like bugs' and 'leave no survivors.
Raising their lance-less fists, they made to pummel the old man into the ground, an attempt to literally crush the legacy of their master and mistress' enemies as per their orders.
CRASH
What they got was not a puddle of blood, however. There, plastered under the metallic fists, was a pool of silver, reminiscent of mercury but glowing and flowing. It was as though it was alive.
"To learn and adapt… To refine and recreate… All for a new and perfect being…" Old man Acht's head, not dead but questionably whole and functioning despite its body's state, muttered to no one but himself. "That is the essence of the Einzbern magecraft!"
On cue to his words, the pool of silver that the machines' fists sank in sprung to life. Thin lines glistened in the air as grey steel threads shot out and wrapped around the Gloucesters' arms. Then, when they pulled back, tautening the threads, the metal gave way, cleanly sliced and torn by the magic-infused living strings.
"Saite, Zerlegen!" the golem with only a head growled as the torrent of threads turned into a glowing river of strings, rushing at his killers to rend and tear with great ease.
The effect was immediate. The two golems retreated, observing yet also trying to rid themselves of the shimmering blight that ate away at their steel armour. Had they been human, or piloted by humans, the counterattack must've been shocking. But as primitive golems went, they managed to escape absolute destruction by purging their affected parts. Or, as much as they could.
Yet, the overpowered strings weren't to last. Losing their shimmering glow, their source and caster started to lose energy and life drastically. The amount of power he'd put into that was enough to power his artificial body enough for several more human lifetimes. That being the case, he had nowhere to source them, leading to this body's demise.
"This body has outlived its usefulness… Time to abandon this shell…" The disembodied head said as it slowly sank into the silvery pool that now started to turn red, converting back from a weapon into Jubstacheit's artificial blood. "Take pride in this small victory… For the Einzberns… will recover…"
Joining the rest of his fallen creations, this body of Jubstacheit von Einzbern fell silent as the rest of the dead. This body, at least.