Chaos reigned in Fuyuki City that night. The monster Caster had summoned squatted in the river, slowly oozing its way towards the bank and the endless buffet of souls it would find there, guided by the mad Servant's unholy will.
"Rider! Can't we do something about that… that thing?" Waver Velvet squeaked.
"Do you think we Servants haven't tried, boy?" the King of Conquerors replied, for once not seeming amused at the whole situation, a grim expression on his face. "Any wounds we give it in battle are healed in moments. I would usually relish the chance to face such a foe, but tonight… tonight there is too much at stake."
"Yeah. If it reaches the shore there'll be no stopping it." Waver scrunched up his face in concentration, trying to think of a way out. "If we could just take out that damn book of Caster's… that's what's supplying all the power to keep that thing here. There must be a way... wait. What's that?"
Rider frowned, eyebrows meeting over his nose like reuniting caterpillars. "Where, boy? Calm down and tell me."
"It's in the river too, approaching Caster. My god, it's huge!" There was, indeed, some hulking shape lumbering through the water, slowly but surely making its way towards the tentacled monstrosity. Waver had seen smaller vessels in the canals of his family's country estate.
Within moments the shape – man-like, if a man could ever reach such a massive size – had reached the horrific thing, moving deceptively quickly for something that large. A tentacle whipped at the thing's head, but with a pursing of huge lips a jet of hyper-accelerated water from the giant's mouth ripped the appendage apart.
More tentacles followed however, and the hulking silhouette was soon embroiled in a grappling contest with something that had more limbs than Waver had teeth. The giant wasn't deterred, however, and even used its teeth to engage with the beast. Reaching out with one fumbling paw, it ripped straight into the flesh of Caster's monster. After a few seconds, it withdrew its hand – clutched within which was a book that looked like a pocket diary in those immense fingers.
Caster's abomination shuddered.
The great man-thing held the book by one cover for a moment, as if unsure what to do with it. Then it reached down with its other hand and tore the thing in two. A blood-curdling screech rent the air, as if all the horror the book would otherwise cause had had to force its way out in the last moments if its existence. The space around the disintegrating tome warped and stretched, matching the distortion now surrounding the cephalopodan nightmare, as though they were collapsing in more than just the three dimensions. Or, Waver felt suddenly, as if the book was being withdrawn through the gap by some hellish agent.
Perhaps the author had decided to reclaim its work.
In any case, the effect was hardly there for longer than it took to tell it – and then there was nothing left in the river to match the giant that had destroyed the book.
"So that's Berserker…" breathed Rider. "Come, boy! Such a feat deserves praise and recognition, and who better to provide it than the man who will rule the world?" Waver's stomach lurched as Gordius Wheel hurtled through the sky towards the figure, landing on the water in front of it with hardly a splash.
"Ho, Berserker!" Rider greeted. "An admirable deed, a fitting skirmish for a war such as this! My pride compels me to ask – how is it you were able to deal with Caster's monster so easily?"
The man, the giant, the hulk, looked down at the pair in their puny chariot. At length, it spoke.
"No-one's slick as Gaston."