Kiritsugu had been on many missions in his life, up until now they had all been in the pursuit of an ideal. An ideal that seemed so childish and naïve so why? Why was it that same ideal lead to so much bloodshed and heartache. To be a hero and save as many people as he could, such a simple ideal shouldn't be this destructive.
Kiritsugu briefly came out of his thoughts to look at the two men sitting with him in the back of a cargo truck. It seemed that they were deep in thought as well. Kiritsugu couldn't help but think about how contrasting this situation was compared to just a few months ago.
If he had still been following his ideals then these two men would most certainly have a bullet in their skulls the moment it was going to help Kiritsugu save more lives.
'Although it would be wise to think of a few more back-up plans if those two double cross me when this mission is over.' Some old habits are just a bit harder to kick then others it seemed. Kiritsugu cleared his mind once more and started to count the amount of ammunition they had on hand.
'I have twenty four bullets for the six-revolver, three clips for the Calico M950, ten bullets for the Thompson Contender, two lethal grenades, and two stun grenades. Thomas has thirty gems with explosive properties and thirty for wind based thaumaturgy. Michael is going to be using mainly melee style combat and basic fire thaumaturgy as diversion tactics. Lastly, all of us have a combat knife and body amour with an electricity based mystic code embedded in it along with thirty claymores in carry bag as a last resort trap if fighting spills out to the forest.' Kiritsugu felt his gut churn, as for the first time in so long he felt nervous. He had been weary and maybe even fearful of Kirei Kotomine during the Holy Grail War but it didn't hinder his thought process, unlike now where his nerves were starting to cause his thoughts to become a bit muddled.
The constant hum of the truck's engine suddenly started to fade, letting the men in the truck know that it was almost time for the mission to really begin. Only a few seconds after the truck stopped did a man open the storage space.
"Alright, that's as close as I'm getting you three to the Einzberns. I'll be back in an hour and a half but, if you aren't there than I'm as good as gone as well." The man said in a stoic tone, only his obvious checks of the surrounding area gave away his nervousness.
"We'll be there but just be ready to drive in case we bring back hostiles." Kiritsugu heard the man swear under his breath at that. When all three men were out of the truck the man gave Thomas some parting words.
"Edelfelt, do me a favour and never ask me to do something like this again." This just got a chuckle out of Thomas but he did nod afterwards. The truck driver quickly closed the storage doors and hopped back into the driver's seat and took off.
"Alright Kiritsugu, lead the way before my woolly jumper freezes as well." Michael said with false bravado, Kiritsugu didn't blame him if he felt afraid but he had prepared fairly well as his set of cloths were made for camouflaging in the snow.
"Right this way and try to stay close to me as snowstorms can form rapidly without warning here." Kiritsugu started to slip back into the mindset of the Magus Killer, visualizing some of the initial encounters they could have at Einzbern Castle.
The trek through the snow was mostly quiet so Kiritsugu could focus on sensing where the Einzbern's bounded field was. Because if they couldn't find the bounded field then Einzbern Castle would be impossible to reach. After a few minutes of searching Kiritsugu felt something familiar, it was what they were looking for.
"Over here! The bounded field is this way." Thomas and Michael quickly followed Kiritsugu. When they arrived at the field Thomas briefly paused as he took in the complexity of it all.
"So this is the Einzbern's power? I must admit Kiritsugu, if you hadn't given me some of the Einzbern family's security details then I would be here for a while if I were trying to break the bounded field in a stealthy fashion." Thomas said this as moved closer towards the invisible barrier.
"Thomas I swear if you start to boast about how easy this will be. I will slap you upside the head with my hammer." Michael said with a disinterested tone, as if he were talking to a child that just didn't quite learn its lesson from previous mischief.
"Very well but breaking the bounded field in stealthy fashion is almost pathetically easy now." Thomas didn't need to look over his shoulder to know Michael was pinching his nose in frustration.
"Save the back and forth for after the mission." Kiritsugu's voice cut through the air, sounding colder than the snow surrounding them. Both men went quiet and got to work. Thomas knelled down in front of the bounded field and quickly said an aria that seemed to have no visible effect on anything. Until Thomas thrust his hands forward like a knife, causing the once invisible field to ripple like water. Thomas then stood up and created an opening that resembled a somewhat wonky triangle.
Kiritsugu and Michael quickly ducked into the field while Thomas carefully swapped what side of the opening he was one. Once all three men were inside the field Thomas took his hands out of the bounded field, causing another set of ripples to shimmer through the air.
"Now that we're closer to the enemy strong hold, I have some information you need to know so the mission even has a chance of success." This caused Michael to raise an eyebrow.
"So we finally get to know what we're retrieving." Kiritsugu just nodded in reply.
"Our retrieval goal is my daughter, Illyasviel von Einzbern." Michael's jaw dropped while Thomas went wide eyed.
"She is an eight year old girl with long white hair and bright red eyes. If you find her and I'm not with you then tell her 'Your father, Kiritsugu Emiya, has kept his promise.' That will hopefully convince her to come with you." Kiritsugu finished and saw that Thomas was the first to regain his composure.
"Very well, just in case that doesn't work right away. Could you tell us what the promise you made to her was?" Thomas asked politely.
"I promised her." Kiritsugu's thoughts briefly went back to better times when Irisviel was still alive and they were a real family.
"I promised Illya that I would come back to her and I asked her to wait here patiently." Kiritsugu briefly slipped out of his Magus Killer persona before focusing back onto the mission at hand.
"That should be enough about Illyasviel for now. If during the mission I should bring out this gun." Kiritsugu pulled the Thompson Contender out of its holster so both men knew what it looked like.
"Then I need you to concentrate as much destructive magecraft at whatever I'm aiming at. Lastly, if I use this pill then I'll need you two to make sure I don't collapse during a fight." Michael gave the pill dubious look but nodded anyway.
"Okay so now we just have to find the castle, are there any landmarks around here? Something that says 'HEY YOU'RE GOING THE RIGHT WAY!' or would that be too convenient?" Michael asked in an attempt to keep the mood light.
"Yes, you'll see it soon enough." Kiritsugu replied without a trace of humour in his voice.
"Oh, cool." Michael sounded pleasantly surprised by this, the trio then continued to trek through the snow. Until they arrived at what Kiritsugu called a land mark.
"Wow." Were the first words out Michael's mouth, Thomas just gave an impressed whistle. The landmark was actually just the castle but the sheer size of it was mind boggling.
"Okay so we've found the castle, now what? Do we just knock on the front door?" Kiritsugu shook his head and opened up his rather large traveling bag.
"We'll set up clay-mores around the forest first. If we get pushed out here for combat then the Einzbern homunculi will have the upper hand in move-ability and durability. The more likely use for the clay-mores however is when we escape with Illyasviel. We'll most likely have hostiles trailing us." When Kiritsugu finished Thomas gave an affirmative nod but Michael just let out a sigh.
"This is why I don't like helping you out on combat mission Thomas. Too much of this stuff goes over my head." Michael whined causing Thomas to grin mockingly.
"Oh so you admit your inferior intellect. I'd be happy to instruct you on how to use that brain of yours if you just accepted my standing offer of becoming the Edelfelt blacksmith." This caused Michael to let out a bark of laughter.
"Fat chance, I'm winning that bet we made. I just have to last two more years as an independent then I win the pot." Any more bickering between the two men was cut off by Kiritsugu's rather damning stare.
"Focus." Both men just nodded at Kiritsugu as he began instructing them on where to place the claymores. It was a surprisingly quick affair as not even two minutes had passed when the death trap was completed.
"That was the last one Kiritsugu. Now where are we going to enter the castle?" Thomas inquired with a rather savage look in his eyes.
"Unfortunately the only entrance is the front door." Michael and Thomas winced at this.
"Stealth isn't an option huh? Joy." Michael said in a flat tone.
"Do you know where they might be holding your daughter?" Thomas's question caused Kiritsugu to pause for thought.
"She had a play room in the west wing of the castle on the fourth floor, they might have turned it into a lab to continue modifying her and maybe break her spirit." Thomas didn't react to this information visibly but Michael gave Kiritsugu an inquisitive look. Kiritsugu didn't bother to acknowledge it.
"So who is going to be the one to break down the door?" Kiritsugu asked as he started to walk towards Einzbern castle.
"I'll do it, you guys save your ammo for when things get really messy." Michael strode past Kiritsugu with the snow around his feet starting to sizzle. Kiritsugu watched Michael as he began running towards the door, curiously the snow around Michael started to melt. Kiritsugu found out why this was happening when Michael turned into a high speed fire ball with a hammer.
Just before Michael slammed into the door, all the flames on him concentrated into his hammer. The resounding crash that rang through the area when Michael's hammer met the door was impressive to say the least.
"The game is now afoot Kiritsugu! Let us hurry to your daughter before our luck runs out." Thomas said just before he ran to Michael's side to help him up. Kiritsugu pulled out the Calico and ran into the castle entrance.
"Follow me and don't get left behind." Both men nodded at the order and followed after Kiritsugu. The castle wasn't silent for much longer as they reached the first set of stairs, four homunculi appeared as they were racing down to combat the intruders but where caught off guard by the appearance of Kiritsugu. Seeing the brief pause in their movement Kiritsugu attacked first with the Calico managing to kill one while tagging the other three in their shoulders and on their arms. Thomas followed up the attack by pulling out his combat knife from inside his jacket and cutting the throats of two while the last one was dispatched by Michael, his hammer knocking the head off the living doll.
"They know we're here now, we won't have the element of surprise like that again!" Kiritsugu yelled to Michael and Thomas as he raced up the stairs. True to his claim, as they reached the second floor of the castle Kiritsugu ducked as he spotted a halberd coming for his head. The assault quickly continued as Kiritsugu was forced to backpedal down the hall just to avoid being cut or stabbed. Michael arrived up the stairs and saw Kiritsugu was quickly losing ground. He raced towards the homunculus with his hammer draw back ready to strike.
Let it be known that marble floors don't do wonders for sneak attacks as the homunculus heard his footsteps and spun around at the last second, striking his shoulder. Instead of seeing blood like it expected, the homunculus sudden found itself being electrocuted. A few more seconds passed until a charred corpus collapsed to the floor.
Michael grunted as he pulled the halberd out of his shoulder, with his torn cloths revealing the amour bellow.
"Welp, there goes my shoulder pad." Michael said to himself as Kiritsugu ran past him and towards the stairs. Thomas arrived on the floor just as Kiritsugu started climbing the next set of stairs.
'He's a lot quicker than I thought.' Thomas thought to himself as he and Michael just caught up to Kiritsugu again. The trio found their next encounter on the stairway to the third floor with six homunculi greeting them.
Michael was quickly thrown off balance when two of the homunculi wielding swords ran towards him and struck his hammer mid-swing when he tried to attack, causing him to loss footing and stumble down a few steps before he regained his balance.
"They've got the high ground!" Michael called to his comrades as he dodged an incoming sword thrust from one of his attackers.
"We noticed!" Thomas shouted as he ducked under the axe of one of his own attackers. He then dispatch said homunculi by stabbing the combat knife into its thigh and dodging at the last second when it's partner swung at him from behind with a matching axe, cutting off its partner's head.
The fight was cut short by Kiritsugu however, who in the middle of dodging saw that the homunculi were in one straight line.
'I'll loss the arm guard in the process but it'll end the fight quickly.' Kiritsugu aimed the Calico and as expect, one of the homunculi swung down its halberd onto his arm, expecting to cut it clean off. Only to have a burst of electricity ran up its halberd and into its body. The spray of bullets that follow silenced the area.
"That… Was… Too close." Michael said between breaths. Kiritsugu started his run again causing Michael to grumble something under his breath.
"Kiritsugu! We can't be caught in an area like that again! If we do then you'll have to forgive me for not saving my gems for later." Thomas finished with his agitation made apparent, Kiritsugu only nodded as he rushed from the third floor up to the next set of stairs.
It should be noted that in all the Holy Grail Wars the Einzberns participated in, they have a hilarious tendency to ensure their own defeat in some form or another. This also extended to their current plans for the next Holy Grail War, in form of two homunculi made for the sole purpose of protecting Illyasviel.
"You'll not harm Lady Illyasviel!" Kiritsugu paused in his sprint when he heard the familiar voice.
"It can't be." Kiritsugu whispered to himself, failing to notice Michael and Thomas had just caught up to him.
"Huff… Huff… You sure… he isn't using reinforcement?" Michael wheezed out as he held onto the stair railings to catch his breath.
"Yes I'm sure." Thomas said looking only slightly less winded than Michael. Kiritsugu regained his composure when heard the back forth from his current allies. The trio started their run once more and were greeted with the sight of two slightly wounded homunculi fending of a rather large group of their own kind.
"What in the world?" Michael mumbled under his breath.
"The two defending the door, their names are Sella and Leysritt. We've just found some reinforcements." Kiritsugu said in an emotionless voice, after finding his Calico was out of ammunition Kiritsugu pulled out the Six-revolver.
With the precision of a cowboy from a Wild West movie, Kiritsugu fired six shots and killed six homunculi. The large crowd surrounding Sella and Leysritt paused in their assault on the two to find out what just happened.
"I believe I'm starting to see why the 'Magus Killer' was so deadly now." Thomas said with an evident amount of awe in his voice, the pause in combat did not last however as the large group split in half to deal with both Kiritsugu's group and the traitorous homunculi.
"Kiritsugu, Michael, if you'd be so kind to move out of the way." Thomas didn't bother to hide his agitation as he spoke; the two men did as he asked. With some sleight of hand, Thomas let two gems fall into each of his palms. Upon seeing this Michael broke into a small sweat and started to back away even further from Thomas, Kiritsugu followed suit when saw Michael's reaction.
The air around Thomas seemed to spin as he gathered Prana into his gems.
"Your end is now!" Thomas yelled at the incoming horde. With a flick of his wrist Thomas launched the first gem.
BOOM! This was followed by another gem.
BOOM! Two more gems followed soon after.
BOOM! BOOM! The now smouldering hallway was cleared of the charging force.
"Impressive." Kiritsugu said without emotion, causing Thomas to look back at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You don't sound impressed." Thomas replied dryly.
"I think this is the most you're going to get out of him at the moment." Michael said with a disinterested voice as he walked over to look at the blast zone.
"You just wanted to show off after Kiritsugu killed the ones on the staircase didn't you?" Michael said as though it was more a statement then a question.
"He interrupted my fight and they were going to overrun us. I don't see a problem here." Thomas said haughtily.
"That's because you made the problem explode." Michael pointed out with an amused smile on his face.
"You say that like it's a bad thing." Thomas replied with a smug look on his face. The conversation was cut off by the sounds of weapons clashing, drawing the trio's attention again was the two Homunculi parrying an onslaught of weapons. Thomas gave Michael a smug look, as if daring him to top his explosive act from before. Michael let out a resigned sigh at this but readied his hammer.
"Ignite" Michael's body seemed to glow bright red as if in compliance with the word. Then like before when he charged the door, all the heat and energy flowed into his hammer.
"FLOW!" As Michael swung the hammer, a stream of fire flew out and flied towards its targets. The moment the stream hit the enemy Homunculi was the moment screams of agony filled the hall. Michael wasn't done however as he charged towards his now alight enemies and slammed them into each other, sending them flying down the hall.
"Alright let's see how much time that buys us." Michael wondered out loud.
"Thank you for the assistance stranger." Sella said to Michael, she even curtsied to him. Shame she was speaking German.
"Uh…" Was Michael's charming response to Sella's gratitude.
"Sella, Leysritt." The two Homunculi turned to look at Kiritsugu. Sella started to glare at the man while Leysritt's expression remained deadpan.
"Well, if it isn't Kiritsugu Emiya. You're late." Sella said sternly.
"You made Lady Illyasviel sad." Leysritt said in a flat voice.
"I'm sorry I took so long but, I'm here to take Illya home with me." Kiritsugu maintained his emotionless demeanor.
"About time, we were starting to wonder if you had abandoned the Lady." Sella's words felt like a slap across the face to Kiritsugu.
"Never, I would never do that to Illya." Kiritsugu said with resolve filling his once empty voice.
"Michael, Thomas. Help Sella and Leysritt guard the hall, I need to let Illya know we're leaving." Kiritsugu said with his voice slipping back into its empty state once more.
"Got it." Michael replied while Thomas nodded his head in agreement.
With Illya
It was another day and her daddy had yet to come home but she knew today was the day he would! He promised her he would come back.
"Foolish child, he was lying. He'll never come back for you." The black sludge was using Mummy's form again but it's not real. Mummy would never say such mean things about daddy.
"Don't you believe me? You're Grandfather himself told you what Kiritsugu did." He had to be lying then. Daddy would never hurt Mummy, ever.
"Oh but how can you prove he didn't?" Stop.
"He killed her." Stop.
"He never cared for you at all. You were just another tool to him." STOP!
"Illya." That voice.
"It's a lie, don't turn around." The black sludge sounded nervous, it never sounds nervous.
"Illya it's me." Daddy? He really came back?
"No! DO NOT TURN AROUND!" The sludge had never gotten angry before, what's happening?
"Get your hands off my DAUGHTER!" Two loud bangs enveloped the room.
"You… How?" The sludge sounded hurt, than her daddy really is here?
"No…" He's here!
"Don't…" He's here! Daddy came back!
"KIRITSUGU!" Another loud bang went off, silencing the black sludge.
"Daddy! You're back!" Kiritsugu swept Illya into his arms and hugged her. Illya noticed after a while that her daddy was crying.
"Daddy? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Kiritsugu shook his head.
"No, I'm just so happy to have you back Illya." Kiritsugu said as his tears fell freely.
"You kept your promise, like I knew you would." Illya rested her head onto Kiritsugu's shoulder.
"Yeah, I guess I did." Kiritsugu and Illya's reunion was interrupted by a rather large tremor.
"What was that?" Illya looked at her father with worry.
"That would be the people who are going to help me get you home." Kiritsugu explained softly.
"Isn't this place meant to home?" Illya asked, tilting her head slightly as she did so.
"No, the people here." Kiritsugu paused for a moment, thinking of a way to explain it all to Illya.
"The people here want to turn you into something you're not Illya. So we're going to ran away from them and even if they should find us again. I promise that they won't be able to take you away from your real family." Kiritsugu's sounded so sure of what he just said, that Illya missed the look of sadness that flashed in his eyes.
"Now are you ready to go Illya?" Kiritsugu shifted Illya onto his back, preparing for the dangers that lay outside the room.
"Yeah, let's go home."
Back outside the room
"That was a pretty big boom. How many of those exploding gems you got left Thomas?" Michael said in conversational tone even though he was still in a battle ready stance.
"I used ten gems for that explosion, so I have sixteen left." Thomas replied sounding just as relaxed but like Michael, looked to be on a hair trigger for using explosives.
"Better make them count then because I can hear some more running towards us." The door behind the four opened, reviling Kiritsugu with Illya held up on his back.
"Sella, can you carry Illya?" Kiritsugu asked even though he knew how Sella would answer.
"Of course." Sella grabbed Illya from Kiritsugu's back and held her bridal style.
"Time to go?" Michael asked with some anticipation.
"Yes, let's go!" Kiritsugu swapped the Six-revolver for the Calico and immediate reloaded the weapon.
'The Calico only has one clip left and the revolver is down to fifteen bullets, not good.' Kiritsugu then spotted the next wave of homunculi racing towards them from down the hall.
'We'll run out of ammunition before Jubstacheit runs out of soldiers.' Kiritsugu started running towards the staircase leading to downstairs.
"From this point on, only take out any hostiles that will get in the way of us escaping!" Kiritsugu then repeated the orders in German for Sella and Leysritt. As they were halfway down the staircase, a group of twelve homunculi ran up towards them, each wielding a sword, an axe, or a halberd.
"LIVING FIREBALL! COMING THROUGH!" Shame Michael threw himself at them and knocked the group down the stairs, one did get lucky though and managed to stab it's sword into Michael's shoulder.
"ARGH!" The protected shoulder that still had a working mystic code on it, Michael stumbled up from the pile of living dolls and slurred out.
"Hurry up! I don't want to do that again!" Michael shook the cobwebs out of his head as the rest of his group caught up to him and then ran past him.
"Now that's just rude!" Michael yelled as he ran after them.
As they arrived on the second floor, a large amount of homunculi laid in wait, ready to block their path.
"I'm going to use the rest of my explosives on this one!" Thomas ran ahead of the group, what happened next could be best described as the world's biggest and deadliest fire cracker, what with how fast the explosions followed each other.
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!
The blast threw everyone back a good few feet with Thomas taking (and Tanking) the brunt of the explosions. His body amour's mystic codes were all shorted out because of the blast and his right arm looked to be dislocated at the shoulder.
"Thank the root for reinforcement." Thomas groaned as he tried get up from the floor. He soon found himself be supported by Leysritt.
"Thank you for the assistance." Thomas said as Leysritt held him up by his left side.
"You are welcome." Leysritt said in what Thomas guessed was the only tone of voice she knew how to use.
"Thomas, are you alright mate?!" Michael was the next to arrive.
"I think you know the answer to that question Michael." Michael made an annoyed grunt at the sass but he didn't hide the relieved smile on his face. Kiritsugu and Sella arrived next and the group made their way to the first floor. They were greeted with a sight Kiritsugu really didn't want to see.
"Oh no." Kiritsugu couldn't help but mutter at the monster that stood between them and the exit.
"Kiritsugu Emiya. How dare you come back here after what you did to us." Jubstacheit growled out.
"Still I suppose it's only natural for a fool such as yourself to try and do the impossible." Jubstacheit continued to monologue but Kiritsugu stopped paying him attention and reached in his long coat and grabbed the pill from before.
"Kiritsugu." Miya had a strained look on her face, she had just finished doing a quick medical check-up on the three men before they went over to Germany to get Illya back.
"You're not going to like this, while Michael and Thomas are fine, you are deteriorating a lot faster than we first thought. In fact I would say after a few more weeks or so. You'll begin to lose your ability to perform magecraft. If you had put this mission off any longer, then you would have had no chance at retrieving lady Illyasviel." Kiritsugu didn't say anything but his silence said enough.
"You only have one shot at getting her back Kiritsugu. So I've prepared this for you." Miya pulled out a small vial that held a pill in it.
"This pill when consumed will shut off all your body's inhibitors. You'll be able to keep pushing yourself to perform feats like time alter square excel repeatedly but, it has a rather large backlash. This pill can only keep the inhibitors in your body off for so long, I'd estimated roughly five minutes if you're lucky, three minutes if you're not." As Kiritsugu grabbed the vial and let Miya finish her explanation of the pill.
"Once this time is up your body will shut down in an effort to save itself. Considering the rate your body is losing strength though, I recommend not using it at all but it may be an effective last resort."
'Sorry Miya but this is for Illya's sake.' Kiritsugu quickly took the pill out and swallowed it as fast he could.
"Oh? What was that you consumed?" Jubstacheit inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"Time Alter: Triple Excel!" Was Kiritsugu's response, rushing forwards at speeds that would even surprise a Heroic Spirit. Kiritsugu circled around Jubstacheit and opened fire with the Calico.
"NICE TRY!" Jubstacheit yelled as he matched Kiritsugu's speed and dodge out of the bullets way.
"Tsk." Kiritsugu closed the distance and tried to fire at close range. Jubstacheit merely laughed as his speed increased and he began to dance between the bullets.
"Damn it." Kiritsugu growled as he tossed aside the Calico and pulled out the combat knife he had yet to use.
"Time alter: Square Excel!" Kiritsugu matched Jubstacheit's speed and began to slash furiously at the golem. Aside from some cuts on his robe, Jubstacheit had yet to take a single hit.
"Ventus VULNUS!" That was until Thomas interfered, Jubstacheit was in middle of jumping backwards as a gem flew through the air, striking Jubstacheit's left arm and causing the golem to briefly pause from the pain. Seeing his opening, Kiritsugu rushed in and stabbed the golem in the right lower thigh.
"ARGH!" The not man roared, Kiritsugu went to activate the mystic code only for Jubstacheit to knock him away with surprising force.
"How… HOW?! I'VE ACCESS TO UNLIMITED ENERGY HERE! YOU FILTHY VERMIN SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO TOUCH ME!" Jubstacheit roared at Kiritsugu's group.
"I have no idea what you're saying but SHUT UP!" Michael was the next to interfere as he rushed towards the screaming golem, his hammer at the ready. Jubstacheit tried to dodge away like he did with Kiritsugu, only to freeze at the immense pain from trying to do so.
"TAG! YOUR IT!" Michael's struck Jubstacheit on his right shoulder, sending him spinning towards the other side of the room.
"Allow me!" Leysritt yelled as she left Thomas's side and charged Jubstacheit, wielding her halberd like a spear. The old not man still had some fight left in him however, as Leysritt went to stab the golem. He used his right hand to grab the halberd by the tip of its point and threw Leysritt into a nearby wall as he landed.
"Everyone! Force him to defend with everything he's got!"Kiritsugu's words caused everyone to look his way. Kiritsugu had taken out the Thompson Contender.
"Got it!" Michael replied before his body started to glow red with heat once more, he charged towards Jubstachiet with his hammer ready to strike.
"Don't get cocky!" The golem yelled as his right fist met Michael's hammer. sending Michael sliding back some distance.
"Practice what you preach abomination!" Thomas yelled as he launched three more wind based gems at Jubstachiet. Two struck one of his kidneys while the last one just grazed his left wrist.
"YOU!" Jubstachiet didn't even have time to finish that roar of outrage as Leysritt had slashed his back, the golem struck backwards in a vain attempt to hit her but this time she dodge out of the way.
"Time Alter: FIVE TIMES EXCEL!" Kiritsugu seemed to teleport behind Jubstacheit and wasted no time firing as he had the barrel of the Thompson Contender against the golem's skull.
BANG!
The blood splattered on the floor as the origin round left the golem's skull.
"Argh?!" Kiritsugu fell to the ground, spasming and in pain as the effects of the pill wore off.
"Daddy?!" Illya screamed.
"Lord Kiritsugu! Quick Leysritt help him up!" Sella yelled at her partner, the maid quickly complied as she hefted Kiritsugu onto her back. Michael slowly cooled down and walked towards the wall Thomas was leaning on.
"So, you need a hand?" Michael asked with a smug smile on his face.
"Ha! No I can walk just fine thank you." Thomas said with pride rolling off him in waves.
"That so? Well I'm helping out anyway." Michael put Thomas's left arm over his shoulder and the pair began walking towards the exit with the rest of the group.
"Kiritsugu." It started out so small that they couldn't hear it.
"Kiritsugu." This time only Leysritt thought she heard something.
"Kiritsugu." Even though the group was outside the castle, they started to hear the voice of what should have been a dead golem.
"KIRITSUGU!" Jubstachiet roared and sure enough, the golem began to stand but there was something undeniably wrong.
"KIRITSUGU!" The golem roared once more as sparks of energy began to escape his body.
"KIRITSUGU!" Lighting was jumping off the golem's body in multiple arcs now but that wasn't the worst part. That would have been the hordes of homunculi rushing from inside the castle and towards Jubstachiet.
"Nope!" Michael was the first to react and the first to start running again, everyone else quickly joined Michael in running away.
"KIRITSUGU!" A booming voice echoed from the Einzbern castle. The beast revealed itself as it broke through the first floor entrance, or what was left of it at least. The towering giant lumbered towards the fleeing group.
"Think those clay-mores would hurt that thing's feet?!" Michael could help but yell in terror and right in Thomas's ear as he was still supporting his friend.
"It wouldn't hurt to try!" Thomas yelled back in Michael's ear. Thomas looked over to Leysritt and called out to her.
"Homunculus!" Leysritt looked towards Thomas.
"My name is Leysritt." The girl said in her usual flat voice.
"My apologizes! Leysritt, in Kiritsugu's long coat there should be a bomb switch! We placed clay-mores in this area." In response to this new information, Leysritt flipped Kiritsugu over just one shoulder, giving her a free hand to search Kiritsugu's long coat.
After a brief search Leysritt found the device.
"Good job! On my signal, press the button!" Thomas would have continued with more instructions but Michael's sudden jerky stop caused the man to wince in pain.
"Bad news, we're at the bounded field, good news? I can just smash this to create an opening." Michael pulled Thomas off his shoulder and started to bash away at the bounded field with his hammer.
"MORE! BAD! NEWS!" Michael said between hits.
"THIS THING IS STURDIER THAN I EXPECTED!" Michael yelled as fast as he could.
"KIRITSUGU!" The beast bellowed as it drew closer.
"That should be close enough!" Thomas yelled at Leysritt who pushed the button with that same bored face she held since the group first saw her. The forest briefly shook from the explosion but the beast only halted for but a moment. Leysritt and Thomas looked at each with worry, well at least Thomas looked worried, only for a shattering sound to bring them hope.
"Okay! Time to run again!" Michael yelled as he hauled his friend over his shoulder.
"I can run as well!" Thomas was quickly cut off by his panicking friend.
"You can yell at me later! We gotta get to the truck!" Thomas let out a groan before yelling at Sella and Leysritt, informing them of the truck waiting up ahead.
"OH SHIT!" The truck driver yelled as he spotted the group and by extension, the giant tailing them.
"Quick! Open the back then drive!" Thomas yelled at the man who quickly complied. The group practically launched themselves into the storage space as the truck driver raced to his seat. With a roar from the engine, the truck took off at high speeds. Yet the giant still followed, his lumbering turning into something that resembled a gallop.
"Holy crap! We are dead unless we do something like right now!" Michael yelled as he placed his friend down onto a storage wall and began charging a fire spell.
"Thompson… Con…ARGH!" Kiritsugu muttered from his own wall that Leysritt had leaned him on.
"Thompson? The Thompson Contender?" Sella asked with more panic than confusion.
"GIANT HAND INCOMING!" Michael screamed as the beast's hand nearly crushed the truck. Sella quickly searched through Kiritsugu's long coat and found the gun she was looking for.
"I hope you know what you're doing Lord Kiritsugu." Sella whispered to herself as she aimed the gun.
BANG!
The bullet didn't fly straight or true but it did hit the target in its shoulder.
"AHHHHHH!" The beast roared in pain.
"I don't know what you just did but keep it up!" Michael cheered upon seeing the giant's left arm catch fire and peel, his happiness faltered slightly at seeing the giant rip its own arm off.
"Go Sella!" Illya joined Michael in cheering on the maid, Sella searched Kiritsugu once and pulled out the rest of his bullets.
"Let's see how many more of these it can take." Sella said with more confidence than she had felt ever before in her life. Which was rather short considering she was, what, a year old?
BANG! Miss BANG! Miss BANG! Miss.
"And like that, I resign myself to death by giant." Michael said with a flat voice while he looked at Sella in disbelief.
"Sister, perhaps you should just hand the gun and bullets over to me now." Leysritt said in her usual flat voice.
"SHUT UP! THIS IS HARDER THAN IT LOOKS YOU KNOW!" Sella's embarrassed outrage was interrupted by Illya taking the gun from Sella's grip.
"LEAVE US ALONE!" Illya screamed as she fired the Thompson Contender. Despite being thrown backwards by the gun's kickback and unlike Sella's shot, everything lined up just perfectly for Illya as the Origin round struck the giant's skull. The beast couldn't even roar in pain as the bullet's effects activated. The giant tumbled and caught ablaze, slowly breaking down into ash.
"Holy crap." Michael couldn't find any other words as the large corpse slowly left the groups view. Leysritt shut the storage door as everyone was still in stunned silence.
The truck later made a stop at a nearby hospital, quickly dropping off the group as the truck driver left to go into hiding. The group didn't leave the Hospital for two weeks as Kiritsugu was taking a rather long time to recover. What happened when they got back to Japan though? Well…
AN:
Oh my word! This was a challenge to write. So fun fact, I'm using this story to help practice my writing. I can now safely say that my weakest point as a writer is fight scenes. Now before you go, a favor if I may. Please critic this chapter to the best of your ability, I've tried my best here but I need the hard truth to go any further as a writer.
So until next time ladies and gentlemen, I hope you have a lovely hot chocolate on hand with some biscuits or cookies to dunk with your drink. BYE BYE!
