Chapter 20
Heaven hath no rage like love to hatred turned, not Hell a fury like a woman scorned.- Lash'iel, Skin Game
Shirou fell asleep in the shed. He'd been… contemplative as he'd drifted off to sleep. Harry had asked that they play a game of questions. They asked about each other in turn, providing answers honestly, promising that they wouldn't venture into anything the other found uncomfortable.
Dresden had… understood Shirou. It hadn't been obvious, something boldly stated, but an underlying acknowledgement in their dialog. Harry had understood Shirou's drive, his pain, and his ideals without words or explanation.
Shirou had almost been willing to talk about the night ten years ago, but something had held him back. That was too deep for their first game.
Shirou dreamt of a twisting staircase inside of a tall tower. He dreamt of a door, made of stone. A gold chalice in a stone room. An urn on the deck of a ship. A knife held in his thin and delicate hand. A man in a rocky desert with something golden over his shoulder.
The images repeated themselves over and over again, cycling until they became a blur of color and sensation.
Shirou woke up with a start and found himself in unfamiliar surroundings. Low and expansive buildings surrounded him and he stood in an open stone courtyard. The buildings fell into recognition as his brain went into panicked overdrive.
"Ryuudou temple?" Shirou asked aloud.
"That's right," came the unexpected reply. Shirou turned around, as a cloud of dark energy coalesced and a feminine figure in dark robes and a hood appeared. Shirou instinctively tried to lurch away, but something tightened around his wrists and ankles, forcing him to say in place.
It was only then that Shirou saw the thin, almost imperceptible lines of power that hung in the air like spider silk. Those lines hung in the air and wrapped around his limbs and neck, impossibly holding him in place in spite of their fragile appearance.
"The Caster class Servant," Shirou said, struggling uselessly against the threads.
"Yes, indeed I am," the woman said. "Master of Sabers."
Shirou grimaced and tried calling upon his mana, attempting to overcome the threads metaphysically, rather than with brute force. He might not have any true technique with magecraft, but something as thin as those lines might not even need technique to be destroyed.
"Do not bother," Caster said. "Once in effect, a spell cannot be simply washed away with the water of mana." Which, Shirou realized, made sense. A mage as potent as a Caster class Servant wouldn't be able to be overcome with a simple trick. "Especially by the flow from magic circuits as feeble as yours are," Caster added.
"Meaning that I was easy to summon here," Shirou said.
"Meaning that, of all the Masters, you are the weakest by far."
"So what now?" Shirou demanded. "You're gonna kill me?"
"You can relax. If I killed you I wouldn't be able to drain you of your mana," Caster said. "I killed a few before I had a feel for it, but now I can collect just the right amount."
"You're the one behind those coma cases?" Shirou asked, playing dumb.
"Oh come now," Caster said. "You've been hanging around that fake Caster. You surely had to know. Caster class Servants have the prerogative to establish a position. By building myself a temple here, I've protected myself from you. You can see it, can't you? The mana of hundreds of that rabble of humans out there is stored densely in this soil."
Fury blazed within Shirou. "Caster!" he growled. "Damn you. You involved outsiders, how could you do that?"
"Well said," a voice said from empty air. Something whooshed directly past Shirou and a blade shining with brilliant sunlight materialized and flashed toward Caster. The woman gasped in surprise and barely managed to move back enough to avoid the strike. Shirou caught the sight of several pale purple hairs drifting the wake of the attack.
Caster moved to one side as Link spun and faced her, sword and shield in a ready position.
"Link!" Shirou exclaimed.
"What?" Caster demanded. "How did you get here?"
"Come on, Shirou," Link said. "Did you think I was going to leave you alone after yesterday? If there wasn't a friendly within sight of you, I was over your shoulder. If there was, I was a polite distance away. I owed you that much."
Caster grimaced. Whether it was annoyance at the interruption or the fact that Link was basically ignoring her, Shirou couldn't tell. Link turned his full attention to Caster.
"Well, Caster," he said. "Shall we dance?"
Caster cast her hand forward and lines of brilliant purple light shot toward Link. Shirou caught the smirk on Link's face as the saber moved.
He didn't dodge like Shirou expected. Instead he charged forward, his shield held before himself and his blade glowing with sunlight once again.
Caster's aim was perfect, every bolt of power striking the shield, and every single beam reflected off of the shield and didn't leave so much as a scratch on the steel. Link's sword suddenly grew brighter and the warrior spun, cutting the air before himself in a slash.
Blue light arced through the air toward Caster, and the mage shot into the air, allowing the energy attack to simply pass under her flying form. Then she surged to the side, more points of light appearing behind her.
Link spun in mid charge and the shield shimmered, replaced by a wooden boomerang with wind swirling around it. With a shout Link hurled the boomerang at Caster.
The woman waved a hand dismissively and a gust of wind sent the boomerang off course. She lifted her hand again to attack and cried out in pain as the boomerang adjusted itself in mid-flight and slammed into her arm. Then it swung around and struck her several more times before flying back to Link's hand.
"Children's toys won't help you," Caster said and unleashed several more blasts at Link. Something shimmered on Link's wrist and the warrior leapt impossibly high into the air, imitating Caster's earlier evasion. He lifted a small wooden object with his left hand and with his right he drew back a band and then released.
Something resembling a nut from a tree shot out from the slingshot and nailed Caster right in the head. There was a blinding flash of light and a shout of surprise from Caster.
Link made a perfect three-point landing and shot forward with blinding speed, his boots changing into a different pair with a pair of wings attached, and his glowing sword returned to his hand.
Caster dodged another attack and Shirou began to suspect that there was something wrong. Link was moving with incredible speed and it seemed improbable that Caster was fast enough to dodge multiple attacks from a Saber class Servant.
Link suddenly leapt back and held his sword in a ready position, his shield missing. "What's wrong, Caster?" he taunted. "Are petty tricks all you can do? I'm using children's toys to beat you. I came out looking for a fight! Shirou could throw better spells than that!"
Absolute fury coursed from Caster. "You dare? You dare compare me to that pathetic waste of magic circuits?!" Caster lifted one hand and a ball of dark power coalesced over her palm. Purple and black energy twisted around the sphere and space itself seemed to warp around the energy. Caster hurled the ball of super-condensed power at Link with a cry.
Link swung his sword directly into the sphere of power, and the spell was launched back along its trajectory back toward Caster.
Caster shouted in surprise and a barrier of magic formed around her just before the spell impacted. There was a deafening BOOM and a cloud of dust rose from the detonation. Link spun his weapon and held it at his side.
"Never underestimate what your opponent can do," he said. "You should've realized that my shield wasn't the only thing capable to deflecting your blows, Caster. No darkness can touch this blade."
A pair of beams shot of from the dust cloud and Link deflected both with fast swings of his sword. Then another dense ball of energy hurtled from the cloud and Link slapped the strike away with his sword.
Except the ball of energy split into two a second before Link's sword struck it, sending only one half of the attack away. The other half slammed into Link and spread across him like sludge. Link dropped his weapon and began to writhe and scream in agony.
"And you should never underestimate a caster whose seen a trick once," Caster said, stepping out of the settling dust cloud. "You lured me into a false sense of security by not bringing out your shield. I'll give you credit for that. But you shouldn't have expected me to do the same trick twice. That's just stupidity."
Link let out a howl of pain and there was a flash of golden light on the back of his left hand. The same trio of triangles that were on Shirou's hand appeared in golden light, the bottom left triangle outshining the other two.
The dark energy suddenly enveloped Link and his form shifted. He dropped to all fours and the shadows fell away to reveal a large wolf with black and silver fur. When the hound opened his eyes, they were the same intelligent blue of Link's own orbs.
The wolf rose to its feet and locked eyes with Caster. Then it began to growl.
"Oh, come on," Caster complained, growing visibly annoyed. "How is that fair?"
Another figure dropped from the roof of the temple and made its way to Caster.
"I apologize for being late, Caster," the figure said, his voice masculine and accented. Was it Italian? "I was busy securing our Master."
The figure wore white robes and a short, white cape draped over his left shoulder. The underside of the cape was a bright red, as was a strip of cloth around his torso with an elegant metal armor piece with an unfamiliar emblem upon it. A menacing, white hood hid most of his face and his arms were covered by a pair of bracers. A sword hung at the man's side, though it was currently sheathed.
Caster waved a dismissive hand in the wolf's direction. "Deal with the mutt, Assassin. Apparently the Saber classes' anti-magic is more annoying with this one. Kill him and go guard the gate. If this Servant showed up, others are probably on the way."
The Assassin nodded and turned toward Link, drawing his sword as he moved. Link let out a howl of defiance and pounced at the white robed man. The Assassin dodged effortlessly and Link spun as he landed, growling. One of his ears perked and he suddenly took off, away from the other Servants. Assassin cursed and chased after him.
Caster turned her attention back to the still bound Shirou.
"Well," she said, regaining her composure. "It's been nice and exciting, but I think we've chatted for long enough." She leaned in close and spoke into Shirou's ear, as if she were whispering an intimate secret. "Now, let's get those Command Seals off."
"You want to take my Command Seals?" Shirou asked.
Caster ran her finger down Shirou's arm to the back of his left hand. Shirou was disturbed by how gentle and enticing the motion felt, which was exactly the wrong thing to be thinking about at that moment.
"That's right," she answered, gripping Shirou's chin with her other hand and leaning in close. "I will transplant them into my Master. Then he will have control of both Sabers and they can deal with that nuisance of a Berserker." Then she added, almost like an afterthought. "Oh and, by the way, removing Command Seals also means extracting all your magic circuits."
She pulled away and Shirou continued to struggle in vain. Caster bent her hand and Shirou's left arm lifted against his will. She raised her hand as purple light began to glow from her fingers. She tapped Shirou's Primary Command Seals. Apparently she either wanted Saber first, or else she could extract both sets with only one point of contact. Shirou bent his entire will into trying to break free.
"That's a good boy," Caster said, noticing Shirou's resistance. "I do enjoy it more when you put up a good struggle."
The light became more intense and Shirou began to scream. His arm began to spasm despite the restraining threads. It hurt. It hurt so much, and all Shirou could do was scream.
There was a humming in the air and then dozens upon dozens of glowing red arrows rained down from the sky. Caster glanced up and then leapt away as the arrows landed all around Shirou and her previous position.
After a moment, the arrows faded away and a voice called out.
"Hmp," it said. "I expected to find you long dead, but you seem to have more pluck than I'd thought."
Shirou flicked his eyes toward the source of the voice, and saw a man wearing red and black, holding a bow on top of one of temple building roofs.
"Archer?" Shirou asked. "Why are you here?"
The black bow vanished and Archer leapt from the roof and landed between Shirou and Caster.
"Oh, I was restless and just happened to be in the neighborhood," Archer answered, as if had simply been passing Shirou on the street. "So, how is your body feeling? My arrows should've severed all of Casters magic threads."
Shirou started and realized that he could move again. He pulled his hand back and said, "Yeah, I'm okay."
"Good for you," Archer said disdainfully. "As much as I'd like to say: 'Do whatever the Hell you want,' I suggest you stay where you are for now. Try not to move without thinking first."
Caster was finally moved into agitated speech. "What is with the constant interruptions? How did the Archer get through?!" She turned her gaze, not to where Link and had lead Assassin off to, but toward the entrance of the temple. "Damnit! That Assassin! What the Hell is he doing out there?"
"You see?" Archer said. "She will take the full force of her anger out on you. A woman's fury is a difficult thing to control." Archer turned to face Caster. "Ah, damn," he said with a growing smile. "I think things are about to get rather violent."
Author's note: Shorter chapter today, but nice and action-packed. Guess who's finally recovered and ready for some action? And, on top of that, we have a new Secondary Servant reveal! I'm not going to say his name, but those of you who know him will recognize him instantly, while those of you who don't will get a proper introduction soon enough. But, I will say that someone in the reviews correctly guessed who my Assassin was. :)
As a side note, HOLY CRAP did my view count suddenly jump over the last few days. I can't begin to explain how happy I am that so many of you are enjoying this story.
Also, I'm thinking about my post schedule and I'm leaning toward going back to two posts a week. As much as I want to work on my RWBY content, I'm still struggling on switching between worlds. So keep an eye out on Wednesday to see what I decide.
One last point before I go. I've updated my Servant information on my profile to include voice actor information. These are either the actors who voice these characters, or the VAs that I would personally select to give life to the characters I have called into this war. Be sure to check them out!
Don't forget to Favorite, Follow, and leave a review! Seriously, I'd love to hear from you guys and it always makes me so happy when I get the alerts. Plus, if you have a question or comment that I can respond to, I'll do so in my author's notes at the end of my chapters. Or you can always PM me if you want the discussion to be less public.