Day 4: True Caster — The Final Summoning
Caster Medea washed her Master's mangled hand in a shallow bowl filled with a shimmering liquid. Though such a severe injury would normally result in the hand being permanently crippled, she had used her skill for producing magical items to create a healing potion that would fully heal it within mere hours. Even so, this incident had brought to her attention just how vulnerable her Master was.
"You must be more careful, Souichirou." Caster said. "Even if you are an exceptional warrior amongst humans, you don't have the ability to defeat a Servant. You should have called for me the instant you suspected trouble."
"You would not have arrived in time to make a difference." Souichirou said neutrally. "The enemy would have attacked the moment I called for you, and I would have been forced to defend myself."
Caster grimaced because it was true. Though Souichirou was effectively acting as her Master, he was not a magus; and having no magic circuits, he was unable to receive Command Spells that would allow him to instantly summon her to his location. And because she had been forced to spend her effort on collecting souls for prana, she had too long neglected establishing any truly formidable defenses, counting on the anti-Servant barrier to ward off enemies by threatening a trap. But such half-baked measures couldn't last forever; having seen how close he came to killing Souichirou while on a mere scouting, the Saber and his Master would likely return soon with greater force.
Fortunately, the preparations she had been making were finally complete. When the intruder returned, it would find more than it bargained for: not one, but two Servants defending her hideout.
"Please retire to the temple for now." Caster said. "This ritual will require my full concentration."
"As you wish." Souichirou said.
Though he spoke flatly and without emotion, Caster's heart quickened at his voice. Even if he himself had never seemed to realize it, Souichirou was a great man: not only strong and skillful, but also loyal and compassionate in a way that Jason had never been. Upon seeing the type of man who had originally summoned her, Caster had worried that this age was, like her own, filled with nothing but cowardly, lecherous, treacherous scum; but Souichirou had given her renewed hope. It was now for his sake as much as her own that she sought the Grail.
Once she had confirmed that Souichirou had entered the main building of the temple, Caster turned towards the temple's front gate and extended her hand. The three Command Spells she had stolen from her summoner using Rule Breaker pulsed with red light, and burning lines sketched out a summoning circle on the stones in front of the gate. Caster smiled with relief and anticipation at the sight. It had been a risk leaving the summoning this long, as she would not be able to call forth a Servant if all of the slots had already been filled, but the large amount of prana required had left her no choice. It seemed luck was with her, however; there was still one Servant who hadn't been summoned, and the Grail was granting her the right to become the final Master. Caster spoke the incantation which would seal the contract:
"Hear me! I command thee to my side and entrust my fate in thine sword. If thou will concede to this will and reason, answer my call and take heed in the refuge of the Holy Grail. It is my oath to thee that I embody all that is good in the Eternal World, and oppose all that is evil and corrupt. I call upon you, the Seven Heavens, protector of the Great Spirit Trinity. Keeper of the balance, come forth!"
A great cloud of mist exploded from the confines of the circle. When it cleared, Caster could make out a figure now standing before her: a long-haired samurai dressed in purple robes and carrying an impractically long sword. Her new senses as a Master allowed her to immediately identify the Servant she had summoned as a Servant of the Assassin class. Though Assassin was commonly considered to be the weakest of the seven classes, in this situation it was an excellent match for her needs. She didn't need her Servant to win the Grail War — she would be doing that herself. Rather, she needed a guardian who would defend the temple from intruders. Assassin's abilities were a perfect compliment to her own: while he lacked any magical potential, he possessed great martial skill. With him fighting on the front line, and Caster providing magical support from behind, they would be an unstoppable team. Not even the mighty Heracles would be able to assail the temple now.
Though Caster's status as a Master allowed her to see her new Servant's abilities, it did not reveal his identity to her; and since she had not used a catalyst with a strong connection to any specific hero for the summoning, she had no clue which soul she had called from the Throne of Heroes. Atypically, the Assassin didn't appear to be one of the incarnations of Hassan-i-Sabbah, the most famous assassin and the only hero usually called to fill that class role in the Grail War; it seemed that secondhand Command Spells weren't enough to bring forth the greatest epic spirit of the Assassins. Instead, she was facing this dour samurai who glared at her with thinly-veiled contempt.
"What sort of wretched joke is this?" the man complained. "You ask me to participate in a game I have no chance of winning from the very start?"
It seemed he'd already realized his situation. Only one Servant could win the War in the end, and Caster had no desire to bring forth a potential rival, so she had taken certain precautions with the summoning. Most significantly, she had bound her Servant's existence to the front gate of the Ryuudou Temple. Unable to leave his position, the Assassin would not be able to set out to defeat the other Masters and win the Grail for himself; he could do nothing but act as a defender for the territory within the temple grounds. And once he had fulfilled his purpose, Caster had only to cut off the flow of prana to him and he would quickly vanish without even the chance to fight her, denying him the possibility of even a one-in-a-million miracle victory. He could not even consider himself a pawn in this game, for even a pawn has the chance of crossing the board and being promoted; he was a tool which would be used and then mercilessly discarded. It must truly pain the pride of an epic spirit to be summoned into such a miserable and doomed role. No doubt he would be reluctant to do her bidding, knowing he had nothing to gain. That's what the Command Spells were for, of course.
"Greetings, Assassin, and welcome to the Holy Grail War." Caster said. "I will be counting on you to defend this temple gate from the many enemies that are sure to assail it in the coming days as I make my play for the Grail."
"And just why should I fight for you, when I know I have no chance of winning the War or of being rewarded at the end?" the Assassin asked.
"Because I am your Master, and I so order you." Caster said. "It is a Servant's duty to obey, whether he likes his orders or not."
Assassin eyed her for a moment, then snorted in contempt.
"No woman is my master." he said.
Caster raised her hand, showing him the three red marks of the Command Spells on her skin.
"The Grail has granted me the power of absolute command over you." she said. "That makes me your Master, whether you wish it or not. You can accede to my authority now, as you know you eventually must, or you can insist on doing things the difficult way. Which will it be?"
The Assassin weighed his thoughts for a moment, then spoke in a voice that dripped contempt.
"Go soak your head in a bucket, bitch." he said.
"Was that an attempt at provoking me into killing you?" Caster asked, and smiled ruefully. "How shameful to attempt to retire from this War before it's even truly begun. But it will take more than childish taunts to make me release you from your duty."
"Did you say something just now?" Assassin asked. "I heard nothing but the barking of a dog."
"But you are the dog here, Assassin, and it is time you were brought to hell." Caster filled her voice with authority and her hand with prana. "By my Command Spell, I order you: acknowledge me as your Master!"
One of the Command Spells on her hand vanished. Assassin's body shuddered as he attempted to resist the order. It was not impossible to defy a Command Spell; a Servant with a high rank in the Magic Resistance ability, such as the Saber class tended to have, might be able to hold itself back from complying if it applied all of its will to the effort. Furthermore, the broader an order was, and the more time it was meant to apply over, the less force the compulsion carried. Thus, the command Caster had given, an open-ended request for obedience, was a rather weak one.
Nonetheless, Assassin was unable to defy her. She was a massively powerful witch from the Age of Gods, whereas he was a mere swordsman with no magical ability whatsoever. Furthermore, knowing that defiance was likely in store, she had provided her Servant with only the barest minimum necessary trickle of prana when summoning him. In his current state, he simply lacked enough energy to have the strength to resist her for long. Assassin's shoulders soon slumped in resignation.
"Yes... Master." he said, speaking the word as though it tasted foul.
"As your Master, I hereby charge you with the defense of this gate." Caster said. "Kill any Servant who attempts to pass it."
"Oh, is that all?" Assassin asked, looking up. "That's easily enough done."
The sudden cheer in Assassin's tone gave Caster a second's warning.
"Stop!" she shouted.
Assassin's sword came to a quivering halt a bare centimeter from Caster's neck. The second of her Command Spells disappeared from the back of her hand. For a moment, Caster was frozen with fear by the narrowness of her escape. Her bid for the Holy Grail, nearly ended — at the hands of her own Servant! It took a second for her to find her voice.
"What are you doing?" she hissed.
"This obedient Servant was only following your wise instruction, oh great Master." Assassin said. "You said to kill any Servant who attempts to pass this gate. You yourself are a Servant; and since you're on the temple grounds, I assume you must have entered through the gate. Therefore..."
"Shut up!" Caster spat. "Do something like that again, and I'll use my last Command Spell to order you to turn yourself inside out. Slowly. I can keep you alive and in constant pain for the entire duration of this War if I so desire. Perhaps when I obtain the Grail it will amuse me to make you immortal and keep you in pain for all eternity. So if you ever wish to taste the sweet release of death, you will refrain from any further insubordination"
Assassin gazed at her levelly.
"Defend the gate from all Servants other than me." Caster ordered. "If you judge a Servant to be beyond your ability to defeat alone, inform me immediately. If a magus attempts to enter the temple, kill them, but do not reveal yourself to ordinary humans. And since none of these tasks require you to be in possession of a tongue, I advise you not speak insolently to me again, lest I remove it from your mouth."
"Understood." Assassin said, adding: "Master."
Caster held his gaze for a few seconds, then nodded. She judged that Assassin now understood their relative positions. She also believed that she could now rely on him to carry out his duty. Assassin seemed to be a prideful man. His pride made him try to refuse to serve a master he did not respect, and to try to refuse to participate in a contest that he could not win; and because he was too prideful to directly commit suicide, he had tried to goad her into killing him. But now that he had been left with no choice but to fight on her behalf, his pride would demand that he fight to the fullest of his ability.
The matter of Assassin handled, Caster began walking back to the temple to confer with Souichirou. With the temple's defenses now secure, they could begin turning their attention towards offensive action. The bounded field which another Servant had raised over the school seemed a promising start; Souichirou's position as teacher there presented a perfect opportunity. She had already placed a simple defensive spell on him that would protect him if the field were activated, but had hesitated to use him as bait when she was unable to directly support him. With the temple protected, though, she might start accompanying him in spiritual form, ready to ambush any Master or Servant who tried to target him. In that case, letting his identity as a Master be exposed might serve to flush out the one responsible for the bounded field...
Caster stopped in her tracks as a new presence flared in her magical senses. An unknown Servant, extremely nearby — within the temple grounds! Her first instinct was that she had misjudged Assassin, that this was a suicidal act of spitefulness; allowing an enemy Servant to enter the temple, knowing it would mean his death, in the hope that it would avenge him by defeating her. However, after a moment's thought, she realized that couldn't be the case. Even if Assassin had chosen to stand aside without a fight, Caster should have felt this intruding Servant cross the bounded field surrounding the temple if it had entered through the front gate. Yet there hadn't been the slightest tingle from the alarm spells warding the perimeter, the Servant just suddenly appearing in her awareness already within them as though it had come out of nowhere. Could it have used some kind of Noble Phantasm that allowed teleportation?
On high alert, Caster moved towards the Servant's location. It wasn't far away, and didn't seem to be taking any precautions to hide its presence. Soon, she had the intruder squarely in her sights. The Servant had the form of a young woman, possibly even a teenager, with short black hair; her clothing consisted of a red jacket of apparently modern design incongruously worn over a traditional kimono. She was standing in the center of the temple grounds, looking around with seeming confusion. When Caster approached, the Servant focused on her with an expression of expectation rather than fear or hostility.
"Are you my Master?" the intruder asked.
Finally, the pieces clicked into place. Caster recalled the circumstances of her own summoning, how a second, false Caster had appeared shortly afterwards and claimed to have been summoned as well. She had also seen multiple Sabers and Archers while observing Berserker Heracles, who she considered her most formidable opponent, though she'd thus far observed only one each of Berserker, Rider, and Lancer. But it seemed that whatever odd effect was causing these False Servants to appear, she'd triggered it in summoning her Assassin, thus bringing about the False Assassin which now stood before her.
"Are you my Master?" False Assassin repeated.
Some of the other Masters had taken on two Servants, but Caster was really in no position to do so. Without a Master of her own, she had to gather souls for prana, and that barely gave her enough of a reserve to have considered summoning even a single Servant. Trying to maintain two would leave her with no prana for her own spells — and a duo of Caster and Assassin would be far more formidable in combat than a team of two Assassins because of Caster's ability to supplement Assassin's physical capabilities with her magical techniques. Plus, she had already used two of her three stolen Command Spells on her first Assassin. If False Assassin became her Servant as well, she wouldn't have the means to ensure her loyalty. No, best to just treat False Assassin as merely another rival in the Holy Grail War. A rival who, fortunately for Caster, had appeared deep in enemy territory with no Master to provide her prana.
Caster smiled. The last time one of these False Servants had appeared, it had cost her the life of her Master and very nearly resulted in her disappearing from the War. This time, however, it was the unwanted intruder who would reap the consequences.
"I am not your Master; I am your end." Caster said. "Perish, you misbegotten fool."
With but a thought, Caster drew a glowing magic circle in the air between herself and the False Assassin. A brilliant beam of light shot from the circle, a torrent of pure prana that would instantly reduce any Servant without Magic Resistance to a small pile of ash. Assassins were only good at skulking in shadows and striking unsuspecting enemies from behind; they had no real defensive capabilities to speak of, and even one possessing a high Agility parameter wouldn't be able to dodge an attack from this close of a range.
The False Assassin moved quickly, but not to dodge. Instead, she lunged forwards, into the flood of destroying light, swinging one arm down in a slashing motion as though the chop the beam of energy in half. As a gesture of defiance, it was so futile that it made Caster want to laugh. No physical defense could block this amount of magical power; the only possible chance the False Assassin might have had for deflecting the beam was a Noble Phantasm, and Caster didn't sense any magic energy from the enemy's attack.
Which is why Caster stared in utter astonishment as the beam of energy split apart, cleaved down the center as though it were solid. The flow of prana lost all cohesion, spraying outwards like water from a burst hose instead of concentrating into a destructive beam, then ceased altogether as the magic circle at its origin shattered into countless fragments.
"How-!?"
There was no time to think. The False Assassin had broken into a run directly towards Caster, who could now see the small, glinting knife she held in one hand. If that knife had split apart a prana blast, it could only be some type of anti-magic Noble Phantasm. There was no sense of power emanating from it at all, but that was the only explanation Caster could think of. The False Assassin must have some trick for concealing it, like a second Noble Phantasm that prevented other Servants from sensing her Noble Phantasms. It was absurd, ludicrous, but Caster could think of no other way for her enemy to have destroyed her attack without the slightest seeming expenditure of prana.
If that knife was an anti-magic weapon, then no amount of defensive barriers would be able to block it; any shield she summoned might as well be tissue paper. However, Caster had more than one trick up her sleeve. The purple cape she wore was actually a self-contained bounded field. Drawing it around herself, she enclosed herself within a small subspace inside the bounded field. To an outside observer, it would appear as though she had vanished, her cloak unfurling into nothing more than a sheet of purple cloth drifting in the wind. And no matter how many times that cloak might be pierced, Caster herself would remain safe within her subspace. Even if this anti-magic dagger unmade the cloak entirely, the subspace itself would be unharmed, and Caster could easily create some other means for exiting the space once it was safe outside.
Then Caster felt the knife slide into her heart.
Impossible. The False Assassin had not cut through the cloak, but through the boundary of the subspace itself? Such a thing couldn't be done. There was no physical connection between the subspace and the real world — cutting between the two would require rending apart the very fabric of reality. So far as Caster knew, there was only a single weapon capable of such a feat recorded by the Throne of Heroes: Ea, the Sword of Rupture, an Anti-World Noble Phantasm that could break asunder the very walls of the world. But this was not that treasure; it was only a mere knife, a simple, common knife, so it could in no way be an Anti-World Noble Phantasm, it didn't even feel the slightest bit like a Noble Phantasm at all; even with it inside of her, her heart directly exposed to its touch, there was no feeling of magic being activated or a Conceptual Weapon being triggered, only the sensation of cold steel in her heart and her Servant body falling apart, her existence fading away, but it couldn't end like this, not now, not when she'd finally found a Master worth fighting for...
"Souichirou..." Caster managed to gasp.
And with that, breath fled her body for the final time. Caster Medea's form unraveled, silently crumbling into golden sand. Her death seemed a signal that the point of no return had been passed: the first Servant had fallen, and the Fifth Holy Grail War had truly begun.
==Interlude: Souichirou Kuzuki==
Souichirou Kuzuki was watching from a window of the temple as Caster died.
Kuzuki was a man who had spent his entire life practicing the art of killing others. For many years, he had trained and practiced in methods of martial arts to make him a perfect tool for assassination; and for many more years, he had used those skills as directed by the organization to which he belonged. It was an empty, hollow existence that brought him no joy. Recently, he had taken a job as a teacher at Homurahara Academy, as a cover for his extralegal activities. This too was a source of no enjoyment to him, merely a chore that must be carried out as part of his mission. He was like a dead man: no nostalgia for the past, no hope for the future, and no passion for the present. But that had changed when he had met Caster.
He had saved her on a whim. All his life he had killed people and found no pleasure in it, so he thought he might try saving a person instead. He had not expected anything to come of it. Then Caster had told him of the Holy Grail, the omnipotent wish-granting device which could bring about any miracle. Even if he believed happiness to be impossible for one such as himself, the Grail could surely bring such a thing to pass. No matter what was necessary, be it to erase the sins of his past or to kindle passion within his deadened soul, it was not beyond the ability of the Grail's magic. Caster had opened the possibility for him of a future where he might live as a human rather than a weapon, and know a human's joy.
Then an unexpected enemy appeared on the temple grounds; and with a single thrust of a knife, that future was scattered like sand in the wind.
Kuzuki's body moved without thought. His only impulse was to avenge the future that had been stolen from him. The possibility of any other reaction never even crossed his mind. He was a killer, and all he knew how to do was kill. He did not know how to seek the magic of the Grail on his own, or how to live in accordance with Caster's wishes for him without it. Having seen her killed, he knew only how to kill her killer.
Kuzuki dashed from the temple and began running across the grounds towards the enemy. She had not moved from her position since slaying Caster, seeming to glance around at her surroundings with apparent confusion. When she noticed Kuzuki's approach, however, she immediately fell into a combat stance. Perhaps the enemy sensed the ferocity of his killing intent; or perhaps she was like him, a weapon who knew of nothing except how to kill anyone she encountered. It made no difference to Kuzuki. All that mattered to him was his analysis of her combat ability. She possessed some form of immunity to Caster's magical beam attack, but that would not help her against Kuzuki, who killed with his hands. Her frame was slight; his strength would be enough to kill her in a single blow. And even with her knife, the size of his body gave him an advantage in reach. Kuzuki ran at the enemy without slowing, and launched his attack the moment he came into range.
Kuzuki's left hand was still damaged from his fight with the one-armed Servant earlier in the day, but he could fight using only his right. He swung his fist towards the enemy's throat. It she failed to dodge, it would crush her windpipe. But if she did try to dodge, then the moment she moved her head to the side, his snake-style fighting technique would tear out the side of her neck. The one-armed man had been able to survive by crystallizing his blood, but any opponent without such a technique would bleed to death in moments. The enchantments that Caster had placed on his hands meant that he could even slay a Servant, if that was what this enemy was.
The enemy did not try to dodge. Instead, she swung her knife at his arm. Kuzuki had considered this as a possibility, but dismissed it as a useless gesture. Even if she stabbed him, such a small blade would not be able to stop the swing of his punch. She might inflict a moderate to severe injury, depending on where on his arm she cut him, but would be killed in return.
The knife caught Kuzuki's arm just below the elbow, but he felt no pain. Instead, everything below the point of the strike went disturbingly numb. Kuzuki watched in disbelief as his lower arm detached and went spinning lazily through the air, trailing a spiral of blood behind it. Such an injury from a single cut defied reason. How could so simple and unimpressive a blade cut through not merely flesh and bone but also Caster's enchantments without the slightest whisper of resistance? No, more than that, even if the blade had been supernaturally sharpened by some magic superior even to Caster's, how could it have completely severed his limb when the length of the blade was less than the width of his arm?
But there was no time for such thoughts. Kuzuki had charged the enemy with such speed that he was now committed to his strike. He had too much forwards momentum to stop altogether; and if he tried dodging to the side, he would only succeed in presenting the enemy a perfect opportunity to drive her knife into his throat. Judging by the amount of blood spraying from his severed elbow, surviving past the end of this fight was already impossible. That didn't matter; no longer had any particular desire to live, now that the future Caster had shown him had been snuffed out. But if these were to be his last moments, he wanted to at least avenge her death. So long as he accomplished that, nothing else mattered.
Kuzuki fell back on his instincts as a killer. He ruthlessly crushed his emotions, dissolving all of his sorrow, fear, and pain into emptiness. For as long as he had been a killer, he had been dead inside: feeling neither pain nor pleasure, sorrow nor triumph. The loss of his partner, the severing of his arm, his imminent death — these became mere facts, to be passionlessly analyzed in order to come up with the best method of killing the target. In the last possible moment, it came to him, and he acted.
Kuzuki swung his remaining left fist towards the enemy's head. Because his hand was still bandaged after being injured by the one-armed man, he would not be able to employ his snake technique to claw out a chunk of flesh if the enemy tried to dodge. That was fine; Kuzuki didn't expect it to hit at all. The enemy would cut off his left hand, just as she had severed his right. That's why it was only a diversion for his true strike. As the enemy swung her knife to her right to cut his hand, Kuzuki unleashed his true attack: an upwards kick which focused all of his strength on a single blow to the underside of the enemy's jaw. Caster had mentioned decapitation as one means by which even superhuman Servants could be slain. Kuzuki's kick would drive the enemy's skull upwards with such force that it would be separated from the spinal column — internal decapitation.
Halfway through the attack, the enemy realized his feint. Perhaps she had simply noticed the bandages on his left hand; or perhaps she had skillfully read the movement of his body. For whatever reason, she saw his kick coming and immediately stabbed downwards with her knife, plunging it into his kneecap so that it sank to the hilt. For a moment, Kuzuki still held hope that this time her attack had not been enough; then his leg was sheared in two as cleanly as though by a guillotine. Off-balance, Kuzuki fell onto his back and lay in an expanding pool of his own blood.
What a dreadful weapon. It was so ordinary and mundane looking, like a knife one might use in the kitchen, and yet even the smallest cut from it could amputate limbs. It hadn't even felt like his limbs had been cut off; more like they had simply fallen apart along preexisting fractures where the knife had happened to hit them. Like he was a plastic model which had been assembled with inferior glue, and the just the lightest touch could cause pieces to fall off of their own accord. Could this be the power of a Noble Phantasm, that terrifying trump card possessed by all Servant which Caster had warned against?
...But there was no point in contemplating such matters any longer. The enemy Servant straddled him, knife poised above his heart, and Kuzuki did nothing to prevent it from falling. Continuing to fight with his remaining damaged hand might have bought him a few more seconds of breath, but he no longer had anything worth fighting for. He merely closed his eyes and let the point pierce his chest, embracing the coming nothingness and wondering if he would find Medea again on the other side.
==Interlude Out==
