Night 37

The pillar of light that followed Saber's execution of her Noble Phantasm reached high into the sky, piercing through the clouds that brought rain and revealing the remnants of the red and purple evening. For some moments, the rain over top of the Einzbern forest ceased completely, a strange sort of peace being artificially represented in the wake of Saber's ultimate attack. It was a sight to behold, although looking directly at the after-effects of Excalibur proved to be nearly impossible without squinting in some manner.

Once the light finally diminished, only Saber remained, her sword glowing at her side, pulsating with renewed glory at having revealed its true power. Saber, on the other hand, seemed less than pleased. Her green eyes were sorrowful as she went back to Rin and Illya, the rain slowly starting up again as the clouds recovered from the disruption.

'Are you okay, Saber?' Rin asked, honestly concerned for the other woman.

Saber shook her head, and fixed her attention on Illya. She was just a little girl now. She could still use magic, but in the presence of a being like Arthur Pendragon, that hardly seemed comparable. She was just a little girl, indeed.

'Berserker welcomed the end to his nightmare. He allowed Excalibur to land. He was…watching you until the moment his life ended, Illya-san.'

Rin could see the struggle in Illya's whole body. She wouldn't allow herself to cry. She wanted to be stronger than that. She had to be, in her mind, for her servant, who willingly sacrificed everything for her to live on.

'Very well.' Illya turned away, hiding her progressively wetter eyes. 'I will stay with you two now. The Grail War lost its only competition against you, Saber. For Excalibur to diminish all of Berserker's remaining lives with a single Noble Phantasm, I can't imagine anyone standing against such power. It won't be long now…'

Rin understood that to be true. The charging time was problematic, but Rin thought herself capable enough to provide Saber with the preparation she needed. On top of that, if Illya cooperated, they were more than a powerful twosome as mages.

'Rin…!' Saber gasped suddenly, pushing her master to the side before being restrained by four chains that emerged from the void. Saber's arms and legs were instantly grappled, her neck soon choked as well. Illya reacted quickly, casting a minor attack spell on the chains, but the attempt proved worthless, as though a bug would be just as worthy.

'Again…?' Saber grunted stubbornly, her neck gripped tightly. 'C-coward…!'

'Really? Berserker was the only servant worthy to put down this woman? I beg to differ, little girl.' Gilgamesh appeared from golden dust, his armour dented in various places, but his overall demeanor unaffected. It was the worst case scenario. It would have been better to defeat this particular threat with the aid of Berserker, but now…

Rin pushed herself up off the ground and prepared her exhausted mana supply for combat, her arm tingling with the strain it was forced to carry as mana flowed through the ancient ruins etched into it.

'Try it and die, girl. I'd rather not taint my hands with your pathetic blood. It was pitiful enough to watch your foolish father allow himself to be deceived right before my all seeing eyes, let alone his offspring willingly committing suicide on my time as well.'

'W-what…!?' Rin grunted, her skin prickling.

'Hm? You weren't told yet?'

'Told…?'

'Don't listen to him, Rin-san…!' Illya urged.

'Quiet, mannequin.' Gilgamesh flicked his hand and sent a blade through Illya's shoulder, propelling her into a tree and pinning her in place while she let out a restrained whimper. She quickly began healing the injury as best she could, but she simply lacked the strength to dislodge herself.

'No…!' Rin couldn't focus. Her head was pounding. Too much emotion. She was losing herself.

'Ung…R-Rin…!' Saber gurgled.

'Typical woman; look at that confusion in your eyes. Perhaps you should be aware of your own worth before you consider yourself a candidate for winning this ridiculous war, no? Although I fail to recall the more trivial matters, I do know that, in the previous war, I was Tokiomi Tohsaka's servant.'

Rin blinked, her heart stopping and beginning irregularly. She removed any intent to attack from her mana circuits and redirected them to maintaining her mandatory bodily functions.

'He was a boorish man. He held all the pieces in his hand and conducted the war like a master chess player. He would have won, easily, had he not been so utterly cowardly, not to mention disrespectful of his rightful king.'

'What are you…?' Rin managed, but her throat was dry and her tongue barely moved.

Gilgamesh smirked, stomping through the mist and grabbing hold of Rin's hair, redirecting her attention into his malicious and uncaring face.

'A master should never feel threatened so long as their servant is around, correct? How, then, was your father stabbed in the back by the very dagger you feel such attachment to?'

Rin could hear her own breaths becoming rapid, her eyes wide and staring at whiteness.

'Kirei is a much more intriguing individual. He was worth my time. He provided a dance that could amuse the king of kings. He amuses still, for who with a shred of sanity would give a little girl the weapon that had killed her father as a new guardian's gift?'

'N-no…! Your lying…!'

Gilgamesh shoved Rin down, his lip upturning in disgust.

'Hiding from the truth? I thought you just barely better. Truly filth.'

'Hng…! Hgg…!' Saber's voice scratched within her neck.

'Don't bother, slave. Those chains cannot be broken even by a heroic spirit. Your time will come, worry not. You may be somewhat blemished, but it's not as though another man has taken you from me. My servants trained amongst themselves to provide me with the greatest of pleasures during my original time; why should I think your transgressions any different? Certainly, you will be mine still, I have decided.' Gilgamesh snickered to himself, and it became quite clear why he and Kirei Kotomine found such comfort in one another: they were both insane.

'You, on the other hand, can simply die now. Your eyes remind me too much of that cretin. Farewell, sad, sad, girl.' Gilgamesh allowed a single sword to fly through his golden pool of countless treasures, but even he expressed a notion of surprise when his attack was deflected by a blue shield erected impressively fast by Rin.

'You dare…insult the Tohsaka name?' Rin grit her teeth, flashes of her father passing through her mind. The expectations were heavy, and the lineage often felt like an unwanted burden, but more than any of that, Rin's magic was a reminder of where she had come from and who her father was. He had loved her and trained her. He was kind. He had flaws, of course, but the position he held demanded too much from a single man.

'Oh? Perhaps you deserve another appraisal.' Gilgamesh nodded, expanding his pool of weapons, hundreds of blades slipping out and hovering behind him in anticipation.

'You were his servant! You call yourself a king, but you're nothing but a traitor!' Rin launched her own series of gandr, combining it with a minor spell of fire that she hadn't perfected yet. Her mind raced with calculations and formulas, the chants and advanced level commands coming more easily than ever before. Her mana swelled with fury, and she found herself flinging higher and higher spells of hellfire, her coat's sleeves burning by the inexperience with control.

Gilgamesh allowed the spells to connect, shrugging them off without much of a fuss, but once the fire elemental techniques began striking, he was forced to draw forth a shield from his treasury, even that melting and cracking after Rin began integrating ice moves.

'I am no one's servant.' Gilgamesh uttered angrily, his patience drained.

The golden king's counterattack began with a vengeance, his multitude of weapons shooting toward Rin as though she were as capable as a fellow heroic spirit. She came to her senses in time to understand that she had no hope of deflecting all the weapons at once. The single sword that came before nearly broke through her barrier, let alone twenty times that. Rin's movements slowed in her mind, her thoughts processing her final moments with a surprising amount of calm.

Saber…

Arturia…

Regret.

What about Sakura?

She couldn't die yet…!

'Hey, hey, hey! That's no way to treat a lady!' A familiar yet haughty voice penetrated the air. In a flash of deep purple and red, another figure leapt in front of Rin and managed to carry her out of harm's way as it smacked away the blades with the deadliest trajectory.

'You can't possibly be serious.' Gilgamesh sighed, rubbing his forehead.

Rin recognized her savior to be Lancer, his skin tight armour, blood-red spear, and expansive grin unmistakable. Relief fell over her like cool water on a summer day, and she held him tight for a moment, not caring why he had decided to rescue her.

'The master told you not to kill her, you know. She's sort of necessary for the end of the war and all.' Lancer put Rin down, holding her behind him protectively.

'I have deemed his judgement delusional. All this war needs is for me to drink from the grail and bestow upon this world a new order under its rightful king.'

'And you're calling the master delusional? Yeah, okay.' Lancer flung his spear about his body and then got low, side-stepping out of Rin's immediate radius and allowing a red aura to begin building around him. 'Don't take your eyes off me, pretty boy, because if you do, you know this spear is going right through your heart.'

Rin could see that Gilgamesh took this threat very seriously. He certainly didn't mind leaving Rin from his focus and narrowing all attention on this new opponent. Was Lancer's Noble Phantasm that deadly? It was likely a ranged and furiously quick attack, which would make any efforts by Gilgamesh worthless by the end of it all.

'I doubt you were given permission to honestly fight me with everything you have.' Gilgamesh felt out the situation.

'Only one way to find out.' Lancer winked, the red aura surrounding him intensifying and veins beginning to pop in his temples.

'Which is faster, I wonder, your Gae Bolg, or my Gate of Babylon?'

'Heh. Of course he told you. No wonder you're being so cautious.'

'Your Noble Phantasm is perfect for this scenario, yet it does require a moment of vulnerability. Present that to me, and you die.'

Lancer laughed to himself once again, crouching even lower.

'Hey, missy.' He started suddenly, addressing Rin. 'The way you fought just now; it made me do this. Keep your chin up, yeah?'

Rin wasn't completely sure what Lancer was getting at, but she couldn't dismiss the way he looked at her. A crush? Admiration? Longing? Whatever the case, Rin simply nodded.

'I-I will.' She stuttered, belying the brave front she was putting on.

'If I could've had you as a master, maybe things would've been different. Heh. Oh, well. Us Lancers have a pretty terrible "luck" stat as it is.'

'Enough rabble. Show me what you can do, dog.' Gilgamesh's blades were at ready, floating behind him with hundreds more likely in wait. Rin was tired of the trick. It was overpowered and lazy. Gilgamesh wasn't particularly skilled, as far as she could see, beyond his Noble Phantasm.

'With the name calling again. You really piss me off, buddy.' Lancer exploded with power then, the very ground encircling him collapsing under the weight of his noble phantasm at its maximum capacity. 'Watch this, missy!' Lancer grunted, veins now protruding from his neck as well.

It happened instantaneously. Lancer burst from the ground, leaping high into the air, the light emanating from his spear painting the forest red. Gilgamesh reacted in kind, hesitating for but a second to redirect his weapons toward his opponent. He hadn't been expecting an airborne attack. The extra second was all Lancer had needed. He felt no less than eight weapons puncture his body and bring him to the ground, but Gae Bolg was gone, its tip absorbing more blood as it stuck out of Gilgamesh's back, his armour shattered right where his black heart should have been.

Both fighters were down, but unlike Lancer, who had collapsed completely, Gilgamesh merely plummeted to his knees, his expression of doubt twitching over every normally stoic feature.

'No…no…Don't bow to me, great king…' Lancer wheezed, coughing violently and choking on his own blood.

Saber had been finally released in that moment, and she wasted no time dislodging an unconscious Illya to tend to the little girl's wounded shoulder while Rin knelt next to Lancer.

'You servants…are such incredible beings.' She said, her soul overflowing with emotions.

'Well…yeah. We're heroic spirits…for a reason, you know?'

'Thank-you.' Rin managed a small smile, her eyes watering.

Lancer's own line of sight became hazy. His time had come. He had knowingly given up his life in order to save another's master. It felt good. It was really sticking it to that corrupt priest.

'Seeing that smile…makes it all worth it. Keep at it…Missy.' Lancer finally breathed his last, his body falling still and then disappearing, fading into particles of mana to return to the grail from whence he came.

'Shall I end you?' Saber placed Illya down gently beside Rin for her master to hold as she addressed Gilgamesh. He was standing now, although he barely held himself together as blood pumped out of his chest and back.

'Fool. Foolish creatures. This is…nothing. A king can't be…taken down by…'

'A mercy kill it is, then.' Saber drew Excalibur, her movements shaky due to the pains created from being so tightly chained. She had enough energy for this though. She had enough power to finish another servant this night.

However, before any more could be done, the shadow returned, quickly overtaking Gilgamesh and consuming him whole. The golden king's disbelief immediately shifted to unrestrained panic as he seemed to understand what was happening.

'What is this madness…! I am your king…! Your king…! How dare you…! How…! N…!'

It was like watching someone sink into quicksand, except this lethal anomaly of condensed magic seemed to have a will all its own, and it could turn its unformed focus onto Saber, Rin, and Illya at any moment.