Fate: Stay Over Night

by TheGoodDoggo

Gallery: ibb. co/album/bVvTWF - There was a mysterious force that pulled the remnants of Yggdrasil toward the New World. But not all of them got to their destination. Some got strayed by the shifting of realities. And then there was exception. It was like you unintentionally touched something so 'Eww' and tossed it to the opposite direction. And so the Thing went there...

8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Overlord or Fate series.

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I was in a car accident a few months ago and wasn't in the mood to write anything. Currently, I can use my arms and move around alright but I still feel that itch in my bones.

The long hiatus wasn't intentional at all. I will try to make up for it. I am still in the recovery period but typing and gaming are fine.

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### ? ###

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A rumbling sound was echoing the earth as if the land itself was rolling over. Dark clouds blanketed the sky with ominous thunders here and there without stopping.

The land was not so much better in shape. Snow-covered fields full of blood stretched out till the horizon. Every few meters was a corpse of some kind. Mangled and disfigured. If not for the clothes there would be no telling it was once a human being.

"Ugh… guh… a-aaah…"

A moving corpse. No, it was a human that looked like a freshly eaten corpse.

She was unconscious the moment she reached the unknown mountain. And now that she woke up, she didn't recognize anything around her. Even the air felt alien and rotted.

More important than that, her body was a mess. Lacerations strewed all over her from head to toes. A lot of blood had been lost while she was unconscious. Her clothes were in tatter with dark blood overrode the original coloration.

"Where… Where am I…"

Sitting up and looking around she found no one or life for a better description. All around her were dark trees and mountains that made it look like she was in a basin… of death.

Lying next to her was a metallic weapon that looked like a pile bunker.

"Glad that you are still here."

Grabbing the huge weapon and standing up carefully, she checked herself one last time before starting to move. Destination undecided. She just needed to be out of the open field here. There was no need for any sign to show how this snowfield was dangerous.

While dragging her bloody self along the small trail of corpses, she noticed that the place despite being covered with snow passing her ankles it didn't feel that cold.

She scoped up a handful of snow in her hand to feel it better.

"It's cold like it should be. So why can the air here be this lukewarm?"

Furthermore, it makes my hair stand up. Plus all the bodies strewing all over the place…

Inspecting the remains of the dead as she was dragging herself to a more covered terrain. The bloody clothes although mangled still retained their identity somewhat. She didn't know what had happened here but the corpses didn't look so fresh.

Seeing scenes of massacres didn't phase her much. It didn't mean she had no feeling. She was angry but not as exploding as a raging beast that was overwhelmed by emotions.

After walking for who knew how long, she finally got out of the valley and arrived at the edge of a small town.

The first thing she felt wasn't relief but alarmed.

The town was burning. Debris of collapsed buildings overflowed the street. Some cars and buses were flipped over in a pile of wreckage along the way.

Blood trails painted the walls and the ground as if a bunch of kids was given free rein over the paint truck.

The scene in front of her is a picture of hell. But there was no corpse. The town was big so the corpses in the valley could be the people here, but they were too small of a number to be all of them.

I hope there will be survivors.

With the madness shown before her. She hardened herself and sneaked into the town with careful steps. She still had no idea where she was. And the locals were not that responsive.

The building she got into was empty as expected. There was just so much mental stress a human could endure before they collapsed. She was no exception. But the situation was not so light for her to rest in this isolated place. A cold chill had been brushing against her skin the whole time she was in the town.

Just a bit of observation showed her the underlying picture in this town.

It was some kind of demonic ritual. The trails of blood were not senselessly drawn over the town. A gigantic formation that she couldn't make out what is the scale but she was sure that the supposed letter was big enough to stretch over a whole block.

Feeling restless inside but didn't know what to do, she decided to move around the town to find some more clues.

Just after a few blocks, her effort was rewarded.

At the corner of the crossroad, a group of dark beings was busy gathering around something. Those creatures were dark red in color and had a small body like a malnourished child. Their sharp teeth and bat-like head denied the possibility of them being a child though.

Hiding away in a store nearby she tried to see what they were doing. After one glance, her eyes widened for a moment before turning into a hateful glare. She gritted her teeth and clenched her hand tightly to hold herself back from jumping out and kill them all. She could be going straight to her death.

They were tearing a small infant up while laughing at each other over the part each of them had gotten.

There were more.

There was more than one infant with them. About ten or so more were stuffed in a bag they dragged along. All were dead.

She sat in place, trembling on her knees. Feeling like her heart was stabbed directly with all the cruelty while her limbs just went cold from all the restraints from herself.

Before she exploded and rushed to the evil display to slaughter them all, someone was already doing that ahead of her.

All the demonic creatures slumped down and fell apart into small chunks of meat. Blood didn't even spurt as their bodies were disassembled in an instant.

Standing in their place was a man in a bartender outfit. Tired eyes adorned a war-hardened face. He had a bald head and well tan skin showing his muscles even with clothes on. Just look alone made him as tough as a fighter monk.

His hand was holding a combat knife that she was sure had just cut down all those creatures.

And he was looking at her. Straight in the eyes. A complicated expression on his face as he stood there silently.

She didn't know what to do at that moment. Is he an enemy? Or could he be an ally?

How would she know? There was not a single thing to make her believe anyone she met anymore.

But what would she do now?

The man started moving away from where she was. The direction looked like he was heading toward the edge of the town. He made a gesture with his hand to tell her to follow him.

Just as before, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't be waiting for her to approach him herself and finish her off just like those demonic creatures over there.

But against all those skeptical reasonings, she still got up and went after him. She wanted to bet her last chance to survive on him. After all, regarding what the man was capable of doing she believed she wouldn't be able to escape with her current condition. There was a chance that he was a 'good' person too, of course. But that thought needed to wait after she knew what he wanted.

Passing the remains of the infants, she intended to at least burn their bodies as a way to soothe her own soul, and hopefully theirs too.

"Don't approach them. They are not simple corpses anymore."

He stopped and looked back at her over his shoulder. His eyes were deep and cold, gazing straight into her soul. She too looked back defiantly. There was no intention of listening to him at all.

The hostile emotion from earlier was still lingering in her. Seeing such cruelty lit a fire in her heart. The seed of rage couldn't be stamped out so easily by an unexpected situation once planted.

Her strength was returning but she had lost too much blood. She didn't believe she could handle him in a fight at all. It didn't mean she gave up on resisting. If push came to shove, she would gladly do as much damage as she could to him.

But things didn't go her way till the end. She saw the pieces of the torn infant move slightly. Her mind stopped for a second as a confused pity and hatred mixed inside her.

"We'd better move. They are not what you are thinking they are."

She recovered quickly as he started to walk again. Giving the bag of infants and the mangled corpse a last look, she continued after him with a slight trembling. Her eyes seemed empty but a burning rage was still hidden deep in there. Just waiting to explode.

They walked with a wide distance in between. Not a single more word was uttered, she just watched the man as closely as she could. The manner he led her along the street was swift and silent. Perfectly in sync with her pace even though he didn't look back at her at all. It just added more to the danger signs that she put on him.

The place they arrived at was a basement bar at the end of the street. A black wooden staircase of thirteen steps going down to a luxurious door, which was also made of the same mysterious black wood. Gold rims decorated around the door frame and handrails made up a regal feel for the place.

The building above the place was normal looking and blended well with the town. But clearly, this place was meant to be a very high-class bar for special folks.

He opened the door and made a professional bow welcoming her in.

"Pardon me for the mess at our entrance. I would like to invite you to our place in a better circumstance."

"..."

"... It's not safe out here after dark. We will talk later inside."

She scowled a bit at the idea but went in regardless. Staying out on those streets at night was obviously not a good plan.

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Stepping out of the doorway leading to the darkly lit bar, she took in the scenery. The space inside was not too big. Just enough to hold ten tables of four and a long tabletop made of wood and glass. The warm incandescent light added an elegant and serene atmosphere to this underground bar.

The place was cozy and calming. Very relaxing to stay for a long time. She may want to be at this place in her time off duty in her normal life.

"How about you wash up and cool down your head for now?"

"No. I don't trust people that easily. We talk first."

Depending on your answer we would be fighting to the death right this instance.

Of course, she didn't say that out loud. She could sabotage the opportunity for gathering information.

"I guess that is fine too. Sit down then."

He changed direction from the door in the back to a nearby table. She kept her eyes on him as a habit but also quickly came over as he made himself comfortable in the chair.

He made eye contact with her, gesturing for her to sit down too. The reason was that she stood still behind the chair, with an arm-length distance to it.

"I'm fine standing."

"..."

The wariness on an animalistic level showed clearly in her challenging eyes. He didn't push it and continued what was left of their conversation.

"Introduction is in order. I am called Ajay."

"My name is Alice."

"... Well, Miss Alice… what do you want to ask?"

Both of their expressions were fake, a mask on the negotiation table. Trying to read them was useless. No thought could be deciphered on those powerful people.

"First off, what is happening here?"

"It is a long story. But I will make it short. The details are for later."

"..."

His hint was too obvious for her to miss. Any in-depth information depended on their relationship in the future.

"Someone wanted to open the gate to the Nine Hells. And it looked like they succeeded. This town was swallowed by the strayed Demons from the gate for being near it."

Her demeanor faltered for a moment. There was a term she wasn't familiar with. This was the first time she heard about an actual Nine Hells. Except for the fictional stories she read when in Japan, this concept was not in her knowledge. But the importance of the matter was not that hard to grasp even with the lack of that information.

"What about the survivors?"

"Some were lucky and escaped death. They are holding themselves up in the supermarket's basement."

At least there are still people left. I'd better get them out of this town fast.

"You can't leave this region... Not yet."

It was as if her thought was read. She glared at him with a bit of killing intent.

"You would stop me?"

"It isn't me who would stop you. The people who exterminated your Burial Agency will come at you the moment you leave the barrier."

Alarm raised in her head. She jumped back and ready her weapon, aiming at him. He didn't move yet but she was full of fighting spirit and killing intent.

"Who the hell are you? How do you know that?"

He looked at her eyes and stayed still in place to not startle her unnecessarily.

"My subordinates were the one who teleported you here. Miss Elesia, or should I call you Miss Ciel instead?"

Her killing intent intensified. The Church had already erased those data. No one should know anything about her.

"Please calm down. I mean you no harm. I am the leader of Dark Deep Fox. We are a mercenary organization. I have wanted to recruit you for a long time now but you are hard to get to."

He looked more intensely at her.

"You are in no shape to fight. Your energy level is so low that your weapon's spirit can't even manifest."

She flinched a fraction of a second at that. He was right. But this was not a reason for her to back down.

"We have the same enemy. The people who attacked you are also our mortal foes."

She thought about it thoroughly. The enemy of her enemy wasn't necessarily an ally.

The organization Dark Deep Fox, or more commonly called by mercenaries the DDF, was famous in the last ten years. Their name represented the terrifying reach and the deceptiveness of their organization. Even she knew about it. It rose suddenly and so powerfully that the Mage Association and the Church needed to be wary of them. Mostly for their habit of killing all the powerful people in the area.

There were many mystical figures capable of magecraft, and monstrosities with genocide level kill count. Especially the one called Siriel. She didn't know the details but the danger level of Siriel was set as 'Do not approach'. They seemed to put her on Dead Apostle Ancestor level. Whatever observation the Church did on the target was of no concern for her. Siriel was an enigma that was left alone just because of her deadliness and resistance to holy powers.

The Church did not want to be involved with the affairs of the normal people. Although the DDF could be counted as one of the organizations in the 'known' about the other side of the world and 'unwanted' by the various groups, it was strong enough to not perish under the Mage Association's rules or anyone else. Plus the plethora of killers on their side. She could say they had the foundation to confront any powerhouse on Earth.

Besides, she currently felt that the Church was gone. The inside of the Church seemed to be hollowed out for some time now without her knowledge. Whoever that was aiming at her had wanted to eliminate the foundation of the Lord very badly. She was just one of the targets.

She still held hope that the members of the Burial Agency were alive out there. But now she needed to deal with this town and get back on her feet.

"I won't join your group. But I want a contract. Provide me with the full information about them and a base of operation. In exchange, I will participate in fighting those monsters with you."

"No deal."

An instant reply without so much of a thought. He looked at her as calm as ever but a strange feeling started to manifest inside her. The oppression air was invading the tensed distance between them.

"We do not work like that. You join us, or you don't. A fragile relationship like the contract you proposed does not give us the trust we want."

Her eyes dilated and a thought dawned on her.

I don't trust them, but they also don't trust me.

That was a given. Normally she would not ignore this kind of thing. Her mind was stressed by a lot of matters. Above all, the desire for revenge had consumed a large part of her thinking.

She didn't know what to do now that he refused. She had no information, no strength. Even her survival was questionable if she was kicked out of this bar.

"I, as a leader, seriously want to recruit you. But we, as an organization, do not need you."

He looked into her eyes as if gripping her soul and examining it.

"Why do you want to be on the Church side so much?
Didn't they capture you and kill you over and over again for months?
You want revenge, don't you?
To kill them with your own hand, to shred their carcasses into pieces."

He waited for her to digest his questions but not for long. It was not good to let her go down on her feeling like that.

"Becoming our employee is not bad at all. You can do whatever you want as a mercenary. You will have an information network of the scale of the planet on your back.
If you want strength, we have ways for you to get it.
If you want money, we have high-pay jobs readied.
If you want fame, well, you have to work on that yourself. We can give pointers if you need them."

She didn't respond. She knew what he wanted. Thinking about the past… There was nothing much going on there. Dead memory should remain dead. The blood on her hands wouldn't be washed out no matter what. She had wanted redemption, death. But it was all a bygone thing.

Did she hate the Church? It would be a lie if she said she didn't. The Burial Agency was her home. But it was no more.

So what held her back? Nothing. She just didn't have anything.

It was just that there was a strange resistance when she thought about joining his organization. Unreasonable defiance manifested inside her when she stood in front of this man.

Seeing her eyebrows scowled weirdly, He also lost in thought. But his thought didn't matter as she spoke to him.

"What do you gain from having me? You just said your organization doesn't need me."

"What is so strange about that? You have the qualification. Your power is high; your character is firm; your alignment isn't evil. A perfect member to add to any group out there so why not ours?"

"Your way of doing things is too evil to recruit someone from the Church, isn't it?"

"You may say that but it differs from person to person. And only the vicious ones got on the news you all read about. There is a large portion of mercenaries doing silent works that no one knows about. We don't deny admission into our ranks. Of course the wicked will have their 'special' examination to be able to join. Evil running amok is the last thing I want to see in my organization."

She had lowered her guard quite a bit. Her questions were just there to occupy her thinking. She had the premonition that this event was the end of her life with the Church. There would be no going back.

"So anyway, you should stay here and rest up for now. The room in the back is for you. Thinking about it all you want, I am not in a hurry."

He stood up and pointed to the door in the back he previously went for.

"Hold up, where are you going?"

"Although our conversation is short, I get that you need time. I will be on the lookout. Greater demons appear at night a lot, you see. The gate is still there after all."

He was at the entrance and about to go out. Ciel had a frustrated face, obviously unsatisfied about their exchange.

"What is your plan with this place? You put a bound field over this town, didn't you?"

He looked back over his shoulder with a cold glance.

"I don't know why they wanted to open the gate but I am sure we all don't want that gate to remain. This barrier is to isolate this region from the rest of the world. My plan? It is not on the discussion table until we are allies."

She just stared at him as he went out of the door after that. The silence filled the bar once again.

Well, at least he won't jump at me and stab me in the back.

Ciel finally breathed out with relief as she moved to the room that was for her. Being alone was so comfortable at times.

She found the shower and quickly started cleaning her weapon, Seven. It was her only ally now. She also took the chance to refresh herself. Too much blood and gore clung to her hair and tattered clothes. There was a risk of infection with all those untreated lacerations. She had enough problems already without another mundane sickness.

About fifteen minutes later, she had done all the necessary treatment on herself and changed into new clothes. The clothes were folded neatly on the bed. Just the arrangement in the room told her that her presence was expected.

The bed was put in the corner with a soft white sheet covering it. There was a first-aid box on the light shaded wooden bedside table. Can foods and utensils were stacked on the cabinet on the opposite of the bed and next to the door leading out. The decoration was bare minimum with a bookshelf and some inconsequential books.

Wait, that book…

In that bundle of books was one strange-looking spine. Dark red letters on a black background. More importantly, it read 'Les Neuf enfers', French. Clearly intended for her.

She laid her weapon on the bed and sat next to it. In her hand was the mentioned book.

A quick inspection showed her that this book was just a normal book with no enchantment or curse. It was just printing papers.

After she had been sure there was no trap she opened the first page and started the book.

By Endori - The Rabbit Sword Demon...

It was a thin book that could be finished in half an hour. She knew this wasn't all there was to know about. This book was just a simplified version for her. It looked more like a journal of a person who had traveled through hells.

Their pen name was questionable though.

Whatever it may be, it served its purpose in showing her the magnitude of this Nine Hells.

A place between worlds didn't belong to any but connected to all. Furthermore, the Nine Hells was just one place the Devils gathered. It was floating in an abyss that held many more horrors comparable to the so-called Lords of the Nine Hells.

Luckily, those of immense power couldn't leave the abyss. Some kind of force bound them to it. Even the Lords of Hell Couldn't just leave for the other worlds except for some peculiar events.

Almost all the gates opened by mortals led to the first layer, Avernus.

This was the most lethal layer for the races of flesh and blood. The terrain was molten rock and charred ground. Almost everything was illuminated by lava and burning hills. Everywhere was a wasteland with some occasional petrified and basalt mountains, no sunlight or star. Not even clouds. Just the endless darkness of the abyss looming over everything. If not for the molten landscape, no light would shine on this plane.

It was a perpetual warzone between demonic forces. This place was a kill zone for all. Stepping on the layer meant you were a participant. But you were on your own side. Everything would try to kill you. There could be no other way to avoid it as this was what the Lord of this layer decided.

The layer contained many big and small factions that formed and perished every now and then. The most prominent forces belonged to Lord Zariel and an Evil Dragon Goddess Tiamat.

Ciel was surprised at one name she knew about. But she was taking this as a grain of sand.

Hmm, what could this Tiamat be… Is she the same one I wonder…

There was nothing more about those two and the first layer. The book mentioned some other significant figures such as the Ruler of the Nine Hells, Asmodeus, and the other Lords' name.

It was clear that the rest of the book was cut out. This meant he wanted to let her know which layer the current gate connected to and what to expect of it. There were creatures and powerful 'Boss' level individuals that she guessed were all the main dangers or something. She didn't know. But the Lords and the mentioned Goddess were designated as 'Raid' level. Theorizing from the hierarchy those things were a part of, it must be the most dangerous level possible.

Turning to the last page, there was one last paragraph of text in the middle of it. Ciel frowned as those lines broke the flow and style of the whole book.

'I am done with this book. That woman kept killing me every time I came to the second layer! What's wrong with her!? And now she is actively hunting me too! She took my sword! MY DECAY RUBY! I will definat'

It's not even finished. Did the author die in the middle of it or something?

She was chewing on the little mystery in the end while closing the book, tossing it to the corner of the bed.

Ciel looked back at Seven, her weapon and companion. She crawled on the bed and hugged it.

There was nothing else to think or feel anymore. She just lied there with her Seven in her arms. Her eyes were void of the usual emotions she had.

I will keep killing until this fire of mine is satisfied…

Her anger and hatred combined with the urge for violence she had built up. Her life had changed too much and now it's time for herself to change too.

She drifted off to sleep as she rearranged all the things she knew and discovered in her mind.

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### Roanapur, Thailand ###

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The port city Roanapur was as lively as ever with the never-ceasing activities of people. This city of malice had existed since long ago and had absorbed so much blood and corpses that it could be the land of the death itself. Of course, there was no such spiritual thing in that place.

Approaching the port from the direction of the Cambodia coast, were two medium-size ships. The ships in the middle of the night brought uneasiness for the local fishermen along the coast. This was not their first time awaiting the arrival of some bigshot but the unknown was always scary. Especially to the civilians, if one could call the people living in this city with that term.

Only a few handfuls of people were aware of who was coming to their city. The cause of the other's worries was because the big bosses of the city became so prepared that even a beggar would pick up on the change.

The ships had traveled boldly along the coastline of Cambodia since passing Phu Quoc island. The matter of hiding their presence was compromised with the speeding corpses-filled ship. The coast guards of Viet Nam spotted them immediately as they entered their water.

The chase was short-lived as a few cooked grenades from Siriel sank the patrol boats. There were injuries but no deaths. They prioritized the rescue of their comrades over chasing down the unknown criminals on the wide sea.

The same happened to the Cambodia coast guards. The high-profile travel of the two ships was marked as pirates' activity but they couldn't do anything more. Finding them after this encounter was nigh impossible.

Waiting at the docks were the members of the various factions and gangs. There were police and other military groups who were also observing from a faraway place.

Then their attention was pulled to the dark sea. The light of a ship approaching the city appeared in the black canvas of the night.

A single yacht moved steadily into the dock. There was nothing unusual about it to the observers. But everyone knew that wasn't meant to be.

The cabin's door opened and out came a man in his full white suit. His dark brown hair was combed back neatly. His eyes swept the whole harbor in seconds. Even amid the night with sparsely placed post lights, everyone in the shadow gulped down in nervousness as he looked at their location. The sharp blue eyes were menacing on that normal youthful face somehow. His whole demeanor screamed dangerous to the experienced thugs and above.

Lining up on the dock waiting were the people from the Bongiovanni House. They were all minions, the one that their corpses would be the decoration on the battlefield if there were one.

Before the Italian mafia, the figure of their VIP came down from the luxurious yacht. His expression was hard to tell as he looked at the reception for him.

"Why the hell are you guys lining up waiting for me? Announcing that I am here or something?"

"Boss, sorry for this but your arrival is not that stealthy. We are just doing our job."

"Stop calling me that. I was demoted."

"By the way boss, are you alone?"

"I told you- tsk! Anyway, just ignore it. She isn't with me. We focus on our business. She will come to us on her own when she is done touring the city later."

"She?"

Lazzaro raised an eyebrow at the confused look on the goons that welcomed him.

At least tell the minions about a guest, dammit! They could get themself killed.

"Haa...Forget it. Just lead me to the manager."

They went into the cars waiting and moved out to their headquarter. Some goons were also left behind to watch over the yacht. A few groups were retreating out of the harbor as their job of confirming the arrival was done.

However, the people that remained in place were different. These were the high tier personnel of big groups. They knew there were supposed to be two targets to arrive. And so they waited, silently in the dark corner of wherever they were.

In the car, Lazzaro leaned on the back seat and let himself sink into it. Both his mind and body were relaxed. Someone else would do the upcoming work instead of him. His job now was just to report and waste some time before the manager gave him the men needed.

His thought drifted to Siriel. She had stayed back and played with the ambushing pirates. There was no need to ask to know that those pirates were the same gang as the corpses on her ship.

Hmm, around tomorrow morning I guess. Seems like a good way to waste some time too.

Normally he would consider her conduct to be troublesome, but this was her he was dealing with. It was better to just swing along than going against things that would happen regardless. And he too could use some targets to release the built-up stress.

Tomorrow he would find her and tag along. Right at the moment, he needed to prepare himself for the report with the manager. But it wasn't the report that he needed to prepare for.

Ugh, Piero would definitely ridicule me. My face is thick but not that thick.

The line of cars moved silently with eyes watching them through the city. The groans of Lazzaro lingered as they passed the unexpectedly empty road.

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Dawn had finally arrived at the harbor of Roanapur. And a horror show arrived with it too.

The workers at the docks were in a panic as they were wondering if they should run and risk losing the job or stay in place and brace for whatever was coming.

A chain of ships that looked like they just came out of the graveyard dragged themselves over. There were five ships in total. They all had mangled corpses decorated and blood painted like a ghost ship.

The five ships looked tattered beyond floatable but they weren't sinking for some reason. Connecting them was a huge chain that pierced the hull of each ship from front to back. The rusted metal chain was just making the whole arrival even more spooky.

Obviously, the police arrived too at the call of the dock manager. They all waited behind the barricade with guns readied. All the employees had retreated to safety. A few groups that had been lying in wait since the night before had to move to a new location as the sudden exposure caused by those workers.

*BRRRRR*

Weird honking noise blasted the harbor as the chain of ghost ships docked themselves. Anchors dropped loudly into the water without a care whether they hit the concrete dock or not.

The police officers had been shouting out orders to the ships to stop the engine and identify themselves but there was no response.

The tattered sea vessels brought with them a lot of bad smells. The corpses weren't rancid but their broken intestines said otherwise. Among the lifelessness was the swaying of reflecting white threads in the wind.

A beautiful young woman with platinum hair was standing in the half-destroyed cabin of the leading ship. She was wearing a two-piece white bikini with a large straw hat that stayed aloofly on her head. Her figure was small but it brightened the whole dead fleet along with the sunlight.

It was no one other than Siriel. She was showing her normal cheerful smile and she was peeking out of the cabin to look. Seeing the reception on the dock gave her some ideas. She climbed the railing and was about to jump down like in anime. But something extremely ominous happened.

Her body suddenly went rigid and froze up on the railing as if time was stopped. Her face was stuck in a smile as she fell down the sea below. Face first again.

This led to a brief moment that all her auras and presence were unleashed. A normal max level player would cover the whole dock and a few blocks with their aura alone. The effect beyond that range was secondary consequences due to the world's laws.

This was not the case, however. She was a level five-hundred monster player. A legitimated World Enemy tier monster. A Boss's aura would naturally flood the whole territory they were in and pressing down on everything.

The whole city was blasted with a mental attack without any protection. People staggered to their knees and birds fell to the ground. Cars were crashing and things were breaking. But luckily this misfortune lasted only half a second. There were deaths but not a whole lot. Some weak and sick people had their hearts exploded and died instantly. Or the unfortunate that were killed by those accidents. The total number of deaths was less than a hundred despite the chaos it ensured but the amount of damage was quite a sizable scope.

Back on the harbor, everyone stopped breathing for a few seconds even after the tremendous pressure was gone. Some workers wetted their pants, and some fainted. The police were shaking with a confused look, not knowing what the dread they were feeling was.

Eventually, they came back to their senses as Siriel climbed up from the water to the dock.

"F-Freeze!"

"No way, I am not doing it again!"

Not expecting the pouting defiant answer from the target, the officer stumbled a bit in his thought.

"D-Don't move from there! You are under arrest! Come with us peacefully or we will shoot!"

There were five more policemen approaching her cautiously. With a handgun in hand ready to shoot with any sudden move they put a handcuff on her without trouble.

Siriel was not very responding and just was quietly following the police into their car. She still took some look at the sources of the gazes she felt. There were quite a lot of movements from everywhere due to the chaos but she did notice some shady worthy people in the shadows.

A big burly officer shoved her in the back seats and locked the door. His face grimaced when Siriel tilted her head out to look around.

"You'd better not do some crazy shit in the car. Our city has enough psycho bitches as it is."

"Hey, I am just a lovely girl though."

"Like hell you are. Now stay silent and let us do our job. I am not paid enough to deal with those bitches."

"Hm? You're saying something?"

"Tsk, it's nothing. Give her another handcuff! I don't feel good about her."

Just like that, another handcuff was added to her arms. Siriel gave the big policeman a small smirk and stayed still in the back seat with an absentminded look on her face. She zoned out and quickly forgot about the people around her. She got something else that needed her attention more.

As the police retreated back to their headquarters with the target secured, the dock also felt more empty due to a large number of people disappearing from the place. Many were spooked by the ships, but many were more puzzled by Siriel's appearance.

The girl was pretty but they were more freaked out by her than fascinated when they sneaked a peek. Weird phenomenons were also happening at the same time making it even more confusing. Although a few individuals were more surprised by the fact that she had obediently followed the police without very much any resistance. They thought a massacre was about to occur but she ended up so tamed.

But then again, normal henchmen like them, even if they were more special than the other henchmen, couldn't understand how those people were thinking. Guessing the answer was useless to them anyway so they just kept it to themselves and went back to their respective bosses.

With the darker side of the city gone, the dock had returned to its normal state… or not. Corpses-filled ships were drifting about. The problem was in the workers' hand now. Everyone just heaved a sigh and wanted to go home at that moment.

.

.

"Lazzaro! Where are you going?"

Lazzaro turned his head at the doorway and looked back over the shoulder. The person who was calling for him was just at the edge of his vision.

"Just scouting around the city a bit. I may find some good hires. Who knows?"

The person moved right past him and blocked Lazzaro's way. His arms crossed before his chest and with a stern look talked down on Lazzaro with his big stature.

"You should know that you are a target in this city already. What if-"

"Stop it Piero."

The smaller man reached out his hands and fixed the collar of his white suit in an elaborate manner. He gave the big man a satisfied look that belonged to a person who just reached nirvana.

"I am just a guide for our 'guest' now. My job doesn't include reading resumes and profiles. It's yours."

He smirked.

"You also forget that I am not a harmless salaryman. Now Mr. Manager, please move out of the way."

Lazzaro didn't wait for Piero to answer, quickly went around the man and disappeared out of sight.

Standing alone at the doorway, Piero just sighed tiredly. He returned back to his quarters to resume his work, picking out hired guns for the trip to the mine.

I don't remember Lazzaro being so rebellious.

Although he was worried, it wasn't about Lazzaro. The Russians were watching everywhere. And the people of the Triad had completely surrounded his building. He knew about it. He was spooked by it. But there was nothing Piero could do. Not after their meeting.

Outside the building, Lazzaro was looking up at the office of Piero on the second floor. When he saw that the big man had settled back in his room, Lazzaro went away.

His destination was the dock. There had been no commotion since he arrived. That meant she was still out there in the sea.

With a hum in his steps, he walked leisurely on the street. Hands in pockets and a new white hat on his head. The hat was hard to get around here but luckily for him, the headquarter had a few spares lying around. His classy gangster style was completed with a suit and hat. If only his chrome DE .50 cal were still in his possession, it would be perfect.

Now though, he was carrying a Glock 19. Cheap gun but not that bad. Too normal for his taste aside, he could certainly join in a shootout with this gun.

On his joyous way, he passed by a small market, or whatever the locals called it. There were many early hour workers and sellers all around. Stalls with delicious roasted meat emitted quite a smell toward his way.

Eh, I guess having a little snack before meeting her is fine too.

"Hey owner, what are you selling?"

"Roasted seasoned pork, roasted entrails, roasted chicken wing, breast, and leg. All are fresh!"

Yeah fresh my ass. Your English is good though.

"So how are you selling this?"

While bargaining with the food vendor on some inconsequential pieces of meat, he noticed some eyes were watching him.

He finished with the owner and sat at a table on the side of the stall waiting for his food. Lazzaro may be a joke in front of Siriel but he was still a big figure in his organization, until recently but whatever.

Some lackeys were standing behind some corners peeking at him occasionally. They were of no concern. He swept his gaze over the opened market stealthily to see if there was any noticeable individual in there.

Then he caught them in one corner of the street. Two people, one guy dressed like an office worker and one girl in short hot pants with a black tank top. They were sitting at an outdoor cafe shop.

The girl was observing him very sharply. Like a killer leering at their target. As if the dual pistols on her side didn't tell enough about what life she had lived in.

The plain-looking guy was… hard to say. He looked too ordinary for the kind of people living here. But that just screamed suspicious all over. So it was alright.

Then the guy stood up and walked toward him with his girl protesting something behind.

These two are definitely not in the same group as those lackeys. What do they want though?

"Hello, sir. Mind if we sit here?"

What if I said no? But let play along.

"Well, it's not like you are taking my meat so yeah, go ahead."

Lazzaro was also curious as to what they wanted.

"Wow, thank you for that. Two plates of pork please!"

"Sound like you are a regular."

"Haha, something like that. I have had breakfast around here for some years now."

The two sat opposite of him. The girl was obviously unhappy but the guy was all smiling. Before they started whatever they wanted to say, the food had arrived for all three.

Lazzaro's portion was bigger than he had imagined. A miscalculation. He would have to skip lunch for sure. It had been a long while since he had such a heavy breakfast.

"Sorry sir but may I ask you something?"

"Hm? What is it?"

He picked up a small piece of chicken meat with the chopsticks and dipped it in the mixture of lemon juice, salt, and ground black pepper. The taste was good and addicting. Sweet sauce with a bit of saltiness and on top of it was the sourness of freshly squeezed lemon. It made you want to taste more of its citric flavor and raised your appetite immediately.

Haa~ I should eat street food more often.

"Did you just arrive recently? I haven't seen you before."

Lazzaro gave the young man a laugh. To him, those two clearly were no lackey or disposable pawn.

"What is it to you? I don't see why this is your business."

"No no no, please don't misunderstand. I was just asking. You look like a businessman and have a different air to… everyone else."

"Hmm..."

He didn't stop his chopsticks but he started to ask himself 'Do I look like a businessman?'. Lazzaro was under the impression that he looked more like a gangster than anything. Sparkling white suit with black stylish shoes, straight black hair swept back neatly, prominent white fedora adorning his head.

Yeah, not like a businessman at all. What the hell dude?

"Well yeah, I am doing business here for a few days. Do you need anything from me?"

The young man continued to converse with him while the girl started to point her gaze here and there with quite a vigilance. He saw that the girl was no amateur. Must be one hell of a gunner too. Credited to the scared behavior of the pussies hiding around them.

"I don't know what your business is but you have quite a fan base you know."

He raised an eyebrow at that remark. He didn't know what this guy was getting at.

"It's not very nice around these parts you see. Especially to a man so well dressed like yourself."

"Aren't you the same then? You are in very nice clothes too."

"Haha, true. But yours are nicer and actually have fans. I just want to let you know and prepare."

"Oh, is that so? You are not going to rob me, are you?"

The young man had an awkward smile, then he looked at his partner sitting next to him and noticed the two handguns were on display near her breasts.

"Ah, not like that. I mean we are from a company of… delivery and odd jobs. Just want to shout out to you beforehand. And if fate has it, maybe doing business with us too."

"Is that so? By the way, my name is Benito."

Of course, there was no reason for Lazzaro to use his real name with some strangers. It wasn't much but still a good habit to live in the world.

"How rude of us. We haven't introduced ourselves yet. I am Rock and this is Revy."

"Hmph!"

Revy didn't hide her attitude and decided to not speak. She was glaring at Lazzaro, trying to find something in him. It just made him amuse at her effort. He was, after all, just chilling around.

"Your girl seems to hate being here."

"Ahaha, she is always like that. Please just ignore her. Anyway, here."

The young man, Rock, took out a business card and gave it to him.

"Hmm? Black Lagoon… So you are specialized at retrieval missions huh…"

No need to say it out loud but they all knew each other's hidden agenda from the beginning. It would be stupid to assume something else in this kind of city.

Lazzaro suddenly had an idea. These people were obviously quite capable, but how capable he didn't know. He could hire them and leave this place quickly. Siriel was also about to arrive. With the pirates sticking to her ass this was a perfect opportunity to give them a test run too.

No way in hell she will get to this city peacefully.

A smile came to his face as he looked at those two. Young and skilled hired guns. But would they have the guts to accept his 'business'?

"Hey Rock, I just have a job in mind. Would you like to hear?"

"Oh? That's fast. But let's hear it."

Revy had already done with her plate just in time for the conversation to come up. She gave Lazzaro a suspicious look. If anything, he would give the girl a plus point for her intuition. He also saw the restraint she put herself under. Cleary a hot-headed muscle type.

He looked at both of them and put down the chopsticks.

"I am picking up a girl at the harbor. How about you two escort me until I have her back at my place?"

*Slam*

"Oi, old dude. Are you making us run errands for you?"

"H-Hey, Revy. Calm down."

"Shut up Rock. He is fucking with us here."

Lazzaro leaned back as Revy increased her intensity. He smiled silently to himself as he watched the temper of the girl.

She will get along with Siriel for sure. Or they will just stab each other.

"Lady, please. I am not forcing you. Picking up the girl will not be easy."

"Hmph!"

Rock was nudging her until she finally decided to let him carry on the conversation.

"What kind of difficulty are you talking about Mr. Benito?"

Lazzaro faked a difficult expression and started to rant a bit.

"Depend on the locals here really. But women bring problems as they go or something. It's fine for you to refuse the job. There really is no difference whether you are there or not."

They were thinking and talking among themselves. Mostly from Rock talking, Revy just spilled out a few words. They got that the issue would be a mess if they joined. Lazzaro didn't pay them any mind. It was of no consequence for him, he just wanted to release some stress and take a look at them as a side note. The bodyguards he needed were just to be used as a meat shield at best. He wasn't hoping too high. At least with Siriel, the mission was basically done. The concerning matter was his survival. He didn't tell them anything about Siriel or the problem with those pirates.

Looked down at his plate, there was some chicken meat left but he had had enough.

"So how is it? Want to take the job?"

Rock turned back to him with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, Mr. Benito. We would like to decline your offer."

"Nah, don't worry about it. I plan to do this myself anyway."

He stood up and paid for his own plate. Fixing his clothes neatly again after cleaning his mouth and hand with the tissues on the table, he gave the two youths a classic fake smile.

"Although it was short, I had fun talking with you two. Goodbye and good luck."

He strolled down the street again but still got his attention on the two people behind.

Rock turned around toward Revy and asked her with a serious face.

"What did you get from him?"

She made an irritated expression but still looked back at him and answered.

"He is bad news."

"How bad?"

"Live a viper, I don't want to be near him at all. He is too confident and casual. Like Chang."

"Mr. Chang? I don't see how."

"I am not sure. But if I had a shootout with him, you'd better bail far away. He is the real shit."

"..."

Revy hated the feeling Lazzaro gave her. He seemed relaxed but there was no moment she felt safe.

"So that is the VIP of the Italian mafia huh. He must be a very high rank member."

Rock expressed his honest view. He had information about this VIP from his teammate Benny. But there was nothing to dig up. Just that some big shot would come to Roanapur. The whole city was in a high alert state so it had to be someone incredible like the Bloodhound incident a few years back.

"But he said he was picking up a girl. Who do you think that is Revy?"

"How the hell do I know?"

"Hey, want to take a peek? Who knows there may be something for us to gain."

"What the fuck has gotten into you?"

"I'm just curious. We had a few cases like this and every time we knew next to nothing about it until it jumped into our lap. I want to get a head start. Even if it won't involve us, knowing is better than not knowing what is going on, right?"

"Hmm."

Although she acted grumpily against his idea, in the end, she gave in and followed Rock to tail the white fedora in the distance. Their company was currently free. There was a chance a random job like always could fall down on them. Furthermore, what was the worst that could happen? Gang fights weren't rare.

They also noticed the not so small amount of small fries tailing the Italian man. Rock looked at Revy with an anticipated smile. She just shrugged her shoulder and walked casually to the dock, where the man they were following headed toward.

Back at Lazzaro, he had a satisfied smirk as he saw the two stood up and followed him through the reflection on some car on the side. They just needed to be there and they would be involved for certain. Unless they ran away fast but that was also not an issue. The other victim candidates that were following him could do whatever they wanted. He didn't care enough for them.

Suddenly he stopped. His eyes widened a bit before returning to normal.

Since when did I disregard large numbers of gunners? I… am not like I used to be…"

But he didn't dwell on it. His mindset had changed after meeting with Siriel. That was a good reason when most people would just outright die.

When he finally arrived at the not so small harbor, he tried to search for her iconic ship on the docks along with the place. All he saw were men hiding in various corners and a row of police cars.

Those people from last night are still here? Well then, I will just wait here, quietly.

He found a good location that had many covers and routes to run around. A place with a lot of shipping containers just next to the police a few dozens of meters.

The bundle of tails behind him had scattered a lot. Only a few remained to continue observing him. Rock and Revy were still sticking around so it was good.

He didn't need to wait too long as the weird ship had made its appearance on the horizon.

No matter how many times he saw it. The way the ship looked was too vomit-inducing.

And now she has five ships. Where did she get that big chain?

He wasn't in a hurry to go over. Lazzaro sat back and watched as Siriel terrorized everyone else. There was just a special something being on the sideline and watching others get scared shitless.

The ships were anchored haphazardly. He saw her stepping out of the cabin and he must admit again, her look was just heavenly. Why must a beauty such as she had to be a psychopath too? And then it happened.

"What the fuck?"

He was dumbfounded.

She slipped and fell into the water. Or that was what it looked like from his place.

But immediately a dread out of this world assaulted him. It was the familiar terror he had felt that night. It was just much much worse. Like a hundred times, no thousands of times worse. He buckled under the fear. His heart stopped for a moment as cold sweat started to run down his back.

Everything lasted for only a moment but it felt like an eternity. He was breathing hard to regain what little composure he had. And he thought that night was the scariest in the world.

After returning to normal Lazzaro noticed that all the others were still immobilized by fear. Only then he realized that he had become tougher than most people. A welcomed side effect of staying near Siriel for the last few days.

He heard screams in the city. And explosions. But his face was still stoic as he watched Siriel climbed up to the dock. He had known she was not a simple human since that night. Some kind of psychic that could read mind or something of the sort. It was still a surprise to know that such people existed. Now he needed to add this to the thing she could do. Simply terrifying.

Lazzaro took out his Glock 19. Checking the magazines and the gun's condition. He was ready to join her at any time.

But another outrageous thing happened.

Siriel obediently followed the police. She just got up and went with them like nothing was wrong!

This was the most confusing moment in his life. Everything was laid out like prepared food on the table. He was sure that she was also planning to paint the harbor red with pirates' blood and everyone else who happened to pass by.

What is she doing? What am I doing now?

For the time being, he would camp out near the police station. Whatever it was that Siriel planned wouldn't last long anyway. There were still those pirates that would cling to her after all. He just wanted to shoot something but this was fine too.

The two youths behind another container were in a worse state than he thought. They dropped down to the ground with a pale face.

Had to praise them for not fainting like the small fries in the back. And those fricks called themselves gangsters, hah! Even normal workers are tougher than them.

.

.

### Siriel ###

.

.

Siriel had been in this world for roughly ten years now. She normally didn't count those things. But she had happened to raise a human boy currently so some details were necessary to remember. Because humans didn't live long.

This world was weird to her. By this world she meant the material universe. There were such strange things as the will of the planet. Even the concept of existence was a wavering factual thing.

But Siriel didn't care about that. What she cared about was the entertainment, a good punching partner. So when she first started exploring the world, she came right in front of the alien of this planet according to Kiritsugu.

Siriel was disappointed.

She couldn't kill them. They didn't even act like they existed. It was as if she was playing with a machine that ran on her imagination. Devil's imagination.

Those things that she didn't remember the name of couldn't die. The only way to get rid of them was to obliterate the source, the planet that manifested them. for they lacked many concepts of existence. A faulty life form but a perfect tool.

Anyway, she didn't like them. If she were to fight them seriously, a huge chunk of humanity would be gone, and the purpose of her being on this planet would become meaningless. Furthermore, they wouldn't die. The destruction they generated tasted weird too.

So there was no other entity that could reach the level of god on this planet except those things.

But what the hell was that?

Siriel just received a psionic attack from an unknown location. The amount of force was tremendous. Enough to freeze her for a moment.

That level of power did not belong to this planet.

She was fine because she had the material body of a World Enemy and the mind of an ancient Devil. If a mere level 100 was to be hit by this, they would become braindead.

Siriel started to worry then. How were her subordinates doing? They couldn't afford to take a surprise attack like her.

["Tamako?"]

["Yes, Mistress?"]

["Are you okay?"]

["... I am okay. Why do you ask?"]

["Nothing. I was ambushed by a psionic attack. Be careful okay?"]

["Of course, Mistress. I and Levia will equip mind protection items immediately."]

She finished with that. Tamako was an intelligent girl, she would know what to do.

For the moment, Siriel started to track down the source of this attack. It was hard because her classes and skills didn't provide any assistance for this kind of task. They were all battle oriented.

There was still the residue of energy in her head. She gathered them carefully to read its origin.

The proficiency of manipulating essence came into handy as she discovered a tiny slit in reality inside her head. Psionic power was still seeping through it. The attack was continuous but Siriel was in control of the energy inside her.

Pooling it all together, she put it back into the slit and moved it in front of her. No sense in leaving it inside her head.

This time she expanded her mind and went through to the other side to see who was messing around with her. This kind of attack didn't belong to players or this world's inhabitants. Although there were some psychics, they were nowhere near this magnitude.

"G͍͕̹͎̥R͏͚̞̺̬̞̦͚E̻͔̭̲̰̘E̪͙̞͠T͚̦͕̲͈̼̩I̠N͈̤͖͎̕G̡͓̘ ̟̥̹̭̜̤̹G̞̬͎̜̬̬̗͠Ó͍͈D҉͇̦̳ SLA̮Y̗̩̘͙ER͈̭̮̝̟̫̘."

Five gigantic colorful snakes in a dark mist world appeared before her. No, they were the five heads of a gigantic body inside the obscure mist.

"What is this? A giant chonky snake?"

"... S̸̭̣U̩̙͎̥̮̲̻C̷̰̰̜͚H̠͍̪̫̙ ̘́R̙Ù̫̞̱͙̻̫D͏̬E͓N̵̮E͉̱͔̜̲̮͜ͅSS̯̝̮͡.̫̟̺̝ I͉̙͈͔ ̵̟̼̟̘̥̱A̡̰̦M̬͇̼̗̤ ͍̦̝T̶̮̦̼̼I͖̰A̟̬͢M̳̫͉͕̣̗̯A͉ͅṬ̟͡..."

"Do I know you?"

"W҉͙̠E̤̩͚͉͓͙ ͎͈̫͢H̙͘A͏͔̥͍͔̟͕V̯͇̣͈̖E̯͖͇̻͠ ̺̺̺N͎̭̦E̶V͓E̙̠R̠͎͖̰̣͜ ̭͔̼̩M̩E̗̙̫̪͇T̗̜͜ ͙̤̠̠͞F̹A̴̫̮C̰̼͜E̵̬ ͈̫̝̻͈̠ͅT̢O̜ ̧͓̗̘̮F̫̙̗A҉̱̗̯̲̼̰̣C̵͖̹E̟̞̻͔̱͔ ͏̜̟̱B͇̗͢ͅE̗͎̺̺̳̠F̪̼͇̟͕̼͡O̻̜̬̮̕R̸̳̹̰̱E̯̹̼̯̳̘.̱͇"

"Hmm."

"B̭͠U̩̟̬̠T͔͖̳ ̜̮̥͖̣͈Y̥͝O̫͙̻̞͚U̷̞͓̟̙ H͖A͏͉̥̗͓̘͎̩V͉͎̖̠̝E͓͙̼̝ ͝T̟̹̣̟͉͘R͇̮̙̜̣͍̟̕A̖͙̟V͉͎E̼̘̞̹̰͚͡R̼̥͉̩SĘD̟͓͖͚͔̫ ̹̫M̤̞Y̮͉̕ ͔̙D̻̦̗̟O̗̹͕͎M̖͇̬̖͕̕A̼͕̩̪͙͇͈I͖̙ͅN̤̭͈͇͜ ͈̫̫̩͍F͙͎I̠̱̥͢F̦͠T͔͔͝Y̳-̬̠͠ͅṮ̟̞͉̪̻H̜̦̳̲͘ͅR͍̜̗͞EE ̫͔̳̪T͏͈̫̘̲͍̖I͇ME̷̪̰̬S̼̻̪͖͕͘.̨̗̮̹͖̩͙̳"

"You have a lot of free time huh."

Siriel was seriously thinking. She didn't normally pass by such a big prey. The feeling she got was definitely from Yggdrasil. But where and what...

Huge ass dragon thing with colorful snakes for heads. And named Tiamat... Ah, I remember…

"That's right! You are the Raid Boss on the first layer of hell!"

"... R̪̱̕A͈͖̖̙͔̲͝I̻̜̮̯̕D̴̤ B̧̖̘̮͈̖ͅÓ̖̖S̭S̗̪̞̮̜͝ͅ… H͏̣̘M̜̠̗͚ͅM̵̱̱̪͎̟͉,̩͟ I̝̬͝ͅ D̮̹̰̜̘͞O̳͍ ͉̥͖̹͙̫͝R̴E͢M̜̞͚̳E̞̤͔̯ͅM̛̭͎̬̻B̟̥͉E͏̻͇̹̻̜R ͕͕͔́S͚OM̜̣̣̞͍͙E̴ ͕͉͖HU̪̞̙̬̦͓̭͢M̧̰͉A̪̙̲̘̙̘̝͜Ņ̩Ş̟̙̫͓̰ ̫͔͕̗̖̙̀C̛͎̝̻̯̭̫A̴̤̭̤͙̯LL̢E̵̮̠̬̩̟̦D̶̙ ̶̱M͎̣̖̘E̼͟ ̥̭͚͔͙͖̗T̝̞͕H̡̝A̯̝͈͠Ṱ̛."

"So? What do you want?"

In the past Siriel didn't hunt this boss even though she got detailed information on it. Elemental magic was her main weakness at that time and Tiamat was over the top with it. It wouldn't be able to kill her in a few hours but she also had no decisive finisher to end it either. Because it regenerated quite fast. If she had fought with Tiamat back then, she would have just wasted her resource and time. Time at which she could kill more things on the floors below.

Normally, considering fighting a Raid Boss alone was already outrageous. Large scale AOE and area sweep were the main spammable attacks of Raid Boss. Only inhuman things like an advanced bot could predict and execute evasions in a Raid Boss arena. Only inhuman things of course. And even then the Raid Boss would still hit with some absolute attacks.

It was just bad compatibility in the end. Siriel couldn't endure the elemental onslaught for long. But that was when she wasn't a World Enemy yet.

This plane that Siriel and Tiamat were using was the mindscape of Tiamat. The absolutely terrifying Dragon Goddess increased her size even more and dwarfed Siriel like an elephant to an ant. The attempt at intimidation didn't work but her intent was well received.

"I̙̮̞͈̗̯̜ ̤̩͕W̪̞̩̱͍̳̱I̹͎L̗͓̦L͏̮͉͙̹̝͓̱ ̹Ń̳͕EV̶͚̜̻̙̼̞͉E͏̲̤̼̲͉̙͉R͍͓̣̦̙ R̴͙̻͉̞E̡̝͕C͈̤̹͙̲̬̳O̹̱̺̮G̦̗̭͔͔̝̞N̴̝͔͎̝͕IZ̭͕̼̻̺E̢̪͙̘̯̰̲̪ ̡̫̰̩̳̝̳̙Y̝OU̪͞ͅ ͓Ạ̛̰͓͈̥̖̣S̨̗̫͈ ͍̱̮ͅA̙͉̦B̹O̸̙͉͎V̹͚͚̫͖͡E̝ ̺̯͉͇̩̳̜̀M҉̟̗͎̦͙E̙͚̯̣!"

The plane shook and cracked with lightning all around. Tiamat exerted her godly domain onto the spirit of the small being below her. At the same time, Siriel was covering her face with one hand and was madly grinning at the towering Dragon Goddess. Her eyes shone red with malice.

"I͏͍̙̪̩̩̝̩ ̸͙̯͕̩̺̯ͅC̥̜̜͟͝H̹͇̘͈̖͢A̞̭͉̩̜͚̗͢L͔̤̼L̵̼̦̝̼͢͝Ẹ̟̘̙͜͝Ń̠G̗̘͖͟͝E͕͈̳̤̼͢ͅ ͏̵̫͇̳̩͕͖͡Ý̴̙̠̦̠̲̺̲O͘҉̟̝̪͖͓͚Ų͎̲̥̟͚͍̱ ̕͝͏͍̞̖̣̜Ṯ̬͉̙̫͙̖͟O̴̺̘̣͈͉̠̮͝ ̡̥̠̲̞̗͕̜̱ͅT̠̩͢H̢̘̙̘E̲̯̪ ͕̖̟̘̗̥̭̕R̻̲͞I҉̶̗͖̪͘G̦͙͇͚̳͞͡H̵̠̳͕̙̘̫̥̀T͚ ̩͕̣͖͙̗̀͟O̧҉҉̭̱F͏̞̣̗ ̬̻͎̀B̹͉̤̪̳̪̝E̡̘̯̟͙̹̠̜Ḭ̪͍̟͍̹͕̙̀ͅN̡̳̺̰͍͇͢͞G̵̤͇̩̼ͅ ̶̹̖͓͔͉̼͓͝Á̬̘̦̫̰̞̰̝́ ͕͈̯̦̗̣̕͠͝W̛̖̖̖̩͚̘̠͖O͇͕̼̥̻̰̮Ŕ̷̩̹̗͖̬̣̹͘ͅL̵̹̮͎̫̱Ḑ͙̳̰̀͞ ̨̨̲̭͕̥͕̘̹E̷̷͕͕Ṉ̨͇͓̦̟̥E̞̬̳͔̲̻͟M̸̢҉̞͎̩̜͔̘Y͙̭̲͡!̴̴̙̯̩̟"

In response to this challenge that she had never had, Siriel put force her mind power and transformed her astral form into the true form of her avatar.

Darkness exploded out from her body while her red eyes increased their intensity. The darkness consumed half of the domain on her side, completely extinguishing the black mist of the Goddess. The two red star-like eyes rose up and split into four eerily giant red globs. The darkness rushing around the place and forming up the body that enveloped those four red eyes.

The lump of darkness had grown to the same size as the Dragon Goddess before forming into a somewhat womanly shape. The four rounded red eyes arranged in diamond shape formation on her entire face. There was nothing else on her face. It was a completely bland plate of darkness. The hair was flowing freely everywhere like a banshee's hair. It was black in color due to forming out of the darkness but still retaining the shape and feel of celestial hair.

Her arms, which were crackled plasma arcs and were full of nebula mist, were wrapping and hugging the shoulders. The body was black and smooth without any clothes like a naked mannequin. Her human likeness ended with her upper body as from her hip down it was what made her a terrifying devourer.

There were countless tendrils of flesh with chainsaw-like teeth that were made from darkness and the dark matter of the void. The volume of them completely covered the view behind her, making her human-like part look small in comparison.

It was mixed up among Archangel, Essence Existence, and Cosmic Eater. By her own modification or else it would be a completely Eldritch Horror to look at.

"I ACCEPT."

Tiamat was reinforcing her own domain with a calm but menacing pressure. Her five dragon heads growled silently at the blatant retaliation of Siriel on her plane.

"G͈̖͇̖̥̮̳O̸͍̺̪̪ͅO͓͢D̜͝.̵̪͕̳̟̲ ̝̗͇͉͙͠C̯̼͈͘ͅO̻̳̻̲̱̮͓M̖̭͓̼̗̬E̵̗ ̶̞̭̺T̹̀ͅO̩̣͚ ̢̼̲M̴̞̥̪̯͉Y̞͈̥͉͕̟̫ ̞̺̪̪̲̼̺P̭͙̣͟A̳͍̩̗̦͡L̜͔̩̙̮A̵C̕E͇͚̘͍͙.҉̩͚̠ ̩̩̖͕I̭̱͜ ̡̻̭̰̳͔ͅW̴͔I̯͉̠̫͕L̴L̳̦̗̤͖̙̺ ̼͕̠͚͔B̵̥͖͖̮̦̺E̞͓͕ͅ ͖̮̤W̕A̲̲͉͇̬̼̮I̹͎̘̜͔̜̼T̶I̤̱̱͓͉͕ͅN̲̝̠͔͍̰͈͡G̼̥̮.͉̣̘̺͔̥"

Immediately after that, Tiamat cut off her corrupted domain and expelled Siriel out of her mindscape.

Alone in the dark void, Siriel who was still in her true form laughed with mad abandon.

"SO IT WILL TURN OUT LIKE THIS. INDEED, NO WAY AN EVIL GODDESS WOULD TOLERATE SOME LOWLY CREATURE BECOMING A WORLD ENEMY."

Her mind was full at the moment as she was absorbing the negative energy the Raid Boss left behind. Its taste was extraordinary. She couldn't wait for the actual fight to taste the destruction energy.

Siriel returned her awareness back to her body with a super happy mood.

*BAM*

"Ack! Hey, don't startle me!"

"Are you listening? Answer my goddamn question!"

A man with a medium physique slammed the table in front of her. His irritation clearly showed on his boiling red face.

It looked like she was in an interrogation room or something. Siriel wasn't paying attention around her at all. There was some red blood on her body here and there. Not her blood obviously, hers was a glowing golden color.

Her hand was wrapped up in chains instead of the two handcuffs at the dock.

She lifted her arms up and slammed back at the table with her own irritation. The interrogator falled back with surprise, aiming his gun at her.

"Don't move!"

"You are starting to sound annoying."

"Then start cooperating! Just answer a few questions and you will return to your cell."

She could just smash the chains and leave but she would stay for now. This place was the police station or something. Last time she messed with the government, Tamako chewed her very thoroughly. Something about ruining her system or things like that.

Siriel liked to dote on her underlings. So she would go easy on the law as much as possible.

"Yeah, stay still. Just like that."

"..."

The hard-to-remember interrogator moved back to the chair opposite of Siriel. His gun was still in his hand and his vigilance never dropped.

"I will ask again. Who are you? And why are you in that ship?"

"Well then, the name is Siriel D. Eva and those ships are mine."

He scowled and tried to read her expression. While Siriel just looked straight into his eyes. She could feel his emotion drift toward her. There were fifteen people around her. Four at the door in front of her and ten in the room to her right. All fifteen people were normal humans. Evidence in that their thoughts were being transmitted to her as well. They just need to be as much of a magus as Shirou and their mind would be safe from her presence. She didn't activate her ability after all.

But anyway, among the fifteen people, there were only two that genuinely wanted to do good. Everyone else had hidden agendas. They were bribed by the pirates and gangs around here a lot.

The interrogator in front of her seemed to be out of the loop and only wanted to find out the truth. The other honest person was a guard at the door. The rest were trying to keep her in place and wait for the 'client'.

Looks like the pirate gang I killed bought me from their hands. They sure work fast.

"Hey, mister."

"..."

"Whose blood is this?"

"You're seriously asking that?"

"What's wrong with asking it?"

"The chief punched you in the face and he broke his hand, bleeding everywhere. That was my next question. How the hell did you injure him?"

"Eh, even if you ask me, I wouldn't know. I didn't do anything."

She must give this man some credits. He was fearless. Her passive intimidation from the Apex Predator wasn't turned off and he was still so aggressive. Perhaps it was just a rush of adrenaline but commendable nonetheless.

"Continue with the questions. All the corpses on those ships, are you the one who killed them?"

Now that was a tricky question. Siriel wouldn't lie but she would get involved in legal affairs again. Tamako wouldn't be too happy about it.

There was only one way left. She had to bail.

At that moment, her long ear picked up some minor noise outside.

"Hey man, I hear shooting. Are you going to be fine?"

Siriel tried to change the subject.

"Don't change the subject!"

She failed.

"Argh~ What does it matter to you anyway?"

"Answer the damn question!"

She just dragged out a bit more. She felt it, the noise was approaching. Her supernatural senses may not be the best but it was far better than human.

The interrogator was at his limit and decided to be rough with her but before he could stand up, his face had met with the ground.

Siriel turned over the table toward the door and made an impromptu cover. He was lying down on the ground with confusion then he yelped. His leg was grabbed and pulled behind the table.

"No! Stop, stop! What are…"

He stopped talking as the young girl in her swimsuit undo her restraint like tearing down noodles. He didn't have time to be shocked or scared as the door was blasted open with a bomb. He started to realize what was happening as the sound of gunshots and grenades echoed the station.

"What the fuck is this?"

He shouted with distress as Siriel laughed at her luck.

"You know, it looks like your superior sold me off to those pirates."

He looked at her with wide eyes and started to piece it together. He had been ordered to get the whole story of this incident no matter how long it took. No one seemed to help him advance this case. It was as if they were stalling for time. He was just the lid to make it official and legal while they were doing things under the table.

"Knock it off man. The station didn't have any resistance. They must have this arranged as an attack long ago. Heh, they are here."

The table was shot at by a rain of bullets by two masked men. It was deformed badly but still kept up as there were metal plates under it. The police had these as protection in exactly these kinds of situations but never had to use it. This city was quite volatile after all, preparation was needed.

"I guess you will be my partner this time, girlie. Don't try anything funny and let me handle this."

The man had regained his wit and tried to act professionally. There was no fault in that but his protectee was the problem here.

"No promise."

"Oi!"

Siriel broke off a chair's leg with one swift quack from her hand and took it. As soon as the sound of emptied magazines rang up, she immediately launched herself over the table and lodged the chair leg in the face of one of the men. She grabbed his gun and bashed the other guy with its buttstock.

"AK-47. Good enough."

She took a magazine off their corpses and reloaded her gun. Except for the corpses of the four guards, the hallways were empty but she heard some noise near the entrance. She rushed there without much thought and ignored the call of the guy she had been with. She didn't even get his name. She planned to get out of here and think later. It had become a mess already so she could have some liberty without any constraint.

Siriel had thought about tossing a grenade into the room next to her to kill those ten people but decided to just leave them. On a later day, if she saw them in a convenient location then she could give them some bullets then. Her girl could handle some mishaps, couldn't she?

Coming out of the police station, Siriel found a man in white and a fierce girl shooting at a truck full of AK guys. Those people were using the truck as cover and shooting as much as they could toward the two uniquely dressed gunners. There were a few dead policemen lying around the entrance too.

"Oh, hey Lazzaro! You are picking me up?"

"Siriel? Yeah, come over here."

They were staying behind some concrete barricades on the roadside. Siriel jumped back inside as some guys noticed her and they started shooting at her too.

The bullet storm seemed to be endless.

Those pirates really like to waste their ammo.

As these people were all normal people, Siriel wouldn't use her power on them tastelessly. And to her, playing mercenary was like a second nature already. So she planned a simple attack the human way.

The street was vacant. There was only one truck a hundred meters from the police station. A few big concrete barricades lining the sidewalk but they would not be enough to approach the enemies. The police station had two floors, she could try sniping but she didn't want to.

Looking at her arm she decided to do it the brutal way. To elevate the excitement from the challenge she had received recently.

Her body at peak human capacity generated roughly ten times the power of a normal human. Her punches weighed around five tons of force if she wasn't pushed back by her own power.

Gritting her left fist she punched the wall she was hiding behind in a wide arc and made it into a smokescreen. She rushed out in a zigzag pattern from the street to the wall and even jumped through the air. Her right hand holding the AK-47 shot relentlessly at their body and limbs. She wanted them to be alive when she got over there.

The driver on the truck started the engine and prepared to run but Siriel had arrived and jumped on the back.

Giving her normal chops would be too clean for the occasion so Siriel used her fist.

The first guy had his head exploded into a shower of gore, covering everyone in there. Screams weren't shouted out fast enough as the bloodbath started with her turning every person into mangled corpses in a few seconds. She punched through the driver seat and made the whole truck rollover, spilling everything on the street.

Siriel stepped out with a bit of delirium as the negative energy from the surrounding increased a note too sudden. She absorbed it as the nauseating scene was exposed to the public.

"Goddammit girl, come here quickly! We gotta bail!"

"Ah, coming right away!"

Siriel snapped out of it and ran back to Lazzaro immediately. Her arms and legs were drenched with blood but her face was full of smiles. She wanted to get away first and hunted the remaining pirates later.

They went to the alley and jumped on a random car on the other side of the block. When the car started running and all was well, Lazzaro heaved a sigh in relief.

"Dammit Siriel, why are you so brutal all the time?"

"Get used to it. By the way, who is this girl?"

There was a girl who had been presented from the beginning, she had fierce eyes and was a great gunner, dual wield at that.

"Ah, she huh. She is Revy. A local psycho. Somewhat like you."

"Fuck you dickhead! ["Hey, I am not bald."] You dragged me into this shit."

"Eh, did I?"

"You called me out and they started shooting at me right away! Want me to put a bullet in your skull, fucker?"

Siriel looked at the girl in awe. Revy was not really mad and her thought was complicated. Besides, Siriel liked her style.

"And you said I am like this crazy bitch here? Bullshit! She is a complete psycho!"

"Well said! I agree- HEY! Stop it Siriel! I am sorry, please take your hand off of my clothes!... Oh no, it's ruined. It's ruined!"

She cleaned her hands using his white clothes without hesitation. Revy just laughed at him with a sadistic smirk. He was very upset by this. There was nothing he could do to Siriel so he had to bear with it. He would find a way to annoy her later though.

Siriel looked toward Revy. Her red eyes glinted at the girl with a hint of enjoyment. She was rude, brash, and fearless. Like to keep to herself too. Some would say that was a detriment but to Siriel, those traits were just right. Plus the girl looked good.

"Hey, Siriel."

"What?"

"What is your plan?"

Lazzaro asked her with seriousness in his voice.

"What plan? I don't have any."

"I am serious. We will leave tomorrow. Maybe in the evening."

"Oh, you are done with your bodyguards?"

"I am going to hire this girl's company. She is good right?"

"Great!"

Lazzaro had a very good impression of Revy's ability. He was very satisfied with her.

"No way in hell. I am not working for you."

"It is a retrieval mission and I bet your boss would accept it."

"Tsk."

The responses were a little lackluster so he checked on the two girls in the back seat through the mirror. Siriel was unusually quiet and contented. Revy was looking out of the car emotionlessly and was sitting as far away from Siriel as possible.

Ah right. Sitting next to Siriel is affecting her. She must be faking that calmness. I understand it! I understand it very well, comrade!

.

.

### Fuyuki City ###

.

.

A young man was running on the rooftop of buildings swiftly without making any sound. His figure blurred over the night sky as he was jumping across the city like chasing something.

This was Lancer on his normal routine searching for the Servants. He had not expected to meet anything extraordinary on his patrol. The feeling of being watched was occasionally raised in his mind. But no incident had happened thus far. He deduced that it was probably Caster or Assassin that was watching him.

Not much of a concern to him as his vigilance was always high when on patrol. Lancer was waiting for a battle. Preferably with Saber or that irritable Archer. Thinking of him made Lancer frown. Archer just got on his nerves every time they met. He wanted to fight Saber as a warrior, but Archer? He just wanted to bash that bastard's face in.

The order from his Master was finding and gauging all the participants. Except for Assassin and Rider, Lancer had already met all the Servants and their Masters. Three of the Masters had cooperated while the other three were unknown.

Lancer was thinking about how to find Rider when he passed by the harbor. It was dark with few light poles in between. There wasn't supposed to be any activity there but he saw a bunch of people getting on board a small ship.

So these guys are from the Mage Association huh… Looks like they aren't staying any longer. That priest should have let me know about these things too. I still don't know why it was the magi and not the people of the Church handling this problem. Isn't Kirei on the Church side?

He stood on a nearby building and watched them leave quietly in the night. He was wondering why they didn't leave normally in the day. It wasn't like they were wanted criminals or something.

Magi and their secrecy hobby.

Lancer squatted down with his red spear resting horizontally on his shoulders. He had nothing important to do so he just kept watching them.

With everyone gone, he also resumed his run. The magi quickly faded in his mind.

His target was the school that lucky brat 'died' at. Last time Rider was supposed to be there but his Master wanted him to intercept Archer. For some sick amusement of his.

Lancer was fine with that. If not for the arrival of Saber and Caster, he would have been able to kill Archer for sure.

And that bastard dared to shoot after me!

Of course, the projectiles didn't hit Lancer. He possessed Protection from arrows. It was a part of his legend. As long as he saw the opponent, anything that was flung at him would be useless. It wasn't to say that he would be hit if he couldn't see the opponent.

The talent was inborn. Lancer could trace long-range attacks and defend against them with ease. Even Noble Phantasms, no matter how powerful, were not a problem to him as long as they were the throwing type. He could walk freely in a hailstorm without a scratch so mere arrows were practically useless in his eyes.

But the arrows of Archer didn't aim for him. They exploded near his bottom and burnt quite a patch there.

Veins popped upon his head as the memories resurfaced.

Bastard...

Lancer reached the school in no time at all. The place looked like it was haunted. Even if it was so, he wouldn't care in the slightest. The ghosts should be worried about meeting him instead.

He had the idea to comb this place for Rider's traces. Not likely but he didn't have anything else to go by.

Walking through the hallways and classrooms, Lancer saw signs of fighting although it was faint. The school had probably cleaned and fixed the damage while the students were away.

He wasn't a good Ranger but he could still do decent investigation on his own. The most damaging things around were some pillars and walls in the hallway. By the locations of those marks, there could only be caused by short-range weapons, like a sword for example.

This looks like a fight between physical force. And both Archer and Saber were with me at that time too. Did Rider fight with another Servant?

He continued to follow the ghost-fight with his eyes and slowly stepped into the wood next to the school.

Lancer could see the counter-attack of the sword-user with every step he took. The missing link with the environment and the marks on it wasn't hard to reconstruct.

He was seeing a pattern there. The cuts on the trees were brutal but clean. And the way the cuts were imprinted reminded him of the brat.

It can't be him, can it? I don't recall his swordsmanship to be on this level. Admitted that last time he was using a wooden sword and was injured. But what the hell, he was supposed to be a magus!

Lancer was squatting on the ground near a tree. He was staring at the old bloodstain with the scarred ground around it.

In Lancer's mind, the unknown Rider couldn't possibly fight Berserker. That freak would destroy the whole school, not scratching some trees. Caster was out of the question as well. Although he hadn't seen her fight yet, he was certain that it wouldn't be like this.

Assassin, he had no idea. But the fact that that girl and the brat were still alive meant that Assassin had no hand in this mess. Or just observing the whole thing.

So Lancer gradually came to the only conclusion. Rider fought with the two young magi and was pushed back. Unbelievable as it was, he had to accept that the brat was strong enough to hold his ground with a Servant. The edge of his mouth raised a bit as he stood up and looked at the trees around.

Not bad, kid. Now, I just have to follow the track that Rider took out of here…

["Lancer."]

"..."

["Lancer?"]

"Yah, yah I heard you."

The voice of his Master Kirei Kotomine rang in his head. The good mood he just had was destroyed so easily. He suppressed the displeasure in him quickly as he took an unnecessarily long breath.

"What do you want now?"

["I just want to tell you to stop playing around and go to the Matou mansion already."]

"Huh? What? What do you mean?"

Lancer was seriously confused. He was doing his job perfectly fine after all. Why would his Master say it like he was loitering for fun?

["Fufufu… Nothing much you know? I just want you to observe the Master of Rider is all. One of the Matou is the Master you see."]

Damn priest!

He was seething inside by each word his Master said. Just thinking for a second was enough to tell what this all meant. The damn priest knew all along who was the Masters in this Grail War but didn't even want to tell him.

And why was he telling Lancer now of all time? Obviously, because Lancer happened to just pick up a clue that would likely lead him to the target. And what would be more joyous for his Master who saw things through his eyes to make Lancer suffer and frustrated with wasted effort?

But this behavior seemed to be passing the line with his Master's 'normal' conduct.

Something must have happened to make him more irritating than usual.

Logically, it would be a bad thing for others if it made the psychopath 'happy'. Lancer didn't care anymore and just went with the order. Thinking about it would cause more frustration for him.

On the bright side, tonight he could fight. With a self-lifting mood, he ran swiftly on the rooftop toward the targeted location.

.

.

The Matou mansion was not too big for a high-class family but still a prominent residence around the neighborhood. The size of the house wasn't the most important thing about showing your worth as a magus.

From an outsider's point of view, the people here were rich folks that were always mysterious. No one really knew anything about them and no one seemed to bother with it either. The air around the mansion was too scary and intimidating for normal civilians. Eccentric rich people were better left alone.

At this hour of the day, the mansion would usually still have the light on. But recently, the whole place seemed to be shrouded in darkness. Nothing so grave, the mansion just lacked light during the night for a few days now was all.

In that kind of mansion, the only resident currently presented was a girl with purple hair, Sakura Matou. She sat quietly in her room without any light. Depressing was the least one could describe her.

It had been two days since her grandfather left the house. He hadn't come back once. Her brother too had gone somewhere with a scary look on his face.

She felt lonely and helpless. Her mind was occupied with worry. What if something had happened to her grandfather? What was her brother doing? What was she going to do alone in this place?

To be honest, she didn't care less about them. But they were the only family members she had…

Her thoughts drifted off to a black haired girl with twin tails around her age but quickly dismissed it. Replacing it was another girl with hair glittered like platinum with a tint of gold. And a boy with a bright smile in his work-out clothes.

Their silhouettes brought a pang of happiness to her eyes.

She lied down on her bed while hugging her knees. How she wished she was with them at the moment.

"... Sakura."

A gentle voice called out her name. It was so clear and beautiful that people would feel joy just from hearing a few words. Appearing in the shadowed corner of the room was a long purple hair woman in a short black skirt. She wore a big eyes-cover on her face but it didn't dampen her beauty in the slightest.

She moved over to Sakura and sat next to her on the bed without saying anything. The young woman just silently patted the depressed girl gently.

"Thank you, Rider."

Sakura closed her eyes with appreciation. Her hands held tightly onto Rider's. With everything happening in her life, the care of another person toward her was a rare thing. Rider acted as another of her sisters out of kindness warmed her heart.

She had given up on her fate. Her treatment at the Matou house wasn't the best. It was some unspeakable memories to her. This house was a prison that she could not escape. There was only darkness in her eyes. Her heart closed up with a wall of madness.

But things changed. She met Shirou and his sister. Sakura harbored a desire. The desire to stay by Shirou's side. A desire to have him only for herself. She wanted recognition from him. Her heart started to be filled with thoughts about him.

The reality was not kind. She was unable to express herself. She was scared of tainting his bright smile with her impurity. Just the thought of forgetting about him brought tears to her eyes and devastated her inside. Sakura was in a spiral of self-hate with no way of escaping.

Staying by the side was Rider who watched on as the girl started to breathe evenly under her hand. Knowing the circumstance of her Master just by the first day of her summon, Rider was having a complex feeling toward this household.

She wanted to keep Sakura happy. The Holy Grail wasn't important to her. This messed up deathmatch could go to hell for all she cared. The darkness inside of her Master was outside of her ability to help. But she could now stay nearby to prevent further hurtful things.

Watching the sleeping Sakura, Rider started to remember the boy she met at school.

His name is Shirou. Looks like we will see him again soon.

After having gotten back to Sakura, Rider tried her best to stay hidden and improve her Master's life. Knowing about the girl's love was a side discovery. Rider didn't intend to bring Sakura and the boy together though. She wouldn't interfere that deep into her Mater's life.

It's going to be tough from now on.

Emerging from her mind was the image of two purple hair girls like herself. They had a small frame like that of a child. The distance between Rider and them became further and further away.

Rider's motion completely stopped as her emotionless face hardened. She moved away from Sakura slowly while keeping an eye on the pitiful girl.

I'd better not think about this anymore.

As her feelings settled down. Another problem just popped up.

Servant.

As a Servant, Rider could sense the presence of other Servants when they were nearby. The range of detection was different depending on the Master's power and the Servant's innate capability.

The enemy she detected was fast approaching. She was hesitating on running or fighting.

On one hand, her Master was very vulnerable in this situation. Sakura was lacking the will and drive to fight in this war. She was not the aggressive type and quite the opposite of that. So the natural option here was to run.

But on another hand, the enemy was too straightforward in attacking this place. It could only be that the other Master was prepared and most likely laid traps for them already. This place was the house of Zouken Matou. They wouldn't just attack recklessly on the territory of a monster like that, would they?

In the end, Rider decided to fight back the Servant but ran on the slightest chance if it became dangerous for her Master. She woke Sakura up quickly and conveyed the situation the best she could.

"Rider?"

"Enemy attacks. We need to leave."

A supernatural cracking sound echoed the mansion. The bound field protecting the place was breached.

"They are here! Get ready Master."

Sakura's eyes widened, still trying to cope with the sudden turn of events. She wasn't used to this. She never wanted to get used to this. But trying to not be a burden for her Servant, she stood up and shakingly followed after Rider.

They both moved swiftly down the stairs to leave the place. The windows and walls were warded off with a few more layers of magecrafts. They couldn't just jump out of it less becoming the targets themselves. On the bright side, the enemy also needed to pass the protections to get in. And as Rider sensed it, they were on the rooftop.

Sneaking around was useless when they were this close to a Servant.

"Be careful of traps, I will deal with the enemy. Find a safe place and hide, then run out of here as soon as you get the chance."

"I understand."

Sakura was scared. She was distressed. Didn't know what to do. But she would try her best, she didn't want to die there. She was in the war unwillingly, but her deepest desire which made her a Master was real. The smidgen of courage her sister gave her couldn't go to waste.

This is the change I wanted. I must bear through this.

Rider felt that Sakura was acting better than expected and decided to go meet the Servant to stall for time.

Moving like a phantom went up to the roof and preemptively attacked the man without hesitation. Sparks flew as she was swatted aside with a long pole with enough force to hurl her far away. Rider anchored herself back on the roof and used her chains to attack the man from his back.

He jumped toward her with incredible speed but she was long gone from that place. Two spikes flew from both of his sides straight to his head but they missed unnaturally without him doing anything. He turned around and made a spinning motion with his weapon sweeping out the distance between them again.

Rider jumped back while throwing her spikes at her previous spot. This time she swung her chains around turning it into two dangerous whips.

The man finally relented and backed away from the whirlwind of death.

"That was some amazing moves you got there. So, you are Rider huh?"

"..."

"The silent type is cool too. I am Lancer as you can see… Can't see…"

She adjusted her stance holding her two spikes tighter.

"At least say something. Or are you mute too?"

"..."

"Tsk, why are all the women in this holy war so hard to talk to?"

Lancer sighed and scratched his head while complaining about her. Rider didn't register his rambling. But after exchanging blows she knew that he was a very formidable warrior. His spearmanship was extremely dangerous.

"So then, is that girl your Master?"

Sakura was hiding near the gate looking up at Rider with worry.

She tensed up immediately, even prepared to unleash her Noble Phantasm on the spot. If it wasn't able to defeat him, she could use it to escape with her Master for the moment.

"You are very fast. So how about this-"

He disappeared and Rider's figure also followed. In a blink of an eye, Lancer's spear stabbed through the empty ground as a bundle of chains pulled it down toward that direction.

Next to his spear was Sakura who sat on the ground trembling helplessly. Without a word, Rider used her all with Monstrous Strength and threw Lancer along with his spear through the mansion destroying a large part of it in the process. He crashed into the enchanted wall of the inner structure causing him some minor damage.

"*Cough* *Cough* That was one hell of a flight."

He stood up but his opponent had disappeared from his senses. It looked like Rider had taken her Master and went away.

Lancer was very fast but Rider had triumphed him in speed. There was no way he could chase her down if she put her mind to running away.

He planned to force Rider to use her Noble Phantasm but it had failed spectacularly. Her sudden burst of strength was not planned for and it got him good.

Looking around the mansion gave him the creep so he left the place quickly and reported things to Kirei.

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.

Rider was hugging Sakura tightly while moving beyond the speed of sound on the rooftops. After making sure that Lancer wasn't following, she slowed down to a more bearable speed for her Master.

"Sakura, how are you?"

"I'm fine, Rider. I can take it."

"Do you have anywhere in mind that we can use?"

"..."

Rider felt that the silence had a different meaning than not knowing. And she understood her Master's desire too.

"How about contacting him first?"

Rider could imagine her Master's eyes widened as her body was tensing up in her arms.

"Sakura…"

"..."

"Just try to talk to him about your situation. We will move from there."

Rider didn't want to jump into the relationship of her Master but the circumstance called for it. So she would go with it and make Sakura as happy as possible.

She had resolved to follow through with her decision…

Even if it meant she had to forfeit her life to it.

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End of chapter.

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Sorry for the irregular updates.