Chapter 178
When Kuzuki stopped in his tracks, Shirou followed suit, ceasing his footsteps as the man stared at the trees in front of them.
As Shirou stood behind him, he heard a slight buzzing noise near him. Tilting his side to the side, a revolting insect with rotating wings and a wicked sharp stinger at the bottom left the bushes and flew towards him, moving at an alarmingly fast pace.
"Wha-"
Already, the traced shinai in his hands moved to smack the bug, but Kuzuki was several steps ahead. A blur flitted in front of Shirou's eyes, causing him to subconsciously jerk back, and before he knew it the insect was splattered against the side of a tree, the wings torn off from the force of impact as it's barbed legs twitched weakly in its death throes. Pale straw blood stained the brittle bark, and after a moment the crushed thorax fell off.
"Hoho, quite the fist you have there."
From the front, an aged voice drifted towards them, and then the owner of the voice showed himself. A hum of hundreds of wings, the leaves rustling, the branches shaking, as his body arrived. Beneath their feet, they could feel the earth shifting as fallen twigs and dried leaves crunched beneath the feet of many shadows crawling across the ground, heading towards the same spot.
"However, it would take some time to clean up insects with only two fists. They usually come in swarms, after all."
Their opponent of the night revealed his face as he stepped into the gap between the trees that allowed moonlight to fall through, the stooped shadow changing into an elderly man with his hands folded behind his back, dressed in traditional attire complete with wooden geta and hakama hanging loosely off his small frame, with a black robe circling his shoulders and waist.
"Matou-san?"
Shirou's surprise leaked as he recognized the wrinkled, pale face in front of them. He had only seen him once or twice, but the patriarch of the Matou family's appearance was quite unforgettable, and after the events of the day before, he easily remembered his identity in an instant. The beady black eyes narrowed slightly as his toothless mouth split into a humorless grin.
"Ah, Emiya-kun. I would say it's a pleasure to meet you again on this fine night, but it's a shame that we have to meet under such circumstances. Otherwise, I would like to have some tea with you, to get to know the close friend of my granddaughter better."
Shirou gripped the wooden shinai tighter at the mention of Sakura, but he restrained himself and asked.
"What are you doing here Matou-san?"
He had thought the Matou's were unrelated with this War, since both Shinji and Sakura didn't possess a lick of potential as magi, nor did they show any signs of being one. Caster had also assumed as much, but it appeared that they had left out one person. The grandfather looked as active as ever, and judging by his manner of appearance, he wasn't just coming for a friendly chat. What was he trying to do?
"It's nothing much, there's simply something here that I need."
This time Kuzuki spoke up.
"Your warning about the battle in Miyama district was appreciated, but your timing now isn't mere coincidence, is it."
"Timing? What are you talking about, hm?"
Feigning ignorance, the old man took a step forward, and Kuzuki lifted his hands into the air, with Shirou raising his shinai behind him.
"Now there, there's no need to show such disrespect to your elders. Put down your weapons, and we can talk over tea at the temple."
Silence hung in the air, a pregnant pause with tension thick enough to cut through as Zouken stared at Kuzuki's calm eyes, Shirou watching the two of them while resisting the urge to cough or gulp as the salive pooled in throat, his mouth turning dryer by the second.
Then the scenery turned into a blur, Shirou feeling something like an iron bar against his stomach pushing him backwards, and when he looked down it as Kuzuki's arm pinning as they hurtled through the forest faster than humanly possible, his teacher's legs picking a path through the trees as they distance themselves from Zouken.
"Kuzuki, why-"
"We're surrounded, fall back."
No sooner had Kuzuki answered Shirou when the boy saw the clouds of pursuers far behind them, a multitude of creatures that buzzed and whirred, while the ground seemed to turn into a black river as numerous glistening bodies covered the forest floor, soaking the dirt in slime as they traversed the uneven terrain at a frightening pace towards the two fleeing Masters.
Kuzuki released his hold on Shirou to let him run by himself, and together they started to race back up the side of the mountain to the temple. They were in disadvantageous terrain outside of the spiritual border that protected Mt. Ryuudou, so it would be prudent to return there. In addition, they didn't have any method to exterminate the insect familiars, since Zouken was correct. There were only so many insects he could kill with his hands, and it was a vastly inefficient method that would possibly take hours to defeat all of Zouken's familiars, not to mention they had no idea how to kill Zouken himself, since his body seemed to be primarily composed of insects. Their compatibility in skills was simply too unfavourable.
Though they did have an invisible wall wrapped around their skin offering them temporary invulnerability, it was too risky to try and stick around to fight Zouken while Caster and Saber were fighting Avenger, which drained their energy and made it highly likely that the invulnerability would disappear without warning mid-battle, ending with them being overwhelmed and torn to pieces by the insects. For now, it was better to beat a hasty retreat.
That didn't mean the enchantments weren't useful though. With superhuman speed, the two of them were able to outrun the land-bound insects, while the few flying ones that were able to catch up to them failed to penetrate the invisible barrier, the stingers crumpling against what felt like solid titanium as they fell back in pain from the broken stingers.
Still, they as humans had their limit, and running down had taken some effort already, so Shirou was starting to feel his legs start to burn, his heart beating at an ever-increasing rate, and the familiars chasing after him did nothing to calm him down. At least with Kuzuki running in front of him, he had something to focus on, and he put more strength into his foot, doing his best to avoid the sprawling roots stretched across the ground as he half-jumped, half-ran across the rugged forest grounds.
The moment they passed through the great barrier erected around the mountain, a cool chill washed over their skin even though they were wearing clothes, like being doused in cold water naked. The effect wasn't very noticeable near the entrance of the temple, but elsewhere anyone with the slightest potential to be a magus could easily tell where the barrier was by passing through it. It was primarily in place to keep out spiritual entities, or so they were told, so humans and magi could pass through without problem. Still, the two of them didn't slow down their pace as they rushed through, only slowing to a walk when the temple buildings came into sight.
"Was it alright to escape like that?"
Shirou looked back at the forest behind them, the shadows seeming much more threatening now, with the shifting black patterns of the leaves looking almost alive after what he had just seen.
"Something like that would most likely be blocked by the barrier. It is no longer human after all."
His intuition was always sharp, and he was right on the money this time as well. Or perhaps it was simply the ability to recognize inhuman beings after being one himself in the past, an empty body with nothing inside. Whichever the case, he knew there was no way Zouken could get past it right now. Instead, they were better off going to assist Saber and Caster, though it seemed counter-intuitive, but they would actually be of more use against Avenger and any other Servants than against Matou Zouken.
"Let's go help Saber and Caster then."
Before Kuzuki had even voiced his thoughts, Shirou was already moving, breaking out into a run once more even though he had just ran up and down a decently sized mountain, the upwards ascent with an extra source of motivation to make it more exhausting as well.
Kuzuki stared for a moment as Shirou raced to the front of the temple, then he moved as well, quickly catching up to him in a few steps.
High-pitched whine split the air, and Shirou jumped on reflex, throwing himself at the ground with enough strength that he felt the air escape his lungs as his chest hit the dirt. And not a moment too soon, as a beam of yellow light struck the ground where he was standing, melting a hole with smooth edges from the intense heat.
Kuzuki dodged more gracefully, pivoting on one foot and then swiveling on to the other as a continuous flurry of laser beams aimed fell from the skies, all of them splashing harmlessly into the soil. Meanwhile, Shirou scrambled to his feet and ran from left to right in a zig-zag pattern, haphazardly grazing past the projectiles as he raced for the perceived safety of the temple buildings where it would be harder to hit him line of sight. His clothes became burnt and singed as they shot past, but Caster's barrier protected him from the worst of it, allowing him to survive with his body intact as Kuzuki pulled him into the doorway of the dojo, shutting the wooden door once he was in.
Far above, Assassin stared down in disappointment as she ceased the cannonfire, looking down at the temple from far above.
They're pretty quick on their feet, guess they aren't that bad as Masters.
Sensing the disturbance at an instinctual level, she had left her Master's side and ventured out by herself to investigate, her senses tingling as she felt waves of conflict in the Saber Force.
Initially she had been expecting to simply wipe out two Servants out of the War in one fell swoop to save her Master a lot of trouble, but it seemed like she was unable to remove them from the equation. She was called Assassin, but she couldn't even assassinate the weakest Master's out of the seven that she'd seen so far. Shifting gears, she just decided to blame it on her current condition. She was still recovering after all, so it made sense that she couldn't bring to bear her full strength. Still, from her point of view it looked like some of them had actually hit them, but they hadn't slowed down at all. Was there something else at play here? Looking at the building they had escaped into, she briefly debated whether she should just shoot up the entire building, then decided against it. It would be troublesome if she had to clean up later, and though she personally didn't really care if bystanders got caught, it would be difficult to explain to her Master how she massacred an entire temple of monks in one night. Or that was what she told herself.
Shifting her gaze from the temple mess hall, she looked at the courtyard where the fights were still raging. Flashes of brilliant light up the entire place, glowing to the heavens intermittently like a lighthouse beacon, with bits of colorful orbs, blurry green streaks that leapt around the place and magical golden bullets flying everywhere, with the occasional large scale explosion of flames, holy light and other flashy, destructive energies. In the midst of it all, a dark figure spun through the throes of a hell of spells, shrugging of that which could be endured, getting the hell out the way when she couldn't, and still somehow getting close enough to Caster to attack even when said target was teleporting like a whack-a-mole mole in all the confusion.
For a second, Assassin couldn't help but shake her head in admiration at Avenger's pure ability and skill, combined with finely honed instincts and reflexes that staved off most of the damage and allowed her to track down Caster when by all rights she should have been backed into a corner from the sheer amount of firepower directed at her. The temple grounds were almost untouched, but the portals that absorbed all the projectiles were redirecting them at Avenger, with none of them disappearing as the volume of occupied space just kept on increasing as time went on, making it increasingly difficult. Yet Avenger made it look easy, making movements so fast and agile they were almost undetectable to Assassin's eyes, several times in the span of a single breath. She didn't escape unscathed, but the injuries were small enough to prove as no more than a scratch.
She was in fact, wearing down Caster despite the girl seemingly having the upper hand, and the magus was sweating bullets underneath her cap, slowly being backed into a corner even while attacking ferociously with as much power as she could. She certainly had strong enough catalysts, and thus spells, that could decimate Avenger, but she just could not land a single one of them on Avenger, and what little that did hit only seemed to tickle the Servant. At most, they served as distractions while Caster escaped through a portal, and this game of running and playing catch was quickly eating away at Caster's stamina, the energies she was channeling through herself from the leylines chewing away at her limits. She had actually been hit thrice already, but her invulnerability had saved her from being turned into paste, while the portals caught her from leaving the temple's immediate area as Avenger sought to bodily bat her away from the ground and into the sky, using physical distance as a way to sever her connection.
Assassin was about to stretch a helping hand to Caster when she spotted the other two Servants in combat, just right outside the temple doors.
Huh…
Saber and..Ruler? Wasn't she the one who had attacked their hideout before?
The blue rimmed portals hovering in the air tilted simultaneously on her command, and the stairs were blanketed with a rain of laser fire. Set on the lowest setting of course, and all tightly grouped to prevent a forest fire happening.
For Saber, it was like divine retribution from the heavens. One second she was struggling towards Ruler, the decaying Servant lurching backwards as Saber felt like she was pushing upwards through the Niagara Falls to reach her, the next brilliant blue beams of pulsing light blocked Ruler from sight, falling all around her as ozone filled the air. Instantly, Saber felt like a massive burden had been lifted off her shoulders, and she could move freely once more. Searching for the source of the sudden assistance, she found Assassin in the sky waving cheerfully at her, the ahoge above the baseball cap waving in tandem.
She had been expecting Caster, but any assistance was welcome. Still, would she turn out to be friend or foe? Steeling herself for a confrontation, she was about to yell up at the Servant when an explosion in the courtyard caught her attention. Turning her neck, she saw the light show of spells that was going, and the presence of Avenger wildly moving about while Caster blinked in and out of existence. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed Assassin descending closer to the carnage, though she had yet to directly act. Deciding to put Assassin aside, she placed Caster as her first priority, leaping straight up in one bound to reach the courtyard, with no more Command Seals inhibiting her.
Avenger's head snapped up just in time to see the shining golden blade descending on her face, and then a blast from Marmyadose engulfed her right side, Caster seizing the opportunity for a pincer attack in concert with Saber.
Letting a small grin creep on her mouth, Caster continued to focus a barrage of heavy duty spells as two beams of light poured forth from Galatine on the left and Marmyadose on the right, with Saber backing off after having forced Avenger to block and slowing her down enough for Caster to finally hit her with everything she had. After juking and jinking for so long while being unable to land a single meaningful hit, Caster couldn't deny that it felt good to finally get Avenger.
She didn't even realize it when a thin hole appeared on her left thigh, a clean circle through which one could see the white wall behind her encircling the temple.
Saber however, was in the right place to see a thin golden stream of light escape from the conflagration from the two sword catalysts aimed at Avenger, and before she could even register Caster was being attacked, the damage was already done.
Collapsing to one knee, she felt her muscles turn to jelly as she tried to summon the strength to stand up, but failed to do so. Unable to so much as stand up, she still maintained the waves of destructive energy overflowing from her spells, but in the moment that she was injured, her concentration wavered, weakening the spell and lowering the output of flames and ether. Leaning on her staff with both hands clinging onto it as she tried to channel mana, she watched as Avenger leapt out of the opposing beams, not unscathed, but still very much alive, and then dashed to Galatine first, grabbing it before almost teleporting to the other side next to Marmyadose, and doing the same to that sword.
The next thing Saber knew, she was under assault by a steaming, still on flames Avenger with each hand filled with a legendary sword on par with a decent Noble Phantasm, one radiating heat intense enough to melt through a vault door, the other covered in a sheath of glimmering golden light that promised an even surer death than the flames of Galatine.
With no other course of action, her instincts were triggered and brought Excalibur up horizontally, blocking both blades as Avenger swung both arms down like a gorilla hammering the ground. She vaguely felt her feet sink into the ground as her arms trembled, her teeth chattering with effort as she felt her muscles burn with the strain of colliding against Avenger's prodigious strength, in no way diminished even after her extended fight with Caster and getting burnt by Galatine and Marmyadose. Even with patches of swelling red flesh and charred black armor, she was still going strong.
In addition, she could tell that the invulnerability protection from Around Avalon was fading already, given that Caster had already been hit by whatever Avenger had used to attack, and the same was probably true for Saber as well. If she took a solid blow from Avenger, it would be over for her in a flash. Letting a small growl in her throat, she pushed back against Avenger, the enchantments strengthening her yet to fade away though her invulnerability was gone.
The moment she did so however, she felt no give against her push, and a flicker of her eyes to Avenger told her why. The hilts of the swords were left bare, no longer clutched by Avenger as they spun into the sky from Saber's push, rotating in perfect circles as they caught the moonlight and shimmered into golden dust, breaking apart into nothingness.
But Saber didn't get the chance to see them disappear as she felt her sword violently wrenched out of her grasp in a second, her fingers pried apart with a vicious strength as she felt her fingers almost pop out of their sockets, even with the gauntlets she was wearing, and then her hands were empty. The momentum of ripping Excalibur also pulled her forward, and her eyes were filled with the sight of a scorched, bleeding fist that was rapidly growing in size.
A moment later, the entire world turned black, her body weightless as it flew out the temple gate, clearing the first three flights of stairs until gravity finally took hold long enough for her to land on the landing after the third flight of stairs, her body bouncing up and down like a rubber ball as she tumbled and rolled down the rest before finally sprawling to a stop near the last two steps right next to the tori gate at the foot of the mountain. Blood leaked profusely from her mangled face, the once captivating visage that had enraptured Shirou when he first summoned her now bruised beyond belief, her nose all but shattered from that heavy punch that had practically blown the lights out of her head to the four corners of the earth. All she could manage was a weak moan as she laid there slumped on the ground, her body struggling to rise to consciousness as her mind remained concussed.
Avenger though was prevented from giving chase to either Caster or Saber and ending their existences as a hail of shots from Assassin's cannons slipped through the portals and rained down on the Servant, prompting the Servant to refocus on the new threat as she danced around the imprecise, but powerful cannonfire that was remodeling the now cratered and ruined temple courtyard.
This isn't good…
Assassin chewed the insides of her mouth anxiously as she tried to tag Avenger with at least a close scrape, her eyes roaming from Caster, kneeling on the ground and panting, then to the distant figure of Saber, all the way down at the foot of the stairs crumpled and bloody. She had originally planned on eliminating them, but with the aberrant enemy in the form of Avenger and an enslaved Ruler appearing as the opponents, she had no choice but to designate them as higher-priority targets and work together with Caster and Saber. The balance of the Holy Grail War was one thing, but there was also the fact that Ruler had attacked them, and Avenger was also supposed to be her captive, which had been robbed from her by Lancer, or so she was told. Thus, she decided to suspend hostilities with the Servants based in Ryuudou Temple and engage the irregulars of the War with them. She hoped the Master's stayed holed up wherever they were as well, to stay safe.
Yet they had been easily defeated in the blink of an eye, a turnaround that to be honest, she had kind of expected given Avenger's capabilities, but she had never thought it would be so severe or sudden, with both Caster and Saber out of commission, leaving only her as the final opponent. Still, she had no plans to die tonight.
"Let's see how much heat you can take."
Thumbing the silver controller in her hands, she swiped across the touchscreen and pressed a few buttons.
"Variant fire authorized. Full automatic mode engaged."
A flat, mechanized voice issued from the speaker hidden behind the controller, and a whir seemed to sound from the portals as the cannonfire eased completely, the courtyard going silent as Avenger stared up at Assassin. Caster had taken the distraction from Assassin earlier to teleport away through the shadows, transporting Saber's broken body with Carnwennan as well and relocating to a safer destination where they could stay out of the line of fire. From there, Caster kept tabs on the situation through small pools of shadows centered around Carnwennan, the shadow daggers acting as cameras that showed her what was happening from various angles.
Avenger, either getting impatient or simply unafraid of the cannons, directly jumped straight up at Assassin, with both Excalibur and Clarent in her hands. While the swords stolen from Caster had been recalled by their Master, Saber had yet to do the same, and so Avenger was able to utilize it as a weapon. A blast of wind scattered rubble in the courtyard as Avenger took one great leap that sent her rocketing on a collision course towards Assassin, a clear intent of hostility etched on the visible half of her face, the melted helmet exposing enough to see one side of her scowl and a slitted right eye glaring intensely at Assassin.
She had barely gotten halfway though, when a multitude of shots converged on her through the portals that housed Assassin's cannons. In the blink of an eye, the special rounds that Assassin had installed during her time upgrading the Dun Stallion came into use, a variety of shots that basically covered everything from organic material to plasma blasts.
A ferromagnetic slug sent through several hissing, spitting coils of magnets went shrieking through the air like a banshee, becoming the first projectile to reach Avenger. With a whirl, the Servant parried the piece of metal that was travelling faster than the speed of sound, but just making it scrape past her was enough to slow her down. The winds that accompanied the projectile fiercely tugged on her body, greatly lessening her momentum, and the supersonic bullet itself smashed into the temple courtyard with a resounding bang that shook the tiles, boring deeply into the earth and into the foundation of the temple before coming to a stop.
A dizzying array of bullets arrived, pelting Avenger with every conceivable harmful substance. A vibrating ring of pure air struck the Servant, narrowly missing her right leg as the twisted to dodge the sonic orb, then she folded her body inwards as several green balls of plasma passed overhead, slowly moving relative to the other bullets. Hearing the flesh on her arm hiss, she flicked her hand, sending a stream of boiling red liquid to the side that splashed into the ground and ate away at the tiles, creating a shallow pool of steaming acid. Several brown, puffy balls speckled with uneven holes exploded in a cloud of brown spores in front of her, prompting to activate Excalibur and slash with a fountain of pure energy that created a large enough hole for her to pass through unharmed, then she leaned to the left and narrowly avoided a stun net from the right, the opaque web crackling with high voltages and adorned with hooks coated in drugs powerful enough to knock out a herd of elephants.
Then several beams of solid light coursed through the air, half of them curving while the other half remained straight, and this time Avenger released a blast of golden light from Excalibur while crimson energy was expelled from Clarent like a jet, similar to what Assassin had done before to fly while she was alive in her own galaxy. Heading straight for the beams, they blocked the rest of the projectiles as she dove between them, using them as cover while simultaneously avoiding being fried by a hair in the middle of the deadly light show. A few seconds of playing hide-and-seek in the pillars ensued, before she rushed out ahead of a cloud of metal flechettes, barrel-rolling over a several bolts of electricity and then diving under a transparent ray of violet that seemed to harmlessly shine on the ground.
Assassin rose higher in the air as Avenger gave chase, releasing more and more projectiles from the eight portals that were churning out death faster than an Olympic sprinter on steroids running on ice.
Spears, harpoons, arrows, swords, bullets, spheres and a whole host of physical bullets were deflected, parried, dodged or used as leverage to move three-dimensionally as Avenger flawlessly traveled a path through the downpour of ammunition without getting hit once. She did get the occasional close call or scrape, but considering the frequency and density of the cannonfire, she was doing amazingly well.
As she got closer, the projectiles became harder to avoid as well. It wasn't clear whether it was because Assassin was controlling them manually, or if there was some program or AI on the Dun Stallion that dictated the patterns and ammunition types, but whatever the case, the cannons were becoming harder and harder to escape unscathed.
Red and orange filled the sky as flaming streams of liquid cut large swathes of fire in the skies, crisscrossing and cutting off paths of escape for Avenger as they interposed themselves between her and her quarry. A flock of birds, yes, a flock of actual living birds soared forth from the portal and swarmed Avenger, with only her spamming energy blasts from the two swords and spinning like a top to constantly cut allowing her to decimate the suicidal beasts until they were little more but minced meat and feathers, while she remained mostly unharmed on the whole, though one of them had managed to get close enough to start chewing and tearing at her body, until she had ripped if free of her body, it's talons taking a good chunk of flesh from her hip before she smashed it's head in on her sword.
As she was doing so, she was already maneuvering to slide out of the way of rapidly expanding network of chains that seemed to blanket the sky above her, sporting barbed hooks and spikes that looked more suited to a medieval torture device than the net like structure the chains were making. She had no idea how Assassin made her cannon's shoot something like that, or if they were even cannons at this point if they could shoot something like this. Still, there was no question that they posed a threat to her, and she performed a slash to cut through the chains, the links melting and falling apart to grant her a hole to squeeze through. A number of paper talismans on the chains reacted immediately, glowing white before exploding, with Avenger emerged singed but whole.
Then a whole host of bright flashes covered the sky, sending Avenger's eyes into a stupefying blindness as she felt her eardrums shake violently from overlapping drums that shook her entire body, forcing her to keep her teeth clenched before she accidentally bit her tongue. A second later, a noxious smell entered her nostrils, forcing her to stop her breath as she swallowed the urge to vomit, the taste of something bitter, sour, sweet and absolutely nasty on her tongue, burning away all memories of food. As the cherry on the top, her skin felt like it was itching madly as the muscles in her body became incredibly strained, like buckets of lactic acid was dumped into them.
Assassin surveyed her handiwork through the forcefields that protected her body, the multi-pronged sensory assault she had sprung on Avenger actually turning out to be effective, to her surprise. After seeing Avenger plow through everything else like chaff, she had little expectations for the parlour trick level of flashbangs, tear gas (except it was using ingredients unique to her galaxy), a variety of infrared waves that were surely making Avenger's skin crawl in discomfort and a handle of other nasty stuff that would certainly make a Servant suffer, but was far from enough to kill them. Perhaps it was the deadly ordnance that had been constantly bombarding Avenger, making her senses dulled to non-fatal attacks, but whatever the case, the relatively benign non-lethal shots had made it through her defenses and were wreaking havoc on her body.
Not one to waste such an opportunity, Assassin unleashed a salvo of proton missiles through the portals, emptying her weapons bay in the Dun Stallion as clusters of small heat-seeking missiles, long and sleek silver tubes, thin needle-like black darts and several more rocket-propelled artillery were unloaded from the portals one after another, dogpiling explosion after explosion on Avenger's thrashing body in the air, still in the throes of sensory numbness from being overloaded.
The trees rustled from the rush of air that vacated the area as the explosions pushed aside the molecules, dull vibrations shaking the temple itself even though the missiles were a mile from the ground. In some cases, the sound came in two stages as the explosive within the payload were separated into different compartments, modifying the method of release and creating a cacophony of ear splitting thunder and roaring which made Shirou cover his ears on instinct, though Kuzuki only stared up at the source of the sound through the roof of the building they were hiding in.
The barrage only lasted less than half a minute as the Dun Stallion's stocks of deadly goodies were exhausted, everything being discharged through the portals flanking either side of Assassin. In the space of that time period, enough firepower to level the mountain and the surroundings were sent flying at Avenger, turning the sky into a riot of color as explosions overlapped one each other, a colorful display of orbs not far from fireworks, with orange, red, green, blue and the colors of the rainbow bunched together a strange cluster of irregular shapes formed by the expelled energy.
This was one of the trump cards Assassin had been holding up her sleeve this entire time, which she had planned to reserve only in dire emergencies, but since this was Avenger they were facing, she decided to pull it out and level it against the Servant. It consumed practically none of her mana besides keeping the portals open, since it was all stored on the Dun Stallion, and the absolutely massive stocks of wildly varying ammunition meant that she had a counter for basically everything short of absolute defenses on the level of Noble Phantasms. However, the programs and the way the system on her ship was structured meant that it was really only a single-use trump card, shooting everything at once until the chamber went empty, and then that would be it. She was unable to replenish anything since she couldn't summon the Dun Stallion itself, and would be back to using the standard laser blasts from the cannons.
Still, the accumulated amount of destructive power it packed was near, if not on, the level of a medium to lower tier Noble Phantasm, and it had many projectiles that could serve to bind the enemy, constrict them, stun them and incapacitate, or break open fortresses if she desired it. It was a one-use multi tool for many combat scenarios, a gimmick that she had installed way back when she first acquired the ship, hoping to create some ultimate bombardment that would simultaneously be a tremendously strong attack while showing a grand spectacle fitting of such a large display of firepower, against a single human-sized target. She had collected many things to shoot over the course of her adventures, and it was a testament to the volume that it had managed to shoot for nearly ten minutes even with the rate of fire that was about as fast as a modern machine gun.
And all she had to do was press a few buttons on the control key in her hand.
Letting out a small sigh of satisfaction after the display, she floated a bit closer as the particles of the explosions dispersed in the air, large clouds of hanging dots drifting to the ground as dust and ether. The portals at her side shrank, and then disappeared from reality as she called off the cannons, the guns overheating to the point of glowing after sustaining an intense rate of fire with wildly different projectiles for such a long time, expending energy to accomodate for each unique shot.
The circular blue platforms under her feet flickered out of view as her body surrendered to gravity, sending her dropping with added velocity until she was on the edge of where the explosions had occurred, the scent of gunpowder, smoke and metal still lingering even with the rush of air that had filled in the vacuum the explosions caused, creating a great rush of wind that gusted through the empty space.
Footholds solidified under her and braked her instantly, her knees absorbing the shock like it was nothing. Surveying the area with her eyes, she tried to spot where the remains of Avenger were. Even with the level of attacks she had been hit with, she expected there to be at least a husk left from the Servant, given that hardiness of the Servant's body that she had experienced for herself during their fight.
"?"
A moment later, she found the ground hurtling up to her face much faster than expected, distinct crack shaking her entire body, originating from the middle of her spine as an electric jolt spasmed its way to the innermost part of her nerves.
Fu-
Avenger plunged down and stabbed Clarent until the guard was level with the ground, but Assassin was already gone, shifted into spirit form on pure instinct the moment her guard had been broken through. Though her body was paralyzed after Avenger smashed through the forcefield and her jagged blade bit into her spine, severing the links of her nervous system, turning into spirit form used none of those pseudo-bodily systems a Servant came with, and she managed to escape defeat by a hair.
Still, never in her wildest imaginations had Assassin expected Avenger to come through with enough strength to not only continue moving, but attack as well. In spirit form, she stared at the Servant as she nursed her wound, her spiritual body beginning the long process of mending. She was still recovering from the battles in the original base, and this injury was going to lengthen the time she spent cooped up in the spiritual plane.
On the other hand, Avenger was in a much, much worse condition than Assassin, Caster or Saber.
Slouched over limply like a zombie, her right arm hung loosely from her shoulder, connected by two thin strips of flesh to her left shoulder that was missing a chunk from the trapezius muscle, creating an asymmetrical view with her right shoulder. Her right shoulder wasn't much better off either, sporting charred skin, exposed red muscles fibers oozing pus, blood and sticky ichor that clung to the charred black bits. A few holes were visible on her body, the most prominent one going straight through her right lung, around the size of a dollar, with unidentifiable pink and red bits hanging within the hole that blocked the view of the other side. With every breath she took, one could distinctly hear the squishing sounds of her organs shifting inside, some in the wrong places, others with far more space after the surroundings were destroyed. Her right leg, going from the hip to foot, had a long and deep gash cutting all the way to the bone, and it felt like the skin wrapped around her foot could be peeled off with the gap. A few toes and fingers had gone missing, though that didn't stop her from making a fist with her left hand, the only usable hand clutching Clarent, and one eye was shut, the eyelids caked with grime, blood and dust. There was barely any skin left untouched, with crusty blood and yellow fat beneath the skin visible, with some places outright bleached from the heat of the explosions. Assassin would have laughed if it was any other day, seeing that Avenger was basically bald as well, but right now it was an eerie sight that made her swallow in her spiritual form.
For a while, Avenger just stood there, dead to the world. The birds had all left the trees around Ryuudou Temple at the start of the battle, leaving only the wind that carried the dust and grains of stone tiles that were pulverized from numerous craters. The faint sound of rock scraping against rock could be heard, and then in the distance the sound of a car horn drifted over to the temple, a reminder of the mundane life occurring outside the temple boundaries. Standing alone in the courtyard, Avenger became a grotesque statue of the macabre, crimson blood dotting the floor around her as it left her body from the many lacerations and perforations decorating her skin.
Her solitude was broken when the temple doors leading to the courtyard, miraculously untouched throughout the entire duration of the commotion, slid open, revealing two individuals standing at the doorway. One was wearing glasses, sporting a cleanly pressed suit that had few wrinkles or creases, even after running through the forest. The other was clad in a white and black sports jacket, the sleeves dark while the main body from the neck to waist was a pure white reflecting brightly in the night. They both seemed tense, but were was tense in a focused manner, his eyes behind the glass lens darting from place to place while scanning Avenger and the surroundings, the other was blinking while keeping his focus wholly on the silent figure standing there, his pupils widening in shock as he registered the condition she was in.
Grimacing on reflex, Shirou lowered his bokuto slightly at the sight of the enemy they were supposed to fight wounded until all she could do was stand there without fainting, the tip of his sword wavering in his hands. Did they really have to fight her like that?
The wavering stopped the instant Avenger turned her head, the muscles slowly tugging her head to face the two Masters who had decided to show up at her weakest. With her left eye shut firmly, there was only the right eye visible to them, but it was enough to send a shiver down Shirou's spine, though Kuzuki was unaffected by it, or if he was, he didn't show it. A deeper basil green iris, similar to Saber's own, locked onto Shirou, a crystal-clear clarity contained in that one pupil. No pain, agony or confusion muddied the look in her eye, and without meaning to Kuzuki had raised his hands by himself, his body reacting to the threat he sensed in front of him.
Both sides gazed at each other, locked in place like in a Mexican stand-off. One was severely injured to the point of dying, yet her eye betrayed hidden strength that was still residing within her mind, if not her body. The other were two healthy humans that had yet to engage in serious combat the entire night, but they were humans, and facing off against one of the strongest Servants in the War. While she might not have wielded city-destroying Noble Phantasms like the rest, she was definitely strong enough to defeat three Servants in a row, and still remain standing after taking a beating.
Even with her bruised and battered body with limbs on the verge of being detached, Kuzuki could sense the danger they were in, if Avenger's laser sharp focus wasn't enough warning.
Still, Caster was right. There was probably no better opportunity than this. They had her back against the wall right now, and she was definitely running on fumes after suffering heavy injuries from Assassin's tricks and sustained bombardment. Caster couldn't imagine her continuing any longer in such a state, and with her supporting the two Masters, they just might be a match for Avenger in her current state, or at least that was what she thought. It was risky, but she couldn't imagine Avenger lasting much longer.
She was quickly proven wrong when Avenger initiated the fight of her own will, dragging one useless foot through the tiles to reach Kuzuki.
Leaning to the side, Kuzuki's entire right side became as stiff as a board while his left leg left the ground under his body, going far to the left to counter balance as he ducked beneath the ambitious swipe of Avenger's sword, the steel sailing through the air above his cheek as he used the leaning momentum to pivot, switching to his right to center his mass once the sword was gone, his left palm coming up for a swift strike against her hip, targeting a particularly nasty looking chunk of flesh that was burnt thoroughly black.
Shirou on the other hand, barely had enough time to throw himself backwards as the tip of the sword missed his jugular, cutting beneath his chin and then smashing through the paper screens on the side. Feeling a shock run up his rear as he landed, he pushed himself into action once he saw Kuzuki smoothly going on the offensive after what seemed to be an effortless dodge, standing up and swinging the reinforced bokuto at Avenger's head in a textbook downwards slash from above the head. His right foot slid forward, carrying his palm forward with added force as he watched Avenger shifting on one foot, her balance he precariously close to crumbling as she bunny hopped away, her shoulder going through the paper screen as she tried to lean on it, crashing through the paper wall and ending up on her side, half of her body within the building while from the waist down she was outside. It was awkward, but she still avoided a crippling blow from Kuzuki, and his fist passed through empty air.
Curving in midair, he retracted his hand and sent his other hand forward in a fist, his legs moving in sync as he moved in Avenger's direction, the fist this time much faster than the first. Shirou had stopped his strike as well half-way when Avenger had stumbled away and crashed through the wall, attacking from within the building and aiming for her upper body that was stuck between the wall. With an attack on both sides, Avenger twisted her bruised body, ignoring the pain that came merely with rubbing her exposed skin against the floor, her arm coming up in a sluggish swing against Shirou, Clarent travelling in slow motion when compared with her speed during the fight against Caster or Assassin.
Nevertheless, the 'sluggish' blow was for Shirou so fast his eyes struggled to keep up. Only the training from Saber kept him from having his front split into two as he angled the bokuto to parry from below, resulting in a weaker grip as he did it from an unfamiliar angle, while his foot stopped him in place and pushed him backwards. A gray blur passed in front of his face, a slight breeze caressing his face for an instant. He felt the bokuto shake, and then it suddenly felt lighter as Clarent cleaved through the wooden sword easily, his parrying skill insufficient, the wood weak against an actual sword. Following the momentum of his backstep, he put a few meters of distance between himself and Avenger before she swung at him again, and he heard the sound of reverberating blows outside the screen, the shadow of Kuzuki moving rapidly on the screen doors.
Outside, Kuzuki weaved his punches through a flurry of kicks. Weakened though she might have been, the kicks were still enough to break his arm if they landed, and without Caster's invulnerability protecting him, he was vigilant against any strikes. Fortunately, her sight was blocked by the screen walls she had crashed through, so while her legs were fast, they were operating purely on instinct, making them easy to dodge. Her speed was also far from what it once was, making him able to react and counter accordingly. Avenger could feel it too, and focused her efforts on getting out of there as soon as possible. Ignoring Shirou, she used Clarent to cut apart the screen door, tearing off a large swath out of it as paper and wooden splinters flew at Kuzuki, him raising his arm to shield his face from the debris.
A moment later, he clapped his hands together above his head with all his strength. But instead of a resounding clap, the dull thump of flesh against metal was heard.
Shirou peered through the hole in the wall, and he was met with the sight of Kuzuki's body trembling as his hands raised above his head trapped Clarent between his palms, the only thing that was keeping it from splitting his head. The catching of the sword was done in the nick of time, but from what Shirou could see, it looked like Avenger still had more strength than Kuzuki even when using one hand and her body battered to hell and back. Slowly, the blade was descending, inch by inch, as Kuzuki's arms bent as he strived to slow it's progress.
"Hah!"
Letting out a spirited shout, Shirou focused his strength and attacked Avenger from behind, bringing down the remaining length of the bokuto on the Servant as he put his strength into a fully committed strike on her head. His strength augmented by Caster's enchantments could prove to be just enough to harm her, and he could end the battle while saving Kuzuki in one stroke.
Of course, it wasn't that easy though. Without even looking behind, Avenger twisted her body and sent her injured leg kicking backwards, a log that impacted Shirou in the stomach and made spit fly out of his mouth as he flew back a few meters to crash through the paper screen walls, his stomach roiling in pain and discomfort as he felt bile rise from the back of his throat.
For Kuzuki though, Avenger's balance was broken as she shifted her leg to defend against Shirou. Seizing the chance, he threw Clarent to the side at the same time she kicked, the sword dragged by her momentum and going to the side. Though he was bleeding on his forearm from the sword nicking him, it was a much better alternative than having his head split, and with great speed he lashed out with a kick towards her knee, aimed at destroying her sole pillar of balance and mobility.
The pain throughout her body made it difficult, and her leg felt like it couldn't take any more with both the insides and the outsides wailing in distress, the skin scored with gashes and burns, the muscles cramped and sore. Still, she forced herself to jump while favouring that one leg, her body going up in the air as she cleared the roof of the temple. In an instant, she disappeared from in front of Kuzuki, dodging the kick that could have taken out her one good leg and ended it there.
Before Kuzuki could jump up and give chase, an arrow flew through the air and struck Avenger's back, lodging in her shoulder blades and staying there.
Shirou lowered the bow he had just traced, pushing down the queasiness he felt from his stomach as he traced another arrow to fire at Avenger. He had been aiming for her leg, but it had missed and went into her back as her body twisted in the air.
The second arrow met a different fate as Avenger was aware of the danger now, her sword clashing with the arrow and sending it spinning off into the forest, but Shirou was already nocking another one and loosing it as he got into a rhythm, the slender sticks flying up one after another as they chased her, hot on her heels. However, she quickly faded out of sight as she fell to the ground, landing on top of the roof on the temple. Her jump had been angled so that she would land there, and once her feet touched the shingled roof, she sank below the ridge in the middle of the roof, disappearing behind the large eaves that hung outward. They heard the clatter of tiles as she moved, the sound fading away as she increased the distance between them.
Of course, the two of them gave chase, with Kuzuki already jumping up on the roof the moment it became obvious where she was going to land. She wasn't hard to find as he spotted her half-jogging, half-limping as she forced herself to move, the tiles clicking beneath her feet as she ran to the point of the roof where it stopped at the inner courtyard. Turning around, she faced Kuzuki as he caught up to her, her teeth bared in a snarl. Her body skidded across the slate shingles, coming to a stop roughly as she dug her left leg into the roof, crushing the roof as pieces of the tiles broke off and fell to the ground.
In contrast, Kuzuki remained surefooted as he lightly stepped on top of the roof, his leather shoes making only the slightest of sounds as he skipped on top of it, reaching Avenger in a heartbeat. Instead of throwing himself at her at the first chance, he assumed a stance and waited for her to come to him. And she gladly obliged.
Swinging Clarent recklessly with her left hand, she literally smashed it into the central ridge where both sides of the roof met, creating a gaping hole in the architecture. It missed Kuzuki though, but she quickly swung once, twice, then thrice, going diagonally from side to side as she made horizontal slashes that failed to connect with Kuzuki in spite of their speed. With her current form, her moves were easily telegraphed to Kuzuki, the rise of her shoulder, the bracing of weight on her left leg, the slight twist of her hips. It allowed him to pre-dodge by half a second, making it look like she was getting cleanly and effortlessly dodged.
The roof though, was getting steadily tattered and torn, with Kuzuki unable to advance due to the lack of footing. With the ground around him getting steadily reduced, he was forced to shift into awkward positions to stand in, crossing his legs, standing on only one or performing handstands. At the same time though, he performed sneaking counter attacks that wove through her attacks and impacted on her body as clean hits. While she may have been using offense as defense, as of now her body was unable to completely move in time with her thoughts, creating gaps in her offense that he could exploit while dodging, his snake-like fists folding around her sword and then making a beeline for her body. To a casual observer, as his fists changed direction in odd ways, it looked like a black snake with a white head twisting in spirals, a blur that could only be clearly seen by a Servant and other superhumans. In a matter of seconds, her elbow, her wrist and her left thigh was struck one after another, jolting her grip and footing.
Then the roof collapsed under her, the damage done by her rash strikes and her weight becoming too much for the scant few beams and wooden supports left. It was in fact, coincidentally in time with Kuzuki's palm that was about to make contact with her face, the hard bone in his lower palm ready to snap back her head. As it were, her head was grazed by the wind from his palm as she fell, with him quickly retracting it and following her down.
Before her back even reached the stone paving the floor of the corridor, her sword was automatically reaching out, the tip piercing the air towards the chest of the red-haired boy who had been standing below, hoping to get a clear shot on her. The broken shard of steel produced a harsh scrape with the arrowhead as the two collided, the arrow driven of course while Shirou put more arrows on the bow string, releasing them one at a time in a slow, but accurate pulls and releases as his breathing synchronized, forcing Avenger to defend every time as they targeted the vulnerable parts of her body, the knees, the joints, the neck, the head. It wasn't like the arrows had enough power behind them to kill her, but they would prove to be a great hindrance if they landed on her body, and she could barely dodge, not because of lack of energy, but due to the fact that her muscles were so torn in some places that moving her body in the right manner just wasn't possible.
Forced to fend off the arrows with her sword, she sent a powerful upward slash as Kuzuki jumped down. A thin line of frayed thread appeared on the inner thigh of his pants as the jagged sword grazed past, his legs stepping on a pillar and using it as leverage to stop his downward momentum while kicking himself to the side, avoiding the slash with room to spare after the graze. His eyes flickered to the side, noticing Shirou firing on Avenger, then he turned his attention back to her.
At this point, he could tell that she was indeed severely weakened. After fighting Caster and Saber, she had seemed fine, but it was most likely a bluff she had presented. He could see from her rough breathing and trembling that she wasn't merely just hurt, but also tired. Fighting two Servants had drained her more than she'd admit, and when Assassin joined the fight as well, one misstep had sent her sense haywire, allowing Assassin to deal a crippling blow to Avenger. While she was somehow not dead, likely thanks to her armor and probably personal skills of hers, she was already teetering on the brink, and one solid push would probably put her out of commission. Already, the right arm looked dangerously close to detaching at any moment, with the right leg looking quite limp in contrast with the rigid left leg where all of her weight was currently focused on.
Shirou paused as he put the arrow to the bowstring, observing Kuzuki move. His face didn't change in the slightest, and there wasn't any special aura or atmosphere that he was giving off either. Rather, it was just empty, a lack of and tells to pick up on, or intent to read off of. He had already gained a measure of Avenger's abilities, and the fight had dragged on long enough. It was time to end this.
Become empty, so that the target is never aware of the killing blow until it reaches them.
With blank eyes that seemed focused on everything at once, he struck.
There wasn't a hint of blood that flew as the flesh tore cleanly, her body already drained to the point of being unable to bleed.
A backhand swing to the sternum. A knifing palm to the crook of her elbow. A crushing kick to the knee.
The sword flew, lazily circling in the air as it traced an arc, landing upright in the sandy courtyard. The arm still attached to it refused to relinquish its grip on the handle, even after being separated from its owner. But it was only for a moment, and then the fingers loosened, the muscles no longer taut as the nerves failed to receive any signals. With a slight flop, the arm fell to the ground, leaving the sword to stand alone, embedded in the ground.
The owner of the detached arm knelt on the ground, her legs unable to take the strain anymore. More than just her kneecap being shattered, her body was unable to take the injuries added on top of the mountain of damage it had already sustained, and she collapsed. With one arm gone and another hanging by a thread, a leg unresponsive and the other with muscles severed, all she could do was wait.
Kuzuki stared down at her, flicking his hands to the side as the flesh and blood slid off, leaving his hands clean once more. Behind him, Shirou lowered the bow in his hands, letting it fade away as the mana that had taken shape in his hands returned to nothing.
Is it over?
The question was in Shirou's mind, as he looked at the armless body of Avenger, leaning against a pillar as one eyelid fluttered, the only sign of her being alive. The memories of the flaming corpses were always fresh in Shirou's mind no matter how many years had passed, and right now, Avenger didn't look too far off from them. Without knowing it, he released the breath he had been holding up until now, his shoulders slumping with the released tension that had been keeping him pumped with adrenaline. Avenger may have been weakened, but she was still a foe that couldn't be taken lightly. Kuzuki acting as the vanguard placed him in a far more dangerous position, but Shirou wasn't entirely safe either. He inwardly reprimanded himself for feeling nervous, when Kuzuki was clearly in the more risky position.
You succeeded?
Caster's voice rang in Kuzuki's head, the diminishing of Avenger's spiritual signature sensed by the wounded Servant.
Truth be told, she was quite nervous when Kuzuki suggested that he and Shirou confront Avenger together, even after Assassin landed a good number of hits on her and reduced her fighting strength. She had diverted the rest of her remaining strength into reinforcing the two of them, using the leylines potential. She herself may not have the blood of dragons, a curiosity among Artoria's, but she could always tap into the leylines and substitute it for a Magic Core, and her magecraft allowed her to funnel it to fundamentally strengthen the two Masters. It might not have been on the level of a certain Greek Caster's reinforcement, but it was strong in ways that the so-called witch's magic could never be.
She was glad though, that the hidden strengths of her enchantments weren't put to test, judging from Kuzuki's calm reply, without a hint of weakness.
Yes. How should we deal with her?
While keeping his eyes on her form, vigilantly watching against a sudden recovery or counter attack, he relayed Avenger's condition and asked for her assessment on how to handle the Servant. This was out of his expertise, the rules of the Holy Grail War, but he trusted Caster to know what to do.
While Caster relayed the instructions to Kuzuki, unnoticed by the two Masters, a hideous bug with a wickedly sharp stinger and slender wings hovered in the air, far above the hole that Kuzuki and Avenger had made in their fight. In it's segmented gray legs, a bloated white worm hung in between, sandwiched securely as it's cargo. With an unceremonious spread of it's spindly legs, the bug released the worm, the familiar plummeting to the ground at high speeds, passing through the broken roof of the corridor, and landing on the nape of Avenger's neck.
It was impossible for Kuzuki not to notice, but even with his inhuman reflexes and augmented speed, it was already too late. His hand was accelerating, cutting the air to create a vortex of wind, but the worm was already slipping through the gaping wounds on Avenger's skin and getting deep inside her spine, the cervical spine it's ultimate target. It had aimed for a hole as it descended, and it lodged itself spot on, only requiring a short instance of wriggling before it entered her body. Kuzuki's finger grazed the stubby tail of the worm, actually giving it force to push inside, and then all that was left was the slime coating it's skin on Kuzuki's fingertips.
Avenger didn't stay motionless either. Once the worm got in, her blood-caked mouth opened in a soundless scream as she collapsed on her side, her body twitching and shuddering, before progressing onwards to violent spasms. What little blood she had left was squeezed out like a sponge as her muscles expanded and contracted at random, the bloody stump where her left arm should have been smearing the ground with crimson. Kicking her legs, Avenger rolled around on the ground like a child throwing a fit, red froth starting to accumulate at her mouth.
Kuzuki backed away, Caster urgently shouted at him to stay alert and back off. Similarly, Shirou, who had been sitting on the ground a moment ago to relax his body, shot to his feet and projected a bow and arrow, ready to cover Kuzuki if anything happened.
For a few nerve-wracking seconds, Avenger's body flailed under the possession, the erratic sound of flesh smacking against stone crisp and clear to the two Masters as she kicked and rolled. A series of grunts and guttural moans issued from her damaged throat, then a keening moan that steadily rose in pitch, stabbing into their ears.
Destroy her Saint Graph!
Caster's words came in loud and clear in his mind despite the shriek stuffing his ears, and he acted without hesitation. Taking a one step forward, he knelt and plunged his fist downward. In one swift and precise movement, like a jeweller cutting a diamond, his hand passed through her chest, using just the right amount of force that the tip of his knuckles only kissed the stone tiles beneath her.
The violent spasms stopped almost instantly. Instead of kicking and flailing, she was instead only twitching, and even that was dying down too. Keeping his fist within her, Kuzuki watched as her struggles faded, her movements growing less and less pronounced until she was still, finally resembling the corpse that she should have become long ago in her state. Golden sparks, miniscule globes of light that floated like moths, started appearing from her body, the tell-tale signs of a Servant vanishing from the material plane. Kuzuki removed his hand from her body, seeing that the job was done.
Then to their utter shock, the body split in two.
As he pulled out his fist, what looked like a translucent image of Avenger's body came with it, seperating from the disintegrating physical husk. It had no weight or substance, but it clung to Kuzuki's fist all the same, his movements dragging out a copy from Avenger's original body.
They were left with two copies of Avenger, one transparent and shimmering, the other rapidly infested by a black stain spreading across the body, robbing it of any features as it swiftly became completely blackened, a void in the shape of a female body. The glowing body fell from Kuzuki's hand as he backed away, resting on the ground at the feet of the original.
Meanwhile, the tainted Avenger bubbled, the dark tar like substance covering her swelling and stretching all over. Her entire body inflated like a balloon, with some parts doing so more than others, the arms, legs and torso becoming unrecognizable as they expanded.
Then it exploded.
Hitting the ground, Kuzuki laid himself flat as the concussive force washed over his head, ruffling his hair and deafening his ears but doing little more. On the other hand, Shirou was hammered and thrown onto his back, landing on the stone tiles while his breath was forced out of his lungs, his body sliding backwards. Wheezing painfully, it took a minute or two for him to get back up, his shoulder blades and butt aching as he recovered.
Kuzuki, who stood up faster, first noticed that the explosion had left the glowing Avenger untouched, and that the glow seemed to have completely faded from that copied Avenger's body. Now, it was only what looked like a normal flesh and blood Servant, with no transparency or glowing dust floating around it. With her eyes closed and unwounded body, she simply looked like she was asleep on the ground, a relaxed face without a hint of a snarl. She also seemed different than before in a few places, such as the hair, the face, as well as the fact that she was naked.
Then he turned to where the other Avenger had exploded, and he was met with the sight of another her, a far cry in appearance from the one lying down on the ground. White, silky hair flowed like a river from her scalp to her chest, neat and straight instead of the wild and unruly strands they have behaved like before. Her skin was unnaturally pale to the point it was alabaster, a milky whiteness that matched Illya's own, but instead of the smooth naturalness of the homunculus, it was instead shiny, almost as if it were made of porcelain. No trace of the wounds from the fights earlier remained on her body either, a whole, unblemished body with all arms and legs attached perfectly. However, veins of shifting crimson ran up all the way around her body, the colors within moving discretely as they appeared on her arms, legs, waist and neck like snakes, with some even on her left cheek. A stray vein connected from her chest to her left eye, giving her the appearance of a scar. She was clothed, unlike her counterpart on the ground, but they were also a black and red, her chest covered with cloth that resembled a heavy woolen sweater cut out to form a circle of fabric to function as a tube top, vertical red lines cutting the black fabric on it.
A black choker with jagged red lines wrapped around her lower neck, the material going further down and covering the base of her neck just above the collarbone in a semicircle. In the middle, a red diamond shape sat on the choker, right where her throat began from the bottom of the sleeves on her left arm also sported a similar pattern, though they rotated around her arm diagonally instead of cutting across directly, while the right arm instead had a short sleeve that connected to the tube top with a strip of fabric in the front, a leather shoulder-pad attached to it with segmented leather armor plates that stopped just above the elbow. The black sleeve it was attached to circled the entire upper arm but stopped at the armpit above and the elbow below. Incidentally, it seemed like her chest had marginally increased in size, but Kuzuki wasn't exactly sure of that.
Instead of a loincloth hanging off a belt with climbing fabric on her hips up to the middle of her belly and flaring dress sides to the right and left, instead there was a compact latex like material covering her sides and crotch as clothing, with red lining the edges of the material, her belly button exposed as the sides rose a bit higher than the middle, covering her the slight bulge of her hip bone. Red lines on the shiny latex-like material outlined her body, drawing attention to it provocatively. Her tights rose even higher than before, going all the way up until it was almost connected with the latex undergarment, and it was still made of the same silky, opaque thin fabric that exposed the skin beneath a haze of black, except there were strips of latex going up the sides as well, with a thin red band going around her thigh and her calves, pinching the flesh more tightly than the rest. The tights transitioned smoothly into leather shoes that conformed tightly to her legs and feet, the collar going diagonally over her ankles like soccer cleats, and the bottom of her footwear was flat unlike before where it had a thick platform and a cone heel.
Raising her head, she opened her eyes, the bright red iris showing itself, pupils of black standing out in the vivid sea of vermillion. Shards of green like emerald crystals flecked the red, which Kuzuki wasn't able to make at all from the distance they were at.
All of sudden he was able to see them as the red eyes appeared right in front of him, the green flecks crystal clear to him as he was only separated by mere inches.
Looking down, he looked at the hand protruding through his stomach, going all the way up to the forearm, penetrating through the back and displacing his spine. Losing all feeling in his legs, he slumped on Avenger, crumpling over her as he leaned over her shoulder.