Chapter 2

"My chieftain, I present to you a tribute befitting your station."

The flap at the vestibule of the tent was pulled aside, revealing an elegant young woman, draped in a sheer tunic and covered by an overcoat of wolf fur make. A sheer veil covered her head, but her golden locks of hair and dazzling blue eyes could clearly be seen within the veil. When she was motioned to enter, the movement of her slim, yet shapely figure was graceful as an eagle in flight, and her footfall was barely heard as she made her way into the tent.

"Greetings, Attila; my King, and my husband-to-be." The woman curtsied as she delivered her salutations.

Atilla, initially seated on his throne in a relaxed manner, sat upright and leaned forward. The manner in which he looked at her made it clear that he had never laid his eyes on anyone who was as beautiful as this woman.

"... Come closer, woman."

Atilla continued to lay his eyes on the woman as she approached, and he caught a sight of the corner of her lips forming a slight smile as she came closer, bowing when she was within arms reach of Atilla.

"Please, tell me your name, for we are soon to be united and it is not good for a man not to know the name of the woman betrothed to him," Atilla continued, lifting her chin up with his index finger and gently caressing the bottom of her lips with his thumb, causing Ildico to blush and smile at him.

"My king, I am Ildico, daughter of Thorismud of the Goths," the woman replied.

Atilla did not blink as he continued to gaze at Ildico's eyes. From behind the veil, he was able to note that Ildico seemed to be nervous, but nevertheless, her eyes were keen and there seemed to be a sense of purpose behind her gazing upon his face.

He was slightly bothered by the fact that he had no inkling towards her purpose, but he figured that Ildico was just going to be yet another wife out of the many he already took throughout the years, and that there would be plenty for him to reap from this union. For him, this union would ensure that he would only need to flex his military might westward rather than over several fronts. Moreover, this union also carried the benefit of strengthening his political position along with the added bonus of enjoying such exotic, ravishing beauty.

Despite all that, he felt a niggling sense of unease. Every other woman he took as his wife did not seek a union with him, and even if they did, they did not have a personal motive for doing so.

For some reason, Ildico had a reason and a personal motive to be taken as Attila's wife, and he could not tell why.

Nonetheless, Attila figured that Ildico, like every other woman he has taken, will eventually be brought to heel and nothing will come out of her personal motives for being his wife.

Standing up, Attila motioned for his guards. "Set up a tent for Ildico and provide her everything she needs, for she pleases me greatly. We shall commence with the plans for the ceremony of our union due to happen in a month!"

Rider grimaced as he struggled to stand up, his head throbbing in pain. From the corner of his eye, he saw Bram scrambling toward him. For a moment, when he experienced that short flashback of his memories, he thought that he was already dead by the hand of Berserker.

"Ugh, to think that Caster just ordered Berserker to massacre everyone just like that!" Rider thought angrily.

Before long, Bram scrambled up to Rider, his face displaying a mixture of worry and rage. After a brief exchange of words, Rider tried to shake off the groggy feeling in his head only to realise that Bram already set off to attack Caster.

"Hey, boy! What do you think you're doing!? And with my own sword, no less!?" Rider demanded.

"That woman, I must stop!" Bram hissed. "She has been a thorn in my side from the get go, and it is only fair if I stopped her myself, even if I were to risk my life and limb for this!"

"Ugh!" Rider began to cough again, his blood forming a fine mist as it sprayed out of his mouth while he coughed. "There's doing things yourself, and there's doing things without a plan!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Drink up, lads! There is plenty to go around!" Attila roared, walking around in a drunken stupor. Since the day he announced that he would take another wife, his tribe has been spending the nights drinking and reveling in anticipation of the day that was to come. If there was anything Attila's tribe would do well at, it was the wanton slaughter of armies that stood against them, as well as finding an occasion to eat, drink, and be merry.

"My King," Ildico cooed, flicking her finger at Attila in a come hither gesture.

Attila said nothing in reply, but he sauntered over to Ildico, who was seated outside her tent, enjoying the wine that was served to her.

"It has been nearly a month since I appeared before you. However, I can't help but wonder…"

Ildico paused for more than a moment.

"... Wonder what?" Attila slurred, breaking the uneasy silence between the two.

"... Wonder why you never sent for me nor even exchange a word with me," Ildico continued.

Attila said nothing in reply. He took another gulp of wine before casting another glance at Ildico, whose eyes never wavered from Attila's.

"Perhaps… you have lost your interest in me after that time when I was presented to you?" Ildico asked, after a brief silence.

"Ohhh," Attila began. "Trust… me. I haven't lost even a little bit of my interest in you."

Attila took yet another gulp of wine before continuing.

"My interest in you… differs somewhat from my interest in other women," Attila continued. "You see, I can't quite put a finger on what your motive is, being taken to be a wife of somebody who you don't know at all. You seem to have a goal in mind."

This time, it was Ildico's turn to remain silent. Attila gulped down the last of his wine, exhaling loudly after downing the wine.

"You see, the wives I have taken before you? They had to be taken by me, and they would have wanted someone else to take them as their wife," Attila continued at length. "If anything, those women were somewhat reluctant to be taken as one of my wives."

Attila drained his cup and tossed it aside, before squatting down, his eyes drawing level with Ildico's.

"You're different," Attila continued, his eyes narrowing. "You want this. And I don't know why, at least for now." Standing up, Attila turned around and paced away before stopping for a brief moment. "Know this, woman. Whatever you are planning, it isn't going to come to pass. You will be taken as one of my wives, and that will be all for you other than to bear my seeds."

"You don't trust me very much, do you, my King?" Ildico asked, her eyes glinting as she tried to regain Attila's attention.

"If your motive for marrying me is love, then I'm afraid you don't know me at all," Attila replied, walking away.

Rider caught sight of Caster's eyes as he swung his sword at her. For some reason, Caster's eyes seemed to remind him of that time he laid eyes on Ildico. Rider's rage was fuelled as a result, and that served to fire him up for the act of finishing Caster.

He was only just half a step away from doing so when he heard two voices approaching him.

"Caster!"

"RRRUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHH!"

For Rider, he was caught in a predicament. If he maintained his current course of action, he could end Caster in one swing as she can't possibly do anything right now given that he is already within arm's reach of her. However, Caster's Master is also within striking distance, which he won't be able to avoid, and there is the other matter of an insane Berserker, which nobody has an idea of what he would do next, and to make matters worse, his own Master could get caught up in the confusion.

"Cheh!"

Rider cursed and gritted his teeth. Caster had to be stopped, one way or another. His Master even made the charge forward, so he would have wanted to see this to the bitter end.

Everything that transpired next happened in a blink of an eye, but time seemed to slow down for everyone involved.

Caster

Upon seeing the hulking figure of Berserker barreling down in her direction, she rued her decision to send Berserker into a mad rage. At that time, she thought that Berserker had indeed killed Mikhel, but now that Mikhel is alive, it seemed that sending Berserker into a rage was a very bad idea.

The problem for Caster now is that she is staring right into the eyes of an enraged Rider as he swung his sword down towards her head. If Mikhel wasn't approaching behind her, she could have teleported out of the way since it is the fastest spell she could conjure, but doing so now could place her beloved Master in harm's way.

A sudden burst of light blinded her temporarily, and she felt as if she was being blown backwards by a tremendous force, followed by the sensation of knocking into someone behind her.

Mikhel

When Mikhel came to, he was lying on the ground beside the Einzbern castle. Nearly all of his bones were broken and fractured, and he was suffering from a multitude of injuries, both within and without. He was gravely injured after getting unexpectedly swiped by Berserker, but thanks to Caster's previous magical enhancements to his body, he somehow survived Berserker's blow, which would otherwise have killed a normal human being.

Being gravely injured but alive was still far better than being dead.

Having gone through many near death experiences, Mikhel had learned how to perform emergency healing techniques before, and this time is just one of the many times he has to rely on such spells again.

Stumbling to his feet, he quickly leapt forward to attack Saber, who was beset by Caster's attacks. Before long, he could see that Caster was about to be in danger from getting attacked by Bram Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri and his Servant.

Forsaking any manner of tactics or strategy, he leapt forward without assessing the situation or thinking of other options. There was only one thing in his mind, and he called out her name as he leapt forward.

It was only when he was in arm's reach of Caster, he finally had Berserker in his field of vision, his arms stretched upwards and poised to bring them down upon Rider, Caster, Bram and himself in one fell swoop.

A glint of light from the corner of his eye also caught his attention, and he was barely able to make out the figure of Archer, bow in hand, ready to fire his Noble Phantasm in their direction. Before he could react, Archer loosed his bow and Mikhel only saw something resembling a shaft of sunlight. The resulting explosion blew Caster backwards and he was able to catch a hold of Caster despite the force of the explosion knocking him off balance as well.

Bram

"Aaaaaaargh! Die, you cursed woman!" Bram launched himself forward, trying to capitalise on taking Caster by surprise.

Despite managing to catch Caster by surprise, she was somehow able to defend herself by having a tentacle wrap itself around Bram's arm and constrict it, causing him to drop Rider's sword.

"Damn it, so in the end, I can't even-"

Bram hardly finished his thought when he caught the sight of Rider leaping past him, grabbing a hold of his own sword before it landed on the ground, and bounded forward, sword hand raised, and ready to bring it down upon Caster. It was only when he looked at Caster that he found his former student lunging forward towards Caster, and a loud roar to his right alerted him to Berserker's presence.

"No, we're all going to die!" Bram thought nervously, shutting his eyes and bracing himself for the worst.

Somehow, instead of feeling a crushing force upon him, he felt something blow him aside, launching him into the air. He opened his eyes and he found Rider and himself flung in the air and away from Caster.

To be accurate, he was amongst those who were flung in the air.

A small fireball was seen mushrooming up from Berserker's torso and remnants of a light streak was just dissipating. When Bram landed on the ground, he cast a furtive glance at the direction of the streak of light and found Archer standing a small distance away, bow in hand, and an arrow in the other hand.

"Onii-sama! I'm right here!" Archer yelled, trying to get Berserker's attention. "You're not in your right mind, and I'm just the right person to return you to your right mind!"

Berserker, who was injured as a result of Archer's shot, turned around to face Archer. Due to the power of the Command Seals, on top of his loss of sanity, Berserker was no longer in control of his actions. This was evident when Berserker let out a roar and charged Archer down.

Archer wasted no time in nocking his bow and engaging Berserker.

"Forgive me onii-sama, if I held back, I was never going to be able to get past your shield, but I must stop your rampage, just like what happened before!"

As soon as Archer began engaging Berserker, though, Archer's fears quickly materialised.

Being the older brother of the legendary archer Teucer, Ajax Telamonian has always been the brother in the spotlight in the Greek Army, and although Teucer was an excellent soldier in his own right, Ajax's exploits were far more noticeable and garnered him more fame than his younger brother. Despite that, when the both of them fought side-by-side, they were nigh unstoppable and it was their joint exploits that earned the highest praise from the Greek Army. Many a tale has been told about how Teucer felled hosts of soldiers, ducking behind the safety of Rho Aias, while Ajax cut down anyone who tried to close the distance to the pair.

Archer knew full well that engaging Berserker in melee range would be suicide, having lived the previous life under the protection of Berserker's shield. Keeping his distance, he continued to pepper Berserker with his bow and used the opportunity to lure Berserker away from the other combatants.

Having succeeded in luring Berserker away, Archer stood his ground and Berserker continued to advance towards him.

"I have absolutely no chance if I were to unleash my Noble Phantasm at you right now," Archer muttered. "The only chance I have is…"

Berserker let out an earth shaking roar as he lunged forward.

Archer stretched both his arms outwards as if he was preparing to embrace his brother. "Come, onii-sama. Just like times of old, where we embraced after every battle."

Within a blink of an eye, Berserker was already on top of Archer, fist raised and poised to kill him. It was at this moment that Archer summoned his bow, nocked his arrow, and recited his enchantment.

"Fly now and strike your foe with Apollo's might."

Berserker flinched at this moment and attempted to summon his Noble Phantasm.

"Too late, onii-sama. I'm technically behind your shield now."

Archer smiled grimly.

"Toxo Teukros!"

In the midst of the confusion, anyone who was able to observe the flow of events would say that Saber has been relatively unscathed as she was limited to doing battle with Caster and her Master directly before Caster was ambushed by Bram Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri.

In the moments that followed, she was also quick to notice that Rider and Berserker was joining the fray as well. Her instincts, honed over many battles, told her to take a step back, and thus she did, removing her involvement from everything that happened as a result of Archer's attack on Berserker.

Now, as Caster and her Master were flung away from the melee thanks to what happened earlier, Saber took that opportunity to step towards them.

"It's time to end this, Morgan!" Saber declared, pointing her sword at Morgan and Mikhel as they stumbled to their feet. "You must stop Berserker from his rampage before things get out of hand!"

"Fu fu fu… Stop Berserker?" Caster asked, laughing at Saber. "I'm afraid it's not possible, because I used the one and only remaining Command Seal on him. He won't be stopped unless he is killed, or if he runs out of prana. Unfortunately, My prana reserves are vast, so that is out of the question!"

"Then, I shall defeat you and cut off Berserker's prana supply!" Saber declared, brandishing her sword.

"Dear sister," Caster challenged, glaring at Saber as she cast a healing spell on Mikhel. "You will never defeat me."

"Indeed, Caster. Saber will never defeat you, because I am the one who will kill you!"

Caster glared as she turned to face Rider, who was standing behind her, injured but enraged. Bram was also there, standing alongside Rider. He, too, carried injuries, but he was just as determined to put an end to Caster.

"Rider! We should work together!" Saber was stern with her suggestion. "You're injured and you won't be able to sustain a prolonged fight with Caster!"

"I know who you are, King of Knights, but I will not hesitate to strike you down if you interfere with this fight! This accursed witch shall die by my hand!" Rider barked. "Do yourself a favour and step away!"

"I shall not, Rider," Saber replied. "Morgan has done enough during my reign as King of Britain, and even now in the Grail War. She must be defeated here and now, regardless of who deals the final blow." Stepping towards Rider, she lowered her sword. "Whether you help me or not, I am in this fight."

"You are just as accursed as your sister if you talk like-"

"You're wide open!" Mikhel declared, stepping forward in a flash and throwing a punch directed at Saber.

Saber instinctively parried Mikhel's punch and quickly retaliated, starting the fight. Rider took the opportunity to charge forward at Caster despite his injuries. Caster was able to fend off Rider's assault and took advantage of Rider's injuries to push Rider back.

Saber was quick to notice that Caster was not fixated on her and figured that now was as good a time as any to try and catch Caster off guard. She quickly took her stance, with her sword pointing behind her. The air began to swell violently around Excalibur as she prepared her next move.

"Attacking me with that same move? It's not happening!" Mikhel shouted, charging at Saber, fists clenched tightly in anticipation of landing another hit on Saber's gut, like he did the last time they fought.

What Mikhel failed to realise, though, was that Saber wasn't attempting the same attack that failed the last time.

Saber wasn't even attempting to attack Mikhel.

"Strike Air!"

Saber was flung forward by the sudden release of the built up air, taking advantage of the momentum gained by the use of Strike Air as a catapult to charge into the path of Mikhel, knocking him aside while she closed the gap between Caster and herself in an extremely short moment.

"It ends now!" Saber shouted, her sword raised up and ready to attack.

"Have you forgotten, beloved sister?" Caster asked, smiling at Saber as she dodged the attack effortlessly. "I know every intimate detail about your every move. It's useless."

Saber cursed under her breath as her sword missed Caster completely, hitting the ground instead. Mikhel was already charging at Saber again, but Rider, who gained a brief reprieve thanks to Saber's earlier attack, also charged in at Saber, attacking her.

"I told you that I will strike you down if you interfere!" Rider bellowed. Rider was not quite able to follow up on his attack when Mikhel also engaged Rider, causing the fight to turn into a three way mess, with Mikhel, Saber, and Rider exchanging blows with one another.

In that confusion, Caster was gifted with all the time she needed.

Using her fingers to draw a magic circle in the air, she closed her eyes and she began to levitate in the air as she recited her incantation.

"Water, Air, Light.
None can resist its might.
Confound, confuse.
The truth be refused."

Caster's eyes opened as she raised her right hand, a burst of prana exploding out of it.

"Fata Morgana!"

There was a brief moment of darkness, followed by a flash of light, enveloping Saber, Rider, Bram, and Mikhel, taking them by surprise. When the situation calmed after the flash of light, everyone of them realised that their surroundings have changed.

The problem that they faced was not entirely the same, however.

Despite that, none of them could deny that they are now in Caster's Noble Phantasm.