Klipper: None of the heroes present will have the idea to compare Pyrrha and Achilles... since no hero of the Fifth Grail War met Achilles. Heracles and Medusa were already dead at the time of the Trojan War (One of the sons of Heracles however participated in the conflict and Heracles met King Priam in his youth). As for Pyrrha's ability to fight a Servant... let's just say she still has a lot to learn. But she can still learn a lot.
SentinalSlice: Of course, I simply said that it bothered him less than the other Servants... except Berserker. In an environment where mobility would be limited, he would be favored over Saber.
Medusa Gorgon
And Kètô gave Phorkys the Graies with beautiful cheeks, white from their birth. And that is why they are called Graies by the immortal Gods and by the men who walk on the earth: Pephrèdô to the beautiful peplos and Enyô to the peplos color of saffron; and the Gorgones who dwell beyond the illustrious Okéanos, at the last ends, towards the night, where are the Hesperides with sound voices; the Gorgons Sthéinô and Euryalè, and Medusa overwhelmed with evils. And this one was mortal, but the others were immortal and free of old age both. And Poseidaôn with black hair unites with Medusa in a soft meadow, on spring flowers. And when Perseus had cut off her head, the great Khryshor was born of her, and the horse Pegasus also. And this one was so named because it was near the Okeanos springs that he was born, and this one because he had a golden sword in his hand.
Hesiod's Theogony
"So what do we do now?"
The question of Pyrrha surprised Tohsaka Rin. Together with Saber, the two Masters had descended the fire escape stairs and were now in the courtyard. The young Japanese girl turned to the main building of Homurahara Academy. The damaged facade of the building was visible from afar and the explosion had been heard throughout the neighborhood. Moreover, they trampled the glass shards and the panels of walls torn by Rider during her spectacular escape.
Already the police sirens were responding to that of the firefighters. Rin shrugged her shoulders in a dismissive gesture:
"I'm going to call Kirei. He's the arbiter of this Grail War, after all. It's his job to conceal the participants' faults. Besides, he's a very gifted healer... many people here are going to need his help."
The beautiful face of the girl darkens. It would take her a long time to recover from what she had seen... what Matou Shinji had done... the skin of the High School students that was melting... the teachers and students trapped in a Bounded Field that was like a gigantic belly digesting bodies and souls...
Rin shivered and turned to Pyrrha, trying to think of something else.
However, the redhead Amazon rubbed the back of her skull smiling with embarrassment:
"Uh... Kirei? Kotomine Kirei?"
Rin crossed her arms and frowned:
"There is only one 'appointed overseer' in this Grail War, who else could I speak of?"
Pyrrha and Saber exchanged a look. Finally, the Spartan Girl sighed:
"I think it's best to tell her everything."
"I agree, Pyrrha."
Rin looked alternately at the Servant of the Sword and the armored teenager who was his Master:
"What are you talking about? Tell me what?"
The Knight of the Silver Sky spoke:
"Kotomine Kirei is a Master."
Rin's eyes suddenly widened:
"A Master?"
"More precisely" continued Pyrrha " he is twice a Master... I mean, he has two Servants! First, he kept alive the Servant he had during the Fourth Grail War, Archer. Then he ambushed Bazett Fraga McRemitz, the Master of Lancer, to steal her Servant and her Commands Marks. So there are now eight Servants in this Grail War and Kotomine is in control of two of them."
A drop of sweat appeared on the temple of Rin, and she struck down violently. This brief reaction of anger dissipated immediately. The Red Devil was again 'Miss Perfect', the high school idol. She rubbed her lips with an absentminded look:
"Two Servants? It's impossible..."
Saber went on to say:
"According to Assassin, Kotomine kept his Servant alive by sacrificing children to him since the end of the previous Grail War. We have only the word of this servant... but she claims that the crypt of the church is occupied by a dozen mummified corpses."
"Can we trust this Servant," asked Rin.
Arthur hesitated for a moment and then nodded:
"As a knight, I don't have much confidence in an Assassin-class Servant. However, we saw the second Archer at work. There is no doubt that there are eight servants and that the extra Archer is Kotomine's Servant. Until proven otherwise, we are obliged to believe what Assassin says. Her Master is Luvagelita Edelfeld...
"Edelfeld?"
Without paying attention to Rin's surprise, Saber continued to speak:
"... with Master McRemitz (Caster's new partner... Atrum Galliastra having died yesterday) they formed an alliance against Kotomine and offered to join them, my Master and I, but also Berserker and his Master."
"You accepted" questioned the Tohsaka Heiress.
"We didn't answer anything," said Pyrrha. "We came out of a battle against Caster, then against the second Archer and Lancer. We had a lot to think."
When the first ambulances arrived, Tohsaka beckoned Saber to disappear:
"Get out of here! I'll take care of Kirei and help. You better not be confronted with this false priest."
"You are going to be okay?"
Tohsaka responded to Pyrrha's concern with a perfectly evil smile:
"I'm used to Kirei...
Without exchanging a word, Pyrrha and Arthur returned to the Emiya Residence.
After taking off their shoes in the Genkan (entrance hall), they separated. The redhead went to her room to change into her usual home outfit: jeans and a baseball shirt.
Once in a comfortable outfit, she phoned the hospital to hear from Sakura and Taiga. While she was made to wait, she heard television in the living room. Saber was listening to a special news flash about a 'new gas explosion' that damaged Homurahara Academy. Finally, with great insistence, Pyrrha was able to speak to a doctor. Matou Sakura and Fujimura Taiga were out of danger. They suffered from anemia, a very common symptom... though inexplicable among the victims of the so-called 'gas leak'. Some students and teachers also had equally inexplicable necrosis that would leave them hideous scars for life.
When she hung up, Pyrrha felt tired and demoralized.
She did her best.
She could tell herself that thanks to her intervention, no one had died and that - in the end, relatively few would have to suffer serious damage. But the Spartan Girl couldn't help but mortify herself. If she had been quicker to intervene...
The redhead teen hit both cheeks simultaneously and then shook her head violently to chase away these unwelcome thoughts. What was done was done, she could not change the past. Like all the others, she could only devote herself to the next test. Pyrrha Nikos refused to take responsibility for Shinji's actions. He was the one who had used Blood Fort Andromeda against a school full of professors and students... She had done her best to stop him and had succeeded. She did not have to feel guilty...
However... her morale remained low.
Pyrrha went into the living room to discover that Saber was making tea.
They sat opposite each other.
After a long moment of silence, Arthur spoke:
"Pyrrha, how well do you know Matou Shinji?"
"I was with him for a year, he's the vice-skip of the archery club and I was a member... at Taiga's insistence."
Arthur Pendragon agreed and went on:
"So you've been around him a lot and you know his character pretty well."
"Yes."
"How does he react after a failure?"
Pyrrha remained unanswered for a few moments. She well remembered a rather ridiculous incident. It was Shinji's turn to clean the dojo. But of course, he had managed to offload his task on a first-year student who had done the job poorly. Ayako Mitsuzuki blamed him for it but Shinji got angry, blaming the student... the dispute between Ayako and Shinji had been very violent and absurd because it was obvious that Matou was wrong all along. But he absolutely refused to acknowledge it.
The redhead sighed and shook her head:
"Shinji is incredibly proud. He refuses to fail. He even refuses to accept that he may have been wrong. Even if he is wrong, he continues blindly in the same direction rather than agreeing to change it and admit that he was wrong. I bet he's going to use Blood Fort Andromeda again, and very quickly, probably tonight. I think he's going to pick a very crowded spot. Maybe an apartment building downtown...
Pyrrha paused and shrugged:
"How far away can you spot a Servant?"
"Not far, it depends on the Servant in fact. For Rider, I would say fifty meters."
Pyrrha Nikos stood up:
"I think we should patrol downtown."
Saber nodded:
"I agree. But they'll probably spot us faster than we spot them."
"That's true... but I have no other idea."
Shinto was an office district consisting of tall glass buildings, a bustling business center. Individual cars and buses occupied the roadway while pedestrians crowded the sidewalks, crossing the streets at traffic lights while talking to each other. The noise of the engines, the noise of the conversations, the music accompanying the advertisements displayed on the big screens that we saw everywhere made a constant rumor.
Almost no one was paying attention to the blue-haired teenager who was walking furiously on the streets. However, there were reasons to be surprised by his behavior and... by his clothing. He wore only his brown school uniform, typical of the Homurahara Academy, and his indoor shoes, a bit light for the wintry weather of February.
Still them! Everything was their fault, everything was always their fault: Emiya Pyrrha and Tohsaka Rin. They laughed at him, but we would see who would have the last word. They humiliated him once too often and he would make them pay.
Shinji kicked an innocent trash can that had done nothing to him, throwing it to the ground. Without worrying about the other passers-by who turned towards him, he looked up at the glass facade of a skyscraper. The others saw nothing, but he felt the presence of his Servant:
"It's also your fault, Rider. Don't think I've forgotten or forgiven your incompetence! You were unable to beat Pyrrha and you let yourself be defeated by Saber. Because of you, everyone is laughing at me!"
Why was he always surrounded by incompetents?
The salarymen who left their offices formed a sort of human tide which, between seventeen and twenty o'clock, spread repeatedly in the streets, with a counter-current formed by night teams.
As the sun disappeared behind the mountains and the streetlights lit up on Shinto, many office windows remained lit. Because some workers worked late hours or even did not return home several days in a row. Japanese culture emphasized dedication to the group, work, and collective success. This explains why a country poor in raw materials could become a great economic power.
Japan was also a country with a powerful counterculture. Although widely denigrated and despised, the manga and video games' culture was much appreciated by young... and the less young.
And this counter-culture manifested itself a lot by the 'cosplay' (costume play) kind of life-size role-playing game where fans made replicas of the costume of their heroes.
Also, the salarymen leaving the offices were not really surprised by the presence of two young people standing at the entrance of the building. They rose a condescending and vaguely amused eyebrow... the young man was standing at the entrance and reaching out his hand to the door, his eyes closed and focused. His 'cosplay' was amazingly realistic. His hair looked really blond.
But the Salarymen wondered what kind of hero he was supposed to be since he was dressed in a casual way... contrary to his behavior.
After a while, he lowered his arm and turned to the young redhead who was with him:
"I don't feel anything. I don't think Rider is in that skyscraper."
The tall, athletic girl glanced nervously at the salarymen who skirted them, glancing at them amused or reprobate. She passed a chunk tongue on her lips and nodded:
"All right, let's go to the next building."
Arthur nodded without a word, pretending not to notice the employees who stared at them.
They left without looking back, leaving the salarymen behind.
Pyrrha passed a trembling hand on her forehead, surprised to feel the dampness of a bad sweat under her fingers. She was cold and her heart was pounding in her chest. She was usually particularly athletic, but today, the Invincible Girl felt like she was walking at a slow pace, struggling to keep up with Arthur.
Merlin's mental voice, however, quickly made her forget her fatigue:
[Someone is watching you!]
Saber stopped to look around mechanically. They passed through one of Shinto's squares, an environment of glass and concrete cubes, some of which were hollowed out to serve as planters. All around them it was only glass buildings and utilitarian urban furniture: bollards, street lamps, bus shelters...
There were few passers-by and no one seemed to pay attention to them. It was a little over eighteen hours but, in this season, the night was now total.
[I am not talking about someone around you, no... someone is using a Magecraft for scanning. He has been watching you for several minutes.]
Arthur replied mechanically:
[Well, there's nothing we can do about it. Is it a Master or a Servant?]
[I wouldn't be able to say.]
Arthur turned around to ask for the Amazon Girl's opinion, but after a glance in her direction, his expression changed to worry:
"Pyrrha? Are you okay?"
"Sorry... what did you say? Oh... I'm fine... just a little tired."
But Arthur's anxiety was not dispelled by the laborious speech of the redhead. Staring into space, she mechanically rubbed her forehead without realizing that she was trembling with cold.
Saber shook his head, annoyed by Pyrrha's stubbornness and his own inability to understand his friend's state of exhaustion. He looked around, looking for a place to sit, and discovered the entrance to a park still open.
He took the redhead teen by the hand and brought her to the park.
Without listening to Pyrrha's protests, Arthur forced her to sit down with both hands on her shoulders.
"But... it's just a bit of fatigue. No need to..." She paused looking for her words but her strangely foggy mind struggled to put into words what she thought.
Arthur looked at her with a serious and inflexible expression:
"Pyrrha, by your own admission, you only slept three hours that night."
"I can stay a night without sleeping, no problem."
"Maybe... but you found yourself trapped in Blood Fort Andromeda... you fought... you were wounded... you lost blood and in spite of that we spent several hours to circle in the cold."
Pyrrha had a small contrite smile:
"When you say it like that..."
"Stop arguing. Anyway, we might as well wait. Shinji doesn't seem in a hurry to come forward."
Arthur looked around them:
"This park is strange... it seems abandoned."
"Oh... this park was built on the remainder of the fire that ravaged the city ten years ago... the result of Fourth Holy Grail War actually."
"Oh..."
Arthur looked around him. He had not realized where he was, but the memories flowed:
"You're right, Pyrrha. This is where I fought Archer... and lost."
[There is a strange impression... the places seem defiled. People must feel it instinctively and stay away from this park. It is as if there was a trace of blood on the ground that reminded that a murder had been committed in this place] remarked Merlin.
Pyrrha opened her eyelids and looked at the gravel alley in front of her. Her mind was confused. Where was she? She passed her hand over her face.
"Awake?"
Pyrrha jolted and blushed violently... conscious of having slept... with her head resting on Arthur's shoulder. Perhaps the legendary king understood nothing of feminine psychology and was unaware of her trouble. Unless, on the contrary, he pretended not to notice. In any case, he made no comment. Arthur stood up and reached out to Pyrrha to help her do the same.
"How long have I slept," asked the Invincible Girl, more to hide her confusion than by real curiosity.
"About an hour or so."
Saber stared at her attentively, and then nodded:
"And it wasn't useless, you got some colors back on your checks."
Since she was blushing, the opposite would be surprising!
As they made a few steps, Arthur suddenly stiffened, stopping on the spot and turning around, his head slightly inverted back.
"What is going on?"
"Rider!"
"You sense Rider?"
"Yes, and it's not an accident... she left leak enough mana to let me feel her from a distance."
He turned to Pyrrha and stared seriously at her:
"What is your opinion, Master?"
"Did you think she wanted you to sense her mana, Saber?"
"Yes, she used a lot of energy without any precaution." He hesitated for a brief moment and answered in advance the question that the Invincible Girl was going to ask: "Yes, I think she did it on purpose. Rider wanted that I discover her position... it's a challenge."
"And probably a trap" finished Pyrrha.
"And probably a trap," repeated Arthur, nodding.
Pyrrha Nikos had a contrite smile:
"Well, I guess we're going to have to check it out."
"Indeed, we cannot refuse her invitation to the ball."
He had an amused smile:
"Though in my day, it would have been more than avant-garde for a woman to invite her prom date."
Although aware that Rider was a dangerous opponent and that she had prepared this new confrontation so as to have the advantage, Saber was not worried. He was a knight accustomed to the greatest challenges. After all, a fight against an adversary unable to defeat him was pointless. But the idea of confronting a fierce and powerful enemy managed to inflame his blood in his veins. Because, for a warrior, there was nothing more exciting than to face a powerful enemy.
Yes, he went to the battle smiling.
And may the best prevail!
Arthur was walking forward. Although he was still 'in civilian clothes', he was tense, ready to invoke his armor and his Sacred Sword. His eyes roamed the facades of the buildings and the nearby streets in search of Rider.
Their enemy was close, he felt her presence. Nevertheless, Rider was hiding, just leaking enough of her mana to lure him into these deserted streets, but not enough for Saber to accurately locate her.
After years on the battlefield, Arthur Pendragon had long since become an amateur in the art of war. He understood perfectly well that the advantage was to the enemy. Rider had chosen the battlefield and had the initiative. For seeing her face-to-face with Tohsaka's Archer, Arthur knew she excelled in ambush and battle of attrition.
King Arthur's eyes narrowed sharply.
His instincts told him Rider was going to attack.
He suddenly turned around, materializing the Sword of the Wind's King. There was a 'clang' sound, while Arthur struck something just above Pyrrha's head.
The Invincible Girl's eyes widened with a retrospective fright as she turned her head back to look at the glass wall of a skyscraper.
Like a monstrous spider, hanging upside down from the wall, Rider had her blind face turned towards them, her beautiful purple hair flowing towards the ground, freely. In her hands, her chained dagger was still vibrating. She smiled:
"Excellent reflex, Saber, but can you face me on my chosen battlefield? That's what we'll see! Come, follow me if you dare!"
And Rider jumped. Falling back on the flagpole, she bounced up... running vertically on the smooth facade of the building.
Without hesitation, Arthur made his armor appear and turned to Pyrrha:
"Stay here, Master! You're just a target for her!"
And Arthur disappeared, lifting behind him a veil of dust as he crossed the sound wall!
The confrontation between Rider and Saber was incredibly fast.
The battlefield?
A vertical glass wall!
The fighters ran and jumped on this vertical surface, dodging attacks and blocking blows. They moved at such a speed that a dozen fuzzy shapes appeared simultaneously in different points of the glass facade.
Saber's invisible sword and Rider's electricity-laden chains collided, forming small bursts of energy startling the glass wall, sending fragments and whole sections of the glass roof down to the street, far below.
Rider had the upper hand.
Faster than her enemy, she circled him, sometimes above him, sometimes below him, either on his right or on his left...
Graceful, she twirled, bounced, attacked on one side and then left on the other, running around Saber, describing deadly circles before leaping and striking.
But Arthur was blocking all attacks no matter where Rider attacked him. Guided by his fighting instinct, his sword blocked one attack after another. Of course, his arms were covered with clear cuts, and blood flowed from his forehead.
Rider burst out laughing:
"This is the first time you have faced an adversary on a vertical battlefield? How long will you endure my attacks? How many more moves before you lose your footing and fall?"
Arthur did not answer, but his lips creased with anger.
If he slowed down his speed would no longer be sufficient and he would fall, leaving him unable to fend off and retaliate. Rider would then play with him as a cat would play with a broken neck's mouse, not really a pleasant prospect.
However, the skyscraper glass facade was not infinite and in confronting each other they had almost continuously ascended. Before Arthur fell, they reached the top of the building.
Pyrrha had changed in the elevator, quickly putting on her armor.
When the doors opened, she rushed towards the stairs... because the elevator didn't go to the top.
When the Invincible Girl pushed the door leading to the roof, she discovered a spectacle of desolation. The upper platform was damaged. The fences around the upper deck had been torn off and the ground had sustained several impacts.
In the middle of the roof, Arthur was on guard, attentive, looking around.
His clothes were torn and his face was a bloody mask.
The silence was broken by a kind of explosion. Rider materialized behind Saber, her chains spinning around the knight, but Arthur turned around blocking the attack! Already the female Servant had disappeared... and -once again- reappeared behind him. Saber's reflexes saved his life, but before he could retaliate, the purple-haired woman had disappeared.
A burst of laughter resounds...
"So you have come to witness the death of your Servant, Emiya? Well, welcome!"
"Shinji!"
Pyrrha looked around, but most of the roof was plunged into darkness, and several cabins sheltering elevator engines or air conditioning formed obstacles that prevented her from seeing what was behind.
Shinji ordered:
"Rider, stop playing with Saber. It's time to finish him!"
Saber clenched his teeth, glaring furiously at his Master.
He had told her to stay away, now he was going to be forced to protect her from Rider's attacks, and he already had enough trouble avoiding a fatal blow.
King Arthur kept for himself a swear word. He had no choice... He had to finish it in one fell swoop.
Rider rushed at Saber, but one thing had changed. She was no longer wearing her mask.
Her magnificent lavender eyes crossed Saber's gaze and... what produced a flash of lightning energy.
Arthur bit his lips to the point of bloodshed as a power fell upon his body seeking to petrify it!
"Mystical gaze!"
Saber was the class most resistant to magic, and Arthur had received the blessing of several gods and magical creatures during his lifetime. He managed to repel the attack... but that was enough to immobilize him a few fractions of a second.
A very short time interval in a normal situation.
But in a fight as fast as the one that opposed him to Rider, remained motionless even for an instant as brief could have fatal consequences.
Rider's feet connected with Saber's stomach. The impact resembled an explosion and the ground fragmented around Arthur to form a crater as concrete shots and asphalt fragments were thrown in all directions amidst impressive electrical discharges.
Rider had bounced back. But her hands crossed on her chest held her chains, which seemed to burn with blue flames, overloaded with energy... connecting her to Saber. Immobilized, tied up by the steel links.
She rushed toward Arthur, bouncing off on the roof fragments that - for her - swirled as if in slow motion.
She knocked him, again, again...
Her blows wound Saber repeatedly.
When she released him from her chains, Saber was covered in blood. Yet he was already upright, leaning on his invisible sword.
Medusa shook her head, incredulous... she would never understand these 'heroes' always ready to fight vastly superior foes. Why did he prolong his sufferings, his victory was impossible now?!
"Bellerophon!"
And she stretched out, and a seal of blood appeared before her fingers. Plunging her hands into the red circle she came out of it some reins entirely made up of golden threads, then a magnificent white pegasus was formed.
The rider now on the back of her mount tore herself from the ground, transformed into a silver comet.
Arriving at the height of her trajectory, Rider pulled on the reins to direct the Pegasus to the ground, aiming at the ravaged roof of the skyscraper.
Saber had saved his energy, accepting multiple blows in exchange for a victory possibility.
Ignoring pain, wounds, and discomfort, ignoring even his humiliation to serve as a plaything for... Medusa Gorgon, Arthur Pendagon tried to stay focused. He needed only one opponent's mistake to exploit. And he knew that Medusa would make that mistake when she struck to finish him off.
Straightening up, he stared at the silver comet descending to Fuyuki...
The energy exerted by the race of the Pegasus and his rider almost rivaled his own Noble Phantasm.
Almost...
He pointed the Sacred Sword to the sky, dissipating Barrier of the Wind King.
And his sword answered his call.
The blade lit up with a golden light that became a golden torch of fire. Trembling in his hands, twisting and making the air vibrate, the torch roars into a column of fire:
"Excalibur!"
A simple word... and the sword of King Arthur unleashed the power of his legend as a beam of golden and destructive light.
The silver comet and the golden light of Excalibur met in the open sky, two power doomed to annihilation which confronted each other.
The sky was illuminated as in broad daylight and for a moment these two forces seemed equal, holding each other in respect.
Then the beam of light pushed the comet back... and its brightness disappeared.
In the hospital, Matou Sakura awoke.
Despite her weakness, she left the bed, her bare feet merely touching the floor of the hospital room as the teenager approached the window.
Her fingers drove out the condensation and she watched the dazzling beam of golden light that illuminated the city slowly extinguish. Her lips uttered a simple word:
"Rider!"
Gasping, Saber staggered and succeeded only in avoiding the fall by planting his sword in the ground.
His jaws were tight and he struggled for a moment against fainting.
Pyrrha wanted to approach, but a scream made her turn towards a cabin housing an elevator motor.
She saw Shinji, wide-eyed... watching his book burn in the middle of blue flames...
"No, the Book of the False Attendant... Rider! Rider! Where are you?! Come back!"
Then he saw Pyrrha, and raised an arm above his head as if to protect himself from a blow, then turned back, running in the direction of the stairs.
Pyrrha was about to go after him, when she heard a falling sound.
Turning around, she saw that Arthur had collapsed. Excalibur disappeared in a wobble of golden prana before Saber's armor dissolved.