Chapter 8 / The Flames of the Past, The Resolve of the Future

When we were children, the Mihoji Forest was something of a mythical place in our eyes. There was something about the place that was so mysterious that pulled children into the area so frequently, all for the chance to see what the manor within the Mihoji Forest looked like.

I remember when I was called out by my friends to head out on another adventure through the forest. It was simply another normal day for us to explore the wilderness and in the meanwhile, banter alongside one another. Sometimes we would talk about a show that ran last night, or perhaps the girls in our class. It was always something random, prompted by one person's little comment to spiral it out of control. That was simply how children were.

At the end of the day, we would always come empty-handed, but leave with a sense of fulfillment. It wasn't as if we were chasing after the rumors of the manor in its entirety. Having an excuse to hangout with friends, even if I don't spend as much time with them these days, was always a treasured highlight of our young days. It was like the Mihoji Forest became a little hangout place for the children, rather than some dangerous location where we could get lost.

We would always find ourselves back where we started, all so we could restart our fun the next day or so. With the sun coming down in the horizon, the children of the neighbour would run back home, excited for what types of adventures to experience the next day. It wasn't as if children didn't believe in the manor's existence, not at all, but to say that it was the sole reason for them to come out there, that would be terribly wrong. That's why people lose interest in the Mihoji Forest as they get older, finding better places to hang out that wasn't a creepy, old forest.

And yet, this wasn't any ordinary forest, much to the little minds of the children. As I ran through the greenery of dense thickets and closed trees, my memories started to slowly ease back into me. Unlike the first time where I received mere flickers of images, much of these memories felt more cemented.

They were clear. As if the forest's memories were flowing back into me.

It was a certain day in summer.

Cicadas were singing. Birds were chirping. As the day came to another end, I stopped in the middle of coming back home. I realized that I dropped my hat somewhere, but I knew I wasn't wearing it when I left the forest. Without a care in the world, I decided to head back by myself to find my missing hat. By then, I wasn't very keen on losing things like that and having my parents get angry at me.

The trek wasn't far. I quickly made my way back to the forest and not before long, I secured the safety of my hat, but that wasn't the trouble. No matter how much the path was remembered, the exit was nowhere to be found. It was as if the forest trapping the young me within it unintentionally and it didn't take long for me to get scared. After all, that was the first time I was in the forest by myself.

And yet, part of my memories became fuzzier. They wanted to become clear so desperately, but my mind kept refusing. Despite that, my eyes kept glancing over to the bracelet that Eriko gave me for some reason. I didn't realize it when she first gave it to me, but I felt like this wasn't the first time I wore this bracelet before.

… Wait, what did I just—?

"Master."

A step came up behind me, stopping my thoughts. Hearing Archer's voice, I felt relieved, but this wasn't meant to have a reunion here. A part of me wanted to see that Archer had already recovered Shiro back from Saber and his Master, but when I turned around, all I met was an arrow to my face.

Her displeased expression was more than enough to tell me what she wanted to say and even through that, I stayed still. No sudden movements were made as I returned a softer glance to her.

"I believed I told you already," she growled. "I'm not sure how much clearer I can say it. So stay out of this. I don't care if I have to use force to make sure you're not involving yourself to any additional extent. I'm not letting you take one more step to endangering your life here."

"Yeah," I nodded. "I already know."

"Then you will turn back."

"I refuse. Call me what you will, but I don't intend on standing around and doing nothing. Even if it's dangerous, I'm going to keep moving forward, no matter what you say."

"This is not the time to become even more of a fool. Say that I do fire this arrow," Archer said, letting the weapon be brandished before me. "Do you have what it takes to defend yourself against it? A few days of training does not immediately give you the right to be in a proper battle with another Master, much less another Servant."

She didn't need to tell me that. I already knew how stupid I was about this ridiculous decision, but despite that being the case, the stubbornness inside of me was too overwhelming. My hand clenched up into a fist, as if crushing what little doubts I had left. If there was a moment that would have tested me on my resolve, it would have been the early confrontation with Archer.

And here I stood, unyielding to her demands. I was in love with her, but that doesn't mean I'll listen to her every word. That mere thought made me grimace, not knowing how Archer might have been feeling about my defiance, but she was a serious person. She doesn't let her emotions slide that easily, but perhaps that was one of the things that made me fall in love with her even more.

That's why I couldn't stand down as the woman I love does all the work.

"I don't need to defend myself."

"You've truly lost your mind."

"No, I haven't." Archer faltered slightly in my firm belief of my own words. "Saber's Master isn't out to kill us. At least, not yet."

That's right. If he wanted to actually kill me, he would have already done so. Between the initial clash and even when I was somewhat isolated from the fight between Saber and Archer, that man had plenty of time to end my life if he wanted to do it. Saber's attacks were quick, so at any point, I wouldn't need much imagination to believe that Saber could kill me if his Master commended him to.

Instead of doing any of that, he was trying to dissuade me from continuing to take part in the Holy Grail War. He was looking out for the innocent that were mistakenly involved in the underworld war and while that might have meant he was a good person at heart, it didn't change the fact that if I persisted, that might change. That's why I have to do this before that mindset could alter.

Sending Archer instead of coming here myself would be similar to telling the Master that I'm still continuing in this war. And so, the next time we meet, I won't get the same luck as last time. If I was going to serve Archer of any usefulness, this was the only chance I'll get.

"I'm going to find Saber's Master and see if I can catch him off guard. I'll use any chances that I get to find my sister and once we get to that point, I suppose we'll have to navigate a way to escape."

"That's not much of a plan, Master. What about dealing with Saber himself?"

"I'm not exactly sure though. It really depends on what that man wants Saber to do. Standing by, or to keep you busy…" I scratched my head, realizing that despite my resolve, it didn't change the fact that I didn't have a clear understanding of what to do. "I know that you said otherwise, but if the worst case scenario happens, do you think you can buy some time against Saber?"

Archer sighed. "You highly underestimate the abilities of Servants, much less other Masters."

"What else do you suggest?"

"That you leave."

"So that I could have you stay here to keep figuring out where the hell they took Shiro?"

Archer flinched. A tall tale sign that my guess was correct. If Archer had already found the manor, she would already be in combat with Saber with no opportunity to be able to stop me from arriving any deeper than here. The fact that she was here meant that she was also being affected by the Mihoji Forest's mysterious force, the one protecting the manor in its center.

Was it selective of who gets to enter and who doesn't? It certainly a stronger version of whatever barrier that man was talking about back at the alleyways if it could even dissuade Archer from coming any closer than that, but now that I'm here, he should have been letting us through.

His objective arrived into the palm of his hand. Why wouldn't he try and bring me deeper into his territory? Though again, I have zero clues as to how these supposed barriers are functioning to begin with, not to mention magecraft in general; there hadn't exactly been a help guide on that entire mess of information for newcomers. Even a pamphlet might have helped here.

"They want me out of the Holy Grail War, but they're going to be peaceful on the surface about it. You're not going to be able to break in properly if I'm not there either way. Once we see the manor, then we'll talk about a better strategy."

For once, Archer looked at me as if I was finally making some sense. Not being a lovestruck dumbass, or an incapable Master, but someone that had gotten their heads out of the clouds and firmly held their feet on the ground. Her bow pulled down, moving the arrow out from the nock.

"If that is the case, please lead the way. However, do not forget that I am merely an archer. If things turn south, as they say, you cannot rely on me to protect you on every step of the way."

I took a deep breath.

"Yeah, I know. I'll need to start depending on myself if I'm going to get anywhere with this Holy Grail War business." I turned around to let my feet start taking me over to where the manor could be, but there was still a scratch at my head that I was loosely forgetting. "Look, I'm not sure if I did anything else wrong, or said anything that offended you. If I did, I'm sorry about that."

Archer stayed silent.

I didn't bother to turn around to see how she reacted, instead starting to go on my way. I could hear Archer's footsteps subtly trailing behind me, but that just made my own footsteps all the more louder in comparison. It was probably better if I walked, dropping the sound I was making down drastically, but I merely kept up with the same speed regardless.

My memories stopped returning to me. That was fine by my standard. If I started reminiscing out of my control, that would have been the only thing on my mind. The reasons as to why I forgot about my experience in the Mihoji Forest that day, the events that transpired on the day that I returned from it. I would be a liar to say that I wasn't curious as to what happened, but I needed to set my priorities straight.

I need to save Shiro.

Not before long, my body felt a bit weird. As if I accidentally walked right into a thin membrane, my head turned back to Archer. She seemed to have been slightly surprised, but showed nothing further than that while carefully treading forwards.

"Your hypothesis was correct. I can certainly detect Saber's presence now."

"Does that mean he can feel yours?"

"Not particularly. I don't have Presence Concealment, but as a Saber, his own detection abilities aren't going to be as heightened as I am, especially if we're in territory that I am more comfortable with."

Alright, so I guess we're glazing over the Presence Concealment thing, huh? Though if my suspicions were right, it should have been rather self-explanatory.

"They really were waiting for you though."

And yet, something didn't feel right about my hypothesis. If they knew I was in the boundary of their domain, they would have started coming for us immediately, right? Even when we waited for a bit to grip onto the new atmosphere, there was no sign that they were coming to intercept us. Archer would have noticed something amiss by now.

Archer realized this as well.

"Are you sure that they're expecting you?"

"Hey, it was just a guess of mine. It wasn't guaranteed here," I groaned.

"Nevertheless, it was a prediction that was worth more to be wrong. If they don't know that we're here yet, we may be able to catch them off guard. Right now, Saber appears to be stationary deeper into the forest. Perhaps that is where our objective lies."

"If that's the case, then how about a new plan?" I glanced over to Archer. "Maybe we could have you pull Saber out of his guarding place, so that I could sneak right into the manor. From there, I'll try and find Shiro without coming across Saber's Master—I'll sneak right back out with her once I'm done there." It was certainly easier said than done; I've never snuck around in my life and even the times that could be considered as such, I was fairly certain they would end up failing spectacularly.

Even then, that was the only thing I could think of. There's no way I could stand a chance against Saber, even for a minute. If the wilderness here was a battlefield that Archer was comfortable in, I would have to hope that Saber isn't as strong in this terrain. That in itself, no matter what the skill gap might be, would buy a few minutes at minimum.

Plus, I'm not sure if his Master would approve of trees being senselessly cut down and accidentally unraveling the manor's location. Well, Saber looked to be a fighter of precision anyways. He wouldn't be throwing out attacks every second blindly, regardless if they hit Archer or the tree.

"Are you stupid? You're heading onto the frontlines in that case." As if it wasn't already obvious, Archer might be saying that to make sure I understood what I was saying. If anything else was obvious, she was still displeased at letting me come along. "If this was your bold idea of a plan, it would be better for you to stay here while I go search for your little sister."

Something about that stubbornness was cute, despite the fact that she was berating me. If that was her idea of scaring me off, she was going to have to try a little harder than that. Well, I guess she just pulled an arrow to my head, so… Ugh, never mind.

"Didn't you say that you don't have Presence Concealment, or whatever? Saber would probably notice you the moment that you get close. My idea is that you can pull him away from the place he's guarding, so that I could slip right on by into the manor. You'll just have to trust me on whether on not I'll be competent enough to—"

"I don't."

My body wanted to crash onto the ground. "O-Okay, you didn't have to say it so blatantly!"

"But it is a reasonable approach," she continued, "as much as I don't want you to walk right into the jaws of the beast." Archer sighed, turning her head away. It seemed like she even understood the complications that might appear if she had been alone against our opponents, but she wasn't going to outright admit it. I decided to say nothing about it. "Saber should be straight ahead. I'll pull him away, so just keep your eyes open to the sky and be careful."

"The sky? How is that going to—?"

"And if there's any problems, use a Command Seal to summon me by your side."

"Wait, the Command Seal can be used for—!?"

Without a continuation, Archer escaped in answering my question, but I don't think she did it on purpose. Before I knew it, she was already gone. Her fleet footwork had done wonders for her, leaving me, myself, and a very heavy sigh. All I could do was keep her words in mind.

"Ah, hell. I guess I'm just going to wing it."

I started moving in the direction Archer vaguely suggested for me. Being a bit wary, I slowed down my movements, just in case Saber decided to move over into my way, but not before long, I managed to find it.

The manor had been before my eyes for the second time in my life. Everything looked eerily familiar, as it probably should; the memories of stumbling across the manor had been flowing back in, filled with the child's amazement, yet consumed by the unknown fear. A mysterious building, as if it was frozen in time, built in an old-fashioned manner, yet still retains a modern look to it.

And there, standing by the entrance, I saw Saber with a vigilant glare stuck to his face. I ducked my head immediately to hide in the brushes, but it doesn't seem like he noticed me yet. My presence was probably so ridiculously weak that he didn't notice me from this distance.

Keeping the sky in my peripheral vision, I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for. Presumingly, she was going to fire an arrow into the sky, but those things were so narrow, I'm not sure my eyesight was good enough to catch it. Though, I suppose it would be Saber that would notice it rather than me and if that was the case, all I would have to do was to move in as he moved out.

Then why did she tell me to pay attention to the sky?

Wait, she also told me to be careful. What the hell did she mean by—?

Saber's expression didn't change as something struck the sound of sonic boom, popping my ears out from hearing normally for a short while. A light came down from the heavens and soared right into Saber and if he hadn't swung his sword to break it apart, it would have dealt massive damage to something. All I could I think about when the wind fell down was—

—Oh. That's what she meant.

In other words, there was a chance that it could have hit me, wasn't there?

Well, crap. Good thing I kept myself a pretty distance away.

Saber grips onto his sword tightly, noting where the arrow must have come from and without any moment to waste, he went out. There weren't even any callouts to his Master about the incident, almost as if it was a premeditated plan for what may happen. Something about that made me hesitant on charging forwards, but I couldn't stay around as long as Archer was buying me time.

Leaving my hiding spot, I darted right over to the front of the manor and headed up the door. It was unlocked and even peeking inside, it doesn't appear that that man was waiting for me.

Even coming inside made me feel a bit queasy. It was like the hallways were shaking, but it was all in my imagination. It was my mind trying to overlap my forgotten memories to the present here, and besides a few differences in the decoration, it looked rather similar as far as I could tell.

Never mind that for now.

My memories don't have any weight in my mission here, but it certainly made it a bit harder. Still though, I needed to ensure that I'd be able to find my sister without coming across Saber's Master, but how? I don't know where either of them were. At that point, it's the same as saying to leave it up to luck.

Would I start from the top floor and make my way to the bottom? Or should I perform the reverse instead? Most of these kidnapping sequences usually held the victims in the basement, right? I'm not crazy for trying to head over to that route, right?

Now that I took my steps back into the manor, my heart was beating like crazy. I never thought I could have been so nervous before in my life, setting aside everything relating to Archer and whatnot. But as I turned the corner to try and find my way downstairs, a flash of light emerged through my head.

A memory of me heading down this same path. Going down a flight of stairs. All in the name of investigation, all in order to tell my friends as to what was happening. And yet, I wasn't alone.

Someone else was pulling me along with them.

I winced, not being able to see anymore than that. Could my memories stop coming back to me in multiple fragments please!? It's starting to get real annoying here! Either way, it was guiding me the same way that I was intending on going to.

Might as well.

I quickly travelled down the hall and found the same flight of stairs. It wasn't as lit up as the main hall. While it was more modernized on the main floor, something about the lights on the stairs seemed more primitive. It definitely gave off a vibe similar to a dungeon.

With a sigh, I walked down while watching my every step. Every second I wasted dwindling like that, Archer was desperately buying out there. I needed to keep reminding myself that everytime I stopped. To give myself no room to think, only the space to act.

However, I didn't know what I was expecting when I arrived at the bottom.

There were a few doors at the bottom of the staircase and based on my temporary motto, I didn't give it much thought when I picked the one on the left. My body stopped when I saw that it looked like a mess, like an explosion happened in here. Bookshelves were knocked down, books scattered everywhere, and the pages were left lying against the ground. Dust was building up by quite a margin, as if this room hadn't been cleaned in a while—as if it was half-heartedly abandoned, but there were a few things that looked as if they were taken out recently.

Very recently. A few books sprawled out on an empty table, untainted by the room's disturbance.

I knew I shouldn't be stalling myself. I knew I shouldn't have been spending any more time here. My sister wasn't being held in this room, so I had no reason to stay here. Despite what my head was telling me, my body refused to move out.

Why did I come here? My eyes were drawn to the red inklings along the ground. Most of it was scratched out or covered up by fallen furniture and paper, but I could see that it was supposed to form a circle of some kind.

A… circle? Like the one that summoned Archer into this world?

Was this the summoning ritual that brought Saber into this world?

"No, that's…" Something in my body was screaming that I was wrong for some reason. No matter how much I looked at the remnants of that summoning circle, I found myself more and more in a trance, back off a bit before I found myself against the very table with the books on it.

My eyes leered over my shoulder, noticing the date written on top of it.

A certain summer from years ago. To be more specific, it was the final summer that I came to the Mihoji Forest before I claimed to have seen it.

This was a mere distraction. Remind yourself, Kurogane! Archer is fighting against Saber right now, so that you could find Shiro! Don't get distracted! I kept telling myself that, but my arm reached out to flip through the pages. It was still in Japanese, not some weird Latin like I was expecting when it came to something foreign like magecraft, so I was able to understand the words—not the context though.

My eyes still slimmed through the old papers before stopping on a certain page.

"The theory of a Pseudo-Servant?"

"It's part of a research that I've long since abandoned."

The voice of that man showed up at the door, causing me to slam the book shut out of instinct. There at the door, he stood with his arms crossed. His face was as unexpressive as when they met in the alleyway while he pushed up his glasses quite briefly. Just seeing him again caused me to reactively hold out my fist in a makeshift fighter stance, although I didn't have any experience in executing punches like that. If I was going to get out of here, I needed to get through him and if it really came down to it, I still had my Command Seals to summon Archer over here to help me.

However, the black-suited man shook his head.

"There's no need for any aggression. I'm not looking for a fight here."

Was it that my assumption was correct?

To be honest, I was more or less bullshitting when I told Archer that the enemy Master wasn't looking to kill me, so it was still surprising to hear that so clearly from his own mouth.

"But it seems as if you gravitated to this particular room." The man walked up, causing me to back away to keep a distance from him. My eyes remained on him, but he was still in between me and the only door. "It's far too much of a coincidence, but it could certainly happen. Heed my words. Would you stay with me for a little while?"

"Huh? What are—?"

"Saber was ordered to stall out Archer, but not to kill her. At least, not yet. As for your kin, she has remained safe. I have a daughter of my own as well, so I wouldn't dare hurt someone else's precious child." The man chuckled a bit, making me doubt if this was really the same guy from before. "And so, I've put her to sleep for now and when she wakes up, I'm sure she will believe that what she experienced was simply a dream. That much, you won't have to worry about."

"And where is she!?"

"If I tell you now, you would simply find a moment to run to her side. How about an exchange?" He grabbed the few books off the table and handed them back to the shelf, save for one. His eyes leered over to me. "Give me some of your time. In return, I'll release your sister and Saber will continue to keep Archer busy to give us some time alone."

"H-Hey, don't you think that's far too suspicious for me to follow? I mean, you're the one in the sinking ship if it's as advertised, right?"

"And you believe you have the right to choose?"

That one was a threat. His true colours were starting to spill out, sending chills down my spine. Regardless if I wanted to or not, it didn't look possible to slip by this guy's guard. The moment I find myself escaping his grasp, a knock to the head would be waiting for me.

My silence was all he needed to receive to acknowledge my understanding.

"You must excuse me for the mess in here." The man turned towards the center of the room, trying to pick up the rest of the scattered papers. "I haven't been in this room for so long because, well, I suppose there was some part of me that believed this research could be continued one day. Though, that is no excuse for this mess. Would you lend me a hand in cleaning up?"

"... Excuse me?"

"It'll give you something to do while I check over a few things."

"It's not an option for me, is it?"

"But it is. You're a guest here, so I'm already overstepping boundaries by asking you to clean. You have the right to refuse this particular offer."

It's already really weird that Saber's Master was this casual with me. It's almost as if he completely forgot about the fact that his servant blasted his daggers right into my body. While I didn't answer him verbally, I started begrudgingly sorting out the pages off the ground into a neat stack.

"If you could simply put them over on that far table, that would be helpful. Thank you."

All of these papers still didn't make any sense to me. Diagrams and pictures, formatted in messy ways with notes scribbled across everything. Even if this was Japanese, I could barely say that this was legible. It was like how doctors were known to be writing, so I suppose this was something that only that man was doing for himself.

Glancing within the books, it was cleaner, more articulate, and more compact in its writing. It served to be the good copy version of all these looseleaf paper. My eyes glazed over a few of the terms that caught my attention and before I knew it, I was already trying to read it.

Why is it that when I see the term Pseudo-Servant, my head hurts a little? Echoes from the past claim that I've heard it before, but how? I don't know what the word means, but this wasn't the first time I've seen it. Did it have to do something with the Holy Grail War?

"What the hell even is this supposed to be…?"

"A failed experiment that had an impossible goal," the man answered, responding to my mutters. "If you don't mind the ramblings of an older man, heed my words. Surely, you have some knowledge of what a Servant is to the Holy Grail War."

"Spirits that come from something called the Throne of Heroes. Archer told me the basics, at the very least, when I decided to partake in the war."

"These heroic spirits are typically summoned for the Holy Grail War itself. Not that it's impossible to do so, but the mana required to summon Servants and keep them in existence is far too great against the mortality of mankind. The only reason Servants don't have that type of strain during a war is because the Holy Grail is what handles that mana instead."

He piled a stack of paper to the side, prompting me to come carry it over for him. To think that there was so much paper on the ground and it gave me some trouble lifting it.

"That's why theories on how to circumvent the mana problem have been going around in the magecraft world, but none have truly succeeded with a lasting solution. This was simply one of these many hypotheses, though I cannot say I had any original ideas. I merely took a preexisting theory and added a few things to see if it might have worked."

Since it was similar to Archer's circle, I can presume that he tried to summon a Servant a long time ago. It was possible that the Servant he was talking about was Saber, but he shook his head as if he knew what I was pondering.

"In terms of research capabilities, I'm still quite lacking because I don't truly have the same access to tools as they do in other places of the world. If this did function as how I envisioned it to become, it would be nothing short of a miracle. And besides, Saber is far too powerful for a mere person to withstand his capabilities, if that was what you were thinking. Even a magnus with a high-capacity of mana would be killed in a few moments."

"In other words, you've failed."

"Not in the way that was intended. There was an incident years ago that caused this whole thing to fall into a mess and afterwards, I lost the motivation to work on this project. I suppose it was for the best, considering how I needed to focus on other priorities."

To my surprise, it didn't take too long to sort everything , it was still pretty dusty, but the man didn't seem to mind it all that much. In fact, it was as if he was only trying to uncover the scratched out summoning circle in the center from its papers.

"But if you're curious as to what the experiment had been, it was following the theory of a Pseudo-Servant, a concept where a human could become a vessel for the Servant themselves. It is not truly a proper summoning, but it effectively results in a proper Servant. There's not much knowledge on these Pseudo-Servant phenomenons, but as long as the theory is there, experiments would be carried out."

The moment he walked up next to me and dropped the papers onto the table, his arm swung over and knocked me down to the ground. My body, unexpecting the strike, sprawled within the area of the circle. Grunting and groaning, I glared right over to the man, but a dagger flew out from his hand, pinning my shoulder down. Blood started spilling out with incredible pain returning to me.

"I-I thought you said you didn't want to fight!"

"I don't. This is merely to check something. If I remember correctly, Saber punched a hole through your hand and gave you a few more wounds while he was at it, correct? So tell me, where did those wounds disappear to? How did you get healed so quickly?"

"W-What…? I… I don't…"

He pulled out the dagger, causing me to scream in a blood curdling shout. I tried to crawl away desperately, but I could only get so far without being stopped.

"During the summer of a certain year, yes, I remember…" The man held me in place, keeping a foot on my chest light enough that he wasn't crushing me, but heavy enough that I couldn't move.

"During that summer, there was a certain child that wandered into my home without me noticing. This had been while I was busy dealing with something else, but when I returned to this room, everything was broken. All the effort that went into this research and experiment had been wasted. The catalyst that would have been used for the actual experiment disappeared, leaving the clueless child to not realize what they have done."

As he recounted that so suddenly, he held my head with a tight grip; not enough to cut off my consciousness, but images started to surge back through my eyes.

There was another child around my age that pulled me here. I vividly remember listening to them complaining about their father and trying to see what made this research so interesting to begin with. The way that they complained… seem so familiar…

Without being sure as to what happened, we eventually both found something tucked into one of the cupboards. It was sealed inside of a titanium box for protection, but it was easy to access and open up. It was nothing except the animal hide of a certain boar, confusing us as to why it was there to begin with.

I was the one to take it with me and while following the instructions in the book without any discretion, we decided to see what would happen if the experiment was executed inside of the red circle. It was already pre-drawn for us, so it was rather simple. And yet, it was those steps that caused this aftermath to become stasis like this. It was those actions that led to this explosion.

A weight suddenly felt like it was being imbued in my shoulder. It was starting to become much harder to breathe as my heart, perhaps my very soul, was trembling in remembering everything. My body wanted to break down; it shook furiously as he tried to grab onto whatever gasps of air I could take.

This isn't good. This definitely isn't good!

Archer said to use the Command Seal if I needed her assistance. Although I don't think she'll appreciate that I've only managed to cover the absolute minimum, I needed to get out of her quickly!

Without hesitation, I used all of my strength to roll out from the man's foot and jumped onto my feet. With my hand gripping onto my Command Seals, I showed it outwards out of instinctive feeling.

"Archer! Come by my side!"

A silence trailed right afterwards. Wasn't this supposed to be how Command Seals worked?

"Archer? C'mon, this isn't funny! Hurry up and come to my side!"

Nothing happened. Archer wasn't the type of person to mess around with something so important like this, so I assumed the fault was with me somehow. Was there a specific phrase that I had to use beforehand that I didn't know about?

"With this Command Seal, come to my side! By my command, come to my side!"

She didn't show up no matter what I said. Maybe it wasn't the instant type of ability? I looked onto my hand to check if any of the three marks were consumed, but they were still present. Did something go wrong? I glanced back to Saber's Master, only for him to widen his eyes. He seemed just as confused as I was.

Damn it, then it only left me with one choice!

I had to fight my way out of here, and considering how I threw him off guard for a moment, I thought this was the best chance I was going to get. Clenching my fist, I charged at the man as fast as I physically could and swung forwards, only for it to be caught by him. His hand was trying to crush my fist in his palm, but I couldn't escape it.

"Are you not the master of Archer?"

"I'm pretty sure that I am…"

"Your command for her should have worked then. Why wasn't that the case?"

His eyes narrowed down on me and held that for a few seconds. It was enough for him to drop open his jaw slightly, as if in realization. "Oh. I see what's going on. I had a feeling the experiment might not have failed entirely, but to visit this after many years…"

Through some powerful force, he pushed me back into the air, causing me to crash into one of the standing bookshelves. Well, it wasn't going to be standing anymore. It tethered over when I landed roughly on the ground, forcing me to pick up my body and throw myself out before it squished me. My wounded arm didn't appreciate the aggressive movement I was pulling.

"Heed my words, child. Forgive me if I have to take back my prior words and all, but you should prepare yourself for a fight. I need to make some confirmations for my hypothesis. After all, the final piece of the puzzle here is the summoning ritual that you encountered a week ago."

"W-What…?"

"In summoning a Servant without a catalyst, you should have summoned somebody that considerably fit with your personality trait. That is the default manner of its summoning, only for it to be skewed if there is a catalyst in play."

He glared at me.

"From what I've seen, your personality is not similar to Archer's. Why would that be?"

"Like hell I would know?"

"I believe you do." The man slowly walked up, causing me to back off the same amount of steps.

"B-But I don't know a single thing about magecraft!"

"No, not you in particular. The results that came from your invasion of this manor. The memories that I erased from your mind on that day to forget what you saw." The man chuckled, but there was no smile. "I see why you feel familiar to me now."

So when I stumbled upon this house, I met with this guy when I was a kid. It was likely when the explosion happened, because everything after that had been blank. My memories did not dare to fill me in on the aftermath, but could it be because they were never there to begin with?

"A catalyst was used. Now allow me to test my theory out."

He clenched his fist and a thin light shimmered around it briefly. With a small mutter of his hand, like some incantation, he rushed at me. My body moved before I could think, throwing out my arms to block his strike. My bones felt like they were being crushed underneath the weight, causing me to grunted out of the shattered result.

Even so, it felt like I had control on its trajectory, even for a split second. Trying my best to ignore the pain, I swerved out from the impact and allowed the punch to continuously go forwards as I jumped over to the side. One of his hands punched a crater in the wall, but his other went for his belt and pulled out the dagger again, throwing it into my abdomen.

I stumbled backwards, but my eyes were set on the door. Through our positioning, he wasn't blocking the way anymore, so with blood dripping out from me, I booked it over to the exit. I closed the door to buy me a few seconds, but it wasn't exactly a difficult obstacle to get around.

I found myself falling onto the first floor hallway, but I could see the turn to the front door in sight. However, in looking over my shoulder, that man was much closer to me than I could hope for. Through my desperation, I grabbed onto the dagger stuck inside of me and blindly swung it outwards. He dodged it with ease on his approach, strafing to my side and following with a straight jab that sent me on the ground, dropping the dagger next to me.

Crap, this really hurts! What the hell am I supposed to do here!?

His hand was reaching for his dagger again, but my hand flung outwards to grab it first. I swiped it upwards in an attempt to catch him, but he avoided it. A retationary strike was incoming, but the adrenaline inside me had been pumping, allowing me to dodge out and get back onto my feet. I took a big leap while backstepping, throwing the dagger to the best of my ability at him.

The idea was to make him back off a little, but I never thought he would catch it and throw it back to me. It was aimed for my leg, but my hand reached out to try and replicate what he did. I wasn't as porificent though, managing to grab the blade and making my palm spill out more blood in return. The weapon was an absolute mess, covered in my own mistakes.

I couldn't hold onto it anymore, but my legs still worked. If I could get outside and scream out, Archer would definitely be able to hear me! I stumbled my way down the hall, trying to keep a fair distance between me and him, but he was far faster than the average human.

A fist flew towards my spine, sending it rolling over to the front door and while my body couldn't handle the beating, I pushed out one more burst of energy. My legs kicked off as I rammed myself into the door, hurting my shoulder even more in the process. With the skies dimming itself to the evening's glow and gray clouds coming in, I used the last of my strength to scream out.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any strength left inside of me. All I could muster up was a croak alongside with a few spits of blood. What exactly was this guy trying to test out here!? How quickly could he beat up a highschooler!? Regardless, I found myself slumping over the front patio. Blood didn't stop escaping my body as my eyes started to become blurry.

Was I… dying…?

I could see that man walking over my body like I was something dirty on the ground and he went down the steps. He took a deep breath and shouted outwards into the forest.

"Saber! Heed my words! Bring Archer over here!"

Not before long, a body came flying out of the forest, collapsing all the trees in the way. Archer's body bounced a few times before stopping before the manner, but she wasn't down for the count like me. She quickly got onto her feet again, but her legs were struggling to keep her standing up. Saber followed shortly after, showing no signs of the same tiredness that Archer was experiencing.

It was definitely one-sided on both accounts of this fight, but in seeing Archer being so wounded, it tore my heart apart. I couldn't do anything to help Archer and instead, I fell into what she was worrying the most; the fact that all of this was to end in a total defeat on our side.

Archer couldn't last against Saber. All she did was stick an arrow on his shoulder, but he was wearing it like it was another piece of his armour. And of course, I wouldn't even dream of matching against his Master. If he wanted to, he could beat me like some kind of plaything of his.

Was it my fault that all of this happened? Of course it was, you idiot. Who was I trying to convince here? Emotions and feelings don't matter against what reality holds in store for us. It wasn't about the damn motivations if I never had anything to back it up!

Losing consciousness, I could only feel frustrated at this defeat.

"I warned you that you should have surrendered your position in the Holy Grail War while you had the chance. Now that you have my curiosity and for me to continue, I must sever your connection with Archer. I'll keep you alive, but that would mean—"

Don't say it. Damn it, don't say it!

"Saber."

My body shook as I looked up to Archer's back.

"Kill Archer."

Saber was fast. As soon as the command came out, Saber's unyielding and relentless blade soared into Archer's direction. She might have been quick on her feet, but he could only dodge for so long until the weapon reached her. Archer managed to avoid the first few attacks, but an overhanging slash was at the angle where she couldn't dodge against.

It was going to make a clean hit against her.

I can't let that happen.

I absolutely can't let that happen.

The images of my memories with her throughout the week flowed back to me. I wanted to know her better. I wanted to spend more time with her. I knew it was such a juvenile desire to have, but I haven't even seen her smile from the bottom of her heart yet!

Why was that so difficult?

I just don't want things to end here!

I haven't granted the promise I made to her yet!

I haven't given her a chance to be happy yet!

…

Then why don't we make that wish into a reality?

There's only one thing for us to do, kid.

I don't know how, but I felt my body become lighter. I stopped thinking, but my body moved, as if it wasn't mine anymore. I couldn't tell what was happening, but before I knew it, I was standing in between Saber and Archer. Both of them were taken by surprise at the speed I came here, me included, but the movements were too fast for any of them to stop what would happen.

The blade ripped open my body from the shoulder to the waist. Blood sprayed out violently from my body as time slowed down. I couldn't feel anything, but my mind was drawing to a blank. My ears were filled with a ringing buzz, just as the cicadas would sing and the birds would chirp.

"Master…?"

"I… I can't…"

A crashing thud to the ground.

Emptiness consumed me as I fell down, lifelessly.

Darkness consumed my vision.

[Author's Notes]

It's been awhile, but it's mostly because I couldn't get what I wanted out from this chapter. I kept getting stuck as to how I should execute this chapter, and even then, I don't think the final product I'm releasing here was anything good. There were a few things that seem really forced in retrospective because I didn't want things to drag on, while skipping out on a few sections. It was just the best thing that I could complete in the time I've spent trying to write this chapter. Making original content is relatively difficult, especially when I'm a bit forced to take liberties on a few aspect of Nasu-verse mechanics.

Hopefully, I can wrap up the rest of the chapters for the first little arc relatively quickly. Though, I wouldn't count on it, but there is only three planned chapters left in the pile to write up, so who knows?