"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Master/Servant Link"

Noble Phantasm


Chapter 22: Zero Hour

Miyu crashed into the boulder, the air being driven from her lungs in a sputtering cough. She had barely a moment to reorientate herself before the black shadowy blur of Berserker crashed into her again.

The impact barely registered to her, either because she was already in so much pain that her body couldn't actually alert her to it, or because her armour had mitigated some of the blow.

If she was being honest at the moment, the former seemed more likely.

Berserker hit her with enough force for the boulder she had slammed into to be crushed, forcing her through it and sending the debris shooting off in all directions.

She was vaguely aware of Sapphire telling her something, she couldn't actually hear anything because of the constant ringing in her ears. Either way, whatever Sapphire had to say didn't register as important at the moment, what was important was the Servant swinging a mangled looking sword directly at her head.

Miyu widened her eyes in alarm, the Class Card taking over as she batted the strike away with Excalibur, the blow being parried to the side leaving the Berserkers chest wide open. Seeing an opportunity, she thrust forwards, intent on running the servant through.

She should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

Berserker had followed the parry through flawlessly, pivoting his body and spinning on his heel, Miyu's thrust went just past him, barely scraping against his armour. She looked up at the red visor just in time to see the servant cock his fist back for an overhead punch.

She threw herself forwards as Berserker lashed out, hearing the punch smash into the ground behind her with all the force of a cannon, dirt and forest litter being blasted away in all directions. Miyu shot to her feet as quickly as she could, turning to face her opponent, just in time to raise her sword above her head to block a downwards slash.

She felt the shock of the impact run through her body, being forced to her knees because of it, she grit her teeth as she was forcing her muscles to work. Her body felt like it was on fire, the repeated impacts and the force of the blows from Berserker already taking their toll on her.

Berserker lifted the blade off her, giving her the barest hint of breathing room before he charged her again. It was only the inbuilt knowledge the class card provided and the Instinct skill which prevented Miyu from being killed then and there. The shadowy servant became a blur of motion, furiously swinging around the weapon in his hands with a horrifying degree of skill.

Miyu was desperately parrying and blocking Berserkers blows as best she could, pushing the blade to the side, Berserkers borrowed Hrunting was only just knocked off course, meaning that Miyu received a large slash across her left cheek as opposed to losing her head.

Of course, this only served to motivate the Berserker servant further as he hefted the blade above his head and gripped it with two hands. His armour groaned and creaked around his gauntlets as he tightened his grip on the blades handle, Miyu widened her eyes and threw herself away from the Servant just before he brought the sword down on the spot where she had last been.

From Miyu's perspective, it was as if an explosion had gone off in her face, the second that Berserkers sword made contact with the ground, he was immediately engulfed in a burst of debris, dirt being flung in all directions and Miyu being at the epicentre of a powerful shockwave.

Her jump away from the attack had meant she wasn't centred on the ground, the result being the shockwave sending her rag dolling through the air and crashing into a tree. A pained cough made its way past her lips as she sank down, the cloud of dirt was swiftly blown away as Berserker rocketed out of it towards her.

Miyu could barely feel her own legs, staring at the approaching servant through half-lidded eyes. She desperately begged her body to move with power she didn't possess and was left hopelessly vulnerable as the Servant closed in on her.

Berserker hefted the blade over his opposite shoulder, drawing it back of a slash.

The his helm snapped to the side as if registering something, he slammed his foot into the ground, pivoting his whole body and changing the direction of the slash aimed at Miyu towards something else entirely.

He swung the sword upwards just as several blades came shooting out from between the tree's at him, the weapons impacting Berserkers weapon and being shattered before fading into motes of light.

"Tch!" Miyu vaguely recognised the voice and if she was capable of it, would have widened her eyes in surprise as Chloe came shooting out form the direction of the swords, bow in hand and jumping into the sky, firing off several arrows.

Berserker growled and span the sword in his hand, effortlessly deflecting them.

"Damn, he's too hardy!" Chloe grunted, then looked behind him to see Miyu slumped against a tree, blood trickling down her lips "Miyu! Are you alright!?"

It was a rather dumb question to ask, even Chloe knew that the second she had said it, but at the time it was the only words she could get out. The girl in question released a groan, although Chloe couldn't focus on it.

Not with the red visor of Berserker turning to glare at her.

The Berserker span on his heel, sword slicing through the air before smashing through a tree, cutting it in half and sending the stop half crashing down, or at least it would have.

Had Berserker not gripped it with his free hand, carrying his body forwards and spinning to face Chloe before launching the tree at her like a javelin. The tanned girl widened her eyes, then grit her teeth. Teleporting her body to the side.

It was one the only advantage she had to Archer, in that she was capable of short range teleportation. She wasn't aware of how it was possible, although she wasn't going to complain about it.

The tree sailed past her, disappearing off into the distance as she rapidly approached the ground. Right into the waiting grasp of the mad servant, Berserker swung his blade upwards at the same time Chloe projected the married blades and swung them down.

She was never going to match Berserkers strength. So she didn't.

Adjusting her blades as the connected, she pushed down against the sword and flipped her body over the servant, kicking her legs out and catching the Berserker in the back of the head with a kick as the pushed herself over him. His helmet nudging forwards ever so slightly was the only evidence that he registered the attack at all.

Chloe rolled her body in the air before landing on her feet in a crouch, reversing the grip on her swords and glaring at the back of the servant.

Berserker turned his body to face her, releasing a low growl which reverberated through her body. She had already seen his strength and speed far eclipse her own, he probably eclipsed Archer as well.

She supposed it was a good thing she was getting help in some capacity from Luvia and the purple haired woman, although she had rushed on ahead of them. So all she could hope for was that she could at least survive until help arrived. As Berserker lowered his body, shifting his stance to prepare to launch himself forwards, she felt sweat drip down the back of her neck.

Perhaps rushing off ahead wasn't the best idea. At the back of her mind, she was laughing at herself for rushing off to save Miyu and immediately running into trouble. Much like Illya had done earlier.


"I Am The Bone Of My Sword"

"Steel Is My Body, Fire Is My Blood"

"So, As I Pray…"

"Unlimited Blade Works!"

The cry rang out across the street as the final layer of Rho Aias was reached, in an instant fire shot out across from where Archer stood, consuming him, Gilgamesh, Shirou and Illya.

Illya recognised the chant, having heard him use the same thing against the Berserker class card. She'd seen what Archer could do in this place, hope blossomed in her chest that they could actually win against this guy.

Shirou was having a completely different reaction. His head was burning as he gazed across the landscape, as if he felt his entire being just click. There was this world, the world he had nightmares about for the past few weeks. It was real. He was both horrified at this revelation and relieved that it was a real world. That and it felt right to him. He understood, on a basic level, how this world functioned. What it truly was.

Apparently so did the Golden servant as his scowl intensified as he glared down at Archer from across the field of swords.

"Dragging me into this repulsive place." He raised his hands, the space behind him filled with golden portals "A fake world generated by a Faker. A mongrel who parades around wielding the tools of others."

"Oh?" Archer smirked "That sounds rather hypocritical, King of Heroes. Unless you mean to tell me you forged all those weapons in your treasury."

Gilgamesh's face was instantly awash with murderous intent. He made to snap his finger when Archer threw out his hand first.

Hundreds of swords shot out from the ground, slamming into the golden portals and cutting them off before Gilgamesh could fire any weapons. The Golden haired servant snapped to look behind him, his eyes narrowed although Archer noted that Gilgamesh looked as if he had expected that form of response.

Something which did not bode well.

"Tch." Gilgamesh clicked his tongue, Shirou and Illya emerging from behind Archer to glare down at him. He didn't even spare them a glance, focusing all his murderous intent on Archer alone. The tanned servant took the glare in stride, responding with a mocking smirk as he projected his married blades into his hands.

"There's no need to stand on ceremony, King of Heroes." Archer levelled his sword at him "You are in my world now, so tell me...Do you have enough swords in your treasury to match me?"

"Heh." Gilgamesh released a scoff, a sneer forming on his face as the sky behind him turned golden, hundreds of portals opening up, weapons of all types emerged from them. Even Archer furrowed his brows at the sheer scale of weapons, it was far more than he was expecting. "You think too highly of yourself, Mongrel."

Archer sent a single thought throughout his Reality marble, hundreds of blades rose from the ground, turning themselves skywards and towards the portals. He and Gilgamesh continued to stare at eachother.

Gilgamesh raised his hand, pressing his middle finger and thumb together.

The world was silent until Gilgamesh snapped his fingers, the sound echoing throughout the entire world.

Then the swords fell.


Chloe ducked down, the sword slicing through the air where her head had been moments prior. Her eyes went wide as she watched several strands of white hair float to the ground, barely having a moment to recover before Berserker was upon her again.

If Archer was skilled as sword play, then Berserker was masterful at it. Every movement he made was fluid, a parry would work its way into a strike and every block became a counter. Chloe would admit, then and there, that she was outmatched completely by Berserker.

The servant released another roar as he brought the sword down, Chloe raised Kanshou and Bakuya to block the strike, gritting her teeth as the blow instantly brought her to her knees, the muscles in her arms protesting against the force being exerted by the servant. She released a cry of effort as she attempted to push the sword to the side, for the briefest of moments, hope blossomed in her chest.

The weight of the blow lightened ever so slightly as the sword was pushed to the left, she brought Kanshou out from underneath Berserkers blade and went to slash at his chest. For the scarcest of moments, she believed she was going to get him.

That hope quickly came crashing down, as did Berserkers shin. The servant span on his heel, raising his right leg as he did and slammed his armoured boot into the side of her ribs.

With all the force of a truck, Chloe felt the air leave her body in an instant, without the oxygen left to scream, all that was left was her silent gasp of pain and the sound of a cannon going off as Berserker kicked her through the air, slamming head first through a tree and then into the ground.

She desperately attempted to get oxygen back into her lungs, although when she opened her mouth to breath in, all that emerged was a mix of blood and vomit spewing from her mouth. Her side was in absolute agony as the dark mark of Berserkers boot formed a horrific bruise on her.

She'd definitely broken some ribs.

The clumping of metal getting louder registered in her mind that Berserker was getting closer, she attempted to push herself up however quickly discovered that she didn't even have the strength to move her arms.

All she could do was turn her head in the direction of the sound. A black shadowed boot slammed into the ground in front of her, her eyes trailed up the misty armour and stared directly into the face plate of the servant. Red visor glared down at her before Berserker brought up his weapon, twisting it around so the tip was facing downwards towards her.

At this point she was desperately begging her body to move, tears forming in her eyes as she struggled and clawed for any meagre sliver of power to try and move to the side, or escape the servant.

She found nothing.

Berserker thrust the sword downwards.

When it was scarcely a few centimetres from her head, there was the sound of metal being struck. Her eyes widened as the purple haired woman in the business suit slammed a glowing fist into Berserkers side, her expression strained indicating it had done some damage to her.

Nothing compared to Berserker, who had been thrown off Chloe and to the ground. The purple haired woman spared her a glance, then clicked her tongue "She is incapacitated. Recommend you withdraw her."

"I know that." She heard Luvia call out, then felt someone grip her shoulders and pull her away, she was dragged along the ground towards a nearby tree and propped up against it, the blonde haired magus cast a cursory glance over her injuries and scowled "You're in terrible shape. Where's Miyu?"

Being incapable of speech due to the burning sensation in her lungs, Chloe weakly raised a finger and pointed past Berserker. Luvia followed her line of sight and caught a glimpse of the dark haired young girl slumped against a tree at the opposite end of the small clearing.

There was a growling sound as Berserker returned to his feet. In the commotion, he'd dropped his sword, the weapon quickly dissipating into motes of light, much like one of Archer's weapons.

Bazett assumed a combat stance, measuring up Berserker's appearance. Her first punch had definitely affected him in some capacity, although it hadn't come without cost. It was nothing like punching on the Class Card shadow servants. Her knuckles still stung from punching him, if she had anything to compare it to, it would be punching a tree without any reinforcement to her hands.

Which was telling, considering she was currently packing enough force in one of her fists to kill a man with a single blow.

Bazett cast a glance at her secret weapon, still within its tube and to the side. It was useless as it was, unless this servant was using a constantly active Noble Phantasm it wouldn't activate.

Berserker looked at her, and then to Luvia before returning his gaze to her.

Then Berserker charged forwards, Bazett widened her eyes and threw her body down, only barely able to avoid the punch aimed at her head. She responded by slamming a punch of her own into his chest, causing the servant to let out a growl and swing his other arm around towards her.

Bazett met his punch with one of her own, performing an uppercut with her left hand to counter his over the shoulder punch with his right. The two fists met with a small shockwave, Berserker quickly proving the superior of the two when he pushed his body forwards, sending Bazett flying back.

The woman grit her teeth, flipping her body around to land on her feet and shooting out her right hand to grip onto a tree. Pulling back her other hand as she landed, she clenched it into a fist and punched at the tree she had grabbed. Shattering the wooden trunk and sending it falling over, Bazett gripped it with her other hand and with a cry of effort, turned her body around and picking up momentum before throwing the tree at Berserker.

The Servant swung the back of his arm upwards, obliterating the projectile and throwing himself through the wooden shrapnel.

Something caught his attention, sliding to a halt and raising his arms to guard his head. Seconds later, a red gem slammed into his guard and exploded violently, sending his skating backwards along the dirt.

Luvia blinked in surprise before a bloodthirsty grin split her face "It seems this Servant lacks decent Magic Resistance."

"So it seems." Bazett commented as Berserker lowered his arms, Red Visor locking onto to Luvia "Keep your distance and use ranged attacks. I will run interference."

"Grrrrraaaaahhhh!" Berserker threw back his head, releasing a roar of anger before charging at Luvia, the blonde haired woman released a cry of alarm as the servant crossed the distance between the two of them in an instant.

Cocking his fist back, he loomed over the Finnish girl and threw the arm forwards.

Luvia instinctively closed her eyes, then opened them again after hearing the telltale sound of metal striking metal. She looked down to see the small form of Miyu standing in front of her, Excalibur raised in a guard and blocking the fist.

"Miyu!?" She exclaimed in surprise at seeing the young girl conscious and on her feet "What are-!"

"I will work with the other woman." She cut Luvia off, voice strained as Berserker applied more force to his fist "Follow her plan."

"Wh-"

"Miyu-sama is correct, Luvia-san." Sapphire called out "The two of you alone are no match for this Heroic Spirit. Myself and Miyu-sama shall assist as best we can."

"Fine." Luvia nodded, throwing herself back "But don't take risks Miyu!"

"Understood." She replied, narrowing her eyes at the Berserker.

The servant leaned down towards her so that their faces were only a few feet apart "Arrrr….tttthhhuurrr…" he groaned out in a low tone of voice, sounding far more menacing than his cries of rage.

Miyu grunted as the servant pushed her back, his punch blasting past her guard and continuing along its original path, slamming into the ground between them as the younger girl skated backwards.

"Miyu-sama, this opponent is stronger than the manifested Berserker and Saber card." Sapphire informed her "I would recommend avoiding taking his attacks directly."

"Understood." Miyu nodded, the Berserker servant glared at her before he jumped back, landing next to a tree.

Miyu blinked in surprise, then narrowed her eyes as Berserker reached up and clasped one of the low hanging branches, abruptly snapping it off and holding it like a sword. Red lines quickly spread across the branch originating from his hand.

"Miyu-sama...that branch." Sapphire sounded more panicked "I believe he has turned it into a weapon on par with a Noble Phantasm."

Miyu had little time to respond before Berserker charged forward, the girl widened her eyes and raised her weapon. Berserker slammed the branch down towards, her Miyu grit her teeth and pushed her sword to the side at the last moment, parrying the blow, turning her grip on the sword, she swung it upwards. Golden light arched through the sky as it sailed towards the Servant.

Berserker growled, leaning back and allowing the sword to sail past his head. Miyu, however, stepped to the side just as Luvia threw several gems at him.

Still in the process of avoiding Miyu's counterstrike, the Berserker was left little time to avoid the gems from slamming into his chest and detonating. He released a cry of anger as he was pushed backwards, swinging his weapon through the cloud of smoke in front of it to dissipate it.

He locked onto Miyu again before he turned his head to the side, sending a glance over his shoulder, only to see Bazett launching a fist towards the back of his head. He tilted his head to the side, meaning her punch went wide, and swung his branch towards her midsection.

Bazette swung her free hand to meet the branch, gritting her teeth as she pushed against the force of the strike, sending her backwards through the air.

Miyu rushed forwards, hoping to take advantage of the distraction and swung her sword upwards towards the Berserkers chest. The servant's free hand lashed out and clasped itself around her wrist, Miyu widened her eyes and let out a cry of alarm as the Servant lifted her off her feet and swung her through the air.

Throwing her like a projectile and sending her crashing into Bazett, both releasing a grunt of pain as they impacted eachother and were send crashing into the ground.

Berserker whirled on Luvia, the blonde haired magus in the middle of preparing another gem before she found herself the centre of attention to the large servant. The black knight released a growl and threw himself at her.

Jumping through the air towards her as she jumped backwards. He was still in the air when he swung his branch to the side, blocking a fast moving projectile. The resulting explosion of the two hitting eachother still sent him flying into a tree, although he had avoiding taking the blow head on.

Luvia blinked in surprise, then sent a glance in the direction the projectile came from, only to see Chloe propped up against a tree, black bow in her hand and strained expression on her face "That…" she coughed out "That instinct he has it too unfair…" she whined.

"Chloe?" Luvia called out in surprise, then shook her head and steeled her expression, turning back to the Berserker as he picked himself up from the ground "Can you provide support?"

"...Yeah…" Chloe replied, voice still tinged with pain "But don't ask me to do anything strenuous...I'm not in the best shape…"

"Understood."

"Grrrr…" Berserker growled, rising to his feet again. Red visor snapped up to see the four opponents in front of him. Miyu and Bazett having gotten back up and into their stances, with Luvia and Chloe at the back, the latter preparing another arrow.

Berserker released another roar of anger before he threw himself forwards towards them.


Zouken was angry.

No, he was furious.

It was supposed to be simple, kill the Archer servant. Grab the Grail Vessel and then take her to the Greater Grail and summon it, then he would have realised the Makiri dream. Instead the entire night had turned into a complete disaster.

They had been on the verge of finishing off the Archer servant, it would have been a simple task of killing him then retrieving the girl.

And yet another servant had arrived and attacked the Vessel, forcing him to have Sakura withdraw Berserker and rush off to try and save the Grail vessel. Then the vessel was isolated, only a couple homunculus and a young magus to protect her, taking her would have been easy.

Should have been easy.

Instead, the servant lived up to its namesake and began actively trying to kill the Vessel the second she applied one of those cards into her body. Presumably one the servant had history with considering he kept screaming a name every few minutes.

He was left in a dilemma.

He could have Sakura withdraw Berserker and wait for a more opportune time, or he could deal with the opponents he now faced and risked the Vessel being damaged rather that risk the possibility of losing her to the other servant.

He cast a glance at Sakura, the girl was on the ground, panting heavily as Berserker took more magical energy from her. She had good capacity, enough to maintain Berserker for a decent amount of time.

But it wouldn't last, she was already showing the signs of him turning into a burden. If she died from mana exhaustion, or Berserker burned himself out, he would lose any opportunity to safely capture the Grail Vessel.

He took in a deep breath, looking through the familiars nearby.

To make matters worse, he had the Tohsaka brat and the Magus killer to deal with. The Magus Killer, despite his moniker, wasn't a serious concern right now. The man likely hadn't planned for an encounter with a servant and would be playing his cards cautiously.

No, what he was worried about were the local Executors.

And he knew that Kotomine was waiting for any excuse to kill him, the Tohsaka girl had already no doubt called the priest, but it would take time for him to arrive.

The next few minutes were crucial.

"Sakura." Zouken growled out, the girl raised her head to give her grandfather a tired look "Use a Command Seal." he ordered "Make Berserker win and retrieve the vessel, by any means necessary."

"Y-yes...Gra-grandfather." The girl nodded, panting out, raising her left hand with the red seals on it "By the power of my command seal…" the symbol on her hand glowed red as one of the petals fluttered out.


The sound of steel smashing against steel echoed out throughout the field of blades.

Every time a golden portal opened to fire forth a weapon, a copy would spring from the ground and intercept it. Thousands of steel arrows sailed through the side, some smashed against eachother and shattered into pieces while others exploded in balls of fire or ice.

Gilgamesh's face slowly became awash with anger, his red eyes tracking the three opponents in front of him.

Illya stuck close to Shirou, the red haired boy using the axe sword in his hand to shield himself and her from the few blades that got past Archer's interception.

The white haired girl would occasionally emerge from behind her brother to fire forth a barrage of mana projectiles at the Golden servant.

Gilgamesh grit his teeth, waving a hand in front of him and causing a shield to come into being, the ornamental thing blocked the beam of mana aimed at him before a crack split down its centre.

"Tch!" He clicked his tongue, mentally calling forth more swords to rain down upon the pair.

Only a third of the weapons he called for actually manifested, Archer had seen more portals open up and with a mental command, he had slammed his copied swords into the portals before the weapons even left their treasury. Those that did were quickly intercepted by their duplicates.

Gilgamesh whirled on Archer, the tanned servant racing across the field towards him, black and white swords gleaming as their sailed through the air and intercepted the weapons shot towards him.

Archer was concentrated on two different things, he had directed most of his blades to keeping Illya and Shirou safe, he could use his natural servant reflexes to deal with the weapons fired at him, or those that made it past whatever swords he saved for himself.

Bit by bit.

Inch by inch.

The trio were closing in on Gilgamesh, much to his apparent fury.

"Damn you!" Gilgamesh roared, with a wave of his hand the sky was filled with portals, weapons of all varieties emerged and flew out towards them. "Damn you!"

Archer smirked, sliding to a halt and throwing out his hand, thousands of blades rose at his command, turning upwards and shooting towards their original counterparts at the subsonic speeds, slamming into eachother in a crashing wave of steel.

"Damn you! Damn you! Damn you!" Gilgamesh repeated, his mask of arrogance slipping from his face and being replaced by and expression of genuine anger "To think I would be forced to go this far by mere fakes!"

Internally, Gilgamesh was more furious than he let on. He had already been aware of the capabilities of this world because of the encounter the raider had with the faker of the previous world. That Mongrel had already proven he could match the doll when wielding his power, forcing her to use his greatest weapon against him.

Gilgamesh wasn't that Mongrel doll. He didn't need to resort to unveiling that sword to win. He could deal with Fakers himself with only his Gate. Or so he had thought. It was maddening, infuriating even, that he had to admit that it made no difference whether it was him or the doll using the Gate.

This wretched place could match him.

The trio were closing in on Gilgamesh, they all knew it.

The distance between all of them had been gradually diminishing until it was scant more then twenty metres between them.

Shirou swung the axe sword upwards, slamming away the weapons aimed at him. There was the briefest of gaps in the Golden Servants defences.

Shirou took advantage of it.

He threw himself forwards at insane speeds towards Gilgamesh. The Golden servant narrowed his eyes at him, opening several portals all around him.

Instead of weapons, chains flew forth, Shirou felt the class card react violently to them, as if there was something about them which posed a significant danger to him beyond being chains.

However, before they could get to within a few feet of him, he heard Illya's voice cry out behind him.

"Schniden!" She swung Ruby in an arc, a curved line of mana shot forth from the Mystic code, shooting ahead of Shirou and slamming into the golden portals, destroying them and cutting off the chains before they could wrap themselves around him.

"You!" Gilgamesh roared, not even sparing Illya a glance as he thrust his hand into a golden portal behind him and ripped a sword free, he swing the blade down as Shirou swung the slab sword upwards.

The two clashed, Shirou demonstrating albeit slightly weaker strength than the Golden servant, but not my much.

"Impossible!" Gilgamesh sneered down at Shirou, locking eyes with the younger boy "I'm being forced back, by mere thieves and fakers!?"

His red eyes caught sight of something in his peripheral vision, he cast a quick glance just in time to see Archer charging towards him.

Gilgamesh snarled, forcing the sword locked with Shirou down and then delivering a kick to the boys chest. Shirou coughed he was sent to the ground before Gilgamesh whirled around to face Archer, three portals opening up behind him and shooting forced several hammers.

Archer's face remained impassive as he effortlessly batted the three weapons away with the married blades.

Gilgamesh's face began strained, bringing his sword to bare on Archer, who clashed against the weapon.

"I shall grant you this, Faker." Gilgamesh spat out the word "You are stronger than I, in this world alone."

Archer smirked, snapping the swords to the side and disarming Gilgamesh.

He snarled, opening up portals above him and shooting forth dozens of weapons down on Archer, his form being obscured by the carnage. However, he soon emerged on the opposite side of the dust cloud, having thrown himself away from Gilgamesh.

Archer raised his hand again, calling forth dozens of swords behind him and shooting them forwards.

Gilgamesh opened up an equal number of portals to match, however before he could fire them, Illya cried out again.

"Scatter Feuer!" Ruby was swung in a frantic arc, realising dozens of projectiles which impacted the portals and cancelled them out, Gilgamesh widened his eyes in alarm, fixing Illya with a murderous glare which stopped her in her tracks for a split second before his eyes turned back to the swords barely feet from him.

Raising his arms, he covered his head as the swords slammed into his armour and the area around him. The armour doing its job and protecting him from any serious damage.

Gilgamesh was, at this point, angered beyond all belief. He had spoken true, the Faker was stronger than him in this world. Which meant he need only remove it from the equation, loathe as he was to admit it.

The doll had the right idea.

His hand reached in to the portal again, gripping the handle of a sword with a large guard.

Shirou got to his feet, charging the dust cloud where Gilgamesh had been, he raised the slab sword above his head as he got to within several feet of the cloud. The dust began to settle, revealing the outline of the servant and parts of the golden armour.

Shirou hefted the sword, a technique coming to mind.

At this range, there was no chance of Gilgamesh avoiding the attack and his armour could not protect all of him.

"Nine Li-"

The rest of the dust cleared.

Archer felt his heart stop.

Shirou found himself face to face with a sword, or what appeared to be a sword. Except it wasn't. It had more in common with a drill than any other weapon he had seen.

The blade, if it could be called that, were three black cylindrical segments with red lines running down it, resting at the top was a golden spiked point. The weapon levelled at Shirous head.

He had barely begun to swing his own sword when Gilgamesh spoke.

The words were scarcely a whisper.

And yet in that one moment, the field of blades was quiet enough that everyone heard them.

"Enuma Elish."


AN: OOF!

Shirou just took Ea to the face!

But yeah, clearing up some confusion, this is not the Gilgamesh from UBW. This is the Gil from Miyuverse. As for why he remember things, its for the same reason that Kid gil could remember stuff.

So why is he here?

Well, when Zouken summoned Berserker Lancelot, he enacted a proper Holy Grail War, and with the corrupted Gilgamesh still here providing a Catalyst.

We ended up with a HF Assassin incident.

Also another thing people were pointing out. At no point did I write that God Hand was the slab sword. I said his body was small enough to use it as a shield.

And before anyone says 'wasn't it just some piece of rock? How could it deflect Gils treasures?' I'll have you know that Berserker used it to duel Excalibur.

And also used it to block Gils treasures in the UBW anime.

But yeah, probably won't have another chapter out before the end of the year.

So…

Merry Christmas!