Fate/Division by Zero
Chapter 1
Press Start to Begin
Fuyuki City
Kiritsugu bit his lower lip as he stood in his hotel room, staring at the modern day weaponry, thinking about the strange Servant he summoned.
While he was expecting the noble King of Knights who went by the old laws of chivalry, a counter to his style of eliminating opponents in the shadows, he was still unnerved at how the grail produced this person. He was impressed to see that somehow Saber was used to accepting a quest, perhaps he had been used to taking orders instead of ordering others.
No matter where he looked, he couldn't figure out what the person was. He had an annoying fairy familiar of his own called Navi, who seemed to be the main talker out of the both of them. However, he was amazed to find his stats were incredibly high, and even had a possibility to activate an Anti-Planet Noble Phantasm, though it would require a Command Seal since he would refuse outright to use it, even on an arch-enemy.
The amount of prana needed for that would also drain Kiritsugu for at least a day.
"So, it's only possible to theoretically use it once, though I seriously doubt that there would be enough enemies that require another attack with something of that power. Not that he would allow it again as well."
Maiya Hisau nodded at her mentor, "Yes, he seems a little too…" She paused to think about what to say, "Pure-hearted shall we say?"
Kiritsugu frowned again, recalling their last few hours in the Einzbern Forest, and how Illyasviel played with Navi and Saber smiling and patting his daughter, throwing a boomerang of all things to amuse her as she chased it around the trees.
"Regardless, it is only a contingency plan…"
He shuddered when he saw the item Saber produced which would cause the calamity, and sensing the churning wrongness from that face, he told Saber to hide it away, which he did so in his remarkable bag, which defied the laws of physics on how it could hold so many items.
"How should we proceed?" Maiya asked.
"First task is observation, we find out as much as we can about the Masters, their current locations and then strike them down one by one." He picked up a sniper rifle and proceeded to check the scope and barrel, "Irisviel and Saber will be battling the Servants together, luring out the Masters who watch them."
"Understood." His assistant nodded, "What about the familiars?"
"Leave them monitoring the homes of the Tohsaka and Matou households, just in case there is any activity there." He sat on the bed opposite the guns, "Now, we wait for the first round of battles."
Later that evening
Tohsaka Manor
The quiet of the night was boosted by the special boundary fields protecting the gardens of the home of one of the Three Families.
Assassin stood outside the fields, staring down the hedges and sensing the security measures from sheer instinct. Smirking, he leapt in and immediately ducked as a magical surveying stream whisked by his hood, then another suddenly following it, sensing a change in the wind patterns, which he allowed it to flow by his side.
Dodging to his left, Assassin proceeded slowly and somersaulted, slid and jumped forwards in order to disable the fields around the home by breaking the final crystal.
Thrusting out a dagger from within his belt, he managed to shatter the glowing red crystal, only for his arms to be shot up at the shoulders, elbows and wrists.
"Guh!" He stared up at the house and saw the tired eyes of a man standing on the rooftop.
"Did you really think you could get in here without me noticing this?"
Archer pointed his dual Berettas at Assassin, whose arms were now more or less useless.
"I cannot die, not like this!" Assassin readied his legs, only to feel his body grow colder, and the night already becoming more forbidding, even for a Heroic Spirit. Archer also looked around and moved his aim off Assassin.
"Is this your Noble Phantasm, you think a little cold is going to stop bullets?"
He pointed the guns at the Servant, only to falter at what stood behind him.
Assassin felt another chill, one which he associated with death, and blurred to the side as a gigantic blade just missed his fingertips.
The growling grew from the two meter tall man behind him, even as the hail of bullets began from Archer, only to bounce off the metal pyramid-like helmet, sparks indicating they weren't penetrating it.
"The boundary field is gone..." Assassin spoke out, "It allowed this one in..."
Assassin and Archer looked at each and nodded subtly, a temporary truce restored.
The familiars of three other Masters, and one other strange device, watched the battle with a growing sense of unease.
Uncaring of any of the protocols, Berserker simply lunged towards Assassin, who brought out a golden sphere the size of a bowling ball with markings on it, his arm healed back up to normal.
"Apple of Eden."
With those words uttered, he was shredded into pieces from the blade wielded by Berserker, and was replaced with five other Assassins surrounding the new Servant, each holding the same ball, before hiding them away.
Berserker didn't care, and started to swing the blade into the clones, slashing into two of them, splitting them in half, only for them to vanish with smirks.
A sword and three daggers were thrown into the unprotected back of Berserker, and several more bullets from the closing Archer impacted into his chest.
"▀██▓██▄▄▬▬▬!"
His roar was enough to make the house tremble. Much to the dismay of the two sane Servants, the injuries inflicted on Berserker made no difference to his movements, as the entry wounds and stabs healed slowly.
Most disturbingly of all, the wounds didn't bleed.
"Fine, to hell with this..." Archer spat, and threw his Berettas to the ground, and pulled out two Ingrams, and proceeded to pump bullets into Berserker, the fully automatic small machine guns sent a flood of bullets into the creature.
As he distracted the monster, Assassin went around to his back and lunged in, stabbing him through the nape with a hidden blade. The tip of the knife appeared on the other side of the neck, but again resulted in no reaction.
Twisting his body rapidly, Berserker slammed the flat of his heavy sword into Assassin. Feeling his ribcage crack, Assassin was propelled backwards, and slammed against the walls of the Tohsaka Manor.
"Shit!" Archer moved in further and dispensing of the Ingrams and pulled out a sawn-off shotgun.
He ran in towards Berserker and muttered to himself when the giant blade neared his neck.
"Bullet Time."
Milliseconds turned into seconds, seconds turned into minutes.
Archer smirked when he simply angled his head to avoid the blade, then whilst leaning backwards he fired the shotgun twice. Uncaring if Berserker felt that, he swept under another horizontal slash and reloaded the gun. He did this whilst spinning around in a crouched pose, his jacket flaring behind him with a flourish as the new ammo flew out of his inner pocket. He opened the back of the gun and refilled it even while the spent shells were still centimetres away from where they were ejected from.
Slamming it into Berserker's chest, the barrels placed against his heart, he fired both shots within seconds.
"▄▬▓██▓████▀!"
"Heh... So you can feel pain." Archer chuckled as he leapt backwards avoiding another blade strike, Berserker's cry of agony distinctive from his previous yell of anger.
Only to avoid a thrown knife which he parried with the butt of his shotgun.
"You think you're going to win, Assassin?" He asked out loud to the shadow behind him without turning away from Berserker, "Run while you can, I will kill you and your treacherous Master soon enough."
Spitting out blood, the white clothed Servant backed away and then vanished into the darkness.
At this time, the hedges and plants in the garden started to die and the tiles cracked up for no apparent reason.
Archer noticed this and saw that they were dying of overexposure to age, the plants withering at an accelerated rate as if they were parched of water, the tiles weathering away as though exposed to the elements for years.
All of this seemed to come from Berserker, which was the centre of the ruin.
The hole in his chest from the powerful buckshot was healing fast, but apparently he was unable to move his legs as yet, though his arms were still mobile, flailing to prevent Archer's bullets from striking him.
Archer made a decision, and a very drastic one. Running into the Manor, he went to his Master.
"We have to get out of here, now."
Tokiomi raised his eyebrows, "I saw what happened. Is Berserker that much of an opponent?"
"Yes, but I have a way to defeat him, though I can't use it here, we need more space for that attack." He watched outside the window as the majority of the garden now succumbed to the strange emission of Berserker, "In the meantime, while Assassin may not appear to be dead any more, the Familiars around the house can tell now that we are enemies outwardly with Kirei." He bit his lower lip, "Your home has no boundary field any more, and Berserker is going to be heading inside in less than a minute. The last thing we need is your own home destroyed, let alone another Master taking advantage of this."
Tokiomi mulled this over and nodded, "Agreed. I have a backup with the same boundary fields elsewhere in Fuyuki, which we can use for now. We can return in the morning here to restore the fields here to maximum."
Picking up his cane with the crystal in it, Archer pointed the shotgun at the window behind him and blasted the glass away, carrying his Master outside and leaping the nearby buildings to the destination in his mind.
When they were above the building, leaping from one to another, and when he was sure they weren't being followed or listened to, Archer smiled, "You know, in reality I couldn't really do things like this kind of high jumping. Perhaps my legend made me seem superhuman in some way."
Whilst being carried over the buildings with Archer's arm looped beneath his shoulder and around his back, Tokiomi spoke up.
"You are a Heroic Spirit, Max." He answered, "A person whose deeds have inspired people and helped the course of human history in some form. With time, even the most mundane of people have been revered as great men, making their feats much more larger than life." He realised that he may have sounded condescending and went on, "Your marksmanship was excellent, and you were not injured once during that battle, even when you went in close quarters, which is more than can be said for Assassin whose class is specialised in that."
"Thanks, Master." Archer replied, then turned serious, "I wasn't actually expecting Assassin to continue the attack at the end, which was surprising." He angled his head to his side to glance at Tokiomi, "I'm an expert at noticing things about people, given my past." He carefully picked his words, "Beware of Kirei."
This mildly shocked the Tohsaka head, "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, he is not to be trusted." Archer grit his teeth, "His eyes are dead, without passion. We've spent a lot of time together as a group and individually in order to make this plan work, and I didn't like what I saw. I've met people like him, those who 'feel' nothing their whole lives. Since they themselves experience no joy, they are envious of those who possess it." Archer slowed down as the neared the hideout, "People like that will only find enjoyment through creating misery in others. The last attack by Assassin was actually meant to kill, and wasn't simply for the purpose of acting. Kirei most likely told him to do so."
"I see... Schadenfreude..." Tokiomi pondered this over, "He hasn't shown any outward actions towards me however."
They landed near the small house in the bounded field, preventing others from viewing their location.
"It's only a matter of time, Master. I'll be with you as much as I can. If you're alone with him, just, be careful."
Understanding the seriousness of his words, Tokiomi nodded, "I will, thank you Archer..."
Back at the Manor, during their escape, they failed to notice a grey haired man in an alleyway struggling to stand up as he watched them leave with his one working eye.
Kariya smiled, "Good, you're on the run..." He held his head, not wanting to feel the fury from Berserker again. "Berserker, well done... We'll leave it here for today. You can fight again tomorrow."
The churning of the crest worms were in time to Berserker's grinding voice.
That moment
Mion River
"No…"
Waver held his head as he relinquished control of the mouse familiar, and shuffled about on the grass at the bank of the river.
"That thing… It's not human…" He felt his hair stand on end and proceeded to grab it to rip it out, "It's going to kill us all…"
"Whatever manner of beast you saw, nothing is invincible." Rider spoke calmly, "Even the greatest of things can be tamed if you are strong enough."
Waver turned to face his Servant, "You don't get it, do you?! It's not that he was strong, but he was hideous, his insane and huge helmet..."
Rider took off his own helmet, for the first time since he was summoned, and placed it on Waver's head, where it wobbled a little due to the size difference. The boy grabbed it to keep it from toppling off, though he kept it on.
"How does it feel? You should be able to carry more things on your person, and punch stronger too."
Waver took Rider's words as they were; he didn't exactly to want to test out his punches on his Servant, nor on any other object near him.
He took a first good look at his face, now clear from the metal, and saw that it was ruggedly attractive for someone in the Western world, with a slight scar on the forehead. His long brown hair wasn't in any particular style, and gave the impression he didn't really care much for appearances like other heroes.
Rider spoke, "Now, you look like a warrior to me, with nothing to fear but that of your own."
Waver looked downwards, casting his eyes away from Rider, the helmet falling forwards a bit, "I... I don't understand."
Rider smirked, "Anyone can look frightening with a helmet, yet they are just a person beneath that mask." He looked off to the mouth of the river, "Whatever Servant you saw is undoubtedly the same."
"You didn't see how strong he was, Rider, he just shrugged off blades and bullets, like they were nothing, and he could just carry on fighting."
"So, Battle Continuation…" He murmured to himself, "A troublesome foe, though not immortal." His smile lit up his face, "Worry not, we shall eliminate him, and no harm will come to you, Waver."
"I suppose so..." His head began to heat up, though he realised it was the effect of Rider's helmet as well, keeping his temperature at a safe level. "What should we do now?"
"Now, we rest and eat, the real battles will begin tomorrow, my bones tell me this for certain."
He saw that Rider pulled out some logs and then proceeded to make a small campfire, and managed to brew a meal within moments.
"How did you do that? I can understand having the necessary pot and cutlery in the space where Servants can access, but to create a full meal by just adding some ingredients and have it finish in five seconds?"
Rider smirked, "Wait until you see my skills at smithing new weapons or armour." Handing him a bowl of the steaming broth, with a wooden spoon, he nodded, "Enjoy, it is a beef stew from my homeland."
Tentatively scooping some of it on his spoon, Waver put it in his mouth and smiled, before swallowing the morsel, savouring the flavour on his tongue.
"This is amazing!" He said after finishing his portion, "To think you can create meals this good with only minor preparation! I could run for miles with this kind of food."
"I'm not surprised, that is specifically for improving your stamina so you should be feeling ready for some action soon."
Waver nodded, "I could get used to meals like this." He passed his to Rider, "More please!"
The Servant obliged, taking his bowl and refilling it once more.
Meanwhile
Fuyuki Church
"So, we have failed in our attempt to spy on the other Masters." Risei shook his head as he stood with his son, whilst speaking into a gramophone.
"Yes… Tokiomi's voice came from the large speaker when he responded, "The unexpected side-effect of the collapse of the barrier, whilst helping the familiars of the other Masters get a good view in to see the expected death of Assassin, resulted in another Master and Servant taking advantage of it."
Assassin materialised into view, "That was a strong Servant, was it Berserker?"
Risei nodded, "Yes, his Master is Kariya Matou, I received notification from the Matou household of his registration into the war."
"Matou…" The Tohsaka head muttered that name out loud, "Of course, they would know when to strike when we were at our weakest."
The elderly priest glanced at his son, "I'm not sure if we have convinced the Masters yet that you and Kirei are rivals yet, but at least there is a discord detected. We will need to alter our plans in order to obtain the Grail."
"Correct, at the very least, we should not be seen together as allies." Tokiomi agreed, "Instead, Kirei can work on his own to eliminate other Masters or Servants."
Risei looked at Assassin, who bowed in return, "While I am not able to put up much of a fight against a normal Servant, a Master or two should be of no problem to me."
Kirei looked down, "Is it really necessary to kill the Masters?"
His father thought about it before speaking, "Technically no, however while alive they provide a link for their Servant's existence. Additionally, even if their own Servant was killed, they can form a contract with another Servant if one had recently lost their Master."
The young priest closed his eyes. "So, we are removing all possibilities of further resistance."
Tokiomi spoke again from the gramophone, "During the rush of retiring to my backup residence, we didn't notice, were the other Masters watching?"
Assassin spoke up, "One of my clones hiding away in the trees noticed four Familiars, two animals, one bat with a camera, and something else…"
"Explain what you mean by that, Assassin?" Kirei asked, not hearing of this development.
Assassin looked perturbed, "As you know, I'm provided the knowledge from the Grail of all the technology in the world currently. However, from that information, nothing in this world can match up with the device I saw in the air."
"Go on…" Tokiomi said.
"It had four metallic wings, and was small but sleek, and appeared to have a red light on the front of it. It was quite stealthy too, but not enough for it to evade my vision. Definitely mechanical and technological based construction."
The silence grew in the room until another voice chimed from the gramophone, "If there is something that cannot be explained, then all that remains is the impossible."
Risei raised his eyebrows, "What do you mean, Archer?"
"If there is something not of this time watching the battle, then it cannot belong to a Master since even Mages do not have access to futuristic technology. It would have to be someone involved with the war, since there is no reason for anyone to be monitoring the house at this time." Archer paused for a second, "It could only belong to a Servant."
Kirei spoke out, "How can that be? I mean… From the future?"
Risei grumbled, "The Holy Grail gathers heroes to fight, naturally we can only assume it selects them from antiquity. Who is to say that it doesn't find notable heroes from the future?"
"I'd hardly consider myself vintage, Father..." Archer wryly chuckled from the speaker.
"Indeed, this leads to the only possibility of a Servant from the far future." Risei finished the thought, "We have received notifications from six Masters, and only one remains unaccounted for. It must belong to his Servant."
"This is troubling." Tokiomi continued, "Why would a Master allow his Servant to conduct the search, instead of using one of his own familiars?"
Kirei nodded to himself, "The Master cannot be a skilled Mage, or may not even have any talent to that effect."
Risei scratched his chin, "Yes, in the previous wars, there has always been one Master who, whilst possessing few Magic Circuits or just plain lack of ability or training, managed to summon a Servant." He placed a hand on his son's shoulder, "We may just be dealing with one of these abnormal Masters. Since we are aware that Caster was the most recent summoning, it could be his doing, and since only six Masters have registered with me, perhaps it was the doing of the Servant of this new Master."
"We will need to be wary for this." Tokiomi noted, "Archer is already keeping watch just in case there is any other Surveyor watching us. Since a Servant is taking actions into their own hands, I recommend the Church be carefully monitored as well."
Assassin bowed, "I will keep eyes posted here at all times."
Kirei thought about the shared connection with Assassin during the battle and the shrewd face that Archer had when deflecting the blades from his own Servant in the last assault.
Frowning at the gramophone speaker and slowly placing a fist over his heart, he pondered over the odd feelings which stirred up within him.
The next day
Fuyuki City
A pale, white haired woman laughed whilst next to her companion, who smiled in return.
"Oh Saber, that's just too funny to keep a secret. I should tell Kiritsugu about it later!" She went to a window of a dress shop and pulled the boy's arm to show him.
To prevent many eyes staring at the oddly clothed Servant, Kiritsugu found a black suit which was tailored for his use. In order to hide his ears, they had to resort to a black beanie, though Saber took it upon himself to stitch a symbol on the front of it, which his Master noted was exactly the same as his Command Seals.
"I haven't had this much fun for years." She spoke quietly as they moved on from the shop, "Grandfather never let me out of the home since I was birthed."
Saber's lips thinned after hearing about the creation of his temporary charge, and may have eavesdropped a little bit about her treatment through his keen hearing.
"It is nice to be outside, with such a proud bodyguard to accompany me."
Her smile was infectious however, and Saber had to return it with a smile of his own, before indicating a small café nearby.
Skipping there, Irisviel dragged Saber with her inside and insisted on a coffee, Saber just pointed at the orange juice on the menu to the waitress, who blushed at his handsome features.
"Still, it's hard to imagine what we saw last night..." Irisviel reminded herself about Berserker out loud, without giving any details away in case they were overheard, "He scares me... I've never felt such hatred, malice and sadness in my life."
Saber reached out and held her hand, squeezing it softly, her face reddened from the contact as she turned her eyes upwards to meet his blue eyes.
Those eyebrows were tense, and his eyes were burning in a way she found it hard to describe. Whatever it was, it was enough for her to feel warm and safe.
The waitress returned with the drinks, forcing them to separate quickly. Passing them their respective drinks, she smiled and bowed politely at them.
"Enjoy your visit." The waitress said to the foreigners.
Irisviel turned away and looked out the windows, the blush spreading as she reached out for her coffee.
"This is nice..." She whispered over her drink, "A good blend."
Saber listened as he took a swig of his juice.
His temporary Master glanced at him, "I am looking forward to our time together, even though this may be the only respite we get before everything begins." Her red irises darkened slightly as she lowered her eyelids, "If only this world could remain at peace." She brightened considerably, "That is why we will win this War, for Kiritsugu to get his wish."
Saber's face tightened as he bowed his head in agreement, only to widen his eyes and snapped his head to one side.
Irisviel sighed, "Yes, it looks like we are being taunted; a battle-ready Servant is emitting prana to entice us." She shrugged, "Let us finish our drinks first; it would be rude to the establishment to leave them half full."
A few minutes went by before they managed to empty their respective cups and left the café, Irisviel leaving a generous tip for the waitress.
Walking to the port region as the sun set over the horizon, they felt the presence of the unknown Servant rise and fall, as if to signal it was waiting.
Irisviel stopped moving as Saber took a position in front of her. They were now in an industrial part of the port, where the cargo containers were left and emptied in order to be filled for their next journey.
The winds quietened down as a figure materialised in front of them. Saber cocked his head to one side, never having seen something as odd and metallic as the thing in front of him. Its six green portholes where presumably it could see from were staring at him.
It was moving its head up and down, spreading its one meaty glove to the side, then pointed at Saber, and finally to the ground. Its moans were trying to say something, but it wasn't exactly easy for them to understand, though his motions were.
"He is challenging us to a fair fight, so he must be one of the Knight classes. Most likely a Lancer since he doesn't seem to have anything like a bow." She turned to Saber, "We should oblige him. I will help keep you healed Saber, don't worry about me and fight him."
Nodding, Saber moved a little further away towards Lancer and felt for his own prana. The yellow light around him grew as the Servant conjured up his customary green armour, his black suit now consigned as a backup to change back when needed. His beanie flew backwards to be caught by Irisviel as his long hat appeared. The sword and shield appeared in the left and right hands respectively, still glowing with that light.
Feeling the connection to his real Master increase slightly, Saber knew that Kiritsugu was nearby watching them and planning his tactics already.
Holding his sword straight towards Lancer, he then held it vertically in front of himself, a form of salute, before swinging his sword to one side, shield held steady for any attack.
"Goooood." Lancer groaned out, as the green lights turned to yellow as the sound of pistons grew from his back.
Two seconds later, Saber's shield was sparking wildly as the drill pressed against it due to a sudden lunge from Lancer, his six ocular implants now blazing red.
Gritting his teeth, Saber pushed back, only for another lunge powered by steam to drag him to the side. Using his free hand, he thrust the sword at his enemy, only for the hand to simply grab his wrist, slowly crushing it.
The swordsman felt his hand get crushed slowly. "Aaaagh!"
"Saber!" Irisviel was surprised at the massive strength shown by Lancer, and his speed despite his ungainly form.
Remarkably there was still no breakage in his shield, nor was it for lack of trying, and somehow Saber was preventing it from deflecting off into his chest. His kicks were a little too puny when trying to strike the kneecap of his foe, the rubberised suit barely noticing an impact.
An unearthly voice echoed around them.
"So, you need my help after all, right?"
Saber widened his eyes and shook his head rapidly, struggling even more, as Lancer grumbled in confusion without stopping his assault.
"Who said that?!" Irisviel shouted out, only to notice that, even though the voice wasn't in any language she'd ever heard of, the words came to her clearly.
"Silly girl, let me help out your cute little Servant..."
A flash of orange brilliance came from Saber, then a large fist came from nowhere and suddenly Lancer found himself flung away into the far container opposite, embedded up to his waist.
From the shadows of Saber, a diminutive dark grey and white form with a large strange mask covering one eye, and blue runes of sorts on her arms. Her green ears extended outwards and her flaming orange hair moved behind her.
The creature grinned at Saber, her fang poking over her lower lip, "Good to see you again. Ready to beat down this fool?"
Saber breathed hard and nodded as Irisviel healed him. As the floating imp moved to the side to flank Lancer, Saber slashed outwards with his blade. Despite being far from Lancer, the blade sent out large magical sparks which homed in the on Servant, striking him.
A loud roar came from Lancer, who started for Saber, only to avoid a slamming palm from the masked girl. Saber leapt in as his chance came.
Lancer pressed his drill into the ground, and the gases from the canisters on his back let out steam and noxious fumes, and when combined with the vibrations in the ground, served to dizzy the other Servant and his familiar.
The imp flew to Saber and grabbed him even though Lancer managed to jump up and send the drill into her arm.
Crashing into the concrete paving slabs, Saber and his new familiar breathed hard.
"Ouch..." She held the stump of her arm, "I can only help you for a little longer before I need to regenerate in your shadow, okay?" She grabbed the end of her arm with her left hand and squeezed it hard, preventing more blood loss.
Both of them stood up and watched as Lancer turned to face them.
"Enough playing around Lancer, you almost killed Saber." An artificially loud voice echoed over the docks, "Remember your Noble Phantasm. Use it in this battle."
Lancer roared and steam built up on his back, leaving him in a hot fog.
"He looks mad..."
Saber nodded and prepared himself.
From the fog, Lancer lunged, faster than ever, the drill spinning like a thousand bees burrowing into their eardrums.
Saber and his familiar were about to counter-attack, only for the floating girl to be stabbed through the chest with a long needle. At the same time, Saber was engulfed in flame.
What they saw now was a lithe armoured figure, a spherical helmet with only one red porthole, staring at the thing impaled by the long syringe attached to her left arm. Her right hand was aflame and pointed at Saber for another shot, only to be scattered by his shield. She was covered in the same fog as before.
"Think a little pin can scare me?" Her hair whipped out and grabbed Lancer, and pulled her away from the thin spear.
The roar of Lancer was higher pitched now, and it vanished in a purple haze.
"What the...?" The imp looked about and frowned, "Lancer is a girl now... With more power?"
Saber meanwhile had finished patting down the flames and saw Lancer rematerialise across from them, her right hand sparking like a match.
The familiar moved to Saber's back, "Sorry, I need to rest now, she drained me of my power. See you later..."
Nodding and touching her hand, the girl blushed and melted into Saber's shadow.
Irisviel was only watching in wonder, having seen the speeds at which they moved and the powers wielded.
"Amazing... Saber..."
She was so enamoured by the display that she failed to sense a presence come up behind her, which wasn't so surprising given that this was his speciality.
His words we quiet and dignified as he whispered them into her ear.
"Laa shay'a waqi'un moutlaq bale kouloun moumkine."
Before the Einzbern lady could turn around, she felt a blade enter her back and pierce her heart, then being withdrawn quickly.
Coughing slightly, she felt her life fluid leaking from her back near her spine, and then leaking from her mouth from another cough as some got into her throat from the cutting action.
This attracted the attention of Saber, who spotted Assassin dissipate into thin air, and watched as his pale ward fell to her knees and began to tilt and topple to her side.
As her vision became blurry, Irisviel could only see Saber holster his sword as he leapt for her with his arm outstretched and mouth open, no doubt shouting her name, though her hearing had since failed.
She felt the dull impact and the world went black.
Author's Notes
A neat deviation from canon now, since I'm sure everyone is bored of the usual 'pretend Assassin died and then have Saber and Lancer fight each other to a standstill without any real casualties'. The war will be heating up in the next chapter.
For now, let us check out the detailed stats of one of the Servants, namely Archer:
Class – Archer
Master – Tokiomi Tohsaka
True Name – Max Payne
Game Series – Max Payne
Alignment – Neutral Good
Theme Song – Pain, Track 23, Max Payne 3 OST (this is the theme which I believe captures Max's pain in the series)
Battle Theme – Tears, Track 24, Max Payne 3 OST
Base Skills
Strength – C
Endurance – A
Agility – B - A+
Magical Energy – E
Luck – A-
Class Skills
Independent Action – B: Capable of remaining in this world for two days without an established contract. Also capable of living on for a short period of time after suffering extensive damage on his spiritual core.
Magic Resistance – D: Cancel Single-Action spells. Magic Resistance of the same degree of an amulet that rejects magical energy.
Personal Skills
Battle Continuation – A: Makes possible to fight even with deadly injuries and can remain alive so long as one does not receive a decisive fatal wound.
Eye of the Mind (True) – B: Capable of calm analysis of battle conditions even when in danger and deduce an appropriate course of action after considering all possibilities to escape from a predicament. So long there is even a 1% chance of a comeback, this ability greatly improves the chances of winning.
Instinct – B: Near sixth sense to feel the best course of action during battles. Lowered by one rank due to prolonged effects of alcohol and substance abuse.
Nature of a Rebellious Spirit – B: The temperament to never remain at one location and never embrace a lord. A wandering star that does not have the capacity to be king nor is capable of finding his own king. Rank is higher due to misplaced guilt from his past deeds and sins.
Salve of Man – B: Receives a massive boost to his self-healing capabilities using surgical knowhow and medicine from the modern era. Cannot cure decisive fatal injuries. Lowered by one rank due to continued use of such drugs, thus dampening the effect.
Noble Phantasms
Arsenal of Memories – Gun Retrieval
A hidden ability, and constantly active. Archer is able to bring out any gun he has handled in his life at least once and wield them accordingly. Their firepower has been boosted significantly by prana to damage Servants. Ammunition is still restricted by the size of the magazine, and he has instant access to at least two further magazines from this storage. When depleted, he will need to replace the gun with another weapon. If dropped, the gun will vanish within moments. It takes at least 30 seconds for depleted ammunition to artificially fill itself before he can use the same weapon again. Also has the advantage of removing other unrelated items for personal use, such as drinking glasses, though no consumables can be held within.
Rank: B
Type: Anti-Unit (Self) Noble Phantasm
Range: -
Maximum Target: 1 person
Bullet Time – Temporal Shifting
This power temporarily increases his agility from B to A+. Whilst outwardly similar to other localisations of time that other Mages perform, created mainly by increasing their metabolic rate and heart and muscle movements, this does not affect the user's health in any form. This is due to the fact that Archer does not increase his speed in any way. From his personal experience, Archer had obtained, thanks to his luck, the ability to tap and absorb another dimension whereby all movement beyond his being is reduced to a tiny fraction, thus allowing him to even see the trails of bullets in the air, hence the name. The strict time limit is not due to any physical strain, since the dimension closes neatly, but a simple application of the 'World' forcing back the dimension to its departure point without damaging the user. Archer can remain in this state for ten seconds, though it requires at least ten seconds to be activated again.
Rank: EX
Type: Anti-Unit (Self) Noble Phantasm
Range: -
Maximum Target: 1 person
Unknown Noble Phantasm – ?.?.?
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Rank: A
Type: Anti-Mind Noble Phantasm
Range: 1-60
Maximum Target: 10 people