Author's Note:

Hello and thank you for waiting, this new chapter was late because of the lack of reviews on the last one, maybe this one will do better? I hope you enjoy it.

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Droplets of blood dripped into the forest's grassy floor, it was all a very fast sequence of events…

Assassin, or what remained of him, was subjected to a flurry of stabs and cuts.

Each spear that touched him pierced through his flesh and took a chunk with it as if cursing his very existence to an eternity of torture.

The already-mindbroken Assassin wished with all of what remained of his sanity that the next stab took his life instead of simply harming his body.

He begged his Master to summon him back with a command spell, but the other end of the telepathic communication was always silent.

With nothing but half a body remaining, the once able bodied Assassin was nothing more than a hunk of flesh and splintered organs.

The purple glance of the queen of shadows was fixed at him, bloodthirsty spear in hand, and then the throwing technique was put to play.

Gáe Bolg Alternative, the technique that reverses Cause and Effect to always pierce the opponent's heart, refined and reworked to match the Queen of Shadows' body structure and abilities.

The spear traversed the distance between the two servants in an instant, but was interrupted by a red glow shining from the servant before the silent part of the telepathic link finally spoke.

"Come."

The voice said, in a commanding tone.

A contradiction.

In a normal situation, the servant commanded would be subjected to physical pain if they rejected the order of a command spell or were otherwise unable to fulfill it.

But the pain coursing through Assassin's half-body was already flooding his nervous system, there was nothing that could make him feel any pain stronger than that.

The spear was supposed to always land, but the command spell was absolute too.

What happens when an unstoppable force is faced with an immovable object?

The command was impossible, but it had to take effect.

The command spell took effect but in a way that satisfied both logical conclusions.

Assassin did not get hit.

He was teleported away in one flash of crimson light.

But his heart, his host was still there, impaled with a crimson spear.

The light faded, the purple hair of the Queen of Shadows settled back on her shoulders and neck as she dismissed the rest of the spears summoned.

The half-body that was the Host of Assassin dropped on the ground like a potato sack, unmoving, while Lancer just stood there, motionless, the will of the predator, the urge of the hunt finally satisfied in her.

After a moment's silence, the crimson spear embedded into the host of Assassin vanished into mana particles, accompanied with Lancer returning a stare towards Archer.

"Something's wrong… Proceed with caution."

Spoke Lancer, addressing the party that was already heading to examine the remains of Assassin.

Shiki was ticked off about this whole thing, he knew Assassin was an abomination that had a poor soul as its prisoner. He thought that maybe, if he had a chance to see the Death Lines of the abomination again, maybe he could have separated the two without killing the host.

Rin gasped as she knelt to examine the body, but immediately recoiled as it started to shriek and shake as if possessed.

"This is- Watch out!"

Archer all but shouted as he pulled Rin back just in time to avoid getting her hand chopped off by a bladed wing of a bug familiar.

Shiki was stunned at the display, his thought process stopped, to be replaced by a whole new mindset.

[This is the Holy Grail War… Even corpses cannot escape its horrors, huh…]

The familiar crawled out of the body, followed by another, and a third, then a fourth…

A whole horde of blade wings emerged from the once host of Assassin.

There was no time to talk or express surprise.

Rin charged a Gandr on her fingertips and fired, hitting the first three blade wings and frying them. The others evaded, rushing her shortly after, but Archer was quick enough to grab her and leap backwards, opening the way for Shiki to go on the offensive.

"HAA!"

Shiki let out a muffled breath that sounded more like a battle cry as he lunged forward in one quick motion, slashing through the insects in a violent rush of adrenaline.

He swung and swung, cutting through this one's mandibles, and this one's wings, precision was key, the enemies were too small for a mistake on his side to go unpunished.

He knew, one small mistake and it'd cause him a limb or worse.

But with each insect downed, two more would follow, as the remains of Assassin did not stop producing them.

"Move away! Kid!"

Archer's words ringed in Shiki's ear before he made a quick dash, retreating from the hoard of raging insects.

"Caladbolg!"

Archer screamed the name of the spiral sword that became an arrow to his bow, overloaded with magical energy and transformed to a broken phantasm.

[Caladbolg, the spiral sword of Fergus Mac Ròich, the once king of Ulster… Just who are you, Archer?]

Scáthach silently noted as she readied herself.

The string was released, the spiral sword traversed the distance in an instant and broke into a massive heat dome.

Flames engulfed the bugs and the corpse alike.

Shiki was about to get caught in the explosion or at least be hit by the debris, if it wasn't for Lancer's quick reaction, she grabbed him and dodged away instantly after the explosion.

The flames burned and crackled. The ringing in Shiki's ear stopped after a bit, his thoughts still in shambles.

"Is it over?"

Rin asked as she stared at the massive hole in the ground, flames still crackling in the perimeter, with a look of pity in her eyes…

"It seems like so..."

Shiki replied as he kicked a small stone that was next to the place where Lancer dropped him.

"...But what the hell happened? How did Assassin escape?! How did that corpse get inside of him and why did it have bugs inside of it?!"

Then the voice of Caster interrupted him, inside his own head.

"Master! I sense a great disturbance coming from your direction. You must get out of there immediately! Run as fast as you can!"

But before anyone could say anything, the flames were extinguished in one freezing gust of wind.

Silence accompanied by a frosty breeze took over the place, as everyone focused on this new arrival.

"What… the fuck…"

Shiki and Tohsaka whispered to themselves simultaneously.

A black existence, a dark void of infinite raging tendrils that looked like strips of cloth, tainted with crimson blood.

Shivers ran down the spine of every single person that looked upon the new shadowy figure that was emitting simple, unmistakable terror.

Rin felt her knees shake, her throat felt like she just ate asphalt, her heart raced and her mind went numb.

Shiki could not believe his own eyes, until now, even dead apostles did not have this many lines of Death.

The thing was basically entirely crimson to his eyes.

"What in the-"

Archer tried to speak as he stared into the black tornado of darkness, interrupted by a burning sensation of pain that took over all his senses.

Archer, for one moment, was standing still, the other he was pierced by the tusk of a rushing elephant.

"ARCHER!"

Rin screamed, but it wasn't heard due to the terrible roaring that immediately followed the appearance of the elephant.

"R...un..!"

Archer said as he was thrown away, blood gushing out from his wound.

Rin's brain stopped working.

Lancer bit her lip as countless red glowing eyes appeared from every corner around them.

Shiki positioned himself in a position to protect Rin, who just stood there like a statue.

"TOHSAKA! OY! WATCH OUT THEY'RE COMING!"

Shiki screamed, trying to warn Rin.

"...That's it…"

Rin silently whispered.

A whisper that had no business being heard in all of the roaring surrounding them.

She positioned herself, all of her magic circuits lighting up with green light.

The beasts appeared out of the dark corners of the forest, bears, elks, crocodiles and wild cats.

But all paled in the presence of one huge abomination.

"Hydra!"

Shouted Lancer, the beast appeared in front of her, an enormous lizard with nine heads that had glowing red eyes hanging from long shadow-like necks, connected to one murky hunk of… Chaos…

The cogs turned in Shiki's head and the idea was clear…

Nrvnqsr Chaos was still alive.

The hydra's heads bent back and forth as it let out an enormous scream that presented its many rows of teeth to everyone looking.

"Lancer! Can you handle it?!"

Shiki asked, worry made itself clear on his face.

"Ah… Leave the beasts to me… It's the… thing… that you should be worried about… "

Lancer spoke, biting her lip as she lowered herself into battle position, Gáe Bolg appearing in her hands shortly after…

"Then we'll try and make an escape, if things go south, your master can call you back with a command spell!"

Shiki basically screamed for her to hear him, before feeling something grab his arm and drag him away very fast.

Turning his head, he noticed that Rin was literally glowing as she gripped his arm. He had to try his hardest to not trip and get his face in the dirt, which wouldn't be ideal considering the horde of beasts on their tail.

Roaring continued, loud and clear, accompanied with the occasional sound of growling and metal cutting flesh.

Lancer jumped and dashed from one tree to the other, evading the countless maws underneath her, trying their best to rip her flesh from her bones.

The hydra let out a terrifying roar, as its heads leaned back, black smoke welled in its mouths before it let it out, as a dragon would breath fire.

The smoke touched the trees, which immediately caused them to melt like ice.

The cloud of death was unto Scáthach, but she used her superhuman speed and launched herself off the face of a beast that was underneath her.

Leaving a sonic boom in her wake and crushing the animal's skull.

[Sorry, my Master, I have overworked you this night. I will try to keep this brief so please, lend me your strength!]

"Open! Gate of Skye!"

Lancer announced loudly as she aimed her free hand towards the cloud of death.

The Gate of Skye, a portal to the void, opened at her signal, hungrily swallowing the hordes of beasts as well as the deadly vapor.

The hydra recoiled slightly, as it felt the fissure in reality's power attempting to drag even it's mighty figure into the infinite void.

One of its heads rushed towards Scáthach who was still midair, maw open.

Scáthach gasped as she felt the pressure on her body, one second she was in the air, the other she was between rows and rows of sharp teeth.

But she didn't let up, calling her spears, she made that hydra neck have more spikes than a cactus.

The nine headed lizard screamed in pain, its blood and body parts dropped into the ground, but that wasn't all.

Lancer knew all about hydras and their bodies, so she knew that if one loses a head, two more would grow back.

That's why she had the right tool for the job.

Placing one foot in front of the other, Scáthach traced a rune in the air, using Gáe Bolg as a staff.

Light emerged around her, keeping the lesser beasts at bay.

In one swift motion, Scáthach kicked Gáe Bolg in the air, then she leaped after it.

"Gods and beasts... mortals and eternals…"

In the break of dawn, Scáthach's figure was in the air and in the grace of a summersault, the Queen of Shadows kicked the spear again.

"Gáe Bolg Alternative!"

Scáthach announced, as the spear left this existence in a flash of light.

The beast barely recovered, it looked upon Lancer to witness the sight, like a thousand falling stars, the spears manifested one next to the other in incredible speed directed at the beast's necks, faces and eyes, hell even the beasts surrounding them weren't safe.

An infinite rain of blood-seeking spears, a bombardment capable of wiping out armies.

The Hydra screamed and shrieked, crazily shaking it's tails as its scales got pried off, black blood gushing out of it's wounds.

Then it was no more.