Why did he show himself?

That was the question that bounced around in my mind as I sat back home at my computer. By all accounts, he had been playing the game correctly, as the master of Assassin. So then, why…? Even more so than revealing one's appearance and voice, why reveal a part of your magecraft?!

…He was messing with me; throw me off my game. After all, what information of any importance could he have possibly gained from our exchange? He can't touch me; knows he can't touch me. He already knew I was a master. By the sound of things, he already knew I knew Berserker's true name as well. Did he really think I'd just give up the information though…? No way he could be that dumb, right…?

"…Why is it that when a plan goes to shit, it always on me to pick up the pieces that remain and piece something new together…" I muttered, opening up more tabs.

So, now what? Archer and Rider are working together. Assassin could be working with them as well; either that, or Assassin's master knew about the file by association due to being a member of the Mage's Association thing. Called himself a freelancer, so I assume he must be in contact with his employer in the Association. Archer's master probably reports back, then they relay the info to the freelancer…

Basically, can't rely on Assassin being out of the picture until the end now. Can't directly match Archer and Rider. And Berserker…

"No one wants to fight Berserker though! That's just dumb!"

The police are swarming all over the city now too at night. Another unexplainable incident, and the feds might very well get called in…

"What to do, what to do…"

Time like this, a private army under my control would be nice to have. Hell, even just having eyes out in the field, relaying information, would be nice. Being the 'God of Control' means fuck all when you got jack shit to control and are always behind in the information game!

…Does it matter if I even come up with a plan though? Doubt the kids would listen to me anyways; not for a plan that was entirely mine in making.

"At least in WotH people listened to my strategies…"

Step one would be finding suitable terrain, but at this point, there really wasn't any. Keeping the police out basically invites Archer in. The sewers would keep both Archer and the police out, but if anything goes wrong down there, that's bringing in the feds, and this whole thing gets really fucked. This Association thing, or even the Catholic Church for that matter, might start actively… interfering… if it gets to that point. Even if Saber, Lancer and Rider keep their power down, would the priest who wants all magic eliminated anyways give a shit and hold back? Hell, how would we even begin to fight Rider's assassins down there? Bounds of shadows down there too, I'd bet; Assassin's master might very well take that as his opening and pop in for some fun…

"…There's just nowhere to fight anymore! Not where we stand even a remote chance of keeping things under our control!"

…Unless… unless it was wrong to try and keep things under control; all according to a designed plan?

It went against everything I knew; all known rules of risks mitigation and strategic play. After all, who just willingly lets the enemy do whatever the fuck they want? By all conventional means, that just invites disaster upon yourself! That's the quickest way to throw the game; hand your opponents the tempo for nothing in exchange!

…But…

"…But this is anything but conventional, isn't it…?"

After all, this isn't like WotH in a very important aspect: there's more than two 'teams', two sides, at play here. We don't necessarily have to respond. To anything. But the priest, and Archer's master… Maybe even Assassin's master, depending on the nature of his contract…

They would have to respond… if Berserker went… berserk…

Not fight Berserker: provoke Berserker. Get him to run amok within the city. At best, we force our opposition to confront him. At worse… well… how many command spells would it take to get a Berserker to stop rampaging? Especially one like Shaka Zulu, who's greatest instance of insanity makes cult mass suicides seem tame.

Of course, there were many unknown factors. What would the damage end up being? Would it get this Mage's Association or the Catholic Church further invested and involved? …How many people would die in that one night?

"Actually… could the police even kill Berserker?"

If we went by video game logic, then… the answer would be no, right? Only magic can harm magic and all that? Considering Heroic Spirits were magical in nature, ordinary bullets shouldn't harm them, right? But if they do, does that even matter, considering Saber, Lancer and Caster wouldn't be fighting? In fact, it would actually be better if they could harm Heroic Spirits with bullets; unlikely the masters are going to present themselves to the responding police to get shot at.

"Let's work off the assumption of no for now… Archer would probably get out of this untouched; doubt Berserker would make it all the way to Archer's territory. Also, bringing down skyscrapers would be a really bad idea; hopefully his master can also recognize that… But Rider would basically be a guaranteed response, and even with his assassins screening for him, I doubt he'd get away without taking a hit or two. …Make that a big hit or two… Archer would presumably expend mana as well, firing arrows from afar to aide Rider. Even if Assassin doesn't show, no way the other two would let Berserker go after running amok; guarantees at a minimum Berserker's elimination, if not also Rider's and maybe, just maybe, Archer's, if we're really lucky…"

Was getting Berserker to go on a mindless rampage really the best move forward? It felt so wrong, but… the more I thought about it… the more it felt so… so right…

"…Imagine… giving up control being the best way forward…"

Or was this just another type of control? The pieces may be unwilling, but they'd dance as I decreed all the same, right? Ultimately, they won't really have a choice in the matter; like it or not, they're strung. Caught up in the web. All that was left… was for me to decide when to pull the trigger…

"Oh, I haven't felt like this in so long…" I giggled to myself, beginning a new search for the perfect battlefield, under the new conditions. "This is like when I created the trump card. This is the new game five."

The new subversion of the established meta. One that would once again prove my status as the God of Control…


A/N

Wow, it's been a while ;)

Sorry about the lack of posts lately; finishing up group coding projects for uni before reading week was a unique type of hell... That, and right afterwards was Thanksgiving, and, well... even for someone like me, there's no skipping out on family events for the holidays. After all, come the end of all things, all you really have left is family. Family is always first.

Also, this is probably my shortest chapter; shorter than even some fragments, I'd bet. Two reasons for that:

Reason one for that is I sorta... wrote myself into a corner last chapter... Had no idea how to go forward from there in a satisfying way; wrote and deleted this next bit 3 different times, each time being a different idea. Finally settled on this, and I think this is a good setup for what I want to get to going forward, so I'm setting on this.

Reason two is that I didn't want to go any longer without posting! I'll find some way to make it up to y'all who were hoping for a big post after all this silence, I promise (even if it's a few chapters away, if y'all catch my drift) xD

As always, thanks to all my readers who have stuck it out to this point! See y'all in the next post!