Warning: This fanfic dealt with probably controversial themes and you may find it not suitable for you. If you still decide to read, then stay strong and brace yourself for what you are about to read. This story here happens in Arc 2 and thus may contain some spoilers.
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Chapter 13: Rising Tides
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Shirou woke up, feeling not completely invigorated at all. Although Servants don't have to sleep, conserving and recharges their mana is still an important thing to do. He then steps out of his bed and what happened next completely out of his expectation.
*splash*
"Huh?" Shirou thought as he sees water completely filled the floor but not reaching the bed itself.
Were there some sorts of flooding? But it rained for the last many years and it started flooding now of all the time? Shirou realized that something isn't right and he quickly steps out of his room.
The room that he chose to sleep is on the ground floor which is probably why he noticed that it is flooding this early. Base on the light of the window, it mustn't even daybreak yet. Something is happening and he has to do something quickly. He then jumps straight to the second floor and entered the lounge that his Master is staying. Contrary to what he expected, his Master is completely awoken.
"Master! Something is-" Shirou tried to say before Gudao puts his palm on Shirou's mouth to stop him from talking.
"I know about that! This sudden flooding can't be anything nice at all. I noticed it when I tried to walk downstairs to search for the bathroom only to be greeted with this slow rising tides of water. Or more precisely, seawater." Gudao whispers to his Servant.
"Wait!? You tasted it?!" Shirou whispered.
"Believe it or not, I quickly spew it out the moment it reached my tongue, it is not simple saltwater but in fact having the stench of death within it. I'm afraid that this is a doing of an enemy Servant. If you asking for the time then it is midnight right now." Gudao whispered with suspicion in it.
"Shall we wake up everyone and warn them about this?" Shirou said.
"Yeah, this is a contingency situation and we have to act now. This place isn't safe anymore." Gudao said.
And quickly heeding his Master words, he quickly wakes everyone up one by one. When he reached the top floor and entered the 'meeting room', he found out that Alice is still watching those movie reels while Arnold and Alfin have already fallen asleep. He then wakes them up and then shook the little girl who is still watching it. It seems that she was completely captivated by the film itself.
Soon afterward, he had everyone gathered in the meeting room on the top floor. His Master then tells everyone what might be going on right now.
"So we might have already been spotted?" Larry asked with a furrowing expression.
"I don't know, this might have just been a passive Noble Phantasm and our Master haven't been affected by it even now. But still, it is best to be on alert-" Shirou said before he noticed his Master is acting strange.
"Something is smelling... It is... fire!" Gudao said as he started to notice the smell of burning.
Shirou realized what is going on, he then quickly bursts through the wall of the building and jumped from the top floor. It was as his Master suspected, they have been spotted. Flamethrowers gathered around the place and burning the whole place down faster than an inferno burning away a 'lone tree'. Before anytime passed to him, tracing his bow and unleashes his barrage of arrows down on the enemies below. Faster than an electric-driven machine gun, he erased all of the flamethrowers beneath and signaled his allies of what to come.
They quickly followed him and they watched as the estate that they used as a shelter burning down into burning ruins. The flamethrower quickly tried to get them but they were all obliterated before they could direct their attacks.
And then everyone stands there, watched the burnt down ruins of their former shelter. Now, it is clear that they will have to fight through this one and they can't afford themselves to falter anymore.
And so, they begin this new operation against the new enemy in their faithful encounter.
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Darkest Hours
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Everyone is now moving fast as they could but they have no idea where to go exactly. The only person who could see in true darkness is Shirou with his Hawkeye activated, everyone else can only see the 5 meters ahead of them and it just cut off from there. Shirou could tell the surrounding but he can't keep acting like the eyes of the group if he wanted the team to act optimally.
Echolocation is impossible, the loud and ceaseless splatter of raindrops on the water surface completely drown out every other sound. The best they could do is wait for a bolt of lightning to illuminate the surrounding for a brief moment. At that moment, they will memorize the surroundings as best as possible.
"Everyone, I think there is something within the sounds of the rain. Is... the creaking of gears!" Shirou said as he tried to look for where it might be.
Alice then casually snaps her finger and an explosion of azure flame occurred right behind her. Within the next moment, it is just a burning heap of scrap in the color of azure. Once again, there is just no end to the surprise of her. They remembered how much it effort it took them to destroy a Panzer and Alice just snaps her finger and it is gone. It was just about to sneak up and attack from behind but she just gives it a metaphor middle finger. At this point, they find her power is too good to be true.
Self-belief and confidence in oneself is simultaneously a strength and weakness. It allows you to reach a new limit and beyond what you would think it would be possible in the first place. But however, overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer, cases of major figures died because of their egos are rampant and shouldn't be ignored.
"I think we just alerted the rest of the patrol stationed here, not that there is any way to run away from this fight in the first place. Everyone, prepare to bring them hell!" Gudao said as he roused everybody's spirit up.
And so everyone quickly jumped into action, Shirou advises everyone of where the enemy is coming based on the layout he perceived. Kiritsugu fired his flaregun at the ground ahead in order to give the slightest amount of light in order to give more vision. Irisviel formed the steel wire edges and launched them towards the incoming infantry units that the flare managed to shines on.
Five meters of vision within darkness is a massive boon for a normal person but for Servants, that is a huge blindspot. Many Servants don't fight hand-to-hand combat but resolve to ranged warfare. Five meters in complete darkness is an unimaginable disadvantage for Servant's combat against such other Servants like that. What if there is a hidden Servant in the darkness and they are prepared to fire the kill shot? That moment would be a disaster waiting to unfold.
Arnold tried to chant the poem that has given him the ability of true sight from back then. He doesn't know how long it will last but it is definitely useful in a time like this.
Relieving all of what I been through
With the last communion of my souls-
Before Arnold chanted halfway through, he heard Alice saying something.
"Shine... Illuminate!" Alice chanted her own spell.
And in that instant, his vision completely cleared up, no more darkness, all is laid bare to see. He sees everything with true detail as if he suddenly got thrown into a studio where they turned on all of the light they had. And then he turned around to his allies and suddenly they all battle with efficiencies that is completely unseen compared to the last time that they fight like this. Did this power extend not only to him but also to everyone else?
And just when they thought it would be hell to fight amidst the darkness. Suddenly, the only thing they worried is removed like pulling back the curtain in a dark room when the outside is daytime.
Soon, they decimated the incoming enemy before a minute passed. They seem to have some sort of night vision on them but it seems to not on the extent that can reach like what Alice cast. Everyone then retracts their weaponry, thinking that they might be safe for now. They need a plan that is suitable for what they are about to get into.
"So what do we do now? Just senseless killings won't get us anywhere." Shirou said.
"We will get to the fourth ring, fast. The enemy is wanting us dead and we can't afford to fight them continuously like this. Just remember the last fight against Erwin Rommel and you will quickly cast off the idea facing whoever the Nazis sent head-on." Gudao said as he moves forward.
"Master! I think we are missing two people..." Kiritsugu said.
Now that Gudao realized that there are two people missing, Pierce and Richard. He realized he can't leave them behind, they are already having trouble making it through this amount of manpower, having any less and disaster would ensue.
"Then prioritize finding them first! After that then we will bounce off this place and head for the next ring. Check for any anomaly, we have been given the gift of true sight and so don't waste it! Shirou and Kuro, follow and accompany me. Everyone else, split up evenly and search for them!" Gudao said as he sets off.
Shirou and Kuro followed their Master while the others split up. Their paths may differ now but all of them will lead to one same objective, finding Richard and Pierce. No man left behind.
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Crisis Core
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The sounds of rapid-firing machine gun were heard, it came from the man wearing an armor made out of Adamantine and firing his chimeric gun that was built from multiple different gun parts. He personally called it, the Chimera's Stinger. The bloody thing fired bullets with a firing rate that makes it look like a storm that was unleashed upon. He held onto it by the carrying handle while the other hand is holding onto the trigger like there is no tomorrow left. Not that he is wrong about there is no tomorrow left for him though.
Infantries came rushing in like a white-headed tide. His bullets just pierced through them almost effortlessly while their attacks are so pitifully weak that it just bounces off him like nothing. He for some reasons also sees things with a completely clear vision with no darkness to hinder. This also applied to Richard who is firing his lever-action rifle with a rapid speed that overrides even machine gun.
A Panzer approached and it begins to fire the machine guns at Pierce, he stood there tanking them all, swatting them off like nothing. It then begins to activate the cannon and fired it at him. Servants can deflect or even tank the machine guns that the Panzers may fire but no one in their right mind would try to tank a tank shell that is charged to deal nasty damage even to Servants. Because of that Richard quickly disengages and prepared to act accordingly.
The shell flew towards Pierce but he still stood there without even falling back or doing anything, he just confidently bracing for it as if he is sure it will do nothing to him. An explosion then followed with its shockwave created a huge smoke cloud. Richard then prepared to draw his HE Anaconda again and fired repeatedly at the Panzer, he then activated the built-in detonator and soon the Panzer blew up with the bullets stuck onto it.
The smoke soon cleared up and it shows that... Pierce is still remained unharmed, not even a tank shell into the face even make a single dent on him. That's the testament to the incomparable defense that the Adamantine armor shown for everyone.
Another Panzer shows up but this time, Pierce took the initiative and used the Grappling Hook onto the arm that he knows for sure is where the cannon is. The hook stuck into the arm and he took his chance
"Magnetic Charge - Accelerate!" Pierce thought as he pushes his heel into the ground and pulled the hook cable back with the enhanced might that the armor gave him.
And within one fell swoop, he ripped the arm of the Panzer off it. Making use of the momentum, he spins around and smacks the Panzer with its own arm which ended up heavily crumped the upper torso. No chance of survival there for the unfortunate victim.
"You seem to get down more of the basics now. You'll soon master the armor and reach its full potential soon." Richard said as he approaches him from the back.
"There are so many new features that got installed, it seems that the sky is the limit when it comes to you, right?" Pierce said as he turned around to see his Servant.
"It is not just me, it was the help of Chaldea that all of these are possible," Richard said as he picks up the pace.
"Yeah, but base from how many of them right now. I think that we might have been exposed." Pierce said.
"Good call, but how on earth did we got spotted after being assumed dead? This doesn't make any sense at all." Richard said.
While running, they looked up at the sky and realized that there are some fighter planes that move with extremely high speed in the sky and they are firing at something. And then one completely blew up in midair without anything to tell what has hit it.
"I think it is crystal clear that we got busted already," Pierce said.
And then Richard notices one that is diving at the alley they are running. He took a closer look while still running and realized that its wings are gone and the whole thing is burning. The thing is going to crash at them.
Although Pierce could tank them easily, it is unclear if there are some sorts of limits into how much things that Pierce's armor can tank. He felt that if he just intentionally tanking hit, the armor would break down when it is needed the most.
"Master! Focus all of the power at the feet." Richard said before he dashes away with hypersonic speed.
Pierce channels his thought together and tried to draw all of the power in this suit into one place. His feet. And suddenly his body enveloped in an azure aura and he felt his vision is being stretched upon. Before he realized, he is running hypersonic speed like his Servant.
His mind ached, not supposed to be able to handle such speed that he is being forced to subject to. But before he felt more of the pain, his mind suddenly no longer feel it at all. The hypersonic speed that he is moving is suddenly nothing more but a simple jog.
The plane behind him impacted the ground and slides a huge distance and still approaching. The thing must have moved with hypersonic speed and considering how large the sky is, to mistake it for a slow-flying plane is fatal.
Looking for any gap between the building or anything. He realized that the further he is on the journey. The more narrow the city will be. It is common knowledge but it took him this long just to understand.
"Master!" An old voice said to him.
Whether by chance or not, his body lunged itself towards the source and find himself being hugged by his Servant. He looked back at the road that he jumped from and sees that it is completely razed and ablaze in azure flame. He guessed that it might have kamikazed itself in order to cause the most destruction possible. Just the destruction alone tells that the blast itself was far stronger than any tank shell the Panzer could have fired and he glad that he decided not risking himself to tank it.
"We have to meet up with everyone else now. We need to get to them as soon as possible." Richard said as he runs ahead.
Pierce followed the suits, but he senses something. He thought that terrain seems to be steeping or something but he decided to brush that away. He needs to get to the rest of his allies if he wanted to make it to the next daybreak.
And so they ran, while the seawater at their feet splatter with every step they take.
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Sea of Watcher
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"Onii-chan... Is it just me? Or is the terrain getting steeper?" Kuro said as she runs up against a hill while seawater keeps flooding down from there.
The enemy infantries are firing their weapons at Shirou but he easily deflected their attacks like nothing, but if that was the only thing then he wouldn't be struggling in the first place. Not only there are bullets that are flying at him, but mortar shells, explosives... all of them are also being hulled at him like a storm that is comparable to the rain that everyone is being showered under. Kuro also follows from behind in order to give fire support for her brother and Gudao follows behind them. The seawater that is flooding down from the top makes the whole road they running up against like a waterslide of a water park.
"Shirou! Give me a boost!" Kuro said to her brother!
"Got it!" Shirou said as he crosses the blade for Kuro to jump on.
She then quickly jumps on the blade as Shirou pushes her up to the sky and quickly turns back to deflect the attacks that are approaching him. Taking advantage of the chance she was given, she traced her bow and quickly unleashes a huge barrage of arrows on the enemies below her. There was so much of them that she cut through them easily like scissors through fabric. The whole scene unfolded like a hailstorm within a flood and all of the enemies below her are soon just ashes remain.
Shirou reached the top as he checked to see if there is anything still remains here. It was as he thought, Kuro makes short work of them. He then noticed his sister then landed nearby, splashing the seawater around her. After that, they waste no time to stand around and then continue running so that they can find Pierce and Richard
"Dear God, all of this just start to sap my stamina. I just can't see a point of running around aimlessly without a clear idea of where to go to..." Kuro said as she catches her breaths.
"Yeah... And I think that the seawater level is rising too. It was at my toenail at first but then it has completely engulfed my feet. I fear that if we not resolving this soon, we might going to pushes ourselves into a dead end." Shirou said with uncertainty in his voice.
"Hey, can you form waterproof barriers at your feet so that you can walk on the water surface. I want to check if that option works or not." Gudao asked as he tried to pursue his Servant.
Shirou slowed down a bit and then he focuses the mana towards his feet. Two barriers started to form around them but before any meaningful second passed, the barriers shattered like glass. And once again, Shirou's feet reach the ground and doused in seawater, again.
"So it is clear then. If the seawater has properties to break even Servant's water-walking barrier then this thing is definitely made to slow down and obstruct our movements. This is definitely the work of a Servant" Gudao said as runs along with his Servant.
And so they continue running, they honestly don't have any clue to where Pierce and Richard might be. But sitting around in one place won't make them find any of it easier.
Everyone is seeing clearly within pitch black but they still rely on Shirou's for distant true sight within this once heavily-populated city. And soon, they glad that they did so.
"A barrage of bullets, wait... It is coming to this place!" Shirou thought as his Hawkeye picked up something.
And as it started to get closer, Shirou's mind quickly goes overdrive. His mind is processing an ungodly amount of information at once that not even a Servant could do so without hurting their mind. He realized that he has to get his sister and Master out of harm's way as fast as he could or else. Tracing the Bakuya with the hand at his back and throw it in a backhanded style, that throw has enough strength to stick to something, not destroy it outright.
The blade then struck into the wall of a building, Shirou then quickly turned back and grabbed both of them at the same time. The barrage of bullets that are disguised to appear so in truth is a grinder of unadulterated slaughter heading their way and obliterating everything in its path. Calculating its speed and the distance remaining towards him, he has a second at best but that is enough for him. He has no hands left to hold onto the blade but he doesn't intend to sacrifice either of them either. He chose one final action, he opened his mouth and bite into the handle of the blades while his two other hands held onto his sister and Master.
The destruction incarnated attack razed through the road that they were running, the loud impact of each attack can rip a normal person's eardrum a few times over with each time. Thankfully that the contract of Gudao and between over 200 Servants allowed him to remain impervious to the side effects of just being near Servant's attack.
In the end, they managed to avoid the fatal attack and the road that they intended to use is now replaced with a chasm with seawater flowing into it. They just can't fathom how much power there is behind all of those attacks. Gudao is still in shock just from how close he and everyone are to their death.
"Master... I think I am just being insane but what if the enemy Servant we are up against has the ability to track everyone who is in contact with the seawater. That would explain why despite we never have used extreme measurement yet still getting tracked nonetheless. I'm sorry if I just said that but I just felt too paranoid right now." Kuro said while being left hanging.
Shirou can't say anything but at the same time, he doesn't want to let go of the blade and drop everyone at the seawater again. Especially after Kuro just gives that possibility.
"Shirou, you know that I can pull the same wall-cling just like you so can you let me go now?" Kuro asked her brother.
Shirou lets her go and she quickly traced the same twin swords and used enough strength stab into the wall. Shirou then stops biting the handle and quickly swap it to the other hand.
"Sorry, to think that I would become such a liability in a time like this," Gudao said sorrily.
"It is not your fault, Master... We didn't also foresee something like this either so don't be too harsh on yourself." Shirou reassures his Master.
"Well... since we are busted anyway, we should be moving away from this place and uses a flare in order to show the location that Richard and Pierce can see and hopefully not caught the attention of the opposing Servant because that is just freaking scary. Not that there is any secrecy left at this point considering the possibility." Kuro said
Gudao then reaches for the walkie-talkie that he placed within his side pouch, Servants can't read radio wave and this might the safest thing they have right now. He has to contact the others so that he can tell them about the change in the plan.
"Sorry, but we need to climb to the roof now!" Shirou said as he pulled himself towards the roof while holding Gudao with the other hand. Needless to say though, Gudao didn't like how Shirou did it.
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Sums of Wrath
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"Damn it... This goddamn flood started to get on my nerve..." Kiritsugu said as he detonates another laser trip mine remotely when the thing got submerged in water and its laser detector malfunctioned.
The seawater still rising, this time, they started to reach the calves of a grown person. The fact that the seawater here keeps disrupting the mana barrier makes traversing within the water surface extremely tedious.
A loud gunshot was heard, it was Larry who just fired his L39 anti-tank rifle at a bunch of enemies who conveniently lined up for him to kill. The constant wave of seawater created from the chaos started to obstruct the view. It also makes it really hard to crouch or prone because the seawater for some reason making him feeling extremely chilly that it isn't funny. But he still continues ignoring them because he has already experienced far colder battlefield.
"How's the situation going? Where do we go now?!" Larry said as he fends off the Azure Soldiers that keep popping up.
Every Servant presented here is divided into three squads. The first is Shirou, Kuro, and Gudao. Second, are Kiritsugu, Irisviel, Larry, Desmond. And lastly, Arnold, Alfin and Alice. They will split up so that they can cover a much wider ground, they are also given a communicator or comm for short so that they can update the situation on the fly. This communicator can connect with each other without signal booster and still work over a vast distance, that is just how powerful Servants' modifier is.
And within the ongoing chaos, the comm rings up to alert the change in the situation. Kiritsugu quickly takes it out of his pouch with one hand while the other is firing his Calico.
"What do you want!?" Kiritsugu yelled through the walkie-talkie while taking cover.
"Assassin! Use the flare now! Try to avoid contact with the seawater if possible! The seawater that you standing on is actually tracking you so that the enemy Servant will know where you are! All of our positions are compromised. Hold nothing back!" Gudao said through the comm while being slightly nauseated from the sudden change in speed.
Kiritsugu didn't understand what his Master meant but if he demanded it right now, he must have a good reason to. He quickly pushes all of his strength into his feet and leaped to the rooftop. Iri who is also held onto him has also told everyone else to follow them too.
Kiritsugu wasted no chance to shoot the flare gun up to the sky, the flare shined brightly and also bright enough to show the location, although its illumination use was made redundant after they obtained true sight for some unknown reason.
"Dude? I don't know if what you just did is a good idea or what but... this can only go so well..." Larry said as he tried to suppress the thought of things going wrong, no matter how likely it is.
"I think that we should also relay the message to Arnold too, we can't leave anyone in the dark after all." Desmond said as he climbed up the closest buildings.
Kiritsugu then dials the comm again and just when he is about to change the frequency. Desmond noticed something and quickly pushed everyone away and jumped off the building. In the next second, that same obliterating barrage razes through the building that they stood on into rubble.
It was a second that decided between life and death and it is all thanks to Desmond that everyone avoided that narrow death. Everyone would have been able to act on their own if they noticed it but the thing is moving with a speed that cut down the distances of 4 kilometers in near-instant, hardly anyone would be able to avoid it.
"Everyone, are you alright?" Desmond asked as he picks everyone up from the rubble.
"Yeah, I think? I am going to at least trying to-" Kiritsugu said as he tried to dial the comm before he realized something is wrong.
He landed on top of it, and the thing is malfunctioned because of the force landed on it and thus compromised the whole system. He can't communicate with Arnold's team or anyone else anymore.
This isn't going to end well.
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Nothingness
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Meanwhile at Arnold's location
Arnold fired his T-Gewehr again and watch it as it took out a Panzer with ease, he is glad that those metal archaisms don't have that kind of ridiculous speed like how they were back when he fought the Fox. Having greater versatile abilities that have no side effects are a huge boon to him.
Although... his combat capability isn't quite the level of Alfin and Alice. He looks extremely bland compared to their extremely flashy moves. Like Alfin firing her autocannons through the blazing portal that she summoned near her and commanding the simply by thinking about where to shoot. Not only that, it follows her everywhere as long as she permits it.
And Alice... Hoo boy... How does he start this, her capability... is endless. There is just no short of surprises when it comes to her. Like weaving around and slicing the enemy apart with the aura waves of her palms alone. Or the fact that she sent a massive pillar of lightning down below to wherever she chose, or the fact that she can just swing her hands and a blade of fire would form in the shape of an arc that moves with a speed beyond a Servant's recognition and cut through things that existed physically. If anything, her power is just overkill for anything here. Both Arnold and Alfin could just not lift a finger and let Alice pulled the weight and the results wouldn't change at all. Complete annihilation of the enemy's side.
But that is also highlighting one thing, just what exactly is her power? Where does it come from? Why does she have such unlimited potential that makes even God looks like a kid to her? Just what and how?
This question keeps spinning around his head, but he can't find an answer for it. It started to infuriate him to no end despite the fact that he has already been told that no Servants are made equal. Just why... Why does he felt envy at a time like this?
"Arnold?" Alfin asked as she finds him acting strangely.
"Oh! Uh... nothing?" Arnold said in surprise as he heard Alfin's voice.
Now that he realized it, the seawater has already reached his knee. But he paid in no mind for the experience of WW1 is far worse than the sea itself. To fruitlessly attempt to move through the mud that devoured your friends as you desperately tried to find a way to get over? That is like comparing a small cut to brutally gutted. And not so surprisingly, Arnold is moving through the seawater and the rain like nothing but Alfin's movement appeared to be hampered for some reason.
"Alfin? Is something wrong?" Arnold asked as he approaches her.
"Sorry, it just that I find it hard to move when the water reached my thighs like this." Alfin said.
He then realized that what he may find simple and stuff would be a Herculean task for others. He is tall and has previous experience when it comes to fighting when engulfed in something. Alfin on other hands may have fought in a much more recent war and it is definitely not as dirty like his, not to mention that she is shorter than him by a large margin. Like her height just reached his chest at most. This also makes him realized that if it wasn't for Alice being godly powerful to the point she could levitate on her own, she would have already been engulfed to her chest.
"Shall I give you a piggyback ride then? It would also cover our weaknesses too. You can unleash your firepower and I could move through the seawater unhindered." Arnold said to Alfin.
"Really!? Can we do it now!?" Alfin said as sparks appeared in her eyes.
Arnold then crouched and Alfin climbed onto his back. She then held onto him so that she doesn't accidentally fall off. When they are prepared, Arnold dashes forward with all of his stamina. The speed that he is running now started to reach a point that he would straight up running on the water surface without any needing mana barriers.
"Hold up! Where's Alice?" Alfin said as she realized something is missing.
"She probably went ahead of us, we will catch her soon so hang on." Arnold said as he speeds up.
And so Arnold continues to run, he knew for sure that Alice's attacks always left the whole place with a massive spike in mana level. He just simply need to track down where the spike would be. Although that would have been so simple if there were no one trying to kill him. He noticed the sounds of somethings getting nearer and Alfin also nodded.
She looked back at the sky and noticed the fighters begin to approach. They act like they are being secretive but nothing more than usual fighter planes that they fight back then. She then quickly summons anti-air guns through the blazing portals she made. The moment you combine heavy firepower with fast-moving speed, you pretty much have created something unstoppable.
"Fire!" Alfin yelled to command the guns to fire.
Getting fired upon by anti-air shells, the opposing fighter planes quickly return fire. No matter how powerful Servant is, they aren't indestructible. After all of the crap they did, it would only make sense that the Nazis increased the firepower just to make sure it could kill Servant. The real firepower of theirs isn't on any soldier alone, the real meat is on the heavy battle armor that makes even Servant struggle to fight against, the soldiers are only there to boost the killing power of their armor.
Arnold knows one thing for sure though, he must not stop at all. He will have to keep running no matter the odds that are stacking up more and more against him. Focusing all of his willpower, he will have to do even what considered impossible.
The fighter planes fired their autocannons, Alfin also quickly created more machine guns in order to deflect back those bullets. 20mm vs 7.92mm sounds extremely onesided but Alfin is a Servant and thus her modifier would alter the firepower of her weapons and ammunition themselves. It would also be much more efficient than just using tit for tat.
Arnold meanwhile just running everywhere he sees, just hope that Alfin would take them all down in time. Work together or die, that is how everything always boiled down.
He keeps running, making sharp turns or drift on the water surface just by distributing his weights and balance. Even running on the wall should the situation demanded it. But even then, he felt that he had to do something. Just keeping up with this wild goose chase will get him nowhere. His true sight allows him to see things with clear detail even in darkness helped out a lot but whenever he looked down into the seawater, he calculated that the height is now roughly reaching his chest. He wonders if this is going to turn into a reenactment of Noah's flood or not but he just hopes it is the latter because he ain't want to deal with any biblical shit at this point.
Follow me
He heard something, a really familiar voice that he can't forget. It's from Alice! Where was she this whole time, and why is she speaking telepathically to him now!?
Turn left
Heeding her words without asking anymore question, he turned sharply to the left direction and quickly follows any of her instructions afterward. He feels that things might not be going to end well but he would rather risking himself than to be left in a standstill.
He ran and Alfin still keeps firing at the enemy planes. Those fighter planes still persistently wanted to kill them and willingly pursuing them until their demise. He makes so many turns and runs for so long that he doesn't even know if he is actually going anywhere or just running in a circle.
Well, that is what he thought though... Until he trips over something and ended up making both him and Alfin fell into the water. It has reached neck-deep already and he can't help himself but worry that things will turn for the worse. Trying to swim up and catch his breath and then he noticed someone. It's Richard! Alice actually guided him here. But he can't help himself but apologize Richard for tripping on his head.
"Wait! Why are you still here standing in this neck-deep water?!" Arnold said to Richard.
"I'm also asking you that question but ouch... my head hurts just from being kicked right in the back of it." Richard said.
"Look out! Duck!" Alfin said as she tried to warn her partner of the incoming fighter planes that are pursuing them.
Everyone quickly dived into the water and tried to swerve their bodies to avoid getting hit. Thankfully that water resistance is a thing and the power behinds those bullets aren't as much as before and they just simply bounced off them.
"Now!" Arnold thought as he crouched against the ground and focus his strength at the feet and quickly jumped up vertically.
The sudden leap of his burst through the water surface like a geyser and quickly landed on top of a nearby building. Another fighter plane is getting closer and intended to fire its guns at him. Well, it intended to.
A hook shot burst through its wing and got taken apart before it crashes into a closeby building. And then it exploded and splashes the seawater everywhere around its vicinity.
Arnold looked at the destruction unfolded and then looked at a familiar yet different person. Pierce who is now donned on the greatly improved armor and is retracting his hook back. Richard has also jumped up to the rooftop to join with.
"Thank god that we managed to find each other so where are the others now?" Richard asked.
Arnold then quickly grabs the comm out of his side pouch, hoping that it is still functional despite being dipped inside water for extended periods. Thankfully, it still works although barely.
"Hey! Are you alri..ht.." Gudao's voice comes out of the comm although extremely glitchy.
"Yes, we found Richard and Pierce! Where are you now!?" Arnold yelled through the comm.
"We lo... con...t w...h K... gro... Can y... fin... them an... a...ure the... safe...?" Gudao tried to contact but the comm started to breakdown.
And the comm ceased to function afterward. He then drops the comm into the ground in silence, everyone is split up with each other... again. Ultimately, they have all returned to square one. Arnold then looked at the sky and suddenly shudder in horror as he noticed a massive fleet of planes and bombers are approaching their location. They are intending to raze this whole part of the city into a massive crater. He wouldn't have noticed otherwise thanks to true sight.
"Crap! We have to do something now!" Pierce said.
Arnold stood there not knowing what to do, so many things are going on that he doesn't know exactly what he should do. But then, he looked at Alice who is suddenly appeared beside him once more.
"What the!? Where were you this whole time!?" Arnold asked on behalf of everybody's confusion.
Alice stood there with an expressionless face but then she closed her eyes and suddenly leap straight up to the sky up for thousands of meters before anyone could track her. The forces she pushes towards the ground fractured the whole buildings and probably much more. Arnold rebalanced himself and looked up at the sky where she is levitating.
The Nazi's air force has noticed her and begins to open fire upon her, their planes filled the whole stormy sky above them with so much that he just can no longer tell the difference between what is exactly covering the whole sky.
But... none of their efforts to attack her actually paid off, all of it just ceases to be when it reached her proximity of what he roughly estimated of one kilometer. What Alice is displaying is beyond any act of divine he could actually think of and the same could be applied to anyone here really.
Focusing his sight, he tried to see if Alice is doing anything. She is... making a finger gun? And just when he started to question it, a beam fired straight from her finger and she makes a sweep with her finger while the beam still fire. A very simple gesture that is done within a second. Completely decimated 80% of their force effortlessly. Explosions soared through the sky as all of it turned into nothingness.
Arnold just gasps in complete disbelief, no matter who you are, witnessing an army getting decimated by a single person with a simple gesture would definitely tell you that this isn't any laughing matter anymore. It is just completely hysterical and madness in itself.
And if that isn't enough, Alice then clasps her hands together and an aura generates around her. Within another second, a blast of aura was released and watch as it blasting the entire sky away. When it started to reach them, it was a blinding light that everyone instinctively covered their eyes away as if they fear the possibility that it too would annihilate them.
It was like watching the whole dimension collapsed, they can only stand there and watch it as everything returned... to nothing.
"._.""._.""._."
Beacon Within Darkness
"._.""._.""._."
"What on earth happened?" Gudao said as he lies on the rooftop with his vision started to slowly cleared up from that pure white vision.
He looked up at the sky and sees that all of the clouds are gone, there is no more rain, all of it is replaced with a clear starry night sky with the moon shined upon him. When was the last time he sees a moon this beautifully?
"Ugh... What happened?" Gudao said to himself as he found both Shirou and Kuro in the same delirious state.
Shirou and Kuro slowly picked themselves up. It was like they are in an entirely different place but they can be forgiven for thinking so when they witness something like that unfolded.
Gudao picked his communicator and he tried to dial but the only thing remains is the statics. Feeling disheartened, he tosses away the comm for it is completely useless. His tactics of splitting up completely and spectacularly backfired.
"How on earth can we get back with each other?..." Gudao thought as he facepalms with both hands in his face in self-disappointment.
Gudao knows that he shouldn't give up now, especially after this far. But he can't help himself but feel down at a time like this.
"After such an attack like that, pretty much everything is gone except for the abandoned infrastructure, the rising tides and-. Wait!? The tide is still rising!?" Kuro tried to cheer her Master up only to panic even more.
The seawater has already risen to the point it is now 3-meter deep. Not only that but it is also still rising regardless of what happened.
"Damn it! How long did we got knocked out!?" Gudao said in frustration.
"I don't know, Master... But it might not have been long because it is still clearly midnight." Shirou said as he tried to analyzes the sky.
Gudao started to act more and more frustrated, he knows that he will have to rendezvous with everyone somehow. But it just frustrates him to no end that he is being put through the wringer right now despite being done so many times before.
"Master?" Kuro said to Gudao.
Gudao turned his sight on whatever Kuro tried to say and he suddenly got his attention drawn into it. It's... a beacon! Shirou used his Hawkeye to check how such a thing come to be and learned that it was Alice's doing soon enough when he looked at the very top of the beacon's light. Alice is illuminating a whole pathway just to rendezvous with everyone else.
"Shall we head there?" Shirou asked his Master.
Gudao for some reason finds hesitating when it comes to Alice, she is an enigma with no possible way to explain. Many Servants can be understood when it comes to their history but she is a completely blank page with absolutely no content in it.
But... he knew damn well that he would rather take a path of uncertainty rather than standing still.
"Everyone! We will head to the beacon." Gudao said to Shirou and Kuro before he jumps from the top of buildings to buildings.
Kuro and Shirou follow his suit and do the same. If Kuro's hypothesis is correct, that must mean the opposing Servant is still alive. Whoever that person is, they are intending to finish off his opponents for once and for all.
He just hopes that none of his Servant would try to swim all their way here or otherwise, it may be going to end really badly.
After roughly 20 minutes of parkouring his way here, he managed to reach the waypoint that Alice marked with herself as a beacon. The dazzling light shines on this place make it looks like a sanctuary blessed by the divine. And also soon enough, his Servants have also all reached this place themselves although without soaking themselves in process. But other than that, they are very much fine.
"Well, at least we got everyone again..." Irisviel said.
And then the light disappeared and Alice descends back from the sky again. He would kinda expect her to be tired but she isn't even seems fazed after unleashing such a powerful attack like that. It was like... what Alice did is just as tiring as breathing normally.
Shirou looked at her attentively, he knew that this power is ungodly familiar that he should already know. Void Shiki has already told him that she got a premonition that there is somebody in this Singularity that has the power that evenly matches even her. He has also witnessed how Void Shiki fight and needless to say though, it always ends in a single move of her and she wasn't even serious about it.
In Babylonia Singularity, when a massive horde of Lahmus tearing apart civilians in Uruk. A single slash of Void Shiki cleared the whole sky while the others and even Gilgamesh is struggling to repel them from causing irreversible damage to the human foundation. And during the final fight against Tiamat and after King Hassan enables her death, that was the only time he ever sees Void Shiki looking so serious. After that, Tiamat is gone before they even realized it. The Beast that took all collective efforts of many Servants in order just to stop it. Ereshkigal, Ishtar, Quetzacoal, Merlin, Jaguar Warrior, Enkidu and all of Chaldean Servants who were deployed in that fight. Void Shiki just simply dealt with the killing blow although it was more of Gilgamesh who did that with his full power Ea. That's what she is, a Watcher who looks over them.
But seeing Alice like this, he felt that he couldn't ignore that glaring similarity between them. Void Shiki is a physical manifestation of the root and thus all-powerful, but it is precisely that kind of blessing that she is just bored with her own existence and the fact that she has everything handed to her since birth just only amplified that. He wonders... if Alice is also another manifestation of the root itself?
"So where do we go now?" Desmond asked.
Before an answer was said, everybody's gaze suddenly turned on a large hill that they could even tell from a large distance. The rain was obstructing their views and thus they didn't notice it until now when everything is clear.
"Wait. Was that hill ever there to begin with?" Arnold asked as he finds it ominous.
"According to the modern Germany map. I would answer no. That mountain is an anomaly created by external influences. The enemy Servant might be there and the only way to the fourth ring is right behind it. There is no other way to get there without wasting too much time." Da Vinci said through the comm that is connected to the Shadow Border. The reason this specific comm still working is because of the fact that it is the only lifeline between Gudao and Shadow Border and thus was made significantly durable and resistant to any external factors.
"Alice, can you just wipe that mountain out of our way?" Arnold asked Alice.
"Unfortunately, while I am not exhibiting it. I am in fact exhausted and so all of you will have to resolve it on your own." Alice said with a composing voice.
Arnold could tell that she is lying, no Servant has that high output of magical energy like that. But he could understand why she would say that after all, they were in the middle of a great crisis at the time and she wouldn't just stay still as a spectator when they are about to face something like that. She just wanted everyone to become better on their own without relying on anything divine or special. At least... that is what he wanted to believe.
"Fine... We would resolve the whole thing without your help even without your help." Arnold said while he moves away from her.
"Okay then, everyone! Onward!" Gudao then commanded every servant at his side to march towards the mountain.
And so they rush toward the mountain, jumping on from buildings to buildings. They head there knowing this will be a tough battle ahead yet they still headstrong towards it.
Will their blood taints the whole sea? Or will their convictions will shatter the mountain back to its depth? It is a question with an answer that is only inevitably approaching.
"._.""._.""._."
The Beast That Devoured Thousands
"._.""._.""._."
And so they make their final push and leaps towards the mountain and avoid any possible contact with the seawater surrounding it. And so they managed to land on what looks like... shoreline?
"Uhm, I don't remember there is any beach or shoreline here. Are we sure that this isn't some kind of trap that is awaiting to spring at us?" Kuro said as she looked around the place for anything suspicious.
Gudao thinks as he tried to make any connection to this place and WW2 itself. But before he could make any meaningful connection he was suddenly pulled from behind by Desmond. Within that split second, he noticed that everyone is moving away from their positions and even when before it was ended, the ground where he was roughly 8m away is completely blasted away.
"Jii-san, now!" Shirou said to his father.
"Got it!" Kiritsugu said to his son.
Those two quickly activate their respective power, Shirou with the power of projection and Kiritsugu with the mage crest of time alter. Both of them combined and created the most indestructible non-NP form of defense against Servants. Timeless Blades.
Right after they created a wall of timeless blades as a makeshift form of defense. Desmond quickly throws Gudao at it and quickly moving away as fast as possible. They can't let the Chaldean Master to get caught up against an enemy that would take an easy victory anytime and thus will give him any protection that he required.
Gudao situated himself against the timeless blade, feeling delirious from the effect resulted from sudden velocity change. And suddenly a massive barrage of noise went on from his back. His head hurts from the excessive amount of noise he is being forced to endure but it is far more acceptable than getting hit by any of those directly.
Shirou quickly tried to rush towards the top but the barrage of bullets was too great for him to the point that he ended up having to uses his defensive NP that he prepared far earlier than how he expected.
Rho Aias!
Shirou quickly traced the seven-petal shield and blocked the barrage of bullets with all he had. The shock of the impact alone transmits across his whole body and he can't help himself but shudder at the destructive impacts that the shield is being forced to subject to.
One petal broke then two, it just starts to add up and also reflected on the arm of his. His arm started to bleed and the bone inside started to fracture. And when the fifth petal broke, the barrage ceased completely contrary to Shirou's expectation. He wanted to let his guard down but he doesn't want to know if the enemy is about to bait him into carelessly attacking.
Shirou tried to focus his Hawkeye on the opposing Servant but the pain started to blur his vision, he can't focus while being like this. Meanwhile, Arnold who was running up against the hill parallel to Shirou's path. He focused his vision and tried to look at the opposing Servant at the top of the mountain. He is taking out the white-hot barrel of the machine gun and he is... loading it into his rifle? Arnold doesn't know what that man is intending to do but he knew it is not going to bold well for anyone on his side.
The bolt-action rifle then suddenly transmogrified into a railgun, and Arnold suddenly realized what is going to happen next. He used something akin to a railgun once by himself and he knew well how powerful it is. The shield that Shirou is putting up won't withstand it and he is going to die if he keeps his guard on like this.
Arnold then quickly leaps toward Shirou and grabbed him by the shirt. Using all of the strength he has, he pulled Shirou out of where he is standing and disrupt the shield itself. And then, something flew past them and they barely avoided it. But they can still feel it although avoided getting hit by it, Arnold swore that it felt like the sun literally just flew past him. He then looked at the ground where the 'projectile' flew through, they were razed in a straight line with something burning in the outermost layer. He looked at the sea and he just a massive pillar of steam that just smoking up from wherever it landed on the seawater.
He gulped, never will he wish to be at the receiving end of that. Quickly picking himself up as fast as possible so that he can use the time that the enemy replaces the barrel so that he can cut down more of the distance. But before he could take another step, the enemy has already replaced the barrel and continue firing the machine gun.
"Oh shit!" Arnold thought as his impending doom approaches him.
"Trace on!" time alter
Those voices were spoken at the same time and the next moment, he found himself staring at the blades and hearing ear-piercing sounds. He realized that the father and son are now crouching tiredly after getting into another close call.
"Damn it! We really have to find a goddamn way to take down that bastard" Shirou said.
This barricade of timeless blades is 5 meters wide and 1.7 meters tall. They can withstand all kinds of punishment but will remain stuck there until its summoner dispels them or the world gets rid of them by themselves when they detected it as anomalies. Too much power or divinity or both at the same time will shatter them. But nonetheless, this is the only thing that could possibly stand up against him.
"Kiritsugu, how much is the distance between us and him?" Gudao asked.
"The distance between us and him is around 250m, we normally can just rush over that distance before a second could pass. But that man will kill us if we act like a bunch of retards like running head-on without tactics. This is a battle of attrition and we will have to use everything at our disposal for any hope of making through. Of course, we won't be using anything at the cost of our lives, that is more obvious than the nose on your face." Kiritsugu said his analysis.
The barrage of bullets ceased coming, the enemy will now fire the blazing barrel right at the Chaldean Servants. What they need to do is to bait him into firing it and avoiding it without repercussions. The hard part is to avoid something that has a muzzle velocity of hypersonic.
Pretty sure nobody is willing to be the bait. Get hit by that once and say goodbye to everything you fought hard for. But... that is what common sense would normally tell.
Desmond jumped out of the barricade and quickly running towards the enemy Servant. The enemy obviously saw him and unhesitantly opened fire with the railgun. The bolt that was a burning hot machine gun barrel quickly moves with a speed that easily surpasses hypersonic. Desmond's mind only tells him one thing, return to the sender. By all technicality, it isn't him deliberately harming his enemy, it was to protect his friends. And because of that, Desmond's crisis strength was activated for that brief decisive moment.
He spins around for a whirlwind kick that will deflect the bolt back with even greater strength. When the bolt about to reach him in microseconds, he pushes everything he had into that one decisive kick, faith, strength, anything. He pushes everything he had into it, an all-out bet that he either dies trying or giving his allies one massive boost that will greatly cut down the challenge.
The impact between Desmond's kick and the blazing bolt ensued. The shockwave resulted from the impact shook everything to its core, its blast so huge that it created a tsunami just from the sheer shockwave alone, it shook the whole mountain and the sky was once again torn apart.
"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" Desmond screamed in agony as he desperately tried to kick the bolt back while it continuously drilling through his leg. The damn thing is burning, that he could feel the thing incinerating through his leg. If anything, what he just did is the same equivalence of kicking the sun back to where it belongs.
Everyone can feel that scream piercing through their hearts, even Arnold swore that scream will haunt him in his nightmare. Even just hearing the scream alone can tell just how torturous what Desmond is going through right now.
"Damn you!" Desmond screams as he pushes the kick with all of everything into it, slowly but surely pushing the bolt back even if by millimeters.
Some religious Servants have a skill called Protection of Faith which they convert their faith into their physical strength. This isn't a form of blessing or anything but rather the strength of self-conviction condensed into a skill and Desmond has a ton of it. Not only that but he has many other skills that when all conditions met, they will stack up and make him easily able to make impossible actions pathetically easy to him.
A blaze formed within Desmond's eye, his faith and conviction are his only weapons when he is up against a Herculean task. Nobody has ever backed him up when he needed help but he is always there for everyone no matter what. Pushing beyond his own limits, he lets out his prayer.
Dear Lord, just one more
And the moment he prayed, he kicked back the bolt with the speed that achieved the sub-relativistic. The bolt burst into a speed that is unreal, no one can even detect it at all. There is no possible way to deflect it and it reached straight into the enemy Servant. Desmond then fell to the ground with his right leg completely incinerated from attempting to deflect the bolt back with a kick. He completed his purpose and so he has nothing left to cling onto anymore. About what happened to the bolt, they guessed that it just got shot straight into space.
A killing blow was thought to be assured, but perhaps they were too hopeful. But what it managed to accomplish, is nonetheless turned the table for Chaldeans. The bolt destroyed the railgun and also caused a massive hole in the stronghold that the enemy Servant is hiding in. Not only that but he seems to be dazed of what just happened.
"This is the chance, go!" Gudao commanded everyone to charge.
Every Servant in Gudao's side quickly rushing over and cut down the distance as much as possible. Larry when finally got close to Desmond and he quickly carries him on his back. The poor guy needs his well-deserved rest after this madness ended.
"Everyone! He is preparing his machine gun again. Prepare to take cover!" Illya said as she noticed he preparing the enemy Servant is repreparing the machine gun again.
Trace on! time alter
Another wall of timeless blades was forged. This time, the enemy won't have any weapon that is capable of breaking this wall and victory will be theirs. Because after all, they managed to cut the distance down into 100m left. However, Shirou wanted an answer to his question, now.
"Master, can you tell me who is this Servant we are fighting. I think that we are done being in the dark for long enough. I surely believe that there is enough information for you to piece everything together. For our sake, please tell us who on earth are we fighting now?!" Shirou said to his Master.
Gudao thought for a little while and he decided that what he said will be the only answer for what they are fighting against now.
"Shirou, what we are fighting right now is possibly one of the greatest menaces in WW2, the Beast of Omaha or Heinrich Severloh if you wanted to call him. The man who mowed down over from hundreds to nearly 2000 soldiers within 9 hours of D-Day. The man who was dubbed as the Beast for the sheer kill counts alone and his miraculous survival in the end. What you are seeing right now is that same man but as a Servant who is carrying out the same duty of that faithful day. Hell, all this seawater and rising tides are most likely his own doing as well." Gudao said as he ascertains his own suspicion.
"Talk about rising tides, the seawater is also rising as well!" Kuro said to her Master panically.
Gudao realized that the sea has also risen, now it has completely engulfed the whole city into its depth, the only thing remained is this mountain.
"Master... I think that we should also hurry up because this isn't any simple sea anymore." Shirou said before he tosses a sword into it.
The moment the swords landed on the seawater, it suddenly starting to dissipate and soon, it just a murk of blackness on the seawater itself.
"And it is rising fast too, we need to act now!" Illya said as she begins to panic with her sister.
"Oh for the love of! Isn't this guy's gun supposed to overheat long ago!?" Kiritsugu said as he realized it was overdue for the Severloh's overheating.
"I think the guy only replaced the barrel because he only intended to use it as a projectile, not because it isn't optimal to do so!" Larry yelled to break through the overwhelmingly deafening noise of bullets clashing on the blades.
Richard looked at where the Beast most likely is, he smirked for he has an ace up his sleeves.
"._.""._.""._."
One for All - All for One
"._.""._.""._."
The true power of the armor that Pierce is using, the ultimate ability of the Adamantine armor he is wearing.
This will be a clash that is beyond any words to describe. He is simultaneously ecstatic and fearful at the same time. He felt ecstatic because he is about to unveil the true power of the armor but fears because what if he made a wrong step and overplayed his cards and ultimately pay it with his Master's life? But what is the point of a trump card if he is not going to use it? Finding that this is the most appropriate time to use it. He laughed for everyone to hear and then announce his trump card.
"Don't worry my dear friends, I got the perfect answer for this predicament we are in. Pierce! Stand up and get out there to demonstrate!" Richard said loudly while telling his Master.
"What are you insane!? That guy will make hash out of me faster than you blink an eye!" Pierce protests out of the fact that his Servant is putting his life on the line.
"Just do it! Or we will all die regardless! Plus, what you are about to unleash is the true power of the armor. Don't falter, that is all I could give you! Oh and DON'T MOVE FAST" Richard said to Pierce in order to encourage him.
Pierce shrugs, it is either risk dying in order to break through the situation or die later. He knew which choice to make and so he decided.
He stood up and the barrage of bullets came flooding on him as if it wants to sweep him out into the sea where he will dissolve into stench. But oddly enough, he doesn't feel anything. In fact, he actually withstood all of it despite the massive amount of ballistics clashing on him, no flinching, no knockback. Nothing. And that is what truly surprised him.
He then jumps over the barricade and walks menacingly towards the Beast, he slowly approaching him while he just swats off all of those devastating attacks like nothing. Heeding his Servant's words, he walked slowly but surely towards him. He could definitely tell that no Servant in this era is capable of nullifying attack to this level.
"And all of you just witness the greatest invention I have made this far. Crisis Core. Its power will envelop its user in a barrier that is capable of nullifying all ballistics based attack no matter how powerful it is. This is your end, surrender or he'll put an end to you by himself." Richard announces to the Beast that he has already got the game into his favor.
But... announcing something like that might not be a good idea for he wasn't called the Beast just for killing alone. Severloh then proceeds to throw out the burning barrels right outside. Pierce looks at the barrels and wonders what is the Beast is intending exactly, soon he got the answer for it.
The barrels detonated into massive shrapnel and incendiary blast, leaving a blazing trail behind it. The blast knocked Pierce away despite he is using Crisis Core and he realized that the Beast sidestepped his whole resistance.
"Damn it! We have to go now!" Kuro said as she jumps over the barrier and everyone else quickly follows the suits for the rising tides that have almost reached them.
Rho Aias!
Kuro chanted and a shield made of 7 petals formed in front of her. However, the Beast knows his priority.
"Gah!" Shirou yelled as bullets pierce through him as he couldn't deflect them all in time.
"Shirou!" Irisviel yelled in panic as she threw herself in front of her son in order to protect him.
Larry quickly drags Shirou out of harm's way as fast as he could but he couldn't do anything about Irisviel who is being shot repeatedly. Shirou who despite being in shock, quickly chanted along with his father in order to create another barrier set.
Trace on! time alter
A large barrier of timeless blades was enacted and they got closer again but without casualty. Shirou despite having many injuries but he managed to hold on. His mother though for some reason, somehow still remains looking unharmed despite eating a huge barrage of bullets. And Pierce got left there in the frontline. However, Richard assures that as long as Pierce remains stationary, he'll be fine no matter what.
"Child of Nature" Kiritsugu explains first just so that no one will just panic around her.
"Don't worry Onii-chan! I shall administer medicine so that you will recover fast!" Illya said as she whips out a syringe out of nowhere and then injects into Shirou.
Although, Illya probably injected the wrong one.
"Illya, why the flying fuck am I feeling so hot right now!? Are you sure what you injected into me is actual medicine!?" Shirou tried to yell through his delirious state where his vision just started to blur from the bleeding.
"Wah! I am sorry, I accidentally injected you with aphrodisiac! Please, I shall treat you correctly this time!" Illya then quickly saying sorry as much as she could before injecting Shirou with the proper medicine.
Everyone there just watching the situation unfolded with a 'WTF' face. They can't help themselves but crack a wry smile despite facing a life and death situation.
"We have 75m left until we reach the top, this guy will attack anyone who isn't hiding behind the shield. Hey, your name is Kuro, am I right?" Larry said and then asked the tanned little girl.
"Yeah? You can also call me Chloe if you wanted to." Kuro said.
"Is it a requirement to remain stationary when using that 7-petal shield?" Larry asked.
"That I am not going to bet on at all in a time like this. If I was in a situation where there is no enemy, I could at least test out without repercussion. But here, one bad move and you pay it with your life. I am not risking for something without any clear reward for doing so." Kuro said.
Larry sighed, she does make a point but he felt like he had to do something. He glanced over the timeless blades that are being used as a barrier to protect everyone from the Beast's attacks. Suddenly, he got an idea.
"Shirou, are these blades bounded to the boundary of the world?" Larry asked.
"That's true, if I am not bound them into the world, those things would fly off with the speed of the earth rotation from west to east. And we not even account for the fact that it might also move even faster since the world is basically a ball of space rock spinning in space while moving along with the sun. And I am not sparing a second to calculate its trajectory since if I am going to do that, might as well make a time machine." Shirou said with an annoyed expression.
Larry decided to think in Shirou's stead instead, at least about the trajectory where the timeless blades would hit if he could unbind them. Thinking about the path he has taken so far, he shudders in realization that everything is in fact in his favor. The path they have taken is from east to west direction so far. If he can convince Shirou to unbind them now, it will- No, the Beast will come crash into it since the blades then only ignore time, not space. The earth rotates in the west to east direction and the blade will remain stationary in space.
But before he goes convincing Shirou to do it, he realized that while the attack in itself is unstoppable, it doesn't mean it can't be avoided. He should also follow it up in the event that the Beast managed to avoid getting hit by it. Something that could match the ridiculous firing rate of the machine gun that the Beast is using. Looking at the passage of the past, he noticed a weapon that he has also used. Something that could possibly match it, a weapon that he also has his parts in developing it alongside his friends.
The Final Conda, the thing also has a secret feature in it. It was built so that when the conditions lie in favor, its full potential will be unleashed. But the reason he thought it was gimped forever is that Gudao has said that the next leyline is right at Berlin and thus making the whole feature redundant and thus he didn't bother listing it up but seeing how the Beast is firing his weapon nonstop, he suspected that there has to be also another leyline here, one that might possibly have been dug up forcefully from the depth. The ammo belt that is linked up to the box can be stretched up to 20m which is something unorthodox to do but he felt something in him told him to do so.
His mind is clear, he knew what to do. Whether he will be a sheep that will be sacrificed to the slaughterhouse or a brave warrior who reached the top of glory, all of it doesn't matter. Someone has to pick up the slack first and he won't be afraid to do so.
"Shirou! Unbound the blades, now!" Larry said to Shirou.
"Alfin, give me the Final Conda, now!" And he quickly turned to Alfin and told her to do so
Normally, Shirou would disagree but the consuming tide from the back is approaching them and thus he felt no choice but to oblige to Larry's request. He quickly then touches the blades and quickly chanted silently. Meanwhile, Alfin recreates the weapon with her own memory and fundamental understanding of it.
Trace... Bind... Off
In the next moment, the blades that were bound by time suddenly flew off straight into the path that Larry's guessed. And within that moment of confusion, Alfin quickly threw him the Final Conda. Larry then steps up and threw the ammo box that is linked to the belt at exactly 20 meters away while he still held onto the belt with the other hand.
Just like what he expected, the Final Conda when is set up in an area near a leyline, it will quickly draw mana from it and thus giving it a massive reservoir of ammo that the counter can't even display them all. He can now fire the gun with all of its full might without risking himself of mana exhaustion. And here is another part, when the Final Conda is linked up to a leyline, its firing rate will be switched for the full-potential mode, boasting a massive firing rate of 300000 RPM. That is not also counting the overheating issues and much other stuff but now isn't the time to be distracted.
The box clicked in, sending a massive torrent of mana into the gun. The ammo counter now suddenly spinning erratically from the sudden influx of mana it received. It spins so fast that only one can guess the afterimage of the counter. The six-digit counter now only leaving the afterimages that create the Infinite symbol, much like what a clockwork calculator does when you divide it by 0.
40 meters, he'll be able to buy 40 meters for his friends.
The blades have destroyed the rest of the stronghold, leaving the Beast completely exposed to other attacks. He managed to avoid getting hit nonetheless but he knew for sure he won't be able to prolong this fight any longer.
Both pulled the trigger and the torrents of bullets came fort. So much bullets that are being fired that it just completely unreal, the sounds of bullets clashing against each other created a deafening orchestra, a symphony of madness. Both Richard and Alfin were shocked in surprise for the fact that they didn't know the Final Conda is capable of doing such a thing.
Larry keeps moving forward, the sheer amount of recoil could have busted his shoulder out its socket long ago but he refused to back down after made it this far. Doing so is to spit all on his effort. His slender finger is bleeding from the extreme and repeated vibrations that it is being forced to go through. The gun is overheating extremely quickly due to the amount of bullet it is being forced to fire. At first, he thought he could handle the heat, but the thing started to go from molten metal into dipping his fist straight into the Earth's core. Hell, the Final Conda might as well a miniature sun from how bright it is shining and the air around it starts to warping itself from the sheer heat.
He still trying to continue walking towards the Beast, his eyes glint at the enemy in front of him, ignoring the torturous pain that he is being subjected to. He knew that he will make it through, as long the flame of his heart burns brighter than the flame outside. 40 meters to him is like climbing the Everest from the bottom, it is grueling and unforgiving but he will keep moving forward as long as he still held onto his belief.
The Final Conda now started to illuminate like a dying star, both he and the gun itself is at the limit. Any further and it will be the path of no return. Seeing what is going to become of Larry, everyone then quickly rushing towards him and sprung into action immediately.
Both Shirou and Kiritsugu deployed another barrier of timeless blades, stopping the barrage again. Larry collapsed into the ground with his hand completely cauterized and the gun then just keep burning up and into the mountain itself. And then suddenly the whole mountain shook violently as if something inside it exploded, the Final Conda itself might have gone supernova due to its instability much like how a dying star is.
"We don't have much time left! We need to act now or this will be the end for all of us!" Kiritsugu said as he tried to check Larry's condition.
Larry isn't responding but his pulse can still be detected, this isn't the time to be checking up on others. This is after all their last minutes or even seconds. 60 meters left, they really have to act now.
"Damn it! We were so close!" Alfin said as she can't believe this how everything is going to end.
Arnold then looked at Alice who is standing right behind him. After seeing Desmond and Larry got heavily injured because of her negligence, he got pissed off at the fact that she is still having that shit-eating unmotivated expression despite seeing how bad the injury his friends just got into. He grabbed her from the dress collar and shook her repeatedly. He wanted an answer.
"Why!? Why didn't you do anything for them!?" Arnold yelled at her while shaking her repeatedly despite the fact that she is a different scale of caliber than him.
She still has that same expression which made Arnold acting even more on his emotions outburst. He keeps shaking her telling her to do something.
"Alice! If you still intend to stand here and do nothing, I'm just going to tell you that death isn't going to be the worst fate that everyone here endures! It is the loss of their entire efforts, all the hard works that they did to get this far. We don't have the luxury of reattempting at what we failed and you can't possibly understand it!" Arnold said to her as he begs her to do something.
Alice still has that emotionless expression on her but then she closed her eyes and then lifts her hand forward. Arnold doesn't know what she is doing but the world around him collapsing doesn't make it any sort easier.
The barrier of timeless blades disappeared instantly, but the barrage of bullets still not reaching them. They were ceased to exist the moment they reached something On a closer look, it is actually a sphere. A sphere of void, anything came into contact with it ceased to exist in an instant. At that moment, he realized that Alice's power also reached a realm that he would never thought to be possible. Boundary Manipulation.
She started to levitate and quickly moving towards the Beast while the sphere of void also moves forward. Everyone quickly took the chance and keeps running behind it, Richard grabbed Larry and carries him along with Desmond who is also unconscious even until now.
Closing down the final distance, the mountain started to collapse, the ground quickly fractures and falling down. Realizing that they won't have enough time to kill the Beast before they will fall into the sea and get dissolved by the stench of death within it. Gudao decided to bet his one final chance, if they won't win in this reality, he will bring the whole fight into another one.
"Archer EMIYA, by the power of my Command Seal, use your Noble Phantasm!" Gudao said as the ground behinds him collapsing at an alarming rate.
Words of God: For this part, play Fate/stay night - Emiya
10 seconds till complete collapse, with the saturating level of mana he received it from the seal. He quickly gets into his stance and chants his Noble Phantasm. The culmination of all his works.
I am the bone of my swords
9 seconds left till downfall. The sounds of fracturing ground only make things worse, nobody can keep the leveled head when death is getting more imminent and having no immediate solution for it would obviously make everyone panic.
Steel is my body, fire is my blood.
8 seconds left before all hope is lost. Things are in complete disarray, nobody is exhibiting their panic but deep inside their anxiety keeps climbing higher and higher.
I have created over a thousand blades
7 seconds left until everything they fought for ended in vain. The whirl of mana at Shirou's feet keep illuminating in bluish light, it has no use for illumination for everybody has already received the power of true sight from Alice.
Unknown to Death
6 seconds left before the worst possible outcome. Arnold only looks at everything as the whole world around him collapse, never once in his life that he felt this uneasy, even for the fact that he worked in the most dangerous profession in WW1.
Nor known to Life
5 seconds left before the truth is lost forever. Alice still has the same emotionless expression on her face as she keeps the sphere of void right in front of her to block everything the Beast may attempt to throw at her. Despite seemingly carry no feelings, that eyes of her tell that there is still hope, the fact that it exists mean there are more to what may being perceived here.
Have withstood pain to create many weapons
4 seconds left... no one has the spirit to ever raised a single word, the atmosphere is suffocating, what else is there but to bet on Shirou, the man that Chaldea Master has put his trust on?
Yet those hands will never hold anything
3 seconds left. They all watch as the ground near them begin to crumble, their heart is beating in anxiety as they tried to hold on to the last breath of sanity.
So as I pray...
2 seconds left. They stare at Shirou for they will enter the one-way path to hell.
Unlimited Blade Works
And within that last split second, the flame erupted from Shirou's feet and it quickly engulfs everything and everyone surrounding it, they reached even the Beast for he does not even know what he is supposed to expect from Shirou. And completely got overtaken by surprise at the surprisingly large effect radius of it.
And soon the whole mountain collapsed, leaving only the splash of rubble falling into the sea and soon only silence remained.
"._.""._.""._."
Unlimited Blade Work
"._.""._.""._."
Arnold stood there in bewilderment as this is the first time he ever found himself in a place of somebody's mind. A second ago, the mountain that he was standing on is crumbling and suddenly he got transported here. In his entire surroundings is a barren desert with blades and lances stabbed into the ground like grave markers on a wasteland.
"Was this some sort of battlefield that used to take place in the past? It's... oddly reminiscing. Perhaps it reminds me of the time I fight in the Great War. Not that it was anything great in the first place, at least the fallen here is remains in some form. The friends in my time just straight up forgotten and discarded..." Arnold thought as he checked the surrounding blades.
The smog surrounding him blocking his vision of the surroundings. The true sight gift that Alice has given seems to only allow him to ignore darkness, illusions, false notions and stuff that are made to mess with one's mind, the smog is real and it is here not to mess with anything, it just there. It is indeed a powerful gift in fact, just that he wonders what is this place exactly.
Suddenly, he noticed the blades started to root up and flying towards a direction. He then quickly chasing them and hope that it would lead him to his friends and allies.
The smog around him cleared up and soon he noticed the complete scenery of Shirou's Noble Phantasm. It's... like a steel mill. Gigantic and Monolithics gears rotating in the sky with some large clouds hanging over him with bright light filled the vision with the wall of flame at the distant horizon. But how should he put this? It's like a massive graveyard and the blades were oddly well-preserved, was he a grave keeper of some sort?
More blades are uprooted and keep flying in a direction towards one location. He then quickly tracing their path and soon found where the red-tanned Archer is.
Blades are flying at the Beast in drove and he is shooting down them while avoid getting hit by them. The Beast is oddly agile that he can actually run in an even manner against Shirou if he recalled correctly. The machine gun that the Beast is firing with is still ungodly obscene that it is a miracle that it still haven't meltdown now.
Well, that is what he thought, because the Beast in actuality replacing the barrel every time the thing overheats. And he does so extremely fast that no one would catch it.
"So you intend to stall this out even longer then. May your demise as agonizing and long as your persistent" Shirou said as he held his arms up to the sky.
Even more blades being plucked up and they quickly surrounding Severloh, Shirou then raised his command and every single blade that in the sky quickly rushes towards him. Severloh then raised his machine gun and just let loose the trigger and spin around his position. Once again, the machine gun that he used managed to clash against the 300000 RPM Final Conda and thus he just deflected all of the blades with a single spin.
"Tsk, nice try. But may God is with you because I am sure that he is already gone from this world, long ago." Shirou said unamusedly before he raised his hand again.
This time, he will use everything at his disposal and that means... every single blade. Ever since his summoning at Chaldea in its early day, he has constantly looked up and learned from many other Servants, from their way of combat, fighting, everything... And the most important part of it is their weapons, the weapon that made them the legends that they are now, especially those Knight Classes Servants. Because of that, his UBW's arsenal is always being expanded with each new Servant summoned and encountered. The reason why he cared about Chaldea so much is that it is his true deserved end after he went through hell and back for his ideal. Especially when he can finally save humanity without having to kill other humans.
And when one would look at the arsenal of Shirou's UBW, they would obviously know that it is undoubtedly huge. And to make it even worse for his enemy, he can use all of them to the closest of the original wielder. Another fact is that all weapons in UBW cost no mana to trace for he is already in his inner world, the only cost he would have to pay is the cost of upholding this reality marble which adds another reason to use it to full potential.
His hand raised up and all of the blades behind him started to rise upward to the sky, so much of them that it blotted out the sky and all of them are charging straight towards him. Severloh decided to fire first at Shirou but he has already jumped out of the way and taking many blades with him and fired at Severloh. Severloh managed to dodge them all but he then turned towards the rain of blade that is charging towards him like a dragon as if it would devour him whole.
Severloh quickly unleashes his machine gun at the dragon made out of steel. The torrents of bullets against storm made out of blades created massive deafening clashings that have no possible words to describe. The amounts of blades being hurled at him are obscene to the point that it just straight up a clashing between two disasters.
Arnold meanwhile staying away from a distance and looked at how everything unfolded. Everything just feels so unreal to him like he just suddenly got dropped into a world of fantasy. He tried to look for anywhere that he could find his partners but the storm of blades and bullets clashing against each other make it extremely tedious to do so. However, no matter how obstructed his visions are, he can't ignore that mountain in the distance. Decided that will be the place where he will be headed for so that he can scout for everyone else, he quickly springs into actions.
Even just a stray blade alone created a huge explosion upon landing, can one even imagine having a rain of them landing near you? Well, for Arnold that is just Tuesday for him since running while being fired upon by artillery barrages are just common sight for him back then, he still takes the most caution he could before he finally made it there in a timely manner.
The small mountain that houses many weapons of legend although he also noticing that there are some being plucked up and going to be used as ammunition for his barrage of blades. He then noticed someone, it is Alfin!
"Alfin!" Arnold yelled to get her attention.
Alfin noticed and waved her hand so that Arnold knows that she is fine. He then quickly climbing the mountain to get to her location. When he reached there, he also saw everyone else too, they actually meet up here.
"Everyone! Why are you guys gathered here?" Arnold asked.
"Because we are about to strike down the Beast at his very weakness. All Servants who were killed or died a non-peaceful death have a conceptual weakness to the said cause of death and can be potentially exploited that way. Although he wasn't killed or anything, his position got compromised and captured after the D-Day end. And you know why? He used up all of his ammo and forced to use tracer rounds and which caused him to get spotted and bombarded his position to oblivion. That's right, we will bombard his position and wear him down. When the perfect chance for him comes, that is when Shirou will put an end to all of this." Gudao explained.
So... they will be bombarding Severloh, some of his allies don't have the necessary ability to do so but Alfin would fill everybody's role when it comes to that. Having an entire armory including even field guns reserved as an ability just sounds freaking nice, isn't it?
"Understood... I shall then follow your order." Alfin said straightforwardly.
"Then why are you waiting for? Do it now!" Gudao said to her.
Soon mana started to radiate around her position as she activates her skill, the blazing portals appeared around her and cannons started to protrude through them. She then firing them towards Seerlloh's location. If it isn't going to kill him, it would definitely tire him out quicker. She knows for sure that no Servant can fight continuously with attacks that consume their mana rapidly without an additional source to complement to that cost. Sooner or later, it will be all lost for Severloh.
Shells and swords mixed up with each other, Severloh can't fire his machine gun at Shirou without being skewered by thousands of swords and now there are artillery shells mixed up in it and thus he is forced to run away from his position. Before he truly runs though, he aimed at the mountain where the shells were fired. And when the Chaldean Servants noticed, they quickly braced themselves.
Everyone was shaken but it was surprisingly not that bad like they thought. Turns out, before the majority of the bullets impacted, Shirou sent over a hail of swords that will act as the foundation of the barrier and Kiritsugu quickly removed the concepts of time from the blades with the power of his mage crest. That's what precisely happened, they built another barrier of timeless blades in split second. Although Kiritsugu was knocked back by the sheer shockwave of the impacts and how close he was to the proximity, he is still fine.
"Keep tiring him out, Alfin!" Gudao commanded her to push on forward.
Alfin simply nodded, she then focuses and quickly creates even more of those artilleries in order to boost even more the destructive power of each volley.
Meanwhile, Shirou is pursuing Severloh who is trying to fall back from him as fast as possible. The guy is starting to become more drained and realizes that the battle isn't going for his favor anymore. He overstayed the fight and now he will be paying it.
"You may try to run but you can't outrun me!" Shirou said as he speeds up although he may say it, he isn't exactly going to catch Severloh soon.
The clash between blades and bullets ere ceaseless, he swore that once he is done with this whole situation, he'll be hearing this for a long while.
"I need to end this battle right here, right now. His movements are showing signs of sluggishness telling that he is no longer at his best. If I remembered correctly, he was captured and thus I can believe that if I managed to get him into close-range combat, he won't be able to put up a fight. Perhaps..." Shirou thought.
Decided to put his faith in his experience with the twin blades again, he will finish off this fight once and for all. He traced them again, the Kanshou and Bakuya. The twin blade of yin and yang formed again on his hand and he quickly threw them into the path shaped of an arc that will intersect at Severloh. And within the next second, Severloh deflected the blades again, just like how he expected. The blades now formed again in his hands and he quickly charges towards him.
Is it suicidal? Yes? But does he come charge at other like a suicidal maniac unprepared for whatever attacks that may potentially kill him? Come on, what on earth do you think who Shirou Emiya is?
And just like what would have logically happened, Shirou got shot repeatedly in his gut to the point he almost got sawn in half. The pain quickly takes over him as he knelt to the ground. Severloh, however, finds it extremely weird how Shirou spent all of his efforts in order to take him down and suddenly just charge like an impatient idiot.
However, he noticed something is wrong, Shirou's wound is recovering quickly, too quickly for any healing NP he could think of. Severloh was in too great shock and he quickly tried to finish Shirou off by firing at his head. However, before he could do anything, something slashed through his torso. No, it was two things. He looked at the torso where it is starting to bleed profusely and then he looked forward only to learn that it was the two blades from before that he deflected from before. They... He fell for Shirou's ploy.
The pain started to seeping in, it started to become more uncontrollable and soon he fell to the back and no longer able to do anything anymore. Shirou then managed to pull himself up and the wound has already repaired itself. He looked down on Severloh who is looking back at him. Shirou then turned his eyes to the side and seeing the one sword that stands out entirely from the rest. The Excalibur, it shines majestically befitting the royal who fought for their belief. He smiled as if it was thanks to it that he managed to make all of these successful.
"Shirou, he..." Gudao gasps as he finds what Shirou did was impossible to believe.
Gudao then looks toward the top of the mountain and sees that one blade is missing, the Excalibur. Amidst all of those storms of blades and chaos, the Excalibur was pluck along with those common blades and thus it is so easy to miss it out. During those times back when he is dealing with Lostbelt, he always getting caught up in Shirou's UBW and the Excalibur on top of the mountain is a landmark that hardly anyone can miss.
"Haha... If you want to fool your enemy, you have to fool your allies first!" Kuro laughed as she witnesses the whole personal plan of her and her brother end in success.
"Kuro? What did you do?" Kiritsugu asked his daughter for he never thought somebody like her would walk two steps ahead of him.
"Let's just say... Our Master totally not seeing this coming either." Kuro said.
Flashback
"Oh... my... god... The light... is just so blinding... my head hurts from it alone... despite I have covered my eyes..." Kuro said as she tries to pull her composure back up after seeing the aura blast of Alice.
"Damn... Just what on earth is she?" Shirou said as he tried to clear his mind up after getting hit by such a blinding attack like that.
Suddenly, he heard something ringing. It is the Shadow Border communicator! And Gudao also seems to be knocked out cold, it will be a while before he would get up. Shirou grabbed the communicator first and answered it.
"Is everyone alright!? All of our observation feeds crashed when we witnessed the blast unfold and we worried that something bad has just happened to everyone. Hic... I'm so glad that everyone is okay..." Da Vinci said while trying to stop her tears from flowing.
"Damn, the whole observation chamber crashed? Never have I thought something like that is possible..." Shirou said as he finds in unbelievable.
"Well, thanks. But where is our Master!?" Da Vinci asked again.
"Don't worry, he is knocked out but he is fine regardless." Shirou said.
"Good to know then, shall I close the communication down now?" Da Vinci asked.
Shirou was about to say yes if the lips reading is any correct. However, he changed his mind in the last second.
"Da Vinci, can I talk with Artoria for a bit?" Shirou asked.
"Okay then, I shall transfer the call to her, Shirou" Da Vinci said happily.
Shirou stares intently at the communicator, the view in it quickly turned towards Artoria.
"Shirou! Thank god that you are okay..." Artoria said to her in worry that something might have happened to him
"Don't worry, Artoria. It just that something in my mind is telling me to see you again. And... I want to see it again" Shirou said to her.
Shirou didn't mention what exactly but Artoria understands it in an instant. She quickly going out of the screen and then brings him the very thing he asked. When he laid eye on it, he can't help himself but smile.
"Thanks, Artoria. For staying with me since day one. You always help me with everything and I am glad to have you... as my wife..." Shirou said.
"Oh god, Shirou. Please don't make this look like a farewell." Artoria laughs as she knew well that Shirou won't risk anything without ensuring his victory.
"Heh, you know me well... By the way, please make sure our Master knows naught of what I am about to do. The plan needs the least amount of arbitrary factors as possible." Shirou laughed along with Artoria before telling the part of his plan.
"Understood then, wish you luck." Artoria said her goodbye.
Shirou then turned the communicator off and then put it back into Gudao's pouch. And soon enough after that, Gudao woke up not knowing of the conversation Shirou had.
"What on earth happened?" Gudao said as he lies on the rooftop with his vision started to slowly cleared up from that pure white vision.
Back to present
"And that's how everything unfolded. While it may be Onii-chan's plan to be more exact, I have played the majority of its part and make sure that nobody knows about it until the plan brought to its fruition. The more elaborate the plan, the higher the chance that external factors would ruin it. And so Onii-chan kept it straightforward with the least amount of people knows as possible." Kuro said.
"Sigh... while I felt ashamed of myself for getting overtaken like that. I also feel proud that you managed to outwit me like that, I didn't know anything about the plan that your brother devised and the fact that I didn't pick anything strange up proves how much you have grown. The apple sure doesn't fall far from the tree, isn't it?" Kiritsugu said.
"Well... All well is end well... But what exactly was it that Shirou meant?" Gudao asked.
Before any answer could be given, the surroundings started to turn white. The Reality Marble is being retracted and soon they will return back to the real world. They have finally defeated the Beast and so there is no longer any reason to stay here.
Soon, it is all just white as it flashes brightly before anyone could tell the transition from Shirou's inner world and the real one.
"._.""._.""._."
Light At The End of Darkness
"._.""._.""._."
They all have returned to the real world, but the thing is that Shirou used UBW on top of a soon-to-be collapsed mountain. And since that mountain is gone. The only thing that would soon follow is everyone freefalling towards the seawater below them. They knew that they won't die from falling, if they didn't take Severloh out, the seawater will consume them away. But since the guy is also freefalling at his worst possible state, Shirou traced his bow so that he will deal the killing blow on Severloh.
Well, that is what he intended. Hadn't for the fact that Severloh is also having something with him that allows him to retreat like how Rommel did. He pressed it and suddenly a blast of disorienting noises and flashes followed which hampered with everyone's sense. When their perceptions finally returned to normal, Severloh is gone, not even a trace of him remains.
"Damn it! Not again!" Kiritsugu said after having experienced it first hand before this.
At least with Severloh retreated, his Noble Phantasm will cease to work. The seawater will fall down and it will become just a flat out seawater, not a goddamn river of Styx.
Landed on the top of what was left of the mountain with the seawater still flooding everywhere, but at least they started to show signs of draining down.
"Man... Can we ever have a day of not fighting anyone at all." Arnold said as he started to lies on the rubble for there isn't anything else, he is tired of all of these constant fighting and he wanted to rest.
Larry has also woke up and learned that he just completely missed everything that happened. Desmond who has also woken up and found out that his right leg is completely gone, although he seems oddly calm despite being one leg short.
"Guess we will be waiting here for a while." Pierce said as he sits down on the most comfortable spot he could find.
Everyone talked with each other for a while and then they realized that the night is ending, the sky started to brighten although the clouds are also returning after Alice's aura blast. They can't help but think about Alice's capability, especially after what she just did throughout the night. Shirou though just decided to coin her as not-Void-Shiki for how uncaring they are when it comes to life and death situation and how they make everything looks like a child play.
"What Void Shiki said that there is somebody here has the power equals to her. And Alice is pretty much fitting that bill right now. But did she ever say that it has to be necessarily an enemy?" Shirou thought as he leans against the rubble.
Soon the daybreak approaches, and their fight is still going to continue. For each new day they reached is an invaluable present that has nothing else having enough worth to trade for.