Bridge of Lost Souls

Japan, the Zone, north of Lake Biwa.

"Archer's right, it must be Shrove Thursday."

Holding her belly in one hand, Rin laughed so hard that she was red and threatened to choke. She pointed to Shirou who grimed a forced smile, while vigorously rubbing his neck. Again, the 'moronic' redhead was the target of his friend's teasing... The Red Devil was never happier than when she could make fun of him.

Alongside her former Master, Saber seemed even more upset than the redhead teen.

"Rin, this is the armor of a lord of the New Empire," she said. Then, the King of Knights turned to Shirou to look at him with pride and added: "I think this suit of armor fits Shirou really well. If he had lived in my time, I am sure he would have been a great knight and I would have fought with joy at his side. Because Shirou is Japanese, a samurai suit suits him perfectly."

The remark made Shirou blush. But the cause of her embarrassment was now very different. Rin stopped laughing and looked at the former Master and his former Servant with a mischievous smile.

"Oh, in your mouth that's a great compliment. Would that have happened something you didn't tell me about in your reports?"

If Shirou was Tohsaka's favorite anti-stress, teasing Artoria was almost as pleasant.

It was Saber's turn to blush.

She coughed in her fist before resuming speaking in a very formal tone.

"I mentioned everything that was important to communicate with you, Master. Simply... As his training partner, I am happy to see that he has made great progress and that he promises to become the equal of the greatest knights of the past. "

Sitting on a big rock, next to Rin, his hands squeezed between his legs, EMIYA sighed and roll his eyes.

"I guess it's better to hear that than to be deaf..." he said, pretending to speak to himself... but in a voice strong enough for everyone to hear his words.

Of course, Saber reacts immediately, her beautiful face tensing with anger.

"Archer, take it back, it's insulting to Shirou."

The Wrought Iron Hero replied with a wink while spreading his arms in a gesture of exaggerated surrender.

"You will admit that my relationship with my 'stupid version' had improved a lot. Before, I would have immediately tried to kill him. Now I find that seeing it is a little better than being blind, and hearing it is a little better than being deaf. Isn't that a big step forward?"

Wiping her eyes filled with tears of laughter, Rin smiled from ear to ear. She seemed to have regained all her good humor and dynamism. Unconsciously, Archer also smiled. Well, if his immature version could change Rin's mood so radically, Shirou had at least one utility.

Because of their repeated failures to cross the Hayatsuki River, Rin had been in a foul mood for the past three days. The dynamism of the Tohsaka heiress and her aggressive temperament was sometimes exhausting. But it was still preferable to a depressed and moody Rin looking for a target on which to relieve frustrations... particularly when you are the only available target.

Besides, even if he wasn't the type to admit it, he was happy that Saber and... He paused for a brief moment and restated... that Saber had succeeded in joining them. With the help of the Servant of the Sword, they could finally cross that damned river and continue their way to Oniraku. Archer, of course, expected Shirou to be an unnecessary burden. Worse, because of his stupid idealism, his younger version would probably attract many problems. EMIYA shrugged with fatalism.

Rising and stretching, he turned to the Hayatsuki River.

"Well, now that you're here. Let's start the war council."

Saber considered for several seconds, and then she nodded firmly.

"I see."

She turned towards the river, looking towards the railway bridge that was vaguely discernible. The road bridge was too far away to be visible with the mist that remained on the coastal marshes.

"I agree with you, Rin. It's probably no accident. Someone is watching you and has worked hard to stop all your attempts to cross the river."

"And you have a plan," asked the Tohsaka Magus.

The Servant replied with a sorry smile.

"I'm sorry. I have no idea right now. Maybe if you give me time to think about it." She hesitated for a moment...

"That said I have a talent that might be useful. I can walk on water."

Rin blinked, looking at her in astonishment.

"Walk on the water?"

Artoria Pendragon nodded slowly; a strange expression appeared on her face as she thought of her first encounter with the Lady of the Lake.

"Yes, no surface of water can hold me back. It's a blessing I've received."

The Tohsaka heiress rubbed her chin, a hand passed over her belly.

"Interesting, this can certainly be helpful. Why are you only informing me now?"

Artoria replied with a sweet smile.

"We never had to fight on a river beforehand."

"That's right."

While Rin was thinking about what she could do with this new piece that had just been added to the puzzle, Saber turned to her neighbor.

"Shirou? You didn't say anything."

The young man flinched and blinked before responding with an awkward smile.

"Uh... no... I don't have an idea either. Besides, Rin usually takes care of the strategy."

The Red Devil crossed her arms with a scowling pout.

"Except our opponent probably listens to everything we say. So even if I have a plan... explaining it to you would be like telling our enemies."

Oniraku, the Zone.

Inside the Castle of Darkness, Iriku Ō leaned forward, his two clawed hands twisted on the armrests of his hideous throne sculpted with skulls and moldings resembling entangled bodies. He looked at the basin placed on a tripod in front of him. The luminous liquid showed the four intruders who had dared to enter the Zone.

"Oh... what a shame, Tohsaka-san... and I enjoy listening to your strategic meetings. I'm the biggest fan of your demonstrations. I mean, I don't complain, I've always hated being told the rest of the story ahead. It spoils the surprise. But, well, the outcome remains predictable... the good guys win in the end... don't they? So the evil invaders will be repelled... and you are the invaders... so you are evil and the good guy is me. I love good stories that end well."

Under the hood, in the shadow that hid no face but darkness, appeared a smile resembling a fluorescent line. The oblique and cruel eyes were half closed.

The Archdeevil burst out with a thundering laugh.

"Actually, I have a plan."

Rin, Saber, and Shirou turned to Archer.

The Wrought Iron Hero stood behind Rin, arms crossed.

He shrugged at the sudden interest of his three companions.

"It's not a complicated one. We tried to move to places we thought were undefended, and each time we were ambushed."

He pointed to the upstream of the river.

"But there is a traditionally built bridge. A recent construction, post-Rifts, probably the work of the Onis. Through this bridge passes a dirt road that leads to a village called the 'Well of Souls'. If we can't take the opponent by surprise we might we can simply attempt a frontal attack by relying on our speed and power to force the passage."

Rin had a diabolical smile that she hid with one hand, giggling, and her eyes narrowed until they were thin slits.

"Oh... this is proof that you are indeed Emiya Shirou. Head straight into the fray, by the most direct route? So Shirou-like."

Archer was upset and his answer was rather dry.

"I prefer subtle tactics... but as you've explained so well... with an enemy watching and listening to us all the time, subtlety doesn't work. We have two Servants and two Masters. Let's try a head-on attack so that everything else has failed."

The two Servants and the two masters were standing on the west bank of the Hayatsuki River. The bridge leading to Tamashī no ido (the Well of Souls) was right in front of them. It was a traditional bridge of a single wooden arch painted in red. It was not very wide, just enough for two people walking side by side. Built at a point where the river was quite narrow, upstream of the coastal marshes and downstream of the spider marsh, it was the only suitable crossing point between the two shores. It was also so obvious that Rin had preferred not to approach it and cross the river in a less predictable place. She shuddered at the memory of the kraken that had attacked them near the ruins of the Highway Bridge... and especially at the remembrance of the spiders the size of an ox crawling in the swamps. The creatures living along the river would come back to haunt her nightmares for a very long time.

As she mechanically rubbed her arms covered in goosebumps, Archer turned to Tohsaka.

"Okay, here's the plan..."

He pointed to the bridge.

"... We will advance in a diamond formation. Saber will walk in the vanguard, then Rin and Shirou, next to each other. I will be behind you, ready to cover you with my bow, or to defend the rearguard if we are caught on the back."

The Tohsaka Magus agreed, his plan made good use of the Servants' abilities while at the same time best protecting the two Magi.

As no one objected, they advanced on the bridge, following EMIYA's plan.

Saber opened the road, she walked quickly, perceptibly tense and holding in hand The Sword of the Wind King.

Then came the two Masters.

Behind them, Archer seemed calmer, but his arms were hanging down his body, his hands open... and his fingers twitched intermittently... because he was ready to Trace a Noble Phantasm at the first sign of danger. His eyes covered the scrolls of pale whitish fog that drifted softly over the river and the nearby marshes.

But nothing happened...

—at least before they hit the middle of the bridge.

It began with a murmur of muffled voices like a conversation right next to them... but the words remained unintelligible.

Then the two Servants winced with pain, raising their hands to their foreheads.

At the same time, we heard a sound like a thunderbolt... and then the sky began to change color.

While a red light transformed the landscape to give it a sinister appearance, the trees on both sides lost their leaves to rot and start swarming with disgusting insects.

But the worst was what happened to the river. The water had been turned into blood! And the now tumultuous waves were loaded with sliced human heads, severed limbs, and rotten corpses. The smell of mass grave was unbearable...

"A Reality Marble!"

As always, Rin was the first to understand what had happened. Despite the similarity between this 'pocket universe' and the Hayatsuki River, they were now within an individual's inner world. This world had been projected out through a powerful Magecraft using the World Egg Thaumaturgy Theory.

"Watch out!"

This time it was Archer who had just spoken. With his hand, he pointed out a whirlwind that had just appeared in the river of blood. Eyes reduced to thin slits, holding her invisible sword in her hands, Artoria prepared for battle.

Suddenly jumping out of the hemoglobin waves, a character suddenly lands at the end of the bridge.

A samurai in armor.

But the being was long dead. His torn kimono revealed skeletal arms and, under the helmet, one could only see a scrawny skull. However, two red dots shone beneath the brow ridges. And this evil look was pointed at Saber.

He had a black flag on his back with two red ideograms...

"Shittai" read Shirou.

It meant 'Malemort' (cruel death). This samurai had not had an honorable death and had not found rest, haunting the places of his death and killing those who wanted to cross the bridge.

As the samurai of Malemort drew a wakisashi and a katana to rush towards Saber, Archer materialized his black bow and fired several salvos of arrows in rapid succession. But this hardly bothered the undead. With incredible skill he leaps quickly here and there, changing places to dodge attacks or cutting arrows in flight.

Behind Rin and Shirou, the Servant of the Bow had a disgusted pout.

"Tssk!"

Saber had not stood still and was running straight to the enemy.

"Archer, Master, let me handle him. A knight never refuses a duel."

Arriving near Saber, the undead attacked. The two Masters had trouble following the confrontation. The samurai of Malemort and the Servant of the Sword made a dazzling display of fencing, never motionless, flying from one end of the bridge to the other.

Nevertheless...

Saber blocked the katana forward before stepping aside to deflect the wakisashi with her left gauntlet. A shower of sparks erupts during the shock. She immediately counterattacked and the walking dead staggered as he hardly blocked the invisible sword.

And...

The pair of katana and the invisible sword collided more and more violently. The blades drew fluorescent arabesques in the air, causing brief bursts of prana when they collided.

"Iaaaa!"

With a strangely low-pitched Battlecry, Saber struck with all her might. The walking dead retreated a few steps, struggling not to lose balance...

But already the invisible sword described a luminous arc. The skeletal samurai hardly blocked and staggered again. Reduced to defensive he retreated again as Saber pursued her attack, striking without giving him time to recover.

The invisible blade touched Malemort in the shoulder, slashing through the armor. A thin drizzle of reddish prana rose from the 'wound'.

The monster reacted by uttering a terrible cry of anger and his empty orbits sparkled with a red light while a greenish aura stagnated around him.

But...

Although the samurai attacked harder and faster, he was unable to retake the initiative. Saber countered all his attacks, deviating, blocking, and dodging every sword stroke.

"Saber is stronger than this monster. I can tell, she's both stronger physically and technically... and they're equal in speed and agility. She has the advantage," Shirou whispered.

Behind him, EMIYA nodded, for once agreeing with his 'stupid version'.

"Right, she also has the advantage in terms of endurance and magical energy reserves, and Saber has already adapted to his style. You'll notice she uses her invisible sword with one hand and uses the buckler in her gauntlet to deflect the wakisashi stroke."

While the two boys were commenting on Saber's technique, Rin was in a trance, eyes closed and a hand outstretched. She was focused on the undead.

Her eyelids lifted up. Chasing sweat with one hand, the Red Magus turned to her Servant.

"Saber is that monster that generates the Reality Marble. You have to kill him so we can go back safely to where we came from."

Saber had heard her Master. She nodded.

"As you say, Rin. I take care of him."

Raising her sword with both hands she held her breath for a brief moment, focused. The samurai of Malemort leaps forward, wanting to make use of her immobility, and...

"Haaa!"

Without hesitation, Saber struck from top to bottom. The sword loaded with prana left behind it a blue trajectory... The attack was too fast, too powerful... the samurai seemed to move in slow motion, stopping his charge to lift his wakisashi in a gesture of defense... too late... too slow...

In the sound of broken bones, the invisible sword plunged deep into the shoulder of the walking dead. The left arm, cut clean, fell to the ground. Malemort waved and knelt down. Head down, he seemed to look at the ground.

Saber shook her head with both hands resting on the knob of her sword. She saw red prana swirling out of the wound of the undead. The opponent had been seriously wounded.

"I praise your talent to the sword samurai of Shittai. It was courageous of you to oppose me. As your victor, I hope we meet in your next life. I could offer you the opportunity to take your revenge. It's my duty as a winner."

She raised her sword to finish off the undead.

But Archer yelled:

"Be careful, he's not defeated yet. He's up to something!"

Despite her distrust of EMIYA, Artoria jumped back, putting herself on the defensive.

The monster stood up and knocked his head back:

"Ke ke ke ke ke ke!"

He was... laughing?

The river of blood began to boil and bones leaped out of the scarlet stream, heading for the undead. The monster's severed arm attached itself to his shoulders and... other bones connected to his back.

A moment later the samurai of Malmort had six arms... and in each hand, he held a katana.

"Ah, that's a real challenge..." whispered Saber.

Except it wasn't over, the river of blood was still boiling. Heads emerged from the red liquid... scrawny skulls or rotten faces. Awkwardly advancing, moaning, the undead converged to both shores to climb ashore. From the red river, arms also stretched out to grab the bridge railing and hoist.

Hundreds of undead... no, thousands... an army of walking dead!

Saber's smile had frozen.

"Archer, Shirou... I'm afraid I need your help."

A vein pounding furiously on her temple, Rin glanced at the Servant in exasperation...

"Saber, remind me to knock you out the next time you ask for a real challenge!"

The Servant suddenly looked sheepish.

"Yes, Master."

"Gandr"

A burst of black projectiles with a red aura struck a group of skeletons in samurai armor. The undead literally exploded.

"Trace On!"

Kanshou crossed a group of zombies that were slowly advancing along the bank. Like a boomerang, the Dao sword described a bend and came back reaping other undead, magnetized by Bakuya, its twin blade.

Standing at the end of the bridge, Saber was holding her sword with both hands. The weapon was still invisible, but the air sheath was fluctuating, allowing an intense blue light to filter through. The wind was furiously wrapping around her, snapping her blue dress and tearing her hair apart.

"Starlight Divergence!"

Three horizontal tornadoes appeared from the Sacred Sword, sheathing as many beams of golden light... The attack caused carnage, disintegrating and shattering several hundred undead into a thousand pieces.

Despite the success of this powerful attack, the rampage of the horde was barely slowed down. The numbers of the walking dead seemed infinite. The destroyed creatures were replaced by other undead emerging from the river.

Saber frowned. It was like facing Iskandar, the Rider of the Fourth Grail War.

Having also Traced Kanshou and Bakuya, Shirou sliced the heads and hands of the undead who were climbing the parapet of the bridge. Nevertheless, the task had no end.

"This is utterly useless! If we continue like this, they'll just overwhelm us."

Rin nodded.

"You're right. Defend me, I'll create a Bonded Field to stop these walking dead, the Servants can focus on Malmort. Shirou, I need you to Trace a copy of my Azoth dagger!"

After she received the requested object, she knelt down behind Saber and used it to draw a line in the bridge wood, also writing the runes "ᚦ" and "ᛚ" (1)

The Tohsaka Magus then drew a second line and inscribed the runes "ᛊᛁᚲᛚᛁᛊᚾᚨᚺᚻᛚᛁ" (2) inside an eye-shaped pattern.

After this, Rin drew an identical pattern with the same runes behind Archer.

While she was working, the walking dead continued to attack and without her gandr, many more reached the bridge and began to climb. But Shirou struck with his two swords, reaping the enemies and preventing them from climbing on the bridge. Despite the Strengthening Magecraft he had applied to his body and armor, the redhead had already received several light wounds... and more enemies were arriving. They wouldn't last very long at that rate. Humans would be the first to fall, but even the Servants could not hope to defeat an army.

Normally, the Formalcraft required several minutes of incantations. Fortunately, on Rin's left forearm appeared greenish lines of light that formed a labyrinth-like pattern. It was the Magic Crest of the Tohsaka, containing the magical knowledge of her ancestors... including the knowledge of the Runic Magecraft stolen from the Edelfelt during a previous Grail war. A true spell processor, the Magic Crest simplified all Magecraft operations.

The Tohsaka heiress began her incantation. Digging a hole in a plank of the bridge, she embedded a small ruby in it that was to serve as a source of energy.

"Thurs ist die Angst der Frauen,

Das Unglück macht wenig glücklich.

Lögr Ein Wasserfall ist ein Fluss, der von einer Bergseite fällt;

Aber der Schmuck ist aus Gold.

laukaR

siklinahli"

As she said the last command word, a binding light surrounded the central section of the bridge. Skeletons and zombies retreated, unable to approach the prana-laden runes by Rin's powerful incantation.

The Bounded Field was effective.

Archer let the Married Blades dissipate into blue prana particles and Traced his large black bow. At a rate that only another Servant could match, he fired self-replicating arrows. But Malemort was not yet cornered. The scarlet river leaps to the sky, forming a wall of blood, bones, and corpses.

The horrible barrier effectively stopped the arrows' salvo.

Archer winced. A bluish aura suddenly appeared around him and he extended his hand... if these arrows could not cross this rampart, he could use a much more powerful one.

In a shimmer of red light appeared a kind of... corkscrew... but the strange object had the handle and guard of a sword. Placing the strange sword on the rope of his bow, he pulled the rope back and the weapon thinned, lengthened, taking a more aerodynamic aspect.

As Archer's aura turned red, he uttered only one word:

"Caladbolg!"

The arrow went off in a violent detonation... reaching nearly instantly supersonic speed!

The Fake Spiral Sword will tear open the wall of blood and corpses, creating a huge 'splash'.

Profiting that Archer had created an opening, Saber was rushing forward. Using Barrer of the Wind King to weaken the atmospheric pressure and thus the friction of the air, she ran faster than the wind, appearing at several points of the battlefield as a blurred form, cutting the living dead who opposed her advance.

She went through the wall of blood before it closed and jumped ahead...

Her invisible sword penetrated Malemort's chest.

"Ahhhhhh!"

The deep Servant's shout rose slowly in volume.

Around her hands, the wind sheath fluctuated. A blue light appeared and then a ring of fire formed around the guard, going up along the blade and revealing... the magnificent Sword of Promised Victory.

The weapon began to radiate.

"Starlignt Convergence!"

Engulfed by the explosion of golden light, the undead samurai uttered a horrible howl.

At the same time, his legions of slaves collapsed and a flash of light passed through the Reality Marble as reality regained its rights.

They were back on the true bridge of lost souls.

The landscape was physically identical, but in the real world, the river was made of water and much more peaceful. As for the trees on the bank, they were alive and the sky was blue between the tears of the grey clouds.

At the place where the undead samurai had fallen, only a small pile of smoking ashes remained. Saber saw that an object had resisted disintegration. It was an ivory hunting horn with a silver nielloed drawing representing a saber-toothed tiger.

The object seemed precious and she took it for examination.

It was a kind of Mystic Code. She decided to show it to Shirou. He could probably use his Structural Grasp or his newly obtained psionic power to explain to her what it was for.

"Let's get some rest," Rin proposed... "I think we're all exhausted."

Indeed, the fight had been hard and had cost them a lot of energy. They had received only a few scratches, but the samurai of Malemort had proved a very dangerous adversary. It was not so much their abilities as their experience in team fighting that allowed them to win the battle.

The slightest mistake could have been fatal.

(1) Literally, these two runes form the word... 'beer'! But it is a simple coincidence that the two runes form an intelligible word. Runic magic is based on the symbolic meaning of runes. The association of the runes 'Thurisaz' and 'Laguz' currently reads 'laukaR', which means 'protection'. But it's rather amusing to imagine the walking dead stopping at the sight of the word 'beer'... it makes them immediately more sympathetic.

(2) This gadr (runic invocation) is pronounced 'siklinahli' and means 'the brooch is a protection against dead/revenants'.