Ch13: Archer's Counterattack

Things really weren't going my way, but maybe I should have expected as such. Nothing ever goes my way. The wraith under our enemy's control was receded into the shadows immediately, but for Heracles who was struggling against the chains, I had ample time to act from the tower I was perched upon.

"I am the bone of my sword, Caladbolg!"

The notched sword arrow rips space apart and strikes true. A familiar explosion. A grand explosion I have seen too many times to count. Too many times to even care. A spectacle that has become mundane routine, but there was a silver lining in this instance that made it different from the others.

I saved him.

The chained body of a demi-god was blown apart and thus freed from the chains that bound him. He was spared from the shadows that sought to consume him. If it was anyone else, what I did would have amounted to nothing more than murder, but for Heracles, my actions had saved him. Illya was able to quickly call upon him again with a command spell and he was at her side once more in an instant. In a few short moments, he's carrying her on his shoulders once more; the injuries I inflicted had become a lie as his large figure recedes into the forest with utmost haste.

He won't leave her alone if given the choice. A big hero shouldn't let kids cry, that's the way a hero should be. Death won't stop him. If I could see my reflection right now, I would see a smiling man.

"God Hand" was the manifestation of his 12 labors; 12 extra lives. While death was a minor consequence to him, the enemy we were facing with her chains and those shadows was a different matter. I stare down at the enemy from my vantage point.

A familiar girl in my youth. It was undeniably her despite the difference in colors.

Hunkered down under an array of ornate shields embodying the ultimate defense. Such a grandiose display was something that only someone like the King of Heroes could pull off and my senses were telling me, in some way it was. Again, I'm reminded of the irregularity named "Miyu". Once again, I am reminded that this iteration of the 5th Holy Grail War was not the one that gave rise to me. The "Sakura" in my sights was not the Sakura I knew, yet the "Illyasviel" I was protecting was not the Illya I knew either, but my heart was always made of glass.

"To interfere with my disciplining, it seems you also require some education," was an unsettling familiar yet unfamiliar voice directed at me. If it wasn't for the stillness of the air, I may not have heard it.

I notch another arrow. Another twisted sword; a second Caladbolg II.

With those shadows at her disposal, she was the worst type of enemy for us spiritual beings to face up close. I draw the string just as two figures are dragged out in chains from the upper floors to the center of what was left of the garden. Hostages.

"That red coat, I see, you're the Tohsaka Servant aren't you? You must have a lot of gall to be standing above me. Explain yourself," was that commanding voice that could cross distances with ease.

"No answer?" was the clearly audible question.

She raises her hand above her.

I don't answer her.

A moment's hesitation. She had called forth an assortment of spears, launching them in my direction, reducing the tower I was standing on to dust, but not before I released Caladbolg II in her direction as I fell.

My shot doesn't miss. It was aimed at her heart, but it failed to pierce her waiting defenses. It wasn't a broken phantasm after all. She examines the intact Caladbolg II on the ground and recognizes it for what it truly was.

"A fake, huh?" was her voice with a mix of surprise and disgust.

It was in that instant, with a shimmer of gold, she brings forth the real thing. A large archaic drill more akin to a lance than a sword. She stops for a second.

"If only I could show you the true rainbow…..," were words tinged with disappointment.

Sakura wasn't Gilgamesh and Gilgamesh wasn't Fergus. I knew the King of Heroes had something greater that could break the sky along with the earth, so I was only relieved that she doesn't bring that out instead. She discards the drill sword in my direction.

I bring it forth, my best protection against projectiles.

"Rho Aias!"

Even if Caladbolg was slightly stronger than Durindana, my enemy wasn't Fergus. That was why I was still standing right now. The Seven Rings that Cover the Fiery Heavens remains unscratched.

Her projectile fails to pierce my defense and I use this chance to launch a salvo of my own.

"Sword barrel, full open."

The sound of metal shattering against metal resounds in my ears. My attack had failed as in front of me was a large obscuring shield from the Age of Gods. As the shield is returned to the gate, a formation of Noble Phantasms enters my view. I quickly project a mirrored image of that same formation in response.

I grit my teeth.

My fakes clash against her originals. Shrapnel and explosions tear through the ground between us. It was unfortunate, but my projections could barely keep up with the speed at which she could dispense Noble Phantasms from that "Gate of Babylon". Even if she wasn't Gilgamesh, her Noble Phantasms were undoubtedly the real thing. If I brought forth my reality marble, "Unlimited Blade Works", I could overwhelm her and close the distance, but as I look at the ground beneath her, that encroaching shadow, I dismiss the thought. A pit with no bottom. I would be torn apart by those tendrils in an instant.

"So, it has come to this."

From that shadow, Caster's former Servant appears. Even if I could get past Babylon's gate with unlimited blades, I would be done in by that shadow and that samurai. They would not lose in a close range battle with me or any single Servant in this war for that matter.

"It's time to end this farce, faker," she says with no amusement as she casually approaches me with that shadow still behind her. A looming shadow that was visible even at the dead of night.

"We're actually agreeing on something huh?"

I was outnumbered and there was no meaning in exchanging fire. In a battle of long range attrition, whoever had the most ammo would win and it was clear that Sakura had a larger stockpile of mana than me. It seemed like Sakura pilfered more than just a Servant from Ryuudou Temple, but that begs the question of what happened to Caster?

Change of plan.

I spread my hands outward. My swords materialize in the air to intercept her salvo before the broken fragments burrow under the earth, forming a fence along the ground.

"Burst."

I detonate them kicking up dust to make my escape into the nearby forest, retracing the steps the giant I was allied with made, all the while covering our tracks by cutting down the trees in my path, while chucking a few broken phantasms in random directions to obfuscate my route. Chasing us was a monster that couldn't be beaten without some form of plan. I run without turning back.

"Archer, is Sakura alright?" is the voice of my Master ringing in my head as dash from tree to tree.

"That depends on how you define it. You should see for yourself."

"That brat, she didn't…I told you not to let her...," were the signs of my Master's cracking mask. Her words stop as she witnesses the figure in the distance through my eyes. She must have wanted to deny what she saw.

"Physically, she's fine. We're running away from Sakura right now and hopefully, she won't catch us. By the way, you didn't happen to spot Caster flying around?"

A long pause through our connection. My Master collects her thoughts.

"She attacked the Church. I was lucky I was late." was the ringing in my head.

If Sakura was commanding the fake Assassin, then something must have happened to Caster. If Caster was also under her control, then it meant that she had 3 Servants at her disposal not counting herself. Caster, Rider, fake Assassin and herself, a pseudo Archer. The worst case scenario.

The Church, a keystone to Fuyuki's leylines. It was one of the four gates in which the Holy Grail would appear at the end of this ritual. The Tohsaka manor my Master lived in was one of them. The burned field where everything started for me was another. Lastly, Ryuudou Temple, which was recently compromised. For a participant in the Holy Grail War, these were the ideal places to hunker down in. Still, something bothers me.

"Why didn't you call on me with a command spell?" I ask, but my Master refuses to answer.

For a while, there is no voice in my head but my own.

Fuyuki City is split in the middle by river Mion. The Church is on the east half. The Einzbern Castle within the outskirts is on the west. They couldn't be farther apart. Without a Command Spell, there was no inconspicuous way to cross the river except the crossing the bridge.

If Caster was still herself, then she was probably desperate right now.

The pre-existing bounded field of the temple rejected all unnatural spirits, which is why enemy Servants were encouraged to use the front gate, hence why she summoned a Servant to guard said gate. Her prepared defenses were so easily circumvented.

Sakura didn't have to enter the front gate because she wasn't a Servant. Slipping inside and releasing her shadow. A magus worthy of being a heroic spirit would have deduced right away that Sakura's shadow wasn't something that could be defeated with regular means. After fleeing, the wraith guarding the gate was left alone. Being bound by the mountain, he could not flee from the shadow. The easiest catch. From Sakura's perspective, it must have been nothing more than a short little detour akin to going to a convenience store. The temple wasn't too far from her house, the school or the outskirts where the Einzbern Castle lay hidden.

No matter how skilled the magus, skill in mage-craft did not translate directly into combat potential; my own foster father was a testament to that. If Caster stayed at the temple, then the shadow would inevitably come back. After abandoning her base of operations, where should she set up camp next? If she chose a random area without regard to the leylines, it would only be waiting for inevitable death. Without sufficient preparations, she would undoubtedly lose to any of the other more combat oriented spirits even if the shadow was ignored. Even if she was a magus from an age where Gods still roamed, she was still subject to limitations.

With the temple compromised and the Tohsaka manor already occupied, there were 2 keystones to consider which were both conveniently located across the river from the Matou residence. Fuyuki Park where the Holy Grail appeared 10 years ago, the place entirely devoid of witnesses and bystanders was simply asking to get sniped by an Archer like me. That simply left the Church east of the river Mion, the supposed neutral ground.

It was supposed to be the "neutral" ground, but of course the Einzbern, Emiya, Matou and Tohsaka homes were all located west of the river. It wasn't foolish to think that most of the fighting would be restricted to the west side of the river where most of the contestants lived. Only novices were expected to visit the Church for questions. "Proper" magi participating in the war would never visit the Church if they could avoid it, though I couldn't say if any of the magi in this particular war were "proper". It was actually an ideal place to set up base for Caster if she could manage to create a convincing fake of Kirei as a puppet.

It was also possible that Caster's Master was killed in Sakura's visit and she could have decided to visit the Church hoping to forge a new contract with someone else. That was another possible explanation, but even if legends depicted Medea as someone fickle, it cannot be denied that some blame lay in those old Greek gods.

In the end, the reasoning behind her visit to the Church didn't matter. If she thought that Kirei would be easy to subdue and make into a puppet, then she was sorely mistaken. The priest was troublesome through and through if my memories of him were correct. Kirei wasn't someone you could easily negotiate with without being used yourself. He had countermeasures against Servants if he needed them, but since Rin wasn't ranting, it seemed like he didn't need to do anything. The fact that Rin was alive meant that Caster didn't pursue her despite her defenseless state.

"Emiya shot Caster down and Saber was on her way to finish her off," is what my Master finally confesses.

Rin carried someone injured on her back without a Servant at night. A regular Master wouldn't let her go that easily even if they believed I was watching them from afar with my bow drawn. Rin was still alive and unscathed. With yesterday as a precedent, I already knew the reason.

"That girl let you go didn't she?"

That little girl wasn't suited to fight in the Holy Grail War, but the same argument could be made about my own Master.

"Yes, but back to my question before you hijack the conversation, what happened to Sakura?" was what she was trying to reaffirm.

We had escaped somehow. Our pursuer eventually gave up. Whether it was out of kingly boredom or some bad memories about the neighborhood didn't matter. The midnight oil was burning, but so were tensions at the Tohsaka residence.

"You don't have tea for your guests? Where are your servants?" is what Illya tells Rin as they sit on opposing sides of the coffee table. The Tohsaka living room seldom receives guests, but the air was far from lively. The air was dead still. For a moment, the swaying pendulum of the grandfather clock was the only thing audible in the room. Despite what the shorter girl had endured, she was able to put on a playful little act in front of my brooding Master.

"You must have some inkling on what was done to Matou don't you?" is the question Rin bluntly poses.

"Instead of asking me how I was, you're asking about that Makiri girl, or Matou was it? Sakura, is that her name? You seemed to have an odd fixation about her during school, then again, the elusive school idol the male monkeys couldn't reach invites me, an adorable little girl to her hovel, could it be that you..," was the shorter girl's sentence that wasn't allowed to be finished if my Master had a say.

"I let you in my house when you claim to have lost yours, so are you really in the position to be telling jokes, Einzbern?" my Master points out.

The kettle goes off. The pressure is released and hopefully the two in front of me can settle down in the same way. I bring the cups. My swords have no pride, but my tea was a different matter. It was late in the night, but the caffeine content in tea was much lower than that of coffee, so it should be fine.

I place the tray between them.

To invite a novice magus to her house was one thing, but to bring in a homunculi who could analyze her home's defenses was another. It was just as Illya had mentioned. Sakura held importance to the girl named Rin. The white haired girl takes a sip without hesitation.

"You must have lucked out. You didn't have servants, so the grail gave you one," is Illya's response to my tea. You know you could have just admitted you liked it.

"So you just assumed the tea was safe?" is what Rin adds.

"Even barbarians won't kill someone they just saved. You wanted this alliance in the first place, so much so you're risking having me at your house, unless this isn't your house?" was Illya's reasoning.

"I assume you already know my relation with Matou, right?" as Rin cuts to the case.

"I know. That Makiri boy earlier today wasn't even a magus and yet he had something like that for a little sister, so of course she must have been adopted," was the obvious fact the shorter girl states.

My Master tenses up with Illya's use of language in regards to the girl in question. Well, there was no reason to beat around the bush any longer. I may not have been a proper magus in my lifetime, but I knew how magi families operated. Under normal circumstances, a magic crest can only be passed onto one successor. An extra child not intended to inherit anything could only be a hindrance. Shinji himself was a mild example born without magic circuits. Examples born with magic circuits were worse. Battles for succession were ugly things. That was why unneeded children are put up for adoption. To be used as breeding stock if they were lucky or to be used as raw materials for experiments if they were not and sometimes both if a child was really unlucky. It was an aspect of the world that unfortunately exists.

Of the 3 great families that started the Holy Grail War, the declining Matou family could only rely on the other 2 for new stock. The Einzbern or the Tohsaka. Right now, Sakura was something like a chimera composed of all 3 families and the power of a heroic spirit on top of that.

"Well now, isn't it convenient that we both have troublesome little sisters, fellow big sister?" the shorter girl teases. Rin bites her nail. She didn't like the comparison.

"So, what will you do Rin?" was something I had to confirm.

"Matou is probably allied with the Emiya's. Her attack on the Einzbern Castle was probably retaliation for what this brat did at lunch today," was a tone I didn't like.

"Are you saying this is my fault?" as Illya gets defensive.

"No, this outcome was inevitable. We now know who our enemies are and they're all monsters, so now we need countermeasures. Archer, that Noble Phantasm you used to free Berserker, that exploding arrow, it was the same Broken Phantasm you used at the school right?" was the question she poses to me.

Blue orbs bore into me, but they were not the only ones.

"You can project Noble Phantasms?" was what the red eyed girl says to me with genuine surprise.

The cards I wanted to hide were slowly being revealed. My natural enemies indeed. Nothing was going my way was it?

"So, you've finally gotten serious haven't you?"

Rin was starting to act like a proper Master, but I could already tell that this iteration of the Holy Grail War won't end so peacefully.