Things were not looking good.

The enemy attacked the healers first, killing most of the Faith users in the army. Certainly, they had some mages that could use Faith magic, but the loss of Fortify and Restore hit them hard. With no way to heal, or at least with their best gone, the army was on the backfoot.

However, they were the Holy Knights of Faerghus. It was a surprise attack, and an effective one, but it didn't mean they lost. The camp began moving. Knights moved left and right; voices raised to help keep some semblance of control. Some helped those that were alive get emergency Heal spells from mages that did know Faith magic. The rest began grabbing their weapons and rallied behind their commanders.

But…

It was as if the enemy knew the key targets, their locations, rotations, retinue composition, everything. Magic circles began cropping in the trees, lit by something dark, as if their magic was corrupted. Within the hour, the Holy Knights lost some of their commanders, and without their commanders, confusion and chaos rose.

Who was the enemy? The Duscurians? Where were they? They seemed to hide within the shadows of the trees, as if hunting their prey in the dark.

The Holy Knights quickly regrouped, separating into their secondary and even their tertiary formations if needed, protecting whichever commander was alive. Mages began pelting the trees with simple Fire magic, if at least to bring some light to whoever they fought.

They succeeded. The enemy wasn't Duscurian; the enemy was pale, some even had only whites in their eyes. Their numbers seemed to equal their own.

Each member of the army knew this was a losing battle. They only prepared for a diplomatic mission with their neighbor, Duscur. They didn't expect to be hit with such a force. Their best weapons were in Fhirdiad. Bringing them would make Lambert and his Knights seem like conquerors, even if it's already been almost a decade after the subjugation of Sreng.

And, if this was such a large army, how did they get through the patrols, the scouts? What happened to them?

But damn the battle, damn the enemy. If they were here to kill the king and prince, then the Knights will die getting them to safety, damn their lives.

With a war cry, a portion of the Holy Knights began rushing the enemy. The mages continued throwing Fire and Thunder spells as the rest of the army began a fighting retreat.

It was a sound strategy. A diversion would keep the enemies' attention while the rest retreated.

It was a sound strategy… If the enemy didn't know how the Holy Knights would react.

Lambert led the retreating force, or at least what should have been the retreating force. However, their retreat stalled, held by what seemed to be much of the enemy force. The first was only a detachment, like what they did. Still, even his retreat wasn't what plagued his mind.

'Patricia, where are you?' Patricia said that she was only walking around for a little while for fresh air and was followed by her own set of Knights, personally selected by Lambert himself. They would keep her safe, but after seeing the enemy and their numbers, he was distracted.

He tried his best to focus, telling himself that Patricia's small force would be able to maneuver much easier, but his love was a constant itch. At the very least, Dimitri was safe with him and Glenn. Still, to be sure…

Lambert turned to Glenn, Lambert's blue eyes meeting Glenn's own amber eyes. "Protect Dimitri, Glenn."

"Of course, your Majesty. But what about you?" Glenn tried to swat the sweat coming from his forehead. The heat from all the Fire spells was increasing.

"Do not worry about me. Dimitri is the heir and as your father was my Shield, you will be his. Swear it on your father's name!" Lambert's eye held his conviction.

As a knight-in-training, Glenn was trained to protect the King, first and foremost. However, if his King gave him an order… A Knight only has a single action allowed to them.

"I accept, your Majesty. I will lay down my life as Prince Dimitri's Shield, this I swear as a Fraldarius." Glenn's eyes wavered. It was inevitable, of course. This was his first true battle, and he would likely die.

However, Lambert knew those eyes. Even if Glenn's eye color came from his mother, Lambert saw Rodrigue, just like back in Sreng. All Lambert could feel was a momentary relief.

However, Dimitri didn't feel the same way. "Father, don't say that! You make it sound like you'll…" That relief was replaced by a sinking feeling in his stomach. How could he lie to his beloved son?

Lambert looked at Dimitri with a smile, as forced as it looked. "Dimitri, I will do my best." Dimitri knew something wasn't right with his father's words but could only look down in acceptance.

Still, this changed nothing with their situation. They were in the backfoot, the enemy knew their every move, and was slowly choking them, just like a snake.

Suddenly, dark magic began pushing back rather than just stopping them. Was the enemy's strategy to force everyone in the same area?

If the enemy thought that they would take the easiest route, then they would pay for that.

"Move forward! Healers, heal the front line! Knights, engage the enemy! Mages, light them up, forest be damned! We can always ask for forgiveness from the Duscurians later!" Lambert roared, commanding his army to push onward the enemy lines.

The screaming and sounds of war were starting to get louder again. Emiya was running for a while now, with Patricia in his arms. Reinforcing his vision, Emiya began to see the same hooded cloaks the people wore before.

Without hesitation, he began his attack. "Trace, On!" This time, rather than electricity forming around his hands like last time, it danced around him. The swords formed again and held in the air, following Emiya's trajectory, as if they were controlled by an invisible puppeteer's hands. With Emiya's mental command, the swords began launching towards the backs unsuspecting backs of the enemies. Each sword immediately killed a single hooded member.

As Emiya and Patricia reached the clearing, they saw the damage wrought by the attack: blood ran like a river, both friend and foe alike. The tents were on fire, but no one special like a king seemed to be among the dead.

A knight looked upon the interlopers and recognized the Queen Consort. "Lady Patricia!"

Patricia tried her best to keep her mouth shut as the boy ran through the fire.

'A child you say?! You run faster than most of the Swordmaster Class. And, even with the fire lighting up the forest, it is still too dark to see roots and the like. However, you run as if you can clearly see steps ahead of you. You move with a veteran's efficiency and there's no way you can carry me like this with the strength of a normal child! This dress isn't light at all.'

"Trace, On!" The boy's words took her out of her thoughts and the immediate area lit up with the same lightning effect from before. However, instead of bows and arrows, swords appeared, hanging horizontally by themselves in the air.

'Impossible… Is this a new type of magic? Some sort of creation or summoning magic? Perhaps a variation of the Rescue spell?'

Then something even more impossible happened: the swords shot forward, as if they were the lightning from a Thunder spell. On top of that, each sword shot just as fast towards-

'Wait, are those the damned backstabbers?! I can barely see them! How is he seeing them on top of everything he's doing? Instead of steps, he might be able to see further ahead of him!'

The pair finally reached the clearing and Patricia could only pale at the devastation. Bodies piled atop each other and blood flowed freely. She began panicking, looking around for Lambert and Dimitri.

"Lady Patricia!" A knight saw her and became excited, seeing her relatively unharmed self.

However, her safety wasn't at the top of her mind. "Where's Lambert and Dimitri?!" She was practically screeching at this point.

"Safe, your Majesty. They're retreating to the East! They left only a few minutes ago. With the enemy here defeated, they should be- "

Dark light rose and then exploded from the East. Patricia paled, even more than before, and looked at the boy. "They're- "

But, before she could finish, the boy was already on the move. He scooped her up, just like before, and began running towards the explosion.

Lambert was making some progress. While the enemy had numbers and seemed to know their every move, the Knights had skill and training. With their king letting them fight with no holds barred, the mages began firing their stronger spells, even the occasional Fimbulvetr and Excalibur spells. On top of that, the fire was spreading even further in the forest. While the heat was becoming unbearable, with many sweating buckets at this point, Lambert and the Knights were relatively safe from the fire itself.

The enemy, on the other hand, hid inside the forest. Lambert could only smirk as the enemy's tactic of hiding in the trees worked against them. And since there were so many of them, the fire culled many of them. The chaos that followed, along with the screams of the burning people, only aided them even more.

Still, the enemy was starting to rally again. Enemies that knew they couldn't be saved began throwing dark magic against the Knights, up until their last breath as their bodies were consumed by fire.

Lambert heard a whimper behind him and glanced back. Dimitri, the poor boy. This was a horrific sight, even for Lambert, who was used to dismembering with a sword or running someone through with a lance. How bad was it for a child?

Glenn, Goddess bless his heart, immediately understood the situation, turned Dimitri around, shielding him from further seeing more. Glenn also tried to cover Dimitri's ears to stop him from hearing the screams.

Lambert was glad that Glenn knew what to do. He would be a great retainer for Dimitri. Rodrigue would be even more proud of him if that was at all possible. He practically preened when Glenn was chosen for this diplomatic mission.

He shook his head again. Their current wind, as minuscule as it is, gave him time to breathe and he lost focus. Still, their current path was gaining them ground, but as they got closer to the enemy, they'd also be closer to the fire. Knights, with their heavy armor, would be sitting ducks. On top of that, all the enemy had to do to reverse the situation was to abandon their cover and push the Knights back. After all, there was a certain quality in quantity.

However, pushing the Knights back wasn't what the enemy did.

"Enough!" A voice rang out in the forest. "You're proving to be a pest, your Majesty, more so than I thought. Enjoy my gift to you."

Dark light began accumulating above the army. Lambert, with a sinking feeling, rushed back to Dimitri and Glenn and tackled them, just as the light landed where Lambert originally was and exploded.

Lambert coughed as the dust was everywhere. As Lambert stood, he saw the devastation wrought by the enemy spell. Most of his Knights laid dead on the ground and the remaining knights were critically hurt. Only the backline mages were alive and untouched by the spell.

"Goddess above…" Glenn murmured. Lambert could only agree.

Suddenly, the dark light began accumulating once again, albeit slower than before. Some of the mages' fire spells at the dark light, but it didn't work, some fired at the forest, but the enemy was gone at this point.

How? Some sort of teleportation spell? Lambert grimaced. That would certainly explain how an army of this size could move so quietly and suddenly.

"Your Majesty, please hurry! You must retreat, back to the camp! Perhaps the others have cleared the enemy battalion!" A mage exclaimed in false hope. Still, it was better than waiting here to die.

Just as he stood up and carried Dimitri into his arms, the voice rang again. "You won't escape this time, Lambert! Die!"

It was too late. The dark light fell upon them. Lambert could only shield Dimitri from the light, hoping that death would be quick for him. He hoped that Patricia was able to escape, if at all possible.

Suddenly, someone stepped next to him, as if they landed from the air, and a voice, a childish voice, rang out.

"Rho Aias!"

He looked up and his vision was filled with a purple flower.

Emiya cursed his current body. If it were his Counter Guardian body, he would have already reached Lambert even earlier. But no, he arrived, with only enough time to shield his immediate surrounding. He had to drop Patricia unceremoniously beside a blonde man, a teenager with dark blue hair, and a blonde child.

He held his right hand above him. "Rho Aias!" And with that, Rho Aias protected him and the people around him from the dark light.

However, he struggled to keep his hand up and began supporting it with his left hand. Running all night long with a woman in a full-fledged dress on his arms, on top of Reinforcing his body to his current limits. His body was reaching its limits.

Again, he cursed his current body. The first thing he's going to do when he gets free time is to train his body again, from the ground up. Curse his old self for focusing only on his Magecraft and not the physical body, only pushing it to make it decently built. And even then, he only started training after Kiritsugu died, five years before the Fifth Holy Grail War.

'Was this body that young?' That was a refreshing thought. A new body, new training regiment, he'd be stronger at the age of seventeen that he originally was if he trained right.

The first petal broke as the light exploded, and his right hand began received the damage the petal did. Still, he continued standing, despite his exhaustion and pain, ready to Trace it again if needed.

After all, there were people behind him that needed to be saved. He couldn't forgive himself if he failed, especially when he started believing again.

Thales could only stare in disbelief. The Death spell failed to pierce whatever flower shield the child made, only going through a single petal. Still, it seemed like it wasn't without drawbacks.

'His arm is damaged, more so than when he entered the battle. Perhaps the user receives damage as the petals are destroyed? Outside that, he seems to be ragged. I honestly don't believe he could conjure another shield in that state.'

He raised his hands, once more activating the magic circles for the Death spell.

However, a horn rang out.

Thales looked behind him. The Duscur army already had arrived?! He could only grit his teeth as he teleported away.

This entire assassination was a failure. Not only does Lambert live, but Anselma was with him, and more than likely, Cornelia has been outed as a traitor. Cornelia was now dead to Those Who Slither in the Dark. And while the foot soldiers he used tonight were of little consequence, the amount that died tonight was a heavy toll. It'll take a while to recuperate his losses.

Still, as he faded away from the burning forest, his thoughts returned to the child with a shield. He must learn more before attempting another assassination.

A horn sounded in the air.

Lambert's eyes widened in relief and stood up. "Duscurian horns! Reinforcements have arrived!"

At his last sentence, the child with red hair and black armor glanced at him. "Cavalry has arrived, eh?"

"Er, yes, boy. Wait, who are you? How did you meet Patricia? How did you carry her? What was that shield? Are you a child from House- "

However, before Lambert could finish his string of questions, the boy fell to his knees. "Shit," he cursed and proceeded to fall face first. Everyone alive could only look in disbelief at what just happened.

Meanwhile, Glenn managed to mutter a response. "Language!" He hissed as he covered the prince's ears.

Author's Notes:

2021/02/03 Edit:

EMIYA - Emiya

Miscellaneous grammar or spelling changes.

No plot changes.

2021/02/05 Edit:

Majesty - Highness

2021/02/19 Edit:

As someone pointed out, it's supposed to be Majesty for both kings and emperors. I made this error because I thought Dimitri was called "Highness" in canon, even past the timeskip. However, this is wrong because Dimitri became king after the final map and Dedue calls him "Majesty".