"Emilia? What are you doing here? You are a sight for sore eyes but I got to ask how did you appear at such a good timing?" Ace asked her with a confused look on his face.
"I have been observing for a few minutes from up there and was trying to figure out the best time for me to step in to get an upper hand against Berserker." Emilia pointed to the sku and upon squinting his eyes, he could see an outline of a sphinx flying in the night sky
"The only reason I stepped in so early is because Rider noticed you were in trouble. His words were 'Your brat is losing badly, if you do not want to lose him, now is the time'. I am honestly disappointed that you would struggle with someone of this caliber" Emilia shook her head in disappointment
Ace did not know what to say, on one hand, he was really thankful and delighted that Emilia in the nick of time to rescue him, on the other hand, he was afraid to spill his past to the rest of the group.
"Master, this is not the right time or place for idle chatting!" Archer shouted. On the surface, it might seem that Archer was being sensible as they were currently in a battlefield, in reality, it was because she was not pleased that Emilia was talking to her Master.
Agreeing with Archer, Emilia took Ace's hand and ran to the closest building and hid him there with Archer trailing behind.
"This is not the place for you to die. Do not take any unnecessary risks. You are responsible for two lives, your servant and yours. If by any chance, with your smaller than average brain can come up with an idea to beat Berserker, come to me and avoid getting in anyone's way. Emilia said seriously.
Ace grumbled to himself, fully aware how much of a burden he was to Archer.
Meanwhile, Kagami arrived at her house quickly, it was not far from the location she left her allies.
She had equipped herself with a lot of crystals along with her grimoire and her self-defense knuckles.
She grabbed all the necessary books that were required which was prepared beforehand by her ever reliable Alfred who was contacted beforehand
"Lancer! I need you to pass on Ace a message from me, and when I have an another idea and I would fill him on it when I reached your location." Kagami said while panting because of her sprint to the battle.
"M-Master, the situation is worse than we thought, the servant we are facing is very strong and he can even summon more servants. We need the supports of more servants. We can compare which idea is better when you come so remember to call me. I will try to stall him as long as I can." Lancer updated her
From the information that Lancer had given her, Kagami deduced that they were definitely not on the winning side which caused her anxiety level to rise.
When Kagami arrived that the meet up location, she saw Ace hiding in the building and brought her a sense of nostalgia as that was how they first met
"Ace! Are you okay? Why are you here?" Kagami questioned him.
Ace assured that he was fine and told her everything that had happened since she left
When he was done talking, Kagami explained to him the plan that she thought of.
"Hmm, I can see where you're going and I think it will work out perfectly. Good job Kagami" Ace complimented.
Now that they had a plan, Ace decided to head back to the battlefield to fill Emilia on the plan as instructed previously
Kagami passed the grimoire to Ace for his protection
"Take this grimoire with you and use it when necessary. Do not show anyone the content as it is my family heiroom. Now I will teach you all the spells. Hope you learn fast because you will need it." Kagami said
Thankfully, Ace was an extremely quick learner and in 10 minutes time, he learnt the important spells and was ready to step out to the warzone
While Kagami was teaching Ace about the spells, the servants started to deal with Berserker's never-ending hell servants.
Archer was firing arrows from a distance, each arrow finding its target.
Lancer thrusted her spear into any hell servants who stepped close to Emilia
Rider, being melodramatic, ride on his sphinx and blasted any hell servants he saw. Needless to say, it was a massacre
"Berserker, what happened to you? I thought a servant like you has no limits? When you will be able to show you strength instead of hiding behind your weak and mindless minions" Rider mocked Berserker while blasting the hell servants.
"Do not you dare underestimate my servant's power. Pathetic scum! The more times they die, the stronger they will be" Berserker snarled
Suddenly, a servant with a dark cape covering her face appeared.
Both her hands were equipped with short doubled edged swords which made her presence seemed very ominous.
Upon seeing the looks on Berserker's face, she laughed cruelly.
The rest of the servant stayed away from her, but they understood that for the time being, she was an ally from her actions.
She slayed the hell servants with ease, with every strike she made, one hell servant was beheaded.
The hell servants' regeneration ability could not keep up with her strikes and they died almost immediately the moment they reformed
"Emilia!" Ace shouted to her from afar with hopeful eyes.
"Ace, finally thought of an idea?" Emilia asked emotionlessly.
"Yes, we have found a way to overcome the numerical advantage that Berserker currently have." Ace confidently said.
"Well done Ace, tell me the plan now!" Emilia said with a smile.
Ace could've felt Emilia's pride which in turn made me very happy.
Ace told her briefly what was the plan and Kagami stepped in once in a while to give a more in-depth elaboration of the plan.
Emilia agreed with the plan and gave Lancer and her the go ahead to execute it.
Lancer and Kagami ran side by side and they told each other about the plans they thought off which turned out to be similar to each other
"I think it will work out, Lancer! While they are handling his servants, we will disable his summoning ability." Kagami said with confidence.
When Lia stepped foot onto the battlefield, she saw Ace talking to Emilia (Not that she knew who Emilia was) and the jealousy within her was boiling.
"Ace Chan! Finally, we get to fight together. Let me show you my power!" Lia declared.
"You are interrupting, can you please leave? We are trying to plan a way to beat berserker and your annoying high-pitched voice is not helping" Emilia said to her with a badass voice.
Lia pissed, really pissed as she felt Emilia was looking down on her. To rub salt into the wound, she noticed that Ace did not even pay attention to her nor did he acknowledge her existence.
She then realized, that if Emilia around and with Ace listening to all of Emilia's opinion (from her distorted perspective and the fact Emilia hated her (once again from her messed up perspective). She could never get her greatest wish which was to be Ace's girlfriend.
"Caster! Attack those warriors at full power!" Lia shouted and joined the fight.
Caster responded in kind and fired her lasers at the hell servants, causing multiple explosions.
When Ace and Emilia finished planning everything, they asked everyone's attention for a few moments. Emilia started explaining the plan "Our move is a one that possibly no one of us has ever heard of before. We will set a border in the area of the warriors with help of you guys. Firstly, it will take a huge amount of crystal that happened to be in Ace's possession. While performing the spell, all of must remained in position, there can be no exception! Those who leave will be trapped in there without the ability of getting out and will be stuck with Berserker's army. The time limit is 30 minutes. In that time, we could rest and focus our power against them. So even if they were much stronger, we could overcome them because we will be ready. Archer, you'll take 5 crystals and shoot them, each to a different side of the area. You have to shoot the arrows at the same time but I believed you are able to do so. Rider – you need to get the entire army in that area, you will have to be careful over there. It might be dangerous, even for you, not that I am doubting your abilities of course. In addition, you'll need to place 5 bigger crystals. As soon as everything is ready and set, Ace will start the spell and we all will make sure we've got enough distance from the crystals. Are there any questions?" Emilia explained and ended with a rhetorical question.
"Please, Caster and the stranger warrior, fight alongside us. I believe when we'll be done with the time limit who'll restrict the army's movement toward us, we could win. So, stand by our side." Emilia added.
The mysterious servant smiled a little and nodded.
While Lia, agreed with reluctantly.
'It is for Ace, not her' Lia kept repeating in her mind
Everyone prepared to execute the plan as quickly as they could.
Archer fire all the arrows alongside the crystals to their exact location.
Rider managed to play his part well, to the surprise of nobody
And Ace began the spell.
"Oh supreme magic, one that was created by the greatest minds in humanity, grant me the permission and the power to set boundaries for those who wish to resist, Bounded Field!" Ace yelled.
Suddenly, the ancient symbol of approval appeared, it seemed like it did the trick and started preparing for a centered attack.
"How did you do such thing… how!? How!?" Berserker shouted with rage and confusion; he did not expect something so ingenious from those who he deemed pathetic and weak
Emilia and Ace were pleased.
Archer, Rider and the mysterious servant were impressed
Nero started preparing for the attack with a smirk on her face
Only Lia' face was not filled with joy but rather anger at Emilia for grabbing Ace's attention and disappointment in Ace for not focusing on her
When Kagami and Lancer reached the abandoned site, Lancer gave a brief outline of what was to be expected. "Now, are you ready for us to go to the underworld?" Lancer asked.
Kagami agreed and took a deep breath, preparing for the worst
"Underworld, a world with no living soul, open yourself to your goddess - and give me access to fulfill my duty, take care of the dead souls." Lancer said with a dramatic voice, the ground was shaking
Kagami almost fell but Lancer grabbed her in time
Suddenly, a road of rocks rose from the bottom of the abyss lancer opened, the two walked down the road.
On their way to the underworld, Kagami saw a lot of that she never thought she could see in her lifetime.
On the sides of the road there were a lot of cages made of iron with blue flame inside of it, Kagami figured the flames were souls…
Lancer did not say a word and the aura around her got weird, as if when she entered the underworld, it felt like she became a different person.
Kagami was afraid to ask, but if there was a reason for this to happen, it was causing her distress, but she left the matter alone for now, mentally noting to herself they would discuss this later.
"This place… it is so beautiful yet so cold at the same time, isn't it?" Lancer asked and chuckled, attempting to lighten up the mood.
"Yes, this place looks amazing, I wish I would know this place sooner, at least when I am alive" Kagami said.
They did not walk for long before they saw the effect of Berserker's actions. Horrible screams were heard by the depths of the underworld, and in the center of a very tall and wide rock, there was a man tied inside, it was not clear at all who it is.
When Lancer saw it, she did not waste another second and started to act.
When she tried to release him, servants like those above ground surrounded them.
"I will make him pay… I will make him pay for everything he has done. He dares to ruin my sanctuary. I will spare no amount of effort to break him apart both mentally and physically" Lancer said without expression at all.
"Yes lancer, but I will not let you sacrifice yourself, we will win together, and you will continue to assist me in this war!" Kagami answered with a smile and winked at Lancer.
"Of course." Lancer said with a little smile.