Day 1: Ilya — Berserker/Berserker
Ilyasviel von Einzbern had no doubt that she would win the Fifth Holy Grail War. After all, it was what she'd been created for.
Ilya was a homunculus, an artificially created human, the product of hundreds of years of research and experimentation by the Einzbern family. She had pale skin, white hair, and red eyes; and although she was eighteen years old, her body was still prepubescent in appearance. The normal physical development of her body had been deemed unimportant; in this competition between magi, magical capability would be the deciding factor. The current head of the family, Jubstacheit von Einzbern, had rigorously prepared her for her role as the Einzberns' representative in the latest War. With her Servant, Berserker, she would lead the family to the fulfillment of their centuries-old dream.
Berserker was the most powerful class of Servant, stronger even than the much-vaunted Saber. The reason Saber was seen as the best class overall was because Berserker was nearly impossible to control. All of the Masters who had summoned Berserker in previous Wars had ended up being killed by their own Servants. But that wouldn't be a problem for Ilya. As a homunculus, she possessed a far greater density of magic circuits than any ordinary purpose, and careful ministration by Einzbern magi had carefully shaped her to fulfill her given purpose. Her whole body had been designed as a permanently active Command Spell, giving her absolute control over Berserker at all times. The mad Servant could only serve her with mindless obedience. It was incapable of defying her, incapable of turning on her, incapable of betraying her.
The Einzbern family had all too fresh and bitter understanding of betrayal.
As a homunculus prepared specifically for the War, Ilya had been the first Master to be chosen by the Holy Grail, and the first to summon a Servant. She'd been living with Berserker in an old castle on the outskirts of Fuyuki for two months now. At long last, the other Masters had been chosen and were beginning to call their own Servants. Soon it would be time for Ilya to begin fighting in the War. However, before she began, she was waiting on one Master in particular.
Shirou Emiya.
Jubstacheit was certain that the boy would be one of those chosen by the Grail. After all, he was the adopted son of none other than Kiritsugu. Ilya had been ordered in no uncertain terms to target and kill Shirou first. However, Ilya couldn't help but be fascinated by him. He had inherited Kiritstugu's legacy — and yet, it was not possible to imagine someone more different from Kiritsugu. Whereas his father had been a dark-hearted, coldly-calculating assassin known as the Magus Killer, Shirou seemed optimistic, naive, and a little bit dim. Although Kiritsugu had trained him as a magus, he was absolutely hopeless at it; he hadn't even called his Servant yet! At this rate, another Master would take him out before they even got a chance to meet. She'd have to do something about that.
At present, Ilya wasn't allowed to leave her castle. The Einzbern family had decided that summoning Berserker early was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it allowed Ilya the longest time out of all of the Masters go get used to controlling her Servant — it was not uncommon for difficulties to occur when the arrogance of a aristocratic magus butted heads with the legendary egotism of an epic spirit. The downside was that this also gave enemy masters the longest time to gather information. In the worst-case scenario, someone might figure out Berserker's identity and have enough time in the two months before the official start of the War to acquire the catalyst of an epic spirit naturally suited to defeat Berserker. Ilya had a hard time imagining such a Servant could even exist — the spirit summoned as Berserker himself was surely the greatest epic hero of all time — but she had no choice but bow to Jubstacheit's wishes. Berserker was forbidden from leaving the castle until the beginning of the war, and therefore so was Ilya.
The castle had, of course, been chosen because of it was an easily defensible location. The entire forest surrounding the castle was a massive bounded field. Ilya could detect whenever anyone entered or exited the forest; furthermore, she could sense how powerful of a magus they were. This way, it was impossible for anyone to sneak up on her. The Einzberns had judged that, since Berserker was obviously undefeatable by any other Servant in direct combat, the greatest threat would be Assassin. It somewhat ironic, considering that Assassin was usually considered to be the worst class of Servant — but with its Presence Concealment class ability, it might have been able to sneak past Berserker and get close enough to kill Ilya. The bounded field solved that problem; if Assassin set even one stealthy toe in the forest, Ilya would be able to sense it and dispatch Berserker to stomp it out. However, having to live in such an isolated place with only the company of Sella and Leysritt, homunculi of her creations who served as her maids.
Sella and Leysritt had been preparing dinner for Ilya when something unusual had happened. Ilya had sensed someone break the bounded field and enter the forest. There really wasn't much reason for anyone to come to forest, so it didn't happen often. Ilya had been told to be especially alert now that other Masters had begun summoning their Servants. The supervisor of the Holy Grail War wouldn't officially declare the opening of the War until all seven of the Servants had been summoned; however, waiting for that announcement before beginning was considered more of a matter of etiquette than an actual iron-clad rule. It was certainly possible that one of the enemy Masters was trying to get the jump on Ilya by making the first move while she was still sitting around her castle. Having summoned the strongest Servant, the Einzberns could afford to respect niceties like chivalry; one of the other Masters, having been saddled with an inferior Servant, may have come to the entirely sensible conclusion that, in the end, etiquette wasn't as important as winning.
However, Ilya wasn't overly concerned. The bounded field wasn't picking up any magic energy around him, so he wasn't a Master or even a magus. Of course, that didn't mean she could dismiss the intruder as a threat entirely — during the Fourth Grail War, Kiritsugu had demonstrated just how effective conventional weapons could be against magi who arrogantly disregarded them as posing no threat. But it was far more likely that it was some dumb hiker who'd gotten lost than a non-magus assassin employed by one of the other Masters. Ilya paid close attention to his movements, seeing if he seemed to be scouting the area or trying to sneak up on the castle; if so, she would have Berserker eliminate him as a precaution. However, the intruder's movements didn't seem indicative of a purpose or a plan; rather, they more resembled the panic-stricken flight of someone more concerned with what was behind them rather than what lay ahead.
A moment later, the reason for the interloper's fear became apparent. The bounded field was breached again — but this time, instead of getting the minor tingle caused by the entry of a non-magus human, Ilya felt a powerful shock. The man was being pursued by a Servant.
"Let's go, Berserker." Ilya said.
The mighty Servant picked Ilya up with tender care that anyone having seen the ferocious Servant in battle would have found unbelievable. Treating her like a fragile porcelain doll, it gently set her on one of its shoulders. Then it gave an enormous bellow and begun to run, the impact of its footsteps making the castle shake. Sella and Leysritt immediately opened the castle's front door, allowing the mighty Servant to charge outwards: they knew better than to stand in Berserker's way when it scented battle.
Ilya clung to Berserker's neck as he ran through the forest, focusing her attention on the information she was receiving from the bounded field. The fleeing man was, of course, swiftly overtaken by his pursuer. It was only to be expected; no human could possibly outmatch a Servant. A moment later, Ilya felt his life being swiftly and effortlessly snuffed out. The expected outcome. It didn't matter why the Servant had killed him; he wasn't a Master, so probably he had just had the misfortune of witnessing something he shouldn't and had been dealt with to preserve the War's secrecy. Rather, what mattered was that this was a golden opportunity for Ilya to gain intelligence about one of her enemies.
Ilya and Berserker arrived to find the Servant still standing over the thoroughly mangled remains of its victim, which had been reduced to a steaming mess that was barely recognizable as a human body. Even as someone who had seen the mess that was left behind when Berserker went all-out, Ilya was impressed. However, the Servant didn't appear to have been satisfied by its kill; if anything, it looked upset that it no longer had something to vent its fury on. One would expect an enemy to react with fear upon seeing Berserker's enormous bulk, or at the very least to be surprised to see it come crashing through the trees. But this Servant simply turned to face Berserker and snarled aggressively, as though seamlessly redirecting its aggression from its recent victim to the new target that had appeared before it.
Berserker took Ilya off its shoulders and placed her on the ground, then moved in front of her to ensure that she was protected. However, Ilya boldly peeked around the giant's legs, taking a good, long look at her enemy and trying to take in every detail. It would be ideal if she could figure out which epic spirit it was, though at the very least she should be able to identify its class.
The Servant was muscular, thought not nearly as large as Berserker. Strangely, it didn't appear to have any of the impressive armor or weapons usually carried by figures of legend. Not every Servant carried gaudy equipment, of course; Berserker, for instance, had nothing but his massive stone axe-sword. Still, it was unexpected to see a heroic spirit looking so... shabby. It wore a garment that might once have been a robe, but which was now dirty and tattered. It stood in a hunched posture, its heavy breaths sounding like the panting of a wild animal. Its face was disfigured by a severe scar, and its eyes glowed red.
It was strange. If she didn't know better, Ilya would say it was a Berserker-class Servant. But that was impossible; she herself had summoned Berserker, and there couldn't be two different Servants of the same class. And yet, what burned in its eyes was undeniably the same fiery madness under which her own Servant labored.
However, there was no point standing around contemplating the matter. Whatever class it may have been, it was a Servant; and therefore, her enemy. There could be only one response to its intrusion onto her territory.
"Berserker!" Ilya shouted.
Her giant Servant let out a bestial roar and dashed forwards, swinging its stone axe-sword at the intruder. The enemy Servant reacted with keen instincts that reminded Ilya of a feral animal, jumping backwards to avoid the blow. It's apparent lack of any usable equipment was actually an advantage in this regard — no sword would be capable of blocking Berserker's swing, nor would any armor be capable of halting the force of the blow. The only possible way to survive was to avoid the attack altogether; and the fact that Servant was unencumbered, as well as its relatively small size, gave it an advantage in this regard. It was able to avoid Berserker's mighty sword swing, the stone axe-sword uprooting trees and tearing a trench in the earth. The enemy's face twisted into an aggressive snarl as Berserker drew his arm back for another swing. Despite the obvious disparity in their size and strength, it showed no fear. The enraged Servant leapt forward, stretching out its right arm in front of it. It planted its palm firmly in the center of Berserker's chest, clenching its splayed fingers as though trying to rip the giant's flesh from its ribs with strength alone. Ilya simply had to shake her head in amusement at the sight. Just what did it think it was going to do to the colossal Servant? Was it so mad that it no longer even understood the concept of weapons.
Then glowing red lines began appearing on the attacking Servant's right arm, forming a complicating magical design, and Ilya realized that she he misjudged the enemy. She had assumed that, because it had no visible weapons, it lacked offensive capability. But to a Servant, weapons did not always come in the form of equipment. A Conceptual Weapon, the embodiment of an epic spirit's deeds in life, might take the form not of a visible device such as a sword, but manifest in the form of a power or ability.
There was a blinding flash of red light, and Berserker's chest exploded.
It was as if a bomb had gone off inside of the giant's chest cavity. Its bones had been shattered, its internal organs reduced to a chunky slurry. With just one strike, the mighty Servant had been reduced to a hollow, smoking shell. Berserker hadn't even had the chance to scream; its heart and lungs had been vaporized in an instant. The giant slowly slumped over, its blazing eyes growing cold and dull as it died.
Ilya was shocked twofold. First, she hadn't suspected that such a mad-looking Servant would be capable of magic. And second, Berserker had such powerful Magic Resistance that she would have expected even first-rate spells to bounce off its stone-hard skin. To have such an effect, this attack couldn't be anything less than the enemy's Noble Phantasm.
Of course, just because the enemy had gotten one surprise hit in, didn't mean there was any cause for concern. After all, Berserker had his Noble Phantasm as well.
A moment passed, and the lights rekindled in Berserker's eyes. The giant's spilled guts slowly began pulling themselves back into its chest cavity; then the rib cage snapped shut and fresh skin and muscle began spreading across it. Standing back up, Berserker bellowed in pain and outrage at the enemy who had dared injure it.
"That was one." Ilya said cheerfully. "Care to go for another eleven rounds?"
Ilya could see the hated and fury in the enemy's eyes. She knew that it longed to attack, to destroy. But she could also see a tiny glint of recognition; the barest vestige of fear. Somewhere deep in the back of its dull, rage-addled mind, the Servant recognized that it didn't stand a chance against the sheer overwhelming power of Berserker. It had gotten one lucky hit in because Berserker had underestimated it; it wouldn't get another. For a moment, it looked like the enemy might attack again anyway, like a rabid dog too crazed to care about its own life. But somewhere in the back of its head it must still have had something approximating a survival instinct, because it managed to restrain its more violent impulses and turned to flee instead.
Ilya sent Berserker chasing after the enemy, of course, but she didn't expect to catch it; it was much faster and nimbler than her giant Servant. She instructed Berserker to chase it out beyond the boundaries of the forest and then to return to the castle. She'd just made up her mind. She didn't care that all seven Servants hadn't been summoned yet, or that the supervisor sent by the Church hadn't made the announcement yet: no one could tell her the Grail War hadn't already begun. Not when that half-mad creature was already running around, killing people and picking fights with other Servants. Starting tomorrow, Ilya's participation in the Fifth Grail War would begin.
She'd have to introduce herself to Shirou Emiya first, of course. It was only the polite thing to do.