Day 9: ? — Devil And God / Berserker Woman
As the allies of Shirou Emiya assembled to face the Dark Servants of the False Avenger, one final Servant followed them down the tunnel to the cavern of the Great Grail. For the past several days, it had been stationed near the Emiya house, tasked with observing those living within. It was not a task which the Servant had relished, but unfortunate circumstances had left it with no other feasible path towards victory. So, it had followed its Master's instructions to the best of its ability. Annoyingly, the Red Archer had actually managed to detect it on a couple of occasions; but it had always managed to hide its energy well enough to keep from being pinned down. So, it had been able to continue watching and waiting for the opportune moment to act.
That time was undoubtably now. One way or another, it seemed the War would end tonight. It seemed it would be a much different ending than they'd initially been preparing for; the late revelations about the corrupted nature of the Grail had resulted in a last-minute complete change to their plans. Still, the Servant was just grateful to finally be getting into action.
It couldn't just recklessly jump into battle, however; it was at far from full strength, and would likely have only a single chance to make a decisive contribution to the conflict. That meant stealth was paramount: it would have to remain concealed while it surveyed the battlefield and selected the single crucial moment where intervening would have the greatest impact.
Since it didn't have any fancy Presence Concealment ability like the Assassins, the Servant was forced to rely on more basic stealth techniques: following far behind Shirou's group, and sticking to the shadows. It was counting on the various combatants being too preoccupied with one another to notice it amidst the chaos of the huge battle that was sure to come. Some pretty large fireworks were about to start flying; who'd notice one more late arrival slipping in among the pandemonium? Particularly if they let down their guard because they believed every Servant was accounted for.
The Servant had only one close call with detection as it made its way down the twisting stone passage, and that was when it came across Caren Ortensia. Upon spotting her, the Servant quickly drew back in alarm, fearing that she might have been waiting to ambush it. Caren was a troublesome unknown element in the War: a member of the Church, yet competing in a ritual for Mages; the daughter of Overseer Kirie Kotomine, yet allegedly on a mission to assassinate him. And while she certainly stood no chance of defeating the Servant, even in its current weakened state, she did possess a troublesome Mystic Code, the Shroud of Magdalene. With that, she might hold the Servant back and prevent it from completing its mission.
After a few moments, though, the Servant realized that it had nothing to fear from Caren. Her breathing was ragged, and blood was seeping through her clothes. It seemed that her spiritual sensitivity, which made her valuable to the Church as an Exorcist, was causing her to be overwhelmed by the miasmic evil pouring from the Grails. Though her spirit still burned strongly with determination, her flesh was rebelling against her; no matter how strongly she willed it, she was simply physically incapable of seeing through the end of her mission. Though Caren tried to maintain a composed and saintly demeanor at all times, this surely must have deeply frustrated her. For the Servant, however, it was good fortune: one uncertain element had been removed from the final clash; and with her distracted by her pain, it was easy to slip past her unnoticed in spiritual form.
Because the Servant was keeping a generous distance between itself and Shirou's group, the battle had already begun by the time it arrived at the entrance to the cavern. It sidled up to the edge of the tunnel mouth just in time to see Angra Mainyu, his body pierced by the False Avenger's chains, get dragged out of sight.
As the far as the Servant considered it, that was probably for the best. The True Avenger's connection to the corruption within the Grail made it a dangerous unknown quantity – while it hadn't thus far demonstrated the ability to tap into that power with the same catastrophic effect as the False Avenger, it certainly seemed to have a malicious and unpleasant nature. With its Master unable to keep close supervision over it during this battle, who knew what it might have ended up doing?
But the fate of Angra Mainyu was not this Servant's prime concern, so it paid no further mind to the True Avenger as it was pulled into the depths of the cavern.
==Interlude: True Avenger==
True Avenger Angra Mainyu felt no concern whatsoever as the False Avenger's chains sank into his body. Had they been ordinary weapons, it could very well have been a fatal attack; he was, after all, the weakest Servant. These chains, however, were an embodiment of the enemy's Noble Phantasm, and thus more symbolic than physical. And the concept they embodied, while devastating to ordinary Servants, meant nothing to him. The chains served as conduits for the curses of another world's Grail; but what did curses mean to him? He already bore evil that the world could offer. If the Grail's corruption blackened other Servants like ink dropped into water, then trying to curse him was like pouring ink into more ink: no matter how much you added, the color would never change.
And so, rather than resist, Angra Mainyu opened himself to the chains. They were channels for curses, and could conduct energy both ways. The cursed power that flowed through him was so similar to the power of the False Avenger that the chains conducting it could not tell the difference, could not identify their true Master; and so, they were thrown into confusion. Disoriented by the flux of power and contesting wills, they became too clumsy to strike at any of his comrades.
Really, just by doing that much, he had already exceeded his own expectations as to his usefulness. There was no way a worthless Servant like him could contribute meaningfully to the battle; he'd been expecting to be immediately slain without accomplishing a thing. It was only by one of his momentary whims that he'd agreed to accompany the others in the first place: it wasn't every day you got to witness the end of the world, after all; and since he would inevitably end up being reabsorbed by his greater self within the Grail, it didn't really matter how this shell would perish. Might as well see the action up close instead of lazing around back at the house waiting for the Grail to open, he'd reasoned. He'd never expected to actually make a difference.
Though the loose chains had lost all coordination and were swaying drunkenly, the chains embedded in his body still remained firm – they were direct conduits for the False Avenger's will, connecting its soul to Angra Mainyu's. He could feel it turning its attention to him, infuriated that he dared oppose it. The chains buried within Angra Mainyu's body suddenly drew taut, and he was yanked off his feet and dragged into the darkness of the cavern. Lacking any means to resist, Angra Mainyu simply relaxed and enjoyed the ride.
The chains could try dashing his body against the cavern walls, but Servants were spiritual beings who couldn't be destroyed by purely physical damage. They could try carrying him to one of the Dark Servants to slay, but Angra Mainyu expected that they would all be busy fighting his allies. No, there was only one likely location for the chains to be carrying him. And so, Angra Mainyu was not surprised when he was pulled to the center of the cavern, up to the great throne-like structure directly beneath the pulsating Grails. There, the False Avenger awaited him.
Angra Mainyu examined his opposite counterpart. The False Avenger wore a male kimono, but was slender and slightly feminine in appearance. It carried no weapons, bore no armor, and had a physique that was nearly wasted and sickly. And, just like True Avenger, its stats as a Servant were abysmal. Angra Mainyu had thought that there was no Servant he could beat in a straight fight; but it appeared that this other Avenger really was an opponent on his own level after all. The only thing that allowed it to be any sort of threat was the infinite corruption within the Grail fueling its Noble Phantasm; and that was a danger which Angra Mainyu was uniquely immune to. He grinned as he materialized his twin daggers, Tawrich and Zarich, and stepped forwards.
"Who would've thought?" he asked. "Looks like I get to be a real hero after all."
Well, defeating this Servant wouldn't actually stop its Grail from opening; and Angra Mainyu's own Grail was also on the verge of destroying the world, so perhaps winning this fight wouldn't actually accomplish much. Even so, the False Avenger was undeniably an enemy, and this therefore seemed likely to be one of the occasions he could slaughter a victim and actually get praised for it. He savored those rare opportunities.
"You're unsightly." the False Avenger said. "Akito Sohma, God of the Zodiac, commands you disappear."
Chains exploded forth from the throne and lashed at Angra Mainyu. Akito's control over the outlying chains may have been disrupted, but these were the ones at the heart of her power. They obeyed her command and thrust into Angra Mainyu's body, trying to tear his flesh apart with their barbed heads.
However, Angra Mainyu allowed the chains to pierce him without resistance. They were the manifestation of a curse, and his body was a vessel which bore every curse in the world. The tattoos which covered his body flared brightly as they drank down the malicious energy assaulting him. Within moments, the chains had been pulled under his skin and added to the intricate pattern which ornamented him, leaving the flesh undamaged.
"I bear the name of the demon which opposed the will of heaven for nine thousand years." Angra Mainyu said. "Perhaps if you had that long, you could beat me. But I don't think I'll be giving you that chance."
He dashed forwards, swinging his twin daggers in a strike aimed to disembowel Akito. At the last moment, however, more chains sprung up from the ground and formed a barrier between the two Servants. The jagged points of Angra Mainyu's weapons became entangled in the undulated chains, fouling his strike while Akito looked on him with disdain.
"Do not get above yourself." Akito said. "You may be a demon, but I am a god. No matter how much the devil may struggle, he can never unseat God from his throne."
As if Angra Mainyu would give up that easily. He began hacking at the chains with his daggers, hacking them apart with brutal blows.
"You call yourself a god rather than a demon, but your curse is the same as mine." Angra Mainyu said. "Your Grail also overflows with All Evils of This World. Not really what I'd expect from an omni-benevolent deity."
"Then you are more naive than you look." Akito said. "As a child, I was declared a living god because I inherited the curse which was formed from the lingering remnants of what was once the soul of the Jade Emperor. Those of my family were bound to obey my divine will, body and soul. However, while the thought of a distant god looking down from on high may be a comfort, a god who is actually present among his subject and giving orders soon becomes viewed as nothing more than a tyrant. They resented me; and though our bond should have been eternal, they broke free and abandoned me. The Jade Emperor's hatred and resentment at the souls he had made a pact with... originally that curse was direct only at the Cat, first to break the bond; but within the Great Grail, it grew and grew until it encompassed all existence. And so, like you, I bear the weight of All Evils of This World."
Angra Mainyu continued hacking away with his daggers, but new chains kept springing up as quickly as he chopped down old ones. For all the time Akito had been speaking, he had not made one inch of progress towards her. On the other hand, while Akito was holding him at bay with her chains, there was nothing she could do to him – she had no weapons besides her cursed chains, which could not harm Angra Mainyu, and lacked the physical strength to overpower him in hand-to-hand combat. In other words, it was a stalemate.
Angra Mainyu couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head ruefully at the situation. It seemed the Avenger class really was worthless in the end. The two of them truly were alike: useless Servants, significant only for their status as the original vessels of the curses which had poisoned the Grails. The outcome of this fight for the fate of the world would be determined not by them, but by the others fighting in the cavern around them.
Whatever the outcome, Angra Mainyu's time of being physically incarnated would soon come to an end. He had already made his peace with that fact, and had decided to spend the rest of his short existence doing what he most loved. The beating of his heart pounding like a war-drum in his chest, he gave himself over wholly to the surging bloodlust that filled his body. A feral grin on his face, he flung himself headlong into frenzied attacks against his opponent, determined to at least draw blood before the world came to an end.
==Interlude Out==
In the twisting tunnel, the Servant had been able to count on the stone walls to block the line of sight of any potential observes and assist it in moving stealthily; but the wide-open cavern containing the Grails presented a much greater challenge. To remain undetected in that vast space, it would have to rely on the various combatants being too distracted battling each other to notice an extra uninvited guest. The two sides were fairly close in terms of numbers; while the False Avenger might have a slight edge, it wasn't enough that it would be willing to hold back Servants from the fight to stand as sentries – certainly not when it thought that every Servant in the War was already accounted for. If the Servant held back on the periphery for a while and waited for all of the fighters to become engaged with one another, it should be able to slip unnoticed through the melee.
The next Dark Servant to attack the intruders was the False Berserker. This was the enemy which Emiya's group had judged to be the weakest of the Servants under the False Avenger's sway, and thus the one which it might be possible to defeat with maguses rather than Servants. It was not an ideal plan, even the weakest of Servants being on a level beyond even a talented magus; but since their Servants were outnumbered, it was a risk they were forced to take.
The Servant was tempted to involve itself in this battle. However, the orders from its Master were clear: it was to involve itself only at a decisive moment, when its contribution could tip the scale of the War. This fight of Bazett and Luvia against the False Berserker did not qualify – thought it went a bit against the Servant's grain to admit it, all of the pieces at stake here were ultimately expendable.
At least, that was the case until Rin Tohsaka recklessly decided to run back and join in. Unlike the other two, Tohsaka did have an essential role in the attack plan beyond just tying up as much of the False Avenger's force as possible – she was carrying the Gem Sword Zelretch, the Mystic Code necessary to undo the tampering Zouken Matou had wrought on the Grail ritual. If she were to fall here, the attackers' plan would come to naught. So, the plan had been for her allies to put their lives on the line to protect her, not the other way around. However, it seemed that, in a moment of thoughtless immaturity, she had put it all at risk in order to come to her imperiled companions' aid.
Well, the Servant didn't necessarily dislike people like that. Considering the circumstances and the stakes, though, it was undeniably a foolish move. The Servant watched carefully, ready to intervene should the moment present itself.
==Interlude: Rin Tohsaka==
Rin cursed Luvia's Edelfelt's name under her breath as she ran back to join the fight against False Berserker.
The plan had been simple: Luvia would use some of her copious magical gems to immobilize the Dark Servant, then Bazett would take the opportunity to pulverize its head. If ever there were circumstances under which mere humans could defeat a Servant, this was it – a Berserker which could be counted on to charge blindly, and which lacked any significant defensive skills. All that silly English girl had had to do was encase its arm in ice from just below the elbow on up – enough to hold its arm in place, but far enough from its wrist that it couldn't press get its hand on it. Instead, she'd totally overdone it, allowing the Servant to unleash the power of its Noble Phantasm against the ice and break free.
...Admittedly, Rin wasn't entirely sure that she could pull off such a precision use of ice magic herself, not against a fast-moving target in this dark cave where shadows danced madly amidst throbbing red light. But if Luvia hadn't been confident in her own ability to perform the spell, she shouldn't have agreed to the plan in the first place. That overconfident hyena's arrogance would be her downfall.
Still, Rin couldn't just leave her to die. Nor the magus Bazett Fraga McRemitz, who was in even more immediate danger. Bazett had approached close to the False Berserker to deliver a lethal strike to its head; now, she was locked in combat with it. Runes glowed brightly on Bazett's gloves as she enhanced herself to surpass human limits: her feet slid across the ground with the blurry speed of a striking snake, and her fists made thunderclaps as they tore through the air. But as potent as her magecraft was, it was not at all clear that it would be enough to outmatch a Servant in even combat. And Luvia could not further assist Bazett with her gems while she was at such close range to the enemy; any magical blast strong enough to disable a Servant would certainly kill a human.
Had the enemy Servant been sane, it would have been a hopeless fight; the power flowing into it through the chain boosted its speed and strength beyond anything even a magically enhanced human could match. However, it seemed that while the False Avenger could bend this Berserker to serving its ends, it was unable to fully suppress the insanity which was the trademark of its class. False Berserker fought like a wild beast: furiously, unremittingly, but with absolutely no technique or style. It completely neglected its legs and its left arm, focusing solely on lashing out with the Noble Phantasm that blazed on its right arm.
Certainly, if it managed to catch hold of Bazett with its outstretched hand, it would slay her in a single strike – the trail of gruesome corpses it had left across Fuyuki testified to that. However, Bazett, who was highly skilled at hand-to-hand combat, was able to anticipate such simple and repetitive attacks. Each time the raging Servant lunged at her, she was able to draw back out of reach; and she kept circling to the Berserker's left, taking advantage of the fact that it could channel its destructive alchemy through only one of its arms. Watching the woman's swift strikes and impeccable footwork, Rin couldn't help but feel slightly relieved that she'd never had to face this woman in the Grail War. For the first time, Rin realized that, had the Grail War proceed uninterrupted, she might very well have died at this woman's hands.
Even so, it would not be correct to say that Bazett was winning the fight. The only way she could destroy a Servant was by smashing its head or its heart; and mad as it was, the enemy retained at least enough instinct to protect those vital points. Though Bazett's blazing fists smashed repeatedly into the left side of the Berserker's body, no amount of pain could penetrate the savage fury dominating its mind. Furthermore, the Servant's strength was being fueled by the limitless ocean of tainted energy being fed to it by the Grail. Bazett was keeping pace with the Servant now, while she was fresh; but if the fight continued for long, her stamina would begin to fade. And once she began to slow, even slightly, she would no longer be able to evade that deadly right arm. One touch was all it would take.
Rin had to assist in this fight. However, he options for doing so were limited. Though she had a supply of gemstones, they carried the same problem as Luvia's: Bazett and the False Berserker were wrapped too tightly in combat to strike one without risk of hitting the other, and Bazett would take far more damage from the blast than the Dark Servant would.
Rin also carried the Gem Sword Zelretch, a Mystic Code designed by the great Wizard Marshall Schweinorg himself. Under ordinary circumstances, it would be a weapon with which Rin could dare imagine wielding enough power to destroy even a Servant with a single blow. Unfortunately, its fundamental nature had been perverted by Zouken when he redesigned it to access the Second True Magic and summon the False Grail from a parallel world. His alterations had changed it into something that was not a weapon, but a key – turning it once had brought the False Grail to this world, and turning it again would send it back. In theory, at least.
Everyone had agreed that it would be too risky to use the Gem Sword right away. When the False Grail had been brought to this world, it had held the eight False Servants within it as spirits. They had since emerged from it and incarnated, and it wasn't clear what would happen if Rin tried to send the False Grail back home without them. False Caster Lina had calculated that, in the worst case, the False Avenger might act as an anchor solidly chaining its Grail here. In that case, the Grail would be an immovable object; and powerful as the Gem Sword was, it was no irresistible force. Faced with an unyielding Grail, it might break; and they had no way of replacing it. Thus, they had decided that the Gem Sword should not be used until Shirou had completed his part of the plan. If the Grail started to open before then and it seemed the world would be destroyed, Rin would roll the dice and try using the sword anyways; but things weren't desperate enough to justify that risk yet.
That left Rin with only one tool at her disposal. It was one she would have to get closer to the Dark Servant than she'd like to use, but Bazett was already taking that risk – Rin couldn't do any less. Thus, she ran to join into the fight, brandishing her Azoth Dagger. It was a mostly ceremonial tool, meant to be used in performing rituals rather than actual combat; but it was still a blade, and its ability to channel magical energy meant it could serve as a weapon against a Servant. Holding it before her with one hand, Rin used the other to seize a fistful of gemstones from her pocket. She didn't keep her Azoth Dagger continually topped up with magic at all times, but she could draw on the magic stored in her jewels to quickly charge it up to full capacity.
Rin reached the fighters just in time. Bazett finally made a misstep and one of her ankles got tangled in one of the writhing chains that covered the floor. Though it only caused her to stumble briefly, it was enough to give the Dark Servant an opening to make a fatal strike. Bazett was unable to move back fast enough to get out of range of the False Berserker's outstretched right arm, which was wreathed in a crackling halo of red sparks that leapt eagerly from the tattoo of its Noble Phantasm. But at that very moment, Rin was also lunging – driving the point of her Azoth Dagger into the meat of the Servant's upper arm.
"Läßt!" Rin screamed.
It was the word of power to release the energy stored in the dagger; but even Rin was taken off-guard by the result. The blast of power that the blade conducted directly into the Servant's arm was an order of magnitude greater than anything she had fired from it before. Rin recalled how the False Caster Lina had charged up her jewels for her in preparation for this battle, and was awed by the difference in quality of the sorceress's magical energy as compared to her own. By charging the dagger from those jewels, she had probably overloaded it far beyond the amount of energy it was ever meant to hold. She was probably lucky that the whole thing hadn't exploded like a bomb. As it was, the recoil from releasing its power sent the Azorth Dagger flying back out of the Servant's arm like a rocket, knocking Rin over onto her back with such force that she slid backwards a short distance.
Rin had been hoping to sever the False Berserker's arm, preventing it from using its Noble Phantasm for a time. Unfortunately, as powerful as her attack had been, it hadn't quite managed the job. Though damaged, the limb had remained attached; even now, the flayed skin and ruptured muscle was beginning to stitch itself back together, fueled by the endless cursed power flowing into the Servant's body through the chain embedded in its heart. It began moving towards her with a loping gait, bearing down on her as she lay sprawled on the ground.
Rin had no time to grab another gem or to incant a long spell. She could only use a simple, basic spell, one which the Magic Crest she bore was able to instantly construct and fire without any conscious effort – the Gandr Shot. Though based on a simple Scandanavian curse, Rin was extremely adept in its use; even without a supplemental prana source like her gems, she could fire the spell with the force of a bullet. It probably wouldn't mean much to a Servant, but Rin aimed it directly at the chain embedded in the Servant's chest: even if her attack wasn't powerful enough to kill the thing, she might be able to weaken it if she damaged its connection to the False Avenger.
The black bullet of the Gandr Shot leapt from Rin's fingers and struck a direct hit on the chain protruding from the False Berserker's chest. However, it burst apart upon contact with the burning metal, dissipating in the face of the overwhelming malevolent energy saturating the Dark Servant's body. Rin's attack had failed.
However, she hadn't been the only one to fire a Gandr Shot. Rin had heard that the Edelfelt family were reputed to be among the best Gandr-users in the world; but she had believed it to be mere hollow bluster from a declining bloodline until this very moment. The bullet fired by Luvia flew straight and true directly into the Servant's forehead. Rin had no doubt that, had the target been human, it would have drilled all the way through its skull and out the other side. Against this inhumanly strong Servant, it burst apart like Rin's had – but in this case, the spreading energy seared both of the enemy's eyeballs.
It was only a minor injury, a light scalding that a Servant would be able to heal in practically no time at all. However, for that short time, it would be particularly debilitating. An ordinary Servant possessed supernaturally acute senses that could allow it to fight even while blind; indeed, the True Rider Medusa wore a mask as a matter of course. However, the Mad Enhancement which empowered a Berserker to ignore pain also numbed its other senses. The False Berserker was momentarily disoriented; its charge faltered as it nearly stumbled over one of its own Master's chains, and Rin had time to scrabble to her feet and try to draw back to a safer distance.
Luvia, however, did not seem concerned with her own safety; rather, she took advantage of the opening to press the attack. Unable to use a powerful gem without risking catching Rin in the blast radius, Luvia ran forwards to engage the Servant in hand-to-hand combat as Bazett had been doing. Rin's jaw dropped at witnessing such a foolish and risky move. It had been dangerous enough for Bazett, a professional combat mage; Luvia undoubtably knew some basic tricks like applying hardening magecraft to strengthen her own body, and had often bragged of her extensive training in Lancashire-style martial combat, but Rin couldn't imagine that the haughty young aristocrat would be capable of matching Bazett's performance.
By the time the False Berserker's sight had recovered, Luvia had already approached unnoticed to within grappling distance with it. She seized it from behind and bore it to the ground, pinning it. The Dark Servant strained, trying to bring its annihilating hand to bear on Luvia, but she had managed to put it into a joint-lock. Even using magical energy to enhance their body, a human couldn't match a Servant in sheer strength; but proper application of pressure could immobilize even a far stronger opponent. Struggle as it might, the Berserker was unable to twist its arm around to grab Luvia; and in its madness, it was unable to employ any type of fighting style other than thrashing like a wild beast.
However, while she could prevent the Berserker from laying its hand on her, she couldn't prevent it from touching the ground. With a roar, the Dark Servant unleashed a storm of crackling red energy into the stone of the cavern floor, which blew apart in a massive cloud of choking dust and gravel that sprayed out like shrapnel. Taken by surprise, Luvia lost her hold on the Servant and was flung away from it.
"Get away from it, you idiot!" Rin shouted at her. What kind of idiot went hand-to-hand with a Servant with a touch-based Noble Phantasm, anyways?
Rin's warning did help Luvia, in a way: at the sound of her voice, the mad Servant's head snapped around to face her. Though blasting the floor had succeeded in knocking Luvia away from it, the cloud of dust raised by the explosion was now obscuring her from its weakened eyes. Rin, on the other hand, presented a clearly visible target. Forgetting Luvia, it charged towards Rin, its lethal hand outstretched.
Rin braced herself to meet the Servant's charge, raising her Azoth Dagger and reaching into her pocket for another charged gemstone. However, as her hand plunged into the pocket where she had stored her jewels, she felt it pass right through a hole in the fabric. Earlier, when she'd been thrown backwards by the force of her attack, it must have torn on the rough stone ground without her noticing. There was no way she would be able to find such small objects on the floor this dark cavern where pulsing red light cast shifting shadows over everything, and she didn't even have the time to try and look with Berserker bearing down on her. The only thing she could do was try and use her own magical energy to defend herself – but that would never be enough, not against a Servant. There was nothing she could do.
Then Rin realized she did still have one power source available to her: her final remaining Command Spell. Bazett had told her, when explaining why she was keeping her own Command Spell despite losing her Servant: in addition to allowing a Master to order their Servant, a Command Spell could also be used as a mana source. Each Command Spell represented a truly incredible accumulation of magical power, surpassing even Magic Crests which had been passed down through the most esteemed mage bloodlines for centuries – nothing less could the will of a Heroic Spirit. If they accessed that power directly, a mage could perform a miracle approaching True Magic. That much magical energy, focused into an attack, might be enough to destroy a Servant.
However, Rin had only the single Command Spell remaining. It was the anchor of her pact with the two Archers; using it would sever her connection to them. By now, it was clear that this corrupted War was a farce without possibility of victory, so Rin didn't care that she would be abandoning her rights as a Master should she use it; nor was she worried about losing the ability to command Red Archer and Black Archer, as she was by now convinced that both of them were fully committed to stopping the threat posed by the corrupted Grail of their own wills. Her concern was that she would lose the ability to supply them with the energy they needed to fight. The group was counting on them fighting at full strength to defeat the Dark Servants and allow Shirou to reach the heart of the Grail ritual. If they lacked the strength to do that, it would all be for nothing.
But they would lose the energy she was supplying them with anyways if she were to die. Better that she do all she could to prevail herself, and trust in her allies to do the same. The Archer class was known for its Independent Action ability – they wouldn't vanish immediately if she ceased to be their Master, but could continue fighting on for a time. She had to hope it would be enough. Drawing on the Command Spell, Rin forced all its energy into her Azoth Dagger as she drove it into the False Berserker's stomach.
"Läßt!"
This time, the dagger did explode, the massive surge of prana being too much for it to contain. It detonated like a bomb inside of the False Berserker's torso, an agonizingly bright light tearing him open from within. Rin was hurled backwards by the force of the blast, blinded and deafened from experiencing it at such close range. Fortunately, because the main force of the attack had been directed away from her and the False Berserker's body had absorbed most of the exploding dagger's force, she didn't think she'd done herself permanent damage.
Rin pulled herself to her knees, rubbing her dazzled eyes. As her vision returned, she saw to her horror that the enemy Servant was somehow still standing. Its chest cavity had been blown open, exposing its wet and pulsating organs to the air, and much of its skin had been burned away by the devouring light such that its muscles were exposed and it even its bones were visible in places, but it still lived.
Rin's only hope – that she had managed to damage its spine enough to immobilize it – faded as the False Berserker began staggering towards her. It was injured, its movements slowed and its gait unsteady; but despite its mutilated appearance, it was still capable of acting. Energy was being continually pumped into it through the False Avenger's chain, and it was already beginning to heal. However, that power was not flowing into the mangled guts dangling from its split billy – a Servant could survive without such tissue. The energy was prioritizing restoring the skin on the False Berserker's right arm, rebuilding the tattoo that formed the basis of its Noble Phantasm. Already, the marks were beginning to glow and give off red sparks as the Servant flexed its hand.
Rin tried to stand, but the ringing in her ears spoiled her balance. She wasn't able to flee. She was only able to watch as the Servant approached her, bearing her death in the magic that burned on its right arm. The large X-shaped scar across its face had been split open by the violence of Rin's attack, drenching its features in blood, but Rin saw no pain in them – only pure, absolute hatred. Cringing before this being's inhuman malice, Rin could only steel herself for death.
As the Dark Servant's hand reached out for her, salvation unexpectedly arrived – Bazett, lunging over Rin's prone form to strike at the enemy. Rin wasn't sure if the woman had intervened to save her, or if she had just seen an opportunity to finish the Berserker off while it was still weakened from Rin's attack. Whatever the reason, Bazett directed a punch directly at the Servant's head, her gloved fist imbued with so much magical energy that it almost seemed on fire.
However, if Bazett had been expecting the enemy to be slowed by the massive damage its body had sustained, she had severely miscalculated. Though no ordinary living thing could have continued functioning in such a state, Servants functioned under different rules – and as twisted and corrupt as this creature had become, it was nonetheless a Heroic Spirit. With its Mad Enhancement blocking out what should have been crippling pain, it reacted to Bazett's attack with lightning reflexes. It twisted away from Rin, snapping its right arm up to catch Bazett's arm and halt her fist moments before she would have pulverized its skull.
Then its tattoo flared with terrible light, and Bazett's arm blew apart.
The red energy that poured from the Berserker's arm tore Bazett's limb to pieces. No matter what defensive spells or strength enhancements Bazett might have cast on herself, it was impossible for merely human magecraft to resist a Servant's Noble Phantasm. Chunks of scorched meat and fragments of steaming bone scattered as Bazett's arm was unmade up to her shoulder joint.
However, Bazett's body did not fall. And another sound reached Rin's ears, as the persistent ringing left by the explosion of her dagger finally subsided: the sound of flesh tearing apart and organs being ground to pulp. It was a sound emanating not from Bazett, whose injuries had been sustained in a single searing instant, but from the Berserker.
Bazett had not been taken by surprise after all. Her punch at the enemy Servant's head had only been a diversion. In the moment it had been occupied in destroying her left arm, Bazett had thrust her right arm into the gaping wound in the Berserker's chest. Ignoring the agony of her own body being destroyed, Bazett had forced her hand up through the viscera of the Servant's chest in order to clench her gloved fist around its heart. Without hesitation, she had sacrificed her own left arm in order to gain the opportunity to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy before her.
This woman, Bazett Fraga McRemitz, was as much a Berserker as her opponent.
Finally, Bazett succumbed to the pain of her injury and fell. But even as she toppled backwards, she did not release her hard-won prize. She ripped the Berserker's beating heart from its chest, exposing an organ stained black by the curses still flowing into it through the nail and chain that penetrated and bound it. The rage drained from False Berserker's face, replaced by a look of utter befuddlement. He couldn't understand. He couldn't comprehend how this mere human woman could cause him pain. It shouldn't be possible. He had deconstructed her arm with his Right Hand of Destruction. All his previous victims had screamed or begged or gone into shock when they received such severe injuries. So he couldn't understand how this one could have hurt him... how this one could kill him.
Laying on her back, barely conscious, Bazett focused all her strength on her remaining hand. Runes glowed green on the back of her glove as her magical energy warred against the seething darkness permeating the throbbing heart; then slowly, mercilessly, her vice-like grip contracted until the organ ruptured. It burst apart; and Bazett's body was scattered not with blood, but with golden sand – for a slain Servant leaves behind no body nor blood, but crumbles entirely to dust. Upon seeing that sign, Rin was finally able to believe that they had won.
Darkness seemed to slough off of the Berserker's body as his form begun crumbling into sand. He blinked slowly, as though finally becoming aware of his surroundings for the first time; then his face settled into an expression of tranquil acceptance and what could almost be described as relief.
"I can finally close my eyes... to the living nightmare... and lay down... knowing that I won't wake again..." the False Berserker said.
He spoke softly, his voice heavy with weariness. And he may have tried to speak again, but Rin was unable to catch his final words; for within a matter of moments, his form had blown apart like sand in the wind. The only trace of him left behind was the spike and chain still clutched in Bazett's remaining hand: a cruel tool which radiated malice, but was impotent now that it had lost its grip on the soul it had held prisoner. Rin stomped on the chain and ground it beneath her heel, and it broke apart into mere wisps of shadow.
==Interlude Out==
The hidden Servant watched as Rin and Luvia ran to their injured companion's side. Rin began bandaging the stump of Bazett's destroyed arm with a strip of fabric torn from Luvia's dress, while Luvia used one of her gems to begin working healing magecraft. Despite the severity of the wound she had suffered, it seemed that Bazett would likely survive. Provided, of course, that they succeeded in stopping the Grails. In any case, it was by now clear that this was not the place for the Servant to intervene. It would await a more opportune moment.
Judging by the sounds of battle now echoing through the cavern, it seemed that more of Shirou's group were now engaged in combat with the Dark Servants of the False Avenger. The fight that would determine the fate of the world might already have begun. The Servant had no more time to waste observing the aftermath of battles that had already been decided. The Servant furtively slipped through the shadowed piles and ravines of cursed chains that dominated the center of the space, heading for the cave's heart and the showdown that was certain to occur there.
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