Kiritsugu
Kiritsugu considered his options. He was hugging his daughter and only two metres away standing in the doorway was Jubstacheit Von Einzbern the man who kept him from his daughter and an incredibly dangerous mage. He was in the man's own castle and he had to protect Illya. Right there Kiritsugu cursed the fact that Illya's bedroom was in the middle of the castle. If it was closer to the outside then he could have just jumped out the window and got to Shirou who could have fought off the remaining homunculi while he protected Illya. As it was he would have to both face the old man and any backup he would have all while protecting Illya. He couldn't even carry Illya using time alter as it would cause damage to her body.
"So you have showed your face here after I explicitly forbade you from returning." The old man Acht examined Kiritsugu. "Even worse you attack and kill many of my creations." Kiritsugu had never seen the old man look this furious before. "No you'll not be allowed to leave here. But still I do not wish to do battle in this room and obviously neither do you. While you will lose your daughter I will lose a descendant of my prized creation. That is not something I want to risk." He exited the door. "Follow me," he called out from the hallway.
Kiritsugu left after him but before he exited the room he turned back to Illya. "Outside there's a really strong person. If you can get to him he'll protect you." At that he left the room to follow Acht.
Trailing down the hallway after the white haired old man Kiritsugu subtly checked the weapons that he had on him his Calico was fully loaded and his contender was ready. He thought about attacking Acht now but disregarded that thought immediately as he was still too close to Illya's room and he didn't want her to get caught up in the fight. Acht took a flight of stairs down and stepped into a door on the left. Apprehensive but with no other option Kiritsugu followed him into the room.
The room he found himself in was massive and had runes placed all over the walls. Kiritsugu's eyes darted from side to side trying to analyse those runes but to no avail as they were just too numerous.
"Don't bother," the old man said. "Those runes are just for durability. This is a testing room for the homunculus I create. I have no need for any extra advantages." Jubstacheit looked at Kiritsugu with scorn. "You have stayed at this castle for years. I know all of your tactics including that little mystic code you use to such effect. I am not arrogant to say this but the moment you appeared before me you had no chance."
Kiritsugu kept silent but it seemed the old man was not done talking. "I shall tell you my secret as there is absolutely no way for you to survive." He smiled with pride discussing the Einzberns research. "I am a homunculus as you know. Most homunculi are created with an overriding set of memories and pseudo-magic crests. I was however an experiment created by the Einzbern two hundred and fifty years ago. The experiment was to see the effects of multiple magic crests and memories concentrated into a single homunculus. As you can see it was quite a success. Over seventy sets of memories and crests went together to make me as I am."
Kiritsugu's eyes widened hearing this, his stoic façade almost breaking. If what Acht said was true he was truly facing a monster. He almost reached towards his Thompson Contender nervously but restrained himself. Acht said he was aware of the mystic code then it is safe to assume he is wary of it. Not to mention if he truly possesses that many mystic crests then he can sacrifice a crest to ensure the kill. He had no preparatory time and he was fighting an enemy whose weakness he didn't know. Kiritsugu settled down for the hardest fight of his life.
"I see you are ready," the old man said sounding almost indifferent. "Then let us begin."
With an ungodly flood of prana the world warped and the battle begun
Illya
Illya was having mixed emotions right now. Her father was here, he didn't abandon her. But he was going against grandfather and Illya knew how strong grandfather was. Illya however knew what to do. The last words that her father gave her were to escape the castle and find the strong person that could protect her. Illya jumped towards her closet. Many years before she had dreamed her father would show up and take her away and she had maintained a suitcase that she would pack full of her dresses and a single stuffed toy left over from her mother, Mr. Snugglesbern a high class bear. She rifled through her wardrobe and in under thirty seconds had thrown together all of her stuff into the suitcase. Opening the unlocked door she raced through the corridors and down the stairs.
Coming to the entrance hall she was greeted by the sight of two homunculi wielding halberds who remained unmoving by the doors. "Lady Illyasviel," the one on the left said. "Please leave and return to your room there is a disturbance on the grounds outside." As she said that there was a tremendous crack and the castle shook but the homunculi didn't react. Illya squirmed at that, she was so close to her goal but she was stopped. She thought about fighting her way through but she had no experience and her grandfather would be very angry if she attacked the homunculi.
"So you are Lady Illyasviel," a voice suddenly came from behind her causing Illya to squeak and the homunculi to stiffen. "I had expected you to look older. Oh well I suppose you want to be going outside." Illya turned to see a smiling man in a black butler suit. "I suppose I should help you out with that.
The two homunculi stepped forward pointing their halberds, "Surrender," they said in unison.
The butler suited man just sighed, "Really so many amateurs." His smile widened. "Let me guess, you were their so-called failure projects. They placed you at the entrance because they rightly believe you would be less than useless against my master outside. You know," he continued, "If you were to surrender I'm sure my master would take care of you. You don't have to throw your life away."
The first homunculi just charged swinging her halberd at him. "Damn," the butler sighed and Illya couldn't help but feel he was genuinely sad about this. In no time a flash of light appeared piercing the charging homunculi through the heart. The butler put down the mystic code that was suddenly in his hand and moved flowing around the halberd of the other homunculi and piercing her neck with a black knife extending from his hands.
He then turned back to Illya and held out his hand. "Shall we go milady," he said.
"Who are you?" asked Illya stunned.
"Oh how rude of me," the man replied. "I am Nine, a humble servant of your brother, the one outside."
"I have a brother," Illya said flummoxed.
"Kiritsugu didn't tell you," Nine responded. "Kiritsugu saved him from a fire years ago and he grew into a very powerful magus.
Illya passed him her bag and Nine opened the door and strode through it Illya trailing behind. What she saw almost made her sick. Homunculi lay dead and dying on the floor. There were over twenty which was the bulk of the Einzbern fighting forces. Only eight still stood and they were being rapidly worn down by the teenager fighting them. As she watched he shot a beam of water piercing through the leg of one of the homunculi and then decapitated it with an axe he had picked up as it fell over.
"Master Shirou," Nine called from beside her and the man turned towards the butler. "We have successfully retrieved Lady Illyasviel and acquired the research." At this Illya gaped, steal research from the Einzberns, are they crazy. That will get all of them to come after them. The thought that research was stolen also seemed to drive the homunculi into a rage. One came charging towards Nine only to have a beam of water pierce it through the head.
"Don't take your eyes off the battle," the red headed teen said and Illya for the first time in a long time felt that things would be all right.
Jubstacheit Von Einzbern
The walls of the training ground were littered with bullets and shrapnel. He had taken serious wounds in his legs that if not for his healing magic would have probably led to the loss of the leg. In addition he had lost fifteen percent of his magic circuits due to that damnable mystic code. He knew exactly how it worked and he still got caught by it. Despite having caught the magus killer in the perfect trap and leaving no room for him to plan ahead or escape he still had dealt great damage to him.
The worst thing was that when he died he had that damnable smile on his face as if he still knew something or had one more trick up his sleeve. He hated that, it made him feel as if he had instead lost everyting. Stepping out of the room he quickly headed up to Illyasviel's room. He wanted to speak to her as soon as possible to see how this affected her. However when he opened up the door she was gone.
Now starting to run he headed downstairs barely noticing the two dead failed homunculi by the door. He opened up the doors and was confronted by the awful sight. Dead bodies were everywhere years and years of work to create perfect homunculi and they were all slaughtered. Then he saw them. Illyasviel was there but she wasn't alone. There were two figures with her. The first was a black-haired butler and he was carrying a suitcase. The second was a red-headed teenager and he was calmly washing the blood from his hands, water moving by the use of magecraft.
"Who did this," he said his voice thunderous. The red headed teenager looked up and examined him and he seemed to examine him for a moment.
He noticed Illyasviel burst into tears. "Daddy," she sobbed. The butler went to comfort her. "He kil...," at this the young homunculus seemed to reach her limit and she devolved into incoherent sobs.
The teenager turned back to stare at him for a brief moment and then his face contorted into a rictus of fury. His features contorted and Acht had to fight his body not to take a step back. "Nine," the child said, "take Illya and leave."
"As you wish master," the butler said. "What will you be doing while I'm gone."
"I'm going to test out a new spell I've just finished. Now leave."
Acht said a few words in German and the ice rose up forming a wall blocking the retreat off for the butler and Illya. No sooner had he done that then the wall was destroyed by a scalding wave of water emanating from the boy. At that signal the butler picked up Illyasviel in his arms and ran.
He tried to stop them by casting a spell of binding but he was forced to abort it when icicles shot towards him at terrifying speeds. He had to reinforce his arms to defend himself and even then he felt chips of ice cut his skin.
The boy now stood against him with his hands in his pockets. For a moment Acht marvelled at his cold and professional look that was so much like Kiritsugu's. For the moment the boy seemed content to just stand there doing nothing so Acht decided to take advantage. You know there is no chance of you winning hand over the girl and I will let you join the family in recompense and work off the debt from killing my creations. You appear to be an accomplished magus. Work with us and help us recover the third and you will be rewarded. There is no need for you to end up like Kiritsugu.
At this the boy just chuckled, "You know the world is so big. Every day brings new experiences and sights. Before today I had never heard a dead man talk." At this the boy straightened up and disappeared from his sight. Acht looked around wildly only to receive a crushing blow on his back. If he hadn't reinforced his body his spine would have snapped in two instantly. As it was he managed to correct his fall into a stumble and he snapped his arm up and with a quick German phrase lightning was shot towards the youth.
The youth didn't even flinch as a shield of water appeared in front of him and redirected the lightning. "Pure water," the boy remarked, "is an excellent insulator." At his words the shield dispersed and reformed into three streams of water that sped towards Acht.
"It's simple I can do this," the old man thought inside his head, "he tried to summon up a wall of ice but was shocked when ice rose up from the ground to attack him instead and he was forced to try to dodge both forms of hydrogen dioxide. He was unsuccessful at that and took another two glancing blows that caused his shirt to become red with his own blood. Another quick application of healing magic and the wounds sealed over.
He looked up at the boy to see him looking not angry but almost bored. Taking advantage of the boy's seeming nonchalance he activated the mystic code at his side. The exact one that brought Kiritsugu down.
This particular mystic code looked like a golden figurine when not in use. When in use it would transform into a six foot tall indistinct figure with the ability to change its shape and size. It would then lock onto the caster's target and would relentlessly hunt them down. It had incredibly high anti-magic woven into the shell and was extremely fast. When it caught up to the person it would turn to liquid and smother them. Acht used this as his trump card.
The golden man sprouted from his hand and leapt towards the young man. Moving incredibly fast it sprang towards him and was immediately surrounded by water. Acht blinked, if the water was made of prana it would dissipate when it touched the gold figure. The fact that it didn't meant that it was real water. But where on earth did it come from. The minor then walked towards the water and put his hand on it and the entire watery construct froze.
Sighing he stepped towards Acht and then he began to talk. "You know at first I wanted to make you suffer for killing Kiritsugu, to slowly wear you down and let you bask in despair at the thought of fighting a magician. Yeah I'm a magician," he said upon seeing Acht's wide eyes. "I'm telling you this because you're not going to survive the next minute." He continued, "Then I decided to stall for Illya to get out of range. But I think that Nine has probably done a sufficient job right now. Now," he paused and he looked like he was contemplating for a while. "Now I'm going to try out the new spell I was advised to finish," he grinned at Acht and the old man could see the malice concealed beneath a surface smile.
He raised his hand, "[Amessunu Istenis]," he intoned.
Shirou
He had got the name from Gilgamesh and while he didn't understand it he trusted the man wouldn't deliberately screw him over with names. "Although we are going to have a talk about warning me about future deaths when I get back to Fuyuki," he thought to himself.
The spell was the final evolution of the [Poseidon's Eye] and [Skadi's Frozen Heart] spells. What it did was spread his prana in a massive area about five hundred metres and convert all of the air in it instantly to pressurised water. The air would still look like air but anybody who breathed it in would drown if they weren't already crushed by the tons of water that suddenly appeared and pressed in from all sides. The one concept of the air that Shirou didn't change was that it couldn't be swum through. And the one limitation is that it would not spread out overly. Essentially it placed everybody in a high pressure bubble of air that behaved exactly like water.
He looked over at Jubstacheit. He wanted to hate the man but tight now he just felt empty. He could almost feel sorry for him in this situation. He was instantly crushed as his body despite being tough could not adapt to the sudden pressure of one hundred atmospheres. The man didn't even know what hit him. Shirou was tough and could dive to astonishing depths and even he gave himself time to adjust whenever that spell was used. Looking at the dead man Shirou felt no satisfaction. He stayed for a while under the water where he had an excuse if his eyes were wet.
After about three minutes of preventing the bubble from being destroyed by the world. Shirou relented and let it be destroyed. The water bursting outwards before slowly turning back to air completely destroyed the remains of the Einzbern mansion and Shirou let it carry him away from the now ruins. He came to rest about two kilometres away and he just lay on the grass for a while.
He didn't know if he slept or if he was just out of it but the next thing he took notice of was Nine simply sitting by him. Illya was crying while holding him and he was whispering reassurances to her. Saying that her father loved her and it was not her fault but the entire time he was staring with a face full of concern at Shirou.
Shirou gave him a smile that was made of glass and Nine smiled back a false smile. For the moment both of them would pretend they were alright. Shirou struggled to his feet and joined in the three way hug and for the moment the three of them just sat there and ignored the world around them and the ruins of the Einzbern family in the distance.