"I Sprinkle Ashes Over The Remains Of Your Bones." A chant of a soft melody released into the air, several nights before the present one Shirou and his band of truce-bound allies were about to embark. The red light emitting from her left wrist, shaped like pair of teeth surrounded by a heart outline, was shining brightly in the nauseously inhabited cellar; the training room, affectionately called by Zouken Matou, the Head of the Matou Household.
Said ashes she sprinkled over a collection of bones, calcified and recovered from the homeland of this avatar they seek to call upon, she did her best to ignore the collection of maggots crawling on and around her ankles as she continued to siphon on the magic they provided.
"Scouring The World For A Ceaseless Rest, I Call For Thee," She continued, the circle created out of maggot blood was lit aflame in a deep burgundy, Mana bursting forth like an inferno that shook the chamber. The worms collectively shrieked, wildly crackling in moist crescendo as a strong Prana was being cast, with others biting into the undersides of the summoner's legs.
Still, she persisted, the glow of her hand brimming true and the circle's Mana rising up higher still.
"Etched In Blood, Scarred By Light, Impaled As You've Impaled. Hero And Villain, I Command Ye As Both Monster And Lord!" She continued to chant, feeling the painful jolts of her body's Mana Circuits set ablaze within herself as she focused. Blocking out the pain, she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, her eyes fixated on the task at hand. She knew grandfather was watching, just in the corner, amidst the maggots that tortured her and fed on her in exchange for more spare energy.
In the last leg of her ritual, she cried out in a rare voice of fury, her emotions surging to the fore in a manner unbecoming of her passively gentle and kind demeanor; now one of outrage and despair as she screamed as tears welled up within her eyes. "Let Thy Madness Be An Instrument To Your Work And I Will Embody All The Righteousness In Your Stead. I Call Your Name, Berserker!"
The blaze shot up into the ceiling with a thuum, releasing a gout of ashen-smoke, blowing back in a way that stifled the excited cries of the maggots and pushed them back by its sheer volume. The Prana of the Heroic Spirit called upon was immediately recognized, shaking the confines of the hold and the structure of the mansion itself. A deep red bristled behind the cloud of smoke, making the summoner's eyes widen despite the noxious fumes that licked at her stinging eyes.
"I have heard your call," His voice resonated aloud, angular eyes glowered behind the smog's shadow, looking at Sakura's wide eyes. "Are you my Master?"
She released her hold on her bleeding lip, now covering it as she looked a cross between mortification and shame. Looking to the side, her bangs covered her eyes in shame, her breath releasing in a ragged sigh.
"You don't need to worry about looking for your Master," A slimy voice ebbed from the staircase, approaching from the far side of the chamber. From the Heroic Spirit's perspective it was a puny and pathetic creature, holding its head higher than its shoulders should allow. Deep blue hair combed to either side, showing its forehead down to the trimmed brows and a rounded, pointed face that grinned too assuredly to match the doubt lingering in its eyes. Waving a hand, he addressed the collection of maggots that revealed an older man, and spoke to him directly past the spirit. "Isn't that right, Grandfather?"
"Ha!" He barked out, causing Shinji to briefly wince, but not let his smile disappear as he was sure of what was to come. Sneering behind a wrinkled grin, he kept his hand on a gnarled cane while his other hand wrapped around his leaning back's lower half, showing his age in more ways than just appearance. "You didn't summon this Heroic Spirit and yet you lay claim before a pact is made before me? You have a lot of nerve, boy," Diminishing his sneer, he looked to the lavender haired girl, still dressed in her school uniform, looking dour and ashamed of her own lack of will as tears dried in red marks over her cheeks. "Unless the summoner here doesn't wish to participate in this war, and wishes a way out, I can make an exception. Or do you wish to fight, Sakura?"
She was quiet, still, and aghast in turmoil. The Servant could practically drink in her despair that radiated her as assuredly as the dank atmosphere was suffused in. This nauseating environment only served to further his ire, and his burning eyes glared at Zouken only to see him cast an astute stare of caution. Patiently awaiting his question to be answered, the specter looked back to the girl as she asked a single pertinent question.
"Do I have to kill all of the Masters?" Her voice shook as she asked, but her eyes shone nothing but a certainty that enhanced her wallowing.
Chuckling dryly, Zouken angled his neck as he grinned a bit with his own brand of cruel humor, "I can allow you to keep one as a pet, just make sure he can't use Command Spells or his Servant is destroyed."
A twinkle of light shone in those purple eyes, her mouth opening and her breath hitched. But the dawning realization of what he meant by 'pet' made her her stifle any hint of hope that she had in her grandfather's answer. Closing her mouth slowly, she lowered her blood-stained fingers down to the other hand, clenching them at her lap as she bowed apologetically to him.
"T-Then I don't wish to fight! P-Please allow my brother to do so!"
"He doesn't have Magic Circuits, so this will have to be done in the Matou manner," Zouken intoned, clacking his cane on the ground while his lower form glided like a snake over the maggots. Gesturing his wooden instrument to a spot before her feet, he ordered her without words, and she nodded her head while rising back upright. Raising her wrist, she winced at the pain of her Command Seal and a definitive hissing was made on her skin as the brand lessened by one third.
Within the demonic pile of maggots rose up a human skin leather book, markers that were centuries old and whose words were indecipherable to any Modern Magus without knowing age old secrets. The maggots themselves erected upwards, allowing Zouken to grasp it, admiring its work and looking to Sakura with a look of approval. Gliding past her, he didn't lash out or even speak; just sighing with disappointment in a way that cut deeply into Sakura after the decade of torture she was preparing for this war.
"Shinji," Zouken addressed his grandson, now dangerously sinister as his smile wasn't one of just mockery but one of a promise. It made the small serpent recoil and his smile quiver, even permeating cold swear across his neck at the sight of his elder acting this way. Still, he held the book out to him, chuckling raspily as he did. "Take hold of your responsibility as representative of the Matou Family. Bring the Clan victory, as your duty allows you as the heir; fail me, and this line dies with you."
"Tch!" He clicked his tongue with a curling sneer of his own, snatching the book out of his elder's grasp out of spite. "As if I'd fail!" Turning, he'd look at Sakura and spit outward with venom. "I'm not her! I'm a true Magus of the Matou Family!"
"Then prove it," The Matou Elder inclined, gesturing towards the living smog that glared with a near disembodied presence. "Command your Servant."
Turning, he slowly looked over at the shadow, and reared back as it suddenly maneuvered from the end of the room, instantly appearing before him. Towering over him, the black mist continued to hiss like ever-present steam, smelling like burnt flesh as it stared down at him. It drank in his fear, even as it mounted up a facade of courage while holding a book up towards him, held tight in his deluded grasp.
"So, first order of business I'd like you to-"
"No."
Shinji gaped, and his mouth hung in an open smile of confusion, simply emitting a, "Huh?"
"I asked only the Summoner if she is my Master. She hasn't answered my question. Until such a time that I ask this question to another, I won't take any other as substitute," Leering down, its voice emitted a waft of dried blood that made Shinji gag, but also quiver in trepidation at his presence. "I do not take scavengers or extortionists. Let alone a worm beneath maggots like you."
Despite his fear, he clenched his chattering teeth long enough for him to begin rambling aloud, "You reject me? You think I'm not good enough?"
Grimacing, he shook with indignation, looking down with sweat profusely pouring from his brow and scalp, the collar of his uniform beginning to stain, "What kind of sick joke?! What kind of fucking answer is that?!"
Raising his book, Shinji's voice caused it to bristle with a violet hue, its crackling energies binding over the Servant via Sakura's Command Seal as he cried aloud with vindication; ignoring a stifled cry she emitted that only the Servant could hear. "You see this? This means I'm in charge now! Not that worthless tramp over there! Me! Shinji Matou! Now be a good dog and obey my word-!"
Light seemed to evaporate in the chambers and the worms screamed. A stifling aura enveloped the whole of the underground vault as only a pair of blood red eyes seemed to swell in enormity before Shinji and Shinji alone. Zouken was gone. Sakura was no longer there. Not even the maggots that served as his grandfather's familiars. He was completely at the mercy of this towering monstrosity; this Servant was on a completely different level than he fathomed, and it was showing him why.
"Little man. Little worm. Little Shinji," It chided him, crimson lights like a pair of Hellish rays shining over him like a theatrical spotlights, belonging to a narrator of unwelcome presence and authority. "Do you think yourself important with that book? Do you believe yourself superior because of your blood? Do you doubt your betters from handing you your own noose when you believe it your medallion of pride? Foolish worm. Foolish man. Foolish Shinji."
Leaning down, its lights nearly blinding to the knee buckling Shinji, his body soaking in his own fluids and his lips pressed tightly against each other while his eyes locked paralyzed to the spirit's unrelenting glare. It was like looking at a Shinigami in the flesh, a god of darkness that was holding his life in its hand. It wasn't enough to simply to show its power over him, its authority, but also demean him in the most humiliating ways; worse, he couldn't even focus on the book in his hand that was keeping this monster under his control.
"The longer you hold onto that book, the more I am convinced you have no worth to me as a Master, a Vassal or even as a slave. You are nothing to me," It breathed out in dismissal, disappearing, and returning the dim lighting of the Matou basement, along with a fear ridden young man.
He stared in place for a few more seconds before looking left and right, realizing he was gone, leaving him alone with a cackling Zouken and an ashamed Sakura. Holding the book in his hand, he looked down at it and shakily raised it in his grip. A hint of a twisted smile broke onto his face, delusion taking hold of him in a coping mechanism.
"With a Servant this strong, and a little discipline, I-I could be unstoppable!" He said to himself, walking up the stairs with his smile faltering halfway as he remembered its last words. "I'll show you, Servant! I'm far greater than you are, dead man! I'll prove it to you and everyone just who is deserving of the Holy Grail!"
Several nights later, and nightfall has begun for those in the Emiya Estate. Taiga had come by after a day spent at the school, making her usual conversation and making a bit of a rousing commotion over Saber's stay in addition to Illya's. Still, with a little persuasion, they made it work and the Servant's own history with Kiritsugu bought enough of a favor from the landlord's daughter to agree to it under her supervision; whatever that meant.
Shirou managed to fit in some painful practice with swordsmanship with Saber, finding himself drawn to her excellent posture and ferocious dexterity. Even without the user of her superb magic fueled craft and invisible sword, she was still leagues above what his athletic teenage body was. Still, he showed enough tenacity and learned just enough to hone some innate habits to better his survival skills in the coming future.
This prompted him to bring along a couple of Bouken in a backpack filled with miscellaneous items he wished to use in case of a pinch. While he was no proper Magus by a long shot, his Reinforcement allowed him to make use of items he was more familiar with to use as weapons. Like his night with Lancer, as long as he had something he could work with, it bought him just that much extra time.
Exiting the home, he rendezvoused with Rin and Illya not far from the end of the street they all lived on, all accompanied by their Servants at once.
"Alright, what's the game plan?" Shirou asked his voice releasing a shaky sigh in the crisp winter air of Fuyuki's night.
"We still don't know about the other two Servants at work here, and we aren't aware of Berserker's Master," Rin briefed, her arms crossing over her chest as she hugged her crimson coat tightly over her standard Magus attire. With Caster disembodied and concealed, Rin looked to be holding a folded variant of the black cloak she wore the night before and seemed to only keep it on standby at the moment. "I think it'd be best if we look around Miyama Town and split up from there. That's where a series of unexplained murders cropped up right before the battles happened we participated in last night."
Shirou's mind briefly flashed to Sakura, and he wondered scarcely if she was aware of this Holy Grail War. His mouth opened, but then doubt sprung back to the fore and he bit his tongue, looking away. Unfortunately, he was noticed by practically everybody present but only one person thought to ask.
"Shirou?" Saber inquired with a turn of her poncho covered head. "Does this not sound like a proper course of action?"
"No, it does," He wavered, his eyes drifting back towards the vine encroached home of the Matou household. "I'm just...worried about Sakura. It's been two days since I saw her and the last thing I remember was how freaked out she was about the mass murders happening in Miyama Town. It's not like her to be isolated this long."
"It is the weekend," Illya dismissed with a shrug. "She's probably just tired after this week and resting."
"Yeah, maybe that's it," The red-head nodded with a reluctant smile.
"Let's not get distracted, Emiya," Rin chastised him, brushing her hair as she scowled at his frowning face. "Don't give me that look. We're out here to hunt other Mages and their Servants. I'd rather you not lose focus when we're in a pinch."
"Fine," He brusquely answered. "Miyama Town is a good place to start as far as suspicious places go. If anything, that's where I'd suspect Assassin is hiding."
"Why would that be?" Illya piped up curiously.
"Because," The ginger turned, replying to the silver-haired girl while Saber and Rin listened attentively. "Given what we know from what's been reported, the corpses of the victims had been dead for awhile, and unlike the missing ones, it happened while the Sun was still in the sky. If we know anything about Berserker, it seems he works only in the cover of night. In addition," He looked to Tohsaka and Saber now, raising a hand up to show two erect fingers for emphasis. "The media failed to mention that the authorities had found two sets of victims that are actually unrelated to each other. The missing bodies with bloodstains are reportedly pierced and possibly drained of blood before hauled off. The corpses found in some abandoned building and an alley adjacent had their hearts torn open; either from the back or the chest, while having some bladed wounds on their throats or bellies and a few of them with their legs and arms with lacerated tendons."
"That's disturbing," Rin noted aloud, her brows furrowing and she propped a hand up by an elbow to cup her mouth as she looked down in pondering thought. As if she was spoken to by her Servant, she nodded and didn't say anything audible. Then, for clarification to the others, she looked up with piercing blue orbs confirming the damning evidence. "It's likely that Shirou is right, but given the style of the missing bodies, it is likely that's where Berserker got the extra ghouls from that spawned in the graveyard."
"So he planted them in the cemetery?" Illya asked rhetorically, now looking a bit amused with a thin smile of macabre appreciation. "That's sly. I didn't consider that he shouldn't have been able to raise the dead like a Necromancer, but their vampiric attributes should've given them away. Clever Berserker, clever."
"Those were innocent people, Illya," Shirou rebuked her firmly, earning a dry look from her smile vanishing face. "You shouldn't approve of such a disgusting way of using bystanders!"
"It's a common tactic in wars to use populaces to their advantage, Emiya," Rin corrected him, earning a sharp turn of his head and his immediate glare. Sighing, she matter-of-fact waved her hand as she cut off a potential spat. "It's not like I stoop to that level, but it's a bit pretentious to tell another Magus what is or isn't fair game. Isn't that right, Einzbernz?"
"Of course, Tohsaka," The white haired girl replied, coldly staring back at the stony expression the taller brunette shone back. "I will use any strategy as long I can achieve my ultimate objective. Not that I won't have fun doing it, but it's why I'm here in the first place."
"Is that all I was to you?" He turned, now feeling hurt enough to show a bit of venom in his pained expression. "A convenience?!"
"Oh Shirou," She twirled her coat covered dress, placing her hands behind the small of her back as she flashed a childish grin as she closed the scarlet orbs in a sign of cheer. "It was fun playing pretend with you! But like all good things," Her red eyes opened, now a darker crimson and her smile thinned more as a colder voice echoed her visage, as if mismatching her stature and previous experience he had with her. "Sooner or later, you have to wake up from a fairy tale and remember you're in the real world. And like reality, it can be cruel, cold, and quite ironic in how things like fate work, don't you think?"
"Illya-!"
"That's enough," Rin calmly interrupted, her voice cutting between them as she stepped smoothly between the pair. With arms crossed, she closed her eyes and peered through at Shirou first, "I don't know your personal history with this girl, but we have more important things than who used who or what lies have been told," Looking back at Illya, she icily addressed her just as before if not just a bit more edge after what she heard. "But I won't be a part of this alliance if all you do is provoke him or I needlessly. We are doomed to fail if this continues, so I suggest you keep any grudges or bygones to yourselves until we've defeated at the very least, Berserker. After that," She hair-flipped, turning around with her hand propped on a hip and the other spinning over the shoulder to exemplify her attitude best. "You two can kill each other in your sleep for all I care."
"I agree with Rin," Saber neutrally affirmed, looking to Shirou with warning in her eyes to not argue the matter further. "We should carry on more properly as combatants with mutual enemies that need to be removed for all of our sake. Putting any one Master personally above one's self is tantamount to suicide."
"I'm with Saber," Archer gruffly stated, causing Illya to turn up and scowl at him from her diminutive height, but he just wryly smirked at her while speaking uninterrupted. "I'd feel much better about killing you people when I don't have to worry about watching my shadow with Dracula lurking in it."
"Fine," The red-head huffed, his eyes staring crossly at a pouting Illya. "We'll settle this when we get home tonight."
"No we won't," She answered simply. "I won't allow it to end so mercifully."
From that point on, Shirou felt tension that wasn't there since the previous day. Illya's attitude had dramatically shifted ever since he told her that he'd protect her and do everything in his power to save her from deliberate harm. Her callous change from glee to dismissal was so chilling she seemed like a doll; designed to appear innocent but truly cold to the touch and without a real heart.
Looking over to his Servant, he saw that she looked troubled for a different reason. Cagey as she was, ever since he mentioned Illya back when she materialized, she had something to tell him that she was reluctant in sharing. What she did say left him feeling more confused and lost. What was Illya's mother doing in Fuyuki with the Grail War going on? Was she a Master too? How was his father connected?
These questions had to be answered and he knew he had to confront Illya about it. It didn't matter how many times it'd take, he'd eventually get her to say why she has this disbelief that he could protect her or why she treated their time together as nothing more than a fabrication. No one simply just flips a switch and says they didn't mean any of it.
"I don't believe you were honest with me, Illya, not entirely," He thought with conviction, his gaze growing more sharp and his determination restored for a different purpose involving with his surrogate sister. "I'm going to make you confess your grudge with me, Illya. One way or the other, I won't allow this bitterness to continue festering inside of you!"
"Shirou," His Servant finally spoke up, almost startling him with how quiet their trek has been. Looking over, he'd see her piercing eyes look at him worriedly, her face reflecting a concern he hadn't seen up until this point. "What Illyasviel said...I'm sorry I didn't rebuke her sooner."
"Don't worry about it," The red-head tried to dismiss with a wave of his hand. "I don't know what's gotten into her, but this isn't like her. I'm sure I just touched a raw nerve and she's just trying to get back at me."
"Is she known for acting in a malicious way?"
"Not at all," The high school student responded, looking around an alley corner carefully, making sure he didn't see anything out of the ordinary on the path they strode on. "Mysterious, sure, and cryptic definitely. But she's never acted mean in any regard. Why?"
"It is perhaps correct to assume she has been using you. Mages are notorious for using lies and misdirection to gain things that are advantageous to them. But, personally, I don't see an advantage in setting up a base in your home," She answered simply.
"Really?" Shirou asked cynically, cocking a brow and giving her a scrunched up expression. "What makes you say that?"
"Nothing prevented Lancer from attacking you in your home, correct?" Saber answered without skipping a beat, making him wince at remembering that. "And from what I recall, other than a generally appealing atmosphere to perform your craft, there's nothing that keeps outsiders from getting in outside of the gate and wall. No Boundary Field, no traps of any kind and certainly no guards."
"What's your point?" The ginger frowned at her with downplayed intrigue.
"The point is, I don't think she ever let it slip she was using you for her own ends," The Heroic Spirit intoned, looking to him with a raised brow as she mentioned thus. "I recall her saying 'playing pretend' and that 'she wouldn't let it end so mercifully'. Whatever the case is, this isn't about the Holy Grail War. This is-"
"-something personal," Shirou mouthed, confirming what he was just now suspecting in his head.
Before he could delve deeper into his theory, he heard a familiar cry not far away. Exchanging a look with Saber, they both nodded and began running at the same pace down the road and turning a sidewalk to the source of the voice. Given Miyama Town was an older district of Fuyuki, not many people wandered outside and there was next to no vehicular traffic they had to worry about. So if there was a scream, that could only mean one thing-
"What is it-?"
Blood. Bile. Guts.
Eyes widened palpably as he bore witness to what was a horrific sight of gore propped up in the middle of an alley, a single victim piked like a morbid idol or a warning of Feudal standards. The red-head knew that, with Shinji who was simply pinned in place to slowly bleed to death, this person was butchered and propped in place to be found. From the smell, the sight of red and the wafting steam coming from the entrails that made Shirou gag upon sight and smell; this was a very recent kill.
Standing near it was Rin, whom looked like she had recomposed herself by the time they had arrived, holding a sleeve over her mouth to suppress vomiting herself as she was only a meter away in inspecting the materials the victim wore. Her hand rifled through what could've been clothing beyond the blood that soaked it, ignoring the head pointing erect with a jagged spike thrust out of its orifice; among the other places that held it up in a spreadeagled posture of impalement.
As if she found something, she retrieved what looked like a piece of jewelry that had some smattering of the dank liquid suffusing the victim. Wiping it away, she looked at it closely while Saber walked forward to inspect closer, seeming to stomach the sight far easier than they did. Brushing it away with her fingers, her eyes stretched and she looked to Shirou, beckoning him to come closer.
Pale as he was, the boy came closer, coughing as he smelled more of the recently deceased man(?). Presenting to him, his yellow-hazel eyes looked intensely at what could only be ascribed as a organization crest on a ring. He didn't know whom it belonged, but the fact Rin recognized it, made her convinced of whose identity this could be.
"This belongs to one of the factions based in the Clock Tower, the headquarters for pretty much all organized Magecraft in the world," She explained to him in a hushed tone, as a similar worry was exchanged between them of the killer being nearby. Looking over, she wordlessly took in the grisly sight with Shirou, the latter of which contorted his face in a visage of pure disgust.
"So, he was-"
"-A Master," Saber affirmed grimly, brushing away some blood to reveal the outermost etchings on an impaled hand that still had the crest in place on his person. "It seems Berserker knew to destroy the Seals. They can be salvaged by the Overseer, or worse, by a talented Magus who knows the secret of utilizing it. Given their power is equal to that of True Magic in this day and age of Magecraft, it seems likely he left it to no chance that it could be used against him."
"But, if this is a Master..." Shirou trailed off, stumbling in a half circle as he reached for his first Bouken, drawing it slowly in a vain attempt to be discreet.
In his head turn, he saw something that made his blood go cold. Even as Rin was still looking at the gem encrusted ring, a white mask surrounded in shadow rose upward behind her, completely silent and even bypassing the periphery of Saber's sight; whom was still turned the other way at the time. He realized the only reason, this instant, he saw this Servant was because he managed to be alarmed enough to even look in its direction while everyone unaware fell victim to a skill he had only heard in a previous conversation: Presence Concealment.
He didn't have time to do a proper trace of his object. Pouring as much Mana, carelessly exciting the circuits enough to make his veins feel like they were on fire, he lurched his body forward and took a step forward. Dilated pupils saw the shadow withdrew an arm, its hand holding of what looked like it long, serrated blades along the recesses of its fingers. Sweat sloughed off him as he pushed forward, adrenaline surging through him as he stepped off the ground in his haste.
The five fold of black stained steel was swinging down, the arc visible to his eyes, making his head hurt as he took in every detail and every concept of its make-up. He knew, even a passing scratch could be lethal to Rin. Thus, he couldn't simply deflect it. Not with the weapon he was charging. No, he had to stop its momentum and veer it off course. Based on the angle of the white face, it didn't hone in on him; was it because it sought the strongest Magus of the pair between them?
Halfway to its goal, Shirou chanced it in between another legged stride, hurling a luminous veined Bouken that was on the verge of exploding. Much in the same way he saw Archer throw his own swords at Berserker, he took a mental note that the arching motion was similar to how he had once gestured in that daunting battle. Barely any time to think of anything else, he kept running, now catching Rin's attention as she saw the thrown weapon and him running forward with nothing but fierce intensity; something that Saber saw with immediate horror in recognition of the current threat.
"Emiya-!"
"-SHIROU!"
As the brunette Magus was letting out a yelp, Saber let out a hallowed cry of the peril she was witnessing. Thankfully, just before the blades could get past the mere foot or so of space to cut through the Mage's clothes and into her flesh, the Bouken struck its face in a brief TOK! sound...
...just before exploding into wooden shrapnel in a flash of light and lacquered debris.
"GAK!" It nasally cried out, its arm faltering and whiffing just barely as Shirou tackled Rin to the ground, rolling her away forcefully from the proximity of the dazed Servant. Amidst his panic fueled rush, he saw Saber's poncho outlined person leap -metal lined skirt ripping over his and his catch's faces- as her metal boots barely touched the ground in her furious motion to strike at the offender. The sound of metal striking metal was heard, and in his shoulder to back revolution, his eyes saw the other Servant's hands spark in deflecting her attack, only skidding backward on what was clearly legs and not just the darkness like he thought.
Boring a ragged cloak that seemed to envelop its person, its finger-bladed arm stretched out of the cloak as if bypassing some hidden sleeve he couldn't see. Ending his roll, he'd notice that he was hunched over, crouched as if never standing upright out of habit in its style of fighting. Despite the impact he had made with his projectile he saw no hint of marring on the mask; save for a small amount of soot from where the edge of the Bouken had made on its face.
"A-Assassin?!" Rin gawked, still in shock from the whole ordeal of being yanked aside by Shirou, the timid Shirou Emiya who cowered before women and was paralyzed in battle when Berserker was revealed. Was this the same Shirou?
"Seems that way," He mulled aloud, still unmoving as he tensely held her against him.
"Uh...Shirou-"
"Not now, Tohsaka!"
"Can I get up?" She asked, his face turning to see she was looking with a cute hint of embarrassment he's never seen on her before. Her face blushed, her eyes quivered and her lips pursed in a way that showed her discomfort. His own face flushed, his breath quickened and eyes was held in place for this spare moment. It was as if the two were just aware of their own biological sex and their mutual attraction to one another.
Then, Shirou remembered the smell, and the fact that the sound of Assassin striking at Saber brought him back to clarity.
"S-Sorry," He apologized, getting off her while using his hands to haul her up by her own. Graciously accepting, she dusted off the cloak she had held underarm, now slinking up and around her shoulders in order to fasten it over her clothes. Now covered in a teal trimmed black cloak, she observed as Saber did battle with this unknown assailant, clashing repeatedly in scant but feints and counters, never anything of a direct attack to the well armored warrior opposing him.
The fight seemed to drag on for awhile when the pair felt something uneasy about this situation. The impaled victim was definitely a Master -of Rider or Assassin, it wasn't clear- but it was waiting for them to have turned their backs to each other before striking its prime target. Yet, even when there is no visible way for them to lose sight of it, it was pursuing with a tenacity that was borderline stupid for its Class; yet, it was still matching blows with Saber all the same.
"Assassin," Saber addressed him, holding her Invisible Air wrapped sword as she stood defensively in another expertly woven swing that sent it rearing back. "Is that your Master, impaled back there?"
"It was," Its voice croaked, speaking in a guttural tongue that was befitting of its appearance. "But I no longer serve a dead man."
"Then whom do you fight for?" The King of Knights asked with a furrowed brow.
The voice let loose a deep laugh, the nearby street lamps flickering on and off as he did. In the cacophony of its flashing, it'd suddenly dim and Artoria's eyes opened to see nothing but a pitch blackness take-over their entire environment. She could smell the stench in the alleyway, the taste of blood and bile in the air, and hear the two Masters behind her; even feel the blade still in her grip. No, it's simple that she couldn't see anything, at all.
"Zabaniya: Delusional Blackout," It muttered aloud, its voice echoing from her left, causing Saber to swing and hit nothing but air. "It's no use, Saber. My Noble Phantasm allows me to ensnare everyone in a pitch black environment that cuts off your visual spectrum entirely. You cannot find me, no matter how much you struggle. But I can still find you."
"If you think cutting off my sight is enough to win, you are overestimating yourself, Assassin!" She barked out, closing her own eyes as if to prove a point. Breathing deeply she inhaled and exhaled, readying herself. Strengthening her other senses, she opened herself to her Instinct, and poured her Mana into a circling wind that buffeted the entrance of the alley, shuddering the foundation of brick and mortar to the slick pavement still wet with blood.
As if to note a discrepancy in the air, she turned on her heel and thrust her sword, crying out, "O' Wind, Erupt!" firing a vortex of violent Invisible Air towards her target. Feeling it connect with something, she heard no cry of pain but a deafening scream of a language from far-away in the east. Her eyes widened as she felt the air ripple, a cloth maneuver and the sound of a mouth widening as it approached her. Swinging her blade, she felt her weapon clang against it while another hand grabbed a hold of her scalp, yanking her neck aside as hot breath lapped against her skin and a mouth hungrily aimed to claim purchase to her neck.
A faint whistling was heard, like that of an insect from far away just barely out of hearing. Accelerating faster than either Servant could comprehend, without the aid of sight, they'd never see where it was just until a defining snap was heard and a splash of blood splattered. Sprung backward from the recoil of the singing metal that narrowly avoided her vulnerable neck, Saber felt the weight of her opponent thrust backwards, hurled with a spiraling spin as the smell and feeling of ichor that marked her trailed all the way into the alley spiked up victim with a sickening thud.
All at once, the lights of the street flickered back on and the environment returned to being illuminated by the night's starlight from overhead.
Saber saw what Shirou and Rin noticed just nearby them. The gored body, spiked up for all to see, was impaled by an exquisite looking rapier looking arrow, having penetrated through Assassin's open mouth and sticking him into the elevated, bloodied chest of its former master. Despite the obvious injury, it squirmed and gurgled in a growling fit, unable to escape thanks to the weapon's embedding into the many stakes crisscrossing its ex-master's cadaver. It was a sickening sight, but satisfactory to them all that the threat was dealt with in that moment.
"You should be thankful we were close enough to notice," Illya finally spoke out, her violet-furred form peeking around the corner with a slow taunting walk, a smile present for them to see. Her scarlet eyes flashed towards Shirou condescendingly as she arched her head to the side, revealing a distant crimson dot that hopped from its perch and landed with a knee-bent thud beside her. "Thanks to my insurance I planted earlier before we separated, I was able to pinpoint all three of you and where Assassin was likely to strike, even behind his Presence Concealment."
Without even a breath to ask, Shirou felt something inside his coat crawl up. With trepidation the red-head saw a spider of finely woven, glowing threads crawled up his jacket and onto his shoulder, with a similar thing happening to Rin and Saber herself, surprising the latter two especially. Disassembling into threads, she gestured to have them dance around in near transparency before they returned to being invisible around her proximity.
"My Familiar Magic is second to none," She boasted in a flat, matter-of-fact tone as she dryly stared at them haughtily. "They're near undetectable, even to Servants who aren't aware of them. Unless they charge Mana remotely, they won't even register their Prana outwardly."
"And you didn't mention that you bugged us, why?" Rin asked, somehow beating Shirou to the punch with questioning such an obvious act of subterfuge.
"I didn't feel it necessary," The Einzbernz replied simply.
"I think it's plenty necessary!"
"Uh," Shirou averted from himself adding fuel to the fire as he saw Assassin's struggling form still clawing at its blood spewing mouth to rid itself of its burden. "It's still alive, guys!"
"Not for long," Archer spoke lowly in a swift stride, employing Conjuration to materialize a set of Black Keys in between each set of knuckles. Six in total, Archer tossed them with overlapping arcs of his arms, allowing them to embed themselves into the flesh of the pinned Servant, setting it ablaze in a vibrant blue fire. Howling aloud with renewed agony, it'd begin to disintegrate, the body transforming into ash as its cloak returned to Mana whence it came along with the sword holding it in place.
Left to stare at its remains, they'd take in the damning conclusion of contenders in this war and witness the first true losers in this ordeal. Not even Illya had a thing to say as the blue flames did nothing to stop the visualization of the fire that would erupt from her gut, at night. The lumps within bursting asudner her mortal coil and out from her broken, over abundant self, would be the grail itself ready for use.
In her hazy mindset, she had a dawning clarity that made her open her eyes with something off about this passing of Assassin. She should have felt something metaphysical transpire within her body, as a conduit for the Holy Grail that she was. A flawless vessel in every way. So why wasn't she receiving the whole that presided once in the Servant?
"Master!" EMIYA bellowed, looking up at a violet-hooded form that was staring at them from the roof of the alley's left building top.
"I didn't even sense its presence!" Saber intoned, now brandishing her weapon once again in readiness.
"Caster!" Rin cried out, calling upon the teal-trimmed form to manifest beside her at once. Without waiting for anyone's approval, she gestured, calling forth the blood within their environment -even off their clothes and Saber's skin- into a cyclone of Mana fueled force. Thrashing the building's top story without mercy, the falling debris turned to powder by the violet-hooded form dangled in midair like a doll; before it separated into crimson ribbons and scattered into the wind.
"Dammit!" Archer growled out. "It got away!"
"What was that?" Illya asked with irritation.
"It certainly didn't act human," Rin noted with a sneer, her Servant lowering its hand and looking with its concealed face at her. Shaking her head, she replied to unheard words. "No, it wasn't your fault. I'm not sure any of us could stop it from leaving even if we tried."
"Speak for yourself," The white-haired Counter Guardian sneered under his breath.
"Are you alright, Shirou?" Saber asked, returning to his side. She caught him staring in place, his eyes rooted in the spot the figure was before it disappeared entirely. He was pale, far more than even seeing the body or what happened to Shinji that night. Grasping his shoulder, she shook him, only bringing him out to look hauntingly at her and bringing everyone's eyes aimed to him.
"S-Sakura," He began to choke out, his eyes beginning to ebb tears as he looked horrified at them all. "That was...Sakura!"
A/N: I am Evil. I know this. Because I wrote this Chapter in a way to not only sow dread but leave you all hanging in suspense. From the beginning I wrote this intending to call back to the night that Berserker was summoned so you could all get that Heaven's Feel perspective in its entirety but from HIS POV. And if you pay attention, the incantation refers to him as "Monster" and "Lord", meaning he utilizes the maximum efficiency as Vlad Tepes of Wallachia and Count Dracula, the Monster from the Book. So in this way, he's operating in the loosest of terms a Dual-Class Servant without it being completely succinct. It's why he operates with clarity and mind despite having a high level of Madness Enhancement because he accepts his Vampire side despite hating it and also has an infernal hatred towards a lot of things that didn't lead him to true insanity in either life, per say.
It was also enjoyable making Shinji virtually piss himself, the worm got what he deserved.
And with the infighting beginning between Illya and Shirou, they have another threat beyond a Vampire-turned-Assassin; but a myserious figure who appears to have been Sakura!
I look forward to your eventual Reviews. See you all on the next update!