Chapter 96

Dashing through the corridors of drab grey concrete, Ayaka's footsteps echoed as she reached the wooden door that led to the control room.

"Red Faction."

The Bounded Fields surrounding the door went down, giving her access to the room. All the rooms were locked down with Bounded Fields and physical locks when an emergency occurred, such as an enemy invading or internal battles in the mansion, so it was necessary to recite the code word in front of them. As a side note, the code word for the upper surface rooms was different.

Fumbling in her pockets, she pulled out the key, sticking into the keyhole and turning it as quickly as she could. Behind her, she was unable to hear any sounds that would indicate Ruler's arrival, but she knew that the Servant could come running at any moment.

The door thrust open, revealing the tense faces of Caules and Org, both of their Magic Circuits running as Caules aimed his gun-like Mystic Code at the door while Org had created magic circles on his hands with luminous paint.

"It's me, Ayaka! We have no time, Ruler's behind us!"

Naturally, seeing Kairi's possessed body earlier had them doubting her words, but when they heard the loud bang coming from the corridor far behind Ayaka, they decided it was best to just leave first. Once they escaped the mansion, they could figure out whether Ayaka was an impostor later.

"Ruler? The Extra-class Servant?"

Org couldn't help but voice his doubts on the identity of the invader. After all, the Servant was supposed to be neutral and govern the war without participating actively at all.

Ayaka simply shook her head, indicating she didn't know anything, whileCaules rushed over to the hidden passage leading outside to a garage with vehicles for them to use. Placing his hands on the wall, he focused his od and nudged various parts of the mechanics into place, the battery on his waist sparking as he did so.

The wall grinded away, gears turning as it lowered into the ground, the dark passage leading downwards revealed, before torches flickered into view to light up the stairs.

"Let's go!"

Beckoning them with his hand, he glanced at the doorway, and froze.

Standing there was a blonde woman in a bunny suit, with a couple of tears and rips in her tights and torso, but otherwise looking the none the worse for wear, aside from perhaps having paler skin than usual. The emerald green eyes met his sky blue irises.

"Ay-!"

In slow motion, he raised the Mystic Code in his hands, hoping to get a shot off on her. The barrel of the weapon started crackling, arcs of electricity jumping between the coils of wire on the outside. Before he could even align it with Ruler, she was suddenly in front of him, the ground she was standing on dented and cracked.

A millisecond later, the air pressure from her immense speed hit him, buffeting his entire body as his hair bent backwards from the wind, his body slamming into the wall behind him. The Mystic Code fell from his grasp, dropping onto the floor, the arcs of electricity weakening until they disappeared.

Reaching out, Ruler grabbed the collar of his shirt and lifted him up in the air, easily handling him as if he weighed nothing.

"Caules!"

Ayaka screamed, her hands desperately searching for more seeds to restrain Ruler, but she had already used up most of them earlier in the elevator, with only two special seeds left that couldn't be used in such a situation, unless she wanted to kill Caules.

Pulling out a small metal ring with sharpened edges out of his coat, Org whispered.

"बहे"

The disc edges grew slightly wider, a transparent semi-solid flowing on the outside, teeth of water that span around the edges like a buzz saw. Spinning the ring around his finger, he threw it Ruler.

The moment it got within a inches of Ruler's skin, the watery teeth abruptly faded away, the steel chakram slowing down without the speed boost from his magecraft as it harmlessly clattered against Ruler, barely scratching her skin before falling to the ground.

Magic Resistance…

It looked like they were against a bad matchup. Both Org and Ayaka saw what happened, and it seemed like they would have to affect her with magic that tangentially attacked her, otherwise it wouldn't work. The chakram just now was a solid object, something that didn't have any magecraft woven into it, but the magecraft attached to it when Org casted his spell disappeared when it hit Ruler. Similarly, the vines Ayaka had used earlier had worked because they were a solid object, the magecraft only used to accelerate their growth. The feathers though had their enchantments broken, as could be seen by Ruler's still intact eyes, though the feathers themselves had still managed to score wounds on her face.

It seemed like she wasn't outright trying to kill them, or they would have been dead by now, but they weren't going to easily escape. She was holding Caules hostage, and standing next to the escape route as well effectively blocking the exit. The doorway to the outside corridor was still open, but with how fast she moved it was likely only one of them could escape. All they could do was stall for time and hope that El-Melloi returned soon, with Assassin in tow. Defeating a Servant, especially one with Magic Resistance like Ruler, was impossible under the conditions they were in, unless a miracle occurred.

Zouken smiled, gripping his cane as his insect familiars scoured the mansion for documents and information.

"Keep them there Ruler, I'm coming down to have a chat."

A tense standoff occurred in the basement room, with Ruler holding Caules by the neck, blocking the passage way for escape while a red card flitted from finger to finger in her other hand, while the two mages stood on opposite corners of the room staring at her, their eyes darting between the open door and the visible escape passageway.

If one went for the doorway, the other would most likely go for the escape passageway, since even Ruler couldn't be in two places at once. The problem was whether she had any abilities that could keep both of them from escaping. From what they had seen, her physical abilities were obviously high, and the card she was flicking in her hand was most likely able to be used offensively as well. Org's train of thought led him to the conclusion. Only one of them was able to escape, and the chances were still absurdly low. The other would have to give their all in distracting Ruler, and Caules would have to pitch in too.

Ayaka and Org's eyes met, his intent communicated with a glance and a few hand signals.

Escape, Ayaka.