Chapter 112

As Caules walked on the floor dripping with water, his shoes caught on one of the lines scratched onto the concrete surface, the tiny dent in the floor resulting in an uneven surface that the toe of his shoes just managed to hit. His entire body pitched forward, his head tilting forwards as he windmilled his arms desperately, trying to catch himself. His right leg stood rigidly straight, while his left arched all the way back, hanging in the air. Org reached forward and grabbed his collar, yanking him backwards. Yet, as Caules's left foot reached down to stabilize himself, it hit the slippery floor, the droplets of water left over from the spell earlier, and his left leg went flying forwards into the air this time, his entire body slamming into Org and making the two collapse to the ground.

"Gahk!"

Org's cry of pain was muffled as Caules fell on top of him, the back of his white jacket stuffed into his mouth. Caules legs went flying into the air comically, spread in a large Y shape, while Org slid backwards slightly on the water lubricated ground, the momentum of Caules fall pushing him.

*NYOOOM*

Barely inches away from Caules crotch, a beam of pure water with deadly force pierced through the magic circle, just shy of the center. It easily vaporized the military grade reinforced concrete and continued into the ceiling, burrowing through the concrete, dirt and steel rebar until the beam finally deactivated, leaving a gaping hole in the ceiling that the two mages could only stare at.

Far below them, Rider stared at the hole above her, wondering if she'd hit them. When they had activated the magic circle, it had essentially served a massive signal that broadcast their location, saying "I am here!", and Rider had taken advantage of it to fulfill her mission. Assembling her Excalibur Morgan rifle in seconds, she raised the rifle to her shoulder and took aim at an unseen point above her, roughly estimating their position from what she had felt of their energy, triangulating it until she was certain it was 99% correct. Regulating her breathing, she placed her finger on the trigger, breathed in, centered her aim, then pulled as she breathed out.

A blazing beam of water cut a clean hole through 4 floors, a wooden desk, a steel cabinet and some sort of cage, reaching the very top in the room where the two mages were situated.

The two mages didn't take long to break out of their stupor once the beam ended, immediately getting to their feet and rushing to the emergency exit right in front of them, a cramped passageway leading down into the sewers where the motorbikes were waiting.

A roar issued forth from somewhere in the base, echoing in the corridors until it reached them, and they began to feel vibrations coming from the very floor they were standing on. Their ears felt like they were being violated, even with how far away the roar seemed to come from, and they picked up the pace, rushing down the stairs.

Not a moment too soon did they enter the passage way when moments later, the wall facing the emergency escape route broke down in pieces, a cloud of dust obscuring the intruder that had smashed into the room, with only a pair of glowing red eyes visible through the grey haze.

Avenger had instantly picked out the direction and went charging ahead, ramming through walls and steel like they were matchsticks, property be damned. Her Mana Burst lit up her legs like a Christmas tree, allowing her to bust down doors and walls like it was nothing, turning her into a raging juggernaut that swiftly reached the mages location. But there was one thing she was unable to defeat.

That was the size of the escape passageway.

It was simply too small for her to fit through. Even if she tried to walk sideways, her black armor, sizes above her regular armor had she been summoned in the Saber class, would not fit, the curve of her breast plate ramming into the walls and crushing the concrete into dust, her gauntlets flailing and her feet ground the floor into dust, in a vain attempt to get in. At her size with armor on, she was larger than Lancelot had been in the last Grail War, with plenty of extra spikes and extraneous curves in the armor's design that further hindered her progress.

Angra Mainyu, who was currently influencing Avenger's (Mordred) actions as his puppet, was certainly able to dematerialize the black armor that surrounded her body, but that would mean he would lose control over her, as the armor was actually his media of possession with which he issued orders that overrode her personal will, and once she went on a wild rampage searching for Artorias, it would be a pain to stop her.

It would be especially troublesome this time too, since they were in the middle of the residential district, packed with people living in it, unlike the isolated Einzbern forest. He had purposefully sent Avenger to fight there last time as he could wrangle it under control even if Avenger broke the armor, but this time there would be witnesses, and no Lancer to chip in to help as well. If the existence of magecraft was revealed because of her going wild, he would have the Clock Tower breathing down his neck, and that wasn't ideal for him, not when his preparations were far from complete. He still hadn't even fully set up the Lesser Grail to unlock his path, and he couldn't have the mages dismantling the Greater Grail either, so he was forced to give up his pursuit of the two.

The two ran faster as they heard Avenger's frustrated roars echoing behind them, reaching the bikes in the sewers and hopping on for a quick getaway. Unbeknownst to the two, worms coiled under the seat of the bikes tightened their grip to avoid being shaken off.

With that, the only magus left in the base was Ayaka.

Shaking off the stray leaves on her dress, Ayaka calmed her heart, pressing her hands against her trembling legs as she kneeled on the ground. The mental impact from having two Servants fight right in front of her was a far cry from simply hearing about it, and the waves of hatred flowing off Avenger in particular was...indescribable. It was a battle between her fighting her sudden impulses to jump out of the tree and fight them without any rational reason, and screaming out of fear from the deadly pressure they exerted. It was like gravity had been strengthened, forcibly dragging her down from the branches she was hiding in onto the ground. Thankfully, they had been so absorbed in the battle that they hadn't noticed her, leaving her shaking in the shadows of the fallen tree.

Closing her eyes, she sucked in all the air her lungs could hold, then let out a large breath. When she opened her eyes, they were far calmer than before.

Moving her injured body, she did her best to move it as slowly as she could, putting as little stress as she could on the unresponsive parts of her arms and leg. With Manaka dead and the backlash of the ritual, she could barely do anything at this point, but she could at least drag her battered body to the other emergency escape close by. Stepping through the doorway, she thought to herself that as long as she didn't meet anything on the short path towards the exit, she should be fine.

As if on cue, an old man appeared behind her, forming out insects piling up on each other.

"Hello there Sayjou-san."