Chapter 186
Delicate white lashes trembled as the snow white eyelids trembled, arms shifting against worn denim as Illya slowly came to. She blinked sleepily as she rubbed her eyes with child-like hands, cascades of soft hair tumbling backwards as she cracked her stiff neck.
Belatedly, she realized she had been slumped against Shirou the entire time with her head on her lap, scooting backwards a little as she put some distance between him before he woke up, but strangely deep down she didn't feel bothered about it. Rationalizing, it was inevitable, she supposed, that she would feel less guarded against him after practically living his life through the spell.
"Mistress?"
The door slid open, a crack allowing light to spill through the gap, driving away the shadows in a room lit only with moonlight. Eventually it swung to it's full length, the door making a right angle with the wall as it revealed in a maid in with crimson eyes and thin eyebrows, the slight note of concern in her voice at odds with the stern look on her face.
Standing far from the edge of the circle as she entered, she refrained from intruding until Illya spoke to her.
"It's done Sella, you can come in."
Without moving a muscle, the circle disappeared, receding as it all turned into threads flowing back to Illya, the brilliant luster dimmed with mana no longer running through them, the circle disappearing as the threads flowed up her body and underneath the curtain of milky hair to return.
Yawning, she got to her feet as Sella walked up to her, kneeling next to her mistress and catching Illya as the girl slumped to the floor bleary eyed, unresisting as the maid carefully hoisted the girl into her arms in a princes carry, Illya's hair softly cushioning her head against the puffed up shoulder of Sella's maid uniform as it limply rested against the maid, not a trace of caution on her face as her body plunged into true rest, unlike earlier during the spell.
Frowning, Sella glanced at Shirou still sitting in the chair, his butt almost sliding of the chair while his slack jaw opened slightly, consciousness having yet to return to him after the ritual was severed.
After a moment of hesitation, she went out the doors, leaving Shirou to sit there by his lonesome. Without even a whisper, the ornate doors slid shut, the moonlight his only companion.
A scant few minutes when the door surreptitiously slid open again, letting in warm yellow light from the hallway outside as Sella stepped through once more, her arms free of Illya but instead occupied by swathes of white cloth. Without further ado, she lightly draped them around Shirou's body, adjusting them so everything below was his neck was covered.
Once satisfied, she stood up and left without another word, closing the doors behind her as her left eye landed upon Shirou for one last time through the shrinking gap between the doors, until the line of sight was sealed off as the doors shut completely.
In another part of the mansion, a blonde knight clad in a dark royal blue dress knelt took shallow breaths as she leaned against the bed, the other blonde beside her panicking as she placed her bare skin against the girls back, funneling mana to her in an attempt to stabilize the knight's condition.
Another aspect of the room Saber and Caster had been imprisoned in was the presence of mana absorbing circles set all around them, draining them of the vital energy required to maintain their bodies to physically interact with the world. For Caster, it wasn't such a big deal since she was able to conserve her mana expenditure to the minimum, having sustained relatively few wounds, and Chastiefol also lent her assistance in regulating her mana flow, so even though the battle between Avenger and her had exhausted most of her power, she was still able to endure the effects of the mana drain. If all else failed, she could try spiritualizing as well to avoid fading from the lack of mana.
Saber on the other hand, was much more severely affected than Caster. Her injuries from earlier that night ate through her mana, recovering the physical body in exchange for mana, and on top of that Shirou was a mediocre magus who had barely passable Circuits to power her, forcing her to squeeze out her own mana to supplement her fighting power. Even after he had been activated by Caster, it was still far from enough, and the fight with Avenger had exceeded Saber's own capacity and then some, especially since Avenger had been particularly focused on fighting Saber.
While it wasn't exactly on the brink of fading away immediately, the basic motor functions of her body were impaired to the point that walking and talking were all she could do, with anything beyond that capable of exhausting all her energy and making her disappear. The circle was supposed to inhibit Servants by crippling their mana supply, but in the case of Saber it was well on it's way to severing her existence from the world. Most likely, Illya simply hadn't anticipated there would be a Servant as weak as Saber, who was already running on fumes before the battle.
Loath as she was to rely on their kidnappers, Caster still rung the bell to call the maid from earlier, but to her surprise the one who opened the door wasn't the slender, crimson eyed homunculus, but was instead a girl with the same face as her, dressed in a modern sailor school uniform complete with a red scarf and a jacket.
"I didn't know we had guests."
"We're not!"
Instinctively, they both realized the others presence as a Servant, but the tension in Caster was diffused with Berserker's flat tone as she peered at them curiously with her yellow eyes.
"So how did you get in? Did you break in? If you did I'll have to destroy you right now." it was delivered with little emotion, as if she was only going to sweep the floor.
"H-hey, stop! We only got in her because the Einzbern girl forced us to!"
Keen on clearing up the mess before they got attacked, Caster revealed the reasons behind their presence, and Berserker's expression shifted a touch as she comprehended the situation.
"Ah, so Shirou's here too. In that case, I'll go look for Illya."
Without a second thought, she was about to close the door when Caster wedged her staff in the gap and stopped it a hairs breadth away from being shut. The staff creaked as it warred with Berserker's immense capabilities, but it held long enough for Caster to speak.
"Wait, can you disable the mana-drains? Saber's about to disappear."
It was a long shot with little chance, but still had to ask.
Berserker looked her straight in the eyes, her face impassive as she spoke.
"What's that got to do with me?"
Then she pushed the staff out of the gap, simply flicking the other end with a finger as it shot out like a cannonball, flying out of Caster's grasp as the door sealed again, wards springing into place to wall off spiritual entities. Or so it should have been, if Caster hadn't jammed all of her fingers into the sliver that prevented the doors from fully sealing shut, using her remaining strength as she grasped something, anything, to make Berserker cooperate with her. If Berserker didn't listen to her, it was likely that the intensely loyal maids wouldn't either, so it was her last chance.
Feeling like her fingers were about to get mangled as Berserker stubbornly continued pulling the door, Caster yelled out whatever came to her mind.
"We'll give you whatever help you and your master need, I'll enchant your weapons, create weapons, make Bounded Fields stronger than anything, get my master to fight as well! Shirou can cook, and Saber can be your second-"
She was flung back when the door swung wide open again with unprecedented force. Tucking into a ball and rolling across the floor, she remained unscathed as she halted and stared at Berserker as she stood in the doorway, a flicker of emotion running through her otherwise dull eyes.
"Shirou? He can cook?"
She blinked once, then twice, then a third time, and then answered.
"Yes, he can."
"Good. Let's go then."
Leaving the door open, she left, boots striding on the marble floors as she headed for where Illya was.
"Hurry up and follow."
The voice echoed after them as the footsteps got progressively further away.
Directly hoisting Saber onto her slim shoulders, she carried her clone out of the doors like a sack of flour, catching up to the swiftly dwindling back of their opponent.
The moment she stepped through the doors, her link with Kuzuki was restored in an instant, allowing her to sense his presence through the thick stone walls and marble floors of the mansion. He was still alive and well, but more than that she couldn't tell, since he was still unconscious. Her eyes went to the right, a gaze that pierced through wood and steel.
Then they flicked back forward, gazing at Berserker's back as she quietly followed behind her, following her to wherever she was planning on going.
As they passed a window, both Servants failed to notice a ghostly figure outside the snow stained panes, a mere wispy outline that gazed inwards at them as they walked to and fro.