Disclaimer: I don't own Fate Stay Night or High School DxD. They belong to Kinoko Nasu and Ichiei Ishibumi respectively. If I did, I would have already created an Ilya route in the VN with a fully-grown and matured Ilya as the heroine and make a badass protagonist for High School DxD instead of a pervert like Issei.
A/N: Sorry for the late update. I was in a slump after my original idea for this arc turned out to be... not so good once I put it on paper. I've had to rewrite this which took more time than I was expecting. Also, I've rewritten some of my previous chapters to change some facts about Kiba producing conceptual weapons. Thank you, Junky for your sermon. I'll try not to make the same mistake again. And thank you everyone for your continuous support.
Happy reading.
- Story Start -
The day has finally come.
Ise couldn't really contain his nervousness. He was visibly shaking the entire time he flew from home to school. Had he been made to walk, Asia might've been worried for him on the whole trip. As it was, flying allowed him to hide some of his nervousness from her.
No one could fault him for that as the results of today's Rating Game would decide the very fate of the group. Not only that, he was praying that no one would notice what he had done. It's the reason why he kept his Boosted Gear activated the whole time they were flying in order to hide the fact.
A few minutes later, he and Asia landed just outside the entrance of the old school building. He tried as hard as he could to calm his nerves and pretend that nothing was wrong when he entered the clubroom where everyone was supposed to be gathering.
"Ise, come with me for a moment."
Unfortunately, he was immediately discovered the moment he stepped into the room. By the person he was trying to fool the most no less.
"H-Hey... Shirou!"
Forget trying to make any protest, he didn't even had anytime to greet anyone before he was dragged to the adjacent room that was recently modified into a state of the art kitchen.
"Ise, what did you do?"
Shirou's tone was menacing and was verging on malevolent. Ise had to take awhile before he could trust himself to speak coherently. This was the first time he saw his friend being so angry. In all those times that they were training together in the mountains, he had never seen him got so worked up. Shirou didn't even show his anger when he was facing against the Fallen Angel who had killed him about a month ago.
"You noticed, huh? Damn. I was hoping you wouldn't."
If he was reading things right, he'll have to tread carefully or Shirou might end up losing it completely. He didn't even want to think what Shirou would do to him if that happened. He was scary enough as it is.
Perhaps he could bluff his way out of this. After all, it's not like Shirou would know exactly what he had done right? Shirou had probably realized how nervous he was and assumed that he had done something from reading his body language alone. He could just say that he was just losing his cool due to the Game. It's not like it was entirely untrue.
"Stop, stalling. What did you do to your left arm?"
...So much for that plan.
How the hell did he figure out-
Oh, yeah. Structural Analysis. He should've remembered about that enviable ability of his. Damn it. The things he could do with that spell. If only he could learn it, he could strip every beautiful girl he laid his eyes on in his mind perfectly.
He'll no longer need to imagine it, he'll know what they would look like in their birthday suits!
Not only that, he'll be able to gather many information about them like their three sizes, their skin condition, their boobs elasticity, the body's suppleness and much much more! And all he had to do was see that person first hand!
He could use it in public in broad daylight and no one would even know!
It's the perfect peeping tool!
Shirou might have said that his Structural Analysis didn't actually allow him to do that much but Ise believed that Shirou was just trying to keep that spell for himself.
Ise internally sighed. He'll have to shelve that particular thought aside at the moment since it's not the time for that. No way around it then. He'll just have to come clean. Hopefully, he wouldn't be in too much trouble after he explained everything. It's not like he had done something he felt guilty about.
"You know about the dragon that's living in my Sacred Gear?"
"...You made a deal with it?" There was a certain amount of dread in Shirou's voice as he said his assumption.
"Yeah."
Shirou's expression showed that he was trying to restrain himself from throttling him. Ise was confused about his fellow Pawn's reaction. He already expected that Shirou would be angry about what he had done but right now he was completely overreacting. He couldn't figure out what was it that pushed his buttons.
It took Shirou a few moments for him to start speaking again with barely restrained anger.
"What kind of deal?"
"In exchange for sacrificing my left arm, I'll be able to use my Sacred Gear's Balance Breaker for about ten seconds."
Relief.
That was the expression that Ise was able to read on Shirou's face after he told him the specifics of the contract he made with Ddraig.
Was that why Shirou seemed to be losing his temper a while ago? He was worried that the contract was much more severe than it actually was? Once Ise thought about it, that might not have been an impossibility. After all, Ddraig did mention that he could extend the length of the Balance Breaker's time limit if he received more sacrifice in exchange. In other words, it was possible for him to have sacrificed his whole body in exchange for power.
Shirou had probably assumed the worst when he found out about it. After figuring out that much, he felt that he should apologize to his friend for worrying him.
"...Ise, you idiot."
"I know."
Ise's tone was apologetic and he smiled a self-depreciating smile. He had already acknowledged the fact that he was the weakest of all of them but that didn't mean that he thought of himself as useless. Far from it.
In fact, his status as the Boosted Gear's wielder was a great boon to his teammates. Whether his power levels after he Boosted to his maximum power or the ability to transfer those powers to his allies, they were both great resources for the group.
However, that still didn't change the fact that he was the group's weak link.
It didn't matter that he had the potential to become the group's strongest member if he was too weak to defend himself when the time comes. Thus, he would take all the advantages he could get his hands on.
He was weak but even the weak had their own ways to fight. After all, being weak didn't necessarily mean that he was powerless. It just meant that he had to work harder for what he desired.
"Since when have you been able to converse with the dragon?" Shirou's tone was less menacing than before but there was a hint of anger in it as he continued his interrogation of Ise.
"About a few days ago but I didn't accept the contract until this morning. By the way, his name is Ddraig."
The first time he had actually met the Red Dragon Emperor was actually about a week before that but at the time he had thought that it was just a nightmare and they didn't actually 'converse', so to speak. The giant red lizard had suddenly intruded in his dream about him getting married to Rias and immediately forced him to wake up.
It was only after his conversation with Rias a few nights before that he was able to make contact with Ddraig in a proper way. It was the night that he silently swore to himself that he would protect Rias's small dream. The dragon had appeared in his dream again that night but this time, Ise didn't panic and didn't wake himself up. It mentioned that their meeting was now possible because he was now strong and resolute enough for them to communicate at will.
"I assume there's a reason you accepted Ddraig's 'proposal'?" At this time, Shirou's anger was gone but it was replaced with what Ise could tell was annoyance from their various contact with each other.
"It's just insurance. I know you and Buchou already prepared a lot of plans for the Game but I just wanted a trump card ready in case something unexpected happens."
Throughout their week long training, at least after their trouncing by Shirou, Rias had briefed them on several plans that she, Akeno and Shirou had devised to defeat Raiser. Their plans ranged from the use of his Boosted Gear at it's maximum power to ambushing Raiser using Dark Keys if they had the chance to using Holy Crosses and Holy Waters and dumping it on the playboy.
All of them were also made to study the capabilities of Raiser's peerage so that they would not be caught unawares by surprise attacks.
"No plan survives contact with the enemy."
"Huh?" That was the only reply Ise was able to make after hearing that strange sentence.
"It's just a saying. It means that whatever ingenious plans you've thought of, when your plan meets the real world, the real world wins. Nothing goes as planned, errors pile up and mistaken suppositions come back to bite you."
"So... it just means that not everything can go as planned?" He summarizes the explanation into what his mind could understand.
"Yeah, that's basically it."
Shirou sighed. Ise could detect a certain amount of weariness from Shirou's body language which puzzled him since it felt like he was an old man with some huge burden for some reason. The next moment however, Shirou had returned to his normal self that Ise was accustomed to.
"Well, I guess if anything goes wrong, sacrificing only your left arm in order to win is a small price to pay considering the stakes."
"Yeah. I've been thinking about it ever since Ddraig brought it up. It's not really that bad a deal. He's not asking for my soul after all."
Since he had time to think about whether or not he should accept the contract, Ise had grilled Ddraig about all the specifics of it. Mainly, the consequences of his left arm's sacrifice and what kind of powers he could expect to gain from his temporary Balance Breaker.
All in all, he could safely say that the return outweighed the cost of losing his left arm. Even if he didn't end up needing to use it in the current Game, there might be a similar situation in the future where it might save their hides.
"Fine. If you're prepared to pay the price for it, then I won't keep bugging you about it. However, don't you ever consider doing something like this again without consulting everyone first. Understood?" Shirou's killing intent was released a little at the end of his sentence to convey how seriously mad he was at Ise's gambit.
"Gulp. U-understood." Understanding how close he was in avoiding a proverbial bullet to the head, Ise decided not to push his luck by justifying his actions and just agree with the guy.
"Good. Let's go, they should be preparing to transport us to the battlefield they made for the Game by now."
"Um... before that..." Ise said hesitantly.
He didn't want to end up inadvertently stepping on another landmine but his curiosity got the better of him and he just had to ask the question that popped inside his head ever since he walked into the clubroom and saw Shirou.
"What?"
"Where... did you get that... outfit?"
Said outfit was a black body armor that emphasizes on Shirou's well toned muscles with weird lines on it that somehow further increased its aesthetic sense and there was a piece of metal plate that was protecting his throat. It was paired with black pants that he wasn't sure what it was made out of and a pair of steel toed boots.
He was also wearing a red overcoat that was divided in two to cover his arms that was connected together with a piece of small rope in the front and the same kind of metal plate on his throat on the back just between his shoulder blades while another piece of the red cloth was tied around his waist making it seem like he was wearing a duster from those old western movies at first glance. All in all, it was very stylish.
"I asked Master if she could hire anyone to create a custom armor for me and she found a suitable one in the Underworld. Why?"
"Nothing. It's just... kinda cool, that's all."
And this very fact somehow irked Ise. Shirou looked very cool in his current getup. He was like one of those main characters in a fantasy adventure game. Despite the fact that the red cloth that he wore on his waist was the equivalent of a skirt, somehow Shirou made it look manly and fashionable instead of silly and girly.
Damn it. If other girls ever saw him like this, he'd definitely attract them like moths to a flame. Just how far is this guy going to go to hinder me from becoming the harem King? Even Kiba who I once thought was the enemy of all single men didn't go this far.
Ise was a bit indignant at how Shirou was trying to hinder him from his dream but he didn't voice out his thoughts because he felt that he would lose at something to Shirou if he did.
"Also, didn't Buchou already gave us our battle outfits a few days ago when she asked us what we were going to wear during the Game?"
Said outfits were currently being worn by the whole group. Himself, Koneko, Kiba and Buchou wore outfits that were similar to their school uniform while Asia wore a nun's habit and Akeno wore a miko's dress. All of them had been specially made to fit them comfortably while increasing their resistance to various elemental properties and being very sturdy that it could withstood a lot of physical punishment. It was made to increase their chances of survival.
"Glad you think so. I designed it myself. And for your information, I was the one who came up to Master with the idea in the first place when I asked her to prepare a custom outfit for me. Now, come on."
Hearing Shirou's reply, Ise made a mental note to design a battle costume, other than the one he was currently wearing, for himself next time as well.
Just you wait Shirou. I'm gonna make an outfit that will definitely be much cooler than yours.
"I'll be explaining the rules of the Game before transporting everyone to the field, so please listen carefully. If there are any questions, please ask after my explanation before you're transported."
A few minutes after Archer and Ise returned to the clubroom, Grayfia had transferred into the room using a summoning circle like before and started to explain about the Game's rules after a few formal greetings.
"The current Game will be free-for-all battle between two opposing teams. All of you will be transported to a random coordinate within the field once the Game starts. Due to there not being any bases for both teams, the Pawns are granted permission to use Promotion as soon as they are finished being transported. The winning conditions are either when the enemy King has been defeated or when the enemy King declares their loss. Are there any questions?" With her usual professional manner, Garyfia delivered her explanation flawlessly and addressed everyone in the room once she finished.
"How big is the battlefield of the Game?" He decided to ask a simple layout of the battlefield as his opening question.
"It's about twenty five square kilometers. That's all I can say about the battlefield."
Good. It seems it had enough space for him to act as a long range sniper if he could find a good vantage point.
"Are there any restrictions on the use of any communication equipment?" Archer had asked this question since the ability to stay in contact with his group could spell their victory or defeat depending on how they coordinate their actions with each other and since they would be transported to differing places on the field, being able to keep in touch with everyone so that they could regroup will be a necessity.
"None. Any equipment brought during the transport can be used on the field."
"Any kind of equipment? What about a nuclear warhead?" Archer asked with a completely serious expression.
"That too."
Seeing the exchange between the two, Ise had a flabbergasted expression. "Nuclear warhead? Shirou, are you serious?"
"Deadly. This means that any kind of weapons of mass destruction can be used by either team to wipe out the opposition with ease as long as they had enough time to prepare it." Archer's face was grim as he explained his reasoning.
Hearing this, everyone also started to become worried. If the other side knew about this rule and was able to prepare themselves accordingly, then they would be facing very tremendous odds in order to win.
"What about the use of Phoenix Tears or any other healing artifact?" Archer continued to quiz Grayfia. They had learned about the Phenex family's ability to produce Phoenix Tears which was a powerful healing item in their studies during their training camp.
"The use of Phoenix Tears have been limited to only one for each team. Similar restrictions have been imposed for other healing artifacts but there are no such restrictions for Sacred Gears that produces similar healing effects."
"What if a team has several different types of healing artifacts with them that isn't a Sacred Gear?"
"Once one of the healing artifacts are used, the use of any other healing artifacts will mean the team's disqualification."
That was good news. Twilight Healing was still a reliable card for them to play and the opposition could only use healing artifacts only once.
"Are we allowed to deal lethal blows to our opponents? Such as decapitation or gouging their hearts out?"
Ise once again had a completely flabbergasted expression but he became very serious the next moment as he started to understand how brutal the Games could be and that the enemy was also in the same position.
"Yes. However, it is frowned upon. Our medical teams are quite skilled and their equipment is very advanced so as long as they are still alive, they can be transported for medical treatment immediately after their defeat. Thus, everyone is asked to refrain from any instant kill attacks."
"But there are no restrictions on instantly killing your opponent?"
"...No." Grayfia closed her eyes and tried answering professionally but there were definite hints of disapproval in her voice.
In other words, although it was 'frowned upon', instantly killing your opponents will not disqualify the person who landed the fatal blow. In exchange for winning the Game this way, the winner's reputation will plummet. Considering that Devils have a very big pride, they would usually avoid this but for those who were desperate enough, this would become a valid tactic for them.
It was something to think about but for now, Archer decided to try not to instantly kill his opponents for the sake of Rias's reputation. However, he would not hesitate to do so if the alternative was their defeat. Rias's reputation could be restored as time passes and from various distinguished services to the Devils but she will forever be locked in marriage with Raiser and lose her freedom if they lose this Game.
On that note, there's one other question that he needed an answer to.
"Are there any restrictions on forcing your opponent into another dimension?"
Unlimited Blade Works.
His one and only spell that only the existence known as Emiya Shirou could wield. Strictly speaking, deploying his Reality Marble wasn't the same as forcing his enemies into another dimension but for the purpose of this question, the description was close enough.
If possible, he didn't want to reveal this ability yet mainly because he didn't know if this world had an equivalent of a Reality Marble. If it didn't, then trying to explain that he was from a different world would be a pain. Still, he had to prepare himself for the worst case scenario where using his ultimate spell would be necessary to win the Game even if he was fairly sure that it wasn't necessary.
"...For the purpose of the Rating Game, any attempt to forcefully remove it's participants from the designated battlefield without permission would be a cause for disqualification." Grayfia sent him a suspicious gaze as she continued to answer his questions. Archer just ignored it.
So, trying to remove his enemies to a different dimension was forbidden. Well, that's alright. A Reality Marble didn't actually work like that. Instead of forcing his opponents into a different dimension, it temporarily replaces a small part of the world with his own while pulling his enemies into it.
Also, when he had secretly deployed it about a month ago after the fiasco with Raynare, he discovered that he didn't need to supply as much prana to his Reality Marble to sustain it. Only about a fifth of what he was used to. With the weaker intervention from Gaia, it was much easier to sustain his spell. He could maintain Unlimited Blade Works for days if he needed to with his current increasing reserve of Od - no - Demonic Energy.
The same conditions applied for his Projected weapons with some added perks.
Other than lower prana cost to Project, his Noble Phantasms seemed to have increased in rank in terms of power. His theory was that originally, all Noble Phantasms were actually one rank higher than what they previously thought but lost it with Gaia suppressing some of their power and now his Projections were also freed of those shackles.
He confirmed this during the fight with Dohnaseek where a glancing blow from a Broken Kanshou and Bakuya that was only meant as a smoke screen fatally wounded the Fallen Angel even though it didn't outright kill him. Archer might have decided to end his misery with Wind Piercer but without any regenerative or healing abilities, Dohnaseek would've died anyway in less than a minute.
That was his theory at least. He was never a researcher type like Rin so that was all he could come up with.
Really, a world without Gaia would be a haven for a magus especially those like him who had a very limited amount of Od. Currently, it felt like a burden that he had never noticed shouldering was incredibly lessened and it made him feel lighter. Now that he knew what to look for, he could tell that only a small fraction of that burden was still present. It was actually quite a refreshing feeling.
Previously, before he was reincarnated, Merlin had told him that his memories won't return until around one and a half decade had passed so that Gaia wouldn't erase him but it looked like the old man needn't have bothered since Gaia or it's equivalent was so weak in this world that he doubted that it could erase him like they previously thought.
Archer had mixed feelings about this situation.
On one hand, being able to live peacefully until just about a month ago was quite a blessing compared to the time he was a Counter Guardian. On the other hand, he had wasted all those time not preparing himself more to become a hero that could ascend to the Throne.
Whatever his feelings however, it's all water under the bridge. All he could do now was to use the time he had from now on to achieve his goal.
"Stupid Servant. If you mess up this second chance, I'm going to Gandr your ass. Count on it."
"Please take care of yourself more."
"Shirou, promise me that you will have a happy life. As your Onee-san, I won't permit anything less."
The voices of the three women that he left behind echoed in his mind.
...Well, he's a Devil right now, so that meant that he should have all the time he needed to achieve his goals without working himself to death like he did with his original life. Living a life where he single-mindedly pursued his goal was what caused him to be in this mess in the first place so he should probably learn from that mistake.
"If there aren't anymore questions, than I advise to prepare accordingly. I'll be transferring all of you to the Game's venue in about ten minutes." Grayfia ended their Q&A session.
"Very well. Akeno, please fetch the rest of the communication equipment from storage and pass it to everyone. Ise and Shirou already have them so you don't need to get any for them. Ise, come with me for a moment. Everyone else, just relax for awhile until the transfer." After she started giving out orders to everyone, Rias took Ise with her to the back of the room for a private chat.
Not wanting something like what happened during their previous rendezvous which concerned his secret, Archer had decided to snoop in on them by reinforcing his ears. Fortunately, nothing about him turned up this time.
"Buchou, what's this about?"
"I'm thinking of releasing part of the seal that I placed on your Pawn pieces."
"A seal? There was something like that placed on my Evil Pieces?"
"Of course. You have the equivalent of eight Pawn pieces embedded in you. If I hadn't placed a seal on them, your body might not have been able to withstand their power and broke down. Now that your body has become stronger however, I can release part of the seal. Now, stand still."
"Yes, Buchou."
It seemed that Rias had just wanted to unseal the power that was inside Ise. Previously, she had to seal Ise's powers because his body couldn't withstand the power of eight Pawn pieces but now that he had gone through the Gremory's Training Camp From Hell, his body was now strong enough not to break from their power.
Still, it looked that Rias didn't completely undo the seal since she deemed that he still wasn't strong enough to control such power. Archer silently agreed with Rias's decision.
Akeno came back from storage about the same time Rias and Ise finished with their ritual. She passed around the same kind of earpiece that he and Ise had been using for the last month for training in the mountains. Since they already had them, they just pulled it out of their pockets and equipped it on their ears like always. Ever since their encounter with Fallen Angels at the abandoned church, he and Ise agreed to always keep the earpiece on their person in case of emergencies.
"So, Master. What's the plan?"
"First of all, our priority once we arrive is to regroup. If you discover any kind of landmarks that could be easily spotted, let everyone know. We could use it as a reference to regroup or set a trap since the enemy might also use it the same way.
Also, don't fly in the sky if you could avoid it. You could easily become a target for the enemy that way.
Keep yourselves hidden as much as possible until we regroup and don't try to engage the enemy by yourself unless you're confident that you could win without much trouble. Especially you, Asia. You don't have much offensive power but we'll need your support near the end of the Game."
"Yes, Buchou-san!" Asia answers Rias enthusiastically with a cute war face. Archer never thought that the two contradicting elements could ever mix together. He almost felt like patting her head since she looked like a small kitten readying to pounce on a ball of yarn.
Rias continued her strategy meeting after hearing Asia's reply. "Ise, Shirou, immediately Promote to Queen once you arrive. There's no doubt that Raiser's group would be doing the same thing. Everyone, please get ready to face a total of nine Queens, two Rooks, two Bishops and two knights in addition to Raiser himself."
Everyone grimly nodded. With that kind of force against them, they really couldn't afford to let their guard down.
Turning her head to face him, Rias gave Shirou a different set of orders. "Shirou, if you find a good vantage point for sniping, use it. Try to take out as many of Raiser's peerage from a good distance without endangering yourself."
"Understood." He answered calmly.
Next, she turned to Koneko. "Koneko, use your Nekomata senses to the fullest and locate the enemy. If possible, try to lead them to a trap you or any one of us will be setting up in the field."
"Yes." Koneko answered with her usual soft voice. This time however, there was a seriousness in her visage that he had never seen before.
"Yuuto, try to use your speed for hit and run tactics. Don't try to face any of them head on even when they're provoking you. Unless of course, it's the best way for you to defeat them." This time, Rias addressed Kiba.
"Yes, Buchou." Kiba answered in an uncharacteristically serious way. Archer could detect a hint of nervousness in his demeanor despite his resolute mask.
"Ise, try your best to find any of us before you engage with anyone from Raiser's team. Your Transfer ability can be a big boon in this situation where there's a high probability of either team to ambush the other."
"Yes, Buchou!" Ise answered while raising his voice a little to psych himself up.
"Both Akeno and I will be keeping an eye out for Raiser, his Queen and his sister Ravel. They're most likely our strongest enemies. Try not to engage them at all until we've regrouped. We could probably catch the Queen off guard but-"
Whatever Rias was going to continue to say was cut off by Grayfia. "Everyone, the time has come. I'll be performing the transfer right now."
Nodding her head to Grayfia, Rias gave everyone a final parting. "You heard her everyone. Let's win this!"
"""""Yes!""""" Everyone answered her enthusiastically. Himself excluded. He wasn't the type to get excited and high spirited like school children.
In a special room for VIPs, three men sat on expensive looking sofas while monitoring the Game. Two of them had the same crimson colored hair as Rias while the other one was clearly Raiser's father.
"So, it's finally starting." Rias's father, Lord Gremory, stated.
"Yes. Though if I may ask, Lord Lucifer?"
"Yes, Lord Phenex?" The younger looking of the two crimson haired devil, one of the Four Satans and also Rias's older brother, Sirzechs Lucifer, replied.
"Why did the venue for the game suddenly changed? Wasn't it originally supposed to be a replica of Kuoh Academy?"
"Ah, that. Raiser had asked that we don't give any kind of advantage to Rias." Sirzechs had a bit of a smug look as he said this.
"Truly? That was unexpected. Didn't he boast that he could defeat Rias no matter how many advantage we give her during the Game?" This tidbit of information had piqued both the Lord's interest.
"It seems he thought that her peerage was much more of a threat than he had anticipated."
"I see. It looks like he underestimated the possessor of the Boosted Gear." Lord Phenex concluded while expressing his understanding of the situation. Lord Gremory also mirrored his equal's gesture.
"Actually, he assessed that Rias's other Pawn to be of a bigger threat and even his whole peerage including miss Ravel agreed with his assessment." An amused smile surfaced on Sirzechs Lucifer's lips as he smashed both the Lord's expectations. He wasn't disappointed after looking at both their expressions.
Surprise was evident on both of the Lord's faces as both their jaws dropped a bit and becoming speechless. They clearly weren't expecting that.
"Her other Pawn? Wasn't he only worth one Pawn piece to reincarnate? If I remember correctly his name was Emiya Shirou. What happened that he would suddenly change his mind like that?" Disbelief was still etched on the Lord Gremory's face.
"It was during the time he visited Rias in the human world. Apparently, his whole peerage including his Queen and even Ravel was incapacitated by that Pawn in mere seconds without harming them at all."
"That's an incredible feat. How did he do it?" At this point, both Lords were hooked in on Sirzechs's every word.
"From what Raiser reported, and I quote 'He used an underhanded trick when all of my peerage was off guard'." Sirzechs was holding himself in from laughing out loud which was evident from his snort. He was clearly enjoying himself. "He described the 'underhanded trick' to be a sword-type Sacred Gear that could multiply and prevent any who had their shadows pinned by the sword from moving even a finger."
"Hmm, I've never heard of that kind of Sacred Gear before. Is it a new type?" Lord Gremory posed that question as he tried to recall all the information he knew on known Sacred Gears.
"Possibly."
"Still, that can't have been the only reason for Raiser to see him as a threat. He did say that his peerage was caught off guard by that Sacred Gear."
"It seemed that Emiya had claimed that he knew of a few ways to defeat an immortal Phenex."
"And how would he prove that claim?" Half of Lord Phenex appeared a bit scandalized at the blatant claim. The other half seemed quite intrigued instead.
"He didn't reveal it. Although Grayfia seemed to have figured it out, she didn't say anything in order to preserve the Game's integrity."
"Well, we'll just have to see what this 'secret weapon' would be during the Game won't we?"
"Yes, we will."
All three of them agreed unanimously. The Game had become much more interesting in their eyes.
As soon as the transfer had finished, Archer found himself in a small clearing surrounded by trees as dense as a jungle with small a pond in the middle of the clearing.
The scene was actually quite enchanting with beautiful flowers surrounding the pond and there would've been a peaceful atmosphere emitted around the area if there were wild animals such as reindeers, rabbits or the like drinking water from the pond. Unfortunately, no other life forms other than trees currently exists in his immediate vicinity.
Looks like I wasn't transferred near an enemy or even my teammates for that matter.
With his luck, he would've thought that he'd be fighting against multiple opponents from the other side as soon as the transfer finished but it looked like fate decided to cut him some slack this time.
For the moment at least.
Why does this place look so familiar?
He could've sworn that he had seen this small pond somewhere. Despite the beautiful scenery, his heart felt a tinge of regret, sadness and anger.
I'll dwell on that later.
Remembering the directive he received from Rias, he looked around for a place to set himself up as a sniper.
Bingo.
He could see a large hill in the distance that was packed with trees. It was high enough for him to have a clear view of the whole area and the various trees could be used as cover if he decided to retreat. But before that,
"This is Shirou. Can anyone hear me?"
"Loud and clear." He heard Kiba's voice from the earpiece.
"Yeah. I heard you." That's Ise. He was whispering.
"Yes, I'm here Shirou-san." Asia answered excitedly.
"I heard you too, Shirou-kun." Akeno sounded lustful as usual.
"...Here..." A short answer from Koneko.
"Looks like everyone's accounted for. Everyone, give me a status update." Rias immediately took command.
Kiba was currently in front of a small cave for bears but other than that, he didn't have anymore to report. Ise was whispering because he spotted one of Raiser's girls flying above him so he was currently hiding. Asia and Akeno was transported near each other so they had immediately teamed up. Koneko was shadowing Raiser's Queen, Yubelluna, from a distance using the Queen's scent and hadn't been discovered so far. Rias herself was surrounded by trees so she couldn't tell where she was but after flying onto a tree, she could see the same hill that Archer had spotted just about a kilometer from her current position.
"Alright everyone, let's regroup on that hill."
After that, Rias gave those orders since all of them was able to spot the hill and everyone agreed with it.
It didn't take him a few minutes to navigate through the jungle. He was already used navigating through dense jungles in his life but somehow he could actually tell where certain things inside the jungle were located such as huge boulders or certain landmarks that he could use to reach the hilltop faster. All the while, the sense of familiarity increased but he still couldn't tell why until he reached his destination and got a good look of the whole place from a high point of view.
No wonder it felt familiar. This is a place where I hunted a Dead Apostle once.
It was during his stint as an apprentice Enforcer. He was hunting a Philosopher who had started to experiment on humans in the Amazons and was believed to have become a Dead Apostle. He was successful in killing him but not before the magus infected a few villages and turned them into the Dead.
There should be a small village right around... there!
And just like he thought, there was small village made of at most ten huts that was quite easy to miss due to the dense jungle and if one didn't have a good vantage point with Reinforced eyes. The village was about two kilometers away from where he was presently.
And just when he thought that it might be a possible place to set up a base for his team, he spotted two figures with bat wings flying towards the village. Before he could contemplate whether to take them down or not however, an announcement made in Grayfia's voice could be heard throughout the stage.
[Raiser Phenex-sama's two [Pawns] retires!]
"Who did that?" Rias's voice reverberated from the earpiece.
"Sorry, Buchou. That was me. They were looking the other way and I couldn't pass up the chance to make a surprise attack from behind." Surprisingly, it was Ise who replied.
"It's fine since you succeeded. Did anyone else spot you?"
"No. I made sure those two were alone before I jumped in. Didn't even use Boost because it might startle them."
"Good work but don't let it get to your head. See you at the hill."
"Yes, Buchou!"
Archer's evaluation of Ise increased a bit after hearing this exchange. The group's resident pervert has been improving himself ever since he became a Devil.
"Still, to think they fell so easily after I hit them with Dress Break. This magic rocks!"
And just like that, Archer's previous evaluation of Ise drops to rock bottom in that moment. It was just like the breast lover to turn around other people's expectation of him just like that.
I guess I shouldn't be outdone by him.
After making up his mind, Archer Projected his bow in his left hand. In his right hand he Projected Flash Point. It was one of the Demonic Swords that he specifically commissioned from Kiba. He considers it an improved version of Wind Piercer. It was a Demonic Sword that turns into lightning the moment it was shot from his bow allowing it to move in lightning speed. Literally.
His fastest arrow to date. Faster than even Hrunting.
Unfortunately, it's power was much lower so it wasn't suitable for those with medium to high defense. Still, it was enough for the two that he's aiming to take down. He and the rest of Rias's peerage had already investigated their enemies as much as they could so everyone already knew who were Raiser's Pawns, Knights, Rooks, Bishops and Queen.
Readying his arrow, he patiently waited until his two targets overlapped.
Not yet, just a bit more... now!
A stream of light was released from his bow and just like he envisioned, his two targets were hit simultaneously in the chest in an instant after he released his arrow. As expected of something that travels about three thousand seven hundred miles per second.
[Raiser Phoenix-sama's one [Knight] and one [Bishop] retires!]
Archer didn't relax himself after hearing that announcement. He checked his surroundings to see if there was anyone from Raiser's team who found out his location from the earlier engagement. Sure enough, he spotted Yubelluna heading towards the village. Another two with cat ears and tails also flew towards the village from the opposite side.
From their confused and alarmed looks, it was certain that they didn't know what had happened and his sniping spot wasn't revealed yet.
"Nice shot." Rias commented from behind him. She sounded really impressed.
"Damn. Not good." Instead of replying, Archer only expressed his alarm. He wasn't taken by surprise from Rias's comment since he had already sensed her coming towards him. However, seeing Yubelluna and the two nekomata reuniting had set him off.
"What's wrong? They haven't spotted us yet right?" Rias asked. She had immediately turned serious after seeing Shirou's reaction. In her experience, Shirou had much more battle experience than them so if he was agitated during this time, something was definitely wrong.
Still not replying to Rias, Archer instead said into his earpiece. "Koneko. Get away from Yubelluna. Now!"
