Hello again readers! Neolyph here to bring you another chapter of A Broken Wizard and a Broken Magus. I'll be brief since I don't have too much to say. This chapter and one more probably until the end of the Grail war arc. It's coming a bit late, but almost twice as long as usual. As always, thanks to all who read, review, follow and favorite. You guys are my reason for writing. Also, in case anyone's curious, the homunculi's battle outfits are Lust's from FMA. Since their appearances are based on Lust, I figured they should dress like her too.

Also, one of the lines in this story is a reference to one of my favorite books. Anyone who can point it out in a review gets an internet cookie.

I'm just putting this in every chapter until the Hogwarts arc. There is a poll on my profile on whether to make this a WBWL story with Harry's parents alive and him possessing some kind of dickish twin/brother who either is the actual Boy who Lived, or at least everyone thinks he is. Voting will end when I start writing the Hogwarts section.

Now, for reviews

Delta8: I assume you are referring to the orphans. If so, Gilgamesh was draining their very souls to sustain himself. Even if the children's bodies could be healed, they would be either completely insane or catatonic. It was much more merciful to simply end it. Yeah, the fight was a bit lackluster, but one: In a straight up fight against a serious Gilgamesh, Harry would get his ass handed to him. Two: Harry is a Slytherin. It's only natural to find a way around directly fighting someone like Gilgamesh.

xYuukito: Ichor of Reverie. It essentially lets her take control of a foe's magical circuits and turn them into a puppet. It was what she used to hijack Zouken's worms.

Akuma-Heika: Archer is busy trying to track down and kill Shirou Emiya. Considering he doesn't even exist in this verse, he doesn't have much of a reason to be there. Archer is basically a washed-up counter guardian. He is just an old, cynical man who has just run out of fucks to give. Kirei kept Bazett alive to add one more source of prana for Gilgamesh. That statement about the sword was referring to when he created it prior to his becoming a True Magician. Diamond is the hardest naturally occurring substance. Technically, matter is almost infinitely compressable, which is something you can do with alchemy. Reinforcement is filling the uncompressed gaps with prana. Not everything Gilgamesh shot at them was a Noble Phantasm. Some were things like Rule Breaker and completely unsuited for killing. Fixed that line, confusion with edits. See reply to Delta8

Thundramon: Yup. Bazett is a redhead. Ability to record created items is noted in chapter 1.

Joe Lawyer: I'll say it again, Harry has cunning. The knife Gilgamesh used was a Babylonian sacrificial dagger. He viewed it as one of the only weapons he possessed worthy to end his own life.

Raidentensho: Not really a Kamen Rider fan.

YuukiAsuna-Chan: Illya will get love, just brotherly love. Maybe she'll work out a pairing of her own.

kkjkk: Harry is independent and cunning enough to guide his own life. People will learn that very quickly.

Guest: Don't actually know who Scathath is, so probably not including her.

Guest: No Ruler either I don't think. No more Servants will be summoned unless I get a really good idea.

armahgeddon: Harry saw red, but he also has a very tight reign on his emotions. When he gets truly pissed, he gets calm. Then he simply sics Assassin on whatever the problem is, which generally seems to be working so far.

Caelleh: Yeah, the sword is cool, but it's not the super-weapon you think it is. It essentially enables him to rip off Rin's jewelcraft, but it isn't disposable and it doubles as a sword. It's not that powerful, considering.

Silent Reader: Well, I don't want to spoil the next chapter, but I will say this: Mainyu isn't going down without a fight, and this time, there's no clever tactic to take him out. Like Gilgamesh, I always thought that the literal representation of evil was a bit underpowered in canon.

Pedo: ... you should probably see someone about that. Also, one again, we'll see.

Chapter 9: The Fisher King

"Honestly, at this point, I should just get used to waking up in strange situations." Thought Harry, looking at his surroundings, which happened to be the same garden he had met Gaia in.

It was the same clearing he had eaten the apple that turned him into a True Magician. Since he had little better to do, he figured that he might as well do some more exploring in this strange forest, figuring that whatever entity had dragged him there would show themselves in time. As he rose, he was immediately struck back down and pinned by a black blur. Bracing himself for what was coming did little to help as a tongue the size of a dinner tray started a valiant effort to soak him from head to toe in drool.

"Midnight! Down!" he called in a vain attempt to get the midnight black direwolf to ease off him. It didn't seem to work as the wolf redoubled its' apparent attempts to reduce him to a soaking mess. Obviously, it had missed him, and fully intended to show him.

It was several more minutes before the wolf calmed down enough to give him some breathing room, and as it did so, he took advantage of the opportunity to start scratching the massive animal behind the ears. The beast melted under his ministrations, rolling off him and onto its back, presenting its belly to be rubbed, acting not like a dangerous animal, but like a common, domesticated dog. Not wanting it to return to its previous activities, he obliged Midnight, hoping that it would distract the direwolf enough that it didn't try to resume his previous activity.

It struck him as amusing that here he was, in a jungle of mystery, sitting in front of a bloodthirsty wolf larger than a horse, and calmly giving it a belly rub. He just sighed, wondering how his life had gotten to this point. Then he remembered that his life had never been normal, ever since he had met Zelretch, like the aged man was the catalyst that had thrown his life on an utterly insane course.

At some point in his musings, he had apparently stopped in his rubbing, because he was interrupted by the enormous direwolf whining pathetically and nudging his hand with its nose. From this position, his knowledge of anatomy kicked in and he identified the wolf as a female. He inwardly sighed. It seemed that even in his dreams, he was forever doomed to attract the attention of female beings. If things kept going like this, he would soon start to identify any newcomer in his life as a female, just because Fate had apparently decreed that it was destiny to be surrounded by females.

"So girl, what do you say we look around a bit more?"

For a wolf, she had a very expressive face, as she looked torn between having him continue his petting and the joy of taking a walk with him. Eventually, an idea seemed to form in her brain, and quicker than he could react, her teeth clamped around the back of his shirt and she gently lifted him before placing him on her back like he was riding a very furry horse. She then scratched at her ears, whining. He quickly understood the implied intention and he started scratching behind her ears again as she happily started off at a slow trot.

Having investigated the apple tree the last time he was here, he decided to go to the opposite end of the clearing and check out the ruined archway with the door built into it. Pointing Midnight in the direction of it, she started off towards it, despite whining in protest. Along the way, they passed the workshop in the center of the clearing, and he took the chance to examine it while he was there. Once his impromptu mount halted at the base of the raised stone platform that served as the base and floor of the workshop, he climbed up the stairs to the workshop itself.

It was the sort of workshop most magi would slaughter an entire nation for. Surrounding him were workbenches, toolkits, cabinets full of rare and expensive supplies, and hundreds of various implements and stations that even with his knowledge of magecraft he could not fathom the purpose of. The most prominent part of the workshop was the centerpiece: the forge. It was a forge worthy of Hephaestus himself, looking as if it had been crafted by artisans who scorned the idea of mere mortal perfection. Every inch of its surface was a work of art in itself, so utterly perfect that it almost felt wrong, for his brain knew no such perfection was possible, yet here it was. The warmth from it filled him with a profound peace, and he had to resist the urge to fall asleep in its embrace. He almost missed Midnight quietly prowling up in front of it and laying down right by the grate like a cat warming itself in the sun or on a heating vent.

He took a couple more minutes to look around, examining the assorted tools before reaching the conclusion that it would take months to understand every implement in this masterful workshop. Preparing to leave, he went over to the wolf, shaking her awake from where she had fallen asleep. If a wolf could convey a reproachful look, she would have. This was instantly forgotten as he started rubbing her behind the ears again and he had to duck as a paw twitched involuntarily and nearly sent him sprawling. Now awake and cooperative, Midnight repeated her earlier action and lifted him onto her back, before reluctantly taking off in the direction of the archway.

Several minutes later, Harry found himself standing before the structure. What intrigued him about it was that, aside from the workshop, it appeared to be the only man-made structure in this entire forest. It was crumbling, completely overrun with moss and vines, giving it a very dark and Gothic look. The door was not much better. It was as if the architect had been called in and given specific instruction, "We want something eldritch in a dark oak," he'd been told, "So put an unpleasant gargoyle thing over the archway, give it a slam like the footfall of a giant, and make it clear to everyone, in fact, that this isn't the sort of door that goes 'ding dong' when your ring the bell."

Inscribed on the door were various depictions of monsters, scenes of brutal battle and slaughter, and images of dark, sacrificial rituals the likes of which he had never seen before, but would have severely mentally scarred him had he not experienced the wonders of Zouken's worm pit. Just being near the door gave him a dreadful sense of foreboding. He was reminded of the fact that Midnight was right behind him, tensed, as if ready to throw herself at any threat that came through the heavy door.

Deep inside his head, he felt a calling of sorts, something that had grown stronger the closer he had gotten to the archway. It wasn't like the calling that had drawn him to the tree last time, the call that promised knowledge and wonder. This calling was darker, and more tempting. It promised power, unmatched and unlimited power, and the freedom to do with it as he pleased.

Power.

The power to make gods bow in fealty, to raise the entire world and rebuild it at a whim, to never have to feel weak or helpless again, to never be hurt again.

To protect the ones he loved, to tear apart those that would harm them in any way.

Against his better instincts, he grabbed the handle of the door, unlocked it, and pulled. The door slowly creaked open, all the while screaming on its hinges like it hadn't been oiled in a thousand years. Once the entryway was clear, he cautiously peered in.

Blackness.

He thought he understood that word, but he was woefully mistaken. Blackness isn't simply the absence of light. It isn't what you get when you turn out the lights in your room. It isn't what you see when you close your eyes. That is darkness, not blackness. He dawned on him what that word truly meant as he gazed into the abyss before him. True blackness wasn't simply the absence of light, it is the anti-light. He gazed long into the abyss as he pondered his musings. As he stared, the calling started again, whispering seductively in his mind, promising him everything he had ever wanted. Subconsciously answering its call, he stepped forward to enter the void.

The second his foot touched the black, pain hit him. It wasn't the pain he had felt with the apple, the pain of his nerves being converted into magical implements. Instead it was as if something was inside his head, clawing and scratching its way into the center, trying to take over, to drown him in blackness, to corrupt him so utterly that he would be the living embodiment of evil. Instantly, he concentrated and tried to remove the threat, the intrusion bouncing around his head, as if trying to take control it. And despite his best efforts, Harry simply couldn't stop it. Slow it down, perhaps, but not stop it, for every dark thought he had ever had only fueled the intrusion. As it dug deeper into his brain, he started to see flashes of memories. What was odd, was that some of them didn't seem to be his own. Each was little more than a snapshot, but he saw them.

A young boy sitting on a cot in a dreary concrete room, a narrow window nearly at the ceiling showed that it was raining outside as he talked with an old man with a white beard and a twinkle in his eye.

The same young boy, slightly older, walked down an enormous cavern, with statues of snakes' heads on both sides of the path and a large carving of an elderly man at the end.

The now familiar boy was sitting at a desk with a quill, looking at the letters of his name and rearranging them. So far he had gotten, "I am Lord..."

The young boy, now aged and experienced, strolled confidently across the threshold of a house with several masked people in tow, before casting a green light from a stick he wielded at the elderly owners of the house.

The man stalked through a house, wand in hand, reaching a cracked doorway. He opened it to see a young, red haired woman desperately shielding something behind her. He raised his wand, a sickly green light glowing from the end of it. The sound of a baby crying could be heard.

At that memory, Harry's scar started burning. He ripped himself from the torrent of memories as he felt something tighten around his chest and pull him backwards. With a yank, he flew through the air. Dazed, it took him a moment to realize that Midnight had gently clamped her teeth around him and pulled him from the doorway. The giant wolf then head-butted the doorway, slamming it shut. She then padded over and laid down beside him, resting her enormous head in his lap in a comforting fashion. He began stroking her, before falling asleep.

Neither of them remembered to lock the door.

-Break-

When Harry woke up, he immediately noticed that he was significantly less weighed down than he had slowly grown accustomed to. He opened his eyes and looked to his left to see Sakura still holding on to him, her sickly pale complexion from the previous night gone, and he left out a sigh of relief at her recovery. He noticed that everyone else in the bed was gone, with the exception of whomever was on his right arm, but judging from the monstrous breasts enveloping it, he had an inkling as to who it was.

"Assassin, you're a bit higher up than usual. Something wrong?" he asked, making sure not to sound like she had displeased him. He was perfectly aware of just how devoted and zealous the woman was, and if she thought she had displeased him in any way, she might take extreme actions to feel deserving of his forgiveness. He turned to see his black haired Servant eyeing him like a hawk, concern for him in her grey eyes, along with guilt. She instantly started gushing apologies.

"You had a nightmare, Master. I humbly beg your forgiveness for being so forward as to attempt to comfort you with my body. I will accept whatever punishment you-"

Having had enough of her self-deprecation, he interrupted her with what usually worked: a soft kiss on the lips. While it seemed that while she would almost never initiate anything herself, if he did, she responded with a frightening amount of vigor. He realized this as the second his own lips touched hers, she shoved her tongue in his mouth while she slid up and straddled him, never breaking contact with his mouth once as while seemingly attempting to suck his tongue out with the passion she put into the kiss. She stayed latched onto his face for a solid minute, and by the time she finished, she was panting heavily and flushing a bright red.

"Uhhh, Assassin, could you get off me?" he asked gently after a few minutes, noticing that she wasn't making any move to get off his waist.

She didn't seem to hear in as she was in some apparent deliriously happy state, so he repeated the question. This time she seemed to hear him as she blushed a bit more and slid back into the position she had been in previously, re-immersing his arm in her breasts. It took another pointed look before she caught on that he wanted to get out of bed, so she stood off the bed, deastralizing her seductive black hooded dress, before taking her usual submissive stance at attention in the corner, regaining the emotionless appearance she maintained when 'on duty' as it were.

He just sighed at her instant personality change and woke Sakura up. She opened her eyes, blinking as they adjusted to the light. She yawned as she sat up, her usually immaculate purple hair stuck up in an adorable bedhead. As she focused on him and gave him that dazzling smile of hers that could melt the heart of Satan himself, he couldn't help himself as he gave her a chaste kiss on her pink lips. Her smile only grew, nearly blinding him with the radiance it gave off as she stood and got dressed in her usual purple dress with white trim, matching her hair and eyes.

Once they were done, he got dressed himself in his black pants, green button up, and black coat. Most children his age would consider the attire a bit formal, but being raised in the Matou household by the old man Zouken, he had learned to appreciate fine clothes. Once they were all dressed, a question occurred to him.

"Assassin, where is everybody else, and why were you the only one here besides Sakura?"

Sakura too looked on curiously, the question bothering her as well.

His normally devoted and straightforward Servant looked oddly evasive as she answered.

"You seemed very tired due to your injuries last night, Master. Caster recommended that we allow you and Sakura to sleep so you could better recover from your injuries, so everyone left," she answered succinctly.

"Then why were you the only one still here when I woke up?" he asked, picking up on her evasion.

She looked down, face red, and mumbled something quietly.

"What was that?" he asked, trying his best not to groan at what he had heard.

"I utilized my presence concealment to slip back into bed with you when nobody was paying attention," she said, looking ashamed.

Seeing a grown woman with the blood of hundreds, possibly thousands on her hands acting like a schoolgirl caught staring at her crush deflated whatever irritation had been building up in him, as he just sighed with lighthearted exasperation and patted her on the head comfortingly. This was made slightly amusing as she was significantly taller than him, and he could barely reach her head. The second his hand made contact though, it appeared that she lost control again, dropping to her knees and submersing his face in her breasts as she hugged him tightly. He sputtered and flailed as Sakura got jealous and tried to pull him away from the amorous Assassin, unsuccessfully, which resulted in them all falling backwards into a pile.

It was at this moment that Saber walked in. Instead of her usual battle dress, she wore a rather conservative old fashioned blue dress that matched her armor. From its appearance, he guessed that it was actually just what she wore whenever she was not wearing said armor, since it bore a striking resemblance to it, and she did strike him as someone who would always favor simple, yet practical clothes, that gave her a stern aura. It took her about three seconds of stunned analysis of the situation before her face lit up red in embarrassment and she hauled Assassin off of him, launching into a lecture about "proper behavior for a Servant in the Holy Grail War" and the like. He could see that Assassin was completely ignoring the chastisement, as she usually did when anyone but himself spoke.

By the time the lecture was finished, ending with a monologue about knightly virtues and decency, which once again was ignored by its target, Saber was comically bopping Assassin in the head with a wooden spoon she had produced from somewhere. Harry could barely contain his amusement at watching the very petite Servant dragging over a stool so that she could reach the head of the much taller Assassin. It was also not lost to him that the King of Knights was trying to impress knightly virtues on someone who came from a line of people who worked on principles that were the complete opposite of honor and such.

"So. Saber, what exactly did you come in here for?" he finally asked.

Mid bop, said Servant paused at remembering her purpose in entering the room. She stepped off the stool, straightening her dress.

"Ah, yes. I came to inform you and Sakura that breakfast was ready before I was distracted by this shameless Servant. Honestly, doing something like that to a child. It is a mockery of knighthood," she ranted, not noticing or deliberately ignoring her own hypocrisy at having slept in bed with the same child.

At the mention of breakfast, his stomach growled, reminding him that his dinner had been interrupted by Gilgamesh, and that he was starving. Then that hunger went away as he thought of his maids cooking. Leanna, Monica, and Joy were excellent maids, wonderful at everything they did, with the unfortunate exception of cooking. He had actually derived a few alchemical formulae from their attempts at a soufflé. The two more reasonable ones seemed to understand their limitations perfectly well, leaving the cooking to him, but Leanna in her cheerful stubbornness refused to accept that she was unable to cook, and kept trying to learn new recipes. He had somewhat taken pity on her and attempted to teach her cooking, but it was so far, largely unsuccessful. It wasn't until a try at pancakes, which ended with something better resembling a loaf of half-burnt, syrupy bread, that he had admitted that maybe some people just couldn't cook. Leanna still came to him once in a while to try again, and he always helped her, but he winced every time he thought back on the attempts. Eventually, he had tasked Monica with keeping her distracted whenever he started cooking so that she didn't attempt to involve herself. She had dutifully accepted the job, not wanting to be exposed to Leanna's chemical weapons.

"Uhh, Saber, who cooked exactly?" he asked, trying unsuccessfully to not look nervous.

"Caster and Rider primarily. Caster seemed to take great pleasure in it for reasons I cannot fathom," she replied.

He let out a sigh of relief, knowing that his stomach would survive another day. He loved his maids to death, but put them in a kitchen and they could start the next World War. He just hoped that his Servants were better at cooking than the maids. After all, being a legendary figure did not have to equal with "talented cook".

"Alright then, let's eat!" he exclaimed enthusiastically as he left the room. Saber followed right behind him on his left side, eager at the prospect of food, while Assassin dutifully followed him a few steps behind, on his right. Sakura sleepily walked beside him, still looking half asleep and more than a little haggard, a sight that made her natural cuteness almost shoot through the roof.

As he walked into the kitchen of the Tohsaka manor, he was greeted with another strange sight. Caster, The Witch of Betrayal, one of the most treacherous and malicious women in history, infamous for her scheming, manipulations, and assassinations, was sitting in front of a stove wearing a white turtleneck, an ankle length blue skirt, and a pink apron while humming to herself and flipping crepes. She looked the very image of a stereotypical housewife, an image only broken by her pointy ears, the only reminder that she was not, in fact, normal, in any sense of the word.

Rider, for her part, was setting the table, dressed in a tight black shirt and black jeans, along with an identical pink apron. That was even weirder. Caster was at least human in life, but Rider was a Gorgon, a monster that despised and hated humanity. She spent most of her life gleefully devouring humans, and likely would again if he ever asked her to. Seeing someone who could only be called a monster for her actions in life like that, putting plates on the table dressed in a frilly pink apron was just too much for him to handle. By the end of this war, he just knew he would be completely desensitized to absurdity. What was next? Assassin trying the "naked apron"? While he didn't know for sure what such thing was, he could easily make a guess based on the name alone, and he was quite certain that if his overzealous Servant heard about it, she would almost certainly try it.

Monica was at the table, still in her maid uniform, obviously doing her duty in distracting Leanna. He gave her a thankful nod of appreciation, which she returned. Then Leanna noticed him and leapt up to hug him.

"Master! We wanted to surprise you by cooking! Do you like it? I would have helped, but Monica wouldn't let me," she pouted, all while crushing his ribs with the hug and covering his face with kisses.

"Good morning Leanna," he greeted the Homunculus, barely able to breathe, "Did you sleep well?"

"I would have, but I was too worried about you Master. I was tossing and turning all night. It's alright though, because you're here now! Now we get to eat breakfast!" she said, putting him down and taking a seat at the table.

At this moment, Caster turned from her stove, looking completely content.

"You know, Master, I never thought that I could find joy in simply being a housewife. Maybe that should have been my goal for the war," she mused, twirling around in her skirt and apron rather cutely, a large smile on her face.

"It certainly looks good on you Caster," he remarked, causing her to blush. It seemed that the compliment pleased her to no end, since at the very least this time it was from someone she actually wanted to help, instead of a husband she had been made to love by the Gods.

"Alright then. Please enjoy breakfast. Rider and I worked very hard on it. Even Saber pitched in," she added.

Rin simply watched this interaction, eye twitching all the while. What in the Root was wrong with these Servants? Two of them were wearing aprons and acting like housewives, one was a tiny cross-dressing king, and the fourth had casually declared early this morning that it was her duty to be Harry's sex slave, or something like that, despite the fact that he wasn't even a teen yet.

She just went slack, head thumping on the table as a motherfucking Caster class Servant set a plate of fruit crepes in front of her, swishing her skirt and apron. Could this be some kind of demented joke from that "Zelretch" her father had warned her about? She didn't see why the man would be interested in pranking her, but from what she had gathered he was not the most stable of individuals, and this was when compared to a community of people who were all quite insane in their own ways.

"You know," Harry commented, "these crepes are really good."

"Thank you very much Master," Caster and Rider said simultaneously, both visibly preening at the praise.

After having seconds, then thirds, Harry pushed his plate aside. Fortunately, his Servants had made plenty, taking into account both his and their fellow Servants' appetites. All of the women at the table with the exception of Rin took occasional potshots at Assassin for skipping out on the cooking to slip back into bed with him. It had been a bit selfish, so he didn't intervene. Assassin didn't really seem to care from her post at his shoulder. After all, the scolding wasn't coming from the only one that mattered to her, so why should she care? Archer just watched the entire proceedings with that eternally amused expression on his face, chowing down on some of the food. Saber seemed disappointed that the dish wasn't quite as good as his own cooking, but let it go and ate. Hunger was the enemy after all.

"So, just out of curiosity, where did all of you get those clothes? Did you go shopping or something?" Harry asked, looking around at the various clothes his Servants were sporting.

"Ah, I made them Master. They remarked that they would like some new outfits and I thought that making them would be a good practice for my alchemy," his maid replied efficiently, only pausing from the book she was reading from in one hand while eating with the other to glance up at him as she spoke.

"I see. Well done. They appear to be of good quality. I presume Rin provided the materials?"

Said Magus nodded, still looking disturbed by the scene unfolding around her.

"Thank you for that. Your cooperation is appreciated," he said coldly, noticing Sakura's continued glares at her sister. He made a note to send Assassin to covertly wreck all the gems in Rin's workshop once the war was done. That would probably cheer the purple haired girl up. While it was cruel, and certainly less than honorable of him to do so when Rin had helped them, in his mind she was still due with a lot of payback for her abandonment of her sister. While Sakura had taken it hard, he himself remembered all too well his feelings of abandonment when he had been at the Dursleys, so the Tohsaka Magus wouldn't be getting any sympathy from him.

"You know, you could stand to be a little more grateful. I welcome you into my home, let you sleep in my beds, let you eat my food, and you still act like you own me. Honestly, you should be down on your knees kissing my feet for what I'm doing for you. Most magi would have stolen your command seals in your sleep," at this, the Servants all tensed, irritated at her absurd notion that she could sneak past the seven of them.

"All I'm saying is that you owe me after all of this is done. I think some of your mystic codes should do. I have always wanted a homunculus slave," she remarked, not noticing the narrowing of Harry's eyes.

A sudden chill went through the room, causing everyone from Sakura to Berserker off in the corner to shiver. Harry calmly reached up and removed his glasses. As he did, his warm, caring green eyes seemed to be transformed into pits of green hellfire. His once carefree and relaxed posture was now predatory and dangerous, like a snake coiled to strike. Overall, he went from a carefree ten years old to a powerful and frightening magus, ready to destroy an enemy. It seemed that Rin needed to be reminded of her position in the food chain in the house.

"Is that so Rin?"

All of the air in the room seemed to still as he spoke, his voice colder than ice, completely emotionless and inflectionless. This time the shivering had nothing to do with the cold.

"Could you do me a favor and explain exactly what I owe you? Because last I checked, you had a geass scroll obligating you to render aid. I could justify that getting on your knees and licking the floor clean would aid me and the scroll would force you to do it. You deserve nothing for your aid in this war. You signed the scroll because you are a foolish, childish, and petty individual who jumped into a war of life and death like it was a goddamn game where everyone would abide by the rules perfectly and everything would work out perfectly for you.

You signed that scroll when you realized how stupid you were, trading your participation in exchange for protection. You are nothing but a bratty, arrogant heiress who thinks that being born into a magus family makes you better than others. You are not, so let me be the first to inform you, if you ever insult or degrade my maids, or anyone else I associate with again, I will consider making you beat yourself into unconsciousness and lighting your workshop on fire as aid in this war. Do not test me again. Am I understood?"

Rin sat quivering at the lecture, before shakingly nodding her head. Harry put his glasses back on and instantly it was like nothing had happened. He simply went back to his drink.

It was official, Harry was even scarier than his maids.

-Break-

Harry wasn't entirely sure what had just happened. Rin had casually demanded his homunculi as slaves and he just sort of snapped. He had a strange urge to remove his glasses and it was like all feelings of empathy or remorse were drained from his system, leaving him a ruthless pragmatist. He would need to figure out what caused that. It certainly wasn't normal. He usually had a very tight grip on his emotions after all. Maybe the stress from the war was just getting to him. If it was, fortunately it would end today.

"Alright," he began, "as everyone knows, today marks the end of this war. We laid out a plan yesterday before the attack, and today we can execute it. In case anyone had forgotten, here is the plan. At the Ryuudo Temple, Caster will hypnotize the monks into leaving, then Illya and I will summon the Grail. Once it is fully manifested, Saber and Archer will hit it with Excalibur on full power. Everyone else works security. Any questions?"

Nobody responded.

"Alright. Everyone gear up for combat. We leave in half an hour."

With that, he stood up and strolled out to prepare himself.

-Break-

Everyone gathered in the living room of Rin's manor. There was a sort of quiet tenseness, like a camp before battle. Everyone was going over their equipment, ensuring its readiness for the upcoming fight. Rider was dressed again in her battle outfit, checking her chained daggers, despite the fact that being her weapon, they could not be anything but in pristine condition.

Caster wore her robe again and was filling her staff with prana for attacks. Assassin solemnly stood at Harry's shoulder as he carved wardstones to protect Illya and Sakura. They worked as personal bounded fields of sorts. Hopefully, they would keep out the corruption of the Grail, and even if they didn't, so long as they slowed it enough, he would consider them a success.

His Homunculi maids soon joined them, although they had foregone their usual attire, choosing to wear more appropriate clothing for the upcoming battle. They were all wearing strapless dresses of black leather, the material only covering up to just over half of their breasts. The sides had generous slits, nearly going up to the waist, allowing both freedom of movement and a generous view of their legs. They also wore black leather arm gloves, extending all the way up to their upper elbows, the gloves themselves accented by red lines stretching across them with circles on both ends. They also wore the usual black leather high heels they typically wore with their maid uniforms, their supernatural nature allowing them to walk with them just as well as if they were wearing combat boots. Leanna and Joy were both tightly gripping the retractable batons he had made them, while Monica was wielding the large collapsible staff she had made as a magical focus to help her channel prana for combat. He also noticed that they were the same gloves they had asked him to add retractable claws to, in the event that they lost their weapons and needed to defend themselves.

Harry was impressed. It was the first time he had seen them outside maid uniforms since he had created them, and he was reminded that despite being Homunculi, they were also beautiful women in their own right. He wasn't exactly sure where these outfits came from or who designed them, but he suspected Monica had a hand in it. Still, he had nothing to say about them, as they seemed to allow for good freedom of movement, and he could also tell that despite their rather provocative look, they were heavily reinforced, so that they would provide a decent amount of protection.

Saber sat on Harry's left side, once again donned in her full battle dress, looking the very image of a loyal knight ready to defend her lord. There was a quiet determination in her eyes, the resolve to see the corrupted Grail destroyed once and for all, no matter the cost, and no matter what she had to do. She had learnt what the previous attempt to destroy it had resulted in, and she had vowed that such an instrument of destruction could not be allowed to exist any longer, especially not when it was disguised as an all-powerful, wish-granting device.

Archer sat on a couch, holding those black and white swords he had used before, looking bored. Looking being the key word, as it was abundantly clear that he was ready to fight at a moment's notice. Despite his unknown background, it was all too clear that he was a war veteran, and that no matter how relaxed he may appear, he was always ready to act should he need to.

Illya was wearing the dress Harry had first met her in, cheerfully humming a tune and looking entirely unconcerned for the upcoming combat, then again considering her Servant, she had good reason not to be worried. Her two maids sat at her side, both wearing their formal English maid outfits with large hoods. Both wielded large alchemically created halberds as they flanked their mistress. Berserker sat behind her, holding his giant stone slab and sending vicious and threatening glances towards Kiritsugu, who while not going on the mission, was still there to see everyone off.

Sakura was still wearing the outfit she had initially dressed herself in, the white-trimmed purple dress. She seemed to more worried than Illya, but she was also a much more compassionate person. Illya would only really care if Harry, Kiritsugu, or Sakura got hurt. Strangely, she and Sakura started to get along quite well. She had even taken to occasionally calling her "Big Sister", an action that had the purple-haired girl blushing to the root of her hair.

The alarm on Harry's watch went off, breaking the silence. He gave one last look around the room, knowing that this might be the last time he ever saw this place if the mission went wrong.

"Everyone ready? Good. Let's go."

-Break-

Ryuudo Temple was a very nice building. It was the epitome of a traditional Japanese Buddhist temple, set at the top of a large mountain and only accessible by a very large gate. Coincidentally, due to the holy nature of the temple, the gate was the only route by which spiritual beings could enter it. After a long ascent to the gate and passing through it without incident, Caster went off to clear the place of monks, hypnotizing them into thinking that now would be a perfect time for a week-long vacation. It was ridiculously easy for them to overcome what mental discipline the priests had, since no matter how much control they had over their mind, they were no Magus, and even then, there was little they could do to overcome the mental power of a Servant, especially one who was backed up by a True Magician.

Once the monks were cleared out, and that they had all taken their designed positions, he and Illya prepared to summon the Grail.

The Einzbern Magus carefully drew out a massive and incredibly intricate circle in the main courtyard of the temple, which would serve to materialize the Grail. Normally, it would require the energy of seven Servants to fully power it up, but by powering it directly with his prana, Harry could bypass that, even if it would leave him severely weakened. No matter how powerful he was, the energy required to summon the Grail was still supposed to be enough to grant any wish, no matter how outlandish, so it was little wonder it would drain even him.

It took Illya a good hour to finish the circle, most of it written in either her own blood or an amalgamation of paint and metal. One it was finished, she stepped back and Harry took a position in the center of the circle, since his role would be to power it. Archer and Saber manifested their swords, aiming them both towards the center.

At a nod from everyone, Harry knelt and placed both hands on the circle. He flared his circuits, keeping careful control over them to ensure that the Grail only got just enough prana to manifest. He didn't want it getting any more than necessary, as he had an inkling that things would already be quite difficult with even such "little" power. The circle began glowing, the lines on it began moving as the magical energy flowed through and they writhed like worms, basking in his prana, making him shiver as he was reminded of Zouken's crest worms.

A dark, ominous, and strangely familiar feeling suddenly filled the air. Harry checked and confirmed that the circle now had enough prana to perform the ritual. Making to dash out of the circle so as to provide with Archer and Saber a clear line of sight to strike the soon to be materialized Grail, he found that he suddenly couldn't move, his arms stuck on the circle, unable to move. He struggled against the hold as hard as he could, but he was completely restrained. The ominous feeling seemed to creep into his mind, and suddenly he recognized it. It was the same feeling from when he opened the door in the garden. The feeling slithered around his consciousness, tainting everything it touched with its corruption, like black ink spilling over a blank page, slowly tainting it until it was but a twisted mockery of what it once was. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't even move as his very soul was violated by the corruption, twisting his mind. Soon, where there had been nothing but the desire to protect those he loved, Harry's mind turned to thoughts of murder, of torturing Rin, of breaking her for her abandonment of Sakura. He saw himself ordering his Servants to use their Noble Phantasms to burn Fuyuki to the ground, as punishment for the residents who had done nothing to save Sakura and him from their Hell at Zouken's hands, the Heroic Spirits forced to comply by the humongous amount of prana he used to issue his commands.

No matter how hard he fought, he was slowly being drowned in the utter blackness and evil that he now recognized as Angra Mainyu, the God of Evil Kiritsugu had met in the last war, just before the Fuyuki fire. Eventually, he felt himself drowning in the wave of darkness and evil, and he knew no more.

-Break-

With Harry's Servants, they were panicking. All was well until Harry finished powering the circle and froze, instead of trying to flee, his suddenly panicked face telling them that something had gone very, very wrong. Then he clutched his head as a red miasma began to form above him, just before his mouth opened, and he let out a bloodcurdling scream of utter agony.

Sakura could only watch in horror as the person she loved the most writhed in agony inside the circle, his screams even worse than her own when she had first been inside the worm pit. Trying to help Harry, she tried to rush for him and drag him out of the circle, despite the Servants' protests, but before she could even enter the circle, she was thrown back violently by what appeared to be a bounded field, trapping the light of her life inside the circle, and forcing her to watch as he screamed himself raw. Tears trailed down her cheeks as she clenched her fists in despair, screaming for Harry, the only thing she could do as he was slowly driven mad by the miasma inside the circle.

-Break-

Blackness.

Wait, Harry had been here before, but when?

And who was Harry?

Wait, he was Harry. Or was he?

Another name seemed to be there, Tom.

Everything was a bit fuzzy.

Then suddenly, it started flooding back to him. The full memories of two individuals.

Harry James Potter.

Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Which one was he though? Both sets of memories were there.

He belonged to two worlds, a moonlit world, a wizard world.

Tom's memories struck at him, enveloping him in ruthlessness and willpower. Tom did whatever he wanted or needed to, Tom could protect the ones he loved.

Wait, who did Tom love?

Harry had people he loved and wanted to protect.

Then Harry struck back. Harry loved and was loved. Harry also had great power. Greater than Tom. Harry did not need Tom, but Tom needed Harry. Tom needed Harry's power.

A battle raged in his head between a boy and a villain, fighting for control.

Eventually, they came to a draw. Neither could drive out the other.

Tom was willing to make a deal. Harry had unmatched strength, Tom had unsurpassed force of mind.

Power for will to use it.

If Harry let Tom have a bit of slack, Tom would do what Harry wanted.

They both agreed.

Then Harry woke up.

-Break-

Harry became aware of a great weight on him. He sighed in relief that he had woken up in bed with Sakura, Illya, and his Servants. Then something tickled his nose. He swatted at it. It took him a few seconds to realize that his arms weren't restrained. Confused, he opened his eyes and instead of the ceiling, he saw the concerned face of a massive wolf leaning over him, paw on his chest. He shot up, or at least tried to under the paw the size of a garbage lid.

Without a word or command, Midnight backed off him. It seemed that something had her enough on edge that her usual playfulness was gone.

"Something wrong girl?"

He was interrupted from getting a reply as something moved.

Normally, in this forest, that wasn't really a concern. Everything in the forest was alive after all. The problem however, was that these weren't the footsteps of an animal.

They were the footsteps of a man.

He bolted up at Midnight put herself between him and the sound, letting out a warning growl. At first, he couldn't see anything in the dense brush in front of him as it entirely obscured anything inside it.

Without a sound, a black-clad figure charged from the undergrowth. The word 'figure' was used instead of 'person', because the figure only loosely fit the definition of humanoid. It looked more like a modern depiction of a demon. It wore black armor, but didn't really fit into it as out of every gap of the armor came either flesh, bone, chitin, or smoke. It was as if the creature was some shapeshifting chimera and was given a suit of armor, but not told how to put it on, so it made do.

The creature raised its sword, a simple black piece of steel with an unadorned crossguard, and charged at him. It didn't get more than two steps before Midnight pounced, pinning it to the ground, gripping it in her mouth. With a single jerk of her head, the figure was split in half, armor and all. The creature simply dissipated into smoke and the armor collapsed in on itself

With a growl, Midnight stalked in front of Harry, ensuring that nothing else was about to pop out of the brush, before lowering herself down as an indication to get on. He climbed aboard the wolf, before spurring her towards the center of the forest, having a hunch as to the source of the intrusion into the forest.

-Break-

Sakura wasn't sure what happened to Harry, but it wasn't good. She had been so relieved when he stopped screaming and the circle shut down that she had rushed towards him as fast as she could, or at least had tried to. She was halted by Saber oddly enough, who grabbed her shoulders, looking past her and towards Harry with a grim look on her face. It was from this distance that she saw that Harry had changed a bit. The purple patch of hair he had gained from Zouken's 'training' was now blood red. His alchemical tattoos were now glowing and pulsing, eerily reminiscent of Kiritusgu's own veins whenever the curse began acting up.

Harry stirred, standing up and looking at her with a large smile, one that sent shivers down her spine by how different it was from those he usually showed her, a smile that could only be described as 'manic'. Standing up, he carelessly stepped on his glasses, which had fallen on the ground earlier, his now uncovered eyes staring at her a deep and hungry crimson instead of a comforting green.

Sakura opened her mouth to call out to him, but was interrupted when Saber suddenly tackled her to the ground. She was about to ask what the blonde was doing when she realized that where she had been a moment ago, there was now a fist, Harry's fist to be exact, which would have probably skewered her had Saber not tackled her. Crimson, wavy lines were now covering his arms, and she could tell that he had reinforced himself to the point of straining his body, something he had never, and would have never done in normal circumstances.

Instead of attacking again as Saber carried her to safety, next to the other Servants, Harry simply fixed the pair, and started to laugh, sending shivers down the spines of all those present. It was not the laugh of a child, not the laugh of a sardonic adult, no, this was the mad cackles of a madman, of a beast so far gone it had to be put down lest it destroy everything in its' path.

Saber looked truly distressed, despite her battle persona, her hold on Excalibur tightening to the point that the handle seemed to creak under the pressure.

"My friends, I'm afraid Harry is gone," she pronounced darkly.

-Break-

Inside the forest, another war was being waged. Harry had ridden Midnight to the center, where he suspected the intrusions were originating from, although the wolf was slowed somewhat by encounters with more of the monstrous knights. They weren't much of a problem individually, but in large numbers they posed a threat to the black direwolf, so he had projected a magical lance from the Gate of Babylon, which was designed for mounted use. It was unnamed, but when used while riding an animal, it always struck its target with the force of the animal moving at full gallop, regardless of the speed the actual animal was moving at. It was enough to make short work of the monstrous knights, fortunately.

When not impeded, Midnight made a rapid course for the clearing. He had to keep a tight grip on her fur to avoid falling off as she made a straight path through the forest towards his destination. As they barreled inside the clearing, a single glance was enough for Harry to know his suspicions were justified.

The door in the archway was completely open. From it poured hundreds of the armored monsters, slowly meandering into loose formations. Everything they touched slowly rotted and decayed, slowly turning the paradisiac garden in a twisted wasteland filled with nothing but thorny vines leaking black ichor, fizzling each time a drop fell to the ground.

Looking towards the door and saw writhing, pulsing tentacles emerging from it, randomly flailing like a snake in search of prey. He grimaced as he saw one unfortunate bird fly just a little too close and get snatched up and dragged in by the appendages, the indignant and scared squawks abruptly ending in a startled squeak as it was swallowed by the blackness.

As he and Midnight emerged from the woods and into the clearing, the monsters in the field saw them, and they immediately took a loose formation, stomping towards the pair with their weapons poised to strike.

Despite the numerous weapons pointed their way, Midnight simply lowered her head and charged the line, sending armored knights flying as a wolf the size of a rhino bowled them over, shattering their group. He hopped off his mount and she instantly stopped before taking up a position to guard him. With a horde of enemies barring the way, and countless more emerging from the archway every moment, he figured that the moment had come to see if his attempts to recreate the Gate of Babylon had borne some fruit.

He attempted to materialize as many weapons as he could muster in the air behind him. Oddly enough though, instead of simply forming there, they flew from the mouth of the forge off in the center of the clearing and into the positions he wanted them. Regardless, he directed his projections with his mind and shot them forward as fast as they could. Unlike Gilgamesh, he utilized all of them to their maximum potential. He still wasn't exactly sure what this garden was, but he had grown rather fond of it.

Fire, ice, lightning, blinding flashes of light, and countless other effects lit up the battlefield before him as hundreds of Noble Phantasms detonated on the opposing army. Needless to say, in but a few moments, there was no opposition left. The problem came from the fact that the archway simply paused for a moment, before disgorging hundreds upon hundreds of additional soldiers. Realizing that the archway was the true problem, he reformed additional swords which flowed from the forge just as fast as the soldiers flowed from the archway.

While he concentrated on this, Midnight ensured that none of the monsters got too close to him, not without her viciously tearing into them first at least. Once he had an adequate amount of weapons floating behind him, awaiting his command, he directed half the group towards the reforming army and half towards the archway, intent on collapsing it.

The first part worked just fine, destroying the knights just as easily as they had done before, but the second half of his projectiles encountered a problem. Apparently, despite the archway being very old, and already half-destroyed, even a rain of powerful Noble Phantasms was not enough to even put a scratch on it, despite his earlier assumptions that it would be more than enough to collapse it.

He growled in frustration at his lack of progress, as apparently did the being in the doorway, which he suspected was some form of Angra Mainyu. It was obvious that the God of Evil was not pleased with his interference, as instead of armored knights, this time a giant blob of pure darkness was spat out of the portal, quickly morphing into a giant, black dragon whose following roar nearly destroyed Harry's reinforced eardrums while it glared at him hatefully.

To counter this threat, Harry figured that a working strategy shouldn't be changed and summoned every possible anti-dragon weapon he had stored. More than a few were famous for slaying dragons of renown before, and with a rain of them he figured that the beast would be quickly skewered. However, as the rain of lethal weapons started, he was surprised to see that the dragon didn't seem afraid, and although he would have liked to assume it was due to the corruptive influence of Angra Mainyu stripping it from any sort of preservation instinct, the twisted smile of the manifestation made him quite sure that he was missing something.

He was confused and slightly wary of a dragon having that sort of look on that face. Cautiously, he launched one of the swords at it. The second it touched the monster's glistening scales, they seemed to briefly turn fluid, absorbing the nameless sword. A second later, the dragon opened its mouth and the same sword shot out at him at twice the speed he'd shot it at, which barely left him the time to create a pseudo-barrier using the other swords, deflecting the weapon.

Trusting in the shield, he summoned Rho Aias and launched all of the swords at the dragon, hoping that there was a limit to its' ability to absorb his weapons, despite his instincts telling him he was wrong. Suffice to say, it did not. The volley hit the dragon and was instantly sucked into it. With his reinforced vision, he recognized that some of the few wooden weapons were not absorbed, but also lacked the ability to penetrate the monster's scales. Then, with a belch, his swords were shot back at him. He lifted his shield and weathered the storm, unable to dismiss the weapons once they were shot back at them.

"Alright, so it can absorb and shoot my sword back at me," he thought, "but it didn't absorb the wood. It only eats metals perhaps? No, it ate the swords made from stone."

Then it struck him.

It couldn't absorb organic matter.

He just needed to find a powerful weapon made from purely organic means and attack the dragon with it.

As he thought that, he idly watched Midnight ripped one of the armored figures to shreds as it neared. She would probably be able to fight the dragon, being entirely organic and definitely deadly, but she was too small. She was the size of a rhino, but the dragon was the size of a mansion. As soon as he thought that, a word suddenly came unbidden into his head. It was strange, as he had never heard the word before, but he somehow knew that it would help. Hesitantly, he raised his hand towards Midnight and uttered the word.

"Engorgio."

The second the word left his lips, a light shot towards the black wolf. Upon contact, she seemed to grow, and grow, and grow. By the time the spell was finished, she was the size of a jumbo jet. She seemed momentarily thrown off balance by the change, but quickly adjusted. She then seemed to realize that she was the same size as the dragon that had been causing her Master so much trouble. She let out a growl that shook the very earth with its intensity.

"Midnight," Harry ordered.

"Sic him."

-Break-

Saber was having problems. In her mind, she knew that her Master was gone, taken over by the Grail and turned into a twisted marionette to kill her. In her heart, all she could see was the man she deeply respected, admired even, and the man who made her feel like a swooning maiden instead of King deadened to human feelings. She still had trouble grasping the concept, having spent her entire life as a man, but she knew that were she to ever experience love, it would be what she felt for her Master, Harry. She had little confidence in herself as a woman, but she did know that much.

Which made it all the harder for her to kill him, or even attempt to do so.

Currently, she was occupied joining Rider in keeping him distracted as Caster desperately searched for some way to undo this. Unfortunately, Saber had enough experience dealing with beings beyond humanity to know that nothing short of killing the host would remove the being inside, that or a miracle. She knew this, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Hence, keeping him distracted with Rider. Assassin could have been helping, but the first thing Not-Harry had done upon standing was order his Servants to kill everyone else. Fortunately, it seemed that he was somehow locked out of his command seals and True Magic, so he was unable to compel them into obedience, meaning that perhaps Harry was still inside there somewhere, fighting.

Assassin knew logically that it was unlikely, but she needed hope. The idea of disobeying her god was anathema to her, but she also knew that the being before her wasn't her true god, but a mockery wearing his appearance, spitting on everything her god stood for. The result had been Assassin going into a sort of catatonic state, like an android given contradictory orders, unable to do anything but endlessly process the order while trying to find a way to make sense of them.

Unfortunately, even without even without his True Magic, Harry was a formidable opponent, especially when nobody there wanted to hurt him. Even Berserker was careful not to hurt him during their brief engagement. It seemed Illya's love for her Big Brother had really rubbed off on the giant. Without any way to stop their Master short of killing him, the Servants had settled for keeping him distracted and not harming anyone. Hopefully, it would delay the confrontation long enough for their Master to fight off the being controlling his body.

That is, if he was still alive in there.

-Break-

At Harry's orders, Midnight launched herself at the black dragon, attempting to clamp her teeth around its neck. The dragon reared back, taking a swipe with its talons, narrowly missing the snapping snout of the wolf. Missing her intended target, Midnight ended up body-tackling the lizard, bringing them both to the ground. From there it devolved into a mess of strikes, clawing, biting, and tail-whips.

While this battle of Titans went on, Harry was left without his former animal bodyguard. He was left in further trouble by the fact that the next wave of armored monsters seemed to have picked up on the dragon's trick and started absorbing any inorganic weapon that struck them. The wooden ones he possessed could bludgeon them, but it was far too slow. At this rate, he would be overwhelmed. What he needed was some backup.

As if answering his call, at that moment, howling came from the forest. He looked to his right towards the tree line but couldn't make anything out. Then, the darkness at the edge of the forest seemed to move. The shadows advanced, stretching out from the perimeter like a rolling tide of darkness. It wasn't until he reinforced his vision that he became aware that it wasn't shadow.

It was a pack.

Of midnight black direwolves, answering the call of their Master. Apparently Midnight wasn't as alone as he had previously thought.

The lead wolf let out a long howl like a war cry, the rest following suit in a deafening cacophony of sound, before the mass charge hit the armored knights like a cavalry charge of old. It was like when Midnight had hit the small number and sent them flying earlier, but multiplied by a hundred. The wolves tore into the flanks, leaving no survivors in their desire to kill them, ripping the knights to shreds with incredibly ferocity.

While this went on, Midnight continued her struggle with the dragon, a struggle she seemed to be winning. Eventually, it seemed that the dragon had suffered enough, because it slipped out of the wolf's hold on it and started buffeting its wings in preparation for flight. It didn't make it much more than a few dozen yards off the ground before in a mighty leap, Midnight clamped her massive teeth around the monster's neck and bit down with all her might. With her grip and weight, the dragon was unceremoniously pulled back to earth. The engorged direwolf gave her head a quick jerk, snapping the lizard's neck, finally killing it.

This led to a brief reprieve, giving Harry time to regain his bearings. The wolf pack had effectively pushed the monster army back into the doorway, killing them faster than they came out. Midnight was sitting behind him, still towering over him and waiting for something to kill. When he saw the progress the pack had made towards the archway, he knew what he had to do.

He ran as fast as he could towards the door. The wolves moved alongside him, acting as an armed escort of sorts as they killed anything that got too close. When he neared the door, one of the tentacles protruding from it snapped at him like a whip, trying to grab him and drag him into the blackness. He swiftly projected his diamond blade and severed it, the severed appendage dissolving in a black miasma with a wet 'splurt'. Not breaking stride, he neared the doors themselves. Making contact, he grabbed them and with all of his might, pushed them shut. The being within fought against him with all its might, and even reinforced to his limits, he was barely inching the door shut. He was so focused that he was caught off guard when one of the tentacles, instead of fighting to keep the door open, spun and smacked him in the chest with the force of a freight train. The blow nearly sent him flying, but he was caught when he landed against Midnight's still enlarged form. She picked him back up, and together they used their weight to keep the doors shut. He then summoned what he hoped would solve the problem, one of the weapons Gilgamesh had oddly enough summoned but not used.

"Enkidu! Binding Chain of the Heavens!"

As he spoke, a golden chain formed in his hands. It seemed to glow with a radiance matched only by Excalibur. With Midnight holding it shut, he wrapped the chain around the doors, and fastened the daggers on the ends into the ground like bolts. He hoped that it would hold, at least long enough to find a permanent solution.

He felt a strange tugging in his mind, before he suddenly found himself facing a distressed Saber and Rider.

-Break-

Rider dodged another blow from her Master, the punch intended for her creating a deep crater instead of sending her flying. It broke her heart to see this happen to him, to see the kind child, too mature for his age, act like a deranged berserker, cackling madly, crimson eyes promising nothing but pain and suffering glaring at her instead of the calm warmth found in his usual green orbs. Deep down inside her, she felt the crushing weight of failure. She had promised herself when she had been summoned that she would protect her Master with every fiber of her being. It was what 'Medusa' meant after all, 'Protector'. She hadn't wanted to see him turned into a monster by the evils of the world, but she had failed. Her beloved Master, the man she had fallen for, the first time she had felt love for anything since she had devoured her sisters, and he was now an evil monster, harming the ones he loved because she hadn't protected him. Because she failed. It caused her more despair than she could bear.

She ducked as her Master swung his projected morningstar at her, nearly hitting her in her distraction. Suddenly, it was as if a dam broke inside him and his old self flickered back into life. The red streak of hair flickered back into purple, his blood red eyes were now their usual green, and he was no longer smiling like a madman. He paused, confused, before looking down at the mace in his hands how a normal person would look at a desk lamp they found themselves holding after sleepwalking. The, he looked around at the concerned and fearful looks being shot at him before connecting the dots. The mace dropped to the ground, popping out of existence as he dispelled it. His whole body was trembling, and it looked as if he was ready to go into shock, not very surprising if it was really Harry, as he would rather die before harming those he loved. To wake up when he was about to try to kill one of his Servants must have really distressed him.

He looked up at her, tears in his eyes, taking a tentative step forwards, his arms opening to hug her in apology. She let him, but remained tense in case this was an elaborate trick. After several seconds of sobbing, she gambled that it wasn't and returned the hug, tears welling up in her own eyes at the return of her Master. The two sat embracing for a moment before Sakura joined in, followed by Saber, then followed by everyone else. It was a very emotional moment, everyone crying and apologizing over various things. Harry finally broke the massive hug, and just smiled at everyone in attendance.

"The war is over everyone, I bound Angra Mainyu with the chain of Enkidu."

"Let's go home."

-Break-

The group all got together and started towards the stairs of the now battle-scarred temple, the tension from earlier replaced with a far more relaxed air, although his Servants seemed to be deep in thought.

About fifteen feet from the circle, he paused, clutching his head, as he was nearly overwhelmed by bloodlust, his vision filled with a red haze as he stared at his Servants' back. The feeling disappeared almost immediately, though, and he attributed it to the last remnants of his fight with Angra Mainyu. Making plans to deal with it as soon as possible, he took five more steps, before the feeling came back, even stronger. Pausing, he was suddenly assaulted by the sight of the garden and the archway, archway whose doors were buckling under the assault of the God of Evil, Enkidu straining to keep them closed.

The garden was somehow inside his head.

And the door wouldn't hold.

Which meant Angra Mainyu would get back into his head.

And he wouldn't have a way to contain him anymore.

And then his loved ones would be hurt.

As he thought this, he saw a minor crack develop in the door as a massive force on the other side pounded on it. He knew that he needed to take action, but didn't know what to do. The only way to truly kill a god like that was to kill its mortal shell. The mortal shell, which in this case, happened to be him, now that the Grail was destroyed.

He looked around at his family, his Servants, his loves. He knew that there was no other way out of this. If Mainyu fully took control of him, it would be able to fully manifest, not to mention have a True Magician as a meat suit. If that happened, everyone he loved would be endangered. He couldn't let that happen. He stopped in his tracks. Everyone else took a couple more steps before realizing that he had stopped. Sakura turned to give him a curious look.

"What's wrong Harry? You don't want to be late to dinner now do you?" she joked, with that beautiful smile of hers.

Oh how he would miss that smile.

"Everyone, I'd like to say something. Angra Mainyu is still inside my head. Even now, he's about to break free again. I can't let that happen. I want all of you to know, that I love you, with every fiber of my being. I do this for you, so that you are not endangered by me."

Everyone looked at him, confused and slightly concerned. Nobody noticed the glowing of the command seals until it was too late. He ran back into the center of the temple to clear the blast radius.

"Archer," he spoke, tears in his eyes, "by the power of my command seals, I order you. Strike me with Excalibur at full power."

Flooding the command seal with prana, he knew it would be enough to force the cynical Servant to obey, and despite the visible struggle from the white-haired Heroic Spirit, he lifted the Sword of Promised Victory above his head, the holy blade shining with a near blinding light. While Archer was lifting his arm, he also created a quick barrier to prevent his Servants from interfering, Saber the first to react as she screamed something at him, hitting it with her sword, followed closely by his other Servants, and his Homunculi.

As the golden blade of Excalibur was swung, he smiled one last time at his loved ones, committing their faces to memory. Saber was pounding on the barrier with her sword, screaming at him, pleading that he didn't sacrifice himself, with Rider doing the same at her side, her expression one of utter panic and denial. Caster was firing bolts of magic, but the barrier was still holding, and he knew that she, more so than the others, knew how he felt at that moment, the Witch of Betrayal taking off her hood, showing her beautiful face marred with tears as she desperately fought to break the barrier. Assassin, for her part, had frozen, looking unable to believe what was happening, and for the first time, unsure of what to do as she held a distraught Sakura by the shoulders, the younger girl protesting, screaming and begging at the Servant to let her go.

Next to the Servants, the three Homunculi were also trying to break the barrier, but to no avail, with the hulking form of Berserker flinging blows that would have leveled buildings to little effect, Illya screaming to him as well, her red eyes staring at him in a mix of horror and utter despair.

"EX-"

At that moment, the barrier suddenly broke, Servants and Homunculi inadvertently striking it at the same time, shattering it like glass.

"HARRY!"

"BIG BROTHER!"

"MASTER!"

"-CALIBUR!"

He was engulfed in golden light, and there he died, a smile on his face, knowing that he had protected his family.