Fate Stay/Night and Devil May Cry are the property of Kinoko Nasu & Type-Moon and Capcom & Ninja Theory respectively. The Dresden Files is owned by Jim Butcher and Roc Books. Please support the official releases.
Also, I made some revisions to Chapter 1 and I recommend giving it another read.
I hope you like action, because there's a lot of it in this chapter.
"I guess we have a lot to talk about," Dante said as he grabbed another slice of pizza from the kitchen table where he sat with his house mates. Dante took a bite before thinking back to the previous night.
After battling against Ronin and Assassin, the newly formed group promptly departed for the nearby church. Having exhausted herself to the point of being unable to stand, Lady had to be carried by her newly acquired Servant, Saber.
They were at the church doors in less than ten minutes, largely thanks to the mapping application on Dante's phone.
As they stepped through the open, wrought-iron gate, Dante regarded the church with a sense of nostalgia.
One wouldn't guess it, but Dante had actually been a regular church goer in his youth.
Every Sunday his parents would take he and his brother to participate in the morning service. Vergil hated it, but Dante actually enjoyed spending time as a family, even if it was at somewhere as monotonous as a church.
After his family was torn asunder, Dante stopped going altogether. The only reason he enjoyed going to church was because he went with his family. With them gone, he didn't see the point in going anymore.
Dante pushed open the large wooden doors of the church. He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at the loud creaking of the hinges. How cliché.
"Welcome to my church. My name is Kirei Kotomine and I've been expecting you," greeted a tall, severe looking man standing in the aisle. He was dressed in standard priest attire, the Bible held closely to his chest,
Dante made a show of looking around before he plastered a fake frown on his face.
"I don't see any snacks or drinks. What kind of host are you?" Dante chided.
"I was only made aware of your arrival less than an hour ago," explained Kirei before he smirked. "Besides, it wouldn't exactly be fair for me to provide you refreshments when I didn't extend the courtesy to the other Servants and Masters."
"So, you're the Moderator, then?" Lady asked from her resting position on a pew where Saber placed her shortly after they entered.
"You would be correct. Though I must say, I wasn't expecting to for the daughter of Kalina Ann and the son of Sparda to be chosen as Masters," Kirei remarked, his words containing no small amount of amusement. "With the two of you, that leaves only one contestant undecided. You will be contacted once the Grail chooses the final Master."
Lady easily picked up on the undercurrent of smugness in his tone, but chose to stay silent. She didn't want to start a fight and prolong her wait to return home and rest.
Saber and Caster were more focused on what he had said rather than how he had said it. They had never heard of Kalina Ann or Sparda. Whoever they were, it sounded like they were of great importance. Perhaps they were famous magi. Caster and Saber made a mental note to question their Masters later.
Dante was unsurprised to hear his father's name, Sparda was essentially a household name in the world of the supernatural.
"Let's not beat around the bush. What is the Holy Grail War, what are the rules, and why should I give a damn?"
Kirei let out a bone-chilling laugh at Dante's blunt and impolite statement.
"I'll answer your questions in order," said Kirei as he held up a finger. "The Holy Grail War is a battle between ten magi and the Servants they summon. The prize is the Holy Grail, an artifact capable of granting any wish, whether it be used for good or evil, depends entirely on who wins. If the winner were so inclined, they could wish for the death of all of humanity."
"Hold up a second," interrupted Dante. "I'm not a Magus, so how the hell am I eligible?"
"I apologize. I misspoke," Kirei said. Despite his apology, the priest didn't look particularly sorry. "The Masters need only possess magic circuits within their body, regardless of whether or not they have ever been used."
Dante nodded in understanding. He had recently read about magic circuits in his mother's journal.
"Second," began Kirei as he held up a second finger. "The rules are simple. The last Master and Servant standing wins and gets to make a wish on the Holy Grail. If a Servant is eliminated, the Master isn't necessarily disqualified. So long as they have Command Seals, they can form a contract with another Masterless servant. Should the Master die, the Servant only has so long before they run out of mana and disappear. The same goes for if the Servant is dealt a mortal blow. Should someone not wish to participate, I can take their Command Seals and grant them sanctuary until the winner is decided."
Dante grit his teeth. He was liking the sound of this War less and less.
"These Command Seals, what do they do?" Dante asked as he held up the hand that bore his Command Seals.
"Command Seals can over ride a Servant's free will and force them to follow an order whether they want to or not. You only have three uses before you run out."
"Third," Kirei continued as if he hadn't just casually spoke of mass murder and robbing someone of their free will. "You should give a damn, because there is a two month time limit for a winner to be determined. You may go so far as to leave the country, but if no one wins within that time, the Grail will terminate all contestants, regardless of their location. After all, it wouldn't be fair if one were to run away and prolong the War by an unreasonable margin."
KIrei walked forward until he was only a few feet away from Dante.
"Now, I ask you, do you wish to participate? Or shall I take your Command Seals?"
Dante's lips tugged down and formed an uncharacteristic frown at the loaded question. With Dante's strong sense of justice, the choice was already made for him. If he didn't participate and win, it ran the risk of someone truly despicable getting their hands on the Grail. Dante would be damned if he put the future of humanity at risk.
Dante's frown turned into a cocky smirk. "Sounds like a party. Sign me up." Dante looked to Lady for her answer.
Lady gave Dante a weak grin. "I'm with you, Dante."
"With all ten Servants summoned, I hereby declare the start of the Fifth Holy Grail War!"
Dante returned the grin in earnest, happy to have Lady's support. "It looks like we're done here then," Dante said as they turned to leave. Just before they left, Kirei gave Dante a few parting words.
"Two more things. First of all, under no circumstances are mundanes allowed to learn of the War. Any who do are to be dealt with swiftly.
Kirei's words had Dante clenching his fists with enough strength to make his knuckles turn white.
"And second?" Dante asked.
Kirei's lips widened into a feral grin. "When the Devil becomes embroiled in magical affairs, demons are sure to follow him," warned Kirei.
His message was clear. Soon, demons would be following Dante to Fuyuki City.
"Then I guess the Devil will just have to remind them why he's on top of the food chain," Dante said.
Flashback End
"Some things the priest said did raise a few questions, Master," said Caster.
"I must admit, I am quite curious myself," Saber agreed.
Lady straightened up in her seat next to Dante.
"We have some questions as well. Does a question for a question sound fair?" asked Lady.
The two Servants nodded in agreement.
"We'll go first," Lady said, her gaze focused on the two Servants. Dante paid rapt attention as he stuffed his face with pizza.
"When we first met, you referred to Servant classes. What did you mean by that?" Lady asked.
"A Servant Class refers to the specialty of a Heroic Spirit, summoned from the Throne of Heroes. It is there that copies of history's greatest heroes reside as they wait to be summoned by a magus," said Caster.
Saber then took the floor.
"There are ten different classes. They are: Assassin, Berserker, Caster, Saber, Lancer, Rider, Archer, Reaper, Ronin, and Brawler. I believe you've already met Assassin and Ronin." Saber took a sip of her tea. "The greatest weapon in the arsenal of a Servant is their Noble Phantasm, something tied to a Hero when they still lived; something famous. It is for that reason they are used as a last resort. To use a Noble Phantasm is to reveal your true identity as well as your fighting style and weaknesses as a result."
"So, what are your real names?" Dante asked as he nursed his Jack Daniels.
"I'm not telling you in front of her! She's our enemy!" Caster and Saber shouted as they pointed at each other.
"Cut that out, you two. We're all on the same side. If you don't want to say your name in front of the other, that's fine. Just stop with the hostility," Dante said.
The two Servants reluctantly ceased their glaring contest and looked away from one another.
Caster was first to regain her composure.
"I believe it's our turn. Now, who are Sparda and Kalina Ann?"
Dante leaned forward in his seat.
"On my end, I'm going to have to start by giving you a quick History lesson. A thousand years ago, there was a Devil by the name of Mundus. He waged war on humanity, seeing them as weak and inferior. In his eyes, they were ripe for the slaughter."
Dante took a sip of his beer.
"At his side during his evil campaign, was his right hand man and most trusted ally, Sparda. One day, he betrayed Mundus. He had seen the good in humanity and sealed him and the Demon World away. Roughly a thousand years later, he fell in love with a human named Eva. Soon after, she gave birth to my brother and I."
Caster and Saber were taken aback at the knowledge that the man seated across from them was half demon.
"You're a half-demon?" gasped Saber.
"Technically I'm half devil. Devils are like demons, except they're smarter, look more human, and are much, much more powerful than demons," corrected Dante.
"I believe it's now our turn to ask a question," Lady interjected. "What is the Reaper Class?" asked Lady before taking a sip of her lemonade. "Dante already fought Ronin, and the rest of the classes seem pretty self-explanatory. Reaper remains a mystery, however."
Caster and Saber's expressions darkened when they heard Reaper's name.
"Reaper, is by far, the most deplorable of the Servant Classes," spat Caster.
"The Reaper is brutal and merciless. It revels in the taking of lives and the spilling of blood. Every attack it makes is intended to leave a slew of bodies in its wake," said Saber.
Caster sneered. "The Reaper is nothing more than a glorified serial killer."
Saber nodded in agreement. "A most apt description. Of all the Servants, the Reaper is the one I would least want to encounter, let alone fight."
Dante whistled in amazement. "Sounds like a real piece of work."
"That's putting it mildly. Now, I believe we have one last question," Caster said as she looked to Saber for confirmation.
Saber gave a curt nod in reply. It seemed she still needed time to get accustomed to being allied with the "enemy."
"If I may be so bold, Praetor, who is Kalina Ann?"
Lady sighed in sadness, an action that didn't go unnoticed by Dante and Saber.
"Praetor, I'm sorry if it's too personal-"
"-No, its fine," Lady said before Dante gripped her shoulder in silent reassurance. The feeling of Dante's hand on her shoulder sent her heart racing. Lady gave Dante a small, thankful smile. Through sheer willpower, Lady managed to refrain from blushing.
"Kalina Ann was my mother," Lady said. "She was also a magus, an extremely talented one at that. Magi everywhere knew of her unparalleled mastery of elemental magicks. She's said to be the most powerful Elemental Magus in the last five hundred years." Lady looked down in sorrow. "She died two years ago," Lady sniffled.
Saber quickly ran over and gave her Master a tight hug, a gesture that Lady very much appreciated.
Even Caster had a look of sympathy, despite seeing Lady as a potential enemy somewhere down the road.
After nearly ten minutes, Lady had regained her solid grip on her emotions.
"Let's all sit back and relax while we have the option. We have a busy night ahead of us," Dante suggested.
"What do you mean?" Caster asked, giving voice to the confusion of all three women. "What are we doing tonight?"
Dante gave his trademark smirk. "Tonight, we go hunting."
After several hours of R&R, it was finally nightfall.
The group of four gathered on the lawn.
Dante, Caster, and Saber were clad in their typical attire whereas Lady had made some alterations for the evening.
She was now clad in a black blouse, acid-washed jeans, steel-toed boots and fingerless leather gloves.
Draped over her outfit and falling nearly to her feet was a brown leather duster.
It was a gift from a friend of her mother's.
Several hours later, night had fallen and they found themselves scouring the city for any Servant or demon-related activity.
Dante and Caster took to the skies on a skeletal bird she had summoned with her magic. She started to preen unashamedly when Dante called her magic "impressive."
Lady and Saber stuck to land as they swept the streets on Lady's motorcycle.
It was nearly midnight and they had come up with nothing.
'Looks like tonight was a bust,' Dante thought as he and Caster scanned the city below them. As they searched Dante was taken in by the sight of the brightly lit city.
"I think it's about time we call it a night, Caster," Dante said as he felt a mix of frustration and determination at their lack of results.
"Master, I've got eyes on two possible targets! Five miles straight ahead, two suspects are battling at inhuman speeds!" Caster shouted as she pointed at a small section of the city.
"How the hell are you able to see that far?" Dante yelled in amazement.
Caster puffed out her chest in pride.
"I'm not the Caster-Class Servant for nothing Master. When I was alive, I was known far and wide as one of the most powerful and skilled Sorceresses to ever walk the planet. Doing something like Reinforcing my eyes is as easy as breathing," Caster explained as her eyes glowed with an intense lavender light as she steadily pumped mana into them.
"That's incredible!" Dante complimented, impressed by her apparent mastery of the Arcane. Her explanation also served to stoke his curiosity about her identity.
Caster was visibly preening as she was praised by her Master.
With her magical abilities having typically evoked fear in others, it filled her with great joy to be complimented on her skills in magic.
Dante pulled a two-way radio from his jacket pocket. The small device was half of a pair that he and Lady would frequently use on missions.
"Lady, we've got eyes on two possible targets. Follow Caster's beacon and meet up," Dante ordered before he nodded at his Servant.
She got the message as she raised her hand up high and bathed it in a bright purple light. The light was so intense that it could be seen from the ground nearly two hundred feet below.
"I read you loud and clear," confirmed Lady.
Caster and Dante picked up the pace and rocketed after their targets.
Less than a mile shy of closing in on their target, Dante and Caster had yet to see hide nor hair of Lady and Saber.
Starting to worry, Dante spoke into his radio. "Lady, where are you? Is something wrong?"
After several moments of nerve-wracking silence, Lady's voiced traveled through the radio.
"I'm not sure if I would classify it as something wrong. Saber just told me that she sensed another Servant and Master nearby. We're going to engage them," announced Lady. "Will you two be fine on your own?"
Dante scoffed. "Come on, give me a little bit of credit. This is me you're talking to," Dante grinned before his voice took on a more serious tone. "Be careful. If you get in over your head, call it in and we'll be there to help."
It was Lady's turn to scoff in indignation.
"How's about you try giving me some credit. We'll see you in a bit. Over and out."
In a matter of seconds, the airborne duo had zeroed in on their targets.
Dante smiled in excitement as he swapped out Rebellion for a purple guitar with the base ending in a razor-sharp, scythed blade. The unusual guitar was the Devil Arm manifestation of Nevan the Lightning Witch, a demon he had defeated just months earlier.
"Alright Caster, you ready for your first rock show?" Dante asked before strings of purple lightning took form along the neck of the guitar.
With a smirk on his face, Dante played a riff on Nevan, filling the night air with the screech of an electric guitar.
Mighty bolts of violet lightning rained down from the sky in sync with Dante's playing.
The two fighters on the ground below were forced to separate, lest they be turned into charred husks.
"I'll fight them on the ground, you support me from the skies," Dante commanded once the riff had come to a swift end.
"As you wish, Master." Had Dante not filled her in on the full extent of his abilities just hours earlier, she never would have dreamed of following that order.
Still, she obeyed.
Dante leapt of his skeletal mount and plummeted to the earth below before landing lightly on his feet.
"Is this a private party, or can anyone join?" Dante asked as he warily looked over the two Servants.
One of them was clearly male in gender, with wavy red hair and a sinister black mask hiding his face. The entirety of his body was swathed in a black cloak. Resting in his hand was a pitch black scythe.(1)
His opponent was a blonde woman in an elegant blue dress. Shining silver armor covered her arms, torso, hands, legs, and feet. Resting in one of her hands was a steel short sword.
"Hasn't anyone ever told you it's rude to interrupt?" the masked red head asked.
Dante gave a lazy shrug. "I've been told plenty of times. But, if I were to listen to you, it would be unfair to all the other people I've callously ignored," he snarked.
"Such a crass and rude attitude. Who are you, newcomer?" the blonde asked.
"The name's Dante, but you can call me anything you want, babe," Dante flirted, his trademark cocky grin plastered on his face.
She gave Dante a look of disdain, clearly unimpressed by his flirting attempts.
"Despite your appalling behavior, it is only proper that I introduce myself. I am Lancer," said the blonde. "This masked hooligan is Rider."
"If you two are done with the formalities, I would appreciate it if we could get back to fighting. Leave or die, it's your choice, magus," Rider growled.
Dante removed Nevan from it's resting place on his shoulder.
"Your hospitality could use a bit of work," taunted Dante.
How's about I teach you a lesson? Dante offered as he wreaked havoc on the strings and summoned a swarm of blood-thirsty bats.
"Bon appetit, boys," cheered Dante as he unleashed the bats upon his two opponents.
They promptly charged the two servants, obscuring their sight with their sheer numbers. The bats were short-lived as they erupted into a red mist as Rider and Lancer decimated the flying mammals with their weapons. When their vision was clear once more, they were caught off guard by the sight of Dante standing between them, Nevan shifted into the form of a scythe.
Rider felt the air leave his lungs as the end of the shaft was firmly planted in his gut, sending him crashing through the display window of a nearby store.
Not missing a beat, Dante pivoted and swept Nevan in an upward strike in an attempt to drive the blade home in Lancer's throat.
Lancer quickly batted away the strike with her blade.
Lancer attempted to impale Dante on her sword, only for Dante to quickly twist away from the strike and counter with a back hand to the face with enough force to shatter a six-inch thick slab of concrete.
As it was, Dante's strike merely sent her staggering back.
Taking advantage of her unbalanced state, Dante slashed at Lancer's midsection. To his surprise, she had oriented herself just enough to lean away from the blow.
Rather than slicing her in two like he intended, Dante carved a large gash through her armor and delivered a long, shallow cut to her abdomen.
Dante made to renew his assault but was cut off by a loud crash and enraged scream coming from behind him.
Dante turned just in time to see Rider rocketing out of the storefront and towards him with his scythe raised high.
Rider's charge was swiftly interrupted as he was forced to retreat from a giant purple beam of pure mana that impacted the ground with force of a cannon ball, courtesy of Caster.
Dante had still made the mistake of turning his back on his opponent and paid for it when his back was sliced open by Lancer's sword.
Dante rolled forward just in time to avoid being gored by his opponent. It was a close call, the blade managing to snag the material of the coat and damage it further.
Once he was on his feet, Dante spun around and slammed Nevan's blade into the ground.
He could feel his hair stand on end as lightning coursed through Nevan before tearing through the asphalt on a direct course for Lancer.
The blonde Servant took to the air, poised to skewer him.
Dante sidestepped the strike and caught the sword before it could bury itself in the asphalt.
Dante smirked before slamming her into the ground using the blade that she stubbornly refused to release from her firm grip.
Dante brought Nevan crashing down in attempt to end the battle with a decisive blow.
Lance quickly rolled away from the strike before getting back on her feet.
She gave Nevan a look of appraisal. "Your weapon is quite interesting. I never thought I'd see a guitar that could turn into a scythe."
Dante smirked. "You'll find that I'm full of surprises," said Dante as he dismissed Nevan and brought out Agni and Rudra. "I gotta say, I'm surprised to see the Lancer class use a sword as her weapon-of-choice."
"Haven't you ever picked up a book? Lancers carry a side weapon. Lances are hardly fit for use as melee weapons."
Dante gave her a mocking bow. "Thanks for the history lesson, professor," said Dante before charging Lancer.
He slashed at Lancer's side with Agni's fiery blade while attempting to decapitate her with Rudra. Lancer ducked under Rudra and parried Agni away with her sword.
Taking advantage of Dante's open guard, Lancer sent a lightning-fast flurry of punches into Dante's sternum.
Dante could clearly hear the sounds of his ribs repeatedly breaking only to be fully healed moments later.
Lancer capped off her assault with a snap kick to the gut that sent Dante skidding back several yards, his feet digging trenches into the asphalt.
Once he'd come to a stop, Dante drove Agni and Rudra into the ground before him, earning a confused look from Lancer.
Lancer's expression quickly shifted to one of alarm as the scimitars generated a carpet of raging fire and sent it soaring in her direction.
The resulting inferno engulfed Lancer and blew out the windows of the store behind her.
Dante cautiously eyed the flames, a strong feeling in his gut that it would take more than that to do her in.
His gut proved correct when Lancer came soaring out of the flames, the skirt of her dress all but disintegrated by the flames.
Lancer cried out as she rapidly struck out at Dante with her sword. A look of rage began to blossom on her face as he dodged and parried her every attack, his face never losing its smug grin.
With a strangled cry of aggravation, she broke through Dante's guard with a mighty swing of her short sword, carving through Dante from his left shoulder to his right hip.
Rather than cry out in agony, Dante let loose a laugh of exhilaration.
"This is what I'm talking about!" Dante crowed before hitting Lancer with a fierce uppercut that launched her into the air.
Dante followed suit before promptly laying into her with slash after slash from Agni and Rudra.
With a final dual slash from his blades, Dante sent Lancer crashing into the ground with a fierce gale of wind on her trail.
Dante whistled in amazement at the sight before him.
"Caster told me Servants were tough, but seeing it for myself is another thing entirely," Dante commented as he watched Lancer slowly rise to her feet.
Her armor was in ruin, reduced to little more than scrap metal, the dress underneath not faring much better. Her body was littered with bloody slash wounds, some of which were messily cauterized by Agni's flames.
"By all accounts, you should be knocking on Death's Door after losing so much blood," Dante said as he gestured towards the pool of blood at her feet, the growth of which was slowly decreasing as a result of the Servant's superior healing abilities.
Dante couldn't help but noticed that they healed much slower than Ronin's wounds, though that may just be due to her injuries being far more severe.
"No magus should be this powerful!. What the devil are you?" she yelled.
Dante gave her a condescending smirk.
"You just said it yourself. I'm the Devil!"
Lancer raised her lance in an offensive stance. "Whether you be a devil or a human, I know one thing for certain. I must eliminate you to protect my Master and come one step closer to winning this war!" she snarled.
"Show me what you got, babe!" Dante taunted as he rocketed towards Lancer.
When Dante re-engaged Lancer, he quickly noticed a distinct difference in how she fought. Her every strike, her every movement, they were vastly more powerful and more swift than before.
Dante now found himself having to put in considerable more effort to keep up with her.
"Where'd this strength come from?" Dante asked as he struggled to repel her assault, taking several solid blows as a result.
Dante's torso was now littered with a lattice-work of quickly healing cuts and his jacket was shredded in multiple areas.
"I've simply stopped underestimating you. It was a mistake to do so and it won't be happening again!" Lancer shouted as she snaked her way through his guard and slammed her fist into Dante's neck, sending him crashing into the ground.
Dante winced at the feeling of his neck breaking as the vertebrae were smashed to pieces. He might be able to heal from nearly every conceivable wound, but that shit still hurts.
Dante sighed in relief as he felt his neck repair itself.
Dante found himself needing to block a stab to the heart as he parried Lancer's assault with Rudra. He pointed the twin scimitars at Lancer, a wicked grin on his face.
"Burn!"
With Dante's declaration, a veritable firestorm erupted from the blades of Agni and Rudra, sending her flying as she was engulfed in the inferno.
Dante rose to his feet.
"Don't tell me that's all you got," Dante said.
He quickly rose Agni and Rudra in an x-formation just in time to save himself from losing a lung.
Lancer wasn't deterred and quickly launched a flurry of stabs at Dante.
Dante found himself hard pressed to dodge the assault, taking several glancing blows as a result.
Dante jumped back several yards in a bid to get some breathing room.
'So, this is what a Servant can do at full strength' Dante thought as he felt his blood boil in excitement. He had hoped to receive a challenge tonight and his hopes had come true.
On a similar note, Dante found himself wondering how Caster fared in her fight. Eh, if Caster ended up in over her head, he'd step in and assist her.
Earlier, with Caster
Caster watched on with interest as her Master engaged the two Servants. She was surprised by the sight of him summoning bats with his odd weapon. She covered her ears at the horrible screech that accompanied the bats' summoning.
She found it fascinating when he appeared between the Servants faster than she could see only to proceed to attack them with practiced ease.
Caster was forced to take action when Rider attempted to kill her Master while his back was turned.
With a look of rage on her face, Caster called out her spell.
"Kodan'u!" she yelled as she instantaneously charged and released her mana in the form of a radiant violet beam.
It was one of her own personal spells, Rain of Light, a bombardment of magic beams, each with the strength of an A-Rank spell. Rain of Light could be considered as being on the level of High Thaumaturgy, with just one beam taking a considerable amount of mana to cast.
For the sake of reserving mana, she would have to settle for a single beam.
Caster found herself pleasantly surprised when the beam came out more than five times the intended size.
It seemed her Master possessed a ludicrously large mana reserve for her to draw on.
Caster grinned. This would prove useful.
Caster pursued Rider, not willing to risk him launching another surprise attack on her Master and possibly succeed in killing him.
In the heat of the moment, she had forgotten Dante's explanation of his rather frightening capabilities.
'It's barely been more than a day and I'm already disobeying an order from my Master. I'm not off to a very good start,' Caster thought.
When she had caught up to Rider, she found herself at a construction site only half-a-block away from her Master's battle.
"Celaeno!" Caster chanted before shooting a stream of lightning from her fingertips.
To her dismay, Rider dodged her attack, leaving her lightning to scorch the earth.
Rider retaliated by swinging his scythe in her direction and launching razor sharp bursts of wind pressure as a result.
Caster banked to the right in an effort to avoid being shredded by his attack.
She succeeded in escaping injury, but not without consequence.
While she was unscathed, her aerial mount wasn't so fortunate.
The skeletal bird found itself one wing short, its left wing sheared off by the razor winds.
Caster was forced to abandon her mount and witness it plummet to the ground and break apart on impact.
Caster scowled at the loss of her familiar. Mr. Tweetums would be avenged.
She steadily levitated to the ground using her levitation and touched down just yards away from where her opponent stood waiting.
She regarded Rider with a frown as she clenched her fists tight in anger.
"You're going to pay for that!" Caster growled.
Rider tilted his head in mock confusion. "Don't tell me you're upset that I killed your pet," Rider chuckled. "You should be thanking me. Birds are such a hassle to look after."
Caster glowered at him with smoldering fury. "In that case, I'm sure your Master wouldn't mind if I put you down. After all, rodents are so bothersome to look after," sneered Caster.
Rider chuckled at her taunt. "Well, aren't you a smarmy one? Let's see if you still give me cheek when I carve you apart like a turkey!" Rider yelled as he sprinted towards Caster with his scythe raised high.
The earth around Caster quickly began to break apart, radiant purple light spewing from the cracks.
"Rise!" she chanted before the skeletal remains of several dozen wolves exploded from the earth.
"Tear him to shreds!" Caster ordered , unleashing her familiars upon her opponent.
With great eagerness, the wolves charged Rider as they barked and howled in excitement. Rider cackled as he met their advance head on.
With a vicious swing of his scythe, he reduced several of them to little more than a pile of bones.
Rider grabbed a lunging wolf by the head before crushing it's skull in his hand.
Rider danced through the mass of wolves, hacking and slashing them to bits, all while filling the air with peals of demented laughter.
Less than a minute later he had disposed of the wolves and now stood in the center of a miniature boneyard.
"Surely you can do better than that, Caster!" he growled with a voice reminiscent of a knife scraping against stone.
When he turned to face her, he was mildly surprised by her absence from her previous position. He scanned his surroundings in search of Caster with no success.
Rider let out a sardonic chuckle.
"How typical of the Caster class, going into hiding as soon as their opponent has their back turned."
"You call my actions cowardly but I prefer to think of it as me playing to my strengths. After all, I'm no match against you in a direct confrontation," Caster said, her voice seeming to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
The moment the last syllable left Caster's lips, Rider found himself forced to leap away from a hail of ru-bar. The ru-bar was left to bury itself in the ground.
Rider was unprepared when the ru-bar detonated and sent jagged pieces of shrapnel flying in every direction.
He managed to evade the brunt of the assault but wasn't left unscathed.
The wounded Servant peeled back his cloak and looked at his bleeding side with disdain.
"You want to play games? So be it," Rider growled before he sent sickles of air pressure at several of the steel girders that upheld the building's frame.
The girders were no match for the absurdly sharp bursts of air and were sliced through like they were made of tissue paper.
The building's frame groaned in protest at the loss of several of its supporting pillars.
"I'll bring this entire construction site down on the both of us if necessary! Now, come out!" Rider yelled.
"Have it your way," Caster sighed as she stepped out from behind one of the pillars. "You really need to work on that attitude of yours."
"And you should work on that smart mouth of yours," he sneered before he kicked off the ground and rocketed towards Caster.
"You'll have plenty of time to do so in Hell!" Rider screamed.
With a rapid slash of his scythe, Caster was bisected at the waist.
Any satisfaction Rider may have felt, quickly gave way to fury when Caster's corpse faded away as if it were a mirage.
Rider's attention was quickly drawn by the sight of Caster's cloak flying through the air like it had a mind of its own.
"What the-"
Rider was unable to finish his statement as he was forced to dodge a bolt of purple lightning originating from the confines of the cloak.
'She's inside the cloak!'
Caster refused to relent in her assault, continuously casting lightning spells with a few fireballs added to the mix.
Rider grit his teeth over being able to do little more than dodge.
He skid to a stop and stood his ground, his gaze focused on an incoming fireball. Rider would undoubtedly be in great pain once the fireball hit. But, if his plan worked, it didn't matter.
Rider roared as he frantically slashed his scythe and sent dozens of air sickles flying through the air.
Caster was forced to weave through the attacks lest she be cut to ribbons. The steel girders were left to take her punishment in her place.
Rider was unable to see the end result as his world was bathed in fire. Rider let out an inhuman screech of pain at the searing pain of his roasting flesh.
Even through his screams he could hear the metal framework falling to pieces.
Rider wasn't sure if he endured his fiery hell for five hours or only five seconds. The agony of being burned alive overshadowed his perception of time.
However long it was, he was grateful when it finally came to a close.
Rider hissed in pain at the feeling of the cool night air caressing his charred flesh.
Regardless, it was still less painful than being roasted alive.
Rider began to shake in a mixture of pain and fury as he laid eyes on his handiwork.
Steel girders littered the construction site, having been severed from their brethren by Rider's attack.
That was not the cause of his ire, however.
Rider seethed when he saw that not a single girder had Caster trapped beneath their weight.
Rider felt moisture begin to seep into the cracks of his charred skin as the construction sight was enveloped in a dense fog.
"I tire of this game of hide-and-seek!" Rider snarled.
He received an answer in the form of construction equipment rocketing towards him.
Due to the density of the fog, he was only able to dodge the speeding projectiles by the skin of his teeth. There was a particularly close call when he just managed to avoid having his skull impaled by a piece of ru-bar.
Rider raised his scythe high above his head before he proceeded to rapidly spin it in his hands.
The scythe quickly picked up speed, as it started to generate powerful winds after a few short moments.
The winds picked up enough force and speed to blow away the fog in a matter of seconds.
Rider cackled as he spotted Caster speeding towards him with an oddly-shaped dagger in her hand.
Her charge was cut short as Rider slashed her from shoulder to hip with his scythe.
Caster screamed in pain before collapsing in a heap as her dagger dissipated into blue motes of light. Her blood had already started to seep through the dirt.
It didn't matter that Dante's large mana reserves had already started to heal her wound.
She would be dead in just a few moments.
Caster clenched her eyes shut when she felt Rider use his foot to roughly flip her onto her back. She didn't want to see the scythe plunge into her body.
"Do you have any idea how painful it is to be lit on fire?" Rider growled. "I suppose you're about to get a pretty good idea," he cackled.
Clenched eyes shot open as Caster cried out in agony at the sensation of Rider's scythe being dragged across her body, the wicked blade carving grooves in her flesh.
"Scream for me!" Rider hissed. He felt himself tremble with glee as he slowly gave Caster a mirror image of her earlier wound.
"No one can save you. Your Master is most likely dead at the hands of Lancer. He was foolish to think he could take on a Servant by himself," he sneered.
As if on cue, a razor sharp, jagged wall of ice sprouted along the ground in an effort to eviscerate Rider.
Caster's torturer was left with no choice but to dodge.
Enraged, Rider look towards the originating direction of the sneak attack and was surprised by the last thing he expected to see.
Standing guard over Caster, with tripartite nunchaku in his grasp, was Dante.
Rider found it absurd.
He was just a Master, a Magus! Even a Magus at the height of their powers would be hard-pressed to put up a fight against a Servant.
Yet, if Rider's eyes were to be believed, this Magus had done far more than that.
If his presence were any indication, it would seem that he had actually emerged victorious over Lancer.
"Stay away from Caster!"
Moments earlier with Dante
The fight between Lancer and Dante had escalated since Lancer stopped holding back.
Large chunks of the street were gouged out by stray sword strikes, the two combatants not faring much better.
Their clothes were in tatters. Dante's coat looked like a dozen lions had used it as a scratching post. It all but hung off his frame, large sections of it dotted the blood soaked ground.
Lancer wasn't any better. Her dress had been put through the wringer with her reduced to little more than her underwear.
"What do you say we finish this?" Dante asked as he removed Rebellion from his shoulder.
"So be it," panted Lancer, knowing full well that her death was imminent. She could barely stand, forced to lean on her sword to stay upright.
"I'll make it quick," Dante. promised. He couldn't help but feel a heavydose of trepidation over what he was about to do.
He knew that he wouldn't really be killing her, he'd just be sending her back to the Throne of Heroes.
Dante strode over to Lancer as he dragged Rebellion's blade across the asphalt.
"I'm not going down without a fight!" Lancer declared as she stumbled her way towards Dante.
"You've got spirit. It's too bad, under other circumstances I bet we would have been friends," lamented Dante.
Lancer said nothing as she stood on shaky legs with her sword raised.
Dante looked her in the eyes as he swung Rebellion.
She deserved at least that much.
Rebellion came within a hairsbreadth of Lancer's throat, only to come to a sudden stop when he heard Caster scream in pain.
Dante removed Rebellion from Lancer's throat.
"I guess we'll have to finish this another time. My Servant needs my help." Dante said.
Dante turned to leave as he switched out Rebellion for his very first Devil Arm: Cerberus, the Ice-Summoning tripartite nunchaku.
Dante dashed away and left Lancer speechless at her unexpected survival.
Running at top speed, Dante reached the source of Caster's screams within the span of a few seconds.
Dante was enraged at the sight of Rider systematically torturing Caster.
He may not know her well, but she was his comrade. That was all the reason he needed to be angry.
Dante slammed Cerberus against the ground and summoned a razor sharp wave of ice.
He sighed in relief when he saw Rider leap away from Caster.
Dante leapt in front of her before leveling a glare at Rider.
"Stay away from Caster!" Dante growled.
Rider cocked his head to the side as he regarded Dante with no small amount of intrigue.
"Well, this is a surprise. I honestly expected Lancer to dispose of you quickly. But instead it seems that you eliminated Lancer. How curious," Rider mused.
"What can I say? I'm full of surprises," Dante said as he echoed his earlier words to Lancer.
Dante decided not to correct Rider about Lancer being dead.
If Rider were to discover she still lived, he would most likely swoop in and dispose of her while she's weakened.
Dante, as a man of honor, would not allow that to happen.
"Are you okay, Caster?" murmured Dante.
Caster managed to give a weak nod in response. "I will be. I'm sorry I failed you, Master," apologized Caster.
"Don't worry about it. Just let me take it from here. Dante shifted his focus back to Rider. "Let's see if I can't go two-for-two tonight!" he taunted as he threw Cerberus at Rider like it was a giant shuriken.
Rider lazily sidestepped Cerberus only to be surprised when blades of ice extended from each nunchaku.
Rider cried out as the ice blades sliced deep into his side.
Cerberus promptly reversed direction and returned to Dante's hands in a manner reminiscent of a boomerang.
"Don't start thinking you're hot shit just because you caught me off guard!" growled Rider. "You are just a Magus! You are my inferior! You. Are. NOTHING compared to me!" Rider bellowed.
Dante sneered. "You talk too much. Coming from me, that's saying something,"
With a beastly roar of unbridled rage, Rider jet towards Dante, furious that he had been wounded by a lowly Magus.
Dante was prepared as he caught the scythe blade in the ring that held Cerberus together.
With a twitch of his wrists, Dante jerked the scythe to the side and caught Rider off balance.
Dante removed Cerberus from the scythe blade and capitalized on Rider's moment of weakness. He delivered a lightning-fast combo with Cerberus and subsequently coated each point-of-contact with a layer of ice.
It only got worse for Rider as the ice shifted and plunged icy needles through his flesh.
Rider's screams became strangled as Dante struck him in the throat with a haymaker and sent him crashing through multiple support pillars.
Dante was disappointed by Rider's performance thus far.
He wouldn't dispute that Rider was powerful. Considering his status as a Servant, that was pretty much a given.
But his strength was offset by his uncontrollable rage.
It made him sloppy and unfocused.
"I'm disappointed! Lancer was a much better challenge! I'm amazed that she didn't kill you right off the bat!" Dante jeered.
That was the straw that broke the camel's back.
In an impressive explosion of pink mana, Rider freed himself from the debris.
"THAT IS IT! I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU! WHEN YOU GET TO HELL, TELL THEM RIDER SENT YOU!" Rider screamed as a magic circle materialized before him.
Dante watched with intrigue as a beast clambered out of its depths.
First came the head, then the hooves, then the rest of its body.
Dante stared in awe at a creature that he had long thought to be nothing more than a fairy tale.
Standing tall, with its head held high, was a white pegasus.
"Holy shit!" Dante swore.
Caster wasn't quite as captivated by the beast.
'Master, get out of there! It's his Noble Phantasm!"
Dante cursed once more as he ran to Caster in hopes to get them both to safety.
"It's too late, Magus!" Rider cackled as he leapt atop the pegasus, and forced a golden set of reins upon it. "BELLEROPHON!"
The pegasus took flight and charged at Caster and Dante. The beast quickly became engulfed in a white light as it picked up speed.
All out of time and options, Dante did the only thing he could do. Dante huddled over Caster and shielded her with his body.
The construction site was engulfed in a bright light as Rider's Noble Phantasm decimated the area.
When the light had faded, construction more closely resembled a nuke testing site.
The only indication that it may may have once been a construction site were a few loose girders that had managed to survive the blast.
Everything else was a shallow crater.
Laying within the crater were Dante and Caster.
Caster looked herself over with blurry eyes and marveled that she had managed to survive with only few second degree burns.
Caster gasped when she saw the state of her Master.
He had taken the brunt of the damage, his entire torso drenched in his own blood.
She could see large pieces shrapnel from the destroyed construction equipment piercing through his back and out of his chest.
Caster grew teary-eyed at what, in her mind, was the direct result of her own weakness.
"Master, no! Please don't die!" Caster cried.
"Who said anything about dying?" Dante chuckled.
Caster watched in awe as Dante steadily rose to his feet while he removed the shrapnel from his body.
When Dante turned to face Rider, Caster's breath caught in her throat.
There was next to no skin on Dante's back. Instead, it was a mess of muscle and bone prominently displayed for any and all to see.
Much to Caster's morbid fascination, Dante's wounds began to heal at a rapid rate. She bore witness as muscles reconnected and skin regenerate. The gaping holes left behind by the removed shrapnel quickly closed over and left unmarred flesh in their place.
Dante looked back at his Servant before he murmured words that only they could hear.
Caster raised herself to a sitting position and nodded her understanding.
"What are you?" Rider screamed.
Dante shot him a cocky smirk before he faded from his line of sight.
His eyes widened in surprise when Dante blurred into existence directly in front of him.
'So fast!' Rider thought.
Rider doubled over as Dante drove his fist into his gut. It took all of his self-control to refrain from losing the contents of his stomach.
Dante struck the ground with Cerberus and channeled its icy power into the scorched earth. A small pillar of ice shot out of the ground and struck Rider in the chin with enough force to send him airborne.
Dante pursued him into the air and grabbed him by the collar of what was left of his cloak.
Rider was assaulted by blow after blow from Cerberus. Like earlier, every impact left behind a patch of jagged ice that steadily creeped over his body.
In a moment of desperation, Rider tried to weather the assault by blocking with his arm, only for the appendage to meet the same fate as the rest of his body.
After a particularly heavy blow to the chest, Rider entered a coughing fit as a small stream of blood seeped out from behind his mask.
With an angry shout, Dante slammed all three sections of Cerberus into Rider's gut and sent him rocketing into the ground.
Rider groaned in pain as he rose from his own personal crater.
With a tired grunt, Rider drove his scythe blade home into Dante's chest and straight through his heart.
A silver set of gauntlets and greaves materialized over Dante's limbs in a silvery light.
They were Beowulf, one of the only remaining traces of the demon of the same name.
Dante struck Rider in the ribs with his gauntleted fist.
He winced at the sound of Rider's ribs shattering under the force of the blow.
The blood leaking out of the confines of Rider's mask increased in volume,likely as a result of his organs being puncture by pieces of his ribs.
Dante stomped on Rider's foot and followed up with a solid hook to the face.
The inhuman power behind the blow sent Rider's battered body crashing along the ground.
"I was honestly expecting more from you, but you're so consumed by rage and bloodlust, it makes you sloppy and little better than an overpowered amateur," sighed Dante. I suppose it's about time we finish this, but first…" Dante trailed off as he snapped his fingers.
For a moment, it seemed like time stopped in a manner eerily reminiscent of Dante's Quicksilver technique. There was no sound and no movement other than the labored breathing of those in the construction site.
Silence gave way to screams over agony as the ice encasing Rider' arm closed like a cigar cutter. Rider desperately attempted to stem the flow of blood gushing from the stump that was once his right arm. Now, everything below the elbow lay limp on the ground, save for the occasional twitch of the fingers.
The nerves In his arm hadn't quite died out yet.
Dante wasn't normally one to be sadistic to his enemies, but Rider had pissed him off.
Dante didn't take well to his friends/allies being tortured.
It was a surefire way to set him off.
Dante lazily walked back to Caster. After he'd closed the distance Dante spoke.
"As promised, he's all yours."
Caster gave Dante an appreciative nod before she struggled back to her feet.
Caster's eyes gave an eery purple glow as she raised her arm to the sky.
The air above them slightly distorted, as if Fuyuki City had been struck by a heat wave.
The distortions quickly faded and were replaced by a dozen magic circles, each of roughly twice the size of a hubcap.
"Caeno!" cried Caster as she cast "Rain of Light" for the second time that evening.
Rider screamed as he was bombarded by the overwhelming power of her spell.
Despite not being a Noble Phantasm, the "Rain of Light" managed to hit with half the destructive power of Rider's "Bellerophon."
When the dust and debris cleared, Rider was nowhere to be seen. All that remained was a smoldering crater.
"Did you get him?" asked Dante.
Caster hesitated before answering.
"I don't sense him anymore, so I think so."
Dante gave a sigh of relief.
"That's good to hear. That guy was a dick!" said Dante.
Caster couldn't help herself and laughed at her Master's statement.
"I suppose that's a rather fitting description," she giggled.
Dante gave her a moment to sober up from her jovial state.
"I guess all that's left is to catch up with Lady and Saber," said Dante. "Would you care to do the honors?"
Caster smiled before she summoned a skeletal mount similar to Mr. Tweetums.
Dante stooped to pick up his shotgun, Ebony, and Ivory from their places on the ground, the coat that holstered them now nothing but a memory.
Good thing he had copies.
After collecting his guns, Dante joined Caster on the mount.
"Let's blow this joint before the cops show up," said Dante. He could already hear their sirens in the distance.
"As you wish, Master," agreed Caster.
With a silent command to her mount, Master and Servant soared into the night sky.
With Lady and Saber
Lady and Saber had spent the last several minutes scouring the streets from atop Lady's motorcycle. Fortunately, Heroic Spirits possessed the innate ability to sense the Command Seals of nearby Masters. This allowed Saber to act as a compass, her senses doing an excellent job of tracking down he unknown Servant and Master.
Their search had led them to the older sections of Fuyuki City where the housing primarily consisted of refurbished remnants of the Feudal Era.
"How much farther?" yelled Lady. The roar of the engine left Lady counting her blessings that Saber was able to hear her words.
"Just take this next left!" shouted a green-faced Saber.
'Man was not meant to move this quickly!' she thought to herself.
Saber nearly kissed ground in sweet relief when the motorcycle came to a screeching halt at the steps of a modest, single-story residence.
Saber swallowed the bile that had risen in her throat as she got off of the motorcycle.
Lady was much more composed as she removed herself from the vehicle with a grace that ignored the cumbersome weight of Kalina Ann and her staff slung across her back. She removed the dual CZ-75 handguns as she looked over their quarries.
One was a muscular man with tanned skin and spiky white hair. He was dressed in black leather armor and a red overcoat.
'Dante should really see about copyrighting his style,' she thought. This made two different men in as many nights that closely emulated Dante's wardrobe.
His companion was a teenage girl in a blouse and skirt with her black hair in pig tails.
It didn't take a genius to figure out who was who.
"So, you're the ones who have been tailing us. I must say, that bike of yours doesn't offer much in the way of stealth," said the man, his cold voice filled with mirth.
"I've never been one to ambush to my enemies," said Lady.
"That was foolish. You should take every opportunity to get the upper hand," the girl chided in a haughty tone that was so thick that Lady wouldn't have needed her translation spell to tell.
It really got on Lady's nerves.
Saber gave the girl a questioning look.
"Then why didn't you set up an ambush for us?" asked Saber.
The girl grew flustered at Saber's question.
"That's besides the point!" argued the girl in an obvious attempt to avoid the question.
Her companion quirked an eyebrow and looked at her in curiosity.
"She raises a valid point, Master. I'm curious as well."
"You're not helping, Archer," she grit out through clenched teeth.
Archer smirked in amusement at her angered state.
"If I wanted to see a bratty kid argue with her wise ass boyfriend, I would've stayed home and watched TV," Lady growled.
"I see you're not one to beat around the bush. I like that," she complimented. "Very well, let's get to it. Archer, attack," ordered the girl.
Archer's hands were enveloped in a hazy green glow as twin swords materialized within his hands.
One blade was black with a hexagonal pattern and the other was white with a clouded finish to the grey metal.
Side by side, the blades embodied the very concept of Yin and Yang.
"As you command," said Archer before he charged towards Lady, intent on cutting her down.
His efforts were thwarted when Saber met his charge with her crimson blade: Aestus Estus.
Sparks danced in the air as steel grated against steel.
Saber forcefully shoved against Archer's blade with her own. The additional force sent him off balance and staggering back.
With Archer's guard down, Saber took the opportunity to slash at Archer's stomach with Aestus Estus.
Archer leant back with his momentum and backflipped out of the reach of Saber's blade.
After landing, Archer kicked off the ground and darted towards Saber, his blades poised to eviscerate.
Saber brought her sword around and into a parry, only to meet empty air. Archer had sidestepped at the last second and attempted to behead her with his black blade.
Saber ducked and brought Archer down with a well-placed leg sweep.
Archer went into a handstand and halted his fall. A loud boom rang through the night as Archer trapped Aestus Estus between his feet mid-swing.
He could feel his muscles burn in protest with his efforts to halt the blade's advance. Archer winced in pain as he wrenched his aching legs to the side and yanked Saber off balance.
Saber quickly regained her footing and brought up her sword in a sloppy attempt to parry Archer's cross-slash.
She was partially successful as she batted away one of the blades, but earned a small nick on the arm from the other sword.
Saber retaliated with a heavy, two-handed horizontal slash that Archer barely managed to repel with his twin blades.
While he was able to block the attack itself, there was no way of mitigating the force behind it. As it was, the force of the swing sent him skidding back several feet.
He uncrossed his swords and shifted into a lazy stance that was filled with openings.
"Is that all? How boring," Archer taunted in a smug tone.
Not one to take an insult lying down, Saber ran at Archer.
She thrust Aestus Estus at his side, in one of his stance's many openings.
Archer batted away the strike with his white sword and attempted to slash her throat with his black blade, only to be blocked.
Saber narrowed her eyes in suspicion before attempting to exploit his hole-ridden stance.
Saber made to bisect him at the waist. She was thwarted when her target leapt on top of the blade and attempted to kick her in the temple.
Saber swung her sword like a bat and forced Archer to vacate his perch.
He landed lightly on his feet and reassumed his earlier stance.
"So I was right," Saber remarked as she took note of the nearby gunshots. "You leave openings in your guard so you can counter-attack at the last possible second. Some might say it's the stance of a man with a death wish."
Archer let out a humorless chuckle. "People can say what they want. It suits my needs well enough," Archer said as he tightened his grip on his swords.
Saber lightly bent her legs and raised her sword in a ready position.
"If you have a death wish, I'll be happy to grant it!" Saber declared.
She went on the attack and assaulted Archer with a lightning quick flurry of sword strikes.
Archer met her blow for blow and managed to avoid injury by the skin of his teeth time and time again.
After an absurdly long string of close calls, Saber was able to break the pattern and nick Archer in the side with her blade.
Archer hissed in pain but continued to fight.
He managed to trap the tip of Aestus Estus between his two blades before he slammed his foot into Saber's stomach.
The air left Saber's lungs as she flew backwards several feet.
Saber managed to correct herself and land daintily on her feet.
'At this rate, I'll have no choice but to use it' thought Saber.
She honed in on the connection born of the contract formed between Master and Servant and traced the invisible thread connecting her to Lady.
She followed the thread to the very end where it originated from Lady's sizable mana reserves.
She tapped into that well of power and siphoned off a small amount for her own use. Saber could feel her body hum in excitement as her very being was filled with the sampling of Lady's power.
One could dress it up any way they like, but the connection between a Master and Servant was parasitic in nature. Servants required mana to maintain their connection to the mortal plain. No more mana means no more Servant.
The Magus would be further sapped of their mana as a means to heal any non-fatal wounds sustained by their Servants and, should the Servant desire it, augment their fighting ability.
Saber glared at Archer before she disappeared from his line of sight.
"Where did she-" Archer was unable to finish articulating his thought as he was forced to dodge an incoming strike from Saber.
Unable to compensate for her boost in speed, Archer sustained a light gash in his side.
Archer cursed as he was forced to take a purely defensive approach to the fight. Said defense was substandard at best as he sustained minor injuries despite his efforts.
Archer growled and filled his being with his Master's mana.
Two could play that game.
No longer was Archer forced to defend as he was once again able to match his opponent blow for blow.
The night became rife with the sound of air being rapidly displaced by their empowered strikes.
Saber scowled over losing her momentary disadvantage as the playing field was even once more.
She unleashed a rapid flurry of slashes upon Archer only to have her every strike blocked or countered.
Saber's mouth opened in an angry yell as she brought her sword down in an overhead blow.
Aestus Estus cratered the road as her target leapt out of range.
'It seems I've no choice,' Saber thought as she channeled mana into the sigils that had been placed on her sword the previous night.
Lady had written several symbols on the blade that pertained to her own particular brand of magic. The symbols she used, when placed upon an object, essentially turned that object into a sponge for kinetic energy. With the objects every movement, it would absorb the kinetic energy generated and store it away for later use. While typically expelled in one go, it was possible to use that energy in small bursts.
With the exceptional force and speed behind her every swing in her fight against Archer, she had stored a considerable amount of energy into Aestus Estus.
Unfortunately, the effects of the spell would be weakened as the sigils would typically be carved into an object rather than written.
Lady would have had an easier time carving them into diamond than she would a Noble Phantasm.
Saber became a blur as she bolted towards Archer, her sword wreathed in a purple light.
Archer was barely able to bring his swords up to block in time.
His eyes widened in surprise as he flew with the force of a cannon and smashed into the concrete wall surrounding a nearby backyard.
'It seems I'm left with no choice' Archer thought as he scowled at having to reveal his trump card so early.
"Trace On."
At his command, nearly two dozen swords materialized in their with their blades pointed firmly at Saber.
With a flick of Archer's wrist, Saber was forced to dodge, duck, and block as she advanced upon Archer.
Once she closed the distance, Saber saw that Archer had disappeared from where he was embedded in the wall.
He had used the confusion of his attack to make himself scarce.
Saber's eyes darted around the street, in search of her adversary.
'He's not to the left or right, and he's not behind me. That means he must be-' Saber was forced to abandon her train of thought when she brought up Aestus Estus to block Archer's aerial assault.
The dual blades slammed into her own with unforgiving force strong enough to create a burst of wind. Mixed with the kinetic enhancements of her blade, the resulting collision formed a heavy crater in the street and broke the bulbs of several streetlights.
Archer disengaged and used Aestus Estus as a platform to leap back from Saber.
She felt a small satisfaction when she saw that Archer no longer had that cold smirk on his face.
'I guess that's one small victory for me,' Saber thought before she reengaged.
With Lady and Rin
"I guess that just leaves you and me," Lady said as she felt a small sense of relief that she would be facing the Master instead of the Servant.
"How unfortunate for you," she said as she fished a steel plate out of her backpack. "I wouldn't want our battles to draw any attention. She placed the steel plate adjacent to a garden wall and channeled a small amount of mana into it.
"It's my own personal, portable bounded field. It was a pain to make but I think the results were worth it. Now we don't have to worry about any civilians noticing our battle,"
Lady whistled in appreciation. "That's some impressive work for someone so young." Lady regarded her with a flat stare.
"If you would be so kind, I'd like to know who it is I'm fighting tonight," Lady said.
The raven-haired girl swept back one of her ponytails and gave Lady a haughty look.
"I don't know how you do it where you're from, but in Japan it's proper manners to give your name before asking someone for theirs," she lectured.
"You can call me Lady,"
The teenage girl's eye started to twitch in irritation.
"That's not a name! Who would ever name their daughter Lady?" she ranted.
Lady just gave her a cheeky smile in response.
The black-haired girl took a deep, calming breath before she shakily exhaled.
"Fine, be that way. My name is Rin Tohsaka and I'm afraid that you have to die tonight," Rin said.
"You can try, little girl," Lady taunted before she opened fire with her twin handguns.
At the same time, Rin had brought up her hand, a mouse-sized ruby clenched in her fist. The ruby slowly began to crack as it released energy in the form of a small force field.
The bullets were left to impact harmlessly against the shield and clatter to the ground.
Lady was admittedly impressed. The amount of energy required to block bullets was far from inconsiderable.
Granted, she was channeling mana into the runes on her guns that reduced the velocity and piercing ability of the bullets by increasing the level of resistance they faced when exiting the barrel of the gun.
Lady wasn't about to murder a teenage girl in cold blood.
Lady holstered her guns and withdrew her staff from her back.
She slammed the tip of her staff into the grand and uttered her first spell of the night.
"Geodas!" Lady empowered the chant with her Will and mana with the desired results.
The ground below Rin quickly started to collapse on itself as a sinkhole was formed.
A frantic Rin was barely able to jump back in time to avoid being swallowed by the earth.
Lady wasted no time in taking advantage of Rin's distraction and chanted her next spell.
"Fuego!" Lady uttered as a fireball the size of a softball shot out of the tip of her staff and sped into the open sinkhole.
"Ha! You missed!" Rin jeered.
A sly smirk quickly formed on Lady's face. "No, I didn't." As soon as the last syllable left her mouth, fire erupted from the sinkhole. Lady's fire spell had ignited the gases that had built up in the sewers beneath them.
Lady cast a quick glance at the several sewer vents located parallel to the sidewalk.
Luckily for them, they provided enough ventilation that the build up of gases in the sewer had lessened to a great degree,.
Otherwise, the explosion would have been much larger.
As it was, a sizable chunk of the street behind the sink hole had been obliterated.
Lady frowned as she realized she had lost sight of Rin in the smoke.
'Where did she go?' Lady thought.
Her question was answered in the form of Rin leaping high in the air, a mana-soaked gem clutched in her hand. Rin was unscathed for the most part, bearing only minor burns on her legs and a slightly singed skirt.
Lady silently noted the glowing, greenish circuit board patterns on her legs, a sure fire sign of Reinforcement magic. It was likely how she had escaped the blast.
Rin hurled the gem at Lady.
Lady's eyes widened at the tangible pool of mana infused into the jewel. The wealth of mana wreathed the jewel I the form of a blue shroud.
"Defendarius!" Lady chanted before she surrounded herself with a sphere-shaped shield of blue energy.
Lady could only hope it was strong enough to weather the blast.
The jewel collided with Lady's shield and promptly detonated.
As luck would have it, her shield wasn't strong enough.
It stood fast for a couple of seconds before it buckled underneath the might of the jewel's explosive power.
Lady was temporarily blinded by the ensuing flash of light and was catapulted several yards away.
She grunted as she hit the ground and grimaced at the feel and sound of her ribs cracking. Lady shakily rose to her feet while she used her staff to steady herself.
Lady's eyes widened in surprise when she noticed Rin dashing madly in her direction, her arm outstretched with her hand making a crude imitation of a gun. A black and red ball of mana coalesced upon the tip of her index finger.
Her hand may have been shaped like a pistol, but it had the firing rate of an automatic rifle as she cranked out several "bullets" like she was some sort of human assembly line.
Lady thrust out her free hand, the tarnished medallion of St. Mary hanging from her wrist.
She channeled mana and her very will into the small piece of metal.
The pentacle engraved on the back shined brightly as it produced a transparent and almost invisible barrier.
Lady sucked her teeth in a slight bout of anxiety. What she was doing was incredibly stupid and she knew it.
The odds of her being able to withstand such an attack without sustaining some form of damage were incredibly slim.
But it was her best shot at the moment.
She grimaced when the first shot rammed into her shield.
By design, her shield was meant to evenly spread the force of any attack so as to reduce the risk of the shield being punctured.
Nonetheless, the force of the blow was still there.
Lady was sent skidding back as she withstood the barrage of magical bullets.
Several times, Lady felt afraid that she would lose her footing as she steadily felt herself lose her purchase in the ground.
Lady thanked whatever higher power existed when the rapid fire assault came to an end and dispersed her shield.
She counted her blessings too soon. Soon after the bullets stopped, Lady felt her ears ring when she was punched in the cheek with no small amount of force.
She spiraled to the ground while her head reeled from the power behind the strike. Through her ringing ears, she faintly registered the sound of her wizard's staff clattering to the ground.
The groggy magus managed to roll to the side in the nick of time and avoided having her skull stomped.
Lady muttered a minor spell to clear her head before she jumped backwards and onto her feet.
Her hand was hidden by her coat pockets before they were just as quickly removed, a pair of items clutched in her fist.
The items were revealed to be a chrome-tinted set of brass knuckles. Lady slipped them on and rose her fists in a boxer's stance.
The older magus tested the waters and threw a tentative jab at Rin's face.
Rin tilted her head and retaliated with a palm to the ribs. Lady leaned away and successfully landed a right hand hook to the jaw.
Rin countered with a palm strike to Lady's shoulder.
Lady's duster came to the rescue, the enchantments placed upon the coat protected her from the blow. Without it, her shoulder joint would have been smashed to pieces.
'Great, she's using Reinforcement to augment her blows,' Lady thought.
Lady ducked under a punch to the face and assaulted Rin with multiple jabs to the stomach.
Lady felt guilt well up within her when she heard the sound of the teenage girl's ribs cracking.
Lady let out a surprised yelp when she was roughly tugged by the hair. But that was nothing compared to having a fist slam into the bridge of her nose.
Lady shouted at the sensation of the cartilage being broken by Rin's fist.
Lady's lips were quickly wetted by the blood that trickled out of her nose.
She hooked her arm around Rin's thigh and tugged.
Rin was unable to stop herself from landing on her back after being pulled off balance.
However, she was able to roll away from the boot that was quickly descending upon her face.
Rin returned the favor by taking Lady's legs out from under her with a well-placed leg sweep.
Lady exhibited a remarkable degree of dexterity as she shifted her fall into a backflip, making sure the toe of her boot made contact with Rin's chin.
Rin snarled and rained a flurry of blows upon Lady.
Lady was hard-pressed to defend, Rin's blows bolstered by a burning fury that hadn't been present earlier.
Lady blocked and defended what she could and counter attacked when a window of opportunity presented itself.
After nearly a minute, the two combatants were left haggard and beaten.
Rin was left to bear the pain of three broken ribs, a split lip, and a broken left arm.
Lady was also injured, her internal organs undoubtedly sustaining heavy bruising. Her mobility was compromised, her ankle heavily fractured.
Lady took the chance to snap her nose back in place and snorted out the blood that had built up in her nasal passages.
"You're good," Lady panted.
"You're not so bad yourself for an old lady," Rin huffed with fatigue.
"You cheeky brat. I think it's time you got put down for a nap," Lady quipped before unholstering her CZ-75 handgun. She took careful aim at Rin's forehead and sent a strong channel of mana into the gun, enough to reduce the bullet's speed to hit her with just enough force to knock her out.
Lady let out a shaky breath and prepared to pull the trigger.
She hesitated upon hearing the sound of an unfamiliar shout.
"Tohsaka!"
Lady chanced a look and saw that the culprit was a teenage boy with amber eyes and short red hair.
"Get away from her!" he growled, failing miserably to intimidate Lady in the slightest.
"Shirou, you idiot! Get out of here!" Rin yelled.
Shirou shook his head in protest. "We're in an alliance, remember? That means I'm not just going to leave you here to die!"
Lady's eyes widened at his words, just now registering what her actions might look like from someone else's viewpoint.
"Kid, I'm not going to-" Lady was prevented from completing her explanation as a shining, green summoning circle came to life in the middle of the street.
A familiar crowd of high-pitched, maniacal laughter hit Lady's ears.
'What? They're showing up now of all times!' Lady thought.
She confirmed what she already knew when a mob of grotesque creatures materialized in the summoning circle that took up half of the street.
There were macabre marionettes with blades for limbs, and floating shrouds of darkness that wielded red scythes. To top it all off, there were several hooded creatures in ratty brown cloaks.
"Demons!" Lady snarled.
Rin paled at Lady's statement.
"Archer, get us out of here!" Rin commanded.
Archer heeded her call and collected both her and a protesting Shirou, before he bounded off.
"We'll have to settle this another time!" Archer yelled at Saber, who had chosen that moment to reappear next to Lady.
"I shall be the victor, I assure you!" Saber declared.
He gave no indication he had heard her challenge, Saber's words possibly drowned out by Shirou's shouts.
"We can't just leave them!" Shirou yelled off in the distance.
"It seems it's just you and me until Dante and Caster get here," Lady said as she took in Saber's less than stellar state of dress. "You look like crap."
While crude, Lady's statement hit the mark.
In her fight with Archer, she had accrued several injuries, her dress having taken a great deal of damage as well. The sleeves to Saber's dress were reduced to tatters with her skirt ripped in several places.
"Why, I never!" Saber gasped. "Even upon emerging from the battlefield, I still look glorious!"
Lady rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say. You up for one more fight?" Lady asked, knowing full well what Saber's answer would be.
"But of course Praetor!" Saber declared.
Saber raised her sword, the work of steel held steadily in her strong grip.
Lady stowed her brass knuckles away in her coat and slung Kalina Ann off her back.
The marionettes clumsily charged, some of their limbs sloppily grinding against the asphalt.
Lady aimed down the sights and pulled the trigger. With a loud 'whoosh' the rocket streaked out of the barrel. The marionettes didn't even have time to scream as they were blasted into bits and pieces.
Saber wasn't about to let Lady have all the fun.
Saber attacked a cluster of hooded demons; Hell Prides, and weaved between every swing of their scythes. She quickly disposed of them with fluid swings of her blade.
She couldn't stop herself from smirking at how weak they were.
Clearly they weren't as strong as they were creepy.
Too bad.
Aestus Estus cleaved through the air and sent a condensed beam of magic at one of the flying specters. It was unprepared, able to do nothing but give a garbled screech before a bloody mass fell from the confines of the cloak.
It looked like a cross between a tumor and a demonic scorpion.
The demon flailed weakly before growing still.
Saber regarded the monstrosity with disgust. Demons were truly abominable creatures.
Saber jumped back into the fray, hacking and slashing at any demon that was unfortunate enough to get in her way.
Lady was doing an admirable job of fending off the demon horde.
Any demons she didn't kill from afar with Kalina Ann, she butchered with the kukri machete that had been strapped to her leg.
Lady scowled as she drove her machete through the skull of a Hell Pride before she decapitated three of its brethren.
A Hell Pride that was much smaller than the others, had snuck past her guard and slammed the blade of its scythe in Lady's back.
The leather duster did its job and saved her from agonizing impalement. Instead, the strike was converted into blunt force and knocked her to the ground.
Lady scrambled into a sitting position and locked eyes with the small demon. Without thinking twice, she drove her foot into its skull, removing the aged and decayed skull from the demon's shoulder.
Lady staggered to her feet as her body finally registered the ache and fatigue from her fight with Rin.
Rin may have been young, but Lady wouldn't deny that she was an exceptionally skilled Magus.
"Saber, stand next to me!" Lady commanded.
Saber disengaged from the demons she was fighting and took her place by Lady's side. "If you have something planned, I suggest you do it fast!" Saber yelled.
Lady analyzed her surroundings, checking her odds of success. Satisfied, Lady closed her eyes and slowed her breathing.
With a level of familiarity that only years of experience could breed, Lady released the flood gates of the mental dam that held back her magic. She would need all of it for what she was about to do.
Her eyes snapped open, the two orbs overtaken by cold, blue glow.
"Infriga forzare!" Lady intoned.
The effects of the spell became immediately noticeable as the already chilly night air dropped to freezing temperatures. With every exhale, Saber could see her breath become visible in an icy mist.
It only grew colder, the streets, the asphalt, and even the streetlights were swiftly encroached upon by ice. In a matter of seconds, they were frozen solid.
They weren't alone in their fate, the demons reduced to the world's most unholy ice cubes.
Lady smiled at her work, happy that her plan had succeeded.
She was unable to bask in that feeling as darkness began to overtake her vision.
The last thing she heard before falling unconscious was the sound of Dante calling her name.
Well, that does it for chapter 2 of A Not So Holy Grail War!
Sorry for the wait, but as you can see it was much longer than the first.
Anyhow, I hope you all liked the chapter.
Did you see something you liked? Something you didn't?
Let me know in the reviews. Constructive criticism is welcomed.
(1) I gave Rider his scythe from the mobile game. The pictures on the wiki looked pretty lame.
I love you all,
Sayonara!
