The five Hassans exited their Presence Concealment as they each threw half a dozen daggers the two Rins' way. Saber wrapped an arm around Rin's waist and summoned her Azoth Sword. The crimson Servant still wasn't much of a swordsman, but she was competent enough to knock away all the daggers in a couple swings.
Things happened so fast that the human Rin finally couldn't initially perceive what was happening. When her senses did catch up, she pulled out a gem to attack the Assassins with, but stopped when she noticed the way the assailants looked. They all stood at the edges of the room, each possessing a white mask reminiscent of a skull. What was unusual was that besides the masks, the Assassins looked like normal people. One was a man in a business suit, another was a teenage girl in a school uniform, a third was a man in casual clothes, the fourth was an old lady, and the fifth was a little girl. They looked entirely mundane. It could have been some sort of disguise to throw their enemies off, but that didn't feel right. The magical energy of the quintet was noticeably focused on their masks rather than at their hearts or heads like normal Servants. The magical energy of the masks was radiating outward and infusing into the bodies of the five Assassins.
These were normal humans. The masks were the true form of Assassin. The Servant possessed those that wore its masks. Assassin wasn't even trying to hide it, they were actively making it clear what was happening. They wanted to make it transparent that, if Assassin's bodies were slain, it would lead to the deaths of their vessels. It was to force Saber and her allies to hold back to avoid hurting the possessed civilians.
Rin clicked her tongue and, rather than throw her jewels, fired off a series of Gandr at two of the Hassans to try and knock them out. The two civilians dodged around the bullets as they ran at the two Rins along with the other three Hassans. Assassin hadn't just taken the people over, but had powered them up to the level of a Servant. Saber was surrounded so she jumped up and right through the ceiling, taking Rin with her. They went right through the church's roof and into the air above. The Sun was still shining overhead. The fact Assassin would audaciously attack during the day revealed how little the Black Grail cared about keeping a low profile. The five Assassins jumped after the crimson pair which meant they were following a clear line of movement that could be predicted. Rin fired more Gandr while the Assassins were stuck in midair, but they threw daggers that collided with the magic shots, the attacks destroying each other. The old lady grabbed the little girl and threw her towards Saber and Rin, making the child fly faster than the other Assassins.
Saber's blade clashed with the dagger of the child, the little girl angling her weapon so the edge slid down the length of the crimson Servant's sword. Sparks flew as the dagger slipped off the Azoth Sword and headed straight for Rin's face. Saber yanked her Master out of the way of the child's swing before plunging the butt of her sword's handle towards the kid's mask. It was likely that the child would be freed once the mask was broken.
The sword stopped in its tracks as Saber saw the little girl hold a dagger up to her own neck. She was holding herself hostage. 'Hit me and I'll kill this little girl.' That was Assassin's message. The true nefariousness of this Servant's nature was revealed. While Saber, her Master, and the little girl all began falling back down, the other four Hassans continued their ascent towards them while they threw more daggers. Saber was about to knock the knives away, but the little girl pressed their blade into their own neck, piercing the skin a bit. 'Defend yourself and the kid dies.'
Saber refused to let her Master get hit, so she held her out of reach of the knives, the weapons driving into the crimson Servant's body. She had at least twenty or so daggers sticking out of her, though her Spirit Core remained unharmed.
A Gandr fired from Rin's finger and shattered the dagger in the little girl's hand, the magus taking advantage of a blindspot in the child's vision created when Saber pulled Rin away from the knives. The kid didn't see it coming, nor did she see it coming when Saber smacked the mask on the little girl's face with the flat side of her sword. The visage of a skull crumbled and the true face of the child was revealed. She was unconscious which was good since she wouldn't panic that way.
Rin tried to grab the kid with her remaining arm, but she couldn't get a good grip since she only had a thumb and no other digits so the child slipped out of her grasp towards the four other possessed civilians. The remaining Hassans were close enough that two were able to thrust their daggers at the freed little girl while the other two stabbed at the two Rins. They were trying to force Saber to pick between protecting herself and her Master, or the little girl.
Since neither was a preferable option, Saber chose to save all of them. A sphere of black and red formed at the tip of Saber's finger. She too could use Gandr, but she had far more experience than the living Rin in using the technique. The crimson Servant had mastered the spell to the point that she was able to fire off four shots simultaneously, each aimed at one of the masks of the four remaining Hassans. They moved so fast and the Assassins were so close to Saber that there was no way to avoid getting hit. All four masks turned to dust and the civilians were freed from their possession. The Hassans had made a mistake in following Saber into the air where their ability to maneuver quickly, their greatest advantage, was lost.
The five unconscious innocents fell while Saber fired a ball of green from her finger which flew past them and hit the floor of Rin and Sakura's room. The sphere exploded into an updraft that rose through the hole in the roof and slowed the descent of the civilians, as well as the two Rins. They all landed on the floor of the bedroom gently.
"Are you okay, Rin?"
"I'm fine. Can you keep fighting?"
"I can't say no since the fight's far from done. Just give me a second." Saber dropped to a knee as she began pulling out the knives littering her body.
The building rumbled as the fighting continued in other rooms. Saber wanted to tell Rin to grab the civilians and take them somewhere safe, away from the church grounds, but considering the nature of this Assassin, there were likely some Hassans at the perimeter that were waiting for anyone attempting to escape. They couldn't leave the civilians alone or some Assassins might find and use them as hostages again. There was no way that Saber and Rin could guard the civilians while also going to help others being attacked. Saber couldn't leave Rin to protect them by herself since she'd be dead in seconds if more Hassans attacked her. There was no good option.
"We need to get these people to safety." Rin dragged the unconscious civilians closer together. "We'll escort them somewhere safe together and then come back."
"Is there anywhere safe? Even if we aren't attacked, some hidden Assassins could follow us and grab the civilians after we leave so they can use them as hostages." Saber got back on her feet while her magical energy knit her wounds closed.
"It's possible, but this is the best option we have right now." Rin lifted the man in the suit onto her back. "Sorry, but I can only hold one person since I still have one arm. Can you-"
"I've got them all." Saber used a telekinesis spell that levitated all the unconscious civilians into the air around her, including the one Rin had lifted onto her back. "Let's not waste time."
Rin nodded before the two jumped out the window and landed on the path to the church gate, the floating people following behind them.
It was then that Saber sensed a new Servant. No, it wasn't that they were new. This Servant had been approaching the church at a leisurely pace while everyone was preoccupied with Assassin. The multiple bodies all throughout the church giving off Servant level power masked the presence of this external threat. It was only upon coming outside that this golden haired man could be detected. He stood atop the closed gate and looked down at the two Rins while wearing a smirk that screamed that he was in a fanciful mood. As for actual attire, he wore golden jewelry and his hair was spiked up. He was dressed in casual clothes consisting of a black button up shirt, white pants, and snakeskin shoes.
This man's outfit was unfamiliar, but he otherwise perfectly fit the description of Gilgamesh, the biggest obstacle in the way of destroying the Greater Grail.
"So it is you two who shall entertain me, for now at least." The man put his hands on his hips.
"I assume you are the King of Heroes." Saber slowly put down all the people she was carrying.
"I am. Rejoice for you have been blessed with having my attention."
"What might you be doing at our humble church? I'm sorry to say, but we're entertaining other guests right now so we're not equipped to fully receive you."
"I'm aware. I originally wasn't a part of this operation, but I found myself growing tired of waiting for the Grail to finish gestating, and so I took the liberty of coming here to avail myself of my boredom." The king's smile grew wider. "I was also planning on taking my Saber back with me. She is to be my bride after all."
"I assume you mean Artoria."
"Who else but her could be worthy of being mine?" The king waved his hand as if brushing away something. "Neither of you are to my tastes."
"Perhaps you need your eyes checked if you can't see my obvious appeal." Rin said with a smirk of her own.
"Cheeky. You are lucky I'm in a whimsical mood or that statement would have caused your head to become estranged from your shoulders."
"I'll keep that in mind for the future. So how do you want us to entertain you? I can't imagine you mean to have us face you in combat. We're obviously outmatched. We could just keep talking if you'd like."
"While I do find you a half-descent conversationalist, I am in the mood to do combat. I acknowledge that you two are out of your depth against me, and so I am gracious enough to restrain myself to only certain items and methods of combat. My full strength would end this in an instant."
"How gracious." Saber stepped forward with her sword at the ready. Rin stood in front of the civilians to protect them from any stray attacks.
"Let's begin." Golden ripples appeared behind Gilgamesh.
"Pseudo-Edelsteine.
Fünf Sterne im Umlauf!
Viel Licht braucht polarisierte Gläser, Verbinden Sie sich mit Ihren Träumen.
Meine Hände halten viele Spiegel."
Saber's incantation coincided with her projecting five differently colored gemstones that were each preloaded with a different spell.
From Gilgamesh's gates came several bolts of lightning, human forgeries of the arms of Zeus. They were nowhere near the level of the weapon they imitated, but they were both fast and deadly.
"Die Instrumente wurden gestimmt.
Gelbe Nummer vier.
Schwerter zerschlagen Blitze."
Activating one of the jewels, it shot upward and acted as a lighting rod that pulled away Gilgamesh's bolts. The lighting struck the gem and a storm of electricity was created overhead as they detonated. Pseudo-Edelsteine was the perfect counter technique to any offensive, even ones of a higher caliber than one's own level. Multiple spells are prepared ahead of time to be quickly unleashed at will, allowing Saber to pick whatever element would be best suited to defend against whatever her opponent does. The four remaining jewels faded away as they could only last for a few seconds.
"A clever little spell." Gilgamesh jumped down from the gate, landing on the ground while pulling a scythe out of more golden ripples. He dashed forward and swung at Saber who raised her blade to block, only for the scythe to pass right through the sword as if it weren't there. The crimson Servant did a backflip, her body arching out of range of the slash before she landed back on her feet. Gilgamesh put his scythe back in his armory and pulled out a curved short sword that was a pale blue. Saber projected several jewels and infused her magical energy into them using her Mana Burst(Gem) skill. Six jewels, each carrying a different spell, all fired at the King of Heroes, but he just swung his new blade which created a trail of ice that formed a wall. The frigid partition took the brunt of the six spells and shattered. A vortex of wind came from the other side of the destroyed wall, invisible cutters of wind slicing across Saber's flesh repeatedly as she was sucked towards the source of the gale. Gilgamesh was wielding a lance whose tip was composed of four swords that rotated together like a drill to create the vortex. To stop Saber from getting pulled into the lance, Rin threw a gem from the sidelines that exploded into flames, the heat throwing off the flow of the vortex and dispersing it. Saber swung her Azoth Sword and Gilgamesh pulled out an invisible blade that he blocked with. Above him, portals opened up and out shot a Chinese halberd, a golden ax, and a vajra. The weapons missed Saber as she leapt out of the way and they impacted with the ground so hard that a crater was formed that took up a majority of the space between the gate and the church.
Saber checked on her master after that last attack and saw that she had taken the civilians and went out of range of destruction. That shift in attention left Saber open, golden gates opening all around her. Magic staves came out and fired various spells that came at the crimson Servant. There was no time to activate Pseudo-Edelsteine or Rho Aias so Saber just created a standard magical barrier around herself. It took the initial hit, but it broke quickly and so the dregs of the multiple spells hit Saber. She endured the damage, but Gilgamesh followed up by summoning a building sized sword above her, the weapon falling while horizontal as if it were the blade of a guillotine. Saber dodged out of the way, but the shockwave created by the sword's impact with the ground blew her through the air. She was unable to control her trajectory and so she was open for Gilgamesh to fire several more Noble Phantasms at her. That was what Saber expected Gilgamesh was going to do so she preemptively summoned a dozen gems with preloaded spells and fired them all at once without incantation in as an advanced form of her Pseudo-Edelsteine. The various spells couldn't stop the oncoming salvo of weapons, but they were able to divert their trajectories to make them miss. Unfortunately, all those weapons proceeded to do u-turns in the air, Gilgamesh apparently having predicted Saber's response and thus used homing Noble Phantasms. There was no way for the Servant in red to dodge and she'd need to use more power in order to destroy the approaching Noble Phantasms. It was time to use full power.
"Jeweled Sword Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg!"
At the call of its true name, a staff that resembled a blade appeared in Saber's free hand. It was made out of a crystalline substance and it was the one of the two armaments that earned Rin Tohsaka the class of Saber. The weapon began to be filled with a rainbow of colors as it accessed the magical energy of myriad parallel worlds. The bizarre armament was beyond normal Noble Phantasms and could be classed as one of the greatest objects humanity ever produced. It was a true and perfect replication of the legendary weapon of Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg which Rin recreated to earn her position as the next Magician of the Second Magic. It was one of the two apexes of Rin's achievements as a magus. The chromatic shine of the sword grew intense as more magical energy gathered within it. This was the power of the Multi-Dimensional Refraction Phenomenon, the power to draw upon alternate timelines to attack with power great enough to push back a falling replica of the moon. This was the weapon of the man who bested Crimson Moon, an Ultimate One. The Jewel Sword's light reached a peak as the homing Noble Phantasms were about to reach Saber.
"Gebühr, zweihaunder!" Saber cried as she swung the Jewel Sword and fired a beam of light so grand that it turned the approaching Noble Phantasms into nothing in the blink of an eye. It was a radiance that streaked across the daytime sky and outshone the Sun itself. The light was so fast and focused that the land didn't shake despite the Noble Phantasm's power. The air the beam passed through was annihilated and thus a vacuum remained in its wake which pulled in the surrounding atmosphere. Saber landed on her feet and faced Gilgamesh with poise and determination. Even if she was facing the King of Heroes, the Jewel Sword gave her more than enough power to win.
"That is a brilliant Noble Phantasm you have." Gilgamesh crossed his arms. "I wasn't expecting something like that from a mongrel."
"You shouldn't be so quick to underestimate others."
"My initial impressions of others are almost always correct. You are a rare exception that has exceeded my expectations. I really am glad I came here today."
Rin was no longer posed ready to fight at the sidelines, instead just standing in amazement at what her alternate self just did. She actually had a perfect replica of the Jeweled Sword Zelretch. It must have been like seeing someone who had achieved all you had ever hoped to do, except that person was Rin herself in this case. She now knew she was capable of achieving her dreams, of making her father proud and carrying on the legacy of the Tohsakas. It would definitely be a confidence boost for Rin which she could use right now given how badly her argument with Sakura made her feel.
"I think I want that sword." Gilgamesh tilted his head to the side. "I guess I'll have to take it from you. It will disappear if I kill you before I take it, but I should be able to keep it if I put it in my treasury and then kill you."
"I never took you for a thief, King Gilgamesh. Then again, you did steal the trees of the Cedar Forest."
"I am no thief. All things of value in the world inherently belong to me. I consider your sword valuable and thus it is mine."
"Sorry, but I'll never let you have my Jewel Sword. I worked very hard making it and I think my mentor would be mad at me if I lost it." Saber stayed in her fighting stance, now with more confidence in heart than before thanks to her Jewel Sword having proven effective.
"I have little interest in your Master's feelings and neither should you, given it is unlikely that you will live past today." The blonde man reached his arms into two golden portals. "To forcibly take the weapon from you would be tedious and I'm feeling generous, so how about a trade?" Gilgamesh pulled out various objects from his treasury, from jewelry, to weapons, to coins. All of them were intricately designed to be as visually appealing as possible.
"You want to trade for my Jewel Sword?"
"As I said, I'm in a giving mood. What do you desire? I have everything you could ever wish for. Wealth? Power? Immortality? I have them all in abundance."
"I have no wish for you to grant." Saber's grip on her weapon tightened.
"Then how about your Master? Little girl." Gilgamesh addressed Rin. "What does your heart desire?"
"Nothing you could make happen." Rin put her hands on her hips.
"Don't be so sure about that. Tell me what you want more than anything."
"It's none of your business."
The blonde man's smile widened which, when paired with his eyes, made him look like a serpent related to the one that tempted Adam and Eve.
"You want to protect your sister and take away her suffering."
Both Rins lost their composure, the human Rin stumbling back as if just struck from Gilgamesh's surprise knowledge.
"H-How d-d-d-do you know that?" Rin's voice came out in stutters.
"You did not think you knew of all of my Noble Phantasms, did you? I know all that I desire to know and that includes the guilt you feel towards your little sister, Sakura. She was tortured and broken, and while you helped her move forward, you can never truly take her pain away. All your efforts to do so merely suffocate her and make her spiteful towards you." Gilgamesh was exactly right. It didn't just describe how Rin felt towards Sakura, but it wasn't far off from Saber's relationship with her own Sakura.
"What does it matter?" Rin yelled. "Unless your vault has eternal happiness or a cure for PTSD in it, then there's nothing you have that we want!"
"Oh, but I do have those things." Gilgamesh returned the many treasures he was holding to his treasury and pulled something new out. It was a clear bottle that was just as immaculate in its design as the previous items. Inside the vessel was a teal liquid that glowed in a way that made Saber imagine it was a jewel in liquid form. "This is the Potion of Youth. Any who partake of it will be returned to their childhood in both body and personality."
"And how does that help Sakura?" Saber was suspicious of where Gilgamesh was going with this.
"If Sakura imbibes enough of this drink, then she will be returned to her status before she was traumatized."
"Nice try. You mentioned that the body and personality regress, but what about the memories? If they stay the same, then Sakura's trauma will remain."
"Tsk tsk." Gilgamesh clicked his tongue. "You told me earlier not to underestimate others, and yet now you underestimate me and think of me as a simple trickster. I can assure you that there is no deceptive wordplay being utilized here."
"So the potion does revert memories?"
"No. It doesn't have to, at least not for your little sister. Those under the potion's effects keep their memories, but they are not perceived in the same way as normal. They will know that certain things happened to them when they were older, but due to no longer being the same person as the one who actually experienced those events, the memories are mere information without a formative aspect to them. Think of it this way, your sister's memories of her older self will be perceived in the same way one comprehends the contents of a history book. You know the events in the book happened and you can understand their implications, but that doesn't mean you will react as if those events actually happened to you. There is a cognitive distance created as the mind fails to fully comprehend the scope of anything it hasn't personally experienced. To put concisely, Sakura will remember her torture happened, but she won't act or think as if it did."
"Th-there has to be a caveat!"
"There is. This dissonance between the older self and the restored younger self that allows the retained memories to feel abstract and lacking in power is dependent on the older and younger selves having different enough personalities. If a person has an unshakeable personality that has stayed relatively consistent since their youth, then they will be able to empathize with their future self enough that their memories will still feel intimate even after the regression. The memory disconnect is predicated on the younger self being unable to fully relate to and understand their older self. This shouldn't be a problem for your little sister given her torture certainly altered the trajectory of her identity and molded her into a very different person than she was before she was tossed into that pit of worms for the first time."
It sounded too good to be true and yet Gilgamesh didn't seem the type to lie so elaborately. He was the kind of man who would proudly display how easily he could solve other people's problems. It was a way of asserting his superiority.
This potion would give Sakura a second chance at life, her trauma no longer a factor holding her back from true unabashed happiness. It was the kind of solution Saber gave herself over to the Counter Force to try and discover.
Giving Sakura this potion would also unmake the current Sakura in the process of reversing her development. The presently existing Sakura would functionally die and to give her this potion could be considered murder in that case.
Even if they acquired the potion, it would be up to Sakura to decide if she wanted to use it. To try and force her to drink it would be the ultimate insult given her current crisis over her ability to act of her own volition without the supervision of others.
She might be offended just at the idea that Saber and Rin got the potion for her. It would be like telling her that her current self was broken and required fixing, or that she was too weak to endure her trauma and had to have it taken away from her.
Atop of all this, acquiring the potion required giving away the Jewel Sword. While Saber was willing to give away one of her prized possessions for Sakura's sake, it would drastically decrease her offensive power which could turn the tide of the war.
While Saber was assessing the pros and cons of Gilgamesh's offer as calmly as she could, the human Rin, her emotional wounds still fresh from her earlier argument with Sakura, was a wreck. She was shaking as if there was an earthquake and her whole body was damp with sweat born from stress. The girl looked to her Servant with eyes that said, 'I don't know what to do.'
Rin was in no state to be making decisions. It was up to Saber to make the call and take responsibility for it when the time came. She thought about how best to handle things and she ended up realizing there was a way she could use this situation to achieve more than just healing Sakura's trauma. As long as Saber was willing to make a big sacrifice and compensate for it later, this fight could end happily.
"Gilgamesh, do you mind if you and I move this conversation somewhere more private." Saber pointed to the sky. "My Master isn't taking this situation well."
"Clearly. Fine, but you best have an answer for me about my offer when we get there." Gilgamesh's body rose up into the air through the power of an unseen levitation Noble Phantasm.
"What are you doing?" Rin sounded like a confused child.
"Everything will be alright." Saber dodged the question with a smile and used flight magecraft to follow the King of Heroes into the sky and above the clouds. It was decently cloudy so there was a carpet of white that hid the two Servants from any prying eyes below them.
"What is your answer?" Gilgamesh swirled around the liquid in the bottle as he waited for Saber's reply.
"You have a deal. My Jewel Sword for your Potion of Youth."
"Excellent. You best appreciate my magnanimity." Gilgamesh extended the arm that held the elixir. "Come to me and we will exchange items at the same time."
"As you wish." Saber hovered over to the king while moving around her arm that held the Jeweled Sword, letting herself feel its weight one last time. She was going to miss it.
"At the same time." Gilgamesh said as both he and Saber held out their treasures. Each reached for their promised item and grabbed ahold of it. "On three?" Saber nodded. "One. Two. Three."
Saber let go of Zelretch and Gilgamesh released the Potion of Youth. Each had received what was promised to them.
"I gave up a simple trifle and in exchange I received a fine piece of craftsmanship." Gilgamesh held his new Noble Phantasm up to the Sun to see the sunlight refract through the stave's crystalline structure.
While the King of Heroes admired his newest Noble Phantasm, Saber projected a jewel into her hand and filled it with magical energy.
"Really?" Gilgamesh sounded disappointed.
From a portal came a mirror shield. Saber threw her gem and it to release a wave of mystical water, only for the deluge to be reflected back by Gilgamesh's aegis. The crimson Servant was blown away by her own flood, her body getting flung across the sky horizontally with such speed that the cloud directly below her split in half from the shockwave. She still held the Potion of Youth all the while.
"Did you truly believe such a simple trick would work against someone such as myself? I must admit that my mood has been soured by that disrespect. I think it's time I end this and move on."
Gilgamesh assumed he had dealt with Saber's attempted betrayal, that all she wanted to do was surprise attack him at point-blank range. The Jeweled Sword Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg in Gilgamesh's hand became luminous as it gathered as much magical energy from other worlds as possible, overloading itself to self-destruct as a Broken Phantasm.
"Welt, Ende."