Just an Avenger (IV)
Rin and Saber stood before the Emiya household as promised, leaning against Dojima's car. He had been kind enough to leave it to them before skipping town.
It was starting to get late, and they were worried something might have happened to the nun, despite her reassurances to the contrary. However, their worries turned out to be unfounded, when Caren Ortsensia stepped around the corner, approaching at a leisurely pace.
"Took you long enough," Rin said once she was close enough.
"I had to take some precautions. I didn't make it this far by being careless."
"Hmm," Rin acknowledged. "What should we do now, just hang around and wait for Emiya to cause a commotion? Even if he does, we might not notice and get there in time. Since you are so confident, I assume you have a plan."
"I do. The moment he makes a move, I'll know."
"How?" Saber asked.
"The ways of the Lord are infinite and mysterious," the nun replied with a faint smirk.
'Damn, she really reminds me of Kirei,' Rin thought, and it wasn't a good thing by any stretch of the imagination
"Some transparency would go a long way to foster cooperation."
"I know, but you won't get any. Do forgive me. It is not a matter of willingness nor a lack of trust on my part. I am simply unable to reveal my means. It is most troublesome."
"Geas?" Rin asked.
"Something along those lines. I would appreciate it if you didn't ask questions. Even my silence could be interpreted as an answer, and that would be quite troublesome. I understand your doubts, but I'm literally putting my life in your hands here. That should be enough of an assurance."
"We'll have to make do with taking you at your word, much as I don't like it," Rin replied. "But only because Emiya trusts you and we don't have other options."
"That's good enough for me," Caren agreed. "Now, we should-!" the nun stopped and her eyes widened
Rin blinked. "What's wrong?" "It's happening."
"Already? Are you certain?" Rin was now fully alert and Saber was much the same. "Yes, it's that way," Caren replied, pointing her finger east.
Just as she said those words, a red glow appeared in the distance as if something was on fire.
"We better get going," Saber said while opening the driver's door of Dojima's car. "Get in!"
The three women got into the car, and a moment later, the tires were squealing on the asphalt, speeding toward the disturbance.
[br]
Every one of Bazett's strikes caused a great displacement of air with the power behind them, yet Kotomine was still managing to deflect most of them. It helped that he had both arms, unlike her, but even then he was still forced onto the defensive.
It spoke of his great skills and that he had managed to turn this battle into a conflict of attrition was a testament to to them, but he would lose if this fight was allowed to run its course. Only Lancer could save him now, but Bazett wasn't giving him the time to use a Command Seal. A single wasted breath would see him dead. His only hope was that Lancer would be able to finish his own fight in short order and come to help him, but it was unlikely that would happen.
Even though Bazett had been out of it for a long time, she knew Lancer well enough to know that his loyalty wasn't easily earned, and he didn't look kindly upon traitors. It was unlikely that Lancer would go out of his way to save Kirei's hide unless he were forced.
The only thing that could save Kirei now was a miracle. There was no panic on the priest's face, but he was both an Executor and a Magus, both of which were professions that required every practitioner to make their own peace with death.
One had to wonder what kind of God would accept the likes of this man in His service, but it was often said that God would forgive any and all sins so long as one believed in and worshiped Him. Thus, it was only natural that such an entity may prove rather fickle at times, and that night He had evidently decided to demonstrate it once again.
Out of nowhere, a great wall of fire erupted, setting the forest around them ablaze. It was not a natural fire by any means. It burned far too violently for that. No, it was the work of the Ansuz rune, without a doubt.
It meant two things. That Lancer was in a pitched enough battle that he felt the need to use Magecraft on top of his spear, despite greatly favoring the latter, and that he was not yet dead, or else it wouldn't burn so fiercely.
Entire trees were rendered to ashes in a manner of seconds, falling to the ground with thunderous crashes, before being consumed completely. One such tree fell right on top of
the pair of human fighters, causing them to flee in separate directions to avoid being crushed and burned to death.
Bazett shielded herself from the heat with her arm, but she had to quickly drop and roll to avoid the Black Keys thrown at her. By the time she recovered her footing, Kirei had disappeared into the flames.
As much as she wanted to chase him, she knew that she had to get out of there before she was incinerated.
"Tch!"
She turned back and ran away, toward the house where Kirei had been hiding before. When she got there, she came upon a surprising sight.
"...What are you doing here?" she asked.
In front of her stood her current "partner". His body was riddled with blades that seemed to emerge from inside his own body. Blood was dripping all over him, and it all seemed to be his own.
At his side was the Einzbern Master, watching her like a hawk.
"What? This was the plan, wasn't it?" he asked. "I just got here before you."
"That's not what I mean," she said. "If you are here, then who the hell is Lancer fighting?" [br]
The black giant and the blue spearman clashed one again. Berserker's blows made Lancer's frame shake with every impact. It would have been a different matter if he didn't have both his legs and one arm broken and a hole through his other shoulder.
But he didn't hate the disadvantage. The best battles were the most hopeless ones, and this one definitely qualified as such. He really had to bring out everything he had just to draw one more breath. He had to crack out his Runecraft just to have a fighting chance.
Berserker barreled through it all with all the might he was famous for. The dude was really a murder machine like no other. Lancer would have preferred to fight him when they were both at their best, but that wasn't going to happen, so he would just have to take this final battle as his reward for bearing all the bullshit he had to deal with until now.
Things had gotten hectic, and he accidentally set the forest on fire. If Kirei survived, he could deal with cleaning up the mess, though Lancer hoped that the priest held out just long enough for him to finish his fight, one way or another. He would hate to lose just because he was left Masterless.
Though calling it a fight might have been something of a stretch. He was being thrown around like a ragdoll. Berserker was going through lines of trees like they were made of cardboard, using Lancer's back as a battering ram. They didn't slow down the giant even a little bit.
Despite being totally overpowered, Lancer was still putting up a decent fight, attacking several times, every time he saw an opening, but the mad giant's durability was insane. So far he managed to take two lives, but that was likely his limit in his current condition.
He could run, maybe. If he really wanted he could use his Disengage skill to put some distance between them and turn into spirit form, but where would be the fun in that? Live to fight another day was not his creed at all. He was dying to fight today.
"Come on, Berserker, is this all you can do? Show me the good stuff!" he shouted as he deflected the massive axe-sword and retaliated with the lightning-fast strikes of Gae Bolg, all of which were neatly intercepted.
It was fun as hell.
Not so much when Berserker grabbed Lancer with his huge hand and slammed him into the ground like a hammer, though Lancer replied by shoving Gae Bolg inside the empty socket of the giant's right eye, stabbing Berserker through the brain and killing him for the third time.
Not like that bothered him, though, since he clearly had lives to spare, and just stomped his massive foot down on Lancer's body. Damn, if only the kid hadn't messed him up so much, this fight would be much more interesting.
Still, despite having all four limbs crippled. Lancer still managed to push Berserker's foot up at little as he tried to stand. The giant seemed interested in squashing him down physically rather than just ripping Lancer into pieces with his crude weapon.
Lancer couldn't be sure how much of the Heroic Spirit's personality was still in there, but perhaps Lancer's stalwart's defiance had tickled the demi-god's pride, and their fight had become a contest of strength instead.
He soon realized that this was a naive notion. It was only what Lancer wished it was. Reality became immediately apparent when the Shadow from which the giant had emerged crept upon him from below, and he started to sink into it.
"Can't you people let me have one good fucking fight from start to finish?" he complained, but the owner of the Shadow either didn't hear him or wasn't interested in replying. "Fucking, damn it all!"
He and the giant were swallowed and disappeared completely. The moment Lancer was completely consumed, the flames diminished in intensity, leaving only a regular fire to ravage the forest.
[br]
The difference was immediate and noticeable. The flames that previously roared with supernatural hunger diminished greatly in intensity. The effect of the Ansuz rune was over, either because the user had called it off or because he was no more.
"Well, I'm getting out of here," the tattooed young man said. "Dunno who won that fight, but I'm not sticking around to find out. You coming?"
"Kirei is still alive, and he wanted the girl, so I guess I'm sticking with you for the time being," Bazett replied.
"Deal. Come on before we get roasted."
They started running in the direction they had come from, with the fire blazing at their backs. They managed to make it out of the treeline and reached the paved road that led back to the city. Just when it seemed they had made it, a powerful light shone in their faces.
A car roared in their direction, screeching to a halt some distance away from them. "Ah, fuck," Bazzet's partner groaned. "Not these guys."
Servant Saber stepped out of the vehicle, along with her Master and another girl Bazett didn't recognize.
"What? Aren't you Lancer's former Master? Why are you here with him?" asked the Tohsaka girl.
"I don't see how that's any of your business," Bazett replied, taking up a combat position.
"Yo! Yo! This is not the time for that. Grab the girl and take her to where we agreed," said the boy.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's me they want anyway."
The boy turned to the white-haired girl. Bazett didn't hear what he told her, but the Einzbern girl stepped away from him and approached Bazett.
"Get away from Illyasviel," Saber commanded, but the boy stepped between the Servant and the two women with his weird weapons at the ready.
Bazett put an arm around the girl, and with her Runic enhancements, she jumped, sailing across the air. Saber was the only one capable of giving chase but the boy wouldn't let her get through so easily, though Bazett was fairly certain this was the last time she'd be seeing him.
[br]
"So... we meet again," Angra Mainyu said as he stood in front of them "What have you done?" Saber asked
"What, this?" he asked, motioning to his body.
It looked like a complete mess, with swords sticking out of his limbs. Rin had seen that before when Rider had wounded Emiya in her frenzy. He manifested his inner world to patch himself together, but without Avalon to do the healing it was only a crude stitchwork that traded long-term health for a temporary restoration of mobility. Of course, that was only a problem if that was his own body getting destroyed.
"What's the point of having a body if you don't use it to its full extent, am I right?" he laughed. "Enough of this. We'll deal with you now."
"Ohhh, are you sure you can waste time with little ol' me? It looks like another party is about to start over there," he said, gesturing at the opposite side of the city.
"Damn it," Rin said, looking at the sky to see the black singularity starting to manifest over the mountain.
Shirou could tell in advance when they were about to happen, but with him... gone, they were forced to react to them.
"Do not worry about it," said Caren as he stepped around the car. "I've taken some precautions just in case that might happen."
Angra Mainyu's eyes became fixed on her, and he looked more worried about seeing the nun than Saber. That shift in his demeanor gave Rin a bit of confidence. Although Rin was doubtful about the precautions she mentioned, they had already decided to trust her this far, so they might as well keep doing that.
"Saber, you know what you have to do," Rin said.
"Aw shit," he groaned when Saber charged at him with her sword.
He held up his weapons to intercept Excalibur, but there was no contest. His twisted blades shattered about contact with the Holy Noble Phantasm like they were made of glass. Saber came up with a follow-up swing but he leaped back to avoid it.
A useless gesture. Saber's speed was much higher than Angra Mainyu's could ever be. She was aiming to hit him with the back of her sword, but he held out his hand towards her.
"Rho Aias!"
A flower-shaped shield appeared between them—a Noble Phantasm. Saber slammed her sword against it, but unlike his weapons, the shield held out against the sword.
"He's hijacking Emiya's Projection skill!" Rin said.
It didn't bode well. If Angra Mainyu could use Emiya's Magecraft as if he owned it, they were genuinely enmeshed to a high degree. Could they even be separated, even with an exorcism? But even with their doubts, they had no other option but to forge ahead with their current plan.
"This is good enough," Caren said as she ran forward.
"No li me tangere!"
From inside her clothes, a red shroud shot out. As long as he kept up the shield, Angra Mainyu couldn't move his legs. The shroud avoided the shield altogether and went directly for the body.
"Fuck!" he shouted as it wrapped around him, dragging him to the ground
It was Rin's turn now. She ran forward with a hand on her chest. The shield that stopped Saber dissipated the moment he was captured. She pulled Avalon out of her body and just as she got on top of him she forced it into him.
"Stop that!" he cried.
"Like hell I will," Rin replied.
Caren said that the Shroud would keep him immobilized unless he were harmed, but Avalon was a Noble Phantasm that protected and healed its wielder. As expected, even if he was against it being forced into his body, the Shroud kept its hold.
"Caren! Do your thing."
The nun didn't need to be told twice. She rushed at him and put two hands on top of his head.
"Let go of me!"
But no one would listen to him.
"I will kill. I will let live. I will harm and heal. None will escape me. None will escape my
sight.
Be crushed.
I welcome those who have grown old and those who have lost.
Devote yourself to me, learn from me, and obey me.
Rest. Do not forget song, do not forget prayer, and do not forget me.
I am light and relieve you of all your burdens.
Do not pretend. Retribution for forgiveness, betrayal for trust, despair for hope, darkness for light, dark death for the living.
Relief is in my hands. I will add oil to your sins and leave a mark. Eternal life is given through death.
— Ask for forgiveness here. I, the incarnation, will swear.
— Kyrie Eleison."
As the exorcism was completed, a powerful light emanated from her hands, so blinding that Rin had to look away. When the light faded, the first to speak was Caren.
"Oh no."
The eyes glaring at them were unchanged, as were the markings on his body.
"What? Why didn't it work?" Rin asked.
"We were wrong," Caren replied. "He's not-"
But whatever she was about to say was interrupted as Saber pushed both Rin and Caren out of the way.
"Watch out!"
"Oof! Saber, what-"
The unseen attack Rin had expected didn't come. Or, at the very least, they weren't its intended target. A chain was wrapped around Angra Mainyu's body. A chain that came from the burning treeline.
There, against the background of the forest on fire, stood none other than Rider. Her long hair whipped in the hot air as it rose up, making her look like the monster of her legend.
In that brief moment of stunned surprise, she took action and pulled the chain back to her, yanking the trapped man toward her, catching him in her arms and cushioning his fall.
"Rider, what are you doing? We-!!!"
But Rider paid them no heed, instead just as soon as she grabbed him, she opened her mouth and sank her teeth into his shoulder.
"Slrrrp!"
The sound of blood-sucking was loud enough that it could be heard over the fire. The Shroud of Magdalene fell off his body and onto the ground, freeing its target. She continued to drink from him until it appeared she finally had enough and then slowly set him down to the ground, where he barely held himself on his two feet.
"Rider, no!" Rin shouted. "Don't let him get away!"
Rider had no intention of doing that. In fact, she pulled him up and threw him over her shoulder and then immediately fled into the burning forest without a single word.
"Saber, go after them!"
"No, stop," Caren said as she got up to her feet. "There is no point."
"What, why?"
"Because it's worse than we thought. Because we made a huge mistake."
"You mean you did the exorcism wrong?" Saber asked.
"No, the exorcism worked correctly. There was just... nothing there to exorcise."
"Wait, that doesn't make any sense," Rin protested before her eyes widened in horrified realization. "There's no way. It can't be."
"But it is. That person... he is none other than Emiya Shirou as we know him."
And as the fire raged in front of them, there was only one thing that Tohsaka Rin could say as the pieces fell into place, painting a picture that made sense from start to finish.
She shouted it, even though he probably wouldn't hear it.
"YOU... IDIOT!!!!"
[br]
"Put me down," Shirou groaned as Rider carried him across the forest. "I refuse," she replied. "If I do that, you'll just run away again."
The swords he created inside his body were receding, and the wounds were slowly healing, thanks to the presence of Avalon inside of him.
"How did you even get around the Command Seal?"
"You gave me the order not to save you, but previously used a Command Seal before that to instruct me that I was to feed exclusively from you. The two orders aren't in contradiction. I'm allowed to protect my only food supply."
He sighed. Using a Command Seal to circumvent another one was pretty clever. "Just let me be."
"Is there any reason why I should listen to your orders?"
He didn't reply. A Master couldn't cast away their own Servants and still call themselves such. The moment he pushed Rider away, he lost that right, no matter his reasons. He was also out of Command Seals, so he couldn't do anything about it.
"So, what's your master plan here? Carry me around like a bag of potatoes for the rest of my life?"
"I just might. Not like I have anything better to do."
"You are as stubborn as you are pretty. It would be endearing if it weren't so annoying."
Suddenly, she yanked him off her shoulder and dropped him on his back onto the forest ground before pinning him down with her weight. Only her square pupils were visible in the darkness behind the glasses that sealed her ocular powers.
"Aren't you being a little forward right now? I'm not complaining, mind you. It's just coming a bit too much out of left field for my tastes."
"I won't let you push me away, no matter what you do or say." "Oi, oi, oi! What you said just now is very troublesome, Rider." "It doesn't work, Shirou. It's never going to work."
"What the hell are you on about now?"
"Do you think you can fool me? You forget that I have been touched by that mud as well. I know what it's like. It doesn't change who you are. It only brings out those parts of us that we rejected and pushes them to the forefront. It doesn't make us do things we at least don't wish we could do. In my case, it's the monster that is within me."
"Is there a rest stop between here and the fucking point? Ow!" She flicked his forehead.
"You can't scare me, Shirou. Even if that mud pulled out all the worst parts of yourself, you were still trying to protect others. When you gave me the order to fight Saber so that you could get away, you worded it in such a way that it didn't force us to hurt each other. The worst part of you still doesn't want to hurt any of us."
He gritted his teeth.
"And yet you still didn't get the fucking memo. I want you to stay the hell away from me. Don't you understand? I don't want anyone else dying because of me. And especially none of you."
"I understand perfectly, or have you forgotten? Even though I will certainly turn into a monster that will consume the people around me, you still told me that you wouldn't let me be on my own. That you would not leave me alone and even offered yourself a sacrifice to make it happen. And now, do you truly expect me not to hold you to the same standards you forced upon me? You must be delusional. I will follow your every order, Shirou, but not one that will keep me away from you. If you truly want to keep walking on this self-destructive path, you must do so with the knowledge that I will be with you every step of the way, to the very end."
"...Get off me, Rider," he said after a long moment of silence.
She complied, and he stood up. He gave her a look, and she stared right back. He then turned around and started walking, with Rider following silently.
They soon vanished between the trees.
[XXX]