"Well that was a rather costly escape," Jeanne d'Arc (Alter) frowned at her banner, the spearhead of which had acquired an obvious bend. "How can a door close with that much force anyway?"
"The hall and corridor outside are actually different spaces," Nursery Rhyme didn't even look up from where she was tending to the wounded Count. "Doors closing is more of a representation of those spaces disconnecting. Most things in the way would just end up in two neatly split parts, one on either side."
"Can either of you fix it?" Gudao asked Rhyme and Sasaku.
"Sorry, but this is a Noble Phantasm we're talking about, so it isn't a matter of fixing," the Ruler replied first. After a moment of thought, Rhyme nodded in agreement.
"Realistically you're not down much, since I couldn't exactly match Noble Phantasm-level attacks in the first place," Jeanne frowned. "I don't like it either, but I don't like much nowadays as is."
"Are we actually safe just a few paces away from the door?" the Count of Monte Cristo asked wearily.
"Safer than trying to go down the corridor," Gudao thought aloud. "Clearly the passageway itself has doors that connect, or not, to wherever they want to. The distances when we went backwards to here didn't match up either, so only the area directly within our influence can be considered safe."
"Since this door is sealed shut on our end as well, the closest potential opening would be any of the locations where our Bounded Field ends at a corridor split. I'd assume the enemy can place a door just outside to connect another hall there," Rhyme explained.
"How close is the closest such spot?" the Master wondered.
"Not that far away, which is why we're best off here until we're quite ready to deal with another hall," the Caster answered.
"Last time the door wasn't just in front of us, but that might be because the strategy was to send the soldiers out to try and burn through some of our resources," Sasaku shrugged. "Though distances aren't consistent, there might only be a fixed amount of passageway that exists, so they probably couldn't simply make it extremely long to buy themselves more space."
"Borrowing from past experiences, I think we might be safe in guessing the next Lord won't be playing with soldiers though," Gudao suggested. "Going by Rhyme's summoning here... Jack the Ripper."
"That name you love so much, want to know how I got it?" Alertness in the group skyrocketed as a new voice interposed itself into their conversation. "Actually, why don't I give you a demonstration?"
"(Area Sweep)"
"(True Seeing) (Greater Detect Magic)"
"Fear the unseen much, Chaldea?
"He's not anywhere near," Sasaku reported after seeing Rhyme's reaction.
"Lords can't leave their hall, remember?" Jeanne spoke up, though she didn't sound particularly sure about it; understandably so as some sort of fog was slowly rolling in through the corridor ahead. The group instantly recalled it was linked to Jack's (The Mist).
"Who knows where I'll come from?" the voice continued with a harsh rasp to it.
"That's not the Noble Phantasm," Rhyme added. "Because our own Bounded Field would block it. So this is more of a normal mist. Well it could also be a totally mundane chemical agent."
"Well one of Jack's big conditional strengths is mist, so even a normal mist is quite the leg up for them," Sasaku mused.
"Unfortunately there's no way their hall wouldn't have a lot of it anyway," Jeanne pointed out. "Also, our only non-female members are rather under-equipped for a direct fight."
"Well, is it night time?" Gudao asked.
"I haven't seen any windows at all, which as dark and dank as the original prison tower was, was not the case there," the Count noted. "I think, though, that it wouldn't count as either day or night, so we might be 'lucky' in that aspect."
"I doubt we have a choice but to take the fight though," Rhyme shook her head. "Though there might be one thing I've read about that might help against the mist."
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The dense fog was practically stacked up behind the door to the hall which the Chaldean group found, as expected, at the nearest corridor branch not covered by their Territorial etent.
"Welcome to my utopia of death," Jack's voice echoed mockingly from inside. "Don't be shy, come on in."
"One moment," Gudao mumbled idly while using one of his command spells. "We'll just run in for you."
Nodding quickly, Sasaku and Rhyme moved to either side of the open doors using the Master's voice to mask the sound of their light footsteps while Jeanne boldly and loudly stepped up to the threshold, levelling her banner forward like a spear.
"The time for retribution has come ! This is the howl of a soul filled with hatred - (La Grondement Du Haine) !
A gout of flame burst forth from the cursed flag, reaching into the hall and atomizing the mist. The markings of Chaldea behind her flashed quickly, rapidly emptying their own magical energy into the inferno, which erupted unchecked into the hall, sweeping it in wall-to-wall fire.
The two Servants which had been waiting for this quickly entered the hall from either side of the portal and split off to either side, keeping along the wall as the conflagration ended with its energy supply finally exhausted.
Sasaku eyed the dark lanky figure standing in the middle of the hall with only a hint of smoke clinging to his clothes. Her eyes were immediately drawn to his weapon: a single long sword, two-handed grip. Gudao's retelling of the events at the previous Tower event and the destruction of several of Jack's knives came to mind. "So this is Jack's terrifying true form, huh? Nice knife."
Jack just dismissively wagged a finger at the Ruler while keeping his attention on Rhyme instead. "Adults are very cruel, Nursery Rhyme. You don't have to side with them. We can seek better beginnings."
Sasaku and Rhyme shared a glance as Jack suddenly whipped around, flashing over towards the Ruler with his sword ready to cut. Although the two Servants had of course planned to take Jack on in cooperation, the Caster was out of range to respond in time with her spells. He's quick ! she thought while running to support.
Noticing this right as as Jack began his turn, Gudao regretfully used his last Command spell. "Sasaku, stop that blade !"
Raising an eyebrow as her weapon started shimmering like Caliburn's powering-up sequence, the Ruler calmly counter-cut into Jack's sweeping attack. "Don't be so cocky, Assassin."
The two blades met and for a moment seemed to have stalled one another. But with a screech of the damned, Jack's weapon was sheared into two at the meeting point.
"Yes! Yes! Split it wide open!" Jeanne cheered as Sasaku's immediate followup reverse cut arced towards Jack's chest.
"Why would you think I had to be an Assassin?" Jack pointed out as a new gleaming red blade entered his hands. "I'll split you in two (Maria the Ripper) !"
The Ruler had a fraction of a moment to consider those words as Jack's image seemed to simultaneously blur and resolve into several different attacks coming in, in the exact same time?
"Oh no."
Jack's cuts all contacted Sasaku's shining blade with precision, instantly passing through with force born of Dimensional Refraction before effortlessly ripping through Sasaku's stomach and torso, splattering her shredded internal organs over the wall behind them before the attack ended. "Demonstration given."
"Ah-" Rhyme stopped abruptly as Jack, spattered with blood, turned towards her; previous congeniality lost - replaced with a more straightforward question: "Who's next?"
In answer, Jeanne drew her own black blade and stepped up, making sure to keep herself between Jack and where Gudao and the Count were in the rear. "I'll take this dance."
"No Jeanne. He's mine." Rhyme reached into her spellbook and began drawing out a weapon of her own. "How pleased you are to chop away, Jack the Ripper - Avenger. My name is Nursery Rhyme, of the Mooncell."
"I already used your name, remember?" Jack retorted. "You weren't fooling anyone; the Masters of Chaldea don't have Servant-level signatures."
"Kids are cruel too, Jack. And I'm very in touch with my inner child - Ice sword (Icecalibur)" Rhyme transitioned to the attack while drawing a massive sword of magical ice out of her book by dint of dropping it on the advance.
"Ku ha ha, you can be crueler than that, Rhyme." Bringing his weapon to bear, Jack also charged.
Taking the lesson from Sasaku's earlier failure, Rhyme started by parrying along a vertical line as Jack entered the range of his weapon and tried a horizontal slice. The Avenger smirked as his still-wet blade smashed though the Caster's spell-sword, but this faded as his attack, carrying through, was clearly out of range as Rhyme had shifted her footwork to quickly move backwards out of his reach.
Looking at her half-a-greatsword, Rhyme cut horizontally as Jack simply cut at her - the two weapons met lengthwise, Jack's blade biting deep into Rhymes but then... stopping as the ice weapon began to regenerate, freezing over its bloody opponent.
There was a surge of magical energy from behind them where Sasaku was lying midst the evacuated contents of her body. "This is a day of judgement," she whispered while raising a finger.
Jack freed his weapon, a sharp twist of the wrist shattering the growing but still-thin layer of ice that threatened to arrest it. But in that brief pause of motion, a number of black iron spears sprouted in his back.
Using her quarter-greatsword like a cleaver, Rhyme took off Jack's hand at the wrist before her return cut opened him up diagonally from shoulder to hip, the ice sword freezing his internals rather than dragging them out. Staggering backwards before tripping, Jack pulled out a knife and flung it at Rhyme while falling. However, the Caster had already anticipated this last gasp attack and easily blocked it with her Icecalibur which finally shattered in her hand.
"Grab our Ruler," Rhyme said while casting about for another weapon and picking up Jack's sword. "I'll fin-ah !"
Raising her 'borrowed' blade while stepping over to Jack, Rhyme was struck in the leg by a second knife and went down onto the ground as Jack struggled to a crouch gripping in his left hand the first thrown knife which had not only bounced back towards him but, as if by fate or some other malevolent intent landed near where he had fallen.
The wounded Avenger made his way to the prone Rhyme and pulled her head up by her hair while making to slit her throat, but before either the Count or Jeanne could intervene -
*crack*
The red sword, still held in Rhyme's hands, leapt from where she had been keeping it obscured from his sight with her body. The point, ever willing to drink any blood, dove into Jack's chest, smashing through the frozen flesh to pierce his heart.
"You..."
With a moan, Jack instinctively stabbed downwards, ripping Rhyme's clothes and easily wounding her back. Gritting her teeth, Rhyme got her left arm around Jack's waist and drew him towards her as if in a hug, in order to ram the full measure of her sword through the Avenger.
Even though Jack desperately continued to stab her several more times, Rhyme wrenched the blade around in his chest cavity in get at his Spirit Core which was the only way she had at the time to immediately stop a Servant. By the time the Count had rushed over to the pair, Jack's body was already beginning to break up into loose spiritrons.
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"Thanks," Sasaku whispered softly to Jeanne as the latter let her down to the ground just outside the hall. "Sorry for the mess."
Jeanne shrugged off the apology for her banner which was essentially keeping what remained of the Ruler's guts inside her. "It's just too bad I can't pull off a miracle like healing."
"This is enough for me to finish my job," Sasaku replied, biting her lip while awkwardly pressing a finger against the floor. "Just need to get this done before I'm done."
Spreading out like roots from a seedling, two lines in faint green stretched out to either side, arcing out before turning back and reaching towards one another forming a circle. After that, the interior began to blossom with a series of various mystical markings.
"Wait a moment," Gudao recognized it immediately from earlier in his tower ordeal. "A Servant summoning?"
"I get that you can't really fight now, but how's that going to work?" Rhyme asked quizzically. "There isn't enough magical energy for this."
"Ah but there is." Sasaku clumsily pulled out what looked like a loose handful of sakura-colored bank notes clearly marked with a devil in black, which she threw into the circle. "If you two would help me in, I'll explain."
"I don't like the way this is going," Gudao frowned.
"I don't either. Honestly, it's somewhat of a failure on my part, since the plan was I would prepare the Territory and magical energy to summon in my senpai. Fortunately, though, my boss hadn't expected someone like Nursery Rhyme to self-summon so you'll still have two Servants to fight the last Avenger with."
"Nothing good is going to come from summoning someone using the power of mammon and a bucketload of girl's blood," the Count retorted as the notes started to dissolve, filling the magic circle's circuits with a purple-tinged energy like when Sasaku had been summoned.
"Well I'm basically just going back home to the Mooncell. And since I kind of screwed it up, I don't think my senpai will actually be able to hang around for long. Don't worry though, I doubt my boss will mind too much. Give my regards to my Chaldea version, will you?"
"Um, sure. Anything specific you want me to tell her?" Gudao asked.
"Ask her if she's studied her blade recently," Sasaku chuckled before using her second Command Spell and immediately fading from existence. The now-freed spiritrons that had been making up her body were absorbed into the small Bounded Field enclosing of the summoning circle and immediately flashed into the form of a new Spirit Origin.
Gudao blinked in surprise at the outrageously dressed figure who appeared where Sasaku had just disappeared. "Aren't you -"
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Notes:
While a bunch of the lines used were in reference to Metal Gear Rising, the dialogue isn't meant to link the in-world reality to that (though the weaker version of Maria the Ripper being a Multi-Dimensional Refraction is like of like Blade Mode, the latter is actually very fast rather than a MDR).
Sasaku's comment about Jack's sword being a knife is because in the previous Tower, that Jack had three of four knives destroyed by Shiki. But Rhyme back then said they would reappear in another manifestation, and they did but as two sword-length blades plus two knife-length ones.
Jeanne (Alter) using her banner like a bandage is related to (her memory as well of) events in Another Aria (chap 45, Hero of the Fist) where Jeanne does something similar with her Holy Maiden banner to help Bazett. In that Grail War though, there was a Jeanne original -plus- Alter combo version, and that Servant actually had both banners and used both the associated Noble Phantasms. So -both- of them have a link to the Grail System this Chaldea is using.
Yeah, for the reader this implies that the version of Alter here has different origins from the FGO one, since Gilles summoned one that was already around, instead of "creating" a Dragon Witch (not that anyone in-world would know about the other timelines normally).
Those bank notes are like the Sakura Money in the FGO event, their description by the way is: "The portrait is supposedly of 'the angel in a black coat,' but it's clearly a picture of a devil." This Event's Sasaku was presumably summoned in the Mooncell sometime after Extra, Extella etc (not going into detail about those)
The bit about using flames against the Mist is related to the (doctrinal?) idea of using flamethrowers against biological/chemical threats. Since it absorbed Jeanne Alter's attack before dissipating, Jack's Mist was something substantial.