Author's Notes and Retcon: First, I apologize for the delay. Not only was my inspiration minimal for a few months, but my decision as to a certain direction story might take was uncertain until the very end. Several servants had to lose, but I had yet to decide at what point in the story it would happen, how, and the consequences for each. It took until now to make the final decision. I honestly regret not putting one of them in the previous chapter, but it fits better in this chapter thematically.
Second, as we move forward, there will be a major change to the history of the Grail Wars in this timeline as a direct result of Merlin's meddling. It will be based on using the flow of events in other timelines as a reference for how things might have progressed with Merlin's interference. This is perhaps the only way a Grail War will happen in 2004 in this timeline now that the unnamed 'anti-Grail' faction has gained so much momentum. Please note that I did not reach this plot point lightly, and have grappled with it since this story was first written. Credit to those who noticed the various hints I've dropped throughout the story thus far. Another far more minor adjustment is the retroactive adjustment to put Taiga in middle school instead of high school. She's supposed to be 14.
I am also pushing the 1994 dates in the story forward nine days and applying such to previous chapters. This is because I remembered that the Sega Saturn was released in Japan on November 22, 1994. Given when in the story Iskandar purchased his, this would adjust the canon end date of the Fifth Fuyuki Holy Grail War to be no earlier than November 26, 1994.
It should also be noted that if we assume Illya's birthday to be November 20, 1985(this was formerly canon before Nasu decided to leave it vague and he has still not rejected it entirely) we have an added constraint – Illya's first appearance in the series can be dated no later than November 19, 1994. This is because she's still eight years old when the series starts. That means the canon end of the Fourth Holy Grail War can be no later than November 28th. Illya's stated birthday also fits extremely well with Irisviel's own confirmed birthday(February 1), given that Irisviel had to carry Illya to term for nine months. With Irisviel's birthday where it is and Illya's stated age in Fate Stay Night, Illya's birthday must be between November 1985 and January 1986 even without the semi-canon entry.
Before people mention that her birthday being so close should have had clues to it on screen, I remind you that Rin Tohsaka didn't seem to note her February 3rd birthday during the Fifth Holy Grail War. Ignoring birthdays during wars just seems like a thing Nasu does. I am adopting the November 28th date for the canon war's end mainly because Iskandar has already shown off the Sega Saturn earlier in the timeline than normal, but it can be the 26th, 27th, or 28th in reality.
An extremely sensible semi-canon birthday and the real-life release date of a video game console let us nail down the timeline of the canon Fourth Holy Grail War to within a two-day margin of error. Sometimes I feel like I think too much about these things.
These adjustments also result in a very minor change in Chapter 5 where the birthday is mentioned(Irisviel and Kiritsugu are forced to leave Germany on her birthday with this new timing and Kiritsugu promises to celebrate it after the war), and in Chapter 16 where Illya comments to Atalanta that she turned 9, the same age as her mother, a short few days ago. It doesn't change the story in any meaningful way, but it digs Kiritsugu's grave ever so slightly deeper in the latter case.
Chapter 19: Culling the Numbers
August 31, 1939
Ryuudou Temple
Fuyuki City, Japan
Mount Enzo and the Ryuudou Temple built on it were ablaze, the orange glow of the flames on the mountainside clearly visible to the city below. The top of the mountain had been completely blown away, from which smoke billowed liberally into the sky and added a red haze to the final scene of the Third Holy Grail War. The people in town evacuated to shelter as best they could. Few stayed behind to watch as large zeppelins bearing the swastika of the Third Reich descended over Mount Enzo.
Zouken Matou lay battered and beaten on the ground in at least five burning pieces, his one functional eye glaring up at his foe. That enemy was Darnic Prestone Yggdmillenia, the German SS officer who had turned this war on its head. "Do you really...believe you've won?" Zouken spat with hatred, thankful that his soul was anchored inside one of his descendants rather than here on the open battlefield. Darnic gave a knowing smile but said nothing at first. He simply looked at the damaged mountaintop. It was when following his enemy's gaze that Zouken saw it—the form of the Greater Grail being airlifted out of its proper place and taken away by the German airships. Zouken's expression of shock and horror couldn't be concealed, even by his head's notable injuries.
Darnic gave a chuckle. "Win? Not with my Lancer dead and the Lesser Grail destroyed. But if I can't win this Grail War, I simply need to control the next one." The man hadn't been interested in losing gracefully. When the war was lost to him, the fallen Master enacted this backup plan and used the Nazis' fascination with Magecraft for his own ends. The last words Zouken heard echoed in his consciousness while Darnic used a flash of fire Magecraft to turn his victim's body into ash. "Do have the dignity to stay dead this time. It isn't as if you have anything left to live for."
The next several days passed in a daze for the recovering Zouken. On the next day, September 1st, Germany would invade Poland. On September 2nd, a 95-year-old Okita Souji who was still wrapped in bandages would go to Tokyo and make an impassioned speech before the Emperor and the Diet about the German bombing of Fuyuki. On September 3rd, Japan would join Britannia and France in declaring war on Nazi Germany.
March 23, 1954
Caverns under Mount Enzo
Fuyuki City, Japan
Zouken shook those memories from his mind as he and Jubstacheit von Einzbern walked along the damp passageway, flanked by others from the Third Holy Grail War. The contents of the route were initially still recognizable, albeit charred, but the cave walls' burnt appearance became progressively worse until the natural structures were replaced fully by artificial ones. The group eventually came to a large doorway. Placing his hand on a panel that lit with magical energy, the door opened and granted Jubstacheit admittance.
The chamber of the Greater Grail was greatly changed from its time during the Third Holy Grail War. Damaged areas of the cave were replaced with artificial materials and hewn stone. The ceiling was completely replaced with a load-bearing dome on the interior of which magical images could be shown while scrying. Within the room was a white throne with rubies installed across its frame...on which rested an unconscious Justeaze-type Homunculus.
Zouken Matou sneered at the current Tohsaka patriarch and his Edelfelt-born wife as the pair marveled at the construction of the room and the occupant. His ire was not because of their justified wonder but rather due to the reason they still possessed it at this late hour—they'd not aided in the new Grail's construction at all. Their knowledge of the Grail's inner workings was minimal and Tohsakas' only contribution to this project was the land itself. At least the fools were helping conceal the theft of the old Grail from the Mage's Association and even their own descendants. Such was their thirst for the Root.
Then there was the Church's Representative, Risei Kotomine, who Zouken stood far away from. The man was to be interacted with as little as possible lest he notices Zouken's 'unique condition' and label the lich a Dead Apostle. Risei was kept in line not only because he did not want to betray the Tohsaka, but also because he knew to stay quiet about the Grail if he wanted his rather 'unique' adopted son to have any proper future. Adopting an incarnated Servant as a son? Strange, but exploitable.
One saving grace in Zouken's eyes was that Okita Souji's 109-year-old body was too frail to make the walk up the steps to Ryuudou Temple and the Greater Grail that lay in the mountain beyond. Zouken hoped she'd finally die soon, but he suspected that Okita might live another decade or so just to spite him.
The only one worthy of even a small amount of respect from Zouken was the man who stood next to him. Jubstacheit von Einzbern was the eighth head of the Einzbern Family and may have been nothing like Justeaze, but the old homunculus had at least restored the Grail and come up with a solution to maintain appearances.
"Why is there a homunculus resting here?" An ignorant Mrs. Tohsaka, née Edelfelt, asked bluntly on seeing the unconscious form in the throne.
Jubstacheit knew that he was dealing with simpletons and had expected to be forced to explain this whole thing at least once in this matter, so he answered with another question. "Do you recall why it's not possible to build a Greater Grail under most circumstances? What makes that particular Grail able to reach the Root while others cannot?"
The younger twin Edelfelt from the war knew that she was being patronized, but she also knew that this person was higher than her in standing. She held in her temper and chose to answer. "The answer to both questions is 'Lady Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern's soul and Magic Circuits'. She was able to perform the Third True Magic, Heaven's Feel, but suffered from inefficiencies in energy cost and speed of execution. She was sacrificed and used as the control system and Core of the Grail. As the Third True Magic she possessed was developed as 'a way of reaching the Root', this means that her abilities are a prerequisite for the Greater Grail to open a path to the Root at all. The various Lesser Grails made by the Yggdmillenia and used for smaller Subcategory Holy Grail Wars can't do this and are little more than large prana containers that try to brute-force wishes by way of Alchemy and lesser Wishcraft. Mere copies of the original that can never bestow a new True Magic. At best they might grant a True Magic that has already been obtained somewhere in history."
"Correct. So it is necessary for us to replicate her essence if we desire to replace the stolen Greater Grail with another." Jubstacheit's words raised more than a few eyebrows, but he continued. "This fresh and soulless homunculus is a Justeaze-type and is thus compatible with her soul. It will be the catalyst for summoning another timeline's version of Justeaze using one of the Yggdmillenias' own false Grails they copied for one of their lesser Subcategory Holy Grail Wars, as well as serve as the ideal physical body. Once she is incarnated, the body will make any subtle adjustments necessary to match its new soul. This includes adopting her Magic Circuits for us to later harvest for use in the Greater Grail. After this, the remaining energy in this false Grail will be added to the Greater Grail with the intention of charging it in time for the war already scheduled to occur in the 1990s."
Comprehension dawned in the others as the lie was told. Oh, the attempt would be a legitimate one, but neither Zouken nor Jubstacheit expected this summoning to work. The point was to deceive the remaining parties involved that the new Grail was a fully functional one so they would continue to provide their support and present the ritual as a valid path to the Root to the Mage's Association. The true plan was to infuse the homunculus with a soul immediately after the summoning failed and pretend that it was successful. The Einzberns would then battle in the Holy Grail War as normal, all in hopes of using the less advanced Grail to grant the Einzberns the Third True Magic that already existed in the world and could thus be reached. Zouken or his descendants would battle against them, seeking Zouken's immortality. Neither truly needed or desired the Root to accomplish those goals...it was all about tricking these simpletons and the Clock Tower so that the Fuyuki Grail War would still be prioritized over whatever the Yggdmillenia intended to do one day with the missing original Greater Grail. Being the sole surviving creator of the Greater Grail had also bought Zouken some importance as an irreplaceable asset to its maintenance, something he had always intended to leverage into marginal protection against the Church or the Barthomeloi if his status as a blood sucker was ever discovered. In fact, the official story told to the Clock Tower was that the Greater Grail was damaged after being partially stolen, but that it was ultimately repairable because the critical parts remained. Everyone had something to lose if the truth came out. Even Okita was silent if only to prevent the Tohsaka family from being raked over the coals by the Mage's Association.
Old Man Acht began to speak a familiar-yet-distorted Aria.
Elements of Silver and Iron. Foundation of Stone and the Archduke of Pacts.
The ancestor is my great master Einzbern.
A wall for descending wind. Close the four cardinal gates.
Come forth from the crown and follow the three-forked road leading from the Kingdom.
Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Let each be turned over five times, simply breaking asunder the fulfilled time.
Behold, I have created your body and your Magic is my destiny!
If you heed the Grail's call, and accept my servitude as my great master, then answer me!
I hereby swear that we shall rebuild the Greater Grail and restore that which has been lost!
From the Seventh Heaven, clad in three great words of power,
Come forth now, Guardian of the Scales!
Contrary to Zouken and Jubstacheit's expectations, the homunculus' body was engulfed in a bright flash of light...and when it faded, her eyes were open and her attire changed. She wore the Dress of Heaven, but it was black and red whereas the original was white and red. She donned a smile that had no place on a homunculus' face when recognizing her summoner bowing before her. "...Hello! I am a Caster-class Servant, Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern. Are you my successor?"
Jubstacheit was momentarily stunned by the fact that this summoning worked at all, but the Command Seals on his hand served as further proof. He was immensely pleased that this plan had succeeded beyond all of his hopes and expectations. The current head of the Einzbern family addressed his predecessor. "I am, Lady Justeaze, though there is no Grail War here at the moment. You are the sole Servant, summoned with a fake Lesser Grail, and are possessing a fresh homunculus body to shape to your soul. In time, we may use you to finish recreating the Greater Grail that was captured by an enemy Master and store the remaining excess energy from the fake Lesser Grail in it. I am a bit puzzled by your appearance, however..."
Justeaze waved away his concerns. "It is just a matter of being from another timeline. The Grail was destroyed rather than captured. Don't worry though, I still have my Third Magic capability and a number of ideas! But please...call me Iri~"
November 23, 1994
Caverns under Mount Enzo
Fuyuki City, Japan
6:45 PM
2 hours and 8 minutes to Zero (Adjusted)
Standing in wait, Zouken took note of the further changes that had been made to the Grail chamber in the decades since. Included throughout the chamber around the white throne were the replaced and glowing Magic Circuits of Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern, enlarged and multiplied to extreme degrees. The ceiling was completely replaced with a load-bearing dome on the interior of which magical images could be shown while scrying. The Grail's core held a black pollution that came with Justeaze when she had first been summoned and had grown over the past forty years. These changes, save for the threat to humanity that polluted the Grail, were to be expected as part of its new design. Not so much the empty bags of potato chips, soda cans, water bottles, and ice cream sandwich wrappers that were strewn about by the white throne's occupant. Byakuya, who had never been in here before, showed notable confusion on his face at the dichotomy. Zouken was relieved that the man knew better than to open his mouth in this situation.
'Iri' was seated on the white throne, wearing a black bathrobe and slippers. She was focused on a 27-inch television screen set in front of her while mashing buttons on a black game controller. The blue creature she was controlling on screen sped through improbable terrain and at times rolled about like a ball. "Yes! Fifty rings! Now to find that Star Post!" If at any point the woman was meant to give a queenly impression, she failed in favor of playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Mega Drive. A maid that had accompanied Zouken to see the Grail subtly cleared her throat to draw the black-clad homunculus' attention.
The game-playing homunculus, unlike most others, responded with a pleasant smile. "Ah, you're here! Did you get the new Sega Saturn for me? I've been waiting on that one for a while now! Even Waver and Rider got one before I did!"
"Caster. You are speaking to Jubstacheit von Einzbern," the currently remote-controlled maid clarified. Though no more was said, the message was clearly 'I am not here to cater to your whims'.
"And I am Iri," the woman playfully responded with a giggle. Zouken would be impressed with the gall this woman had, knowingly teasing the head of the Einzberns like this, if it weren't for the circumstances.
Justeaze's Magic Circuits and soul had come through as believed, but they were anchored to this more dominant 'Iri' and her soul. After she helped them to finalize the new Greater Grail's systems and her new physical form was sacrificed to make it function, they were surprised to find that she had assumed unprecedented control of the new Greater Grail. To assist in the Grail's maintenance, another purpose-built Justeaze-type homunculus was provided as a second body for her remote operation. It was at this point that they more clearly took notice of the oddities in her personality and the strange interest in technology. There was also the fact that a malicious force had taken residence within the Grail which she simply called 'Avenger'.
These were initially explained away as being due to the differences between Worlds, but the creation and emotional development of this timeline's Irisviel in 1985 forced the truth to come out. By the time Saber Artoria had warned everyone else about the corruption of the Grail, it had been well established by Jubstacheit and Zouken that this version of Justeaze Lizrich/Irisviel von Einzbern brought the taint of All the World's Evil with her and that the new Grail was just as corrupt as the one in her home timeline. Avenger had been bonded with her so thoroughly at the time of her destruction that her inclusion in the Throne included it as an inseparable aspect of herself. This particular Justeaze carried 'Iri' and Avenger with her as a package set. Zouken felt cheated. On some level, he still missed Justeaze and waited to see her once more. Not...this woman.
"Why have you yet to enact the main plan?" Jubstacheit's question shook Zouken out of his thoughts.
Dark Iri's expression shifted into a frustrated and slightly unhinged one. "Because Avalon's shielding the other Irisviel from my efforts thanks to that rogue Archer! On top of that, he made her an undershirt out of a copy of the Shroud of Martin! I can't control my other self's body as long as those things are each jamming my connection to her Lesser Grail! And the maids? Kiritsugu poked them with Carnwennan to break any spells 'just in case' so we can't even see through their eyes anymore! Then there's the Bounded Field around their base adding an extra layer of protection on top of that. Honestly...to think my husband and son's love and over-preparedness would be used against me..."
The 'main plan', in Zouken's opinion, wasn't a bad one. It was simply to have the Greater Grail seize control of the Lesser Grail's body much like how Acht could control the lesser homunculi or how Zouken's own Crest Worms could control those he infested. Irisviel von Einzbern was explicitly modified to have her body seized by her dark counterpart...but it hadn't been done. Avalon, which had never been found in all these years, still arrived in time to repel the control of Dark Iri and protect its user. To think that the child's future self could use a Reality Marble with a variant of Gradation Air to serve as a literal walking armory of Noble Phantasms and Catalysts...it boggled the mind just how greatly being touched by the Grail and Avalon managed to transform that child in another timeline.
Zouken took this opportunity to interject. "What about the daughter? She would make just as good a hostage to ensure the Magus Killer's compliance."
Iri shook her head. "Illya's adjustments weren't completed to a sufficient degree for her to be a Lesser Grail for this war and she received the same anti-thaumaturgy treatment as the maids. I can't reach her and doubt I ever can unless the Einzberns started adjusting her again from scratch. And what's worse is that Irisviel isn't even the Lesser Grail of this war! I'm connected to some other Lesser Grail that I can't even explain the existence of, and I can't corrupt or see through it, either! Unless Zouken took the damaged Third War's Lesser Grail and made his own out of it again, or someone re-purposed a Yggdmillennia Lesser Grail and keyed it to the Fuyuki system somehow, I don't know what could be happening! It's even summoning Servants and powering them independently of me somehow! None of this is right!" Indeed, knowledge of the future was something the group could use only if they stuck to the 'script' until a moment of their choosing. It was why they had allowed the timeline to proceed without a change and made plans in the background. But when someone else had made a change to things and took some basic preventative measures, they quickly lost the initiative. Saber popping up, even if she was a Saber from a different Fifth Holy Grail War than Iri remembered, had turned everything into a chaotic mess.
"I've done no such thing...what do you mean 'again'?" Zouken inquired.
Iri frowned as if remembering something unpleasant. "After my Fourth Holy Grail War, you took the broken fragments of the Lesser Grail that had emerged from my dead body and put them into Sakura. She became a Lesser Grail during my Fifth Holy Grail War, though of a different type. After becoming something...more...she was the most powerful Lesser Grail ever created simply by merit of her attachment to Imaginary Number Space being empowered to the point where she could consume Servants."
Zouken had indeed pondered the possibility of doing such a thing, but not to the degree of having an explicit plan. Now that he knew what such a being would be like, he was cautiously intrigued. "I felt something like that from her when she summoned Second Rider. Those black ribbons...my instincts cried out that she was a predator."
"It is because you are in part a spiritual being rather than being firmly anchored to the physical world. Her power is uniquely suited to killing things like you and Servants. She is your natural predator, though a bit too young to be killing Servants yet. I should also mention that she isn't supposed to develop that power until the Fifth Holy Grail War even with the Greater Grail's aid. From what my scrying picked up of Sakura's words at the time the ribbons first manifested, her early development and power growth were caused by Saber's sister...Morgan le Fay." Iri explained to Zouken.
Jubstacheit didn't like what he was hearing and moved the remote control maid's lips to speak in his stead. "If she's involved, I should mention that the reason I avoided using Angra Mainyu as a Servant for our Third Holy Grail War was that Merlin sent a dream warning me of the damage it would cause to the Grail. He also steered me toward an artifact for summoning Lancelot or Galahad in 1980, but I failed to take the hint not to summon the King of Knights. This may be some proxy war between Merlin and Morgan le Fay since events conspired to force the Grail to take on the curse anyway." The idea that Morgan le Fay might want to curse the Grail made sense, given the nature of her younger sibling's wish. If Artoria Pendragon won and wished upon a clean Grail, it would wash away Morgan le Fay's final victory. Merlin, by contrast, would likely help restore Camelot with her wish or try to ensure that King Artoria wasn't summoned at all. It wasn't a correct assessment, but a believable one. No one knew that the real reason that Merlin sought to prevent the Grail from being cursed was both to protect the modern world and so that Shirou wouldn't have to deal with the Fuyuki Fire. Sadly, it wasn't always that easy to divert the course of history away from certain events. Alaya could be quite stubborn about certain things happening.
"So they've been manipulating these events even longer than we have. At least since the Third Holy Grail War. Maybe since the Second if Okita Souji's recruitment by Saber was intentional." Iri grimaced in a manner uncharacteristic of the face she wore. "If only I was summoned as a Ruler, I might have been able to do something..." She put her hand to her forehead before sliding it down her face in irritation. "...Go. I need time to think about this if I want to come up with a solution."
Being dismissed didn't suit either of the founders well, though Jubstacheit's maid obeyed out of respect for the body Dark Iri was possessing. "Very well. Byakuya Matou, clean this mess and then stay with our Lady. She has previously mentioned a need for a 'player two' as well, whatever that may be. You should do something to earn your keep here, so obey her." The possessed homunculus ignored the sputtering man and walked past Zouken to leave the room. The ancient lich followed in clear displeasure. As they walked through the passageways, which transitioned from manufactured replacements to natural—albeit charred—natural caverns, Zouken's mood remained one of quiet fury. The maid preemptively gave a rebuke to the angered bloodsucker. "You would do well to recall that Lady Justeaze is not so incompetent as to fail without reason. Do not blame her lightly."
Zouken's dark expression took on an even more pronounced form and his tone followed suit. "The thing in there that we summoned to restore the Grail is not your matriarch. It is merely wearing her form and imprisoning her soul. I remember Lady Justeaze, and will not call that unworthy parasite by her name." The parasitic lich's restrained fury did not allow him the presence of mind to note the hypocrisy of his words. In another timeline, Zouken had forgotten every motivation he had aside from immortality for fighting in the Holy Grail War. Being reminded of the woman he once loved by seeing that monstrosity wearing her face over the decades, however, drew forth instincts of rage. He was no better a man for it, but he and Jubstacheit had one thing in common that they shared—an honest hatred of the corruption that they were temporarily forced to tolerate and ally with to regain access to any version of Justeaze's Magic Circuits and restore a Greater Grail. It was due to this odd moment of solidarity and understanding that Zouken's response was not met with further critique from the ancient head of the Einzberns. It was said in defense of the true Justeaze, after all.
"What of your planned contingency?" Jubstacheit's proxy inquired. He knew that Zouken was tinkering with that backup plan earlier. Even if the head of the Einzberns saw little value in it, they needed to do something.
Zouken's tone turned more neutral with his point now made. "To be most effective, We will have to employ a Command Seal at just the right moment. It isn't zero risk, but the possible return is high."
"You don't carry as much confidence as I would prefer," the maid noted as they left the caverns behind and walked toward the shrine complex itself.
Zouken gave a grunt of agreement and chose to justify his hesitation. "Nothing is certain. Even the orphan is a wild card. Though if we do nothing in hesitation, we will lose." With that statement, Zouken went into one of the buildings within the shrine and looked at a semi-lucid Kayneth lying on the floor.
The ancient being gave a dark smile to his 'asset', resolving to enjoy the suffering his plan would cause regardless of whether the plan worked or not. "Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald. I'm afraid I have some bad news for you..."
Emiya Residence
8:48 PM
5 minutes to Zero (Adjusted)
Shirou set down a platter of snacks in front of the assembled, all of whom were watching Kariya and Irisviel tinker with a certain project. The maids and Servants seemed to carry little interest, Tokiomi and Sola-Ui seemed to be restraining themselves from giving criticism, and Taiga was looking on in excitement. Shirou couldn't help but find it interesting to watch Irisviel cast several spells upon a palm-sized gray cartridge. She then slotted it into a portable monochrome inkjet printer under Kariya's careful instruction before closing the lid. This device was, in turn, connected to a black Windows 3.1 laptop via a thick cable plugged into the parallel port.
"Alright. Now to print a few calibration pages..." Kariya said, using the laptop to print out a test page with various lines and gradients from the modified printer. He would note the lines' condition, adjust settings according to what the printer's software recommended, and fire off another test print...this one with far more success. "Good. Now for the main test," the man uttered next. With some additional key presses on the keyboard and a few clicks of an external serial mouse controlling the laptop, the printer started to sweep its print head back and forth across the page. Slowly but surely, the early '90s piece of technology spat out a page on which was printed a blood-red Magic Circle.
Irisviel picked up the page, studying it for flaws. She found no issues and set it down on the table with a gentle smile of approval. She then placed an empty drinking glass on the edge of the sheet of paper and experimentally focused her prana through the Magic Circle...at which point it glowed with cyan light. The glass of water promptly filled with crystal-clear water that had been drawn in from the atmosphere. "It works! Waver was right!" Irisviel exclaimed happily. Meanwhile, Tokiomi and Sola-Ui looked quite surprised.
Kariya seemed pleased with himself. "I didn't think my freelance writing equipment could be used to make Magic Circles! All we really did was to make sure the blood coagulant didn't interfere with the cartridge or print nozzle. I didn't think a Magus like Waver could come up with something like this."
Indeed, the moment Waver had learned that a modern computer printer could produce images as well as text—and that a computer could edit such photographs—he had immediately pondered the possibility of printing Magic Circles directly from a computer file on demand. He had been inspired by Irisviel's idea of taking photographs of Magic Circles for later use. The revelation that the computer had an image creation utility that could pant Magic Circles from scratch or edit existing ones freely only bolstered him further. He may have been away right now as part of Kiritsugu's plan, but Kariya's knowledge of his own equipment and Irisviel's Magecraft were enough to finish making the idea into reality.
"It didn't make the circle much faster than it would have taken a human to write it..." Sola-Ui protested, critical of the heretical use of technology in Magecraft.
Irisviel smiled widely before excitedly explaining the benefits. "True, but you can be doing something else while this is printing! It also makes the circle the exact same way every time so long as the blood or prana-conductive ink in the printer cartridge is of the same quality! In arrays with repeating Magic Circles that require as much similarity as possible, this makes for a far more synchronized output compared to hand drawing each one. That and you don't have to worry about mistakes! If one's right, they all are!" Kariya agreed with a nod and a smile.
Sola-Ui's eyebrow twitched at the childlike response from Irisviel. "But you shouldn't use such things! Don't you two have any pride as Mages?"
Kariya looked at the woman and have her an irritated look. "Pride in being born as livestock for someone who I'm pretty sure counts as a Dead Apostle? Not really, no." Sola-Ui's mounting anger was knocked aside in favor of stunned realization as she was forced to remember the origins of the people in front of her. Tokiomi's mental critique also faltered at that comment.
Irisviel couldn't help but silently agree. Considering that she was born to be similarly expendable—and had a husband with a similarly pragmatic mentality toward Magecraft—her stance on the matter was clear enough. Disposable people lacked the luxury of pride. Her hand reached out and rubbed the top of an innocent Shirou's head as he studied the accomplishment with clear interest.
Atalanta's heart was momentarily warmed by Irisviel's action, but the cat ears atop her head flicked and one rotated in the direction of the hallway leading toward the bedrooms. She glanced in that direction before promptly standing on her feet. "Please excuse me...something happened and I need to check on Sakura." Kariya's and Tokiomi's expressions shifted to ones of mild concern as Atalanta made her way down the hallway swiftly. The former most turned toward Irisviel, planning to recommend that they stop testing the printer for now—when everything changed.
The sensation of Caster's spell washed over everyone in the house. They may not have been caught up within the radius of the spell, but everyone in the room could still feel it. "What the hell?!" Mordred called out as the sound of the explosion made itself known. She stood up from the table and defensively drew Clarent while Leysritt drew her halberd. Shirou was on guard—both feeling the magical energy and perceiving it as smelling like brackish water, fish, and blood. Even Taiga, who should not have been able to sense such a thing, perceived something due to its sheer density and instinctively drew Torashinai in reaction to the malicious burst of power.
Across the street from the Emiya Residence
8:53 PM
Zero Hour (Adjusted)
While Sakura Tohsaka recovered from Cthulhu's attempt at turning her into its avatar, and the night sky was marred by Caster's bid for power, Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald knew it was time to act. As he had waited, his lips unable to move, Kayneth recalled the words of Zouken Matou: "Kiritsugu Emiya has killed your fiancée. Obey my direction and I will give you the opportunity to destroy all he holds dear...do not fail me." The idea of avenging Sola-Ui on the wrong person, only to fail to protect her when she needed him most, was more than he could bear. His hatred for the Magus Killer eclipsed even his rage toward Zouken Matou who had enslaved his broken body. At the very least, Kayneth was empowered enough by the lich to do what needed to be done.
Clenching his teeth in rage and grief when he once more had motor control restored, Kayneth raised his arm to the sky and used the lone Command Seal that Zouken had transferred onto the back of his remaining hand. He issued the order he'd been manipulated to give through his still-extant connection to Mordred, uncaring of the consequences. "Saber! By my Command Seal, I order you to kill them all!"
Emiya Residence Living Room
"Gaaaaahhh!" A cry of strain and a brief red glow emerged from Mordred's body. Her body tensed as she struggled while clearly fighting whatever force was compelling her. She started to slowly turn toward Sola-Ui, who was seated at the living room's low table and had the misfortune of being the nearest target. "Kayneth...you...bastard!"
"Mordred?" Sola-Ui asked in confusion, starting to back away in fear as the girl's grip on Clarent tightened.
"C-Command Seal! Everybody! RUN!" Mordred's warning was enough for Sola-Ui to snap out of her surprise, but she was still not fast enough to evade the former's strike. No, Sola-Ui only lived because Mordred's blade was deflected by Leysritt's halberd, Riesenarm. With a loud clang, Clarent was redirected to Sola-Ui's side and plunged into the flooring of the home. On noting that Mordred was resisting the order as much as she could and slowing down her own movements, the expressionless combat homunculus followed up her strike by shifting to a one-handed grip on her weapon—before slamming her fist into Mordred's face with every bit of power that her B-minus ranked strength could muster.
Then the Bounded Field around the site triggered a split second before something exploded through the wall of some other part of the Emiya Residence, reminding everyone that the situation could always be worse.
Emiya Residence Bedroom
Medusa felt it before she saw it. Even before the Bounded Field was triggered, she knew that death was approaching them all and that she had almost no time to act. She materialized Pegasus next to her and called out to Sakura. "Sakura! Use your ribbons to shield everyone!" This woke Gray and Illya, drawing their awareness as Medusa started to activate her Noble Phantasm.
After 1.2 seconds, the Prana Ribbons had wrapped around the children. After 1.4, the wall began to explode inwards and Medusa saw a familiar pair of maddened eyes set in an enraged, gray visage. After 1.48 seconds, Medusa activated Bellerophon and launched Pegasus into their attacker at near point-blank range. Such was the scene when Atalanta reached the doorway in a near panic, only to find the whole area bathed in a blinding white light and a deafening roar. When the light faded, and Atalanta could see and hear once more, the wall was simply gone. It was replaced with a view showing the backyard, shed, and Dojo of the Emiya Residence. What debris wasn't pulverized or blown clear rained down for several tense seconds, failing to penetrate the spherical black and purple barrier that Sakura had raised.
Several seconds of inactivity later, the prana ribbons were lowered and the children finally became aware of the devastation. Atalanta went to their side defensively, her eyes and ears scanning all around the area for signs of activity. She heard a deep, guttural growl and her eyes took note of a mangled gray mass bearing a familiar face. Steam rose from the misshapen form as a torn-open torso and snapped neck forcibly realigned and healed themselves.
"Berserker!" Illya cried in surprise and concern.
"H-Hercules..." Atalanta breathed, recognizing her fellow Argonaut. The mountain of a man rose to his feet after losing a whopping six lives from being cored by an A-plus ranked Noble Phantasm at point-blank range. Combined with the lives lost in his last reported engagement—and the fact he had little time to recover—he should be nearing or at his twelfth and final life. Sadly, Hercules was immune to any Noble Phantasm under A rank thanks to God Hand and Medusa just used the only A ranked offensive Noble Phantasm either of them currently had access to. As if those issues weren't bad enough, he adapted to previously endured attacks enough to render a second attempt ineffective except in very specific cases. Mordred's Noble Phantasm had been used against Hercules at the Einzbern Castle earlier already, and the sounds of combat elsewhere in the house implied that Mordred was too busy to help anyway.
Atalanta and Medusa may each have had an ability to obtain power and a beastly mentality in a transformation that granted a higher-ranked Noble Phantasm, but they couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't become new threats to their young Masters at that point. Such a transformation couldn't be done in the girls' presence. There was also an underlying personal desire in each Servant not to use those transformations at all, but those feelings were ultimately secondary to the girls' survival.
"Rider!" Atalanta called out to the blindfolded woman, who was floating in the air on her winged horse. "I hear the others fighting too! Can you get the kids away?"
"No. I can't carry them all at once," Medusa responded. She briefly considered tying them to Pegasus with her chains or Sakura's prana ribbons, but there was too little time.
Atalanta's eyes narrowed. "Then we can at least distract him or lure him away. We're similar in speed to him, if not much else..." Indeed, speed was the only way they really compared to Hercules. Both of them knew that if he got his hands on them, it was probably over.
Hercules, being oddly tolerant to this point, twitched as the red glow of a Command Seal briefly shrouded his body and compelled him to action. The beast of a man gave a defiant roar to indicate the forced expiration of his patience and lunged toward the group with enough power to crater the ground behind him. Atalanta responded by summoning her bow and firing an arrow at the Berserker's eyes. It was useless beyond drawing his rage toward her, but this was enough for the ever-so-slightly faster huntress to draw the maddened demigod's attention away from the children.
"Archer!" Rin called out, not wanting to lose her Servant to the hero-turned-monster. The sounds of combat exploded across the yard as Atalanta drew Hercules' rage. She narrowly avoided Hercules' grip in her dance with death, the monster of a man occasionally slowed by a chain from Medusa or bodily knocked back by Pegasus. The pair tried to draw Hercules away from the property, though this was proving particularly difficult as long as the children were in sight.
Even with the volume of the destruction, Illya's crying could still be heard. "H-he stopped when he saw me...Berserker doesn't want to hurt me! They made him keep fighting with a Command Seal!" She'd been grieving ever since her former Servant—her first friend—had been forced into this war. Now it was thrown in her face that he was an enemy. The fact he was an unwilling one arguably made it worse.
Rin, the next-eldest present, felt responsible for the group but struggled with herself. She wanted to run, but where could they go? There was fighting inside the house too. Her own home was gone. The Einzbern Castle was wrecked. Running away somewhere else meant they'd be defenseless, and she knew that Zouken Matou would be waiting to grab her again with his worm-covered hands wherever else she ran. She was supposed to be one of the Masters of this war, but she had no idea what to do to fix this!
"Girls!" Rin was distracted from this fatalist line of thinking when a slightly battered Tokiomi ran into the room with his staff at the ready. Kariya, to his credit, was right behind him even if he had no true training as a Magus. "Come on. We need to leave. Trust in your Servants for now." The girls were picked up, including the crying Illya, and the two men stepped out of the hole in the wall before they ran to evacuate the immediate area. Tokiomi glanced only briefly to regard the Servants fighting Hercules with respect before withdrawing toward the place where the vehicles were parked. Thank goodness Kariya knew how to drive...
Such hopes were unfortunately dashed when the group turned the corner around the side of the building and saw the remains of Irisviel's Mercedes-Benz and the original Suzuki Carry owned by Leysritt. They had been impaled and shredded, their assailant clearly taking out his frustration on the vehicles...and Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald had obvious cause to be frustrated given that his half-metal body looked only slightly less mangled than the cars he had destroyed. "Trying to run out on our rematch, Tokiomi? And in such shameful devices? My, my. That simply will not do. One shouldn't ignore a lord of the Clock Tower." Though his words seemed rational, there was a glint in his eye that was dangerous. The man was on a hair trigger.
Tokiomi set down the kids he was carrying quickly but gently, then held his staff in a defensive position as the children retreated to Kariya's side. "One cannot respond to the attentions of a lord of the Clock Tower without foreknowledge. This is the second time you have approached me without scheduling a meeting first."
"True enough. Well...consider yourself informed!" A tendril of mercury Mystic Code lanced out from Kayneth's battered frame toward Tokiomi, who conjured a wall of flame to defend against the attack and boil away the offending liquid metal. Tokiomi wasn't able to stay idle, however, as large chunks of the thrashed vehicles started to be thrown through the wall with Kayneth's shiny, new throwing arm. Tokiomi wasted no time in doing his best to burn and melt the chunks sent his way as thoroughly as possible; he was well aware that Kayneth's fighting style meant that he had likely concealed bits of mercury inside the wreckage of the vehicles for ambushes. It was the same tactic he had used during the fight at the Tohsaka Mansion, hiding mercury under the floorboards. Kayneth had likely booby-trapped the front gate as well in case anyone tried to flee.
"...so you've learned from last time," Kayneth noted with a scowl. His desire to manipulate Tokiomi into a kill zone of mercury-laced debris was highly unlikely to pan out at this point. "No matter. I'll simply kill you in a more traditional manner—"
This conversation was interrupted when Mordred was slammed through a wall from within the house and emerged onto the front yard. Leysritt stepped outside after the Servant, her halberd at the ready. Sella carried the shield Prydwen, which Mordred had failed to pick up for the fight. Irisviel was supporting both with healing Magecraft and wireframe familiars that swooped and pecked at Mordred whenever an opening needed to be created for Leysritt to attack. Several broken strands of wire around her person indicated that Mordred had been bound by the wire at least once, but that it wasn't strong enough to restrain her.
Kayneth was enraged, seeing his Servant struggle to obey...no...she was struggling to resist. The Command Spell simply hadn't been strong enough! "Saber! How could you lose to a modern-day homunculus? Get up and kill!"
A furious Mordred screamed at Kayneth, "Shut up, you rat bast—!" The Knight of Treachery's rant died on her lips as her eyes abruptly went wide on seeing Kayneth's half-metal body. "...what the hell happened to you?"
Taiga was horrified on seeing Kayneth's body and she screamed out, "t-that's the liquid metal cyborg from Terminator 2! Your Magecraft stuff can even do things like that?"
Kayneth's scowl deepened. "You brought a mundane person here? Honestly, the Magus Killer has no respect for decorum or secrecy!" Tokiomi intentionally did nothing to draw Kayneth's attention at this point, giving Kariya and the girls time to get into another part of the complex residence and out of sight.
"Says the filth who...would command me...to murder...children!" Mordred called out as she struggled to avoid using kill strikes against Leysritt. The maid was as strong as some Servants, true, but not up to the standard of ones like her or Artoria. Only by slowing her strikes as much as possible did Mordred avoid cleaving off the homunculus' limbs already. Her only hope was to be knocked unconscious.
"You do not get to condemn me, puppet! All you are required to do is obey—...Sola-Ui?" Kayneth's tirade died on his lips as he saw his redheaded betrothed looking at his mangled form in confusion and terror. Now, Kayneth had been told that Sola-Ui died by Zouken. It had been used to work him into a frenzy and attack like this in the first place. Now that the contradiction was exposed in front of him, the Crest Worms got to work manipulating and whispering into his mind to guide him toward a certain conclusion...
"You...pretended to die...betrayed me...these fools struck me down and you immediately allied with them?! Sola-Ui! Did what we have mean nothing?! Were you that desperate to win the war for yourself?!" The man started to scream and rant, his thoughts pushed further into the realm of irrational malice.
"I never hid anything! Mordred said she killed you!" Sola-Ui vehemently denied the accusation as she stepped forward to the edge of the broken wall, desperate to be believed. "You were gone! I couldn't command her, I couldn't win, I couldn't go back to my family without you, and I couldn't disobey Saber long enough to flee...what would you have had me do, Kayneth?"
"Silence, you disloyal woman! If you're so quick to change sides, then you can die with them!" Kayneth was enraged to the point of madness, his plan discarded in the red haze of fury. He may have lost his ability to use the spells stored in his missing Magic Crest, but he could still conjure up orbs of water from the water vapor in the air and launch them at his fiancée and her allies. Mixed in with this water were globs of mercury, the water being diversionary so as to maximize the chances of the true payload reaching its target. Tokiomi turned some of the water into steam with strikes from his Fire Magecraft but failed to intercept the true danger. Shirou knew Sella couldn't use Prydwen to block them all and threw a hand forward even as Irisviel held him in place. Something instinctual resulted, an ability that Shirou had never used or been shown in this life...
"Rho Aias!" Shirou cried out as he extended a hand under Sella's arm and past her guard, his small body flaring with magical energy as pink petals of protective light emerged. The technique wasn't nearly as strong as it could have been, being the first attempt Shirou had ever made to call upon it, but it would have to do.
The rain of water and mercury hit immediately after, the mercury globs extending lethal spikes multiple meters in all directions as soon as they hit physical resistance. The room and the wall immediately outside it were soon full of metal spikes impaling the walls and furniture as if it were a gleaming and branching display of deadly, modern art. Then, a split second later, the spiked balls of liquid mercury began to rotate. The spikes phased through each other when encountered, but everything else in the room that wasn't behind the protection of Rho Aias was utterly shredded into pieces as if the room were the inside of a giant blender. This was empowered by Wind Magecraft to make it even more lethal.
Shirou, the others in the room, and the wall immediately behind them were safe even if two of Rho Aias' petals had been lost in the process. Unfortunately, Sola-Ui had been standing too far forward to be covered by Rho Aias and was impaled in seven places. She barely had time to show surprise or pain before she was utterly torn apart right before everyone's eyes. Even as Shirou passed out from exertion and the pain of his injuries that was the price of using Rho Aias to the point of the first petal breaking, Sola-Ui's fate stayed etched in his mind.
The silence lasted for five seconds before the inexperienced Taiga succumbed to the grotesque display, falling to her knees and violently purging her stomach's contents onto the floor.
"...Sola...Ui?" Kayneth asked, the haze starting to lift a bit at the realization of what he'd done. He took on a pained and horrified expression, but would not have time to lament further. Not when a Mana Burst-accelerated Mordred who had torn free of the Command Seal's compulsion in her rage slammed into Kayneth's torso sword-first. He was run through, not retaining enough of his Mystic Code on his battered frame to defend against the sheer force of the attack. A lateral motion tore Clarent out of his body through the side before a second slash of the blade cleaved through Kayneth's neck. His severed head fell to the ground several meters away, staring at his own beheaded corpse. The last thing he was aware of was Mordred glaring down at his face with contemptuous fury.
The Mystic Code lost cohesion along with the connection to its master, mercury splattering to the floor and down the walls. Irisviel looked to Shirou, who had passed out from the shock and apparent backlash of his technique, though Avalon was already healing the injuries that had appeared on his person. This must have been a downside of the ability. She then realized that it was a bad idea to stay indoors. "Sella, get Shirou and Miss Fujimura out of here. The mercury fumes can't be good for us. In fact, we should all leave the house." Of course, leaving was necessary because of more than just the fumes. There was also whatever Tokiomi, Kariya, and the kids were fleeing from before that caused the sounds that had permeated the backyard. The fact that it was quiet at the moment didn't mean it was safe. Not with Atalanta and Medusa suspiciously absent.
Kariya had obtained some tarps from the shed and Tokiomi was levitating Kayneth's remains onto one of those tarps when Irisviel approached. He promptly closed the tarp around Kayneth and ran the tip of his cane along the edge, melting the plastic with Fire Magecraft to seal the corpse inside. His expression was stern as Irisviel approached. "Evidence," he explained. "There were dead Crest Worms in his wounds. They died due to heavy metal poisoning. Even had he won here, he would have been dead in mere hours. As it is, you are fortunate that Prydwen seems to allow Miss Sella to tap into its true power." Irisviel believed that Tokiomi suspected Shirou to be responsible for saving them rather than Prydwen, but was saying such a thing in case Zouken was still monitoring the situation. After all, those Crest Worms meant that Zouken Matou was almost surely behind Kayneth's survival and this second attack. If the worms hadn't been poisoned, they would likely have consumed enough of the body to metamorphize into their flight form and escape, leaving little evidence of tampering. If so much as one insect remained alive, Zouken might still be listening.
"Good riddance," Mordred spat in irritation while looking at Kayneth's bundled corpse. She then glanced back toward Sola-Ui's nearly unrecognizable remains with regret.
"Are you...going to be alright, Mordred?" Irisviel asked in concern. Mordred looked at Irisviel—hesitating to reveal any weakness for a moment—before she savagely kicked the tarp that contained Kayneth's body and began to shout out her lament.
"If I had just finished the job last time, none of this would have happened! He wouldn't have killed her! I guess this is just what I get for betraying Father before. Being betrayed." Mordred's body started to glow, golden motes of light leaking from it as she looked over her body. She gave a sigh. Without a Master to draw power from, Mordred's time in this war had come to an end. "...Even though my wish was granted, I still wanted to spend some more time with Gray and Father, you know?"
"...Auntie?" Gray's quiet voice called forth, drawing Mordred's attention. The girl had been brought out by Sakura to greet Mordred before she faded away. It carried an odd level of forethought from a child Sakura's age, but perhaps it was because Sakura knew how it felt to lose Boudica without being able to say goodbye...
"Gray..." Mordred's expression turned into one of deeper sadness and regret, discarding decorum as she knelt down and hugged the young girl. "I...have to go away now. I don't want to, but it's time I went home. You'll have to be strong from now on. Can you do that for me?" Gray's expression turned a bit more downcast as she nodded, the girl having been through such rushed goodbyes with her mother before. She returned the hug by clinging desperately and gently beginning to cry in Mordred's arms. "You'll do us Pendragons proud, Gray. I know it," Mordred said to the child. She was struggling to provide comfort when she so rarely received it in her own life, and could only hope that it was enough.
Sakura grasped Irisviel's sleeve and tugged to get the woman's attention. When the maternal woman knelt down, the child whispered something in her ear...and Irisviel smiled softly. The white-haired homunculus nodded before she pulled her traced copy of Avalon out from within her own body. While Mordred was focused on hugging Gray, Irisviel pushed it into the distracted tomboy's back.
"E-eh? What did you just—?" Mordred asked in confusion, her question unanswered as she soon vanished into motes of golden light.
Gray found herself embracing nothing but air, reaching forlornly for the fading golden wisps of light that were the only remnant of the family she had all-too-briefly known. The child shuddered and began to more loudly cry, soon finding herself swept up into a gentle hug by Irisviel. "Shhh...Everything will be okay, Gray. Everything will be okay..."
Irisviel could only hope that she wasn't telling the poor child a lie.
Fields Northwest of Fuyuki City
8:59 PM
Anyone who managed to be both conscious and outdoors to watch the night sky could be forgiven for thinking they were hallucinating. In addition to the light show in the distance caused by the battle with Caster, there were also two women in a nearer part of the sky who were riding a flying white horse with wings. The woman successfully steering the horse was blindfolded, in defiance of all reason, while the other with a lion's ears and tail was mounted on the horse behind her partner while facing backward in a manner most humans could never hope to maintain in practice. The beast-like woman was occasionally shooting arrows from a bow taller than she was. Her target was a pursuing mountain of a man who was chasing them along the ground at a pace largely beyond the reach of living humans. The arrows fired at him glowed green when in the air and were fired at a rate comparable to that of a machine gun, giving the Archer a role analogous to a military aircraft's tail gunner. It was a shame that the arrows did absolutely nothing to their earthbound target except ensure that the women held his attention.
That wasn't to say the man chasing them was without recourse. For the third time, Hercules uprooted a telephone pole and flung it toward Pegasus as if it were a javelin. "Dodge!" Atalanta called out. Medusa promptly obeyed and banking left to avoid the projectile. Such was the ebb and flow of the last few minutes. They had managed to lure Hercules away from populated areas once none of his other targets were in sight...a loophole that Atalanta was reasonably sure Hercules was allowing on some level rather than truly ignorant of. He was not a fool in spite of his madness, and he certainly did not want to kill those children. The fact a Command Seal was even necessary to compel him to fight in the first place was proof enough of that.
"This is far enough," Atalanta stated with resolve.
"Do you really desire this?" Medusa inquired about her unlikely partner.
Atalanta maintained a level voice, her only hesitation being a split-second delay in response. "It is true that luring Hercules to the fields beyond the city may allow you to transform and wield your full power as the Gorgon without risking the living. This does not change the fact that Sakura, who has the power to sustain you after the war, will need the vigilant Medusa rather than the beastly Gorgon at her side. Let the one whose altered form is reversible do the deed." Atalanta looked down on Hercules with resolve as he pursued in his mindless rage. "Besides...Hercules is my friend. My crewmate. I know he would want me to be the one to deliver the final blow if possible."
"...Good hunting, Atalanta," Medusa said in response as she lowered Pegasus over an unused, grassy field that was a significant distance ahead of Hercules. Atalanta had scarcely jumped from the floating horse and reached the ground before Hercules barreled toward the Tohsaka Servants as predicted. He bellowed an incomprehensible roar that had no place coming from a man. Pegasus responded by charging toward Hercules as a white comet to intercept and distract him, Sakura's ability to consistently power Pegasus being a massive boon. Medusa and Pegasus drew Hercules' ire and the field paid the price. A crater and loose dust joined the grasses in providing the field some character as Hercules was struck. In spite of the collateral damage, Medusa's strong point wasn't in her raw power. It was in how she used her abilities and environment. The winged horse tested the limits of its turning radius at speed, both to evade Hercules' retaliation and to keep up the attack.
Atalanta was aware that Medusa was doing nothing more than buying her precious time. She plunged her hand into a void in space from which she pulled out a darkened pelt that radiated black and purple energy. It hurt simply holding it in her hand, but she steeled herself as she bared her teeth...and slammed the pelt against her chest. "Now release...Agrius Metamorphosis!" Corrupting darkness and foreboding purple light consumed Atalanta and made her painfully scream to the heavens as it forcibly shifted her into her Alter form. This version of the Chaste Huntress was better described as a Berserker than an Archer after the loss of her reason. Skin paled and eyes trended toward an inhuman yellow. Green and gold hair turned to faded purple and gray. Her green dress became a skimpy black and purple fur bikini that housed a massive boar's head on her right shoulder. Notably missing any form of pockets or excess fabric, the forgotten vial of hydra venom fell to the ground and shattered.
Though bearing a superior sense of smell, Atalanta Alter did not even stay in place long enough for the vial to finish falling. She was dashing away before the poisonous scent was even exposed to the air, launching herself into battle with the full weight of her boosted-yet-unstable stats. She drove her fist into Hercules' massive frame, her teeth bared and her rage brought to the fore in wide-eyed madness. "You attacked them! You attacked children, Hercules!" Of course, none of it amounted to anything as God Hand nullified every blow that she dished out.
Medusa called out to Atalanta Alter, "Archer! Remember the plan! Use your Noble Phantasm!" but to no initial avail. The lion-girl couldn't even hear Medusa's words over her fury. Powerful blows did little but knock Hercules' own mighty movements off course, Atalanta Alter's strength temporarily being 90% of Hercules' own even if her speed was far greater at the moment.
"Illyasviel cried for you, Hercules! She trusted you! You would dare to raise your hand against that poor child?! I'll kill you!" Atalanta Alter continued her assault as she screamed, the pair of maddened Servants tearing apart the land. Hercules was doing most of the damage, using his sword to cleave any place where Atalanta lingered for any minuscule amount of time.
Atalanta Alter was never meant to stand as Hercules' equal, however. Even if unable to see her parameters, Medusa knew that this level of power and speed wasn't something Atalanta Alter could sustain. Once she started flagging, Atalanta Alter's recklessness would make an opportunity for Hercules to instinctively exploit. As the fallen goddess wracked her brain trying to think of possibilities, she became aware of a certain scent in the air. The snake-aligned being of Greek origin recognized it immediately. Hydra blood. Taking off her blindfold and scanning the ground with her special eyes, she identified the glint of broken glass and a discolored spot where Atalanta had first transformed. The snake goddess promptly recalled that Shirou had taken to cooking Hydra meat for meals. The fellow Greek Servant must have confiscated the toxin from the child! Couldn't they use this?
Medusa's line of thinking was broken when the inevitable nearly came to pass. Atalanta Alter's stamina was starting to wane and Hercules' luck and experience were in no way weakened by his mental state. A slight miscalculation on Atalanta Alter's part led to Hercules nearly using his massive stone axe-sword to cleave her in two, but a brief body slam from Pegasus and an equally fast withdrawal gave Atalanta Alter enough time to jump out of range. Only then, when melee wasn't feasible and Hercules was briefly distracted, did Atalanta Alter choose to use her Noble Phantasm.
Lifting her blackening bow toward the sky and drawing it back with a bolt of energy, Atalanta Alter made her hatred known and called on her Noble Phantasm. "You'll never be a threat to the children again, Hercules! It ends here! Tauropolos Skia Thermokrasia!" At the moment she released her shot into the air, the whole of the sky glowed an ominous hot purple. The sheer number of blackened energy-based arrows kicked up a massive dust cloud as they rained down, piercing the ground everywhere around Hercules. Medusa had been forced to flee the area of effect with Pegasus' speed, but Hercules had no such way to outrun the A ranked Noble Phantasm.
When the smoke cleared, Medusa was stunned to see that Hercules had managed to lift his massive stone axe-sword over his head and expose the flat of it to the bulk of the assault. The blade ultimately shattered under the force, several of the final arrows piercing his brain and upper body like he was a pincushion, but it only counted as one life lost. And apparently, that wasn't quite enough to stop him if the telltale steam and red glow of the regeneration process was still any indication. He must have regained some lives during the previous day by recharging God Hand. The last Noble Phantasm that Atalanta could possibly bring to bear against Hercules' defenses had failed, and he was now immune to it as well.
It was up to Medusa.
Rather than discard her own reason and risk a similar outcome in exchange for power, the Rider-class Servant instead chose another course of action. Hercules recovered enough to launch himself toward Atalanta Alter while she was still recovering energy from having fired her Noble Phantasm. At the length of his stride, Medusa wrapped her chain around one of his legs and used Pegasus to hoist him into the air. Strength meant little without leverage, and Hercules had none in this exchange. The flying horse then launched itself forward before turning at high speed, the chain flinging Hercules into a certain patch of tainted dirt with centrifugal force. In addition to making a loud thud and a crater, this had the immediate effect of forcing Hercules to emit an animalistic roar of agonizing pain, one that made even the maddened Atalanta Alter instinctively hesitate. When Hercules stood, the skin on his chest was red and oozing tainted blood, especially where the chards of glass had penetrated it. Medusa had withdrawn her chain at the last moment, making sure it wasn't tainted with poison that might cause complications later.
The reason God Hand had failed to protect him was understandable. Hydra blood contained a venom that had killed Hercules in life—specifically by skin contact—making it a perfect counter to his skin-based defensive Noble Phantasm. Even one drop was considered lethal and excruciatingly painful enough for an immortal like Hercules' teacher Chiron to surrender his immortality in exchange for the release of death. On top of that, things that killed or heavily wounded a Servant in their original life tended to be particularly effective weapons against them if uncovered. It was a key reason that many Servants tried to conceal their identities and answered to their classes instead.
Even while unaware of Gilgamesh dropping a hint to Atalanta about her being ignorant of the 'gift' she'd received from Shirou immediately after obtaining the vial, Medusa suspected now that the Golden Archer had somehow intended for this event to come to pass. The possibility was high that he had taught Shirou how to prepare Hydra meat at the beginning of the war with this in mind. Gilgamesh had already ensured that she was summoned by providing Sakura with a Catalyst, so it wouldn't be his first manipulation. Perhaps he felt a need to compete with Merlin's meddling? Who could understand those who bore the power of Clairvoyance?
"RAAAGGGGHHHHH!" Atalanta Alter screamed as she rushed toward Hercules, arm cocked back to punch him in his poisoned chest to take advantage of the apparent moment of vulnerability. If she touched the poison on Hercules' body, she would die too. Atalanta Alter would not have attempted such a thing had she been rational, so Medusa was caught by surprise.
"Archer, stop!" Medusa's chain was too late to pull Atalanta away from the danger. Hercules intercepted the punch with his own massive hand without much effort. A second punch from Atalanta was intercepted in the other. Even poisoned to such a lethal degree like this, Hercules' legend held that he was able to fight through the pain long enough to make his own funeral pyre. Hercules was still able to kill Atalanta Alter easily once his hands were on her, even if lethally wounded. He had her.
Then, with his bare teeth, he attacked the head of the boar on Atalanta Alter's shoulder. Hercules savagely ripped the pelt from her frame with his mouth and threw his fellow Argonaut clear. She landed on the untainted ground with all the coordination of a sack of potatoes, shuddering as the black miasma that had been the hallmark of her transformation was purged from her body. A battered green dress returned to her frame. Her hair, eyes, and complexion returned to normal. Clarity returned to said eyes as she shot up to her feet in a defensive posture...looking upon Hercules in confusion...then horror on seeing tainted flesh start to fall from his chest.
"The pain of the Hydra venom...it's mixing with Hercules' will to overpower the Command Seal," Medusa observed. Pegasus was hovering near but staying out of the dying man's reach. Realization crossed Atalanta's face and it contorted into a mix of shame and grief. Not only had Atalanta failed to realize she had the tools for victory all along, but Hercules had saved her from her own foolishness in the end.
"Hercules...I'm so sorry I said those things! The fact you needed a Command Seal to make you attack is proof that you cared for the children! That was my rage speaking through me, not the truth!" Atalanta exclaimed, ashamed of her own words.
Hercules stood there, flinging the boar's pelt from his mouth and letting it fade away into black mist where it fell. His eyes lost their maddened glow, the pain helping him focus through the various forces assailing his mind. "...I understand madness...better than most, Atalanta. Your words did not wound me. Thank you...for protecting the children from my hand. Tell Illyasviel that she is...my true Master."
"I will tell her, Hercules. I will also protect her from this war in your stead. I swear..." Atalanta vowed, looking upon her friend as motes of golden light shone from his body. Hercules smiled as he faded away into the wind. Medusa and Atalanta were left alone, and silence filled the night.
At least, it did until a light easily recognized by Atalanta made itself known over the city in the distance. "Wait...that was Phoebus Catastrophe! Did Artoria use her blessing to call on it?" She had no way of knowing that EMIYA had traded an order of dango for Artemis' blessing to smite an otherworldly horror, but she knew that they couldn't linger. Medusa landed Pegasus only long enough for Atalanta to get on before riding into the night. They still felt the connection to their Masters, so they held hope that the Emiya Residence would hold until they arrived...
Ryuudou Temple
9:04 PM
Kariya's survival was a surprise to Zouken. It must have been that blasted scabbard. Why the Magus Killer's assets had saved him was something Zouken couldn't comprehend. Still, he was hardly the main concern here. That failure didn't even rate compared to what had been lost. The price that had been paid was far too steep and had only removed First Saber and her Masters from the war.
Not only had Zouken lost Second Berserker to a pair of lesser Servants who just happened to be equipped with his mortal weakness, but he had also lost three Command Seals. Three! Zouken scowled as he looked at the back of his hand. Granting Kayneth just one of his seals hadn't been enough to force First Saber to attack her allies without holding back, so he had resolved to use more than one seal on Second Berserker if needed when the giant beast of a man had unexpectedly hesitated to attack his foes. He expected the whole operation to cost two seals at most, not three! And even then, the Servants in question had resisted his control just enough to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Of the six Command Seals he had stolen, Zouken now only had one left. His final Servant was also notoriously strong-willed, meaning that he could expect to spend at least two Command Seals to make him comply with any order he strongly disagreed with. The math was...problematic.
"It is no longer possible to compel your Servant to kill himself at the end of the war," Jubstacheit's mouthpiece in maid form stated sternly. That was the true purpose of the Command Seals—to force the winning Servant to kill themselves instead of making a wish and thus provide all seven Servants' energy to the Grail for the Master's wish to reach the Root. Even if six Servants' energy was enough for the surviving Master and Servant pair to each obtain a wish, accessing the Root needed every scrap of power seven Servants could normally muster. Oh, Zouken suspected that Jubstacheit still had the three seals he had obtained when he summoned that fake Justeaze in 1954. It was unlikely the man wanted to employ them though. He needed to use the seals to command the core of the Grail if necessary.
Zouken's scowl deepened. Jubstacheit did not need to state the obvious to the one who had invented the Command Seals in the first place. "I know that better than anyone. First Archer's will is greater than that of any other Servant to have participated in the war to date with maybe the exception of Second Berserker. Fortunately, the Third Magic has already been a part of the World. It would surely not require as much power to access an already extant Magic as it would to create a brand new path to the Root. Even if it did, there are enough extra Servants present to manifest the full power of the Grail and reach the Root even if I can't force First Archer to contribute his own energies."
This was hopefully true. Unfortunately, there were still six enemy Servants to their one. They did not count Dark Irisviel, of course. Until they were absolutely sure that access to the Root wasn't needed to reclaim the Third True Magic, it was best to maintain her presence rather than to send her into anything resembling battle. In the meantime, it would be important to guide First Archer to fight against the remainder while they were still split into pairs rather than to deal with them all at once.
Ahnenerbe Restaurant
9:04 PM
Wearing a white shirt, black pants, and a more casual hairstyle, Gilgamesh sat at a table while he finished his snack. He currently enjoyed an apple pie with ice cream on top. Not as good as his cook's meal, perhaps, but still a serviceable one made without any disgusting chemicals or other half-measures. His eyes were drawn to the west for a brief moment.
"Hnn. Had the animal remembered her gift sooner, she might have impressed me. Still, I suppose the snake fulfilled the role passably in her stead." Gilgamesh did not particularly care if Atalanta lived or died, merely that she reduced Zouken's fighting power. The old worm also now lacked the Command Seals to compel him to do anything he too strongly disagreed with. His ensuring that Medusa was summoned turned out to be for the best, as he knew it would be.
"I'm glad events are going as you'd hoped. Things seem well in hand here," said the man seated across from him. Gilgamesh glanced back to his fellow diner, a bearded gentleman with gray hair, a cane, a black cape, and a knowing smile. This man was not someone Gilgamesh would say he specifically liked, but it took a special sort of man to rally the world against a threat as dire as the Crimson Moon. The idea of intruding on the very source of all things purely through human means and claiming something even gods were never meant to touch carried a boldness that amused him to a certain degree as well. At the very least, Gilgamesh would concede that Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg was not a mongrel.
"There was never any doubt of that. Now, I must wonder why you approached your King so brazenly. What was it you desired of me, Magician?" Gilgamesh asked the strange man. The question was punctuated by a minor earthquake as Caster's sunken city started to rise toward the surface and make light of the local geology. Neither diner paid it any mind.
The bearded man's smile grew slightly, an irritant that Gilgamesh might have commented on had Zelretch not gotten to the point. "Simply telling you might not be believed. If you would direct your Clairvoyance to peer into the boy's inner world and seek that which you value the most...you will learn something of great interest to you that might otherwise be overlooked."
"This had best not be some sort of game..." Gilgamesh warned Zelretch, though he chose to indulge the Magician for now. He used his Noble Phantasm, Sha Naqba Imuru, to search Shirou's Reality Marble as instructed...and his eyes immediately widened in shock as he perceived something subtle and hidden. Then he gave a wide, manic grin. Finally, he started to openly laugh. It was a deep laugh mixing joy and amusement, even greater than that he displayed toward the cosmic joke of Ishtar's de-aging and reliance on a human child. Gilgamesh even casually clapped his hands, elated at what he had seen. "Yeeessss! My cook wanting to save such a pitiable goddess as Ereshkigal led to this? I don't know how you quantify the best timelines, Magician, but this one just became priceless."
A pleased Gilgamesh reclined in his seat. No longer was he simply tolerant. He was happy. This was a fine day. Still, it required that he alter his plans to a degree. The fact that a being like the one in front of him was involved also meant that there was more going on than he knew. It was time to obtain some information. "Tell me, what stake do you have in this war? Why are you involved with this?"
The three-millennia-old man briefly pondered his response. "The war itself? I want nothing more than maybe to keep things from reaching a doomsday scenario if absolutely necessary. The situation with the Grail isn't exactly as the others suspect, but the end result would still be the same. I'm just here to observe and set up a few things for the boy and his circle in the aftermath. I helped Merlin parse that boy's Reality Marble into something more stable and still plan to be involved in things here and there. It's an interesting timeline, as you've said."
"A consequence of tampering with the world's history in defiance of Alaya's goals," Gilgamesh observed. "As much as Saber sought to remove the threat to her intended, Alaya found another way to arrange for roughly the same sequence of events. The subconscious will of humanity is stubborn about the boy's fate. Just as the gods were about maintaining their grips on their chosen heroes." The King of Heroes was irritated by the parallels. In too many timelines this had led to a slightly interesting child being reduced to nothing more than a Faker lacking fundamental parts of his humanity. At least this timeline had unfolded differently. Good for Saber, seizing what she wanted from the jaws of Alaya itself. This reminded him of his own rebellion against the gods. She truly had learned to be a King. The fact that the act had unexpectedly served his own interests so well was even better.
It was roughly at this moment that the darkness of the sky was penetrated by a bright, golden pillar of light visible across all of Fuyuki City...and probably dozens of kilometers beyond. The pair looked out the window toward the supernatural event only for the pillar of light to suddenly be augmented by a powerful flash that the more mundane citizens of this city could easily mistake for a nuclear blast. That was, had they not been incapacitated or directed indoors by assorted Bounded Fields throughout the city. Gilgamesh knew that such a measure wouldn't prevent the light from attracting the attention of neighboring towns or the military, though.
"It seems that the mongrels have tended to the tentacled filth properly this time," Gilgamesh commented with light amusement.
"It certainly looks like it." The Second Magician pulled his eyes away from the carnage and gave a somewhat more sympathetic smile to Gilgamesh than before. "Feel free to tell me if you want inside that place. I maintain an entrance of my own that I'll soon be opening up to certain people anyway."
"I may hold you to that offer, Magician," Gilgamesh responded while plunking down a solid gold bar in payment for his meal. He wouldn't insult Zelretch by paying mere money for the secret, though. The value of the information was incalculable. Thanks to it, he was no longer simply a being who wanted nothing but to obstruct the desires of others and enjoy the resulting schadenfreude. He had a desire. A wish that he had long thought dead and buried.
Fuyuki City Rooftops
9:08 PM
Waver Velvet felt like he didn't really contribute much to this Grail War beyond mission planning. He wasn't even trusted with cleaning or the removal of the sniper nest! Kiritsugu and Maiya just told him to keep a lookout while they worked. As much as he disliked the fighting, Waver felt like he could handle more responsibility than that! The distracted student was promptly proven wrong when he was suddenly forced to dive out of the way of his Servant's own Gordius Wheel as it landed. He hadn't even seen it approach because he didn't bother to look up.
"Rider! You almost ran me over!" Waver protested. Before anything else could be said, however, he took note of Lancer Artoria's strained condition and was reminded of just how much power seemed to be pumped into sustaining the barrier that had contained Caster's efforts. Complaining in the face of that just felt...petty. Being around Irisviel and the others also skewed his perception of how Servants should be thought of and treated. His irritation deflated with a sigh. "At least you two made it out...good job. That looked rough, though. Is Lancer alright?"
The awkward change of heart briefly surprised Iskandar before he gave a large, beaming smile. "Thank you for the praise, boy! It was certainly tough, but the hardest-won victories make for the finest tales. Why, Lancer spoke as if she did not think she would survive the battle!"
"Yes, thank you...Waver Velvet." Lancer Artoria said from in the chariot, standing only because poise demanded it of her. Even now she propped herself up against the chariot's side to help herself remain upright. "I had...underestimated Avalon's regenerative abilities. The strain of maintaining Rhongomyniad Mythos was immense and the scabbard is the only reason I remain. I would otherwise have disappeared after burning through the whole of my energy." Even with the aid of the scabbard, however, the occasional minuscule mote of golden light drifted from her frame without her apparent notice.
"...Its protection was not enough to prevent lethal damage to your Saint Graph, it seems," Iskandar observed. Kiritsugu and Maiya looked at Lancer Artoria in concern. The Servant lifted a hand in front of her face in time to catch the sight of one of those tiny motes of magical energy escaping. The deterioration was slow but clearly present. Her eyes narrowed and her other hand clenched around her lance's handle.
"So it seems...this is the same as what happened with Boudica. As the damage is lesser, Avalon is allowing me to persist for much longer in spite of lethal injury...but I know not if I have hours or days. My combat abilities, however, may be permanently degraded," Lancer Artoria said with a slight tone of disappointment. "Perhaps this is the limit of Archer's copies of Avalon. I hope Gray is not too saddened by my departure when it occurs."
"Do you think a Command Seal will help?" Waver asked, in an attempt to be helpful.
"We'll ask Tokiomi when we get back," Kiritsugu said while carefully monitoring Lancer Artoria's condition. There was time to get an informed decision on that at least. They would use Rider's chariot to get to ground level, all except Maiya who would drive the upgraded copy of Leysritt's van back toward the Emiya Residence.
Caverns under Mount Enzo
9:09 PM
Byakuya Matou was standing well away from Dark Irisviel and clearly hoping not to be noticed. The 27-inch television in front of them had a huge hole in its screen, courtesy of the Mega Drive controller that had been thrown through the tube in anger. Even now, the television released the occasional high-voltage spark. The homunculus stared directly forward in contemplation of something no one else had noticed save for perhaps the Clairvoyants in the war.
Boudica, Okita Souji, Gilles de Rais, Mordred Pendragon, and Hercules. Five Servants had fallen, and the Greater Grail was designed to manifest at this point so that the remaining two Servants could fight the final battle over it. The fact there were extra Servants didn't change the threshold for the Greater Grail's initial manifestation.
So why...why hadn't their souls been handed over to the Greater Grail? Why wasn't the Greater Grail activating?
Early Sixth Century AD
Camlann Hill, Britannia
Pain. That was Mordred's world as she opened her eyes. Even finding herself on her back, she could recognize the acrid scent of death and the orange sky. This was enough to reveal that Mordred was right back where she had started; the Battle of Camlann. Her view of the sky was broken by the form of Rhongomyniad standing tall from its resting place in her impaled torso. The pain was agonizing...but the lance began to shift. Part of it had been pushed back out of her body when she had fallen back onto the ground and the remainder was now somewhat loosely hilted inside the grapefruit-sized hole in her body. There was no sensation below the wound due to the utter destruction of her spine when her father had dealt the death blow.
This didn't make sense. Wasn't there supposed to be something between losing the war and here? Wasn't she supposed to linger in the Grail for a time? Irisviel had an experience like that, didn't she?
She coughed up blood and tasted it liberally in her mouth as she was sharply brought back to reality. Past her pain and paralysis, she could feel a connection to her contract with the world—Alaya's grip on her. She also knew what would happen if she continued to chase the Grail. She would be Alaya's slave just like that future version of Shirou was.
"...Y-you suck at making deals, you know that Alaya? But you are the one who set up this whole mess...you put Father onto the throne to beat Mother...only to guide me to tear it all to pieces when they weren't useful to you anymore. I guess you don't care about fairness...just being a manipulative bitch to get your way! Well, I'm done! My real wish was granted by Shirou and Father, not you! I...don't need the Grail anymore!" She weakly raised a hand up and defiantly extended her middle finger to the sky with a blood-stained grin. "S-see this Alaya? This is what I think of your damn contract!" Mustering what strength she could, she then grabbed Rhongomyniad with that hand and pulled...yanking it from her body with a cry of pain before it clattered to the ground at her side. This act of defiance wasn't meant to accomplish anything beyond showing that she intended to die on her own terms, her life complete. Even as her link with Alaya faded, she found comfort in the fact that her father had forgiven her and still had a future to return to. Mordred had closure...
Her thoughts were interrupted by a white shining light emerging from her now-vacant torso wound. She could see what appeared to be threads of light sewing and recombining the fragments of her flesh even as feeling began to steadily return to her lower body. She knew this light...it was the scabbard, Avalon. Her eyes widened as she realized what had happened. Irisviel had shoved a copy of the scabbard into her body at the last moment. She had returned to Camlann with it, just like when her father returned with the original scabbard.
The fallen Knight didn't even realize she was laughing at first. By the time she did, however, she couldn't stop. Even if this battlefield was the last place one should make laughter—even if it was disrespectful to the fallen and caused her physical pain—she released the deep, loud, belly laughter that came from a mix of relief and incredulous amusement. She grabbed Rhongomyniad and used it as a cane to help herself rise to her knees before her laughter eventually faded into a chuckle. "Heh...look at me. The one most responsible for this shit, and I'm the one who gets to walk away. Is this a reward or a curse?"
Mordred took the opportunity to look around the hellish landscape for which she was responsible. The land was littered with the corpses of the men who died either praising or cursing her name. Her father had already been hauled off somewhere, probably by Bedivere. If any Knight was with her at the end, it would have been him. Finally, in front of her, she found the remains of her shattered helmet. It was broken in exactly the same way as the Catalyst that had summoned her into the Fourth Holy Grail War, albeit without the additional weathering of time. It was then that it truly hit her. She was in the past. This was the world her Father sought to save Shirou in. The world in which Gray would be born. Savagely ripping a cape from a nearby corpse and using it as an impromptu sack, Mordred gathered up every shard of her helmet she could find before tying the bundle shut. This would be essential for Kayneth and Sola-Ui to summon her in the future. The thought of failing to protect the poor woman from her brutal death brought Mordred regret, but she pressed forward out of necessity.
"Ugh...now I have to make sure those two get this somehow. What do I do, take it to the Blackmores? Do they even exist yet?" Musing on this matter while picking up Clarent in her free hand where it had fallen, she rose to her feet using Rhongomyniad as a walking stick to support her weight. Mordred dismissed her heavy armor so as to reduce the strain on her still-weakened body. She needed to get moving if she wanted to leave this place before someone found her and finished her off. There was no telling how long the false Avalon's protection would last once her father was out of range.
Traversing the battlefield to leave, she approached an area she had torn through earlier in the fight. Her eyes spotted movement and drew her surprised attention toward a prone man wearing once-immaculate white armor stained with filth and blood. Mordred quickly realized that she was looking at one of the more notable victims of her rage as he lay dying on the battlefield. His tears were running down his cheeks just as freely as the blood from his head wound. The fading Knight of the Sun spoke a feeble plea that he clearly expected would be his final words. "Forgive me...my King...if only I had not turned away Lancelot. In the chance there is a next time. If there is an opportunity to restore my honor—a second life—then at that time I will devote my everything to the king... " Gawain lamented on the verge of death. He was grieving after seeing Mordred and King Arthur fight and apparently wound each other lethally on that hilltop from afar. Mordred's approach was finally noticed shortly after her torso wound managed to fully heal, compelling Gawain to speak. "Young woman...you have brought Sir Mordred's blade and the King's Lance? Then...my King is truly dead..."
Mordred growled and resisted the urge to kick the dying man. "Shut up, crybaby! Aren't you the heir of King Lot? You don't get to lay down and die, sun-bastard!"
Gawain's eyes widened suddenly. He had never seen the girl under the armor, but he knew that voice and nickname. "Mordred? You're a woman?" His hatred of the traitor was eclipsed for the moment by his surprise.
The old Mordred would have kicked Gawain in the stomach for saying that, but this one settled for yanking the sword Excalibur Galatine from him while he was too weak to hold it with any strength. "You'll get it back when you understand the situation. Saving your ass comes first though. You've got a job to do for Father." With that, Mordred focused and pulled the scabbard out of herself.
"Avalon! You are the one who stole it? You dishonorable—" Gawain exclaimed, only to be interrupted by Mordred as she practically shoved the scabbard into his body.
"Mother stole it. This is an incomplete copy and it's almost out of power. Father...the true scabbard was returned to him at the very end by a close ally he made outside the Knights of the Round. Someone none of us knew about. The King is in Bedivere's care and will be carried to the land of Avalon by Vivian, but he lives." Gawain's wounds started to heal while Mordred spoke. He was a captive audience while the scabbard did its job. It was only getting limited power from Artoria's presence nearby.
"W-what? We have to stop them from taking the King!" Gawain said, straining to rise from the ground before he was even fully healed. An understandable response considering the other tales of people disappearing to the Fairy Lands. Mordred stopped him from rising with a single hand, highlighting his weak and exhausted state.
"He'll be fine, but these events are pre-ordained. That's why the flowery pervert ran off and didn't help you all this time. He couldn't change what his Clairvoyance showed him without causing problems! Father...you...me...we were all supposed to die today and Britannia was meant to eventually fall to the Saxons. Stopping that was the most that could be done right now, and it took something absolutely crazy to pull it off!" Mordred's furious expression made Gawain pause even more than her grip. "I'm sure you heard Merlin mention Gaia and Alaya, and how they're at odds? Our mother was backed by Gaia because she had that black magic that signifies being a ruler of these islands and their Mystery. Father was supported by Alaya so humanity could conquer these lands from them. When that was done, Alaya decided that Camelot's fall was 'necessary for human progress' and turned on it! This fight was far bigger than us, Gawain! We were all pawns the whole time!"
Gawain was skeptical, but he focused on a single statement that horrified Gawain. "You say...'our' mother? As in—that maddened witch!" He exclaimed on realizing that Mordred was Morgan's daughter...and what sin that implied if she was also King Arthur's child.
"Half of that's Merlin's fault. He tried to 'guide' Father with Magecraft to make an heir with the Queen, but Mother found out and snuck into Camelot with some illusion Magic to take her place. Agravain helped set that up too and played lookout, I think. But yeah...the whole thing was messed up. You're right about the 'maddened witch' thing. Having Gaia in one ear and Alaya in the other literally drove Mother mad. She might do better now that the fight's over, but only staying in Avalon for a long time will actually help her heal. Meanwhile, I'm stuck cleaning up some of the plans she left behind so innocent people don't get killed off later. She had this messed up plan to eventually resurrect Father after this fight at the cost of a human sacrifice that I need to figure out how to deal with. Not like it's needed anymore."
"...Agravain betrayed us at her behest. That explains why he publicly exposed Lancelot and the Queen's affair..." Gawain noted in horror. The look of anger returned as he gradually regained a bit of strength. "Oh, so now you care for innocent people. Why? Do you think that will make up for what you've done? That it will make you a good King? That resurrecting him as some sort of abomination when all was said and done would redeem you and our mother? That the King will somehow forgive you?"
The furious Gawain surely expected Mordred to be vengeful and insulted by such words. But when he looked into Mordred's eyes, he saw sadness and remorse. "The King...already forgave me. He stood over my body and blamed himself for what I'd done. Then...he said that even if he didn't think I could be King, he should still have been my father. That he should have tried. It was just like with Lancelot! The King blamed himself for not meeting the Queen's needs and just forgave him..." True, Artoria had only said the part about being a father during the Fourth Holy Grail War rather than during Camlann, but it was still a truth that needed to be conveyed.
Mordred's expression turned into a grief-filled scowl. "Father was always like that. Too damn perfect for his own good."
Gawain wanted to say Mordred was lying. He wanted to cry out that there was no way the King would forgive this, but he knew better. It was just like their King to do so and Mordred wasn't the sort to be able to think up a tale like this. Even if it was something their mother came up with, Mordred could only be deceptive with silence or sometimes actions. Never in words. Crafting a story like this was beyond her. And why did Mordred's face have to look so much like Gareth's when she was sad? That was just unfair!
"I'm not going to be King." These shocking words from Mordred kicked Gawain out of his thoughts. "With the three of us surviving, the future has changed in a huge way. Father will return in 1500 years to rule once more, though he pops up now and then through history as a Saint to guide Britannia in times of trouble. You and your line will become King-Regents that rule Britannia in his stead until he comes back. I...well, I don't know what happens to me after this. I probably die in obscurity like Lancelot was meant to." Mordred drew the scabbard out of the mostly-healed Gawain and back into herself. The light it emitted had faded almost entirely. She then deposited Clarent and Excalibur Galatine next to Gawain alongside the makeshift sack holding her shattered helm. "While you do all that, you'll collect a bunch of our old armor and weapons for a ritual that will be important to history in the future. Keep the shattered remains of my helm that are in that sack for that day, too. I'll need to take Rhongomyniad with me to fix a certain mess, though."
CLANG!
Mordred used Rhongomyniad to deflect the weak and unstable strike that Gawain had launched toward her from the ground with Excalibur Galatine. She stepped back while Gawain stumbled to his feet. The Knight of Treachery regarded him with a critical look. "...Don't be stupid, Gawain. You may know you're too important to die now, but you can't afford to linger in a fight with me either way. Aren't stragglers from both sides killing each other the longer you hold off on declaring victory?" Gawain's eyes widened in surprise as he realized the truth in these words. Most of the fighting was done, but there still might be a few people in lethal combat. Mordred sighed at how slow he was to realize this. "And I'm supposed to be the one unfit to be King...go stop the fighting already! You can use Clarent as proof of my death if you want. It doesn't matter anymore."
Gawain briefly struggled with his decision as Mordred began to walk away. On one hand, he'd be letting the destroyer of Camelot leave unchallenged and with one of his King's weapons. On the other, he might lose good men without need...and he was the only one left other than Mordred and Morgan to carry the bloodline of High King Uther Pendragon that was needed to succeed King Arthur.
Mordred briefly stopped while remembering something else important. Something Gawain wouldn't believe if she voiced it herself, but that needed to be known to the future regardless. Briefly pondering how to tell him that King Arthur was actually King Artoria...she ultimately decided to pass the troublesome problem of convincing him on to someone else. "When you're done with that, you need to talk to Lancelot and the Queen. The King had an important secret almost none of us knew. It was nothing Father did wrong, but it's part of Agravain's betrayal and the Queen's infidelity."
Gawain finally found his voice, glaring at Mordred's back. "Let me guess. That 'secret' conveniently justifies your sins as well? Allows you to walk away without judgment?" The bitterness and sarcasm in his words were not something that fit the usual character of Sir Gawain, but it was warranted in this situation. The young woman who looked too much like Gareth for his liking turned her head back toward him and spoke.
"...nothing justifies what I did, Gawain, but I've already been judged. I'm not going to let you take my life needlessly when Father's already spared it. Not when there are still things he'd want me to take care of before his return." Mordred's grip tightened on the Lance, her resolve solidifying with those words and her head turning away from Gawain once more. "I doubt we'll ever see each other again, so go live long and die of old age in a warm bed for the rest of us."
With those words, Mordred Pendragon walked off the battlefield of her passing to pursue a very different Fate...
Author's Note: Early Fate stories have the Greater Grail being the only grail that can reach the Root because of Justeaze and her limited Third Magic ability being the secret sauce, but other later stories seem to imply that the Root can be accessed by other major grails or a similar scale as well. My solution? Make those other Grails include a Servant copy of Justeaze in their construction under the hood whether Dark Iri or the version we see summoned in Chaldea. That way it's not a contradiction.
I never did understand why two of the Three families gave up so easily in Apocrypha's timeline. They didn't even need to reach the Root to get what they wanted, meaning that weaker Grails being used all over the planet would have potentially worked out for them. I assume it was a pride thing.
Regarding Atalanta Alter's Noble Phantasm, Tauropolos Skia Thermokrasia, I use the form shown in Fate/Apocrypha rather than the one in Fate/Grand Order. Apocrypha's is largely an overpowered version of the normal Atalanta's Noble Phantasm, Phoebus Catastrophe. FGO's version is a melee attack which is essentially a punch carrying all the power of the bow after Atalanta Alter absorbs it. I suspect that F/GO adjusted it into a different type to better fit the Berserker class and to differentiate Atalanta from Atalanta Alter in gameplay. Maybe Atalanta Alter can do both as different versions of the Noble Phantasm? It's hard to say.
As for her speed and strength against Hercules in their fight, these comparisons were derived from the ranks of their parameters. Hercules has an A ranking in Agility and an A+ in Strength, while Atalanta has an A+ in Agility and a C++ in Strength. A "+" indicates a temporary x2 modifier while a "++" indicates a similar or even more unstable x3 multiplier.
Since an A is approximated as a "50" and a C is roughly a "30", that means an A+ is a "100" and C++ is "90". Of course, these values are impermanent ones. As the fight goes on, Atalanta Alter's strength would ultimately flag from being 90% of Hercules' power to being a mere 60% once both of their "+" and "++" modifiers degraded. Atalanta Alter would also go from more than double Hercules' speed to being only a bit faster than him within the same rank(she is explicitly famed for her speed). As for which one flalters first...Hercules' Endurance stat is an A (50) while Atalanta Alter's is a C++ (30/90). Though Atalanta Alter might have more staying power on paper, this is unstable and doesn't consider Hercules' Battle Continuation skill.