Upon waking up, Shido could feel himself laying down on something uncomfortable. It felt really hard, not fit for a bed that he should normally sleep in.
Pushing himself up, he groaned a bit as he opened his eyes.
"—Senpai! Are you okay!? Do you feel fine!?" Mash hurried up to Shido's waking form, her face filled with worry.
"Mash..? Why are you so.." Muttering that out, Shido looked at her in confusion from her face filled with worry.
"—Oi. Do you not remember what idiotic stunt you did, Master?" A new voice interjected, and looking at who it was, Shido saw a strangely tattooed person. His head throbbed in pain, and clutching it, he felt his mind start to clear up.
"I see.." Shido quietly muttered that as everything came back to him.
Looking around him, he saw that Olga was near the blue haired servant, directly looking at Shido and seemed to be relieved yet also looking guilty. Beside her, the blue haired servant had a wave with a grin and a bit aways from them was his own servant he had yet to learn the name of, who looked at Shido with a twisted grin.
Shido had also noticed that they weren't out in the open. Instead, they seemed to be inside of a building, yet there were cracks running along it and certain portions of the wall were gone along with some shards of glass stacked around the corners of the room.
"Nice to meet you, Master. I guess I should give some proper introduction now that Heracles isn't trying to kill us anymore." Getting closer to Shido, his new servant had his grin widened at seeing Shido. "My name is Angra Mainyu. I'm an Avenger Class servant, and I am the weakest servant ever."
He offered his hand to Shido, his ever twisted grin plastered on his face. "Though, I have to say you had a good choice in servants. This girl here has some pretty big boobs. I tried to squeeze them a bit earlier, sadly though that annoying mutt stopped me."
Shido didn't take Angra's outstretched hand and instead stood up by himself, Mash trying to support him he gave a grateful smile towards her help.
Seeing the glare Angra directed towards him, the blue haired servant glared back. "You were annoying me with trying to feel her up when she was crying about that kid there. And don't call me mutt, you piece of garbage."
"I think I now understand why that suicidal bastard from the future hates you so much. You make things way less fun." Angra sighed to himself, as if it was actually fun to feel someone up, especially in what was a deathly situation.
Watching that whole interaction, Shido could only groan and massage his head at what he knew was his servant becoming a headache to deal with. Internally, he wished he had summoned someone else rather than him, yet he knew nothing would change by regretting what was out of his control.
"Anyway, can someone tell me what happened? And how long has it been since I was knocked out?"
Hearing Shido's question, Angra turned back to him with the same grin on as before.
"Well you see Master, after your stupid stunt, that white haired chick there was safe from Heracles and you flew through the air and hit some rubble laying around. It stabbed straight through your chest, probably destroying an artery or some other organ. Seeing that, I, as the truly worst Heroic Spirit, decided to just watch as Caster over there attacked Heracles and that 'Swords are arrows' bastard kept hitting him simultaneously, until he finished off Heracles." Angra explained, pointing at the blue haired servant when referring to Caster as to inform Shido of what he kind of already suspected.
With his grin widening, Angra continued his explanation. "Now, that isn't the best part! As after the battle, the mutt over there went to see if he could heal you. Only for him to see that you were healing yourself! Completely knocked out, your body was healing itself through some flames. It was a shock! Believe me. Sadly, that meant I would have to continue fighting instead of peacefully disappearing after my Masters death. Ignoring my own hardship, that mutt brought us here to rest and wait for you to heal up completely."
"And senpai, it's been around 3 hours since the battle with Heracles." Mash told Shido, making him give her a pat on the head to show how grateful he was towards her. She did seem embarrassed by it, but accepted it nonetheless.
"Tch." Caster clicked his tongue in annoyance as he walked on closer to Angra. "You're making everything sound less serious than what it was. Plus, it wasn't just the kid's healing ability, miss over here was healing him and helping to make sure that he would still be alive by the time I came over and used magic to aid his natural healing abilities."
Olga flinched as Caster pointed to her and Shido looked over at her. Shido gave a smile towards her filled with gratitude, and decided to walk on over to her.
He could still hear Angra annoying Caster, who argued with him and Mash trying to interject yet getting drowned out by the two.
Getting next to Olga, Shido leaned on a wall and asked her, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah." Olga gave a nod, her arms crossed and sweat on her face, trying to hide nervousness and tension from everyone.
Frowning at that, Shido looked at her to see her expression forcefully hardened. He thought she may have felt some guilt or something when he first noticed it, yet paying attention to her, he realized it seemed to be a factor, but not the whole picture. Rather than her just hiding her guilt, it more looked like she was trying to hide all her emotions. Like, she didn't feel..safe..to express them. As if..she feels it's necessary to hide them from everyone no matter what.
"Hey, Olga. I want you to know—"
Before Shido could even get to his point, a hologram of Romani appeared from thin air near Mash.
"Is everyone okay? Sorry we couldn't contact you earlier. There were a bunch of injured people we had to help before they were too far gone." Romani quite frankly, looked exhausted and like he desperately needed some sleep with very visible eye bags. "Anyway, what happened? It looks like you have two new servants there with you."
Shido really felt bad for what Romani is having to deal with on the other side. The eye bags themselves and the lab coat was enough to remind him of Reine...Just imagining the image of Reine was enough for him to feel a pain in his chest and an intense feeling of loss. Shaking off those emotions before they got the better of him, he made sure to relay what happened, the summoning of Angra, fight with Berserker and the current situation.
"Wait! Your body is completely fine!? What do you mean!? Even if Olga provided first aid treatment until that Caster over there defeated Berserker, you should've died from shock, or just from the damage done to you before Olga was able to make it to you! And don't even get me started on how Angra Mainyu, the Devil King in Zoroastrianism is supposedly the weakest servant! I can't even refute him because all of his stats prove it to be true!" Romani seemed full of life as he started yelling, looking way more alive which Shido was glad for, yet could only give a wry smile at.
"That is right. How were you capable of even healing yourself like that? Despite the huge claims and achievements attributed to you, a physical scan of your body proves you're still a normal human being." Olga set her gaze towards Shido, and he could tell that like other magus he had met, Olga had forced herself to lock away her emotions of guilt that he noticed earlier.
Shido knew it was an unhealthy thing for a person to do, and he frowned a bit before regaining focus to answer her.
..Still, Shido had the thought ever since he heard Angra say those words. That he was healed by flames coming from his body. There was only ever one thing he knew of that held that particular ability. To heal his body with what looked like flames. Something he could never forget no matter the time that has passed since he last experienced it.
"I think it would be better to show you." Saying those words, Shido walked over to where he saw a sharp shard of glass, picked it up with his right hand and made a cut on his left palm.
"Senpai!" Mash yelled out in worry, running over to Shido and grabbed his hand, yet she froze when she saw it.
Everyone else similarly froze, with the exception of Angra who only let out a whistle. Because on his left palm, his hand was bleeding, there—the flames of Camael was burning bright and in less than a couple seconds, completely healed his wound.
"..Kid. What was that? That was no type of runes nor magic I know of." Caster narrowed his eyes as he spoke, suspicious of Shido.
"W—was that the power of [Efreet]!? How can you still hold that power!? All reports stated that spirit power had disappeared off the face of the planet after the [Spirit of Origin] died alongside Westcott! Even then, the only exception was the appearance of [Beast] not too long ago. Yet! That doesn't say a thing about how you're still in possession of an Angel, which should've been eradicated from the world!"
Shido could only wryly smile at Romani who was going off about how it was all possible.
..Yet Shido was thinking something similar. He was extremely confused why Camael still existed. For as far as he knew, all the Angels and spirit powers disappeared from the planet once Mio died and after Tohka took in her Sephira Crystal for a short amount of time.
He felt remorse and regret simmer in his heart at recalling Mio's death, still holding regrets that he couldn't save her like he did with so many of the other former spirits.
Still, Angels like Camael shouldn't exist at all anymore. The Sephira Crystals should be long gone. He had seen them reappear during the fiasco with [Beast], yet that was only due to [Beast] holding the Angels from another world. Not to mention that if Camael is connected to him now, it isn't the same way as before.
All the Angels previously were apart of the girls, and he only had access to them through his link with them after sealing them. Of course he knew that Mio intended for him to gradually absorb them and transform into a spirit himself, but he was still a completely normal human.
Yet the appearance of Camael's flames only means one thing for Shido. It meant, somehow, in some way, an Angel formed within his body.
It wasn't an entirely foreign concept, as when he had seen Mio standing over the..dead bodies of the spirits, he was still able to use their Angels despite them having died and Mio being in possession of their Sephira Crystals. Even being able to use Gabriel to increase Tohka's strength before he had used Zafkiel to travel back in time at seeing the hopeless situation.
Closing his eyes, he tried to concentrate and focus. Like when the girls were still spirits, Shido could feel the Reiryoku coursing through him, yet nowhere near the same amount as when he had learned to control the Angels. Anyway, while he knew Camael was inside his body, he felt it was slightly different.
It was undoubtedly Camael, yet it didn't feel as powerful. It felt like he possessed it, but it felt weaker than when Kotori held it. Was it because it was inside of his body instead? Or was it due to whatever had even made it appear inside of him? Shido had no idea, and had no clues to the answers he wanted to get.
"Romani, Olga. I'll make sure to tell you guys all I know about it later, but for now we need to figure out what to do." Shido moved the conversation along, trying to make everyone get back on track to the main thing they needed to pay notice of.
"As much as I would like to hear about it, you're right. So, did you guys learn anything new?" Romani asked as he looked towards Olga and the others.
"Well, this annoying mutt wanted to form a contract with Master cause even if he fought against Berserker, he's barely surviving off of the mana he stole from the few remaining living creatures here." Grinning as he spoke, Angra pointed to Caster who only sighed as he moved closer to Shido.
"Despite how annoying that servant of yours is, he's right. I am barely sustaining myself, especially with me using up my magic reserves in order to fight against the other servants. So, wanna form a contract kid?"
"Yeah. If you're willing to help us, then I'll agree to this contract." Holding his hand out, Shido smiled at Caster who gave a smile and shook his hand.
The Command Seals on Shido's hand let out a glow, pulsating as Caster had now become his servant.
With a grin on his face, Caster wrapped an arm around Shido. "Well. I guess I should introduce myself now. The name is Cu Chulainn, Caster Class servant."
"You're Cu Chulainn! Ireland's child of light!" Romani practically spat out his non-existent drink after hearing Caster's identity.
"It's amazing that you were able to contract with such an amazing servant, senpai." Mash seemed to look at Shido with amazement, which he felt was entirely undeserved when all he did was form a contract.
"It would be really amazing. Sadly, that mutt over there is waaaay~ worse than his Lancer counterpart. I mean, he doesn't even have Gae Bolg anymore." Complaining, Angra strolled on towards Cu. "Not that I'll be much help, but it would've been way better had you been a Lancer. Guess that's just your crap luck for you though."
Shido could feel Cu get increasingly annoyed, feeling how his arm around his shoulder was gripping him harder.
"Angra. There's no need to antagonize him like this. If you want to make sure that you can continue being comfortable and not fight as much, then don't make any enemies with any of my servants. Got it?" Shido made sure to speak up and reprimand Angra before Cu could say anything, something he had to deal with at times when Origami and Tohka used to be at each other's throats.
Angra sighed and nodded his head half-heartedly. "Got it. I'll make sure not to do that again."
"—Wait, you called him 'mutt' did you not? And you even knew of Berserker's true identity." Olga spoke up, gazing at Angra with suspicion. "How did you know that if you're Angra Mainyu? No, not even any other Heroic Spirit would know that merely from looking at the two considering the alternative locations and times they lived in when they were alive."
"Well, you guys have a Holy Grail in your time, right?" Angra asked, making Olga nod her head.
"Then did you ever hear anything about it being corrupted?" Angra said those words so casually, without care that it made Shido pause to make sure he heard it right.
Shido didn't have much of an idea about the Holy Grail, yet he knew it was a wish granting device. But, he could tell that if a wish granting device like the Holy Grail was corrupted, what would happen to any wishes that someone asked of it? Would it be twisted into something besides what the person intended? Would it change the wish itself? Would it even grant any wish at all?
"The grail is corrupted!?" Olga yelled out, Mash's eyes widening and Cu looking relatively unbothered.
"I'll let ya know more if you let me cop a feel." Hearing those words with Angra's hands in a groping motion, Olga looked disgusted, Mash looked uncomfortable and Shido chopped the top of Angra's head.
"Ow! That hurt. Why did you do that Master? Did you want to keep these chick's to yourself? I understand the sentiment, but ya gotta let me have some fun with them too." Angra teased, joking, or at least Shido hoped he was joking.
Sighing, Shido felt like he would rather deal with Tonomachi. "Look. You can't just ask things like that out of nowhere to girls. That's just sexual harassment."
"Really? Did you never once ask a girl that before? Not once in your entire life? Cause I feel like you're the type of guy to act pretty clean, but is a pretty big pervert deep down." Angra grinned and upon hearing those words, memories of incidents when Shido was instructed by Ratatoskr to do rather, obscene things with some of the girls appeared in his mind.
"Let's not get off track here. We need to know about what you're hiding." Shido tried to redirect the conversation and try not to show that he had been involved in those types of incidents, yet he guesses Angra saw through him from how his grin widened.
"Well, since my Master asked so kindly, I'll oblige. But, simply put, in a different timeline, I had participated in the 3rd Holy Grail War." Angra then explained to everyone about what happened to him.
From his summoning as an Avenger, a class formed through the Einzbern altering the summoning of the Berserker Class servant and tried to bring forth a big powerful servant that would crush their enemies. Only to summon Angra, who lost in the first 4 days of the Grail War, and unexpectedly tainted the Grail. Resulting in some rather negative consequences for both the summoning and wish granting mechanics of the Grail. Ultimately, he apparently knew the servants as it was the same ones as in the 5th Holy Grail War, although he did remark about Cu being a Lancer in that Grail War instead of a Caster.
"Well..I guess it makes sense considering the Throne of Heroes has no real limits on when and where it summons servants from.." Romani spoke, confused yet trying to make sense of it all.
"—Brat. You called Archer a 'Swords are arrows bastard', didn't you? So, do you know his true identity?" Cu asked Angra, no attempt at joking around and being entirely serious.
Though, as if it didn't affect him at all, Angra grinned and gave a small chuckle at the sight.
"Kakakakakaka! I see. You two really can never get along, even when the situation is already so different!" Angra let out a laugh that only made Shido's hair stand on its ends from just how vile it sounded to his ears as he did his best to shrug it off.
"Can you just tell us? This is a rather important matter to figure out Archer's weakness."
Turning to Olga, Shido looked surprised at her words. "Weakness? But he helped us back there. So shouldn't we try to ally with him?"
"Listen here kid." Cu sighed, taking his arm off Shido and looking outside as he spoke, as if trying to find Archer somewhere in the distance. "That Archer bastard may have helped win the battle, but he's not on our side at all. In fact, you could say every servant besides me is on the side of Saber, who at the moment seems to be the one holding this 'singularity' together judging by her being in possession of the Grail. So I don't know if it was on the orders of Saber, or he just wanted to kill you himself, but that bastard won't agree to be our ally."
Shido felt confused hearing Cu's words, as while he wouldn't doubt Cu's credibility, it felt like a rather..incomplete explanation.
As sure, it could be written off like that, but why would Archer save them in that case? Judging from his words, Saber is the one maintaining the singularity and thus their enemy. So why would she issue any order to save them? Even assuming she needed them alive for something, wouldn't it be better having all the other servants fight off Berserker to save them instead of just a single servant? That would assure their survival rather than having a single one fight to save them.
In the case that Archer wanted to kill them himself, there were many opportunities to do so way earlier. Archer was able to fire just in time to save their lives, yet if he was there the whole time he could've just fired off an arrow and killed them way before Berserker even appeared. Shido believed Mash and Angra were certainly stronger than any normal human, but that thing that twisted space itself as it flew towards them would easily overpower them. He could've also simply fired off those explosive arrows and make their bodies explode into tiny pieces. Not even Camael could ensure his survival if it was too busy healing some other fatal injury, so there was no doubt they would've died even if Archer somehow realized Shido possesses a form of a healing ability.
What's going on..?
Shido couldn't get a clear understanding of anything to actually help in understanding his reasons despite having thought it over the best he could.
"Anyways, going back to my reveal of Archer's identity." Angra spoke up, causing Shido to return his attention to him, which made the Avenger grin the slightest bit wider.
"Archer isn't a normal Heroic Spirit. For he is a Counter Guardian!" Waving his hands in the air, Angra exclaimed that in the same way someone would announce a surprise birthday party.
"—Oi! Counter Guardian!? Are you serious right now!? Why would a Counter Guardian be on the side of the enemy!? They are meant to be the ones cleaning stuff like this up!" Romani yelled angrily at Angra, who didn't seem fazed in the slightest by all the yelling, even bored judging from how he started picking his ear.
"Don't be that surprised. And why are you yelling so much? My ears kinda hurt from that. You know, maybe I'm not gonna tell you anymore now that you started yelling at me." Shido would try to get Angra to go back on track instead of riling Romani up, yet he figured that it still wouldn't end even if he asked him. Plus, he had no idea what a Counter Guardian even meant.
Shuffling himself closer to Olga, Shido asked her what a Counter Guardian was. She did seem a bit exhausted at seeing how little Shido knew, but explained what it was while Angra was busy riling up Romani to just see his reactions.
..A person meant to save the planet..
Shido knew that it was something chosen by both the Will of Humanity, Alaya and the World, Gaia, yet he couldn't help but despise how Olga told him the work to correct the destruction of the planet was. To hear they had to kill mages attempting to reach the Root, hunt monsters and do many more unsavory things made Shido clench his fists in anger towards the means that Gaia and Alaya chose to continue making the world exist.
He knew that they were mere wills, not normal humans with ethics, yet the very concept of forcing people through that was repulsive towards Shido. It was essentially having people commit murder, eternal and never ending no matter what you do, you can never escape.
An emotion of sadness and remorse towards Archer's eternal suffering bloomed within Shido. Shido himself couldn't even begin to imagine all the traumatic memories caused by having become such a thing.
Of course he understood someone must have something inherently messed up in their heads to agree to becoming such a thing, yet that didn't mean Shido couldn't feel sympathy and sadness for Archer.
"—Anyway, that Archer bastard is only against us because of Saber. Even if he got tainted by the grail like all the others, he has shown some strange attachment to Saber. So much that he has become her watchdog, unlike the others who just did whatever they wanted." Cu interjected just as Shido finished ruminating on his thoughts on the matter.
"Still..! As a Counter Guardian, shouldn't he have been able—"
Angra spoke up, cutting Romani off before he could finish. "You say that, but he was summoned as an Archer. In one of the classes within this Holy Grail War. Not as a Counter Guardian."
"Do you mean.." Olga's eyes widened and she looked shocked as if she just realized something. Something that flew over Shido's head because he had no idea what she was surprised by.
"You got it! Archer brought himself to this time through the Holy Grails summoning without any intention of combating some sort of humanity ending event! Because it wasn't the Counter Force that summoned him, but a proper master participating in the Holy Grail War!" Angra exclaimed his words with a smile and the same tone someone would use to surprise others.
"That..definitely is an important thing. Yet, we need to know what his Noble Phantasm is. Do you know it?" Romani asked Angra, seemingly calmed down from his shock at a Counter Guardian being on the side destroying humanity.
"About that.." Angra looked off to the side, a bit of a pout on his face that Shido felt was extremely out of place on him.
"Come on! Tell us!" Olga yelled at Angra, who sighed and ruffled his hair.
"You guys are extracting a lot of information out of me, you know! I'm not just some pathetic servant who'll tell you everything you want! There's a price for using me so much in a boring way like this!"
"—What if I let you touch my beautiful chest? Will that entice you enough?" The hologram of an unfamiliar, yet no doubt beautiful woman entered the place of the hologram showing Romani.
"Now, to answer your question.." Angra explained to them all the abilities of Archer, and his Noble Phantasm.
A Noble Phantasm of a reality marble, that holds various, unlimited amounts of swords and his ability to use Projection Magecraft to recreate any Noble Phantasm he sees with his own eyes, outside of Divine Constructs. The terms like 'reality marble' flew way over Shido's head, yet he could understand from Olga explaining that it was essentially similar to how Ain Soph overwrites reality with the [Neighbor World], yet it was on a lower scale of power due to a variety of reasons, mostly being how it is something the world itself rejects and tries to get rid of.
"So, since I answered your question I can cop a feel, right?" Angra grinned at the hologram of the woman, who only smirked back at Angra.
"If you can survive this Singularity, you can do it once you come back to Chaldea. Though, I'll have to make sure you experience some just punishment if you so much as dare to harm a bit of this beautiful body of mine."
"Oi, who's that miss there?" Cu asked Olga as Angra started to go on to talk about how it would be even better for her if he can harm her.
"That is the Heroic Spirit, Leonardo da Vinci." Olga had her face scrunched up as she pointed at the woman, and Shido had his mind blank for a moment.
Shido looked at the woman on the hologram, then back to Olga, his head moving ever so slowly. His expression was stoic, yet anyone could tell that he was simply so in shock that he couldn't even think of what expression would be the best to put on his face.
The thought of 'Are you serious?' could be conveyed to anyone that looked at his face.
After all, Shido knew for a fact that Leonardo da Vinci was a male, not female. Adding onto that, how is it even possible to summon him of all people as a Heroic Spirit, as he thought they needed to be a, you know, Hero in order to summon them. Not a world renowned painter, as sure Leonardo da Vinci may have done other things in life, but none warranted becoming a Hero of all things. He could understand Angra being classified as a Heroic Spirit because of the whole Anti-Hero thing, but there was nothing Shido felt classified Leonardo da Vinci as either a Hero or an Anti-Hero.
Sighing, Olga put a hand to her temple. "He changed himself to look like the Mona Lisa, his prized artwork. And before you say anything, just don't question it. It'll be best for all of us that way."
Shido nodded his head, getting out of shock when he felt Cu's hand slam into his back, with enough force to make him stumble for a second before regaining his footing. Turning around, Shido asked why he did that.
"Well, because if you're surprised by that then you ain't ready for the other shenanigans caused by the Throne. Hahaha!" Cu let out a laugh and Shido started to groan as he could only imagine what other strange things could happen that he would only be left in shock by.
What next, Tonomachi being summoned as a Heroic Spirit?
Shido really felt like he would rather have Tonomachi as a Heroic Spirit at the moment. Because he was walking through the burning city with their group and one person in particular decided to attach themselves in the position closest to him.
"Master, since you can heal, mind if I cut your body up a bit? I wanted to help train my skills a bit more before we come across another servant you see, and I just so happen to be particularly specialized in killing humans. Although, don't get me wrong, I really do want to kill you too."
Shido felt annoyance build up at seeing how Angra was grinning as he spoke words to do absolutely inhumane things to him, yet Shido mostly just settled for a chop to Angra's head to get rid of his growing annoyance.
At the front of the group, Cu turned to look at Angra and shot him a look of disgust. "You bastard, do you really want me to kill you? I'm sure that we can survive without you here."
Angra's grin widened as he looked at Cu, leaning himself a bit forward. "Really? And mess up little Miss Director's whole strategy meant to protect my Master here? Would you take responsibility if he, or even that Director chick dies?"
The group of them all were currently in a set formation. Cu being at the front of the group, leading them through the rough terrain that Shido can only crunch his face up at seeing. Not only due to his knowledge of the area, but also because as a Caster Class servant, he can detect the other servants more easily than the rest of them. Behind Cu was Mash, her shield raised and staying fairly close to the rest of them just incase of any sudden attacks. While the last servant, Angra, was standing right next to Shido and Olga, so that if there was a sudden attack, he could grab them and use his high ranked agility to escape the attacks.
The entire formation was set up so that Cu would warn them of any danger, Mash would block it, and Angra would make sure no harm came to Shido nor Olga. It was an effective system to secure their safety, one Shido applauded Olga for coming up with on the spot.
Of course, it wasn't perfect, but there was no such thing as perfect in their current situation. Shido did feel like Olga truly deserved her title as Director if she could make such formations on the spot, yet he disliked how he had to stay close to Angra of all people.
Angra wasn't someone he really hated, but just his attitude and lack of humanity was enough to make Shido feel uncomfortable around him.
..At least he's better than Isaac though.
Not that it meant that much with just how twisted Isaac was.
"You're all no fun." Angra sighed as he twirled his daggers that looked more like a beast's claws than anything else with practiced ease.
"Oh yeah. Angra, how come you can bring those weapons out when I saw them get destroyed earlier?"
"Well..I guess you can say that I have some special circumstances that allow me to summon as many pairs of my blades as I want."
Shido had his eyes widened at seeing the expression on Angra's face, and hearing his tone of voice. It was just from how different it was compared to the way Angra acted before—as his face looked like he was thinking back on a fond memory that he could never forget.
It was so foreign for Angra, that everyone else also looked surprised and questioned if they were caught in some sort of illusion. At least they did, until they heard his usual laughter that caused Shido's hair to stand on its ends.
"Kakakaaka! You guys should all see your face, it makes acting like that so much more worth it!" Then, that illusion that encompassed Angra passed by as quickly and sudden as it appeared.
"You know you're a pretty annoying guy, right?"
"Thanks for the compliment Master. I try my best."
Shido could only sigh as he saw Angra returning to his usual attitude. Yet..he didn't feel like Angra was acting..but why would he lie if he's been open about everything else..?
"—Miss! Enemies are coming at us now!" Cu yelled out as he fired off a bunch of runes as Shido saw the mass of enemies going towards them.
There are about 20-40 of them, all having no real shape to them, mostly resembling some form of creature that is a mixture of a wolf and a human. They didn't even have any actual color either, just a dark black that made them look more like a void than anything else. They all let out loud, horrible sounding roars that drowned out the sounds of the flames around them burning.
"—Don't tell me the grail is attempting to recreate me again! This is going to crap real fast!" Angra yelled out his frustrations as he readied himself with his daggers ready in hand and was warily looking around them.
"They don't seem that strong though? And what do you mean by 'recreate' you?"
Angra grinded his teeth together as his eyes continued scanning the area as he responded to Mash. "They aren't strong, but their true strength is in their overwhelming numbers that can pile up and reach the sky itself if they try! And they are basically the corrupted grail's attempt at the reincarceration of me from itself but failing!"
"Then I guess we gotta beat these guys fast before more of them come! So, come! Burn them completely, giant of all trees!" Cu extended his staff towards the oncoming horde of enemies, even more starting to appear and gathering with the others to charge at them. "—Wicker Man!"
At his call that made Shido feel mana in the air condense around Cu, he saw as something grew from the very ground behind Cu. It was something that Shido could only describe as a giant, a huge human-like figure made entirely of wood, the torso of it looking like a cage, as if it was made to hold something inside of its very chest.
Not only that, but the giant of wood was covered in a burning fire that spread with a step of the giant, burning some of the failed Avenger servants to the point where not even their ashes remain before the giant of wood started to rampage and decimate their enemies.
Shido watches as Cu's Noble Phantasm rapages and easily destroys all the enemies, making him feel a bit relieved that this enemy wasn't anywhere near the level of Heracles. Though he knew he wouldn't last a second against them by himself no matter how much weaker they were than that monster of a servant.
However, his thoughts were halted when he felt a warm sensation from his neck. He unconsciously attempted to release a noise of confusion from his throat, yet all that came out was a gurgling sound.
Looking down at his neck—Shido saw a bunch of blood escaping from his neck.
Angra sighed as he noticed that no failed copy of him was coming to attack them like what he imagined. Not that he minded it, he felt glad he didn't have to deal with that immense amount of them that piled into the sky like before..in that story that has long since passed.
..So, I guess Saber was able to limit it to this number of them then. Got to hand it to her, she sure can handle that mistake of a grail surprisingly well. Though, I don't know why an annoying self sacrificial King like her would even take that corrupted grail..Well who knows, maybe she isn't even the Saber servant in this failed Grail War. But who else would that irritating bastard serve though...Ugh! I hate thinking so much! Who cares anymore!? I ain't no Kirei, I don't need to think and scheme so much!
Annoyed, Angra turned to his Master so as to try and irritate him to get rid of his own unnecessarily confusing thoughts on what the situation was.
At least, until he saw it. A figure appeared from nowhere. An extremely tall, slender, dark man with his right arm bandaged. His face is a skull resembling the mask with its skin and nose shaved off. In his hands was a dagger having been thrown as fast as a bullet, if not even faster, and before Angra knew it, it flew into his Master's throat and even went further, tearing off a chunk of flesh and what appeared to be his vocal cords.
Quickly, Angra used his A-ranked agility to grab his Master and the white haired chick, jumping just out of the way from another dagger fired by the enemy servant.
"Kakakakakakaka! You had all let your guards down when you started focusing on those failures of a servant, didn't you?" The servant, Assassin, spoke in a voice that grated on the ears of anyone listening, making Olga shiver as she used a torn up fabric from her sleeve and tied it to Shido's throat while flames started to heal his life threatening wound.
But, all Angra did was smile with a demented grin as he set down his Master and Olga. Moving forward as the Shielder made it to them to defend his Master, but that wasn't in his mind anymore. For he now had an enemy he needed to face right infront of him.
With his grin that felt out of place when he was in such a disadvantageous position, Angra pointed one of his daggers at Assassin. "Sorry but Caster over there is a bit preoccupied at the moment, so sadly I'll have to be your opponent for now."
"Now, I hope you like tasting the bottom of my foot, because even if I'm weak, I'll have to show you that the only one that'll reduce that stupid Master of mine to a corpse is me. Now, let's have some fun, Hassan~!" Speaking Assassin's true name in a playful voice, Angra readied himself as they looked each other in the eyes.
Hassan's covered arm surged, bulging, expanding as he let out a demented laugh once more. "Kakakakakakakaka! Then—to see who deserves to kill him, let us fight! Overflow with anguish—"
Angra prepared himself to move, prepared to face this enemy who, like him, was someone far too insane to be understood easily by others. Someone who wouldn't care what they would have to do in order to secure victory, just like Angra. Truly, these two could be said to be each other's natural enemies.
Despite that, Angra grinned as he held his breath while waiting for the one thing to start this battle.
"—Zabaniya!"