Chapter Twenty

I hope everyone enjoys. I've been indulging with sex and BDSM stuff for a while now, this time it's time to indulge with some over the top Nasuverse style combat.


Rin had known something was going to go terribly wrong. If it had been up to her, her Master would not have come along at all. Sadly, that was part of being a Servant. Trusting in his decisions. If he dies she would dig up his body and kill him all over again while shouting I told you so, but for now she was too busy to be angry with him.

An arrow flew past her ear, causing her to curse loudly as she returned fire. "Sakura!"

"Sorry!" Her sister called out. She tugged on the golden reins, and Pegasus neighed and swerved in mid-air. As they moved, Rin knocked a few more nameless arrows onto her bow. It was amazing how quickly she could make the arrow, aim, and then fire. She still didn't know what Heroic Spirit she had summoned, but they truly lived up to the name of Archer. Each arrow fired like a bullet, striking towards their enemy faster than a human eye could track.

Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones on a mount.

Far beneath them, the bear dodged between the falling arrows with grace that didn't match his size. Whatever he couldn't move out of the way of Berserker – Illyasviel, Shirou had called her – swatted aside with a lance formed out of ice. No matter how close Rin got, each arrow that would have crippled anybody else was either avoided or simply broken.

And she had a bow of her own. Pegasus descended rapidly, pushing the three of them out of the arc of fire of the giant ice arrow Berserker had just launched their way. For a mad warrior, she sure had an oddly good sense of aim. Their only saving grace was that Rin could fire five times in the same time that it took Berserker to loose a single one of her cumbersome arrows.

Rin wanted to scream and pull at her hair. It was just unfair! What a ridiculous combination of powers in one person. Three Divine Spirits in one container. Surely a normal Holy Grail War would not have had this much cheating involved.

Still, if that was all she could pull out then maybe Sakura and Rin would have had an easy time defeating her together. Maybe. If Sakura charged in while Rin protected them, they could maybe manage it. But of course it wasn't that simple – their Master wanted the girl alive. Not for the same reasons he wanted Caster, thank the lord, but because they were related. Rin wasn't going to be the one to tell Master that she had killed his sister. Not when he'd been the one to reunite her with Sakura.

They were going to use Belerophon. But not yet. First, Rin had to bait out that ice barrier, so that Sakura could plow through it and leave Berserker drained without taking her life.

And it was becoming clear, her weak little arrows weren't going to manage that. "Sakura! Buy me some time!"

"Pegasus!" Sakura shouted. She pulled on the reins, and Pegasus flew straight upwards. An arrow formed of ice, as large as the three of them put together, flew right below them as they ascended. It disappeared into the sky, and Rin could only hope that it would fall somewhere into the forest without hurting anybody. Not that she had the time to be focusing on that right now.

"I am the bone of my sword." Rin said. She had not picked up the incantation until she had bonded with her Master, and come to better understand her powers. In her hands the spiral sword from Irish legend formed, and as she knocked it on her bow and pulled backwards she modified it to better fit her needs. "Now!"

Hearing the cue, Sakura reversed Pegasus's direction, turning their ascent into an immediate descent at a blinding speed. Even with her enhanced strength, Rin would have been thrown off without the assistance of the rope tying her down. The air screamed as it rushed passed her ears, but Rin grit her teeth and pushed onwards.

Her target was below her. She had the perfect weapon in her hand. One that had achieved her goal last time, so this shouldn't be any different. "Caladbolg!"

The arrow hummed as it was released, flying at astonishingly fast speed towards the small girl and the large bear below them.

Rin's enhanced eyes were the only thing that let her see Berserker's grin. "Move!" She shouted.

It was only her sister's quick response instincts that saved their lives. Even as Rin had launched her own arrow, Berserker had done the same. But she hadn't been aiming for them. Caladbolg did as it was designed to do, and exploded as soon as it made contact with anything. And Berserker had hit it out of the sky.

The explosion was deafening and blinding, a rush of light and heat and sound that made Rin and Sakura scream in unison. Rin dropped her bow, letting it dematerialize so that she could cover her eyes with one hand and grip tighter onto Sakura with the other. They fell through the air, with Sakura no longer able to guide Pegasus he seemed content merely to get the hell away from the explosion.

Only the horse came out unscathed. Rin's head felt like someone had struck it with a hammer, and she could only imagine how Sakura felt. She was grateful though, because if her sister hadn't responded so quickly they both would have lost their lives.

"Rin!" Sakura called out.

Despite the searing light still burning in her eyes, Sakura peeled them open. Berserker was aiming at them again. Pegasus, still reeling from the noise and sound, wasn't going to get out of the way. "Rho Aias!"

The seven-petalled shield appeared where she had called it. Ilya's ice arrow struck the shield in mid-air, splintering hopelessly into nothing without even breaching the first layer.

It was a tremendous waste of magical energy, but it kept them alive. And bought Rin some time. She drew on the information stored within her, and pulled out the weapons that were best for the job. Remaking her bow, she called two identical arrows into existence. "Hrunting!"

The weapon of the hero of the oldest English poem, Hrunting was a sword that always struck true. Useful, but even better for her was what she had crafted them into, an arrow that never missed. Rin pulled back on the bow string, flooding the arrow with magical energy. Selecting Ilya as her target she pulled back and released – directly upwards.

Then she made another one. The timing here was going to be difficult, but she trusted herself enough to manage it. Drawing back on the string she poured more magical energy into the twin blade and released directly at Ilya this time.

At the same time as she was firing, the arrow that she had shot upwards fell past them. For Hrunting, changing directions in mid-air was no big deal at all. Now there were two arrows, each travelling unearingly towards their target from different direction. Berserker should have no counter, aside from her ice shield.

But of course it wasn't that easy. Ilya pulled back on the string of her own massive bow. Rin's eyes saw her lips moving in a chant, but couldn't make out the words. Just what did she plan to do to target two Noble Phantasms at once.

Rin should have realized. Berserker was no longer toying with them. Defence hadn't even entered her mind.

There was no time to shout, and Rin hadn't noticed it early enough to shout a warning at any rate. The arrow released, and this time it was nothing like the arrows she had been firing earlier. No, it was crazy to call it an arrow at all. Berserker summoned a twenty story tall pillar of ice, launching itself from the ground like an enormous statue had been formed out of nowhere. Sakura had been prepared to dodge just another arrow, but this was too large to move out of the way of. It caught Pegasus, halting the horse in mid-air as it strained against it's new bondings. Rin hissed as the ice made contact with her skin.

"Sakura! She's coming up!" Rin yelled.

Berseker hadn't dodged or blocked either Hrunting. Rin had missed the moment of contact, but both swords were lodged cleanly in the girl's torso and stomach. Rin winced, wishing that she hadn't needed to do that, she'd been so sure she would block again, but Berserker barely even seemed willing to slow down. In fact she was accelerating, charging her bear up the pillar. When she got to the top, it would mean their death.

Rin summoned a mallet and began fiercely beating at the ice holding Pegasus in place. Already she could tell it wouldn't be enough. They needed more time.

"Nee-san! Watch out!" Sakura cried.

Rin didn't look up, couldn't look up, as magical energy flooded out of Sakura. Berserker shouted and her bear roared as Sakura'a mystic eyes caught them both. Rin wasn't naive enough to believe that would be the end of them, but she made use of every second of time it bought them while she hammered their way to freedom. "Go!" She shouted.

Pegasus wasn't fully free, but it was a Phantasmal Species of the highest order. It didn't need to be. Even one wing free was enough to propel it forward, and it broke out of the assault and flew them away. Berserker was right behind them, throwing a lance of ice that they dodged by inches.

They fell, but Pegasus caught them and pulled them back into the air. Berserker didn't have that luxury. She plunged downwards, hitting the ground like a crater. Rin didn't have the time for pity, because even as she was checking to confirm that her Master's sister was still alive, the Divine Spirit was still knocking another arrow. Rin threw her mallet at the arrow, smashing it out of the sky as Berserker had done to Caladbolg earlier.

She knocked another arrow. A repeat of Caladbolg. Hopefully Ilya would expect her not to fall for the same trick twice. If not – she didn't know what she would do, because she was running out of options.

"Caladbolg!" The string hummed as Rin released the arrow.

Finally, Berserker didn't disappoint her. Rin couldn't hear her releasing the true name of her Noble Phantasm, but she could see the massive shield of ice that appeared around her, absorbing the explosiong without much trouble.

"Hold on, Nee-san!" Sakura called out. Rin abandoned her bow, clinging to her sister as they descended at speeds they had never reached before. "Belerophon!"

All Rin could see was a streak of light. Pegasus collided into the ice with enough force to burst through it, so much so that Rin completely lost her grip on Sakura. The rope wasn't strong enough to withstand the pressure, and it snapped, sending Rin flying through the air. She hit the ground in as good of a roll as she could manage, and tumbled only a few times.

She didn't know if she had any more in her. If Berserker wasn't defeated –

The air was filled with steam, but even so Rin could see the motes of light shining in the centre of the clearing. Holding her side she forced herself to keep walking towards the source, where she saw Ilya collapsed onto the ground. She was still pierced by both of Rin's blades, but she was now bleeding from the forehead as well. Little molecules of light surrounded her, like some cheap effect from a sci-fi show.

Sakura still atop Pegasus, joined her from the other side.

Rin stared at Berserker, who was laying there quietly. What was happening? Was she healing? She summoned Kanshou and Bakuya. "Stop! Shirou doesn't want you dead. Do you surrender?"

"She has accepted her defeat." A voice said. It came from Ilya's lips, but it certainly wasn't her voice. It sounded far older and wiser. Like... a goddess. "We shall be finished with her soon."

The light continued to shine. Rin and Sakura shared a look, neither able to explain what was happening. "Who are you?" Rin asked.

There was no response. The light continued to appear and disappear like countless tiny fireflies.

For now, they could do nothing but watch and wait. If Ilya tried to put up a fight it shouldn't be too hard to put her down again, and her bear was nowhere to be seen. They would stand watch, but this part of the fight was finished.

All they could do was have faith in their Master.


Only two more chapters to go in Arc 2! I hope everyone enjoyed. I trust there are probably questions about what's happening with Ilya... all I can say is that it will be resolved pretty soon.

I did some things I considered pretty "fun" here with the Fate system. Please keep in mind my AU warning from the beginning of this story. If anything here doesn't match canon, that's okay. It's an AU. For those curious, the large pillar of ice Ilya summoned was lifted from Sitonai's Noble Phantasm in FGO, and is the "other side" of her Noble Phantasm that allows her to summon ice as a shield. I basically just took what was done in canon, and made it bigger.

Up next, Shirou and Luvia.