A GHOST IN A STRANGE LAND
CHAPTER 6
Kratos had been raised a Spartan. Had grown up in the agoge, where you excelled, or you died. His existence had been a harsh one from the moment he could walk.
Which was why his current experience of being…..'fussed over' was strange to him.
"No, I DON'T care if the wound isn't deep. You are going to hold still for a minute while I patch you up!" yelled the Director. "We're about to go into some cave who knows how far beneath the Earth to fight a corrupted King Arthur to try to save all of humanity! You are going to let me heal you so we're in the best condition we can be before we fight what should be our last, and hardest fight in this gods-forsaken place!"
Kratos looked to his allies. Cu was grinning ear-to-ear, clearly enjoying the show. Mash's eyes were wide and worried.
No, he'd get no help from that quarter.
Able to recognize a losing battle when he could see it, Kratos sat himself down on the temple grounds and grudgingly submitted himself to the Director's ministrations, waiting impatiently as his skin knitted back together under her hands.
Mash had handed out bottles of water that she had somehow stored in her shield – having seen Sindri pull an entire spear out of his bag before, Kratos wasn't even phased by this latest oddity, even ignoring that shields weren't meant to be something one stored things in – and was now hovering over the Director's shoulder, distractedly keeping watch. Cu Chulainn had seated himself on the stairs to one of the buildings and had spread his runes out in front of himself, and was sorting through them, likely taking stock of what he had left. Kratos himself had his axe sitting across his lap, checking his weapon over for any damage it might have taken in the most recent fight.
All of them were preparing for the final confrontation in their own ways.
"Saber," spoke Kratos. "Is there anything else we should know, before we enter battle with her?"
Cu licked his lips, never taking his eyes off the scattered runestones before him. "Not much more that I can tell you that I haven't already. She's strong, fast, skilled, and resists magic. How much any of her parameters might have changed since she started wearing black and killing everyone I can't say, I've kept out of her sight since she fell."
He tilted his head back, eyes closed, thinking. "Given that she took out Archer and Berserker in one swing of her sword, I don't think we're going to be able to have Mash hold back and be a bodyguard this time. We're going to need to throw everything we have at her to win this time." He glanced over to where they had laid Fujimaru, the girl peacefully sleeping. "Best we're going to be able to do for her and the little lady there is have them hang back in the tunnel – assuming Saber's nice enough to fight us in an open area. The cave walls should provide them with some cover, and if she busts out her Noble Phantasm, our Shielder should have enough time to intercept, and block it like she blocked Heracles."
Mash pulled herself up straight, her expression painfully earnest. "I'll do my best, Mr. Chulainn!"
"Just Cu, girlie," said the man, his hand waving at the girl. "'Mister' makes me feel like my hag of a teacher."
Olga Marie patted Kratos on the back. "That's as healed as I can get you for now. Anything more would take time we don't have, and patience I don't think you'd grant me." Kratos pushed himself to his feet. "The blood loss is stopped, so you won't be losing blood while fighting, and the repaired skin shouldn't tear in combat, not unless you make the acquaintance of Saber's blade."
Kratos rolled his shoulders, feeling his skin stretch where it had been repaired, but without any feeling of tightness. "Yes, it should hold. Thank you." The moment of rest, opposed as he had been to it, had given him time to assess his reserves. While he wasn't tired – a Spartan could march for weeks on less rest and food than he had gotten in the past few days, combat with Servants was….taxing. Fighting this world's version of his half-brother had been grueling, and Archer, while not the physical threat that Heracles had been, had been dangerous in his own way. It was fortunate that Cu had ended the fight when he had, for it allowed Kratos to conserve his remaining strength for the final battle.
"This cave where Saber is hiding. Is it near?"
Cu nodded, scooping his runestones up and dumping them into a pouch. "There's a few different entrances to the network of caves that run through this mountain, but the closest one isn't far – and it should take us past most of that sludge. In theory, we could have maybe snuck in there without Archer noticing, but I really, really didn't want to leave that guy free to come and help Saber out while we're fighting her. She's going to be enough of a handful without him adding to our troubles."
"No, I agree. If she's willing to sit back and let us take her pieces off the board, exploiting that is what we should be doing." Olga Marie frowned. "Though it does beg the question of whether she's letting us kill her men because she either doesn't care about them, or she's so confident in her power that she doesn't see losing them as something that would tip the scales."
"Either way, it speaks of an arrogance in our enemy. It may be something we can exploit. Those who are overconfident in their power do not expect their lessers to be able to stand against them….and frequently fall apart when they are truly challenged." Heimdall, so confident in his ability of foresight, had broken into a raving maniac when Kratos had finally hit him – then begged for his life when Kratos pinned him to the wall with Draupnir.
He could only hope this Saber was possessed of similar arrogance.
"We can hope, if nothing else. The woman I fought at the start of this War didn't seem that brittle, but I also couldn't see her killing her Master in cold blood either, so who knows what else has changed with her since then." Cu looked over the group. "We ready to finish this?"
Nods all around. "Kratos, you mind carrying the girl? I'm going to need both my hands for spellcasting, just in case any of that sludge has spread enough to block the path, and I think we'll all feel better if Mash can be ready to throw up her Noble Phantasm at a moment's notice."
A noise of assent from Kratos, and he had slung the unconscious girl across his shoulders, then, they were off.
Thankfully, the path to the caves had been clear, and they had made quick time crossing the temple grounds. Once in the caves proper, Cu had continued to lead, the end of his staff glowing bright.
"Mind, I'm mostly guessing as to the path here, for all the recon Kirei had me doing, he never had me explore these caves, even before we had a full complement of Servants summoned for the war. But I can feel it, just like you all can…..we're getting closer."
Indeed, they all could feel it. The deeper they delved into the earth, the more it thrummed in the air.
Power. Cold, sickly – like what they had felt from the corrupted Servants, but more concentrated, more….pure, as contradictory as that was. The air was thick with it, and it was only growing thicker.
The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, and Kratos was certain he wasn't the only one. Cu's ever-present smile was gone, and his eyes were hard as he led them into the darkness. Mash looked almost queasy at the sickness in the air, but was fighting through it, determinedly putting one foot in front of the other, shield clutched in her hands. Olga Marie was biting her lip so hard that Kratos was shocked she hadn't bitten through it yet.
They could all feel it. This was not a good place.
And something bad was waiting on them at the end.
Finally, the tunnel began to open up a bit, the ceiling growing, and Cu held his hand out behind him, eyes still forward. "I think this is it…Kratos, go back a bit to the last curve in the path and set the girl down. Director, you stay with her, just in case there's anything wandering these tunnels. There shouldn't be, but I don't want to lose someone by overlooking something like that. Mage like you should be able to handle the skeletons just fine, but anything worse than that, you grab the girl and run to us, and we'll figure out things from there."
The Director nodded, beginning to follow Kratos as he backtracked down the way they had come. "I'm not naïve enough to say something like 'I order you all to survive this!' when you're about to fight King Arthur herself, but I want ALL of us to go home in one piece after this, wherever home might be." She looked at them, each in turn. "Be careful, and be smart. That's about all I can ask of you at this point." Her eyes narrowed. "And WIN."
Mash nodded, her face pale. Cu gave her a grin and a cheeky salute as they walked back into caves, the darkness now being illuminated by the source of light tied to Kratos' belt.
Before long, they had reached the bend in the path, and Kratos bent down, carefully settling the sleeping girl against the cave wall. As he rose to leave, Olga Marie spoke.
"Kratos…..thank you." She stared up at him, eyes resolute. "I can tell you don't really want to be doing this…fighting our battles for us, or maybe fighting at all, much less being a Master of a Servant, however temporarily. That you are, that you're helping us save the world like this….I appreciate it."
Kratos bent his head in acknowledgement of her words, at a loss for words. He was still unused to praise for his deeds, even with his growing reputation in the wake of Ragnarök. He turned to go.
"I meant what I said. Even if it takes everything my family has, and puts us in debt to every one of the Noble Families, I WILL get you home."
"I know." All the response he could muster, as he strode back into the darkness. Behind him, he could hear Olge Marie calling up the Doctor as he departed, perhaps for company as she waited, or, more likely, to see if the man could monitor the upcoming battle.
Within moments, he had rejoined his two allies, and together, they strode into the chamber before them.
It was large, the ceiling towering above them, a welcome relief after the close confines of some of the tunnels they had passed through. Where they had exited into the chamber was actually some distance up from the floor, a slope descending to the bottom of the chamber, where waited Saber, her eyes closed.
Kratos had, truthfully, been expecting someone bigger, from the way that his allies had been speaking of this King Arthur. The girl waiting for them below was comparatively tiny – of a height or smaller than Mash, also clad in armor like the Shielder. But that was where the comparisons stopped.
Saber's armor was pitch black, broken up only by angry, pulsing red lines that glowed as if in time with the woman's breathing. Hair so blonde it was nearly white, tied into a bun. Her sword, which radiated power almost like a heat-haze, was held before her, the tip resting upon the ground.
And behind her, a golden cup that had to be the 'Holy Grail' his allies had spoken of, sitting upon a slab of rock that was doing a fair approximation of an altar.
The cup, like its defender, was underwhelming in appearances – Kratos would have found it forgettable if not for the sheer power he could feel emanating from it. The small vessel had a weight and intensity that dwarfed all but the most potent artifacts that Kratos had ever beheld – maybe Pandora's Box, or the Blade of the Gods held similar power, but the passage of centuries had dulled his memories of those items. Certainly, nothing he had seen in his recent years held a candle to it.
Within the vessel, just below the lip, bubbled a black, toxic soup.
"Finally."
The voice, when it spoke, was regal in tone. It held authority, unquestioned in its possession, the kind of voice that could lead nations – Leonidas had sounded such, when he had spoken to his people.
The voice also held less warmth than the coldest nights of Fimbulvinter.
Saber's eyes had opened, they looked over the three people standing before her as a man might look upon an insect.
Or, whispered a part of Kratos, as a god might look upon a mortal – as his mind found similarities in Saber's disinterested gaze as she appraised them, and how the Gods of Olympus had looked upon the people of Greece.
"Truly, I expected you sooner," she continued, her tone flat. "Humanity's last defenders, come to slay the dragon in her lair and save the world." She laughed, one of the most mirthless things Kratos had ever heard in his long life. "How truly disappointing you are all, as you stand before me."
She tilted her head up, her eyes first landing on Cu Chulainn. "Caster. I had hopes for you. The famed Child of Light. Though I didn't know it at the time, I was freeing you by killing Kirei Kotomine. And yet, you spat on the freedom I offered you. And here you stand, weeks later, still happily wearing his leash." She shook her head. "I would call it a joke, if it held any measure of humor."
Cu sneered. "Don't get me wrong, the bastard was a bastard. I'd have danced on his ashes if things had been different – and I don't really know what he was planning in the end. But lady, you aren't any better." He spat to the side. "My teacher would cut me into little pieces and wait for me to put myself back together if I ever let a THING like you put a collar around my neck. I'm a damn Heroic Spirit, and we kill things like you!"
Saber sniffed derisively. "Such bravado. And yet, all I hear is the yapping of a dog accustomed to its master's lap." Ignoring Cu's angered shout, she dismissed him, turning to Mash – and pausing.
"Hmmm." She stared at Mash, eyes boring into the girl hard enough that she was almost visibly shrinking, the longer that imperious gaze rested upon her. "Coincidence, or fate?" she asked, before dismissing Mash as she had dismissed Cu before her.
Her eyes then fell on Kratos. "And our third, and most unexpected guest. Like the girl, I can only ask, coincidence, or fate? Are you Alaya's doing, here to tip the scales in Humanity's favor, or are you just a happy accident?" Her head tilted, a mocking smirk cracking her lips. "It cannot be benevolence on your part. Your kind never cared much for people beyond the amusements they could provide. In that, the golden one was more like those he was meant to connect Humanity with than he thought." Her grin turned cruel. "And yet, he died on my blade like all the rest who have dared to stand before me. You will be no different, for all that you are more…..concentrated than he was."
She laughed, mocking, as mirthless as before. "This is the last, desperate alliance here to stop me. How disappointing. How…pitiful."
Red lightning flashed along her body, and then she was in front of them, sword cutting toward Mash's head.
Kratos found speed he didn't know he'd possessed, only just managing to get his axe in the way to prevent Mash's skull from being pulverized. And even then, he needed every ounce of his strength to halt the blade in its tracks, to prevent the corrupted king from merely using his weapon to murder Mash, rather than her own.
Kratos eyes widened at the king's sheer strength. He was able to stalemate her, but only just – and worse, he wasn't certain she was using her full power.
A blast of fire from Cu, and a rushed shield-first charge from Mash forced Saber to break the lock and sidestep Mash's clumsy attack. The fire she merely allowed to wash over her, the flames not even managing to damage either her armor or her flesh.
"Freaking Saber class and their freaking Magic Resistance," complained Cu, spinning his staff around into a reversed grip, the end warping into a sharpened approximation of a spear. "Guess we're doing this up close and personal, then." With a cry, he darted into the melee, Kratos hot on his heels.
Cu slowed his steps enough to allow them to reach her simultaneously. Saber turned her body to the side, Cu's thrust breezing by her, as her blade, held horizontally by her head, caught Kratos' axe, and then forced it up, as she snapped her blade 90 degrees, then cut down.
Mash interposed her shield at the last second, a reversal of the fight's open, the black blade crashing down and biting at the girl's shield, scoring at the metal, but unable to penetrate. With an almost knowing sigh, Saber shoved against Mash, pushing her back into Kratos, tangling them for a moment. She spun on a planted foot, red lighting again crackling about her form, as her blade screamed through the air at Cu, who was forced to abort his attack and block, the wood of his staff groaning as it absorbed the blow of the king's sword.
The force of the strike knocked Cu back, the Caster tumbling in the air and landing on his feet, catlike. "She's definitely stronger, and faster than when I fought her!" The head of his staff lit up, and he fired two quick blasts of fire at Saber, both as ineffective as the first blast – but the wash of flames robbed her sight for the second that Kratos and Mash needed to right themselves.
Mash bulled in again, leading with her shield, as Kratos held just behind her, firing his over her shoulder in the moment before she reached Saber, axe aimed at the woman's head.
Like quicksilver, the sword flashed up, knocking his axe away, but it opened her torso up, and Mash's shield crashed in, her entire body weight behind the blow, metal ringing on metal.
Saber may have moved back a single step.
Kratos forewent calling his axe back to his hand, instead forming Draupnir in his hand and vaulting over Mash's head, spear plunging down towards Saber's body.
The sword flashed before him, pushing his spear off-target just enough to allow the woman to move back fractionally, and allow the spear to plunge into the space between them, and bury itself in the ground.
Kratos threw his body forward, using the momentum of his leap to vault over Saber's head, avoiding her vicious counterstroke, and abandoning the spear, leaving the phantom weapon embedded in the ground. As he flew through the air, he formed another copy of Draupnir in his hands, and slammed the butt into the ground as he landed, detonating the copy.
Mash, behind her shield, was protected from the explosion. Saber was not so fortunate.
The woman snarled in anger as the explosion peppered her with shards, and the light and noise of the explosion again clouding her vision.
Kratos snatched his axe from the air as he moved. Mash, seizing the opening, hauled back and brained Saber across the face with her massive shield, rocking the woman's head back. Kratos' axe roared in, the Spartan putting all his strength into the blow.
Saber caught the blow in her hand.
Kratos felt some of the metal plates in the gauntlet give under his blow. A thin stream of black blood began to pool on the head of the Leviathan axe, where it hissed and sizzled.
But she had still caught his blow one-handed.
"Impressive. You've taken some of my blood." Saber's arm was shaking as she held the Spartan's axe back, red lightning sparking up and down her body. "I see you may be more formidable than the Wedge." Snarling, her body was bathed in sparks as she hurled Kratos across the room, sending him crashing into the cave wall.
The woman's strength was incredible.
Kratos pushed himself out of the rubble of the wall, only slightly bruised from the collision with the stone. Cu had rejoined the fight, his staff jabbing at ever increasing speeds and unorthodox angles as he attempted to press Saber, Mash moving defensively, using the bulk of her weapon as both area denial and defense at once.
Saber slid low, ducking under a haymaker swing by Mash, and then, in a burst of light, she was across the room, blade aimed to impale Kratos, who only just managed to unfold his shield in time to block the blow. The shield, already stressed by the fight with Heracles, as well as the barrages from Archer, creaked alarmingly.
Pushing Saber's sword up, keeping it trapped on his shield, Kratos swung his axe – somewhat awkwardly given the close quarters (for a very, very brief moment, part of him lamented the lack of the Blades – they were much better at short distances like this. It was a very small part of him.). Saber's parry was equally awkward, raising her foot and stomping Kratos' axe into the ground, not wanting to disengage with her sword out of position as it was.
Kratos made the expedient decision to drop the axe and slam his head directly into hers.
As Saber reeled back, Kratos snatched his axe up from the ground, but before he could bring it to bear, Saber vanished, dying sparks marking where she had been.
"She's using a Mana Burst to supercharge her physical abilities! When you see the red lightning, expect her to get a lot faster and stronger!"
Kratos cast his eyes about, trying to locate the Servant. Where in the hells was she? "Is there a limit to this?"
Cu yelped as Saber appeared behind him, sword already in motion, seeking to decapitate him. He ducked, the keen edge of the sword claiming a few hairs off his head, then Saber was gone again. "It should only last a second or two, but that's not the real problem!"
He fired several jets of fire almost at random, hoping to at least blind Saber for a heartbeat, and break her momentum. "She shouldn't be able to pull that trick that often – it'd burn through a regular Servant's mana way too fast…THERE!" he shouted, as Mash turned at his voice and imposed her shield between the Caster and Saber's blade. Cu's fire flashed in, but by the time it arrived, Saber was somewhere else.
"She's probably hooked up to the damn Grail itself – it's providing her with essentially bottomless reserves!" Cu grabbed Mash by the shoulder and yanked her back, the two of them falling back to where Kratos was.
"Clever, Hound. Much smarter than I had expected of you." Saber's voice echoed around them, interspersed with the crackling of her Mana Bursts. "All of you are just full of surprises. I expected to have at least killed one of you by now."
Mash and Cu were huddled together with Kratos in a loose triangle, Kratos and Mash crouched behind their shields, expecting an attack at any moment.
"Can we destroy the Grail? Deprive her of her source of power, then?"
Cu shook his head minutely. "We'd need something on the level of a Noble Phantasm to do the trick, and the girl's is purely defensive. Mine might be able to do it, but I need time to build it up, and that's time she won't give us. And as nasty as the two weapons you're carrying are, I don't think they're quite enough." He grimaced. "And it's just me, but I don't think letting that mixture that's cooking in it out to play would improve our situation in the slightest. I've met Fomorians that smelled nicer than that brew."
"The hard way, then."
Saber sparked into existence above them, blade screaming down for their heads, only to be caught by the combined shields of Mash and Kratos. Together, they heaved, tossing the king higher into the air. Like a flash, Cu was in the air beside her, staff striking out again and again.
"THROW!" bellowed Cu, as he and Saber exchanged blows, seemingly immune to the pull of gravity. "This is our chance! She can't flash away without her feet on the ground! You won't hit me through my Protection from Arrows!"
Kratos planted his axe in the ground, Draupnir solidifying in his hand. "If an opening presents itself, take it – but balance it against the possibility of depriving yourself of both weapon and defense." Mash nodded, as Kratos sent a hail of spears at the two battling figures.
Cu was as good as his word. The man twisted his body, weaving around any errant spears that came near him, even planting his foot on one and using it to gain additional height in the air, never slowing his offense against Saber. It was an effortless, incredible display of agility.
Saber did not fare as well.
She moved well, having been holding her own in the weightless fight with Cu so far, but the incoming barrage broke her rhythm, and broke it badly. She dodged, almost copying Cu in her mannerisms, deflecting a spear or two by letting them glance off the places where her armor was thickest – but she wasn't armored head to toe.
A quick movement of her head spared her life, but a spear cut a line into her forehead as it sailed by. Another managed to find a chink and dug into her left arm. Worse for her, the blood now fouling her vision, and the damage to her arm presented the opening Kratos had spoken of, and Mash's massive shield flew in, colliding with Saber hard, sending her into an uncontrolled tumble.
Cu, aping her attack from early, swung down hard with his staff, catching the woman across the head and blasting her down to the cave floor, her body skidding across the ground before impacting the wall, leaving a crater. A second later, Cu landed by his allies.
"Keep your guards up – that won't be enough to kill her. If we're lucky, we hurt her with that little exchange."
Mash peered at the cloud of dust where Saber had hit the cave wall, having retrieved her shield. "And if we're unlucky?"
Black mana poured from the cloud, blasting it away, and revealing Saber, her sword now wreathed in an aura of blazing power.
Cu groaned. "If we're unlucky, we've just made her mad. I HATE being right."
Saber strode out of the smoke, no sign of the damage she had taken showing in her movements, her face a crimson mask. As she moved, she clapped her hands together, her sword held loosely in her grasp. "Congratulations, you all pass." She snapped her sword up, blade pointed at the ceiling, the wave of energy wreathing her blade almost scraping the stalactites that covered it. "Now die." The blackened Saber's mana surged, filling the chamber with her sickening power. "EXCALIBUR…."
"Oh HELL! That's her Noble Phantasm! Mash, BLOCK!"
The violet-haired girl was in front of Kratos, her shield planted into the ground, that web of light beginning to branch outward from it. "NOBLE PHANTASM DEPLOY! LORD….."
Kratos darted his head around the chamber, trying to locate where they had entered. He couldn't – no time, no visibility. He could only hope that their absent comrades would survive this – assuming they themselves survived this.
"CHALDEAS!"
The web solidified into a wall of brilliant light.
"MORGAN!"
Power to end the world crashed into the wall of light. Hungry, evil energy licked at the barrier, seeking for a weakness, seeking to devour it, to tear it down piece by piece, and then to fall upon the three souls huddled behind it, and reduce their existences into nothing. On and on it went, the howling of death itself at their gates.
The wall stood, pure, pristine, inviolate. Its owner never faltered, and so, neither did it.
At last, after what seemed like an eternity, the attack ebbed, and faltered. Only once the last of the putrid energy had receded, did Mash's Noble Phantasm finally vanish.
Kratos realized that at some point, he had placed his hand on Mash's shoulder as she had stood against Saber's attack, without even realizing it. Awkwardly, he withdrew it, hoping the girl had been too focused on maintaining her shield to notice.
As the dust cleared, Saber was revealed, her sword still thrumming with mana, though weaker than before. "Defiance," she stated, almost sounding bored. "Or treachery. I became accustomed to it from my knights – to see it continue hundreds of years later."
"If you can pin her for a second, I might be able to end this," whispered Cu, his voice barely audible.
"Still, how many times can you block my Noble…..," Saber's blade flew up, swatting aside the Leviathan Axe as it flew through the air, a roaring Spartan following it close behind, Mash hot on his heels.
"INSOLENCE!" Dwarf-forged steel met Fae blade wreathed in toxic mana, and neither gave an inch. "You interrupt a king!"
"You are not my king, nor any king I would bow to!" snarled Kratos. Energy sparked around Saber, signaling another Mana Burst, and Kratos shifted his balance, ceasing to push in the lock he and Saber were tied in, and she overbalanced, suddenly too strong for a deadlock that no longer existed.
The opening was there, and Kratos swung, both hands on his axe, and finally, for the first time in this fight, connected cleanly.
The Leviathan Axe dug into the armor around Saber's torso, crumpling it from the force of the blow, and after a moment's resistance, Kratos felt his axe dig into flesh.
Saber screeched in pain, and swung a clumsy, off-balance counter, her sword being used more as a club than a blade. Empowered by her Mana Burst, it was still fast enough to catch Kratos in the ribs before he could free his axe and dodge. For the second time this fight, he was blasted across the room and into one of the cavern walls.
Once upon a time, Kratos had left Greece, fleeing the dead land that he had killed. After innumerable years, he had found a place to settle – to call home, and for decades – centuries even, he had lived a life of peace (aside from the fight he'd had with his future wife upon meeting her). Then, on the day of his wife's pyre, a skinny, tattooed, bearded man had shown up on his doorstep, and demanded answers that Kratos didn't have. When Kratos had demanded he leave, threats had escalated to violence, until Kratos' patience had been exhausted, and he had struck back. He had been ready to throw the annoying little man off his property when, an exhausted 'Finally' still echoing, the little man had hit Kratos harder than he had ever been hit before.
Three years later, that man's brother, also bearded, also tattooed, but not slight, not slight in the least, had shown up on Kratos' doorstep, and after negotiations had broken down, he had effortlessly shattered the record that Baldur had set. Worse yet, he had been holding back, wanting to see the god-killer buried within Kratos. It wasn't until Ragnarök itself that Kratos had seen Thor's true, terrifying power.
If Saber hadn't just hit him nearly that hard, it wasn't for lack of trying on her part.
Kratos' side was screaming as he picked himself out of the ruins of the cavern wall. It was only due to the impromptu nature of Saber's attack that he had mostly caught the flat of the blade, rather than the edge. That meant his ribs were broken, rather than carved straight out of his body, and his flesh was seared from the caress of Saber's mana, rather than being awash in his own blood.
The pain was irrelevant. He had fought hurt before. He would fight hurt again.
Across the room, Mash was fighting a desperate losing effort against Saber. Even hurt, Saber was many times the warrior that Mash was, the pale woman moved with the experience of lifetimes, while Mash was a raw novice. Her desperation, and unorthodox weapon was keeping her alive, but it was only a matter of time.
Kratos returned to the fight in the nick of time. Alone, Saber would have eventually overcome Mash – odds the woman would happily have taken, given any chance to kill one of their small band. Facing two on one, she re-evaluated. Red lighting again outlined her form.
"Not this time, you pale bitch…."
Roots erupted from the ground, twining around Saber's legs, holding her in place. She snarled, and moved to slice through them, but Kratos was suddenly in her face, knocking her blade aside. She twisted her blade, and knocked his axe from his hands, then bellowed in rage as she realized he had sacrificed his axe to break her two-handed grip on her sword, and had seized her right arm in his grasp.
"Mash! Her other arm!"
Mash didn't even bother trying to pit the strength of her arms against the might of Saber's. The woman was close enough to a wall, Mash charged in, using her massive shield to crush Saber's arm against the cavern wall, trapping it there.
Fingers of agony were racing up and down Kratos' side as he fought against the strength of Saber. She was bathed in red, as she was firing her Mana Burst again and again as she attempted to free herself. "CASTER! We cannot hold her long!" Even with only a single arm, Saber was near to overpowering him – his wound was beginning to take its toll on him. Mash was faring better, but only because Saber was focusing her true efforts on freeing the arm that held her sword. If he failed to hold her, Mash would soon follow.
"Giant, transform into a cage of flames!"
The wooden hand that Caster had called forth in the fight with Heracles rose from the ground, but this time, it was not just the hand. A massive, towering form of wood and fire began to rise up to a massive height, the three of them cradled in its paw. Kratos and Mash released their hold on Saber and quickly dove from the hand before it got too far off the ground.
Saber hacked away at the roots holding her legs, but as fast as she cleaved through the wood, new shoots grew to replace the ones cut away, roots growing from the wooden giant's hand at an increasingly frenetic pace. The burning effigy held the small woman up to its chest, where a cage like door sat open, beyond which lay the raging inferno within the being's chest.
For a moment, the giant was still, almost as if it was considering the wildly flailing woman it held in its grasp. Then it tossed her into its chest, and slammed the door.
"WICKER MAN!"
The fires that had been running through the wooden giant surged to an incredible level, heat and light rolling off its form to an almost blinding degree.
And yet, it was not enough.
Saber's blade stabbed through the chest of Cu's wooden giant, sawing back and forth frantically, breaking down the door that kept her caged within. Incredibly, she managed to survive the hellscape within long enough to carve through the door, and leapt free from the fiery prison she had been trapped in. With a shout of triumph, she sprang forth, skin cracked and blackened from the fire, but still alive.
Her momentum was brought to an abrupt halt, as a massive hand seized her head, and dragged her out of the air.
Kratos. Kratos had used Mash's shield as a springboard, had vaulted into the air, had snatched her from the air, and was even now landing on one of the giant's hands. Saber flailed wildly, trying to find some purchase, to escape the Spartan's grasp, but her limitless strength and endurance was overtaxed. A moment to catch her breath, a foothold to speed away, neither were things she would be allowed.
Still holding her aloft by her head, Kratos caught one of Saber's frantically kicking legs and brought her down savagely across his knee. Something cracked – whether it was her armor, or her back, none could tell. But there was no fight left in her body when Kratos tossed her limp form back into the conflagration, the ruined door mending itself behind her.
Then the giant, having stoked its fires as high as it could, exploded.
When sight came back to their eyes, the first thing they noticed was the blackened crater that had been burnt into the cavern floor.
The second thing they noticed was Saber at the dead center of that crater, still alive.
"All that…..and she yet lives?"
Cu shook his head. "No, look at her." Saber went to stand, and failed, barely able to manage kneeling by leaning on her sword. Her armor was ruined, melted slag where it wasn't simply gone. Even her formidable sword no longer glowed with the dark miasma of power that it once had. "Her Spirit Origin's in tatters. She's got a minute or two at best before she's heading back to the Throne. We did it!"
"Indeed. You have slain your dragon." Despite being moments from what would constitute death to a Servant, Saber's voice had lost none of its authority. "Bring me your leader, Chaldea, the girl who you hid down the cavern. I would have words with her before I depart. And be quick about it."
"I'll go," said Cu, before Kratos could raise objections about possible treachery. "We can keep the girl out of her range easy enough – and something's telling me we're going to want to hear this." Then the Servant was off like a shot. A few tense moments later, and he returned, Fujimaru in his arms, and the Director draped across his back.
She quickly dropped from the man's back, staring down at the ruined Servant on the cave floor. "Caster tells me you wanted to say something to me, Saber. Speak your piece."
For a moment, Saber simply gazed up at Olga Marie. "So young. Almost as young as I was. And look how it ruined me." She laughed, bitterly. "And yet, you won. With a half-dead Master, a jumbled mess of a Servant barely worth the name, a lap dog.."
"HEY!"
"….and our mysterious visitor, you still prevailed." She shook her head. "You have surpassed all my expectations for you." Her head shot up, her eyes blazing. "Do NOT grow complacent. This is just the first step in your Grand Order…"
The blood drained from Olga Marie's face. "Grand….Order…how do you know about that!?"
Saber smiled, almost wistfully. Her mouth moved, but she had no more strength for words. Her body faded into the dark of the cave, breaking apart into fragments of light, and then, she was gone.