Chapter 44: Infiltrating the Palace

Bisca T. Balamus, the Pope of the Church of the Three Heroes, was famous for having a very cold head. No matter how urgent or dangerous the situation could be, no one had ever seen him losing his composure.

However, at this moment, anyone who happened to step foot into the throne room of the royal palace could see him exploding with rage.

"Say it," he snarled. "Say it again!"

"Y-your Excellency…" the chancellor who was kneeling at his feet stammered in utter fear. "Th-the Royal Knights… they all deserted…! They all surrendered themselves to Her M—to the Queen!"

"And why does that happen?" the voice of the Pope dropped by two octaves. "Why did they suddenly desert like that?! What in the world happened that made them desert?"

"I-it's because… of… Princess Malty…"

"What?!" Standing next to the Pope, Malty shrieked. "How dare you, you insolent peasant! What did I do? I'm going to rip your head off for slandering me!"

"That is also what I want to know," Balamus slowly turned toward the princess with a seething glare. "What did you do, Princess Malty?"

Before the accusing glare of the Pope, Malty seemed to shrink down in fear. She turned her head away with a scowl on her face. "W-well, I just sent them to punish those traitors in Scheibel Territory! They were the ones who brought those paper things to this town!"

The glare from the Pope turned even more harsh. "And you sent the entire reserve of the Royal Knights to do something like that?!"

"So?" Malty snorted. "That town deserves to be razed to the ground! They all deserve to be killed, those traitors of that town! Have you seen what they wrote in those papers?"

"And you didn't even think of doing any investigation to know exactly who made those papers in the first place?!" the Pope exploded in rage. "Instead, you went and ordered a massacre of your own subordinates in a fit of rage?! Do you know how badly that stupid move could ruin the Church's image?! No wonder why the Royal Knights all deserted!"

"Wh-what about it then?" Flustered as she was, Malty still somehow managed to find words to retort. "The Royal Knight is just a small part of our army! Even without them, we still have a lot of troops! We can just-ack!"

She stumbled backward in shock as the tip of a blade touched the skin of her neck. The Pope was pointing his staff, now in the basic form of the Legendary Sword, at her; his face was full of fury.

"Don't forget that you're only here because you sold your own father to us," he snarled in a way no one had ever seen him using before. "If you continue acting in a way that sabotages our cause, you're not going to be treated any different from those heretics, I assure you that, Princess."

Then he turned around and walked out of the throne room, but not before glaring at Malty again with eyes full of contempt. The soldiers and chancellors also retreated from the room, leaving Malty alone in front of the empty throne, seething in anger.

"How dare you talk to me like that, you fake priest…?!"

EMIYA looked awkwardly at the person on the ground in front of him.

Ever since he first met her, he had always seen Akari as a calm and stoic woman who never showed any clear emotion in front of others. However, at the moment, she was acting in a way that wasn't like how he knew her at all.

She was curling into a ball and crying hysterically at his feet.

"You-hic-jerk-!" She hiccupped while glaring at him through tears. "Why didn't-hic-you-hic-warn me-hic-before-hic-doing that-?!"

"Come on," EMIYA scratched his head. "It's not even that fast, you know. I'm pretty sure how you usually travel—"

"I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHT, YOU IDIOT!"

Finally, after about half an hour, Akari finally regained her composure. She was still glaring at him with teary eyes, though, and even EMIYA had to feel bad looking back at her.

"So," he coughed, trying to remove the awkward atmosphere, "we're going to break in at night?"

"When else?" Akari snorted. It was obvious how mad she still was at the Sword Hero.

"How are we going to get in, though? It's obvious that we cannot use the main gate, isn't it?"

"Of course we won't," the Shadow girl snorted again. "There is a hidden passage that leads to the backyard of the palace. No, I'm pretty sure the Church doesn't know about it," she added when EMIYA raised an eyebrow. "We of Her Majesty's Shadows made it ourselves in secret for emergency cases. The only other person who knew about it besides us Shadows is Her Majesty herself, and even she doesn't know where it is, or where it leads to."

She stopped for a moment, then continued. "Although there might still be a chance that someone might have noticed it after they took over the town. In that case, we need to be more careful."

EMIYA sighed. "Then I guess there's nothing we can do now but wait until the sun sets, huh."

"Pretty much," answered Akari. She dropped herself down at the foot of a tree nearby with a tired sigh.

EMIYA sat down next to her. He looked at her. "You hungry?"

Akari glared at him. "I don't need—"

~GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL~

Akari's face turned a deep red color behind her mask.

"Sometimes it's better if you're honest with yourself, you know." The Sword Hero chuckled. He took out something from his inventory and pushed it into the girl's hand. "Here, have a bite. We all need energy for our operation tonight."

Akari stared at the object in her hand. It was a triangular-shaped rice ball the size of her hand, wrapped outside with something that looked like dried seaweed. Seeing her hesitation, EMIYA chuckled.

"Just take off your mask. It's not like I've never seen your face before, you know."

Akari glared at the Sword Hero. Then, in the end, she shrugged and took off her mask, revealing her face to EMIYA again. He had to admit, even though she wasn't breathtakingly beautiful like some other girls he had seen in this world or in his own world, she was still a rather pretty woman.

Then again, comparing the beauty of women against each other is rude. Even though he never considered himself a very polite person, he's not going to stoop so low as to compare the appearances of all the women that he met, thank you very much.

Akari took a bite on the onigiri. Her eyes widened almost immediately.

"This…!"

EMIYA noted with surprise that tears started running down Akari's cheeks as she gulped down the onigiri. "What's wrong? Is it not good?"

The Shadow girl shook her head. She lifted her sleeve to wipe the tears from her eyes. "No… It's really delicious. It's just… its taste reminded me of my past. Of my hometown. I couldn't hold it back…"

She suddenly stopped mid-sentence, as if she had just remembered what she said was something she shouldn't have said. And of course, such a slip couldn't escape EMIYA's attention.

"You're not from here?"

Akari bit her lip and turned away. "Never mind…"

EMIYA frowned. But then, he shrugged. "It's fine. You don't need to tell me if you don't want to. After all, your job is keeping secrets, so if you want to have your own, it's not my place to stick my nose in."

Then he stood up. "You should take a rest. I'm going to stand guard for now. There will be a lot of work to do tonight, and you're the key player of this operation. We need you to be ready."

He turned around and unsheathed the Legendary Sword. As it took the forms of two falchions, one pitch black, one pure white, he started walking away…

"Do you know the country of Q'ten Lo?"

His legs stopped as he turned around again to face the Shadow girl. "I've heard this and that about it. What of it?"

Akari sighed. She stood up and walked toward the Sword Hero. "I was born there, in Q'ten Lo, before my family… migrated here. My parents… lost their lives during the journey, in a terrifying storm… I was the only one on the boat that night who survived… everyone else…"

She took a deep breath, then continued. "Her Majesty took me in, when she found me drifting into the shore. She took care of me, gave me a home, and trained me until I became the person I am today. I owe my own life to her. It's thanks to her that I'm still alive now."

EMIYA chuckled. "So that's why you reacted like that when I criticized the Queen in the call, huh."

Akari glared at him. "I know I'm no match for you, but if you do that again, I swear I'm going to make you pay for it even if I have to die."

EMIYA only chuckled again at the reaction of the girl, making the glare tripled in intensity.

Then he remembered something. "Why did you and your family leave Q'ten Lo, anyway? From what I heard, it is an isolated island country, and there isn't a lot of information about it. What happened there that made your family leave the country?"

Akari suddenly looked very distressed upon hearing the question. After a few seconds, she shook her head.

"That… is not something I can disclose now. I'm sorry… Maybe one day…"

Seeing the girl's face, EMIYA knew immediately that it's time for him to stop pushing her. His experience with women allowed him to know when a woman didn't want to continue talking. Forcing words out of her mouth right now was definitely not a wise choice.

She must have a reason for that… Oh well…

The two warriors went back to silence again. For a while, the only noises in the air were the sound of the wind shaking the leaves of the trees above them.

The sun was going down the horizon…

EMIYA and Akari walked, quietly, in the dark tunnel.

The entrance of the secret passage was about two kilometers away from the northern wall of the town. It led into the forest at the feet of the mountain where the royal palace lay and up into the mountain where it would open up at the palace's back garden. From there, they could easily enter the palace without crossing the guards around the town.

After an hour or so of walking in the tunnel, EMIYA was starting to think that an incredibly paranoid bastard was the one who designed and built this secret passage. There were so many crossroads and junctions; some even made him feel that they had just walked around in a circle. It reminded him of stories about Daedalus' Great Labyrinth, built to imprison the legendary Minotaur, Asterios. Of course there's no way this could compare to the real Labyrinth, but something of this scale was already pretty impressive for a human-made construct. And it seemed that this labyrinth-like structure was effective, because he hadn't seen any sign of enemies since they entered the passage.

Finally, after about thirty more minutes, the two stopped in front of a rather long staircase. Akari looked at EMIYA.

"We're here. Just need to finish this staircase and we're in the palace garden."

EMIYA nodded. He unsheathed the Legendary Sword, which promptly took the form of Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands. "We're going to be in the enemy zone in just a few minutes. You ready?"

"Always," came Akari's curt reply. He nodded again.

"Then let's go."

With those words, the two warriors dashed up the staircase.

EMIYA carefully analyzed the situation.

The two warriors had arrived at the East Tower, where the King and Princess Melty were being held. He could count at least fifty fully armed guards standing in front of the tower as they crouched there, hidden in a bush near the entrance. A whole goddamned platoon. Not to mention whatever was waiting for him inside. And those weren't the only people there…

"There are Shadows, too."

Akari, crouching next to him, said quietly. And she was correct; if his senses weren't wrong, he could also count at least twenty more presences around the tower, even though he couldn't see them. They must be the Shadows the Church sent to ensure that the King and the Princess couldn't escape.

Seventy people, fully armed and ready to fight, just to ensure that two people couldn't escape from this prison.

Getting in there was no problem; he had done a lot of much harder things before. However, that was only getting in. Getting out of there, with the King and the Princess with him, was a completely different problem. The King and the Princess had both been imprisoned for quite a while, and it's obvious that their physical capabilities would not be at their prime. He knew that he and Akari could deal with the enemies that might be coming well enough, but there's nothing ensuring that the two prisoners would be able to. And if there are Shadows around the tower, there's no way he could be sure that all of them would escape unharmed. He had encountered them before, and he knew how skilled they were, at least at running away. If he lets just one of them escape, they're going to alert the whole city, and the whole mission would end up in ruins.

Therefore, what they needed to do right now was…

"Akari. I need you to create a distraction."

The Shadow looked at him with her eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Yeah," EMIYA nodded. "We're going to split up. You know the palace better than me; I need you to create a distraction, to attract the attention of the guards while I'm breaking into the tower to rescue the King and the Princess. Make as much noise as possible, to at least draw the Shadows here away."

Akari's eyes narrowed. "You're going to break in alone? But that's very risky!"

EMIYA nodded. "I know. But I'm already used to working alone. Trust me, I can do it. Just keep the guards and those Shadows busy, and we'll meet here again in two hours. Is it clear?"

Akari hesitated. But then, her eyes steeled up, and she nodded. "I understand."

She turned around, ready to leave… before EMIYA's strong hand grabbed her wrist.

"Wait," the Sword Hero looked at her with serious eyes. "Before you go, I want you to take this."

His other hand started glowing, and the light gradually took the form of a dagger. It was the most beautiful dagger that Akari had ever seen. The dagger looked like it was fully cast in one piece rather than forged piece by piece then assembled. It was made of an alloy of silver with some kind of metal that made it not only as hard and sharp as a very good steel blade, but also shine in a greenish-blue light. The hilt of the dagger was pure white, and there were gemstones of all colors surrounding a bigger, perfectly cut ruby at the pommel, giving it a regal and luxurious vibe none could be a match for. Looking at it made Akari feel as if she was looking at a shining star. She had never seen anything like this before in her life.

"This is…"

She looked at the Sword Hero in question. EMIYA nodded, and unsheathed the Legendary Sword. The Sword also glowed, and took the form of the same dagger in the Sword Hero's other hand. It was Carnwennan, the holy dagger of King Arthur.

[Name: Carnwennan +8 – Quality: Legendary – Base Power: 100]

[Speed +200. Increases power of magic. Magic Resistance: Extra High. Presence Concealment: MAX.]

[Skills unlocked: Sword Throwing (MASTERED), Shadow Treading (0/1000)]

[Unique Skill: Shadow Blade - Level 1 (0/1000)]

[Unique Ability: Precise Throwing.]

[Proficiency: 0%]

[Unlocked at level 80 - UNLOCKED]

In the Welsh Triads, the dagger Carnwennan, along with the Holy Spear Rhongomyniad and Holy Sword Excalibur, are mentioned to be sacred weapons given to King Arthur by God. However, the truth is, unlike the Holy Sword and Spear made by the Planet, Carnwennan was man-made. It was a weapon created by Merlin in an attempt to create a balance with the massive power of Rhongomyniad and Excalibur. Of course it was a failure; as a human-made weapon, there was no way the dagger could compare to the two Planet-made holy weapons. However, it couldn't be said that Carnwennan wasn't an extremely powerful weapon on its own. Instead of an "amplifier" that takes in and amplifies the magic of the wielder, then releases it in the form of raw power like Excalibur, Carnwennan is a "converter" that takes the magical energy of the user and turns it into magical feats borderlining miracles. EMIYA had witnessed Artoria Avalon performing incredible magic using the dagger, such as opening portals to cross vast distances in the blink of an eye, showering enemies with rains of magical lasers, creating "shadow" copies of itself to fire at the enemies, and everything else. And it was also an incredible assassination weapon; in history, Artoria had used it to split the Black Hag, a very dangerous witch who managed to defeat four warriors alone with her bare hands, in two with one single throw. She didn't even need to aim, because the dagger always hit its target even if it was out of view, in the same fashion as how Gae Bolg always finds the heart of the wielder's adversary.

But that wasn't the reason EMIYA wanted to give Akari the weapon. The most powerful and most well-known ability of the dagger that made it one of Artoria's most treasured Noble Phantasms was the ability to hide its wielder from the sight of others. The Presence Concealment it granted its wielder could be said to be on par with that of the most powerful Assassin-class Servants, which meant it was nigh impossible to detect the weapon's wielder as long as they didn't engage in combat. Even the sounds the wielder might be making would be concealed. It was the perfect tool for spying and infiltrating missions.

"This dagger is going to help you infiltrate the palace without fear of being detected, as long as you still hold it in your hand," he placed the dagger in Akari's hand. "However, this is just a copy of it created by my magic, so it's not going to last very long. About two hours or so, I expect. That's why you must be quick. Is it clear?"

Akari hesitated. But then, her eyes steeled up, and she nodded. "I understand. Please take care of the King and the Princess. And…"

She stopped for a moment, then smiled behind her mask. "And thank you for trusting me with this. Please take care of yourself, too, Emiya Shirou-sama."

Like the wind, Akari dashed across the courtyard.

It was just like the Sword Hero had said. The dagger in her hand was shielding her from the eyes and ears of everyone she passed; she had been running for a few minutes, passing a lot of people on her way, including guards, and yet no one seemed to notice that she was even there to begin with.

The Sword Hero was really weird. This weapon wasn't something that could be given away so casually. In the right hands, it could take the lives of people as easy as taking candy from your own pocket. And yet, he just gave it to her, just like that.

She couldn't understand that gesture. After all, in the end, she was just a spy sent by the Queen to keep track of him. There was no reason for him to put that much trust on her. And the castle is just like her base of operation; she could protect herself more than enough without the need of something this extravagant.

Her face suddenly heated up from the thought that had just crossed her mind. She shook her head, trying to shake the image out of her brain. Idiot! This is not the time for something like that! Focus on your mission!

She pulled out something from her weapon pouch. It was a package of cards with some weird symbols drawn on them. Then she started sticking the cards on the walls nearby, on the trees, and everywhere else she could reach.

If he trusts her that much, then she's going to do everything to prove that his trust in her is not a waste.

Fifteen minutes. Then thirty minutes.

EMIYA was starting to get impatient. Time had been passing, and there was still no sign that any distraction had been made. What the hell was Akari doing? If she doesn't act quickly, the chance is going to pass, and there's no way they can afford anything like this another time.

An hour had passed. Any time now…

Then suddenly, noises could be heard rising from the far side of the palace. An explosion, like that of a firework, rose, and then many other explosions followed it. It sounded like the palace was being bombarded by artillery from outside. Then, screams and yells could be heard from the direction of the explosions. Two minutes later, a Shadow landed in front of the tower. He (because EMIYA could hear a male voice pretty clearly) yelled.

"All Shadows immediately mobilize to the West Wing! The palace is under attack!"

EMIYA immediately understood what was going on. This had to be Akari's work, and whatever she was doing, it seemed to be effective; the hidden presences he had felt before started moving, and in just a few seconds, they had all disappeared at the direction of the explosions. EMIYA didn't usually like showy performances, but he had to admit, this time it helped a lot.

And now, it's time for him to do his work.

Fifty targets. All fully armed, and ready to fight. They were all around level 50, with stats a little bit higher than Fohl; the one who was seemingly the leader was actually at level 55 and had stats as high as Raphtalia and Eclair. And all of them were obviously trained and had experience in battle.

That was within the acceptable parameters.

Not even taking a glance back at the fifty corpses he left behind, EMIYA pushed the entrance door of the tower open and stepped inside.

The tower was… emptier than he had expected. Its stone walls were weathered by years of wind and rain, and cobwebs could be seen clinging to corners here and there. There was a narrow, winding staircase leading upward, and as he went up, he could see empty, dank cells little more than holes in the stone, barely large enough to accommodate a single prisoner. Each was devoid of furniture, save for a straw mattress on the cold, damp floor and steel chains and handcuffs on the wall. The flickering light of the torches was the only sign that there were still people coming to this place.

However, there definitely were people in this tower, at least for now. Because as he walked up the stairs, he could hear someone's voice… no, voices, that were getting louder and louder as he ascended higher and higher. And as he arrived at the seventh floor, he could finally hear it clearly. It was the voices of the King… and of Princess Malty.

"I've… never taught you… to become like this…!" he heard the King gasping; his voice sounded very weak. "What… happened to you… my daughter…?!"

"What happened to me? Ha!" Now it was Malty's cruel and nasty voice. "This might not have happened had you decided to give me the crown in the first place! But nooooo, it must be Melty, doesn't it? It ALWAYS has to be Melty, isn't it? 'Melty is the better choice to inherit the throne'. Ha! Look at it now! I'M the one in charge here!"

"I've never asked for that!" Now it was another voice, the voice of a little girl which EMIYA recognized to be Princess Melty's voice. The little princess' voice sounded broken and hurt. "I've never asked to be the Crown Princess! It's because you're—ACK!"

The sentence was cut off abruptly with a loud "SLAP". It's obvious that Malty had just slapped her sister.

"You are… never… becoming Queen…" the King gasped out again. Malty howled with derisive laughter.

"Oh really? Guess what, I already am!"

Then loud footsteps echoed across the empty tower. Soon, the figure of Malty Melromarc appeared at the top of the staircase. She walked past EMIYA with her nose in the air, not even noticing the Sword Hero – not that she would be able to with Carnwennan in his hand, anyway. And as she walked by, EMIYA did what any normal person would do in that case. He delivered a brutal karate chop at her neck, and the First Princess collapsed to the ground like a sack of rice, unconscious.

Not wasting a moment, the Sword Hero Projected a pair of handcuffs and cuffed Malty up with it. It wasn't a normal pair of handcuffs; it contained the sealing technology he had seen in Zeltoble that was used to seal up magical energy in the preliminary round of the Grand Tournament. Then, he pulled out a roll of rope from his inventory and hogtied the princess like a gutted deer, and finished up with a sock in her mouth as a gag. Then, leaving her there, he rushed up the staircases.

King Aultcray and Melty jumped – well, Melty anyway; the King was chained up on the wall so there's no way he could move – in surprise when the entrance of their prison cell snapped open again. And they were even more shocked when the Sword Hero seemingly appeared from thin air right in front of them.

"S-Sword Hero?!" the King stammered. "H-how-?!"

"No time to ask," answered EMIYA curtly. "The only thing you need to know is that I'm going to get you two out of here. Are you strong enough to run?" he asked while using the keys he got from Malty to unlock the cuffs and chains binding the King to the wall. As the last cuff was removed, the old man stumbled forward and collapsed to the ground, but he recovered almost immediately and got up on his feet, even though he was still staggering a bit. EMIYA had to admit, had it not been for his attitude against Naofumi, this man would have gotten his respect.

"I-I think so… I can still walk, I know that," the King nodded as he stood straight up. EMIYA nodded back at him, then pulled out a piece of field ration in his inventory which he had just made before the journey.

"Here, eat up. You're going to need energy," he said as he pushed it into the King's hand before crouching down and unlocking Melty's handcuffs. The King took a bite, and felt energy surging up from his stomach. He looked at the Sword Hero, who was now lifting the little princess up and giving her the same thing.

"Did Mirellia send you here?"

EMIYA nodded as Melty's face recovered a little color from the ration she had just eaten. "Yeah. Now come on, we don't have a lot of time. I don't know if the distraction we made is going to make them leave this place alone for long."

Then he pulled the little princess up and started leading her down the stairs. King Aultcray silently followed him without saying a word.

The group walked by Malty, who was unconscious and hogtied on the ground. EMIYA's footsteps halted, and after a few seconds of pondering, he crouched down and picked the unconscious girl up.

"Wh-what are you planning to do with Big Sister?" Melty looked at the Sword Hero with worried eyes. EMIYA glanced back at the little girl as he threw her tied-up sister on his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

"Leaving her here is going to cause more trouble. Besides, she did a lot of crimes on her own; she needs to face trials and pay for them."

And it's not like it's going to look nice if I slay her here right in front of her own father and sister, he added silently in his mind.

"It's my fault."

EMIYA glanced at the King, who had just said those words. "Excuse me?"

"It's all my fault," the King mumbled in a way he had never seen him use before. His voice was full of shame and regret. "I've lost everything… I didn't have anything else I could put my hope on… after the war… and I…"

His voice turned bitter. "I didn't know what to do any more. The only thing I could do… was trying everything to give my children the best I could do for them. I didn't know… that it could lead to something like this… I'm just a fool…"

His voice trembled and died in his throat as he slumped to the ground. Tears of grief started running down his cheek.

"Father…" Melty put her hand on her father's elbow in an attempt to console him, but even she knew that it wouldn't help much.

Even EMIYA himself had no words to lift the mood up. He knew, for a fact, that while it was incredibly difficult to cheer up a person who lost his heart because of his life events, it was even more difficult if that man knew that he was the reason for everything bad that happened in his life.

He sighed deeply. "Well, thinking about the past now doesn't help anything. The important thing is to look at the future, to see if there is still anything you can do to make up for what you did. Right now, the Queen is desperately in need of your help. What you need to do now is get out of here, and come back with me to where she is waiting for you. And I'm here to help you do that."

King Aultcray looked up at the Sword Hero. Then, his eyes hardened, and he grabbed the hand the other man was offering him and stood up from the ground.

"Yeah. Let's go."

"Wait! What is that?!"

The Sword Hero glanced at Melty, who had just blurted out those words, a bit annoyed. "What now? We don't have time for-!"

But those words stuck in his throat as something flew into the room through the cobwebbed window. It soared through the air and stopped in front of the King, hovering in front of him while glowing brightly. It was just a simply decorated short staff with a purple gemstone at the tip, but EMIYA could tell for sure that there was nothing normal about it. Its structure was unreadable, and EMIYA could feel power leaking out from it.

"This is…"

"The Seven Star Staff," the King finished the sentence for him. His eyes were also widened, as if he couldn't believe what was happening. "Why now…?"

"What do you mean?" EMIYA looked at the King in question. "Aren't you the Seven Star Staff Hero?"

Aultcray stared at the ground. His eyes suddenly had a glimpse of sadness and bitterness in them.

"It has left me for a while," he admitted with a pained voice. "It didn't choose a new wielder, and I still keep the skills and magic it bestowed me, so it means I'm still the Seven Star Staff Hero in name, but… it seems it didn't consider me its worthy wielder anymore. But why now…? Why return now?"

"Power comes in response to a need, not a desire," said EMIYA philosophically. "Maybe that's why it returns to you. Because it knows that you need power. For the sake of people you cherish, not for immoral desires."

Aultcray still looked unsure. But then, his eyes steeled, and he reached out his hand. As his fingers closed around the shaft of the staff, the entire thing started glowing even brighter than before, and warmth covered the whole room. When the light died down, Aultcray looked stronger and filled to the brim with power, unlike the old, fragile man he had been looking like before.

"Let's go," he looked at EMIYA with determined eyes.

Even though he still kept his face as impassive as ever, EMIYA couldn't hide a glint of excitement and relief in his eyes. With the King, they're going to have a very powerful ally on their side. His enmity with Naofumi could be left until later; as long as they still share the same goal—

Then his eyes widened.

"LOOK OUT!" he yelled and leaped forward, pushing the King and Melty down on the floor as a wave of powerful and sharp energy vertically split the whole prison tower in half. Had he not pushed the two away in time, they would have become two puddles of blood on the floor right now. But that wasn't enough; suddenly being cut in half like that, an old tower like this one was obviously not going to be able to keep standing. It started collapsing, and EMIYA and the King understood what they needed to do with just a trade of glances. They immediately grabbed the two girls and jumped out of the window; with the enhanced physique the Weapons gave them, they landed on the ground without getting injured as the whole tower crumbled into debris behind their backs.

Then EMIYA's eyes widened when he saw exactly what caused that.

"Oh, fuck. "

Standing in front of them was Balamus, with the Legendary Weapon Replica in his hand and about two hundred soldiers and worshippers behind him.