Chapter 55

Once they reached the foot of the mountain, Caster ran down the steps to greet them, her hair trailing behind her as she rushed down the steps two at a time.

"Are you the Master of Saber?"

She had felt the leylines fluctuate during Sabers summoning, and determined that it was most likely Emiya who had summoned her, since he was the one who possessed Avalon.

"Eh? You're also Saber?"

Having seen Berserker's face, he had just passed it off as coincidence that Saber and Berserker looked alike, helped by Berserker's different eye and hair color. However, Caster was almost a carbon copy of Saber's features, save that she was marginally younger than Saber, which could be seen from her stature.

Caster took one look at Saber and could immediately tell she was in bad condition, though she was still conscious. Whispering a few words under her breath, her Noble Phantasm that was currently linked with the leylines activated, the projection of her mental world conferring strength to her limbs and body, allowing her to stand up again without her Master's assistance.

"Let's go inside first before we discuss anything."

Berserker stood a few meters from the foot of the stairs, her hand loosely clutching the hilt of Necrocalibur, her eyes locked on Shirou alone.

Then, the air near the stairs shimmered, and like the mist parting under strong sunlight, the air separated to reveal Kuzuki with a bloodied forehead, clothes in disarray from the fight earlier, and cradled in his arms was the unconscious Illya, her body frail and small in contrast to his tall and lanky body. Slowly kneeling down, he gently laid her down on the ground, setting her legs and head down gradually so she didn't knock her head on the ground. Berserker watched him intently, her finger on the activation button of the lightsaber.

After putting her down, he backed away towards Caster, Saber and Shirou, his right hand tucking Carnwennan back into the hidden sheath on his back.

Berserker walked forward and picked up Illya, settling her into a princess carry and making sure she was comfortable and snug against her, casting one last glance towards the two Master and Servant pairs, before jumping off to the distant Einzbern manor.

None of them said a word for a moment, the night wind blowing gently against their faces.

"Let's go up and talk."

Caster turned around and led them up, Shirou reluctantly turning around to follow after staring at where Berserker had disappeared too, Kuzuki already heading up ahead of him.

"Are you alright Saber?"

He fell into place beside his Servant, unable to resist asking her because of all the wounds covering her entire body, almost completely different from how she had been when she had been first summoned.

In spite of all the marks on her body and armor, she still managed to walk up the steps with only a slight limp, the cuts on her face vanishing right in front of him. While she was strengthened by Caster's Noble Phantasm, it was mostly her sheer will that kept her moving forwards, the wounds on her body repairing themselves only on a superficial level.

"I'm fine, Master."

It was that moment that she didn't her leg high enough, her steel toed sabatons hitting the step as her momentum carried her upper body forward, her fatigue dulled senses unable to correct her in time.

"Oof!"

Reaching out his arms in alarm, Shirou barely managed to catch her, her metal breastplate knocking into his arms painfully, but he kept hold of her and walked to her left, shifting her less injured left arm over his neck to support her.

"M-Master, I can walk just fine."

Ashamed that she had to be supported by her Master like this in the same night she had been summoned in, she looked down at the stone steps, yet her body didn't act to let go of the support offered to her.

"I'm your Master, so it's only natural that I help you out. I couldn't help you at all earlier, but I can at least do this much."

He looked ahead to the top of the stairs, his eyes filled with guilt and frustration from the battle earlier where he had done nothing, his mouth set in a firm line.

Faced with her Master's resolve, she couldn't help but relent, leaning on his shoulder, allowing him to carry her weight as they took the stairs one step at a time.

Several flights ahead, Caster looked back down at them.

"Should we help them?"

Kuzuki stared at them as they made slow, but steady progress.

"No, it's fine."

Caster looked on, her face loosening from the tense moment with Berserker as she looked at the two beginning to acknowledge their roles as Servant and Master. Still, seeing Saber, Berserker and Assassin's faces, she could roughly tell what was going in the Holy Grail War now.

Soon after, they were seated in the guest room of the temple, the monks receiving the explanation that Shirou was staying over because of renovations going on at his house, with a brief greeting to Issei before he left with Caster and Kuzuki for the meeting.

The moment they settled into position around the chabudai, Caster bowed to Shirou and Saber.

"Thank you for becoming our allies in the war. Even if it's only for a short while, we'll be in your care."

In truth, she had been extremely worried about the Holy Grail War these last few days. Her first master, Atrum Galiasta, had been assassinated right behind her. Then her second Master Kuzuki had been heavily injured in the battle between Berserker, him and Assassin, permanently losing an arm while she was preoccupied with sealing the overloaded Rhongomyniad. Even with the new catalysts she had gained access too with the linking of the leylines to her as a power source, she still wasn't able to directly fight on the front lines in close-quarters combat like how she had seen Assassin and Berserker fought.

In the first place, the fact that Berserker and Assassin could fight like that was ridiculous. Berserker had showcased superb tactics on top of having physical parameters befitting a Berserker, and Assassin was actually able to face her in a serious duel. It spoke to how irregular the war was, and she was willing to bet that the other opponents in the war were also equally strong, so she needed to form an alliance if she wanted to survive.

She had sensed a summoning from the church, but she had been wary of approaching someone who had summoned a Servant at that location, which was supposed to be neutral ground. It was also the reason she hadn't sent Kuzuki to the church to verify information about the Holy Grail War with the supervisor stationed there, since there it was possible a Master could attack him there.

She also hadn't bothered with the Matou and Tohsaka houses, since the information offered to her during the summoning indicated they were the founding houses of the ritual, and knowing how mages were, she doubted they would be willing to form an alliance with a Master like Kuzuki. Hence, she was stuck in a bind until the final Servant was summoned by Shirou.

At the same time, she had also felt the presence of Avalon earlier, during the battle between Lancer, Archer and Assassin, the resonance between the two Artoria's forcing Avalon to manifest barely itself as their mana ran rampant at the school.

Her instincts had screamed at her to seek out the wielder of Avalon, so she had told Kuzuki to search the school for the person who held Avalon. He had been observing the battle from afar with Carnwennan cloaking him, and when he had spotted Emiya Shirou leaving the school grounds, he had followed Caster's instructions and followed him home to bring him back to the temple, but Lancer had interrupted, and Caster had simply deemed it safer for her Master to stay back and observe. After Shirou summoned Saber with his desperate wish to live, Kuzuki had moved in, and the rest proceeded as planned.

Shirou and Saber were caught off guard by the Servant suddenly prostrating herself in front of them, making Shirou scratch the back of his head in embarrassment, while Saber scrutinized the features of the Servant in front of them.

"Mm, well it's not like we've done anything yet. If anything, we'll be in your care as our senpais in the war." Saying so, lowered his head and also bowed to them in return.

"No no no, it should be me who's thanking you. You did help save my Master's life just now." She bowed down again.

"If he hadn't come to offer an alliance, he wouldn't have been endangered in the first place. It's sort of our fault in a way, so there's no really no need to thank us so much."

The back and forth went on for a bit, with Kuzuki staring at the two as Saber continued to analyse Caster's features. After seeing them go nowhere, Kuzuki intervened.

"Shall we get started?"

"Ah/Yes!"

The two of them were brought back to reality by his words, stopping their cycle of thanking each other.

Caster's face turned serious as she turned to both Saber and Shirou, her back straightening as she started to talk.

"Since Kuzuki already told you about the basics of the war, I won't go over that anymore. Instead, I'm sure you've noticed how the Servants all seem to have similar features, almost like they were relatives, right?"

Shirou thought back to all the Servants he had seen, and nodded.

"Ah wait, Archer wasn't like that at all."

He interjected after remembering the dark skinned man, nocking the spiralling arrow on his black bow beneath the dark sky.

"Yes, but with Archer as the sole exception, I'm sure that you've noticed that the rest all have a similar face."

"That's true."

Saber nodded in agreement with his words. She had only seen Lancer, Caster and Berserker, but she could tell that the latter two looked like younger versions of her, while Lancer had a helm that obscured her face. Even so, the horse she had been riding and her spear had definitely felt familiar.

Caster took a deep breath and continued.

"I've come to the conclusion that besides Archer, every Servant in the Fifth Holy Grail War is Artoria Pendragon, in one way or another."