Manadek gleamed in triumph as he raised the sword in the air, it brimming with energy all stemming from the artificial hand created for this exact purpose.

Shirou immediately moved forward and materialized a blade into his hand just as he had been practicing. He lunged forward with the blade aiming it straight towards Manadek. But the man easily blocked the strike with Excalibur, and upon contact the blade in Shirou's hand immediately vaporized into nothing and with a burst of energy from the sword Shirou was knocked backwards towards the ground.

And then Rin and Illya sprang into action as well with Rin firing a curse at her and Illya summoning her birds to fly up and strike Manadek. However all their attacks seemed to be in vain as with the sword in his white artificial hand, Manadek simply conjured a shield around himself to block the attacks and struck back with a blast of energy. Rin was blasted to the ground and Illya against a tree, knocking her out instantly.

"Illya!" Shirou yelled in concern. He charged forward once more and reached out and grabbed Manadek's fake hand clutching the sword, intending to wrestle it away from him. But the older man refused to bend down and instead the sword once again shined brightly with energy and Manadek pushed backwards, causing Shirou to fall to the ground once again.

"Submit" Manadek said as the sword once again made both Rin and Shirou fall to their knees in submission. Rin groaned with an angry scowl aimed directly at the man. He then levitated Shirou up into the air just like he did with Gil.

"Give it up my boy. With the sword I am completely untouchable. Just accept what is going to happen. I will fulfill your greatest wish, to save the world."

"You don't care about saving the world! You just want revenge!" Shirou yelled back at him.

Manadek scoffed "revenge? The opportunity of revenge was taken away from me by your father! I don't want revenge. I want to make sure that nobody goes through what I go through!"

He swung the sword and Shirou was flung to the side, thudding hard on the ground.

"That monster attacked me! RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY DAUGHTER'S EYES!" he yelled out as Shirou slowly tried to get up.

"What if one day she has children, or Kerrion does…what if they encounter a man just like that who attacks them in front of their children. What will they go through? I refuse to entertain the possibility of this cycle continuing. So I will put an end to it here, once and for all."

Shirou breathed in as he saw Manadek raise the sword in the air. It was then he noticed the heart-shaped locket around his neck. An idea suddenly came to him, he had to stop him. With that sword in his possession there was no way Shirou even with his projection magic stood a chance against him.

"Manadek you have to stop! You can't do this!"

Manadek again scoffed "do you honestly believe pleading will work here? After I came this far? After all I have done to get my hands on Excalibur do you honestly believe you're pleading will work boy?"

"Not from me no," Shirou said "but from her. From Nala."

Manadek's strong expression suddenly faltered and the energy around the sword faded as he pulled his hand down, his eyes widening in disbelief upon hearing that name.

"How…how do you know that name?" Manadek asked bewildered.

"She told me! That's what she wanted you to call her as a kid right? She still remembers, she came to us pleading for help to not just stop you! but to save you as well. Nala wants to save you Manadek! Everything she has done here has been in an attempt to save you from what you became" Shirou told him, taking a small step forward.

"I…." Manadek uncertainly mumbled, looking down at the sword in his hand.

"Manadek! What happened to you, what Archibald did to you wasn't fair and you have every right to be angry about it! But think about her! Think about Nala and how it had affected her! And yet still after all that she still wants to save you!"

Manadek's eyes looked like they were about to tear up, with his one normal hand he grabbed the locket around his neck and opened it. Looking at the photo of his children inside of it as a tear went down his cheek.

"My Nala…" he said somberly.

Shirou regained a bit of hope. Had he gotten through? Could he uphold his promise to Elena after all. He looked around and saw Rin still on the ground, trying to stand up and a knocked out Illya against a tree. This has to work. It just needed too.

His and Manadek's eyes met once more.

"I'm sorry Shirou…but I must do this. For her….for Kerrion….I have come too far to give up now…"

He raised the sword up high again, energy enveloping it and himself. Shirou hurried back and ran in his direction. But a wave of energy brimmed from the sword and send Shirou flying several meters backwards, landing him face down on the grass.

"Mighty Excalibur let my will be absolute and fulfilled as this wish. I wish for all the Magus in the world to per….AAAAHHH!"

The sentence could never be finished as the beam of a red curse flared across Manadek's face, a slight cut appearing under his cheek as he lost his posture and the hand holding the sword went down. The energy surrounding him dissipating into nothing.

Shirou looked up and saw it was Rin with her finger pointed at a now clearly agitated Manadek.

"You filthy witch!" Manadek shouted.

"All is fair in love and war isn't that right Manadek! Well here it is! I will not let you do this not to me or to everybody but especially not towards him!" Rin yelled.

Manadek glanced over at Shirou who was still laying down "ah I see how it is," he said grinning "you're in love with him aren't you?" Rin didn't respond to that question, keep her gaze as steely as she could.

"And yet in spite of that you played around with my son's feelings. Making him think you were interested even though your heart was set upon someone else?" Manadek took a step forward, raising Excalibur in his hand.

"You….will…not…harm…my…Shirou…" Rin said with a voice cracking under the pressure.

She fired another curse from her fingertip, but Manadek easily deflected it with the sword, it glowed once more "levitate!" he commanded and Rin was levitated into the air for a brief moment before Manadek swung the sword to the ground and made Rin drop to the ground as well.

"NOOO!" Shirou yelled in response as he tried to stand up but felt his entire body writhing in pain.

Manadek walked over to a wounded Rin and looked at her as she tried to stand up, but instead he put his foot on her chest and kept her down.

"You used my son to get to me. And for that I will finish you off personally. Vile witch!" Manadek said as he raised his hand and the sword into the air.

Shirou couldn't look, he couldn't even scream. The world just turned white before him and the surrounding area seemed to disappear.

"Are you just going to lay there and allow this to happen?" a familiar voice spoke.

Shirou turned his head and saw to his great shock a figure he never expected to see again.

Archer.

"What are you doing here? What's going on?" Shirou said as he tried his hardest to get back up in spite of the pain his arms and legs.

"What's going on is I'm watching an idiot lying helplessly on the ground while my former Master is about to be attacked and you're not doing a damn thing to stop it!"

"What can I do!," Shirou yelled out as he slowly with many groans tried to stand up "he has Saber's sword how can I possibly beat him!"

Archer crossed his arms and scoffed indignantly "you can't"

Shirou having finally stood up turned to face Archer "so what! You came here to tell me that I have failed! Failed to save her!"

"You have failed at a lot of things. You failed in seeing what Rin felt for you because you where too hung up on a woman that you could never be with! And now we are in this predicament that only you can set right!" Archer said pointing at him.

Shirou looked around, he understood not a single thing that was happening. Was he hallucinating or was he in some sort of pocket dimension like the one he found the sword in. Why was Archer even here in this completely white world?

"Looking into space isn't going to give you the answers. I'm just here to help you save Rin."

"By criticizing me right at this moment! How is that going to save her you bastard!"

What followed was a right hook from Archer right to Shirou's face and the young men fell backwards.

"You truly are an idiot Shirou Emiya. For almost a year you have been stuck, holding onto a memory and unwilling to accept that the woman you loved is gone. What you and Saber had was beautiful but not meant to be. Do you really think she would want you to waste your life holding onto her! Did you ever stop to consider that she may have wanted you to find love again."

"I…" Shirou mumbled.

"No you didn't consider that a possibility. Even though the one that loved you was right in front of you. She was always there, being by your side and you never even thought about it like the idiot you are!"

Archer huffed and uncrossed his arms. Staring daggers at Shirou.

"You want to save her? Well let me tell you this you can do it and you damn well will do it!" he said as he extended a hand to Shirou. Immediately he took hold of the Heroic Spirit's hand as he helped him up and in the process Shirou felt all the pain in his body vanish.

"So how do I do it?" Shirou asked.

"How do you think. Kiritsugu didn't teach it to us for no reason. It was for moments like this that he trained you."

Archer turned around and began to walk away. "What do you mean us?" Shirou yelled after him. Archer grounded to a halt and spoke "just save her Shirou. After all…you love her as much as she loves you…don't you?"

Shirou's eyes widened in disbelief "I….how would you even know that?"

A light was shining behind Archer as he turned his head towards Shirou one last time, his normally upright hair now down and Shirou saw it for the very first time, he saw why he always thought Archer looked so familiar.

"How do you think I would know" Archer responded as the light began to envelop him and he seemed to disappear into it.

Rin felt all her muscles hurt as she watched Manadek raise the sword above her. Preparing to bring down upon her. There was no way out. No way to defend herself, she could barely move to do so. Instinctively she just closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable final blow.

But it never came.

Instead all that came was a bellowing scream and the sound of something falling on the ground.

Rin slowly opened her eyes again. She saw to her surprise Excalibur lying beside her on the ground and then her eyes glanced over at the origin of the sound. Manadek was screaming and clutching his artificial hand. An arrow piercing straight through it and it was now crackling with red energy as it seemed to almost pour out.

Rin glanced over and saw Shirou standing there. A bow in his hand. She recognized it immediately as the bow that Archer had used. Shirou's gaze was fierce and unwavering as he watched Manadek clutch his artificial hand that was convulsing with leaking red energy and sparks.

Another arrow suddenly materialized in Shirou's hand and he placed it on the quiver, aiming at his intended target. And with a mighty shout he roared.

"MANADEK!"

And the arrow went flying through the air at incredible speed. Manadek had just turned towards the origin of the shout and before he could react the arrow pierced his chest at great speed, right at the place his heart would be.

Manadek began coughing up blood, clutching his chest in disbelief as his eyes met Shirou's. The young mage gave him a steely and cold look as Manadek's eyes where filled with hatred and disbelief before he slumped down and fell on his knees weakly looking at the fallen sword he had spent so long looking for before he fell over on his side.

Argus Manadek was dead.