-Eighth Day of the Grail war, 8:27am-
-Amelias PoV-
"Pancakes. You eat. Good?" Amelia said wincing at her lack of fluency as Sakura ate another mini pancake. She nodded at her and Amelia smiled a bit turning away from Micheals table only to let her smile fade away into a glare as she moved back to the stove top. After everyone had left from the meeting the day before she had cornered Micheal and forced him to explain in detail everything that had happened to the poor child that Jeanne might have left out. As Micheal had haltingly told her what had happened during his and Jeannes storming of the Matou manor she had felt for the second time in only a few hours something she hadn't felt in years in her gut.
Rage and Pure, concentrated, hatred.
The last time she had felt like this was when she was working at her clinic and had discovered that the one behind the Sleeping Sickness was her former mentor. She grit her teeth together and closed her eyes breathing in slowly and deeply.
She decided she would keep this rage.
Cultivate it.
Prune it.
Sharpen it.
Until it was an arrow meant for one target and one target alone: Matou Zouken.
Based on Micheals description she had understood that he had not been in the manor itself during their raid. More than likely he was hiding out somewhere, damaged hopefully damaged, but still very much alive. Which meant that she could hunt him down and exterminate him. She heard movement behind her and quickly fixed her face into a smile as she turned around to see Sakura carrying her plate over to her. She quickly knelt down and took the plate in one hand while threading her fingers through Sakuras hair smiling at the girl,
"Go. Walk?" She asked wincing again at her broken Japanese before glancing at the clock and seeing it read 8:47am. Sakura seemed to consider and then shook her head,
"Where. Micheal?" She asked quietly in just as broken English.
Amelia's smiled faltered for a split second, "He is. Working. On…." Amelia trailed off struggling to remember the word for 'project' in Japanese only for Sakura to nod and take a step forward to wrap her arms around Amelias neck. Surprised Amelia quickly wrapped her own arms around Sakura and lifted her as she stood up, "Find. Micheal?"
Sakura smiled widely and nodded happily as Amelia carried her out of the kitchen trying to figure out where her son could be at this moment. Sensing a trace of Micheals mana from the direction of the back yard she angled herself to the backdoor, slipped on her shoes with difficulty, and stepped out onto the grass behind the house. Even without following his mana there really was only one place he could be and so Amelia walked towards the small building in the back corner.
Approaching the building something in her gut told her to slow down as she felt herself pass through several bounded fields. Narrowing her eyes she decided to listen to it and stopped just outside the closed door leading into Micheals workshop. She reached out and knocked on the door a few times then waited.
Right as she was about to knock again the deadbolt turned and Micheal opened the door barechested with the exception of a blacksmithing apron and some pants. Sakura squeaked and covered her eyes as Amelia looked pointedly at her son who rolled his eyes and closed the door. Less than a minute later he had opened the door having exchanged the apron for a shirt.
She nodded and looked past him meaningfully,
"May we come in?"
"Sure? Not much to see in here though." Micheal said, clearly annoyed at her interrupting his work. She walked into the building and saw that it had a little bit of everything that Micheal used for his magecraft. She felt Sakura shift in her arms as she looked around the room while Micheal watched them both from where he standing. The girl looked at Micheal and pushed away from Amelia who lowered her to the floor. She slowly walked over to Micheal, clutching the hem of her dress, clearly nervous as Micheal knelt down on one knee and got to her eye level.
Amelia watched as Micheal glanced at her as Sakura said something in Japanese that made Micheals eyes widen and flick to back her. She furrowed her brow, annoyed, as he looked back at Sakura and responded easily. Sakura then reached forward to hug Micheal like she had hugged her earlier seeming to catch Micheal off guard as he hesitated before gingerly returning the hug.
After a few seconds Sakura let go and said something else in Japanese causing Micheal to raise both his eyebrows. He said something back and Sakura nodded. He extended his right hand and closed his eyes as Amelia felt mana and holy energy for a split second before a white and silver pistol appeared in his hand in a flash of light. He inverted his grip on Blessed Hellfire and held it out for Sakura to run her finger along the slide.
"Just so you know." Amelia said folding her arms and giving her son a look, "I'd like to be included in all this. What did she even ask you?"
Micheal looked up from where he was kneeling,
"She thanked me for saving her and wanted to see the thing I used to kill 'all those creepy worms'."
Amelia watched as Micheal began to pull the pistol away only for Sakura to hold onto it with a strength that clearly surprised him. Just as he was about to ask her to let go,
"I. Help. Make. Stronger." Sakura said in broken English as mana began flow from her into the pistol which began to glow pink. Amelia ran forward to stop her right as the glow grew further to catch Sakura as she fell backwards unconscious. She shielded her eyes with her free hand as the glow intensified further and then dimmed just as quickly as it had appeared. She looked at Micheal and then at where the pistol should have been in his hands… except,
"What the hell…" Micheal muttered as he held a white and silver rifle in his hand. He stood up and Amelia watched as he focused on it seeing his mystic eyes activate. He seemed to frown and as his eyes deactivated he shook his head a bit. The pistol from before had changed into what was clearly an assault rifle. She didn't know enough about firearms to know what rifle it was supposed to look like but she did know one thing,
"Where's the spot for the magazine?" She asked causing Micheal to tilt the rifle in his hands and look at where the empty magazine well would be seeing instead what looked like a matrix made of pink crystals. He frowned and walked over to another corner of the workshop where he had used magic to make a firing range similar to the one he had under the Lafaire Estate. He got into a shooting stance and held the transformed Blessed Hellfire in the same way he held his mystic code that fired ball bearings.
Her jaw fell open as he flicked a switch and pulled the trigger causing a burst of needle thin beams of light to shoot out from the barrel, punch straight through a target dummy's mystic code, and then impact the backwall with a loud bang. Micheal got his head out from behind the iron sights and blinked as Amelia walked up next to him to look downrange at what had happened.
Where the reinforced back wall had been there was now a smoking crater in the reinforced stone alongside what looked like damage to the surrounding walls similar to what happened when shrapnel hit buildings. She looked at the weapon and firmed her lips as she adjusted Sakura in her arms.
"The beams explode now." Micheal stated, blowing out his cheeks, and staring at the weapon as he turned it over in his hands, "..I wonder…." He closed his eyes as mana and holy energy emitted from him again. Amelia stared as motes of light began to gather and solidify on top of the gun forming a scope. Micheal resighted down the weapon and then glanced at her standing beside him,
"If you wanna watch make sure to get behind me." He said as he got back into his stance and looked down the scope. Amelia took a few steps behind him making sure to turn on her mana sense as he fired another beam. This time she heard a faint hissing sound swiftly get louder and then immediately cut off as another burst of beams shot out of the barrel to shoot forward and widen the crater. As the beams hit Amelia watched as they seemed to seemed to all collapse into small spheres which then expanded outwards damaging the walls more.
Micheal whistled and looked from the rifle to her, his eyebrows raised, "I… don't think I need my railgun anymore."
"No...I don't think you do…" Amelia said slowly as she looked at Sakura sleeping on her shoulder while the full ramifications of what had happened hit her, "Micheal."
He looked up at her tone and she sharpened her gaze, "Tell me everything that happened from the moment Desmond handed you his old pistol. Leave out nothing."
Micheal nodded and the rifle vanished in a flash of light and silver feathers which then dissolved into motes of mana as they left his workshop.
~~~~~
-Irisveils PoV-
-Seventh day of the Grail War, 2:51pm-
"Iri… Are you sure you're alright?"
Irisveil glanced to her right at Kiritsugu and once again heard that voice in her head,
KILL HIM/HE WILL STOP US/DESTROY HIM
Irisveil nodded her head trying not to let what was going on inside her head affect her outward appearance beyond an eye twitch,
"I'm fine honey. Just… a bit tired is all. My question to you is are you okay?"
Irisveil felt them pass over a leyline and for a split second the voice got louder making her wince. She listened as Kiritsugu deflected her concerns as he always did and tried to think back to when she had first started hearing it. As she went back in her memory she noticed that her memories of the grail war were slowly getting more and more fragmented. She closed her eyes and focused trying to remember when she first sensed this voice,
It… was after first seeing Jeanne at the dockyard….
She was sure of that just as sure as she was of how much the servant terrified her still. She opened her eyes and looked at the command seals on her right hand noticing that her hand was trembling at the mere thought of Jeanne. She breathed in and closed her eyes again to trace their side of the war, briefly wishing she had something to write with to make notes, but merely frowned as her brain drifted towards thinking about the Lancer Servant.
Every time she had seen the ashen haired woman afterwards she was, thankfully, wearing the Mystic code to let appear as human, albeit a cursed one, but the feeling of fear was still there. She didn't even have a rational reason to be so afraid of her.
No… its not that I'm afraid of her so much as I'm…
Afraid of what she represents.
Afraid of the fire that created her.
She sensed Saber turning the car but remained within her thoughts as she once again thought of facing those flames. The same flames that she knew were creating the voice that had been in her head every day since the Dockyard. She winced as they passed over another leyline and the voice came back filled with an eager fury
IN FIRE WE SHALL BE FREE/BLOOD MATCHES BLOOD/A WORLD CLEANSED IN FIRE
She massaged her temple with one hand as the voice faded with every meter away from the leyline. She knew it was in her head...or was it her soul? She couldn't tell anymore. All she knew is that the voice had to be denied with every fiber of her being. She took her hand off her temple and glanced at her command seals again. She gently rubbed them with her other hand vaguely aware of them stopping back at the house. Saber opened the door for her and when she looked up into the King of Knights eyes she could have sworn they were a pale yellow instead of the vibrant green they usually were. She blinked and her Saber came back into view holding out her hand to help her out of the car.
They entered the house and she watched as her husband walked towards where he kept his weapons as Saber led her to the living room. She sat down on the proffered cushion, laid her arms on the table, and rested her head on them. She sensed more than heard Saber sit down next to her before she felt the servant place her hand between her shoulderblades and rub in gentle but firm circles.
She smiled and didn't lift her head,
"You know back when the castle was still standing I found Kiritsugu standing on the ramparts one night. This was…. Before the war started I think. He was staring at the moon with one of those damn coffin nails between his lips."
She frowned and heard Saber hum from beside her. She took it as permission to keep talking,
"Of course I pulled it out, crushed it, and he apologized but then he asked me something I've not been able to forget. He asked me if I wanted to run away with him. Just… Get away from the war. The Grail. The Moonlit world entirely. Take Illyasveil and just… live our lives as best as we could."
Sabers hand paused in its motion and she could feel the stiffness in her arm without lifting her head. She guessed Saber was frowning,
"I told him that that wasn't his choice to make as I was the one with the command seals and not him. I even said that even if he was the one with the seals I'd still hold him to his wish. That I'd still be willing to do what I needed to do to see his wish fulfilled."
She felt Sabers hand retract from behind her back and tilted her head to look at her servant who was frowning at the table clearly thinking,
"Would you do it Saber? Would you ever give up your wish to live a life you never got to? That you know was never to be yours to begin with?"
Irisveil watched as various emotions flitted across the servants face before it settled into one she guessed was resigned defeat. Artoria turned her head to look at her,
"Have I told you my wish for the Grail Irisveil?"
She hummed a no and continued watching the girl that would become King Arthur shift nervously in place before sighing,
"My wish as I told Jeanne Al-," She paused as if to catch herself causing Irisveil to focus on the Servant as they continued, "As I told Jeanne, my wish…. Is to have someone else pull the sword from the stone. To have someone else become King. To just… live my life as best as I could, grow up, find someone I might have loved, and grow old with them."
Irisveil lifted her head off her arms at this watching as Saber stared at her hands in her lap. She noticed her hands were shaking as she clenched her fingers and spoke in an angry desperate whisper
"Everytime I close my eyes, Everytime I sleep, without fail, I see that damn hill. The hill where my kingdom collapsed, Where I killed my people-the same people I was sworn to protect, where I put a hole through the chest of my only heir, and where the Legend of King Arthur ends. I stand upon a mountain of bodies, some wearing my colors, others wearing different colors, but it all ends the same way with blood soaking the land that was my Kingdom."
Artoria turned her head to look at Irisveil who sucked in a breath seeing unspent tears pooling in the corners of her servants eyes,
"Is it selfish or wrong of me to wish that that would all happen to someone else? That I could just wash my hands of all of it? That my wish as Artoria Pendragon is that King Arthur never existed in the first place?"
The servant hung her head and silently let her tears fall as Irisveil scooted over and wrapped her arms around King Arth-
No. She's not King Arthur or even Saber right now.
She's just a girl who was given a burden to shoulder she never asked for and that she never should have had to shoulder in the first place.
Irisviel hugged the Servant to herself and let her cry into her shirt as she slowly rocked them back and forth like she would do when Illya had one of her nightmares. They sat like that for a bit even after Kiritsugu silently opened the door to check on them. She had told him to come back later and, thankfully he had nodded and closed the door. She even felt him put up a bounded field to give them some privacy causing her to smile.
Eventually Artoria pulled herself away and wiped her eyes with the heels of her palms before looking away guiltily,
"Some Servant I'm supposed to be… Breaking down like that."
Irisveil hummed a no and reached out to pat Sabers head,
"There's nothing wrong with needing a shoulder to cry on or leaning on someone when you need to. You couldn't do that while you were king but, at least for the remainder of the war, I'd like to you to view me as that someone. Okay?"
Irisveil smiled as Saber blushed a little but nodded and smiled herself after a few seconds. They sat there for a bit until Saber blinked and looked around,
"A bounded field!? But-"
"Kiritsugu. He came in to ask us if we were ready to go and I told him to come back later. He set up this field to give us, and you, some privacy."
Irisveil chuckled a bit as Artorias blushed deepened before she coughed into her fist and stood up. She held out her hand for Irisveil to use to stand up as the Servant gave her the first happy smile she'd seen out of the woman so far,
"Lets go get that last rune."
Irisveil nodded, smiling herself, and placed her hand in Sabers,
"Then I am once again in your care King of Knights."
~~~~~~~~~~
"We're almost at Ryudo Temple." Came the voice of Saber from the front seat after she lowered the partition. Irisveil nodded as Kiritsugu began his final checks of his weapons. Maiya had left a few days prior to scout out the mountain at Kiritsugus instruction but had never come back. Something which made all them a bit nervous given her skillset. Slowly Saber turned onto the road leading up to the temple, beginning to cross the switchbacks, as Irisveil turned to her husband and gave him a look. He glanced up at her, sighed, and put the two of them in a bounded field,
"I don't see the point of this. Saber will know I've put up a field so-"
"I've been hearing voices."
Kiritsugu paused and then gave her his full attention,
"When and where did they start."
For a brief moment she was thankful that he didn't ask any questions about if she was okay or not. She filled him in with what she could remember and mentioned her fragmenting memory. He tapped his finger on his thigh as he thought,
"Your memory should be the last thing to give out based on the way you're designed right?"
She hummed a yes and winced as they crossed a leyline and the voices got louder again. She felt her husbands hand on her own and the voices quieted.
"Thanks…" She said quietly as he shook his head and frowned at her.
"I just wish you told me sooner. Maybe if I took out Jeanne then…"
"Then nothing. You were watching the dockyard. She was an even match for Lancer, Rider, and Saber. She's not one of the standard classes."
Irisveil said this firmly and watched Kiritsugu interlace his fingers as he thought. Right as he opened his mouth to speak he glanced up and saw Saber looking at them in the rearview mirror. He dispelled the field,
"Sorry about that Saber. Family stuff. Whats up?"
Saber nodded but looked at Irisveil for confirmation. She nodded, briefly feeling guilty for lying to the Servant, but was relieved when she looked forward again,
"There's something in the air. It feels and smells like when we fought Lancer but more… widespread."
Kiritsugu nodded and loaded a magazine into his rifle before racking a round into the chamber,
"Then the Grail is acting up again. Everyone be on your guard. Iri stay with Saber but stay behind her. I'll follow at a distance on overwatch until we get to the mountain itself. Saber try to find anything in the still standing buildings that tells us where we can get into the mountain."
They all nodded and fell into silence as Saber accelerated around the final turn and pulled into the parking lot.
~~~~~~~
Irisveil looked around as she climbed the stairs up to Ryudo temple, watching the green of the trees and bamboo around her fade into greyscale. She frowned and shook her head to clear it of the haze that had begun to cloud her mind. She heard Saber from up ahead of her and looked up seeing that they were halfway to the temple entrance. As they climbed the steps the haze slowly intensified like it had the day before when they had fought Lancer,
Or was it two days before….
Irisveil paused long enough to make Saber stop and turn around,
"Saber...when did we fight Lancer? Was it.. last night or the night before?"
Irisveil dug the heel of her palm into her forehead as the Voice came out of the haze
Or from the haze. Who says they have to be seperate….
The voice shot through her mind again like hot lead as it tried to rest control of her body to order Saber to kill herself right as the woman came back to grab Irisveils shoulder and give it a bit of a shake. She looked into Artorias concerned face mentally noting that her eyes were grey while her golden hair was actively fading to an off white as well while her skin only seemed to pale,
"That was yesterday morning. Irisveil. Are you sure your okay?"
Irisveil looked into Sabers face as she made a decision. She wanted to tell her that she wanted to be anywhere else than here. That she wanted to be on a plane back to Germany and to Ilyasveil like how Kiritsugu wanted to do before this entire war started. That the voice in her head was telling her to tell the servant to kill themselves.
As she opened her mouth she felt the voice take over just enough to make her speak against her will,
"I'm fine Saber. We just need to get the rune and then we can leave…"
Irisveil desperately regained control of her body as Saber nodded, accepting the lie and started walking ahead. She tried to fight through the haze that only clouded her mind further the higher she climbed. Once again she and Saber were standing outside the gate to the temple and once again Irisveil felt that force trying to wrest control of her body from her. She did her best to fight back keeping Ilyasveil, her daughter, foremost in her mind as Saber walked through the gate again summoning Excalibur in a burst of wind.
Just like before the voice screamed at her to have Saber kill herself and Irisveil briefly lost her senses as she stepped forward through the gate. When she next came to she was on that dirt path leading up to the mountain again. The presence of the voice seemed to be almost physical in her mind as she once again felt Sabers hand on her shoulder.
She turned around noticing that the Servant had an old paper map in her other hand but what made her eyes widen was that instead of Artoria Pendragon standing in front of her there was a woman identical to her but with white blonde hair, ashen white skin, and with yellow eyes. She blinked as she felt that force open her mouth to speak,
"We need to get into the mountain right? We should get going."
The Saber with the yellow eyes hesitated,
"Shouldn't we wait for Kiritsugu?"
Irisveil felt her head tilt and her lips curve into a smile as she fought to regain control of her body.
"He should be fine following at a distance like he is. Come on. We need to find that rune."
The yellow eyed saber hesitated and then nodded as Irisveil felt herself turn around, once again losing her senses. When she regained them again she saw that she was walking down a tunnel with tori gates every three meters behind a Saber who had armor as black as sin and as red as blood covering her. As the mana in the air increased with every step Irisveil forced her body to suck in as much mana as possible and stole back control of her body,
"Saber we need to lea-"
The servant turned around to look at her concernedly right as it seemed like there were two Sabers overlaid on each other.
One was Her Saber, full of heroism, daring, and a sense of justice and righteousness.
The Other was a tyrant. One who desired control above all else and ruled with a sense of violence and sheer overwhelming power.
"Irisveil...whats wrong?/Irisveil...whats wrong?"
She clutched her head and fell sideways against the cave wall as the presence tried to wrest control of her body from her while the voice screamed until her head felt like it would split open. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see her husband standing there. Immediately the presence and voice quieted as she looked at his smile. She stood upright looking at her servant who was back in her normal appearance...but something still felt wrong,
"Lets get that rune." She said firmly. Saber nodded and resumed walking forward as Kiritsugu firmed his fingers on her shoulder and stepped in front of her while they walked along the path that sense of unease growing stronger until they entered a massive underground cave. Irisveil looked around as she walked forward and almost ran into her husband who had frozen in place. She leaned around him and saw what had made him stop,
"….Its massive." She said in awe at the giant stone orb floating above a raised stone dias in the back of the cave and then felt Saber draw on her mana which made her focus on-
"Berserker." Saber growled as she advanced towards the motionless Servant. Irisveil walked to stand beside Kiritsugu only to freeze seeing the butchered remains of Maiya scattered around the ground in front of the Berserker Servant. Saber continued to walk forward to the enemy servant as Irisveil squinted past the dead body and noticed something,
"Berserker is standing on the rune! Saber!" She yelled as Berserker started vibrating and shaking in place, his armor rattling louder the closer Saber got. Jerkily, as though he wasn't in full control of his movements, his right arm extended and a sword materialized in his hand followed by her Servants panic and despair through their bond.
A despair so profound and pure that it shook her own sense of self as Artoria Pendragon slowly lowered her weapon in disbelief and spoke right as Irisveil felt the voice surge through her and flood her every sense as it took over her body and washed away her mind. The last thing she heard was her servant speak a single word filled with so much remorse and despair it rocked Irisveil to her core,
"….Lancelot?"
-Sabers PoV-
Saber knew something was wrong as soon as she uttered the Knight of the Lakes name. At the same time she felt her bond with Irisveil stretch and then snap leaving a cold void where it had once been right as she heard Kiritsugu yell in surprise and Lancelot leapt at her. She hastily brought up her sword to block right as some bullets sparked off of his armor. She had only managed to get her sword guard halfway into place only for Arondight to slam into it sending a jolt of pain up her arms.
He's so strong-
She grit her teeth and dissolved her guard into a malformed parry that she used to spin away from Lancelot to try and dodge his follow up strike. He swung his sword with a skill that bespoke the combat prowess he still retained as he ducked under her counterblow and swung out his leg to sweep her footing,
"Lancelot! I know you're in there! Come back to me!"
The Berserker servant just screamed at her in response as he cracked the stone under his feet as he launched himself forward swinging Arondight at her torso.
Shit- Can't dodge in time!
She quickly flipped her main sword hand so that the blade was between Arondight and her torso as she reinforced it by placing her off hand against the flat of her blade. Arondight caught Excalibur and the force of the blow knocked Saber off her feet and away by several meters.
He has all the skill as before but now he has the blind power of a Berserker…
She realized that she couldn't hold back like she normally could and funneled mana towards her magic core feeling it come alive with a roar as mana pulsed off of her. She leveled the tip of Excalibur at Lancelot as he stood there twitching in place,
"Well Knight of the lake? Why don't you move?"
A metal grinding sound came from the enemy servant as though he was being forced to go against his instinct. She narrowed her eyes as she traced where he was looking only to feel pure fear for the first time.
"Irisveil!!"
Her master was on the cave floor and seemingly unconscious as Kiritsugu was firing his handgun at what looked like ribbons of shadow that were coming out of the ground. She took a step towards her master only for gunfire to narrowly miss her causing her to whip her head around.
"….So be it."
She ground out through gritted teeth as Lancelot tossed aside the gun he had seemingly pulled out of nowhere. He settled into a stance with the tip of Arondight low to the ground as mana pulsed off of him,
"Arondight-"
She swore and dodged right as an explosion occurred due to lancelot launching himself forward,
In the exact same way Lancer did. Which means- SHIT.
She landed and her foot slid on some loose stones causing her stance to falter. Lancelot took immediate advantage and pivoted in midair to slash at her. She quickly expanded invisible air to knock herself out of the way as the Knight of the Lake swung his sword up and carved a blue line into the air itself that began to glow with energy,
"OVERLOAD!!!!!"
The blue slash quickly exploded as the slash cut a delayed vacuum into the air. The air refilled the vacuum at a speed that caused an explosion which blew Saber further than she intended to go. She hit the ground on her side and rolled into the wall, slamming the back of her head into it.
Gotta move. I've gotta move-
She quickly stood up and pushed off not caring where as long as it took her out of the strike she knew was coming.
A feral roar sounded as Lancelot gouged a line into the floor and wall she had been laying on not even a half second before.
I'm on the backfoot. I can't protect Irisveil and defend myself at the same time so-
Oh but you can dear Artoria. You need only reach for Power and it will answer as it did before.
She froze as the world came to a standstill and she watched as she seemed to shimmer right before a mirror image of herself walked off of her and came to a stop a meter away. The Other Artoria turned around and smirked at her as Saber sucked in a breath. She had black armor, her skin was ash white, and her eyes were a pale yellow,
"You-"
"I am you, and you are me. We are one and the same."
"I AM NOTHING LIKE YOU."
Saber roared and tried to swing at the Other Artoria only to realize she couldn't move. The Other Artoria clicked her tongue and walked forward right up to her face. She grinned evilly as she gently traced Sabers jaw with a finger,
"Oh but you are~ In so many more ways than you realize. You need power? Take it. You want to change how it ended? You make it change-"
The Other pulled her finger off of Sabers jaw and shoved her hand into Sabers chest making her gasp and cough up blackened blood. She felt the Other curl her fingers around her Magic Core and gently squeeze,
"You were too scared then to do what needed to be done. Too afraid of being anything other than the ideal pure king. If you won't willingly take the power needed to change how our Kingdom ended…"
Saber gasped and tried to fight back only for the Other to squeeze her Magic Core again. She looked into the Others pale yellow eyes and saw nothing but disdain and arrogance. The Other's smile widened as Saber felt her face contort into a glare as she felt Excaliburs grip in her hand again,
"Then all you need is a push off the edge."
Saber reached for that power, felt it flood her body and core, and swung Excalibur onehanded cleaving the Other in two….
And cutting off Lancelots sword arm in the process.
She blinked and smiled evilly as she felt that power flood every inch of her body while she firmed her grip on the Darkened Excalibur in her hand. Lancelot roared again extending his other hand causing Arondight to fly into it as the stump of his other arm flashed red as it was healed via command spell,
"So your pathetic Master is still alive then?"
The Darkened Artoria sneered as she revelled in her unchecked power. Her armor darkened to be black as sin and run through with veins of red as she held out her blade, watching the blue and gold slowly be overtaken by red and black. She looked back at Lancelot right as he launched himself at her in an animalistic lunge. She sidestepped and swung her blade upward taking off his leg at the knee. He landed and fell into a crumpled heap,
"The Famed Knight of the Lake, Lancelot. Oh how the mighty have fallen…"
She said in a sultry voice as she gathered mana into her palm and then held it out so the gathered mana could lance out and take off his other leg,
"When you stole my queen, my best friend, the only person I felt I could be myself around I despaired. I wondered why you would have ever done it."
She walked forward as she talked casually. Like she would after meeting an old friend at the train station. Lancelot managed to right himself onto his leg stumps and swung his sword at her,
"Fitting that you die here like the dog you are. Disgraced, unfit for your station, and-"
She dodged Arondight with ease and cut off his remaining arm at the elbow causing Arondight to fly off somwhere into the cave. She raised her eyebrows as she came to a stop in front of the Servant.
"A traitor to both King and Crown."
She stated as she reached out and gripped his helmet in her free hand. She squeezed and smiled evilly at the scream that came out of him before she ripped off the helmet entirely to see Lancelots face glowering up at her,
"Limbless, without honor, and unable to even be used as pig feed."
She spat as an explosion occurred behind her causing her to look lazily over her shoulder. She could see her Master slowly standing up on her own along with a large cloud of dust from where something had impacted the wall. She grunted and turned her attention back to Lancelot,
"Where was I… No matter. As much as a waste of time as it is Knight of the Lake, do you have any last words?"
She watched as Lancelot, one of her prized companions and Premier Knight of the Round, swallowed with difficulty before looking up and into her eyes,
"It would seem… that the King does have emotions after all."
"Indeed. To bad the only one that I have for you is rage."
She stated as she drug Excalibur across his pauldrons and severed his head with a sickening squelch. She let the head fall to the cave floor and then looked up in time to see her Master reach out to the dark ribbons which seemed to embrace her eventually wrapping her completely as she began to glow with a dark light.
The Darkened Artoria watched as Irisveils wrapped form slowly melted into a glowing black sphere. She glanced back at the torso of Lancelot as it was slowly beginning to turn into mana, raised her leg, and kicked it into the back wall. It impacted the wall, cratering it slightly, and causing a small cave in to cover the body. She gathered mana into her palm again and blew his severed head to bits without even looking as she walked over to a black crystal sphere floated where Irisveil had been standing,
She walked towards it, flicking the blood off of her sword, and stopped when she was standing directly in front of the orb
She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes right as she heard her Master speak in her mind,
Saber...bring me to the Fuyuki Civic Center...fulfill your true wish.
Saber nodded, letting the orb follow her, as she began to leave the cave right as coughing sounded from nearby. Saber stopped, turning her head, and frowned seeing a man stuck in the wall of the cave. He was missing a leg and his arm was a twisted mess of broken cartilidge and tissue.
Who is this man….
Saber wondered to herself as he fixed her with a glare that almost matched her own. She sneered and walked forwards to where he was pinned against the wall. He spat blood on her face which she wiped away with a thumb before levelling the tip of her sword up to his heart and she felt her face morph into an evil grin as she slowly pushed the blade deep into his chest as blood flood from his mouth. She savored the feeling of flesh and bone parting before steel until she had sunk her blade to the hilt and watched the light leave his eyes.
After a few seconds of staring she ripped her blade out of the corpse and glanced back at the giant stone orb, narrowing her eyes, before turning around and leaving the Greater Grails Cavern with the Lesser Grail floating behind her.