[Game Over] That's what was displayed on the screen of Waver's handheld console. The screen showed a colorful place with strange paths where a certain blue hedgehog is running at the speed of sound.
It's a fun game for him even if the premise seems a bit strange to him.
Even though he had already lost more than ten times, he decided to start the game again because even if he lost ten more times, he wasn't going to give up.
'They should have found something by now... I put all my trust in him. I know I'm a coward, but I really can't risk going to the front. Besides, I trust him to be able to protect Sakura if something dangerous happens. Although it's not like she's a weak girl either.'
Thinking that both Master and Servant are very strong made him feel more at ease. Besides, in case everything goes wrong, there's also Gray.
He looked at the girl who was reading at the desk. Next to her, Add watched her silently.
'A Noble Phantasm locked in a Mystic Code...'
The reason why Waver trusts Gray's strength....
-East area of the castle-
"Sakura-sama, we have to back off."
The clone immediately grabbed Sakura's hand and together they ran to get a few more meters away from the real Toru.
Sakura didn't know how such a monster could hide in the vicinity of the castle without being detected by anyone. Somehow all this led her to stare at it silently.
'It's been 11 years since I last saw Toru fight...'
The memories of an innocent little girl watching the sparring between Toru and Kirei. That little girl who could see the elegance and coordination in Toru's fluid movements, like a martial art created to look good in the eyes of others.
But that was about to change in front of her eyes.
Toru whispered a couple of words and the X inside his eyes pulsed once. As if it were a camera, his eyes focused on the scene and that distinctive ability that only a Sharingan can have began to predict the movements of his opponent, in turn, the death lines of the "Mystic" part of his eyes that showed in existence began to tremble, twisting and changing shape, moving and crawling all over existence like an insect on the ground.
The expression on his face for that moment was completely expressionless, as if his face had been cast in iron to keep the same expression forever. A face that showed no hint of emotion, but at the same time, showed a strange look of eyes that glowed faintly.
"Grrrrr..."
The beast roared increasing the force in its jaw, but this, even though it was piercing the skin his skin, Toru was unaffected, in fact, he remained in the same position until it occurred to him how to start this.
He slowly pulled back his right foot while increasing the force on his left leg. Finally he flexed both legs and gave a powerful leap that lifted him into the air next to the beast.
The beast, grunting and struggling, struggled to keep its paws on the ground, which did work, but that was just what this boy wanted, as he raised his left fist high and lashed out with a powerful punch to the beast's face.
The blow was heard echoing through the forest accompanied by a soft wave of wind that exploded the moment the beast was hurled to the ground. The force of the blow was so great that the beast was buried in a large crater.
Toru landed in front of him thinking this was over, but the beast in the form of a shadowy dog stood up and said with its piercing voice in his ears:
"I ask you the name of the angel."
His voice sounded pained from the previous punch he received, but he had enough will to stand up and ask again.
In response, Toru said absolutely nothing, which somehow gave Sakura strange feelings. There was something wrong with all of this, something that made this girl feel a little nervous; distressed by the simple punch she saw.
'Toru...'
She thought and the beast responded to Toru's silence.
"If you can't answer... you will be torn to pieces."
Toru denied with his gaze and silently advanced towards the beast. He clenched his fists tightly and his glowing gaze alerted the beast, who had a bad feeling.
Still, the beast lunged forward and Toru followed. They both ran towards each other with murderous intent, their footsteps echoing on the grassy ground, rapidly approaching with a bizarre wind surrounding them.
Bam! Ramming with the force of its skull, the beast expected Toru to take the damage from the headbutt, but that was not to be. Toru attacked at the same time with a punch that caused a wave of wind to spread around and without even being able to respond to that, the beast suffered yet another punch to the face that sent it rolling on the ground.
Sakura thought that Toru was simply superior, that this battle would end quickly, but she understood something else at that moment.
Silently, his feet not causing any noise as he walked, Toru approached the beast walking at a relaxed pace. With clenched fists, exerting strength in his arm muscles, he crouched down and held the beast by the muzzle. He lifted it high and looked it straight into its four white eyes.
"I ask you..."
Said the beast haltingly, but in the darkness that exerted the scene upon them, Toru's cold gaze was not showing to have pity for this beast's weak voice. Instead, it looked him straight in the eyes, like a predator that already has its prey grabbed by the neck with its sharp fangs and powerful bloodthirsty claws.
"... the name of the angel..."
Toru whispered to it.
"Assassin..."
"¡¿?!"
It was a surreal scene flashing before her eyes, something she could never have imagined. Beside the clone who watched the scene with expressionlessness, Sakura trembled as if her legs had lost their strength. Her violet eyes took in the scene in the darkness with extreme clarity and a silvery light spread across the ground.
The full moon finally rose through the clouds and illuminated what her eyes saw; a terrifying show of strength.
With a single arm, Toru, holding the beast by the snout, flung it upward as if gravity had no effect on it.
The beast watched as Toru's image on the ground grew smaller as the strong, cold wind hit it caressing its shadowy body.
'It's different..."
Different from her memory of the past.
Different from how she knew him.
The moonlight revealed the expression on Toru's face.
His expressionless face had changed to a cold bloodthirsty grimace. It was not a smile, not a depressed expression. It was hard for her to describe that facial expression in words, but without a doubt, if she could put that expression into a single word, it would be....
'Wild...'
Right there was when Toru jumped to be at the beast's height and swung his right leg spinning ten times on his own axis in just one second.
A hammer kick...
The beast couldn't even see it, as it all happened in a tiny fraction of a second.
The kick impacted with inexplicable power against the beast's abdomen, sending it to the ground like a bullet fresh from the barrel of a shotgun. He fell to the ground with abysmal power and smashed the ground to pieces with his body. The wave of wind that this created expanded with force and whipped the trees mercilessly.
In that same second that the beast bounced off the ground, Toru reappeared beneath him with another kick. An upward kick that struck the beast's back and which in turn sent it flying high into the sky once again.
"We have to move back further."
Interrupting the trance Sakura had been in at the sight of such enormous savagery in a fight, she looked up at the clone who was staring at her with his expressionless face. The clone extended his hand and Sakura shyly accepted him.
Without asking for her permission, the clone pulled Sakura tightly close to him and carried her in his arms.
They took a long leap upward and landed on the same air.
'Toru... you...'
From there they continued to watch the fight.
Toru lacked empathy completely. His movements were jerky and wild, there was no elegance in those movements anymore. His punches were loaded with the full force of his body, his kicks showed how far his brute strength could go.
It was like a wild animal terrorizing a small rabbit, because from the air they saw how Toru repeated the same thing over and over again. How he made the beast bounce against the ground and then kicked it as if it were a soccer ball.
The forest was suffering the consequences of this.
***
A little further away from the scene, Heine Istari watched Toru with a frown.
He realized who Sakura really was and clenched his fist tightly.
They were the first to arrive to discover the mystery and that somehow made him feel frustrated.
Still...
'Such a powerful Servant...'
Heine understood the situation.
'It's too dangerous for Rosalind...'
Always thinking of his little sister's welfare no matter if he had to give his life to make her happy.
***
He wouldn't use his daggers because it would make combat too fast. Although he would never openly admit it, he just wanted to unload all his strength on something specific. Using the daggers ruined that.
He felt the frenzy of combat inside his blood. He felt his fists strike with great power; no mercy for the enemy.
Each blow his body released, impacting the beast, reverberated throughout his body and made him remember the past. It was not good memories that surfaced, but everything bad and gloomy that lay deep in his heart.
In the distance, Sakura somehow could feel what he felt just by looking at him.
Lifting the beast high once again, Toru prepared to use all his strength from the depths of his soul, with every muscle in his body, with every thought in his brain and with his intense gaze.
He clenched his fist tightly and then....
BOOM! The force of the blow resounded like the explosion of a powerful bomb. A circle of air formed where the blow took place and spread out until it disappeared. Just a second after that, a rumble was heard echoing through the castle. With falling debris, with the whimpers of the beast that, although it seemed to be physically unharmed, got up in pain and wanted to flee.
In his bored voice, Toru said:
"Why are you running away, wasn't it you who attacked first?"
Standing on air, Toru took a leap and flexed both legs. He aimed his gaze to where the beast wanted to flee and, using one of his air platforms, he imposed himself with a lot of force that caused the same effect as the previous impact.
"We have to follow it..."
Toru's clone listened to Sakura and nodded. He held her tightly in his arms and jumped into the air to get closer to the enemy.
***
Inside the castle, everyone felt the rumbling and many guessed a few things, but mainly Waver put his coat back on and prepared to go out to figure this out.
'The whole castle shook...'
He frowned and looked at Gray, who was confused and worried about Sakura.
"Sakura will be fine."
He said, as if he had guessed what Gray was thinking. This surprised the girl, who still wasn't very confident that Sakura would be okay. There was something wrong here and she could feel it. Not knowing what it was and seeing that Waver was ready to go out to investigate, as a faithful assistant, she was going to follow him.
"I suppose you should prepare yourself, lady. Maybe you'll see something that, even though you were already expecting it, will surprise you anyway."
"No, I... something like that..."
"It's all right. No problem. Let's move on."
Waver calmly opened the door and stepped out into the hallway to make sure nothing was waiting for him outside. Gray followed beside him and noticed someone coming from the other side of the hallway.
"I thought you weren't going to stand idly by."
"Unlike you, I like to see what I can gain from all this. It's a pity that what's going on out there outweighs everything I expected from this castle."
Who spoke at the end was Miss Luviagelita Edelfelt....
***
The beast crawled desperately across the formerly gleaming white floor of this castle. In turn, someone showed himself among the rubble walking calmly, following this "wounded rabbit" as if it were a ferocious wolf playing with its prey.
In desperation, a large debris fell in front of the beast, which cut him off.
This allowed Toru to finally approach, looking at the frightened beast....
Yes... in its eyes, in its clumsy movements, this beast is extremely frightened. It is terrified and wants to flee, for an even worse beast had appeared and that same beast, aberrant, terrifying, with colossal strength and an unquenchable bloodlust prevented it from escaping.
Toru then asked him:
"What is the name of the angel...?"
The beast, frightened, did not answer, which left Toru a free way to continue fighting.
He swung his leg as if he was going to kick a ball and kicked the beast even harder. This sent the beast through the thick white walls of the castle destroying some of the statues of angels lying on the site.
***
Walking towards the source of the rumbling accompanied by Gray, Luvia and a very intimidating dark-skinned guy dressed as a bodyguard, Waver took out a cigarette to smoke, but as he was about to light it, suddenly something appeared shattering the walls that stopped at the wall to his right, which in turn extinguished the flame of the lighter.
Waver's body went rigid with fear at the sight of the beast that got up and fled with all its might, disappearing into the corridors of the castle.
"What was that?"
Gray asked, to which Luvia could only frown in deep thought.
Thanks to this, Waver looked at the large hole that beast came out of and realized that there was someone approaching. When he saw it clearly, he realized that it was Toru.
And as if the stars in the sky had aligned to give way to a terrible coincidence, Sakura appeared running along with a clone of Toru down the long corridor, just the opposite side from where the beast left, so they could not stop the escape of the frightened creature.
Seeing Waver, Sakura was confused, for next to her adoptive father the real Toru was just as easily emerging from the hole in the wall.
"Father..."
Gray ducked her gaze knowing this was what her mentor was referring to.
To be continued...