Sakura Matou looked at Aston in a stunned silence.
Disbelief at the sudden, staggering, changes in her situation made her disregard the scenic sight of the setting Sun Aston seemed a bit too infatuated with as well as the fact that they were standing atop a veritable skyscraper in the modernised Shinto District.
Forced into a paralysed state up until now, she'd only watched as a magus that resembled a witch removed the dreaded worms nestling in her body before going on to, shockingly, remove the main worm living inside her beating heart via unrecognisable magecraft.
The next thing, the 'witch', as the foreigner standing a few metres away called her, had done was remove a dark writhing unrecognisable but clearly foul mass from her body and implant it into his.
Sakura could still physically and mentally feel the burden that had been stripped away from her at the end of it all and to be completely honest, it seemed a little too good to be true.
"Why?"
So she asked, with emotion she believed she no longer possessed.
"Greedy as the people of this age are, I don't believe you've never seen that people sometimes do things simply because they want to." Aston's answer was a simple one, there was no why or ulterior motive to it, he'd just, "Felt like it."
The Lancer only gave her a small thumbs up before stepping off the edge, intent on not dealing with the whole lot of emotional outbursts that the girl would no doubt have, he'd spotted her with the Shirou kid and he was probably better suited to handling someone who'd just lost their tormentor.
He completely ignored the terrified look that had overtaken her features once she saw his actions.
Falling through the air, the knight felt that all he could really do just was throw sly remarks and brute force his way through problems. Someone like that couldn't understand or say what she needed to hear. Hell he only understood Artoria because he'd, willingly or not, lived and died by her side.
Getting fragments of an evil deity meant to corrode his mental state implanted in his body for her would have to do. It wasn't like he had long to live anyway, servants were temporary and would return to the Throne of Heroes upon death or the end of a Grail War.
Aston had died already, this was just borrowed time.
It was slightly frustrating that he wouldn't get much time with the adorable King of Knights but this Holy Grail was a sham, it couldn't grant them a new life. Medea had confirmed his suspicions for him.
Aston's gaze landed on Mount Ryuudou, and his dull blue eyes glowed momentarily.
The only choice that remained was to destroy the heretic infested Foul Grail so that it would never get to do what it desired, "I've died twice, what's a third." Maybe Artoria would even live at the end of it, this time die in peace and not cry in regret.
With him, the corrupt Grail would be destroyed once and for all.
*
Sasaki Kojiro looked down at the hulking mass of flesh making it's way up the stairs to Ryuudoji temple with a small smirk on his face, his sword resting on his shoulder, "My, I think you took women's affinity for muscle a bit too far." He shamelessly made use of the language his Lancer ally seemed to be a Master of.
But by the lord, this... creature was even taller than Lancer! Sasaki had been sure he'd seen it all but noo, "I think I might be a bit jealous.." The Assassin squirmed a bit, and seemed genuinely jealous until his gaze landed on the doll-like child at the bottom of the steps, "Nevermind, truly you can not have it all. I pity you my foe, to be cursed with such tendencies."
"Berserker!"
"I would have thought him the Archer." Sasaki deadpanned sarcastically, getting into a rather loose stance with the tip of his blade resting against the ground and his other hand completely relaxed,
"But I suppose he isn't one." He chuckled and tilted his neck forward, avoiding a sword that would have otherwise torn him a hole in a place he didn't want one, "Swords? I guess Lancer's information was correct. This Grail War is all con artists! Shame."
"Lancer has no right to call anyone a con artist." Archer manifested near Heracles with crossed arms, visibly unamused by how Sasaki seemed to be enjoying the situation.
"Aston hmmm, I agree." Sasaki paused a bit before grinning, "What kind of Lancer uses his fists?"
"Grrrr."
"Your friend seems feisty." He scratched his chin as if thinking and nodded to himself, "He may pass." Berserker probably had a good chance at outright destroying his vile Master. Sasaki employed the fact that his orders were to guard against any enemy servant and had no mention of being attacked by multiple.
Archer slightly smirked at the man's nonchalant attitude, "I take it you don't like Caster."
"No. I positively adore her for giving me no magical energy whatsoever, forcing me into being a guard dog for her base of operations." Sasaki ran a gaze around himself, trying to locate Archer's Master but found nothing and only shrugged, he didn't really care for this war.
The Assassin even went so far as to raise his hands in surrender and step aside, conveying his stance on Berserker's passage.
Narrowing her eyes, Illyasviel gestured for Berserker to follow along and walked past Sasaki Kojirou, her pale red eyes cautious and alarmed at the absurdity of what was going on.. It seemed like all servants aside from hers had a thing for disobeying orders and bickering like children.
Only once Illyasviel and Berserker had passed the torii gate at the top did Sasaki walk to the centre of the concrete path, facing Archer before proclaiming,
"Now then.. I do have orders, unfortunately."
The Legendary Japanese swordsman took the initiative for once and lunged for Archer slow enough that the latter could react but fast enough that any onlooker would think he actually meant to win.
Unlike him, Lancer really had an admirable reason to fight and win this war. Chalking up to his bad luck, Sasaki swung his blade in a horizontal arc forcing Archer to duck lest he get sliced in two halves.
"You can't fault me for having fun right?" Assassin changed the trajectory of his attack, swinging his blade vertically downwards with enough strength to break through the two swords Archer attempted to block his with.
Sasaki would be satisfied as long as he got a splendid battle because he had no chance at winning the Grail War.
* * *
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