Chapter 23
I winced and shielded my eyes as the Vimana did a fair impression of a supersized solid gold fragmentation grenade. As the flash faded, I searched for any sign of movement in the falling shards. But like I expected, Rider and Gilgamesh were nowhere to be seen. However, a dark shape floated down towards the shoreline.
"Well, looks like Tokiomi survived," I commented as I watched him descend.
I'd predicted about a ninety-ten chance of him dying in the collision. It wasn't actually part of the plan, just collateral. I must have accidentally tipped him off, so he hopped ship early.
"Phase two?" Caster asked.
I nodded, "Phase two."
Contrary to my Servant's expressed opinion, I did plan things. Admittedly, phase one was a bit of guess work, but it was based off previously observed behavior. See, Gilgamesh had this habit of placing himself above the heads of his enemies, to both literally and figuratively place them beneath him. In the canon docks fight, he was on top of a lamp post. During the final battle with Gilles de Rais, he was on Vimana up in the air and on top of the bridge. He'd been keeping to that pattern every time I'd seen him so far.
With us floating out in the river in the middle of nowhere, he would have had to perch himself up on a tree like an obnoxiously shiny Christmas ornament. Somehow, I didn't think he would've gone for that. *Snort*
With that in mind, Vimana or some other flying throne thing was expected. Him summoning a prototype giant robot wasn't entirely unexpected either. Though to be honest, that second one had thrown me for a loop for a second, but it wasn't entirely out of line with my analysis. Even with Gate of Babylon deprived of launchable weapons, I had sincerely doubted that he'd pick a method of attack that would involve him directly engaging us in melee, especially after Caster proved himself a skilled combatant in that area.
As it was, we couldn't physically hurt him, even with Caster's most powerful spells. That armor and every other defensive artifact in the treasury rendered him functionally indestructible until they were taken out of play.
So we took Gilgamesh out of play until we were ready. Necessary too. His stupidly good powers of observation would have picked out exactly what we were doing before he effortlessly countered it. When the Gordius Wheel collided with the Vimana, Rider pulled them both into Ionion Hetairoi.
As Talos roared and ripped his arm out of the Wicker Man, a loud bong rang out as a massive blue Fehu was imposed on the night sky.
One Rune down, seventeen to go. I needed to buy seventeen minutes. With Rider busy keeping Gilgamesh occupied, Berserker being kept in reserve, and Caster concentrating on charging Ochd Deug Odin, I was going to have to do it without Servant support. The only reasons that this was at all feasible were that A) each of Assassin's bodies was only just above high-tier human level physically, B) I had the ghetto rune suit a.k.a. magical power armor, and C) we still had about half a cohort of golems.
Another eye blast tore through the Wicker Man, though it was quickly repaired before the wood construct punched Talos and sent him staggering back. A huge splash heralded the loss of another arm. Even with Caster reinforcing the arms, they were still shattering against the automaton's bronze hide.
But first, we needed to take care of this big bastard. If this prototype was anything like the one I knew…
"Caster, don't bother using fire on him. He'll just absorb it," I shouted over the noise of the giant brawl.
He didn't reply verbally, but he nodded. As the Wicker Man drew back a fist again, I could see a blue glow coming from it. When it punched Talos this time, the bronze giant bellowed in pain for the first time as electricity arced along his metal body, a sound that I could only describe as a mixture of a train whistle and grinding gears.
"That kinda worked," Caster remarked, "Didn't really do any damage though."
He was right. I could only see a few scorch marks from the point of impact, but nothing else. This would take too long.
"In Greek mythology, Talos was killed by pulling out a pin from his ankle. It held all his blood inside of a single vein running from there to his neck," I peered over the edge of the Wicker Man, "The same ankle that's currently twenty feet underwater," I shrugged, "But this is the prototype. I don't know if he even has that."
Caster slapped me on the back, "One way to find out!"
Suddenly, I didn't feel cold anymore. I only had a moment to process that before the asshole shoved me off the edge of the Wicker Man. Fly, Crow!
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRR!!" I screamed on the way down as I flooded power to the runes on my clothes. The slew of profanity I said just before hitting the water was not something to be shared in polite company.
Caster must have put a rune on me because it wasn't nearly as cold as I had been expecting. On the bright side, I managed not to belly flop. Downside? I couldn't see for shit. Thankfully, the giant legs made such big disturbances that I didn't really need to see where I was going to find them. Also, the Wicker Man's legs were still on fire. Underwater.
I wasn't gonna try and figure that one out. It's magic. Magecraft. Whatever. I stopped trying to apply logic to Servant bullshit a few days ago.
I managed to doggy-paddle my way to Talos' right leg and work my way down. I couldn't remember if the Argonautica ever detailed which leg the pin was on, so I was going to have to search both. What I did know was that it was small enough to be removed by a human-sized hand and was likely on the back of the ankle. All the while, I was getting pummeled by the water as the limbs moved. I almost lost my grip a couple times, but I managed to do a decent impression of a barnacle. Thanks to Talos' anatomically accurate musculature and metal plating, there were a lot of handholds.
I expected a lot of things to happen today. Live action Shadow of the Colossus wasn't one of them.
Finding nothing on the right leg, I swam back to the surface for air just in time to hear a bong. Glancing up at the sky, I saw that Uruz and Thurisaz had joined the array. I had less than fifteen minutes to find the pin and get the hell out of range.
I took a deep breath and dove back down, clinging to the left leg. I had to hold tight as the giant was shoved back by the Wicker Man. Thankfully, Caster was considerate enough to not use lightning this time.
My right hand struck something hot about three-fourths of the way down the calf. I almost gasped at just how hot, but managed to keep my mouth clamped shut. Of friggin' course the pin was going to be hot. Talos' blood was described as "molten" for a reason.
I gingerly prodded at the object to find out just how big the "pin" was. What I found was a node about the size of my torso. Concentrating, I sent power to Uruz, Kaunan, and Algiz.
When my gloved hands grasped the node again, I could barely feel the heat that I knew was there. I'd added a few runes to the Rune Suit in preparation for a fight with Tokiomi, though I hadn't thought I'd need them before that. I gave a test pull before putting real effort into it. It was stuck fast.
Bracing myself against Talos' leg, I heaved. Even with Uruz enhancing my strength, it was still damn heavy. How the hell did Medea do this?
After what seemed like an eternity of gritting my teeth and straining my muscles, the "pin" came loose, revealing that the plug was about four feet long. If I was above water, I imagine there would have been some horrendous ear-piercing screech. From the hole left behind, fucking lava started spraying out, causing the water to froth and boil.
I swam back up to the surface as quickly as I could, as I wanted no part of that. I breached the water just in time to watch Talos take another wooden fist to the head.
Also, the treeline along the river was on fire. Subtlety is a lost art, it seems.
As yet another of the Wicker Man's arms fell into the water, I dove down for a moment to avoid the incoming wave. Surfacing again, I swam to it and scrambled up and over it. Now on a brief respite from the choppy water, I pulled down my hood and unwound my scarf from around my neck before wringing the excess water out of the latter item. It wouldn't do to accidentally drown by breathing in water.
That done, I pulled the scarf back on, making sure to pull it up over my nose and mouth before securing it in place. When I pulled my hood up, there wasn't a single piece of exposed skin on my body.
'I'm off,' I stated to Caster through our link.
'Go kick some ass, Crow,' He replied, 'Remember to keep your eyes up and don't stop moving. The golems are fighting Assassin, but they haven't found all of them.'
'Caster…' I started before pausing. Something was churning in my gut, 'If everything goes to shit…Thanks. For keeping me alive, teaching me magic. Everything. Especially the things you didn't have to do.'
'…Bah!' Cú Chulainn growled, 'Get going, you sorry excuse for a bird!'
I laughed as I jumped off the disembodied arm and channeled prana to another rune as the titanic battle continued behind me. On the ball of each foot, Isaz glowed. When I made contact with the water, a small platform of ice formed underneath me, just big enough for me to kick off of. Each step created another and another until I was leaving frozen "footsteps" on the water in my wake.
"Never thought I'd be the one running towards the fire," I muttered.
The bell tolled again. I glanced up and counted four more runes from when I last looked: Ansuz, Raido, Kaunan, and Hagalaz. The runes were forming in a clockwise pattern. Right now, they were at the 4 o'clock position.
My sopping wet form finally touched down on the sand. Ahead of me, a path had been cut through the burning trees. Nothing lived along it anymore. Even the grass had been burnt to cinders. I channeled power to all my defensive and offensive runic arrays before starting forward.
Eyeing the burning trees, I made a mental note that smoke inhalation would be an anticlimactic way to die. I was rather glad that I had some form of protection in the form of the damp scarf.
Eventually, the path widened into a clearing that I would generously call "football field" sized. I was also fairly certain it wasn't here this afternoon.
Tokiomi was busy while I was taking a swim. Only a fool does not learn from the mistakes of others.
Speaking of, the man in question was standing in the middle of the ash-field, his red suit now specked with gray, and his ruby-tipped cane in hand.
We stared at each other for a moment before I decided to break the silence.
"So…how's your evening been?"
Chapter 24
Despite my confident tone, I was more than a little worried about this confrontation. While Kirei and Kiritsugu had been in my "do not even think about engaging without serious backup or extreme preparation" category on my personal threat scale, I rated Tokiomi only slightly below them.
Questionable life choices aside, the head of the Tohsaka family was damn scary on paper.
While he sucked donkey balls at improvisation and unorthodox tactics, he was a decent head at strategy. Before the war started, he stacked the deck so heavily in his favor that it took his own side backstabbing him to take him down. Despite holing up in his fortress like Kayneth did, his was a lot harder to assault and he had a much scarier guard dog. He didn't have to lift a finger in canon except to torch Kariya. Hell, until Kirei ratted him out, he was stringing Gilgamesh along easily.
That's not even getting into his magecraft. Though not as talented or powerful as Rin, the man had a staggering breadth of knowledge. Fire magecraft, Wind magecraft, Jewelcraft, healing magecraft…hell, he probably knew the Gandr curse as well. And that was only the stuff I suspected.
While Kayneth was the more powerful magus, he had personality flaws that I could exploit and I hammered at him for three days with hit and run attacks. Tokiomi didn't have those. Before the Einzbern Castle and Rin showing up at the camp, I hadn't even really tried to think of a plan to deal with him other than "let Kiritsugu have at him."
The fire crackled around us for a moment as we stood in silence. He didn't seem any more inclined to start a conversation than I was.
I was expecting…well, I'm not really sure. I suppose I didn't really think about what an angry Tohsaka Tokiomi would look like. He was definitely haggard and looked like he hadn't slept well for a few days. So it was pretty disturbing how calm he was.
He was smirking like someone had just told him the greatest joke ever. Smiling magi were never a good thing.
The bell tolled, adding Naudiz.
In that moment, a very important fact clicked and a chill went down my spine: I'd let him get out of my sight for around seven minutes. MOVE!
Without thinking, I threw myself back. It was just in time too as a cluster of three-foot crystal spikes burst out of the ground right where I had been standing.
I gulped down my panic and brushed away the brief mental image of what almost happened. I had walked into a prepared killzone and now I needed to get out fast. Without moving my head, my eyes darted around the battlefield, looking for any possible safe paths.
This was the other reason I hadn't wanted to fight Tokiomi. I didn't know how he'd react when pushed. He'd had doubts about his actions in canon, but he didn't break.
"Impressive reflexes. Pity," Tokiomi commented, his smirk gone, "Part of me had hoped that would have been enough to cripple you so that I might pry the location of my daughter from you."
Despite what he did to Sakura, he loved his family dearly, though his thoughts were colored by his views as a magus. Out of anything in the world, he could be said to love Rin above everything, including his wife. Not only was she his daughter, she was his legacy and the culmination of his ancestors' work. To both sides of Tokiomi, the father and the magus, she was the single most important thing in his life unless he managed to achieve a path to the Root.
And I had threatened that, unintentional though it may have been. At this point, he was predictable only in his desire to get his daughter back.
"It seems this will require effort," He continued, raising his ruby tipped cane towards me. His voice started rising with each subsequent word, "I will have the information I need, even if I need to BURN IT OUT OF YOU, ONE PIECE AT A TIME!"
With the last word, a huge gout of flame shot out of the staff towards me. While I could have taken the hit with the runes in place, I didn't want to give that away yet. You know, in case I had a sudden bout of insanity and decided to actually fight him.
Fuck that.
I wasn't trying to fight him. I was trying to buy time. The more he was focusing on me, the less time he would devote to realizing he could probably just spend a command seal to bust Gilgamesh out of the reality marble. And that meant less time for said Golden King to rip us all a new asshole.
By the time the flame reached the spot I had been occupying, I was long gone and running with rune-enhanced speed towards the burning forest.
Suddenly, I wasn't running anymore and was instead laying on the ground, staring up at the cloudy night sky and wondering how I got there. Blinking dumbly, I propped myself up and looked at where I was supposed to be, only to find a large diamond wall blocking my way.
I mean that literally. It was a giant wall made of solid diamond about fifteen feet high and wide. That I had apparently run face-first into. Explained my sudden headache.
As I stared at the physical equivalent to the total GDP of a third world country, I remembered that I had been running away from something.
Oh right. Tokiomi.
"Shit!" I cussed as I rolled out of the way of another blast of fire.
"Did you really think I would allow you to escape so easily?" The magus asked incredulously, momentarily pausing his assault.
"I was kinda hoping so, yeah," I replied with a shrug as I got back to my feet.
Alright, so running wasn't an option. He had likely blocked off all avenues of escape.
I glanced up and quickly counted the runes. Nine down. Nine to go. I needed more time. I needed to get him talking.
"You know, I can understand your reasoning for what you did. Separating your daughters, I mean. Kariya didn't, but I do," I commented as I absently brushed some ash off my shoulder, "Hell, I even approve of the why. It should be the duty of every father to strive to ensure the best life possible for his children, even at the expense of his own happiness. The Clocktower wouldn't leave them alone, not with their talent. Leaving them untrained wasn't an option either since they would have drawn supernatural events to themselves like flies to honey."
"And yet you interfered and stole both of them from their havens," Tokiomi retorted.
"Honestly? Rin was an accident," I admitted, "She came back to Fuyuki to look for her sister after we took Sakura from the Matou house. I don't know how she did it, but she found us before you did and was waiting for us after the fight at the Einzbern castle. How's it feel being outperformed by a seven year old?"
The older man's expression could be described as a mix of constipated and proud.
"But I said I approved of the why, not the who. Really? Zouken?" I asked incredulously, though my expressions were hidden by my mask and scarf, "Even if you didn't know what was going on in that house, did you even look at his face before handing over your daughter?! That's the kind of face that inspires stranger danger PSAs!"
"Zouken's outward appearance did not matter, so long as he could provide the life I desired for my daughter," Tokiomi replied, his voice infuriatingly calm again, "Certainly there were other options, but the Matous were the only place where she could excel and use her talents to the fullest."
"Zouken wasn't looking for an heir, you dumbass!" I shouted. Tokiomi blinked at my sudden change of demeanor. I quickly reigned my temper back in before continuing, "He wasn't teaching her magecraft. Just chucked her in a pit of worms to break her into a weapon for the next war."
Tokiomi was about to say something, but a look of revelation came over his face. He has realized the truth.
"Enough," He spat instead, his face hardening.
I was about to continue, but I was interrupted by another burst of flame. Plans A and B were shot. Only had Plan C left.
I really hated Plan C.
In that case, I needed to get in close since I lacked a ranged option that would actually do anything against Tokiomi. If I didn't, I'd be left running in circles until he decided to try something else I couldn't counter. Thankfully, it seemed like he was just sticking with his flame spell for now, which I could deal with.
I circled the clearing until I was on his opposite side, staying just ahead of the horizontal flame tornado he was throwing at me. Then I abruptly changed direction. I almost didn't do it. Gripping something hot was a lot different from charging straight into a dragon's maw. Fear, release thy hold.
But I powered through it and took the flames head-on. I couldn't see through them, but it didn't hurt as they wrapped around me. Uncomfortably warm, but no pain.
I emerged at the end of the tunnel with my right fist pulled back to strike, runes blazing. There was a boom and several sickening cracks as it hit flesh.
My eyes widened behind my mask.
Before I could process what had happened, I was flying backwards with the sensation of being hit by a freight train before slamming into another diamond wall. I heard the boom just before I landed. While I struggled to get my breath back and make the world stop spinning, my mind was racing.
He'd caught it.
While his left hand was visibly broken and his sleeve was blown away, there were glowing blue lines running up his left arm. On the visible skin of his extended right hand, I could see more lines. Reinforcement.
"Aw crap," I cursed as I did a quick self-diagnosis. I didn't seem to be too hurt since the runes appeared to have taken the brunt of the hit, but I was still left short of breath and coughing. Also, my stomach hurt. A lot.
I rolled over and stood up, only to immediately throw myself to the side just before Tokiomi's fist suddenly occupied the place where my head used to be. As I righted myself again, he simply turned and shifted into a ready stance.
"I had noticed the runes on your clothing," Tokiomi commented. He glanced at his left hand before trying to flex it, "Enhanced strength, speed, and possibly stamina. Fire resistance as well. I had wondered if they also increased your durability. Now that I have seen that they do, I will simply need to increase the power behind my blows to compensate. Prying apart the rest of your mysteries will be an enjoyable challenge."
My heart thudding in my chest, I slid into my own ready stance. This was not going to work. I took Tae Kwon Do classes for four years. I learned how to kick and punch, not cross a goddamn battlefield in an instant! Make do, then.
I darted forward to try for another punch. Never kick unless you're damn sure your opponent won't catch your foot. Even with his reinforcement, it seemed I was still a bit faster. Still, he easily deflected the center of mass punch I was going for with his left forearm before going for a strike of his own.
This time, I caught his attack, though by gripping the wrist instead the fist. With both of his hands occupied, I pulled him closer and brought my right knee up between his legs. Hard.
He leaped away real quick after ripping his arm out of my grasp. The fact that he was still on his feet, though slightly cross-eyed, was pretty impressive. Either he was just that disciplined or he'd reinforced the family jewels just in case.
Either way, he was probably not going to fall for that trick twice.
"You…" Tokiomi grunted with a wince, "You don't fight fair."
"You're just learning this now?" I inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"No. But it doesn't matter," He stated before wincing again, "You were not the only one stalling for time."
My stomach dropped just as I heard the sound of shattering glass. Gilgamesh was loose too soon.
I glanced up only for a moment. The rune array wasn't ready yet.
"I do not know what you had intended to do with that," Tokiomi continued, gesturing towards the array, "But it will not be enough."
"On that, we agree," I admitted, "Alone, that it." All is not lost.
Beneath the glove on my right hand, my command seals glowed.
'Caster, I order you to finish charging Ochd Deug Odin immediately and fire at Gilgamesh when ready.'
"Gilgamesh getting out early didn't disrupt my plans," I smiled as Tokiomi tensed up, "It just means I have to expend resources that I've deemed acceptable losses to accomplish the goal."
All at once, the remaining runes of the array appeared. Everything seemed to go quiet, allowing us to hear Caster's voice clearly as he declared its name.
"OCHD DEUG ODIN!"
With the invocation of its name, the eighteen lights above us converged into a single unintelligible rune that hurt my eyes to look at. From it, a single beam of light descended to the earth. Avert your eyes!
I closed my eyes and covered them with my arm, knowing what happens next. Even through that, I still saw the searing light. A wave of heat, pressure, and steam washed over me, throwing me backwards. Beneath me, the ground shook in a way that people in Fuyuki to feel it.
It only took a second. Now drenched in superheated water, I looked up at the destruction it had caused. Ironically, the fires around us had been doused by the wave of steam. At the shoreline, dozens of trees had been felled while the Mion River tried to fill in the crater the Noble Phantasm had left behind in the middle of it.
In the crater, I could make out the form of Gilgamesh, clad only in his skin and clutching a pair of wands. The Wicker Man was nowhere in sight.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!"
Berserker's roar shattered the momentary silence as he appeared standing on the water, opening fire with his purloined assault rifle.
==================================
Chapter 25
Low-hanging fog clung to the battlefield, hiding my feet from view.
Gilgamesh wasn't idle. By the time the first bullets were flying, he was already moving. However, his steps were uncertain, as though he were confused or lost. As the water from the river poured into the crater, he stumbled, fell, and picked himself back up several times as he trudged towards the shoreline under a hail of gunfire. He returned fire with one of his wands, sending a blast of light thirty feet wide at Berserker, forcing the mad knight to dodge.
It was understandable, I suppose. I imagine that Gilgamesh had never been completely bereft of Sha Nagba Imru in his life, even if he did actively suppress it. It was an inherent part of his existence, rather than a treasure he collected, and one that he had taken for granted. It would be like suddenly going blind as you were going about your day, leaving you to fumble around in the dark.
Even without it or his mightiest weapons, he was the single greatest threat on the battlefield as of this moment. He needed to die now, before he got his bearings back.
Berserker was back in position and got ready to resume his attack…until his helmet suddenly snapped to the left. He roared and swung his rifle to fire at a target I couldn't see yet.
My teeth grit together hard beneath my scarf. The barely-calm part of my brain was currently cussing up a storm at Kiritsugu's timing. Fortune favors the fool, it seems.
Red eyes stared straight at me and an arm started rising.
'Caster, fire for effect. Don't let him ge-'
I found myself tumbling forward as something pressed sharply against my back. I rolled with it and scrambled back onto my feet before whipping around to find a familiar dark-cloaked figure. The Assassin who just tried to stab me in the back looked surprised that it didn't work.
The boom of Caster's spells sounded dull as I reoriented myself.
A black arm materialized over my eyes and I choked as something was dragged across my throat, only to be stopped by the strengthened scarf. Panic flooded through me as my arms snapped up, grabbing at it before it could try again and heaving with all my strength. The black shadow was thrown over my shoulder and onto the ground, its fall cushioned by the ash. As its head tried to rise, my fist struck down.
The mask and the shadow it was attached to were reduced to a bloody paste.
I stumbled back, a shiver running through me as pieces started clicking. I didn't have time to fully take stock as the Assassin in front of me got over his shock and started moving forward, stepping over the rapidly disappearing body. I flinched and recoiled as a dirk scratched across the glass lens over my left eye. An Assassin had appeared to my left.
Another knife tried to pierce my right kidney, only to be rebuffed by my clothing-turned-plate mail.
When the last attack came, the last knife racing towards my chest, it happened. And I welcomed it. There is no running from this. Fight!
My vision became blurry. Every sound around me dulled. Pain faded. The world slowed to a crawl.
Where before I saw clearly, now there were only outlines and colors.
I grabbed the last Knife and snapped its arm in half.
My right arm lashed out. Another Knife disappeared. I felt a crack through my knuckles.
I didn't make a sound. I didn't roar. I didn't scream. I didn't even grunt. I just…attacked. I wasn't angry, I was afraid.
And fear was a hell of a steroid.
The other Knives attacked again and again. Their blades bounced off my skin again and again.
They threw me to the ground. I broke their legs.
They tried to pull away my armor. I crushed their wrists and shattered their weapons.
My left arm stopped moving. I thought I heard a small crack. So I used my legs.
One by one, the Knives fell. Only Red was left.
I couldn't hear my own breathing over my heart pounding. A light flared. Red had moved.
Another light. I was moved to a different place. Red was looking away. I closed the distance quickly, even as he tried to move away again.
Light flashed. I was somewhere else. There was no stopping. Again, I moved in.
Red's arm rose to deflect my hand. Something crunched in my chest as his foot crashed into it. I smiled as I repaid the injury by snapping his right leg backwards at the knee.
Red toppled forwards. I stepped to one side before I stomped down with my left foot. Something snapped beneath my boot. Red didn't get back up.
Slowly, the fear bled out of me with each breath. As it did, pain faded back in and I found it hard to breathe. I sucked in a breath as agony ripped through the right side of my chest. I tried to clutch it with my left arm, only to find it not responding. A glance at my side showed it hanging limply.
I stumbled a few steps away only to be stopped by a groan. Looking down, I suddenly felt sick to my stomach as well.
On the ground, a battered Tohsaka Tokiomi was trying to crawl away using only his arms. His right leg was bent at an unnatural angle, while the other wasn't moving at all.
"I'm sorry," Was all I could mutter before looking away.
One foot moved in front of the other. I tried to focus on something to dull the pain as I walked. It didn't work.
'Caster,' I started, 'Is it done?'
I just wanted this to be over.
'Yeah. He's dead. He didn't see it coming,' He replied quietly. As he continued, there was a tone to his voice I didn't recognize, 'You all there?'
I grunted an affirmative, too tired to really put much effort into even a single word answer. I looked to where we had stashed Irisviel. The sky over there seemed darker than the rest, with even star light disappearing.
'Did I miss anything?' I asked as I concentrated on staying on my feet, 'I was…out of it for a few minutes.'
'Rider's chariot was damaged and he landed somewhere a kilometer away. Also, Saber and Berserker are dead. They got caught in one of Archer's wand blasts. Dusted them on the spot.'
A cold feeling settled in my gut. Saber, Berserker, and Gilgamesh. Assuming Assassin was dead, that totaled eight souls powering the Grail right now. And if Saber had been here…
I only managed to spot the glint of light in the dark just before something punched me in the forehead. Or at least that's what it felt like. I hit the ground hard with possibly the biggest headache of my life.
As I sat up and blinked away the stars, something clunked onto the nose of my mask before dropping to the ground. I stared at the object for a moment, my confusion overriding my pain for the moment. My hazy brain then realized what it was.
A deformed rifle bullet. Which had just hit my forehead.
I immediately rolled to the left, muffling a scream as I put my full body weight onto my damaged arm for a moment. However, it was just in time as something thumped into the ground where I had just been. As I tried to get up again, a glint of red caught my attention.
Out of the corner of my eye, Tokiomi smirked maliciously with his arm outstretched before he slumped to the ground.
The ruby beneath me detonated, sending me flying. I didn't know how far I went, but I didn't land well. With my ears ringing, I felt something crunch beneath me just before my left hand exploded into pain.
My mind raced as I rapidly pieced together precisely how fucked I was. I was in no shape to face Kiritsugu by myself, much less at range.
'Caster, come to me!' I mentally commanded. Beneath my glove, my second command spell disappeared.
Seeing the familiar blue was a reassuring sight. Caster deflected the next bullet with the crook of his staff before hauling me to my feet. He quickly drew a line of Runes in the air, which sent a series of fireballs flying towards where I presume he spotted Emiya.
"Tch," The demigod tsked, "He moves fast for a human."
Translation: he missed. Kiritsugu must have ramped up Time Alter to beat a Servant's reaction time.
'He's using time magecraft,' I explained through the bond, not trusting my voice at the moment, 'He creates an internalized bounded field where he speeds up or slows himself down. So far as I know, the max he can go with Avalon is four times normal. Theoretically more if he pushes himself. But since Saber's dead, the max he can go is triple. You see him?'
'Never lost track. He's not moving that fast,' Caster replied, before his brows furrowed.
Before he could explain, there was a flash of light behind him. Before either of us could react, a familiar golden blade erupted from my friend's chest.
I froze.
Holding the hilt was Saber, her arm visibly shaking and her lone eye wide in shock. She wasn't uninjured either. Most of the right side of her body had been burned away, taking the entirety of her right arm and a significant part of her torso. Her right leg was only barely holding her weight while the right side of her face was a ruined mass of burned tissue.
Whatever strength she had left faded as she let go of Excalibur.
"Go after the bastard!" Caster snarled at me, pointing into the woods.
That done, he whipped around and grasped her head with his left hand. I didn't see what Runes he used, but Saber's head disappeared in a burst of fire.
I was shocked out of my stupor by his shout and stumbled back in the direction he indicated, too stunned to do anything else. Another flash of light went off behind me as Caster cast another spell. Stumbling turned to walking, then to running.
As my feet pounded against the ground, shock was replaced by rage with each step. Avenge him, my champion!
If I hadn't been so pissed, I would have laughed when I found Kiritsugu. The feared Magus Killer was moving in slow motion with a frustrated expression on his face, like he was running through molasses. I would have said a snappy one-liner like "Feel like a superhero yet, Kerry?"
But frankly? I just wanted him dead.
I watched him for a moment as I decided what I was going to do. Ignoring all the pain I was in, I tackled him to the ground, which broke whatever spell Caster had placed on him. But like hell was I letting him do anything. Pinning him with my knees, I punched him in the throat before reaching into my pocket.
Emiya's eyes bulged and his mouth opened for a brief moment to cough as a knee-jerk reaction. I filled it with the contents of my pocket before forcing his jaw shut again.
Two runestones had enough explosive force to knock a human adult off their feet.
I shoved about seven into his mouth.
About a second after I rolled off him, Emiya Kiritsugu's head exploded, showering the immediate area with bone shards and gore.
========================================
The exhaustion hit all at once as I was walking back to the clearing. At this point, it was all I could do to stay upright.
Halfway across, I pitched forward, only to be caught.
"Heh, I know you can't fly, but I figured that you'd have no problems with walking. Guess I was wrong."
I looked up at Caster's smug grin for a moment before I started laughing. It was weak at first, but soon gained strength. With both of us weakening, we laughing idiots had to help each other hobble to a tree at the edge of the clearing.
With a groan, I seated myself and let the pain just wash over me all at once as I looked myself over. The fingers on my left hand were sitting at odd angles, plus whatever had been done to my shoulder. I figured that at least a few of my ribs were broken too.
Caster sat down next to me and I tried not to look at the blood seeping down his chest.
I lifted up my right hand, "I've got one left. I could heal that up, right?"
The Irishman smiled grimly and shook his head, "You could, but we wouldn't have the time to do what needs to be done."
He pointed to something in the distance. While we had been fighting, the Grail hadn't been idle and spread its influence out from Irisviel's body. Even in the darkness, I could see the red and black tower with its spike-like fingers reaching for the sky. Before us, the land itself was rotting.
No war had eight Servants worth of energy enter an intact Lesser Grail, much less a corrupted one. It had to be stopped right this instant before we found out just what happened in that scenario.
"Figures things don't go quite according to plan right at the last minute," I grumbled half-heartedly.
Caster laughed, "It never does, does it?"
I tried to ignore the wisps of blue coming off him. I couldn't ignore the cough and the blood splattering on the ground though.
He levered himself to his feet, leaning heavily on his staff as he turned to look at me, "Give the order Crow. The only thing keeping me on my feet right now is Ehwaz. I need the energy from a command seal to pull this off."
He was right. There was no way to win this. The only path available was the one where I didn't lose. Even if I healed Caster, he wouldn't have the energy left to bombard it. He wouldn't have the time either, as it would have spread too far.
"Hey, Crow," I looked up at the sound of his voice, only to glance down again as a familiar notebook plopped down on my lap, "Make sure you read through that. It might be…enlightening."
I stared at him in silence. Willing this situation to be different. I'd read this kind of story hundreds of times and knew where it was heading. I never wanted to be in one, though.
"Give the order!"
I jumped at his yell. Caster had turned around, leaving me staring at the back of his blood-stained robes.
My eyes moved down to my hand.
"By my command seal…" I stuttered weakly.
Caster glared over his shoulder at me. I cleared my throat and worded the rest in the most respectful way I could manage, putting as much force into my voice as I could muster.
"Blow that fucker up with Ochd Deug Odin!"
He grinned ear to ear, suddenly standing taller as the energy of the command seal filled him, "As you command, Crow!"
With a wave of Caster's staff, all eighteen Runes appeared in the sky above the Grail tower with one massive cacophonous clang before merging into that unintelligible image. Knowing what was coming, I shut my eyes.
"OCHD DEUG ODIN!"
It happened in a second. One flash of light and a thunderous boom. When I opened my eyes again, only a cloud of smoke and ash remained.
Before me, Caster still stood strong, but the edges of his frame were rapidly turning incorporeal. Before the last of his strength left him, he quietly slumped back against the tree. We sat for a few minutes without speaking, just staring at the cloudy sky.
"It's done, right?" I asked, still watching the spot where the tower had been.
"…Yeah," He replied quietly.
"Hell of an adventure, huh?"
"Yep…"
I opened my mouth again, only to be waved off, "You've already thanked me enough. It got irritating after the third time."
I knew what I was doing at this point. Trying to keep him talking. He realized it too and wanted me to knock it off.
"I think enough has been said," Caster stated with a tone of finality, "No denying what's happening. Just remember to take care of yourself and read that book."
One bloody finger waved across my vision, drawing Runes in the air too quickly for me to identify. My eyes grew heavy against my will. My voice was too weak to speak.
"Heh, maybe next time, I'll learn to save someone without dying…"
Soon, I lost the battle against exhaustion. Just as the rain started falling, my last conscious thought was sorrow about how this was likely the last time I'd see Cú Chulainn.
Rest, my Champion. You and the Hound have earned it.