Archive of Our Own

Fate/UK  

By EdwardMuramasa

Prologue “The Incoming War”

Fletcher Higgins sighed at how dreary his day had been as he walked home from school. He was a 15-year-old boy with fair skin, an average build and bright, blonde, fluffy, short hair on his head. He wore a dull grey, long sleeved t-shirt with dark green trousers and brown walking boots. Bright blue eyes looked out from his pale face and he had a bandage covering his left hand.  

It had been a drearier day than usual as he had started a part of his course that involved advanced Magecraft ⁽¹⁾ at his school which was located at the Clock Tower ^(2). His was a secret school that taught Magecraft to those who practiced it. It was largely located underground extending from Reagents Park to Westminster; its entrance was at the British Museum in London. Not only was it a “magical” school but also served as the headquarters of the Mage Association ⁽³⁾ that governed all Mages ^(4). 

The advanced Magecraft part of the courses were always an uphill battle for Fletcher. A mages proficiency at Magecraft was determined by his or her bloodline and the Bloodline of the Higgins family was rather lacking when it came to most Magecraft outside of the rudimentary basics. They were however good at a ground-breaking form of Magecraft but Fletcher had sworn he would never use it.

As he trudged on, he saw Big Ben in the distance and, as he looked away at nothing in particular, he felt a sudden twinge of pain on the back of his left hand. Instead of instinctively grabbing his hand, as it might give him away, he concentrated on his immediate surroundings while moving on like nothing had happened.

From what he could tell, the threat was not nearby but further away. The lack of severity of the pain told him as much already. He knew that someone involved in the war was close by or at least in sight. “Where are you?” he whispered, thinking quickly he focused reinforcement magecraft ⁽⁵⁾ into his eyes which connected to his brain and allowed him to scan his less immediate surroundings with enhanced, telescopic vision. A faint silhouette atop Big Ben caught his attention. He focused on it; at this distance he couldn’t tell who it was but there was definitely a person standing there.  

As if by magic, while he was looking, another taller silhouette appeared out of thin air by the 1^st silhouette. The 1^st silhouette moved closer to the 2^nd Silhouette. The 2^nd silhouette then disappeared the same way it had appeared and the 1^st silhouette moved out of sight.

Fletcher had suspected it at first but what he had just seen confirmed it. The 1^st silhouette had been a special kind of mage called a master ⁽⁶⁾ and the 2^nd Silhouette was a special kind of familiar ⁽⁷⁾ called a servant ⁽⁸⁾ a.k.a. a heroic spirit ^(9).

He was surprised that they hadn’t spotted him and attacked him. Maybe they hadn’t seen him as masters who had yet to summon a servant like him were harder to detect. Perhaps they weren’t daring enough to attack him in public as while the mage association does not care for human casualties or collateral damage especially in this war. They were however very much against the idea of exposing the secret of magecraft to the non-magical public.

Fletcher was against both ideas. Calming down he deactivated his reinforcement magecraft and carried on home. He looked down at his bandaged left hand that was no longer in pain. “Next time” he thought “Next time I’ll have summoned my own servant and he will help me win this war.”

In the conference room of a large Mansion, a discussion was being held later that same day. “Lancer ⁽¹⁰⁾, I told you to stay in your invisible spirit-form ⁽¹¹⁾ when appearing in public. What if someone had spotted you?” June Bainsworth exclaimed in annoyance. “I’m sorry Master. But I wanted to speak with you about an urgent matter and I was curious as to why you were on top of that large building, were you looking for others masters?” Lancer enquired.

“Er…No” admitted June bashfully “I was just enjoying the view”. “Oh, so you didn’t notice that someone spotted you?” Lancer asked. June blushed in embarrassment. “Who was it?” she asked timidly. “I could not tell who it was exactly or any details of their appearance as I lack the Hawkeye ⁽¹²⁾ ability of the Archer ⁽¹³⁾ class ⁽¹⁴⁾ servant. However my Wisdom of Dún Scáith ⁽¹⁵⁾ ability allowed me to tell that person was a master who had yet to summon a servant and they were walking around in public” answered Lancer.

“The fool” June said scornfully “Do they not know that walking around in public without a servant as a master is akin to wearing a t-shirt saying, please kill me?” “While as a servant, appearing in my physical form in public is similarly foolish, you being spotted by another master in public without realising it is equally foolish.” Lancer retorted. “That is a bit rich coming from the fool who also let him go after realising her master had been spotted” June snapped back.

“May I remind you master that this blunder means you are on your 2^nd strike with me, 1 more and I will resign as your servant thus severely limiting your ability to win the war. Moreover, you told me not kill any masters who had yet to summon a servant as that would risk their command seals going to another person and thus making that other person a new master to replace them.” Lancer countered firmly.

“All right, that’s enough point scoring for today and yes I am well aware of your 3-strike system” June said conclusively while thinking “I’m the master, you’re the servant, is this 3-strike system supposed to counter my 3 command seals ⁽¹⁶⁾ that I have over Lancer?”

“No, that wasn’t it” thought June “It’s more to do with her Lancer class servants’ personality.” Lancer had been a teacher in her life and a strict one at that, she preferred to mentor students who showed exceptional talent and wasted little or no time on those who didn’t. “I wonder if Cú Chulainn had to put up with this” thought June. Her 1^st blunder was summoning Lancer without a catalyst ⁽¹⁷⁾ and it was more than a bit annoying to have been given a strike when she didn’t know there was a 3-strike system. However due to her impressive mage bloodline, she was exceptionally talented in magecraft so she summoned a strong servant and Lancer had recognised June’s talent and thus accepted her as Lancer’s master.

“So, what was the urgent matter you wished to talk about?” June asked. “Archer has been summoned by another master.” Lancer responded concisely. “That is indeed urgent.” June commented knowingly. The problem wasn’t Archer but the fact that Archer was the 2^nd to last out of the seven servants to be summoned. The last servant to be summoned would likely be the Saber ⁽¹⁸⁾ class servant. It may be the most problematic servant for June’s Lancer servant to fight as Saber class servants were typically strong against Lancer class servants. “Let’s hope that master who spotted me is as bad at summoning strong servants as he is being a master in public”. June said thoughtfully before turning in for the night.

A few days before Fletcher saw June atop Big Ben, Yuta Greenfield was sitting in his private study in the clock tower looking in wonder at the discovery he had made. In one of his strong hands lay on an open book titled “Magecraft Rituals, A History”. The other hand was holding an arrowhead which was very old.

He had found the arrowhead on one of his night escapades as the mysterious, mage vigilante known as the Emerald Knight. While tracking down a criminal who delt in black market items typically used by mages, one of the items caught his eye, especially after the criminal revealed when questioned by Yuta that it was a catalyst used in some kind of mage ritual known as the Holy Grail War. ⁽¹⁹⁾  After leaving the criminal to the mage Authorities, Yuta proceeded to do some research to find out more about this ritual, using the clock towers extensive library of Magecraft knowledge.

What he discovered was that it was a ritual where a powerful, wish granting device known as the holy grail ⁽²⁰⁾ chose 7 mages, also known as the masters, and marked them with 3 command seals on one of their hands. This made them participants in the Holy Grail War where the chosen mages fought to the death over the Grail and the winner would have a wish granted by the Grail. The mages did not fight alone, each with the help of the grails power could summon a powerful familiar known as a servant or a heroic spirit who are notable figures from history and mythology. E.g., King Arthur, Alexander the Great etc.

The servants were broken down into seven classes which were called Saber, Archer, Lancer, Caster ⁽²¹⁾, Rider ⁽²²⁾, Assassin ⁽²³⁾ and Berserker. ⁽²⁴⁾ Each servant has special abilities that based on which class they are as well as which specific heroic spirit they are. Moreover, they have strengths, limitations and weaknesses that are determined by their servant parameters ⁽²⁵⁾ and possibly details from their history or mythology. Finally, each servant has a trump card ability called a noble phantasm ⁽²⁶⁾ which is an embodiment of their myth or history and often refers to something they famously did or had in life. The servants were also typically referred to by their class names as their true names gives away their capabilities. 

The last notable piece of information regards the 3 command seals that mark a mage as a master participating in this war. They can each be used by the master to compel a servant to obey an order. Once all 3 command seals have been used the master loses control of their servant so the master must use them wisely. The summoning ritual ⁽²⁷⁾ needed to call forth a servant is simple, all you need is a basic summoning ritual circle, to be chosen by the Holy Grail and a catalyst, to call forth a specific servant, which is a relic from the servant’s life time.

Yuta looked at the arrowhead that was the catalyst for the servant he planned to summon. According to the criminal he had interrogated, the arrowhead had been originally found buried near a tree in Sherwood Forest which is located at Nottinghamshire in England. He had a fairly good idea, from that information as well as the fact that one of the servant classes is called Archer, which servant he would summon.     

Chapter 1: “Summoning and 1^st Encounter”

Later in the evening of the day Fletcher had glimpsed June atop Big Ben, Fletcher was preparing to summon his servant. He was located in a makeshift summoning ritual room in his flat. All he needed to do now was place the catalyst, an old katana blade, on the summoning circle ⁽²⁸⁾ he had prepared previously and begin the summoning ritual by speaking the required incantation. ⁽²⁹⁾ It was good for him that the grail would handle the summoning itself and all that he needed to do was supply mana ⁽³⁰⁾ to the servant to keep them anchored to him after the summoning was complete. He always struggled with advanced summoning and familiar magecraft.

Fletcher was however doubtful about whether he could maintain the servant especially if it required a lot of mana to be able to fight a full strength as he also doubted his own ability to fight against superior mages. “Stop it” he told himself, clapping his cheeks to dispel his pessimistic thoughts. He then proceeded to lift the old Katana and placed it with in the centre of the summoning circle.

He then stood to the side of the circle and extended his left hand over the circle. The bandages that had been around his left hand previously had been removed and on the back of his hand was the 3 command seals that marked him as a master in this Holy Grail War. Currently it was a vague, non-descript marking on the back of his hand that could be mistaken for a dark red bruise but when the summoning was complete it would take a clearer form.

He already knew who he was going to summon from what his catalyst supplier had told him about the origins of his catalyst. According to them it was a katana blade from Japan dating back to the 16^th century that was found in the Ise province of that time period. He licked his lips in anticipation and then closed his eyes to concentrate as he began the servant summoning incantation.

“I Announce. For the elements, Silver and Iron. For the foundation, Stone and the Archduke of pacts, and for the ancestor, my great master, Gideon. Close the gates of the four directions. Come forth from the Crown and follow the forked road leading to the Kingdom. Fill, Fill, Fill, Fill, Fill. Repeat five times. But When Each is filled destroy it. Set. Heed my words. My will creates your body and your sword creates my destiny. If you heed the Grails call and obey my will and reason then answer me. I hereby swear, That I shall be all the good in the world, that I shall defeat all evil in the world. Thou art Seventh Heaven, clad in the three great words of power, come forth from the circle of binding, Guardian of the scales.”

As Fletcher spoke the incantation, the summoning circle began to pulsate with magical white light, sparks flew, mana crackled and he felt his mana hook onto the heroic spirit summoned by the grail, selected by his catalyst, like a fisherman using a fishing rod to catch a whale. He focused on tugging the rod to keep the spirit from returning to the Throne of Heroes ⁽³¹⁾ from whence it came. Suddenly something unexpected happened. His origin ⁽³²⁾ became a secondary rod that made the process easier. Fletcher immediately tried to let go of his origin, to reject it, for he swore that he would not use it. However much he tried, he couldn’t do it for it was already a key part of him that could not be got rid of. He relented and allowed the two rods to pull in the whale.

After the ritual was complete, he opened his eyes. The 1^st thing he saw was that his three command seals had taken a more defined form. It was made of three parts, one part was a hammer, another was an anvil and the 3^rd was a katana blade. They were positioned so that it looked like the hammer was striking the blade against the anvil. As the smoke, sparks and magical light faded he saw a man standing in the summoning circle over the katana. This must be the summoned servant. He a looked about Fletcher’s age with short spikey, crimson hair. He was naked from the waist up aside from his left arm and shoulder which were covered in a red arm guard with angular black markings on it that he must use to protect his arm while smithing.

He wore brown, baggy shorts, held up by a white belt tied in a bowknot, the ends of which were tucked into long shin guards and on his feet, he wore black sandals. In his right hand, the wrist of which had a dark red wrist band, he held a cape over his right shoulder with a white outside and a colourfully decorated  inside. His physique was lean and muscular. He opened his eyes which were a golden-brown colour and proclaimed “Saber Class Servant, True Name: Senji Muramasa, A Sword smith who founded the Muramasa School of sword smithing. Aka Forger of Divine and Demonic Blades, The Bane of the Tokugawa Clan and the Cursed Swordsmith. I have come in answer to your summons.”

After the initial adrenaline from successfully summoning his servant had subsided. Fletcher collected himself and responded appropriately “Greetings Saber, my name is Fletcher Higgins and I am your Master”. Saber nodded then looked down at himself with a look of mild surprise. “Is something wrong?” Fletcher asked.

“Nothing to be concerned about my master, it’s just that I was expecting to be summoned in my original body but seems my heroic spirit has been summoned into another person’s body who is compatible with my spirit origin ⁽³³⁾ and servant abilities. Suddenly Fletcher looked angry with himself and when Saber asked what was wrong Fletcher explained “It seems that during the summoning process my origin aided me which made the process easier but it made me use magecraft that I swore I would never use. Those being Saint graph transference ⁽³⁴⁾ magecraft and heroic spirit possession ⁽³⁵⁾ magecraft. That may explain your current form. Never talk about those magecraft to me or anyone else Saber. If you don’t comply, I will use a command seal to keep your lips sealed on the subject.”

Saber nodded in agreement and said politely “Shall we depart this room for somewhere more comfortable?” Fletcher replied “Yes, we’ll go to the living room next door, my flat is fairly well protected as well as hidden with concealment and protective magecraft so you may remain in your visible form. Also, like the other masters will have done, I’ve made sure that all my family members stay away from the city of London until the conflict is concluded to prevent them being used against me.” “Presumably I will have to assume my invisible spirit form when outside the flat.” noted Saber.

“If I may say so master” said Saber cautiously “I would like to clarify that I don’t think it is your origin that is responsible for my unusual summoning. It has more to do with the fact that I am not a conventional heroic spirit. I am what is known as a counter guardian ⁽³⁶⁾ and when summoned by the counter force ⁽³⁷⁾ to perform my duties as a Counter Guardian I am usually summoned in this body. Since I was instead summoned by a master participating in the Holy Grail War, I wrongfully assumed I would be summoned in my original body but that is not the case.” “Well, I’m glad that is the case as well as the fact that the summoning process went well though I guess I had the grail helping me out.” said Fletcher in an initially relieved voice then sighed saying “I’ve always struggled with any magecraft outside of the rudimentary basics”

“That is nothing to be ashamed of master, a strong understanding of the basics can sometimes be better than advanced specialisation which can leave you at times vulnerable and thus it is key to being a well-rounded person” Saber advised. “Thanks for the advice, I wish my teachers at the clock tower had said that before now.” Fletcher said perking up “Also I will call you Saber rather than Senji Muramasa, especially when we are outside the flat so that enemy masters and servants don’t learn your true name and thus your capabilities as that would put us at a tactical disadvantage. Speaking of which as your master I seem to know all your capabilities except for one thing, your noble phantasm. I know it’s an A+ rank anti-unit ⁽³⁸⁾ noble phantasm but I don’t know its name or how it works.”

Saber explained “That is because it is what is known as a conceptual noble phantasm ⁽³⁹⁾, a noble phantasm born from the mind, as I explained before I am a Counter Guardian and as part of my contract with the Counter Force, in exchange for becoming a Counter Guardian after death, I gained an ability that would allow me to achieve my lifelong dream of forging the ultimate blade, one that cuts concepts such as karma, certainty and bonds. I was unable achieve making it in life and thus rather than being an embodiment of my history and mythology like other servant’s noble phantasms, my noble phantasm is an embodiment of my dream. Thus, it not known to others unless I tell them.”

“In terms of how it works” Saber continued “I speak an incantation that fully activates the ability the Counter Force gave me; this creates a reality marble ⁽⁴⁰⁾ called Unalloyed Blade Works ⁽⁴¹⁾ which stores all the blades I forged in life; these are then all melted down and combined into a single mass that I forge into a single divine blade. I will then name it and then strike my target in a single swing. It should be noted that, due to the blade’s divinity ⁽⁴²⁾ and the fact that I was a non-divine mortal in life, I will perish shortly after using it which is unusual for a noble phantasm. I should be able to handle most opponents without resorting to using it as my previously mentioned ability allows me to project ⁽⁴³⁾ the various blades that I forged in life to wield in combat.”

Fletcher had to admit he was generally very happy with his servant; true his parameters weren’t especially high or evenly spread and his noble phantasm was unusual but Fletcher didn’t want ruin the amicable mood up till now and decided to turn in for the night and carry-on tomorrow morning. Moreover, Fletcher was quite exhausted by the summoning ritual and needed to rest.

Since he was participating in the war, he could take time off going to school at the clock tower in order to focus on the war. He decided to only attend essential lessons so as not to draw attention with his absence but otherwise spend his time focusing on the war. All the servants had been summoned and thus the war had officially begun so there was no room for carelessness. At night he slept in his flat while Saber stood guard. Servants do not need to sleep due to being spirits and only needing the mana supply from their master to stay active. During the day, when he wasn’t at the clocktower, he would patrol the city with Saber in spirit form or strategized with Saber in his flat. In this initial stage of the war, it was largely a waiting game to see who would make the 1^st decisive move. Saber and Fletcher had decided on a cautious form of 1^st come 1^st served battle policy where they would fight any master and servant they came across while patrolling but if things got dicey, they would retreat immediately and avoid doing anything to draw attention or provoke an enemy attack.

That was the plan until things progressed in the war and they would adjust those plans accordingly. One afternoon they were returning from another patrol when Saber suddenly stopped and spoke to Fletcher through a telepathic link that all masters have with their servants. “Master, I sense a battle between servants and masters nearby, we should investigate without drawing attention”. Fletcher nodded in agreement and they proceeded to creep onwards until they came to the location of the fight. It was a construction site, from what he could see from their hiding spot there seemed to be four people in total battling it out.

Two of them were up above fighting in the scaffolding. The other two were locked in close range combat on the ground floor. Fletcher was about to suggest they stay out of the fight and safely observe when he recognised one of the fighters on the ground floor.

Chapter 2: “The first fight”

“Yuta Greenfield” Fletcher whispered, Yuta was one of his more friendly acquaintances at the clock tower, a well-built, handsome teenager with an East Asian complexion due to his English and Japanese heritage. He had black, untidy hair which was cut very short. He usually wore a black sleeveless vest with a black jacket and dark shorts but currently the black jacket was missing. On his feet he wore worn out white trainers. He had kind, dark brown eyes which complemented his friendly face. A fellow student who specialised in magecraft used in close range combat which he was using right now against his opponent on the ground floor of the construction site. His opponent was clearly a servant, most likely a Lancer given her weaponry, this was surprising as masters usually fought other masters if they fought at all while servants fought servants as servants typically were stronger than masters at direct combat.

Yet here was Yuta holding his own against Lancer like it was nothing he couldn’t handle. Fletcher still feared for his life. “Saber” Fletcher spoke telepathically to avoid detection “We need to end this fight before Yuta gets killed, Yuta may not recognise you and the Lancer servant may be too strong for you given her parameters but I believe in your ability as my servant to interfere with their fight, prioritise keeping Yuta alive and keeping the Lancer servant at bay. I will try to interfere with the other fight in the scaffolding. Good Luck to both of us.”

Saber replied telepathically “As you command master” and approached the ground floor battle in spirit form to avoid detection. Fletcher knew this was a reckless, half-baked plan that could get both of them killed but again he pushed aside his doubts and began to scale the scaffolding. From a safe vantage point, he could see both battles more clearly. He saw Saber wait for an opening in the fight below then materialise when he saw it coming and shot forward with incredible speed. As he did so he projected a katana blade in each hand, one reinforced with light blue magecraft, the other was imbued with dark red demonic energy. Saber placed himself in the nexus between each of the others fighters next attacks. He blocked both attacks with each katana blade putting a temporary pause to the fight. “Nice going Saber” Fletcher thought before turning his attention to the other fight. It was another servant vs master battle. The master was a girl about Fletchers age and she was firing various long ranged magecraft of an impressive calibre at a hooded servant dressed in green who fired back arrows from a small crossbow.

“He must be an archer servant” thought Fletcher and given the situation it would be fair to assume that Archer was Yuta’s servant and Lancer was the girl’s servant. Fletcher quickly figured out a plan on the spot to end the fighting, he would have to catch the girl off guard and force her to make her Lancer servant stop fighting Yuta and Saber. Once more he felt unsure of the success of this plan but again, he dismissed his doubts as they could get Yuta killed.

He snuck around until he was as close as he dared to the girl before he dashed out from cover intending to engage her while she was distracted by the Archer servant. She must have heard him coming for she turned immediately around and smirked at him as if to say “You call that a sneak attack?” She aimed her magecraft arm at him and shouted a quick, short incantation in some foreign language. A glowing bolt of magecraft shot out towards Fletcher’s head, he ducked to avoid it while still running forward, as he did so he focused reinforcement magecraft into his legs to gain a boost of speed.

This enabled him to get close enough to the girl to grab her magecraft firing arm and wrap his other arm around her neck, holding her from behind. He then whispered loudly into her ear “Call off your servant or else”. She didn’t take kindly to that as she proceeded to elbow him in the chest with her free arm which she reinforced with her own magecraft. It hurt but thanks to the reinforcement magecraft focused in his chest he could bear it. She snorted in frustration and began to speak a longer incantation in another foreign language. Fletcher managed to let go in a in vain attempt to evade the incoming magecraft retaliation but he was too late. A thunderous wave of mana erupted from the girl’s body, expanding outwards, knocking Fletcher back 10ft, leaving him sprawled on the ground and stunned from the impact.

The girl quickly turned to face him and raised her magecraft firing arm to finish Fletcher off. Before she could do so the hooded Archer dressed in Lincoln Green appeared from thin air behind her, an arrow was notched to his crossbow which was aimed at the back of the girl’s head. “Stop it both of you” Archer ordered and continued “Now, Surrender and no funny business or I will kill both you and your servants in a single shot right here, right now”. Realising her predicament, the girl bit her lip and raised her arms in surrender. Fletcher saw that Archer must have a stealth ability as the way he appeared wasn’t him materialising from his invisible spirit form to his physical form like all servants do and that from this angle, Archer could kill them both in one shot.

But Fletcher had to save Yuta, so he blurted out, paying no heed to Archer’s warning. “Tell Yuta Greenfield that Fletcher Higgins is here”. Archer hesitated then glanced around the girl’s head to get a better look at Fletcher. “Hmm, that seems to be the case as I vaguely recognise you from the clock tower when I was doing reconnaissance there.” Archer paused then carried on “I’ve just told my master telepathically about our situation, he says he wants to stop fighting and talk things out. Since you and by extension your servants are at my mercy, I suggest you cooperate and call off your servants telepathically” Archer was right, if he killed both the girl and Fletcher right now their servants would lose their masters and as a result lose their anchors to this world that supplies them with the mana needed to maintain their form and thus, their servants will die as well. Fletcher nodded in agreement and after some hesitation so did the girl. “Good, shall we reconvene with the others?” Archer said smiling.

Chapter 3: “Allies”

The hooded Archer suggested both Fletcher and the girl called off their servants. Archer then accompanied them on the way down to the ground floor where the others were waiting. Since he had his hood up, Fletcher couldn’t tell what Archer looked like, but now that they were no longer fighting, he got a good look at the girl who must be Lancer’s master. She was fair skinned and of moderate build with dark, brunette hair that was neatly tied back into a pony tail. She wore a smart, blue bonnet coloured coat accompanied by a white collared shirt, a short dark brown skirt that stopped before her knees and similarly coloured stockings that extended down to simple, well cared for light brown shoes. Piercing emerald eyes looked out from a pretty face that Fletcher felt was spoiled by her somewhat haughty attitude.

When they met up with the others, Fletcher was relieved to see that they all were fairly unscathed although both Yuta and Saber had some light cuts and bruises while Lancer was relatively untouched, moreover Yuta’s black, sleeveless vest was badly torn. Also, while Saber and Yuta looked relieved to see their companions return safely, Lancer was in contrast noticeably tense and seemed willing to fight. This was understandable given that her master was being escorted by an enemy servant and both her and her master didn’t know the others like how Yuta and Fletcher knew each other.

Fletcher got a good look at Lancer now that she was no longer fighting. She was strikingly beautiful woman with long purplish-red hair, soft dark red eyes and a serene face. She wore full body tights that was various shades of purple and left little to the imagination with regards to her curvaceous body. This was accompanied with a short skirt that covered her behind. Finally, she wore silver pauldrons as well as metallic high, heeled shoes as armour and wielded a blood red spear, the handle of which was covered in what looked like knotted roots and vines. This was attached to a blade that was more like a short sword than a spearhead.

As they drew close Archer called out “Wotcher Master, Greetings Saber, Lancer would you stop radiating hostility, I’m not pointing an arrow at your mistress anymore” “I’m more concerned by your lack of valour as a warrior by sneaking upon your opponent rather than confronting them head on.” Lancer retorted. Fletcher realised that Lancer’s master must have told Lancer telepathically what had transpired up in the scaffolding. Archer sighed and derisively said “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you over you bloated pride as a hero, a warrior has no need for such tactically inept chivalry. If I’m given an opportunity like that, I take it.”

Yuta sensing that a fight could break out again politely interjected with “Now, now, Archer, Lancer, let’s try to keep the peace a little longer and agree to disagree on your values as warriors”. Archer and Lancer glared at each other then reluctantly stopped doing so. “Right” continued Yuta “We’re here to talk things out but 1^st things 1^st Archer, let the other masters re-join their servants as a sign of trust.” Archer did as he was told and so Fletcher met up with Saber while the girl went back to Lancer. “Are you all right Master?” both Saber and Lancer asked their masters. Fletcher told Saber that he was ruffled but otherwise fine. Meanwhile the girl hung her head looking a bit unsure of herself. Lancer gently patted her masters head and said comfortingly “There, there, you did well under the circumstances, you only lost because your opponent’s fought dishonourably in order to win.” The girl looked up in surprise and brightened up a bit.

“What now Yuta?” asked Fletcher. “Now let’s go somewhere more discreet and secure to discuss matters further as other masters and servants that we do not trust as much could be watching as they will have likely become aware of the recent battle.” Yuta replied. Fletcher agreed mainly because he wanted to talk to Yuta more and the girl agreed as well with a suggestion.

“Let us go to my family mansion as I am fairly certain that it’s protection and concealment magecraft will be the best out of any of our operational bases” the girl proposed. Yuta seemed up to it but Fletcher was so sure as he didn’t know this girl and said as much. “Oh, where are my manners, you two seem to know each other but you don’t know me” The girl replied pompously “I am June Bainsworth of the famed Bainsworth mage family, we are professionally a mage law enforcement family and I’ve been chosen by the grail to represent my family in the Holy Grail War. I am currently a student at the clock tower specialising in mage law and you wouldn’t know that despite being fellow students as I am privately tutored at home. You will be very welcome at my family mansion; you should feel honoured at such an invitation.”

Fletcher still felt some reluctance at going to an enemy master’s stronghold but he decided to go with the flow for now. After all, as Saber pointed out to him telepathically, they may get something useful out of this such as an alliance or information. They made sure that their servants were in their invisible spirit forms before following June to the Bainsworth Mansion and they arrived later that afternoon. Fletcher found the mansion to be marked improvement over his simple flat. It was a wide building with a ground floor and a 1^st floor with lots of rooms for various purposes. It was surrounded by a lush and colourful Garden. Fletcher could feel the powerful mana emanating from the mansion as soon as June temporarily deactivated the impressive protection and concealment magecraft to let them safely enter the grounds.

“I guess she wasn’t kidding when she said her security magecraft was better than ours.” thought Fletcher. Once they were safely inside the mansion the servants returned to their visible physical forms and Archer finally removed his hood. He was a tall, lean man dressed in Lincoln green trousers and a sleeveless Lincoln Green shirt. He wore a dark green cloak and hood, a detached Lincoln green sleeve on the lower part of his right arm, bandages on the lower part of his left arm and brown boots. His had spiky, orange, messy hair that was slightly longer than Sabers and some of it fell across his right eye. His left eye, which could be seen more clearly, was a cold grey-green colour.

“Right, let us hold the discussion in the conference room upstairs, follow me.” June ordered. She took the lead, the others followed. They soon arrived at the conference room and they all entered, June closed the door behind them and said “Please have a seat” indicating the chairs set around a long conference table. They all sat. “Now we shall pick up where we let off.”

“Firstly” began June “I would like to know your names which is only fair as I have already told you mine, however for now don’t reveal any more than you feel you need to as I know that mages can be very secretive and cautious especially in this war where revealing too much can be dangerous.” Fletcher found himself surprisingly impressed by June since his 1^st impression of her had been that she was the typical arrogant, pompous and overbearing noble mage. Now he realised she could also be surprisingly mature and empathetic at times.

Yuta responded by giving his name and explaining that his name was part Japanese and part British due to his mixed heritage. Fletcher followed Yuta by simply giving his name. He noticed that June was looking at him with curiosity now but he was relieved when she didn’t pry as the conversation moved on. “Now with the formalities out of the way” June stated in a matter-of-fact tone. “I have another suggestion, no I think proposition is the more appropriate word, I would like to take this opportunity to become allies with you all, at least until the other masters are defeated then we can go back to being enemies to determine who will get the grail in the end. Strategically it will improve our odds of winning. So, what do you say?”

Saber and Yuta stated that they had been thinking along the same lines. Fletcher was a bit unsure but also agreed that it would improve their chances of winning the war. Furthermore, he may be able to get useful information about the others in this alliance that would allow him to defeat them more easily once the alliance ended. Lancer and Archer were less convinced. Lancer protested that she did not trust the others enough to consider making them allies with the exception of Yuta as she could “Tell” he was of trustworthy character having fought him. Archer also protested saying that he’d rather let all the other masters wear each other down then take them out once they were weakened and win the grail on his own, as opposed to risking exposing Yuta’s and Archers information to allies who would later become enemies.

Lancer did not appreciate Archer’s tactics and they were coming close to being at each other’s throats again. Before Yuta could intervene again to keep things from escalating, Saber quickly projected a smithing hammer in his hand and drew everyone’s undivided attention by banging it loudly on the table. Presently he spoke “Enough both of you, you’re behaving like petulant children, I understand your concerns but I disagree with them as I believe we’ve come far enough in terms of trust to start working as allies.”

“Furthermore” continued Saber “I am a strong believer in the saying that two or more branches are better at bearing a burden than a single branch is alone”. That seemed to settle the matter. Now that they were allies, they continued the discussion which now moved onto what information they would share with each other. They decided for now, as a sign of equal unity, to share their servants’ true names as this would help their alliance coordinate and strategize together more effectively due to knowing their allies’ capabilities. Lancer was revealed to be Scathach, a Scottish warrior queen from Celtic ⁽⁴⁴⁾ Mythology who trained the famous Irish Hero Cú Chulainn aka, Queen of the Land of Shadows, Witch of Dún Scáith, Lord of Spirits.

Archer turned out to be Robin Hood from English Folklore, who was famous for robbing the rich to give to the poor, wielding a bow made of Yew, opposing the Tyrannical Sherriff of Nottingham and residing in Sherwood Forest. Aka The Green man, The Chivalrous thief.

Now the conversation moved onto what their future plans were going to be. Archer spoke up saying that while he was doing reconnaissance, he had noticed a building of interest. They all agreed to investigate it when they learned it had recently had an activated bounded field ⁽⁴⁵⁾ made from magecraft around it that had since gone inactive. When the police had investigated the building, which had been occupied before the activation of the bounded field, they found it mysteriously unoccupied after the field had been deactivated. Since none of them had heard about it before now, they concluded that it must be the work of an enemy master. Like Fletcher, the others disliked the idea of involving innocent bystanders in the war so they unanimously agreed to find the culprit and deal with them.

Chapter 4 “The Heretical Priest”

The priest walked past the aisles of the church at night like the grim reaper passing gravestones. Indifferent and expressionless. He was a tall man dressed in a priest’s cassock and smart black shoes. He had black hair, cut short and neat, a middle eastern complexion and dark brown eyes. He seemed to be reading the bible as he paced up and down the church but the words held little or no interest for him. Suddenly he snapped the book shut, stopped walking and closed his eyes in concentration. He then smiled saying “Stop that incessant flapping, I know you’re there”

As if on cue, a large bat flew down from the shadows in the ceiling and landed on one of the aisle chairs. It looked at the priest with shiny black eyes that glinted in the faint moon light. “G’day boss” spoke the bat in surprisingly human sounding voice with a thick Australian accent. “Interesting reading choice for a heretic.” The priest ignored the cheeky comment and changed the subject to the matter on his mind “What does Assassin have to report?” The Bat answered with “He was spying on the 1^st clash between Lancer and Archer, Saber and his master interfered and the fight was resolved with no casualties”

“No casualties?” interrupted the priest. “Indeed” continued the bat “It seems they formed a truce and then returned all together to the Bainsworth’s mansion. Assassin could not tell what was going on inside due to the mansions impressive magecraft defences. However earlier today, Saber and Archers masters left the mansion then returned from their homes later today with lots of luggage, they seem to be staying at the mansion with Lancer’s master as a base of operations.”

“So, they may have formed a long-term alliance.” concluded the Priest. “That makes things a bit more interesting. I had hoped they stay separated and thus be easier to defeat or better yet kill each other and spare me some effort.” The Bat replied with “Would it be wise to go with plan B that was designed to deal with this situation? Why not just assault the mansion with overwhelming force. Afterall, we outnumber them and their servants.”

The priest retorted with “Haste makes waste and quality over quantity, we only know Lancers true name thanks to my Berserker servant, thus we know she is no pushover. Furthermore, we do not know the true names of Saber and Archer thus we do not know their capabilities therefore it is hard to form an informed strategy against them. Moreover, my Berserker servant is the only servants in our ranks who stands a chance against their servants so it would actually be our servants who would be outnumbered not theirs. Finally, the magecraft defences of the mansion would impair our servant’s ability to fight at full strength. In essence the enemy has a massive homefield advantage while at the mansion.”

“Thanks for shooting down my suggestion boss, I thought Jesus taught you to turn the other cheek” The Bat chuckled at its own joke then continued.

“Yeah, I get it, you want to draw them out of the mansion and eliminate them once they’re more vulnerable. That’s why you left that deactivated bounded field at the block of flats for them to find.” “Correct, when they come to investigate the bounded field, Assassin’s master will deal with them while Rider keeps them distracted. In addition, I have a backup plan for plan B involving Assassin and Berserker will lend Rider support if need be.” elaborated the Priest.

“Rider’s is going to need support given how unusually weak she is but she is a key part of your longer-term scheme despite being otherwise useless due to her incompetent master.” The Bat commented and was about to leave when he stopped and said “I almost forgot, my caster servant finally obeyed my command seal and prophesised through his clairvoyance ⁽⁴⁶⁾ ability about how your scheme will playout.” “Anything worth mentioning?” asked the Priest. “Nothing will be able to stop your plans once it reaches the final stage” answered the Bat.

Chapter 5 “June’s wish”

The next day June was in her bedroom busy preparing herself for the upcoming investigation that evening. She personally didn’t mind the others masters staying at her family’s mansion as it meant she had some more company while fighting this war. On the other hand, she was feeling a bit melancholy about the fact that she would have to kill them once their alliance ended in order to win the war. 

Admittedly she would prefer to remain friends with Yuta since she liked his kind, calm and earnest personality. She felt she could trust him more. As the daughter of a mage family that was strongly associated with law enforcement it was natural that she preferred people who were honest, trustworthy and reliable. She couldn’t say the same for Fletcher who was more withdrawn and secretive. This became apparent when yesterday evening after the others had returned with their belongings. They held another discussion and the topic of what other secrets they could share with each other came up. Firstly they shared what their wish would be if they won the war. Yuta said that he had no particular wish he wanted the grail to grant and that he wanted to prevent others from using the grail for malicious purposes.

Furthermore, he said he wanted to grant his own wish without the grails aid which was to hone his close combat magecraft skills so that he could become strong enough to protect others or as he put it “Invincible under the Sun”. He kept the part about using that strength as a vigilante to himself. June said she wanted to win the war for her family’s honour as they had fought in previous grail wars so it was traditional and she herself had no particular wish as well.

Fletcher said that he had a wish but he didn’t wish to disclose what it was. June tried and failed to get him to admit what it was and the discussion moved onto what their magecraft origins were. Yuta’s was “Master of One” which made him exceptionally proficient at one form of magecraft of his choice, he had chosen close combat magecraft which made sense given his wish. Junes was “Crime and Punishment” which gave her a powerful and unique form of magecraft that allowed her to absorb all incoming attacks up to a certain damage limit while taking minimal damage from those attacks. She then retaliates by combining her own power with the power of the absorbed attacks and unleashing it on her opponent. In essence using their own attacks (crime) on her against them (punishment).   

Again, Fletcher would not reveal what his was and he got so defensive about it that he abrasively criticised the others for revealing too many of their secrets and that he was not dumb enough to disclose his. That ended that conversation abruptly so they moved on to planning the investigation. June did have her suspicions as to what Fletcher’s origin was given his family name Higgins but decided to respect his desire to not disclose it. June had just finished getting ready when Scathach walked into her bedroom. “Hello Scathach, how are you?” June politely greeted her servant. Scathach answered with “Just fine Master, I’ve come to inform you that the others are ready for the investigation this evening.”

“Thank you for informing me” June said gratefully then with a smirk she continued “You know Scathach, I think you should call me June instead of master as I’ve started calling you Scathach rather than Lancer”. “I cannot do that Master for I am merely a servant” Scathach replied bluntly. June’s smile widened as she commented “You may try to keep up that persona of the impersonal, professional and strict teacher but I see you as a caring older sister.” Scathach looked surprised and June knew she had hit the mark.  

“I’m good at reading people through their behaviour” she explained “If you were truly that persona you would have given me a 3^rd strike when Archer caught me and severed our contract as master and servant. Instead, you made an exception and comforted me. Am I wrong?”. Scathach sighed then confessed “Yes, you are right June, I was distant with my previous student’s in life and after becoming your servant, I tried to be the same way but we are more friendly equals in our relationship than master and servant or teacher and student. The real reason I came to you a top that tall building was out of concern for your safety rather than merely to inform you of Archer’s summoning. I feel most at ease when you are in the safety of your well protected mansion. It’s also why I was especially agitated about Archer holding you captive and slow to trust the other masters and servants when they became allies. Simply put I care for you like an elder sister would for her younger sister”.

“I’ve always wanted a sister” June admitted “Mage couples typically only have a single child as only one child can inherit the family secrets and their families magic crest ⁽⁴⁷⁾. That’s why I’m happy that you and our allies are here while my parents are away as you all keep me company.” The sun was beginning to set now, they would be setting off soon. Scathach excused herself and was about to leave when June asked “I’ve been thinking, servants usually disappear once the war concludes as they are summoned by the power of the grail and once it uses its power to grant the victors wish it can’t keep the servants summoned, correct?”. “Indeed” Scathach confirmed “Okay I’ve made up my mind” decided June “I’m going to incarnate you as my wish so you can keep being like an older sister after the war concludes. What do you think?” Scathach smiling, replied “That sounds good to me, even though we are not related by blood I would be happy to carry on that role” “Glad to hear it” said June and Scathach departed.

However after she left the room, Scathach smile turned into frown as she recalled what had just been said.

Chapter 6 “Investigation and Plan B”

They departed shortly before the Sun had fully set and arrived at the building, which was a block of flats, by which time it had gotten fairly dark. Robin Hood (aka Archer) wasn’t with them as he was surveying the surrounding area from the top of a nearby building with his Hawkeye ability to keep an eye out for incoming enemies while the others investigated. They easily bypassed the police barriers surrounding the cordoned off building and entered the ground floor using magecraft to unlock the door. June proceeded to put her hand to the floor and speak an incantation “Trace on ⁽⁴⁸⁾”. She was using an type of reinforcement magecraft, which analysed the structural composition of an object, and used structural grasp magecraft to locate the nearby magecraft sigils that made up the deactivated bounded field. They were found throughout the building. It took the group a while to find them all and make sure the bounded field was truly deactivated as well as figure out what it was used for.

Once they finished searching, they reconvened at the entrance and discussed what they had found out. “Aside from what the bounded field was used for when activated we haven’t found out much else” said June disappointed “What was it used for?” Senji Muramasa asked. The 3 masters grimaced for they knew what had happened to the missing people who had once lived in this block of flats. Yuta answered “Anyone, who isn’t a servant or mage, within this building when the bounded field was activated would have had their bodies incinerated and souls extracted”.

“So, the people who lived here are dead rather than missing.” Senji clarified “Exactly” June continued on from Yuta’s explanation. “Moreover, as this has happened where a holy grail war is taking place, it’s fair to assume that the extracted souls were used by a master to feed their servant. Remember servants are maintained in this world by their master’s mana supply so generating more mana from elsewhere and giving it to the servant will increase their capabilities and power. Since servants are more like spirits than living beings, they can consume souls as a way to gain additional mana. It’s a pretty common tactic for improving a master’s chance of winning the war as mages do not care for human casualties.”

“Of course, we’re the exception, aren’t we? Even if it increases my chances of winning, I would never use such as despicable tactic” Fletcher stated firmly. The others nodded in agreement.

“Hold on” said June sounding puzzled “I read somewhere that this kind of magecraft usually just disintegrates it’s victims rather than incinerates them” Scathach added “I noticed something else while examining the sigils. From what my wisdom of Dún Scáith tells me, they seem to have been made by a servant’s ability, not by a mage using magecraft. That explains the incineration which must have been very precise as there was no evidence of a fire in the building”.

“What is it, Archer?” Yuta suddenly spoke up alerting the others. Yuta stood there listening to his servant’s telepathic message briefly before relaying it to the others. “Archer said there is what looks like a large reptilian bird flying at high speed towards our location with a servant riding it.” June spoke what they were all thinking “It’s likely a rider class servant, let’s go give it a warm welcome.” They exited the building and waited for the incoming enemy.

When the enemy arrived, Fletcher couldn’t quite believe his eyes, it was a dinosaur, more specifically a type of flying Dinosaur known as a Pterosaur that was the size of a small aircraft such as a Cessna 172. It had colourful, angular shapes and lines painted on its wings, neck, chest, legs and face. Riding it was an eccentrically dressed, fair skinned woman with long blonde hair and playful green eyes. On top of her head was an extravagant headdress made up of feathers and a golden face with additional golden pieces on either side of it. She wore golden cylindrical wristbands with feathers coming out the ends, her midriff was exposed and around her waist she wore a multicoloured skirt with a golden flower located at the skirts centre with feathers coming out from the bottom of the golden flower.

Extending from underneath those feathers was green rectangular sheet with strange carvings on it with more feathers coming out of the end of that. She wore nothing on her legs except silver knee pads with more carvings on them and feathers coming out of the bottom. On her feet she wore brown sandals with thick green laces and gold plates on the inner side of the sandals. Covering her upper chest was a short Mexican poncho. She also had large gold earrings, a necklace coated in emeralds, a brown head band with a gold centrepiece and glinting in the city streetlights an emerald piercing located between her lower lip and chin.

The Pterosaur landed in front of them and the woman jumped off its back. The large lizard then dematerialised and the woman began skipping towards them like a child coming home from school. Senji and Scathach took defensive positions in front of their masters and Yuta, ready to engage the incoming enemy. Seeing this, the woman stopped skipping towards them, put her hands out wide and with an innocent smile proclaimed “Hola, Caballeros y Damas <Hello, Gentlemen and Ladies>, I am Quetzalcoatl, the Great Firebird of the Sun, summoned here as the rider class servant, now why don’t we forget about this Holy grail war and do some Lucha Libre together.”

There was a short, awkward silence following that statement that was broken by Yuta saying “Lucha Libre? Isn’t that that some kind of Mexican professional wrestling?” “Si, Ciertamente, <Yes, certainly>, I adore Lucha Libre ever since I first saw it” confessed Quetzalcoatl. “Yuta” June said irritably “Focus, she just revealed her true name and that she is a divine spirit. ⁽⁴⁹⁾ That shouldn’t be possible.” continued June “Divine spirits are different from heroic spirits in that they are actual gods as opposed to heroic spirits who are wholly or partially human. Consequently, it should be impossible for a mage to summon and maintain a being of such immense power as a servant unless…”

June’s voice trailed off, she seemed to be thinking hard then she asked “Quetzalcoatl, do you have anything to do with the bounded field in the building behind us?” “Si, I do, little Senorita <Miss>, I aided my master in setting up the bounded field and used the mana gained from those incinerated people to boost my own power. Now how about that Lucha Libre?” confirmed Quetzalcoatl. “That explains the incineration” exclaimed Yuta, his voice quaking with barely suppressed anger “She’s a Sun God from Aztec Mythology” “How could you? Those people had nothing to do with this war, they were innocent.” Fletcher said in anguish. “I don’t care if you are a god, you will pay for what you have done, Lancer, take her out” ordered June, full of righteous rage. “As you command, Master” Scathach replied stepping forward.

“Qué Mal!” <Too Bad> said Quetzalcoatl sighing in disappointment “I was really looking forward to doing some Lucha Libre but I guess a duel to the death with the big Senorita <Miss> will have to do for now”. Quetzalcoatl assumed a fighting stance, fists raised, Scathach in response assumed her own fighting stance, left hand held out in front with the palm open to her opponent, right hand holding her blood red spear horizontally behind her. They stood still holding their poses.

Suddenly they leapt at each other, shooting over the ground with superhuman speed. As they reached each other Quetzalcoatl threw a right hook which Scathach evaded by ducking and countering with a left-handed punch aimed at Quetzalcoatl’s upper midriff. It landed heavily, knocking the wind out of Quetzalcoatl and there was a sound of breaking ribs along with the impact of the punch. Quetzalcoatl was sent flying backwards by the punch and as she landed, tumbled and struggled to get to her feet Scathach took aim with her spear and threw it at her opponent. Quetzalcoatl tried and failed to evade the incoming projectile; however, she did avoid being hit in a vital spot as the spear pierced her between the left shoulder and her heart. 

Blood spurted from the wound and Scathach proceeded to hold out her right hand. The spear magically wrenched itself free of the wound, slicing through the collarbone in the process and returned to its masters outstretched hand. More blood flowed from the wound and Quetzalcoatl was on her knees gasping for breath. Scathach seemed to have won. “It shouldn’t have been that easy” June commented “Divine spirits are usually far stronger than heroic spirits”.

A loud, disembodied voice, with a Mediterranean accent, rang out in the night “What are you doing Rider? You are supposed to be the strongest servant. You should retreat for now, that idiot master of Assassin failed to shoot and kill Lancer’s, Saber’s or Archer’s master while you kept them distracted.” “Who is that and where is he?” Fletcher asked. June answered with “I suspect that is Rider’s master, also his voice is being transmitted and amplified via magecraft to this area, he could be miles away, there is no point in searching for him.” Scathach spoke to Quetzalcoatl “Well Rider, will you retreat?” Quetzalcoatl looked up, gave a creepy, toothy grin that looked like a Great White Shark trying to smile and replied “Of course not, I want to keep fighting.”

Chapter 7 “Retreat and Deceit”

“What do you mean you want to keep fighting?” said the disembodied voice of Riders master sounding exasperated. “I was already denied the chance to do some Lucha Libre with these Damas y Cabelleros <Ladies and Gentlemen>, I will not be denied the opportunity to have a duel to the death. That’s why I want to keep fighting, I don’t care if looks like I will lose, so long as I get to have fun that’s all that matters.” stated Quetzalcoatl.

“You fool, very well, if you won’t listen to reason and retreat, I will make you do so. By the power of my command seal”- began Riders master. “Master please don’t”- begged Quetzalcoatl sounding distressed. “-I order you to retreat Rider.” finished Riders master.

Quetzalcoatl swore in Spanish, gritted her teeth and painfully stood up. Begrudgingly she turned around, facing away from the others and shouted “Quetzalcoatlus.” The Pterosaur reappeared from thin air, answering its master’s call. As she slowly clambered with difficulty onto her monstrous ride, Senji and Scathach advanced towards her. “You didn’t think we’d just let you retreat, did you?” Senji asked. A split second later, what looked like 4 glowing red stones fell out of the nights sky, they landed in a square surrounding Yuta, Fletcher, June, Senji and Scathach. The second they landed, they formed a blue, cube shaped magecraft barrier, trapping all the people inside the square. “What is this?” enquired Fletcher “Rune Magecraft ⁽⁵⁰⁾” Scathach concluded. “Look, Rider is escaping,” shouted June. Indeed, she was, with a single look back at them filled with regret and shame Quetzalcoatl flew away on her Pterosaur and disappeared into the night sky.

“How are we going to get out of here?” said a concerned Yuta. “Not to worry” said Scathach “I am familiar with this older form of powerful magecraft, just give me a minute to disable it.” Soon the Barrier was removed and the group could move freely now. Unfortunately, Rider was long gone by then. They proceeded to discuss their current situation and what to do next. “Since we can’t pursue Rider and we’ve completed our investigation, I suggest we return to the mansion.” concluded Senji. The others agreed and they began to make their way back.

They had only been walking a few minutes when Archer appeared, re-joined them and explained what had happened to him while he wasn’t with them. “Shortly after Rider arrived, I noticed a man, most likely a master, on a rooftop near where you guys were, he seemed to be about to fire a sniper rifle at one of you. So, I intercepted him before he could do so and he retreated. As I pursued him, his servant who seemed to be the Assassin class servant stopped me. Sorry to say but he was too good at close range combat for me to deal with so I had to give up on pursuing his master and retreat back here.”

“No need to apologise Archer, you did well to warn us of Rider’s approach as well as prevent us from being shot.” Yuta said kindly. He then explained to Archer what had transpired at the block of flats.

“I’m glad you all got through that unscathed” said Archer “Though it is a shame we couldn’t finish off those responsible for the bounded field.” “I guess I should also apologise for not finishing off Rider when I had the chance” Scatahach said apologetically “I guess even you make blunders from time-to-time Scathach”. said June smirking “Don’t worry about it, we’ll get her next time, she and her master need to pay for what they’ve done.” “Speaking of her master, didn’t what he said suggest he was working with Assassin’s master?” Fletcher wondered aloud.

“That is concerning, I was hoping the other masters wouldn’t have teamed up as that makes our goal of defeating them more difficult.” noted June. “Also, I’m wondering why Rider was so weak despite being a divine spirit and who was it that conjured that Rune Magecraft barrier? Scathach, you seemed to be familiar with it?” “Indeed, I am, simply put, I can use Rune magecraft which is an older, powerful form of magecraft from the Age of Gods ⁽⁵¹⁾” Explained Scathach. “I taught it to my students including the famous Irish hero Cú Chulainn” “If it’s from the age of Gods no wonder it’s such a strong form of magecraft as magecraft from that era is closer to true magic ⁽⁵²⁾ in terms of its capabilities.” said Yuta in mild awe.

They walked on in silence for few more minutes when Archer said “Sorry if this sounds unlike me but I’ve noticed that Lancers master has been referring to Lancer by her true name. I was wondering if my master and Saber’s master would do the same for me and Saber.” “Sure thing” Yuta replied “I guess it is a bit impersonal to keep calling you Archer. From now on, except when in the presence of enemies, I will call you Robin Hood or Robin for short.” Robin nodded in appreciation. Saber looked at Fletcher “How about you master?” he asked. Fletcher shrugged indifferently and said “Sure, which do you prefer to be called, Senji or Muramasa?” “I often name the swords I craft with a 1^st name followed by Muramasa so I would prefer to be called Senji by you master.” Senji answered. “Keeping it fair, I suppose the servants should call their masters by their names as well.” suggested Yuta. Everyone nodded in agreement.

As they carried on towards to the mansion, something unexpected happened. Robin, who was a short distance behind the rest of the group, suddenly leapt backwards several metres as an arrow buried itself in the ground where he had been standing. The others whirled around at the sound of the arrow hitting the ground.

A familiar voice from above said “Damn, I guess my attack weakened my concealment ability which gave me away”. They looked up at the source of the voice, there standing at the top of a nearby building was another Robin. Thinking quickly, Fletcher clarified the situation “One of those Archers must be a fake who has an ability to disguise themselves as others”. “Ok, so how do we figure out which is the real one?” asked June. “That’s simple” stated Yuta “I just say something telepathically to the real Archer and whichever can say the same thing back to me verbally must be the real one.” A few seconds later they had their answer. The archer on the roof of the nearby building spoke saying “Yuta told me that he wants to try Lucha Libre one day.”

Upon hearing those words, the Archer on the ground, who had just been identified as the fake Archer, threw a smoke grenade at the ground by his feet, it detonated on impact and he vanished from sight as he was swallowed by a cloud of thick smoke. Scathach and Senji began to give chase but the real Archer called them back saying “Don’t bother, he is likely the Assassin servant I encountered given that disguise ability, escaping is his specialty, he also has a presence concealment ability so pursuing him would be a complete waste of time.”

They reconvened with the real Archer. “Tell us what really happened as opposed to what that fake Archer told us.” Yuta enquired. “From what you’ve told me the only major differences are that I kept pursuing the Assassin Class servant after he stopped me pursuing his master by briefly fighting me at close range. It seems he was intending to lead me far away from you guys then I lost track of him after he left my eyesight, which he achieved either with a presence concealment ability or that disguise trick. He must have quickly doubled back, disguised himself as me and approached you guys. I returned after concluding that I had truly lost him, sorry it took me so long” explained Archer apologetically. “No Problem, Robin, we’re just glad to have you back safe and sound”. Yuta said sounding relieved “Wait, did you just call me Robin?” Archer replied in surprise. “Oh no!” exclaimed June, her eyes widening in horror. “We just told that fake Archer all our Servants true names”.  

Chapter 8: “Plan C”

“Well done, Assassin, while it is regrettable that your master failed to take out any of the enemy masters, you managing to find out Saber and Archer’s true names for us more than makes up for it. Now we can deal with our enemy more easily since we now know what they are capable of.” said the priest joyfully. He, Assassin and Assassin’s master were back at the church later that same evening. “No problem, Cyan, I’m always happy to help” replied Assassin cheerfully. He was no longer disguised as Archer. He was a well-built, yet slender man, with straight, black hair that was short around his face but was significantly longer behind his head. Like Senji he was mostly half-naked from waist up aside from purple bandages covering his arms and blue, outlined with gold, elbow length gauntlets. He had a rose flower tattoo on his lower left abdomen and a thick belt coloured blue, gold, red and brown with a circular centrepiece. Finally he wore purple baggy trousers extending down to blue shin guards, white shoes and white sheet of cloth that hung from the front of the belt to down between his legs. His eyes were a pale green and he had a faintly east Asian complexion.

Assassin’s master had a more simplistic appearance. He was wearing trousers, a long-sleeved shirt, shoes and a balaclava that showed only his eyes. All of which was jet black and designed to help him hide in the dark. He was standing at the back of the church near the entrance doorway with his back against the wall while the priest named Cyan and Assassin stood talking to each other just in front of the frontmost aisle of seats.

“However,” said Cyan in a serious tone of voice “We must not overlook the fact that Rider’s master gave away our alliance to the enemy. He is too much of a liability and must be dealt with soon. Don’t you agree, Yassan?” Assassin’s master nodded silently. “Furthermore, I will keep his Rider servant around after he is dealt with as she is a key part of my main scheme.” “Sounds good” commented Assassin “but how are going to deal with the enemy now that they have returned to their mansion, had their servants’ true names revealed and they learned that there is an opposing alliance of masters and servants. Won’t it be harder to get them to come out of their mansion as they may now be more cautious.” “You should thank Rider for this, I’ve got a plan C that should get those brats out of that mansion quite easily, you see Rider told me-” Cyan was about to explain further when he was interrupted by the church entrance doors suddenly swinging open.

A man came striding in followed by another man who followed sheepishly. As he strode in the first man shouted “Where are you, Cyan Susan?” “Right here, Alexander Agua” Cyan responded “Syd Burgress, didn’t I tell you to let no-one else in until I had concluded my business with Assassin and his master” continued Cyan addressing the man following Alexander into the church. “Sorry boss” said Syd in voice with same Australian accent as the bat from before. “I tried to tell him to wait but he would not listen.”

“It’s okay Syd, I was planning to deal with Mr Agua soon anyway, this just accelerates the time table.” Cyan said calmly. Both of the men who had just entered the church had similar builds yet were otherwise were quite different in appearance. Both of them were short and plump but Alexander had average limbs while Syd has muscular ones. Alexander wore a highly decorated 3-piece suit with a bowtie, smart, white shoes, white gloves, neat, short, curly blonde hair and a small blonde moustache. He had a Mediterranean complexion, accent and mean, dark brown eyes that were narrowed in anger. Syd wore a dirty grey vest and muddy brown shorts held up by scruffy suspenders. On his feet were muddier wellington boots, he had a tanned complexion, greasy black hair, with a few grey strands and watery grey eyes behind large round spectacles.

“So, Mr Agua, what can I do for you?” inquired Cyan. “That’s Sir Agua to you”. spat Alexander. “I’ll tell you what you can do, get me a better servant than that useless Rider, I can’t help you win the war with her as my servant. Furthermore you told me that she was stronger than any other servant, were you lying to me?” “I never lied to you about her being a divine spirit and therefore should be stronger than any heroic spirit.” explained Cyan, who seemed to be enjoying himself, he continued “However, it should be noted that while summoning a divine spirit is usually impossible for a mage to achieve on their own. The grail however makes it possible. There is a catch. Any divine spirit summoned by the grail with a mage as it’s master will be severely weakened as it’s divinity, which is key trait of divine spirits as well as heroic spirits associated with the gods for example demigods, will be lessened as the mana supplied by the master alone is not a sufficient replacement for the divine core ⁽⁵³⁾ that all divine spirits need to maintain their divinity and thus their full power. There is a potential solution, you just need enough additional mana to keep the divine spirit sustained at full power.”

“I say only a potential solution as it would require an absurd amount of mana to make a decent substitute for a divine core. That is why I had you and Rider use that bounded field to gain more mana for her. It seems however that it wasn’t enough for her to beat Lancer unfortunately.” Cyan concluded. “So, you tricked me into summoning a useless servant, you scoundrel!” Alexander accused angrily “Why?” “Oh, that’s quite simple, I just needed someone stupid enough to summon a divine spirit. I have need of a divine spirit for my main scheme.” said Cyan with a faint smirk. “Insult me all you like Cyan” Alexander retorted “I have high ranking contacts in the mage association at the Clock Tower who can put you in jail lickety split.”

Cyan burst out laughing at the threat, “Oh you poor fool, how are you going to get them to arrest me after I’ve killed you?” Cyan remarked “K-Kill me, why?” stammered Alexander going slightly pale. “You’re too much of a liability to be left alive.” replied Cyan suddenly deathly serious. Alexander, realising that he was in real danger, quickly pulled off his glove on his left hand, revealing his 2 remaining command seals on the back of his hand. He then raised that hand into the air and his 2^nd command seal began to glow red, ready to be used.

“By the power of my command seal, Rider-” he began to shout, presumably to order rider to save him, but he was cut short. His raised arm fell back down to his side, the command seals dimed, went out and then both of them faded away. He fell face forward, landing with a hard thud on the church floor. A sharp, military dagger was buried into the back of his head. It had been thrown by Assassin’s master, Yassan. The dagger then vanished into thin air and reappeared in a concealed sheath attached to Yassan’s leg just above the ankle.

Syd whistled and commented “Nice Trick, you’d make a killing as a magician.” “Enough jokes, Syd, now dispose of the body.” ordered Cyan. “All right, come on in Berty, it’s dinnertime.” said Syd. A large animal that looked like a cross between a bear and a wolf walked in and dragged the corpse of Alexander outside. “I’ll be sure to clean up once Berty has finished.” clarified Syd before following the animal outside. “Now getting back to the topic we were discussing before being interrupted” Cyan started saying.

 “Rider told me that the enemy masters seemed particularly upset by us using those people in the block of flats as sacrifices to harvest more mana. This means that they likely cannot stand by while innocent lives are on the line. How noble! So, my plan C for dealing with them is to have my Berserker go on a public rampage, killing people indiscriminately. They will be forced to leave their mansion to stop him and I will let him finish them off then and there. He should be strong enough to take out their servants since Scathach is their strongest in terms of direct combat and Berserker’s parameters exceeds hers significantly.” finished Cyan.

“One thing is still puzzling me; how will we maintain Rider now that her master is gone?” asked Assassin. “Don’t worry, I’ve already planned to make her my servant before she fades away.” answered Cyan. Cyan himself had another puzzling concern. Why was Senji Muramasa’s Noble Phantasm still unknown even though they knew his true name?

Fletcher and his allies returned to the Mansion that night and went to bed before reconvening the next day. After a good night’s sleep, they gathered in the conference room and went over what had happened. “So, in short” concluded June “We know that Rider and her master were responsible for the bounded field, that Rider is the Divine Spirit Quetzalcoatl, that she is weak for divine spirit, that Assassin and his master are allies with them, someone else who knows rune magecraft is assisting Rider and that Assassin used a disguise ability in order to learn our servants’ true names.”

The 3 young masters sighed as they were still clearly bothered by that last part. It would put them at an immense tactical disadvantage as the enemy would now know the capabilities of their servants. “We will have to be especially cautious from now on, for example, not splitting up when outside the mansion so that what happened with that Assassin servant never happens again.” advised Robin. “Indeed, for today I suggest we wait until tomorrow before making a move in the war. In the meantime, why don’t you help me with chores around the mansion.” suggested June.

They all agreed and with June’s direction they went about doing various tasks around the house. Robin tended to the garden, Senji dealt with the kitchen cleaning and clothes washing, Yuta dealt with the rubbish, Fletcher cleaned up downstairs while Scathach and June dealt with upstairs.

At Senji’s request they went out together that afternoon to go shopping for food for a Japanese meal Senji wanted to cook. Udon noodles in bowl of broth with fried egg, chopped vegetables and sliced beef on top. They had supper at about 6pm in the grand downstairs dining room. The mood was merry, the food delicious and even Fletcher who was usually shy and withdrawn was enjoying himself. After supper was finished and tidied away, they were relaxing in the dining hall having a casual chat when the downstairs phone rang in the entrance hall.

“I’ll get it”. said June, leaving the room to answer the phone. She’d only been gone a few minutes before she rushed back in saying “Everyone be quiet and listen” Everybody did so. “I’ve just received a call from the Mage association. Apparently, there is a servant that is murdering civilians and causing destruction on Kew Bridge. According to them, it’s a Berserker class servant whose parameters exceed Scathachs. The calm mood that had previously occupied the room vanished.

“Won’t the mage association do anything?” asked Senji. “They won’t.” answered Fletcher. “They are only concerned with preventing non-mages learning about magecraft, not whether people die, particularly in this war.” “Then it’s up to us stop Berserker” declared Yuta. “Come on, let’s go now.” “Hold your horses, Yuta.” Robin cautioned. “First we need a strategy, we can’t just charge in recklessly with no plan especially with such a strong opponent. Does anyone have a map of London?” “I’ve got one, I’ll go get it” said Fletcher who left to get his map. He returned and laid it out on the dining table. Robin pointed at Kew bridge then looked at the surrounding area. “Ah ha, perfect, just what I was looking for.” He said pointing at Kew Gardens which was a large botanical research and education institution just south west of Kew Bridge.

“What are you planning, Robin?” asked Yuta. “My plan” replied Robin. “is that one of us servants will go and engage Berserker while the others set up a location in Kew Gardens with traps and then wait. The master of the servant, that engages Berserker, will then telepathically tell their servant to retreat back to the location in Kew Gardens with Berserker in pursuit and then together we three servants will destroy Berserker with aid from the traps and the advantageous terrain.” “Sounds good so far, especially as the gardens will be closed so we don’t have to worry about civilian casualties.” remarked Fletcher “But who will engage Berserker and where exactly is the location in Kew gardens where we finish Berserker?”

“I’ll engage Berserker” confirmed Scathach. “Since I will most likely survive long enough for the rest of you to set up the traps and be able to get back safely.” June gave a concerned “Hmmm” and Scathach patted her head comfortingly. “The location will be in the thickest part of Kew Gardens woodland.” Robin explained further. “This will give us some terrain advantage as fighting Berserker in the open is suicide. It will also make the traps easier to conceal and allows for my preferred method of fighting; Guerrilla warfare.”

“While I see little valour in such tactics, I guess I’ll play along”. Scathach added. Robin ignored the insult to his plan and said “I’ll direct the preparation of the traps as my subversive activities ⁽⁵⁴⁾ ability is highly ranked and thus I am proficient in the making of traps designed to whittle down enemy forces before finishing them off. Senji, I’ll need your projection ability to build bladed traps. June, I’ll need your assistance with the magecraft traps. Yuta and Fletcher will assist with the traps as well. Once we are ready June will telepathically tell Scathach to retreat to our location. The masters should hide somewhere away from the traps to keep themselves safe.”

“A couple of last points to the servants. Firstly our general fighting strategy against Berserker will be hit and run attacks in tandem with Berserker being caught in the traps. Once most or all the traps are used up. Scathach will engage Berserker directly at close range while keeping the enemy’s attention on her. Senji and I will engage less directly, Senji at close-mid range and I’ll engage at long range. Secondly I leave it up to you when you use your noble phantasms. Ideally, we should finish him off without using them but the reality is we may have to resort to using them.” Robin concluded.

The others nodded, nervous but resolved to fight. “That concludes the planning stage” stated Robin. “Let’s get ready and go stop Berserker.” They all got up, got ready and left the mansion together. 

Chapter 9 “Battle of Kew”

As the group drew nearer to Kew at around 8:30pm, they saw smoke and flames rising from the bridge. “Alright here’s where we split up, Scathach will go engage Berserker, the rest of us will head to Kew Gardens.” ordered Robin.

They did just that and as Scathach approached the bridge she saw a hellish site. Mutilated bodies strewn across the floor, a multitude of burning and wrecked vehicles and at the centre of all this destruction with his back turned to her was Berserker. Looking to the ends of the Bridge, she saw mages disguised as emergency service officials cordoning off the bridge and minimalizing witnesses. She scowled at their lack of care for human life and proceeded to land on the Bridge behind Berserker. He must have noticed her for Berserker turned around to face her and Scathach felt mildly surprised.

She had suspected, ever since seeing that rune magecraft that allowed Rider to escape, that one of the other servants was someone she knew. Since she was the Lancer class servant, she had expected this someone to be a caster as if he wasn’t summoned as a lancer, he would likely be a caster specialising in rune magecraft. Yet here he was as a Berserker which is why she was surprised.

The Berserker class servant in front of her was none other than her most famous student in life, as a child he was known as Setanta, however he changed his name after slaying a certain blacksmiths, called Culann, dog and replaced that dog in recompense, becoming the Dog (Cú) of Culann. The Demigod son of the Irish God Lugh. Known as the Hound of Culann and Irelands child of Light, Cú Chulainn stood before her.

“Hello, my former teacher. Where are Archer and Saber?” Cú Chulainn asked in a cold, monotone voice. “You’ve changed Cú Chulainn” noted Scathach “Usually you’re cheerful, passionate and loquacious. Now it’s like you are the opposite of yourself.” “Indeed” replied Cú Chulainn indifferently. “Let’s just say I’m an altered version of myself. “You can say that again.” thought Scathach. Cú Chulainn’s appearance had changed quite a bit from when she knew him.

Previously he was a handsome, fair skinned, lean, well built, man with short, stuck up, spikey blue hair, red eyes, wearing ultramarine coloured full body tights similar to Scathachs outfit. This was covered in silver lines, which acted as runic protections, silver pauldrons on his shoulders and a metal plate over his lower abdomen. He wore silver shoes, the hair on the back of his head was worn in a rat tail and on his ears were silver earrings. The new Cú Chulainn had the same red eyes and blue hair but everything else was different. Over his head he wore a dark mauve hood. His chest and abdomen were naked and had strange red tattoos on them. His complexion was darker and he had zig zag, red tattoos under his eyes.

His shoulders were covered by a short, dark mauve cloak and his arms were covered by dark mauve elbow length gloves. In his right he held his own blood red spear similar to Scathach’s but the blade was shorter than hers. Finally, the most striking part of his altered appearance were the strange, thick, beast like armour covering his legs and feet with high heels as well as a large spikey tail protruding from his lower back. Both the armour and the tail were the same dark mauve colour as his clothing and were covered in blood red lines like blood vessels.

“Where are Archer and Saber?” He asked again in the same indifferent tone. “So, you knew we were allies?” Scathach asked back “Correct, I was planning on drawing all three of you out here with this massacre but I suppose things don’t always go as planned.” confirmed Cú Chulainn. So Rider must not only be working with Assassin but Berserker and they drew us out of the mansion by using innocent people as bait. thought Scathach disgusted. “Well, no matter” continued Cú Chulainn. “I’ll be killing you now, you should be happy my former teacher, I can finally grant your wish with this new form of mine.” “I’d like to see you try Cú Chulainn” Scathach replied.

Their fight began. To the average person it was a barely visible, ultra-fast flurry of parries, feints, thrusts, swipes, blocks and dodges. Two master spearmen shot from here to there across the bridge. Sometimes they even fought on the River Thames surface yet they always returned to the bridge. The fight was fairly even as both warriors were holding back, Scathach was holding back because instead of needing to win she just needed to hold out, until June told her to retreat to Kew Gardens, Cú on the other hand was wary of the fact that Archer and Saber could be hiding nearby ready to assist his opponent. As result he couldn’t fight at full force as he was dividing his attention between fighting his opponent and keeping g an eye out for any surprise attacks from her allies. The fight had continued like this for over 2 hours when June’s voice rang out telepathically in Scathach’s head “All right Scathach, that’s enough, bring Berserker to the location”. “On it” Scathach telepathically replied “Just know that Berserker is my student Cú Chulainn in an altered state and that he may be allied with Rider and Assassin.” “Roger that.” June said.

Scathach disengaged Cú and half ran, half leapt towards Kew Gardens. As Robin had planned Cú gave chase. Soon Scathach reached Kew Gardens and had Cú follow her into the Gardens woodland. As they reached a very thick piece of woodland Scathach vanished from Cú’s sight and hid herself nearby.

She knew that Senji and Robin were also hiding close-by while the masters hid further away. Cú had slowed down to a slow walk between the trees of the dark woodland. As he took another step, something squirmed under his foot.

Cú looked down at his foot to see thorny vines rapidly grow from under it, come alive and constrict his body. As this happened Senji shot out from his hiding spot in the surrounding trees and quickly slashed at Cú’s exposed chest with dual katana blades reinforced with magecraft. The swords cracked from the impact and only left shallow cuts in the bare skin. “Man, he’s tough” thought Senji before retreating back into the cover of darkness. Cú freed himself with his raw strength, tearing the vines apart, but as he moved away from the destroyed trap, he fell into a deep pit fall with a set of Katana blades pointing vertically upwards at the bottom. He landed on the blades chest 1^st and as he was stuck down there Robin fired a barrage of poisoned arrows from his yew bow.

Thanks to his protection from arrows ⁽⁵⁵⁾ ability, Cú deflected most of the projectiles with his tail but a few of them found their mark, piercing into his back. This surprised Robin as Cú’s protection from arrows was supposed to be fairly impressive. He figured that in his altered Berserker state, some of his capabilities will have improved while others will have weakened as a result of the madness enhancement ⁽⁵⁶⁾ trait that Berserkers often possessed. As Cú escaped the hole, Senji noticed that the wounds on his chest, from the swords in the pit, were more severe and weren’t healing as fast as his other wounds. “Interesting.” realised Senji. His Katana blades in the pit were imbued with demonic energy as opposed to magecraft. Cú had the magic resistance ⁽⁵⁷⁾ ability so of course Senji’s blades that were reinforced with magecraft weren’t as effective as his demonic ones. “Maybe you aren’t such a failure, Myoujingiri.” Senji mused to himself.

Cú was moving more warily now, keeping a close eye on the ground at his feet, as he passed between two trees. Magecraft sigils on the trees lit up and a powerful surge of mana like electricity was cast between the trees, electrocuting Cú. While his magic resistance weakened the paralysing effect, it was enough for Scathach to leap from cover and stab him in the back with a thrust from her spear. The wound was similarly severe to the pitfall one as Scathach’s spear was also demonic. It would however take a lot more than these injuries to bring down Cú as most of these attacks were little more than mosquito bites to him. This process continued for a few more minutes.

There were a couple of close calls, namely when the traps didn’t quite immobilise Cú so he could counter his hit and run attackers and one-time Senji was swatted away by his tail. Another time Robin got grabbed by Cú and was about to be impaled by his spear when the others intervened and allowed Robin to escape unharmed. Eventually they ran out of traps and now had to engage him more directly without hiding in the cover of the trees.  

As planned Scathach engaged him most directly by staying in front of him thus drawing most of his attention and keeping to close range combat. This was the best course of action for her for two reasons. Firstly, she knew Cú best in terms of how to fight him having taught him how to fight herself. Secondly, she was the best out the three of them at close range combat. Senji focused on attacking from the sides and behind. He kept his distance more often, only getting in close when it was safe to slash away at Cú with dual demonic katanas. He would also, at a distance, project demonic katana blades in mid-air around himself and launch them like bullets at Cú. These were admittedly less effective due to the protection from arrows ability but they allowed him to fight from a safe distance. Sometimes he would overload these blades with demonic energy causing them to detonate on impact, doing additional explosive damage.

Robin was keeping at a safer long-range distance, firing barrage after barrage of poisoned arrows at Cú. Only some of them found their target, due to his protection from arrows ability, but enough of them were hitting to put Robin’s own plan into motion. Suddenly Cú decided to end this war by attrition, he leapt away from the area where his attackers were located. Crouching down with one leg bent, the other stretched out behind him and his left hand touching the ground in front of him like an Olympic Athlete about to start a sprint. His right hand holding his spear. Recognising that stance, Scathach shouted to the others “Get behind me you two and stay well back.”

Senji and Robin obeyed while Scathach assumed the same stance as her opponent. They stayed like that for a few seconds then all of a sudden, they sprinted towards each other and when they had covered half the distance between them, they leapt vertically upwards into the air and drew back their spears as if to throw them at each other. Both their spears surged with demonic energy and just before they went into freefall, they both screamed “Gáe Bolg” throwing the spears at each other.  

“Gáe Bolg”was the legendary, cursed, demonic spear, forged from the skull of Curruid, a.k.a. the Beast of Billows, a powerful phantasmal ⁽⁵⁸⁾ being from Celtic mythology. It was wielded by Scathach and her student Cú Chulainn. It had 2 distinct noble phantasm abilities; firstly was an anti-unit noble phantasm that utilises the spears curse of reversing the cause and effect of its thrust creating an unavoidable attack. Secondly, which Scathach and Cú had just used, was an anti-army ⁽⁵⁹⁾ noble phantasm that, in exchange for not having the curse of reversing cause and effect, could be thrown instead of thrust and generate an explosion that could wipe out a small army.  

The thrown spears clashed for a few seconds then two large explosions erupted in mid-air. The servants were safe as Robin and Senji, having heeded Scathach’s warning, were a good distance away. Thus, they were out of range of the explosions. While Scathach and Cú were closer to the explosions they were also close to the ground when they went off so they weren’t too affected by the explosions. The surrounding woodland was not so lucky; the trees were either knocked over by the force of the explosions or incinerated by their heat.

When it was over the two explosions energy was reabsorbed back into the spears and each returned into its masters outstretched hand. The servants stood in the decimated woodland. “You should have used the curse of the spear to kill me.” Scathach pointed out. “That would be pointless my former teacher” retorted Cú coldly. “You would just cancel it out with your own cursed spears effect. What I did instead was remove the tree cover that you guys were using until now as an advantage. Now that you’re in the open, I can grant your wish.” “Wish?” said Robin sounding puzzled. “You mean June’s wish to have Scathach incarnated?” “Oh, so you haven’t told them, very well, I’ll tell them myself, she-” Cú started to say, but Scathach cut him off.

“Don’t be conceited, Cú Chulainn” yelled Scathach “Remember I have been fighting you head on without use of the tree cover for I have no need of it to beat you. Moreover, every teacher has their secrets. If I cannot beat you with the same weapon that I taught you to wield. I will use my other noble phantasm that I never showed you in life. It should finish you easily.” She planted Gáe Bolg in the ground beside her and raised her right arm out in front of her towards Cú, her fist clenched. Her body surged with mana. She then screamed “Gate of Skye” and summoned a large, thick door way, the size of a small building, behind Cú.

Her fist unclenched slightly as she shouted “Open, Gate to the Shadowlands”, the Gate behind Cú did so and a great suction force immediately pulled him into the open gate. Scathach clenched her fist again and said “Close, gate of the Shadowlands.” The Gates obeyed, sealing Cú within them. It was an anti-army noble phantasm, unique to Scathach, that was said to kill any who are sucked into it and it proved her worth as the Queen of the Shadowlands.

Scathach lowered her fist and said with a hint of remorse “Farewell, Cú Chulainn, my finest student.” Senji and Robin hurried over. “Well done, Scatahach” said Senji “It can’t have been easy to defeat your own student.” “No problem” said Scathach, relieved it was over. Robin was looking at her with curiosity etched into his face. “What is it, Robin?” Scathach asked. “Well, I was wondering what Cú meant by him granting your wish.” Robin answered “Well, I guess I’d better tell you, my real wish is that I want granted by the Grail is that I want someone who can best me in combat and kill me to appear.” Scathach confessed.

“Why would you want that?” exclaimed Robin in bewilderment. “Like that Rider servant, I became part-divine spirit in life and one of the traits of such a being is an immortal existence of sorts. I am cursed to continue existing until the end of the universe. I sought the miracle of the Holy Grail to end that curse. My original reasoning for training talented students was so that one day they could surpass and kill me.” explained Scathach. “Do you still feel that way after June told you her wish?” Senji enquired “Yes” replied Scathach “My wish and her wish contradict each other, thus only one of them can be granted. Be that as it may, that does not change how-” Scathach suddenly stopped talking and turned around.

It soon became clear why she did that, the Gate of Skye in front of them had not been dispelled and as they looked at it, they heard a heavy “Boom” erupt from inside the doorway and the doors themselves creaked as through struck by an immense force. “No, this shouldn’t be possible, how did he survive the inhospitable shadowlands and get back to the gate?” gasped Scathach. They all realised what had happened; somehow Cú had got back to the Gateway to the Shadowlands and was attempting to breakout. A 2^nd boom struck the doors, they creaked more and cracks began to form in the bottom-centre of the gate. “Ready yourselves” Scathach cried. Senji and Robin did so, just before a 3^rd boom struck the doors, this time a large hole was punched through the gate and out of it stepped Cú in a new form. The gate dispelled behind him.

Cú no longer had Gáe Bolg but instead he had a more monstrous form, his gloved hands were now covered in large black gauntlets with long blood red, sword like claws. His hooded face and short cape were covered in thick, black armour connected to a fearsome looking helmet with another blood red blade protruding from his forehead. His new shoulder pad armour had red spikes protruding vertically and all this new armour had red, blood vessel-like, lines across it like his leg armour and tail.

“You’re wearing the skeleton of Curruid like armour.” observed Scathach. “Correct” confirmed Cú “This is my Anti-unit (self) ⁽⁶⁰⁾ noble phantasm that I gained in this altered form of mine, Curruid Coinchenn. I escaped the gate by stabbing my tail into one of the closed doors and pulling myself back. I then assumed this form and broke out. Now here I am to grant your wish.” Scathach just had time to shout “Get Back you two, he’s far stronger now-” before there was loud whooshing noise and to Senji and Robin it seemed that Scathach and Cú had disappeared.

They both quickly realised what had happened when they heard trees being rapidly torn down in the distance behind them. Cú had charged Scathach, taking her with him, at such a high speed that it seemed they had both vanished and they were now tearing through the forest that was still standing. “Hurry, we’ve got to help Scathach.” Senji cried in alarm as Robin and he set off towards the sound of trees toppling. After a few seconds they heard a crash of shattering glass and then the metallic clangs of a pitched battle. “Good, they must have stopped moving and she’s still putting up a fight” noted Robin.

Their hope was soon dwindled by the sound of metallic clangs being replaced by a loud boom that shook the ground under their feet. It was followed by a barrage of rapid-fire booms that got louder as they got closer. Soon they came across the shattered remains of a large green house. “That must have been the glass we heard shattering earlier” pointed out Senji. “They must be nearby, now” thought Robin. Their hope seemed to completely die as they heard the worst sound to hear right now. Deathly silence.

They soon spotted the edge of a newly formed crater in a clearing past the destroyed greenhouse. As they approached and looked into the crater, they saw Cú standing in the crater. When they reached the edge of the crater and saw into it more clearly, they stopped and stared. A chill ran down their spines.

Cú was standing by the bottom of the crater, his gauntlets drenched in blood, bone shards and torn flesh. By him at the very bottom of the crater was what remained of Scathach, a large bloodstain with shreds of her purple outfit and the red shards of her shattered spear. These proceeded to fade away to nothing.

Cú turned towards them. “So, who’s next?” he coldly asked. Robin aimed his crossbow at Cú. “Really Archer?” remarked Cú in bored voice. “You know that won’t work on me due to my protection from arrows ability and I am not distracted by your traps or allies.” Robin said nothing but his body suddenly surged with mana, Cú looked a little more wary now. “Your noble phantasm, Yew Bow. True, it could do some real damage if it hit.” Cú said aggressively as he prepared to evade Robins attack. Then something strange happened, Robin fired his Noble Phantasm, shouting “Yew Bow” as he did so and Cú didn’t evade. He didn’t even try to block it. He just stood there, seemingly dumbstruck and the arrow struck him on the armour covering his face. A split second later Cú’s body contorted and then exploded from the inside out.

“You see” Robin explained with satisfaction in his voice. “I was shooting you full of poison arrows earlier, that poison in your body not only explodes, when triggered by my Noble Phantasm hitting you, but also paralysed you making you an easy target to hit just now.” Cú staggered, part of his lower abdomen was blown away and there were bloody holes doted across his body. But then he stood upright and said “A nasty trick Archer, But I can keep going.” The smile faded from Robin’s face as he said in exasperation “You’ve been hit by two noble phantasms and you want to keep going?”

“Remember, Robin he has a strong battle continuation ability which allows him to keep fighting even after being fatally wounded and that armoured form boosts his defence and endurance. However he is quite weakened right now. I think we can win this” stated Senji. Cú hesitated as even with Sabers’ true name revealed, they still didn’t know Senji Muramasa’s Noble Phantasm. “Could it kill me?” Cú wondered. “How can we beat him?” asked Robin “My Yew Bow and Scathachs Gate of Skye couldn’t do it and you’re unwilling to use your noble phantasm for some reason.”

“Calm down Robin” advised Senji. “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched” Senji proceeded to walk into the crater, towards Cú. Cú stepped back unnerved by Senji’s confidence as he approached him unarmed.

Senji raised his arms in front of himself at the same elevation. His right hand was partially clenched as though holding an invisible handle, his left hand was open, the fingers extended. He spoke a short incantation. “I once sought to forge the ultimate blade.” A katana sword was projected into his hands. When he had used projection magecraft previously, he had only projected the katana blade on its own, with no sheath, hilt or cross guard. This time he projected a katana sword within a black sheath, around which was tied a knot of purple rope. Attached to the blade was a flower shaped cross guard, which was attached to a white hilt which was criss-crossed with straps of brown leather. Underneath the leather was a gold carving embedded in the hilt and at the bottom of the hilt was a gold tip.

As Senji unsheathed the katana, an overwhelmingly evil, demonic aura began emanating from it. Cú hesitated, more out of fear than anything-else. He then charged hoping to pound the Swordsmith into the ground like Scathach before him. However as he brought his right gauntlet fist down from above to crush Senji’s skull, Senji dodged to the left of the incoming attack and in one swift motion sliced through Cú’s neck, armour and all like a hot knife through butter with his katana. As Cú’s headless corpse collapsed lifeless on the ground Senji said “Well done, MyoujinGiri”. The Battle of Kew was over.  

Chapter 10: “Aftermath”

Cyan was having mixed feelings. He had been sitting in one of the church aisles waiting for Berserker to report back about the battle taking place at Kew. Now he stood up as he felt his servant, through the connection of their contract as master and servant, pass away. He pulled a mobile phone out of his pocket and called Assassin’s master, Yassan, who had ordered his servant to observe the battle. “Yassan, Berserker has died, report what Assassin saw.” Yassan told him what had transpired on the bridge and at Kew gardens. “I’ll call you back in a few minutes, I need to sometime to think this over.” said Cyan curtly. Yassan hung up, Cyan put the mobile back in his pocket and began pacing up and down the church. It was a good thing that Scathach had been killed as she was the enemy’s strongest servant in terms of raw power and combat ability. Moreover, it wasn’t entirely bad to have lost Berserker as he had planned to kill him eventually along with the other servants to further his own plans. However, losing his combat best servant sooner than planned could be problematic.

 Also, he had hoped to finish off all 3 enemy servants instead of just 1 by now. His timetable may need to be accelerated to compensate. But what was really causing Cyan concern was that Cú Chulainn “Alter’s” connection had not only been severed from his master, Cyan, but had also been severed from Cyan’s other servant; the secret 8^th Avenger ⁽⁶¹⁾ class servant, Angra Mainyu ⁽⁶²⁾. Somehow Saber’s final attack had done such a thing, this concerned Cyan as it meant Saber could harm not only “Alter” servants ⁽⁶³⁾ but also Angra Mainyu himself.

That could be a problem for his plans but then Cyan remembered his backup plan if Angra Mainyu was destroyed and Casters prophecy that his plan would not fail once it entered the final stage. He decided to speed up the schedule, the night after tomorrow night, his plan would be executed. He called Assassin’s master back and said “Meet me at the church tomorrow night, there is something we must discuss in person.”

Meanwhile back in Kew Gardens, Cú’s body was fading away as Robin joined Senji at the bottom of the crater. “Well done, Senji, although I am curious about why you didn’t use that blade earlier in the fight.” said Robin curiously. Senji sheathed the katana and, while looking at it with a despondent expression explained. “This blade is one of my more successful failures at attempting to forge the ultimate blade that is my noble phantasm. I call it, Myoujingiri Muramasa. Myoujingiri means, cutting gods and demons, as it can harm divine and demonic beings. It is a sword that reached the realm of demons and thus it is my most powerful demonic blade as opposed to my noble phantasm which is a divine blade. Moreover, it is only able to sever the concept of karma.”

“That is why it is considered a failure” continued Senji. “As to why I didn’t use it earlier, there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, Cú Chulainn was only weakened enough for me to finish him off easily with it after sustaining considerable damage from all our previous attacks, particularly you and Scathach’s Noble Phantasms. Thank you for that. The other reason is that as a powerful demonic blade, it has a curse like the Gáe Bolg spear. The curse only takes effect when it is unsheathed and this causes the wielder to feel an overpowering bloodlust. If the blade is unsheathed for long enough it will cause them to commit uncontrollable murder. They become unable to distinguish enemy from ally, friend from foe, innocent from guilty and will eventually commit suicide to satisfy the blades thirst for blood.”

“If I had used it earlier in the battle, I would have become a threat to you, Scathach and our masters.” Senji concluded. The sheathed katana dematerialised in his hands as Robin replied “Okay, I get it, but what are we going to tell June when we meet up with our masters?” “The truth, all of it and that includes Scathach’s wish, June deserves to know.” said Senji simply “I can’t imagine she’ll like it” Robin pointed out “Losing her servant is hard enough.”

Chapter 11 “Cyan’s plan”

June seemed to take the news well when Robin and Senji regrouped with their masters, however as soon as they stepped inside her family mansion, she dashed off to her bedroom and Yuta went to check on her while the others convened in the conference room. Yuta returned shortly saying she had been crying and unwilling to leave her bedroom. “It’s quite understandable” stated Senji. “Not only did she lose someone she was very close to, she also learned that Scathach didn’t share her wish and wanted to die.” They all fell into a glum, defeated silence then decided to turn in for the night. The next day, June still refused to come out of her room and wanted to be left alone. This meant they couldn’t make unanimous decisions and thus were stuck in the mansion for now until June recovered.

Later that same day, Yuta decided he couldn’t sit back and do nothing anymore. After supper, he went to his room and planned to leave the mansion later that night alone while the others slept. He donned his costume as the mage vigilante called the Emerald Knight, sneaked out of the mansion and took off into the city of London at night. He didn’t really have a plan; he just knew that he had to do something while the others couldn’t.

He soon stopped on a rooftop to catch his breath and collect his thoughts. Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around to find Robin standing behind him. “Oh, it’s just you” Yuta noted. “Indeed” said Robin “Look, I get why you are doing this Yuta, but don’t you think you should have more of plan and not do it alone.” “I can’t just sit around and do nothing” retorted Yuta. “I quite agree which is why I’m coming with you.” replied Robin. “However, from what I’ve heard about this Emerald Knight vigilante persona you don, I’m not sure June would approve given how law-abiding she is.”

“Just because it’s illegal doesn’t mean what I’m doing as the Emerald Knight is wrong” Yuta pointed out. “And I don’t need others approval.” Robin smiled and said “We’re birds of a feather in that respect as we both seek a form of justice that is seen as a crime and others may disapprove of our actions yet we stick to it in spite of all that. Well, shall we get going?”

With that they set off together, patrolling the city. They eventually came to another rest stop and were wondering whether to carry on or head back to the mansion when Robin said he had spotted something interesting in the distance using his Hawkeye ability. As they moved closer to find out what it was, Robin said it was the servant Assassin carrying a man who was badly wounded. Assuming the worst-case scenario they approached Assassin by way of Yuta confronting him directly, fists raised and Robin keeping his distance on a nearby building with his crossbow ready to fire. As soon as Assassin saw Yuta, he spoke in mocking tone. “What’s a do-gooder like the Emerald Knight doing here, get lost, I’m in a hurry.” “What are you doing with that wounded man? Is he a victim of yours?” Yuta inquired.  

Assassin opened his mouth to retort but the man in his arms told him to stop and raised the back of his hand towards Yuta. Yuta realised that the injured man must be a master as he had 3 command seals on the back of his hand. Furthermore as Assassin obeyed the man in telling him to keep quiet, it was fair to assume that this man was Assassin’s master. Yuta took off his mask and showed his own command seals to show that he was Archer’s master. He then told Robin telepathically to convene with them.

Robin did so and enquired “So I guess the big question here is why is your master wounded Assassin?” “Long story short, our leader, Berserker’s master nearly killed my master after my master betrayed him.” Assassin concisely answered. “Why did this happen?” Yuta asked. Assassin was about to answer when his master coughed raggedly and said “I’ll tell them Assassin, so that they can stop that madman’s plans.” “Who’s the madman?” asked Robin. “Berserker’s master, Cyan Susan.” answered Assassin’s master

Earlier that same night, Cyan had met with Assassin’s master, Yassan Moscev, as had been previously arranged, at the church. “I’ve called you here to tell you the details of my final plan. The only other person who knows is Syd, my righthand man. The reason for doing so is that I need your help along with Syd’s to make sure the plan goes smoothly.” Cyan began.

“I am also testing your loyalty, to see if you have the will to see my plan through to its completion.” He continued. Yassan remained as taciturn as ever. He was a man with a stern, fair skinned face, short ginger hair and was of Russian descent. “I think it appropriate to tell you the true nature of the holy grail as well as its connection to the Great fire of London of 1666 AD and my mage ancestors as that will help me to explain the plan.” Cyan stated. “Firstly the grail does indeed grant wishes but how does that work? To clarify it is not the actual Holy Grail from the last supper in the Bible. It is actually a magical object crafted by mages with the original intention being that it would give them access to the Root of Akasha ⁽⁶⁴⁾ and thus allow them to obtain true magic as opposed to the weaker magecraft that mages all use today.”

“Moreover, it would allow one to learn the truth of the universe as Akasha contains the force that is the source of all existence and events in our universe. However, due to the immense mana reserves held within the grail once it is filled and ready to be used as a gate to Akasha, the original intention changed to using the mana to grant the wishes of whoever possessed the grail” elaborated Cyan. “The fights to gain possession of the grail were called the holy grail wars. To fill the grail in order for it to grant wishes you need a large supply of mana which is gained by killing the servants that are summoned to fight in the holy grail war. Usually, you can grant most wishes with only 6 dead servants allowing 1 servant and 1 master to have their wishes granted. But some masters will kill their own servant in order to grant any wish they want. That is all you need to know about the grail.” Cyan concluded.

“Next are my mage Ancestors and the religious beliefs I share with them.” continued Cyan. “Syd refers to me as a heretic not simply because I pose as a Christian priest when I have no faith in Christianity but because my ancestors and I are heretics to the Iranian religion known as Zoroastrianism. This is because we worship Angra Mainyu, the evil, destructive spirit who opposes the benevolent, creator god Ahura Mazda from Zoroastrianism. For many centuries my ancestors tried to summon or manifest Angra Mainyu in order to corrupt the world with his evil but when they were able to eventually do so, there was a problem. Similar to divine spirits, he didn’t have a sufficient power source to fully awaken. They then learned of the Holy Grail Wars and decided to take part in the year 1666 AD with the intention of using the holy grail to awaken Angra Mainyu. However when they did so something went wrong.”

Cyan explained further “I’m not sure exactly what happened but Angra Mainyu was only briefly awakened before falling dormant again. In that short time, he unleashed a great flood of curses that burned everything it touched. This caused the Great Fire of London. Afterwards, the mage association covered up the truth and blamed a bakery as the cause of the fire. They then hunted down my ancestors of that time period. I am only alive because the survivors renounced their faith and joined the Holy Church⁽⁶⁵⁾. An organisation that could oppose the Mages Association and thus was a safe haven for my ancestors. This is why I pretend to be a Christian priest. My goal is to succeed where my ancestors failed and use the current grail to fully awaken Angra Mainyu in order to unleash his evil on the world while controlling him as my servant.”

 “To do this” elaborated Cyan. “I need the servants to perish to power the grail. But before that I had to use Syd’s caster servant, also known as King Solomon, the king of Magecraft, to foretell how the plan would play out, using his clairvoyance ability and summon a dormant Ahura Mazda with his summoning ability. ⁽⁶⁶⁾ Then I would kill Solomon via command seal. I proceeded to use Rider’s noble phantasm, Piedra del Sol, to kill the dormant Ahura Mazda which only possible after restoring her temporarily to her full divinity by giving her enough mana harvested from sacrificing people around the world using bounded fields like the one, we used in that block of flats. This means Angra Mainyu will have no opposition once he awakes. I then also killed Rider with another command seal taken from her former master.”

“I had planned to kill all three of the enemy masters’ servants with Berserker but that plan has fallen through somewhat” confessed Cyan. “Losing Berserker pressurizes the timescale, so by tomorrow night, I need to awaken Angra Mainyu by killing Assassin via your command seals. Before that, I need you to get Assassin to infiltrate the Bainsworth mansion and kill Archer and Saber’s masters to kill their servants. It may be tricky, given the mansions defences but Assassin may just be able to pull it off.” concluded Cyan.

Yassan asked him here Angra Mainyu would be awakened and Cyan told him that it would be in the hidden chamber under the church. Yassan nodded and turned to leave. Suddenly he whirled around and quick as a flash threw his military dagger, from the sheath near his ankle, at Cyan’s head. Cyan deflected the attack with ease, as though he anticipated this betrayal, using the blade of a black key ⁽⁶⁷⁾.

“I am slightly curious as to why you betrayed me but I suppose it doesn’t matter as you are now a dead man walking” stated Cyan. As he said so, tendrils coloured black and red rose from the ground in front him and launched themselves at Yassan who tried in vain to flee. The tendrils pierced his chest and cut through his Achilles tendons leaving him unable to walk. Yassan collapsed as the tendrils retracted and prepared to strike the final blow. Before they could, Assassin burst into the church through one of its stain glass windows, grabbed his master and without delay leapt back out the way he had come in.

The tendrils disappeared from whence they came. “Good thing Assassin retreated rather than fight me as I don’t think I could take on a servant right now and Angra Mainyu wouldn’t be able to assist me for long with those tendrils.” noted Cyan. “Ah well, he will die soon anyway along with his servant. That means five servants will have passed and I only need that many to fully awaken Angra Mainyu. The remaining two servants only need to die for my backup plan in case Angra Mainyu is destroyed.”

“And that’s how we ended up here” finished Yassan. “Please, I’m going to die soon along with my servant, stop Cyan’s plan.” “Couldn’t we just stop it by not letting Saber and Archer die so they don’t power the grail and thus don’t awaken Angra Mainyu?” Yuta wondered aloud “Cyan anticipated my master’s betrayal, meaning he probably planned to not have me kill you guys at the mansion and thus he probably doesn’t need all of the servants dead to carry out his plan.” retorted Assassin.

“I’m curious as to why you betrayed him in the first place?” asked Robin. Yassan coughed up blood before responding. “I am a contract killer, hired by Cyan to help him win the war, but my true intentions were to use the grail for myself in order to cut my ties with the criminal underworld and start a new free life as a productive and responsible member of humanity. Cyan’s plan threatens that as well as my growing love for humanity that made me sick of my life up till now. Please stop him.”

Yuta clasped one of Yassan’s hands and said calmly. “Yassan, I cannot approve of your criminal life but I can respect your love of humanity that you expressed by telling us Cyan’s plan with the hope that we will stop him. We will not fail you. I swear it.” Yassan smiled and passed away. “I’ll be following him soon” Assassin said sounding dejected. “Before you do Assassin, can we at least get your true name?” asked Yuta. “Sure, I’ve got no reason to hide it now” Assassin concurred.

“I am Yan Qing, an outlaw from the Water Margin which is one of the 4 great classical novels of Chinese literature.” confessed Assassin. “Yan Qing, we will not fail you or your master.” declared Yuta “Robin let’s get back to the mansion and find somewhere to bury the body as well as tell the others what’s happened.” 

Chapter 12: “Your own Magecraft”

When they returned to the mansion, Yuta decided to sneak up to bed, go to sleep and tell the others what had happened the following morning. He had Robin guard the body of Yassan in the garden overnight as servants do not require sleep although it does minimise the amount of mana they need to stay maintained. After breakfast, Yuta, Robin, Senji and Fletcher convened in the conference room. Yuta was about to reveal what had transpired last night when June walked into the room which was a nice surprise. “Hello June, how are you?” Yuta asked kindly. “Hello, I’m still a little upset about Scathach and I would like nothing more than to see her again admittedly but I’ve realised that mopping about in my room isn’t helping anyone and won’t change what happened so I feel ready to join in with you all. Even without a servant I will win this war.” She answered sounding perky.

“I’m glad to hear that but winning the war isn’t what is important right now” Yuta pointed out and he began to explain himself further, telling them what had transpired last night with the exception of the fact that he was the Emerald Knight. He felt that wasn’t necessary to mention that right now. When he had finished, there was a short silence as they took it all in. June then stated “While I’m a bit annoyed that getting a wish from the grail maybe impossible now, I want to stop this Cyan Susan, his crimes cannot go unpunished.” “I quite agree” agreed Senji “I will help in any way that I can. Fletcher, what do you think?” “I want to stop Cyan’s plan as well but I’m not sure I’ll be of much help with my rudimentary magecraft abilities, maybe I should stay here.” replied Fletcher sounding unsure of himself.

June looked ready to protest but Senji signalled her to stop and spoke to his master. “Fletcher, what about your origin?” Fletcher glared angrily at Senji then stormed out of the conference room with Senji following him. They walked to Fletchers room and closed the door behind them.

“Senji, I thought I told you when we first met not to mention my origin again.” grumbled Fletcher. “I do not apologise for bringing it up” responded Senji “I thought that if you used it, you would not be as useless as you make yourself out to be. I don’t care how helpful you will be in stopping Cyan, I am more concerned by your lack of willingness to help.” “Fine, I’ll help, but I’m not using my origin”. relented Fletcher. “Fletcher, before we go back to the conference room, I wish to know why you don’t use your origin?” requested Senji. “Alright, I guess I owe you that much as you’ve helped me out a lot since being summoned.” began Fletcher.

“Saint graft transference magecraft and Heroic spirit possession magecraft are powerful forms of magecraft passed down in the Higgins family as part of our magic crest.” Fletcher continued. “The earlier allows the storage and transport of Heroic spirits saint graphs ⁽⁶⁸⁾ which can be used to resummon a heroic spirit once they are defeated. I can’t do that one yet as I don’t have access to my families supply of Saint Graphs.  The latter allows for the user of this magecraft to be possessed by the spirit of a heroic spirit, preferably retaining their original consciousness and individuality while gaining the servants abilities rather than having the heroic spirit overwhelm their bodies.”

“The reason I don’t like to use it” Fletcher confessed “is that in order to achieve this magecraft and add it to our family’s magic crest, my ancestors performed gruesome experiments on human beings as well as homunculi. ⁽⁶⁹⁾ They felt they needed to do so as resummoning servants and having a normal human be successfully possessed by a heroic spirit were previously considered impossible by mages. My ancestors achieved it through the sacrifices of many people, and I strongly disagree with their actions on principle, what good are results like that if the process needed to achieve them is so morally repugnant?”

“Most mages wouldn’t care how they achieved new forms of magecraft but I do, that is why I don’t use my origin and my wish for the grail is to have this ability removed from my body so I can never use it.” concluded Fletcher. “I can sympathise.” Senji said calmly. “As a swordsmith, I created many weapons that were used to kill people. Sometimes I wonder if I should stop making them to prevent people from dying from my swords. However, in order to achieve my dream of forging the ultimate blade I had to keep making more. I also realised that is not entirely fair to blame the weapons or myself for those deaths but rather the people who use them irresponsibly. Moreover there are those who could use them for good like protecting others or even saving the world.”

“In essence” summarised Senji. “I’m saying your magecraft is your own, to use as you see fit but I think that if you really want to stop Cyan’s plan, use it to help us stop him. Your ancestors’ crimes are theirs alone thus you shouldn’t feel guilt at using your origin.” “Hmm… I guess that’s what I needed to hear.” reflected Fletcher “I’m still feeling reluctant to use my origin but I may use it to stop Cyan’s plan at least. Afterwards, I’m not sure. Also, what about caster’s prophecy, if Cyan’s plan has already entered the final stages isn’t it pointless to trying to stop him.” Fletcher queried.

“I’ve been thinking about that.” Senji admitted. “And I believe that it is my fate to use my noble to destroy Angra Mainyu. Remember the prophecy said nothing could stop him but the definition of a thing along with the meaning of the word nothing suggests that to stop his plans you need something that could be considered nothing. For example, my conceptual Noble Phantasm which was something that I always dreamed of achieving in life but I never did thus it could be considered nothing as it is merely conceptual and thus never existed as a thing in reality. I don’t care if it kills me so long as I achieve my dream and save the world.” Senji said noticing Fletcher’s concerned face.

Just then, someone knocked on the bedroom door. “Come in” called Fletcher. “Are you two, okay?” asked June having entered the room. “Yeah, we’re fine” replied Fletcher and continued apologetically. “Sorry about storming out the conference room like that.” “Where are Yuta and Robin?” asked Senji. “In the garden, burying Yassan by the large Oak tree in the centre of the lawn.” answered June. They explained to her what they had been discussing. “I’m glad you’re not going to continue wasting your potential as a mage Fletcher. And I think it’s worth a shot regarding your noble phantasm Senji.” affirmed June. “Now let’s join the others in paying our respects to Yassan then we can think about how to stop Cyan by tonight.”

Chapter 13: “The Final Conflict”

Having paid their respects to Yassan, they buried him. They then all met up in the conference room for the last discussion before the upcoming conflict. “So, we need to destroy Angra Mainyu with Senji’s Noble Phantasm, Senji needs time to perform it and we know Syd as well as Cyan will be there to stop us. Moreover, we are not sure if Angra Mainyu as the Avenger servant can retaliate while dormant. So with all that considered, here’s the plan” stated Robin “We will head to the church, find the underground chamber and find Angra Mainyu. When we encounter Cyan and Syd, the masters will engage them while Senji and I deal with Angra Mainyu. I will keep Angra Mainyu distracted in order to allow Senji to perform his Noble Phantasm. If the enemy block our way to Angra Mainyu, then Senji and I will use my other Noble Phantasm, No Face May King, to sneak past them. Any questions?”

They all shook their heads. “Alright, let’s get ready and head out this afternoon.” finished Robin. They had lunch, got ready and set off for the church. They soon arrived at the church. Curiously it wasn’t locked or protected by Magecraft. “I guess it is used as a normal church for the public, they probably aren’t expecting us and the lack of magecraft is probably due to the churches disdain for the heretical capabilities of mages.” explained June. They entered and found it deserted. This led them to assume Cyan and Syd were in the underground chamber. “Okay, let’s take this opportunity, while our enemy isn’t around, to have Robin and I conceal ourselves in Robin’s No face, May King Noble Phantasm.” Senji suggested.

He proceeded to hide himself under Robin’s Cloak and as he did so they both turned invisible as well as not giving off sound or scent. The young masters found the entrance to the underground chamber, using the Trace on incantation they had used previously, under a concealed trap door in the floor near the altar of the Church that required mana to open. This meant only mages could enter. They entered it finding themselves in an underground tunnel with rough, rocky walls and a smooth path carved into the floor leading down. They went down the path, making sure that the invisible Robin and Senji were following them through their master’s telepathic link. As they moved further down, they saw strange paintings and carvings on the walls that were presumably to do with Zoroastrianism.

A short while later the tunnel opened up and they came into a larger chamber. Ahead of them was cliff that dropped off into a wide chasm. Reaching out from the edge of that cliff, over the chasm, was a bridge made of rock leading to rocky platform that was supported by a large pillar of rock coming up from the chasm.  On that platform was Angra Mainyu. Even from where they were standing, they could feel the overpowering evil emitting from the Avenger class servant.

Angra Mainyu in its dormant state looked like a large, blood red, translucent container shaped like rain drop which was sat on a lumpy throne. Inside the container was what looked like shrivelled, crossed arms with hands under a muscular abdomen with no chest, head or shoulders. Below the crossed arms were four human eyes of varying size staring out of the container. All of this inside the container was the same dark mauve colour as Cú Chulainn Alter. Blocking their way to the bridge was Cyan and Syd.

“All right you two” Fletcher and Yuta telepathically told their servants. “Sneak past them and deal with Angra like we planned.” “I am a little surprised to see you here, I presume Yassan approached you and told you of my plans before passing away. I thought he would have died before reaching your mansion.” Cyan said. “That’s because not all of us stayed at the mansion after the battle with Berserker. Robin and I went out on patrol and found Yassan.” Yuta spoke up, wanting to buy time for Robin and Senji. “So, there are those among you who take action whereas others would advise caution, I guess I wasn’t counting on that. How very noble of Yassan and yet how pointless.” said Cyan mockingly. “Why was it pointless?” retorted Yuta. “Thanks to them we came to stop you.” “I am under no obligation to answer that.” replied Cyan. “Where are Archer and Saber?”

Yuta paused then simply said “Look behind you”. Syd and Cyan whirled around to see Senji and Robin standing on the platform, in front of Angra Mainyu. Senji had projected a hail of katana blades, that were overloaded with mana, above the bridge, he unleashed them at the bridge and they detonated on impact destroying the bridge thus preventing Cyan and Syd from reaching them. “Ah, Robin’s concealment noble phantasm, No Face May King.” Cyan noted “Well played but all I need to do is kill your servants via my control of Angra Mainyu, Angra Mainyu, I command you to kill those two servants in front of you.” Black and red tendrils, similar to the ones that killed Yassan appeared from below Angra Mainyu and attacked Senji as well as Robin.

Working together, they were able to fend off the tendrils for now but this meant Senji couldn’t use his Noble Phantasm to finish Angra Mainyu. The three young masters engaged Syd and Cyan. June took on the latter while Fletcher and Yuta approached the earlier. “Come on, Syd.” yelled Yuta “It’s two on one, you have no chance of winning.” “Your math isn’t bad but no need to worry, I’ll just divide your attention.” said Syd smirking at his own joke. “Come on out Berty and Nosferatu.” A series of bat screeches along with a roar of a bear came from behind Fletcher and he turned to see what must be Syd’s familiars, approaching him. One was an oversized bear-wolf hybrid beast while the other was a large, vicious looking bat. “They must have been hiding out of sight behind us.” thought Fletcher. “Fletcher” called Yuta. “You’ve got to take care of the familiars; I’ll take care of Syd.” “Sounds like a plan” agreed Fletcher. Yuta approached Syd as Fletcher confronted the familiars.

Fletcher, after trying to fight them for only a minute or 2, saw that these were not dumb animals but intelligent, coordinated hunters. The bat would distract him by flying around, keeping Fletchers eyes off the wolf-bear and occasionally try to scratch him with its claws and fly away before he could retaliate. While the bat distracted him, the wolf-bear stalked him and waited for the opportunity to catch him unawares and kill him. He realised that to win, he had to do something to deal with both of his opponents at the same time. But none of his rudimentary magecraft he knew could do such a thing. “I guess I got no choice.” He muttered.

He picked up a rock from the ground and infused it with reinforcement magecraft making it harder and stronger. He then threw it with all his might at the wolf-bear, lightly-damaging one of its shoulders, causing it to roar in pain and temporarily stop stalking him. The bat backed off, fearing it was next. “Good, that’s given me some breathing room, now what I need is preferably a ranged form of attack that can take out both opponents.” thought Fletcher as he prepared to perform Heroic spirit possession magecraft on himself. All his magic circuits ⁽⁷⁰⁾ surged with mana, including the dormant ones in his magic crest that he had sworn he would never use. He focused on taking hold of his spirit and readying it for the 1^st step in the incantation necessary to perform this mage craft. “Spirit Eject” he ordered his spirit to leave his body and it did so. He made sure to tether it to his body using mana so that he wouldn’t lose his spirit.

Next, he ordered “Find the Throne” and his spirit shot away from his body. He needn’t have worried about his body as while in his spirit form, time had slowed to an almost complete stop meaning he had time to get back to his body before the familiars attacked. His spirit was heading for the throne of heroes, a place outside the world and the time axis where heroic spirits who aren’t summoned reside. He soon arrived at it and saw 5 large, separated areas dotted with thrones. Sitting in each was a sleeping heroic spirit.

“Search the Spirits” he instructed. His spirit moved to the nearest of the 5 areas. From his understanding of the Throne of Heroes, it was broken into these 5 areas or categories of Heroic spirit. These were Heaven, Earth, Human, Star and Beast and each referred to the nature of the heroic spirits it contained. He chose heaven knowing that while the divine spirits in this area were beyond his ability, he should be able to be safely possessed by one of the demigods here. Specifically, he needed one with ranged weaponry for example an Archer like Robin. He soon found what he was looking for and began the procession process, “Selected Spirit, Begin Possession”. He commanded. As the process continued, a nearby heroic spirit awoke in her throne and said “When you’re done with him, let me speak with her one last time.” Recognising this particular heroic spirit, Fletcher responded “I’ll do what I can.”

The possession process was now complete, Fletcher completed the incantation with “Possession complete, Spirit Return”. His spirit, equipped with the abilities of a heroic spirit, returned to his body. As he woke up, back in his body, he saw that little had changed around him, the other masters were still fighting as were the servants while the familiars were recovering from the rock he threw. Very little time had passed. “Works for me” he thought cheerfully as his body surged with the power of the heroic spirit that had possessed him. He had also gained knowledge of how to use this servants’ abilities.

This particular heroic spirit’s abilities revolved around his powerful and versatile Noble Phantasm that enabled him to call upon, among other things in his treasury, the prototypes of all noble phantasms. These were passed down to other heroic spirits becoming their noble phantasms. These were fired like bullets from an omnidirectional gun which classified him as an Archer class servant. This servants name was Gilgamesh, also known as the King of Heroes, the oldest King, the wedge of Heaven who came from Ancient Sumerian epic poem called the Epic of Gilgamesh. The oldest piece of recorded literature.

Fletcher spoke the noble phantasms name to activate it “Gate of Babylon”. He said and instantly two shiny, golden portals appeared from thin air around Fletcher. Out of one came a spear aimed at the bat and out of the other a sword aimed at the wolf-bear. With a thought, Fletcher made the weapons fire from their portals like arrows from a bow and they skewered the familiars they were aimed at, killing them instantly. With another thought he dispelled the portals and thought about helping the others when he suddenly collapsed exhausted. Gilgamesh’s heroic spirit left his body and returned to the Throne of Heroes. “Man” he thought. “I knew it would be rough using this magecraft for the 1^st time but I didn’t think it would put this much strain on my magic circuits. Gilgamesh’s abilities are very draining due to his immense power, it’s a good thing I used them so minimally. I’d better rest and let my magic circuits recover before I help the others. I do hope the others stay alive until I’m ready to help.”

As he rested, June was fighting Cyan. They seemed to be evenly matched as the fight started with June attacking and defending with various long range magecraft while Cyan fought back with black keys imbued with magecraft. He also used powerful healing magecraft for when he got too damaged. There were a few times Cyan got to close for comfort, trying to finish her off with lethal martial arts imbued with magecraft that she barely managed to evade or defend against. June soon realised she couldn’t beat him without resorting to her origin so she put some distance between them and activated her crime and punishment magecraft. Cyan charged at her and landed a barrage of blows that should done some real damage but they didn’t. She just stood their taking minimal damage from the blows. Confused, Cyan tried using his black keys on her but those weren’t any more effective, all they did was leave welts where they struck her skin without drawing blood.

Cyan decided to resort to high level magecraft instead of physical attacks imbued with magecraft. He spoke a long incantation in Latin and performed magecraft that should have caused all of June’s wounds to get significantly worse, a kind of inversed healing magecraft, but it had little effect. Next, he spoke another incantation in another language and conjured a large fireball, 3 metres in diameter, above his head and shot it towards June, hitting her directly. This did little more than leave light burn marks on her skin and clothes. “Alright, I think it’s time for your punishment.” stated June and she launched herself at Cyan with incredible speed, thanks to the reinforcement magecraft surging through her legs.

Her whole body was now reinforced with powerful magecraft. She proceeded to hit him with multitude of kicks and punches. All of which did considerable damage and left little room for him to heal himself. Eventually she jumped back and as he tried to recover, she performed an incantation, in the same language as the one she used to perform the thunder wave magecraft on Fletcher. A small thundercloud rapidly formed above Cyan. As she completed the incantation, a powerful bolt of lightning crashed down onto him from the thundercloud and a thunderous boom echoed throughout the cavern. This knocked him out cold and he fell to the ground.

June walked up to the unconscious body and performed a form of magecraft, used by Mage Law enforcement, where she touched the back of his neck and disrupted his magic circuits flow of mana preventing him from using magecraft for 24 hours. “That should be long enough to keep him from retaliating until we hand him over to the mage authorities.” She thought before collapsing herself as her origin wore off and the damage, she had sustained began to set in.  Like Fletcher she needed time to recover before helping the others.

Meanwhile, Yuta was fighting Syd. He found himself surprised that Syd could match him in close combat magecraft as he had previously thought Syd only specialised in familiar magecraft and thus was not that good at close combat as most familiar mages were. What Syd lacked in fighting prowess he made up for with experience when compared to Yuta. Moreover, Syd seemed to be using an interesting form of magecraft where he partially transformed parts of his body into animalistic body parts that improved his fighting capabilities. When he blocked for example his skin on the blocking parts of his body would turn into hard, crocodile skin and when he attacked, he would sharpen his fingernails into predatory claws to slash away at Yuta.

Yuta was increasingly being forced to play it safe, rarely attacking and focusing on defending and evading. He knew he couldn’t win like this so he backed off and adopted a different fighting style, one that he had developed as result his mastery of close combat magecraft. He called it Rampaging Oni (Demon) fighting style and he had never used it in real combat before. He dropped his arms to his sides, lowering his guard and as if in a trance he trudged slowly towards Syd. Syd was temporarily confused by his opponent’s complete lack of defence but then resumed his attack.

As soon as Syd got in range and landed a blow, Yuta hit back with vicious blow to Syd’s midriff, winding him severely. Stunned, Syd recoiled as Yuta struck with another punch at his head.

Syd evaded it by ducking and struck his enemies solar plexus. He barely had time to think “That’s got to hurt.” Before Yuta hit him on the head immediately afterwards. As Syd staggered backwards, dazed from the surprise attack, he thought “My last blow should have left him immobilised due to where it landed, how did he counter attack immediately like that?”

The fight continued like this for some time until Syd, who was struggling to stand upright, realised “I think I get it; this guy has adopted a fighting style where he put himself in a trance and fights purely offensively relying on his honed fighting instincts alone to guide his unrelenting attacks. He can’t be made to submit while in this state as he isn’t thinking at all or even be fully aware of his surroundings. It’s a complete change in strategy from his previously more defensive style of fighting. It’s risky but the rewards could be worth it.”

They both walked awkwardly towards each other for one final exchange. “Just before we finish this, I just want you to know.” Syd began. “Thanks for the fair fig-”. Yuta struck him before he could finish talking and as Syd fell to the ground, knocked out, Yuta jumped on top of him, straddling Syd’s chest with his legs. He went on to repeatedly punch Syd’s face, pounding his head into the ground. Yuta continued to do so with a maddening grin on his face, his mind still in that trance like state as Syds face became an increasingly bloody, bruised mess. A small voice in his head said “That’ enough.” but it couldn’t break him out of the trance.

With a sickening crunch, he struck a final blow that cracked open Syd’s skull and a bit of skull bone stabbed into his clenched fist. The sharp pain snapped him out of the trance but it was too late, the damage was done. After staring at Syd’s motionless body, he stood up shaking. “I did this.” Yuta muttered regretfully as he wished he could do advanced healing magecraft and then he also collapsed from his injuries and fell asleep.

As this was happening, Senji and Robin were still fending off the attacks of Angra Mainyus tendrils. “I need to keep him distracted while you perform your Noble Phantasm.” shouted Robin. “Okay”. said Senji who moved back towards the edge of the platform while Robin dispelled his crossbow and drew dual daggers while approaching Angra Mainyu to draw his attention.

All the tendrils attacked Robin and despite his best efforts to fend them off alone, a few did manage to scratch him. Senji knew Robin wouldn’t last long so he focused his mind as his body surged with mana and his mind pictured the mental landscape that would become the reality marble that he was about to project onto reality itself. He started the full incantation required to perform this highest level of magecraft.

“I once sought the ultimate blade. Not a sword that cuts through flesh, bone or the living. I sought a blade that severs bonds, severs certainty, severs karma. That is to say to be free of one’s fate. Uncountable years of toil to reach this place. Forging thousands of swords to create a barrow of blades. Many paths, converge here. Enduring desires, flow here. Unjust deaths, gather here. My whole life has been for this single swing. Unalloyed Blade Works.” As Senji spoke the incantation, an illusionary wall of fire formed a boundary line around Senji, Robin and Angra Mainyu. As soon as he finished the incantation the illusionary fire flared up and all three of them were blinded by a flash of bright white light.

The next thing they knew they were all standing in a wasteland, covered in flames, that seemed to span endlessly into the horizon. The sky was incredibly dark due to the smoke, coming from the flames in the wasteland, mixing with the clouds in the sky. This hellish landscape was littered with countless katana blades, all of which were unsheathed with their blades driven into the ground, standing upright like grave stones. It was Senji Muramasa’s inner world, the result of his lifelong endeavour, the place where all the blades he forged were stored and reproduced. A desolate kingdom of swords. Angra and Robin had stopped fighting to take in their new surroundings but now resumed their conflict. Robin was considerably more injured but was still going strong. Senji began the final preparation for his ultimate attack. He raised his bare-right arm in front of himself.

As he did so, all the blades in the Unalloyed Blade works reality marble shattered into molten pieces of metal. These then all collected together under his open right hand forming a large spherical mass of molten metal. He then projected a smithing hammer in his left hand and began to rapidly bashing away at the molten metal sphere, shaping it into a katana blade that had a divinely golden aura. He then projected a hilt and cross guard onto the bottom of the blade and took hold of his dream. All he had to do was give the blade a name and use it against Angra Mainyu.

Kanji magically wrote itself on the side of the blade near the cross guard as Senji had come up with the swords name. He then dispelled the reality marble having no further need of it. “I’m ready Robin.” shouted Senji. “Alright.” gasped Robin in pain from his many wounds. Robin charged Angra Mainyu to get his full attention. Angra Mainyu sent all his tendrils at Robin who stopped before they reached him and spread his arms wide. The tendrils, stabbed into his exposed chest, fatally injuring Robin. Robin used his spread-out arms to grab onto the tendrils in order to prevent them freeing themselves from his chest. Senji used this opportunity to run past Robin and approach Angra Mainyu unimpeded. As he reached Angra Mainyu, he stopped and raised the newly forged sword over his head.

“The heart of the blade is here. Accept this blow from my Tsumukari Muramasa.” declared Senji Muramasa before bringing the blade down in an overhead strike that cleaved Angra Mainyu in two by splitting him down the middle vertically. The slash was so strong it cut the ground directly in front of Senji. Then everything that the blade had cut burst into divinely golden flames. They seemed to burn particularly fiercely where they had cut Angra Mainyu and within a few minutes, he was nothing more than a pile of smouldering ash.

The name of the blade “Tsumukari” refers to “Tsumukari no Tachi” or “Tsurugari no Tachi”, also known as “Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi” or “Ame-no-Murakamo-no-Tsurugi.” A legendary sword discovered in one of the tails of “Yamata-no-Orochi”, a powerful, 8 headed, 8 tailed serpent-dragon from Japanese mythology, in the ancient age of gods. Senji had recreated this divine weapon, a truly impressive feat for a mere mortal swordsmith. However due to his lack of divinity, he would soon die from using such a weapon. As Senji faded away, he smiled with the face of a fulfilled man who had achieved his dream.

Robin, who was now free of the tendrils as they had now burned away along with Angra Mainyu, walked over to where Senji had faded away and picked up the Tsumukari Muramasa blade that had been left behind. It was now just an ordinary katana blade having used all of its divinity. Robin threw it over the chasm onto the cliff back where the masters were. “Something they can remember your achievement by, Senji.” He thought before he too fading away due to his injuries.

The blade landed a short distance away from where Yuta, Fletcher and June had gathered together having recovered from their respective battles. Fletcher went to collect it while June, who had brought over the unconscious Cyan, tried to comfort Yuta who was upset that he had gone overboard and killed his opponent, Syd Burgress. “You do know that masters are supposed to kill each other in this war.” June pointed out. “Especially since it’s a good strategy as it kills the master’s servant as well.” “His servant was already dead and I’m not like most mages who only care about themselves. These fists are supposed to protect and save, not to kill or cause harm.” Yuta retorted. June responded with “I guess it’s a bit different for me, I don’t want innocent bystanders or people I care about to die of course but if it’s an enemy I’m not too fussed about killing them…is that cold?” “To me, yes, it is.” answered Yuta “but I recognise that, that way of thinking is morally all right from your perspective. I still think my perspective isn’t morally wrong for me and that’s why I can’t forgive myself for what I’ve done to Syd.”

Fletcher returned with the katana and wondered aloud “I wonder what this was for?” “Robin told me telepathically before he passed away that it was something to remember Senji’s achievement by.” Yuta explained. “So, I guess it’s over.” said June sounding relieved. “I wouldn’t be so sure.” said a voice beside them. Cyan had woken up and was on his feet. “It’s over Cyan.” stated June. “Angra Mainyu is dead as well as Syd and his familiars, moreover your magic circuits are disrupted so you can’t fight us.”

“You got one part of that wrong, Miss Bainsworth.” Cyan countered “One thing I didn’t tell Yassan was a backup plan I had in case Angra Mainyu was destroyed. After Saber killed Berserker, I realised I needed this back up plan. Put simply I only needed 5 servants to die to awaken Angra Mainyu but if he was destroyed before his awakening, I needed the remaining 2 servants to die. This would give enough additional mana to awaken the dormant Ahura Mazda that I had previously killed and had corrupted by Angra Mainyu’s influence effectively turning it into a second dormant Angra Mainyu. The reason I didn’t awaken the 1^st Angra Mainyu sooner once the 5^th servant Assassin passed was because I wasn’t expecting Yassan to warn you of my plans and you arrived before I could awaken him. You see I had put the partially manifested grail with the backup Angra Mainyu in the chasm, not the original and it would take time to move it back to the original Angra Mainyu. Now it has fully manifested next to the backup and its power will awaken Angra Mainyu at a mere command. Angra Mainyu, I order you to take in the grail and fully awaken.”

Yuta leapt forward and knocked Cyan unconscious but it was too late. They all felt an overwhelmingly evil presence growing from the chasm below. “That must be the 2^nd, Angra Mainyu. It won’t be long before he gets here.” noted June. “What are we going to do?” asked Yuta. “You two take Cyan, the katana and get out of here. I’ll use my heroic spirit possession magecraft to get possessed by Senji and destroy Angra once and for all.” answered Fletcher  Yuta understood, picked up the katana and asked June to help carry the unconscious Cyan but she hesitated. “You know you’ll die if you do that.” June said sounding melancholic. “I don’t like it either June but we have no other choice.” said Fletcher trying to keep the fear out of his voice. “But before I forget, I’ll do 1 additional heroic spirit possession as a parting gift to you June.” He performed the magecraft again, to the others only a few seconds passed in the real world as he performed the magecraft.

When Fletcher opened his eyes having completed the magecraft. He looked at June with a kind, affectionate expression and said “My Thanks, Fletcher, for allowing my consciousness to temporarily possess your body so I could speak with June one last time.” Fletcher walked up to June and gently patted her on the head. “Scatahach.” gasped June. “Indeed June.” confirmed Scathach speaking through Fletcher’s body. “I’ll be brief as we don’t have much time. June, I admit I don’t share your wish to have me incarnated and I’m sorry I lied about that as well as not telling you my real wish. But know this, be that as it may, that doesn’t change the fact that I still care for you like an older sister and I enjoyed our time together. I’ll be going now, be strong, be true to yourself and take care June.” Scathach’s spirit then left Fletchers body.

Grinning Fletcher said “How’s that for a parting gift?” June hugged him and said, teary eyed. “Thank you so much Fletcher, though I wish it wasn’t a parting gift.” “I know but remember what Scathach said June, be strong, help Yuta get Cyan out of here. I hope you live long, happy lives.” replied Fletcher before turning to face the chasm and the upcoming Angra Mainyu. June and Yuta proceeded to carry Cyan and the katana back up the tunnel, back to the trap door and up into the church. June later contacted the mage association to explain the situation and confirm that the Holy Grail War was over. Fletcher performed the heroic spirit possession magecraft one last time and used Senji Muramasa’s Noble Phantasm to destroy Angra Mainyu for the final time. As he felt the life drain out of him having done the deed, he thought “I wish I could see Yuta and June again.” Just before the spirit of Senji left him, Senji disclosed a way that may make that wish possible but it was a costly gamble that may not succeed at all.

“I’ll do it, no matter what it costs me.” Fletcher stated and he made a special contract before passing away.

Chapter 14: “Memorial and Parting.”

It had been 2 weeks since the holy grail war concluded. Cyan had been imprisoned for, aggravatingly, risking exposure of magecraft to non-mages rather than his other crimes. The holy grail wars were unlikely to continue as the grail had been destroyed along with Angra Mainyu. June and Yuta were now tending to a memorial site, located by the Oak tree in the Bainsworth’s mansions garden, for those who had passed in the war. Specifically, Robin, Scathach, Fletcher, Senji, Yassan and Yan Qing. For each they had kept an item to remember them by. These were the catalysts used to summon Robin and Senji, an old arrowhead and an old katana blade respectively. To remember Scathach, a piece of the gate of Skye left over from the battle at Kew. Additionally, they kept the Tsumukari Muramasa blade. To remember Yassan, his trusty combat knife, for Yan Qing a copy of the Water Margin and for Fletcher, the Higgins mage family crest.  

As they tended, Yuta commented “Do you think Fletcher will approve of us using that crest to remember him by given how he feels about his family’s magecraft?” “Before he was willing to use his families magecraft I would have thought he wouldn’t have approved but now I think he would like it since it was thanks to that magecraft that we saved the world back then.” June pointed out then changed the subject. “So, are you still going to leave the UK?” she asked. “I’ve made up my mind June” Yuta answered “The Mage Association doesn’t care that I killed Syd but I do. I need to go away for a while and atone for what I did rather than wallow in my guilt at the clock tower.” June looking downcast said “I’ll miss you and I’ll be waiting for you.” “I appreciate that. Look on the bright side, June, the world is a big place. I’ll be able to see some of it while I’m away. When I’m done, I’ll come back to tell you all about it.” confided Yuta “I’m looking forward to that.” said June perking up.

They stood in silence for a bit. “I’ll really miss Scathach, Robin, Senji and Fletcher because unlike you they aren’t coming back.” added June “What’s gone is gone but ask yourself this, what remains?” consoled Yuta “The rest of the world and you.” answered June smiling. “That’s enough for me.”

Chapter 15: “Epilogue”

A century later, a young man was walking through the streets of London in a hurry, he needed to find a certain location that he had been searching for a millennium. He could feel that strange “Force” trying to recall him but he resisted it. “Just a bit further.” He thought. He soon found what he was looking for. A large mansion surrounded by a lush garden. He entered the garden without setting off the magecraft defences with a powerful concealment ability. In the garden he found an oak tree with a memorial site. On it were names he recognised, he paid them his respects and was about to go and enter the mansion when he saw something that made him stop. Next to the memorial site was a companion plot of graves.

Written on them were the names of the 2 people he most wanted to see. The young man slumped onto his knees and hung his head thinking “Too late, too late.” This could have been his only chance to see them again and now it wasn’t possible. As he knelt there quietly, the door of the mansion opened and a young girl came out carrying 2 pots of fresh flowers. She stopped short, seeing the stranger kneeling by her grandparents’ graves. Gathering courage, she walked up to the memorial site and replaced the withering flowers by the site with one of the pots of fresh flowers and did the same with the withering flowers on the graves.

She then turned to the stranger. “What’s your name, mister?” she inquired “and what are you doing in our garden?” Still looking down the young man replied with a hint of smugness “Mind your manners, young lady, don’t you know it’s rude to ask for someone’s name before giving your own?” The young girl blushed in embarrassment and frustration then calmed down and stated “My name is Yuki Bainsworth of the Bainsworth mage family. Never mind what your name is, what are you doing in our garden?” The young man looked up upon hearing her name and saw her long black hair tied into a neat pony tail and piercing emerald eyes. “She must be a relative of theirs, maybe a granddaughter?” he thought.

“Well, I was just paying my respects to the people in these graves, I’m an old acquittance of theirs, my name isn’t important because you probably wouldn’t know me by it anyway.” said the young man. “Oh, Ok.” said Yuki and she sat down next to him. “Are they relatives of yours?” asked the young man “Yes, they’re my grandparents.” answered Yuki.

“Yuki’s an interesting name” commented the young man. “I guess so, my grandfather named me after the fact I was born on one of the last days snow appeared in the UK; it hadn’t snowed for decades before then. Yuki means snow in Japanese and my grandfather was half Japanese you see.” explained Yuki.

“One more question.” said the young man “would you say your grandparents had happy lives?” “Yes, they did.” Yuki answered “they wrote lots of diaries about their lives and had lots photos of family memories that proves they lived happy lives. Also, when I knew them before they died, they seemed quite happy.” “Glad to hear it” said the young man, who now felt that some of the heartache from earlier had faded. Satisfied the young man got up and made to leave when Yuki asked “Mister, why is your hair so white?” “It’s Albinism” lied the young man.

As he approached the garden entrance, the girl recalled something and said “Oh yeah, there was one thing my grandparents were sad about, a person they knew from their school days at the clock tower who died at a very young age, he’s on the memorial site, his name was Fletcher Higgins and he was a friend of theirs, do you know him?” “Can’t say that I do.” lied the young man again. “Goodbye Yuki and thanks for the hospitality.” “Goodbye mister, come again, I’d like to see you.” She replied.

“Me too but I doubt we’ll see each other again” thought the young man. After a millennium of waiting, whilst the young man didn’t quite get what he wished for, what he got instead was just as good as it was what he had hoped for. He let the counter force take him back with a new found happiness and resolve to withstand the endless trials ahead of him.

The End