She appeared out of nowhere, enveloped in a cloud of smoke. She was mysterious, illuminated by the moonlight, overshadowing everything around her. Her gaze was stern as she encountered Berserker and Illya, who backed away in her presence.
She took a brief moment to realize that she had been brought to Fuyuki once again. Then she turned and looked at the wounded boy lying on the ground.
"Are you my Master?" she asked.
The boy, who was barely conscious, narrowed his eyes in confusion. He didn't understand anything that was happening, but for now, he was safe, and that was all that mattered.
Weakened, Shirou dropped his head to the ground, unable to remain conscious any longer, and the girl clenched her fist when she saw this.
"You don't need to introduce yourself, Berserker. I can tell who you are just by looking at you," said the girl, turning to look at Illya, Berserker's Master.
"You're interrupting my moment with onii-san," Illya frowned. "Berserker, crush her!"
Following Illya's order, Berserker roared and his muscles swelled. The blonde girl in blue and silver armor wielded something invisible in her hands and frowned. With smooth and elegant skill, she stomped her foot on the ground and appeared in front of Berserker, who swung his club to crush the girl, but she raised both hands and a metallic clash was heard again.
Berserker retreated, but instantly struck again. The girl did the same and counterattacked, which turned into a succession of exchanges of blows. Metal against metal resonated. Metal sparks exploded with each blow. The darkness lit up, and Berserker's gasps and screams filled the sky.
Despite being Berserker, he still had mastery of the sword. Berserker is a class of servant who has lost his sanity, so his attacks are usually full of strength and power, but they are also erratic and senseless, as it is a madman who is fighting.
She thought it would be that way, but Berserker seemed very aware of what he was doing. He jumped and landed on the roof of the house, breaking the tiles with his weight.
The girl followed him, and the two continued to exchange blows at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye. It looked like explosions of wind appearing and disappearing, causing a thunderous noise.
The exchange took them both to the street, but she wanted to go back to the boy to protect him, as he was left with that white-haired girl. It wasn't safe to fight Berserker if her Master's life was also in danger.
"We'll have to end this quickly," she said, and increased her speed.
Berserker used the walls of Shirou's house, as well as the ceilings, to move around. It seemed that Berserker didn't want to stray too far from his Master either. That was an advantage that, although small, gave the girl enough confidence to keep fighting.
Although it seemed strange to her, this time she was a little stronger than when she was summoned ten years ago; after all, she is Saber, Artoria Pendragon.
"What's wrong, Berserker? Are you sure it's a good idea to leave your Master alone?" she said, provoking Berserker's fury.
The colossal man stepped on the roof and returned to the courtyard of Shirou's house. Saber followed him as they continued to clash swords. Illya witnessed the return of both servants, taking a step back.
"Berserker!"
"Ahhhhhh!"
Reacting to Illya's every word, Berserker's body began to expel a large amount of steam. It seemed as if his veins had been flooded with magma, as they glowed inside his body while his strength increased.
Saber was overwhelmed for a moment, but she planted both feet on the ground with all her strength and gave her last ounce of spirit to kill Berserker. Illya's servant's attacks were very wide and had many gaps to break through, but he was also very fast and agile, which was a complication.
Even so, Saber did not back down. She struck her wind sword against Berserker's primitive sword. Each one increased their strength with every blow. The ground cracked, the wind whipped with every movement of the weapons, and the house shook.
Amidst the blood, Shirou opened his eyes again, looked at the girl fighting, and reached out his hand.
"You can't... you can't..." he whispered, in a tone that no one heard.
However, Saber achieved what seemed impossible. With titanic strength and speed, she struck Berserker's sword once more, knocking him back, but that wasn't all. Immediately after that, she changed the position of her sword and stabbed Berserker in the chest.
The colossal beast opened its mouth in pain.
"Strike Air!" she exclaimed, and the Bounden Field that looked like a sword exploded inside Berserker's chest, revealing, for a millisecond, a shining golden sword that glowed to the ends of the world.
A spray of blood splattered with that attack, and Berserker fell to his knees with a huge hole in his chest. His titanic gaze dimmed, and his body was enveloped in black flames.
Saber wielded the wind sword and sighed with relief. She hadn't noticed during the fight, but her body was covered in deep cuts.
"Now... what are you going to do?" Saber asked Illya.
She shook her head, defeated, but she didn't seem scared. Illya looked to the side of Saber and saw Shirou, who was crawling along the ground, bleeding. She was sure Shirou was unconscious, but he was desperately crawling to help Saber.
"That's the kind of person you are, isn't it, onii-san?"
Saber didn't understand what Illya meant, but she raised her guard just in case. However, there was a crackling sound and a whisper.
Saber looked at Berserker's corpse, but her eyes widened in disbelief at what she saw. The man was getting up from the ground. The hole in his chest closed as if time had been reversed, and his eyes flashed with anger.
"Berserker won't die... He's too strong."
Illya was right, but Saber didn't want to hear any of it. The stern expression on her face showed that she was ready to fight again, but the wounds on her body were going to be an impediment.
"If you fight him again, you will die. Onii-san will be left without a servant and will also die," that disturbing smile had returned to her lips. "So, for now, we won't kill you. I think I want to see how far onii-san goes in this war. You are Saber, so you will be able to play with us a lot."
As if it were nothing, Illya turned and headed for the exit of the house, but stopped as Berserker faded into his ghost form.
"It seems that Onii-san knows nothing about the war. If you manage to keep him from dying, take him to the church. There, the priest will explain everything he needs to know. We'll meet again, Saber, onii-san, but next time, it will surely be the last."
"Where are you going?" But Saber wasn't going to let it go. "You attacked someone who didn't have a servant. How dare you?"
Illya laughed. "It was more fun that way. At least it was, until you showed up. The fun increased so much that I no longer feel like killing onii-san," she continued walking. "It's a shame I arrived so late. Kiritsugu is no longer here," and she disappeared into the darkness of the corridors.
At the mere mention of that name, Saber froze, as if something had bolted her feet to the ground. At that very moment, she opened her eyes wide as she noticed the sad resemblance that girl had to a woman she had known in the past.
"Irisviel..."
But the soft touch of something on her boot pulled her out of her thoughts. Shiro was beside her, broken and dying. He had crawled here with his last ounce of strength, and now, with the tip of his finger on his broken hand, he touched Saber's boot.
She clenched her fist and thought, "What is this boy's name?"
The coincidence of this place, a place she already knew, made her think that this boy would have the same last name as that man.
"Emiya..."
With regret, the wind sword disappeared. She took Shirou in her arms and carried him inside the house, hoping to save him.
As she walked, she looked around thoughtfully. Now that she had returned, her only wish could come true, but that would have to wait. Shirou, still unconscious, moaned in pain. Saber hurried to carry him to one of the rooms.
***
On a telephone pole, one of Assassin's clones watched in his invisible ghost form. He observed every detail of the fight and was completely shocked when he saw Saber's face.
"Arthur Pendragon..."
He figured it out instantly, because Gray was cursed with the face of that King of Knights, and Saber has the same face, there was no doubt about it. He moved closer to the scene and saw Saber taking off Shirou's shirt and cleaning his wounds with cold water.
Apart from that...
"She killed Berserker, but..."
Berserker came back to life. Toru could see it with his own eyes. His death lines went out the moment the air shot exploded. Berserker definitely died, but his death lines lit up again like lightning in the darkness. That had never happened before.
"Will I be able to kill him with Shigan?" he wondered, looking at something new and strange.
As Shirou lay dying and Saber did everything she could to keep him alive, Shirou's wounds began to close, leaving a faint trail of steam that vanished into the air.
Saber frowned. She felt something familiar when that happened, but she couldn't remember what it was. Was it possible that, even unconscious, Shirou had used healing magic on himself? It was theoretically possible, but Saber couldn't trust that possibility.
The clone continued to observe for the rest of the night. Although he couldn't act on the enemy's weakness due to the little mana the original Assassin gave him and his low stats, he could gather as much information as possible.
***
Something similar happened inside the Tohsaka family mansion. The clone that had managed to infiltrate, despite not having enough mana to fight, closely investigated Rin and Archer.
Rin was in her room, sleeping while Archer watched from the ceiling.
The clone could grab his dagger and kill her, but Archer would be able to sense his presence immediately the moment his body materialized.
Although the idea doesn't sound bad. It's a clone. It won't really die if Archer shows up and stabs it with a sword. It will just explode into mana, and the information stored in its mind will travel through the ley lines until it reaches the original.
"I have to be quick..." he said to himself.
It's a two-step mission. Materialize his body and kill the girl. With that, Archer will return to the throne of heroes and there will be one less magus in the war. And that's exactly what he did. He materialized his body and pointed his dagger at Rin's neck, but stopped a few inches before completing the murder.
His vision distorted. He realized he wasn't fast enough. Sure, he's a clone, but he doesn't have the same stats as the original. The dagger vanished in his hand, and before falling away in a cloud of smoke, he looked up at Archer through a hole in the ceiling.
The bastard had shot an arrow from above, without even moving from his spot.
'That's right. Why didn't I think of that? He's Archer.'
Archer didn't need to be nearby to protect his Master. The clone's mistake was not thinking about the kind of servant he was facing, but remembering what he had seen before in Archer's battle against Lancer.
It exploded in a cloud of smoke, and Rin woke up with a start. She pulled a dagger from under her pillow, but all she saw was a hole in the floor and ceiling.
"Assassin infiltrated and bypassed my surveillance," said Archer, materializing his body next to Rin's bed.
He assumed it was Assassin. Such a servant would be the only one who could completely erase his presence and go unnoticed by the mansion's security.
"Assassin..." Rin gripped the dagger tightly. "Are you sure?"
Archer did not respond. The evidence was right in front of her. There was no doubt that it was Assassin.
"What did he look like, Archer? I need to know."
"He had a black cloak and wore a skull mask. A Hassan, perhaps, but I'm not sure." Archer noticed the expression on Rin's face, not one of fear, but one of slight sadness... "Your reaction... Does it have anything to do with the Assassin you wanted to summon?"
Rin looked at the floor but said nothing. That was answer enough for Archer.
"Haah... From now on, I'll stay by your side. Although I don't think that Assassin is stupid enough to try the same thing twice."
"Try again? Didn't you kill Assassin?"
"No. What I killed before was a physical copy made with mana. The original must have the ability to clone itself in that way. That's probably his Noble Phantasm, but let's leave that in doubt for now."
"I see..."
Rin was lost in thought. She almost died at the hands of Assassin. If she gets distracted like this, she could end up dying at any moment. This is war, and in war, people die. She felt her heart beating a mile a minute.
She didn't want to make any more mistakes, and she didn't want to die before fulfilling her father's wish and seeing Sakura one more time.
***
Assassin opened his eyes. New information came to his mind. One of the clones had been reckless and tried to kill Archer's Master. He failed, obviously.
"The clones are too weak... Their stats are half of mine. They're slow and fragile..."
But they're useful for discovering their enemies' hiding places, and that's a huge advantage.