[X] Go to the Imperial Palace.
"The palace is our best bet." Mordred decided, dismissing her Noble Phantasm into spiritual form. "Ayaka should be in there. And worse comes to worse, Rider and her Master should be there, so we might be able to get back-up."
"If you say so." Mashu nodded. "You're the experienced Servant, after all."
Hefting her shield with her, Mashu started walking after Mordred, and the two set off to the east.
"So..." Mashu speaks from behind the silver knight, her voice sounding somewhat awkward. "You know Archer's Master, then?"
"Yeah." Saber called back. "The Holy Grail really didn't last too long in terms of Servants killing each other. Actually, I'm pretty sure it didn't even have any Servant deaths, by the time Manaka abandoned subtlety."
Stepping out of the building, Mordred took a moment to look over the remnants of Tokyo again. It was, surprisingly, not actually burning here. The smell of smoke was a lot thinner then it was to the south, too. Manaka had been varying it up in terms of destruction, from what Mordred could recall.
"If we were closer to the water, the streets would be flooded." Mordred noted. "Here, there's just all the damage from Manaka throwing around the air. Head to the north, you can see where she's just uprooted buildings and thrown them around."
"...She's that powerful?" Mashu asked. "That doesn't seem like something a normal person would be capable of..."
"Manaka's not a normal anything." Mordred spat out. "Ayaka says she's always been ridiculous like this. Hasn't aged since the last War, which she took part of and nearly won before she got betrayed by her Servant, and she should be dead but that apparently didn't stick..."
"Someone who could do all this..." She continued, looking somewhat concerned. "I suppose it's a good thing I turned up when I did? To..."
She trails off, her words dropping off, and Mordred took the moment to intervene.
"Yeah, thanks for that." She commented, tilting her head back to look over her shoulder. "Manaka had me kinda... Well, how I was then, a spell as charged up as that probably would have torn me apart, even with my Magic Resistance."
"I mean, I barely did anything." The girl sighed. "I just put the shield in the way-"
"Do you have any idea what you're holding?" Mordred asked, as she stepped back and approached Mashu again. Rapping her knuckle against the shield, she grinned. "Lord Camelot here's real finicky. It doesn't just defend against an attack like that, it's all on you."
"...Eh?" Mashu asked, confused. "But-"
"Even if it wasn't a full manifestation." Mordred continued. "Galahad's shield is still tough. As long as the one standing behind it stands firm, that wall's not gonna crumble."
The girl with silver hair looked at the girl in silver armour, and Mordred continued. "Think of it this way. You were brave enough that you were able to save me from Manaka. It's not like anything else in the city's gonna hit harder than that one blast there."
Well, that was a lie, Mordred didn't know what Noble Phantasms Caster and Berserker had so they could theoretically hit harder, but even in that case, Lord Camelot should be able to handle it.
"...I've been meaning to ask." Mashu suddenly changed the topic. "You mentioned the name of the Heroic Spirit who had this Noble Phantasm. Galahad. He's a friend of yours? You're from Camelot then? I mean, the Noble Phantasm is called Lord Camelot, so I'd assume so-"
"Yes, I'm a Knight of the Round Table." The silver knight confirmed. "Don't ask which, I've already said I want to clear up my honour before I do that. Just call me Saber."
"...Alright." Mashu nodded. "I was just wondering. Never mind."
"Well, come on then." Mordred decided, rapping her knuckles on the shield again as she turned around. "We're losing time. We can hardly afford to wait around while Manaka's still lurking out there."
"Ah, sorry-"
"Stop that." Mordred snapped back, annoyed. "You've got his shield. Stop stammering around and being like this. You should have Galahad's instincts, but if you're apologising and stammering and acting like this you're not gonna act on it in time. Stop worrying, just be a hero."
Without waiting for a reply, Mordred walked onwards.
The girl seemed too unsure of herself, right now. Probably didn't help, what Saber had said to her earlier, but the point remained. She'd been able to block a strong magic blast a few minutes ago when she'd acted without thinking about it too much, so as long as she wasn't thinking too hard about what she was doing, maybe she'd be able to keep that up for now.
"So we're resolving this singularity." Mordred declared. "What comes after that?"
"After the singularity?" Mashu asked, trying to keep track of the sudden shift in conversation herself. "W-Well, it'll collapse once the source is eliminated, and proper history should reassert itself. If there's enough left of Chaldea for all the processes to be working properly, then it should pull me out of the singularity once it is completed."
"And what about the rest of us?" Mordred asked.
"...If we collapse the singularity, then when proper history is asserted, you shouldn't remember anything of it." Mashu admitted. "Theoretically, being summoned into another singularity should allow you to remember what happened in this one, but history would likely default to what happened, minus the involvement of the source at the last moment, and nobody would remember it."
"...So it's like Manaka said, then." Mordred noted. "No lasting consequences. I won't remember any of this."
Curling into her first, Saber grumbled. "Great, I'm going to go murder Manaka and then I'll forget it and won't ever get to know what happened to my Master's killer."
"Ah..." Mashu spoke up suddenly, looking ahead. "I mean... If we can get into contact with Chaldea before then, we might be able to find a resolution to that. The intent was that all of the Master's would be able to summon Servants and go back and forth from Singularities with them if needed, so perhaps there's a way we can collect your Saint Graph and bring you back to Chaldea. A provisional contract, perhaps..."
"Well, we'll worry about it later." Mordred dismissed. "For now, let's just focus on stabbing Manaka."
"Okay." Mashu nodded.
They walked in silence for some time longer, to Mordred's annoyance. Jeez, this atmosphere was awkward. And all the corpses scattered through the city didn't help.
...Screw it, the girl's probably thinking about death a lot if she's alone with her thoughts and seeing all the bodies everywhere, may as well just ask.
"So, what happened to Chaldea anyway? You mentioned everyone was dying and you don't know how you got here."
Mashu took a moment to respond, but at least she didn't slow down or stumbled or anything. That was good.
"I'm... Not really sure what happened." She admitted. "The Director had given us orders to prepare for a leyshift, and Master's were gathered to receive more in-depth orders. We were mingling, on Doctor Roman's suggestion, and then..."
She trails off for a moment, and when she starts talking again, her voice is strained.
"I don't know what happened next..." She admitted. "There was a lot of fire, I almost got crushed by some rubble, I think I heard the Director telling people to leyshift before something else happened, and there was a lot of dead people before I blacked out."
"You don't remember leyshifting?" Mordred asked.
"No." The girl's voice behind Saber repeated. "The last thing I remember is... It must have been Galahad, asking if I wanted to live. He must've..."
She trailed off again, and Mordred tried to think of something to say for a moment.
Man she was bad at the comforting people thing. Maybe she should've tried talking about her problems back when she was alive, and that would've given her some experience in it.
Eh, too late for that now. Kill Manaka, talk about her problems when there wasn't immediate vengeance to be had.
"We should be there soon." Mordred noted. "See, there's the palace there, now."
The building was remarkably kept together despite the devastation surrounding it. But then, it was the imperial palace of Tokyo. Even if there wasn't any Magi in it who weren't involved in the Grail War before this point, that place was important enough to have Magi living in it in the past. It probably had centuries of Bounded Fields around it.
It was distant, but the palace was in view. And so was the woman standing in the air above it.
"Who-" The shieldbearer began, before Saber cut her off.
"That'd be Rider." Saber noted, looking up. "I dunno, the air is her mount or something."
The figure in the air seemed to shift, as if reaching for something at their side. Vaguely, from a distance, Mordred saw them reach for a sword. Slicing through the air, the Servant cut forward eight times.
In a flash, they shot forward, crossing the distance between the palace and Saber in a heartbeat. She stopped a short sprint in front of the group, just as Saber felt herself fall into a defensive position on instinct, and Rider sheathed her blade.
"Oh." Rider noted, looking up. "Saber. You're alive."
Rider suddenly smiled.
"Of course I am." Mordred scoffed. "What, d'you think that I couldn't get past Lancer?"
"I mean, you didn't have a Master." Rider pointed out, before looking behind Saber. "Or you didn't? Who's that?"
"Long story." Saber replied. "It'll take forever to go over it, and your Master will want to know the story too."
"I'm Mashu." The girl with the shield introduced herself.
The small Rider nodded, her tail wagging somewhat. "I'm Rider. Nice to meet you."
"Rider, give your Master a heads up that we're coming by." Mordred ordered. "And ask him how Ayaka is. I'm, uh, kind of in need of a Master right now."
Rider frowned.
"Ayaka?" She asked. "I haven't seen her since you left."
...Oh. Oh no.
"What do you mean?" Saber asked, approaching the Rider. "You don't know where she is?"
"Master hasn't seen her since Archer died, either." Rider said. "I... Don't know if she's still alive."
Damn it.
"So Manaka probably got her." Saber repeated. "Great. Just fucking great. I'm nearly out of Magical Energy and one of the only people around who could get me some more is missing, probably dead."
"Saber-"
Mordred took a breath, loud enough to interrupt Rider, before she spoke again.
"...Manaka's not around here, right?" Saber asked. "You haven't seen her?"
"I didn't see any sign of her." Rider confirmed.
"Then she's either gone to Berserker or Caster." Saber replied. "So if she did find Ayaka, she would know that there's only one viable Master left, and would have gone after Caster."
Fuck. This wasn't good. Manaka could have taken down most of the resources Saber had at her disposal to fight back by now. As she was now, even with the refill the Shielder had given her, Mordred doubted she'd be able to do too much to Manaka. Maybe if she got close, her Noble Phantasm could finish her off, but for all intents and purposes, that was a pipe dream. Mordred would use up too much energy to get close, and Manaka had apparently dodged death once somehow.
It wasn't like Mordred had any other options in regards to filling up on energy, either. There was too little time to go do some tantric rituals, and they wouldn't yield enough results unless she did it with Rider's Master and crippled Rider's mana supply. She couldn't just eat the souls of a dozen people, they didn't do anything to get dragged into the Grail War.
Maybe if she, Rider and Shielder all teamed up, they could beat Manaka alone, but if Manaka has Berserker or Caster with her? That wasn't likely either.
...Gah, this was a pain.
But she had to do something. And she had to do it now, too.
[X] ...If she could convince Rider it was neccesary, Mordred might be able to get her to disobey her Master's orders and hunt Manaka with her. If she left Mashu behind to run defence, then the palace wouldn't be any worse off.
[X] The only chance they had at this point was if everyone worked together. If everyone was at the palace, they might be able to prepare for Manaka's arrival and ambush her.
[X] Fuck it. Nothing was working. Send Mashu and Rider back to the palace, and Saber can go find Caster. Either Caster was compromised and with Manaka, or she could still be an ally. Either way, Mordred could deal with it.