"If you can sense them, and I can't, then it may well be just the Master acting alone." I note. "If we attack now, then we delay obtaining Avalon, and if a brawl starts..."
"Surely a fight like that wouldn't end in that many casualties..."
"The third war lasted three nights after the first skirmish, Master. It was a very quick war, all things considered."
"Oh..."
That put a tinge of nervousness on Illya's face.
"Then we should focus on Avalon?"
"Correct. If we don't obtain it before the killing starts, we might not have time to find it before your condition deteriorates beyond what we can stave off." I state bluntly, my eyes scanning the streets.
"He lives on the north side." Illya states. I blink.
"Sorry?"
"My foster brother." Illya supplied darkly, almost spitting the word out. "He lives on the north side, from what I've seen of his walking home habits."
I glance at the sun. We'd been at this some time…
"… I think I may know where."
I vaguely remember it. That safe house that Irisviel was stolen from. That was the only Einzbern residence I recalled from the north side of town. It had been rather useless during the war, a source of consternation and defeat.
Maiya had fallen there.
"Sorry?"
"There is a house, a fairly old one, that Irisviel used near the end of the last war as a safe house. It was rather useless. We were found anyway." I note, as I begin driving north. The streets are fairly empty of vehicles, and I can see many people walking the streets, of all ages.
A glint of gold?
"And you think father… oh, that is devious. The Einzbern are too proud to check their own residences." Illya mused. "Hiding right under their noses. It'd be a simple matter for father to simply pretend he'd always lived there."
"To the locals, he probably always did." I mutter.
"There!"
Huh? My eyes follow Illya's hand, pointing to an orange haired boy who was hurrying down the street, his eyes flicking left and right in suspicion.
"That's him?"
"Yes."
I almost didn't want to believe it, honestly. He looked… well, pathetic. Was he even a Magus? Yet looking at him brought a feeling of unease to me. As if something about him was decidedly unnatural.
I look up and down the road, but there's no place to park the car.
"We'll intercept him at the house." I state.
"Huh, but he's right there!"
"A conversation like the one we are going to have is not one to be had in the open. Besides, there is nowhere to park the care."
"Conversation? Just smack him over the back of the head and be done with it. We'll dissect him back home."
I give my Master a long look.
"That attitude is exactly why we're going to have this meeting behind closed doors." I answered. "No dissecting. I had enough of underhanded methods and lack of care for collateral from your father."
That quietens Illya almost immediately, her face twisting into a pout.
"Fine." She grumbled. "We'll play it your way." Her attention returned to the boys form for a moment.
"What's his name?"
"Hmm?"
"Your foster brother." I clarified. Illya's groaned, looking away.
"He's no sibling of mine." She declared. "Shirou. Emiya Shirou."
I merely nod, as I ease that car further along the street. He ducks into an alley, and after about four steps, breaks into a run.
"He's scared."
"Saber?"
I knew that sort of gait. I've seen it many times in the broken and fleeing formations of the defeated soldiers. It was the run of someone who'd encountered something immensely more powerful then himself and been granted a short reprieve to run or die.
"He's scared." I repeat. "He's running from someone."
"Who would want to harm him?" Illya grumbled. "It's not like he's… a… Master..." She trailed off, closing her eyes in thought. It was only a moment before they snapped open again. "He was the other mana source! Shirou has a Command Spell! That's why I can sense him!"
I groan at that, glancing at the care for a moment.
"Your orders?"
"AFTER HIM!"
I had barely begun to spin the car when I felt it. It was coming, from a distance I couldn't really fathom. I barely had time to grab Illya and smash out of the side of the car before it struck, tearing through the car and leaving a huge tear in the ground.
I can hear everyone screaming. Invisible Air forms in my hand and my armour blazes into existence as I roll across the ground.
"How sure are you he was the other mana source?" I ask. My ears ring. The car was little more then a husk of metal and fluid, oil and otherwise. A piece of steel trash, really.
The target of a super long-ranged attack. I couldn't even begin to see the Archer, merely take a guess at where the shot had come from. It was from the direction of the river.
"Who was that?" Illya growled out. "No, what was that… Archer?"
A glint on the horizon. I take a step back and slash.
The clang of steel rung out, and a huge gout of earth opened up beside me. Illya screamed.
This Servant seemed to have no regard for secrecy at all. Perhaps it had reasoned that, as Archer, it was simply not their problem if firing upon me revealed anything.
"Master?"
"I'm okay!" She cried back, coughing out dust. Another glint in the distance. This was getting ridiculous. I swing again, diverting another arrow…
Actually, no, these are far too big to be just arrows. They were more like javelins then arrows. My left hand reaches out, grabbing Illya's collar.
"Don't scream."
"Huh?"
I jet off to the side, into an alley. Illya screams, and where we were standing became a crater in the ground.
How very annoying. I haven't seen a Servant so willing to disregard the rules since the Third War. Not even Berserker last war disregarded the rule against fighting in public quite so callously.
"Come on." I whisper. "We have to keep moving."
"R-right." Illya is shaken. I don't think she realised just how great the difference in strength between a Servant and a human was. Admittedly, it was refreshing to face an Archer who used a bow again after the last two wars.
I grip her hand tightly, marching forward with her. We'd have to go straight to the safe house now. There was no other option.
With Illya with me, Shirou would have quite the head start, yet…
Who, exactly, was the Archer's target? If it was Shirou, then why disregard the rules when we arrived? Unless…
Shirou was a target of opportunity, a Master who hadn't summoned. He may one day have a Servant, but for the moment, he didn't. Illya did have a Servant.
Illya was a more valuable target then Shirou. An enemy Master couldn't possibly know that if Illya died in a way that destroyed her body, the Holy Grail War would end in no victory at all.
Yet we were stuck, now. The car was destroyed, and stealing one would not be particularly effective. It'd take too long to get in and moving. We would need to move on foot.
"Follow me."
I lead Illya along by the hand, further down the alleyway.
"Saber?"
"You're the target."
"But Shirou-"
"If the Servant can get Shirou, then it's no more then an opportunity. It won't stop another Servant from being summoned. If anything, it s a mere probe to determine how he'd react." I state. "Killing you defeats one of the Servants."
My point appears to get across to her. She doesn't resist as I lead her to the edge of the alley, peering around the edge.
"Run straight across." I state. "Do not slow."
"Right."
"On three."
"One. Two..."
"Three."
We spoke as one. Illya begins dashing across the street. I shoot out with her. The arrow comes like clockwork, and I bat it aside, only to be greeted with shattering metal.
Huh. Those arrows…
No. It must be a trick of the mind. Steel javelins, maybe, fired out of a huge bow.
Yet it felt like it was coming from something closer and closer.
We dashed into another alley, repeating the process three more times. Three more times, the arrows come. The fourth time, no arrow comes.
Odd.
"Nearly there." I muttered, running along with Illya. I could see it down the street now. We were near enough, yet…
The front gate hangs completely open, half of it barely hanging on its hinges. It was forced. The lock was twisted almost beyond recognition.
"Illya!"
"GO!"
I obey my Master's order immediately, mana filling my limbs as everything turned into a blur. My movements are well beyond the speed of a human, and I reach the wide open front door in seconds.
"I have broken over a thousand blades."
The voice rings out as if echoing. The Servant beat us here? Or did Shirou possess some sort of magic after all?
I don't bother going through the halls of the house. That's too slow. I burst through the wall, Invisible Air swinging. The Servant only narrowly avoids my blade, Shirou helpless on the floor before him. A twisted and curved spiral sword went flying wide, slamming into a wall point first as I swung again.
The Servant ducks under the strike. He's fast. As fast as me, even. Twin lights shine in both of his hands, revealing a pair of curved blades, one black, one white.
I swing again. I'm greeted to the sound of shattering metal, the Servant skidding back into a wall. I spare a swift glance to Shirou.
"If you wish to live, run."
I can't spare more then a glance to him, my eyes falling on the Servant once more.
He's tall. Rather tall, in fact. His skin is very dark, his hair white, scruffy and unkempt. His eyes were a red that seemed to pierce the soul with some sort of intense madness or obsession. He wore a huge red shroud, but it was in tatters, more like a multitude of hanging cloths on his breastplate than anything else.
At first, I thought he was our Archer. But now, I wasn't so sure.
"Trace On."
He stood up, another blade, more like a wicked knife, forming in his hands, as he began circling around me. I could see through the movement immediately.
He's trying to move towards the hallway. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Shirou was his target after all.
"I suppose that your Saber?" He asked. I narrowed my eyes, raising my invisible blade of air and readying myself to attack.
"Maybe." I answer, non-committed. "And you?"
"Maybe a Lancer. Or an Archer. Or maybe even Rider." He answers. Yet I narrow my eyes.
"You are the Servant that attacked us?"
"Astute observation."
His attention is only half on me. He's more concerned with Shirou. I don't understand why he would want to kill Shirou, yet…
He's tipped his hand, partially, for I can guess his class accurately with that. No Lancer or Rider would have a super long-range attack, yet at this distance, it's clear that his Noble Phantasm is not a bow. He displays many unique weapons…
"Assassin."
He raises an eyebrow at that.
"Oh? And what makes you think that?"
I grimace. He is a sneaky one. The discussion was distracting my attention from his footwork. He was getting ready to pounce.
"You display many weapons, for the sole purpose of directing attention away from your identity. The conclusion, then, is that the form of your weapon itself is a Noble Phantasm." I answer. The Servant blinks for a moment, almost looking impressed.
"Well, that's a new one." He admits. "I don't suppose you'll accept I have no quarrel with you?"
"No."
"Pity." And then he moves. I thought he'd charge after the orange haired boy, but no, the Servant comes straight at me, blade swinging. I slash down with Invisible Air. He nimbly dodges, knocking my blade to the side and ignoring his now destroyed knife. Another flash of light, the new blade is a hooked sword.
As I thought. He was hiding his identity by using anything famous he could think of.
Yet even as he stabs forward, I swing my sword like a baseball bat. He slips under the strike, weapon destroyed, and delivers a kick to my midsection.
It moves me back two steps, but in truth, I barely felt it. Was that all?
A brief moment passes, before I realise his intent. He's already out of the room, having swapped to astral form and gone through the wall.
Damn it all!
I took off after him. He was definitely an Assassin. If he were Lancer or Rider, as he tried to bluff, then he would have stayed in close combat. By breaking off, he's revealed his target. By hiding from my senses, he's betrayed his class.
And then he pops up again. The only conclusion I can make, bursting out of the back of the house, is that he has a very low rank of Presence Concealment.
He's already at the shed door in the distance. Is that where Shirou fled?
The idiot. He should have ran away, not hidden.
There is only one way I could cross that distance fast enough to be able to reach Shirou in time to protect him from Assassin, yet as I prepare to shoot forward, revealing my sword, I stop. I can feel it, something primal starting before me.
"-Forth from the Ring of Deterrence, O' Keeper of Balance!"
A summoning ritual?
"Trace O-"
*SMACK*
I winced at the sound of flesh hitting flesh, slowing ever so slightly. Before me, is one of the more odd sights I've seen in my life, my sword falling to my side as I watched.
The new Servant was a blue haired man, almost handsome, in simple armour. Behind him was a long, red spear. It was not in his hands.
*SMACK*
No, those hands were busy punching Assassin in the face. It was… rather odd, watching a Servants first reaction to being summon be brutalise another Servant bare handed.
*SMACK* *SMACK*
I took a step to the side as Assassin flew past me, grinding across the ground and coming to a halt in an undignified heap. The new Servant glared at me, his left hand pulling his spear from the ground, turning, and directing his gaze to Shirou.
"I'm Rider. Are you my Master, kid?" He asked, his face completely serious. His red spear fell pointing in my direction. I almost charged forth, yet…
No, I knew this spear. There were only a few red spears in Irish lore, yet the shape of this one, with barbs and twists, revealed who owned it.
"Y-yes." Shirou declared with certainty. "I am your Master, Rider."
My blood ran cold. I gripped my blade in both hands. This could get ugly.
"See, this is why you should have got out of the way, Saber." Assassin grumbled from behind me, slowly standing up, a white sword and a black sword in hand. "How annoying. And to think if you'd just sat still I'd have only taken your arm."
He looks livid. I don't believe his words for a second.
[ ] Intervene.
-[ ] Attack Assassin.
-[ ] Attack Rider.
-[ ] Attack both.
[ ] Stand back and allow the brawl to happen.
[ ] You had to attend to Illya. Fall back in case there were more combatants.
-
Illya is not Present. Book of Masters is not updated.
