"Huff... huff..."
The moment she sensed the surge of powerful magical energy emanating from Homurahara Academy, Rin Tohsaka, who had still been investigating Caster's mana-siphoning formation in central Fuyuki, immediately dropped everything and rushed toward the site.
Now, as the scene unfolded before her eyes, she couldn't help but gasp.
To the untrained eye, the school looked no different from usual. But through a magus's perception, the entire academy was encased in a field of purplish-red crystal.
Everything she saw was bathed in crimson, as though bright dye had been splashed across her retinas, casting a shadow over the world.
Why here of all places? Could they be targeting that idiot Emiya again?
Even though he's a complete amateur, he keeps wandering around like some kind of hero!
"Aaaagh!—" Troublesome as always! He's just making more work for me!
Rin steadied her breath, shook her head, and cut off her thoughts. "Let's go, Archer!"
"Ugh..." The moment she stepped into the boundary field, she felt a wave of nausea, like the world had turned upside down.
Her magic circuits flared to life. Though the discomfort soon faded, the sensation had been so jarring that her stomach still churned.
"Ugh, what an awful feeling."
The place was suffocating. It didn't just block the view of normal people—it could potentially sever the link between a careless Master and their Servant.
One wrong step and you'd be forced to burn a Command Spell to summon your Servant.
"Emiya!!" she shouted as she spotted the red-haired boy hiding behind the academy's commemorative stone monument.
"Tohsaka!!"
...Was it just her, or did that sound suspiciously like some star-crossed reunion scene?
Trailing behind Rin, Archer scowled as he spotted Shirou staggering forward with an unconscious girl slung over his back.
The red-robed Servant materialized his twin black-and-white blades, his expression sour.
"Brat, what mess did you drag onto us this time?"
Ignoring Archer's snide tone, Shirou rushed past Rin and gently laid Ayako Mitsuzuri down at the gatehouse, panting heavily.
"Tohsaka, Shinji was a Master. He summoned Rider."
"Matou Shinji? That useless moron? I thought the Matou line had lost all magical potential. He doesn't even have magic circuits—how could he be part of the Grail War?"
"I don't know the details either. But Tohsaka, Miss Ataegina's class is Foreigner. That's not one of the seven you told me about. What does that mean?"
"Wait! Hold on! Shirou, give me a second to process!"
Flailing her arms, Rin looked thoroughly overwhelmed by his rapid-fire questioning.
"Who is this Miss Ataegina? What's a Foreigner? What do you mean by a class outside the original seven?!"
Then, she quickly turned, barking orders. "Archer, go help Saber—"
"Rin, I have to remind you. At times like these, you should worry more about your own safety. Playing it safe and retreating is the smart move," Archer interrupted, cutting her off.
Rin turned toward him. "Hah? Why should we retreat? Archer, don't tell me you're afraid."
"Think whatever you like. But right now, that's the optimal move."
Unfazed by her sarcasm, Archer narrowed his eyes and looked toward the now-ruined main school building, where two streams of blue and silver light clashed with deafening force.
"I sense four Servant-class magical signatures... no, wait... familiar presences too? The numbers don't add up. What's stranger is, I don't detect any Master mana nearby."
"If I'm right, the extremely weak and fading signature must be Rider. Meaning Matou Shinji has already lost—and likely been killed."
"Saber's mana is also waning," Archer added, glancing toward another direction. His brow furrowed. "That unknown Servant who defeated Rider is heading this way as well."
"Rin, the two approaching Servants may very well be allies—"
"Archer, I said go help Saber!" Rin shouted, clearly irritated by her Servant's excessive autonomy.
Archer exhaled sharply. "Rin, I hope you know what you're doing."
But the white-haired Archer knew her too well. Before she could fully explode, he suddenly bent down and scooped up the unconscious Ayako Mitsuzuri.
"I'll move this civilian to safety first."
With that, he vanished from the area. Once outside the boundary, he gently placed Ayako somewhere secure, then sought a high vantage point clear of the ongoing chaos. There, he projected a longbow into his hands.
"Perfect angle..." Archer murmured to himself, pulling back the bowstring.
Oddly enough, what sat on the string was not an arrow, but a long, spiraling sword.
Meanwhile, within the ruined school grounds, two figures—one large, one small—collided again with thunderous impact.
BOOM!
Another explosion rang out, a shockwave rippling through the ground beneath their feet. Even from a distance, the resulting gusts whipped Rin's clothes violently in the air.
The school building cracked and collapsed, debris and shrapnel from concrete, glass, and metal soaring skyward, blanketing the field in a cloud of dust.
"Rin, watch out!" Shirou didn't hesitate. Despite his drained body, he stepped in front of her protectively.
"Mash!"
"Haaah!"
A massive dark-colored shield crashed into the ground with a resounding thud, blocking the shockwave. The pink-haired girl shouted sharply as she landed.
The sheer force made Shirou stagger.
"Just in time," Fujimaru Ritsuka said with a smile, wiping the sweat from his brow as he crouched beside Shirou and helped him up.
"Miss Tohsaka, is your friend alright?"
"Oh... uh, thanks."
Shirou nodded vaguely, his gaze drifting back and forth between Ritsuka and Rin—both with black hair and blue eyes. Glancing at the red Command Spells on the boy's hand, a flicker of confusion passed over Shirou's face.
"You are...?"
"Oh, I'm Fujimaru Ritsuka. And you?"
"Shirou Emiya."
With introductions exchanged, the two said nothing more. Now wasn't the time for pleasantries.
Before them, a petite knight and a dashing general clashed with fierce power, exchanging blows as they leapt and spun through the rubble.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Even buildings designed to withstand Japan's frequent earthquakes crumbled like papier-mâché under the blows of the clashing Servants.
"Haaah!"
Breathing heavily, Saber raised her invisible sword to meet the oncoming strike.
BANG!
The two divine weapons clashed once more. The petite knight staggered back under the pressure as the enormous lance, etched with blue runes, bore down relentlessly, tearing the air apart with its swings.
BOOM!
The underground sewer line cracked open with the impact. Saber rolled away in the opposite direction of the lance just in time. The spot where she'd been standing—and everything for dozens of meters beyond it—was plowed under by Durandal's raw, A+-ranked physical force.
The schoolyard caved in, engulfed in a cloud of dust.
"Hyaaah!" Wounded and weary, Saber still didn't retreat. She regained her stance and charged once more.
Durandal remained unshaken. She continued to press the assault, attacking again and again from all directions to tear apart Saber's defenses.
CRACK!
The grating sound of metal-on-metal rang out. Lance met invisible sword, lightning-fast, sparks scattering wildly. Again, Saber was forced to her knees.
"Out of mana, are you?"
Durandal, clad in her radiant [Bright Knight] armor, furrowed her brow. As time passed, Saber's strength was visibly waning. Especially her mana—it had plummeted off a cliff.
At the start, after being summoned by one of Shirou's Command Spells, Saber had been brimming with energy. She had used mana bursts to strengthen her body and unleashed storm-like slashes repeatedly.
But after the Command Spell's mana boost faded, her attacks had grown visibly weaker.
"Saber, move!"
WHOOSH!
Taking advantage of a momentary pause in Durandal's attacks, Rin shouted. A brilliant beam of light surged toward Durandal, shredding the grass and pavement in its path.
To everyone watching, it looked like a streak of lightning ripped through the air—then,
BOOM!
The spiraling projectile hit the cratered ground dead center where Durandal stood, blasting through it. A blinding explosion of dust and debris erupted like a fiery blossom.
RRRRUMBLE!!
It roared like a tactical nuke, light flaring across the battlefield.
Saber, already sent flying by Durandal's earlier blow, had halted her counterattack at Rin's cry. She took the chance to retreat toward Shirou.
"Shirou... cough... I'm sorry. I couldn't defeat her."
Standing before her Master, Saber looked worse for wear. Her once-glorious golden hair had dulled, her armor cracked and dirtied.
Shirou pulled tissues from his pocket to gently wipe the blood and soot from her face. He shook his head and said with a guilty look, "No... it's me. I'm the useless Master who dragged you down."
"I'm just glad you're okay, Saber."
His voice fell slightly. "Miss Ataegina... she doesn't seem like a bad person."
"Yes," Saber nodded. "I can feel it. She fights with strong conviction."
Off to the side, while Rin looked ready to burst into animated rage, Fujimaru Ritsuka remained unfazed.
Master and Servant being all lovey-dovey? Please, seen it a hundred times before.
"Doctor Roman, who is the Servant Saber was fighting just now?" Fujimaru Ritsuka asked into the communicator on his right wrist.
"Huh? Who are you talking to?" Rin turned to him, puzzled.
"Miss Rin, I'll explain in a moment."
"Alright, hang on, Ritsuka. Let me check..."
To everyone's astonishment, a pale-blue transparent holographic screen appeared in midair. On the screen, a handsome man in a green-and-white Chaldea lab coat was rapidly tapping away at a keyboard.
"Divine trait confirmed. Half-divine Spirit Origin. Class: Foreigner. Energy signature matches the waveforms detected on Chaldeas that indicate erosion of human history."
"We can confirm that, even if she's not the instigator, she's deeply involved in the formation of this Singularity—wait! Ritsuka! She's still battle-capable!"
"That last attack didn't even scratch her!"
"What?!"
An explosion on the level of an A-rank Noble Phantasm—and she took it head-on without a mark?!
Buzz.
The flames cleared, revealing gleaming silver armor, not a scratch in sight. The ground beneath her feet had melted into a pool of lava from the intense heat, but her armor remained immaculate, every plate shining like new.
"No way! Don't tell me she has some kind of cheat-level resurrection Noble Phantasm, like the Einzbern Berserker!"
"No, it's not resurrection," Doctor Roman replied gravely. "It's something even more troublesome."
"Her armor is likely a Noble Phantasm—one on par with Karna's Golden Armor. To damage her, an attack must have divine properties."
"And that's not even factoring in the armor's built-in resistance to all hostile interference—be it physical, magical, or conceptual."
Shirou might have still been confused, but Rin was already losing it.
"Ugh! Why do I always run into the rule-breaking Servants?!"
She shot a side-glance toward Archer's direction, clearly frustrated.
"Ugh..." Thanks to his Eagle Eye skill, Archer saw it all. The look his Master gave him clearly said, 'Why did I end up with such a weak Servant? Look at theirs.'
Yeah, sorry for being so weak, he thought.
CRACK!
"Looks like everyone's here? Good. Saves me the trouble of hunting you down."
Stepping out of the scorched crater, Durandal raised her weapon, Hler's Serenity, the lance gleaming with intent. The tip aimed squarely at Saber and the others who had gathered.
"Come at me all at once."
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