章 23: Broken Illusion; Assassin Appears!
"Not bad. You really have some taste in choosing place, Einzbern."
A blonde man was looking around at the flower field and the luxurious castle building with a little bit appreciation.
He had seen many treasures and wonders of the world when he was alive. Although the luxurious building in front of him was unable to truly enter his sight, it was not that bad. At the very least, it deserved a spare glance from him.
In front of him, two hooded women dressed in white maid uniform were staring at him with deep caution apparent in their eyes.
"Halt your step, intruder!"
"Intruder… detected. Prepares to… engage."
A large halberd appeared on another maid's hand; she was ready to engage in battle.
"Homunculus, huh. Even if you only borrow the form of human, you truly do act like a human now. Your creator must have used the best materials when they created you."
His eyes still held disregard of anything in front of him. The interest he had on them had swiftly vanished as he announced,
"For the sake of your short life, I can spare you. Now, bring me to the grail's vessel, homunculus. You are incapable of handling that miracle."
What seven Servants competing for Holy Grail? If it's a treasure, then it's mine!
All treasures in this world originally come from my own treasury!
How dare they to even think about taking my treasure without my permission?!
He was looking dead straight at the two maids as he spoke. His red eyes were gleaming coldly; there should be no refusal allowed in his order!
The two women looked at each other before nodding together. They both had reached a consensus;
'This man can not be allowed to meet Illya (the young lady)!'
"Enemy… confirmed. Engaging in battle!"
Swish! Splat!
However, before one of the maids could get closer to that blonde man, her hand was suddenly severed after a golden light flashed past her.
That blonde man's eyes had turned terrifying. "You dare to bare your weapon at me, lowly creature? You are courting death!"
Several ripples appeared on the space behind him. From those ripples, several weapons gradually appeared, they had taken aim at both maids at once!
~ ~ ~
It had been going on around three hours since Ryan decided to move out. He was currently at the certain forest in the outskirts of Fuyuki City, heading deeper inside.
His destination was clear; the lonely Einzbern Castle located at middle of the Einzbern forest.
Yeah. The forest was named as such because it's Einzbern's land.
This place was only one of their many hideouts. Based on what he knew about them, the luxurious Einzbern Castle in Fuyuki City was still considered a frugal spending compared to their usual standard.
This ancient magi family was so rich that they also bought the surrounding forest around their castle, making it a magical barrier to protect their castle and workshop by installing several strong bounded fields in its vicinity.
The Einzbern would be immediately alerted should anyone enter within boundary of this forest.
However,...
"It's weird. She should have known my arrival by now." Ryan slightly frowned.
He was rather upfront in his desire to fight, so he did not even bother to hide his track.
But, his path had been smooth since he intruded into the forest. As if the owner did not detect him, or that–
They were preoccupied by other matter that even his intrusion was considered trivial.
"We'll pick up our speed, Lancer." Ryan blinked.
Then, he was floating slightly above the ground. With a thought, he immediately flashed into the forest with twofold speed more after utilizing wind spell.
His sense was tingling, he smelt blood ahead. He felt his spirit slightly boiling as he grinned.
"Don't disappoint me, little sister! Hahaha!!"
His shadow had strangely split off for a moment before it returned to normal.
Ryan smirked. Just in case he needed some helping hand, this trick might come in handy.
At the flower field beside the Einzbern castle.
In front of him, a bronze-skinned bulky Servant was staring coldly at the blonde man. His eyes were clouded by madness, but even then his battle sense was still as outstanding as ever.
He could sense how much dangerous the blonde man in front him was; after all he had lost one life to him once in this short period.
Behind him, a white-haired young girl looking in her early teen was tending on two wounded people who had their arms and legs severed. She had closed their wound, but they had already lost so much blood before so their complexion was still pale.
"Now then, how about we enact that legendary battle here, O' great heroic spirit?"
The blonde man was grinning, he was feeling quite entertained by the sight in front of him.
"...Berserker is strong... He won't lose to the likes of you! Kill him, Berserker!!" The young girl snarled. She was seething in anger when she saw her maids were crippled by that blonde man.
At her order, Berserker rushed to the enemy in front of him before he suddenly stopped. He quickly jumped back toward the young girl, looking more guarded than before as he looked at the distance.
He felt a threat which was more dangerous than the blonde man was approaching them fast.
"Hm?" The blonde man also stopped in his track as he turned around.
His face was expressionless, as though he didn't care no matter who appeared. Yet, his intrigued eyes showed that he actually felt a little bit interested at the approaching party.
The figure of a young man had noiselessly arrived, and was quietly floating at the sky above them.
His presence was rather odd among them; he was only wearing casual blue T-shirt and black pants, appearing rather quirky in this current scene.
"I'm not late to the party, aren't I, little sister?"
Illyasviel von Einzbern. She was the Master representing Einzbern family in the Fifth Holy Grail War. She was Kiritsugu's daughter, so that made her his step-sister?
At that moment, Ryan saw that Illyasviel appeared rather unharmed. However, her maids were in critical condition instead, having all their limbs severed.
'Hmm…'
"Emiya... Ryan." Illya looked upward.
She knew who he was. One of the adopted sons of her own father (Emiya Kiritsugu); Emiya Ryan. He was one of her targets in this Grail War.
According to her research on Kiritsugu and his two adopted sons, Ryan apparently had more talent in magecraft than their younger brother. Although, she still believed that she could crush him with ease. She wanted to prove how much her father was wrong to abandon her, and how he chose those two adopted sons instead of her.
"Bold of you to hog all the fun, King of Heroes - Gilgamesh." Ryan finally turned to look Gilgamesh, the Archer Servant from previous Holy Grail War.
Illya was speechless. She did not expect Ryan to be more arrogant than even the King of Heroes at this moment…
The blonde man frowned. He could not stand anyone else to stand above him!
"You really have guts to stand there, mongrel! Get down here!!"
Two golden lights suddenly flashed at Ryan with speed faster than bullet!
Yet, a barrier of hot wind had deflected their track, sending them away to strike at the forest.
Boom!!
"Full of yourself as usual, eh. Honestly, you are really like those arrogant young masters destined to be the protagonist's stepping stone, Gilgamesh.
"But, don't worry. I am not looking to fight you at the moment. You still have the chance to scram now."
Ryan was smiling slightly, but he was also looking down condescendingly at Gilgamesh now.
Gilgamesh's face twitched violently. Even a fool would know he was so furious at that moment.
It's the first time he met someone more arrogant than him. He's definitely going crush him and shatter his arrogance! Definitely!!
"...you're the first to make me this furious in all these years, kid. Be glad! I will use my all to crush you, to completely erase your very existence from this world!"
His face turned malevolent as multiple ripples appeared on the space behind him. At the same time, an uncountable amount of prototype weapons of Noble Phantasm came from those ripples like river flood.
Their sheer numbers shrouded the sky, surpassing the weapons used when Gilgamesh was fighting Berserker. It was clear that he was so incensed by Ryan's provocation.
Gilgamesh was about to set them off all together, yet he was one step slower than someone else.
"HRAGHHH!!!"
Berserker threw heavy boulders at Ryan on the sky. He had judged that the man on the sky was more of an immediate threat than the blonde man.
As the boulders made an arc, Berserker leaped through them, trying to reach Ryan as he growled madly.
"Bastard, You Dare?! He IS my prey!!"
Gilgamesh threw some of his weapons at Berserker, while the others were set to Ryan.
And thus, it began the three-way battle between Ryan, Gilgamesh, and Berserker!
~ ~ ~
Meanwhile, at the dilapidated street on the feet of Ryuudou Temple.
A man and woman were embracing each other, covered in blood.
The woman had her eyesight ruined after a sword slashed her eyes, making her blind. Her chest was riddled with stab wounds, creating many bloody holes on it.
As for the man, though he looked fine on the front, there was a deep gash on his entire back, almost severing him in two.
At that moment, the woman caressed her man's face gently, as if she tried to memorize his look on her last breath.
She had many things she wanted to do with him.
And there were a lot of matters she had yet to speak with him.
Such as; after their marriage, she wanted to spend their honeymoon by travelling the world, especially to the land of Colchis. She dearly wished to visit the land of Colchis with him.
It was just… fate had not had her dreams in store.
If anything, at the very least, she could accompany her Master until the end.
"Souichirou-sama…I am glad that you are my Master…"
Having betrayed her former Master, she finally found solace on Souichirou Kuzuki; a strange man who had weirdly accepted her explanation, and offered himself to be her Master to sustain her dying self on that rainy night.
He was a taciturn man who had no wish of himself. Yet, she… had unexpectedly fallen in love with him in the end.
She left with a forlorn smile on her face as she crumbled away in the wind.
"…"
Not far from them, a red-haired young woman stood silently as she looked at the dying pair in front of her.
Seeing Caster had finally died, she did not say anything else as she departed.
However, just when she had walked for a bit, that man finally spoke to her.
"…what do you wish to achieve by the end of this, Hayakawa?"
Souichirou Kuzuki was not only Caster's Master, he was also a teacher in Homurahara Academy.
He had met Kanade several times in the past. As she was the typical model student, even if he did not intend it, he still had heard many about her achievements.
To think that once bright, model student had turned into a frightening killer… it was a really drastic change even for him. He was unable to fathom what might have happened to Kanade to turn her as such.
Her footsteps stopped. She was looking at the bright sky, looking a little lost for once.
"…I don't know. But, now, I just want to fight to the end.
"Even if I end up as another loser… at least, I don't want regret this path I have decided myself."
She had once thought she could to realize her wish. However, after knowing the truth about Archer, her will had wavered.
She could feel his hatred very well. No matter what she did, she just could not see the chance for her wish to be granted; Archer would definitely use every means to sever her hope.
Even so,
Kanade looked at the Command Seal on her left hand.
Since she had stepped on this path, she would not stop; or to be precise, she could not stop.
Either she died when her contract arrived on its due, or she died trying to resist her fate.
Perhaps, dying by his hand would not be that bad of a choice...
As of this moment, she only wished to see through conclusion of the choice she had made before.
Even if the end might not be what she had once wished for...
"Is that so? May you find your answer at the end–"
Behind Kanade, Kuzuki coughed dark blood along with bits of his internal organs. He fell down with a thump, dyeing the street red with his blood.
Hidden far away from Kanade and Kuzuki, a shadowy figure had slid into the ground once more. Following its disappearance was a small worm which slowly squirmed, going to a certain direction.
~ ~ ~
The battle between Ryan, Gilgamesh, and Berserker had been ongoing for a while now.
Unknowingly, they had moved even deeper into the forest.
Ryan would attack Gilgamesh, while defending against Berserker's mad assault.
Gilgamesh went on full assault on both Ryan and Berserker, setting off his treasure one after another with little to no regards of their preciousness.
Berserker was going on the offensive to both Ryan and Gilgamesh crazily with no rhythm, going for anyone nearby him at the moment.
Ryan occasionally directed Gilgamesh's attack to Berserker, causing Gilgamesh to despise him even further and increased his onslaught on him.
As a result, however, Berserker had lost several more lives, killed by Gilgamesh and Ryan repeatedly. At this moment, Berserker had been killed nine times in a row, his [God Hand] was only left with three more lives from its accumulated twelve lives.
Splat!
Berserker's head was severed by spinning, flaming wheel thrown by Ryan as his wind barrier deflected another attack from Gilgamesh.
Berserker had only two more lives on his stock.
His clothes had been in tatters and he was injured in many places. His body was on the verge of breaking apart, but Ryan was still smiling instead. He was genuinely happy to fight with his life on the line against two strong opponents like Gilgamesh and Berserker.
"I admit it. You are strong, kid. To survive this long in the battle against two great heroes, you can be proud when you die later."
Gilgamesh walked out of the shadow of tree.
He looked at Ryan before he turned to look at incapacitated Berserker who was gradually resurrected by his [God Hand].
[God Hand] was Berserker's Noble Phantasm. It symbolized the immortality he achieved after his death; it was the materialization of his great feats – the Twelve Labors – which had been turned into Noble Phantasm. In the legend, after Heracles had completed the once-thought-impossible twelve feats, the gods granted him seat as a god upon his death.
As such, when Heracles was summoned as a Servant this time, he was granted with the ability [God Hand] which allowed him to have twelve more lives. Moreover, in the case he was killed by a particular ability, Heracles would gain large resistance against that said ability after he was resurrected.
It was the kind of treasure Gilgamesh did not have in his treasury. And that was why he slightly admired Berserker.
The fact that Ryan could utilize many attacks which could injure and even kill Berserker (Heracles) was testament of his strength.
Even if he also used trickery by using Gilgamesh's hand to indirectly kill Berserker, his degree of calculation and precise grasp of timing could not be underestimated.
In theory, to truly kill Heracles, one had to use thirteen different methods to kill him for once and all. However, Ryan also knew that there were other ways to nullify [God Hand].
As long as his attacks kept getting stronger, even the same method could be used many times to kill Berserker. It was because there was a limit cap of strength that each of Berserker's stock life could handle before Berserker died.
A particularly powerful attack could shave off several of Berserker's lives in an instant.
"You should also have hit your limit now. It is a pity that I have to kill a talented individual like you, but if you swear your fealty to me, I can pardon your previous transgression, kid."
HRAAGHH!!
Berserker's howl interrupted him.
"Ha! Hah! That's a great proposal, King of Heroes. But, in the first place, do you know why I intentionally lure the both of you here?"
Ryan said with rough breath. Even breathing had been difficult for him now.
He was not that arrogant to think he could actually defeat both Berserker and Gilgamesh up front. He had intentionally acted arrogant to rile up Gilgamesh, and flaring his aura to Berserker to taunt him. After that, he slowly lured them to a certain place his doppelganger had prepared.
Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes. Some golden ripples had appeared silently behind him.
"Because this place is your burial site, O' great heroes of the past."
Ryan smiled indifferently as countless artillery projections had silently appeared in the area, all of them were aimed at both Gilgamesh and the raging Berserker.
Automatic machine guns.
Howitzers.
Multiple rocket launchers.
Autocannons.
Heavy mortars.
"You think these toys can kill me? What a joke!" Gilgamesh sneered after seeing those metallic weapons.
He didn't think much of human's firearm.
Ryan also sneered in return.
'Jokes on you! We, human, already found so many ways to kill ourselves. These are just a fragment of those ways!
'If not because I have qualm about using Hydrogen Bomb, I would have shoved it down right on your head!'
In truth, Ryan's Projection and Mana Bullet magecraft had both reached grade "A". Their firepower was comparable to Servant's A-rank basic attack. In addition, they were also strengthened by Reinforcement spell.
Since Berserker's [God Hand] could nullify attack with scale of B-rank and lower, Ryan went all out in this decisive strike. He was going to reap Berserker's remaining lives in one go.
For the King of Heroes, Ryan also had another 'gift' prepared in case he survived this blast.
"Fire!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The blast and explosions decimated large part of the forest, leaving only deep crater on its vicinity!
Ryan had already moved away from center of explosion. As he escaped, he also activated the boundary field his doppelganger had placed around the area, trapping both Gilgamesh and Berserker inside it.
Ryan was gasping for breath as he sat down.
"Damn...! That's crazy! I didn't think Gilgamesh was also here...
"But, hey! This is quite fun actually! Hahaha!"
Ryan was laying on his back, facing the sky, as he laughed uproariously.
He felt an incomparable satisfaction welling up inside his heart at this moment.
"Now then, Lancer should also have finished her part."
As he thought like that, Ryan suddenly heard unfamiliar voice coming from behind him.
"Yo. You're looking real pathetic, man. It seems like we are similarly a foolish dreamer.
"But hey, if you make these much noises, people gonna notice soon."
When Ryan turned around to see owner of that voice, he couldn't help but feeling an indescribable shock in his heart, as if thousand alpacas were running wild inside his mind.
A man with same features as him, albeit looking slightly older, was currently staring down at him.
"Oi oi oi... For real?"
At same time, at the Einzbern Castle.
'Artoria' had captured Illyasviel and her two maids. What was strange was that her figure seemed distorted from time to time, as if another person could replace her at any moment.
"...your condition seems strange. You are not Lancer, aren't you?"
Illya did not appear panicked after 'Lancer' detained her. She only watched in curiosity instead. From the moment 'Lancer' appeared, Illya knew that she was Ryan's Servant.
However, she was so sure that Lancer Servant was held by the Matou. The Lancer she knew was not the person currently standing in front of her.
"Oh. My saint graph's returned normal."
In front of Illya's surprised look, the figure of 'Lancer' had gradually dissipated.
A beautiful woman dressed in dark turtleneck-sweater dress had replaced 'Lancer'. Her hands and feet were coated in flame, she held a Chinese Jian sword on each her hands.
If Ryan could see his Servant now, there was no denying that he would be utterly dumbfounded.
"That's right. I am not a Lancer. Only that blind idiot would see me as Lancer!"
Ryan's Servant was not 'Artoria Lancer' as he thought, but, in fact was always Yu Miaoyi!
An Assassin-class Servant.
"Why would you call brother like that??" Illya pressed. She held her small giggle as she asked Assassin. She looked quite interested to know about her 'brother'.
"...that guy is too strong for his own good.
"He is bestowed with eyes that could see through lies of the world, yet even he could not see past his own illusion.
"If he isn't a blind idiot, what should I call him then?"
Yu appeared extremely vexed at Ryan at this moment.
"As of now, he must be so exhausted that his illusion could not affect my Saint Graph anymore."
"Ohh..."
"You don't seem to worry about your Berserker, little girl." Yu suddenly asked Illya.
At her question, Illya had a downcast look on her face. But it immediately vanished, her expression became confident as she replied, "Berserker's the strongest! He won't lose even if it's brother. Hehe!"
Yu only scoffed. She ruthlessly destroyed Illya's dream.
"You wish. Your brother is a monster himself."
As if saying true to Yu's words, Illya's command seal had unexpectedly dimmed. She could feel her contract with Berserker had been lost.
"See?" Yu smiled mockingly, causing Illya to almost cry.
A strange aura had quietly mixed among them.
In front of Yu Miaoyi and Illyasviel, a woman whose body covered in dark-red mud had noiselessly appeared in front of them. She held a large lance, fully prepared to battle.
"...it seems she is the true Lancer of this Grail War. But, isn't her condition weirder than me??" Yu had raised her guard up as she stared at the newcomer.
When both Yu and Illya were preparing for battle, it was at that moment that a figure had suddenly came rushing down from the sky.
BAM!
A disheveled young man with a pair of blue dragon wings on his back had descended in front of them.
He had unknowingly stepped on Lancer as he stomped hard.
"What's with that look??"
"No, nothing."
Yu Miaoyi and Illyasviel shook their head together in response to Ryan's confused look.
"Lancer, we're retreating– eh, lady?"
When Ryan saw Yu Miaoyi, he couldn't help feeling surprised. It was even more so when he felt a connection with her through his Command Seal.
He looked at her. Then, he looked at his Command Seal. For a while, it seemed like another set of alpacas were running wild in his mind again...
"What? It's been me all along, bastard."
"..." Ryan was agape, he was staring blankly at Yu Miaoyi as various thoughts filled his head. 'There is surprise one after another!'
Yet, their time was also rushing. Ryan thus suppressed his confusion as he grabbed Illyasviel on his arm.
"Hyaahh?!"
"Please bring those two girls along, lady. We're going back to my workshop!"
"Ehh, wait! At least tell me what's happening?!"
"I will explain it later, for now let's just make a run for it!
"Fuck this shit, there's a crazier guy than me behind us!"
Yu shuddered.
Someone crazier than Ryan?
Now that's a truly terrifying notion!
She immediately grabbed Illya's two maids as she also made a run for herself, quickly catching up to Ryan.
***
Alternative Title:
"Illusion Break!"; "There's surprise one after another!"; "Epic of Threesome Battle?"
クリエイターの想い 
Fellas
Fellas I have added a character list tagged along with pictures in auxiliary chapter. If you want to know how I imagine the characters to be, feel free to look it up there, fellas (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
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