บท 19: Be Good, Close Your Eyes
Saber transformed into a howling gust of wind, racing towards the northwest of the castle.
Caster was there, lingering at the edge of the Einzbern barrier, about two kilometers away from the castle.
100 seconds.
She tore through the forest, her magic surging, covering her in blue and silver armor. Saber was like an enraged dragon, prepared to storm Caster's position. Whatever disputes she had with Emiya Kiritsugu didn't matter now; the most important thing was to save those children.
Her gauntleted hand clenched tightly around her invisible sword, her solemn face filled with restrained fury. Caster had calculated her pace, knowing she wouldn't reach him in time.
Saber could already see it—the earth soaked in crimson blood, littered with corpses.
The Red Dragon roared, vowing to cut down Caster for desecrating life.
——
"Eighty-nine..."
"Ninety..."
Caster counted with poetic cadence, his bulging eyes full of joyous anticipation. He was preparing to offer his holy maiden a bloody feast, a blasphemous affront to the heavens.
He gazed towards the castle, cradling his book bound in human skin, trembling with excitement.
The children screamed in terror, yet they couldn't escape his grasp. Like lambs to the slaughter, they were to be sacrificed to the gods.
...
Clink—
Clink—
The crisp sound of chains clashing came from the forest's outskirts.
Caster curiously turned to look behind him.
"Oh? Jeanne, did you invite someone else?"
Out of the misty forest emerged two adorable girls. The younger one wore a black dress and white stockings, her purple eyes hollow and vacant as she was led by the hand of the older girl. The older one wore a dignified black winter uniform, but her graceful curves were impossible to conceal. Beneath her blue skirt, her slender legs were encased in black stockings, and she wore small leather shoes.
Her ink-black hair was tied into twin braids that hung down her chest. Her bangs covered her left eye, but the exposed right eye glowed with a rose-red light.
The moment Caster met her gaze, he felt as though he was staring into the abyss.
—An icy chill.
Even his spellwork faltered for a moment.
One of the children, coming to her senses, whimpered and ran towards Kurumi.
Click—
A quaint short gun was pointed at the little girl's head.
"Dalet—Fourth Bullet."
A golden clock face appeared like a miracle, and the little girl's pupils dilated.
"Am I... going to die? Is the fairy coming to take me away? So beautiful..."
Bang—
The gun fired.
Kurumi frowned. The curse was still there.
Lowering the gun, she fired another shot directly into the girl's chest, shattering the curse and piercing her heart, causing a spray of blood.
...
"Hmm, are you here to join my feast as well?" Caster's grotesquely long hands, covered in magic runes, reached out to Kurumi, inviting her to his gathering.
The children stopped crying, panting heavily. They curled up, their backs arching as if something was trying to break free from inside them.
——
Kurumi pulled out a bottle of red elixir and poured it into the girl's mouth.
Her wine-red eyes glimmered as she observed the children's grotesque forms.
There's no saving them...
The resurrection limit is one-half, and she had already used it once on Sakura.
Kurumi's left hand trembled slightly as she held her gun.
"Be good, close your eyes," she instructed, gripping the little girl's hand with her own.
I'm angry now.
...
Pop—
Pop—
Aaaahhhhh!
The children's whimpers turned into cries of agony as black "serpents" burst out from their bodies. Countless tendrils sprouted from their flesh, with whirlpool-like mouths filled with spiral teeth at their bases.
These were monsters from another dimension, planted in the children by Caster through the Abyssal Tome.
They grew out of the children's flesh, tearing them apart.
...
"Let us once again raise the banner of salvation!" Caster spread his arms wide, the human-skin book in his right hand dripping wet, glowing with magical light.
The surging magic spread outward, summoning more monsters from the bloody remains.
"Hmm, hmm, hmm! Before Jeanne arrives, would you care to join our feast?" Caster invited eagerly.
——
Kurumi's right eye glowed with an almost blood-red light.
She held the hands of the two little girls, and the world seemed to turn scarlet, frozen in place.
'Aleph—First Bullet'
The clock behind her vanished, clearly marking her as a clone. Leading the two girls, she maneuvered through the writhing monsters. The pungent scent of blood made the two little ones clutch her hand tightly, their eyes squeezed shut in fear.
...
The wind-riding Saber came to a halt, seeing Kurumi returning from the northwest. For the first time, Saber saw such a strange expression on A_enger's face—sorrowful, almost dazed.
No, counting the time in the dream when Kurumi first "killed," this was the second time.
"Where... are the other children?" Even though she already knew the answer, Saber hesitated to ask.
A long silence followed, and Saber tightened her grip on the invisible sword.
"I understand."
——
Just now... what happened? Caster wondered, then suddenly realized that the trio—a large figure and two small ones—had become only one.
Shadows climbed up Kurumi's body, forming a dark, blood-red Gothic dress of sin and despair.
A flintlock aimed at Caster. "Repent in blood."
Caster finally understood where the sound of chains had come from. Extending from Kurumi's gun barrel were sharp, gold-red serrated edges, with a long, black-red chain extending from the grip, coiled around her wrist.
Scarlet flames, devoid of warmth, full of the essence of death, ignited around Kurumi.
—The Wheel of Death.
Her gunblade pointed forward, Kurumi became a crimson streak, tearing through everything in her path as she charged at Caster. The tendrils of the monsters were sliced apart by the chilling light. Hovering in mid-air, she looked down at Caster with cold detachment, releasing her twin guns and swinging the chain's end, the blade dancing like a blood moon.
—Blood Moon Cleave.
Caster felt a deep sense of dread as a horde of monsters shielded him, but under the blood moon, nothing could stand in her way.
Blades swept through, spilling blood in waves, and Caster fled under the cover of the monsters.
——
Through his Clairvoyance, Emiya Kiritsugu observed the battle.
He was deeply puzzled—did Archer... no, did Kurumi possess these abilities in the last war?
-130:54:03
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