Chapter 18: The beginning of an eventful day
It had been 3 days since Medea was eliminated. Which meant this was the 5th day of the Holy Grail War.
On the 3rd day, Shinji's little plan of killing all the students for energy was stopped by Shirou and Rin. I didn't interfere since I wanted Shirou to see Shinji's true colors.
However I did intercept them, hypnotized Shinji and freed Medusa of the seaweed haired brats control. It was a free servant, so why not? It made it easier considering that Rider apparently counted as a reptile. Weird, but she didn't make it difficult so I'm not complaining.
I had her pretend to follow Shinji's command for now, but allowed her to kill him if he tried anything on Sakura. Having another set of eyes in the Matou estate allowed me to have Serenity spy on the church.
This makes me want an actual familiar for myself. One that doesn't require any energy from me, but I'll leave that for the future.
On the 4th day, EMIYA came to me for a favor. He wanted to settle some things with his past self. Which I found odd, since he didn't have anything against his past self.
Apparently, he wanted this version of himself to be more prepared than he was. Along with beating some sense into him and his current dream of being a Hero of Justice.
Needless to say, I agreed. I was planning on working on that, but this would save me the trouble.
So I went to Rin and made a deal with her to drop out of the war. Which wasn't difficult after a geass, some bribery/demands, and some information on who had killed her father. She allowed EMIYA to leave with me.
And now on the 5th day, I had confronted Shirou and Saber about the current situation.
∞
"Zieg-san, what's going on?" Shirou asked as he was called by his teacher all of a sudden.
Zieg sat in front of the two with his arms crossed, eyes closed and head slightly inclined. "There is little time, so I'm going to get to the point. Today may be the last day of the war." He bluntly stated.
The news came to a surprise to them, considering the only servants who were confirmed dead so far was Caster. "Did something happen?" Saber asked to which she was met with a nod.
Waving his hand, screen projections floated in the air. All showing different things. "The Archer from the last war, Gilgamesh. Is making his move towards your sister." One screen showed Gilgamesh casually making his way towards the Einzbern castle. The blonde man glanced straight at the projection and smirked, before the feed was cut off. Shirou widened his eyes, he had heard from Zieg about how dangerous he was.
"Then we need to move, now!" Shirou abruptly stood up, however Zieg slammed the table.
"Calm down! That's not all that's happening." He shot an annoyed look for him to sit back down. Clearing his throat to continue. "Recently, Rider has been freed of Shinji's control. She has returned to guarding Sakura, however Shinji seems to be planning on putting some unsavory hands on her." The screen changed to Shinji in the middle of breaking down mentally. "Obviously, Rider will defend Sakura by killing Shinji. She didn't like him much to begin with."
"Then, what if we split up-" Shirou tried to say.
"That's not all!" Zieg cut him off, bringing up another screen. "Recently, I had Rin drop out of the war by giving her information and some deals. One of them being information on who killed her father, spoiler warning. It's the priest you met, Kirei Kotomine." he revealed much to their shock.
"Right now she is headed towards the church, with vengeance on her mind. Most likely she was waiting for the Archer of the last war to be out, to make her move." The screen revealed Rin, making her way towards the church with a determined expression.
"However I can tell you now, that Kirei Kotomine is out of her league. Even Kiritsugu Emiya failed to kill him. Also I have the sinking suspicion that he has Lancer under his command."
"But, she has Archer-"
"I can assure you, that she doesn't." Another voice came in from outside the door. The group looked over to see the former servant of Tohsaka Rin, standing there with his arms crossed.
"What are you doing here!? Tohsaka is in danger!" Shirou nearly shouted at him.
EMIYA simply stared at his younger self with an unreadable expression. "Trace on." A barrage of swords flew towards them at high speeds. Saber moved in front of Shirou to quickly intercept them.
"Trace... you just said trace on?" Shirou was dumbfounded at the words that he always said when using his craft.
"Also, your possible future self has beef with you and isn't leaving until he kicks your ass or something." Zieg blandly added. He didn't move as none of the blades were sent to him.
"Shirou." Zieg made his student turn to him again. "Right now you are in a situation where even I wouldn't be capable of saving everyone." He bluntly stated, letting the gravity of the situation set in.
"So. What do you want to do? It's your call." He gestured towards him, waiting for the red-head to decide on the plan of action.
"I..." Shirou was clearly distressed, unsure of the next course of action. Saber stood by silently, waiting for his choice.
"What's wrong, Emiya Shirou? Every second you waste means less time available. At this rate, no one will be saved." Archer's taunting voice sounded out again.
"You bastard!" Shirou growled out.
"You're lashing out because you know I'm right." Archer smirked.
Shirou didn't respond. His hands were balled so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"Zieg-san, go with Assassin to save Tohsaka. Saber, save my sister." He finally decided.
Zieg nodded and disappeared without much fanfare.
Saber turned to look at Shirou for a moment. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. I'm counting on you, Saber." He steeled his emotions before turning back to Archer. "I won't lose to him." He firmly stated.
Archer didn't look as Saber left towards the Einzbern castle. "So you chose to abandon Shinji. It was the most optimal choice." His smirk still present.
"Shut up. I'm not abandoning anyone." Shirou immediately denied. He stood up, Kanshou and Bakuya appeared in his hands instead of the carian slicers.
"Oh?"
"I'll just get through you first before making my way there." He declared
Archer shook his head. "So naive." magical energy coalesced in his palms. The same blades appeared.
The two Fakers walked slowly towards the other.
Their blades would do the talking.
∞
'Hey Serenity, am I an asshole for basically being responsible for this entire situation? I kind of desired this to happen...' I idly asked through our mental link. It was true that I wanted a situation like this to force Shirou to choose.
'Should you will it, I will always carry out your desires, Master.' She responded immediately.
I get the distinct feeling she wouldn't bat an eye if I were to cause mass genocide. It was dumb of me to try and get her opinion of the situation. Her only concern seems to be my well-being I guess.
My body stilled outside the church. 'Serenity, go inside and assist Rin.' I ordered, and she followed it without question.
I waited silently after Serenity's presence disappeared into the church. Waiting patiently for the other person to announce themself.
"Yo, fancy seeing you here." My eyes turned to the blue armored spearman. He was lazily sitting on the roof, his legs hanging off the side. The familiar red spear rested on his shoulder.
"Yeah, well I have some business here." I gave him a lazy smirk.
"Guessing you're here for the little lady inside? She your woman or something?" He asked with a raised brow. A hint of a grin on his countenance.
I shook my head at the assumption. "No, my student has a thing for her. I'm just here because he couldn't make it." I responded with a shrug.
"That so." He jumped down from the roof, meters away from me. "You know, there's something that always bothered me about you. Have we met before?" He asked, his face had a hint of confusion.
"Heh, no." I chuckled. "But we both know the same person." I admitted vaguely.
"That doesn't exactly narrow it down." He gave me a dry look.
"No, I suppose not. Tell me, did you also get thrown into a mountain filled with undead?" I smiled fondly at the memory. Honestly it was hell back then, but being able to look back on it. It's honestly nostalgic. Traumatically nostalgic.
"Hah!" He began to laugh. Slapping his thigh, finally understanding a question that plagued him for the last few days. "Yeah. It took me 2 months to get down. You?"
"3 months. in my defense, I was only 17 at the time."
"I was 7 when I began my warrior training." He confidently responded, to which I nearly gawked at.
"Well it was a different age." I crossed my arms.
"Hah, don't sell yourself short. Age didn't matter much back then when it came to her." He laughed at me. Perhaps I was being a bit self-conscious about this.
"Can we just get to the part where we kill each other now? By the way, name's Zieg Aversis." I introduced myself off-handedly.
"Cu Chulainn and I thought you'd never ask." He twirled his spear before settling into a low stance.
A blue-tinted red spear appeared in my hand. My stance shifted, similar to his own.
"I'll have your heart!" We both shouted before kicking off the ground towards each other.
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