Iskandar woke up from his stupor and walked to the location where his army just stood. As he got closer, he found Carter lying on the sand breathing heavily and gazing at the sun. With his army now decimated, the Reality Marbled crumbled and shattered. They returned to the beach they had fought previously.
When they returned, Iskandar walked up to Carter and sat him up. Iskandar then sat down on the cold sand facing Carter. He stared at Carter before laughing loudly. “You did it, young man. You bested me. You bested me at my best. I acknowledge your efforts. I now consider you within our ranks. Congratulations!! From our battle earlier, it looks like you’ve finally realized where you’ve been lacking, and how you’ve been underutilizing your abilities. Hopefully, you’ve learned from our battle and strive to improve yourself.”
Iskandar laughs once again, “This battle is my loss, I concede to you. I hope you’ve learned from this experience and become stronger, and if we are to face one another again, I hope you would entertain this king even further.” When those words were said, the Reality Marble began shattering. The group of masters and servants were then returned to the garden.
When they returned, Eddie immediately ran up to Carter and took him into his embrace. Eddie spoke as he hugged Carter, “Don’t you scare me like that again. Do you know how worried I was while you were in there? Why do you keep endangering yourself?” Carter reciprocated Eddie’s affections, “I’m sorry, I know, I worried you. But you’re one to talk. You put your life on the line every day as a cop and as The Flash. I was worried about you every time you faced a threat.”
The pair just laughs since they both had done things that made the other worry. Carter then turned to Iskandar and Roger who were leaving, “Thank you, your majesty. This experience has taught me a lot. If it wasn’t for you, I may have never noticed the true potential of my power or the power of my imprints for that matter. You have my utmost gratitude”
Saber who was nearby also bowed to Iskandar, “Thank you, your majesty. Thanks to this experience, I can fight without having to worry about master’s safety.” Iskandar waves and then leaves with his master.
Carter, Eddie, Saber, and Lancer, quickly left the garden, when they heard that there was an emergency. As they were about to reach the conference room, they saw Henry being wheeled to the infirmary on a gurney. Seeing the sudden turn of events, Carter told Eddie, Saber, and Lancer to go ahead to the conference room without him. He was going to check on Henry’s condition.
“Imprint.. Caster!” Carter rushed to the infirmary. He joined the doctors in trying to save Henry’s life. With the help of magic and medical technology, they were able to save him after a few hours of surgery. Everyone was waiting outside of the infirmary while Henry was in surgery. Just before they exited, Carter told the doctors that he would relay the news to everyone, and they agreed.
After the operation was over and the red light turned off, Carter exited the infirmary and approached everyone while the other doctors left. Carter then broke the news to everyone, “The operation was a success. We were able to save Henry. He is now resting. When he wakes up, hopefully, he could tell us what happened. Someone should stay here and keep him company. Any volunteers?”
Before anyone could say anything, Joey walked to the front of the group, “I’ll do it. I’ll stay with him until he wakes up.” Caster smiles and nods, “Alright everyone. Master has volunteered so we no longer need to be here. How about we each go back and busy ourselves with our own matters for the time being.”
Joey sits beside Henry’s bed and holds his hand. He kisses it and kept holding Henry’s hand in one hand before opening a book with the other. It was one of the reading materials Caster prepared for him. The next day, Henry regained consciousness to a sleeping Joey by his bedside, holding his hand.
Henry was touched, when he saw Joey sleeping so soundly beside him. When Henry woke him up and Joey saw that Henry had regained consciousness, he gave Henry a big hug. “I’m sorry to have worried you, Joey. I won’t do it again.” Joey smiles as he listened to Henry’s words to him, “Promise me you won’t do it again. I don’t want to lose you.”
Henry was comforted by Joey’s worry, “I can’t make any promises. But I can try to avoid getting hurt like this again.” Henry’s words eased the tension in Joey’s heart. Joey then asks him, “What happened when you went out yesterday? And where’s Berserker?” Henry’s smile faded and he became depressed, “I’m going to need you to call everyone here Joey, and this includes the two Black masters and the two Black servants as well. They all need to hear this.”
When everyone entered the infirmary, Henry told them his story. “Yesterday, I went out alone. I got bored being cooped up in this place, so I left with Berserker. We went to an arcade I found while we were sightseeing. Berserker and I went into the place to play a few games. I saw that they had a cool prize and I thought I could win it for Joey. I got the needed tickets and exchanged them for the thing.”
“After I got the stuffed lion, I played a few fighting games. I beat the guy several times, to the point he got mad. He got up from the game and pulled me aside. Afterwards, he took me through the back door into the alley. Berserker followed us and wanted to retaliate before the guy’s entire demeanor changed. The guy lost the angry player attitude and looked at me and Berserker with arrogance and contempt. It was then that Berserker changed into his battle attire ready for a fight. Oliver then appeared and took us into his Reality Marble.”
Henry narrated the story and told them what happened when Oliver brought them inside his Reality Marble. “I had no way of knowing that we were set up. He scoffed when he saw Berserker ready to fight him. I on the other hand had questions when I was brought back into that forest. My main question was how we were brought there when Oliver only sends us to that place when a battle between servants was about to take place. It was then that I realized the guy I played against was a servant.”
The blond servant wearing black clothes looked at Henry and Berserker with contempt as if he had to place his gaze on two ants. He raised his hand and ripples appeared in the air before swords, spears, axes, maces, halberds among other weapons emerged from the various ripples. With an air filled with arrogance the blond-haired servant spoke. “Rejoice mongrels. This king has finally set his sights on you.”
Berserk ran up to him intending to end the battle as quickly as possible but unfortunately, the battle did not end in his favor. As he closed the gap between them, the blond-haired servant activated his Noble Phantasm and quickly and easily defeats the approaching Berserker. The last words Berserker heard before he was pierced by the myriad of weapons was “Gate of Babylon!”
Henry tried to help Berserker, but Berserker simply told him to run, “Run kid, I’m no match for this guy, let alone you. When you get out of here, contact the others. Tell them what happened. Tell them about this guy.” With those final words, Berserker got back up and was ready to use his Noble Phantasm. When a sword was about to pierce him, Henry stopped it with his telekinesis. “I’m not leaving you, Berserker, no, Kintoki. I’m going to fight alongside you.”
Seeing his attack stopped, the servant sent a spear aimed at Henry. The spear cut through the right side of Henry’s abdomen. The injury caused Henry to bleed continuously. Seeing the injury on his master, Kintoki summoned lightning and used the heat generated from it to close his master’s wound.
With lightning raining down on him, Kintoki ran up to his enemy to unleash his Noble Phantasm, “Golden Spark!” But before the attack hit, he was pierced my more weapons. Kintoki fell dead in his tracks before he could even deal a single blow to his enemy.
That scene shocked Henry to his core. His opponent was too powerful. As he was about to lose consciousness from his injury, the servant gave him a message to relay, “Listen here mongrel. I want you to tell your friends and those traitors that this king will be magnanimous and give them a swift death as long as they give us the grail. Meet this king at the pier in three days time. You can then gift this king with the grail.” After he said those words, the Reality Marble shatters and he leaves.
