On that starless night,
At the bridge which connected two towns of Fuyuki City, a young man stood in front of two people who looked exactly the same with him.
Ryan stared at his two clones with clear, cold eyes.
"One of you, get into the underground cavern. Start devouring Avenger. There's an old coot and his Servant guarding there, don't repeat the first clone's mistake." Ryan looked toward his clone on the right.
"As for the other one, please visit her house. Try to look into her current life..." When he gave the order toward his clone on the left, Ryan felt a little complicated in his heart.
Ryan's two clones looked at each other. They were of the same mind and self, so they also understood the importance of their own role.
"You too, give them a good fight in our stead." The clones laughed lightly as they vanished in the dark, going separate ways.
[Mirror Alter]. It was originally a magecraft that projected himself into an exact copy of him. If the thing that Shirou projected was a sword, then what Ryan projected was his own self...
That was a magecraft that only Ryan could use because his entire body was comprised of magic circuit. It was something unthinkable for other magus to replicate; as normally they only had a limited amount of magic circuit within their body.
Currently, this magecraft already underwent a major enhancement after Ryan acquired the Sixth Magic and was connected even closer to the [Root].
The clones created through [Mirror Alter] could be imbued with more power than before. Moreover, they now possessed greater capacity of independent thought which allowed them more flexibility into achieving the set of goals that Ryan had set for them.
'Now that these sides are settled, it's time to give them a greeting.'
Metallic armor gradually encased Ryan's entire body by the seconds. As the helmet covered his face; a black lance materialized on his right hand.
[Rhongomyniad Alter]
The sacred lance that he extracted from Gray's Mystic Code previously had become a kind of magecraft that was absorbed into his System Panel. As of now, he coated that sacred lance with black flame from Yu Miaoyi's Arcane Art, turning the sacred lance into a cursed lance.
A burning gleam flashed inside his eyes, flame flickering through his helmet as his whole armor was shrouded by black flame. Like a knight who rose from hell itself, his entire existence reeked of death, slaughter, and purgatory fire.
"From now on, there is only a Hell Knight… Hell Knight Dante."
"Oh, roleplaying? That sounds interesting. So, who is the one you're roleplaying; Dante from the Divine Melody or Dante from Devil May Cry? But, man~ you look a lot like those Dark Souls' fallen knight, he he~
"Anyway, do you mind if I tag along?"
Another person walked out from atop of the bridge as she giggled lightly. She was tiptoeing around the dark knight while looking around his armor.
Behind her, a Servant whose presence carried blessing of the Sun was staring silently at the dark knight. A strong battle intent was emanating from him as he looked forward to a match between them.
"Do as you like. But, don't interfere."
An indifferent voice replied coldly. He didn't seem the least bit surprised at the other party's arrival.
"Okay, I know. I will only deal with the escaped fish; if there is any."
As the fallen leaves fell, carried along by the night breeze, the dark knight had soundlessly disappeared from the bridge. There was only flickering black flame left on his place as he was already heading toward Emiya Residence.
*
"Yo. This sure is a quiet night, right, shitty Archer?"
"…just shut up. You'd look better if you stay quiet, Lancer."
"Che. Hey, wanna have a match? My Master is still resting, so she couldn't interrupt us for a while. Let's fight! Otherwise, just guarding like this is boring as hell!"
That night, EMIYA (Archer) and Cú Chulainn were assigned on the guard's duty.
Looking at his partner who looked extremely bored and wanted to have a fight, Archer felt a headache coming his way.
'…I don't know why, but I keep having this bad feeling…'
Archer ignored the grumbling Lancer beside him. he looked at the night sky, feeling slightly wary at the quiet night.
At that time, he suddenly felt a presence had noiselessly appeared in front of Emiya Residence. Without any sign or sound, someone was already there standing coldly at the entrance.
Caster's bounded field was penetrated soundlessly without alerting anyone, and even he almost missed it if that intruder didn't purposely stop at the entrance.
'To even break through Caster's prized bounded field with such ease…'
When EMIYA (Archer) met with that intruder's gaze, it seemed like a spark was ignited within him. Alarm bell rang loudly inside his mind.
'This guy's bad news!'
"HAHAHA! To think there would be someone who dare to break into here alone… should I say he is brave or stupid? Whatever. Let me try him first. Notify the others, Archer."
"I was going to do that even without your reminder… anyway, don't get carried away, Lancer."
The fact that someone dared to challenge them head on, alone to boot, might be a testament to the intruder's power. The intruder must be thinking that he could come out unscathed even if he couldn't cause major damage to them, otherwise…
'In the worst case, he might have the confidence to wipe us out alone.'
"Who are you talking about? I ain't no an idiot. Just cover for me, Archer!" Cú Chulainn laughed loudly as he jumped from the roof.
Brandishing his cursed spear, Cú Chulainn went straight toward the intruder.
"HA! Don't disappoint me, fucker!"
Trang!
"...not enough..."
Another lance parried Cú Chulainn's blow with equally matched strength.
'A lance? The red faction's Lancer shouldn't be this person. Is this the Rider Servant whom they've just summoned?'
Cú lightly jumped back, preparing himself for another go, "Yo~ You have quite the strength. Who are you? I don't like to slay a nameless enemy."
At that question the intruder was silent. He looked coldly at Cú Chulainn; he raised his burning lance as he stated indifferently, "...you're not enough. Call forth your remaining allies. I will crush you all together."
A conflagration of black fire raged from that dark knight. Its intense heat melted the ground around him.
Veins popped on Cú Chulainn's forehead when he heard the dark knight's demeaning words.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Clank!
Several arrows were shot toward the dark knight's head, but they were lightly swept by his lance.
At same time, five more Servants of Blue faction appeared simultaneously beside Cú Chulainn.
Saber, Artoria Pendragon.
Archer, EMIYA.
Rider, Medusa.
Caster, Medea.
Berserker, Heracles.
With Cú Chulainn who was already there, six Servants of the Blue faction had finally appeared at same time.
Saber, Lancer and Berserker stood on the front; they were the main attacker. Archer stood alongside Rider for giving support and sneaking an attack when the chance arose. Caster was silently preparing her spell on the back.
Their Masters could be seen spectating the battle from quite a distance away so they wouldn't be affected from battle of that scale.
As the dark knight swept his gaze on the opposing Servants in front of him, Artoria could see through the gaps on his helmet that that dark knight was smiling faintly.
At that moment, the dark knight suddenly focused his gaze on Artoria.
"Saber– nay, Artoria, my King of Knights… I have returned from the depths of hell… to drag you down to hell with me!"
Bam!
Grim laughter laced with madness came from the dark knight as he launched himself toward Artoria Saber.
"You are…?" Artoria looked quite perplexed. Though she quickly adjusted her emotion, she was ready to fight.
"GRAAAARH!"
Yet, halfway there, Berserker's stone sword was already in front of the dark knight.
"Impatient as ever, Heracles. You're blocking me– move!"
Another cursed lance appeared on his left hand. One cursed lance blocked Berserker's stone sword, while the other one tried to pierce through his chest.
In that split second, Berserker pulled his stone sword to guard against the cursed lance. Even if he had been stripped off his sanity, Berserker still possessed a keen instinct of battle-torn warrior. Berserker faintly felt that that cursed lance would be able to break through his defense with ease.
Stab! Swoosh!
"HA! Do you forget about me, fucker?!"
Lancer sneaked from behind the dark knight as he aimed to pierce his heart, only to be met with the burning lance.
A piercing nail attached on metal chains suddenly flew toward his head, but the dark knight turned sideways slightly to evade it.
Berserker jumped behind on his Master's command; he had retreated at that instant.
At same time, rain of arrows came from the sky with ferocious might, all heading toward the dark knight.
When the dark knight was about to evade the incoming arrows, he felt his body weighed a lot heavier than usual. He was already bound within a field of gravity magic.
Caster smiled mockingly from the furthest back as several balls of light materialized behind her; her spell – Rain of Light – was already aimed at the dark knight along with Archer's arrow bombardment.
"You guys–"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Barrage of Broken Phantasms and Caster's Rain of Light immediately razed the dark knight on the ground.
Loud explosions happened fast in succession, drowning the dark knight's words.
Even so, as the dust gradually settled, the silhouette of that dark knight still stood strong.
"Was that all you got? If so, that was too disappointing!" Despite his armor was in tatter, and he looked battered with severe wounds at many places on his body, the dark knight still managed to laugh.
He raised his burning lance with cold laugh, pointing it toward Artoria Saber, "I won't let you go. This time, definitely…!"
Puchi.
Fresh blood gushed out as he suddenly felt an excruciating pain on his chest. A blood-red cursed spear had silently pierced his heart.
Gáe Bolg: Barbed Spear that Pierces with Death;
It was Cú Chulainn's Noble Phantams which was famed to have always managed to pierce his enemy's heart.
In truth, it was a Noble Phantasm that reversed the 'cause and effect'; the end of 'piercing the heart' had been determined the moment its True Name was activated.
Therefore, regardless of how Cú Chulainn attacked, the cursed spear would always pierce his enemy's heart at the end. That was how overbearing its curse was.
"You alone aren't enough. Go back and call your remaining allies, fucker." Cú Chulainn said indifferently as he pulled his cursed spear.
However, contrary to what he thought, the dark knight merely turned toward him.
"You want my heart? Fine. I can give it to you as many as you want."
The dark knight gouged his own destroyed heart, and crushed it to bits in front of the surprised Cú Chulainn.
'Lancer, back off!'
Cú Chulainn was already backing away even before he heard the mental transmission from his Master.
'Oi, oi, oi! This monster…!'
It was because he saw that those severe wounds on the dark knight had begun healing fast. Not only that, an entirely new heart had been regenerated in place of the dark knight's previous heart.
"No way! That's cheating!" Tohsaka Rin exclaimed in disbelief when she saw the severe wounds on that dark knight had been healed like nothing ever happened.
It looked like Heracles's Noble Phantasm [God's Hand], but at same time, it was also different.
Bazett Fraga McRemitz, Lancer's Master, narrowed her eyes when she looked at the dark knight regenerating his heart with ease.
'Tsk.'
If he could regenerate his heart like that; not to mention Lancer's Noble Phantasm, but even her trump card would be useless against him.
She could only hope that there was a limit to his regeneration...
"Caster said that knight is not a Servant. He may be the last unknown Master of the opposing faction." Kuzuki Souichirou stated indifferently.
"He's a Master? Impossible...!" Rin was agape before she exclaimed angrily, stomping hard on the ground.
"..." Sakura's eyes gleamed strangely. She suddenly sensed that her connection with Avenger was getting weaker by the second passed.
Under the other Servants' and Masters' tense gaze, the dark knight took a deep breath. He looked toward the night sky as he sighed a little.
"Well, that was enough for playing around. Let's get things started for real, alright?" The dark knight crackled his neck slightly as he grinned.
Behind him, an entire artillery of guns and rifles were manifested magnificently. They were covered by the black flame of destruction, each of them contained menacing aura able to make one shudder.
"Artillery Bombardment– deployed. Full-burst mode– on."
Then, the dark knight gripped the burning cursed lance tightly, pointing it upward.
"Sacred Lance; remove thine restraints."
The black flame on the burning lance gradually peeled off as the brilliance of sacred light began to emerge from the lance.
"That lance...!" Artoria Saber was unable to hide her surprise the moment she saw the brilliant light emanating from that lance.
She was more than familiar with that lance. If anything, she was the wielder of that lance at some point in her life.
The sacred lance that accompanied her in the end; the lance that pierced the traitorous knight Mordred's chest–
Rhongomyniad.
"Light, may you be released from the ends of the World. Rhongomyniad Alter!"
As the sacred lance was fully activated, the dark knight suddenly threw the sacred lance to the sky.
A gigantic lance soon revealed itself from the sky, descending toward the earth with irresistible momentum.
"Now, what will you do, my King of Knights?"
Artoria gritted her teeth as she raised the holy sword. She looked toward descending sacred lance and then at the dark knight,
"...despite your apparent rage toward me, you are not Sir Lancelot.
"It is only me and Merlin who know about the true power of the sacred lance. Yet, if you are that trickster Merlin, you won't do something so brute and conspicuous like this.
"...therefore, who are you, nameless knight?"
There was also another person who she thought was able to wield the sacred lance, but...
It couldn't be that person, right?
At her question, the dark knight smiled. He grinned lightly as he asked in return, "Make a guess? If you manage to guess it correctly, I will stop the sacred lance."
Artoria frowned. She felt like the other party knew her well enough, but she was still oblivious to his identity. That contradiction made her feeling stifled a little.
Having rage and animosity toward her. Able to wield the sacred lance.
If it's her, she could also change her appearance if she wants to...
"Morgan?"
The dark knight: "..."
At that moment, a white-haired man walked from behind Artoria.
"I am the bone of my sword.
Steel is my body and fire is my blood.
I have created over a thousand blades.
Unknown to Death,
Nor known to Life.
I have withstood pain to create many weapons.
Yet, those hands will never hold anything..."
With each step he took, the world was starting to change.
The sky was covered by rusted color, giant wheels of steel appeared on the sky, the ground was littered with countless blades and swords.
When he came beside Artoria Saber, the white-haired man looked toward the dark knight with obvious annoyance.
He frowned, "Your joke has gone too far. Would you just stop your tomfoolery, brother? You're just taking out your anger indiscriminately on others now."
Artoria was stunned when she heard Archer's words. His words implied that the dark knight's identity was–
"Leave him to me, Saber. Just focus on that lance." EMIYA (Archer) told her as he glanced toward the gigantic lance.
"Wait, Archer–!" Artoria was about to say something to him, but she was already pushed out of the Reality Marble by Archer.
"You... It seems you mistook me for someone else. I am Dante."
"Do you think I won't recognize the favorite spell you often use to beat me up, huh? You just created it to counter my Unlimited Blade Works, didn't you? What a shitty brother." EMIYA (Archer) spoke cynically as he sneered.
The dark knight: "..."
Bro, why don't you do it like the script? How am I going to continue the charade like this?!
"So as I pray, Unlimited Blade Works!"
*
Jeanne D'Arc was heading toward the underground cavern underneath Ryuudou Temple.
Her sense and intuition told her that an ominous energy was gathering, and recovering itself around that place.
She was about to enter the underground cavern when the towering light suddenly descended from the sky.
"That direction is... a Servant's battle? But to use such large-scale attack, don't they spare a thought for the civilians?!"
At that moment, the underground cavern suddenly shook, alerting Jeanne D'Arc to the evil feeling she had sensed earlier.
Between the choices of investigating the source of evil feeling she had sensed, and the dire situation of normal civilians underneath that gigantic lance, Jeanne chose the latter without much thought.
The lives of common people were more important to her.
She quickly returned back to her previous path, without even looking back at the underground cavern.
'After I settle that lance... It won't be too late to investigate this place again.'
Unfortunately, had she entered the underground cavern just now, Jeanne would have seen the scene of a young man slaughtering the old Matou and his Servant...
"You– who are you?!" Matou Zouken coughed several mouthfuls of blood as he crawled on the ground. He looked in fear at the devil behind him.
"Me? I am your nightmare, old bastard."
Stab!
Ryan's clone stabbed the last worm of Matou Zouken to death as he spoke.
Hassan of the Cursed Arm had been eliminated early on by him. Now that the last trace of Matou Zouken in this place had been cleaned too, it was the time for him to start devouring Avenger – Angra Mainyu.
The moment he faced toward the embryonic form of Angra Mainyu, countless black tentacles tried to surround him at once.
The creature inside the pillar of demonic light opened its eyes. It gazed coldly at the daring intruder in front of it.
Ryan's clone revealed an insane grin as he roared, "Trying to devour me? What a wishful thought!
"Seal of Samsara. First Seal – Devour the Sky!"
The nature of the skill changed when Ryan chose the second seal as his main path. However, the first seal still retained its ability to devour essence and energy, though it wouldn't involve the battle of soul anymore.
At this moment, Ryan's clone and Avenger were in competition to see who could devour the other party faster.
When Ryan's clone felt the resistance from Avenger, and its frantic roar as it was devoured, he laughed maniacally,
"HaHaHa! Let the storm hit harder! Try to entertain me more, Avenger!"
*
Ryan's second clone was standing silently in front of a certain house. The name "Hayakawa" was plain to see on the name plank on the gate of that house.
When he saw that the lights on that house were still turned on, he stood quietly for a while outside the gate.
He activated his innate eyes.
From his observation on the house, he only saw a middle-aged woman who was preparing dinner in the kitchen. There was no sign of her daughter, nor any trace of man in that house.
'Her mother didn't remarry in this worldline?'
At that time, he sensed that someone was approaching him.
"Hey, you. What are you doing in front of someone's house this late at night? Are you a stalker?"
A red-haired young woman spoke cautiously as she kept her eyes on the suspicious man in front of her house.
Instead of using the concealed shinai on her back, she held her phone tightly. The number of "119" was shown on the screen. She was ready to make the emergency call at any moment.
Ryan's clone was stunned when he saw her again. Although he already prepared himself to come here, but seeing her again still brought him a slight nostalgia.
In response to her caution, he smiled lightly as he shrugged,
"A stalker? It's indeed appropriate to call me so. Now that I see you are fine, I shall return first. I will come visit you again some other time, girl."
"Hey, who are you?"
The young woman didn't know why, but when she looked at the young man, she suddenly felt a pang of sorrow inside her heart...
"Ah, a free reminder. The night in these few days would be especially dangerous. Don't go outside often during these turbulent times."
"...hmph. Why do you need to care about my matters?" She didn't realize it, but her eyes had turned moist unknowingly.
At that point, only the trace of his voice could be heard. His figure had disappeared in the dark of night once more.
"Why, indeed? I don't know. Even if you are not 'her' exactly, but I just want you to be safe at least."
He stood on the rooftop as he spoke softly to the night. As he watched her going inside her house, he also saw the gigantic lance descended from the sky.
'So it has begun...'
Inside Hayakawa house.
"What's wrong, Kanade? Which boy dared to make my baby daughter cry like this?"
Kanade's mom was surprised seeing her daughter came back with a confused look and slightly moist eyes.
"I am not crying though, eh?"
Kanade felt slightly confused. She didn't remember exactly when she cried, but now that her mother said it, she found that her eyes had turned moist at some point.
"Ah, that stalker...! What did he do to me?!"
Kanade then told her mom about the stalker she had just encountered outside their house. How he just easily admitted that he was a stalker, his reminder, and how he disappeared mysteriously at the end.
'Even if he is really a stalker, why do you need to be this excited?? Are you sure he isn't your secret lover, dear?'
It was Kanade's mom who turned speechless now.
Kanade herself didn't realize it. However, she seemed more excited than usual when she talked about that 'stalker'.
