For a brief moment, silence filled the riverside.
The monstrous abomination was gone, leaving only drifting particles of fading mana above the river.
The wind slowly calmed.
Even the water that had been violently churning moments ago began to settle.
Standing on the ruined road, Waver Velvet stared at the battlefield with wide eyes.
His gaze slowly shifted toward the glowing sword in Saber's hand.
The golden light of the blade gradually faded as the wind that had concealed it dispersed.
And then—
Recognition struck him.
"…Wait."
Waver's eyes widened.
"That sword… that light…"
He looked back and forth between the radiant blade and the knight standing beside it.
"No way…"
His voice trembled.
"That's—"
Beside him, Iskandar folded his arms with a wide grin.
"Took you long enough, boy."
Waver looked at him in disbelief.
"You already knew?!"
Rider laughed loudly.
"Of course!"
His gaze shifted toward Saber with obvious admiration.
"A sword that shines like the sun itself… who else could wield such a blade?"
Waver swallowed.
"The King of Knights…"
His eyes locked onto Artoria Pendragon.
"…King Arthur."
Not far away, Saber slowly lowered her sword.
The golden light of Excalibur faded completely as the blade once again became concealed within swirling wind.
Saber's breathing had grown heavier.
Her stance remained steady, but the exhaustion was impossible to hide.
Then—
A faint sound cut through the quiet air.
Whizz.
Something flashed through the darkness.
A thin metallic needle.
Then another.
And another.
"—!"
Rider's eyes sharpened instantly.
He moved before Waver Velvet could even react.
CLANG.
A needle struck the armor of Iskandar and bounced away harmlessly.
At the same time—
More needles shot toward the others.
Before Ren could even realize what was happening, one of the needles had already reached the space right in front of his face.
However—
The thin projectiles suddenly stopped.
Several poisoned needles hung motionless in the air, as if the space around Ren had frozen.
Sakura gasped in surprise, instinctively tightening her grip on his clothes as she remained in his arms.
"O-Onii-san…?!"
Ren didn't move.
His expression remained calm.
Inside, however—
'Holy hell…'
Ren cursed loudly in his mind.
'Good thing I keep that thing running all the time.'
The anomalous effect of SCP-2030 quietly distorted the space around him, creating an invisible barrier that halted anything attempting to cross it.
A technique he copied from a certain white haired jujutsu user
After all, despite the many anomalous abilities he possessed, none of them enhanced his physical body. His physique was still that of an ordinary human.
Which was exactly why Ren always kept a protective barrier active around himself.
Ren gently patted Sakura's head.
"…It's fine."
Not far away, Irisviel gasped.
But before she could react—
Saber stepped in front of her.
The invisible blade in her hands moved again, knocking several needles away.
Yet anyone watching closely could see it.
Saber's breathing had grown heavier.
She was already exhausted.
And the attack had come immediately after her Noble Phantasm.
The poisoned needles clattered onto the pavement.
For a brief moment, silence returned to the battlefield.
Then more shadows began to move.
Across rooftops, trees, and streetlights, masked figures slowly emerged from the darkness.
One.
Five.
Ten.
Dozens.
Identical robes.
Identical masks.
The unmistakable presence of the Assassin class.
Waver Velvet stared in disbelief.
"…That's impossible."
His voice trembled.
"But Archer already killed Assassin…"
Beside him, Irisviel's expression had turned pale as she looked at the surrounding figures.
Yet the masked Servants only chuckled quietly.
"We are the shadows of the mountain."
"We are the many faces of Hassan."
More Assassins stepped forward.
Their presence multiplied across the battlefield like an endless swarm.
Rider crossed his arms as he observed the scene.
Iskandar let out a low whistle.
"Well now…"
"That's quite a lot of pests."
One Assassin stepped forward.
"King of Conquerors and the King of Knights"
"You have nowhere to run."
Rider burst out laughing.
"Run?"
Lightning crackled faintly around him as he stepped forward.
"Boy."
He glanced toward Waver.
"Looks like things are about to get interesting."
Waver blinked nervously.
"W-What are you planning?!"
Rider grinned.
"Nothing complicated."
He raised his hand.
"Just a proper battlefield."
The world suddenly distorted.
The night sky cracked like shattered glass.
Wind howled across the battlefield as reality itself began to shift.
Then—
The riverside park vanished.
In its place stretched an endless desert beneath a blazing sky.
Hot wind swept across the sand as countless armored warriors slowly emerged from the horizon.
Spears.
Shields.
War banners fluttering beneath the sun.
An army.
Thousands of soldiers gathered behind one man.
Iskandar.
At the center of the battlefield, Waver Velvet stared in stunned silence.
"…This is…"
Rider stepped forward, planting his sword into the sand.
"This is the battlefield of my heart."
His voice echoed across the desert.
"The world where my companions and I march together!"
The warriors behind him raised their weapons, their cheers shaking the air.
Not far away, Ren looked around the endless desert landscape.
"…Huh."
Sakura blinked in confusion while still in his arms.
"Onii-san… where are we?"
Ren glanced at the thousands of soldiers gathering across the horizon.
"…Reality Marble."
"Don't worry, Just watch the show."
For a brief moment, Ren considered something.
'If I could capture them and throw them into the Red Right Hand program…'
Then he shook his head slightly.
'No… that probably won't work.'
'They're spirits, not actual physical humans.'
Meanwhile, Rider turned slightly and looked toward Waver.
"Well then, boy."
A wide grin spread across his face.
"Didn't I tell you?"
"A king is never alone."
Waver looked around at the countless soldiers surrounding them.
His voice came out weakly.
"…You brought an army."
Rider laughed loudly.
"Of course!"
"These are the warriors who conquered the world with me!"
He raised his sword high.
"My friends!"
Thousands of soldiers fell silent instantly.
Before them stood the King of Conquerors.
"Today, a pack of cowards hiding behind masks dares to challenge us!"
His voice thundered across the desert.
"Tell me!"
The soldiers roared back.
"WHO ARE WE?!"
"The companions of the King!"
Rider grinned fiercely.
"Then show them!"
His sword pointed toward the distant Assassins.
"WHAT IT MEANS TO STAND AGAINST A KING!"
The army erupted into a thunderous battle cry.
Rider swung his sword forward.
"Charge!"
The desert trembled as the army surged forward like a tidal wave of steel.
And the Assassins were swallowed by it.
Assassin's bad luck in his Heroic Spirit parameters was not for nothing. Who could have guessed that Rider possessed the ability to deploy a Reality Marble?
The desert battlefield slowly fell silent.
The last of the masked Assassins dissolved into fading spirit particles beneath the blazing sky.
Thousands of warriors stood victorious across the sand, their weapons stained with the remnants of battle.
At the center of the battlefield, Iskandar rested his sword on his shoulder.
"Well then!"
His booming voice echoed across the desert.
"That settles that!"
Beside him, Waver Velvet was still trying to process everything he had just witnessed.
"That was… all of them?"
Rider laughed loudly.
"Of course!"
"No enemies survives the charge of my companions!"
The soldiers behind him cheered in agreement.
Then Rider crossed his arms and glanced across the battlefield.
Since he already deploy his Reality Marble, he was planning took another Servant
His gaze first landed on the weary figure of Artoria Pendragon.
The King of Knights stood firm, but even Rider could see the exhaustion in her posture after unleashing such a powerful Noble Phantasm earlier.
"Hm."
Rider stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"Quite the sword you carry, King of Knights."
But he didn't challenge her.
Not in that condition.
Instead—
His gaze shifted.
Toward a much smaller figure.
The little girl standing beside the strange magus.
Sakura.
Rider scratched his head slightly.
For the first time since the battle began, the King of Conquerors looked… oddly unsure.
"…Ah."
He cleared his throat.
"Little girl."
Sakura blinked in surprise.
"Y-Yes…?"
Rider crouched slightly so he wouldn't look quite so imposing.
His voice became noticeably more awkward.
"Would your Servant… perhaps…"
He paused, clearly trying to phrase the sentence properly.
"…accept a challenge?"
Waver stared at him.
'You're asking a child to start a duel?!'
Meanwhile Sakura looked up at Ren with confusion.
"Onii-san…?"
Ren gently patted her head.
His expression remained calm.
"Go ahead."
"Call Aesc."
Sakura nodded obediently.
But Ren's eyes quietly drifted toward Rider.
'A Servant fight… again?'
'No thanks.'
The war was starting to get tedious.
'Let's speed this up.'
A faint distortion appeared beside them.
Then—
A portal opened.
A tear in space itself.
Not outside.
But inside the Reality Marble.
Waver's eyes widened in horror.
"WHAT—?!"
His voice cracked instantly.
"That's impossible!"
Reality Marbles sealed space completely. No external interference should be able to enter. Even teleportation magecraft would fail.
Unless—
The space itself was being overridden.
From within the portal, a young woman stepped out calmly.
Long silver hair.
Soft lavender eyes.
Round glasses resting on her face.
Aesc looked around the desert battlefield with mild confusion.
"Little Sakura?"
She adjusted her glasses slightly.
"Why did you call me?"
Waver stared at the portal behind her in complete disbelief.
"A portal… inside a Reality Marble…?"
If Sakura had summoned her Servant through a Command Spell, that would have made sense.
But this—
This was something else entirely.
Across the battlefield, Rider's eyes widened slightly in surprise.
"Well now."
"That's certainly unusual."
But the one who reacted the most—
Was Saber.
The moment she saw Aesc's face—
Her body stiffened, Her eyes widened in shock.
"…Morgan…?"
The resemblance was unmistakable.
For a brief moment, memories she would rather forget flashed through her mind.
The witch of Britain.
Her greatest enemy.
The ghost of that name lingered in Saber's thoughts like a PTSD.
"Hoho…"
Iskandar let out an amused chuckle as he looked toward the newly arrived Servant.
"Unknown Servant, would you care to accept my challenge?"
Hearing this, Aesc blinked in confusion.
Her gaze shifted first toward Sakura, then toward Ren.
"…Did you call me here for that?"
"Not really," Ren replied with a small shrug.
"The Holy Grail War is getting boring."
He spoke as if discussing something trivial.
"So I figured I'd speed things up a bit."
Aesc frowned slightly.
Ren continued calmly.
"I'll take you to the Grail tonight. Then we'll confirm whether what I told you about it is true or not."
Then Ren turned his head toward Rider.
"King of Conquerors."
His tone remained relaxed.
"Instead of asking her… what about me?"
Rider raised an eyebrow.
"Ha?"
He looked Ren up and down with clear skepticism.
"Aren't you just a magus like my Master?"
He gestured toward Waver Velvet.
"Do you really think you can fight my army?"
After all, Rider had already concluded that Ren was merely a magus pretending to be a Caster. The real Caster had already appeared and been destroyed by Saber.
Which meant the young man standing there could only be a human magus.
Ren simply smiled.
"Fight poison with poison."
"Fight an army with another army."
He looked directly at Rider.
"You have your army."
"I have mine."
"So… how about it?"
For a moment, silence filled the desert battlefield.
Then—
"Pfft…"
Rider suddenly burst into loud laughter.
"HAHAHAHA!"
"Very well!"
He pointed his sword toward Ren.
"Magus! Show me this army of yours!"
"And tell me your name!"
Ren placed one hand over his chest in an oddly formal gesture.
"Please forgive me, I cannot tell you my name."
His voice remained calm and composed.
"However What I can tell you…"
"I am the President of the Foundation."
"Our presence in this world is for one purpose."
"To Secure."
"To Contain."
"And to Protect humanity from anomalies that could lead it to extinction."
His eyes briefly swept across the battlefield.
"And this war…"
"…is one of the reasons I am here."
Most of the people present simply looked confused.
However, Waver Velvet understood something others did not.
There were organizations that claimed to stand on the side of humanity. Their purpose was to monitor and deal with supernatural threats that ordinary people could never understand.
The Clock Tower, where Waver studied, could also be considered one of them. At least on the surface, many of its Magus claimed their research ultimately benefited humanity—though in truth, many pursued their own ambitions and hidden agendas.
But a group called the Foundation?
Waver frowned slightly.
He had never heard of such an organization before.
But the one who reacted the most—
Was Aesc.
During the past three days, she had spent countless hours inside Ren's library.
Research reports.
Containment files.
Records of anomalies capable of destroying worlds.
She had thought they were exaggerated.
Impossible.
Madness written by paranoid scholars.
But now—
The young man in front of her had just introduced himself as the President of the SCP Foundation.
Which meant only one thing.
Everything she had read…Was probably real.
For the first time in her life, Aesc wished she had never opened the doors to Ren's library.
Because now—
She knew just how terrifying the world truly was.
And that knowledge filled her with genuine fear.
Yet Aesc still clung to a small hope.
She had never seen an actual SCP with her own eyes.
Perhaps the young man standing in front of her was simply joking.
Unfortunately, Aesc failed to realize one thing.
The dimension she had been staying in all this time…
Was itself an anomaly, A Thaumiel-class SCP.
And she had been living inside it for the past three days, Without even noticing.
(Author's Note: Thaumiel-class: Anomalies used by the Foundation to contain or control other anomalies.)
Seeing their confusion, Ren said nothing further.
Instead, he gently handed Sakura over to Aesc.
Then, with a small motion of his hand, the space around them distorted slightly.
Ren manipulated the surrounding space, quietly shifting Sakura, Aesc, along with Irisviel von Einzbern and Artoria Pendragon toward the far edge of the Reality Marble.
He had no intention of letting them get caught in what was about to happen.
Seeing the sudden displacement, Irisviel blinked in confusion.
"…What just happened?"
Saber frowned slightly as she looked around the desert.
She had sensed no magecraft.
And yet—
They had clearly been moved.
Meanwhile, across the battlefield, Iskandar instinctively stepped forward, placing himself between the unknown threat and Waver Velvet.
Rider rested a hand on the hilt of his sword.
He didn't know why.
But his instincts were screaming.
Something unspeakable was about to appear.
In the distance, Ren casually flicked his finger.
Space split open.
One portal.
Then another.
Then another.
Dozens of dark portals appeared across the desert.
The moment Rider saw them—
His eyes narrowed.
He recognized them.
These were the same portals Ren had used earlier when fighting Gilgamesh.
But this time—
Something was different.
Then Rider heard it.
Thud.
Heavy footsteps.
Not the rhythmic marching of soldiers.
Not the charge of cavalry.
These footsteps were uneven.
Chaotic.
Like a pack of beasts running across the battlefield.
The sound grew louder.
Closer.
Closer.
Then—
Something emerged from the portals.
And for the first time—
The King of Conquerors witnessed the horrors that would haunt the nightmares of mankind and many other beings