Explanations at the end of the chapter.
-------------------------------------------------
Third-person POV
A priest could be seen gazing thoughtfully at a cross.
"Things aren't going your way," a mocking voice said.
"Sometimes things don't go as planned; I wonder if this is another challenge from God," Kirei said, still lost in thought.
"Don't exaggerate. So, are you going to start acting?" Gilgamesh asked, sitting down on one of the benches.
Kirei turned to face Gilgamesh with a blank smile, but beneath his expression lay something hidden and malevolent, a yearning and intention to fulfill his desire.
...
Dante's POV
When I arrived at our lodgings, I saw Kiss-shot and Caster talking and laughing. But the moment I opened the door, they stopped dead in their tracks.
"Oh, welcome home, my husband," Kiss-shot said, settling more comfortably into the armchair.
"Welcome, grandpa," Caster said mockingly.
"I'm not too keen on the idea of you two being on the same page," I said curtly.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Caster replied, glancing at Rider. "It was a good fight; it's a shame you couldn't kill him, but taking away six of his twelve lives is something to be proud of."
"That's normal for someone like me, the reincarnation of Bi-ah," Rider started spouting nonsense, so I let go of her, causing her to fall to the floor.
"I see you're old enough to stop talking nonsense," I said, sitting down on the couch next to Kiss-shot, who snuggled into my arms.
Rider sat on the floor, somewhat offended by what I'd done, but decided to remain silent.
"I'm wondering: if you were able to take one of Berserker's lives with a single blow, why didn't you kill him?" Caster asked.
"Why should I? I can let other Servants do it; this war is technically between Servants; I, as a Master, would at least have to fight another Master. Besides, as a king, I should let the mob do the dirty work," I said somewhat arrogantly, taking advantage of the fact that we were talking about kings.
"Are you a king?" Caster questioned.
"It was," Kiss-shot corrected, "long ago Dante ruled Anakosmo as a king, at least symbolically, but he also ruled the island as a monarch, just like the other kings of Greece, also serving the Olympians, not to mention that one of Dante's titles is king," Kiss-shot explained.
"Hmm, I see. I'd heard things about Anakosmo, but only superficially, since when I was there the island was already destroyed," Caster commented, looking out the window. "It's getting dark. Souichirou should be arriving at the temple soon; I can't leave him unattended for too long."
With that, she stood up, her casual clothes transforming into a witch's outfit.
The moment I reached the door, she turned her head slightly.
"Do you have any plans for tonight?" she asked me.
"Only if things get out of control," I told her, to which she nodded, grabbed her robe, and flew out.
The moment the door closed, Rider started talking.
"You're going out tonight; take me with you." The moment those words left her mouth, I magically appeared beside her and gave her a karate chop to the head. "Ow, myd tonge."
"You haven't recovered from your Noble Phantasm yet, so you're staying here tonight," I scolded her.
"Ti s ufair," Rider tried to say, but since she bit her tongue, she spoke erratically.
"Life is unfair, period." Before I could finish speaking, Rider threw herself to the floor with her arms crossed and an expression of annoyance.
...
It was already midnight. I was on a skyscraper, gazing at the night and, incidentally, at a confrontation between two quite powerful women, one more so than the other, but that's beside the point.
I saw the offices of the building not far away being destroyed.
Saber, wielding the Hammer of the Wind King, razed everything in her path, but Lancer, using her chains, was able to withstand the attack.
In her right hand, she held the God-Slayer Spear, Harpe, in its full glory, a scythe attached to a long chain that Lancer could manipulate.
The two women faced each other, wounded and exhausted, preparing for their final attacks, or at least their last moves.
Saber's sword, Excalibur, was in all its splendor, displaying its glory.
Taking advantage of the lull between their stares and their preparations, I looked for the presence of other people. I sensed Emiya Shirou's presence not far away, and further on was Matou Shinji, missing an arm and carrying the Command Spellbook.
I hope he didn't harm Medusa, or else death would be the most merciful thing for him, but I hope the old man from Zouken managed to control his descendant.
I had used Haki to see how the fight would end, and knowing what was going to happen, I wouldn't interfere.
I saw Lancer activate his Mystic Eyes and launch himself at incredible speed toward Saber, but she, her sword already glowing with a light beyond the natural, also attacked.
I couldn't hear the names of the attacks because of the distance, but I knew perfectly well what they had said.
The brilliant light swept away Lancer's attack, destroying part of the building and the one opposite.
Saber held back, but it was mostly because of where they were, not wanting to destroy the surrounding buildings.
Thanks to this, and because Lancer's own attack momentarily halted Saber's attack, she was saved, but with serious consequences.
Lancer lay in the middle of the street, his clothes mostly torn, his body covered in blood, unable to move.
Medusa was there, badly wounded, but alive; that's why I didn't act. First, because I shouldn't intervene in a fight, especially one between women, until there is a clear winner, and second, because she wouldn't die from that attack, but she would from the next.
Saber leaped from the building to face Lancer, and just as she was about to finish him off, I summoned the Fusion Sword and launched it with Haki at full speed.
As I expected, Saber's attention shifted from Lancer to my sword, and she parried, landing about three meters away.
"I expected nothing less from the king of knights," I said, landing in front of the sword, picking it up from the ground, and placing it on my shoulder.
Saber looked at me, narrowing her eyes.
"That sword is more than meets the eye," she said simply, stepping in front of me. "Who are you, and why are you interfering?"
"I'm just a prince charming come to rescue my princess in distress," I said, smiling.
"Dan...te," Lancer said, trying to get up and looking at me.
She glanced at Lancer before looking at me, forming an idea.
"No matter how many allies I have, you will fall before my sword," she said, assuming a fighting stance.
I didn't reply; I simply used Soru and vanished.
She simply opened her eyes and swung her sword, managing to block my slash but slamming it into the building.
I didn't stop; swinging my sword, I unleashed several energy slashes that destroyed large sections of the building but left the pillars untouched so it wouldn't collapse.
After a second, a Saber appeared with a trickle of blood on her head, ready to slice me in half. But unfortunately for her, my Haki was superior to her battle attempts, so it wasn't too difficult to dodge her attacks. However, being the King of Knights, she didn't stick to just one fighting style; instead, she began trying to attack in every possible way.
I simply defended and attacked, causing her to lose fatigue and stamina.
I couldn't attack her easily either; I saw that every time I did, she could defend herself and counterattack quickly and precisely.
The moment I saw her about to activate her sword, I took a step back to activate my Command Seals and launched myself at full speed toward her.
She stopped her movement to defend herself, dragging me against two entire buildings; I just wondered why they hadn't collapsed yet.
The moment we stopped, I activated my sword's mechanism, causing it to split into seven blades.
I quickly grabbed each blade and, with straight, consecutive movements, tried to damage her, but unfortunately, Saber was able to defend herself against my spatial movement.
"There's no other way," I said, leaping into the air and landing on the ground, activating my circuits to increase my gravity and using my advanced-level Haki.
As I expected, she managed to block the attack, but the force of the fall next to me, brutally amplified, sent her to her knees, clutching her sword, one hand by the mage and the other by the blade, as the ground shattered.
I saw Saber struggling to breathe and her wounds from the previous battle worsening, so I decided to end the fight.
Deflecting her sword, I kicked her in the face while airborne, momentarily stunning her.
The moment she regained her composure, I was ready to strike. She tried to counterattack, but I dodged her movement and landed a punch to her stomach, which opened her eyes red with pain.
Instead of throwing her away, I slammed her to the ground, destroying the entire floor and opening a crater about 5 meters in radius as the windows and walls of the surrounding buildings shattered and cracked.
The blow shattered her mana armor, causing it to dissipate. She lay there on the ground, vomiting blood, since I must have destroyed half her intestines, but with Avalon nearby and being a Servant and a Dragon Core, I know she'll recover in time.
And when I say in time, I mean after she eats.
"I don't like the idea of fighting someone who's tired and already injured, especially if it's a woman or a child, but if I didn't, I wasn't going to stop you," I said to the air, but loud enough for her to hear me.
At that moment, I saw Saber rise from the ground, leaning on her sword, staring at me with blood dripping from her mouth.
Seeing this, I just gave an awkward smile as I approached, intending to knock her out, but out of nowhere, a red blur appeared in front of me and behind Saber.
It was Shirou Emiya, holding a bamboo sword.
"Trance on," he said, reinforcing the sword with his magic circuits.
I just smiled provocatively at him, while Saber stared at Shirou in horror.
"Shirou, what do you think you're doing?" she asked incredulously. "You already talked about this."
"I can't just stand by and watch you get hurt," he replied.
I was half-listening to the drama between the two, mostly because several people were approaching. First, I saw Lancer, now slightly less injured, surveying the area. Then I saw Shinji, who was hiding behind a building; the moment our eyes met, he quickly disappeared.
And finally, I sensed Tohsaka walking this way, but what caught my attention was that she was alone; I couldn't sense Archer anywhere.
Out of nowhere, she appeared, her body covered in blood, in a catatonic state, but she didn't have any injuries of her own; what I did notice was that she no longer had any Command Seals.
The moment she got close enough, Shirou and Saber noticed her; they wanted to go to her, but they didn't move in my presence.
"I have no intention of continuing to fight if you don't want me to," I said, sheathing the Fusion Sword and taking several steps back.
Seeing me retreat, Shirou lowered his weapon, but not his guard. Holding Saber, he walked over to Rin, staring at the ground.
"Tohsaka, what happened?" Shirou asked.
"I was patrolling the area with Archer when a guy appeared in mid-air, started yelling insults to open a golden portal, and..." She stopped, her gaze fixed on me, before closing her mouth.
"How perceptive," I commented, looking at her. "If there's nothing more we can do, we'll retreat; we'll talk tomorrow under better circumstances."
With that said, I turned to leave, followed by Lancer and, far behind, Shinji, mostly out of fear of being left alone.
...
"I haven't done anything to her, not now, not before, nothing, I swear," Shinji began, panicking, tears streaming down his face.
I just stared at him, speechless, realizing I'd traumatized him more than I'd originally thought.
I shifted my gaze to Lancer, who was cleaning Harpe; I felt him look back at me.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"I was just looking at the sky when a fight between two women crossed my path," I said simply, sitting down on a nearby park bench.
"I don't remember asking you for help," he said sharply, staring at me intently; I almost felt like I was turning to stone.
"I already let you down and abandoned you once; I'll never do it again in my life, and if you were going to die, I would have intervened to take your soul so it would be only mine and no one else's," I said, moving closer to her until we were very close, our lips just centimeters apart.
Lancer didn't move, but I saw her face turn completely red.
"It's not fair," she said, looking away, no longer able to bear to meet my gaze.
I simply smiled at her and took a step back, already content with my victory.
"Besides, I know that if you just wanted to leave or hit me, you would have accepted my offer to revive and then do it in a way that felt more organic, so there must be a reason why you want to continue in this Holy Grail War," I stated, formulating my hypothesis.
She didn't answer, but she looked at Shinji, who was silently and fearfully watching the entire interaction.
"What?" he said, fearfully.
...
"I see," I said, then looked at Shinji. "Why on earth is he in this war if he doesn't have the skills to be a teacher? You could easily get Sakura involved so she can ask you to get the qualifications to be much better than her; that way she'll win her freedom too, don't you think?"
My words frustrated Shinji.
"You think I haven't thought of that, but Grandpa won't allow it, since we're fighting for his wish," he explained, sounding fearful and frustrated.
That made me think. Zouken probably knows about the Grail's condition, but he doesn't care at all, so I can talk to him about it another way.
"Hey," I said to Shinji.
"Yes," he replied, trying to be as formal as possible.
"Tell your grandfather I have a way for him to achieve immortality, but if he wants it, he has to renounce the Grail; after all, it's corrupted, so if he makes the wish, perhaps he'll get it, but it will turn him into an immortal jellyfish without any magic circuitry, forcing him to swim in the ocean eternally, unconscious, until a predator eats him," I ordered.
"The Grail is... it's corrupted," he said in shock.
"Go tell the old man about the situation."
He wanted to say something but stopped himself, stood up, and left.
Midway through his walk, he looked at Lancer, hoping he would follow, but I held his hand, preventing him from leaving.
"I'm going to borrow Lancer for a few hours; you can go on your own, nothing will happen to you." Shinji just stared for a few more seconds, as if with each passing second something inside him died, before turning and leaving.
The moment we were alone together, Lancer looked at me.
"So, what do you want with me?" she asked.
I simply leaned in and gave her a passionate kiss.
"I want to make it up to you for everything you went through; I still remember how naughty you are, and your battle must have left you exhausted. We can transfer mana in the most efficient way possible," I told her.
She simply smiled at me, leaned close to my ear, and whispered,
"I wouldn't expect anything less from you. What would your wife say about that, being out all night with your lover?" she tried to provoke me.
"She knows. If you want, I can call her so we can have a threesome," I suggested, but she just kissed me back.
"I won't allow it, since you only have to make it up to me for everything I had to go through after you left," she said.
"And so it shall be," I finished, and we went to a secluded place where no one would bother us.
...
*The next day*
I headed through the more rural part of Fuyuki. It was quite early, with some people just getting up to do their morning chores or, like me, who hadn't slept all night, still being awake.
I arrived at a Japanese-style house and, without wasting any time, rang the doorbell.
(Note: I don't remember if they had a doorbell, and to be honest, I'm too lazy to check, so let's assume they did.)
After waiting a while, a sleepy Shirou opened the door, wiping his eyes with his hands.
The moment he saw me, he tensed up; I saw him about to activate his magic circuits, ready to defend himself.
I simply raised my hands in surrender.
"Wait, wait a minute. I didn't come here to fight but to talk; that's what we said yesterday, right?"
He didn't seem very confident, but then someone appeared behind them, standing in the doorway.
"Emiya, let him in. I don't think he's here to fight. Being from the Mage's Association, he wouldn't fight with so many civilians around, especially not in broad daylight. Let's see what he has to say." With that, he turned to go inside.
"Temperament," I commented, smiling nervously. "I wonder how I knew I was from the Mage's Association."
Shirou just sighed and let me in.
-------------------------------------------------
Well, folks, my computer fell yesterday, and I spent almost the entire day trying to figure out how to fix it. Luckily, the screen, keyboard, and overall functionality are fine, but that doesn't change the fact that it's broken, so I've been very careful using it to avoid breaking it further.
But I didn't just want to talk about that; first of all, I wanted to mention the comparison of Servants to One Piece characters. If we consider Gol D. Roger a Servant, he would be a top-tier Servant, obviously on par with Karna or Gilgamesh, not only in terms of strength but also because of his fame and legend.
Dante, in terms of strength, had already reached his peak power before leaving that universe; that should be obvious, and not to mention that he has all those powers, some of them gifted, since that's what Devil Fruits are to me, but he has them. So, we can compare what level of power the protagonist would be at, but making an estimate, he would be among the Machine Gods without much trouble, obviously excluding Zeus, who is the strongest.
Now, the second point: as you noticed, I killed Archer off-screen, and there's a reason for that. First, these are characters whose personalities are already established and everyone knows them, so I can skip a lot of things and get straight to the point. I do skip things like certain fights, but not because they're unimportant, but because they don't lead anywhere or end in a draw. In that sense, I prefer to move forward with other things rather than waste time on them.
Continuing on, Dante is doing his own thing, but since I have to create drama and not aim for perfection, I'm not going to let things go well for the protagonist, and Archer's disappearance is the beginning of this. That said, I'll make up for Archer's early departure.
With all that said, see you later; I hope you enjoyed the chapter.