Sitting on his knees at the table, he looked at the food they had offered me.
"If I had known someone so handsome was coming, I would have dressed up more," said the person I recognized as Taiga Fujimaru, holding her cheeks in embarrassment. "Shirou, you should have told me, how could you be so inconsiderate?" This change in personality threw him off.
Now I understand why she's still single.
"I didn't know I was coming," Shirou defended himself, leaving the kitchen with two plates of food.
"You didn't say it was someone you met not long ago and even invited; how dare you lie so blatantly to your older sister?" she said apologetically; that was the excuse she'd made up for my arrival. At that moment, her watch rang. "Ah, I'm running late," she said, devouring her breakfast at superhuman speed, then leaping out of the residence in less than five seconds.
I stared at the scene, speechless.
I glanced around the table to see someone eating something at a speed an untrained eye couldn't perceive, all the while giving me a death stare. Not far away, Rin was eating with her eyes closed, looking dignified, as if seeing her almost break down in tears yesterday hadn't even happened.
At that moment, Shirou handed me a plate of food.
"Thank you, you didn't have to give me breakfast too," I said.
"You're a guest; I have to treat you as such," I said, as if I were almost resigned to it.
"I don't think Mr. Dante is a bad person," another voice said; it was Lancer's true master, Sakura.
"And why would that be?" I asked curiously.
"Because Lancer told me to," she replied nonchalantly.
That threw me off a bit; I glanced around to see if anyone was surprised.
"Yesterday, when we found out that you and Shinji had intervened, we asked Sakura, who ended up confessing what happened," Rin explained.
"I see," I said simply, not expecting this turn of events.
"Well, I imagine you're here for something. I think you can start telling me now," she said, looking me straight in the eyes.
"Heh, for some reason you remind me of my mother when she was angry," I said, smiling at her.
"Your mother?" she asked, surprised.
"My mother, Persephone," I confessed, startling Rin and, who knows, what else.
"PERSEPHONE??" she exclaimed in surprise.
I looked at Sakura, confused.
"I thought you had told her," I said.
"I didn't think it was my place to say it; I just said Lancer knew you," he replied, smiling.
At that explanation, I nodded.
"What's going on?" Shirou asked, demonstrating his complete lack of knowledge of mythology.
"Let me introduce myself properly; my name is Dante Manmayer, son of Hades, descendant of the primordial being of chaos, king of Anakosmos, the inevitable death of the Greek pantheon," I said, using the recognized titles I hold in this world.
Shirou snapped his fingers.
"Ah, you're the womanizer who was comparable to Zeus," he said with a nod.
I expected nothing less from someone who possesses the protagonist's skill in an EX-rank eroge; she doesn't remember my most famous titles, but she does remember that one. I earned that title after being abused by Hera, a historical event and one of the greatest in Greek mythology.
Within that same mythology, since it was written by others, it felt strange that I was abused, so it was distorted into a mutual agreement influenced by aphrodisiacs and drugs.
"Wait a minute," Rin exclaimed, slamming her fist on the table and standing up, ignoring the womanizer comment. "How is it possible that you're here? You should be dead."
"Saber should be dead too," I remarked, leaving her speechless.
"I see, that means you're a Servant too," Saber concluded, finishing off almost everything on the table.
"Close enough, I was once a Servant; more specifically, I was summoned during the Second Holy Grail War." That explanation astonished everyone: "I participated, I fought alongside my master, and I ended up winning, obtaining my resurrection, so a person isn't a body made of mana but of blood, flesh, and bone."
"I see," Rin said, unsteadily, sitting back down.
"Yes, but I didn't come here to talk about that, but rather to renounce the Holy Grail," she exclaimed to everyone in the room.
"I refuse." Saber stood up, staring at me. "Just because of who you are, you think I'm going to stop searching for the Holy Grail? Because of my knightly pride, I have—"
"The Holy Grail is corrupted," she interrupted sharply, leaving her speechless.
The room fell silent.
"What do you mean?" Rin asked, somewhat agitated.
...
After my explanation, everything fell silent.
I saw everyone's expressions; Saber was clearly the most conflicted.
I glanced at Sakura, who was similarly thoughtful, but not too much so, really, since the Holy Grail War didn't hold much interest for her.
"I spoke with Shinji about the same thing," I said, drawing her attention. "I told him to also suggest an alternative to Souken so they could both finally be free."
That caught Sakura's attention. That must include Shinji. That guy might be one of the biggest pieces of trash in the world, but he's still a minor, so he's just a kid. If he's of age and continues acting like this after all that trauma, then I'll definitely cripple him for life, since death is a very merciful thing.
With that said, I stood up to leave, but after a few steps, I looked around and saw the place was still silent, everyone lost in their own thoughts.
"Yesterday, Rider fought Berserker and took away 7 of his 12 lives; I think it's a good opportunity to defeat him if you want to continue this." I didn't mind giving Rider credit for Berserker's last death. "Finally, let me say that was the best breakfast I've ever had; with that, I'll take my leave."
And so I left the residence, since I had given him a lot of information. Information that could change everyone's mindset in the war.
...
I stood beside Caster, looking at the barrier the temple had erected for emergencies.
"Do you really think they'll do anything?" she asked, a little uncertain.
"Honestly, no, but I'd rather do this than risk everything, especially your life," I said sincerely. "With everything we've done, it would be terrible if you died, especially since we're family and you're still supposed to marry Souchirou."
Caster instinctively pressed her lips together, then gave me a smile.
"I think you're right," she commented. "Speaking of which, when I get married, I'd like to ask you to walk me down the aisle."
Upon hearing those words, I stopped dead in my tracks to look at her.
I never expected to hear those words, especially since I never wanted any of my daughters to get married; I was very overprotective about that.
"It would be a great honor," I finished, checking that all the runes and seals were ready.
At that moment, Caster approached a crystal ball that displayed the forest where the Einsbern mansion was located.
"I see the show's already starting," she declared, looking into the crystal ball.
I went over to look as well, to see Saber, Shirou, and Rin walking through the forest.
"Hmm, so they took the bait," I commented upon seeing that.
"Are you going there?" Caster asked me.
"Yes, mainly to prevent that golden one from interfering or getting away with it, and if possible, to kill him right there," I replied, to which she nodded.
While Saber and Berserker fought, we waited for Gilgamesh to appear; basically, the confrontation between those two was bait.
In case you're wondering, I left Rider at home guarding the place. That decision was mainly because, however strong she was, she couldn't easily defeat Gilgamesh; There were only two people capable of that, and one of them still had no idea how their magic worked, so eliminating them falls entirely on me.
The idea is to eliminate Gilgamesh from this war now and for good; he's a very unstable variable, and knowing he's already on the move, it's best to get rid of him before he complicates things further.
Seeing that things had already started there, I stretched and prepared to leave, but not before giving Caster some instructions.
"Also, in case of emergency, cast a spell in the air that I can see from afar; that way I can run to the temple to rescue you and Souchirou," I told him.
"Understood. well, good luck, grandpa," he emphasized the last word.
I didn't quite know how to react to this, so I just gave him a hasty gesture and quickly left for the forest where the fight was already taking place.
...
The fight is unfolding exactly as I expected.
Saber, her sword drawn and gleaming golden, tried to slice Berserker in half, but he managed to leap back, receiving only a superficial cut to his chest, creating a good distance.
Positioning himself to receive the next attack, Berserker moved to intercept the blow.
I glanced to the other side, a little further away, watching Illya fight Rin, with Shirou supporting her as best he could.
Illya's sorcery is very powerful, and knowing that Rin's gems are dwindling with each spell she casts is worrying, but luckily Shirou is distracting one of the familiars, lessening Rin's burden.
Returning to the other fight, I saw Saber launch herself at full speed toward Berserker. He attempted to strike with a direct cut, only for Saber to move her body and deflect it, positioning her sword and, with one cut, slicing Berserker in half, taking away his second life of the day.
Yesterday, Berserker lost 7 lives, and now, fighting, he's lost 2 more, so he should only have about 3 lives left, not counting the third secret life he has hidden, making a total of 4. And that doesn't even include the fact that he could have given back one or two lives in a single day, so he has a maximum of 6 possible lives remaining.
But Berserker's life wasn't what really worried me; it was something else.
I used my Haki to try and sense if something was approaching, but I didn't sense anything.
"..." I couldn't help but feel that something was wrong.
Anyway, if it doesn't come, nothing will happen; I'm just seeing if they can defeat Berserker as they are.
Out of nowhere, I felt a mana explosion in the distance that heightened my senses to the maximum, enough to momentarily interrupt both fights.
I turned around only to see an explosion erupt above the Ryuudou Temple, which chilled me to the bone.
Thinking of nothing but getting there, I used all my strength and magical circuits to get there as fast as possible.
...
Third-person POV.
*A few moments earlier*
Sakura was walking towards the Matou residence. Shirou, Saber, and Rin had decided to confront Berserker, taking advantage of his supposed weakened state; however, they would first have to verify if that was true, as they wouldn't blindly trust Dante's words.
"Lancer," she called out, only for Lancer to materialize not far away.
"What's wrong, Sakura?" she asked, slowly approaching her.
"Is what Dante said about the Grail and his proposal to Grandfather true?" she asked in return.
Lancer paused for a few seconds, thinking.
"I'm not sure about the Grail, but the proposal is true; Dante, surely, in the years he lived among the gods, could have obtained a form of eternal life or youth," Lancer explained.
"Regarding the Grail, do you believe him?" I asked seriously.
"Without a doubt, if he says the Grail is corrupted, then it must be," Lancer concluded gravely.
At this response, Sakura smiled at him.
"If you believe him, then I believe him too," she replied, to which Lancer smiled back.
"What a lovely conversation," a voice said not far away.
They both looked toward the voice and saw a man dressed in black and white with blond hair and red eyes.
"You," Sakura said, a little afraid, only for Lancer to step in front of her to protect her.
"Hmm, you think you have the power to stop me? Not in thousands of years, monster. But luckily, I'm not interested in you or the experiment you're trying so hard to protect," he said brusquely with a mocking smile.
Gilgamesh continued walking slowly until he was beside the two of them.
"If I were you, I'd hurry, since the situation at that filthy place you call home is in trouble, heh," Gilgamesh said, and left.
"Sakura," Lancer said worriedly, looking at her.
"I'm fine," I replied, finally able to breathe after holding her for so long. "Something's happening to Nisan and Grandpa; we have to go."
Lancer didn't seem very sure about this, but Sakura was determined to go, so she followed her, mostly to protect her.
When they arrived, everything was silent.
Sakura walked slowly around the place until she saw Shinji, sitting against the wall covered in blood.
"Nisan," she said, going to help him.
(Note: In that world, Shinji has done bad things to Sakura, but not on the level of Heaven's Feel at the moment, and as shown at the end of the UBW route, she continued to worry about him, despite his attitude and personality.)
"SAKURA, WAIT!!" Lancer shouted; he tried to stop her, but it was too late.
Someone lurking in the shadows grabbed Sakura, restraining her and pointing a black key at her neck.
"Ah, the misfortune of the vanished; may God have mercy on our souls, we sinners," this being said, causing the moon to shine a little brighter, revealing that this was Kotomine Kirei.
"DAMN YOU!" Lancer roared, drawing Harpe only to stop when he saw the black key about to sever Sakura's throat.
"Not so fast; we don't have much time, so let's make this quick," Kirei declared with a smile.
...
*Present Day*
Dante arrived at the temple entrance only to find the stairs destroyed, with no sign of Assassin. Upon reaching the temple itself, he found it completely destroyed, with a single person standing before him.
The moment Dante saw him, his eyes filled with blood, and he instinctively unleashed Conqueror's Haki, which enveloped almost all of Fuyuki.
"Ha ha ha, that's more like it. I didn't expect this little skirmish to upset you so much," Gilgamesh mocked, seemingly unaffected by the Haki.
Before Dante could launch an attack, Gilgamesh had already activated his Gate of Babylon and unleashed multiple high-level Heroic Treasures.
Dante swiftly dodged the first weapon, grabbed it, and parried Gilgamesh's subsequent attacks until he stopped firing.
"Hmm, you're acting like that rabid dog I once knew," he said humorlessly this time.
"Where's Caster?" Dante demanded angrily.
"That two-bit sorceress?" Gilgamesh asked, not letting Dante answer. "I killed her. It was easy enough, even though I was on her own turf."
That response enraged Dante even more. Ready to lunge and try to kill Gilgamesh, he stopped dead in his tracks upon hearing Gilgamesh's next words.
"You want to play with me? I have no problem with that, but if you do, you won't have time to save your lover and her mistress from that dubious priest," he remarked simply, with a mocking smile.
That stopped Dante in his tracks. He spent a second processing what Gilgamesh had said before turning on his heel and running away at supersonic speed.
"Hmm, I think my Vimana is faster than his," he mused to himself before dematerializing and leaving the scene of the corpses.
...
The moment Dante arrived at the Matou residence, he sensed only a faint trace of life within the mansion.
Ignoring the barrier, he entered only to find Sakura badly wounded, her chest ripped open, bleeding profusely, and struggling to breathe.
Dante instinctively searched for Lancer, but he couldn't sense him anywhere. However, as much as he worried, Lancer had a young man dying at his feet, and he couldn't leave him there without trying to save him.
Using a spell that slowed the bleeding and stabilized Sakura's body a little more, he scooped her up in his arms and ran away, leaving the mansion deserted and lifeless.
...
In Dante's lair, he was there, and Kiss-shot tried to save his life.
Kiss-shot was slowly closing his wounds with his vampiric powers, which allowed him to manipulate his body at will to create surgical needles, while Dante was giving him his blood, which he had obtained through regenerative properties when he merged his soul with Kiss-shot.
(Note: An ability I never mentioned, but it makes sense to me. If it doesn't to you, think of a reason why it should, and when you find it, that will be the reason. Besides, I've never had to use it in practice.)
Rider was watching all of this, sending a bodyguard; it was unclear whether he was doing so intentionally or not.
After a few more moments, Sakura seemed to react, coughing up blood—both the blood she had ingested from Dante and the blood in her lungs.
"Lancer, Shinji, Abueli, I..." she tried desperately to speak.
"Calm down, take a deep breath and calm yourself," Dante began, speaking to Sakura.
"It's you," Sakura said upon seeing Dante, bursting into tears. "I'm sorry, it's my fault, it's my fault. Lancer committed suicide to prevent that man from killing me, only for him to do it anyway; it's my fault."
Dante simply listened calmly, looking into her eyes.
"It's alright, it wasn't your fault, it was just a twist of fate; just rest today, we'll talk about this properly tomorrow," Dante said, casting a spell that forced Sakura to fall asleep.
Dante pondered what he had said, not about Lancer's death, but about why he had attacked her anyway.
He knew Sakura had fragments of the Holy Grail within her body, but upon examining her, he couldn't detect them anywhere.
Kirei had stolen the Holy Grail fragments from her, which is why she forced Lance to commit suicide, since she would have prevented any harm from being done to Sakura.
Not only had she taken the fragments, but by doing so in such a forced manner, she damaged Sakura's magical circuits, rendering her incapable of performing magic and, consequently, of being a mage.
Faced with this, Dante could only think one thing: "Things have spiraled out of control."
...
Dante was outside the Emiya residence, waiting for the three of them to return from their battle against Berserker.
He had been there for quite some time, just listening; he walked past them.
His unease grew when he saw Rin alone, carrying a badly wounded Shirou on his shoulders, and no one seemed to know what was going on.
The two stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Dante, unsure what to do.
Dante noticed that Shirou wasn't wearing any Command Seals, so he could only fear the worst.
"I didn't come here to fight but to talk, and I feel it would be better to do it inside than out here," Dante said, gesturing for the two of them to go inside first.
They both hesitated, but after a few seconds, they started walking toward the residence, followed by Dante.
...
"I see, so Saber was kidnapped," he summarized, recounting the outcome of the battle that had taken place in the forest.
Shortly after Gilgamesh left the temple, he went straight to the forest to confront Saber and Berserker.
He killed Berserker along with Illya, then took Saber as his "wife," taking advantage of her being both badly wounded and exhausted, and kidnapped her.
Shirou had used one Command Seal against Lancer and two against Berserker, so he couldn't attempt to rescue her with one of them.
"How is Sakura?" Shirou asked, worried about her.
"Stable, she'll live, but her days as a mage are over; I don't know if that's good or bad," Dante replied.
Hearing that, Shirou was able to relax a little more, but Rin only felt more overwhelmed, clenching her fists in her skirt.
"So, there's nothing left to do?" Shirou questioned, his tone annoyed.
"No, there's still a chance, but I can't do it alone with Rider, so I'll need your help," Dante declared, pointing at Shirou.
"My help?" Shirou questioned incredulously. "But I can't do anything."
"Not right now, but he has great potential and powerful sorcery capable of taking on almost anyone," Dante stated.
"Wait a second," Rin interrupted. "As you know, and if it were true, it would take at least several months to do anything useful with this airhead."
"I'm right here with you; there's no need to insult me like that," Shirou retorted wearily.
"Don't worry, I have the perfect people to help us get that airhead to his best in the shortest time possible," Dante explained, smiling victoriously.