A few minutes earlier...
"Silver and iron to the origin."
Kairi Sisigou raised his arm, his hand extended toward the makeshift stone altar he had erected in the center of the overgrown graveyard.
The catalyst for the ritual, a splinter of a round table, rested upon it. Between the altar and his boots, an intricate, jagged summoning circle had been carved into the dirt.
"Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone," he chanted, his voice low and steady. This was a process he had memorized, a ritual that demanded absolute precision. "The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg."
"The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that controls the kingdom circulating."
"Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut."
"Repeat every five times."
"Simply, shatter once filled."
The lines of the magic circle began to glow with a fierce, crimson light. Mana surged from his circuits, pouring into the array. At the same moment, a burning sensation flared on the back of his right hand. The Command Spells, the absolute proof of his status as a Master, were manifesting.
Kairi Sisigou had no idea that he was already being watched. He continued the incantation.
"I announce."
The wind in the graveyard began to whip and howl, swirling around the glowing circle.
"Your body is under my command, my fate is bound to your sword."
The splinter on the altar began to vibrate, resonating with the immense magical energy flooding the circle. The light grew blinding.
"Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail. If you will submit to this will and this reason... then answer!"
The scent of ozone was overpowering. The ritual was reaching its climax.
"An oath shall be sworn here!"
"I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven."
"I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell."
"From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power..."
"Come forth from the ring of deterrence, Protector of the Holy Balance!"
A massive pillar of crimson light erupted from the magic circle, piercing the night sky. For a split second, the sheer pressure of the mana threatened to push Kairi backward.
Then, the roaring wind and the blinding light abruptly contracted, snapping back into the center of the circle.
As the smoke cleared, a figure stood amidst the graves.
A knight, clad in heavy, articulated silver armor accented with deep red, holding a massive broadsword.
Kairi blinked, momentarily at a loss. The knight wore a full-face helm adorned with prominent, horn-like protrusions, completely obscuring their features. The catalyst had been a piece of the Round Table, but that narrowed it down to roughly a dozen legendary heroes.
"Are you...?" Kairi began.
Before he could finish the question, the knight reached up. The helmet didn't simply lift off; it folded in on itself, the metal plates shifting and retracting mechanically into the armor's collar with a sharp clack.
Kairi stared.
Standing before him was a young woman with fierce green eyes and blonde hair tied up in a messy, lion-like mane.
"My name is Mordred," the red knight announced, her voice ringing with absolute pride and defiance. "The one and only rightful heir to Arthur Pendragon, the King of Knights."
She looked at Kairi, a cocky smirk spreading across her face.
"I ask of you. Are you my Master?"
"..."
They stared at each other in silence. Then, with a flash of light, the heavy, imposing armor vanished, leaving Mordred in casual, surprisingly modern clothing, a crimson leather jacket, a tube top, and denim shorts.
The intimidating Knight of Treachery suddenly looked very small.
Kairi cleared his throat, recovering his composure. "I am Kairi Sisigou. I'm your Master. It's a plea…"
Before he could finish his introduction, Mordred's casual demeanor vanished.
With a blinding flash, her silver-and-red armor instantly reappeared, encasing her body. She stepped sharply in front of Kairi, placing herself between him and the dense tree line of the graveyard.
She gripped her greatsword with both hands, her green eyes narrowed into deadly slits.
Seeing his Servant's sudden shift, Kairi immediately tensed, bringing his sawed-off shotgun to bear.
"Hey, Saber," he muttered, dropping the formalities. "What's wrong?"
He followed her gaze toward the trees.
Crunch.
A dry branch snapped. In the stillness of the graveyard, the sound was as loud as a gunshot.
A figure was emerging from the shadows of the forest, walking toward them at a slow, measured pace. It moved like a ghost, without disturbing the undergrowth.
"I can tell you for a fact," Kairi said, his finger resting on the trigger, "before I started the summoning, there wasn't a single living soul within a mile of here."
Mordred snorted, a feral grin touching her lips beneath her helm. "So, whoever that is, they're an enemy?"
"You could say that," Kairi agreed. In a Holy Grail War, there were no bystanders. If someone was approaching a summoning site, they were either another Master or a hostile magus.
"Heh."
Mordred's grin widened.
"Perfect timing, then. I'll use them to show you exactly what I can do."
Before Kairi could say another word, the ground beneath Mordred's boots exploded.
She vanished. The sheer kinetic force of her acceleration shattered the gravestones around them and sent a shockwave of dirt and debris washing over Kairi, forcing him to shield his face.
Damn it, Kairi thought, coughing out dust. He already understood exactly what kind of Servant he had summoned. A belligerent, battle-crazed berserker in the Saber class.
BOOM!!!
A deafening crash echoed from the tree line.
"Looks like this partnership is going to be a headache," Kairi grumbled, racking his shotgun and sprinting toward the sound of the collision.
….
The Forest:-
A red blur and a violet-blue blur tore through the ancient trees, moving at speeds the human eye could not track.
Suddenly, the red figure erupted in a maelstrom of crimson lightning. It changed trajectory mid-air, hurtling directly toward the other figure like a ballistic missile.
BOOM!!!
The impact shattered the earth. A shockwave ripped through the forest, uprooting centuries-old trees and sending a massive cloud of dust and debris high into the night sky.
Screeech...
As the dust settled, the grinding, teeth-setting sound of metal scraping against metal filled the air.
Mordred, the Knight of Treachery, was pressing her full weight into her massive broadsword, Clarent.
And I, Stell, was standing perfectly still.
My golden optical sensors glowed faintly in the dark. A few inches from my face, Mordred's legendary blade was stopped dead against a translucent, golden, semi-spherical barrier.
[Initiating Analysis Sequence.]
"Tch!"
Seeing her confident, full-powered strike blocked so effortlessly, Mordred didn't hesitate or panic. A true warrior knows that one blocked strike just means you have to swing harder.
She unleashed a torrential, berserker assault.
She swung Clarent in a flurry of overhead chops, horizontal cleaves, and brutal thrusts, each strike aimed to kill.
Her fighting style was raw, chaotic, and entirely offensive, a perfect reflection of her personality.
And it was exactly what I wanted.
I had no intention of standing here and playing the role of a training dummy. If I simply absorbed her attacks without reacting, she might realize my true objective and disengage. To properly analyze her capabilities, I needed to stimulate a prolonged combat scenario.
I waited for the infinitesimal gap in her relentless assault.
"Endo Armament: Activate"
"Pseudo-Endo: Earth Control"
Rumble!!
The ground beneath Mordred's feet suddenly collapsed into a sinkhole.
Her posture broke. Her momentum carried her forward, but her footing was gone.
Yet, her combat instincts were exceptional. In the split second before the earth gave way completely, she kicked off a falling piece of rubble, launching herself upward.
In the same motion, she twisted her body mid-air, lashing out with a devastating, armor-clad kick aimed directly at my head.
Before her boot could connect, a massive hand formed of compacted earth erupted from the ground between us.
Smash.
Mordred's kick landed squarely in the palm of the earthen hand.
Immediately, the hand clenched into a fist, grabbing her entire leg. Using her own momentum, the earthen construct hurled her back toward the ground.
Simultaneously, the earth where she was about to land fractured. Dozens of razor-sharp stone spikes shot upward, a deadly bed of nails waiting to impale her.
"Tch!"
….
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