In the midst of the chaos, Berserker relentlessly attacked Saber, who was already badly injured. Meanwhile, Caster was busy dealing with the three blue dragons created by Allen's magic.
"Hahahaha! This is absolutely thrilling!" Iskandar shouted, summoning lightning to halt the dragons' movements.
"Caster, do something! If this fire spreads, the whole city will burn down!" Waver yelled in a panic.
Saber repeatedly dodged Berserker's strikes, but her opponent's movements were fast and agile. Her strength was nearly depleted, especially with her body already covered in wounds from her earlier battles with Lancer and Rider.
Boom! Saber's body was hurled toward a crane, leaving her unable to move. Berserker then cut down a streetlight pole and wielded it as a weapon to finish her off.
But—Clang!—the strike that should have been the end for Saber was deflected by a crimson spear that appeared at the last second.
"Tsk… what a nuisance," muttered the spear's owner.
Saber looked up in surprise, realizing she had just been saved by Lancer.
"Lancer… what are you doing?" she asked, confused.
"Hey, you're my opponent. Naturally, I'm the one who gets the right to finish you. How about we work together for now to take down this guy? After that, we can continue our fight," Lancer said with a faint smile.
Saber nodded, accepting the proposal, and readied herself to strike Berserker alongside him.
Rider, watching two heroes join forces against the black-armored knight, burst into hearty laughter.
"Hahaha!"
"Caster, please, focus…" Waver grumbled as he barely dodged a burst of flame that nearly scorched his head.
But in the middle of the chaos, Kayneth's voice rang out.
"What are you doing, Lancer?! Why aren't you attacking Saber? Her arm is useless because of your earlier strike! This is the perfect chance to kill her!"
The voice came from atop a half-ruined building, battered by the destruction of the battle.
Waver Velvet, recognizing the voice of his former professor, instinctively wanted to hide behind Caster.
Lancer, hearing the command, glanced at Saber, noting how the knight was adjusting her stance to fight with only one hand. There was a respect in his eyes he couldn't conceal.
"Answer me, Diarmuid!" Kayneth demanded, while dodging one of the dragons targeting him.
"Tsk… truly troublesome…" Lancer sighed. "Master, she is an honorable knight. She deserves to be fought with her full honor intact. If I finish her now, that's not victory… it's slaughter."
Kayneth grew more enraged at the answer, especially as the flames continued to lash at him relentlessly, fueling his frustration.
"Honor?! This is the Holy Grail War, not some royal tournament! … Damn it, what kind of fire is this?! It won't go out!" He was nearly roasted alive by the flames.
Lancer lowered his head as the sky began to change. Lightning flashed in every direction—a sign that Caster was about to use large-scale magic to put out the fire.
"A knight bound by his oath of honor will never become a mere killing tool! Hahahaha!" Caster shouted, reacting to the Master of Lancer's words.
Caster then flew around the three dragons, trapping them within a cage of lightning and rain. With a stomp of his foot on the chariot, a massive magic circle formed.
A flash of light struck the three trapped dragons, followed by a powerful explosion, fierce winds, and a downpour that extinguished the flames.
"Phew… that was quite a complex spell to cast. I guess Rider's Master must be incredibly powerful to be able to pull off large-scale magic like this," Caster said with a sigh.
Meanwhile, Waver, standing beside him, had already fainted from the prana drained by Caster's spell.
"Forgive me, boy… I may have overdone it," Caster muttered, half-regretful.
Kayneth, who had been using a protective spell, was nearly out of prana after having to shield himself from the massive explosion, breathing heavily from exhaustion.
"Why are you silent, Lancer?" Kayneth asked his Servant again.
"Master, I swore to kill Saber with my own hands… but allow me to fight Berserker first. Once I've defeated him—"
Before Lancer could finish, Kayneth, his patience already at its limit, cut him off.
"Very well… in that case, I have no choice but to do this."
With a cold expression, Kayneth raised his hand and activated a Command Spell.
"Lancer! By this Command Spell, I order you to kill Saber… end her right now!"
Hearing the order, Saber immediately readied herself, fully aware that she would soon be facing both Berserker and Lancer at once.
Iskandar merely smiled at the sight, but his eyes narrowed with caution. He waited for his Master to recover a bit of prana—he had no intention of accidentally killing him amid the chaos.
Lancer then turned to face Saber, lowering his head.
"I… am sorry, Saber," he said quietly, clenching his teeth. "It seems I have no other choice."
Exhausted and wounded, Saber answered with only a faint smile.
"Do your duty, knight… but don't expect me to surrender so easily."
She slowly stepped back, taking her stance. But then, her eyes were drawn downward—to her feet.
There, she saw her sword's sheath. Her eyes widened.
"Avalon…" she whispered.
In that instant, the memory returned—how, when Rider's Master had attacked Irisviel, Allen had pulled something from within his body. It had been Avalon, the sheath of Excalibur, lost to her since the day she had tried to return to Camelot.
A light rain began to fall, soaking steel, earth, and the scattered debris of the battlefield. Lightning flashed again and again in the darkened sky, marking the beginning of the end for tonight's battle.
Berserker did not utter a single word, only letting out a growl from within his helmet. His body then shot forward toward Saber, slashing from the left. Saber parried with her sword, but her already weakened body caused her to stumble, falling right in front of the crimson spear aimed to end her life.
But everything had already been planned—Saber stretched out her hand toward Avalon and touched it with her finger just before Lancer's spear could pierce her.
"We finally meet again… my sheath," Artoria whispered to Avalon, and her body was enveloped in a brilliantly radiant light.
BOOM!
Lancer, seeing his spear unable to pierce Saber's body, retreated.
"Saber... what a surprise. So you're still hiding something under your shirt, " Lancer said with a smile, as if grateful she did not die so easily—it only made him respect her even more.
At that moment, Saber's body had been restored to its prime condition by Avalon, though the wound on her hand still remained unhealed.
Still, Lancer advanced once more, his body spinning swiftly, his spear slicing through the air. Berserker matched the flow of Lancer's strikes as though reading them, creating a fleeting moment where their attacks nearly crossed, yet still boxed Saber in from two sides.
Even though Saber now had Avalon, that didn't mean she could use it freely—it would burn an immense amount of prana, and her reserves were already nearly depleted. If she used it again, she was certain she would vanish.
But of course, Saber would not surrender in her final moments. She surged forward.
The final clash rang out sharply, when suddenly—
A white bolt of lightning tore across the sky, and a chariot appeared, crashing toward Lancer and Berserker. Lancer managed to dodge, but Berserker was not so fortunate; his body was crushed beneath the chariot's wheels.
Then came the voice of Berserker's Master, Kariya: "Berserker, retreat now."
Berserker's body then vanished into the shadows.
"Master of Lancer, you'd better abandon your intention of killing Saber right now—and stop tarnishing the honor of your knight. Otherwise, you'll be facing me."
It seemed Iskandar, in this version as Caster, carried himself with far more gravity than when he was Rider.
Kayneth could only grit his teeth in frustration before finally ordering Lancer to withdraw.
"I give you my thanks, O King of Conquerors," Lancer said, offering his words of respect before disappearing from the field.
"Saber, I will be leaving as well," Iskandar added, glancing at Waver. If they lingered here too long, his young Master might truly end up dried out like a corpse.
With everyone gone, Saber collapsed onto the ground, longing to rest. Yet her mind was drawn back to Kiritsugu—her Master still clutching Irisviel's still-beating heart in his hand. Guilt weighed heavily upon Saber's chest.
"Master… I…" she began, voice trembling.
"This isn't your fault, Saber," Kiritsugu cut her off, his tone steady but burdened. "It's mine. The plan to use Irisviel was my decision alone."
It seemed Kiritsugu placed the blame entirely upon himself rather than Saber. He tightened his grip around Irisviel's heart, holding it firmly, as if refusing to let go. Slowly, he rose to his feet. He knew that sooner or later, Irisviel's life would come to an end—and he had already prepared himself for that inevitability.
"Let's go back, Saber," he said quietly.
...
Meanwhile, Allen had already returned home with Medusa at his side. He let out a long sigh.
"Haah… what a hassle."
Carefully, he laid Irisviel's body down in the basement and activated a bounded field to protect her.
"Master, I don't understand. Why do you have to pretend to be a villain just to save a woman?" Medusa asked, her tone tinged with confusion.
Allen gave a faint smile, his gaze calm yet calculated.
"The reason is simple. It's just much easier this way. I don't have the time to persuade everyone one by one. You could say I'm lazy… and curious as well. This homunculus body is fascinating. How could she possibly give birth to a child? Of course, that makes her body valuable for study."
After that, Allen began repairing Irisviel's body. He replaced the missing heart with a new one, ensuring her body could function again. Not stopping there, he also added a number of enhancements so that this homunculus body could survive like that of a normal human.
Then, he created a copy of Avalon and implanted it into Irisviel's body.
"Only the final touch remains to bring her back… This is my first time attempting it. Hopefully, it works."
From the corner of the room, Medusa could only watch in awe. She was truly captivated by the intricate magecraft her Master was performing.
Allen then reached into his pocket. From within, a soft golden light spilled forth—a pure, radiant soul. It was Irisviel's soul. Carefully, he placed it into the newly restored heart.
At once, a magic circle formed, resonating with the power of the Third Magic. Irisviel's body glowed brightly, her once-pale face slowly regaining a flush of life.
Finally, she drew her first breath once more—and slowly opened her eyes.
As her eyelids slowly fluttered open, Irisviel's vision immediately caught the figure of a purple-haired woman—Medusa—and a boy who looked no older than eleven standing not far from her.
"Can you hear me?" came the soft voice.
"Yes…" Irisviel answered faintly. She lowered her gaze, inspecting her own body, then hesitantly touched her chest—where there should have been a gaping hole from her missing heart. Instead, her hand only found smooth skin, as if the wound had never existed.
"I… I'm not dead?"
Allen looked at her calmly. "You were dead… but I brought you back."
Irisviel's eyes widened, confusion and fear blending together. "How…?" The question faltered on her lips. Memories of her final moments—how she had died at the hands of Rider's Master—struck her with a shiver, her hand trembling slightly.
"Through the Third Magic, of course," Allen replied lightly, as if such a thing were nothing extraordinary. A faint smile curved his lips before he added, his tone carrying the grace and authority of a European nobleman,
"Oh, I nearly forgot. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Allen Barthomeloi. I am Rider's Master— and a Magician. The wielder of both the First and Third Magic."
Irisviel froze. "A… Magician? And not just one, but two…?"
Shock was plain on her face. A true Magician was nothing like an ordinary mage. They were beings on par with gods, capable of shaking the world itself.
"Why… why would a Magician like you… be interested in the Holy Grail War?" Irisviel finally asked, her voice laced with reverence and fear.
How could she not be afraid? Magicians were entities far beyond human understanding. Just look at Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, the wielder of the Second Magic, who fought Crimson Moon as an equal—and slew him with a single True Magic.
And now, standing before her was Allen—possessor of not one, but two True Magics. More than that, he commanded the First and Third.
The first magic is practically the strongest magic among the five, and coupled with the third magic Allen can be said to have immortality even Gaia and Alaya will have difficulty killing him.
*****
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