Holy Church
Inside the Holy Church, Waver Velvet and Iskandar, having waited for a long time, finally looked impatiently at the priest.
"Say, wasn't it agreed that apart from Caster and his Master, all other Masters and Servants would gather here?"
"Where are they now?"
"Please forgive me, Mr. Waver."
Having received notifications from the others, Risei Kotomine spoke helplessly to Waver.
"Their familiars have arrived. They themselves stated... Caster has already targeted them, so it is inconvenient for them to come to the Holy Church."
"Hah? Targeted? We came here risking being targeted too!"
"No, the 'targeted' they speak of isn't in that sense. Mainly... Caster has recently found the 'obstacles' they used to confuse other Masters. Now, if they move carelessly, it is extremely likely Caster will discover them and launch a snipe."
"Whereas you, Mr. Waver, being an outsider and not having made such preparations, are paradoxically harder to track down."
Hearing Risei's words, Waver felt something was even more amiss.
Wait, listening to this, it sounds like both of them are scared.
Hold on, both???
"Ho, listening to this priest brother, does that mean aside from us and Caster, there are only two pairs of Servants and Masters left?"
"That is correct. Just yesterday, our Spirit Board received information—Berserker is out."
"Now, the winner of the Holy Grail War will be born among the four Servants: Rider, Saber, Assassin, and Caster. But now, as the overseer, I must temporarily amend the rules of the Holy Grail War."
"During his assault on Berserker, Caster disrupted Fuyuki's social order for reconnaissance. As the overseer, I judge that he has 'violated the rules.' Therefore, I announce a temporary change to the Holy Grail War rules."
"All Masters and Servants are requested to unite against Caster. The Master and Servant who defeat Caster will receive a special reward—one Command Spell."
After saying these words, a look of exhaustion appeared on Risei's face.
"I ask the three of you to speed up your progress. If Caster is allowed to continue like this, I cannot say what Fuyuki City will become..."
Risei worrying about Caster demolishing Fuyuki—this was naturally an excuse he made up.
As the overseer, he knew very well that the Master in action hadn't "violated the rules."
When Aaron acted, aside from activating [War Fog] and using [Demon Armor: Incursio] for invisibility, he at most rode a motorcycle in sparsely populated areas. The so-called "disrupting social order" was just the engine noise scaring some elderly people and children nearby.
But now...
—He planned to cheat anyway. In this situation, finding an excuse to make everyone work together against Caster and his Master was the way to go.
After all, for the remaining three Servants: Tokiomi was the one he supported and wouldn't refute him; Kiritsugu, as the Magus Killer, wasn't someone who cared about fairness; and although Waver was a hothead, Alexander the Great beside him was a strategist.
Allying with other strong individuals to eliminate the strongest party first was a very common strategy. Choosing this strategy upon realizing one's own strength might not be enough to defeat them probably wasn't embarrassing for Alexander the Great.
As for why Assassin wasn't dead and Kirei was squatting here under protection, all the Masters chose to ignore it.
The Holy Grail War was still under the jurisdiction of the Holy Church. Provoking the overseer at a time like this—hey, look at Caster; that's what happens when you provoke the overseer.
However, the Masters other than Tokiomi could only roughly guess the reason for targeting Caster and his Master.
The falling out between Kirei and Tokiomi must be fake. Now that Kirei had given up his rights as a Master, it went without saying who his Command Spells and Servant belonged to.
Theoretically, with Risei helping to cheat, the situation was already quite disadvantageous for Waver and Iskandar.
But after a little thought, the two felt they still had to destroy that man first.
Of the four remaining Servants, the most dangerous was the Master who had already killed three Servants.
Even if Risei and Tokiomi were cheating together, this situation of "a Servant broke the rules so I'm changing the rules to let you guys deal with him first" appearing once was about enough.
If it happened more, Risei would have a hard time explaining it to his superiors.
And even if Tokiomi had help cheating, the Holy Grail War depended heavily on Servant strength aside from combat strategy.
Waver, having witnessed Iskandar's strongest Noble Phantasm, had full confidence in his Servant.
"Hey, Master of Assassin and Master of Saber—you are peeping at us with familiars, right?"
Walking on the road, Iskandar suddenly stopped and spoke to the empty street.
"Since we all view Caster and that Master as the greatest threat, joining forces temporarily shouldn't be a bad thing."
"If you intend to do so, please come meet us with your sincerity."
"As for the address, let's choose the largest shopping mall in the new district."
....................
Fuyuki - Einzbern Forest
Having relayed the news from the familiar to Artoria, Kiritsugu stopped speaking, waiting for Artoria to express her opinion.
Since returning to the Einzbern Forest after the first battle, Kiritsugu had completely put aside his prejudice and engaged in multiple discussions with Artoria.
Then he discovered that although her tactical thinking differed from his, combining their views sometimes created a complementary effect.
This was precisely why he decided to listen to his Servant's opinion first.
"Hmm, the overseer went this far this time..."
Relying on Artoria's slightly furrowed brow, Kiritsugu spoke.
"What, feel it's unfair?"
"Kiritsugu, although as a knight I crave fair combat, right now, I am your Servant. Without violating basic principles, I will naturally act with priority on victory."
"Although the Holy Church's cheat-like behavior disgusts me a bit, as a result, the Church has pushed our plan forward."
Their plan was actually simple: join forces with other Servants to kill that Master first.
After all, except for Berserker and Caster, the three surviving Servants—Rider, Saber, Assassin—had all exposed their true names.
Now that Berserker was dead, of the remaining four Servants, only Caster hadn't exposed any intelligence.
A Servant who revealed no intelligence was, in a sense, the hardest to deal with.
True, Assassin with Presence Concealment and Saber/Rider with strong Magic Resistance had a huge advantage against Caster, who relied primarily on magecraft. But the problem was...
—Caster's Master possessed ridiculously absurd combat power.
If it really came to a one-on-one fight, Caster's Master wouldn't even need to solo the Servant; he just needed to stall the opposing Servant while letting Caster hunt down the enemy Master.
Not every magus was as capable of fighting as Caster's Master. Of the remaining three Masters... honestly, Kiritsugu felt that even if the three of them were tied together, they probably wouldn't be a match for Caster's Master.
So the tactic was simple—don't hold back. Sign a contract forbidding mutual aggression, then attack together.
Only by the three teams joining forces could they guarantee...
—That they wouldn't be insta-killed by the other side upon encountering Caster's team.
"No matter how biased the Holy Church intends to be, the next battle will basically be the decisive one."
Lighting a cigarette, Kiritsugu took a deep drag and exhaled a smoke ring.
"As long as we eliminate the enemy in that battle, even if the Church is biased, they won't be able to stop us from seizing the Holy Grail in the end."
"Yes. But Kiritsugu, I hope you prepare for the worst."
After a moment of thought, Artoria estimated her mana and spoke to Kiritsugu.
"Relying on my mana recovery ability and the mana flowing from you, I can use my Noble Phantasm one more time at most. After releasing the Holy Sword next time, aside from being unable to release it again, I won't even be able to maintain normal combat for long. Although you can use Command Spells to assist me, I really can't guarantee how long that assistance will last."
"So, regarding the timing of releasing the Holy Sword, I hope you can help me judge—after all, in the midst of battle, I cannot grasp the overall situation."
"Ah, I will. Also, releasing the Holy Sword is the 'last resort.' Saber, don't forget that although we know Rider's true name, we don't know his hidden second Noble Phantasm."
On the previous battlefield, Rider had used an ability akin to "spatial transfer." Kiritsugu and Artoria hadn't forgotten this.
The Rider class had no restrictions on carrying Noble Phantasms and usually excelled at overwhelming opponents with powerful and abundant Noble Phantasms. Since Alexander the Great had no legends related to spatial movement, it could only be judged that apart from the chariot used then, he had another hidden Noble Phantasm.
Artoria and Kiritsugu naturally had a hidden Noble Phantasm too, but both tacitly chose to keep the scabbard inside Irisviel, never mentioning it.
If Rider's second Noble Phantasm could achieve instantaneous "spatial movement," then that Noble Phantasm possessed terrifying capabilities.
As long as a Servant could approach the Master in a short time, that Servant had the ability to easily hunt other Masters—of course, that weird Master who punched Lancers and stomped Archers didn't count among these Masters.
Moreover, Rider was a Servant with a riding Noble Phantasm. In terms of mobility, even if a Master prepared to flee immediately, they might be run over by Rider's ox cart.
In this situation, even though they knew guarding against the Rider group might prevent the alliance from exerting sufficient strength, potentially causing them to wipe out simultaneously at that man's hands, they still couldn't let down their guard.
Ultimately, the three groups only had a common enemy. After defeating Caster's group, they would inevitably have to kill each other.
Because of this, it was inevitable that the three groups couldn't abandon their wariness.
And not just Rider; Assassin, who chose to fake death from the start, was also an object they had to guard against.
The Assassin Servant was usually weak, but for Masters, they still possessed overwhelming power.
Even if Tokiomi agreed to this alliance, the other two parties would inevitably guard against Tokiomi sending Assassin to secretly assassinate isolated Masters.
As for the contract...
Waver Velvet was a magus rookie; Kiritsugu didn't worry about him finding a loophole to attack.
But Tokiomi Tohsaka... heh, Tokiomi had the capability to make Assassin fake death. Even if he signed the contract, Kiritsugu definitely wouldn't dare to fully trust it.
"Hah, truly helpless."
"Yes, but there is no other way."
Understanding Kiritsugu's headache completely, Artoria said helplessly.
"To seize the Holy Grail, our three parties can only join forces."
"Even knowing the other two parties harbor ill intentions, to win victory... in the end, we only have this one path to choose."
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