I do not claim ownership over any of the characters, locations or terminology appearing in this fanfic except for those of my own creations, everything belongs to their respective owners.

Chapter 9: Golden King vs. Scarlet Devil

Britain is a land of mysteries, a place where magic seems to happen at random and mythical creatures roam the land. Even when the very first Roman expeditions came to this place, they noticed many strange phenomena occurring when they visited one of the vast and dense forests of this land. These weird occurrences seemed to increase in number during the full moon, when the pagans usually did their festivities.

Whenever they went there, their troops started to suffer from mass delusions and insanity. Disappearances during these times were also not uncommon, so the commanding body decided to prohibit any entry in the forest during night, but the Romans didn't know that their tireless expansions that consumed the forestlands had angered its inhabitants.

Whether this was the cause of the increased attacks towards humans is unknown. Tthe only thing that is certain is that the creatures now attacked in broad daylight as well. Terrifying monsters came down from the sky, wielding strange powers that were as varied as their appearances, whenever they descended they took a lot of people with where they were transformed into monsters or so the rumors told. The pagan groups were now also frequently accompanied by similarly strange creatures.

The situation has got so bad that the Augurs had to be employed. They where mages and seers who served the Roman Empire, who once frequently accompanied the mighty armies of Rome, but after the Romans accepted Christianity, they faded into obscurity and started appearing less and less, however they still continued to serve their Empire in secret.

It is unclear how the ancient priests of Rome managed stop the relentless faerie attacks, but after a month of their arrival, all attacks have ceased to be, except those in the forest areas. However the incidents have left a deep scar within the people, who created legends and tales of the scary forest Fae that lived in the forest in order to scare children's and adults alike from entering the forest, so this begs the question…

Step Step

Why would anyone enter them?

He was a young man walking alone in the dense forest, where most people prefer to stay the hell out; his endless quest for power had brought him here.

He wanted to be stronger. Strength makes right in this world, if you do not have strength then you are worthless. These thoughts ran through the mind of the young man.

Because of this, he had trained his body from a young age and practiced sword techniques. He had reached his natural limit through these methods, but that wasn't enough for the boy, he wanted more, power that would make him stand above the common person.

As he wandered, he wasn't sure what brought him here. Was it perhaps the rumors surrounding this forest, or perhaps the forest itself had called him?

Despite the rumors, he had yet to encounter anything significant. Sure it was creepy and there were a lot of strange animals, but none were a match for his might.

"Come!"

He heard a beautiful voice call him deeper inside the forest. It wasn't even a voice, it was closer to humming. The young man went through a few more line of trees and then he saw it.

He wasn't sure what IT was, was this perhaps one of the rumored Fae that roam the woods? It didn't look imposing to him, but it still managed to emit a malevolent aura around itself. It's back was also strange, it looked like it was made of blue crystal and magic. He couldn't compare it to any living thing he had seen before. He also noted that there was some strange circle of light that was surrounding the creature.

"You have heeded my calls and arrived, young mortal."

"Your call? I came here because of my own volition and decisions."

"How naïve…How young, drawing one such as you here is but child's play to me."

"Fine! If you really did draw me here then explain what you want!"

He moved forward then stretched out his hand, it touched something invisible, which gave off a pulse of light and the circle glowed brighter.

"As you can see, I'm trapped here and unable to leave."

"So what, can't you just use your monster magic to escape?"

"No, not against this kind of magic, it was made to be completely immune to anything of Fae origin." His eyes trailed towards the boy's sword. "Human objects on the hand…"

"I get, I get, you want me to free you, but what do I get in exchange?"

"Naturally, I'm willing to compensate you…" The boy felt as if the creature smiled maliciously, despite it having no mouth. "You seek power do you not? Free me and I shall grant it."

The boy thought about it, there was definitely something fishy about the whole situation, but he was sure that such a chance would not come again; he wanted power, by any means necessary, he would face the consequences as they come.

Clang

The boy drew out his iron sword and smashed it against the circle. It dissolved while it made some zapping sound. The creature was freed and total stillness fell upon the area, he could also feel the temperature draining as his breath became visible, the beast hovered closer menacingly. Despite this, the boy did not let up.

"I have freed you; give me the reward as promised!"

"You are a brave one aren't you? Very well I think I can give you something that can suit your desires."

He blinked once and when opened them again, there laid a massive grey armor with a grey-purple sword next to it.

He unconsciously started to march towards them, already mesmerized by the objects, they were such fine craftsmanship that it was impossible to have been made by a man.

"But be warned, those items were never meant to be used… by humans."

The boy didn't pay any heed to his further words and just equipped it…

…

The grey-knight's consciousness was slowly returning, blackness surrounded him, he couldn't see. He wasn't really sure if he was alive, since his head was never damaged before, but looks like the curse is even stronger than he thought.

"H-hey how about you help the boss up?"

"No way, I'm not going anywhere near him, he looks even freakier than usual."

The voices fully awoke his sense as he forced his eyes open, light filled him and in his vision were his men. 'Good, I can still see.'

He slowly got up to his feet as he felt the terror he was causing in his men. 'What's wrong? They should be used to it by now…unless!"

Glais quickly darted back to Alaris room and looked for a mirror.

Rummage

Rummage

And soon enough he found one, he looked into it and was horrified at the results.

Smash

He broke the mirror in anger.

"Looks like I have no choice now, but to bet everything on King Emiya…."

…

During the weeks while Emiya was comatose, he was fiercely battling the dragon that was invading his soul. Even after they had countless exchanges with each other, they did not feel tired as they had an infinite supply of energy in the plane of the soul.

Similarly, damage was meaningless to both of them, no matter how many times had Emiya impaled the dragon with a sword, it didn't feel a thing, no matter what noble phantasm he used from his arsenal. Similarly, he was bitten and torn several times when he slipped up during these few weeks, but of course he had no idea how long he was there as time passed differently here than normally.

"What is it that I must do here?" he thought as he dodged another swipe from the dragon

'I must get out of here, Saber… and my people are all waiting for me, I can't waste any more time in this place!' he said to himself

'What is it that I may have overlooked?'

„▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!" The dragon came bearing down once more with its massive weight.

„Would you just shut up for one second!?" roared Emiya as he plunged himself onto the dragon.

Stab

Gram entered deeply into its skin, but before he could pull it out the dragon ascended into the skies again. He increased his grip on the sword so as not to fall. Even if this was all not real, it still hurt to get injured.

The dragon flew around in wild patterns to throw off the former counter guardian, but it failed, as Emiya has now managed to secure a foothold and was standing up on the dragons back.

"Trace on!"

He traced large chains from the strongest materials and composition he could think of and forcibly wrapped it around the dragons neck, he stabbed Gram through the chain-links and then into the dragons skin, effectively creating a set of rein, allowing him to forcibly control and dictate it's movements.

"I always wanted to try this."

He flew around a bit until he came back into the spot where he had met the dragon; there was still a massive crater that contained pure wild swirling prana. As he watched it continue to swirl a thought struck him.

'Could the solution be so simple?'

He forced the dragon to take a nose dive into the crater of prana, where both Emiya and the dragon were swallowed.

…

Emiya suddenly awoke in his bedroom, his body felt sore for not moving for so long, but something else was wrong with his body, or more specifically, something was different.

Since he used reinforcement and structural analysis on his own body so often, he tended to know immediately if something was wrong or different with it.

He concentrated and started to scan his body, but found no external or internal wounds, so he went to check his circuits.

Static

'Something's wrong.' His head started aching the moment he wanted to scan his circuits; he ignored the pain and moved on with the scan.

Static

Zap

'This is…' He stopped breathing the moment he saw the state of his circuits.

Static

It's like the circuits weren't even his own, every one of them was of a much higher grade than the ones he possessed. Another thing that was not right was the number of circuits, he should have 27 circuits, but instead he found much more.

'35…45…55' he started counting.

Static

„▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅"

He wanted to delve deeper, but the image of the dragon filled his mind and knocked him back to reality.

"What. The. Fuck." was his natural response, as magi normally don't just wake up with a few dozen extra circuits in their body.

'Who could be responsible for this? Only Yukari and Merlin come to mind, I will need to question both.'

"Hehe, looks like someone is finally up." His thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Minasaki appearing out of nowhere as usual.

He moved to get up from the bed, but Minasaki pushed him down and sat on his lap. He tried to ignore the fact that she was somehow wearing a black nurse outfit.

"That's not right, Emiya-tan, a patient must rest and recover." She also produced a wooden bowl of something steaming that looked disgusting.

"What are you…"

"Hai, the patient needs to eat now!" she said as she forcefully made him have a bite with a wooden spoon.

Emiya made a face that looked like he just smelled a few weeks old corpse.

"Don't make that face, there are still plenty left." Said Minasaki as she took another spoonful.

"NOOOO!"

…

"Well I'm sorry about that I didn't think that it would taste that bad, could onii-chan please remove the swords now?" she asked while her frame was pinned to the door by a handful of low ranking noble phantasms.

Emiya dismissed them with a mental command and the girl fell on the floor.

"Where did you even get something that disgusting?"

"I picked it up while I was scouring the servant's kitchen." she said casually.

'Mental note: Teach the staff how to cook.'

Emiya realized that he had important things to catch up on.

"Minasaki, tell me everything that happened while I was unconscious." he commanded.

"So serious all of a sudden, well it's fine… I know everything that is important after all." A dangerous glint left her eyes as she said this

"Soon after you collapse and defeated the dragon, your so called Witch has fled the battlefield and the remaining forces were quickly slaughtered, by the combined might of your troops."

"Tch, so Merlin wasn't able to kill her, this is bad, she is bound to come back for revenge now and leaving such a devious fox as her unchecked, is never a good idea."

"I doubt Emiya-tan needs to worry that much about her, if you let me continue in the chorological order I would be able to explain everything."

"Okay, keep talking then."

"Anyway there is one strange part regarding the battle, the pagans had reinforcements incoming in large numbers to aid them, I knew because I checked it out before I went to join Emiya-tan in the battle, however for some reason they never arrived. Later I came back to their camp locations, but nothing was there, which was the most suspicious part about it."

"And the thing is that they didn't just leave or anything like that, because when a large body of people moved like that there are bound to make evidence of their moving, such as paths and trails in the soil, but there was nothing there. No sign of the equipment they had or any sign that the pagans went anywhere else, it's like all of them were suddenly spirited away or something."

A brooding silence came over Emiya as he contemplated the many possible meanings of this.

Possibility A: The pagan reinforcements were somehow caught up in some mystical phenomena that made all of them disappear and it was a completely unrelated to the battle that was going on. This was actually plausible since this IS the Age of the Gods after all, and all sorts of mystical creatures roam the land, but as he couldn't imagine anything short of a dragon vanishing an entire army, this seems like an unlikely possibility.

Which left possibility B: That the army was most likely wiped out by the intervention of a third and unknown party for likewise unknown reasons. Given how they done it was most likely the work of a mage who is capable of large scale rituals, but given all the wild cards roaming the land, he couldn't be sure of this either.

Still what worried him the most was the possible reason for the unknown party to assist them and if they will come back later, demanding to repay 'his' debt. It is never good to be in anyone's debt after all, especially not in a game like this.

"I'm not sure whether to take this as good or bad news, have you noticed anyone nearby?"

"None at all." she waved her hands dismissingly.

Minasaki hopped on the nearby furniture and continued her tale.

"…After the battle Onii-chan was in a pretty bad shape and he wouldn't get better no matter what we did, so Merlin made him drink a strange liquid, which nullified most of the symptoms, but he was still in coma for weeks."

'So it was that damned Merlin, I will need to ask what he has done to my body.'

Minasaki continued to tell every remaining detail of the last few weeks. How Saber took control, how there was another rebellion, how the Holy Magic Sect intervened with the search for Medea and how the mysterious knight helped put the rebellion down.

"Be careful with that one Onii-chan, I' am able to tell humans apart from … creatures, due to my demonic senses, and I can tell that whatever is in that grey armor…is definitely not human."

Minasaki then dropped the serious charade and adopted her usual cheerful expression back.

"Anyway, Onii-chan…" her eyes were overcome with lustful look and she slid back her kimono like robe to reveal that she wasn't wearing any panties. "…Since you were gone for weeks, this place has been really lonely, why don't you give it some at-ten-tion..." She said stressing out each syllable, trying to make her childish voice sound sexier.

Slam

Emiya promptly left the room and shut the door behind him.

"Hey! Don't leave me like this!" she cried out from the other side

Break

He decided to tear off the lock just in case and went to find Saber and Merlin.

…

While he was walking towards his destination Emiya pondered on the other details that Minasaki shared with him.

Starting with the Nobles, he knew that he was not liked among them, but he didn't think that any of them would be so stupid that they try to overthrow him in the middle of a crisis. The noble situation was frustrating enough, and his mind twitched to just accept Minasaki's offer of just 'Silently eliminating them…' but Emiya had no need of violence or needless slaughter, he could simply take away all their power, lands and wealth and install his own noble circles that would support him, which is what he planned to for a while and preparations for it are already being made, soon Saber, Bedivere and Kay would all become true Knights in both title and name, and in turn become nobles that could purchase and govern lands alongside him. 'Let's just hope that no one else will rebel in the meantime.'

He passed a hall where he was greeted by a pair of working servants.

His other big concern was this 'Glais' person. he honestly didn't know what to make of him and was an extremely suspicious element from his current information. He seems to wants to serve him for some reason and he DID help to destroy that rebellion, but on the other hand he had the audacity to blackmail Sabe., Either way he is definitely an unknown variable, he will decide what to do with him when he meets him.

He went into the end halls of the castle where it seemed like a dead end.

Finally, there was Caliburn. Although he expected it to break eventually, he didn't expect it to be this soon. After all, if it broke under a paragon of virtue like Saber, then there was no way that it wouldn't break under him…still the moment it came was highly inconvenient and it meant that he would need to get Excalibur to solidify his kingship. 'Another thing I would have to talk over with Merlin, huh.'

Step Step

Shimmer

Emiya walked through the wall and arrived on the other side. Of course it was no wall, but a simple vision and sense obscuring bounded field that Merlin set up to hide his makeshift workshop.

First he would get the talk with Merlin over, and then he would check up on Saber and the others.

Creak

He stepped through the door, only to find both Merlin and Saber drawing runes on the floor, that last part made him raise an eyebrow as he know that Saber didn't have much magic expertise.

"Shirou, you are awake!" she quickly stood up and moved over to him.

"Is your body all right?" she asked

Emiya simply replied with a nod.

"I was worried that charlatan might have killed you…" she glanced back at Merlin angrily as she said this.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure he was just trying to help me." he lied the reassure her, he totally imagined Merlin fiddling with his circuits for experiments "By the way I heard that you took command while I was unconscious, good job, Arthur."

She smiled at first, but soon a look of sadness came on her face instead

"That was my intention Shirou, but I may have just ended giving you even more trouble." She said while casting her eyes sideways.

"You are talking about Glais, right?"he said to Sabers surprise.

"Don't worry; I shall take care of it somehow."

"If that is what you wish." she hesitated for a bit before continuing "Be careful when dealing with that man Shirou, he is dangerous and not someone you can just trust." said Saber in a slightly worried tone.

"I will. By the way Arthur, what were you doing with Merlin?"

"Ah, I was practicing magic with Merlin."

"Magic…?" 'This is wrong, Saber never used magic at all in her life despite having the qualifications to be an all powerful mage that comes only once in a century. She refused to use this potential since it wasn't a how a honorable King fought, so what changed?'

"Yes magic…" while Emiya was thinking, Saber poured prana into her index finger and moved it as such that it created a runic symbol. "This is the Rune Ansuz, it can be used to start small flames and explosions!" she aimed it towards a basket….

Bang

…and blew out the entire wall.

…

Meanwhile in Transylvania the armies of Scarlet marched towards their chosen battlefield tirelessly. They had sent the infantry ahead first, to secure a defensive position; soon the majority of the actual forces would join as well… on horses, as most of their forces were made up of cavalry units, this was due to the fact that Remilia was still having the red mist cover all of her territories.

After several weeks in this state, most vegetation simply died out and the smart animals left for bountiful locations that could provide them with food. Most traditional methods of making a living and producing food simply became unusable for obvious reasons, so the only way the people could still get food in Transylvania was mostly by fishing and raiding other territories that are not covered by the red mist. For this reason many former farmers who were left without a job joined the raiders en masse. Due to this fact Remilia not only boasted one of the largest armies in all of Britain, but also the largest amount of cavalry units. She had so many horsemen that if she simply ordered all of her units to pillage a country, they would be able to bleed it dry in a matter of days.

"I leave the handling of the army to you, Bartley. Do not disappoint me."

"Of course your highness." he said while bowing and watched as Remilia extended her wings and took to the skies.

Bartley adjusted a sword to his belt and readied himself on his horse.

"Move out men, tonight we ride for Scarlet!" he shouted while waving his sword forward.

Hundreds upon hundreds of horsemen left, their mighty galloping shaking the whole terrain.

…

On the battlefield the infantries of the Scarlet forces could already see the enemy army approaching, their job was not to defeat them, but to stall them until the main forces arrived. For this purpose a few hundred men were put into the frontlines with shields and one handed spears, with a few more hundred archers that could provide fire support, aside from this they were able to field 3 onagers, Roman siege catapults that were used until more advanced ones were invented.

The enemy was already charging in. They sent ahead a few hundred men armed with massive two handed axes and swords, which would make any defenses that the enemy has meaningless, as such weapons could easily go through the toughest shields and armor.

"Archers, ready your bows!" howled the man who was in charge of commanding the fire support.

Trample Trample

The enemy was getting closer, seemingly not caring about the imminent danger of the archers at all.

"Fire!" ordered the man

Swoosh

A large volley of arrows streaked through the air before striking their targets. Many missed completely.

Stab

But several arrows penetrated the bodies of the charging men. Some were fatal, while others were just annoyances at best.

Hissing sounds were heard and several large rocks slammed into the ground, some men were squashed under the rubbles, ending their lives immediately.

"Aaagh, my leg!" cried out another one who had his legs pulverized by the stray boulders.

The onagers were an excellent terror weapon, there is no army on the land that wouldn't feel even a little bit afraid as the large rocks hissed through the sky and wondering if it will hit them or someone else.

But…

…it was inefficient.

They were charging in a loose formation, making them harder to hit with arrows and boulders.

The onagers didn't have enough time to reload, but the archers could still fire a second wave of shots…

Swoosh

The arrows flew once more…

…But even then only a few dozen men fell, and by the time they reload the enemy will already be battling the infantry.

'Tch, is this all we could do?' grumbled the commander in his head.

"For the one and true King!"Shouted the Babylonian forces in unison as they rammed into the wall of shields and spears.

The spearmen tried to hold back the forces with little success, for they sent some of their biggest and strongest troops to charge.

One man tried to block a great axe with his round shield, only to have it broken to splinters and the axe cleave into his skull right through the helmet like it was made of paper.

Another large man swung his two handed sword in a wide arc and cleaved off three heads of soldiers that were blocking his ways. Needless to say this feat of strength had terrified the troops who were watching it and were stricken with fear, unable to move forward. But the man didn't have such problem and dashed forward, sword in hand and easily sent the cowards to their doom.

A defender successfully managed to score a hit to one of the attacker's shoulder; however he completely didn't expect the pure blackness that came out of it.

It sprayed on his face and the man went crumbling to the ground.

"My eyes, my eyes!"

A curse was seeping into his very nerves and structure, the curse that burned at his very being.

"W-What's happening? Help! It hurts! "

Other men watched in horror as the man's head started steaming from the black material and the smell of charred flesh filled the area.

Soon the man stopped twitching completely, unable to bear the curse that hit him.

This strange and foul magic, combined with the monstrous strengths of the attackers had fuelled the already existing fear in the hearts of the soldiers.

"L-Let's run, we have no chance against them!" said one fool who dropped his weapons and started to make a run for it.

"He is right! We are just normal men; we aren't supposed to fight g-goddamned monsters!"

More and more people started listening to the ramblings and decided that fleeing in the middle of an enemy attack was honestly a good idea. The others who were left to fend of the attackers also soon gave up, since they weren't going to die just to save some coward's asses.

Meanwhile farther away, the man in charge of the fire support watched this with extreme dissatisfaction.

He raised his hand and muttered one word "Ready!"

"B-but Sir, our own troops are in the way, we cannot just shoot through them!" Complained one of his assistants

"I don't care, they have abandoned the front lines, if they don't die from our barrage, then they will die from the wrath of the Scarlet Devil for insubordination!"

The men reluctantly readied their weapons.

"Fire, now!"

None of them immediately followed the order as each of them felt guilty for trying to kill their comrades. That is until the first arrow was launched…

Swoosh

Then the second was launched as well, soon the responsibility and the guilt for their actions became lower, the soldiers followed their orders through the force of sheer peer pressure.

The projectiles hit several of the fleeing man, while some managed to break through and kill some of the Babylonian men.

Stab

A man watched as his comrade was hit in the head, he held his lifeless body horrified, and then anger overcame him as he shouted towards the group of archers.

"What the hell are you doing!? Are you mad? Shouting at your own people!?" his angry snarl was silenced as 3 arrows hit him in the chest.

"Bastards….." he muttered before fading away.

Since the Babylonian forces moved closer to each other while they were attacking the defenders, they were now left vulnerable to the hail of arrows that was coming at them. Many of them were skewered by the arrows, some were just wounded by it, some had their life extinguished. Some of them were stuck from having their comrades fall on them and unable to get up from their weight. Still it was not over for them, the worst was just coming.

Several hissing sounds could be heard coming for the second time in this battle, all of them knew what it meant; the onager has fired once more. But instead of normal rocks, it launched rocks doused in flames. They lit up the red skies as they approached and both the runners and the attackers watched it fall down with their brows sweating.

Bang

Smash

They impacted amongst troops, and unlike before it was able to inflict considerable damage to the Babylonian forces. One rock impacted into a larger cluster of people and instantly killed several dozen of them, while also burning everyone who was standing nearby with its flames.

The archers just used the confusion created by the onagers to launch another row of fire, arrows flew across the battlefield and most of the Babylonian infantry was eliminated. Few of them were still lingering around, others were groaning on the ground and clutching their wounds, any fools that still attempted to attack them in such few numbers were quickly shot down.

It was no wonder that the Transylvanians all thought that the battle was over, but they were wrong….

From the rubble of dead people a single man stepped out, his right arm was on flame, a sign that he survived the onager blast. He didn't bother to extinguish it and just charged forward.

"Is he stupid? He is just running towards his own death!" said one of the men while aiming his bow.

"Must be a berserker, you know how they sometimes go crazy on those herbs they are eating." Commented another man

Swoosh

The arrows flew towards the large man, he dodged the first several ones by side stepping out of the way, but there were too many arrows coming, too many and too fast. Several of them hit him in the arms, the legs and the chest.

However for some mystical reason, this large man didn't just fall over and die, instead he wordlessly continued his charge towards the archers.

"Well ain't he a strong one, eh?"

"Give him another dose!"

However when the arrows came this time, the man didn't bother to evade, instead he tensed his muscles and with a single motion he threw his massive sword at the arrows in front of him. It flew with such speed and strength that it destroyed any arrow that it came into contact with and continued its rampage up until it hit two of the archers who dared to fire at him, instantly killing them.

Of course this didn't do anything to stop the arrows that were coming from the other sides, so he put his arms up before his face and moved forward.

Stab Stab

The arrows impacted into his limbs, but he ignored the pain and moved on.

All of the archers noticed something strange about the man, everywhere where he was shot, instead of blood a pure black goo like material oozed out.

It was wrong.

Wrong

Wrong Wrong Wrong

It shouldn't belong in this world

They couldn't tell why, but they just felt an unnatural dread from looking at the man.

Slash

The man has finally reached into the lines and cut a man down with his dagger. Because of this the archers were now forced to switch to their own side arms as well. They surrounded the lone man, preparing to attack him from all sides.

"Take this!" shouted man as he lunged against his enemy.

Slash

Slash

Clang

However the large Babylonian easily parried the blow with his dagger. He managed to recover faster than his opponent….

Stab

And sunk his blade into the opponent's heart, as the archers were the lightest armoured infantry within an army, it met no resistance and easily punctured it's target.

"Gaah!" The man fell to the ground with a bleeding hole in his chest.

"Attack at once you idiots!" shouted someone

All of them launched at once from all sides, there was no way to parry all those blows, so he just jumped up far higher than a human being should be able to.

Slash

Slash

The soldiers weren't able to catch on in time and accidentally injured themselves.

"Damn, how can he jump like that!?"

"Get rid of him already!" snarled the commander at his men

Swoosh

But as if someone was annoyed at the voice, a dagger was heading for his head.

He was only able to notice it in the last minute, but even then he was too slow to evade it.

Stab

The dagger entered into the man's frontal lobe.

Stab

Another attack was made at the same time, but this one was aimed at the Babylonian man, one of the archers picked up the two handed sword he had previously thrown at them and stabbed him in the back while he was concentrated on throwing the dagger. The blade entered in his back and came through his chest, he tried to grasp the blade with his shaking hand…..

Stab

Stab

….but this motion was stopped as the other archers caught on and fired their arrows. The man's life was ended, but the black curse was still oozing from his body, tainting the very soil itself. Everyone went as far as away as they could from him, they didn't want to be anywhere near that curse.

With this the first assault was over, but all of them knew the obvious: They are not going to survive the next one without reinforcements.

…

This whole exchange was unknown to many of the participants, observed from the sky.

A golden emerald ark was floating in the air, seemingly defying the laws of physics. On it were two people, the golden king, Gilgamesh sitting on his throne, and another figure who was standing next to him, but his features were obscured by the black robe and hood he was wearing.

"So they sacrificed their frontline warriors to defeat our first assault, eh." said the man dressed in black with a soft voice that did not exactly fit his appearance.

"A cowardly method that is fitting to mongrels like them. In the end all they have done is delay the inevitable." said the King with a bored

"Still what disappoints me most is Calum."

"You are dissatisfied, how so? He killed the enemy commander after all."

"A mage like you can never understand. If he is indeed a warrior worthy of serving me, then he should have defeated all of them and came out alive. It is disappointing that one of the few of my men that could bear the curse and live die so easily."

"I see, don't worry I'm sure your other warriors won't disappoint." he replied trying to cheer the King up, of course it failed as Gilgamesh wasn't even paying any attention to what his companion was saying."

'Will the defenders be devoured by my armies or will she come to their aid, now show yourself, Scarlet Devil!'

…

"What are we going to do, the general is dead!"

"We should all just make a run for it; no one is left to command us, besides we stalled them long enough already!" Shouted on an agitated archer to his comrades

Swoosh

Bang

"Argh, my head! Who was that?" he asked after a small rock impacted with his skull.

An archer with curly black hair and dark red eyes stepped out from the line, bouncing another rock in his hand.

"Don't be so mad, I only did what an idiot deserved."

"What did you say?"

"You heard it right, you are an idiot. No I should say anyone who is stupid enough to want to flee this battle is nothing but an idiot." he said with a hint of anger in his voice as he turned to the crowd itself

The group of archers began to shout and rage words at him.

"Quiet you fools! In case you don't realize it, this is a defensive battle." The crowd was silenced as he raised his voice and released his killing intent.

"This isn't just some battle that you can run away from and escape back home. If we lose here the enemy will break into our lands." Looks of concern and worry started to show on their faces as they realized where he was going with this.

"What do you think will happen when that happens? Your sons, brothers and fathers will be brutally killed or enslaved; they will raid our lands and pillage our homes and done unimaginable things to our womenfolk!"

Images of their loved ones appeared in their heads and the mood of the archers got serious.

"This is not a battle that you can run away from, for if you do you will be sure to pay the price whether it will be from the punishment of the Scarlet Devil or the Rage of the enemy!"

Even those who wanted to defect were now calmly listening to him and taking in his words.

"Most of you here have a family, are you really that willing to let harm fall on your loved ones!?" Majority of the archers here were just common folk, mostly former hunters who lost their living due to the red mist; many of them had families so this struck them in the heart.

Shouts of no erupted from the crowd.

"It doesn't matter if we don't have a commander anymore; anyone can issue orders as long as they have a loud enough voice!" he raised his voice as he said this and another cheer erupted from the archers.

A smirk left his lips before finishing his speech to the men.

"What matters is that we defend this location until reinforcements arrive!"

"Ha hu!" shouted the men in unison raising their bows into the air

"What matters is that we do our duty that was given by the Scarlet Devil, and by extension the country!"

"So it doesn't matter whatever huge army the enemy will be coming for us with or what monsters they might bring! Who is with me!?"

All of them replied with renewed morale.

…

"Oh look, they got themselves back in order." Pointed out the hooded figure

"They are truly nothing more than a bunch of mongrels and cowards, my men would never flee in the face of a battle no matter how dire the situation is." replied Gilgamesh unimpressed

"You sound really proud of them, what makes you so sure?"

"Foolish mage. Do you know me as a King who would accept weaklings and cowards into his army!?"

"N-No of course not." He quickly denied it, not wanting to anger Gilgamesh.

"…One of the first things that I done after becoming the owner my current lands is that I wholly reformed the army." Gilgamesh started to explain while drinking wine from his golden goblet.

"I have tested all of them; I had those who were unfit for the life of a warrior sent to work on the farms and the mines to build my labour forces. Then I helped bring out the potential of all those that remained."

"And let's not forget the part where you doused the strongest of them in one of the most powerful curse I know of, which ended killing most of them."

"Indeed, if they cannot survive something like that, then they weren't strong enough to begin with." said Gilgamesh while smiling menacingly then he turned to the robed wizard and gave him an annoyed look before speaking.

"Anyway do not bother me with such trivial news again; I do not care what happens to the common mongrels."

"R-Right, I'm sorry."

"The only reason I even came out all the way here, is because of the Scarlet Devil, nothing else concerns my attention."

"Why are you so fixated on her anyway?"

"Ever since the dawn of time, hunting has been the sport of the Kings, so it is only natural that I, the King of Heroes would pursue such activity as well. Indeed in my life I have hunted various strong and strange creatures that would leave the normal men fearing for their life." Gilgamesh said while reminiscing about his past times that he has done with his friend, Enkidu.

"But what does that have to do with the Devil?"

"Don't you get it; this Scarlet Devil is not an enemy to me, but just another exotic prey."

…

Shake Shake

The earth itself began to tremble as something large approaching.

"Here they come!" said someone as he pointed towards the area. Everyone looked there to confirm only to have their mouths agape at the sight of the enemy army.

At least two thousand soldiers were marching towards them from the front. Much bigger than the last, they wielded one handed weapons combined with shields. Everyone immediately realized that projectiles will be less effective here, but they would still have to hold the line.

The Babylonian forces stopped marching for a moment and stood still.

They raised their weapons…

Bang Bang

Clatter Clatter

…And banged it against their shields, thousands of soldiers doing this in unison to create a terrifying noise that spread far and wide. It shook the hearts of the defenders.

Once done, the massive body of warriors resumed their charge towards the Transylvanian defenders.

Swoosh

The first barrage was launched, but just as anticipated they couldn't break through the shield wielding soldiers. Only a few unlucky ones who were hit in the head were killed.

Bang

"Argh!"

"Aaaagh…"

The onager shots impacted the ground, successfully killing some soldiers, who found it mattered little if they had shields or not.

Suddenly, a voice stopped the archers from readying their next shot.

"Hey look over there!" shouted someone.

"You have got to be kidding me…"

"From this direction as well?"

"The enemy is coming from the sides!"

Indeed, more Babylonian forces emerged and were now furiously sprinting towards them.

"What do we do!?"

"I already said that we shouldn't care how many of them are here, let them come. We will hold the line!" Shouted the red eyed teen.

If they were to hold out even for a minute, then they would be forced to fight up close.

"Arm yourselves!" came the command and all of them dropped their bows and picked up the melee weapons that were lying at their feet. They were the weapons of the fallen front line defence that they picked up while they had breathing room.

They huddled together and formed a shield wall against the incoming attackers.

"Here they come, brace for impact!"

Clang Clang

Weapons impacted against shields.

Crack Crack

Stab Stab

The unlucky ones had their shields broken by the might of the enemy's weapons.

The defenders tried to hold them back, but they were unsuccessful in their attempts. They were too many and too strong. Besides, they were not accustomed to close combat, so the enemy quickly gained advantage over them.

"Ghaa!"

"Aaagh!"

"Dammit…"

Several more fell as the Babylonian forces pushed deeper into their lines.

Seemingly only one person was capable of fighting back amongst the archers. It was the same black haired and red-eyed boy that inspired them.

Slash

His sword cut apart the neck of his enemy.

But three more were coming in his place.

He reached into his pockets and pulled out a metallic object….

Swoosh

…And he threw it at the one that was closest to him, it entered into his skull and extinguished his life.

But he wasn't allowed to rest just yet.

The second one was approaching; he quickly moved his left foot and kicked up a smaller rock that hit the enemy in the face, making him stagger for a second, but that was more than he needed, as he plunged his sword into the man's chest.

By the time he had done this, the third one was already upon him. The attacker brought his axe down, but the boy was narrowly able to stop it by bringing his own blade up.

However now they were in a deadlock and his opponent was using his bigger strength and weight to push down his axe, forceing the boy's sword arm to go lower and lower. He was unable to get away from this situation, but he wouldn't let himself get killed like this.

Click

Something sharp came out from his boot.

Swoosh

Stab

The leg was launched and the hidden blade entered the man's groin area, forcing him to recoil back in pain.

Slash

And with his hand now free he quickly eliminated his opponent.

He looked up and noted annoyed that even more and bigger soldiers were coming for him.

"Damn that Bartley, where the hell is he? He is not paying me enough for this kind of crap" The young man cursed and made a quick observance of his surrounding. 'If things go at this rate we will be completely eliminated in minutes…"

…

"Looks like they are about to be finished, the Devil didn't come after all." Spoke out the robed mage.

But Gilgamesh knew otherwise, he was feeling it in the air itself.

"No. She is coming." He stated it matter of factly.

…

The battle field flashed as several shots of red magic came down and annihilated the forefront of the attacking army, hundreds died within a matter of milliseconds. The attack created a five meter gap between the defenders and the attackers; miraculously, none of the Transylvanians were injured by the attack.

Flap

Everyone knew that the tide of the battle was about to turn, for the Scarlet Devil has arrived.

Everyone gazed at the figure in the sky. Her bat-like wings casted a shadow over them, her face sported a confident smile, her right hand was glowing with red magical energy that signalled to everyone that they could be vaporized in an instant.

"She is here, she really came!"

"We are saved…"

"Hail Scarlet!" The archers shouted in joy for having their lives saved, for if the Scarlet Devil had come even a few minutes later, they would have already perished.

But the Scarlet Devil was not the only thing that has come to their aid.

Clop Clop

Thousands of horse hoof beats resonated throughout the battlefields, as lightly armoured men came on horseback, with various weapons in their hands from the right side. These were the men who joined the army after their normal living methods were abolished.

Clop Clop

But this was still not all. From the left side a few more hundred horsemen came. These were equipped with better weapons, wore chain mail armour and seemed more organized in general. This was the group that contained the remaining nobles who could pay for better armour and the very first batch of raiders that managed to obtain their equipment from their pillaging, thus they had more experience than the other group. General Bartley was also inside this group.

He took an eagle shaped horn from his belt and blew it.

Upon hearing the other army of horsemen started their charge; this was their signal for the attack.

But Bartley and his group didn't start moving, which left his men puzzled.

"Sir, aren't we going to attack?" asked one of his man who was close to him.

"No, the enemy's formation is still solid and their soldiers aren't exhausted yet, if we charge in now we are bound to have casualties, and it would be a foolish mistake to sacrifice our best units so early on."

"So we are just going to wait?"

"We are not going to do that either, I have a much better idea. Bring out the chariots." he ordered.

…

"First and Second group charge in! Do not fear the enemy, for we shall send them to their ancestors today!" shouted the Commander who was coordinating the inexperienced cavalry units.

Clop Clop

The Babylonian forces quickly got into defensive position; they would be ready for the attack. They raised their shields up and stuck out their spears, so any foolish horsemen, who would dare to charge at them, would be impaled.

Seeing this, the first row of the charging horsemen realized their impending doom, but were unable to escape from it due to the massive number of other units charging behind them. They were forced to ram into the wall of spears.

Stab Stab

Several of them met their end as their horses were impaled on the spear heads. By some stroke of luck, some managed to break through the spears without injury.

The Babylonians tried to hold them back, but it was a futile effort, as not even the strongest men could hold back this tidal wave of horsemen.

Their shields proved useless and their spears were only good at injuring the first attackers, since most were stuck into the horse's bodies. The soldiers were trampled to death by the stampede of horses. They pushed deeper into the enemy lines, and by extension allowed themselves to be attack from all sides, which needless to say was a dangerous position for a horseman to have as it offered little to no manoeuvrability.

Stab

Slash

Naturally, the enemy quickly took advantage of this fact and started killing them, as not even the best soldiers could protect themselves from all sides, and the horses were even easier targets because of their large bodies.

Slash

A horse was killed and its soldier fell to the ground. It took him a few seconds to recover his senses, but by then it was too late as the enemy was already swinging their weapons at him.

Crack

His head was bashed open and its contents spilled to the ground. Other Transylvanians had a similar demise.

A horn blow sounded, louder than the first.

All of the horsemen began to fall back and retreat from the enemy lines. Most of them managed to escape successfully, but those who were too deep in the lines were left isolated, and a few others were killed as they turned their backs on the enemy, a grave sin in a battle.

Clop Clop

After the horses retreated a certain distance, they moved out of the way, so they could make space for their comrades.

Clop Clop

More mounted troops came charging down, not giving the enemy a chance to rest. They were troops that were left out of the first charge, since sending all of them at once would have been a stupid mistake that would have only made manoeuvring harder.

The fresh troops clashed with the Babylonians, dealing even more damage than the first wave, since they didn't have enough time to regain their defensive formation and were already somewhat exhausted.

Slash

"Guh!"

Stab

"Aaagh…"

More and more Babylonian troops fell to their weapons, as the grass was stained with blood.

The commander wasn't stupid, he knew exactly that a cavalry unit's strengths was not in straight up fighting, but in charging. It was there that they could deal the most possible damage. He would repeat this move as many times as needed, until the enemy was eliminated.

…

On the other side of the battlefield, Bartley had finished gathering the chariots. Each chariot was strapped to two strong horses,with blades on each wheel. Normally, there would be two men on the contraption, one for driving and another wielding a spear and attacking, but Bartley had other plans.

"All right, lit them on fire!" he commanded.

His men threw their torches on the chariots covered in oil and they lit up instantly. The horses that were strapped to it were spooked by the fire and started to charge forward, right towards Gilgamesh's forces.

Within those forces a giant of a man, with a large two handed sword on his back, was watching the burning chariots come for him and his comrades. His name was Kavanak, and he was one of the men who were doused in the curse of Angra Mainyu and managed to survive, making him one of the strongest in Gilgamesh's army.

He stepped forward and grabbed a spear from one of his comrades; he pulled it back and flexed his muscles.

Swoosh

He threw the spear and it whistled across the battlefield…

Stab

…before hitting one of the horses drawing the chariot. The animal stumbled on its feet and crumpled to the ground, dragging the other horse with it as well as the chariot.

"Don't let those chariot's come close!" he shouted as his men tried to throw their spears at the animals as well, with little success.

"Gaah, so annoying, let me handle it." he growled and drew out his sword from his back sheath.

He rushed towards one of the incoming chariots and swung his blade sideways.

Splash

The animals didn't even have a chance to grunt in pain as their insides were scattered on the ground by the large sword.

Two chariots have been stopped, but all others successfully reached their destination.

They crashed into the soldiers, who desperately tried to hold back the scared animals.

The fire was spreading and even some of the horses were now caught on fire, searing their flesh. The defenders could just feel the heat grazing against their skin. As the horses penetrated deeper into the lines, the chariot blades eviscerated the soldier's bodies; it was extremely hard to defend against it as it could easily cut into their armour. This was also an effective psychological tactic, as the sight of burning animals and the threat of the blades could inspire terror even in the strongest man's hearts. But to their credit, the warriors of Babylon didn't feel that much terror and instead were mostly working towards eliminating the chariots, before anymore damage could be done.

However now their formation was disrupted and vulnerable and that was exactly what Bartley was aiming for.

"Battles aren't won merely by just numbers, what matters most are tactics and the morale of the soldiers." Bartley said to no one in particular.

"All units charge now in wedge formation! We shall divide their troop's further." he shouted while waving his sword forward, as all of them moved forward as a single body.

The defenders couldn't do much about the incoming attack as they were still distracted with the chariots.

The much heavily armoured cavalry units trampled on the bodies of their enemies. They were also much more efficient in killing their enemies, and they didn't give the enemy a single breathing room as they constantly reaped down their heads as they moved deeper into their lines and divided the army in two.

The archers that were previously saved also managed to find a safe distance now and they were already arming their weapons.

Bartley seeing this directed his troops so they would occupy the attention of the troops and make them unable to defend against the archer shots.

Swoosh

This barrage was a lot weaker than the previous ones due to the loss of numbers, but it still managed to take down several of them, especially now that they were unable to defend against it.

…

The battlefield was essentially divided into 3 parts now. The largest part was the one where the common horsemen were assaulting the main Babylonian forces. Then there was the increasingly smaller group that was quickly getting decimated between the archers and the cavalry units. Bartley's units have also split into two, and they were now engaging the final group. Overall you could say that the Transylvanian troops had the advantage now and were winning. Due to their superior cavalry units and good use of tactics…

…yet things were not all what it seemed, other factors influenced this battle as well. Something that Gilgamesh noticed as he was observing it.

Slash

Attacks that go beyond what should normally be their limit.

Thrust

Blades that pierced deeper than they originally should have.

Slip

Soldiers falling in some stroke of bad luck, giving their opponent the opportunity to kill them.

Indeed, it looked like the Transylvanian army was very lucky, but Gilgamesh knew better, for it was not luck that bared his way, but fate.

His gate opened and from within it he grabbed out a medallion that started to glow in his hand.

"If fate dares to stand in the way of my conquest, then I will make fate kneel before Me." he shouted to the skies as he activated the ancient noble phantasm that was in his hand, a wave of power left from him and engulfed the battlefield, it didn't have any noticeable effect on anything, but one person clutched her chest in surprise.

'My power…is sealed?' that person was Remilia Scarlet, the Manipulator of Fate.

She looked up towards the floating Vimana 'I doubt anyone else would be able to do something like this here…"

…

"Looks like she finally decided to come and see me." Gilgamesh said to his mage companion as Remilia was flying towards him.

Her wings flapped with a stop as she appeared before the Golden King. "I' am both impressed that you were even able to notice my ability being used and that you were even able to seal it, it seems like the rumours about you weren't as half assed as I thought them to be." She placed one of her hands before her mouth "Oh but where are my manners, my name is Remilia Scarlet, but you probably better know me as the Scarlet Devil." She introduced herself in an arrogant tone.

"So you are the 'Scarlet Devil', huh. I must say that I'm highly disappointed. Based on the amount of stories surrounding you, I expected something more impressive, but it turns out that you are just some bratty vampire, a mere parasite." Gilgamesh mocked Remilia; parasite was of course the perfect description of a vampire, so the Golden King was only saying the truth.

"Hoh, you have the audacity to call me that to my face…." her eyes flashed red with murder

"…I hope you realize that I'm not going to let you get away with it. After all, I have a reputation to keep!" She said and threw an orb of magic towards him.

But it was not just an orb that flew at him, but dozens and dozens of white bullets of magic, behind them even larger red ones were heading towards the Golden King.

Gilgamesh opened his eyes a little, not expecting this type of combat from a vampire, but quickly regained his composure and flew the Vimana out of harm's way. It wasn't really difficult considering Vimana could fly at the speed of thought.

"Magic like that…and so fast! What kind of vampire is she?" The robed mage who was still on Vimana asked surprised before turning towards Gilgamesh. "Should I raise the barrier?"

"No, you will not interfere."

"…As you wish."

Remilia had a small smile that conveyed amusement after seeing him dodge her first wave of danmaku. "Looks like you are really different from the rest of the people who inhabit this world. I won't need to hold back against you!"

Swoosh

Remilia released even more projectiles than previously and much faster. They were red orbs of varying sizes, but Gilgamesh still evaded with ease, however he was surprised that behind the larger red orbs there were also some fast tear shaped projectiles also coming, he was forced to do a violent evasive manoeuvre.

But Remilia didn't let him get away with just that. She instantly released hundreds of dagger like projectiles that were so tightly packed that Gilgamesh couldn't evade with his relatively large bodied flying contraption….

The daggers were coming for him at a blindingly fast speed.

…but Gilgamesh didn't to evade

The golden king opened his red eyes and uttered 3 words: "Gate of Babylon."

At his call, the portal to his treasure opened and from within dozens of ancient relics of the past launched themselves.

They flew straight and true, even faster than Remilia's projectiles, they rammed through her danmaku with ease and continued their path towards Remilia. The Scarlet Devil's smile widened at sight of incoming noble phantasm.

The noble phantasm continued their flight….and seemingly passed Remilia without doing any harm to her. "What!?" Gilgamesh roared up in annoyance and surprise

What really ticked of Gilgamesh was the fact that it seemed like Remilia didn't move one bit during this exchange.

"Too bad, but you won't be able to hit me with an attack on that level." Remilia stated while laughing

"I'll make you regret those words of yours, mongrel!" As if responding to Gilgamesh's anger, the yellowish portal opened even wider and several more noble phantasm poked their heads and shafts out of it.

Dang Dang

The noble phantasms were launched at Remilia like some sort of missiles; over 50 of them were coming for her life.

Still smiling, she released various danmaku to counter it, so the ancient weapons clashed with Remilia's magic, painting the sky in glowing colours.

…

On the ground the tides of the battle was further turning into the Transylvanian's favour, not because of their soldier's valor, but because 2 certain individuals arrived to the battlefield.

One of them was a long orange haired girl, in a green-white Chinese outfit, she was obviously Hong Meiling.

Kick

"Ghaa!" A soldier was sent flying after being kicked in the stomach.

Punch

Her punches did the same as another one was sent barreling into his comrades.

Chop

An unfortunate warrior's head was chopped so hard his helmet bent over its strength.

"Damn, how the hell is a woman beating us!?"

"She is too strong!"

Complained the men about their difference in strength, yet nevertheless they charged forward and attacked her, for the warriors of Gilgamesh did not run in the face of a battle.

Kick

Of course they were flown away just like all others.

None of Meiling's strikes were meant to kill, as she was a nice person and held no grudge against these people. Unfortunately due to her immense strength as a youkai, sometimes the target still died from her power, even though she was just trying to incapacitate them.

She looked up to the sky where some impromptu danmaku battle was forming between Gilgamesh and Remilia. 'Ah that looks way more interesting, I would like to try fighting against him as well..' Thought Meiling while her body reflexively defeated several more soldiers

Swoosh

Stab Stab

The other one was far more menacing, as she was methodically eliminating dozens of soldiers by the seconds.

"Where are all these knives coming from!?"

Stab

She was the silver haired and elegant maid, Izayoi Sakuya.

Time stopped once again, and she started to place her knives in many different formations, sometimes she placed them so they would come from above, other times so they would just go everywhere, piercing forward. Indeed Sakuya was really proficient in this, one could even say that placing knives became an art for her; too bad no one was capable of witnessing the process. No one was able to appreciate how hard she worked on setting up specific formations, while the soldiers will almost instantly be killed; setting up the formations alone took her minutes in stopped time.

Time Resumed

"Where did she go?" asked somebody confusedly as Sakuya was no longer in her original position. But no one was going to answer this pointless question, as all of them were eliminated by a sudden hail of knives.

Stab Stab Stab Stab Stab

…

Indeed the tides of battle was really in favour of Remilia at the moment, but that was about to change soon.

Kotomine Kirei was walking in the reinforcement camp of Gilgamesh; the camp contained two thousand more capable soldiers that could be brought into the battle at any moment. Of course for that the happen the general of this group would need to give the command, who was obviously not Kotomine Kirei.

Everywhere the priest went, he receive resentful glares from the soldiers, they didn't like him, which wasn't surprising given his personality and innately corrupting aura, they only tolerated him because he was their King's companion. Kotomine only smiled at this, which seemed to only annoy the soldiers some more.

Suddenly a black cloaked figure appeared before Kirei, similar to the one that accompanied Gilgamesh…no, you could say that it was the same person. He whispered something into the priest's ears before disappearing.

"Hoh, so he is actually losing for once." Noted Kotomine somewhat amused

'Leaving him alone would most likely result in the defeat of his forces, even if he himself would not fall. Seeing what kind of face he would make after that would surely be interesting.' A menacing smile crept up his lips, before his thoughts turned darker 'Hmm, but perhaps sending in those two would prove to have even more interesting results….'

Kotomine walked into the commander's tent, inside he found a grey haired, bearded old man, in a get up that could be called both eastern and futuristic. Despite his old age, it was still pretty clear that he was in prime condition and ready for fighting. Next to him was a beautiful woman in a kimono who was pouring some sake to the old man, where they got sake in Britain of all place is unclear. On her head was an antler like helmet, despite her beautiful appearance, there was something unnatural about the woman, this was further reinforced by her expressionless face.

Both of them joined during their campaign against Nero, their strength and tactical prowess further reduced any chance the former Emperor had against Gilgamesh.

They noticed Kotomine walking in, but didn't give any reaction to his presence, and instead just waited for him to speak up.

"It is unusual for you to sit out on a battle, why have you not mobilized your forces?" asked Kotomine

"I'm not in the mood. Every fight so far has been one sided and boring, and I doubt that this one is different, so I decided to relax and get some rest. Besides I'm sure that man can handle whatever they throw at him."

A smile kept up on Kotomine's lips 'So he wants a challenge. That will be easy to satisfy.'

"Actually, according to the information I just received this battle is not like the others so far, it seems that we are actually being pushed back."

"Hoh, that does sound interesting. Tell me more."

…

In the skies the battle between Gilgamesh and Remilia still continued, at a much greater intensity than before. Gilgamesh Gate of Babylon was now operating at its fully capacity, launching hundreds of noble phantasms per second, which actually forced Remilia to constantly move and dodge, unlike before. Remilia was also using more elaborate danmaku patterns, that were greatly annoying Gilgamesh.

While Gilgamesh's annoyance was only growing, Remilia was completely enthralled and had a huge smile on her face. 'Yes this is it, this is what I missed!' Danmaku battles, that were the thing that Remilia missed, after being away from Gensokyo for months now, she was feeling nostalgic in such a battle and was finally enjoying herself after weeks of boredom.

Noble phantasms constantly clashed with Remilia's magical bullets, since the noble phantasms were stronger they ended up piercing though the attacks, but their speed was drastically slowed because of this.

Remilia decided to change patterns once more and draw power into herself, the air around her started shimmering from the power she was gathering up.

Hundreds of blue magic balls were launched towards Gilgamesh, followed by even larger glowing yellow magic balls. Still it was nothing that Gilgamesh couldn't dodge, what he didn't expect that in several lines blue glowing lasers shot out from Remilia's body, that were further transmitted by glowing purple balls of magic that were stationary. Gilgamesh had a harder time evading these, because they covered a much larger territory and forced him into areas where the other 2 danmaku were coming. He just concentrated his Gate of Babylon and demolished through the incoming danmaku, not going anywhere near the lasers.

"I had enough of this brat mocking me! If you are going to just keep dodging like a coward, then I will just use something that you can't dodge." he reached into his gate and pulled out an old but magnificent looking spear.

Gilgamesh got into throwing position and uttered some words that were heard by Remilia: "Fly, Gungnir!"And the spear of Odin that always strikes true was launched towards Remilia, much faster than regular noble phantasm shots, it easily pierce d through the walls of danmaku surrounding Remilia, not even losing a moment in its speed.

The Mistress of Scarlet didn't make any attempt to dodge, for if that was truly the spear of Odin, then it would have been pointless anyway. Instead she gathered her magical power into her right hand, and started to form her trademark red spear, however this time she didn't need to hold back so she poured even more energy into it than usual, making it larger. She liked to call this 'Gungnir' as well which is why she pulled it out now, but of course it was not the true weapon, just a mass of magic in the form of a spear.

"Let's see which of the two is the stronger!" she said as she threw her spear to intercept Gungnir

Clash

Zap Zap

The two weapons slammed into each other and came to a standstill, as both of them tried to overwhelm the other and strike through. There was so much energy in the two that they created lightning as they brushed against each other.

Zap Zap

After several seconds it became evident which one was going to be the winner as Remilia's red spear began to dissipate and soon Gungnir seized this advantage and pierced through it and continued its path towards Remilia.

The Scarlet Devil was surprise for a second, but that expression was quickly replaced by one of amusement. She prepared for the spear by raising both of her hands.

Slam

The spear reached Remilia, but it didn't pierce her, for Remilia slammed both of her hand into the tip as if she was clapping, restraining the spear from continuing it's path. However there was still energy in it, Gungnir had to pierce its target after all, and kept trying to break out of Remilia's hold.

Rattle

Rattle

The spear was shaking in her hands, but it was useless, for Remilia was as strong as an Oni, she could throw a mountain at you if she so pleased, restraining a weapon even if it was a noble phantasm was certainly possible for her.

Soon her strength greatly overcame that of Gungnir and she began to turn it around in one hand. "Now how did you do it? Ah I remember." a wicked smile was on her face as she said the following words "Fly, Gungnir!" and threw the weapon at Gilgamesh, however the golden king didn't look even on bit alarmed as the spear was dissipated into a golden mist and went back to his gate.

"Did you really think that you could harm me with my own weapon, mongrel?"

"Tch, that's unfair. Dodge this, King of Babylon!"

Remilia released hundreds of red danmaku in a whirling formation at lightning fast speed, followed by just as many blue danmaku. Gilgamesh now routinely dodged these, but he didn't realize that these were just distractions.

Bang

Clash

Vimana shook violently as something impacted it from behind, fortunately it wasn't damaged anyway as a barrier was surrounding, the attack was from the danmaku that Gilgamesh had dodged previously, somehow the Scarlet Devil pulled them back to her position, and since Gilgamesh was in the way of that, it hit Vimana on the way.

"Please be careful, she can attack from the back as well." said the caster of the barrier who now had a grimoire in his hand.

"Shut up, I didn't need your help." Gilgamesh snarled angrily, he was losing his patience.

It wouldn't take long for him to get pissed enough and pull out Ea, even if the weapon wasn't worth to be used on a mere parasite like the Scarlet Devil, Gilgamesh was already considering it due to his increasing annoyance.

"What's wrong King of Babylon; losing your temper over a…what did you call me again? Ah yes, a parasite." Remilia took this opportunity to taunt him.

Indeed, it seems Ea would be coming out even sooner.

…

Meanwhile on the ground Kavanak had enough. He had enough of seeing his comrades being beaten to a pulp by a girl, so he rushed towards Meiling to show how it is done.

Meiling was surprised that someone faster than the rest was coming after her, so she didn't have time to evade; instead she merely raised her arms up in an X formation. The eyes of the soldiers lit up with hope at the prospect of the woman being finally defeated, but that hope was soon crushed.

Bang

The two handed sword of Kavanak hit Meiling's arms, but no blood was shed, instead it made a noise akin to hitting another metal.

"What the hell, how are her arms still attached!?"

"Monster!"

Kavanak face darkened as he was still pressing the blade against her arms.

"What are you?" he asked

"Martial artist, Youkai….though I think the term demon would be better here, my name is Hong Meiling."

Murmurs erupted in the army at the word demon.

Even if they were fearless, their uncertainty grew. 'How are we supposed to slay demon's, we aren't priests or mages here.' Were their thoughts

"What is a demon doing with Scarlet?" asked Kavanak still trying to futile press down on Meiling's hands with his blade.

Meiling put one finger to her lips while still holding the blade with her other hand. "Let's see, I guess you could say that I'm her guard."

More murmurs erupted all about the 'Scarlet Devil employing demons in her service!'

Naturally this wasn't missed by the soldiers on Scarlet side either, so her fearsome reputation only grew because of this.

"I'm going to be frank with you, none of you here can beat me, so please surrender, I do not want to needlessly kill any more people."

"Ha! Like a demon would show mercy, besides we will never run away or surrender, we would rather fight to the death!" The cheers of his comrades only reassured his statement.

"Very well, then don't blame me for the consequences, JAOOO!" Meiling grabbed his two handed sword and started spinning with it, obviously still dragging it's wielder along with it.

Spin Spin

She has now gained enough speed; she flexed her muscles and threw Kavanak along with the sword into the air.

Everyone else just watched agape at such a sight.

Meiling stepped forward and motioned with her hands that said 'Come at me!'

"You bitch!" someone rushed at her despite her previous display of overwhelming strength

"Take this!"

Punch

The sword shattered when it contacted her fist and the man was hit in the stomach

"Ghaa…" The fool didn't get up, but someone else did

Step Step

Kavanak was back, dragging his large sword in the ground, he was bleeding from his forehead.

"Don't think something like that can take me out!" he growled

"To be honest I'm surprised that you can even move after that, a normal person would be dead after falling from such a height."

"Shut up, this time I will crush you!" His eyes darkened 'Even if I have to draw into that power.' and an unnatural darkness started to surround him.

Meiling immediately put her guard down, since she sensed something innately wrong about this, as Youkai are conceptual beings that are comparable to the servants of this world, they are more susceptible to the corruption of Angra Mainyu.

'What is this feeling?' Meiling thought to herself, everything was telling her to get away from that man.

Dash

But she wasn't given that option as the man charged at her.

She successfully evaded the attack, but a few strands of her hair were taken down with the attack.

'He is faster than before, but why?'

Slash Slash

She dodged two more attacks from Kavanak, it was easy now that she had adjusted her speed.

'Whatever is going on, as long as I disarm him, he will harmless.'

Such were her thoughts as she gathered all of her strength into a sword shattering punch.

But then something unexpected happened as her fist came into contact with the sword.

Murder

Terrifying visions filled her head, all of them about human atrocities. She recoiled back and clutched at her head.

"Aghh..!" 'What's happening? It feels like my head is splitting apart.'

DIE

Slash

Obviously the enemy wasn't going to just stop, so came a sideway attack from Kavanak. Meiling in her confused state was unable to notice the blow, and was struck for a second time by the blade that was soaked in the curse of Angra Mainyu.

Arson

"Kuh!"

The blade was still unable to cut into her skin nor did it do any damage, but the curse itself was already eating away at her soul.

Meiling crumpled to the ground from the pain of the visions.

Kavanak moved closer smiling "Hey, what's wrong, can't stand anymore?"

He did not receive an answer for Meiling was in too much pain to keep attention.

"Then just lie there while I pulverize you, ha!" He shouted and raised his sword

Slash

Betrayal

Slash

Rape

Slash

Suicide

Meiling was stroked 3 times, and she felt her body boiling, the pain was completely unbearable and the constant visions made it harder for her to perceive things. There was also a constant voice filling her head, uttering only one word, over and over.

DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE

She felt absolutely sick, as she was forced to witness the sins of humanity, she seen things she never wanted to see. Some of the images penetrated into her very being, and would forever continue to taint her soul.

Swing

The blade was coming again.

'No more….'

'No more.'

'I do not want to feel such anymore!"

'Get out of my head!'

"STOP IT!"

Stab

Splash

"Aah…."

Meiling instincts as a Youkai overcame her, before anyone could even notice it, she was suddenly before Kavanak.

None of them were moving, there was no need to. The battle was already over.

Thump

Drip Drip

Thump

The dark coloured heart made its final beat, as it lay in Meiling's hand that pierced through his chest like it was nothing. Meiling didn't want to kill him, but she wanted to stop the pain, it is unknown whether it was the curse's influence that made her commit such an act, or it was of her own will. Regardless it didn't achieve what she wanted, as there was only mud inside the man's body, before she only got smaller dozes by the aura that was surrounding Kavanak, but now her right war bearing the full weight of the curse.

"Ha…ha…..ah…."

The visions returned with intensity and resumed torturing her in earnest.

"Khu…to be defeated by a woman…..is an….utmost shame….for a warrior. I hope…..that my …..tainted…..blood…..will….bring….you with me." These were the last rational things she heard. After that, only madness filled her head.

Death, imprisonment, unconscious crime, kidnapping, theft, violation, homicide, false statements, bombing, robbery, self interest, revenge, negligence, mass violence, civil war, parricide.

DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE

Misdiagnosis, concealment, violation for benefit, violation for self-defense, violation for respect, selfish stealing, fraud, concealment, personal grudge, attack attack attack, dirty dirty, dirty, you are dirty

ATONE ATONE ATONE ATONE

Every violence, every crime, ATONE for everything.

Know the conscience to reform crimes.

Meiling violently started to spasm on the ground as a torrent of madness was raging inside her head.

"H-hey what's wrong with her?"

"I don't know, but this is our chance, kill her!"

Several fools rushed towards her, thinking that she would still show them mercy.

They were wrong, Meiling moved instinctively.

Slam

The first one was crashed to the ground so hard, that only the limbs remained.

Zap

Meiling was instantly before the second man; she placed her two hands next to his head and simply pressed.

Splash

The man could barely let out an 'Ah' of surprise, as his head was no more.

Te Babylonians still charged despite this brutality, and soon they paid the price for their foolish actions.

Slam

Tear

Rend

Maim

Splatter

Within seconds their existence was gone.

ATONE ATONE ATONE ATONE ATONE MAKE THEM ALL ATONE

Shouted the voice inside Meiling's head.

Dark energies started to gather near her right fist, where normally she would gather her rainbow coloured QI attacks, now a torrent of darkness was unleashed, that swallowed and burned the Babylonians soldiers alive.

…

"Meiling….what happened to you?" Remilia stopped her danmaku for a moment to look at the carnage that Meiling was unleashing below, she was confused and scared at the same time, Meiling has spent a lot of time with her, so she cared for her, to see her murder so uncharacteristically frightened her, not because of the act of murder mind you, but because she was acting unlike herself.

"Hoh, so she has tasted the curse? It is always entertaining to see what comes out after it is done torturing them." said Gilgamesh regaining some of his amusement by this turn of events.

But this only made Scarlet show a murderous glare towards him. "Curse? Is this your doing, King of Babylon? Answer me, or I will make you suffer." Remilia's voice contained the pure promise of murder and revenge.

"No, albeit I find it an interesting coincidence, it is not my doing. Though you should be grateful for it, if she manages to survive it, she will come out stronger than before."

Remilia's bloodlust increased and she drove straight towards Gilgamesh, no more playing around, she would go for the kill, for if she defeats Gilgamesh quickly, then she might be able to save Meiling from whatever curse is taking hold of her.

Gilgamesh was also surprised at her sudden charge, and that was also because Remilia's speed was incredibly fast, The Scarlet Devil boasted a speed that rivalled the tengu of gensokyo.

Indeed, it seems that the Scarlet Devil finally decided to fight seriously.

…

"Sir, what is that?" Bartley was suddenly asked by a soldier who was pointing into the distance.

Bartley squinted his eyes and saw movement heading towards their location.

'This is bad.' He took his horn out and blew into it

"Enemy reinforcements are coming from the west, intercept them!"

Everyone who was available mobilized to fulfil Bartley's orders, since a lot of the Babylonian troops were annihilated, a large part of the army was freed up and wasn't necessary for the current fight.

Clop Clop

The troops advanced towards their goals, the Transylvanian soldiers noted that the enemy was also on horseback, beating them will be harder than beating those that were on foot.

"Brace for impact!"

Clash

The two forces entered into a fight; however Bartley's forces weren't enough to detain all of them, so a large group of Babylonian cavalry continued their path towards the battlefield, so they could help their comrades who were still fighting on foot.

Horse combat against other horsemen was a chaotic thing. It was hard to move and manoeuvre once the fighting started and it wasn't uncommon for warriors to get stuck because of their own allies. An animal falling can potentially drag others to death with it, due to its large body and weight. Anyone can die under such situations, indeed this kind of battle is a complete waste of a warrior's talent…

Dash

Slash

Several horses along with their riders were sent flying like they were pebbles on the road.

…There was a man who revelled in such a chaos, he was constantly charging forward deeper into lines of the Transylvanian troops. He was on foot, he didn't need a horse to carry him, he was after all faster and stronger without it. In his hands he wielded a spear that looked vaguely futuristic, but a mystical aura also surrounded it.

"What the hell is with this old man, stop him already!"

Several horsemen attempted to intercept him.

But the spear moved and impacted them. The old man swung them out of the way with seemingly impossible strength, such was the power of a wild card.

Few more attempted to futilely stop his rampage, but it was pointless for it was like trying to stop an incoming tidal wave.

By this all of them noticed one thing, the man was charging towards General Bartley, clearly aiming to take his life.

Swoosh

He swung his spear in a circle around himself, sending everyone else flying away from himself; he raised his spear and pointed it towards Bartley. "Hey enemy general, how about we have a duel?" he asked with a grin.

"Men, protect me!" barked Bartley, ignoring the spearman's demand.

"Tch, what a coward, I guess I just have to blast my way through."

He got into a striking position and charged himself with energy; strange lights appeared around his armour, especially near his leg and back areas. The soldiers were already closing on him, but it was pointless, for in the next instant he released himself with such a speed that he blasted them away.

Within milliseconds he was already just a few meters away from Bartley, but that was more than enough for his spear to reach the target. He pulled his arm back and made a stabbing motion, to everyone's surprise, the spear had extended and kept extending its limit, becoming more than twice as big as its original size.

Bartley watched in horror as the spear was coming for his neck. 'This can't be happening!'

He closed his eyes, awaiting the inevitable, but instead of his neck being punctured, he felt a tug on his neck and the next thing he knew was that he was flying.

While he was in this state of flight he opened his eyes to see the silver haired maid looking back at him and saying "Don't misunderstand, it would be inconvenient for Ojou-sama if you died." Those were her words as she turned her head back to the front and summoned a set of knives into her hands.

Click

The old man retracted his spear into its original size and hefted onto his shoulder.

"Move out of the way Oujo-san, I do not wish to kill a beauty like you."

"Hoh, you think you can kill me, old man? Very well let's see what you are capable of, prepare yourself!"

…

Meanwhile on the part of the battlefield the other part of the reinforcement have started engaging the enemy as well, but there was a problem, the Meiling whose mind is still clouded because of Angra Mainyu kept rampaging across the battlefield, quickly taking anyone's life who got close.

"Go, I shall keep her busy." rang out a feminine but monotone voice; it came from the same woman who was with the old man in the tent.

She dashed towards Meiling without any weapons in hand, but the Babylonian soldiers already knew that she didn't need one, they moved on to assist their allies.

Meiling upon noticing the approaching hostile, moved out to attack her as well.

Seeing this, the horned girl clad in kimono raised her right hand which shone with a blue light, and spoke the following words: "Swords at my command!"

Rip

The ground near her tore itself up and floated into air, however this was not enough to battle a youkai and she knew this. So she super compressed the earth until it hard, smooth and thin, almost looking like two oversized blades. Of course she didn't wield it; they just kept floating near her sides as she charged.

Clash

The super pressurized earth blades slammed against Meiling arms, the woman in kimono underestimated the strength of the enemy. Not even the strongest knights in Nero's army could stop her blades. But this only meant that she would have to make the necessarily adjustments to her strength and speed.

Swing

All of this took one millisecond to go over in her hand, and she almost instantly made the necessary calculations and followed the strike up with her second blade. However just like before Meiling was capable of defending against it, physical things couldn't harm her, but even so…..

…Meiling's feet dug into the earth as she was pushed back from the strength behind the strike. Wasting no time, the girl with the antler helmet came for another attack.

Slash

Came the left blade for Meiling's head, but she put up her arms and blocked the strike with it. However this left her vulnerable to the second blade.

Slam

"Argh!"

Meiling unconsciously grunted out, even if it couldn't cause damage to a youkai, they still felt pain nonetheless.

The huge earth sword hit right into her side, this blow was even more powerful than others as the woman had used her gravity manipulation powers to amplify the attack. Naturally this also allowed her to go way past human limit, despite herself not possessing that great of strength.

Kick

As if getting angry, Meiling launched a lighting fast leg attack aimed towards her head. She couldn't evade such a fast attack even if she wanted to.

Soar

So she simply raised up one of her blades to intercept the attack. Meiling leg impacted against it….

Crack Crack Shatter

And the blade broke apart from the hit, but by this time she had already moved out of the attack's range.

Dash

Meiling instantaneously closed the distance between them and got into striking position, the woman noted that her fist was seemingly glowing with energy. She immediately realized that she would be unable to survive such a blow, she needed some form of protection.

"A shield before me!"

Tear

A large chunk of earth tore itself out of the ground and erected itself before the woman. '…Still not enough.'

"Increase numbers."

Seven more makeshift earth shields appeared in front of her, but even that would only stall the Chinese girl.

The fist was launched and a booming voice was heard as it passed through the sound barrier.

Crack Crack Crack Crack Crack Crack Crack Crack

All of the walls were instantly pierced through by Meiling's fist as she was flying towards her target; the woman raised her remaining blade to futilely block the attack.

Shatter

But as expected it crumbled apart against Meiling's empowered Qi attack. The fist continued it's path…

"Bend!"

Crunch

"Ghaa….argh..!"

…her arm was violently twisted backwards by the force of gravity answering her words.

The woman stepped back several times and once more put some distance between each other.

"Reform!"

The remains of her blades answered to her call and reassembled themselves into 4 smaller parts that resumed floating near her side.

In the meantime Meiling's arm reassembled itself into its proper place; truly the regenerative capabilities of youkai were astounding.

"Coming."

The woman announced as she dashed towards Meiling with the 4 blades floating behind her.

Soar

One of them came to her front and she extended her blue glowing right hand behind it.

"Bore straight through!"

She issued the order and the blade launched itself with the force of gravity behind it. Meiling was forced to rise up her hands to block it, it did no damage but it didn't need to do either, for this was just a distraction.

Slash

Punch

The blade was shattered before it's even reached its target.

Kick

Meiling used her free legs to strike at the woman, but to her surprise the woman's feet left the ground and jumped onto one of her flying blades, then she used this exact moment to deliver a strike to Meiling's neck.

Slam

Meiling was slammed to the ground and her head was buried in the earth.

The kimono clad woman retreated to safe distance just in case.

Rise

Meiling slowly raised herself up.

Despite her calculations, she was unable to kill Meiling. She assumed that certain parts of her body would be more vulnerable, but she was wrong, all parts of her body are equally tough. She came to the conclusion that she is unable to defeat Meiling through her own means, which means that she would just stall it until her husband returns.

She looked at her opponent and noted that Meiling was glaring at her with what she could discern as utmost hatred, hatred so strong that it could even manifest in physical form, which it did as a red and black darkness surrounded Meiling's right arm, she channeled the curse for the second time and it formed into a ball of darkness.

Meiling launched the ball towards her opponent; however that was a terrible mistake on her part.

The darkness reached the woman, who simply smiled as she took the ball that contained all the evils of humanity like nothing and instantly launched it back at Meiling with her forces of gravity.

Indeed, the mistake was that her target was not human and not even a conceptual being like herself, instead she was just a simple automaton, a machine. The curse would not affect her.

"Waste not, want not."

She remarked as launched the ball back at its sender.

Splash

"AAARRGH!"

Meiling body was now fully engulfed in the darkness of the grail mud, before that it was only excreting influence over her through the right hand, but now potentially her entire body was susceptible to corruption.

…

DIE DIE DIE

Hell was being printed onto Meiling's brain as she was exposed to the full extent of the corruption.

"-Ah."

Her brain exploded with violent images.

Melt

Absorb

Corrupt

The mud was eating at her remains and mercilessly stole the warmth from her.

All five of her senses were assaulted with darkness and corruption. Everywhere she turned to she only saw death and suffering, hear ears only told her screams of pain and torture, and from her nose the smell of burning humans filled her brains. She could taste the corruption in her mouth, and felt like throwing up, and invisible hands were torturing and groping her body.

DIE DIE DIE DIE

"Kha.."

Meiling was being crushed…

…crushed by unimaginable darkness

…crushed by ugliness that no human would want to acknowledge

…crimes they would want to run away from

…every crime of the people in this world

She experienced the worst of humanity over and over.

As she was repainted in its colours, Meiling vaguely felt her body becoming weightless, indeed her opponent noted that she was still alive and decided to get rid of her from this battlefield.

She don't know how high she floated, but suddenly she felt like a mountain was pressing down on her and sent down to earth, pain pierced her body even in this deluded state. And she felt the earth slowly swallowing her.

And as the earth slid over her body, she thought that she heard the cries of Remilia.

"Sakuya!"

Upon hearing her mistress cry out, something began to stir inside Meiling…

…

Sakuya launched 3 sets of knives. The first went directly towards the old man in a straight line, and the other two bounced in erratic patterns that would hit him if he dodged the first one.

The old man immediately seen through this and just jumped over the first set of knives, he looked up only to find even more knives coming from above, he ducked away from them.

Rattle Rattle

The sound of the knives coming into contact with the ground alerted him for the next strike, without even looking at it, he stepped out of the bouncing knives way.

He put his weapon onto his shoulder again "Come on Ojou-san, surely you can do better than this."

Sakuya only gave a small smile in response and stopped time.

When time resumed itself, the old man found knives in all possible directions; he immediately discerned that evasion was not possible this time. The weapons were closing in on him every moment.

"Haa!"

He swung his spear around himself with a shouted, and blasted away most of the knives, due to the fact that this created plenty of space he was able to dodge the remaining ones, but he was taken by surprise by a group of them that were launched later than others.

Click Click

The knives fortunately were unable to penetrate his thick armour, and instead remained stuck halfway inside it.

'Something strange happened during that attack. How did she pull so many knives out all of a sudden? Whatever the case it is probably best for me to stop playing around against an unknown technique….'

Sakuya stopped time again and placed an even greater number of knives than before, according to her calculations he wouldn't be able to evade or smash away all of them.

Time resumed and knives appeared everywhere, ready to draw the old man's blood

'I see, now I understand what is going on. Time manipulation eh, or no it could be just the manipulation of my perceptions, if that is the case she should have just outright killed me instead of just throwing knives at me, I do not know if she is just toying with me, or perhaps just underestimating me. But unlike her I'm not going to hold back!'

The spear's tip moved and it shone with a bright light as the old man shouted "Musube, Tonbokiri! (Bind, Dragonfly-Cutter!)"

The distance between Sakuya and the old man was cut.

Thump

Her eyes widened as she realized the danger

Cards appeared in Sakuya's hand, as she tried to teleport away, but it was too late.

Stab

Tonbokiri bit into her stomach and she had dropped them as she fell to the ground.

Drip Drip Drip

Blood kept pouring out of the maid's stomach, despite her hand pressuring down on it. "Ahh…ha..ha.." she breathed deeply as she clutched her wound, she looked up to the old man who was approaching her.

"Tonbokiri….ha….that must mean…ah….that you are... the legendary daimyo….Honda Tadakatsu…!"

"Although I do indeed bear the name of Honda Tadakatsu, I'm probably not the person you are thinking of." He said as he kept walking closer to her, unconcerned that she could still pose any potential danger.

Sakuya grit her teeth as she futilely grasped her last daggers in her hand "Why…ha….can't…I use my ability?"

"You know of Tonbokiri and you still don't understand?" Tadakatsu complained while clutching his head with his left hand.

Slash

Tadakatsu showed the weapon to her while he explained "A dragonfly (Tonbo) was cut in half upon landing on this weapon's spearhead, giving it the name: Tonbokiri."

"It is capable of severing anything that is reflected on it's blad, even concepts such as distance. The reason you cannot use your ability Ojou-chan, is because it was severed the moment this spear wounded you, this match is already over."

Step Step

The kimono clad woman returned to her husband's side.

"Oh Kazuno, did you finish your opponent?" Asked Tadakatsu, completely ignoring Sakuya who was still laying on the ground

"My sincerest apologies, but I was unable to defeat my enemy, I merely buried her underground."

"Its fine, once she digs herself out I can just defeat her as well."

Tadakatsu returned her attention to Sakuya.

"Well this is the end, Ojou-chan."

Thrust

The spear moved to claim her life, in a last desperate attempt she threw her remaining daggers at Tadakatsu, but it was futile as Kazuno merely stopped them midair.

Time seemed to stop for Sakuya, as she took in the possibility of her death, and more importantly the possibility that she wouldn't be able to serve…to be with Remilia anymore. 'Ojou-sama, I'm sorry.' tears left her eye sockets as she thought this.

Then a voice rang out that took the attention of the whole battlefield. "Sakuya!"

….

The bloodlust and power released by Remilia at that time could be felt by almost everyone on Britain who had the smallest spiritual perception.

It first reached the fake priest, Kotomine Kirei who stayed in the camp. He simply smiled towards the direction like he had done a job well.

…

Deep inside the bowels of Edessa, a silver haired girl who was chained to the walls, stirred. No light reached down here and only the occasional scientists checking up on her offered any change in this dull state.

But then something unexpected happened this day as the power of Remilia reached even down here.

"Ah." Rasped out the girl from the new sensation that washed over her and filled her systems with information

'Hostile intent detected.'

"A battle…..I must…go."

'Initializing all systems.'

'Reactor Starting'

'Cognition systems online.'

'Scanning area for hostile: Error-Not found'

'Loading artificial intelligence module: Runa.'

'Anti army combat gynoid, codename Unit-A66 online.'

Bang

The door leading to this dark chamber was slammed open and several scientists stormed in.

"What's happening, why is she starting up?"

"I don't know; try to shut down the systems!"

They bolted to the various consoles and attempted to disable the gynoid.

"It isn't responding Unit-A66 is overriding us!"

"Goddamnit!"

Kick

Trash

One of the scientists started trashing the equipment in frustration.

"They are going to chew us alive if they find this out. Quick search for Yuuko and tell her about this!"

Rattle Rattle

Runa tried to break apart the chains that held her, but couldn't.

She looked at the scientists and demand "Release me!" in an emotionless voice.

"That's the artificial personality Runa, why is it active?" asked a confused scientist.

"We can't let you out Runa, please understand that you are dangerous." Said a more calmer scientist.

"For interfering with my duties you have been registered as a potential threat. Initializing weapon systems." She replied in a cold, robotic voice.

"Wait Runa, don't do anything rash!"

Her only reply was "Telekinesis module activated, proceeding to initialize the Artemis weapon system."

4 objects near Runa left the wall, they looked like some strange shaped shields, and in the middle of them they contained a light bulb like object that house purple crystals inside it, as soon as she got hold of them with her power, they started to brim with electricity.

They took up position near hear sides, 2 above her shoulders and 2 next to her legs. "Artemis weapon systems online, engaging threat." The four objects began to glow from the massive amounts of electricity that was coursing through them.

"Runa wai—"But his words were silenced as 4 instantaneous and deadly lasers reduced his body to ash.

"H-Help us!"

Bang Bang

"Let us out!"

The remaining two scientists desperately banged against the door, trying to escape.

Runa cut herself off from her bindings and began floating towards the exit door, the scientist watched in fear as she closed in, not sure if she would kill them or not.

Zap Zap

The laser come out from their container, but didn't strike any of the scientists, instead just slice the door open.

Runa levitated out of it and was greeted around fifty armed people; one of them was the purple haired Yuuko-Sensei.

"This is as far as you go, Unit-66."

"Please move out of the way Yuuko-sensei, I do not want to kill needlessly."

"No you shall not do anything. Execute override command: A trivial event!"

Click

Upon hearing that anagram, Runa fell to the ground, all 'life' was gone from her eyes and she became nothing more than a doll once more.

Slam

As the source of their levitation went offline, the Artemis system fell to the ground.

"Detain her quickly and make sure she doesn't escape again! This has wasted enough of our time already."

…

And finally Remilia's power reached Dummonia, where Emiya and Merlin were restoring the wall that was destroyed by Saber.

"Anyway you really don't need to worry, after all I performed this experiment before, even if there was room for failure, it was negligible. Anyway I'm more interested if you had any side eff…"

Merlin quieted down as the wave of energy passed through him.

Emiya looked up to him and asked "So you felt it too? What was this just now?"

"I do not know, but it came from the northern areas."

'The north? Don't tell me it's that vampire Yukari told me about…' he looked towards the direction with conflicted thoughts.

…

A cry rang out on the battlefield: "Sakuya!"

And Tadakatsu immediately moved to defend himself; all of his instincts and battle experience were telling him to do so. He only had a moment to discern his enemy's features, the Scarlet Devil was coming faster than anything he ever encountered, her eyes were bloodshot with rage and a red mist of energy surrounded her as she was coming for her prey.

"Ghu!" He moved Tonbokiri to defend himself, but did not have enough time to activate its ability.

Dash Dash

Snap

Remilia came into contact with Tonbokiri and snapped the sacred weapon in two, her claws continued their path.

Stab

Splatter

"Khu!"

Tadakatsu's shoulder was cleanly cut off from its place. If he didn't move to defend he would be dead now.

Kazuno attempted to help her husband by restraining Remilia…

Kick

But she was sent flying away from them, even if she was allowed to use her powers, it wouldn't have been able to restrict Remilia anyway. As she was falling she recalibrated her posture and so she fell down like a cat.

"I see, it looks like you escaped even sooner than I anticipated." Kazuno said out of nowhere after seeing who her opponent was.

Facing her was Hong Meiling…yet it was not the same Hong Meiling as before. Her Chinese outfit and cap that was green before, was now darker in shade and the primary dominating colour was now black. But it was not just her outfit that changed, her skin became paler, her hair became the colour of crimson red and her once aqua blue eyes were now purely silver coloured. Her expression was also completely serene, unlike before when she was being tormented by the curse.

"Yeah, I couldn't really just keep lying down while my friends are fighting." Meiling crackled her knuckles and entered into a martial arts stance "Besides we still have a rematch to play."

"I understand..."

Rip Rip

She created two compressed earth blades again "…Then here I come!" And dashed towards Meiling

Meiling just calmly waited in her position until Kazuno made her first strike.

The Chinese girl kicked up with her legs and launched a swirling torrent of darkness with it, this took away the earth blade from Kazuno and launched it somewhere elsewhere, Kazuno herself was almost caught up in the attack, but managed to step back in time.

Now it was Meiling's turn to go on the offensive. She quickly moved forward and would reach Kazuno in a few moments. In reply Kazuno launched her remaining blade at her. Meiling didn't move to block it or destroy it, instead she choose to simply duck under and follow that up with a slide kick that removed Kazuno's feet from the ground.

While she was still in air, Meiling's feet moved and prepared to strike, the automated doll attempted to hold it back with her gravity powers, but it was unable to contain the huge strength that coursed through Meiling's body, her leg smashed down into her metallic body, leaving cracks in the ground beneath it. Kazuno body deactivated from the damage she had received, Meiling choose not to finish her off. A clear difference in power has been made; this was the power of Hong Meiling when she isn't just fighting on instinct like in their previous battle.

…

Honda Tadakatsu was famous for never receiving a wound despite partaking in numerous battles, and now this very thing came to bite him in the sides. Remilia had completely slice of his right arm, and the pain was excruciating, and Honda Tadakatsu was not a man who was used to pain, he was good at evading blows not enduring them. So this only disadvantaged him further when he was forced to fight a really angry vampire with already a hand missing.

Stab

Naturally that didn't mean that he wouldn't try to fight back as he just now tried to impale Remilia with the remaining half of his spear, but of course it was sloppier than his usual strike so Remilia had no trouble evading it then swatting the weapon out of his hand. Another strike came at him and he made an attempt to dodge.

Stab

Splatter
"Khu!"

Remilia's claws missed his heart because of this, but instead sunk into his sides despite the armour he was wearing and took out a large chunk out of him.

Rattle Rattle

Red chains seized and lifted up Tadakatsu; Remilia had enough of playing around with him and decided to finish him off.

As the chains burned his body he was making peace with the possibility of his death. Falling in battle isn't such a bad death, he would only be sorry for the ones he would leave behind. 'Futayo..Kazuno….I'm sorry, but looks like my time is up.'

"Don't ignore me, Mongrel!"

Clang Clang

But a sudden barrage of noble phantasms that forced Remilia to defend prevented Tadakatsu from getting his death. Tadakatsu was dropped to the ground as Remilia was now busy with Gilgamesh, but he was already losing his consciousness and blood was rapidly flowing out of his body, if something is not done he would done in a few minutes.

…

The tide of the battle momentarily turned into the Babylonian forces favor when the reinforcements arrived, however the advantage was soon back at the Transylvanian forces thanks to the quick administration and tactics of General Bartley. Had Sakuya not rescued him from death the army would have fell into disarray and they would have lost on the ground front. Nevertheless even if they win this battle, the Transylvanians took a lot of casualties as well.

The only ones who were still fighting were a handful of Babylonian forces that refused to surrender, Gilgamesh and Remilia themselves. Even if the Golden King lost on the more strategic side of the battle, he could still eliminate all of them if he so wanted.

Remilia dexterously kept dodging Gilgamesh's noble phantasms, but she didn't play this game anymore, she was planning to end his life.

Dash

Remilia found an opening in the barrage of noble phantasms and flew through it. Gilgamesh barely had enough time to react and redirect his fire while Remilia was approaching. The dead princess skilfully evaded all of them and didn't let herself be shaken off.

She reached Vimana and easily tore through the barrier that was surrounding; she made her next dash towards Gilgamesh.

Flutter

Crush

But a set of black cloth intercepted her and took the attack instead. Remilia instantly knew that something was wrong as the thing that she had pierced was not something made of flesh, it felt more wooden and metallic instead. Two hands reach out from the robe and firmly grabbed hold of Remilia. "Got you, hehe." said the voice and all of a sudden Remilia was unable to move, like her body just gained an enormous amount of weight.

"Surprised? What you are in now is called a bounded field, it would take most mages a lengthy preparation to make one, but I can make them instantaneously." As he said this he took out a black book that was glowing with silver runes, he was able to skip the preparations because the bounded field spells have already been loaded onto this mystic code he was holding, thus he could essentially cast them instantaneously as long as he supplied the prana to it.

Remilia felt her insides being crushed from the increasing pressure inside the bounded field. She couldn't escape with just her physical power, so that means she would need to use magic.

Tremble Tremble

The air itself shook as Remilia began discharging her power, she released so much that they became visible in a physical form. It kept increasing and increasing, until it formed a massive cross shape of scarlet energy and the barrier began to break from the amount of magical power she was releasing.

"Oh how truly wonderful your strength is! Now I see why they call you 'Scarlet Devil'." The mage shouted overjoyed completely oblivious to the danger. Then the barrier broke and energies destroyed his body, in his last minutes he had let go of the grimoire and let it fall to the ground.

Now that the last obstacle was out of her way, she moved to take the head of the Babylonian king who was still arrogantly sitting on his throne, with his eyes closed. The fact that she wasn't taking her seriously angered Remilia, but he would lament it in the afterlife.

Dash

Her claws reach for the king

Rattle Rattle

Bind Bind

But chains stop her hand from moving any further, her leg, her neck and her entire body is restrained by them.

Rattle Rattle

Remilia tries to break from the chains, but unable the moment. Nor can she taunt the golden king as the chain was strongly pulling on her neck.

Gilgamesh rises from his throne and opens his crimson red eyes.

There is no emotion in them as he surveys the battlefield and notes that all of his forces have been defeated.

He turns towards Remilia and from behind him his Gate of Babylon opens once more, revealing the many noble phantasms inside it, but Gilgamesh takes a particular one, Ea the sword of rupture.

Remilia immediately freezes after seeing it; she has seen many mythical weapons as she is a collector of them, but nothing like this one blade. It was unnatural and she could just feel the tremendous amount of power that lay inside it.

"For the sin of delaying the King's conquest, I shall now hand out your punishment." He said as if he was judging her.

Hustle Hustle

The air roars as the 3 cylinders on Ea begin to spin separately. They speed up and winds start to gather around it.

The winds around it begin to cackle with energy, as a ridiculous amount of power gathered inside it, far larger than anything Remilia could produce.

"You are an eyesore, brat. Disappear." Gilgamesh says calmly

"Enuma Elish!"

The sword roars to fulfil Gilgamesh's order and releases the torrent of power at Remilia who was still bound by the chains.

Thump Thump

'Have to do something.'

She could feel Ea's attack disintegrating her body. Not even the highest order of magic would be able to damager her like this, this just proved how powerful the weapon was to her.

Thump Thump

'It's no use, my fate manipulation abilities are still sealed.' she thought after concentrating.

Rustle Rustle

Rustle Rustle

Crack Crack

With the last use of her strength Remilia Scarlet was able to shatter the chains of Enkidu, but alas it was too late and Ea disintegrated her body completely. Everyone on the ground watched in horror or awe as Remilia was erased from existence.

The Babylonian troops were cheering for their king.

And the Transylvanian raiders went into a state of shock, that some of the remaining Babylonians attempted to take advantage of.

Clang

Bartley dropped his sword and crumbled to his knees "That…monster…was defeated?" He found it absurd, for his mind has already registered Remilia as something invincible and godlike that would never be defeated, to see it happen with his own eyes was too much for him.

"What happened to Ojou-sama!? Let me see Meiling!" Sakuya's sight was obscured by Meiling who was tending to her wounds, so she didn't see Remilia disappear.

"You can't Sakuya!"

"Let me go! I must see her!"

Sakuya pushed Meiling aside and let out a shocked scream when she realized Remilia was gone, and only the triumphant look of that man was in the sky.

"OJOU-SAMA!"

…

As the blast created by Ea cleared, there was no sign of Remilia

Bang

A thunderstruck as if to signify the victory of Gilgamesh.

Drip Drip

Slow rain started to fell from the dark clouds as the scarlet mist started to disperse.

The Transylvanian people could look at the sky for the first time in months now, yet they didn't feel happy.

They were instead overcome with feelings of uncertainty, who knows what will happen now that the Scarlet Devil is gone after all? Will this Gilgamesh become their new tyrant and rule them even harsher than Remilia did? People were frightened by the possible change, and so many of them wished it in their hearts that by some devilish miracle, Remilia would return.

"Hahaha! Did you see that mongrels who dared to oppose me!? This is the power of the True King!"

He extended his hands as he continued his speech "Your so called 'Devil' fought against me and died, even if you powerless mongrels all fought against me, you wouldn't even come close to scratching me.

Therefore I extend my proposition to you: Submit to me and I may let you live!" There was no hint of mercy as he said these words.

Their minds and rationality didn't want to bow down to the Gilgamesh after his arrogant words, but their instincts and natural fear of the strong overcame the rational mind and so many of them dropped their weapons and knelt to the ground. Such was the powerful aura of Gilgamesh; it could compel almost anyone to obey his whims.

However a certain silver haired maid broke this shameful submission as she attacked Gilgamesh shouting "Give Oujou-sama back!"

She throw several daggers at him, Gilgamesh moved his hand and caught all the daggers within his fingers. While Gilgamesh doesn't really use his physical ability, he is leagues above human level and was famous for his strength in his legend.

Sakuya attacked him with more daggers; she couldn't stop time as her ability was still sealed by Tonbokiri. She moved in closer to slice off Gil's neck since throwing attacks weren't working.

Grab

But the moment she got close, Gilgamesh forcefully took hold of her hand and made her drop the daggers, and then he grabbed her by the waist with his other hand and pulled Sakuya closer to him. "You are the Devil's maid, right? Now that your master is dead, you should serve me instead." Gilgamesh said while smiling arrogantly.

"I would never serve anyone but Ojou-sama!" Sakuya snarled back with as much hatred as she could muster.

"I see. Then you can just die with your master."

Gilgamesh's hand moved.

Thump Thump

Time froze for Sakuya as the hand was approaching her face. Meiling was already moving to help her, but it was too late for her to do anything.

But before Gilgamesh could do anything with his filthy hand, a familiar voice rang across the battlefield.

"Divine Spear: Spear The Gungnir!"

Whistle Whistle

It flied across the skies at blinding speed aimed exactly at Gilgamesh's Vimana, like a glorious red star signifying her grand return.

Crash

"Impossible, this shouldn't be happening!" were Gilgamesh's words after Gungnir slammed into the back side of his flying contraption. He was quickly losing altitude and was plummeting down to earth. Sakuya jumped off the moment she had heard her mistress's voice and flew to greet her.

Everyone looked up to the spot where Gungnir came from, and soon enough there floated Remilia Scarlet, the Scarlet Devil, Manipulator of Fate, without a single scratch on her, sporting a confident smile.

Sakuya appeared before her and bowed slightly.

"I'm overjoyed at your safe return, mistress." Sakuya only gave a small smile on the outside, but inside she was filled with relief that Remilia didn't die. Soon she even felt ashamed for doubting her mistress's powers.

"Don't relax yet Sakuya, we still have to deal with that man after all." Remilia replied calmly

"You mean he is still alive!?" Sakuya looked to the rubble where Vimana crashed, and soon emerged Gilgamesh bleeding from his forehead but still very alive.

The Golden King looked to the Scarlet Devil the moment he got up, and his eyes narrowed, like he was looking at something that shouldn't exist in this world anymore.

"You. How are you still alive?" he asked with complete calmness despite everyone expecting him to be furious.

Gilgamesh was puzzled for a very good reason, nothing that was obliterated by Ea should return to life just like that. After all Ea was the sword that separated the earth from heaven, using it showed the 'truth' that existed before that moment, a molten and fiery death that no living thing should be able to return from.

"Hoh, did the King of Babylon really think that an attack of that level could kill the Scarlet Devil?" She asked with a triumphant smile that radiated on her face. Her fangs showed and her eyes seemed full of life, indeed for all accounts she survived Enuma Elish without a scratch.

'But this is not what happened right, Bern?'

'Of course not my dear Lambda, I can even confirm with the red truth that Remilia Scarlet was completely erased at that moment if you want me to.'

'Fufu.' The witches laughed in the void

All of the soldiers raised their weapon hands and shouted: "Hail Scarlet!"

"Hail Scarlet!"

"Hail Scarlet!"

The veins only kept bulging on Gilgamesh's head both from someone calling Enuma Elish 'An attack of that level' and because the cheers of the Transylvanian soldiers annoyed him.

But none of the soldiers and not even Gilgamesh himself had realized that had the Golden King didn't hold back with Ea and unleashed it at its full power; she would have been unable to return. Because the truth is, Remilia is bluffing at the moment, she is pretending that the attack didn't faze her, but in fact she really DID die and the attack damaged her down to her very soul. The only reason she came was because of the nature of a Youkai.

Youkai are conceptual beings that are born of people's beliefs and fears, they are also naturally fuelled by these two things. In this manner Youkai can be likened to the old gods of this world, the ones that Gilgamesh had so thoroughly destroyed. As long as there is belief or fear in them they would return even if they have been completely annihilated, and their powers only increase the more people fear or believe in them.

This is the reason why Remilia had planted hundreds of rumors about herself; she made it so that she would have a fearsome reputation. Not like it needed much work considering how superstitious the people of this era were.

But alas Remilia's victory was still not assured, she would first have to remove the Golden King from the field, and unfortunately she cannot do that by force at the moment, as that last Gungnir shot was what she could muster up, she felt like she would collapse from exhaustion any moment, yet maintained her strong façade through her iron will.

She would have to make her move now while the Golden King is still confused and unsure what to do.

"Your forces have been defeated by those of my own." She started and got the King's attention as she gestured to the battlefield overall

"Even your wild cards have been defeated." She gestured towards Kazuno and Tadakatsu who were lying on the ground, unconscious

"Then you, yourself couldn't even harm with your strongest attack." She pointed to Gil and her smile widened before continuing.

"No matter how you look at it, this is a clear defeated on your side." She said with a triumphant expression.

"You dare to imply that I Gilgamesh had lost to a mere parasite!?" Gate of Babylon opened behind him once more and displayed the numerous weapons in it.

"Even if you had not lost the war yet, it is undeniable that you have lost this battle. Which is why I'm going to say the following: Withdraw and I shall let you and your wild cards go in safety. Then you may face me again in another battle once you have restored your strength, and then you can prove if you are truly strong enough to defeat me or not!"

"You would suggest for the King to surrender and flee like a coward?" Gilgamesh shot several noble phantasms out at her in anger.

In some last display of great finesse, Remilia dodged all of them without moving an inch, using her last reserves of strength. Naturally this served to only make Gilgamesh even weaker in the face of the common observers below.

She glared sharply at Gilgamesh before continuing: "Then what would you do in the situation you stayed, Gilgamesh? Would you perhaps try to use the same techniques that didn't work before and try to defeat me? I hope even you realize that I'm unlikely to be taken off guard by that sword for a second time. And even in the case you DO manage to defeat me, what then? How would you annex my territories without barely any troops at your command? Sure your presence is compelling, but you cannot be everywhere, nobody would follow your orders and only chaos would ensure."

Gilgamesh was seeing her reasoning, he was arrogant not stupid after all. But his pride wouldn't let him swallow such a disgrace.

"Your majesty…" The black robed mage appeared next to Gilgamesh again, Remilia arched an eyebrow at this, wondering how he survived, though there was something odd about him. "I do agree with her as well, I think withdrawing here would be our best option, besides Tadakatsu wound's need urgent attention, I tried to help him as much as I could, but I doubt it will do much if we just stay here." The mage whispered into Gilgamesh's ears.

Gilgamesh at first wanted to slap him for even suggesting that his King should retreat, but then he thought it also gave him the opportunity to leave without feeling distasteful about it, after all it would meant saving one of his vassals. Naturally this whole incident still left Gilgamesh disgraced, and he would be back for revenge as soon as he regained his strength.

"Very well, I grew tired of this farce, so I shall leave for now, but remember that it was I, Gilgamesh who spared your lives. And I will be back to take it." Gil said while pointing at Remilia

The Scarlet Devil and almost everyone breathed in relief at this, since if Gilgamesh really went out of control, then a lot more people would have died.

Gilgamesh sat back onto his Vimana and the black mage put Tadakatsu and Kazuno up as well. Despite being shot down, Vimana still ascended at the command of Gilgamesh and departed to the horizon.

And such ended the defensive battle for the troops of Scarlet with a victory.

…

Even though the conflict between Transylvania and Babylon is temporarily resolved, another conflict was brewing in the south, in one of the territories controlled by the Holy Magic Sect.

Footsteps raced across everywhere, desperately looking for something. These were soldiers under the influence of the Sect.

"He couldn't have gotten far, find him!"

"Break into the houses if necessary!"

Such words disturbed the peace of this village, as soldiers rummaged through it, they tore entire houses apart and created quite a bit of chaos in their wake, so the villagers naturally weren't happy about this.

"Stop! I won't let you inside my house just so you can destroy it!" Said a defiant villager

"If you do not let us investigate your house, we will execute you under the suspicion that you are harboring a spy an enemy nation!" The man already moved his sword, not even bothering to wait for his compliance. Their matter was most urgent, and if they fail their heads will roll.

Cut

Gash

"Kha…ha."

The villager crumbled to the ground as he was diagonally cut in the chest.

Rummage Rummage

They looked through his house, but they didn't find the spy they were looking for.

"Tch. Not here either, where could he have gone?"

Another soldier patted him on the back "S-Sir the villagers….!"

Step Step

Step Step

All of a sudden the soldiers were surrounded by angry villagers carrying pitchforks, axes and whatever they could get their hands on.

"W-What's the meaning of this?" asked the leader of the group from the villagers

"You come here searching for a spy, and then all you do is wreck our homes and even kill one of our own? Don't think for a second that we are going to let you get away with this!"

"That's right, go away!"

The villagers started throwing stones at them, which quickly ignited the situation.

Slash

A soldier cut down a nearby villager, and then chaos ensured.

"Bastards, you will pay for this!" and the villagers rushed at the soldiers and the soldiers defended themselves.

The villagers were more, but the soldiers were better equipped and trained than them, anyone could come out victorious from this. But who won was irrelevant, what mattered is that in the confusion a single knight escaped the village without being noticed.

This knight's name was Eliarak, he was obviously the 'spy' the soldiers were searching for. He served Cornwall even before King Emiya came to the throne, of course he wasn't famous or strong like Bedivere and Kay, but he was still a Knight, which made him about 10 times more useful than your average person in this era. He was here because he was worried about the possibility of an attack from the Holy Magic Sect, so he has come to investigate if his suspicions are well founded.

And by luck's stroke he found that his suspicions were well founded, and situation was worse than he could ever imagine, and if he couldn't get this information to King Emiya, they are potentially doomed.

With this in mind he has been fleeing to Dummonia for the last few days, the only problem is that somehow the Holy Magic Sect noticed his presence, and were actively looking for him, that or another spy and was just having a bad luck.

He didn't know how long he ran or how much time has passed, but the sky was already darkening, he would need to find a shelter for the night. A knight was still no match for the creatures that emerged during these hours after all.

He ran some more. It was already dark, but he managed to find an abandoned farmhouse. He decided that it would be a good place to say in for the night. He went in and locked the door, and fell asleep with sword in hand.

…..

Click Click

He was suddenly awoken in the morning when someone tried to open the door.

Bang Bang

"Open this door immediately; we know you are in there!"

'Oh shit!' Alarms went off in his head immediately as he got himself up and readied all his equipment. He looked around the inside of the building he was but he couldn't find any exist. He cursed himself for not exploring the place before settling in.

But now it was too late to feel sorry about that, for the enemy was already at his doorstep.

He drew out his sword and walked to the door.

Stab

"Gha-ha!"

He thrust his sword through the wooden framed door and the stabbed the man who was banging at it.

"Hey what's wrong?"

Since he didn't let out a scream, the other didn't realize that he was stabbed.

Step Step

They walked closer to the door.

Bang

And it was forcibly kicked open and Eliarak came bursting through it, sword in hand.

Slash

Slash

"What the…kha.!" The men barely had enough time to react before they were immediately cut down from the swift sword strikes of the knight.

"There he is, get him!" But the knight couldn't relax as a dozen other soldiers were now running at him.

Instead of fighting, he decided to make a run for it, since even with armor on he was still faster than them.

He ran several meters before something large and robed blocked his path, it was a Tousho.

The Knight already encountered one before so he didn't stop in sight of it, instead he just pulled out his shield and kept running towards it.

Swoosh

The Tousho launched a holy magic attack that would have smitten him if he didn't have his shield in front of him. Nevertheless the shield in his hand started to heat up because of it and it burned his hand to just hold it straight.

Dash

Slash

Crack

He managed to reach the Tousho and disable it by cracking it's skull in two. Eliarak knew that it would repair itself soon, so he immediately continued his escape.

Swoosh

But it was once again disturbed when a group of soldiers shot their arrows at him. "What the hell. How many soldiers are they going to annoy me with?"

He had no choice but to keep running, most of the arrows bounced off his armour….

Stab

Gash

…but a single one managed to penetrate his leg.

'Damn it, this is bad.'

Despite being hindered in his movement he continued on. He arrived near a bridge that was near the border between Dummonia.

But he couldn't continue any further, as another Tousho was blocking the way. 'Just my luck I guess.'

He turned backwards, but there was another Tousho there.

He knew that he wouldn't be able to fight against two at the same time.

Step

'No choice then.'

He jumped off the bridge and planned to escape into the water.

Zap

A holy lightning magic hit him in the back as he was falling.

"Khu!'

Splash

His body entered the water, but he was unable to move his limbs due to the electricity messing his nervous system and muscles up.

'Ah damn, dying like this…what a disgrace…for a knight.' He thought as he was drowning under the water.

Whatever information he had, Eliarak wouldn't deliver it to King Emiya…

…

Author Notes: Uh, huh. It took such a long time for this chapter to get BETA'd that I forgot what I wanted to say. This chapter was completed on January the first, but my usual arabic slave didn't want to read it, so I was forced to beta it with a romanian vampire. Don't know if this caused any notable difference or not. Anyway this chapter had a noticeably lack of Emiya co, that is because I think this fight deserved atleast a chapter of it's own. So I have split the chapter into three parts instead of the original two. But I don't know if it will be released in that order, since I been planning to do a little side story of sorts that let's me give some insight as to what is happening in the other territories, it will be similar to the chapter 3 of this fic. It will most likely be 7-10k word length, so it won't take me that long to make it.

After I'm done with the side story, I will finish this chapter for once and for all. It will have plenty of Emiya, mostly character discussion and tech/army upgrades and some action at the end. It will most likely be another 25k long chapter. This fic has actually really slowed down, considering I wanted to be doing the Holy Magic Sect by this time, yet I'm still only at the intermediary part between the Medea arc and the Magic Sect arc. Hopefully things will speed up once I'm done with this part, since the following 7-10 chapters after that are pure testosterone fueled battles to the death. Compared to the previous battles in this fic, it won't be done in a war like scenario, but instead in a dungeon crawling session.

As for actually commenting on this chapter.

Yeah I'm upping Saber's powerlevel by making her learn some magic. She only didn't use magic in the canon source, because it was an unkingly way to fight, now that limitation has been removed. And even if she learns, she won't become a spell caster like Merlin or Medea, instead she will be a more combat focused mage, like say Bazett, so expect stuff that boosts her physical stats and such.

We also found that Angra Mainyu or at least the grail mud is here with Gilgamesh, and he uses it on his best soldiers. I added it for 3 reasons, 1. canonically Kotomine cannot survive without the grail's presence, as mana is supplied to his fake dark heart by the grail 2. It gave me a not so bullshit reason to buff some of Gil's men 3. The players thought it would be more amusing this way

Still related to the grail mud stuff, is the corruption of Meiling. For those that do not know, the grail mud straight it kills humans and normal living beings, but doesn't exactly hurts conceptual beings like Servants, instead it corrupts them. And seeing how Youkai are essentially conceptual beings as well and seeing that Banpai Akira art on Meiling, I felt compelled to do it.

As for the fighting itself, I worked quite hard on it, not sure how it came out. Tell me if you felt dissatisfied with it. One possible complaint that I can foresee is that I focus too much on the nameless characters. I do agree that I focus them on a bit, but there is a reason behind it. I simply wanted to avoid the situation where it feels like that only the main characters are doing anything and everyone else is useless, for this reason I try to document the struggles of the army itself as well.

The wild cards under Gilgamesh were taken from Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon, I felt clarifying this, since I don't think that many people have seen that anime/novel. I added them specifically because I needed somebody that wouldn't be murdered by Gilgamesh.

As for Remilia reviving. Come on, did you really think I would kill of a major character this early in the story? Besides it's all within the canon, Youkai are extremely hard to kill and eliminating them is only a temporary measure at best. A full powered Enuma Elish might have been able to permanently destroy her, but even that is questionable, as Youkai seem to always return as long as people believe or fear their existence. Frankly it is easier to seal a Youkai than to destroy them.

Answer corner:

Well, that was... not as good as I was hoping.

Please tell me what you were disappointed with so I can improve on that matter or perhaps fix it.