Editing Fate/Zero:Act 4 Part 3

But when the Berserker was materialized, the agony was beyond imagination.

The foreign body awakens, starts eating his flesh, creaking his bones. Acting as Kariya's pseudo Magic Circuits, the Crest Worms supply that sucked off prana to Berserker without a concern for the host's limits.

Speaking about agony isn't even half of it. Being corroded, plundered by living creatures inside his body <!-- ==== Page 356 ==== -->—the pain of being devoured alive, doubles with fear and disgust.

Hiding in the darkness, Kariya stifled his scream of impending death, raking up his throat and chest. When his skin tore and blood started running, he started chewing off of his nails on both hands.

For even more of a disaster, the prana consumption required from the Master by the Berserker class is even higher. When Zōken had Kariya use the maddening formula during the summoning to make him stronger, maybe this really was the plan of the old magus to tyrannize him from the start.

The worms bite at his spine. The worms are melting his nerves. The worms are, nesting en masse inside Kariya's body, the worms are the worms are the worms are the worms, the worms, the worms, the worms...

Roughly breathing away the remains of his agony, Kariya resumed his observation of the battlefield through the vision of his familiar. There are three Servants left. The Archer is nowhere to be seen. The battle has ended.

Victory— is not acquired. Perhaps Tokiomi evacuated the Archer when he realized the disadvantage.

Kariya's Berserker hasn't taken one step back in front of the overwhelming golden Archer. With a magecraft improvised in a year, Kariya was able to rival the Tōsaka magecraft polished through the generations, all by himself.

Haggard, Kariya left out a dry laugh from his theory(?).

He did it. That haughty magus was finally splattered with the mud by an ordinary man like Kariya, after always looking down to the likes of him. In his heart, Kariya sneered abundantly at Tokiomi and Zōken, thinking, did you see that.

This is enough for tonight. There is no reason to continue a battle that will pain him now that his<!-- ==== Page 358 ==== --> sworn enemy, the Archer, has withdrawn. Just let the other Servants kill each other as they wish.

As he reached his conclusion, Kariya was the most panicked of them all, when he saw the Berserker took Saber as his new target and charge at her.

The black knight charged with the force of a wild beast, kicking the asphalt. He looked only at the Saber, with a swirling, black killing intent.

An iron pole — this is what was left of the street light pole, the Archer was standing on top of, that tumbled on the ground when Berserker chopped it down. The Berserker probably picked it up at his feet, when he charged at Saber.

Saber's sword hidden under Invisible Air was definitely the holiest of the holy swords. It was the most supreme Noble Phantasm. There is no way, it will have trouble against a piece of metal, you pick up on the roadside.

The only thing that could possibly rival Saber's sword with such strength is the Noble Phantasm of a another Heroic Spirit. Yet...

Rider growled in admiration. The Noble Phantasm of a Heroic Spirit doesn't need to manifest through a characteristic object. Sometime, it can be a type of Noble Phantasm that manifests through a "unique ability" retained by the Servant's very body. This is exactly the case for the Berserker.

Still, what an astonishing power that was. The Berserker was capable of pillaging at will, the countless Noble Phantasms thrown at him by the Archer. They now understand the frightening lure. The instant Berserker's gauntlets grab one, the control of the Archer's Noble Phantasms go to the black knight.

Not only that, even ordinary scrap iron became full of the immense prana fit to compete with other Noble Phantasms, once it came into Berserker’s hands. Unlike how the golden knight owned numerous Noble Phantasms, Berserker’s Noble Phantasm is endless.

The second blow, the third blow – Berserker pressed Saber back with impressive throws of his ‘spears’, while Saber was merely defending herself. Saber’s left hand that was resting on the hilt had no strength in it, and the wound dealt by the Lancer’s Gáe Buidhe started to hurt again. With only her right hand wielding her sword, Saber could barely fight with the support of prana, but faced with the torrential attacks sent by the furious Berserker, she could only defend. Saber could not find a chance to retaliate, and gradually became disadvantaged.

If they could at least find out where Berserker’s Master was located, there might be ways to handle this... But Kiritsugu could not see Berserker’s Master with any of his two night-vision scopes.

"...Maiya, can you see him from your side?"

Kiritsugu furrowed his brows, when he heard Maiya’s reply. Kiritsugu and Maiya’s positions were actually each other’s blind spots. The reason that they could not see the Master might be that Berserker’s Master also considered his own hiding place as a priority, and did not stay at a position where he can deliver direct commands to his Servant.

It seems the opponent’s personality is even more prudent than the Archer’s Master. For Kiritsugu, compared with those talented but flippant magi, magi who do not show themselves off are much harder to handle.

Right now it was not just a single combat between the Berserker and the Saber. In between the two of them stood the Lancer and the Rider, both at their full strength. On a battlefield where only the strongest survive, the worst position is to be at a clear disadvantage. The Masters of the other Servants must be thinking the same – at this point by just helping the Berserker a little, they can easily defeat Saber.

Then eliminate an exhausted Berserker. It would be two birds with one stone. The Lancer and Rider can defeat two enemies with minimum prana expenditure.

Kiritsugu gritted his teeth, but he could only sit and wait.

It was not the Berserker’s vigor that pressed Saber down, but his intensely fierce barrage gave Saber no way to retaliate. No matter how bad the wound on Saber’s hand might be, as the strongest Servant Saber didn’t even have a chance to strike back. On top of that, although Berserker’s weapons were strengthened with prana, they were still twisted remains of an iron pole.

Berserker is definitely not a simple mad dog. The Heroic Spirit that became the Berserker is a master warrior with amazing skills that even after his Mad Enhancement, he still possessed such an extraordinary ability.

"I’ll first let you see, how I will kill that mad dog. Therefore, my lord! This duel between Saber and I..."

"Lancer, assist the Berserker in killing Saber. I command you with the Command Seal."

The Command Seal. An absolute order for a Servant. No matter, how great of a Heroic Spirit, Lancer might be, he cannot disobey a Command Seal. Consequently, Lancer no longer possessed his free will –

The tip of the red spear reversed it's direction and attacked, flying towards Saber with a low whistle. The two demonic spears, long and short, brushed past the shoulders of the rapidly retreating Saber, one after the other in front of her face, sweeping across the sky.

Saber was halfway through her sentence, but she suddenly went silent. Lancer turned around. Humiliation and anger filled his face with anguish; it spoke of the Heroic Spirit, Diarmuid’s thoughts more than any mighty argument ever could.

For Lancer, whose body was bound by the Command Seal, his flesh no longer belonged to himself. It was merely a cruel and merciless machine, called a Servant. All the skills and abilities that Heroic Spirit, Diarmuid had gained were manipulated wantonly, without regard to his own beliefs, used only to fulfil the Master’s supreme command. As a Heroic Spirit, Saber deeply understood Lancer’s regret.

Beside the Lancer, the Berserker was closing in step by step. Although the situation had changed on the battlefield, Berserker’s goal apparently remained on the Saber herself. As Berserker picked up the iron pole that was cleaved in half by Lancer’s red spear, and this time, he held it at eye level like a longsword. Although the shape of the Noble Phantasm had changed, there were no inconveniences with him using it.

But now, Saber was at the limit of her abilities just handling by Berserker alone. At the moment, with Lancer being her enemy as well, Saber has no chances of emerging victorious.

The black knight beside the Lancer, remained silent as ever, but the intensity of his threatening surge was increasing exponentially and advancing towards Saber. A thick layer of black veins covered the fragment of the iron pole, turning it into something beyond a sword, something alien and repulsive, and the tip of the splint was pointed with intimidation at the Saber.

Saber’s thoughts were already running in circles. There’s only one desperate measure left. She has to do this in such a grave situation. No matter, how big a sign of defeat she was showing right now, she must protect Irisviel. Even if she is to lose her own life...

Irisviel shook her head decisively. She did not expect Saber to sacrifice herself in even the smallest of the ways.

At this point, they need to kill the Lancer’s Master. That is the only way.

Kiritsugu began to count in a low voice, and focused the heat-vision scope towards the Lancer’s Master.

After the WA200 sniper rifle was customized, it was tested outside the country before it came into Japan, therefore Kiritsugu was already familiar with the gun’s characteristics. However, he hasn’t tested its compatibility with the night-vision scope system... At this time, he can only rely on Maiya’s skill.

For the long-distance shooting, the bullet does not travel in a straight line, but in a shallow parabola. That is, when the target is closer than the shooting distance, the bullet’s actual landing point is a bit off from the aim, a bit lower.

The last question was Kiritsugu’s own safety. Under such a situation, he had no other choice apart from employing bold actions like firing right next to the Assassin.

To reduce the risk, Kiritsugu is timing his shots with Maiya's. Her AUG fires a 5.56mm Remington high-velocity catridge. This power will not damage the Assassin Servant. However, if the Assassin comes under sudden fire he might ignore the other sniper in front of him – it goes without saying that the preparations are severely deficient.

Assassin might mistakenly take Maiya, who was only pretending to attack, as his enemy. However, Maiya’s position was far enough from Assassin for her to allow herself to escape. Perhaps, due to the fear of showing himself in front of other Masters, the Assassin would left before that point.

However, in this already unexpected situation, Assassin might immediately assault Kiritsugu, who was right beside him. At that time, they can only fight on and hope for the best. In the first place, this has nothing to do with winning. That is the only way.

That sound is not something a rifle would make, when it fires, but an impact enough to shake the earth.

It was a thunderbolt that suddenly visited the battlefield. It had the dizzying flash of lightning that contrived to make night into day, and a roar that reverberated greater than any thunder.

The lightning didn’t descend from the sky, but traversed across the ground. No – that thing that looked like lightning was the galloping chariot entangled by a escaping electricity.

Lancer quickly flipped backwards and avoided the chariot in time. But for Berserker, who kept all his attention to Saber, he didn’t even have time to turn around and register what was going on.

Gordius Wheel... Its power obviously does not lie in fighting with individuals, but with armies. Even the gallop just then, was carefully calibrated by Rider. Had Rider wanted to, even Saber, much less Lancer, would have fallen prey to those hooves and wheels.

"Master of Lancer. Although, I do not know where you are hiding to overlook us, but you disgraced a battle between knights with despicable means... not fitting for a magus’s opponent."

"Have the Lancer retreat. If you still insist in humiliating him further, then I will join Saber and the two of us will defeat your Servant, how is that?"

After he heard the command, Lancer heaved a sigh of relief and lowered the spear in his hand.

After Lancer confirmed this, he turned into his spiritual form and disappeared.

After the destructive storm has blown cross the battlefield, silence has arrived.

Saber was about to rebuke, but her left thumb is too much of a handicap before the Rider. It wouldn’t do to underestimate the battle prowess of this Heroic Spirit, who defeated Berserker in one blow.

Irisviel finally disentangled herself from the tension and released the breath she was holding. When she looked around her, it was a scene of total devastation. That was to be expected. Five Servants were gathered at one place, with some of them unreservedly releasing their Noble Phantasms, destroying at will.

More than what seems to be dozen years younger than herself, the stature of a girl who is yet to be a woman – Such a delicate figure, such slender wrists, but she is a true knight, a hero.

There was no anxiety or fear in Saber’s voice. Before the coming of the storm, the heart of a warrior is both excited and calm. The soaring spirit and boiling blood would not change in any era, or in any world. That is the true testimony of a hero’s soul.