Fate/Zero:Act 14 Part 1
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When it was almost dusk, it vaguely occurred to Saber that today’s ambush might once again be a waste of effort. She was frustrated and unsettled by the thought.
Saber arrived at Miyama following the intelligence gained from Tōsaka Tokiomi, Master of Archer. She found the residence of Glen Mackenzie and his wife there. Upon hearing the doorbell, the old woman appeared in front of Saber; according to the words of this old woman, her grandson and his friend had indeed stayed here these past few days. The old woman seemed to have mistaken Saber for her grandson’s friend as well, and so told the whole truth without hesitation.
Saber persuaded the old woman to tell her of the appearance and clothing of the two people; undoubtedly, those two people were Rider and his Master. It was regrettable, however, that she could not feel the presence of any Servant. A house of such proportions—if there was a Servant hiding within, it should have been possible to sense his presence just by standing at the entrance.
According to the old woman, those two had left in the morning and not returned since. The exact methods by which they had learned of Saber’s arrival and fled were worthy of suspicion, but it was truly difficult to imagine that the haughty King of Conquerors would actually resort to cowardly tricks such as flight. If he intended to seize victory he would definitely attack head-on.
In the end, the conclusion Saber arrived at was that this ‘miss’ was only a chance coincidence; courteously taking her leave of the old woman, she decided to keep watch from an area slightly further away from the house and wait for Rider to return.
Of course, she would hide the entire truth from the old woman. Though deceived by Waver Velvet, this family was made of normal people, after all, and had nothing to do with the whole event. Rider must have considered this as well.
Rider had been able to temporarily set aside the fight for the Holy Grail in order to stop Caster’s atrocities and prevent Fuyuki City from falling into a crisis. Thus, Saber made this judgment: the King of Conquerors would never go against those deeds worthy of pride that a true Heroic Spirit would do. After Rider returned and discovered Saber, he would definitely choose a location worthy of a Servants’ battle and carry out a showdown that was open and aboveboard.
Aware that she was already very conspicuous just by walking around, Saber decided to sit on a chair at the closest bus station and wait. Henceforth, she began keeping intent watch, but a few hours passed without any movement up until this point.
Though she was not in a position in which she could directly see the Mackenzie house, Rider would definitely sense the presence of a Servant upon his return and seek out Saber. He was not the sort of opponent who would use methods such as running away or ambush. He would definitely welcome Saber’s intent of challenge, and lead her to a suitable location for combat.
Though it seems a little strange to say, Saber professed a hundred percent trust toward this Servant Rider. Though their respective viewpoints could not be reconciled, it was incontestable that that Heroic Spirit would take action on the basis of his pride as a king. He would only challenge openly, and would definitely not make secret plans or commit acts of betrayal. That was because Rider would never choose despicable tactics or strategies that would damage his reputation.
Saber’s unease, it could be said, originated from her allies rather than from her opponents.
Her Master, Emiya Kiritsugu, was eyeing the Rider's Master with intentions and combat goals completely opposite to her own. Even at this very instant, it could even be that he had used Saber as bait to lure Rider, and was now keeping watch from afar—there was nothing wrong with such thinking. Truly, she had to make such mental preparation. Kiritsugu probably believed the instant at which Rider went all out to confront Saber to be the optimal opportunity to assassinate his Master.
Thinking this, Saber’s heart could not help but feel weighed down.
Kiritsugu might as well carry out a showdown between magi, with the Masters of Berserker and Archer as targets.
That would have been fine. Kiritsugu would only be obtaining victory through strategy and power play rather than by relying on Servant Saber. It was for his own legitimate reasons that Kiritsugu wanted the Grail. It was not unreasonable to desire victory that could be obtained through more reliable means.
But in this showdown with Rider, Alexander, King of Conquerors, Saber also had a bottom line that she was absolutely unwilling to concede.
If there could not be a fair showdown between them—not as Servants, tools by which to fight for the Grail, but as Heroic Spirits who possess strong pride—Saber would be forever unable to undo the knot left in her heart by the ‘Grail question-and-answer session’ from several days ago.
Alexander reveled in his tyrannical kingship without restraint; he reveled in the violent way of the Ionian Hetairoi, and took pride in it. If she were not to defeat him with the similar symbol of the King of Knights' ideology, the ‘Sword of Promised Victory’ Excalibur, then Arturia’s way of kingship would be broken and thus end.
Rider’s Noble Phantasm was strong to the point that just thinking about it would cause one to tremble all over. Even if Saber were to exert the strength of her own Noble Phantasm to the greatest extent, it could not assure victory.
The result of a showdown between an anti-army and anti-city Noble Phantasm was already beyond the capacity of human imagination. Emiya Kiritsugu would definitely think of paying such a large price for victory as a foolish cause of action, and pay it only a perfunctory smile. But to Saber, the Holy Grail should be a thing to be fought for on the premise of sticking to one’s ideals. Since there was someone who threatened the basis of her kingship, it was definitely intolerable for Saber to even consider using methods that sidestepped this problem.
Only by assuring the way of kingship, which was the pride of the King of Knights, would the Holy Grail choose the King of Knights.
Precisely because of this, if Kiritsugu kept interfering as he did in the duel with Lancer, this Heaven’s Feel could be considered completely void for Saber.
Even if the final victory was obtained through those despicable methods, Saber would definitely be unwilling to take the fruit of victory, the Grail.
If Rider were to set up a Reality Marble to protect his Master in and then carry out battle, then it would not be interrupted. But Kiritsugu also understood Rider’s techniques. If he were to play any tricks before the activation of the Ionian Hetairoi…
Curling up, Saber sat on the chair and gritted her teeth. She felt very frustrated for not being able to read Emiya Kiritsugu’s intentions. She was facing a strong adversary, and yet could not concentrate her full strength; it made her all the more anxious.
The bone-chilling north wind became even colder while she waited uneasily, making Saber even more anxious and unsettled.
Just like Saber had feared, Emiya Kiritsugu was indeed there.
He was on the rooftop of a six-story apartment of a public housing estate across the street, approximately eight hundred meters from where she was.
Different from the haphazardly arranged edifices, the rooftop of the apartment was structured somewhat strangely as it was not necessary to consider that the residents would use it. Though it was somewhat difficult to enter, one could hardly be disturbed once inside. One could not be seen, even from downstairs, after hiding behind the water tower; it is an excellent position for sniping or setting up an ambush.
Even the smoke and smell of tobacco could not be noticed here. To be able to enjoy to his heart’s content the cigarettes that could bring vitality and energy—Kiritsugu’s mental burden here was much smaller than Saber’s.
The sniper rifle scope, propped on a tripod, was directed at the front door of the Mackenzie home.
And another specially prepared portable scope could clearly see every action of Saber, who was sitting in front of the bus stop.
It was fairly difficult to observe through two alternative scopes without a break in between, but this could not be helped because he was unable to rely on Maiya’s help. She had not managed to leave in the end since she had been entrusted with the job of guarding Irisviel. From this day on, ‘hunting’ adversaries could only be Kiritsugu's responsibility alone.
Kiritsugu had begun observing the Mackenzie house slightly later than Saber had; he saw that Saber, who could definitely feel the presence of Servants, was doing nothing, which indicated clearly that Rider was not at home right now. In which case the Master was definitely not around either. The Master was not bold enough to stay home alone under these circumstances. Once he discovered that the enemy’s Servant was pacing at the door, he would definitely summon Rider at once.
Kiritsugu was different from Saber; he took the situation, in which the targeted prey did not remain at the stronghold, more seriously than she did. They had left home the day after Kiritsugu learned about the existence of Glen Mackenzie's family and had not returned since; this timing was too precise to be a coincidence. Though there was no concrete evidence, there was still a relatively high chance that Waver Velvet had discovered the enemy’s attack and fled in a hurry.
Nevertheless, Kiritsugu continued to wait there with a thread of hope, thinking that this was also an issue worthy of thought.
If Waver returned again to the Mackenzie house, it was definitely necessary to blow up the house using a timed bomb. If he had already fled, then he must have already found another stronghold. The probability of his returning to this house was very low.
It looked like it would no longer be appropriate to use that old couple to lead Waver into a trap in the same way that he had used Sola as bait to lure Kayneth.
Kiritsugu highly regarded Waver’s method of being indifferent to the fortress's security and choosing an ordinary household as his stronghold. In comparison to the Three Noble Families of the Beginning and Kayneth, who had built extravagant strongholds where they could easily be found, Waver’s strategy was much better. It was difficult to conclude that a magus, who could make this judgment, would show sympathy for the household he was temporarily living in. To Waver, the Mackenzie couple were only pawns to be abandoned.
The impatience that came with wasting precious time and the taboo of acting with undue haste—these two thoughts crossed swords in Kiritsugu’s heart.
On one hand, he had given up hope of Waver’s return; on the other hand, he was unable to completely abandon the possibility that Waver's departure was only coincidence. The important reason for this was—it was very difficult to imagine that the young magus would actually be one step ahead of Kiritsugu in a battle of information.
At the start, Kiritsugu had never treated Waver, Master of Rider, as an opponent. Though he had later learned some of his background through additional investigation, he had only treated Waver Velvet as a novice magus who had become a Master by chance and made the conclusion that he was a layman no different from ordinary people who did not know magic.
Of course, Kiritsugu was not the sort of person that directly correlated ability with experience. Kiritsugu still remembered that he had already been a ruthless assassin when he made his debut, and he did not think himself a rare example.
But he had observed Waver Velvet’s performance on the battlefield several times. Based on that, it was still very difficult to say if he could become a strong opponent who could surpass Kiritsugu.
Having never gotten an answer, at the time when he was beginning to feel an inexplicable anxiety…
Suddenly, intense pain burned at the base of Kiritsugu’s little finger; his back stiffened.
“…?!”
Ever since he had started truly treating Hisau Maiya as his assistant, Kiritsugu had put a spell on a strand of her hair and embedded it in the subcutaneous tissue of his little finger. At the same time, Maiya had also embedded a strand of Kiritsugu’s hair in her finger. If the Magic Circuits of one of them entered a state of extreme stagnation - the stage in which one's life force was weak on verge of impasse with death - the strand of hair given to the other person would burn, warning the other and notifying them of the existence of danger.
That was a measure implemented for a worst-case scenario, in which it was already impossible to use the wireless network or familiars to convey information. That is to say, it was only a signal to inform that "it is already too late". Now, for it to activate at this moment, what exactly could it mean…
Before wavering, one must be first caught in a quandary. Kiritsugu mobilized all his neurons and began to ponder the situation at hand as well as to formulate response plans.
Maiya was on the verge of death—in other words, this meant that Irisviel, hidden in the underground storage, was in danger. The sequence of events and its cause could not be determined now.
Now the absolute priority was to carry out help as soon as possible. The only method that could be chosen was the fastest—a miracle that would be made to happen by the Command Seals on his right hand.
“I order my puppet in the name of the Command Seals!”
Kiritsugu clenched his fist, at the same time reciting the spell as quickly as an automatic machine.
“Saber, return to the underground storage quickly! At once!”
The prana sleeping in one of the Command Seals carved on the back of Kiritsugu’s hand woke up and shone with light.
It was definitely not an overstatement to say that Saber was very surprised by this.
What was immediately understood was that she had become the subject of some powerful magecraft. In the next instant, she had been stripped of all recognition of the surrounding space, and sent into the midst of 'transfer' that did not have an existence or direction.
That was probably the legendary ultimate spell specifically meant to 'command Servants'. With an ultimate speed that almost caused the laws of cause and effect to break down, she had already overcome the distance of space in a 'moment' of a few milliseconds at a speed close to the speed of light, and completed the instantaneous movement between two different points in space.
Even so, she was indeed the sword-wielding Heroic Spirit that had undergone special treatment. Though she had just been ‘transported’ from a chair beside a bus stop to a completely different place, she immediately understood that the strange phenomenon just now was caused by the activation of Kiritsugu’s Command Seal after becoming aware that this was the underground storage so familiar to her. Also, some emergency situation must have occurred here that necessitated the Servant's hurrying back immediately to guard the headquarters. In the few milliseconds between completing the space break and arriving on the floor of the underground storage, Saber had already completed the transformation from her suit disguise to her silver white armor.
The situation, without the need to ask anyone, was clear at a glance.
The metal door had been broken down by a crude strength. Irisviel, who should have been lying in the middle of the Magic Circle, had vanished; in her place was the body of Maiya, covered in blood, writhing and discarded.
“Maiya!”
Saber quickly ran to her side. She could not help but furrow her brow on seeing the depth of her wounds. The injuries sustained in the Einsbern forest could not begin to compare with this. What she had sustained now were injuries that would cause death if not given emergency treatment as soon as possible.
As if feeling the Servant’s radiant presence, Maiya slowly opened her eyes.
“Sa…ber…?”
“Maiya, pull yourself together! I will bind these wound immediately. It’s all right—“
But Maiya pushed away the hand that Saber stretched out to her.
“Quickly… go after him, quickly, outside... Rider, he…”
“…”
Compared to having been sent to this place by the Command Seals, Saber was even more surprised at Maiya’s reaction.
Maiya must already have known the extent of her injuries. She must have fully understood that she was on the verge of death. But compared to her own life, this silent assistant to an assassin cared more for the safety of Irisviel, who had been kidnapped, and was urging Saber to consider making the matter of saving Irisviel the priority.
“But then—“
Just as she was about to ask a question in reply, Saber suddenly understood.
This woman was also a knight. Though different from her own proud expressions, this courage of willing to abandon life for the duty that she had taken up was precisely the chivalry that Saber so firmly believed in.
I must protect Irisviel in the underground storage until the last moment—Hisau Maiya had certainly already made an oath to Kiritsugu and Irisviel. In order to entrust to Saber that promise she could not carry out till the end, she was willing to lose her own life.
“I… it’s all right… very soon, Kiritsugu will come… so… you must, quickly…”
Saber gritted her teeth and shut her eyes.
Logically thinking, with every minute and every second Saber was now wasting on worrying about Maiya, the taken-away Irisviel could be moving toward a hopeless situation.
The thread of hope that Maiya could be saved by Kiritsugu, who would quickly rush here, still remained. But the fate of Irisviel, who had been taken away, had no guarantee if Saber did not give chase immediately. According to the marks left behind in the underground storage, it was undoubtedly a Servant’s doing. The follow-up attack could only be carried out by Saber, who was likewise a Servant.
“—Maiya, you must hold on till Kiritsugu arrives. I will bring Irisviel back safely.”
Maiya nodded, and shut her eyes as if reassured.
Saber made a new vow to continue Maiya’s own—there was no reason to hesitate further.
She ran out of the underground storage like a hurricane, leaping onto the roof in a single bound, and gazed into the darkened, faraway sky in search of the enemy’s figure.
Since it was a godspeed instantaneous transfer caused by a Command Seal, surely the attacker must not have left here very long ago. The enemy had not yet gone far. Even if she was unable to sense him through his presence, it was still possible to find him by sight alone.
Saber stood on the rooftop and glanced through the surroundings with the supernatural vision of Servants. She effortlessly captured the sight of the enemy.
A distance of about half a kilometer… majestically standing on the roof of what looked like the apartments of the business district.
A robust physique, curly flame-colored hair and a crimson mantle; it was undoubtedly Rider, King of Conquerors, Alexander, whom she had met many times before on the battlefield.
“It wouldn’t be—unless it really was Rider?!”
Saber still held on to a strand of suspicion regarding Maiya’s eyewitness statement.
That the King of Conquerors, whose name had been unyielding all along, would employ such base methods—it was indeed difficult to believe. But his thickset hands were indeed holding up the unconscious form of Irisviel; there was no way to doubt further after seeing this sight. Though it was not known how they had guessed Saber’s new stronghold, undoubtedly this was Rider who had just now ambushed Maiya and seriously injured her.
Rider showed himself openly as if luring the enemy to venture in deep; he immediately turned and vanished to one side of the edifice immediately after meeting Saber’s gaze.
“Damn…!”
Saber took her stance and intended to continue pursuit, but her adversary was a Heroic Spirit of the Rider class—Saber could not help but purse her lips.
It would be easy to continue like this, leaping through the streets in pursuit. But that was assuming the other party was also traveling on foot like her. If Rider fled on his Gordius Wheel, then Saber would not be able to catch up no matter how fast her pace was.
But Saber also had the skill of Riding. Against a Noble Phantasm that could fly through the air to reach its destination, it was necessary to also utilize a long-distance cruiser that could surpass the mechanical energy of walking.
If this had been in the past, Saber would definitely have given up the pursuit because she had no way to catch up. But luckily or unluckily, the previous day, Maiya had given her a new ‘steed’.
With a deep gratitude to Kiritsugu’s foresight and meticulousness in preparing for every eventuality, Saber leaped atop the ‘horse’, removing the prana armor that hindered her riding it, and mounted the steed that was parked in the abandoned courtyard.
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