(Continued)
-------------------
"Provide me with sport, morsels!" laughed the Khan, as he rode from the treeline, arcing the course of his steed so as to allow him to make side-facing strikes with his scimitar at Shirou and Leysritt, before fading back to the cover of the forest.
With each pass, Shirou expended a fresh set of Traced weapons, while Leysritt attempted to use her halberd to either dismount the Khan or to cut the rider's horse from beneath him - but the Khan was too swift for either of them.
"My people are the masters of the horse - and have left fools like you ground unto dust in our wake across Asia!" he proudly proclaimed, and not without reason. His people had been so famed - or, perhaps, made infamous - by their equine prowess that as eirei, Mongol summoned could take any mortal horse and grant it the same aethyric properties as its master.
Shirou and Leysritt were hard-pressed to even hold him at bay - and worse, the time they had before the fire approached them was closing all too quickly.
"We're running out of time, Shirou!" said Leysritt, all too aware of their situation, and that to stay and fight like this was increasingly becoming a fool's errand.
Shirou turned to her, and pointed Kanshou at Ilya and Sella. "Get them to safety - I'll keep things going for a while longer. Go!"
"But - " she protested, before Shirou interrupted her. "Now, hurry! Before his next pass!"
Resisting for a moment, she agreed under protest, as she ran to the others and tried to lead them to safety.
Or, at least, so was the intention.
The moment was disrupted by the booming sound of a distant impact, and Shirou winced at the prospect that it might have been Saber - a feeling he hoped was not due to the bond the two shared even now, albeit at a reduced level in these circumstances.
"Time to end the charade!" roared the Khan, this time racing straight towards Shirou, bow and arrow in hand, aiming at the red-headed youth. He fired it as he closed the stance, and Shirou barely had enough time to throw the twin swords at it in defence before they impacted, causing the arrow to detonate and send Shirou flying.
"Ge-aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!" he screamed, as he crashed down beside Ilya and the others.
His head was swimming, but he was still lucid enough to wonder what the hell they were still doing there. "Ilya... get out of here, now!"
"No, onii-chan," she said quietly, yet with an air of assuredness he had never heard from her before. "We're not running anywhere."
"But, why?" he protested, dumbfounded.
"Take my hand, Shirou," Ilya answered, reaching out for his, "and understand."
Almost as if by instinct, he did so, and everything went white...
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The light faded, and Emiya Shirou found himself standing on a hill of swords.
Giant cogs ground in the distance - held up in the air by an unseen force.
He had never seen this place before, and yet, he knew instinctively that this was not an alien landscape, or a fragment of someone else's being...
...this was his.
But he was not alone.
"Welcome to your Reality Marble, Emiya Shirou."
That voice...
Shirou turned and saw the one who had spoken - an unmistakable individual, clad in red and black, with darkened skin and silver hair, and an all-too-familiar expression in his face.
"Archer..." Shirou said, to which the other replied "Not exactly, Emiya Shirou. Think of me as... an echo, a fragment of the memory of the Servant you once knew."
"But why are you - why am I - here?" asked the confused youth.
"Hm, you still don't understand, then?" the mirage asked, somewaht rhetorically, while shaking his head.
"I understand that I have to get out of this place, and try to save Ilya-tachi and help Saber," Shirou argued, not amused by the tone in the ghost's voice.
"Then you have to begin to understand what is within here, Emiya Shirou," the spectre said in a more conciliatory tone, "but to do that, you must first take this."
He took an item from his pocket, one which Shirou was stunned to see. "But that's..."
The other held the object outward - a crimson jewel, its power almost faded, its pattern one that Shirou knew all too well.
Upon seeing the gleam or recognition in Shirou's eyes, the other nodded and smiled. "The beginning of your new journey, Emiya Shirou."
He drew his hand back, and was about to toss it over to Shirou, before he stopped suddenly. "Oh, one last thing - I'd like you to do a favour for me."
Shirou, uncertain, asked "A favour?"
The ghost nodded.
"I want you to pass on a message for me."
The jewel flew through the air, Shirou caught it in his hand, and as the white light returned to blanket his vision, he began to understand.
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BGM: Kenji Kawai - Emiya The Khan was stopped in his tracks by the sight of a white sphere of light which had engulfed his quarry as he was set to strike - and considered his options, hoping that his foes had not managed to use some trickery to escape him.
"Do not flee your fate!" he commanded, daring whatever lay behind the sphere to hear him.
A new voice he had not heard before answered him.
"If you insist."
The sphere vanished, and the red-headed boy was gone - or rather, he had become something else.
A tall, red-haired knight in
blue and white armour emerged from the sphere's epicentre, launching himself skyward, with a black bow of his own in one hand, and an obsidian serrated blade in the other.
"
Akahara ryōken..." the knight chanted, as the sword took the form of a glowing arrow, as it was nocked into the bow, before he released while proclaiming its name: "Hrunting!"
The Khan shifted quickly to dodge the incoming missile, and launched his steed into a full gallop, as the arrow-sword flew past him, but did not relent its pursuit. It tore into the sky at preternatural speed, arcing back towards its target, before impacting the mount's flanks. The steed was obliterated by the force of the Broken Phantasm's explosion, and only the Khan's last-moment leap to relative safety spared his own life, as he used the horse as an unfortunate shield.
Shorn of his advantage, the Khan steadied hismelf on foot, drew his scimitar, and beckoned the opponent forth. "Strike at me, if you dare!"
"I like your sword - nice craftsmanship," the knight replied, as he withdrew the bow, only to reach his left arm skyward. "I think I'll like this one better."
Activating his magic circuits, more easily than he ever remembered doing so before, the knight called out "Trace... On!"
Myriad green lines of power ran along his forearm and hand, and the outline of a massive stone sword began to form above him, the handle taking shape at his palm, the edge reaching up into the sky.
As the mighty weapon was completed, the knight shouted "Trigger, Off!" at the moment it solidified into shape. It should have been impossible for anyone to even hold that weapon aloft, but it rested easily in his hand - not least since he instinctively knew how to activate it.
He had seen it in Berserker's hands before, but only realised about its true potential when choosing to Trace it. Berserker must have been unable to activate it properly, while being Mad Enhanced.
But the knight could.
"Set..."
He sprinted at the Khan, who was stunned at what he was seeing, realising his immediate fate. He held his scimitar up in defence, but he knew it wouldn't matter.
"Nine Lives Blade Works!"
At a speed no mortal man could comprehend, the first of nine impossibly swift strikes sliced through the arm holding the scimitar. The second strike cut through the Khan's right leg, the third his left, the fourth his left arm. The fifth pierced his torso, the sixth his abdomen, the seventh his pelvis, the eighth twisting so as to slice through his heart. The ninth, and last, severed the Khan's head from his shoulders, or what was left of them, at any rate.
The component parts held together for a moment, almost as if refusing to believe they had been shorn so quickly, before bursting apart, as the Khan collapsed into a pile of part-organic, part-aethyric rubble - before his sword had even touched the ground.
Then, the ruined pieces began to dissolve into nothingness, and soon there was nothing left of the once-mighty Kublai, whose visions of conquest had been brought low once more.
The stone sword dissipated in turn, the blood flecks upon it also vanishing, as the knight reached for his left forearm with his right hand - he still felt the after-effects of such an inordinate strain. Still, he was glad - had he even attempted this beforehand, he would likely have killed himself before he even finished Tracing the mighty weapon.
In any event, he had little time to rest.
He turned back to the astonished group, and nodded.
"Come on, Ilya-tachi," he said, "Let's go find Saber and get the hell out of here."
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Saber struggled to move, her optic-lids struggling to remain open, her strength fading rapidly as her opponent approached for the kill.
"Why... can I not... draw it..." she asked aloud, wishing she knew why she had been unable to draw Excalibur in this new form. No matter what she tried, it would not appear in her hands, and her eyes wandered in a daze as she felt her hope slipping...
...but when she saw the severed nosecone lying on the ground, she found her eyes focussing on it - or, more accurately, on the pattern upon it.
Could it be? she wondered to herself, stunned at only now noticing what had been in front of her the whole time.
Reaching her hand outwards, as if to summon it over, she resolved that there was only one way to find out.
"Come forth..." she spoke, putting a last-ditch effort into the attempt, "my Sword of Promised Victory!"
At that last word, the nosecone glowed and changed shape, lifted itself into the air, and raced over to her hand.
And in that instant, the door opened.
BGM: Kenji Kawai - Excalibur Re-energised, she held what was now the hilt of her trusted blade aloft, and Omega stepped backwards, confounded by the release of power. "What is this?"
He was given no answer, but the subsequent events spoke for themselves.
A portal opened in the skies, and through it emerged a massive craft - what looked like a larger module, to which a smaller unit might be attached to.
A unit, such as Saber's current form.
She jumped upwards towards it, and instintively transofrmed into a new shape - her legs held up and towards her chest, the sword released, as the new unit began to transform of its own accord. Its outer components separated, the forward parts forming arms, and the aft segments moving downwards and towards each other, taking the form of legs. At their ends, feet emerged, comleting the transformation, as Saber turned and merged with the docking compartment in the new module's torso.
"
Seigi no yuusha..."
The components fused into place, and waves of energy coursed from the central piece to the newly-attached form - and Saber felt her consciousness flow into the new, combined form.
The new arm grasped the hilt, and a yellow beam of light emerged, before crystallising and taking the shape of her mighty Excalibur.
"...yuuki no senshi..."
A final touch - the dorsal piece moved up and over her current head, forming a new-helmeted visage, with glowing green eyes, and a facemask below.
She was more than before, more than just Saber... and somehow, she knew what name to take, even before she said it aloud.
"My name is... Star Saber!"
With this, she flew - far faster than she had before - stright towards Omega, who raised his claws in defence... only to have the first strike of Excalibur sever them from his arms. He screamed as he flew to one side, looking down at the smoking stumps left behind.
"How dare you?" he railed, before she lined herself up for the final strike. Her sword glowed with a new light, and she wielded it with both hands as she moved in for the kill.
"EX...CALIBUR!"
The strike carved through his chassis, in an angle from his left hip to his right shoulder, and the line showing the severance glowed with yellow light, before he fell back to the ground, and exploded in a massive fireball.
Below, the others had appeared, just in time to watch Star Saber destroy Omega, and were even more awestruck then they had been when Shirou had emerged in his new guise earlier.
Star Saber came to land, and looked down at the group - and as soon as she saw Shirou, she understood completely.
"It seems that we have each learned today, Shirou," she said to him, as he nodded in response.
"Indeed," he replied, "you look pretty impressive, Star Saber."
Their moment was disrupted as Jetfire approached the scene from the air, who transformed and landed beside Star Saber. "There are not many Autobots I know of with that particular trait, but you seem to handle it well, Saber."
"While in this form, I am Star Saber," she responded, "and thank you kindly."
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Before leaving, Star Saber and Jetfire managed to use their abilities to corral the ongoing inferno, giving it enough room to burn itself out before it consumed the rest of the forest. Once done, they re-joined the others, and prepared to leave the area.
"That should be enough to secure the area," said Jetfire, impressed at how wide a swath Star Saber had cleared with each stroke from Excalibur.
"Good," replied Shirou, still in the newer form, "we can get going now, I guess."
As they set to leave, another vehicle reached the area - a familiar red truck, with an impatient passenger.
"So, who wants to let me know what I've just missed?" asked Rodimus, who was initially referring to the presence of Star Saber.
"And also, what about the..." Rin was adding, before she gasped at the sight of Shirou - or rather, who Shirou was now the spitting image of, aside from the hair, skin and colour of attire.
"Ah, Tohsaka, before I forget - I have a message for you." He walked over to her, and remembered the lines, and the expression, the echo had wanted to convey.
"
Daijoubu da yo, Tōsaka. Kore kara, ore mo ganbaru."
With that, tears streaked down the sides of her face, and she collapsed onto her knees, alternating between sobbing and punching the ground with her fists.
"That bastard man..." she said, weakly, "He just had to... he just had to..."
Rodimus, in turn, was mute - but if he were in human form, he would have wept in turn, and the need to clench the muscles around his eyes together - and try not to notice that sudden sense of emptiness he felt at that moment.
Nevertheless, despite not being currently able to express it, or even understand it...
...he felt it, all the same.
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Putting the strange device into her pocket, Sakura walked into the kitchen, and considered what she would like to make for lunch.
Hmm, she wondered,
maybe a small udon might be nice. Before cooking something up, however, she remembered to take a moment to remember.
She stepped over to her room, opened the sliding door, and walked over to the table where she had laid a very special glasses case to rest. She picked it up and opened it, looking at the finely-crafted lanses within, and closed her eyes to issue a silent message to the one who deserved to have these more than she had the chance to...
Suddenly, she felt a subconscious pulse in the corner of her mind, as the minor spell which served as a perimeter alarm pulsed, warning her that she was no longer alone. She subconsciously put the glasses into her pocket, moving her fingertips over to the button on the comm device which would summon help. However, she held from sending the signal until she was absolutely sure it wasn't a false alarm, and she moved out of the room, trying to step quietly as she watched for an intruder. She was as careful as she could be - grateful for both attuning herself to the residence's sorcerous alarm and for the time she had spent walking these floors, learning which steps to take to avoid creaking the wooden floors - but she couldn't see, or sense, a foreign presence.
As she rounded a corner, she reached into her pocket and held her finger over the button which would send a warning, but wanted to wait until she was sure there was a problem before she sent the signal.
It was not long before she had an answer.
"Surrender yourself, in the name of the Son of Heaven!"
She was startled by the sight of an armoured horseman, emerging from spirit-form at the other end of the corridor, looking in her direction with a lone, baleful eye.
She wanted to run, to try and escape, but somehow she felt a sense of utter fury at the mere prospect of surrendering anything to this intruder - or, indeed, to anyone.
Never again, she resolved.
Clicking the alarm, she stepped out into the hallway, and raised her right arm to the horseman. "No-one will ever lay claim to me again!"
At that, her magus seals glowed, she called out "
Kyosuu!" and a row of streaking bands of nothingness streaked along the floor, closing the distance between Sakura and the horse's hooves faster than the rider could try to moe away - an act restricted by the narrow space, in any event. The bands darkened the floor beneath the horse, and expanded to form a circle of one-dimensional nothingness.
"No!" proclaimed Liu Fu-Hsiang, who desperately jumped onto his saddle and jumped to one side, fading into his insubstantial form, as his mount sank into the circular maw and vanished from normal existence. He 'landed' through the other side of a wall and cursed his misfortune, hoping the Khan would not punish him for losing another horse. The hand he lifted to his lost eye reminded him of the humiliation that Shoni no Kagesuke had heaped upon him once before, and he was intent not to fail to a Japanese again - especailly to a woman.
He stood up, passed through the wall, and re-materialised. "You will not escape me, witch!" he proclaimed, as he went through the residence in search for her.
Meanwhile, Sakura had taken the opportunity to flee the main building, and was heading towards the workshop where she found Shirou lying asleep on too many nights for her to be at all comfortable about. She hoped that with the reduced mobility of the intruder, she would have the time to try and prepare a trap for him - or, at least, keep him at bay long enough for help to arrive.
She heard his latest exclamation, and guessed that she had time enough to try another gambit. After entering the annex and hiding behind the facing wall, she placed her hand to the ground and tried to commence another chant.
"
Kage no kyojin..."
Despite the grandiose nature of the term - which referred to Shadow Giants - the tsukaima she could call forth were, in general, somewhat minuscule under normal circumstances. Yet, for a reason she didn't understand, the spell wasn't working!
Or rather, she could feel sorcerous energy going
somewhere, and travelling at a greater pace than she would have produced ordinarily... but the familiar was not taking form.
Come on, tsukaima-chan, she pleaded,
I need you... She could not afford to focus on this any longer - and she looked up to look for the intruder, she was shocked as she saw him materialise right in the doorway. "I tire of this, witch..." he scowled, as he jumped over to try and grab her.
Thankfully, the loss of depth perception Liu suffered made him mis-judge the leap - as a horseman, he was less comfortable orienting himself for combat on foot - by just enough to allow Sakura to rolled over to one side. She sprang to her heels and ran to the centre of the room, turning to try and cast another void-spell, before he had the chance to stop her.
This time, her spell took the form of four bands of darkness, flying from her hand through the air to his wrists and ankles, as she struggled to bind him in place. He had turned to face her before being ensnared, but he was still strong enough to resist the binding force. Slowly, but surely, he forced his arms and legs forward, closing the distance between him and his quarry.
"You are almost more trouble than you are worth, witch," he said as he pressed on, "but soon you will be at the Khan's mercy!"
Sakura showed as much defiance in her expression as she could muster, but she feared that he might be right. She could not hold him off for much longer, and help had still not arrived. She could still feel the thread flowing from her to... she did not know where, which had commenced during her failed attempt at summoning, but for some reason couldn't find a way to stop it. Indeed, it felt like the momentum was building, and she didn't know whether she had enough to stand both this increasing demand and the need to maintain the binding spell.
"I won't..." she could feel her emotion rising, bubbling to the surface, her anger building into a torrent.
"I won't give in..." she shouted, her eyes focussed on the intruder, as a sudden pulse of energy spread from within, streaking down the new filament, racing to its destination - and causing the glasses case in Sakura's pocket to glow.
And though neither she nor her opponent realised it, a circle was rapidly forming in an auspicious location, within the confines of the annex.
"I WON'T GIVE IN TO YOU... EVER!" She screamed, even as the energy in the bands weakened, and Liu broke the bonds asunder.
Before the Mongol could reply, he was suddenly rooted to the spot once more, as a new voice said from behind Sakura:
"And you will not have to, Master."
A lithe and deadly figure was in mid-air, leaping from the centre of the summoning circle and vaulting above Sakura's head, her eyes exposed - and the force within boring into the intruder.
Unable to even shake in horror, his mind screamed as his limbs petrified, the ossification moving from his hands and feet to his torso, until it eventually reached all the way up to his head. In less than a second, the Liu Fu-Hsiang was a motionless statue - and in a second later, the sharp ends of the iron nails fastened to the end of a silver chain pierced either side of his neck, shattering the stone which had formed out of his neck, sending the head falling to the ground. It shattered into pieces upon hitting the floor, the sound signalling the end of the engagement.
Sakura, in a state of shock, looked on as the new arrival landed before her, then lowered her visor before turning to face the plum-haired magus. Her
attire was different - quite distinct from the uniform Sakura might have expected to see - but the recognition was unmistakable.
"Rider-san..." she whispered, as Rider nodded.
"Master," the long-haired newcomer replied, "If that is the designation you wish to grant me, you may."
Sakura closed her eyes, and tried to understand. The burst of energy had felt like the force she had experienced when touching the Matrix the evening before, but why had this been?
"I am a manifestation of your wish for a tsukaima, based on a template within your consciousness, given form for your protection," the newcomer explained, "and as such, I am at your service, Master."
"Master..." Sakura said, in a somewhat subdued manner. Whatever 'gift' she had been given in the course of the vision must have been enough to allow her to go much farther than the regular summoning spell would have gone - but the glasses case in her pocket made her consider the bittersweet nature of the event.
"Rider-san," she asked, while pulling the case out of her pocket, "Do you remember..."
When she saw the case, Rider in turn smiled. "Yes, Master. I remember."
Summoning her nerve, Sakura held the case forward, as she addressed Rider. "Then please be so kind as to take these now, Rider-san..."
Her features softening, Rider reached for the case and carefully lifted up her Breaker Gorgon while sliding on the glasses, so as to prevent her Mystic Eyes from being unleashed, and looked over to Sakura as the latter continued by adding "And call me Sakura, please."
"I will..." she replied, holding the tips of her right fingers to the side of the glasses, feeling the emotion which had been imparted within them, and feeling the implication for the future the moment contained, "...Sakura."
A moment later, a rush of wind and the sounds of transformation heralded the arrival of a familiar face, who was in his armour and wielding his energo-katana.
"Sakura!" called Hawk, "Are you ok - and who is this?"
Unsure for a moment why it was that Hawk, not Aquila-san, had been the one to reach her first, Sakura smiled and stepped forth, standing beside Rider - taking care to side-step the ruined pile of stone that had once been the intruder.
"It is a long story, Hawk-san..."
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End of Part 8.