Cu Chulainn fought without going near Archer to wait for an opening. He was aggressive by nature, the kind who liked fighting from the start.
If he got found out, he’d have to fight, but right now Cu Chulainn wanted this over with.
But Archer was stronger than expected, and Cu Chulainn wasn’t being properly supplied with Mana, so the two of them were evenly matched.
“Even after taking critical hits to the side and shoulder, he’s still this strong...
No, maybe it’s also because I’m not a Lancer, so my close-quarters fighting has weakened.”
Cu Chulainn was irritated that he was a Caster.
Archer had definitely gotten much stronger, but if Cu Chulainn had been a Lancer, he could have won even without those injuries.
For one thing, Archer’s ranged attacks were useless against him because of his arrow-deflecting protection, and Cu Chulainn, whose specialty had originally been spear techniques, couldn’t use his full strength in a Caster container.
“Archer! Were you really that little brat standing beside Saber?”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve. You’ve picked the wrong Caster!”
Archer’s Kanshou and Bakuya flew at him. Cu Chulainn knocked both aside with his staff, summoned six flames, and hurled them at Archer before charging in.
Once the distance closed, Cu Chulainn fought hand-to-hand with his staff as if he’d thrown the Caster role to the dogs.
Even though his class was Caster, his close combat was impressive. Archer currently had better close-range stats than Cu Chulainn, but the difference in skill born from experience was more than enough to cover that gap.
“Ansuz.”
On top of that, his Caster aptitude was excellent, so he used Rune Magecraft while fighting.
He covered Archer’s attacks with a single staff and fought with magic.
“Hup!”
But Emiya wasn’t so easy to deal with either.
And with the Master’s Mana path unstable, he couldn’t use Magecraft recklessly, which put him at a severe disadvantage.
Cu Chulainn slowly began to be pushed back. Then, because of one misjudgment, he left an opening, and Archer seized it, trying to drive Kanshou and Bakuya into Cu Chulainn’s side.
Bang bang bang
Archer sensed a presence and immediately leapt back.
“You bastard, you’re dead. Revenge time.”
In front of him stood the Guardian, one arm severed, holding Excalibur.
----------------------------------------
“Director...”
“What is it?”
“Looking at the situation now, I think we can just summon normally.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Guardian and Cu Chulainn are fighting Archer in close combat. The Guardian only has his right arm, and Cu Chulainn is near Mana depletion and in a rough spot, but the enemy Archer is also badly wounded. I think we can just regroup slowly, summon properly, and then fight.”
I was sitting on the floor, drained of stamina, as I spoke.
The Director looked at me with pity.
You’re the one who’s going to suffer most once we get out of here, you idiot.
Though honestly, I didn’t even know if we could get out of here at all.
From the summoning circle, a light arrived with a light novel and a Chaldea Mystic Code.
“Director, let’s summon right away.”
“Huh? Without a catalyst?”
“This book is the catalyst.”
“What?”
“It’s true I asked to be summoned because I wanted to read it, but if I’d really wanted to summon something just to read, I would’ve picked any random book lying around the Tohsaka Residence. This is insurance. A catalyst my dad gave me.”
That wasn’t a lie. This was a book about the Holy Grail War in the capital, and my dad bought it for me as a birthday present, so it wasn’t a bluff.
“Damascus... just who are you?”
“Does that matter? I’m your backup Master candidate, and you’ve got every right to make me work for you. We can figure out the rest later, so let’s use this book and summon a Servant quickly. Honestly, I didn’t think the Guardian’s Excalibur could function properly as a catalyst. Even if it’s Excalibur, it’s in a transformed state, so I wasn’t sure whether any Servant would answer it.”
I let out a long sigh and said, “Director, the Servant I want is Okita Souji.”
----------------------------------------
“All right! Time to finish this. Shimai!”
Clang! The Guardian’s sword strike was blocked by Emiya’s swordsmanship.
“Why isn’t this ending?”
After all, the Guardian specialized in dodging and shooting, so he wasn’t good at swordsmanship and had never properly learned it. On top of that, fighting with only one arm made proper attacks difficult, and Archer’s swordsmanship specialized in defense, making it hard to land a finishing blow with a blade.
“What’s wrong? Where did all that momentum from your earlier taunting go?”
Archer had started talking again. He was gradually recovering thanks to the continued Mana supply from the Holy Grail. By contrast, the Guardian and Cu Chulainn couldn’t do the same.
The Master’s Mana still hadn’t fully recovered, and if they drew too much from him here, the Master could be in danger.
“Ansuz!”
Cu Chulainn did attack in the middle, but both of them were in bad shape. Cu Chulainn had avoided a fatal wound, but with his side pierced, he couldn’t mount a proper offense. So the one-armed Guardian was taking the lead, while Cu Chulainn supported from behind.
Normally, if Cu Chulainn led the charge and the Guardian supported from the rear, they could win even if Archer had fully recovered, but now the situation was reversed, so they were more or less evenly matched.
But if Archer fully recovered, that would change everything.
“This is endless.”
With those words, Archer withdrew to create distance for shooting.
“Ah, damn it!”
The Guardian, apparently at his limit, dropped his sword and collapsed on the spot.
Archer smiled thinly and was about to fire an arrow at the Guardian.
“Farewell, Guardian.”
“Heh-heh-heh, you stupid bastard.”
Suddenly, the Guardian vanished.
----------------------------------------
“Is the situation settled?”
“Yeah. I almost died.”
After a short exchange with the Guardian, I was ready to summon immediately.
“So now I just put in my Excalibur and summon?”
“No, plan change. We’re using this book.”
I waved my book in front of the Guardian and said, “Got a Servant in mind?”
“Yeah, one good one. No, in this situation, without her we can’t take down King Arthur. So it has to be the one I’m thinking of. There’s someone fast in a different way from you. If you’re brute-force fast, then she’s the kind whose Noble Phantasm is basically teleportation. If I’m right, this Singularity can only be ended by killing it very quickly.”
“You two! Enough chatter. Are you going to put the catalyst in or what?”
The summoning was in its final phase. The path was open, and all that was left was to designate the Servant to be summoned with the catalyst.
“Master, who are you planning to summon?”
I threw the book and said, “Okita Souji.”
“Huh?”
The Guardian’s face changed to a look that clearly said, What the hell is this guy? The Okita he knew and the Okita I knew didn’t seem to be the same person.
“Hey, damn it! Director, stop! No!”
The Guardian rushed toward the summoning circle to remove the catalyst.
I stopped him with a Command Spell. One Command Spell had been used when summoning the Guardian earlier, and one had just been used now. That meant I only had one left.
“No! Please!”
Ignoring the Guardian’s scream, Director Olga Marie Animusphere completed the summoning.
“I’ll ask you this. Are you my Master?”
Okita Souji appeared before me.
A Saber-face with slightly pale, snow-white skin, a Japanese sword in hand, wearing a haori, and looking so frail she seemed outright sickly—Okita Souji had been summoned exactly as I planned.
“Okita, the situation is bad. I’m the Master, not that woman over there. I’m too inexperienced, so even with help from two Servants, the battle is still evenly matched. So please, both of them are badly wounded right now, and I’ve urgently pulled one of them over here. I’ll use Magecraft to send you to where the other one is. All you need to do is kill the enemy in front of you. Can you do that?”
“Understood. If it is your command, Master, I will accomplish it no matter what.”
Wow, she really has the smell of a strict recruit. Is she really supposed to be a comedy character?
“Uh... thanks. Then before that, there’s something we need to do. Director, Okita, both of you turn around. We need to change into Mystic Codes.”
As soon as I said that, I started taking my clothes off. There was no time. We had to save Cu Chulainn first if we wanted any chance of turning this around.
“Hey! Damascus! Don’t strip the second you finish talking!”
The Director shouted and turned her head away, and Okita’s eyes went wide when I started undressing. After about a second, she turned her body around too. She gripped her sword tightly with both hands and stamped her feet, visibly flustered. I wanted to tease her the moment this Singularity was over.
“Wow, you just strip in front of women like that? Were you more experienced than I thought?”
“Yeah, I was pretty experienced. I had to keep changing clothes a lot when I cross-dressed.”
“What?”
I was just joking, but the Guardian looked shocked, then his expression changed as he stared at me.
“All changed. Okita, I’m going to use Order Change right away.”
“Okita?”
The idiot who kept scratching himself seemed unable to process what was happening. Normally that wouldn’t matter, but right now it was a problem, so I needed to snap her out of it fast. I grabbed Okita’s cheeks with both hands and turned her toward me.
“Okita, you can’t freeze up now. If you mess this up, Cu Chulainn might die. I’m going to Order Change you right away and send you to kill the enemy Archer. This is something we absolutely have to do. If things go badly now, the guy who trusted my plan could die, and in the worst case, you die, I die, and the Director dies too. Get it together.
I didn’t summon you so you could die. I summoned you so we could survive. Understand?”
“Ah... ah! Yes!”
After a brief buffer, the light returned to Okita’s eyes.
Okita sharpened her gaze as if steeling her resolve.
“I’m going to Order Change you right now. The moment you arrive, kill him. After that, you’ll have to fight someone truly impossible to deal with, so cut off his head first.”
“Leave it to me.”
Wow. Hearing an in-game Omakase right in front of me feels kind of weird, honestly.
“All right, starting now. Cu Chulainn! Okita! Order Change!”
Light began to shine from the Mystic Code. Since this was my first time using it, it seemed to take a little time to activate. Even though it was a Mystic Code made to make fighting easier, because I was such a bottom-tier scrub, it took more time than I expected to use it. The Director’s expression was grim.
It was like she was really wondering whether it was okay to keep leaving this guy in charge of a Singularity. Damn...
Cu Chulainn was summoned in Okita’s place.
Cu Chulainn’s arms had both been severed, and the Director looked a little dazed.
“Oh, looks like it worked?”
Even as blood dripped from his mouth, Cu Chulainn grinned and spoke to me.
“Cu Chulainn!”
I quickly changed clothes and activated the recovery Mystic Code. If Cu Chulainn died here, we were done for.
As far as I remembered from the original, Mash was supposed to guard and block King Arthur’s Noble Phantasm, then Cu Chulainn would land the finishing blow with his Noble Phantasm. But Mash wasn’t here.
So if Cu Chulainn died too, there was no answer.
“You bastard, don’t you dare die, got it? Stay sharp. The Servants summoned right now are being sustained by Director Olga Marie’s Mana, so don’t worry and just focus on recovering.”
Cu Chulainn reacted to being called a bastard.
He laughed and said, “Wow, you’re rougher than the Master I used to serve.”
He was probably talking about Kirei, but I wasn’t pushing him around for fun.
“Sorry. I’m sorry, so once Archer is dealt with, focus on recovery and then we’ll go after King Arthur. Don’t think about anything else for now, just recover. Huh? Wait, if Okita’s gone and you’re this badly beaten, does that mean I swapped attack and defense right before Emiya attacked?”
“Yeah.”
Cu Chulainn answered briefly.
“Aaaah, damn it!”
The Guardian and I said it at the same time.
----------------------------------------
“Ghk... cough!”
As soon as it began, Okita had to fight Archer with Kanshou and Bakuya already piercing her stomach.
One of Kanshou and Bakuya was lodged in Okita’s abdomen.
Unable to endure the pain, Okita clutched her stomach and collapsed to the ground. But she kept glaring at Archer.
Archer was flustered. It was only natural that he’d be thrown off by the sudden swap in attack and defense, and by the Saber in a haori appearing before him. But that didn’t matter to Okita.
She corrected her stance and attacked Archer immediately. She moved behind him and severed both of his arms.
Okita had unleashed her Noble Phantasm right from the start.
Originally, she had planned to cut straight through his body and take his head, but the moment Okita vanished from sight, Archer activated his evasion and survived, losing only both arms.
“....!”
Because the arms were severed so quickly, the pain took a moment to register.
Archer retreated and groaned in pain.
He couldn’t do anything because of the pain.
If Okita walked over and cut off his head now, he wouldn’t even be able to resist.
But the same was true for Okita. That earlier Noble Phantasm was her decisive strike.
Blood kept pouring from her stomach, and tears kept spilling from her eyes because of the pain.
The wound in her abdomen had been torn even deeper by the Noble Phantasm.
Okita no longer had the strength to stand.
After about five minutes of stalemate, Archer stood up first. The quality of his Mana supply was on a completely different level, so unlike Okita, he recovered. Of course, his severed arms didn’t grow back, but at least the bleeding stopped.
He walked up to Okita and said, “Your face is exactly like someone I know. That surprised me, but I know you’re not that person. Any last words?”
When he finished speaking, he summoned a sword and bit down on it. He was probably planning to take Okita’s head with that.
Okita opened her mouth and said, “A... acquaintance of mine... told me to pass along a message...”
“?”
Archer’s face turned into a question mark.
Okita was clutching her stomach, trying to stop the bleeding, lying on her side on the ground. In that state, she looked at Archer and smiled. It was a smile far more refreshing than expected, as if she were saying, You’re already finished.
“They said... you’re a stupid bastard... ha... hah...”
And in the blink of an eye, the Guardian was standing where Okita had been.
Bang bang bang bang
Four bullets pierced Archer’s body. Two hit both legs, one pierced the spine, and the last bullet went through Archer’s head. The gun had been glowing blue, but after a moment, the light faded.
“Heh-heh-heh, stupid bastard.”
Leaving those words behind, the Guardian turned spiritual and vanished.
----------------------------------------
“Damn, damn, damn.”
Because I had spent almost all my energy recovering the Guardian, Okita’s recovery wasn’t going well. Her Mana was nearly exhausted, and it seemed like she could collapse at any moment.
Her head was spinning, and the things around her looked doubled and tripled, as if they were using clone techniques.
“Mast... er... ghk!”
Okita had properly sensed the Master’s condition.
If things went wrong, trying to save Okita could end up sending Damascus to the grave too.
Okita wanted to say not to heal her, but even keeping her eyes open was already a struggle.
No matter how hard Damascus tried to heal her, he was forcibly drawing up Mana that had already run dry, so in practice he was only extending her life, not treating her properly.
“Shut... up... and... just focus on recovering...”
Damascus and Director Olga Marie were both in bad shape too.
By the time they reached the Tohsaka Residence, Olga Marie, who had been running here while using Gandr and every Magecraft she could, had already begun to run dry on Mana. In that state, she had poured almost everything she had into Okita’s recovery, and then used the remaining Mana with the Mystic Code to heal Cu Chulainn together with Damascus.
Director Olga Marie made her decision.
“Guardian, the Master is trying to scrape together the remaining Mana to save Okita. If this continues, she’ll die. It can’t be helped, but I think we have to give up on Okita, so come here and either kill Okita or stop Damascus.”
After this was over, Damascus would be furious.
It would probably be the first time Damascus truly went against the Director. But the Director couldn’t abandon Damascus. He was the only Master they had right now, and he was the one with real experience in the Singularity.
A civilian who couldn’t even use Magecraft had used everything he had to bring down that monstrous Archer.
The Director couldn’t give that up.
Doctor said over the communication line, “Damascus, give it up... if this keeps going, you might die. Then Cu Chulainn and the Guardian are done for too. And your own life has to come first, so it’s okay to stop now. Servants are all people who have died once already.
No one will blame you if you give up.”
“Ma... cough... Master... what that person... said... is right...
Please give up on me and... rest... now...
Your complexion is paler than mine... ghk...”
“Both of you shut up... and... increase the Mana supply coming into Chaldea even more... then I can save her.”
“That’s possible when your body is normal, but not now.
Your condition is bad too. Looking at your vitals, if you suddenly force Mana through your body when you could die at any moment, the shock could kill you. Damascus, I’m the top medical officer here, so listen to me. Otherwise, you’re really going to die.”
“Doctor...”
Damascus had no intention of giving up. Without Okita, he couldn’t see any way to bring down King Arthur.
And because Damascus knew exactly how Okita had fought—how she had been forced to stagger and obey while her stomach was pierced from the very start through their connection—he couldn’t bring himself to cast her aside.
Then Damascus suddenly had an idea.
“Doctor... ask Magimari for help... Who knows? Maybe it’ll work? Heh... cough...”
Damascus coughed up blood.
“Aaaahhh!”
Even Doctor, Cu Chulainn, and Director Olga Marie were shocked. At this rate, he really might die.
At first, he had been sitting down, holding Okita’s hand and connecting Mana to heal her, but now Damascus had reached his limit too. He collapsed, the light in his eyes slowly fading. But his gaze remained fixed on Okita, and he absolutely would not let go of her hand.
“Ugh... ughhh... ughhhhh...”
Seeing the Master’s condition, Okita tried to shake his hand off, but the more Damascus struggled to pull away, the tighter he held on. It was as if he were saying to Okita, If you don’t recover, I die, so hurry up and recover already.
“That’s an order from the Director. Let go of that hand, now!”
After about thirty minutes of struggling with Okita, it seemed the Director’s Mana had recovered a little. Cu Chulainn also spoke up.
“Kid, don’t do something crazy. You have to give up on what you have to give up on. You’re not a hero—you’re an ordinary person. And you’re still just a child... so even if you give up here, nobody can blame you.”
Cu Chulainn said that.
“No, couldn’t you just heal her with some kind of recovery rune or something, Cu Chulainn? Huh?”
Somewhere, the Guardian’s voice rang out, and before Damascus could even open his mouth, the Guardian knocked him unconscious.
“You... rotten...”
With those last words, Damascus lost consciousness.
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