Blinded by the intense flash, Saber violently flinches, her left hand snapping up to cover her eyes instinctively.
A sharp groan escapes her lips. The sudden sensory overload from the optical Prana scrambles her vision and disrupts her combat instincts, leaving her completely stunned and paralyzed for a couple of seconds.
I only have a brief window to act. Staring closely at her with my Mystic Eyes, the world shifts around me, and I can clearly see the intricate lines making up her very existence.
It is her Saint Graph, the structural foundation of a Servant.
Beneath everything, the core lines glow with a bright bluish-white and pale silver-blue light, representing her clean, noble origin as the King of Knights.
But layered over that beautiful light is the concept of "Alter." It takes the shape of an unnatural, pitch-black and dark violet web tightly knotted around her core.
It looks like a jagged, oily parasite coiled securely around the bright blue-white lines of her Saint Graph.
Looking at it, I know that if I carefully trace my projected blade along the specific Lines anchoring that dark web, I won't hurt her at all.
I can actually kill the "Alter" concept itself, severing the corruption entirely and returning her back to normal.
But unfortunately, I cannot just cut that right now. I need extreme precision to do it safely. Those dark "Alter" lines are tangled incredibly tightly around her core like a parasite.
If my hand slips even a single millimeter and I accidentally slice the bright blue-white lines of her actual Saint Graph underneath, I will instantly kill Saber for real.
With my current messy stance and barely any time before she recovers from the flash, it is way too risky to try.
Plus, saving Kiritsugu from being drained to death is still the priority.
So, I shift my focus just slightly higher. I lock onto a different, much safer target—a thick line protruding directly from the center of her chest and trailing off into the distance.
That is the tether of the Master-Servant contract. That is the line I need to kill to sever her connection and save Kiritsugu.
"Projection!" I shout, pushing my Od into my right hand.
A simple dagger instantly materializes in my grip. Without wasting another millisecond, I swing my arm forward and slash cleanly through that glowing tether.
The moment my projected dagger slices cleanly through that glowing red tether, the effect is instantaneous.
It is like someone just yanked the power cord out of a roaring machine. The dense, suffocating of dark Prana swirling around Saber Alter sputters and dies in the blink of an eye.
Saber lets out a sharp, breathless gasp. Her knees instantly buckle. Because she was running her Dragon Core at maximum capacity to spam her Mana Burst, severing her supply line causes a violent magical backlash inside her circuits.
Without Kiritsugu's Od acting as her anchor to the World, the crushing weight of reality immediately presses down on her.
She stumbles, totally caught off guard by the sickening emptiness of losing her Master.
But she is still the King of Knights. Even blinded by my Solar Flare and crippled by the sudden drop in power, her combat instincts kick in.
Feeling my presence right in front of her, she doesn't try to swing her massive sword. Instead, she lashes out with a desperate, wild backhand.
"Gah—!"
I try to jump back, but I am way too close. Her heavy, armored gauntlet swats me right in the chest with a sickening, metallic CRUNCH. The impact instantly blasts every last bit of air out of my lungs.
Even without her Prana enhancing her strength, a hit from a Servant is like getting hit by a speeding truck.
The sheer kinetic force lifts my tiny eight-year-old body completely off the ground and sends me flying backward through the fading smoke screen.
I skid hard across the cracked concrete of the plaza, my projected dagger shattering into blue sparks the moment it leaves my hand.
I cough, struggling to catch my breath as I force myself to sit up. It hurts like crazy, but my Hero Creation buff saved my ribs from instantly snapping.
I look up to see Saber Alter panting heavily, using Excalibur Morgan like a cane to support her weight as her vision slowly starts to return. The tether is gone. The contract is broken.
I actually did it. I saved Kiritsugu.
Now that I have achieved my goal, I cut the magical energy flowing to my clones.
The two clones still holding onto Saber's legs immediately break down, scattering into a shower of glowing pink flower petals before disappearing entirely.
But the fight isn't over yet. I try to stand up with my wobbly legs, groaning softly.
Even though I barely got injured from that attack, my small body still heavily feels the aching effects of being thrown backward across the plaza.
"Oh my, are you okay, Rikka? You managed to cut Saber's connection perfectly, but your body is already too tired. This is your first real battle, you know. You should rest and let me deal with the rest of this" Lady Ava's voice echoes directly in my mind, communicating cleanly through our Master-Servant link.
"Not yet," I reply through the connection. "I already said I am going to show my resolve. I declared it to the Void before, and if I back down now, I am never going to change. This world is not like my previous one. I don't know what is going to happen after this Holy Grail War, but I need to get used to fighting and surviving."
There is a brief pause on the other end before she answers, her tone shifting into something genuinely fond.
"...I see. If you say so. As your teacher, I certainly want to watch my disciple grow into her own person. I really don't want to see my cute student get hurt before she is ready, but... well, the thing I love most about humans isn't their perfection."
"It is their beautiful resolve, their stubborn growth, and the way their souls shine when they push forward against impossible odds. Show me that beautiful light, Rikka."
"Thank you... Teacher," I answer, feeling a small, tired smile creep onto my face.
"You can just call me 'Big Sister' instead to thank me~" she teases playfully, instantly ruining the serious moment.
***
***
***
After I finally manage to stand up on my wobbly legs, I look toward Saber. She is still crouching, heavily using her darkened sword like a cane to keep herself from collapsing.
I don't even need to concentrate my eyes to see her lines anymore. Because her Master servant connection is entirely severed, she only has a few minutes left to stay in this world if she keeps maintaining her armor and that form.
As she gets closer to running out of energy and fading away, her Lines of Death become thicker, darker, and much easier for me to clearly see.
"You lose, Saber," I say to her, wiping sweat off my cheek. "Without your connection to Kiritsugu, you can't spam your Mana Burst anymore. I won."
Saber slowly looks down at her own armored hands. As the seconds pass, her physical body is clearly getting weaker, the dark Prana bleeding off her like fading smoke.
But she is still the King of Knights. Drawing on whatever small amount of magical energy she has left inside her core, she grips Excalibur Morgan tight and forces herself to stand up straight again.
She doesn't raise her sword to attack, though. Instead, she looks at me with a complicated, genuinely respectful expression.
"To think I would be completely outmaneuvered by a child," Saber says, her voice low but incredibly steady. "I have fought alongside Merlin and against Morgan le Fay, but even their clones were mostly intangible illusions—fake ghost images made of light. I have never seen a physical clone with actual mass deployed so quickly in my entire life."
She lets out a quiet breath as she acknowledges her defeat.
"You used your flame magecraft not as a finishing blow, but as a distraction so your puppets could pin my legs and ruin my footing. And the moment I focused my blade on destroying the flames, you were already waiting right behind the blast wave with another spell to blind me and sever my contract." Saber shakes her head slightly, her golden eyes locking onto mine. "It was a flawless, merciless chain of attacks. You fought exactly like a proper magus... no, you fought like a true warrior."
"I praise your tactics, Rikka. But a knight does not yield merely because the odds have turned against her." Saber says, her voice steady and resolute.
She closes her eyes for a brief second. Suddenly, the heavy, jagged black armor covering her body cracks.
With a soft hiss, the thick metal shatters into countless dark particles, dissolving like ash into the wind.
When the particles clears, the plating is completely gone, leaving her standing in a dark, elegant gothic dress.
I know exactly what she is doing. By dismissing her armor, she is forcefully cutting off her passive magical drain to save whatever small amount of Prana she still has left inside her core.
Saber raises Excalibur again. This time, there is no violent storm of dark energy exploding from the blade. Instead, she holds the darkened sword with a clean, flawless two-handed grip, pointing the tip directly at me.
"As the King of Knights, laying down my sword is simply not in my nature," she declares, her golden eyes burning with a quiet, dangerous focus. "Maintaining my armor and using magical bursts will only drain the little time I have left. So, I will discard them. I will no longer rely on raw magical power or overwhelming force. For this final clash, I will face you purely with my blade and my pride as a knight."
A cold sweat breaks out on the back of my neck, and I instinctively tighten my palms tighter.
Are you kidding me?! This actually makes things worse! Without all that heavy dense metal weighing her down, her physical movement speed is going to skyrocket.
I might have stopped the juggernaut, but now I have to survive a close-quarters duel against one of the greatest sword users in human history who has nothing left to lose.
I know whatever I say will not change her decision. But seriously, how am I supposed to fight against Saber now that she has removed her armor?
Without her Master contract, her parameters should be slowly dropping, but she is still a Servant. Now that she has shed all that extra weight, her agility is going to be insanely fast. I definitely cannot react to it normally.
But I am not completely out of options yet. I still have my ace card—the special technique I created together with Void. Well, Denial technically helped too, but she barely gave any useful opinions and just kept reading my novels the entire time.
In this world, most proper magi have an ultimate trump card. Kiritsugu has his Origin Bullets, and Kayneth has his Volumen Hydrargyrum.
So, of course, I needed one too. Void and I spent a long time brainstorming until I finally perfected a final move—one that should only be used when I am totally cornered and out of backup plans.
Looking down at the back of my right hand, I see I still have two Command Spells left. I can use them to instantly refill my Od. That should give me just enough magical energy to pull this off.
"You know, Saber... no, Artoria Pendragon. You are actually my favorite character in this entire stuff," I say to her, keeping my eyes locked on hers.
Saber blinks, her strict stance faltering for just a fraction of a second. "Favorite character...?"
"Not you as the Servant Saber, but you as Artoria Pendragon, the person," I explain, relaxing my empty hands and dropping my combat stance just a little bit.
"I love how much you genuinely cared for your people. You willingly sacrificed your own humanity and your own happiness just to be the perfect, flawless king, because you thought that was the only way to protect them."
I take a slow breath, giving her a sad, knowing smile.
"Even though your methods ended up isolating you—even though being that perfect made your own knights misunderstand and fear you—your heart was always in the right place. You gave up everything for Britain. I have always respected that beautiful dedication for your people."
"You spent your whole life saving Britain, and now you're trying to use the Grail to change the very life you gave for your people. I won't let you carry that tragic burden anymore. So just for today... let me save you, Artoria."
The moment those words leave my mouth, the tense atmosphere around us completely shifts. Saber freezes. The fierce, unyielding grip she has on her darkened sword loosens just a fraction.
Her golden eyes widen in genuine shock, as if she cannot comprehend what I just said to her.
For a king who has been fighting entirely alone for her whole life, hearing someone actually offer to carry her pain must feel completely weird.
Unable to maintain my gaze, she slowly lowers her head, letting her blonde bangs cast a soft shadow over her eyes to hide her shifting emotions.
"You had my life in your hands..." she mutters, her voice barely above a whisper. "You could have ended my existence right there when I was blinded by your magecraft... yet you chose to spare me, just to say something so foolishly gentle?"
A couple of seconds pass in total silence. The only sound is the distant wind blowing across the ruined plaza.
Then, a soft, quiet chuckle escapes her lips. It is a warm, entirely human sound. She looks up, her clear eyes locking directly onto my Mystic Eyes.
For the first time since this war began, the cold mask is gone from her face. In its place is a pure, gentle smile—an expression of quiet relief that I have never seen on her before.
"Very well," she says softly, her voice filled with quiet warmth. "Then if you defeat me in this final clash... I shall leave my life, and my salvation, in your hands, Rikka."
"Heh, leave that to me," I say, flashing her a confident grin. "I'm going to beat you before your time in this world finishes."
Raising my right hand so the red marks of my Command Spells are clearly visible, I don't waste any more time.
Reaching out through our mental connection, I call out to Lady Ava.
"Teacher, please help me with this. I still can't do it by myself, but with you, I'm sure I can."
"You are still trying to master that?" Lady Ava's voice sighs in my mind. "I already told you, Rikka. Your Origin is nothing like mine. We are total opposites..."
"I know," I cut her off firmly." That is exactly why I need your help."
A brief pause hangs in my mind before she answers. "...Very well. If that is what you really want. But with this, I am definitely cashing in a wish card from you later~"
I don't mind that at all. As long as Lady Ava helps me pull this off, I will grant her anything I can give, even if it means calling her 'Big Sister' from now on.
"Faraway paradise… a garden beyond reach," I begin to chant, trying to force the image into my mind.
But before I can continue, my magic circuits suddenly flare up, burning hot with a sharp pain. The Prana flow stutters, misfiring because the chant is somehow rejecting the spell.
"Tch, tch. That is the wrong chant, Rikka~" Lady Ava's voice echoes warmly, wrapping around my struggling circuits and stabilizing the flow with her own immense power.
"Let's do it properly. Together, you and me."
I close my eyes, letting my voice perfectly synchronize with her speaking in my mind.
"Faraway paradise… no longer beyond reach."
The cracked concrete beneath our feet begins to hum. A gentle, warm spring breeze suddenly sweeps through the ruined plaza, carrying the faint, sweet scent of nature that washes away the smell of smoke and ash.
"A breeze that does not wither, a light that does not fade."
The dark, suffocating aura left behind by Saber's corrupted energy is instantly purified. In its place, tiny specks of brilliant, glowing pink light begin to fall from the night sky, drifting down like glowing snow.
"Now I can touch it... Now I can step inside..."
Life violently erupts from around us. Vibrant, glowing flowers sprout straight out of the solid asphalt, rapidly spreading outward in a massive, expanding circle. Lush green grass and colorful blooming petals swallow the destruction of this place in mere seconds.
"Unseal the true sanctuary!"
The air itself shimmers as a towering, beautiful structure of pure white stone briefly projects itself into the distance.
The illusion of an endless, eternal spring overwrites the modern city, replacing the harsh reality of the Holy Grail War with a flawless utopia.
"Bloom in full glory… Garden of Avalon!"
A blinding, gentle light explodes outward from my feet. The magical wave doesn't just stop around the two of us.
It expands rapidly, violently washing over the entire ruined plaza. The original bounded field we were fighting inside is completely swallowed and overwritten by my spell.
In the blink of an eye, the entire sealed space transforms into a massive, endless sea of blooming flowers, completely trapping all of us inside a faraway paradise.