Inside the forest.
While Archer was playing with the three masters, Lancer and Avenger had their own problem. They were monitoring the Caster's monster when it started to move. The gold bastard managed to harm it earlier but left without finishing it off. However, the monster soon stopped squirming when another figure appeared before it, Saber. Artoria glared at the monster before her as she raised her invisible sword.
"Caster, I know you're in there! Stop this madness at once or I will cut you down!"
The monster roared before a hundred tentacles rushed at the blonde knight. Saber let out a sigh, this was expected. Without any word, she cut down everything the monster sent her way, slicing and dicing every appendage in her path.
The abomination let out a painful screech before using its biggest tentacles against the King of Knights. However, Saber had no issue avoiding every strike. She could easily see where they were going to hit and was able to jump to the side. The monster was huge and its appendages posed serious danger, but it was slow. Slow enough for her, the small-statured Servant that she was to evade all of its attacks. However, Artoria's main goal was to stop this thing, not just avoid it. But no matter how many tentacles she cut down, dozens and dozens of new ones would replace those she severed.
It was healing faster than she could hack away at it. Frighteningly so.
Arturia's hand around her sword's hilt clenched. If she wanted to end it, she couldn't continue swinging haphazardly like this. However, she knew what would help. Both of her hands had healed. Now, she could easily use her Noble Phantasm. Not to mention, this forest was far away from ordinary humans. Everything was perfect… that is until Artoria heard the voice of her master. Her real one.
"Saber, do not use your noble phantasm." Kiritsugu's voice was cold and focused as usual. Meanwhile, the blond knight glared at the distance where her master was hiding.
"What are you talking about?! This monster might harm—!"
"Right now, it's contained within the forest, far away from civilians. Therefore, it cannot harm them. Not to mention, it's surrounded by Servants apart from yourself. You're already healed and no longer under Lancer's curse. Everything is perfect." Her master interrupted anything she would've said in protest while continuing. "Saber, Caster is obsessed with you. Should you ask him to kill the other Servants, he most likely would obey. We should try our old plan."
Her eyes went wide.
"Kiritsugu, how can you even think about something like this!? This monster must be slain! I will not work with it!"
"You will, Saber," his voice became colder. "If the situation gets out of hand, you will use your noble phantasm. But until then, I won't allow it."
Artoria clenched her fists on the holy sword's hilt further. So much so that she obliterated the tentacle that tried to grab at her with a quick swing. In a quiet voice, she said.
"...I don't want to do it. This is wrong!"
"Don't force me to waste the command seal on it, Saber." Kiritsugu said before ending the conversation.
Artoria looked at the monster before her. She lowered her gaze, the King of Knights was feeling like someone punched her in the gut. This was wrong. She was the King. A protective knight. She shouldn't do something like this.
However, Kiritsugu wouldn't allow such a good opportunity to be wasted.
He was reminding Artoria of her sister more and more. And she hated it. With a defeated sigh she lowered her sword and looked at the monster before her.
'Why does Irisviel protect someone like you, Kiritsugu…? I can't understand…'
Artoria glared at the monster as she spoke.
"Gilles, my old… … friend… I want to ask you something…"
While Caster within the monster started feeling euphoric, his 'Jeanne'… felt mortified.
***
"Why did it stop attacking Saber?" Nobunaga asked Lancer as the two stared at the fight from a distance.
However, before she could get a response, a giant tentacle rushed at them. Both Servants were fast enough to avoid it, jumping back from where they stood. The tentacle slammed the trees and ground underneath their feet before rising again and thrashing wildly after the pair of Servants.
This time Avenger decided to act. Dozens of arquebuses appeared around her, all aimed at the tentacle. As Oda raised her katana, the firing line let loose a thundering blaze of gunpowder and shells. The cloud of smoke quickly cleared and she soon saw the damage that had been dealt.
However, the monster's regeneration ability was fast enough to quickly heal every wound. Every single one that her firearms made.
"Fuck." Retreating further, Nobunaga cursed as more of the smaller appendages went after her.
This time it was Lancer's turn to cut them down, but as the same result with hers, any damage he dealt was healed back in mere moments. The barrage of nightmarish appendages continued their onslaught against them.
"My spear won't be able to pierce Caster while he hides inside that thing. Any ideas, Avenger?"
"No." Regrettably, she hadn't any backup plan for this. "And we can't even go after Archer. Even if this abomination won't follow us."
They couldn't help their masters. Not at the moment. Whatever Archer was doing with them was bad enough alone. But even if she could intervene with the goldie's playtime, this thing cannot be allowed to come close to Lelouch. The Demon Daimyo wouldn't allow it.
Their best option right now was to kill it themselves. However, Lancer was pretty much useless for this job, aside from cutting down swathes of tentacles. Nobunaga could use her noble phantasm, but she and Lelouch wanted to save it as a surprise attack against Archer.
'Damn it!' She will not be bested by some overgrown octopus!
However, before Avenger could do anything, another servant appeared before them. Lancer was the first to break the silence.
"Saber—?! What are you doing?"
The King of Knights was standing with her back to the monster. The abomination behind her didn't strike at her. Nor did it try anything in the way of harm. In fact, from Nobunaga's perspective, it looked like it was protecting her. Its tentacles were circling around, forming a kind of perimeter around Saber. The blonde knight herself didn't look happy to be within the safety of the otherworldly limbs.
"Something I'm not proud of, Lancer," was her muttered reply before she raised her wind-clad blade. "Please, as a fellow knight, forgive me for such actions. Caster… … attack them."
The monster obeyed and did as his 'Jeanne' ordered. Like snakes, the tentacles reared their muscles before darting at them both en masse. But it wasn't just Caster's extended limbs.
Without a word of explanation, Saber launched forward. Lancer, momentarily silent by the shock, roared with fury as he met to intercept Artoria's attack. Regrettably, that left Avenger to deal with the horde of slimy writhing flesh whips.
One after another, she sliced away. She managed to halt them from piercing Lancer's flank for the most part, but there was no end. Shoot, slash, or sever swathes of them as she might, Nobunaga's efforts did little to chip away at their numbers as they fanatically assaulted her from all sides.
It was like the monks all over again!
As she was cutting them down, Avenger contacted Lelouch and told him what was going on.
"...That's troublesome. Change of the plan. First, kill the monster then either try to force Saber to escape or cut her down too." Nobunaga could see why killing Caster and his monster first was a better choice. She didn't want to imagine what kind of rampage a mad servant would start if his 'Holy Maiden' was killed in front of his eyes again.
'Although, it would be funny to burn a foolish knight before Gilles.' Nobunaga poetically considered making the warlock relive the fiery tragedy with a dark chuckle. However, she had her orders. Avenger would execute the monster hiding the maniac before turning her righteous fury at the maiden knight playing at pretend.
Arquebus rifles appeared around the redhead servant in droves. Lines upon lines of them fiercely resembled the formation she oft ordered of her men in the past. Noting the likely interference of the fool of a King, she told Lancer to hold off Saber while she would deal with the monster. The spear-wielding Servant nodded right as she rushed towards the beast.
Avenger charged, rifles following loyally behind her. As she jumped on top of one of the giant tentacles and continued on ahead, the firearms reminiscent of her famed fearmongering tactics took aim. Her arquebuses opened fire, shooting off all the smaller tentacles that tried to stop her. Any and every one of them splattered as soon as they tried to even block her path.
With a mighty swing, she used her katana to cut the bigger ones. The red aura about her turned just as deadly as her weapons. Pouring more strength into every strike, the air surrounding her very form crackled with energy and power. It rippled and thrummed as she moved on closer to her foe.
Something was about to awaken.
Gilles de Rais was going to die tonight. And a demon would be the thing the maddened magician would expect!
***
While Avenger powered on to her target, Diarmuid was busy with his old opponent.
However, unlike his previous duels with Saber, this time the knight of Fianna wasn't feeling any sort of pride while exchanging blows with his fellow knight.
Instead, Lancer was extremely disappointed by everything that happened up until now. This Grail War wasn't what he imagined. It wasn't what he wanted. Diarmuid wished for nothing but to prove himself and regain his honor. However… not like this!
'First, my curse started to affect my lord's future wife. Then we teamed up with that vicious woman, Avenger and her dangerous master. And now this? I thought I would get a chance to fight for my honour… But… how can I do so like this?!'
His master and that boy—nay. The demon in the guise of a young man, Lelouch Lamperouge, came up with a plan that would bring shame to any proud knight. But Diarmuid had no choice. He had to obey his lord.
Avenger was a dangerous woman and Lancer knew that soon both she and her master would betray them. He didn't want to fight side by side with her but neither could he disobey his lord either. The only bright side to his plight was Saber who could understand his feelings for they, unlike all the others, were united in chivalry… Or so he had thought…
Gae Dearg was stopped by the invisible sword that sent a blast of wind everywhere alongside the glow of her weapon. Saber had discarded her magic armour, remembering that it was useless against this spear, but kept her Invisible Air wrapped around her famed sword. The winds buffeted any would-be interloper tentacle that slipped past his regrettable ally's watch.
This fight would be harder than their previous duels. Diarmuid lost his Gae Buidhe while the blonde knight knew about what his only spear could do. Not to mention, the giant monster at her back that Avenger was barely holding back now that she'd gone full throttle against it, leaving him behind with Saber. However, Lancer didn't care about anything about it. Nothing mattered anymore. He merely focused only on the Servant before him as he shouted.
"Where is your pride and honor, Saber?! How can you ally yourself with someone like Caster and his abomination?! To stand against us when you know he poses more of a threat to all?!"
As he spoke, several tentacles flew towards him but Diarmuid had a little issue cutting them down. His spear cutting through her sword's stealthy wind magic caused enough of a maelstrom that a mere sweep of his crimson lance pushed her back while similarly eradicating the damned monster's distraction. Raising his weapon, he aimed it once more at the woman he thought understood him the most.
"Answer me! Saber!"
However, hiding behind another wave of the ugly creatures, Saber rushed forward and closed the distance between them. His spear cleared the rabble away but wasn't as effective when she got close enough. Try as she might, Saber failed to end this fight for the sake of them both, locking weapons once more and buffeting everything away with the raging winds.
"Words cannot describe how ashamed I feel, Lancer." He heard her mutter through Invisible Air's torrential current. "However, I cannot go against the order of my master… No matter how strongly I disagree with him."
Lancer stopped to stare at her for a second.
"...I can understand your disappointment with the actions of our lords, but it only means that I should put you out of your misery." He kicked her back, breaking the deadlock. As Lancer raised Gae Dearg in preparation for a follow-up, however, he froze. 'Wait, him? But… wasn't Saber's master the white-haired homunculus?'
While her opponent hesitated for unknown reasons, Saber spoke again.
"I won't hold it against you for thinking of me as a failure of a knight, But it won't stop… I can't… Do what you must, and as will I… that being to strike you down, Lancer!" As Artoria shouted, a giant tentacle burst out of the ground and raised her in the air. Now, standing on top of it, the King of Knights held the high ground as she raised her sword against the Knight of Fianna. She stated solemnly, albeit with reluctance apparent in her voice. "This will be our last fight, Lancer. So let us end this nightmare of a war."
He said nothing and only glared at her. She could understand where this anger was coming from. This was wrong… it went against her creed, the creed of all knights she was meant to embody. And they both knew that.
But Saber could do little except go along with her master's order. No matter how she felt about them. Without any words, her chariot in the form of the giant tentacle rushed forward, Lancer rushed at her as well.
However, before it could hit him, Lancer slipped to the side, avoiding it at the last moment, and stabbed the beast's appendage dead center with his spear. Then, using it as a steppingstone, he jumped up, narrowly avoiding getting squashed and mounting her vantage point. Mere moments later, he was now on the same level as Saber.
Their weapons crossed again, rending the air as his spear dissipated her sword's magical wind sheathe into a wild whirlwind. Spying her gaze through the lashing wind whipping up her hair, he muttered back just as solemnly but struggling to hide his disappointment.
"For the sake of your honor, or what is left of it… I swear to strike you down myself!"
The blonde smiled bitterly. She wasn't going to lose but dying by the hand of the fellow knight would be the best death for her right now. However, no matter how low she was forced to act because of Kiritsugu, Artoria was going to win this war and would get her wish.
No matter what may come.
The two Servants restarted their last duel. Deep inside, both of them resolved to end it, here and now. They knew the other would prefer to die by their hands. The hands of a fellow knight.
It was the best outcome they could non-verbally agree upon rather than continue this dishonorable war.