Other Dimension's Knight

Having Archer localizing Illyasviel's castle, Rin, Shirou and their servants headed towards Shirou's little sister's home in order to forge an alliance against Caster. The castle was located quite far away from Fuyuki, nearly having to walk for half a day in order to reach it as the surroundings were simply filled with too much trees, forbidding the use of a car or something similar. Servants would get there extremely fast, but unfortunately, both Rin and Shirou couldn't be as fast as heroic spirits.

The awkwardness of the journey was credited to the current tension between Shirou and Archer. Although invisible, Shirou wouldn't talk with Archer near, and he even seemed to be on guard. Even if Rin as angry at Archer for this, the deed was already done and no amount of scolding would resolve the problem. Saber realized the situation a while ago, but she seemingly didn't care about the tension among the group, it was as if she seemed preoccupied by something else.

Rin sighed for the n-th time during the march as they encountered yet another bounded field. Although they weren't quite complicated to crack, she was sure that whoever put these bounded fields was already alerted of their presence. The snow only made the walk even more tiring for Rin and Shirou. They, according to Archer, weren't that far away from the castle, so Archer took the high ground by climbing the trees. Although the visibility was quite low in a wood, Archer's skills made up for such an inconvenient place.

Archer looked once again at his younger counterpart and sighed. From what he has seen, Alexander was also trying to help him understand the flaws in his ideal, even if the knight wasn't as pessimistic as himself about the question. But it seemed that Alexander greatly underestimated his younger version's stubborness. Although he was shaken for a moment, he rapidly went back to his old ways. Archer thought for a moment that he wouldn't have to kill his younger self with Alexander's actions, as he thought that if this world's Shirou didn't follow his footsteps, he will also cease to exist, but it seemed that he still had to kill him in the end.

Archer understood that Alexander wanted to break his ideals little by little, by confronting them with reality, but he himself knew how hard it would be, it took him hundreds of years being in Hell to realize how wrong he had been, Archer didn't think Alexander would succeed in the end.

As Archer was observing the castle from afar with caution as he was waiting for any mouvement, he suddenly sensed a dark energy spreading its sense around. It was the same dark energy the shadow Alexander defeated had. Although it was much weaker, it seemed that it had survived Alexander's attack and was located in this castle.

* Rin, the shadow from last time is still not defeated. Although weak, it is still present in this castle. * said Archer telepathically to his master.

On the ground, Rin suddenly stopped and widened her eyes at the information.

" What is it Tohsaka ? " asked Shirou.

" The shadow you defeated last time is still alive, and currently is in Berserker's master residence. " said Rin with a grim look.

" How ? I clearly sensed Alexander's attack when he made that thing disappear last time. It is impossible for it to have survived that attack. " said Saber, clearly not believing what Rin just said.

" ... Maybe it was never a single entity in the first place, maybe it separated itself or maybe the shadow wasn't its real self. But I doubt Alexander would have missed that with his ridiculous insight. " said Rin.

" That would mean defeating this shadow is more complicated than it seemed and brute force isn't enough... Unfortunately Alexander isn't here to confirm so we'll just have to face it. " said Saber.

" ... "

Soon, the group arrived at the castle and were shocked by what they saw, dozens of dead homonculus were spread around. The scent of blood was thick and the way those white-haired homonculus died were quite gruesome. They all had the same appearance as Berserker's master to some extent.

Shirou, being Shirou, tried to urge the group to march forward and save anyone still alive in the castle. But he was rebuked by Archer's sigh and Rin's explanation about why it was a bad idea.

" Listen well, these are homonculus, they are created goods, so although I don't like mindless slaughter, they are much more expendable than actual humans, and also it could very well be a trap, we have no information about what's happening inside, rushing in without scouting the surroundings could spell our doom. " said Rin.

Shirou simply gritted his teeth and nodded, but he clearly didn't like what Rin just said. He didn't even know what were homonculus, but hearing Rin say these people were expendable hurt him.

" Archer, can you give us the situation of the surroundings ? " asked Rin, which Archer replied by a nod and disappeared to appear on top of the castle.

* A lot of dead homonculus all around the castle, and traces of a quick battle, which probably resulted in the death of these homonculus, but nothing else. * said Archer to Rin.

But suddenly they heard the noise of a wall crumbling down as Archer saw Berserker and his master apparently fighting another homonculus, although he was aged, which was surprising for an homonculus supposed to live around 20 years before dying.

* Situation's changed. I have a visual on Berserker and his master fighting someone. The shadow is probably controlling the homonculus fighting them considering the attacks he's using. *

" Quickly, go around the castle, Berserker and his master are fighting " said Rin, not giving any more information as they needed to be quick.

Archer summoned his bow, ready to shoot at any order.

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" You, who are you to kill all of my servants like this ? " said Illyasviel.

The homonculus didn't answer, clearly the being in control of his body wasn't willing to give answer, and simply attacked once again with those vile tentacles that tried to bind Berserker everytime. Illya could sense her servant weakening everytime he was touched by those tentacles, and every attack he did would be uneffective against the enemy as it would just reform from a weird looking shadow into a homonculus just like her.

Berserker growled in irritation as the homonculus continued to summon black tentacles from his body and he continued to destroy them or dodge them while protecting his master.

" If my servant's attacks don't work, then you give me no other choice ! " said Illya as she summoned four familiars from her hairs. When she saw that the shadow had to dodge her attacks, she knew that he was vulnerable to normal attacks, and was just effective against servants.

" Seems you're not invincible after all ... " said Illya as a strange glint appeared in her eyes, when suddenly 8 more familiars appeared.

At the same moment, Shirou and Rin appeared with Saber in front to protect them in case. Seeing this the shadow decided to escape as it would be dangerous for him to fight so many people in his weakened state as he wasn't even able to connect to his master for some reason. The Shadow tried to devour Berserker to regain some of its lost strength but wasn't able to do so instantly.

Seeing the shadow retreat, Illyasviel's familiars turned towards Rin and Shirou, while Berserker got in stance, ready to pounce on Saber.

" Now .... I didn't except you to come to me instead Onii-chan, but.... it seems that I'll be able to enact my vengeance earlier than I thought. Go, Berserker. " said Illya.

" Wait, Illyasviel, we aren't here to fight ! We- " started to say Rin but unfortunately, she had to defend against the familiars attacking her while Saber was fighting with Berserker.

Another battle against Berserker started in the 5th Holy Grail War...