The ancient forest surrounding Raphael Arzenon's newly manifested Temple of Solomon whispered with an uneasy hush, the towering trees swaying gently under a sky heavy with latent magical residue. Leaves rustled like forgotten secrets, and the air carried the sharp tang of ozone mixed with the metallic scent of spilled blood and raw mana. Despite Raphael's stern advice to remain safely within the protective confines of the temple—where its walls hummed with incomprehensible defensive arrays—the three mages could not stay idle. Rin Tohsaka, Luvia Edelfelt, and Reines El-Melloi Archisorte ignored his warning entirely, their pride and concern propelling them forward into the dense woodland where the clash between Raphael and the monstrous Rairen raged unchecked.
They arrived at the clearing just in time to witness the unthinkable.
Raphael Arzenon's body lay defeated on the blood-soaked earth, crumpled like a discarded puppet. A gaping wound pierced straight through his chest, crimson pooling beneath him in a slow, viscous spread. His limbs were limp, his once-vibrant presence reduced to eerie stillness. Even Kevin, who had materialized nearby with his usual enigmatic timing, stood solemn and silent atop a nearby boulder, his expression unreadable, shadows playing across his face as if the weight of the scene pressed down on him personally.
Reines' hands clenched into tight fists at her sides, her perfectly manicured nails digging crescents into her palms. Her heart hammered against her ribs with uncharacteristic force. She had underestimated Raphael's power—seen the temple rise in minutes and assumed invincibility. But witnessing the raw brutality of his defeat shook her to her core, cracking the icy composure she wore like armor in the cutthroat world of Clock Tower politics.
Reines exhaled sharply through her nose, her hands still trembling—not from fear, but from the sheer overwhelming weight of what they had just witnessed. She turned to Kevin with a sharp, piercing glare, her voice low and edged with barely contained urgency. "Tell me that wasn't part of his plan."
Rin and Luvia stood frozen beside her, the forest's ambient sounds fading into a dull roar in their ears. Reines nails dug deeper into her palms until she felt the sting of broken skin, bile rising hot and acrid in her throat as she stared at Raphael's fallen form. That idiot… He didn't even— Her voice cracked before she could finish the thought, the words dying in a choked whisper.
Meanwhile, Rin's breath hitched violently as the horrific scene unfolded—her body locked in place, her mind racing through a whirlwind of denial and fury. The moment Raphael fell, something deep inside her snapped like an overstrained circuit. "No." A whisper at first—fragile, trembling—then it erupted into a full-throated roar. "NO!"
She lunged forward before anyone could stop her, golden magical circuits flaring to life around her fists like wildfire spreading across dry tinder. Her vision tunneled sharply on Rairen's broad back as the enemy turned away from Raphael's lifeless form with casual dismissal. "You arrogant bastard," she snarled, voice thick with raw emotion, "you don't get to just walk away after that!"
The air crackled with unrestrained mana as she summoned glowing Glyphs mid-charge, not holding back for once in what felt like goddamn years. If this was going down, she would make sure it hurt him too—consequences and power gaps be damned.
Luvia's thoughts were a tangled storm, her mind desperately racing to process the impossible sight before her. Her golden coils of hair whipped around her face as a profound sense of unease settled over her like a funeral shroud. Raphael… had fought with every ounce of his power, unleashing wonders that defied magecraft's known limits, only to fall so quickly. It was almost inconceivable to the proud Edelfelt heiress, who had always measured worth by unyielding strength and noble bearing.
Luvia's breath caught sharply in her throat. Her sapphire-blue eyes—wide, unblinking—fixed obsessively on the fallen body of Raphael Arzenon. "…He can't be." Her voice emerged as barely a whisper, sharp with disbelief and something far darker: genuine panic that clawed at her chest. "He can't be dead! Not after everything he just did! Not after he created that workshop in mere minutes, not after he faced Rairen like that with such audacity!"
"That man doesn't die so easily…"
But then she saw it—the gruesome wound torn through his chest, the blood pooling beneath him in a macabre halo, the way his limbs lay utterly limp and unresponsive. No regeneration surged forth this time. No familiar smirk flickered back to life within seconds. Just… stillness. An unnatural, suffocating stillness.
A cold wind blew through the clearing as if even nature itself refused to mourn what had just transpired—and Luvia's heart stopped for one terrible, agonizing second before pounding back harder than ever, a frantic drumbeat of denial and despair. "NO!"
She screamed it—not with her usual elegant ojou-sama laugh or calculated noble fury—but with raw, gut-wrenching agony tearing from the depths of her throat as she sprinted forward without a single thought for danger, protocol, or her cherished pride!
Rin grabbed her arm mid-step—hard enough to bruise the pale skin beneath the golden coils—but Luviagelita twisted free with a feral snarl that echoed through the trees: "Let me go!"
"You'll get yourself killed!" Rin shouted over the roar of residual battle energy still crackling in the air like lightning about to strike again and again and again…
But Luvia didn't care anymore about strength levels or carefully laid strategy plans. All logic had vanished the instant nothing remained but him, lying there motionless on the bloodied ground…
And suddenly? Something inside her broke open, hotter and more violent than any mana storm ever conjured by the combined efforts of Clock Tower mages: "I WON'T ALLOW IT!"
With no plan except pure, rage-fueled instinct, she reached into her sleeve and pulled out an ancient Edelfelt ritual dagger forged from starlight bone, its edge gleaming with ethereal power. She slashed both palms open without hesitation until golden-blue sapphire light erupted violently around the wounds, bathing the clearing in brilliant radiance. Then she screamed toward heaven itself, voice cracking with desperate emotion:
"RAPHAEL ARZENON!! IF YOU DARE STAY DEAD AFTER PROMISING TO PROTECT THIS TEMPLE I SWEAR ON MY BLOODLINE I'LL BRING YOU BACK MYSELF EVEN IF IT TAKES EVERY DROP OF MAGIC IN THIS WORLD!!"
Tears streamed unchecked down her face now—untouched by any concern for beauty standards or noble decorum. Only raw, unfiltered truth remained: a girl who had never wept publicly… crying openly… for someone who may have been worth more alive than the entire Clock Tower and all its stagnant traditions combined.
Rairen continued walking away, his massive form radiating smug triumph…
…Until—
Crack.
Lightning split the sky where there had been no clouds moments before. The sigil on Omega Heinriel's discarded corpse flared with blinding golden light—and Raphael's body suddenly stirred. It stood back up as the horrific hole in his chest dissolved into shimmering particles of light, reforming mid-air as he dropped onto one knee with a wet, ragged cough. His chest still knitted itself back together at an unnatural, almost obscene speed. When he finally looked up at them, his grin was all sharp teeth and defiant mischief, blood dripping down his chin like macabre war paint.
"—Yeesh. And here I thought noble ladies were supposed to be elegant. That screeching just now almost killed me faster than Rairen did."
Behind the risen Raphael stood Rairen, who had frozen in place, his expression twisted in open shock. "How is this possible? You should be dead by now."
Raphael Arzenon laughed, the sound rough but genuine, laced with exhausted triumph. "My current body is an informational body, not true flesh and blood. Yes, I felt the pain—but that attack didn't hit my actual core, so it was unaffected."
Rairen scoffed, a flicker of annoyance crossing his features. "You truly are testing my patience, brat." But then his lips curled into a dangerous smirk. "Besides, what's your game plan anyways? We both know I am the stronger fighter between the two of us, so what can you possibly do?"
Raphael Arzenon smiled, calm and knowing. "True, I am weaker than you—but strength isn't everything, and I will show you the true difference between the two of us."
As Raphael Arzenon spoke, three radiant Command Spells materialized on the palm of his right arm, glowing with crimson authority that pulsed like living hearts.
Rairen saw the Command Spells and burst into mocking laughter. "Really? That's your last resort—summoning a Servant? Do you really think a mere Servant can stop what I will do to you?"
Raphael Arzenon chuckled at Rairen's arrogance, his voice dripping with wry amusement. "Summon a Servant? Yeah, you wish. I will do something better than summoning a Servant."
Reines, Rin, and Luvia couldn't believe what they were seeing. Raphael's regeneration was nothing short of a miracle, defying every law of magecraft they had studied in the hallowed halls of the Clock Tower and beyond.
Reines clenched her jaw, her mind racing through possibilities and counter-possibilities at blinding speed. "He… he survived? Impossible."
Rin was equally stunned. The sight of Raphael's body healing itself so seamlessly was like something ripped straight out of a fever dream. But a nightmare felt far more appropriate given the stakes. Rin couldn't believe her eyes. The sheer audacity of this guy. "He's… he's actually…" she stuttered, utterly stunned. "Survived that?!" She found herself gaping—something she rarely allowed herself to do. Luvia and Reines shared identical expressions of pure, unfiltered shock. None of them—not even mages who regularly tangled with the Mage Association's darkest shenanigans—could fathom it. It made her blood boil with a strange mixture of frustration and awe. And for once, it wasn't just anger. A strange sense of… amazement bubbled up unbidden.
Rin tried to speak, but the words lodged stubbornly in her throat. This made no sense. It defied every law, every foundational rule she knew of magecraft… How was he alive? And what was he hinting at now with those glowing Command Spells? Was he actually going to summon a Servant? That had to be it, right? But he had also said he had a 'better' choice than summoning a Servant… What on earth could he possibly mean by that?
For a long, suspended moment, all Luvia could do was stare. Her eyes had gone wide as saucers, her mouth slightly agape in a most un-ladylike fashion. "He's… alive."
For a long, long moment, nothing more needed to be said. Then the full realization crashed over her like a tidal wave, and her knees threatened to collapse beneath her elegant frame.
Luvia's knees buckled—just for a second—before she violently caught herself, hands clenching into white-knuckled fists. Her breath came in sharp, ragged bursts, tears still wet and glistening on her flushed cheeks… but now? Now they burned with a fierce mix of humiliation and relief at Raphael's teasing remark about her "screeching."
"E-Elegant?! You—you absolute mongrel!" Her voice cracked between raw fury and something perilously close to hysterical laughter as she swiped furiously at her face with the back of her sleeve. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"
Then—realizing what she had just admitted aloud in front of Rin, Reines, and the enemy no less—her face turned a deep, mortified scarlet. She whirled away with an exaggerated huff, arms crossed tightly over her chest in a vain attempt to reclaim her dignity. "…N-not that it matters! A proper noble wouldn't leave their allies to clean up their mess after such a reckless display!"
But despite the haughty tone she forced into her words… Rin noticed Luvia's shoulders were trembling slightly under all those golden coils, the aftershocks of genuine terror still rippling through her.
Meanwhile—
Reines' sharp eyes narrowed at the glowing Command Spells on Raphael's palm. Something about this entire development didn't add up. If he wasn't summoning a Servant… then what exactly was his plan?
Raphael Arzenon wasted no time. He raised his right hand and activated the first Command Spell, his voice ringing with absolute authority: "I command everyone around this battlefield to be teleported within my temple."
In an instant, a surge of spatial distortion enveloped them all. Rairen, Raphael himself, Rin, Luvia, Reines, and even the severed corpse of Omega Heinriel were wrenched through space and deposited inside the grand, echoing halls of Raphael's Temple of Solomon. The air inside hummed with divine-like power, ancient runes and geometric patterns glowing softly along the walls.
Rairen, still not fully understanding what Raphael Arzenon was planning, simply chuckled with condescending amusement. "Oh wow, this temple? So you used your Command Spells for mere teleportation? How disappointing. Here I expected you to actually use an actual Servant, but it seems you were too foolish."
As Rairen spoke, he raised a hand and created a massive Ice beam—large as a house—hurling it at Raphael Arzenon with lethal intent. Raphael immediately invoked the second Command Spell, his voice steady and commanding: "I command your attack to be begone."
In an instant, Rairen's colossal spell was erased from existence on the spot, vanishing as if it had never been cast.
This shocked Rairen visibly. "How did you cancel my spell? You barely have any mana left—so how are you doing this?"
Raphael Arzenon smirked, his eyes gleaming with calculated confidence. "It's simply that the law of my Temple sees instead of summoning Servants I simply have it that anyone or anything within my Temple instantly get the Property of a Servant—so you know what that means, right?"
Rairen's face paled dramatically, the color draining away as realization dawned. "No… it can't be. No, it's impossible."
Raphael Arzenon laughed, the sound echoing through the temple's vast chamber. "While it is possible—I basically based it so that the Absolute Authority of Command Spells now applies to everything within my Temple. For everything here is recognized as a Servant, I can command the environment or elements within this temple."
Rairen's face turned deadly serious now, his earlier arrogance cracking. "If that's true, why haven't you commanded for my death yet? If the Authority of a Servant applies to everyone, shouldn't that include me?"
Raphael Arzenon smiled, calm and almost gentle in the face of looming violence. "Indeed, but for me to command people will require me to beat you first—so that is my plan. I will manipulate the environment itself and turn it against you. And once I win, I will command you to tell me everything you know about this Vampire War."
Rairen's expression twisted with pure rage. "In that case, I will destroy every bone in your body before you ever arrive at that point!"
And with that, Raphael Arzenon and Rairen rushed at each other, the air igniting with explosive force as round two of their cataclysmic battle erupted inside the very heart of the Temple of Solomon.
Rin watched the unfolding chaos with a lump forming heavily in her throat. This was… insane. There was no other word for it. The sheer power being flung around was more than enough to steal her breath away entirely. And the way Rairen—the ancient terror—was being treated like a simple nuisance? It defied comprehension.
Was it pride that made her throat feel so tight? Or was it… excitement? She'd never admit it aloud, but the sheer adrenaline pumping through her veins made her feel… alive in a way she hadn't in years.
Rin couldn't help herself. The sheer magnitude of the battle unfolding before her made her heart skip several beats. It was like watching two gods clash—two entities who stood far above the mundane world, beyond ordinary human or even magus comprehension. And in this moment… she felt something she hadn't experienced in a long time.
Fear. Bone-deep, exhilarating fear.
While Luvia's brain short-circuited for a solid three seconds before the sheer absurdity of Raphael's gambit finally registered in full. Then—
"O-HO-HO-HOHOHOHOOOO!!!"
Her laughter boomed through the temple's halls, rich and unrestrained—not her usual refined ojou-sama chuckle, but something far wilder and more liberated. She clutched her stomach as she doubled over, tears of exhilaration pricking at the corners of her sapphire eyes. "Y-You madman! You absolute lunatic! Turning reality itself into your Servant?! Even I wouldn't dare—!"
She wheezed between gasping laughs, gesturing wildly at their surroundings like a child witnessing true magic for the first time. Rin shot her an incredulous look while Reines simply massaged her temples as if praying for divine patience. But Luvia was beyond caring about decorum now—she threw an arm around Rin's shoulders (ignoring how the other girl stiffened instinctively) and pointed dramatically at Raphael with her free hand: "LOOK AT HIM GO! That man just rewrote magecraft fundamentals as a distraction tactic! Do you see now why I tolerate him?! This is peak performance!!"
Rin opened her mouth to retort sharply… then closed it with an audible click when Raphael ducked under Rairen's devastating strike only to casually Command Spell a floating pillar into slamming sideways into their enemy like divine intervention itself had taken personal offense. Her eye twitched violently before she muttered under her breath: "…Yeah okay that's… actually kind of impressive."
Reines exhaled sharply through gritted teeth before deadpanning to no one in particular: "And here I thought I was supposed to be the tactical genius…"
A beat of heavy silence fell over the trio as they processed the sheer absurdity unfolding before their eyes: Raphael Arzenon wielding Command Spells like casual suggestions while Rairen—an ancient terror that had haunted mage history—looked genuinely unnerved for the first time since this battle had begun.
The temple's walls pulsed with latent power, as if eagerly awaiting the commands that would decide the fate of them all. Whatever came next in this impossible clash, one thing was certain: the rules of their world had just been rewritten, and none of them would ever look at Raphael Arzenon the same way again.