Manaka stood in the bright glare of the headlights, completely ignoring the invisible sword pointed at her face.
Her warm, empty smile didn't change at all.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Manaka Sajyou," she said, her voice light and cheerful like she was greeting a friend the exact opposite of her current expression.
Saber didn't lower her weapon. "What do you want from us? Are you a Master in this war?"
Manaka tilted her head. "Not really. I was just watching everyone at the docks earlier. I wanted to see a certain someone, but then Archer and Rider interrupted, and the fight ended way too fast."
Irisviel tensed from where she stood behind the car door, while Saber's grip on her sword tightened.
"Don't worry," Manaka continued casually. "I already put tracking magecraft on her, so I know exactly where she is. I don't need you for that. But watching you fight earlier... it was too short. It was boring. So, I want to see you fight a little more."
Before Saber could ask what she meant, the air around Manaka suddenly felt incredibly heavy. The shadows on the road started to move, gathering at Manaka's feet like thick, black mud.
"So, I brought him back for a little test," Manaka said happily.
From the dark puddle on the ground, a tall, armored figure started to rise.
Saber's eyes widened. The dark energy coming from the figure was exactly the same as the Servant who had died an hour ago.
It was Berserker. But now, he looked like a living shadow. His black armor dripped with dark energy, and his glowing red eyes pierced through the darkness with a furious rage.
In his hands, he held a massive, heavy broadsword. It was his signature weapon, Arondight, but because the entire blade was heavily wrapped in swirling, thick shadows, Saber couldn't see its true shape or recognize it as a holy sword.
"Play with him for a bit," Manaka smiled, taking a step back as Shadow Berserker let out a loud, furious roar.
Shadow Berserker charged straight at Saber. He moved with the exact same deadly battle instincts he had when he was alive.
He raised his shadow-covered sword and swung it down with massive force.
Saber gritted her teeth and brought up her invisible Excalibur to block. The clash of weapons created a shockwave that cracked the asphalt under their feet.
Saber was pushed back, her boots sliding against the road. With her left arm useless from Lancer's curse, blocking the heavy attack with just her right arm put a serious strain on her body.
However, as she pushed back against his blade, she immediately noticed a difference. The impact was heavy, but it was nowhere near as strong as the real Berserker at the docks. He was physically weaker.
Shadow Berserker didn't give her time to think. He launched a relentless series of attacks, swinging his dark sword in wide, brutal arcs.
Saber focused on dodging and deflecting.
She parried a horizontal sweep, ducked under a wild thrust, and watched as his heavy sword missed her and easily sliced through a thick tree trunk beside the road instead.
Taking advantage of his lower durability and his wild swings, Saber waited for him to overextend.
When Shadow Berserker raised his sword for another heavy overhead strike, Saber moved fast.
She stepped inside his guard and swung her invisible sword, cutting a deep gash right across his chest armor.
But the dark figure didn't stop or flinch. Driven purely by instinct and completely unable to feel pain, he ignored the fatal wound.
He immediately dropped his shoulder and slammed his body into her. The sudden tackle forced Saber to jump back to avoid taking the full hit, her feet skidding on the road.
"He doesn't feel pain," Saber warned Irisviel, keeping her eyes locked on the enemy.
Shadow Berserker charged again, his red eyes leaving a trail of light in the dark.
He swung his sword in a fast, spinning attack. Saber blocked the first hit, deflected the second, and then used a burst of Mana to push him off balance.
She sidestepped quickly, slicing through his shadow-covered arms to completely disarm him, before stepping forward and cleanly cutting his head off in one smooth motion.
The dark, corrupted armor instantly lost its shape, melting back into a puddle of black mud on the road.
The heavy broadsword vanished with him.
Saber breathed a small sigh of relief, lowering her sword slightly.
"Wow, you are really strong, Saber!" Manaka clapped her hands happily, still wearing that warm, empty smile. "But let's see how long you can keep that up."
Before Saber could react, the puddle of black mud bubbled.
Another fully formed Shadow Berserker rose from the ground, gripping the same shadow-covered sword, and roaring just as loudly as the first one.
Saber's eyes widened in horror as she realized the true danger. The enemy was weaker, but Manaka could just keep summoning him over and over again.
"But still, you are very strong even while only using one hand, Saber," Manaka suddenly said. She looked at the newly summoned Shadow Berserker, and then back toward Saber.
Irisviel was way in the back, staying safely beside the car. She knew the moment the first Shadow Berserker appeared that she needed to keep her distance so she wouldn't get in Saber's way.
"How about we add more~" Manaka said playfully. She snapped her fingers.
Immediately, more shadows started gathering on the left and right sides of the Shadow Berserker.
The black mud bubbled, and two more dark figures started climbing out of the ground.
Now, there were three identical Shadow Berserkers standing on the road.
Normally, the Holy Grail system summoned a Servant by copying their data from the Throne of Heroes, creating a physical vessel, and pasting the data inside while a Master supplied the mana.
When a Servant died, that data was supposed to return to the Grail to become fuel for the ritual.
But Manaka didn't need the Grail. Through her direct connection to the Root, she simply intercepted and stole Berserker's data the moment he died at the docks, right before it could reach the Grail.
Because the quality of her Magic Circuits was EX-rank, she could easily use that stolen data and the mana from the Root to manifest her own Shadow Servants.
However, she still had limitations. Even with the power of the Root, the actual quantity of her Magic Circuits was only E-rank, meaning there was a limit to how much mana she could process at one time.
Furthermore, because she didn't possess the Third Magic, Heaven's Feel, Manaka couldn't put a real soul into these creations.
The Shadow Berserkers were just empty shells, born entirely without souls, moving and fighting solely based on the stolen combat data and lingering instincts.
"As expected, only three..." Manaka murmured to herself, her voice so low that Saber couldn't hear her.
"I should finish that soon... Now, go." She pointed forward, and the three Shadow Berserkers rushed toward Saber at the exact same time.
Saber braced herself. Fighting three opponents with only her right arm was incredibly dangerous.
She used Mana Burst to push herself backward, making sure to keep all three enemies in front of her so she wouldn't get surrounded.
The first Shadow Berserker swung its heavy sword down. Saber deflected it to the side, but the second one immediately stepped in with a fast horizontal slash.
She barely brought her invisible Excalibur up in time to block. The heavy clash sent a painful shockwave all the way up her right arm.
While she was locked in the block, the third Shadow Berserker flanked her and swung its dark sword directly at her ribs.
Saber couldn't dodge.
The shadow-covered blade slammed hard into her side.
Because these shadow copies had lower parameters than the real Berserker, the blade didn't have enough power to cut through Saber's thick silver armor.
It didn't pierce her skin or draw blood. However, the raw physical force of the heavy blow still picked Saber up and threw her across the road.
She crashed hard onto the asphalt, rolling to absorb the impact before quickly forcing herself back onto her feet.
Her ribs throbbed with a deep bruise, but she wasn't seriously injured.
"Saber!" Irisviel yelled from the car, looking terrified.
"Stay back, Irisviel!" Saber warned, already breathing heavily.
The three Shadow Berserkers didn't give her a single second to recover. They charged again. They didn't communicate or speak, but their lingering battle instincts made them coordinate perfectly.
Saber focused her mana and swung her sword hard, cleanly cutting the closest Shadow Berserker in half. It instantly melted into black mud. But the other two just kept attacking without hesitation.
One swung high, and the other swung low. Saber managed to block the high attack, but the heavy low sweep smashed into her armored leg, knocking her off balance.
Worse, from the corner of her eye, Saber saw the black mud on the ground already bubbling. The third one was reforming again.
Saber realized the terrifying reality of the situation. Her armor could stop their weapons from actually cutting her, but she was still taking heavy kinetic damage.
Between fighting with one arm and taking constant hits, she was going to get completely overwhelmed and exhausted if this kept going.
Saber's boots scraped against the asphalt as she was pushed backward again. She quickly glanced to her left, and her eyes widened slightly.
Just a few feet away was the sheer, deadly drop of the mountain cliff. On her right, the thick trees of the dark forest stood like a solid wall.
The Shadow Berserkers weren't just attacking her mindlessly. Their lingering battle instincts were working together to herd her.
By constantly swinging from the right side and keeping the pressure high, they were slowly but surely forcing Saber toward the edge of the cliff.
If she got knocked off the mountain, her body would survive the fall, but Irisviel would be left completely unprotected with Manaka and the shadow Servants.
"I won't let you!" Saber shouted.
Instead of backing up any further, Saber aggressively pushed forward.
When the nearest Shadow Berserker swung its dark sword, she didn't block it. She dodged to the right, using her smaller size to slip past its guard, and kicked it hard in the chest.
The impact sent the shadow copy stumbling backward. Because they were fighting so close to the edge, it lost its footing.
The Shadow Berserker tumbled backward and fell right off the cliff, disappearing into the darkness below.
However, Manaka just smiled. "That won't work, Saber."
The bubbling mud on the road suddenly grew larger. The Shadow Berserker that Saber had pushed off the cliff simply dissolved into shadows mid-air, its data returning to Manaka instantly.
A second later, it rose right back out of the mud on the road, fully formed and ready to attack again.
Saber gritted her teeth. She couldn't push them off the cliff, and she couldn't afford to get pushed off herself.
With the cliff on her left and the dense forest on her right restricting her movement, she was trapped on the narrow road.
Even surrounded again by the three Shadow Berserkers, Saber could still keep up with them.
She dodged, blocked, and even managed to cut them down, but the real problem was that they just kept coming back.
Slowly but surely, the endless numbers were overwhelming her. If she wasn't wounded by Lancer's curse, she definitely could have fought them off easily.
"Should I..." Saber murmured, looking down at the swirling, invisible wind in her right hand.
If she unleashed Excalibur by removing the Invisible Air, she could use her other abilities, like shooting a concentrated beam of mana from a distance.
Unfortunately, without the use of her left arm, she couldn't brace herself to fire her full Noble Phantasm.
Her thoughts were cut short as the three Shadow Berserkers raised their heavy weapons and slowly started moving toward her again, boxing her in between the cliff and the forest.
She didn't have time to hesitate. Saber started channeling her raw magical energy right into her sword, preparing to blow them all away. But before she could unleash the attack-
"How boring..." Manaka's voice cut through the tense air.
Instantly, the three Shadow Berserkers stopped in their tracks.
They lost their shape and melted right back into the dark mud on the road, disappearing completely.
"I've been waiting for this Holy Grail War for ten years," Manaka said with a small, disappointed sigh. "But if all you can do is just this... it's just a waste of my time."
Before meeting Rikka years ago, she had hoped the Holy Grail War was going to be interesting since it rarely ever happened.
But her expectations were simply too high for a ritual taking place in the Age of Man. If this had been during the Age of Gods, things probably would have been far more entertaining.
Saber lowered her stance slightly, her eyes wide with disbelief before narrowing in pure outrage.
"Is that all you think of this!?" Saber yelled, finally understanding why the girl looked so disappointed. "Entertainment for you?"
Manaka just tilted her head, her pale eyes completely blank. "Entertainment? Oh, no. To be entertainment, you'd have to manage to entertain me. You're not a 'Heroic Spirit' to me, Saber. You're just a mana-signature with a shiny sword. If you're upset that I'm not taking your 'destiny' seriously, then why don't you try being more fun for me?"
Those cold, empty words hit Saber like a physical strike. She clenched her right fist and gritted her teeth in absolute anger.
To be called nothing but a mana-signature... it insulted the very reason she had made a contract with the World.
It made a mockery of her dying breath on the hill of Camlann and the heavy burden of her destroyed kingdom.
Saber's body suddenly erupted with power. She activated her Mana Burst, channeling massive amounts of energy through her body. The sheer force of her aura cracked the solid asphalt ground beneath her boots.
With a deafening roar of wind, the Invisible Air restraining her weapon burst outward in a powerful shockwave, tearing through the trees and sweeping over the dark road.
The wind scattered, finally revealing the true form of her blade.
It was a breathtaking, flawless golden sword. The holy blade, Excalibur.
The metal gleamed with a brilliant, unearthly light, perfectly pristine and untouched by time or battle.
The crossguard was a deep, elegant blue lined with gold, and the blade itself radiated a warm, blinding golden glow that completely pushed back the darkness of the mountain road, illuminating Saber's furious green eyes.
The moment Saber revealed Excalibur, her expression shifted to pure, focused anger. Seeing this, Manaka's expression suddenly changed too.
It wasn't a massive difference, just a very slight shift in her pale eyes as she looked at the glowing holy sword. She lifted a hand and gently touched the corner of her lip.
"Are you finally gonna be fun?" Manaka asked.
Hearing Manaka treat her pride and her sword like a simple toy only made Saber angrier.
Her body shook from her rage. She wanted nothing more than to rush forward and strike her down right there, even though the enemy had the appearance of a little girl.
But Saber held her ground. Her sharp instincts were screaming at her, warning her that the girl standing on the road was far more dangerous than she looked.
"Then maybe I'm gonna try you for the next one~" Manaka smiled, taking a slow step forward.
A normal human fighting a Servant could easily be called insanity. There was basically no chance for a human to win against a Heroic Spirit.
But for Manaka, that was a completely different story.
As she walked forward, the atmosphere on the mountain road changed drastically.
The air became thick and suffocating.
The bright headlights of Irisviel's car and the few streetlamps lining the mountain road suddenly started blinking and buzzing, malfunctioning under the crushing pressure of Manaka's sheer presence.
Saber and Irisviel both shuddered unconsciously. Even standing all the way back by the car, Irisviel could clearly feel that Manaka was terrifyingly dangerous. Saber gripped Excalibur tighter, bracing herself for whatever the girl was about to do.
"Huh?"
But thankfully, Manaka suddenly stopped in her tracks. She looked off to the side, peering into the dark forest as if she sensed something far away.
"Tch. Unfortunately, my time is up,"
Manaka said, her cheerful tone dropping into brief annoyance.
Without saying anything else, she simply stepped backward. Just like the Shadow Berserkers had done, Manaka's body melted straight down into the black mud on the asphalt, disappearing completely and leaving Saber and Irisviel alone in the quiet dark.
The heavy pressure vanished instantly, and the streetlights stopped flickering.
Not long after Manaka was gone, Saber and Irisviel heard a loud sound echoing from the sky above the trees.
When they looked up, they saw Rider descending toward the road in his chariot. He had suddenly appeared, rushing over after sensing the massive burst of magical energy when Saber released her mana.
---
---
---
I opened my eyes and realized I was standing right in the middle of Fuyuki City.
But the city was completely different. Everything was on fire. The buildings around me were burning, and the air was thick with dark, choking smoke.
"What... where am I?" I muttered to myself, coughing as the smell of ash hit me. "What is going on?"
People were running past me in every direction, crying and shouting in a panic. Through the loud roar of the flames, I could hear the terrified voices of kids calling out.
"Mom! Where are you!?"
"Dad, please!"
I looked around, completely confused. Why was the city burning? How did I even get here? I tried to reach out to a man running past me to ask what was happening, but he completely ignored me and kept running.
Suddenly, I saw a young boy trip and fall hard onto the asphalt just a few feet away from me. He was crying, struggling to get back up as the terrified crowd just ran right past him, nearly stepping on him.
"Hey! Are you okay?" I called out, rushing over to him. "Don't cry, let me help you up!"
I immediately stepped forward and reached out both of my hands to grab him.
But the moment my fingers touched his shoulder, I didn't feel anything. My hand went straight through his body, like he was just a ghost.
"Huh?" I gasped, pulling my hands back in shock, staring at my own fingers. "What... what's happening?"
I stood there, staring at my trembling hands. The little boy eventually scrambled back to his feet and ran away, passing right through my legs.
I tried a few times trying to touch more persons running past me but whatever i do i still can't touch them as my hands going through their body.
Since I couldn't touch anyone or help them, I started walking in the opposite direction. I pushed my way against the crowd of screaming people, heading straight toward the center of the destruction.
The further I walked, the thicker the smoke became. The fire was everywhere, but as I moved forward, I noticed something new.
It was some kind of black mud.
It flowed down the ruined streets like a thick, bubbling river.
I watched in horror as it touched a burning car and just melted it away. It was eating everything.
It swallowed the debris, the broken buildings, and worst of all, it was eating the people who couldn't run fast enough.
As I kept going, the screaming started to fade, replaced by a heavy, dead silence.
I stopped in my tracks. My breath caught in my throat.
There were corpses everywhere. People who had been burned by the fire or caught by the black mud were lying scattered across the street. Men, women, and kids.
My entire body started shaking violently. I had never seen a dead body before in my entire life, and now there were dozens of them right in front of me.
The horrible smell of the smoke and death hit my nose all at once.
My stomach twisted into a hard knot. I fell to my knees, clutching my stomach as I started gagging.
I leaned over and threw up right there on the ruined asphalt. Tears streamed down my face. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing I could just wake up from this nightmare.
*Clank... clank... clank...*
Through the sound of my own crying, I suddenly heard heavy, metal footsteps walking closer to me.
I gasped, wiping my mouth as I slowly looked up to see who it was. My eyes widened in absolute shock.
Someone was standing right in front of me in the middle of the black mud. I recognized her face immediately it was Saber.
But she looked completely different.
The bright silver and blue armor she wore before was now pitch black, covered in dark, jagged metal.
Her skin was incredibly pale, almost like a ghost. And the bright green eyes I had seen earlier were completely gone.
Instead, she stared down at me with cold, piercing golden eyes that looked entirely empty and ruthless.
The black armor clanked as she raised her pitch-black sword with both hands. She shifted her feet, dropping into a low, aggressive fighting stance.
My breath hitched. I shrank back, terrified that she was going to attack me or cut me down right there.
But a few seconds passed, and she didn't step toward me. I realized her cold, empty golden stare wasn't focused on me at all. She was looking right past me.
I slowly turned around to see what she was glaring at.
Standing a few feet behind me, completely unaffected by the burning mud, was another person. It was a tall man, dressed like a knight. He wore shining silver armor over a blue coat, and he had bright, messy blonde hair that looked surprisingly similar to Saber's.
In his hands, he held a beautiful, glowing sword. He stood tall and imposing, gripping the weapon tightly as he faced off against the dark Saber.
He looked like some kind of servant sent here to stop the destruction, but his bright green eyes were deadly serious, locked entirely on the enemy in front of him.
Before I could even see the two knights clash, my vision suddenly warped. The street disappeared, and I found myself standing in a completely different part of the burning city.
There was another fight happening right in front of me. I recognized one of them—it was Rider, the massive man who appeared at the docks earlier.
But just like Saber, his appearance was completely darkened. His skin was pale, and his clothes and armor were dyed in a dark, corrupted color.
He was fighting someone new. It was a young woman with dark, tanned skin and long white hair. She wore a dark coat and wielded an incredibly long Japanese katana.
Even though Rider was huge and overwhelming, she didn't step back. She moved so fast she looked almost like a blur, easily blocking his heavy attacks with her katana and countering with lightning-fast strikes.
Then, the scene shifted again in the blink of an eye.
I was standing in another ruined street covered in the black mud. This time, I saw Gilgamesh. But she was exactly like Saber and Rider—her skin was pale, and her shining golden armor was now completely pitch black and covered in dark mana.
She was opening portals in the air and shooting dozens of weapons down like missiles.
The person she was fighting was a tall man with messy white hair, dark tanned skin, and a striking red coat.
He didn't have a shield. Instead, he was holding two short swords—one black and one white. He rushed forward through the black mud, swinging his twin blades to deflect Gilgamesh's flying weapons.
Whenever one of his swords broke from the impact, a new one just instantly appeared in his empty hand out of nowhere, letting him keep fighting without missing a beat.
The constant shifting kept happening a few more times, showing me flashes of intense battles I couldn't understand, before it all suddenly stopped.
I blinked and realized I was standing in a completely different area. There were no burning streets or panicked people here.
In fact, there was almost nothing left at all. The buildings around me were completely gone, reduced to nothing but ruined fragments and piles of rubble spread across a flat, destroyed wasteland.
It was dead silent.
But then, a sudden, horrible chill ran down my spine. My entire body shuddered uncontrollably. It felt like every single instinct in my body was screaming at me that I was in extreme danger.
I slowly turned my head toward the terrifying feeling.
Towering over the ruins was a monster. It was impossibly huge, like a moving mountain of dark flesh, shadows, and fire.
It had a grotesque, terrifying shape with multiple twisted heads and horns, radiating a sickening, heavy pressure that made it hard to even breathe.
Sitting right on top of that colossal creature was a little girl. She had short blonde hair and wore a light green dress. Manaka.
She was looking down in my direction. But as I stared back at her, I realized she wasn't looking at me.
Her pale eyes were entirely blank, staring straight through my body as if I was completely invisible.
Manaka just sat there on top of the beast, her face completely emotionless, staring out at the dead, ruined wasteland without a single trace of interest.
I couldn't even breathe. The crushing pressure coming from that massive, twisted beast and the absolute emptiness of the girl sitting on top of it was too much for my mind to handle.
My knees felt weak, and my vision started to blur.
But right before I collapsed, everything suddenly stopped.
The thick, choking smoke froze in mid-air. The bubbling black mud halted completely. Even the terrifying, heavy pressure that was suffocating me vanished in an instant.
*Crack.*
A sharp, loud sound echoed through the dead silence. I looked up and saw a massive, glowing fracture spreading across the dark sky like a broken mirror.
The cracks quickly multiplied, webbing across the ruined wasteland, the giant beast, and the frozen girl.
And then, the entire world shattered.
The burning city broke apart into countless pieces of glass, falling away into absolute darkness.
I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my head, bracing for a fall that never happened.
When I slowly opened my eyes again, the destruction was gone. I wasn't in Fuyuki anymore.
I was standing inside a quiet, familiar room.
I recognized it immediately. It was the house from my previous life, the exact same place where I had met with Denial before.
The terrifying smell of burning mud, smoke, and death was completely gone, replaced by a calm, still silence.
"That seems way too much for you."
A soft, whispery voice echoed through the room. It was incredibly calm, carrying a detached but gentle maternal warmth, like an understanding older sister gently checking in after a bad dream.
I gasped, my heart still pounding in my chest, and quickly turned around.
Standing there in the quiet room was a girl. I stared at her, completely frozen in shock.
She looked exactly like me. She had my face and my hair, but instead of my normal clothes, she was wearing a beautiful, pristine white kimono.
It looked elegant and completely flawless, perfectly matching the quiet, serene atmosphere around her.
Her presence was entirely different from mine. While I was trembling and covered in a cold sweat, she stood there looking perfectly peaceful.
There was a deep, quiet calm in her eyes, watching me with that gentle, comforting gaze.
"Who..." I managed to say, my voice still shaking from the nightmare. "Who are you?"