"No way..."
Shirou stared at the red-haired girl not far away, disbelief written all over his face.
Long, soft hair as vivid as flame.
A face as lovely as a fairy's and as adorable as a princess's, with striking pointed ears that made her presence impossible to ignore.
Her skin was pale to the point of seeming unhealthy, yet that only made the contrast with her voluptuous figure and tall, slender frame, nearly the height of a grown man, even stronger.
Shirou sucked in a breath.
So that was the mastermind Irisviel had mentioned before. The Avenger of the Third Holy Grail War, the Curse God Cernunnos.
He had expected some horned monster, but the girl standing before him...
No matter how he looked at her, she looked uncannily like someone from his memories.
...Baobhan Sith?
The first friend he had met during his pilgrimage with the Fairy of Paradise was waiting for him here at Ryuudou Temple.
C-could it be that Baobhan Sith had crossed over into Proper Human History?
No, wait, Shirou... hold on. Calm down.
Think about everything that's happened to you in this Holy Grail War.
You thought you'd caught Melusine's presence, and it turned out to be a stone dug up from an archaeological site in England.
You thought Morgan had entered the Holy Grail War as Saber, and it turned out to be me from Proper Human History, King Arthur.
There's no way you're making the same mistake a third time.
She obviously isn't Baobhan Sith. She just looks exactly like her.
As Shirou stood there, almost entranced by the sight of the red-haired girl, Lady Avalon beside him noticed something was wrong.
"What's the matter, Master? Do you know her?"
"No..."
Shirou himself wasn't sure. His thoughts were starting to tangle.
"...Hm?"
Avenger noticed Shirou's heated stare as well.
A displeased look crossed her face, and she frowned.
"What are you staring at? Never seen a pitiful little beauty before?
And what's with that face like you're about to cry? Ha... gross."
Shirou: "..."
The Baobhan Sith he knew would never talk like that.
The Avenger before him and the fairy girl in his memories, gentler and kinder than anyone else, felt nothing alike.
And yet...
For some reason, Shirou still felt that she was the person he knew.
He shook his head.
He had to focus.
This was no time to lose himself.
Shirou pulled his eyes away from Avenger and looked instead at the black figure standing before her.
Saber, clad in jet-black armor.
At first glance, Artoria looked as though all her color had been drained away within a black aurora.
Her golden hair had faded into a pale blond, and her already fair skin had become so white it was almost transparent.
Her build and height had not changed, but the aura she gave off was completely different.
If ordinary Saber was a stern, beautiful girl, and Saber in battle was a dragon wearing the form of a maiden, then the Saber Alter before him, even while standing still, felt like a dragon radiating pure danger.
And not just any dragon. An evil dragon, her whole body steeped in sinister magical energy like black sludge.
"...Why aren't you talking back? Weren't you always such a loudmouth, brat?"
Avenger crossed her arms under her chest and pressed Shirou aggressively.
Come to think of it, this brat... why does he feel so familiar... ngh!?
The red-haired girl pressed a hand to her faintly throbbing forehead.
As an Avenger summoned through an irregular method, she did not possess complete memories.
All she had was a hatred for Proper Human History, born from the curse she carried.
Remembering how Shirou had been staring at her, a thought rose in her mind.
This brat... do I know him?
"Hey... brat..."
The red-haired girl bit her lip, wanting to force the answer out of him.
Shirou came back to himself and gave a faint smile.
"Sorry... staring at you like that was my bad.
I was just surprised Avenger turned out to be such an ugly girl."
"Ugly...?"
The red-haired girl's eyes flew wide open, and her beautiful face twisted in fury.
"Kill this brat, Saber!"
Avenger shrieked hysterically, stomping the ground with her high heels.
"I'm going to kill you! I'll chop you into a hundred pieces! Even if you get on your knees and beg, I still won't let you off!"
A brilliant light burst from the red-haired girl. There was no mistaking it. It was the light of a Command Spell.
"..."
But Saber Alter did not move.
She gazed deeply at Shirou, and only then, under the forced compulsion of the Command Spell, did she finally act.
A torrent of scorching magical energy erupted from her like a volcano. Saber Alter crushed the ground beneath one foot and shot straight toward Shirou.
"...!"
Shirou hurled the Blades of Chaos with both hands.
The twin blades flew out wrapped in flames and collided head-on with Saber Alter, but with a simple sweep of her arms, she knocked the Blades of Chaos away.
Her Strength far exceeded Shirou's expectations, easily overwhelming the divine twin blades, which lacked Magic Resistance and Divinity.
More importantly, the scale of her Mana Burst was nothing like before.
Even though his weapons had been knocked aside, Shirou inwardly felt relieved.
If he had tried to block her attack head-on without testing her first, both his arms would have been broken for sure.
At the same time, Shirou noticed something else. Saber's power had risen by several levels, but her speed had dropped.
By the time that thought crossed his mind, Saber Alter was already upon him, her raised demonic sword like the claw of an evil dragon.
"What a shame, Shirou... why did you have to come here just to die? If you had simply fled Fuyuki, I could have spared your life."
There was not the slightest ripple in Saber Alter's voice, yet Shirou could still hear a note of reproach in it.
"Wasn't that the deal? We were supposed to settle this."
Shirou answered empty-handed, and the faintest flicker of hesitation passed through Saber Alter's eyes.
Then she swung Vortigern, Hammer of the Vile King without the slightest hesitation.
Trying to Project a weapon now would probably be too late, so...
"Lady Avalon!"
"Hehe, leave it to me~!"
At the very instant Saber Alter brought the inverted holy sword down toward Shirou's head...
"This is the ultimate combo attack between me and my Master... Pseudo-Unlimited Blade Works!!"
The Flower Magus's cheerful voice rang out across the endless wasteland.
In an instant, Shirou vanished from where he stood, and Saber Alter's released evil dragon breath struck nothing but empty air.
"...Huh?"
Avenger blinked, an involuntary note of surprise escaping her.
"...!"
Saber Alter stopped mid-charge, gripping her demonic sword in one hand as she held a guarded stance, frowning as she scanned her surroundings.
Just moments ago, they had still been inside the temple on Mount Enzou.
Yet with the female Magus's voice, the scenery around them had changed in an instant.
Now they stood upon a barren land.
There were no flowers and no green grass. The only things dotting the earth were countless swords and blades.
There was no sun and no starry sky. The heavens were ruled only by endlessly turning gears.
Avenger caught the smell of rust drifting through the air.
What is this... space transfer? Saber and I were forcibly moved?
Spatial transfer was a great Magecraft bordering on true magic, the very limit of what a Command Spell could achieve.
That annoying silver-haired woman triggered a large-scale transfer with a single spell?
No, that's not right...
This scenery did not belong to anywhere on the surface world. It felt more like an artificially created alternate space... is this a Reality Marble?
So the truth of that woman's Noble Phantasm... is a Reality Marble?
"It's not anything that impressive. It's just an illusion."
Baobhan Sith turned toward the source of the voice and saw the silver-haired female Magus standing there with Shirou at her side.
"...An illusion."
In Magecraft, illusions were one of the most versatile forms of magic, usable across many different fields.
They included all kinds of applications, such as concealing specific locations, disrupting a person's sense of direction in a certain area, or casting them on oneself to strengthen suggestion or aid in training.
But half-baked illusions were often worthless against truly powerful Magi, so in most cases they remained nothing more than convenient, all-purpose spells. Very few chose to pursue that path to its limit.
On top of that, the three knight classes, with their high Magic Resistance, could in fact completely nullify illusions.
Saber originally possessed top-rank Magic Resistance, rank A, but after being blackened, that skill had fallen to B. That was why she had been caught by it just now.
As for Avenger, although she possessed Fairy Eyes, its rank was far too low to see through Lady Avalon's illusion.
"Tch...!"
The unexpected development made Avenger even more irritable.
"You sure know how to play tricks... Saber!"
At the red-haired girl's command, Saber Alter moved again.
Shirou calmly pulled a longsword from the ground. At the same time, the swords embedded all around them rose into the sky.
The sound of air being torn apart rang out one after another.
Dozens of swords in all kinds of shapes came raining down on Saber Alter.
"What...?"
By all rights, those should have been nothing but illusory swords, yet Saber Alter's Instinct reacted to them with perfect clarity.
She had no time to make sense of what was happening. Swinging her demonic sword with both hands, she unleashed a beam of light that swallowed the sword Noble Phantasms flying at her.
And in that instant, Saber felt the impact of destruction. Which meant those swords were genuine Noble Phantasms.
Even more swords came at Saber Alter.
"Fufufu... pretty amazing, right? This is the ultimate combo attack between me and Shirou~!"
Lady Avalon explained with a smug look on her face.
"My illusions, the Master's magical energy flowing through me, and the bond between us now that our hearts are completely in sync...
What all that creates is this..."
Lady Avalon proudly puffed out her chest.
"Shirou's inner world, constructed by me. Pseudo-Unlimited Blade Works!"
It was different from the original Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works, and also different from Shirou Amamiya's Fairy Domain, Unlimited Blade Works.
Pseudo-Unlimited Blade Works was supplied with magical energy by Shirou and controlled by Lady Avalon.
Shirou really did not want to admit it, but after their skin-to-skin intimacy, the understanding between him and Lady Avalon had already reached the point where they could grasp each other's thoughts without speaking.
"This is the miracle created by the love between me and Master!"
If Rider Iskandar and the bond he shared with his retainers could form a Reality Marble, then the bond between Shirou and herself could achieve the same thing. That was probably what she meant.
Shirou's cheeks flushed red.
"This is way too embarrassing. Stop talking."
"What's there to be embarrassed about~"
Merlin puffed out her cheeks unhappily.
"Now that you've pulled your pants back up, you want to deny it?
Who was the one clinging to me and acting spoiled while lying on top of me just now? You awful little boy, playing with a woman's heart!"
"...Shut up!!"
Shirou ignored Lady Avalon, seized the sword he had pulled from the ground, and charged straight at Saber Alter.
He did not believe Unlimited Blade Works could keep working forever against Saber's swordsmanship and parameters.
Take her down in one burst before she gets used to it.
Lady Avalon understood immediately and sent the swarm of swords through the illusory space after Shirou, covering his advance.
...
…
The clash of steel rang out through the world of swords.
Sparks scattered in every direction.
The counterfeit sword and the black holy sword crashed against each other again and again, releasing blinding light and searing heat.
The red-haired boy and the black-clad girl were fully locked in battle now.
Saber Alter had not moved a single step from where she stood, while Shirou fought with hit-and-run tactics, striking as he moved.
That was his only advantage right now.
If Saber had not been tainted by Avenger's black mud, then Shirou would be at a disadvantage in both Strength and Agility.
But after Saber's corruption, Shirou had at least managed to gain a slight edge in speed with the aid of wind magecraft.
Using Unlimited Blade Works as cover, he attacked from every direction, keeping Saber from gathering power to unleash the corrupted holy sword.
In just a tenth of a second, Shirou's figure flashed from directly in front of Saber to her rear flank, aiming for a blind spot.
In the original story, Saber had been forced to rely on guerrilla tactics against the great Greek hero because she had not received an adequate supply of magical energy from her Master.
But now, she was the one being kited.
Even so, Saber Alter was not at a disadvantage. With a casual swing, she knocked Shirou's attack away.
Shirou raced across the sword-strewn wasteland, where the blades jutted up like gravestones, vanishing from Saber's sight again and again, like a meteor skimming across the ground.
"What are you doing, Saber?!"
Avenger finally snapped and shouted angrily from afar.
"Aren't you supposed to be the strongest Servant?! Why can't you hit him?! Useless! Hurry up and kill that brat!"
Saber clearly had the upper hand here...
Even Shirou felt a little sorry for her, but he had no intention of holding back.
The moment Saber Alter knocked aside an attack from Unlimited Blade Works, Shirou appeared behind her.
Got you.
Shirou was just about to bring his blade down on Saber Alter's completely exposed back when he suddenly heard words that made his heart nearly stop.
"Ex..."
No way.
Shirou's heart jolted.
Saber Alter was not aiming at Shirou behind her.
Her target was Lady Avalon, floating in the air.