Fate: How About a New Savior?

Weapons collided in a flurry.

Twin swords and a long spear clashed, each strike aimed unerringly at the other's head—relentless, unforgiving.

Every blow carried lethal intent.

Even though they had once fought side by side, comrades in battle, now that Archer stood as Shiomi's enemy, there was no room left for sentiment. What remained was a fight to the death.

"Tch—!"

Archer clicked his tongue in frustration.

His domain was steadily being overwhelmed by the vermilion magic spear.

An inch longer meant an inch stronger. From the very first exchange, Archer had been forced onto the defensive, crumbling under the relentless assault of Shiomi's spearwork.

"Oh? Judging by how you're handling this, you clearly know something about my spear techniques—though not everything." Shiomi paused slightly, observing Archer. "Could it be that before or after death, you met someone from my school and retained that memory somehow?"

"No idea," Archer replied, offering no definitive answer.

Shiomi slowly pulled back his left foot. "In that case, how about this—!"

Even before the words were fully spoken, he had vanished from view, reappearing behind Archer. As effortlessly as sipping tea, he thrust his spear with deadly precision. Archer narrowly evaded using only his trained instinct, his 'Mind's Eye,' and still took a brutal side kick that sent him flying.

Before he hit the ground, Archer projected a longbow, twisted mid-air, and fired a flurry of arrows—only for Shiomi to swat them down one by one with his spinning spear.

But Shiomi was already closing in again, not giving him even a moment to recover.

His speed surged, becoming so fast that even Archer's sharp eyes couldn't track him.

The spear's arc, once a simple line, now streaked like flashes of light.

The tip was impossible to follow. Every motion—his swinging arms, his shifting footwork—had accelerated to a realm beyond Archer's perception.

Under such pressure, Archer was forced to retreat step by step.

He realized he had gravely underestimated the Master standing before him, thinking he was just another ordinary Magus.

But this man clearly understood not only Servants, but Archer's combat style, and the very essence of the Holy Grail War.

"If I'm not mistaken, even in close-quarters combat like this, you should still have the strength to chant your incantation, right?" Shiomi pressed down hard with his spear. Archer, blocking with both swords, was already half-kneeling. "Hurry up and show me your trump card—your Reality Marble, 'Unlimited Blade Works'!"

The rock platform beneath them cracked under the weight of his strike. Archer dropped down with it, leaving behind a pit several feet wide.

Using the shift in terrain to his advantage, Archer flipped away and retreated beyond the spear's range.

Shiomi wasn't taunting him—he was forcing him, testing him.

Precisely because he understood Archer's combat nature, he was pushing him while trying to verify something.

"There's no need," Archer said, still gripping his twin swords.

At this distance, projecting a bow would only invite death.

"No need?" Shiomi narrowed his eyes. "Or is it that after being tainted by the black mud and reduced to Saber's subordinate, your inner world's been corrupted too, and you can't manifest it anymore?"

Archer's obsidian face remained unreadable, like cast iron.

He neither confirmed nor denied it.

Shiomi glanced down at the battlefield below.

Even with the power of Chaldea's No. 2 Heroic Spirit, Mash could only fight as a Servant.

Facing a top-tier Servant like Artoria, she could do little more than raise her shield again and again, bracing herself against the onslaught of the blackened King of Knights' swordplay. Sparks erupted with each strike.

Not yet the critical moment, Shiomi judged silently.

That Heroic Spirit had entrusted his power to Mash yet kept his true name hidden. Most likely, he wanted her to simply survive—not to be used as a weapon.

Even so, that shield was a real Noble Phantasm. If Artoria truly pushed her to the brink, maybe it would release some of its true power.

But... was this really the right thing to do?

Shiomi remembered what Romani had told him about Mash. He couldn't agree with Marisbury's decision, but it wasn't something he could change.

Was sending a child like her into battle really something an adult should do?

"In the middle of a fight, and you still have time to look around? Aren't you getting a little too full of yourself, Master of Chaldea?"

This time, Archer seized the moment Shiomi's attention wavered and charged in.

Spear and twin swords clashed once more.

"It's nothing. Just something adults tend to do—wonder if we're doing the right thing... like sending that child to face the King of Knights alone," Shiomi said, still calm. "Mash is a lot like Artoria. In a sense, both were created to fight."

"..." Archer paused for a moment, caught off guard by the words.

The moment passed, and Shiomi struck. His spear swept in a crimson arc, forming a net of red light that gave Archer no room to evade. All he could do was protect his vital points and take the hit.

He was stabbed in seven or eight places. Blood gushed out as he dropped to one knee, gasping for air.

Shiomi began releasing the power sealed in his vermilion spear, ready to activate its true name and deliver the finishing blow.

Letting a guardian like Archer continue to exist in this corrupted state was nothing short of a disgrace.

But Shiomi wasn't the only one preparing to invoke a Noble Phantasm.

Mash, exhausted under the pressure of Artoria's magic-fueled strikes, finally couldn't hold out any longer. Her shield dropped, and she collapsed to the ground.

The King of Knights raised her jet-black Holy Sword. This time, the magic it radiated was different—deeper, more sinister.

"Hold on, Mash!"

Olga Marie threw rune-inscribed stones, but they were easily nullified by Artoria's Magic Resistance before they could even reach her.

They had no effect at all.

Realizing she was powerless to intervene, panic overtook Olga Marie's expression.

"Of course it's wrong."

Shiomi clenched his jaw, turned on his heel, and charged at Artoria.

"Die, King of Knights! Gáe Bolg—!'"

With his shout, the magic of the crimson spear surged forth, aimed straight at Artoria's heart from behind.

But she didn't even look back.

"Rho Aias!"

Wounded and bloodied, Archer threw himself between them, arms spread wide. A shield bloomed like flower petals to protect her.

But with his mana depleted, only four of the seven petals materialized.

Still, it was enough to block Shiomi's strike—if only for a moment—and buy Artoria time.

"'Soaring Spear of Piercing Death!'"

"'Excalibur Morgan!'"

There was no room to change course. Shiomi released the true name of his spear, and Artoria unleashed her Noble Phantasm—aimed directly at the girl still struggling to lift her shield.

...

(100 Chapters Ahead)

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