Lay Rin body by nearest tree—near finale; get Rider heart, then Artoria leisurely. No school clone—chaos, wouldn't survive sans direct control—so jump nearest clone there.
10 seconds, back school—hide crevice, summon new clone stay as summon point. Surface, survey—Artoria still by Rider body. Tsk, distract her. Watch bit; stone noise lure—dumb. Rider body fading.
Risk it—approach calm, Artoria sword-length away, wary swings search eyes. Rider beside, near-touch. Lie ground, one hand reach corpse; touch—instant summon to Illya body, but glimpse Artoria twitch my way.
Tight here—pierce transparent Rider chest, rip heart; body fully disintegrates. Before heart fades, swallow, dismiss clone, back main body.
End near; gaze tent ceiling thoughtful—risk it. Yeah. New clone, exit tent, take Spear from outdoor Lancer clone. Summon school yard, step from clone ambush spot, even ground opposite Artoria—she no see yet.
Enhance self, draw Pistol—first shot drops Invisibility; Artoria twitches, dodges bullet. More shots she parries sword, big leaps me; toss Pistol, try meet Spear strike. Fail—she hand-deflects Spear, beheads me sword; tried dodge, no.
Eyes open main body—expected. Pistol low hopes; knife/Axe vs swordman—my skills no chance. Spear distance edge. Transfer Lancer clone, summon Spear, new clone call—take Spear from Lancer clone, summon school yard—go.
*12 attempts later.*
Opposite Artoria again, no shooting—just appear, stare. Sure wait 2-hour fade—but prove worth! Clones left ~20 post-fails, sans specialists.
Plus weakened, so "fair" fight! Joy: speared her twice, no big result—but! No instant loss one hit!
"Who are you." Artoria.
Hmm, lull—eye her: hot damn! Thoughts capture her? But idealist, honor bullshit; killed two Masters. Me me—honest: no good guy, future dubious. She won't mesh.
Heh, nonsense anyway—Servant too. Yeah, Servants—Grail nowhere, 5 dead war Servants. Half-point Hassan near-dead. Gilgamesh dead too—6 Servants; perfect summon. Though maybe no count Gil, so kill Artoria anyway.
No sentiments; grip Spear comfy. Hmm, idea. "What was this war's Lancer name?"
"Cú Chulainn." Artoria squints, eyes Spear anew. "Where'd you get it?"
"Won't tell Spear name?" No wait; Artoria frowns, grips sword tighter. "Guess not, thanks anyway. No clue who."
Dash Artoria; she same. Clash-pre dodge side, let pass. Sharp spin, club Spear her back—falls. Jump, Spear holding-sword hand, kick sword out; Artoria pain groan.
Drive Spear deeper ground, sit back. "Remove armor."
*Awkward silence.*
See Artoria ear redden slight, face-ground mumble. "No."
Suspect wrong intent. Stare bit. Cutie—fuck Grail! How tho. Erm, dunno start. "I beat you, Artoria?"
"Yes." Artoria turns head side, one-eye me.
"Guess what I want?" Provoke.
Silence. Direct. "Be mine, offer much!"
Artoria. "No."
"Feed you!" Sounds good, no arg. Hmm. "5 times day!"
Artoria. "No."
"6 times day?" Up bribe.
Artoria. "No."
"Hmph, 7 times day, unless gain weight." Heroic Spirit whatever—overkill.
Artoria woman-squints—condemning whole gender gaze. "No."
"Food no bribe, huh?" Worth try.
Artoria. "No, food—hobby."
"You know I could take force?" Silence again, ear reddens.
No no no! Don't say knight girl fetish! Calm. Anime, proud knight girls have it! Chance! But no push yet—flank.
Probe better—high morals, soul matters! Pretend pickup. Yeah, killed friends, beat/pinned—my impress way!
No "hobbies?" tho. Hmm. "Tell what want from Grail?"
Artoria silent—offended? Take reins! Always did… Sigh. "I'm this war's Master, want Liberty! Doubt get it."
Seems like I intrigued her and... and silence again. Fine. "You do know there's a demon in the Grail? And it'll twist any wish. That's why, by the way, your previous Master Kiritsugu made you destroy the Grail—he saw how the Grail was going to, heh, save humanity or make everyone happy—so he decided to destroy it. Not sure if he phrased his wish exactly like that, but Kiritsugu wanted something like that."
Artoria seemed interested. "Demon?"
"Yeah, in the 3rd Holy Grail War another family decided to break the rules and dug up some made-up legend, but this time about how a bunch of savages decided that just cursing who-knows-who for all their woes and misfortunes wasn't productive, so they picked one villager and started blaming everything on him. They even gave him a pompous title—All the World's Evil. And this family decided to summon him—but alas, even if you have such a grand title, the opinion of a handful of ancient savages doesn't mean much, no matter how ancient they were, and they killed him first. But once he got into the Grail, on his way to the Throne of Heroes, the Grail choked on him—because he wasn't a hero. So he got stuck in it, and the Grail tried to justify his existence somehow or other—I honestly don't know. But as the world's very first evil, he became its embodiment and started drawing energy from all the evil humans invented. Pain, torture, curses, made-up evil gods and demons—all the energy that went nowhere or to them went to him. He got fat on it and took over most of the Grail's functions, so making a wish now won't just twist and defile it—it'll release that thing into the world." Man, I'm getting tired of these speeches.
***
Read the story months ahead of the public release — early chapters are available on my Patreon: Granulan