Nobody vs Australia (First Major Battle of the Grail War)

"Huh." Nobody and Berserker stared at the bar which was currently engulfed in flames. The tire marks they were following stopped in the parking lot, but then appeared again leading out through yet another giant hole in the side of yet another building. "What, did they have a rematch or something?"

"This building seems to be much less fireproof than the last." The Servant's gaze followed the trail of ash and debris leading down the street. "But the damage does appear to be consistent with... the IKEA incident."

"No subtlety with these guys, I swear..." the Master grumbled as she drew a series of runes in the air, showering the bar in water. "The war's supposed to be a secret. Idiots, the lot of them. I hope the owners of Ah... Ahni... how the hell do you pronounce that?" She gestured at the torched sign hanging over the front door.

"I believe it is pronounced 'Ahnenerbe'."

"What kinda name for a bar is that? Damn. But yeah, I hope they weren't around for this." She sighed, and knelt down to touch the trail of ash. "Aukaną. Sēwiz." Like it did last time, the spell amplified the visibility of the trail.

Berserker leaned on his staff. "Shall we investigate the building beforehand, Master?"

"What's the point? It'll just be the IKEA again, but with more fire." Nobody stared down the road. "If we hurry after them, we might be able to catch one. Carry me?"

Berserker nodded and knelt down, allowing his Master to climb atop his shoulders. A few spoken words enhanced her durability, allowing her to survive the high speeds that would follow. "Brace," he said. With that, he pushed off the ground, cratering the ground in his wake.

The wind whistled in Nobody's ears as they flew across the city. Figuratively, of course. Berserker likely couldn't fly, though he could jump high enough that it probably didn't matter. Although she was allowing her Servant to carry her, she was hardly doing nothing as he ran. A Magus's true strength lay in their preparations, and she had just been given both time and information against their upcoming foes.

"Oi, Berserker," She shouted above the howling air. "Want some fire resistance? I figure since the guys we're after like using it so much, might as well tune our defenses for it."

"Worry about yourself first," he said in a calm tone. His voice was hardly raised at all, and yet she could hear him as clearly as ever. Gods, if the man wasn't unsettling. At this point she had gotten used to it though, and she began to inscribe Kenaz runes into her clothing. They wouldn't do much to shield her body, but she had other ways to protect herself.

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The pair came to a stop atop a hill overlooking a manor on the southeast edge of Fuyuki, situated some distance into the woods. It was a location that the mundane folk often stayed away from, owing to a belief that it was haunted. Strange sightings, mysterious disappearances, and other phenomena had earned the place a spot in local mythology as simply the "Ghost House."

Well, if it was haunted before, it certainly wasn't now. In fact, it wasn't anything anymore. Except for a giant pile of rubble.

"Mother of God..." Nobody breathed, her voice shaky. "What in the actual fuck."

Even Berserker seemed taken aback by the situation. They had expected a fight between two servants. With luck, the pair of them could have swooped in and helped deal with one of them easily. What they had not expected was a full-on free-for-all. Half a dozen people — maybe more, some of the area was blocked by the aforementioned pile of rubble that used to be a house — were locked in fierce combat Honestly, she wasn't even sure who was a master and who was a servant, given that everyone and their mother was running around casting spells and shooting guns.

"...Do you wanna..." the Master gestured to the absolute chaos occurring beneath them. "...I don't even know anymore."

"Perhaps we should take this opportunity to gather intelligence and prepare ourselves. This battle doesn't appear to be going anywhere." The Servant knelt down and watched the conflict impassively. "I do believe I've spotted our Rider."

"The one on the motorcycle, yeah." She sat and began to chant, layering spells upon herself in preparation. "Aukaną. Skundijaną. Augô. Waigr. Mahtiz..." her chants continued beneath her breath as she watched the battle.

Rider, clad in a goofy fringe jacket — what was he from, the 20s? — carried a little girl alongside him as he sped around the property, drifting while firing bullets blindly. By some miracle, the bullets all made their mark, bouncing off trees and rubble to hit their targets. The man must have had an absurd amount of luck. The bike slid to allow the pair to dodge a fireball aimed towards them. How the hell he managed to slide it with a sidecar, she didn't know. He drove off into the woods, still firing his weapon into the air.

"Damn it all." A tall man in a robe, perhaps Caster, pumped energy into his smoking flintlock. "Get back here. Rats! Cowardly wretches!" A bullet bounced off of his clothing with a flash of light as he shouted, flying back and hitting a tree before bouncing back and hitting him again. Luck really was bullshit. They'd have to watch out around Rider. Caster didn't take it lying down however, as his pistol spat out a beam of fire that carved clean through the trees on the edge of the clearing.

Then yet another salvo of bullets came from the treeline, a series of larger, glowing shots that the Servant dodged which exploded on impact. Not Rider's, presumably, since it had come from the other side of the clearing. Her gaze shifted to the direction from which the bullet originated, where stood a man in military uniform with a rifle. Archer, likely. So those were the Servants accounted for.

But where were the masters? Her eyes scanned the area, spotting what appeared to be a cloud of red imps peppering a teenager with fireballs, the boy responding in kind with walls of ice and gusts of wind that ripped them apart. Standing outside of the cloud was a haughty-looking girl in a school uniform. She held a heavy revolver that launched shot after shot, cracking the boy's walls. A bullet from Archer curved towards her — it seemed everybody was doing it these days — but she managed to dodge it with a dash that moved faster than any human could see. That would be Caster's master then, and the boy was Archer's.

"...þankijaną, Abraz." Nobody sighed and stood up, tossing a bag to her Servant. "Think it's about time we went down there. Use these if you find that hitting things really hard with a stick isn't working."

"You have so little faith in me, my Master." Berserker smiled faintly. "Who shall I target?"

"Not Rider, that's for sure. Maybe we can truce with him or something, because I do not want to deal with his bullshit." She hummed. "Given that Caster has already demolished a mundane store for little reason, I think we should deal with him first. The man is obviously unstable. I'll handle his Master?"

"Very well." With those parting words, Berserker vanished. He reappeared directly behind Caster, swinging his staff like a bat. The other Servant had barely any time to react and was sent flying into the ruins of the once-house, sending a cloud of dust and rubble flying into the air.

The robed man shouted angrily from within the cloud. "Yet another heathen comes to challenge the Captain. You court your own death, fool!" With those words, a lance of flames erupted from the dust, blasting a line through the trees. Berserker was faster however, and with a cratering dash he closed the distance and swung again. Caster responded by firing an indiscriminate shockwave from his flintlock which staggered him slightly, allowing the man to crush an item in his hand — yet another magic item, it seemed — which sent him rocketing away from her Servant.

Berserker would live. She didn't worry too much about him.

Inhaling, she stepped forward towards Caster's Master. The array of enhancements layered upon her shot her forwards at speeds rivalling that of a Servant. A slower Servant, perhaps, but a Servant nonetheless. The enemy Master saw it coming however, and dodged her attack similarly to the bullet that Archer fired. Nobody frowned. She was behind the girl when she launched her attack, so how could she have seen it coming? Did she perhaps have some kind of precognitive ability?

In unison, the imp swarm turned to face her and began to charge, their bodies lit aflame. The girl let out a frustrated scream as the grass beneath Nobody's feet was lit ablaze. "Another one!? Why can't all of you losers JUST DIE!" Punctuating her statement was a volley of bloody arrows.

Quick as a flash, Nobody reached into her pocket and pulled out an Algiz runestone, throwing it into the air as she pumped energy into it. It shattered and formed a glowing barrier against which the arrows — and the follow-up gunshot — crashed against. The barrier dissipated immediately after. She grinned and reached one hand for the treeline, making a pulling motion while the other hand pointed to the floor beneath the approaching imp horde. "Meyth! Hiwją!"

A forest of earthen trees erupted out of the ground, impaling a full half of the swarm and trapping the other half. She tilted her head just in time to dodge yet another gunshot from the enemy Master, then closed her eyes to lob a Dagaz runestone into the air. It erupted into a blinding flash which stopped the relentless assault from the girl, causing her to retreat into the treeline and allowing Nobody to take stock of the situation.

The forest on the other side of the clearing was devastated beyond all belief. Most of the trees lay shattered as a result of the shockwaves from Berserker's strikes, the rest burnt to cinders from the absurd variety of projectiles that came out of Caster's gun. She frowned. Wasn't there another kid fighting the girl? Where was he?

Ah, he was... fighting the little girl that was with Rider. She wasn't entirely sure how that happened, but she scanned the clearing for the man himself.

Said Servant was currently in the middle of attempting to run Archer down with his motorcycle. This provided an opportunity. "Aukaną. Sprekaną," she muttered. "OI! RIDER!" Her voice carried across the field with ease, as if it had been enhanced by a megaphone. The Servant in question raised his head in her direction, pausing the relentless firing of his weapon. "YOU WANNA TRUCE?"

He grinned. "SURE THING, LADY! LOOK AFTER KATHY FOR ME, WILL YA?"

She gave him a thumbs up. That was one major concern dealt with. Nobody made to head into the forest in order to chase Caster's master, but she was in no hurry. She wanted to see what Rider's master — 'Kathy' — could do, first.

She wasn't disappointed. The girl narrowly dodged a spear of ice and rolled beneath a fireball, chanting something beneath her breath before calling out. "Eighth Circle. Fraud of Blood." A single little girl turned into a dozen in an instant, one of them getting speared through by a stone before turning into a lance of blood that fired towards the other Master.

A clever tactic, but the boy spun to the side and dodged the spear. Nobody frowned. Fast. Too fast. He wasn't quick like the other girl was, with her short-ranged dashes. Rather, he moved like she did with her dozens of layered enhancements. Whether this was the work of his Servant or his own skill didn't matter, but 'Kathy' wouldn't be able to hold him off for long if he decided to forego magic and just start fighting physically.

The other Master could wait. This was a more immediate problem. Two steps was enough to close in on him, and she let instincts take over, opening with a flurry of spear-hand strikes aimed at his pressure points. The grail had given her encyclopedic knowledge of martial arts, although she had never used them before.

Archer's master whirled to dodge her first blows, moving to deflect the rest with every part of his body. Knees, elbows, hands, the boy seemed to know exactly where she was aiming and moved with maximal efficiency to make her strikes as ineffective as possible. He retaliated with a series of kicks that came out like lightning, and she had to pump even more energy through her circuits to weave through them, locking his leg to her side with one arm and striking with the other. He twisted his leg out of her grasp but took the hit to his chest, grunting in pain.

Nobody couldn't keep this up. Her magical circuits might have been impressively powerful — even more so without having to support her servant — but her full enhancement array burned through them at an unbelievable rate. Some of them had to be deactivated, but doing so while she was still in striking range of her opponent would be suicidal. She leaned in even closer to the boy instead.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▄▄▅▅▆▆▇▇████!" A guttural screech tore itself out of her enhanced vocal cords and he staggered back, covering his ears.  She couldn't follow up on the opportunity, as the noise attracted the attention of Archer. A barrage of gunfire forced her to retreat, flipping and twirling to dodge the rounds which curved in the air to chase her. One clipped her shoulder and sent her sprawling onto the ground. Three more smashed into her side with all the force of a battering ram.

Luckily the Servant was interrupted by a hail of bullets that fell from the sky. Like a rain of steel, they came down upon him by the dozens. Rider's bullets had come back to the ground, and the other Servant was forced to trade his rifle out for a sabre and deflect the shots.

Archer was doing an admirable job at not getting hit, at least until his foot caught on a stone and he fell. Rider capitalized on the opportunity and drove by, dragging the enemy Servant with him into the forest.

Nobody groaned and pushed herself off the ground. The entire left side of her body had gone numb from the gunfire, and she could feel a discomforting dampness on her clothing. She touched her hand to her side. Red blood stained it.

With a grimace and a few whispered words, her body flared up in pain as trillions of cells were sent into overdrive. Blood clotted. Wounds stiched themselves up. Bruises faded. It was an astronomical waste of energy, especially considering that she could already feel heat welling up in her circuits.

She didn't exactly have much of a choice though, considering the alternative was being knocked out for the rest of the battle. With the additional mana drain from her healing, she would definitely have to drop more of her enhancements. Kathy needed only to hold off Archer's master for a minute or so before Nobody could rejoin the fight.

Her sight boost was first to go, and the trees in the distance began to blur as it wore off. The blood clones that the girl summoned with her last spell swarmed the enemy Master, accompanied by a trio of faceless puppets and a barrage of black projectiles. The girl had made good use of the time given to her.

Her hearing enhancements were the next to drop, and the unmistakable sounds of cracking fire, splintering wood, and gunfire in the background faded into a dull roar. Archer's master was like a blur as he contorted and twisted himself to dodge the curses, then backflipped to make distance between him and the blood clones. A barrage of fire, ice, and earth ripped through their lines, and three of them exploded into a wall of blood that the elemental wave crashed against.

Her amplified voice followed her other boosts. No notable immediate effects, but she wouldn't be able to release another ear-splitting screech again. The puppets closed in on the boy from all sides, swinging knives that gleamed in the moonlight. Not nearly as fast or strong as he was — not even half as much — but their positioning and numbers meant that taking a hit was inevitable. A whirling punch took the head of the first puppet, the motion carried into a kick that shattered the second. The third made its mark, driving the knife down into his arm.

It barely pierced his skin before he crushed the puppet's neck in his grip. Nobody took the opening to rush him once again, throwing a punch at his face. The boy scoffed and rose an arm to block it, widening his eyes when no impact came. A feint. Her other arm drove into his stomach and he flew backwards, winded. He landed in front of Rider's master and she wasted no time in continuing the assault.

"Seventh Circle. Violence of Blood." A red shroud surrounded the girl's arm, and she drove it down onto the boy with enough force to crater the earth beneath them. Though he showed no visible injuries, he did not rise again. The pair approached his body. They didn't make it very close before a bullet flew at them from a forest, Archer appearing before them in a flash of light. He glared at the both of them as he slung his unconscious Master over his shoulder.

They made no attempt to fight him.

Kathy sighed in relief as Archer vanished, though she began to stumble. Nobody caught her by the shoulders and held her up.

"You alright there, kid?"

"Tooo much... magic..." Kathy's words were slightly slurred, and she swayed in Nobody's arms as she spoke. "Rider..."

The man himself appeared in answer to her summons. He picked his Master up and placed her gently in the sidecar to his motorcycle, revving his bike in preparation to leave. He turned to Nobody and frowned. "Sorry, lady. Boss takes priority. I'll owe you one, yeah?"

"Yeah, yeah." She gave him a thumbs up as he drove off, sighing in relief. Extracting a favor from Rider was a best-case-scenario, if she was being honest. She only asked for the truce in the first place so she could avoid having to fight him.

That was two pairs out, one to go. Caster was busy causing mass deforestation alongside Berserker, and his Master... was a magus that had been given time to prepare by herself.

This was not going to be very fun.

She took a breath and entered the woods. Her eyes flickered around, taking in every detail of the forest — footsteps in the mud, charred branches, and... a snare trap. Sitting very obviously out in the open. Seriously? Nobody simply stepped around it.

Directly into a tripwire that showered her with arrows. None of them could pierce her hardened skin, but they left small scratches as they bounced off. Deserved injuries for letting her guard down.

Her investigation ended up being pointless, as a massive swarm of imps zigzagged through the trees to close in on her. She was on the right track when it came to searching for the enemy Master, but having to fight someone given so much time to prepare was concerning. Would she be layered under bounded fields? Surrounded by runic traps? Or would she be physically enhanced like the last Master was?

She didn't even bother with fighting the familiars this time, instead letting the magical energy flow back into her enhancements and rushing through the cloud. Far in the distance was an orange glow. She approached cautiously, checking for any other traps along the way. Once she finally made it, she stole a glance from behind a tree to see the other girl standing in the middle of a ring of fire, surrounded by...

Imps. Hundreds upon hundreds of imps circled the skies above her, blocking out the moon and replacing it with cracking firelight.

With a single step, Nobody burst past the flaming barrier and brought a fist down onto her.

It was blocked at the last second by a shield of blood, giving the girl time to touch a hand to Nobody's chest and launch her backwards. As she flew through the air, she was attacked in every direction by the girl's familiars as they attempted to claw at her eyes. They didn't get very far thanks to her enhanced durability, and a crushed Thurisaz runestone in her hand created a shockwave that sent them all flying away. The imps recovered quickly as they each lit a fireball in their hand, staring at her menacingly.

Nobody reached into her bags and pulled out a pair of runestones: Algiz and Kenaz. They lit up in her hands and formed a barrier just in time for an ocean of fire to wash over it, the radiating heat uncomfortable even through a heat-resistant shield and amplified durability.

Her barrier began to crack under the relentless barrage. Quantity had a quality all its own, it seemed. The familiars weren't going to stop anytime soon unless she made them stop, and so she took out a series of three runestones from her bags. Thurisaz, for force to disrupt their formation. Laguz, for water to fight the fire. Dagaz, to blind the Master.

Nobody flicked the runestones through the barrier. Seconds later, an eruption of water and light sent the imps into disarray as the other girl rubbed her eyes.

At that moment, Caster went flying into the clearing courtesy of Berserker, who reappeared behind him and smashed him into the ground. The other girl was red in the face by now — from the heat or from sheer anger, she wasn't sure — and she screamed at her servant. "CASTER! KILL THEM!"

Damn. And here she was worrying that all the other Master-Servant pairs would be as cooperative as her and Berserker. Caster didn't seem too happy about taking commands from her, but he was much less happy about Berserker kicking him around for the better part of five minutes.

"Very well, Miss Tohsaka," the robed man said in a long-suffering tone. So that was the Tohsaka Master. Finally, she could stop calling her 'The Girl'. Caster's next words knocked her out of her tangent, raising his voice as he cried out. "Terra Australis!"

Ah, fuck. That was his Noble Phantasm, wasn't it—

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Indeed it was. Nobody and Berserker found themselves alone once more, not a trace of Caster or the Tohsaka in sight. The forest around them had shifted into a dense jungle, full of colorful flowers and coiling vines.

"A reality marble," she muttered. "This... could be troublesome."

Berserker kept his staff ready, his eyes darting around the area. "We are fully in enemy territory now. They may be recouping in a location hidden to us, or preparing to launch an assault."

"Don't tell me she's going to make more imps. Ugh... huh?" she knelt down in front of a nearby flower. "Weird. I don't recognize this plant." She knew damn near every plant there was in existence, thanks to the Grail forcing knowledge of wilderness survival into her skull. "It doesn't exist in the real world. I don't think any of them do."

The instant she finished her sentence, a massive tree to her left opened its mouth — why the hell did a tree have a mouth and why didn't she see it before — and roared, dozens of wooden roots bursting out of the ground and making an attempt to skewer them both. Berserker wordlessly charged forward, smashing his staff into the tree's trunk and causing it to recoil backwards. Nobody followed up by launching a volley of Sowilo runestones that bathed the plant-creature-thing in fire, forcing it to retreat deeper into the woods. Neither of them decided to follow it.

"What the hell was that thing?" she asked, quickly moving away from any other trees in the area.

Berserker pulled out a few runestones from the bag that she gave him. "Perhaps this Reality Marble gives Caster the ability to summon entities." He flicked them into a tree next to him, watching it erupt in flame and run off like the last.

"Better find him fast, then. No telling how many he can amass if we leave... him... alone." Nobody pointed behind Berserker. "Might wanna watch out."

Behind him crouched a three-headed lion, though why it thought crouching would be an effective stealth method was beyond her. The thing was five times taller than any average human, and its wings — it had wings, by the way — shone with rainbow light. Where were they, the circus freakshow?

The beast roared, releasing a shockwave that knocked Nobody onto her back and pushed Berserker across the floor. He recovered more quickly than her, vanishing and appearing again above it. His staff slammed down with a deafening crack that splintered the trees around them, but the beast looked more stunned than hurt. It flew backwards with a single flap of its wings, Berserker disappearing once more and continuing to harass it. Each of his strikes released shockwaves and staggered the monster, but not a single one seemed to be doing any sort of damage.

If Berserker — the man whose punch could probably shatter a building — was unable to harm it, then there was no way she would be able to. But what she could do was help. Half a dozen Nauthiz runestones fell from her bag into her hands, and with an exertion of amplified strength they flew like bullets at the chimeric lion. They burst into ropes upon impact, coiling around it again and again and sending it to the ground. It wouldn't last long. Those ropes were meant to hold people, not giant monster-lion-things.

Indeed, the monster had already broken most of the bonds with ease. They could never hope to hold it. But what they did do was slow it down enough for Berserker to deal real damage. He appeared again in front of the central head, still bound by the rune, and jammed his staff directly through its eye.

The creature disappeared without a sound. Berserker vanished and appeared once more by Nobody's side, pulling her up to her feet.

"I do believe that we should find Caster before another one of those appears," he said. "Allow me to carry you, Master."

She sighed. "Good idea. Let's see if we can get an aerial view of the land first? I want to see what we're dealing with."

He picked her up in his arms without another word and jumped into the air, what must have been fifty meters upward. They landed atop a tree, its canopy thick enough to support their weight. Nobody looked around.

"Yep. It's all trees. Not sure what I expected..." She squinted in the distance at a blue mass that appeared to be growing. "...is that the ocean?"

"Indeed it is," her Servant responded. "And it appears to be growing in size. Quite rapidly, I must add." He glanced behind them. "There also appears to be a massive cloud of imps and birds converging on our location. It would be prudent to retreat beneath the canopy, in my opinion."

"...yeah. Do that." Berserker took them down to the ground again, while her mind raced. The ocean was getting bigger fast, which meant that pretty soon they were likely to be swimming rather than walking. Considering that Caster referred to himself as 'Captain', that probably meant that he was more comfortable on the sea.

In other words, they were screwed. "Unless..." she ran through the runic knowledge filling her mind, dozens of patterns going past every second. There was bound to be a combination that allowed for water-walking.

She was broken from her thoughts by a series of growls near them, a pair of man-sized wolves with glowing red eyes stalking towards them. "Berserker," she called. "Handle it. And... let me borrow your sandals for a second."

Luckily, he didn't question her orders. He threw his footwear over to her and proceeded to fade away, appearing once more between the two and launching his assault.

She didn't question his competence. No matter the foe, he could deal with it. Her job, on the other hand, was to prepare them for their inevitable dunking in the ocean. "C'mon, c'mon, think..." It had to involve Laguz, obviously. Raidho too, naturally. But what else? In the background, Berserker was zipping between the wolves as they lobbed fire and lightning at him. This jungle was pretty messed up.

More concerningly, blue began to creep into the corner of her vision. The ocean was fast approaching, and she sent her mind into overdrive to find a solution. Maybe she'd just have to brute-force it with Hagalaz to freeze the water beneath them as they walked. With no other solutions forthcoming, she began to frantically carve symbols into the soles of their footwear as Berserker batted a wolf into the ocean, where it immediately vanished.

It hurt to strain her circuits even more than she already had. Perhaps 'hurt' was an understatement, though. A searing heat raced its way through her body with every rune powered.

It wasn't long before Berserker finished off the other wolf, throwing it with both hands into the deep blue, and she tossed him his improved footwear. Not a moment too late, as the water was but meters away. It froze beneath their feet as they stepped onto the ocean and renewed their search for Caster. He was likely to be...

"HA!" cried an all-too-familiar voice. The Tohsaka stood alongside Caster atop the deck of a gargantuan Barque, its cannons glowing with power and a crew of ghosts rushing around behind them. "You're in for it now, you bitch!"

"Well..." Nobody glanced at Berserker, whose face remained as neutral as ever. "We're in for it now, huh?"

He had not gotten the chance to respond before Caster, a vicious grin set upon his face, aimed his flintlock at them and called out to his crew. "C'mon then, lads! GET THEM!"

The side of the Barque erupted into fire, dozens and dozens — maybe even hundreds — of flaming cannonballs soaring out in a wall of fire and steel directly at the pair. Too wide to dodge, too tall to jump, and she definitely wasn't idiotic enough to try and tank it. What was there to do? No rune array she was able to make could possibly hope to withstand such an assault. Even if there was one, there certainly wasn't enough time to draw it. Any use of her Mystery she could call upon to escape would drain her dry in an instant, so that was right out as well. Was there really nothing?

...No, there was one option left. A poor choice, perhaps, but at least it was one she would live to regret. She grabbed her Servant's shoulder. "Berserker. Get us out of here." The words came out rapidly, blending together in her adrenaline rush, but he understood nonetheless. For but a moment the man hesitated, a small hint of anxiety breaking through his expression, before he nodded and the pair of them va n  i    s       h          e               d

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Berserker was nowhere to be found. Nor was anybody else, Caster and Tohsaka having long vanished. Nobody floated — stood? swam? sank? No, it was all of them at once — in the pitch-black abyss. There was no land on which to plant her legs, no wall against which she could lean, nothing but the dread darkness which seemed to sap her sanity from her mind with every passing second.

It was then that she felt it, a horrid pressure building in the back of her head, the feeling of... something behind her. She turned, and in an instant her mind was assaulted by an endless series of images, playing all at once and yet showing themselves one at a time. Each of them distinct, each of them equally dreadful.

A sea of flesh grew and grew, until it could grow no more, collapsing in upon itself to be reborn as a scarlet dragon. An army of the dead marched alongside it as villages, then cities, then entire nations were devoured in its endless hunger.

An enormous white wolf tore apart people by the hundreds, sparing not a single soul as it continued its senseless slaughter.

A spider-like beast of shining steel rose in the jungles, its promised time approaching. All those who came across it perished without even a chance to run as it ripped them to shreds.

A demon opened its eyes, and the world was set alight.

She saw all of these things and more, the images swirling around her without pause. And as she beheld them, she knew the end of all things.

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Someone was screaming, and with a start, Nobody realized it was her. An incomprehensible mess of gibberish words poured themselves out of her mouth, every language she knew blended together into an endless chain of nonsense sentences.

And as suddenly as the terror came, it subsided. Her hands still shook with ferocious intensity, her vision still blurred with tears, but the all-encompassing dread had no more hold over her. She glanced up shakily, and all confusion was banished from her mind as she took in the scene.

The deck of Caster's ship was in flames, he and Berserker dueling upon it, uncaring of the damage done. Of the Tohsaka there was no sight, although a steady stream of imps was pouring its way out of the cargo hold. Berserker was teleporting again and again, striking at Caster from every angle imaginable, but the enemy servant was at the height of his power. Standing atop the deck of his ship, at the heart of his Reality Marble, the pair of them were evenly matched as their battle shook the seas. Each and every attack from her Servant was parried by a ghostly crew member who appeared out of thin air, taking the strike before disappearing once again.

Berserker couldn't land a hit on Caster, but the reverse wasn't true. Caster seemed to be able to react in an instant to his appearance, snapping his pistol the moment he reappeared and blasting him with fire. It shouldn't have been possible, for Berserker's skills meant that nobody would remember his abilities the moment he left, not to mention his tactics were quite literally incomprehensible. Were a mere Caster's reflexes and perception that powerful?

It couldn't be. If it were any other servant he was fighting, then she would say there was a chance. But Berserker was simply too agile, too strong. There must have been some trickery. As their battle raged, shockwaves and flames washing over the deck in equal measure, she scanned the area, looking for anything out of place.

For example, why was she not being fired upon when she was in such an exposed position? Caster himself wasn't needed to man the cannons, only his ghostly sailors. Her eyes flickered across the ship, checking on every crew member on the deck, and for each of them she saw the same result.

Though they were at their stations, they only paid attention to the battle between Servants. Why? What did it mean? Caster had not moved once from his position at the center of the ship, and the sailors surrounded them on all sides, watching, their eyes unblinking.

Like a lightbulb turning on, the answer appeared in her head. Of course. The captain and the crew were one and the same, the ghostly sailors nothing more than a manifestation of the Servant's power. What they saw was the same as what he saw, and so he could see his foe the instant he appeared anywhere around him. Her servant might as well have been teleporting directly in front of Caster.

Berserker was being worn down, slowly but steadily. Though his wounds vanished every time he ventured into the other dimension, his magical energy was being drained bit by bit. Caster's flintlock, as well as the rain of fireballs cast down by Tohsaka's familiars, were chipping away at him. She needed to interfere.

Her mind raced as possible solutions flashed into her mind for hardly a second each, being dismissed just as quickly. Her circuits were burning as they neared the point of exhaustion, and her mind strained under the constant flow of ideas. Her mystery would be worthless here, no doubt. It required a constant flow of energy, and for her to be conscious and able to control it. Neither were a guarantee if she overexerted herself. Just as worthless were bounded fields, as there was no conceivable way she could create one in the middle of open ocean.

Runes again. No paltry three-rune array would suffice. This had to be more. Much more. On the deck, Berserker began to slow as the energy usage piled up. She had to act quickly. "Aukaną. Muniz — GAH!" A spike of pain shot through her, but the spell still went through. Her mind sharpened as dozens of rune patterns a second became hundreds. The amplification dropped scant seconds after, but it was enough. The path to victory was clear.

Laguz. Thurisaz. Berkano. Uruz. Inguz. She drew them in the air again and again, her trembling hands making it take much longer than it should have. She had to hurry. The imps floating above the ship had stopped launching their fireballs, instead beginning to move in her direction. It would seem that she had drawn the other Master's attention. Too late. She grinned and pushed mana into the array with full force.

Agony. Pure and unrivaled, the sensation of molten steel and stone forcing their way through her circuits as she poured every last scrap of energy she could gather into the runic array. No longer did they merely burn, for now there were no words that could describe the sheer pain. Her enhancements shattered, unable to take the strain, and she fell to her knees atop the icy platform.

Still grinning madly, as the array lit up. The imp horde began to rain fire down upon her, but a wall of seawater rose to block them with ease. From the ocean burst a score of watery tendrils that raced towards the ship, crashing into its hull with force enough to nearly capsize it. The tentacles flailed around indiscriminately as they swept the ghostly crew off the ship. The instant they hit the water, a force yanked them by their feet and dragged them down into the waters below.

The battleground was equalized. No longer could Caster react to Berserker's strikes, and he began to crumble beneath the storm of attacks. One hit to the chin sent him flying. Another attack from above drove him back down into the deck. The servant, unable to react, could do nothing to defend himself as he was flung about like a ragdoll.

And just like that, the illusion shattered. The endless sea became once more a burning forest. The ship vanished as though it was never there. Caster and Tohsaka leaned against one another, staring at Berserker defiantly, before the enemy servant crushed one last artifact in his hand and the two of them vanished.

He made no attempt to chase after them, instead rushing to Nobody's side and picking her up. With her in his arms, he raced out of the forest, past the fire which singed her skin. The first battle of the Grail War had ended without a casualty. The others would not be so kind, she knew. But that was a problem for another time. For now, all she wanted to do was rest.

They broke free of the trees, and all the chaos and all the noise faded away to blissful silence.