"I've gone hunting a fair few times in my day," Artoria began slowly, the ground beneath her feet shaking and rumbling chaotically, "But I can't say that I've ever seen it done with quite this much….enthusiasm."

"Well, that's Shirou for you." Rin replied, amused, by her side.

The young woman shifted her weight from one foot to the other as the ground rumbled once more, arms crossed and expression fondly exasperated as stones bounced and skipped across the ground, occasionally clattering against her feet and shins.

A thick burst of air pressure sent Rin's hair and Artoria's bangs into a frenzy behind them, yet neither woman reacted to it beyond thinning their eyes slightly to protect them from the whipping winds and cascading dust. Small rocks bouncing off of Artoria's armour and a small bubble of golden energy surrounding Rin.

"You've been around Master longer than I, is there any hope of getting him to…calm down?" Artoria sighed quietly, watching a spider demon almost two meters tall crash through a tree and dig gouges in the earth as it rolled to a limp stop.

She didn't recognize it as anything European, so it likely originated from this side of the planet. A welcome reprieve from the creatures and monsters she had seen or heard about in her life suddenly coming back to 'haunt' her.

It got rather tiresome watching a creature used as a tale to make children behave be reduced to a blood splatter for the seventh time.

"Not in the slightest. With those two joining in? We'd have a better chance of making him disavow forging for life."

"I HEARD THAT!" A large reptilian-looking beast roared as it swiped in the air, only for its arm to separate from its body halfway through the motion in a shine of metal and a spray of blood.

"GOOD!" Rin shot back unabashedly, shooting a dirty look over at Sakura as she called out immediately after her.

"Nevermind her, Senpai! Please continue!"

"Sakura you just- Ugh." Rin sighed and facepalmed at her sister's behaviour, looking over at her from between the gaps in her fingers.

Sakura currently stood atop a small knot of wires suspended between a few trees as small golems scuttered around on the ground beneath her. Their forms seemingly made of a thick black sludge that took the form of various insects, currently composed predominantly of ants and spiders.

At the tips of the Matou-head's hair, the deep, rich purple had paled to an almost sickly white, but apart from that the teen looked exactly the same as normal, despite the worrying originality of Sakura's newest creations.

As she had explained upon summoning them, much to the initial fright of about half the group, what these creatures were made of wasn't the Black Mud of the Grail; Like that which had swallowed and razed a good chunk of Fuyuki ten years ago. It was instead a recreation of said mud from within the boundaries of her burgeoning Reality Marble. With the entire conglomerate, as far as Sakura had been able to parse with her limited knowledge on Reality Marbles in general, being the newly added second resident of her personal world.

And with as much pride as she could, considering what had birthed its creation, Sakura had introduced it to everyone upon its summoning. Though mostly Shirou, considering he had been the one that she had been looking at the entire time, watching the expression and body language of intently.

The All-Consuming Sludge: Zouken.

Rin still didn't quite know how to feel about the fact that apparently Sakura's unconscious self had not only created such a thing but named it Zouken of all things, but she had known for a while that that rotting pile of worms had left a….mark on Sakura's psyche the size of Fuyuki itself, so she pushed the immediate panic to the side and let herself settle down.

At least this Zouken was something that Sakura had tacet control over, and seemed to actually quite enjoy doing so.

Currently they were crawling around, grabbing any of the corpses from Shirou, Scathach, Morgan, and Medusa's 'hunting' and gathering them all into one area, which happened to be directly beneath where Sakura currently stood.

Which was where the last two members of their ragtag group were located, with Luvia quite happily dissecting and removing anything of even slight monetary value from the corpses and Angelica dutifully storing said pieces in her Imaginary Space.

Rin would have thought that Luvia would have been absolutely disgusted by the idea of being arm deep inside a beast fishing for specific organs that happened to call out to her fancy, which for some beasts and demons happened to be all of them. However, upon further thought, her surprise had faded into nothingness. There was a reason that her family was not only called Hyena's but also took pride in such a normally demeaning name after all, it was hardly clean work. Physically or morally.

"Behind you Senpai!" Sakura called out cheerfully, humming happily as her boyfriend and master spun in the air and swung down with his blade, cleaving an ogre-looking creature clean in half in a high-spray of blood.

"This feels more like the slaying of an invading army than a hunt." Artoria muttered dryly, blinking as a shard of bone from the creature Morgan was facing bounced off her shoulder.

"With those four it might as well be. Medusa's only really playing support and even she's managing to keep up with their kill count."

"An admirable showing, honestly." The King of Knights began diplomatically, getting a small grin from the woman at her side, "If nothing else it shows the absurdity of her speed even while confined by a Servant container."

"There's not an 'average' thing about any of the Servants that were summoned in that Apocrypha." Rin muttered morosely, massaging her temples with her fingers at the reminder of the absolute mess that it had turned into, "And everyone from the Square Table is very much included in that."

"We're all famous figures from history, that's true. But Medusa has always been on the sidelines, due to her differences from her most powerful form." Artoria began slowly, fingers clenched mildly at her side, "But it's seeing things like this that reminds me of exactly why she has managed to stay at our side for so long. She may not have the kind of single-target firepower that the rest of us do, but the speed of her movement and strikes is something that even I can't follow."

Both women jerked forward suddenly as a small ball of something shuddered into and out of reality above Morgan's hand, drawing in a couple of Sakura's ant's and multiple smaller creatures that had been trying to swarm Scathach.

"What was that?" Artoria blinked in confusion, looking up at her own sister as the woman blinked out of the way of a large snake that had already been cut clean in half by Shirou.

Her confusion, however, was not shared by the young woman at her side that stomped her foot and pointed an accusatory finger in Morgan's direction.

"A BLACK HOLE!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? CAN YOU TRY NOT TO CREATE SINGULARITIES SO CLOSE TO FUYUKI!" Rin screeched.

"It was controlled! Do try to put some trust in me!" Morgan called back easily, waving a hand casually and diverting a large glob of what seemed to be acid away from herself.

"IT'S A BLACK HOLE! WHERE DID YOU EVEN LEARN ABOUT THAT!?"

"Master's classmates brought it up during one of her classes and I got curious!"
"LUVIA!"

"Oh, quit your screaming, Miss Gorilla." Luvia grinned mockingly at her rival, seeming to delight in the dark look she got back, "She's assured me multiple times that she has everything under control."

"AND YOU JUST BELIEVE THAT!?"

"If anyone could, it would be Morgan." Luvia replied, getting a huff from her twin-tailed companion as she crossed her arms.

As much as she was still very worried about the idea of someone spawning space-time singularities so close to Fuyuki, she had to concede at least that point to Luvia. If anyone could learn to create a stable black hole as a Magecraft, even if only for a fraction of a second as Morgan had done, then it would most certainly be Morgan.

A few moments later, Medusa landed next to the two of them with a small exhale, wiping some sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. The tall woman standing upright after an audible exhale and looking over at Rin and Artoria as they both gave her curious looks.

"What brings you over here, Medusa? I would have thought that you would continue 'hunting' with them?" Artoria gestured vaguely in the direction of Shirou, Morgan and Scathach with her head.

"There's only a couple more creatures left, and it was thinning out too much. I couldn't do much else without getting in their way, so I decided that now was as good a time as any to back off." Medusa explained simply, her daggers and chains disappearing into sparkling motes of prana that quickly disappeared entirely.

"Smart. I think they're having an argument over who gets the last kill." Rin snorted, clearly amused by the childishness on display from the three.

Not that Artoria or Medusa could blame her, they themselves found it fairly amusing as well. They just weren't in the business of revealing their emotions as freely as Rin seemed to be, despite her upbringing and training to be a magus family head.

A plume of dust shot into the air and the ground rumbled once more. A shockwave waving their hair chaotically in the wind as the three women stared blankly at the cartoon dust-cloud of a brawl happening in front of them.

"Yeah. They're fighting over the last kill." Rin said dryly, crossing her arms.

"Do you think they've realized they killed it with that first clash?" Medusa wondered, cocking her hip and resting her weight predominantly on one foot.

"I don't believe they have. Give it a moment, though." Artoria replied, expression basically dead as she watched all sense of comradery and decorum fly right out the window.

"OH GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"

"Ah. There it is."

XXXxxxXXX

Streets of Fuyuki, half an hour later

"I have to say that your physical resilience is remarkable, even comparing it to the Knights of the Round Table." Morgan complimented Shirou as they walked alongside each other, ignoring the looks of surprise, worry and awe that their group was generating as they did.

"Not all of them." Artoria said quickly, only getting a gentle, acquiescing smile from her sister.

"No, you're right. Based on what knowledge I do have, I believe that Gawain and Lancelot would have equal or greater resilience, potentially Galahad too. But it's still remarkable to see it in someone born in the Age-just-past. Even after a full-scale deployment of his Reality Marble, a max-intensity spar with Scathach and all of that fighting, he's still got a rather surprising amount of energy left."

"Having Avalon within me helps." Shirou replied easily, getting a twitch from Artoria and a small choking sound before she was able to recompose herself.

'Master are you certain that letting her know about Avalon is a wise decision?'

'I didn't realize you were trying to keep it a secret, Artoria. My bad. But I do. She's an ally and one that has proven herself multiple times. Besides she already knows about it.'

'You do have a point- Wait, she does?…'

"And I've been learning breathing techniques to try and restore my stamina at a faster rate as well."

"I remember you mentioning something of that effect before the Battle of Kings." Morgan nodded, tapping her chin and tilting her head to the side as she thought something over.

"But yes, having Avalon within you definitely would help. At least on the physical side of things. Also, Artoria? You don't need to be so panicked; I found out about it when I first met Shirou."

Artoria absolutely, most certainly, did not pout upon hearing that her secret had been discovered before she could even properly try and hide it.

If it was any consolation, Shirou didn't see it as a small squad of Fujimura members walked over to talk to him, and Morgan thought that it was absolutely adorable.

"Those ones should be edible." Shirou's conversation filtered back into the woman's consciousness, leading her blue eyes over to where he stood. "We did a check using some magecraft and there's nothing outright toxic or harmful about them. No idea what the taste will be like or nutritional value, but if we can figure out what we can and can't use from all of them, it'll go a long way."

"Right! Uh, why are you telling us this, sir?" One of the squad members, a younger looking man with spiked hair held up by a tight-looking bandana.

"I'll need to borrow one of your trucks to move them around more easily." Shirou replied easily, getting a look of understanding from the man as he and his companions nodded enthusiastically.

"No problem! We'll be right on that! Should we bring them to a butcher? There's a really good one about a ten minute drive from here that didn't drop or leave town."

"Do that." Shirou nodded thoughtfully, "They'll know, probably, what best to do with some of these things."

"Got it! How are we meant to lift something that large into the trucks though?" One of them leant to the side to stare at the large beasts that the group had brought in behind them.

"I can stay and help them load and unload our hunt, Shirou." Morgan offered kindly, getting a smile from the teen as he turned back and gestured over his shoulder.

"There you go, Morgan will help you all load it up and drop it off." He confirmed, getting grateful looks from the three even as they took off down the road to go and collect the trucks requested.

Of course, Shirou wasn't oblivious to the looks that he was getting and the whispering happening on the edges of the street. He knew exactly what something like that had looked like and how it could be potentially misconstrued.

However, the whispers and stares around him were the least of his worries, his expression pinched slightly in thought and his gaze on the street in front of him. The conversation that he had just had was innocent, nothing wrong with it inherently. But it had reminded him of something…what was it agai- Ah. That's right.

"Mind filling me in on what has you so pensive, Master?" Artoria questioned, sidling up at Shirou's side with a curious look of her own.

Much like with all the other women in their group, wherever she went, eyes followed obediently. However poor Artoria was unable to figure out the true reason why, so used to eyes following her as 'The King' that she was utterly incapable of differentiating those looks and the ones that she garnered now as 'The Woman'.

For a moment there was a silence between the two of them, Shirou humming and hawing over what to say to her, and in public as well. Artoria more than happy to gift him such time to collect his thoughts if it actually meant that he would share them properly with her.

Let it not be said that Artoria was incapable of learning from past mistakes. More than once she had barrelled through a conversation and made the other party shut down entirely, now she would take the opposite approach and let Shirou and his thoughts come to her instead.

It wasn't something she did often, a novel experience all things considered, so she couldn't help the small bit of childish enjoyment she got out of watching Shirou's expression shift and feeling the top-level emotions that skittered along their bond.

Finally, though, Shirou sighed quietly to himself and just decided to rip the bandage off. He wasn't exactly about to spill the entire story out here on the street, but there was no point in beating around the bush or lying to her.

"Just that your Court Wizard was the craziest man I've ever met."

"Yes Merlin was-" There was a choking sound from Artoria's mouth and he turned to look over at her, only to jolt a little at the wide, blank-eyed look she gave him in return.

It felt like it was searing into his soul and decimating anything that got in its way. Almost haunting in a way, like the gaunt ghost of a murder victim left face to face with the one who had done them in.

"What."

Ok, so maybe telling Artoria the truth hadn't been the correct choice.

"I'm looking to discuss it with everyone tonight, if possible, but your Court Wizard called me out during a memory transference and asked me a favour."

"That's- Wait." Artoria held a hand up and closed her eyes, the tenseness of frustration melting from her features as she held in a breath and slowly released it.

When she opened her eyes again, it was not the slowly more emotive Artoria that was staring at him, but the carefully crafted persona of stone King Arthur.

"You mean to tell me that Merlin not only hijacked one of our memory transferences but also, genuinely, asked you a favour? Are you certain it was Merlin?"

"He named himself as such, and called me out by name." Shirou responded easily, ignoring the twitch in Artoria's cool exterior at the confirmation, "And he didn't hijack it, apparently he visited you and Kay on a hunting trip when you were small and left the memory there for me to find."

"There is no way that Merlin could have done something like that. I would have surely recognized him."

"Silver hair? About this long? Somewhat spiky with a white and pink flower in it about here?" Shirou gestured around his head as he asked, seeing no break in her expression outwardly but almost able to hear the anguished wail of her depression from across their bond.

"Merlin tampered with my memories and turned me into a time capsule." Artoria spoke simply, calmly; her hands folded in front of her and her back perfectly straight.

The picture-perfect look of composed serenity if Shirou had ever seen it. Too bad he also knew that it was an act so false that it nearly gave him whiplash just to see in action.

"Yeah, seems he did."

"Wonderful. I'm going to kill him."

"Would you listen to what I have to say first?"

"…Only because you didn't try to lie or hide the truth from me."

"Thanks, Artoria. Now let's get going home." Shirou smiled at her and gently gestured to everyone to follow him.

This boy was going to be the death of Artoria, she just knew it. However, whether that was from stress or heart palpitations, not even she could guess.

XXXxxxXXX

Half an hour later, Emiya Estate

Shirou quietly breathed in and held his breath for a moment as Illya finally got herself comfortable in the armchair that she had claimed for herself. The fact that it had taken a ten-minute argument between her and Semiramis and the both of them pulling knives on each other to reach this point went, concernedly, ignored by the teen.

Sat or stood in the loungeroom around was the entire Fuyuki Alliance –sans Kiritsugu– including Caren, Ciel, Irisviel, Sella, Liz, and Raiga Fujimura.

As much as she had tried to get away with it, Artoria had been forced to join the rest of the alliance in front of him instead of taking a traditional guard position behind him. A position that had, rather unashamedly, been taken by Angelica the moment that Shirou had denied it to Artoria.

"So so! What's so important that called everyone here?" Illya asked excitedly, getting a small grin from Shirou at his sister's infectious energy.

"Well, Illya. It seems like someone that a couple of you know decided to visit me in a dream…of sorts."

"He means the memory transference between Master and Servant." Artoria informed everyone dryly, getting a few chuckles.

"Hmph. Can you not even explain such simple concepts properly, Muramasa? All the sin must have addled your thoughts." Caren sighed, shaking her head.

"I allowed you into my house. Don't you forget that." Shirou hissed, pointing a tense finger at the young woman and only getting a demure grin in return.

When she opened her mouth to speak again, the hand of Ciel slapped over it before she had even realized her colleague had moved. The bespectacled woman only smiling shakily and making a small motion to Shirou.

"I apologize for her. Please, continue."

"Right." Shirou sighed and took a moment to regain his composure before continuing. "Somehow, Merlin left a message for me by using Artoria as a courier, unwittingly."

"Artoria." The blonde-haired King looked over at Morgan as she said her name softly, blinking in surprise at the tender look of worry across her features. "Would you like a hug?"

Artoria found herself struggling to say no to that question. For as much as she genuinely liked Merlin, unlike her sister –it still felt weird to think that–, she couldn't deny the fact that it rankled to be used in such a way. Though eventually she did manage it, after a second or two of silence.

"The simple fact of the matter is that Merlin is aware that he failed to teach Cath Palug the benefits of humanity-"

"He knew that crazy thing!?" Rin screeched, jumping to her feet.

As did about half the room, not that he could blame any of them.

"Are you saying that Primate Murder was the 'special project' that he spent so much time on?" Artoria hissed, only to have Morgan butt in right after.

"That irresponsible excuse for a magus actually tried to teach it?"

"I knew that he sounded too shifty when talking about it, My King!" Percival said loudly, as if proud that he had been proven right.

"Hold on hold on!" Luvia's shout seemed to cut through all the noise and chaos in the room, bringing everyone's attention directly to her as her fists tightened.

'Are the tips of her hair blue or are my eyes playing tricks on me?...' Shirou thought to himself, staring at his girlfriend as the hue of her hair seemed to shift between his every blink, and yet he could not sense Astraea on the surface.

"Sherou, you're telling us that Merlin, the great mage of Camelot-"

"More credit than he's due." Morgan scoffed quietly.

"-and the right hand to Artoria. Who, herself, was known for her sense of justice. Actually knew that he was going to fail in his task to teach Primate Murder the value of humanity and did nothing?"

"…Apparently he had hope until his last free moments that he would be able to make a breakthrough." Shirou shrugged, since he genuinely just didn't have the answers to the questions that they were asking him.

"That is incredibly irresponsible." Heracles frowned, clasping one of his fists in his other hand as the muscles in his forearm flexed.

"Do you believe that we could use this to make the Magus Association pay us something?" Caren asked Ciel, making absolutely zero attempt to quiet or muffle her voice in any way, shape or form.

"I don't believe that Merlin was ever a member of the Association, Caren." Ciel muttered, seeing the stares that had been directed at the two of them.

"He was not." Artoria confirmed, voice hard and expression stoney.

"And," Shirou began, drawing all of the rooms attention back to him rather efficiently, "he apologized for failing to do so, and requested a favour of me."

One could have heard a pin drop onto a pillow in the silence that ensued, even the less informed like Irisviel and Raiga able to tell just how important that was based on the wide eyed looks of Artoria, Percival and Morgan.

"Merlin wants to be set free from Vivian's clutches so that he can aid us in dealing with Primate Murder."

"Which, naturally, means a confrontation with Brunestud." Rin muttered, her memory flashing to an image of a beaten and bloody Gilgamesh stumbling through a doorway.

Easily the third scariest experience of her entire life. And up until a few weeks ago, it had stayed pretty firmly in first place, even. Unfortunately, she had decided to fall for the world's most indestructible idiot and date him, so she wasn't able to claim that anymore.

"Exactly." Shirou nodded, aware of the shudder that Artoria suppressed at the memory she had seen of Primate Murder tearing through him, "They stick so close together that to fight one is to fight both, plus whatever tricks she has up her sleeves after two years of preparation."

"I'm aware of what Primate Murder is thanks to the Grail," Heracles cut in, voice calm and clear, "But I'm afraid that you've caught me at a bit of a loss over who 'Altrouge Brunestud' is."

A small wave of agreements went up around the room, only getting a small nod from Shirou to confirm that he understood the census.

"Right, I forgot that most of you weren't around for this period in time." Shirou began, crossing both of his arms.

"Altrouge Brunestud is a Dead Apostle Ancestor, one of the twenty-seven recognized Ancestors in the current day and one of their upper echelons to boot." He explained, trying to think about what they would need to know and how to explain it properly. "The last time the list was updated, she was placed at number 9, meaning that beating her isn't just a matter of 'hitting hard', as unfortunate as that is."

Shirou's click of the tongue and eyeroll got a couple exhausted looks in return, but he could see a bit of humour in Illya, Olga, Gray and Scathach's expressions.

"Like all Ancestors, her authority is recognized by the crystallized Mystery of her 'path' to immortality, Contracts."

"Path to immortality?" Semiramis questioned with a raised eyebrow, looking more than slightly amused at the thought.

"Precisely. An Ancestor can either inherit or create an Idea Blood to cement their authority and position as a Dead Apostle Ancestor, and an Idea Blood is a crystallization of a believed 'path' to immortality of some kind. Whether through a physical presence that never leaves this plane or a mark on history in some way that can't, or won't, be forgotten. This doesn't mean that the Ancestor themselves will be immortalized, but rather that they just wield a theoretical path to immortalization." Ciel answered to the surprise of about half the room.

The woman had been so quiet this whole time that none of them had honestly expected her to join in with such detailed information. A small grin settled across Shirou's face as she explained the nitty gritty details for him, granting him time to internally debate over his next idea for his explanation.

"If that's the case, these Idea Blood's would have to be quite fearsome pieces of Magecraft." Morgan theorized slowly.

"I'm surprised you aren't aware of them already." Artoria cut in, head turned to look at the older woman with a raised eyebrow.

"Between our father's reign and yours, Dead Apostles were avoided where possible and even then, an Ancestor was never engaged within our lands." Morgan shook her head in response.

Artoria twitched as Morgan named it 'our lands', an instinctive response on her lips before she managed to suffocate it beneath layers of self-control that even she was only barely aware of possessing.

'This woman isn't Le Fay. I need to remember that. She isn't.'

"Regarding your point, they aren't Magecraft, they exist outside of that system." Shirou spoke slowly, unfolding one arm to hold them out towards the gathering, "As for their power, they're fearsome indeed."

Above his palm, with the sound of an echoed heartbeat, a red crystal appeared. Its form floated calmly about three centimeters above his hand with two half-formed rings of what appeared to be liquid blood encircling it in an X formation. The crystal itself a nice healthy red and in the vague shape of an octahedron.

A sharp intake of breath seemed to echo from a few of the room's occupants –Irisviel, Raiga, Olga, and Jeanne– while those that had been there for the face-off with Enhance merely tensed warily, watching the floating crystal with wide, unblinking gazes. As if they expected it to grow a mind of its own and attack them all, somehow.

Meanwhile, Shirou stared calmly down at the object, curiosity dancing in his eyes like fireflies on a gentle breeze. The shape of the crystal hadn't been nearly so refined when he had grabbed it from Enhance, more akin to an uncut chunk of gemstone rather than the polished, half-cut shape that it now was. Neither did it, when he had first acquired it, had either of the two broken rings of liquid blood encircling it.

He hadn't looked at the actual, physical object since taking it as the spoils of victory two years ago, so he was unable to tell when exactly these changes had taken place, but he was curious to know. He was certain that he could get Morgan to help him figure it out, but based on the look that she was giving both the crystal and him, he was going to have to deal with a new visitor in his bed.

He hoped, desperately, that she didn't try and sneak in and actually talked to the rest. Because for as confident as he was that the fighting would stop before someone was mutilated or outright died, he did not want to have the entire neighbourhood be rebuilt.

"There's also the added issue of her and Gilgamesh having fought before." Shirou continued, trying to switch topics before things went too far off track for him to keep the peace, "And also her and I having met before where she took a particular interest in my having a Reality Marble."

"So, you've got history with this Ancestor in more ways than one?" Scathach summarized, getting a short nod from him.

"Not just that, but her stalemate with Gilgamesh led her to declaring that she would go after me directly to get at him, and I highly doubt she's going to care that he isn't around anymore."

Artoria shouldn't be as surprised as she was that someone had managed to stalemate Gilgamesh, she'd seen the aftermath of the battle that had ended his life after all, but the shock still shot through her like a bullet to the heart. To think that there were just things roaming the planet that were able to fight Gilgamesh to a standstill like that…

"Unlikely." Gray exhaled quietly and shook her head, "Knowing your luck, she'd probably show up on our doorstep the moment that Merlin is brought out of the Reverse Side."

"Speaking of-" Rin cut in, very distinctly uncomfortable with the idea of Shirou having to deal with Altrouge again after the damage she had seen the Ancestor cause, "How are we meant to do that? Not only is it protected by that dragon, but we can't go through the tear."

Both Jeanne and Olga flinched slightly at the reminder of what had happened to the one Japanese air force pilot that had tried to enter the tear only ten hours after its initial appearance. Being crushed between an invisible barrier and the cold, unrelenting metal of your own fighter jet had to be a terrible way to go out.

They were just glad that the government still hadn't released any official pictures or videos of the aftermath, though the resulting crash back into the ocean would have undoubtedly cleaned most of the paste off the vehicle.

"Merlin had an answer for that too." Shirou replied easily, getting a low sigh from Artoria.

"Of course he did…"

"He pointed out something rather interesting. Human's are banned from entering the Reverse Side, but Servant's aren't technically human anymore."

A wave of understanding rolled through the room, multiple heads perked up and eyes widened in fascinated comprehension.

"Of course." Morgan muttered, crossing her arms and tapping her index finger on her bicep. "A Servant is more of a supercharged familiar than a real, living human. That difference must evidently be enough to allow us to enter the Reverse Side without any issues."

The legendary mage explained, only to twitch as something seemed to dawn on her, her expression darkening with each second that passed.

As much as everyone was curious as to exactly why she was so angry, no one wanted to quite risk her blowing up during such a serious discussion. So, they shelved their thoughts for later and continued with a nonchalant comment from Scathach.

"That takes me out of the running for going to retrieve him then. I'm fully alive once more so I couldn't enter the Reverse Side even if I tried."

"I'll also take myself out of the running." Morgan said quickly, raising one hand up to her head height, "Having me there is only going to make things more difficult when you run into Vivian and I'd rather not spend any time around that man if it can be helped."

"Alright that's two of the Servant's out of the running." Rin nodded, hopping up to stand beside Shirou helpfully, "Does anyone else have any objections or thoughts?"

"I think that I should stay." Artoria said, raising her hand much like Morgan had done, though she sat with far more poise than her sister who seemed to prefer something more resembling a regal lounge.

"If My King is staying, then I shall as well." Percival tacked on quickly, standing behind Artoria with his spear rested gently on the floor and pointed at the ceiling.

"Artoria, I believe it's better that you come along, actually." Semiramis began, getting a confused and suspicious look in return.

"And your reasoning?"

"Simple, you're the only one here who's ever had some kind of authority over that nutcase of a man." The woman scoffed, rolling her eyes, "But apart from that, I know of your legend. And I know vaguely of his. Vivian trapped him there and has kept him trapped for fifteen hundred years. You're going to need some way of negotiation to achieve the best results and that, quite frankly, involves you and your white knight, there, joining them."

"And the reason that you are not joining?" Artoria questioned, having caught the Queen's precise wording.

"I am not aware of what will happen to my Garden's if I am on a different plane, additionally we will need it at full functionality in case of some kind of invasion or siege. It is simply too dangerous to attempt in my case."

Artoria hated that she was right. On both matters her points made sense and were logical, leaving her with no leg to stand on to make an argument in return.

However, it meant that she would have to part with Shirou for who-knows-how-long while her and, she assumed, the rest of the Servants went in to find and free Merlin. The amount of things that could happen in that time….she didn't want to think about it.

"No. You're right, Semiramis." Artoria acquiesced reluctantly, the words tasting like ash on her tongue, "It certainly would be better for me to go."

"How would we get into the Reverse Side with the Dragon protecting it though? Would we have to eliminate it first?" Xuanzang questioned curiously, wondering what ideas had already been created to get them inside.

"Honestly I don't see getting past the dragon as a problem." Heracles denied, leaning forward and resting his forearms on his knees, "With the skillsets available to us, getting around the dragon would be far easier than engaging it in combat. However, engaging it in combat would certainly make everyone a lot safer."

"If the dragon is defeated, there's nothing stopping the tear from being closed." Ciel's voice rang out, getting a raised eyebrow from Heracles as he looked over at her.

"You believe that to be more important than saving more people from being crushed beneath its might?"

"Of course not." Ciel shot back quickly, looking almost vaguely insulted by the insinuation behind the legendary warrior's words. "However, we need to be smart about this. I have no doubt that some faction on the globe has a way to stabilize the tear, whether it's the Church, Atlas or Summit Court doesn't matter. Closing the tear is the end goal, I agree, but if it closes while you're all inside the Reverse Side…"

"Ah, of course." Heracles nodded, realizing what she was saying.

"And its not like we can petition to have it kept open longer or stop people from closing it. That will only make us public enemy number one." Luvia sighed, trying to think over a proper solution to their issue.

"But the dragon does need to be defeated, and the tear does have to be closed." Jeanne said resolutely, getting a few frowns in return.

"Shirou, what do you think?" Rin whispered quietly to him, letting the growing argument in front of them continue to slowly escalate.

"Honestly, I agree that the smartest idea is to leave it alive. But if someone else takes out the dragon and claims all of those materials first…"

Rin couldn't stop the exasperated sigh that left her lips as she placed her head in her palm. Of course, she should have known. There was no possible way that Shirou Muramasa could ever allow such high-grade materials to ever go to waste. He was as bad with smithing materials as she and Luvia were with gemstones, which she didn't know who that said more about.

"A compromise." Gray cut in just before tempers rose to the point of raised voices and threatening actions.

Despite how amusing it may be to watch something like that from the sidelines, currently none of them were on the sidelines and were, in fact, trapped within very close quarters of the brewing argument. Something which would not end well, no matter how much they tried to limit the backlash, if a real fight broke out.

"We're all in agreement that all the Servants, bar Morgan and Semiramis, are to go into the Reverse Side to locate and free Merlin?" She looked around and saw the various nods from everyone in the room.

Some were enthusiastic, some were hesitant. She couldn't fault any of them for feeling that way, it was a daunting journey laid out ahead of all of them.

"Then how about this. The Servant's will get two weeks." She held up two fingers for emphasis as she jumped up to stand beside Shirou and Rin, "They will have an absolute maximum of two weeks after entering the tear to travel, locate him, and return. However, if something goes wrong on this side, we will either take the dragon out and leave the tear as is for another faction to potentially close, or not get in the way of their trying to close the tear."

"And if we hit the two weeks and still have not returned?" Artoria questioned, giving her silver-haired look-a-like a hard look as she intertwined her fingers on her lap.

"Then we take out the dragon and I will close the tear myself." Gray responded just as gravely, staring Artoria dead in the eye.

"It's the best option we have." Shirou sighed, running his fingers through his hair, "It gives you all a fighting chance to find him and return but doesn't keep the tear open for too long and keeps us from making enemies of every supernatural faction and government east of the Atlantic."

"I think the plan has merit." Semiramis nodded with a pleased smile, "As much as it may rankle some of you. I imagine you don't have any complaints regarding such strict conditions?"

A few looks were shared, and everyone could practically feel the tension in the air as everyone in the room seemed to come to their own conclusions. Their thoughts ran a mile a minute and expressions twisted and pensive.

Finally, however, Heracles broke the silence. His voice naturally carrying itself through the room with a strength that only a man with lungs the size of most human ribcages could.

"I agree to these terms. If we cannot make our way in and out within that timeframe…then we have failed and deserve to stay trapped there."

After his announcement, the rest of the Servants finally gave their own agreeances to the plan, agreeing with his harsh words. They were some of the greatest heroes and legends in history, if they failed at this, then this was where their journey was meant to end.

"Great!" Shirou clapped his hands together sharply, an almost eager look on his face.

'All of those dragon parts. What kind of blades could I possibly make with them, I wonder?'

"Then with all of that sorted; let's talk plans."

XXXxxxXXX

Omake: The King of Monsters

Buildings glowed and sagged amidst intense waves of heat and light, car alarms firing off and melting in a horrid, eldritch performance that echoed through the rapidly clearing streets of Tokyo. The screams of millions of people unheard over the melting of their own infrastructure and destructions of decades of progress.

WUB WUB WUBWUBWUB

"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!"

A thick blue beam bathed the city in cobalt and the deep bass of its crackling energy drowned out everything except its own symphony of destruction and heat.

The beam raced through the city with the motions of the creatures neck, toppling skyscrapers and obliterating smaller complexes and units as if they weren't made of hundreds of thousands of tons of metal and concrete.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?"

A lone man, clad in a well-pressed, sweat-infused, suit ran forward and pointed at the beast valiantly, fear etched on his features down to his very soul but his eyes ablazened with purpose.

"RUUUUUUUN! ITS GODZILLLLAAAAA!"

XXXxxxXXX

I refuse to apologize.

Hey! It's been a hot two months since my last update and honestly, I probably wouldn't have minded another month or two off but I got the break that I needed so I'm not going to torture you guys that much.

This chapter is, in all honesty, probably the closest look that any of you are ever going to get to my pure, raw writing since I'm like 90% certain that none of my beta reader's have been able to go over this chapter yet.

In other news life goes on, I've planned a vacation in October and yet another fanfic fandom has latched onto me and refused to let go.
SHILLING CORNER:
Discord: ctMzhq3 OR plasmaassassin
Original Story: Young Swordmaster's Journey (On Royal Road)

AND NOW TIME FOR THE REVIEW REPLIES!

Marcus De Gabriel: Any and all details about the sequel are going to be hidden until such a time as we get to it.
Blanchimont: You'd be right. But there's an important distinction you've missed. His girlfriends and family are what make him human. His smithing is what gives him purpose.

Librarian goose: Technically they should be both because the Throne of Heroes exists outside of space and time meaning that all summoned fragments are done exactly at the same time and yet never occur, meaning that the same fragments need to appear at multiple points in various histories simultaneously.

Baumbarth: That he does!

Conner Kumiai: Honestly that isn't a bad idea and I may actually end up doing that.

Tkorn1001: I mean that's true even in canon so its very, very much true here.

CataclysmusWind: Solid theory, we'll see how true it is.

Rajo: Do not worry! For the break was only January, not February too!

Spedyalarm: Thank you.

AnimeFan13579: Scathach has a competency kink but her standards are in space. That is my only addition to this comment, thank you for your time. *bows*

TheSlySage: Look eventually they won't, and that's when the fun drama will happen.

Something is buried alive: Thank you for leaving your grave long enough to write this review. But as I said above, any and all knowledge on the sequel is being hoarded until such a time as I get around to posting it.

Zukafew119: Hello hello! Its nice to see you again! I'm very happy that you managed to catch the specific wording of Shirou's UBW aria and how still broken he is despite it all, and you're right that it definitely does make a much more interesting story when Shirou can just outright lose sometimes, and that Scathach is definitely the best candidate in the Alliance to do so. Also I'm glad to hear that you agree with my idea for Scathach and her Rune Dancing. Finally, yes I am a very big fan of Warhammer 40K. Necrons forever! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I look forward to seeing you again in a months time, farewell!

FallenSage: But poor Okitan ;-;

AAAAND THAT'S THE END OF REVIEW REPLIES!

I'll see you all next month (hopefully) and remember that it only takes about 10g of pure caffeine to kill a fully grown man. Caffeinate before you get caffeinated.