—What is happening? Why is it wrapping around me?! Why is it wrapping me up?! Shirou, Antarc, help me!
—Antarc, take her to Adamant!
—What? What about the enemy?!
—Just do it!
Antarc tried to lift Phos up, but it was too heavy and the alloy kept pushing him away. It kept growing and engulfing her, and there was nothing I could do at the moment.
—Phos, hold it there, we will get you to Adamant, he will know what to do. We just need to beat this one first.
—How cruel —a voice coming from the approaching figure said—, how could you refer to me in that way, after all that we went through...
The wind suddenly stopped, and we were able to see our enemy clearly. That person was carrying a red spear, and was wearing violet skinsuit that was so tight to her body it almost looked like body paint. Over it, she had what seemed to be the skin of a huge wolf. Her appearance was somehow familiar on its own, but her face... her face was something engraved deeply within me.
—Rin?
I almost dropped my swords from the shock, and I would have been pierced by her spear if Antarc hadn't blocked it with her sword, giving me a few more seconds to react.
—You gotta be more careful, I been waiting for this battle for a long time! —the person with the spear said, licking her lips.
—There is no time for you to daydream, who is he and why is he attacking us? —Antarc asked.
—... I don't know.
—But you called him Rin, isn't that his name?
—...No, I only vaguely remember Rin, it is just the ghost of a memory, but I know she wouldn't try to kill me without a warning.
The enemy smiled deviously.
—You are right, more or less, I'm not Rin, but I'm based on her. The name is irrelevant for me, but to avoid confusions, from now on you might call me Lancer.
Without giving us even a chance to take on what she has said, she started attacking us. She was very agile and quick, throwing her spear against me and Antarc alternatively, we could only block and deflect her attacks as she kept pushing us back. Soon, we were over the frozen ocean, and she started to use that to her advantage too, breaking the ice to try to make us sink.
Then the sky cleared up, and with the light of the sun, a sun spot appeared.
—They'll go after Phos! —Antarc said.
—Go and look after her, I can deal with Lancer on my own!
Without hesitation, Antarc rolled under one of our enemy attacks and went back running towards Phos. Lancer saw him getting away, but focused instead on me.
—Now that she is gone, do you think we can fight without holding our blows? —She said, licking her lips again.
—Yeah, let's finish this quickly —I said with as much conviction as I could muster, but the truth is that I have been doing my best just to keep up with her, and that was counting on Antarc's help.
Even my obsidian swords were starting to shatter, full of cracks all over their surface. Thinking about Phos, I stared mimicking what the gold alloy had done and filled the broken parts and fractures with my own steel. We keep exchanging blows, her hits were so powerful they would break the ice without even touching it, and even with steel holding them together, bits of my swords keep flying away after each impact. We had moved a lot during the fight, I could still see the island, but not the beach were Phos and Antarc where. I was running out of energy, and I had already lost a sword. Her body wasn't too strong, but she had managed to dodge or block almost all of my attacks with her spear, which seemed to be indestructible.
—Rin... why?
—Hmmm? Why else? It is all for your sake —she said with a smile—, "kill the seven summoned beings and win a wish" is what Franny said. Of course, we aren't going to let you kill us so easily, you have to prove yourself.
—What? What are you talking about?
—It is pointless to ask me, if I was told more details I wasn't paying much attention. I only was looking to have this fight, it is my raison d'etre, so to speak. Now, can we continue, there is something really cool that I want to show to you.
A red aura started to glow around her as she assumed a stance. I couldn't run at this point, so I could only hold my ground and defend myself from it.
—GAE BOLG!
—RHO AIAS!!
I made my shield, managing to create two layers, but the spear went through it easily. It missed me, but it exploded in a thousand of spears going in every direction, twisting and sprouting new spears as if it was the root of a three. The ones that hit me pierced my skin as easily as they had pierced my shield, but fortunately it had been only the smaller ones. The bigger ones, that could have potentially cut me in half, just barely scratched me.
She retracted her spear, and I collapsed to the ground, full of tiny holes. I couldn't hold my arm in its place anymore, and I felt like I could barely hold my shape on place.
—Oh? Was that too much for you? —Lancer said taunting me—, do you want five minutes to rest? I'll go and check out your friends and come back.
She started to go away.
—No, come back...
I said, but she was going farther and farther away. Antarc wasn't going to hold against her, and Phos was incapacitated. I couldn't let her get away, but I didn't had any more strength in my body. How could they even be that strong? She was within the realm of what I would consider realistic, but her spear was too resistant, it should have broken already. And that special attack of her, I'm pretty sure that there wasn't enough mass on the spear to make all those spikes. And the sword of that other person we fight on the sea, she was able to shoot beams of energy or something. That was some sort of magic beyond the realms of reality. But if they could do it, so could I.
—I SAID. COME. BACK! —I forced my body to stand on my two legs, and hold my only remaining sword on my only remaining arm. Electricity was running through my body, making actual sparks fly around me.
Lancer looked back, and smiled.
—This is what I was waiting for...
We both jumped to the battle, and I was able to counter her moves. Each impact had enough force to send a shockwave, breaking the ice floes below and around us. Her hands started cracking by the force of the impacts, while she seemed to be having the time of her life. But this was not enough. I would run out of "steam" before I managed to cause any substantial damage to her.
Getting desperate, I attacked her without thinking, and she broke my sword, leaving me only holding the handle, and with her spear aiming to my chest. Just then, I saw a silver liquid rising from behind Lancer and covering her entirely. That distracted her for a moment, and gave me an opportunity to attack. But I was unarmed. I couldn't even muster the strength to move the metal in my body to make a sword. The only thing I could do was to pull a sword from where I had pull energy when I had none left. I raised my arm while holding only the hilt of my broken sword and focused on it.
—Trace OVEREDGE!! —a thousand of tiny blades manifested from the hilt and formed a blade even longer than the one I had before, and I let it fall with all my might against Lancer.
She managed to get the silver fluid from her eyes and blocked the attack, but it was too late. Her elbows were too low for her to put enough strength on it, and her hands finally broke. My sword hit her shoulder and kept going, almost cutting her in half. She stopped moving.
—Ah~ well done, Emiya... —She said, before collapsing over me. I could feel the sword I created out of nothing returning to the nothing—. I think it's time for me to go, just be careful with the others, they won't be as nice as I am.
—Goodbye, Rin.
She started to glow and vanished into gleams of light, leaving me alone in the ice, with some of the silver liquid on me. It burned my skin a bit.
—You can get out of there now, I need to thank you for saving me, and I can't move anymore.
A head peaked from behind an ice floe, her red hair was a telltale of who she was.
—I didn't help you, I just attacked an enemy —Cinnabar said—, but he... he was like us, wasn't it?
—No, she was made by the Lunarians —I said, though I wasn't sure that was the case—Why are you awake?
—The bells you gave me kept ringing since you two started fighting, and all the ice breaking was noisy too.
—So that was it... —I was about to drift out of conscience when a though crossed my mind— Phos!
I got up somehow, grabbed the spear, and started running, Cinnabar followed me.
—What do you mean? Why is Phos awake?
—That doesn't matter, go look for Adamant and bring him to the cliff of origins!
She followed my instructions and went towards the school, but by the time I reached the beach, neither Phos nor Antarc where there. There were, however, some footsteps, and I followed them, meeting with Cinnabar and Adamant on the way and telling them to follow me, we went back all the way to where we had been breaking Ice floes.
Phos was chasing a fleeing Sun spot, and had jumped to catch it, her arms stretching almost as long as her own body, but she wasn't going to make it. Adamant was still too behind to launch an attack, and Cinnabar, who had keep the pace with me, didn't had any range attack.
There was only something I could do, I recreated my arm, and manifested a bigger than usual bow, borrowing materials from my imaginary pockets. I intended to use the spear to instead of an arrow. I pulled the string as much as I could and aimed it at the Sunspot.
—Cinnabar, take cover —I said.
She hid behind a rock, and I released the string. As I expected, the recoil hit me hard, and probably due to the piercings I suffered before, my whole body was torn apart.