Marchen Meines Lebens. That was the Noble Phantasm of the being known as Hans Christian Andersen. One could say it was a lesser version of Caster's blessings, reinforcing both me and Ondyne's bodies, and keeping our stamina up. We were the main "damage dealers", but we were just barely enough to block our enemy's attack. Faust's buffoon was throwing bombs basically at random, some exploded instantly, others only when they were touched. And in his unpredictability, he was the only one who had been able to hurt Ushiwakamaru at all. It was a double edge sword, as even I had stepped on one of the mines he had set up. Thankfully, that explosion wasn't strong enough to blow me into pieces, but my leg still cracked a bit. The gold alloy fixed it immediately, though.
—You have impressed me, Lord Phosphophyllite —the shadow servant said after we had crossed blades and pushed each other away.
—Since you haven't put your sword away, I don't think that means you'll join us or at least let us go ahead.
—Of course not, once I have a master I'll serve them to my end. And I can't let you go through either. Mmmm... though Archer wanted to fight against Lord Emiya, but he told us to not go easy against him either.
—Wait, Archer? Like Assassin, are there two Archers? —I said, and the image of the attack that had brought us down appeared in my mind. I had been thinking that must have been the work of Franny herself or another Shadow Servant, but it felt weirdly familiar.
—-Two? Aside from those who are just shadows, there is only one Archer —Ushiwakamaru said—, the king of heroes, Gilgamesh.
I froze, and felt something deep within me shiver and twist.
—But... Shirou...
—Hmmm, I see, it was always weird —Andersen said—, the Holy Grail was started by those two, Franny and Shirou. They existed before it, so neither would count as servants participating on it, even if their souls were summoned using the same principle.
—Correct —Ushiwakamaru said with a wide smile— If anything, Franny could be described as one of the Ruler class, while Shirou as her opposite will be... never mind, it doesn't matter.
I hold tight the grip of my sword. All this time, they had been attacking us and Shirou, and he wasn't part of the ritual. Caster, Berserker, Assassin, and even Lancer and Rider had been lied to. There wasn't any reason to involve us, there wasn't any reason to darken the sky of our world, and there wasn't any reason to hurt Sensei. I was pissed, utterly pissed.
—Phos?! —Ondyne said, and I took a glance at her.
She looked scared, even Andersen and Faust were giving a few steps back. Ushiwakamaru stood her ground, but I noticed my shadow covered her entirely.
—Ah, I see —I thought to myself—I lost control again.
My body had broken in pieces barely held together by the gold allow, twisting and contorting into weird shapes. Swords and all sorts of weapons had started to sprout out of my body. I was about to burst, but Ondyne was too close, and unlike Ghost and Cairn, we couldn't just put her pieces together. In the last seconds I had, I tried to aim the blades towards the enemy and then, everything went white.
—Phos! Phos! Wake up! —I started hearing after a while. There was something jumping on whatever was left of my chest.
I tried to stand, but my body was too broken. My legs and one of my arms were completely gone, and the other was just a shattered stump. I could see the earth above me. I started to panic and hyperventilate.
—Calm down, you are safe —the creature said, and only then I realized it was an Admirabilis. Her voice was familiar, and way more comprensible than the feral ones I had met before.
—O-Ondyne?? Is that you?
—Oh? You haven't seen me take this form before, right? Sorry to surprise you.
She looked like a violinist crab, with one pincer bigger than the other. But unlike any other of the Admirabilis I had seen, her slug-like body was covered in hard plates. They might have not been able to protect her from a direct impact, but at least helped her deal with the debris, as I had blown an entire section of the wall. Plus, being smaller made her hard to hit.
—Seriously, if you can do something like that tell me so I can plan ahead —Andersen said, appearing from among the dust cloud with one of my legs.
We didn't see Ushiwakamaru anywhere near, so we assumed our victory and took the time to reassemble me. I was able to keep my parts together, once again thanks to my alloy. I still couldn't walk properly, so Ondyne returned to her biped shape and helped me. We entered to the city and went a few meters within it when Faust stopped abruptly.
—Say, Phosphophyllite —he said, with an uncharacteristic serious tone—, have you heard of the Ship of Thesseus?
—Huh? What are you asking so suddenly?
—No, it is something I had been wanting to tease with since we met, but I think I won't have any other chance later.
—W-what are you talking about? —I asked, but when I turned around I saw the answer to my question.
Ushiwakamaru had risen from the debris. There was a big hole on her chest, and she was slowly turning into golden dust, but her eyes looked even more determined than before.
—You got me, Phosphophyllite, with my core damaged I won't be able to stay on this word for longer. But as long as I have air in my lungs, I'll fight for my lord.
—Tch, you should just lie down and enjoy the sight of the stars in your last moments, you damn raccoon —Hans said.
Faust started to walk towards the enemy.
—Come back here, you idiot! —Hans said.
—The Thesseus ship is an old dilemma, you know? It has keep many philosophers and idiots busy trying to come up with a solution —he said, completely ignoring his comrade—. It goes something like this, "If you replace one by one all the pieces of a ship, is still the same ship at the end?", for you see, the proper servants on this grail war are made up from several beings, who are they exactly? And even us, the shadow servants, are made up from incomplete data. Can we call ourselves by our names if we are only the eighty percent or so of who we were supposed to be? Ah, that also applies to you, Phos-chan...
—W-what do you mean? —I said, but I noticed he had thrown a bomb between him and us.
I managed to grab Hans and Ondyne and pull them towards me, all while covering us three with my alloy. The bomb went off just a moment after that, as if it had been waiting for me to finish protecting us, and its explosion was strong enough to send us flying several meters away. However, there had been almost no shrapnel on the explosion. I removed he alloy as soon as I could, and I saw Faust saying something more, but my ears were still ringing. When I recovered my hearing, however, the first thing I heard was the voice of our enemy.
—Dan-No-Ura, Eight Boat Leap —she said, aiming her blade towards the shadow servant.
She gave a step ahead and gained incredible momentum, she was halfway towards Faust in less than a few seconds. He, however, still managed to turn around and show me for a brief instant a honest smile, like nothing I had seen him done.
—Sayonara, Phos-chan —he said, and his wicked and creepy smile came back, as he surrounded himself with lots of explosives.
—Wait! —I said, but my golden alloy covered us again even against my will.
There was a huge explosion seconds later, and this time we were thrown away more violently, hitting walls and the ground, as well as being hit by debris. Hans had managed to use his noble phantasm just before we were hit, otherwise my gold alloy wouldn't have stood it. When everything calmed down, I removed the gold alloy and looked around. We were on the border of a crater; everything around us was destroyed or at the very least damaged badly. There wasn't anything remaining of Ushiwakamaru or Faust.
—That idiot, if he had that much power left he didn't had to sacrifice his life —Hans said, getting up and dusting off his clothes.
—Is... is he not going to reappear soon? —Ondyne said.
—No, when our core is damaged, we are as good as dead —Hans admitted bitterly.
—That explosion will attract their attention, we need to get away —I heard someone say.
It took me a few seconds to realize those words had come up from my mouth. I attributed it to Lapis taking over for a moment. I got up and looked around. There was something... odd. It looked as if there was some kind of veil in front of me. I didn't had time to wonder about it, as Ondyne and Hans pushed me to move forwards before reinforcements arrived. As we were getting away, I threw a glance back at the center of the explosion. I haven't developed any sort of bond with Faust, and he didn't seem to mind me in particularly either. So why was he willing to sacrifice himself to save us? What was the meaning in his last words?
—Ah, Phos, your eyepatch fell off —Ondyne said, picking it up from the ground.
—Thank you —I was about to put it on its place when I noticed I wasn't being blinded even when I wasn't wearing it.
We hid behind a corner for a moment, and just out of curiosity, I placed it over the eye made with synthetic pearl and my vision returned to normal. I then placed the eyepatch over the other eye, and everything in my fiend of vision was different. I could still touch Ondyne, who was in front of me. She slapped my hand away.
—You can see another place? —Hans asked after I had told them.
—Where is it? —Ondyne added.
—It is... a room, but I'm seeing through the window... I can see the city from above, and... there is a cloud of dust on the distance...
—That must be here!
I removed the eyepatch and looked around until I saw it; a huge tower that was looming over the rest of the city, the only place where that vision could have been coming.
—Just what is in that tower?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had returned to my room, worrying about what Franny and Archer had said. I couldn't get those words out of my mind. Then I heard a familiar voice.
—Sayonara, Phos-chan.
My memories were still clouded, but I knew there had been someone who called me that way, a prankster shadow servant who visited me even against the rules. I only remembered him vaguely, but my eyes started to leak, and I felt as if someone was squeezing my heart. Then I heard the explosion, and ran to the window. I could see it from there, but there was something off about my vision. It was almost as if I had a veil in front of me. Just for curiosity, I covered the eye that was made of Lapis Lazuli, and found myself in a weird scene. I could still touch the frame of my window, but there were two people in front of me. One was a kid with blue hair, and the other looked a bit like the Admirabilis' king...what was her name again? When did I met her?
Huh?
Who I was supposed to be?