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Eryl Fairfax     Archer's message leads those who reply out into the woods, to a threefold fork in a river in the four cardinal directions. A platform has been built at the fork, with bridges leading to the land at every corner. A crossroads at the four directions, with water and wood aplenty. Seems perfect for a master of mystic arts, but considering he's Eastern, the place seems to lack metal of any kind...

    "You made it," says the Paradox Archer, standing in the middle of the four-way bridge. He smiles at Saber, who has been quiet the whole way. Really, he has been quiet ever since the tea party in Anor Londo. Standing with the ancient god is his Master, Cenedril, who is scanning the environment for her counterpart in this fight, the enigmatic Russian Misha. But he is nowhere to be seen.

    "I hath come to honor thine request for combat, Archer," says Gwyn. "But know this; were this not a war, I would relish the chance to match blades with thee honourably. But war it be, and honor hath room only when wisdom permits." Archer exhales through his nose and nods. "Figured you might say that."

    He raises a hand, and a gunshot sounds from among the trees, a bullet whizzing by Cenedril's cheek. "Don't get me wrong, this isn't a hostage thing," Archer says as Saber starts literally burning up. "Just know, I'm willing to turn this into a slugfest if you are. There's no trick, I really just want a clean fight."

    "Hrm," Saber rumbles non-committally, before stepping onto the bridge and drawing his sword. Archer produces his own from his sheath, and the two rush at each other.
Staren     Staren arrives to watch, flying on thrusters built into his armor. He comes in for a landing at one of the riverbanks. The armor he's wearing indicates, to those who know him, that this is a robot body; thus he doesn't bother to find a seat, since his feet won't get tired.

    He doesn't say anything. What is there to need to be said? It's up to Priscilla whether this duel indeed stays 'honorable' -- Staren's own sensibilities care little for honor, though he tries to abide by a sort of professional ethics even when morality does not mandate a particular behavior. However, he has given no word that he won't interfere and doesn't hold the grail war itself in particularly high esteem.

    This is Priscilla's grandfather. He will abide by her decision.

    Needless to say, if anyone jumps in on Archer's side all pretenses to a fair duel are off, also.

    ...And there's a gunshot. Staren stands bolt upright and starts looking around. It would be too easy for the shooter to have an IR signature, right? Motion is a bit more troublesome in the forest, what with wind blowing leaves and all. Unless he actually spots them immediately, after a few seconds he takes to the air and starts deploying drones, trying to cast a wider net.
.
Reiji Arisu A not-unexpected face is sitting nearby as well. Reiji Arisu, son of Shogo Arisu and renowned overworker, is... Of mixed feelings about this engagement. But his father knows what he's doing- however this will turn out, he can't rightfully say, but...

He's had his time. He's said what needed to be said. Even still, there are so many words that have still gone unspoken. But to have even been afforded the chance to have this meeting is more than Reiji could ever have hoped for.

So he does not interfere. Not yet, anyway. He gives his father a meaningful look, then turns his attention toward the treeline, watching vigilantly for the first sign of anything amiss.

Where could that Ruler be hiding now...?
Priscilla     "Such a verdict is very simple. In an even contest of might, the Saber Lord Gwyn shalt triumph one way or the other. Even were that not originally the case, I hath seen to it since then. It is clear the Archer Arisu simply wishes to be over with it."

    "I expecteth no such feelings from his Master. Either his Servant's insistence hath simply gotten the better of him for the time, or else he believes an honourable duel to be to his advantage. Both ways, I expect he shalt maketh attempt to exploit it. That is the sort of man he is."

    That amounted to most of Priscilla's 'briefing' on the seemingly complicated subject. She doesn't share a word with Servant Gwyn on the way in, awkwardly avoiding it the entire time. Given the type that Archer's Master is, she's already concluded that it'd be far too suspicious for her to 'not show up'; he'd likely immediately assume some invisible bullshit is up. That means she has to attend in person by the arena's side. The second she hears a gunshot though, especially aimed near Cenedril, her tail prickles up, and she quietly radios:

    "Find him."
Tanya Degurechaff     Major Tanya von Degurechaff had been looking forward to seeing how one of these throwdowns is *supposed* to happen. Literally every incident with these Servants has quickly devolved into chaos. Holding a respectable distance, her weapon slung and arms folded, the small officer floats via her flight unit while the servants exchange their words.

    Gunshot.

    Lord Gwyn lights up.

    Tanya similarly bristles. Her hand goes for her rifle, swinging it down and forward. By the time Priscilla's order is given, Tanya's already muttering, "Grant me clearer vision, I pray, to perceive your Wisdom. Show me the start of the path I seek in Your name." Eyes close briefly, then snap open-- shifted from blue to a vibrant gold, "Amen."

    Already calculating vectors, the girl sweeps her free hand aside, projecting a screen upon which a flickering red cone overlays the terrain. And it is in this direction that she raises her weapon, looking for telltale signs-- the glint of metal, light reflecting off a scope lens, motion...
Eryl Fairfax     Tanya and Staren begin scanning the thick forest for signs of Archer's Master. Given the angle of the shot, they can trace a straight line, and soon find him kneeling on a small hill within the trees. He's still maintaining the same position, and when he realises he's been spotted, he just... smirks and waves?

    The duel on the bridge begins in earnest. And it is as Priscilla says; the substantial boost in power Saber received has created a wide gap in their capabilities. The god-king's massive burning blade pushes aside Archer's own slashes and defence, while the rolling heat emanating from his form reduces Archer's bullets to cinders before they can strike him. Archer slams against the bridge's railings, knocked back by yet another seemingly lazy swipe from Gwyn. In spite of how outmatched he seems, he's laughing.

    "Thou art plainly outmatched. Offer thine neck, and I shalt make it quick," Gwyn rumbles. "You really are the sun god huh? As harsh and merciless as the summer noon... but don't you worry big guy. I can go even bigger than the sun." He claps his hands together, and his five weapons begin orbiting him. Those magically inclined would feel a shift in the latent energies of the land, power flowing directly into Archer as he intones;

                     SHINRA BANSHO - ONE WITH ALL CREATION                      

    Abruptly, the water under the bridge undulates like a snake, lashing up to plough into Saber, thick steam emanating from his form as water meets fire. The trees and plants in the surrounding area begin to grow, the foliage thickening and blocking sight lines on Archer's Master once more. The earth cracks, as chunks of metal ore lash out like bullets to fly at Saber from all directions.

    "Let's do this Saber! I showed you mine, so show me yours! What's your Noble Phantasm?!"
Tanya Degurechaff     The sniper is located. Tanya's eyes narrow, her holographic screen zooming in on him when he waves at her. Her altitude increases when the foliage starts to grow on its own, and she decides to issue a warning of her own.

    That (comparatively ancient) Mauser 98k is lifted up, sighted, and a shot is fired. Her aim is directly on the gunman's location, though she fires it only after a tree has grown into an obstruction. On impact, the bullet explodes like an artillery shell.

    The rifle shifts, resting in her arms as she turns her attention to the Servants doing battle. She knows precious little of Priscilla's world or family, and so seeing Lord Gwyn in action should provide some valuable insight.
Staren     The sniper just... waves? Staren starts to fly over to him but suddenly the trees grow thick -- Staren goes up, up, trying to get above them even if he can't see them. The drone nearest to the sniper emits his voice: "What are you trying to pull?"

    Over the radio, though, he transmits to his allies: <"This guy was way too obvious. Why reveal himself so early? He might be a distraction, keep an eye out for others... Ugh, these trees... I guess they're blocking his shots too, though. So whoever else is planning to interfere must not need a clear shot...">

    Staren considers the possibilities. Indirect fire strong enough to go through the trees? Arcing missiles above the tree cover? Of course, there's always the possibility of magic bullshit. Staren keeps his sensors peeled for anything he CAN see up above...
Priscilla     Priscilla evidently doesn't like what she hears through the radio when Staren locates Archer's Master, given the increasingly tense and joyless stare with which she watches the fight, hand to her earpiece, even with it going dramatically in her interest's favour. If he's being that obvious, he must be playing at something. She'd tangled with him before, and he had hidden and guarded himself up to the eyeballs that time.

    The incantation --Shinra Bansho-- is a familiar one. Priscilla recognizes it instantly as the combination technique between Reiji and Xiaomu, wherein they pool their powers and the five elements between them to deal with super powerful enemies. The fact that (the spirit of) Reiji's father can do it all by itself faintly impresses her. She glances to Reiji himself, largely in realization that he apparently has a ways to go to live up to that legacy.

    Hearing the name doesn't worry her excessively. Priscilla remains essentially unmoved at the start. It's a technique fitting to be a Noble Phantasm by her estimation, and Archer pulling it out is evidence of the battle being tilted in all of Lordran's favour. When, instead of the expected result, the whole battlefield turns into a dense, impenetrable clusterfuck of hyper-exaggerated natural terrain though, that's the point where Priscilla instantly suspects that something might be up.

    Priscilla strains to look at where Staren had just indicated the Master was, waiting just long enough to check if she can still see him behind the tree Tanya blows up. Given that she expects he's definitely used the opportunity to relocate on the go-word though, Priscilla responds in kind by finally disappearing into nothingness. After all, if line of sight was completely blocked both ways, even for an instant, there's no way for the sniper to confirm she didn't just move to somewhere else he's had time to exhaustively search the area through his scope.
Reiji Arisu The cards were indeed stacked unfavorably, but Reiji's interest in his father's victory extended only as far as a desire to see he and his master somehow get out of this alive. But there's also an understanding there; a realization that there is all but certainly only one way this is going to end.

And yet, unlike the ubiquitous trolley problem, that doesn't mean he just has to sit there and do nothing.

The Concord busies itself with locating Shogo's master. Reiji trusts that Priscilla is confident enough in her victory through Lord Gwyn's overwhelming strength that any punishment there would be punitive at best. Instead, Reiji keeps his eyes trained on the fight, waiting for the right moment-- to do what /he/ knows he has to do. He never exchanged words with his father about it, but even so, the invocation of Shinra Bansho so early in this fight is a message that cannot possibly be missed.

By inserting himself so fully into the full scope of the natural world, the leylines that make up the geography of this place cannot help but thrum with Archer's spiritual essence. And there, Reiji will search for the truth. Just as Shogo invoked all five of his weapons, just as Priscilla had so often witnessed Reiji and Xiaomu cooperate to accomplish similarly remarkable-- though far more direct-- feats, Reiji lifts his own rack of elemental weapons...

And swings them. All five of them. Not four, but /five./ The fifth there, a third blade, is not the Darkdrift that Priscilla has so often seen him wield. It is SORIN, the blade of ice. The very /self-same/ weapon that his father now wields. "I--" Reiji intones, "Am One With All Creation."

He reaches out as well, now. His own spiritual essence merges with that of the world around him and his father in the distance. He searches and probes and /learns/, using the sympathetic link of blood reaching to blood, of twinned, resonant weapons. Where is it, where /is/ it. Where is the magic leading? Where from does the power surge? What is the /nature/ of this grail-magic that allows his father's spirit to exist once more in the world...!?

This is Reiji's answer.

This is how Reiji will fight.
Eryl Fairfax     As Staren brings his drone close to the sniper to ask him what he's doing, Misha Babikov responds only by drawing a sidearm and putting a bullet in the drone. However, in the instant that Staren gets readings on him, he may note that the man sets off any Geiger counters or any other measures of radioactivity he has. The tree intercepts Tanya's shot, but the Master doesn't flinch at the sheer explosive force of it. He gives the girl a slight nod before the tree reforms; message received. But in that instant, Priscilla is gone, and his face twists with annoyance before he is hidden by foliage once more.

    On the bridge, Saber is handily dealing with the onslaught of nature. While Archer is manipulating the five Chinese elements, Saber is fire and lightning personified. Two elements in their rawest form can overcome five in their natural states. Flames and lightning evaporate water and disintegrate metal. In spite of the abundant wood, Archer does not use any, potentially due to it empowering fire on the Wuxing. "Thou art skilled," Gwyn concedes as his blade clashes with Archer's, the two pressing against each other within a vortex of water. "But thou art merely a sorcerer, borrowing scraps from thine gods creation. You affect the mantle of gods to face a true god; I hath no need of any of mine greatest gifts to best thee."

    Archer just laughs, as all the steam coming off of Gwyn condenses above their head into thick cloud. Razor-sharp hail erupts from it as the exorcist leaps away. The ice naturally melts upon coming close to Saber, but the water it becomes does not evaporate fast enough, and he is riddled with water bullets. "Well, if you're so confident, why not bust it out and eradicate me?! C'mon, is it an embarrassing one?" This does raise two questions; why is Archer so insistent that Saber use his Phantasm? And why has Saber not shown it before now? What could it be?

    But then, Reiji utilizes his father's move, joining his power with the ley lines. Shogo is shocked, looking at his son and nearly getting cut in half for it. Reiji traces the flow of his fathers life, all the way across the megaplanet to a desolate cave out in the Scorches Woods, near where Njorun fell. Into the cave, and down into the depths of the earth, he feels something. Something unnatural, fell, and dramatically confusing. Whatever the source of this is, it is where the Grail, or whatever it is that called Shogo back is.

    But there is also someone there, and they sense Reiji's presence. This someone taps into the same ley lines, and begins trying to push Reiji back!

    Back in the forest, that sensation Reiji felt, there below the earth, becomes manifest. A black spot appears in the air overhead, swelling dramatically. It's as if the world was paper, and a finger was being pushed through it, reality being pushed aside to make room. It gets bigger, bigger, and bigger still, large enough to fit entire buildings inside.

    And then something falls out.

    A massive, humanoid figure with mottled skin, a feminine form, and blank eyes descends, crashing into the forest and sending tremors through the earth. It lays there for a long pregnant moment, it's arrival enough to halt the battle between Servants. But then it starts getting up, standing upon its knees and tilting its head back, opening its mouth and letting its ashen tongue loll out.

                                       I                                        
                                      HEAR                                      
                                       A                                        
                                     SOUND                                      

    This idea erupts within the mind of all present as the creature begins to sing, before lightning shoots out of the forest to strike its form. Ruler is here, having been lying in wait. "Get the hell out of here!" he shouts at all assembled, real panic in his voice.
Staren     A drone is sacrificed; that's what they're for. Radioactive? The hell? It's just a puzzle piece that doesn't quite fit, though.

    Then a hole opens in the world. Above the trees, Staren's positioned with the best view of it, transmitting to his allies. He readies missiles.

    Something falls out? And it's a big deal to Ruler, who's suddenly here.

    "Why? What is that thing?" In any case, Staren doesn't plan to leave unless Saber is also retreating.
Priscilla     The second instance of the incantation, this time from Reiji, causes Priscilla to alter her roundabout line through the trees, ducking branches, leaping over water, circumventing brush, to take her through that direction on her way to Archer's Master. Whether or not Reiji has gone soft and decided to interrupt at the last minute, he has to be up to *something* with those words on his lips. If it's throwing his lot in with the spirit copy of his father, she'll have no hesitation about cutting him down.

    Whatever he did though --whatever he meant to do-- it surely wasn't *whatever the hell this is*. Priscilla halts completely halfway to Babikov, a short ways from Reiji, when the sky opens up, and sways back against a nearby tree with a loud thunk as the ground quakes beneath them all from the gargantuan impact. The grotesque figure fell out of that perverse and disconcerting hole in the sky with the life and grace of a corpse dumped off a wall. She remains perfectly still for several seconds, then slowly begins to approach, footsteps muffled to silence in the grass they scarcely bend. One, then another, then one more --carefully, warily watching the gigantic, rotten-looking body.

    'I Hear A Sound'

    Blue-white motes of eerie moonlight are cast into the air around Priscilla like the waving of a torch, so suddenly does she draw the Sword of Revelation, tuned to such a dramatic extent that her space resonates with a pitched hum like the rim of a glass. The sight is so subtly, uncannily repulsive, and the sudden thought so intrusive and 'nearsensicle' that without any idea of what she's dealing with, even Priscilla begins hurriedly moving backwards, away from whatever it is that's about to happen. The sight is so abhorrently deep in the uncanny valley that her usually well-honed instincts for threatening situations just spin like a broken compass.

    Even Ruler shows up. The crossbreed is pointedly loathe to do anything he says, but then the fact that Negi has appeared, for this one time, to finally do what a Ruler is ostensibly supposed to, outweighs that reluctance in an avalanche. Reiji barely need say what he does, until she hears the words 'I know where the Grail is'. She whispers into her radio. "If such abhorrence is enough to, this once, stir the Ruler Servant into genuine action, than it is far beyond the bounds of this war, and beyond that of outside intervention. It is clear. Something hast terribly wrong. The Grail is our only priority."

    Priscilla looks hurriedly around for Cenedril. She expects Saber Gwyn can handle himself, but she needs the girl out of here immediately. The second she senses her, she'll fade step right over, gather her up in her arms, and then begin rushing back outward through the trees at top speed, given the prickling feeling on her back all the while that they might be moving solely to escape some 'ground zero' rather than an enemy.
Tanya Degurechaff     Tanya echoes those questions when Lord Gwyn refuses to field his Noble Phantasm. A hand goes to her chin, briefly putting Archer's Master to the side of her train of thought. Is it a matter of caution, or confidence? Does he feel like using his Noble Phantasm would be unnecessary overkill, or does Archer have some way to--

    Reiji does something. Calling out the same incantation. Tanya's golden eyes swing his way, amidst the trees and shrubs of the growing forest. And then-- well, everything goes crazy. A colossal carcass. An unimaginably forboding feeling. A voice calling out. For the briefest moment, Tanya's face contorts into the horrified, strained grimace of someone far older. She recovers quickly, floating back from this new entity hitting the field, teeth bared tensely but her expression otherwise a more neutral look of disgust.

    Ruler's actual distress, clear in his voice, is something she notes the second he reveals his presence. Eyes skim, noting Priscilla gathering Cenedril. Without further hesitation, Tanya accelerates in reverse, not taking her eyes off the hulk lest something happen that she needs to warn her boss about.

    Staren... well, he can take care of himself.
Reiji Arisu The shock on his father's face is almost enough to make this exercise worthwhile, regardless of its ultimate effect or the fact that it almost cost Shogo the lower half of his body. At the very least the old man will be able to take an interesting story back with him to the Throne of Heroes or wherever it is that his soul is dwelling anymore. But.

He has more important business than to linger pridefully on his father's gobsmacked expression.

Reiji's awareness traces the source of his father's second life. It races through the highways and byways of the world's pulsing lifeblood like Perseus following Ariadne's thread. He goes further, further, deeper, deeper. His awareness finds a place both familiar and depressing, the scorched surroundings of Njorun are a blight upon his memory of the once lush and thriving place, but he must go deeper still. Into that cave, into the bowels of the earth, into-- into...

What...

What /is/ this?

The sensation is grotesque and unnatural and sickening, a notion of something entirely alien to his comprehension of the world, and yet just familiar enough to trigger an inherent sense of revulsion. But what he finds is not as important as where he found it, and orders of magnitude less important than what it does when it notices his presence.

The thing pushes back at his senses, and Reiji beats a fighting retreat across the very essence of the megaplanet, seeking to eke out every ounce of knowledge he can before recoiling fully back into the here and now.

Unfortunately, the malign presence did not seem to appreciate his trespassing upon its privacy.

                                     I.                                    
                                   Hear.                                    
                                     A.                                    
                                   Sound.                                  

The onmyoji staggers and scrambles to rise, reclaiming his weapons as the sky suddenly yawns open and disgorges an ashen /thing./ A peversion of the human form. Something that at first glance seems all /too/ human and yet every sense and sensation tells him that it is anything /but./

Ruler arrives to fight it. He tells them to retreat.

Reiji is of the mind that they should do /exactly/ that.

There's an exchange over the radio. Fortunately his words are enough, though they are almost certainly aided by the arrival of that putrid, repulsive /thing/ that looks like it crawled straight out of uncanny valley. "Agreed. This situation has- nnggh--" Reiji staggers, finding his footing only by using a nearby tree as support. His head pulses, senses burning still at the /wrongness/ of this thing. "-changed. Drastically."

He has to do something before he leaves, though. Misha, the sniper, he wouldn't have expected this. /Reiji/ didn't expect this. And if he's right, then they need to make sure /both/ masters and servants survive this encounter. He steadies himself, extending his senses one more time, probing along whatever trace of his awareness still feels his father's life-line. He can use that to find Misha, and then carry the /both/ of them out of here.

Or. If that doesn't work, then maybe Priscilla will pull them out of the fire.

After all, he hasn't told her where the grail /is/ yet.
Eryl Fairfax     Everyone begins to beat a retreat, save Staren. "I don't know kid!" Ruler replies to his query. "But it sure as hell is bad news! So let me do my job!" He resumes his assault on this grotesque being, but rings of runic power begin emanating from its mouth in alternating black and white. One slams into Ruler, and sends him flying into the river. Now, its song continues unabated, the land around it starting to bleach, crystallizing into salt.

    Cenedril has zero objection to being scooped up. "Lord Saber! Come, quickly!" she calls to her Servant, but he remains on the bridge, looking out at the creature with Archer. "Hrm... begone, Archer. Out duel ends in a no contest. I shalt eradicate this wretched thing." Archer meanwhile, lights up a cigarette and shakes his head. "No can do big guy. This was my plan. I have to handle the cleanup." Before Saber can ask him what he means, a jet of water cuts through the bridge, sweeping up Saber and sending him downriver after everyone else.

    Reiji leans on a tree and seeks out Misha, but the Russian is coming right for him, helping the young man stand up. "You gotta go kid," he says. "But keep this in your head. This kind of thing shouldn't happen, but it is. I heard you talking, you think you made this happen. But no, stuff like this has been occuring more and more. And it gets worse when Paradox Servants are around and flex their stuff. This War is a farce, someone is setting all this up. I don't know if things breaking down is the goal or side-effect, but it'll only get worse from here."

    And with that, he launches Reiji into the river after Saber. His next words are heard over the radio, along with Shogo's reply. "Are you sure about this?" "As sure as I was last time I did this."

    Archer freezes the river between he and the creature, before detaching his connection to the natural world. He runs along the ice, his five weapons shooting out to begin orbiting the living corpse. He begins to chant, offering up prayers to the world, to all of creation, and then offers up words to demonkind and the underworld. Soon, he is running across the spreading salt plains and slams his hands against the being's leg.

                    KIMON FUUJIN - BANISHMENT FROM CREATION                    

    The weapons wheel about the entity, as it begins to dissolve into nothingness. Spreading from fingers and toes upwards, its essence, form, and its song begins to break away. Even the spreading salt returns unto soil and earth once more. This is the technique that ended Shogo's life all those years ago, an absolute sealing technique.

    And it's working.
Staren     Let me do my job, Ruler says, and gets smacked into the river. "You're doing great!" Staren calls out, and launches a salvo of over a dozen tiny missiles. They arc around to approach the being from all angles, and then airburst into lances of superheated metal a few feet away from her. He follows up with six shots from an oversized revolver, each shot firing two bullets with science-enhanced power belied by their size.

    Noone he trusts/respects actually told Staren to leave. He's reacted before realizing anyone else is actually retreating. The idea that something could spook Priscilla so would never occur to him.
Priscilla     Bridal carrying one of her own subjects, not even properly an adult yet, at high speed out of a disaster area isn't something Priscilla had ever really expected to be doing. In the midst of Cenedril speedily floating over trampled brush, abruptly broken branches and roots, and suddenly frozen water, bobbing irregularly, Priscilla spares a glance back over her shoulder for what is becoming of the three Servants left behind, and . . .

    As another first, she's glad of their interference. This isn't a fight --if it even is a fight, and not akin to an environmental cataclysm-- that she doesn't want Saber partaking in at all. The land itself is rapidly crystallizing behind her. She can smell the tang of salt sweeping by on the dusty, clouded wind --almost feel the coarse, stinging crunch underfoot, rushing outward to overtake her, gushing into the veins of the land in the form of an otherworldly poison. Taking a sword to it doesn't win the War; it's risking everything for nothing. Let it be Ruler's problem.

    The trick with the bridge and the water is the one thing she'll thank Archer for. For an instant, as Priscilla swerves again to try and angle her course downriver, she thinks to herself whether she'll do that later, until one more set of incantations dredges up the barest memory of what she had asked Reiji once before. Then, she knows she won't see him again at all. Stewing on it as she runs, somehow finding the time to bitterly brood with great difficulty in the middle of evading disaster, she keys her radio one more time.

    "As it seems we shalt be foes no longer, thou hast mine thanks, Shogo Arisu, for this if nothing else."

    Then she hits it again. "Sir Staren, cease wasting thine time, before thou suffer worse than Negi." She repulses a front of encroaching salt with a wave of ephemeral painted frost, taking root just long enough to turn and fire a coruscating arc from Moonlight into the hideously offputting titan's back. Then, she resumes moving, judging the spread of the runes that'd swatted Ruler from the sky to estimate a safe distance. If Archer fails, she needs to know where to call the immediate, heavyhanded response to.
Reiji Arisu This.

This is horrible.

Even without the supernatural senses that tie Reiji and his ilk so closely to the natural world, the sight of seeing earth and water and wood and all else reduced to bleached-white salt is unnerving on a primal, subconscious level. But for Reiji, it's even worse. Salt is ostensibly attuned to the element of Earth, but it is by far the most sterile of all its forms. It's used as a key component of seals for a /reason./ There's nothing better to airgap a spiritual threat away with than something that is so utterly devoid of any spiritual essence. The thing, the grotesque mockery, it's stripping all of that away. It's leaving nothing but salt in its wake, and Reiji senses every pulse of wrongness reverberating from the expanding ring of sterilized world. He stumbles, nearly tripping on an exposed root-- it wouldn't normally be this way. Normally he'd be able to insulate himself from this sense of wrongness, but so soon after reaching so deeply into the world, he can't just cut himself away from it.

What irony, then, that the one he was sticking his neck out to save would be the one to save /him./

"I knew," Reiji answers, even as one hand curls around that decade-old scar as it throbs and pulses with pain. "I knew it couldn't be right. Something... something had to be pulling the strings. Misha, we need to stop it. If this continues, then anywhere could be the next Njorun. That thing came through a dimensional fault. If they start to spread, then--"

He's gotta go.

"Wait," Reiji freezes, "No, I can't just leave the two of you here. I-- wait, no!" Misha gives him a firm shove. The water rises behind him to sweep him into its currents. "Misha! Father!" Reiji struggles against the rushing waters, desperately flailing to keep from being swept away, but he can't. He can feel it, his father's lingering energies still swirling within the surging river. Shogo Arisu is pushing his son away. To keep him safe. To do what he has to do.

Again.

For Reiji, it's all too familiar.

"That technique..." His eyes go wide, his expression briefly a mask of shock. "Dad-- no!" But, on some level. On some level he knows. He knows this is the only way. That /thing/ cannot be allowed to remain in this world. If that's the case, then what's one life compared to all the things that would be lost if it were allowed to exist for one second longer than it must?

And yet--

And yet, so much of him surges with the same anger and despair and frustration and self-loathing that once filled that young man who woke up and one day found that his father was gone- not dead, /gone/- and recognized that it was /his/ fault. He couldn't even be there to see it happen. That was when he earned that scar, that was when he twisted himself to become every bit the man his father had been.

And now he is living through that very same feeling. Those emotions burn in the core of his being, swelling painfully against the inside of his ribcage and squeezing hard around the inner walls of his windpipe. "Father--" Unfamiliar feelings broil hot and wet behind his eyes. "Please," he begs, clinging to a too-smooth rock for as long as he can, until even that slips and he tumbles further downstream. He clutches at something else, at those last scraps of his father's energies stretched out through the currents, before Shogo cuts himself off from the world and leaves that tendril of that spiritual essence to dissolve between his son's desperate fingers.

Reiji knows.

He's going to lose his father again.

Memories of that night, of the driving rain, of the beautiful monster sneering down at them, of his father's back silhouetted against the brilliant lightning storm, all flash across his eyes like he was /right there/ all over again.
Reiji Arisu But he's not.

He's a decade older than that young man was, if not more. A decade stronger. He hopes, a decade wiser too. It doesn't make it easy, it doesn't make the pain of separation hurt less, but he can take it. This time, this time, his eyes are open. The creeping darkness of unconsciousness doesn't encroach at the edges of his awareness. He forces his head above water, he fixes his eyes on the distant silhouette of Shogo Arisu giving his life to save part of a world so far from his home.

Reiji closes his hand around the last, lingering motes of his father's lingering essence. "I'll... I'll see this through," he says, more to himself than anyone or anything else. "I know what needs to be done. Dad... I'm really glad I got to meet you again. Really, truly, thank you. For everything you taught me." For the years spent raising him, caring for him, teaching him what it means to be an exorcist- but more importantly, what it means to be a man. "For everything you left for me," the weapons, the techniques, the memories, the legacy of a man few on his world would know to call 'hero.'

"Give it hell, dad," Reiji says as he sees the monster begin to dissolve at the fringes, a sad smile creasing a tear-stained face, "I love you."

                                 "Goodbye."                                
Eryl Fairfax     The forest in Spring stands quietly. A massive crater left by the impact of something falling fills in with water. Debris from a shattered bridge bobs along the flowing water. And standing there, among it all, is Shogo Arisu, somehow alive and well. He stares at his hands, and asks himself. "How am I-" And then a wretched, wet cough echoes among the trees. "Misha!"

    The Servant rushes over to join his Master, slumped against that samesuch tree Reiji was. His front is wet with blood, along with his mouth and chin. "Misha, you idiot! Don't tell me you paid the cost for using Kimon Fuujin yourself! Why would you-" The Russian reaches into his coat, and tosses a medical file at Shogo. His own, stretching all the way back to the 80s. Shogo opens it, and realisation dawns. "The Chernobyl reaper has finally caught up to me," Misha wheezes. "And slowly wasting away isn't my style. You're the only one who would show up at my bedside anyway."

    An awkward, awful pause fills the air, before Misha can manage a wet chuckle. "All those cool things to say... to Saber, to your kid, but you can't spare a word for your old partner? I'm heartbroken." Archer can only laugh, before leaning against the tree and sitting on the ground himself. "Now of all times you get emotional? You stupid son of a bitch." He laughs too, but it's a sad one. Producing his last cigarette, he puts it into Misha's mouth and lights it.

    Minutes later, the frozen water erupts, and Ruler climbs out, dusting himself off. He looks about, seeing no sign of the monster, but he does see something else. Misha's body, slumped against a tree with a burned out cigarette in his mouth. "Damn it..." he mutters, anger rolling off him like a smouldering heat. "How much more does he have to put the Multiverse through?..."
Staren     It's time to go.

    Staren flies away, expecting to see crazy rune attacks coming from behind and to have to focus on dodging them... but instead, the monster dissolves, eaten by whatever the hell Reiji's dad cast, apparently. Huh.

    Well, he'd better catch up yo Priscilla and Tanya and make sure they found Saber okay.