"An Archer who fights with twin swords is also quite rare," Wayland countered calmly.
Archer didn't respond. Realizing he couldn't goad his opponent into revealing anything, he began to move with blurred speed.
"Rin, find the enemy's Master."
Archer's twin blades lashed out in a series of high-speed strikes, the weapons whistling through the air like bullets.
Wayland caught the blades on the shaft of his spear, parrying the force upward. Without hesitation, he closed the distance. Every ounce of his prana surged into a single, high-frequency thrust.
The weapons collided with a shower of sparks.
Archer transitioned between retreat and advance with uncanny precision, meeting the spear's point with equal speed.
Wayland immediately pivoted.
He shifted the thrust into a powerful horizontal sweep.
Clang!
One of Archer's blades was sent flying.
It tumbled through the air, dissolving into light before it even hit the ground.
Archer leapt backward, projecting another short sword into his hand to meet the next spear strike.
***
"Es ist groß, Es ist klein!"
Rin Tohsaka was running at a full sprint. The magic circuits in her left hand completed a single-verse incantation in an instant. Her body suddenly felt as light as a feather, and she leapt from the side of the skyscraper without hesitation.
The wind howled past her ears.
When she was ten meters from the ground, she activated her cushioning magecraft. Blue circuits flared across her feet. With a swirl of dust, she landed safely.
Her blue pupils were illuminated by the surge of prana.
The surrounding scenery was instantly mapped out in her mind.
"There!"
Rin's red coat flared as she vaulted over a railing with practiced agility. Standing before her was a girl clad in a heavy red hood.
Sensing a fellow magus, Rin didn't hesitate. She raised her left hand, her fingers pressing together as she unleashed a barrage of crimson-black Gandr shots.
They tore through the air like a series of literal bullets, aimed directly at the hooded girl.
Rin watched closely, her confidence unshaken.
The girl turned slowly, her movements unnervingly calm. The oversized hood obscured the upper half of her face, but the brief glimpse of her features struck a chord of familiarity in Rin's mind.
'Do I know her?'
Rin quickly scanned her memories. There were very few people she knew who possessed this level of magical aptitude. Who could it be?
But she was soon jarred out of her thoughts by a display she hadn't expected.
The Gandr shots, each packed with enough force to pierce steel, seemed to hit an invisible barrier. As they reached the half-meter mark in front of the girl, they were simply swallowed whole. They vanished without leaving behind so much as a ripple of prana.
'What kind of magecraft is that?'
Rin's fingers gripped three pieces of obsidian. She took a deep breath, her fearlessness overriding her confusion.
"Are you Lancer's Master?" she demanded.
The girl didn't speak. She simply nodded.
"You're afraid to talk... do I know you?" Rin pushed further.
"No."
The girl spoke this time, but her voice didn't match any of the people in Rin's social circle.
This entire situation was bizarre.
The girl showed absolutely no desire to attack. While Servants had every reason to hide their identities, it was rare for a Master to take such extreme measures for secrecy.
"If that's the case, why don't you take off that hood?" Rin asked.
"There's no need."
"What an infuriating attitude. Are you looking down on me?"
As Rin spoke, she threw the three obsidian gems. Her prana flooded into them instantly, and the air suddenly grew heavy. The gems shattered, transforming into a dense, black rain of needle-like projectiles that swept toward the girl.
The hooded girl made a similar gesture.
'Gems? No...'
Rin realized the truth just as the objects were released.
'Wood.'
In the moonlit night, a brilliant light erupted. Countless streaks of prana, like elongated silver needles, tore through the black rain.
Rin dove to the side, vaulting backward as she threw another set of gems from her left hand.
A brilliant green light flared.
A rectangular shield of prana manifested, blocking the incoming streaks.
Rin's magic circle expanded instantly. Several Gandr shots curved through the air, forming a massive arc that closed in on the girl from multiple angles.
The girl held out her hand.
Several pieces of spruce wood flew out.
Faint blue runes traced thin lines of ice in the air, resembling a school of silver swordfish. In an instant, they crystallized into a massive, shimmering mirror of ice.
***
Rho Aias
Kirei Kotomine stood in the distance, his black priest robes fluttering in the cold wind. He watched the battle atop the skyscraper with a silent, calculating intensity.
His massive frame exuded a thick, suffocating pressure.
In the darkness of the night, a sudden, blinding light erupted.
It was a brilliant, snowy white.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]