"Very well," you say, doing your best to hide the exasperation you feel. You were absent twelve hours, and things have already become 'terrible'? It's not a statement that fills you with confidence in the subordinates you've been bringing together. Liliesviel gets up from her seat on your reclining form, turning to drop her feet lightly from the bed to the floor. As she begins to leave, though, you feel a sudden surge of additional tenderness for the girl who so recently confirmed your mutual love, who has apparently spent hours tearfully waiting by your bedside for you to awaken, and you add in a gentle tone, "Whatever has happened, I hope you aren't taking it too hard. I promise you we'll be able to work through this together, whatever it may be."

"Of course!" Liliesviel chirps. She gives you one last bright, loving smile before turning and slipping out the door, her elegant footsteps barely audible as she retreats down the hall to find the others. As she disappears, you find yourself slumping back into your pillow, overcome with a strange fatigue. For all that you've spent the last twelve hours in uninterrupted rest, you already feel a desperate need for more sleep, as if you've just finished a full day of non-stop battle and other labor. Then again, in a manner of speaking you have; perhaps the magical energy you used within Medusa's spirit, you think hazily, still takes an equal toll on your body despite the body's not have been involved in the work. It would seem to fit with the strange biology of Servants you've experienced up until now.

As you contemplate this fact, at least with the part of your mind not occupied in the complete enjoyment of a proper bed after the highly unsatisfactory accommodations of the Shapeless Isle, your eyes gradually return to Medusa and her sisters. Now that they're all lined up at the same age, the similarity of form and feature among the three is extremely striking. But for the unusual symbol which adorns her forehead and the difference of clothing, you doubt you'd be able to tell Medusa from the other two; certainly you're at a loss for which of the sleepers is Euryale and which Stheno. Perhaps, though, you can gather some further information about the three from the magical link between you, though. As you gaze at their peacefully sleeping forms, the gentle rise and fall of chest and slight movement of cherry-blossom lips, you allow your mind to stretch out and probe for an avenue of scrutiny with the same license you've given your eyes. With Stheno and Euryale you're disappointed, but the same cannot be said of Medusa. An identical mental link to that your curse established with Arturia seems to have been created in this situation, and once you've followed it to its opposite end your mind is flooded with all of the details about Medusa's abilities as a Servant that were previously hidden from you.

Status Updated

Preparations in a Garden

William Harris was tired, frustrated, and angry. Not a good state of mind for a professional combatant to be in, he knew; but he didn't seem to be able to get out of it. He was tired of trying to win a war against two factions whose only goals seemed to be gathering as many pawns as possible in the hopes that their leaders wouldn't have to lift a finger of their own; tired too of operating under secrecy conditions in the heart of a populous city when the lot of his targets seemed happy to reveal magic to everyone in Tokyo, just before killing them. He was frustrated with the uncooperative family of justice-minded rogue magi who claimed they wanted to destroy Saber and indeed had the power to do so, but lacked the brains to actually take serious action when they had the perfect opportunity to wipe him out along with his entire faction. Finally he was angry with himself, for having wasted a golden opportunity for action on a failed diplomatic effort. Perhaps that made him as bad as the Church, or the arrogant moron who lived in this manor.

As he lurked in the garden shadows, working diligently on the ninth of the ten nodes he'd need to remodel, Harris allowed his mind to drift into self-recrimination while his fingers went about their business. He always worked best on reconfiguring mystic codes when he worked unconsciously, and as he did so he ran through the day's activities all over again, looking for the lesson to be learned for a better result if a similar situation should arise in the future. He'd been reconnoitering the city from the repulsion chamber when it had first begun, and he'd seen well enough the presences of the Shijou Servant and Einzbern Master transported to Emiya's home before immediately returning, his Servant in tow. At that point he hadn't yet thought of intervening. When something went wrong in there, the Shijou Saber collapsed, and the relationship between his followers dissolved into an uncoordinated mess of arguments and ambivalence, then the situation had caught Harris' attention. Naturally he'd done what seemed best in that situation: he'd gone to Emiya with a proposal of cooperation.

Now, Emiya might have been completely unknown to Harris when the War began, but he hadn't stayed that way long. He'd gotten a pretty complete picture of the various parties' actions in the man's battles before Assassin snuffed out his captive. Already making the connection, he'd sent back to his contacts in London for more information and been able to confirm that this was Emiya Shirou, the rumored winner of the last Holy Grail War, and son of the previous man they'd called "Magus Killer". Information about what exactly had happened in that War was scarce, but what there was had prompted all kinds of theories about its reclusive victor: he wasn't human at all, but a Servant that had managed to incarnate and hide his identity; he was endowed with an incredibly rare magical talent, a Reality Marble; he was a Sixth Sorcerer, and the Second was trying to keep his existence hidden; he was a boy assassin, raised from birth to kill with perfect efficiency by Emiya Kiritsugu, but who'd tired of battle after the War. There were as many theories about Emiya Shirou as there were people who'd heard of the Grail War, and the fact that one of old man Zelretch's apprentices was an old friend of his only did more to keep him a fixture in the tales of mysterious rumor passed around by idle magi and students with nothing better to do than talk. As for what Emiya was really capable of, while the outer limits remained uncertain Harris had gotten a good idea of his baseline from his fight with the Shijou Saber. He was definitely the ideal person to wipe out the Shijou camp while their leader remained unconscious.

This plan met its end when it turned out that Emiya was about as helpful and reasonable as a dead toad. After Harris had made his case, he was met with a stony look of disapproval and the declaration that even if every magus in the Clock Tower tried to sway him in the same direction, he absolutely refused to make any attack that included a member of his family as collateral damage. Evidently even the world-ending threat he fancifully believed the Holy Grail to contain was insufficient to motivate Emiya to consider his Rider as an acceptable loss, and the similar glare he'd shot Tohsaka told Harris that Zelretch's representative had already argued for the same course of action. Her defensive look told him that she didn't think much more of Emiya's strategic wit than he did. This naturally led to a prolonging of the argument, which ended up getting nothing done but the waste of a few hours talking.

So in the end Harris had beat his retreat, leaving Emiya's little clan to make their own plans about rescuing their kidnapped Servant while he walked back out into the street. Whether they'd get the chance was another question, of course. Harris hadn't given up on wiping out the whole troupe at the manor by a long shot. Assassin was his next diplomatic target, but almost an hour of searching in the repulsion chamber had yielded only the knowledge that wherever the hidden Servant might be, he was living up to his reputation and staying that way. Assassin's motives were still an enigma to Harris anyway, though, so he wasn't too broken up about losing the chance to try recruiting a Servant who might easily be the kind of deranged freak who'd decide to kill him on a whim.

When he had turned his focus back to the Shijou house, though, that was when the first round of anger at lost time had set in. The occupants were no longer all clustered together in the basement, fighting over their fallen chief; whatever their argument had been, they must've either cleared it up or at least cooled the war, because they'd spread out again into the various rooms of the manor. Considering most Servants' apparent aptitudes for detecting presences, as well as the ability of a Master to feel other Masters nearby, that made sneaking into the place and slitting the throats of the Shijou and Einzbern girls a much tougher proposition. Three of the occupants, though, were completely gone. The monstrously powerful Einzbern Lancer, that strange phantasmal beast, and one of the human occupants had all disappeared from the building at some time between the Shijou Saber's collapse and Harris' return to his bunker. Harris had tried putting out a broad city-wide scan, but the three presences couldn't be located whatever he tried. Whatever they were about, they must've suppressed their presences for the purpose; and that purpose was frustratingly opaque. Perhaps they'd betrayed their comrades, or perhaps they were going on the offensive under prior orders from their leader. Hopefully they were making a move against the Emiyas, but for all Harris knew they might be out to hunt him down.

That last detail, the three missing figures, had made Harris' mind up. He needed to act, and he needed to do it now, while there was as much of an opportunity as remained. If he let any more time slip by while the Shijou Saber was out of commission, he'd probably regret it right up until a lightless sword was put through his heart. No matter how difficult this infiltration might be, Harris was ready to bring all his skills and mysteries to bear to get the job done. He'd slip in, get past the Servants and other occupants, kill Shijou and Einzbern, and get out of there while the rest were busy evaporating. Simple.

In the end it hadn't been that hard. Harris had gotten as far as the manor's garden when he'd stumbled on the first stroke of luck he'd had since Saber's collapse itself. It was enormous mystic code, or more accurately a network of mystic codes, stretching all around the manor and disguised as various ordinary pieces of landscaping ornamentation. The thing was set up to continuously draw power from the nearby leylines, of which the Second Owner's manor was naturally set on a slight power spot, and on-command generate three layers of bounded field around the property: one that acted as a physical barrier, a second that attempted to drain magical energy from any mystery an intruder attempted to manifest, and a third that automatically channeled as much energy as possible into fire directed at an intruder's location. Apparently only the first Shijou Master had known how to use the thing, though, because it had been left untouched and inoperative for at least a week. All Harris had to do was reconfigure the thing to take his orders, tweaking a few other aspects while he was at it, and he could use the energy it had stored over that week of inaction to send an explosion tearing through the Shijou manor. It wouldn't be powerful enough to kill any Servants, unless they were extremely weak from a lack of mystic energy, but it would be more than enough to give the Shijou and Einzbern girls an instant cremation; and working his way through other magi's mysteries to posthumously take control of their mystic codes was something Harris had had plenty of practice with over the years.

So here he was, a few hours later, just about finishing up the job a short time after midnight. Most of his time had been spent on the first of the key nodes of the mystic code, of course; after he'd done the hard work of figuring out how to take control, actually going through and doing so with the rest was smooth and simple. Even so, he remained tired, frustrated, and angry. He couldn't shake the feeling that he really should have just gone in and slit the girls' throats in the height of the confusion. This should work, of course, but with something like an explosion there were always uncertain variables; and even if it did work, it was in total opposition to the Marshall's order to stay discreet.

"Go to hell, you officious prick," Harris grumbled, reassuring himself by cursing out his superior. "Treat me like a goddamn mad dog. You've never had to see the worst of things on the ground; to burn out an entire village because the idiot you've been sent to seal is trying to set himself up as a pint-size god by teaching the locals magic. A few people seeing a house blow isn't going to crack the whole Moonlit World open." Hidden in the leafy darkness, suppressing his presence and keeping his grumbling under his breath to be sure he could hear even the faintest sound of movement nearby, Harris continued his work.

The Master Bedroom

You're not certain how long you've lain here waiting for Liliesviel's return in this state of half doze and half evaluation of your new Servant, but you come fully awake all at once as you feel the sensation of a surge of magical energy localized somewhere below you, around the basement or the foundation of the building. Despite all of the magi in this manor friendly to your cause, you feel assured by some inexplicable leap of precognitive intuition or subconscious logic that this is an attack coming from below; one that could rob you of the hard-won prizes that now sleep peacefully by your bedside. Without a moment's hesitation you materialize your armor and dive from the bed, wrapping the three girls in a protective embrace just as the shockwave hits, raging up and shattering floorboards and walls alike. The fire will be right behind. In a split-second decision you drape Kenótis, too small to guard both you and your charges, over your front to protect them, leaving your head and back in the sole care of your armor as an inferno rages up around you and you invoke your Noble Phantasm for what limited protection it provides.

The torrent of flame and force sends you flying head-over-heels through whirling air momentarily opaque with fire. Then suddenly the explosion, a thing with a lifespan of perhaps a second, is over, and only its after-effects remain. You land on your back in the street, putting cracks in another peaceful municipal road as your armor slams down. Apparently you were thrown some distance by the blast. The fatigue, as heavy as ever, tempts you to simply lie there, cooking in your frying-pan-hot armor until your normal regeneration overcomes the damage and the stuff cools, but of course you can't give in to the lazy impulse. With a force of will you gently deposit the gorgon sisters, fortunately unharmed but as unconscious as ever, on the pavement beside you and get to your feet. You dismiss your armor, sparing yourself the worst of the burns, and look around. The explosion, as well as the Shijou manor, are nowhere to be seen, although there is the notable light of a raging fire visible over the rooftops to your left. Evidently you were thrown over some adjacent buildings to land on a street not facing the manor. As you trace your approximate course through the air, you observe a new figure, leaping from rooftop to rooftop as if following the arc of your flight with lesser jumps, until he lands gracefully to stand in the road before you. Your heart sinks with disappointment.

"Yo, Kaichou!" Matsuda says with insolent cheer, his fangtian ji propped on his shoulder and an infuriating smile painted across his effeminately handsome features. "How's it goin'? You're lookin' a little burnt, you know."

>[ ] "I've had better days," you reply sarcastically. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?"

>[ ] "Spare me the playacting," you spit. "You're here to kill me, yes?"

>[ ] You have no patience for discussion right now. Materialize your armor and sword and cut this traitorous fool to pieces.

>[ ] You have no patience for discussion right now. Make as if to fight barehanded, then surprise Matsuda with a binding tendril to ensure he can't duck and dodge his way out of this fight.

>[ ] React differently. (Write in)

File: Fate Awakening Mirror.pdf (3.88 MB, PDF)

3.88 MB PDF

Oh, I forgot to post this before the first update. Oops!
For those of you just joining us, or anyone who'd like to read through what's gone on before, this PDF contains the edited text of the quest so far. This way you don't have to deal with the weightiness of some of the previous threads. It doesn't have any of Fate/City Akeldama, the first part of the quest, though, so you'll have to visit the archive for that.

>>4209672
>>[ ] You have no patience for discussion right now. Make as if to fight barehanded, then surprise Matsuda with a binding tendril to ensure he can't duck and dodge his way out of this fight.
I've had just about enough of Matsuda existing.
Brother or no, he's had all the opportunities he's getting.
He will die, but a death in battle is more than he deserves.
No, he ought to experience the pain of slowly melting into mana from Blood Fort while magically restrained.

Now, I realize that some people are probably going to complain about this development, so I'd like to say somethings now.
My original intention was to make this inevitable after the Shapeless Isle arc. You'd wake up and that update would lead right into this event. However, as that arc went on longer, I had second thoughts. I decided to be nice and give you a chance to avoid it. If you had stopped Liliesviel and had her explain first; if you had used the magical surveillance of the manor you have access to; if you had contacted Ayaka and Saber telepathically; any of these courses would have led into you not being blindsided this way.
I just want you to know, before you complain, that you had a way out. Getting your house blown up was a consequence of trying to convert Medusa, but it wasn't an absolute consequence.

>>4209672
>>[ ] You have no patience for discussion right now. Make as if to fight barehanded, then surprise Matsuda with a binding tendril to ensure he can't duck and dodge his way out of this fight.
This for now, on one hand i'd like to avoid missing an upgrade, on the other no time like the present to end the family's disappointment.

>>4209694
No complaints from me, its good to see our opponents showing some initiative against us for a change and giving us a 'warm welcome' back to reality.

>>4209672
>[X] You have no patience for discussion right now. Make as if to fight barehanded, then surprise Matsuda with a binding tendril to ensure he can't duck and dodge his way out of this fight.

Chagrined to see that my idea would've had merit if we'd used it, but oh well. Just gonna hope Ayaka and Hecate are safe.
That we still exist is enough evidence Lily is fine.

>>4209694
Nah, we definitely could've done several things to avoid this development. No complaints here, just wanna see how Alberich develops the situation from here.

File: Gorgon Sisters.png (5.19 MB, 3000x1931)

5.19 MB PNG

Since you now have Medusa's complete stats, I think now's as good a time as any to post this. I found an older piece of Takeuchi concept art for Medusa as a child, and I have to say I like it far better than the art they did for her in FGO.
I've tacked it in with the original Takeuchi art for her sisters, for comparison. If someone with more editing abilities than me wants to do something fun with this, have at it.

>>4209672
>[ ] You have no patience for discussion right now. Materialize your armor and sword and cut this traitorous fool to pieces.

Actually, why don't we check the status of our link to Ayaka, Lily, Arturia, Hecate, and Futodoki?
Whether or not they're still in this world is somewhat important, and if they're heavily injured we may want to deal with Matsuda expediently.
And the maids... should be fine. All that history is gone though... hope if Ayaka is still around that she doesn't have too bad of a breakdown having lost pretty much everything.
Wonder what happened to Yumigawa though.
Anyone got any ideas?
Maybe they just executed him for being an eyesore, or looked to him for guidance while we were out.

>>4209754
>hope Ayaka and Hecate are safe.
>The monstrously powerful Einzbern Lancer, that strange phantasmal beast, and one of the human occupants had all disappeared from the building.
Unless that was one of the maids leaving for groceries at midnight, Yumigawa managed to slip free in a manor filled with servants, or Tsubaki suddenly gains a rank of presence concealment when in human form and left to eat more people; Odin, Futodoki and at least one of the two should be safe.

>>4209672
For now I'll swap from >>4209754 to this:
>[X] While Matsuda acting like this in front of you is irritating, right now the current status of your allies is more concerning. Check the links between yourself and Lily, Ayaka, Arturia, Hecate, and Futodoki. If any seem to be in danger, end the fight with Matsuda as fast as possible.
>[X] Matsuda should be wary of your fighting style, and be prepared for us to make feints and use trickery to take him down, so you just need to use something nobody alive has seen you use yet. Make as if to fight barehanded, then surprise Matsuda with a binding tendril aimed at his legs. When he makes to cut it, turn it into an explosion instead, then materialize your armor, close in and cut him down.

How does this plan sound people? Any Ideas to make it better? He can easily cut down a tendril of Nothingness, but if we greatly injure his legs, he shouldn't be able to use restart unless Harris joins him, and if we end the battle fast it won't matter if he does.

>>4209779
>Strange phantasmal beast
Absolutely Futodoki. Harris should know Hecate is a goddess.
>Human occupant.
Tsubaki was acting as a human. Harris should know about her since she's the one who bound Arturia, and she's been doing research quite a bit.
And Arturia might've had the stats of a human but she was Harris' original servant, so he definitely wouldn't count her as human.
The only humans in the house were Ayaka and Yumigawa, and if Ayaka were gone then Harris would've gone after her instead of blowing up the Mansion first.

>>4209672
>[ ] "I've had better days," you reply sarcastically. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?"
I fucking called it. Stealth'd to death by Harris. I knew it! Fuck everyone who said it was going to be fine and we could just lie there waiting for Lily to get our allies. It's never fine! It was never going to be fine! This is what happens when you delegate! Everything goes wrong!
Everyone in the manor but Lily is dead. Watch.

Also one more thing, weren't the Bounded Fields supposed to give Alberich a signal if an intruder entered them?
I found these quotes about it:
>"My hope is that you may be able to modify the manor’s bounded fields so that they awaken me if they detect anything. Then I might get some rest tonight rather than sitting up on guard."
>“there. Now if some intruder violates the bounded field, you’ll feel it as if someone were shaking you awake. At least, I think that’s what it’s like. As far as I know, the Shijou haven’t tied a barrier to someone’s senses in hundreds of years; not since we had professional guards and house vassals.”

I'd think it would be pretty faulty design if the alert only sent one signal, rather than something constant. This was the house of a second owner after all, the Bounded Fields must've been pretty top-notch.
I'm not a mage, but I'd have made my alarm system turn off when I acknowledged the intruder, and not before.

>>4209672
>[ ] React differently. (Write in)
>Well I was enjoying the company of these fine little ladies but then I got interrupted. How's your love-life coming along, by the way? Meet anyone lately?
>Simultaneously check the status of Ayaka with telepathy. Just need to see if she's alive, mainly.

Somehow I knew that manor was living on borrowed time. I hope to God it had insurance.

>>4209805
Let me reiterate, was talking about Lily's homunculi maids, if he somehow missed the spot check that human Tsubaki and her human form suddenly now gives presence concealment thanks to the otaku base, if Hecate has actually been weakened enough being sensed as a "human" and if Yumigawa somehow managed to get free. If none of the above then Ayaka should be ok.

>>4209807
>Everyone in the manor but Lily is dead.
If a magic "gas leak" is enough to kill servants then all the pevious masters have been going about the HGW's all wrong for years.
More importantly let's hope Ayaka managed to find that family journal that would make her relevant again.
Also Adelheid's probably going to be pissed, spent a day translating Vaisett's notes just for it to go up in smoke and then when we turn back up finds out we don't even need it anymore.

>>4209822
I don't think Hecate would be recognized as human. Her ears alone are enough to put that theory to rest, but her signature should be of a spirit than a person.
As for Tsubaki, I don't think it likely since he fought her, so even if she had lost the horns he should be able to recognize her.
So Yumigawa would be the only human in the manor he'd detect besides Ayaka.

Hecate can still use magic, she just can't control it properly.
So if she was awake, she could've put up a barrier in time for the explosion.
But most likely she was sleeping when the nuke went off, unless Lily was in the middle of waking her up and had a servant nearby to protect both of them.

And it's the same for Ayaka.
If she was following Lily around when the manor went up, she could've been rescued, but before that we have been sucking her pretty dry, so most likely she was resting pretty deeply in her room.
Maybe someone was transferring mana to her? If so she may have had someone watching over her.

Oh man, the likelihood of Ayaka surviving the explosion plummets when I consider whether Lily would get her first or last.
Who survived depends on what order Lily went in gathering them.
Well, we know for sure Circe, Adelheid, Stachel, Tsubaki, and maybe Arturia, should be fine.
Just a shame about everybody else though.

>Vaisset's notes
They're probably fine.
Adelheid should've been able to to protect them if she was translating them when the manor got barbecued.
She stayed up all night to translate them last time, and it's only 12.
And if I'm right about them, they should allow Alberich to learn the 4 classical elements he can't use right now, which is kinda huge.

The real loss is all the random Grimoires the family had accumulated, and the Shijou journals.

>>4209872
>The real loss is all the random Grimoires the family had accumulated
You can say that again. The Vaisset family had a long and proud history of winning priceless and unique grimoires in magus duels.

>>4209672
>[ ] You have no patience for discussion right now. Make as if to fight barehanded, then surprise Matsuda with a binding tendril to ensure he can't duck and dodge his way out of this fight.

What a way to get back into the quest.

>>4209872
Something I've been wondering so feel free to correct me if i'm wrong but at this point don't we depend on Lily/the greater grail for our mana while Ayaka kept our command seals, would she even notice a drain? Because if it's between her and Yumigawa, I'd have to seriously doubt Yumigawa somehow managed to get loose from Tsubaki's bonds when Arturia couldn't and walk away just because we weren't personally paying attention to him.

>>4209807
The humans at least. How unfortunate- I actually wanted to keep Ayaka around.

>>4209872
Fucking mercenary magi and destroying priceless artifacts, cunts.

>>4209694
To the contrary, I've been wanting to minimize our faction size since back in November. I will take this massacre and run with it, hopefully kill that damned magus as well.

So, Harris has fiated the weaker of our camp out of existence. All we need to do now are some proper servant wave tactics and we can cut this faction down to size.

>>4209919
Uh, no? We only got our soul connected, we're not sucking mana from her.
It's still 100% on Ayaka, RIP her soul.

>>4209922
You monster.
We're going to expand our faction again when we start taking over the world, so I don't understand this train of thought at all.

>>4209924
I dipped out of the quest five months ago, and I return to Alberich having acquired.... six female hangers-on? The upgrades on the stat sheet are lovely, but Alberich refusing to put down the various women who've tried to kill him bothers me desu. Lily, Ayaka (RIP), Adelheid, simple as.

Hmm... if Ayaka is ded we probably need to conserve that magical energy. I wonder if we should refrain from the tendrils. Then again, Matsuda will probably still kick Alberich's ass in melee so this is for the best.

>>4209930
>Alberich refusing to put down the various women who've tried to kill him bothers me desu
>Adelheid
Why isn't she in this list?

>>4209932
Didn't really betray him, is probably the only thing Alberich has approaching a "friend". Birds of a feather and all that.

>>4209930
Things could be worse: We're alive but Ayaka's dead so no mana. Party dead from the house fire so no reinforcements unless it's from odin or the cat. We gained Medusa but then we come to find out that Andromeda's drain only powers herself not us, assuming she'll be cooperative anytime soon. Then to top it off Odin notices we're not getting any stronger and decides its time for our duel.

>>4209933
Meh, it's just a trait Alberich has developed.
He likes capturing young women.
Seems heroic enough.

As for Ayaka and our mana reserves, I don't think using the tendrils to immobilize Matsuda is an intelligent idea, since his spear cuts magic, which is why I suggest turning it into an explosion to catch him off guard and immobilize him in a way that he can't easily deal with.

But now I'm wondering, if Ayaka is dead, how will Alberich's feelings on humanity and mages grow from now on?
Considering Harris would've just killed one of the only humans he has any fondness for, I'd say he might get even more callous in his methodology, and even go the BFA Tokyo route.
I think that'd be pretty funny honestly.
The Emiya faction could've stopped a gigantic massacre if they'd stopped Harris.

I think we should check on Kikuko once we've dealt with this tragedy.

>>4209939
BFA just collects Magical Energy, which can be shared through the Master-Servant bond. Since we're now Rider's Master, it should be plainly simple to re-direct the energy from her to us, especially since we have experience with Transference, and now have the help of a skill to make the process even more intuitive than it was before.
This isn't something I'm concerned about.
But yeah, that would be a terrible scenario indeed.
I'm confident in our ally Servants ability to survive such a lame magical blast though.
Slightly less confident in Arturia and Hecate however.

>>4209915
>>4209922
>>4209930
Well, anon, I'm glad to hear you've rejoined us and you're happy with the situation! I hope you enjoy the quest going forward as well.

>>4209939
Well, certainly some number of servants survived the burning. After we kill this dog, we can get a posse together and go mogg Harris to death. Gonna have to rig together a bond with Lily real quick.

>>4209949
The Circe fight was really damn cool. The classicist in me was absolutely tickled by the Odyssi.

>>4209672
>[ ] "Spare me the playacting," you spit. "You're here to kill me, yes?"

>>4209954
>The Circe fight was really damn cool. The classicist in me was absolutely tickled by the Odyssi.
Thanks! I had a lot of fun with that segment myself, turning the slaughter of multitudinous suitors back on Odysseus.

>>4209672
>[X] You have no patience for discussion right now. Materialize your armor and sword and cut this traitorous fool to pieces.

>>4209946
>I'm confident in our ally Servants ability to survive such a lame magical blast though.
Agreed, just the obligatory "missed a check, now we're locked into a dead end". Still, to me Ayaka's going to be one of those character's I refuse to believe is dead until we see a body, though that doesn't mean we should leave one for Harris.
Speaking of once we deal with him and get ourselves situated, since the manor's gone who wants to make this night worse for Emiya? 'We stole his Rider; now we're stealing his house.'

I'm starting to suspect Sweets really wants Harris to be the protagonist, deep down.

File: Fate CA and AM Posts for (...).png (52 KB, 2241x990)

52 KB PNG

Alright folks, I'm calling it a night here and leaving you to discuss how to deal with this situation until I call the vote in about 16 or 18 hours. Before I go, though, here's one more image to entertain you: the latest installment of one of this quest's staples, the thread-post graph.

>using tendril magic on a guy with a confirmed hard counter to it
>not using our new combat skills and higher stats
why tho

>>4209966
Yeah, most of our team should be fine.
What this really did was remove our base of operations and our knowledge hub.
Supposing everyone comes out of the blast alright of course.
And I did consider commandeering the Emiya estate.
I'd be ok with such a course of action if after we deal with Harris, everything is at a manageable level, and we're not tired anymore.

Also, Lily came to us because her house got leveled.
Now we're considering going to the Emiya's house because our house got leveled.
Is this going to be Alberich's staple? If you're related to Alberich eventually your house will get erased?

>>4209973
I see what you did here Sweets, starting the thread with a literal bang to get a posting increase eh?
I do hope drama like this is enough to get posting levels higher, otherwise, I'm not sure what would.

>>4209975
Yeah, I don't know.
A bit baffling to me honestly.
Also kinda confused why we're not trying to confirm the health of our allies with the mental links we have.
Don't think it would take too long to check their integrity, and we could even distract Matsuda by talking to him about something while we do it.

>>4209977
>If you're related to Alberich eventually your house will get erased?
Add in the destruction of the university at the end of Akeldama and leveling Yumigawa's house, how long before Alberich gains a "homewrecker" skill?

>>4209672
Changing
>>4209915
to
>[X] While Matsuda acting like this in front of you is irritating, right now the current status of your allies is more concerning. Check the links between yourself and Lily, Ayaka, Arturia, Hecate, and Futodoki. If any seem to be in danger, end the fight with Matsuda as fast as possible.
>[X] Matsuda should be wary of your fighting style, and be prepared for us to make feints and use trickery to take him down, so you just need to use something nobody alive has seen you use yet. Make as if to fight barehanded, then surprise Matsuda with a binding tendril aimed at his legs. When he makes to cut it, turn it into an explosion instead, then materialize your armor, close in and cut him down.
Yeah, using the same old tricks isn't too bright, and Matsuda will be willing to chat long enough for us to check up on our lot

>>4209988
Alberich's very existence is a D ranked anti-fortress NP

>>4210004
I'll probably change to this if gain momentum later though priority to Ayaka, Lily, Hecate.
One thing I've been wondering, we know using absorbtion on servants and phantasmals grants us some control over them and creates a mana channel between us, what happens if we were to start using it on mages or regular humans? I doubt it would be a good use of our time or that we'd gain much from one or two but theoretically could we create a living sacrificial network to ourselves if we spent a day acting like this is 'Shadow of Mordor'?

Ayakas gonna fucking die. She's supporting 4 servants right now because the players went "haha me want more pretty anime girls" without thinking it through. That's why we're so fatigued right now.

>>4210020
>She's supporting 4 servants
?
>Alberich
>Rider
Where are the other 2?
Stheno and Euryale as Goddesses are way weaker than servants.
Hecate has been weakened considerably, and Futodoki is just a phantasmal beast.

>>4210004
Think we should modify the vote to specify we want to distract Matsuda for a bit so we can do a quick check-up?

>>4210020
Bold of you to assume she isn't already dead

>>4210024
He's thinking of Arturia and Adelheid too.

And we're just skimming over the links, its really just a matter of not launching into battle before.

>>4210028
Arturia is connected to the leylines, and Adelheid is connected to Circe who's connected to Lily.

>>4209672
Switching >>4209963 to support >>4209805.

>>4209730
Changing to is with a few addendums
>>4210004
Keep him talking and check the link with Ayaka and Lily, if we lose either of them this battle cannot last long, the rest can wait until after the battle.
Also with Ayaka (potentially) dead and Medusa unconscious there's something i'd like to test if it's possible; attempt absorption, not to bind Matsuda to us, but to consume him.

It's pretty clear Odin and the cat took Ayaka with them for whatever reason.
I suppose it could be Hecate and Odin instead.

Unless you think they would've taken Yumigawa instead.

So really as we aren't dead (Lily), the only potential casualties in this attack are Yumigawa and the Non-Combat Einzbern.
The only confirmed casualties are our pride and dignity.
And Harris.

Hey why don't we have Medusa turn Harris into a statue?

>>4210125
>Non combat Einzbern
>Heaven's Feel
Anon...

>>4210265
What are you implying here?
Did you mean the Dress of Heaven?
Or Lily? Pay attention, Lily isn't dead.
Because (names too similar can't be bothered to confirm) should be at about the level of a minor servant.

As for the rest.
Liliesviel should probably first gone to retrieve Circe, her Servant.
Then probably her maids (Saber too)
And then Adelheid and then Tsubaki.

Assuming Ayaka isn't in the house...
Circe and Hecate could easily create a barrier. (Shame Circe didn't do what Medea did against Rin and absorb all the mana of a similarly huge explosion that would've destroyed a building. Once again proving Medea the superior magus.) Tsubaki too could likely have defended herself.
Adelheid is too durable to die from that sort of explosion.
Considering Lily was likely with Circe, she ought to be fine.
Also our lives are linked to a far greater degree than a Servant-Master link.
If she died we would also instantly die.

Really, all I see Harris having done here is seal his own doom by ruining our fucking house.
I wonder if we can use our absorption magic to steal crests from people.
Harris might as well become a test subject before we toss him to Tsubaki.

This does give us the chance to level the entire block and begin construction on a castle.

>>4210322
Think he's referring to how Lily needs the two homonculus maids because they have to turn into dress, agreed on test subject Harris though and my gut has been telling me 'all-seeing' Odin likely has a precognition skill for a while, so if he did have a hand in getting Ayaka out of there just so we won't lose our most amusing trait to him.

>>4210361
She only needs the one though.
And the one she needs is conveniently the one that is much harder to kill.

Harris has really fucked himself with this genius move.
Most of the servants here could survive even if the Masters died.
I wonder if Tsubaki would be willing to share Harris with Lily.
After we're finished with him, Of course.

No amount of tapping the circle button will save you now, Harris!

>>4210373
Reading back he did seem more than a little unhinged during his POV, personally i'm more interested in opportunities to experiment with the limits of our magic, for instance i'm curious to find out if:
1. we can turn the absorption from binding someone to consuming them.
and should that work
2. what might happen should we consume a mage, using Harris as the test subject.
Although if this actually works I'm going to call it now; regardless of what part 3 will be about the players' goal will be to somehow find a way to make Alberich to absorb Zelretch.

>>4210373
But what if he swaps controller inputs from Player 1 to Player 2?

>>4209805
I'm gonna add:
>[X] If the link to Arturia still exists, command her to absorb mana from the leylines to return to full strength.

If she's badly damaged, she'll heal if we do this.
Otherwise I'm not certain we can save her.
The update did say very weak servants could die from the explosion.

>>4210020
>Ayakas gonna fucking die
It certainly is weighing very heavily on her. If you'd stopped Liliesviel and had her explain, you'd have heard more about that situation.

>>4210322
>names too similar can't be bothered to confirm
But one is the stem supporting the flower of Einzbern magecraft, and the other is the thorn protecting her! How is that not easy to remember?

>>4210373
>She only needs the one though.
>And the one she needs is conveniently the one that is much harder to kill.
This is true. Only Stachel is a magical tool; Stengel is a more general caretaker.

>>4210427
>he did seem more than a little unhinged during his POV
Care to elaborate?

>>4210427
Nah, I'd rather we didn't consume him entirely.
Instead let's go for his magic circuits and crest.
If we can just go around depowering magi by eating their circuits and crest imagine the terror that would spread.

This way we leave something for the girls.
>consume Zelretch
It's safe to assume we never manage this. He can just nope the timeline to one where Alberich doesn't exist.
>>4210471
He can't! It's 2019! He's using wireless!

Also that only works on psycho mantis.
Not torture.

But what to do with our shithead of a brother?
I do want that skill of his.

>>4210528
>Beat him to a pulp til Medusa awakens
>Make him rock hard
>Beat the shit out of Harris
>???
>Unrock the fucker in Saberchair
>Profit

>>4210533
I wonder if we could have Medusa only petrify his legs.

Also did you downgrade her eyes, Sweets?
Because that's not how they worked in HF.

Matsuda has to be the most contemptible retarded motherfucker in this entire quest.
I'll be glad to slit his throat.

>>4210539
>Also did you downgrade her eyes, Sweets?
>Because that's not how they worked in HF.
"Somewhat weaker than the mystic eyes of her adult form, but can be activated and deactivated at will."

>>4210544
Ah, I see, I missed that.
I suppose it's still fairly useful.

For comparison, here is the description of Cybele in Fate/Stay Night:
Mystic Eyes: A+
Possesses mystic eyes of the highest level, Cybele. Immediately petrifies anyone with magical energy lower than C. Those with a B rating may be petrified if they are incautious. Those with an A rating cannot be petrified, but they are covered with a 'pressure' that decreases all parameters by one rank.

And here's the description of the Cybele that Medusa Lily possesses:
Mystic Eyes: A+
Possesses mystic eyes of the highest level, Cybele. Somewhat weaker than the mystic eyes of her adult form, but can be activated and deactivated at will. Immediately petrifies anyone with Magical Energy lower than C. Those with a C or B rating may be petrified if they are incautious. Those with an A rating cannot be petrified, but they are covered with a 'pressure' that decreases all their parameters somewhat. Those with magical energy greater than A will feel no effects.

I think it's interesting that the original description doesn't specify what happens to those with a magical energy rating of C, or one greater than A; so I've filled in the details for the slightly downgraded version.

>>4210558
>one greater than A
We see what happens in Heavens Feel though.
Isn't the pressure of Cybele the only reason they can fight Alter? (Outside of Shirou becoming a vegetable.)
With her A++ magical energy?

I wonder if Matsuda has improved any since our last fight or if he's betting on us having just lost our master to score a win.
What a piece of shit.

>>4210572
unless Harris decided that blasting him with a few fireballs would be a good idea, he is getting rock hard, but I doubt Circe wouldn't be able to create a cure petrification potion or something

File: Tentative Matsuda Portrait.jpg (333 KB, 709x1002)

333 KB JPG

>>4210572
This is true, I just find it interesting that they don't bother to mention that on the status sheet.
Also, wow! You really hate Matsuda, huh? I mean, it's remarkable. Where's all this passion coming from? I'd understand if you were furious at Harris right now, but your brother? He's just a delinquent, anon, cut him some slack. I'm a bit sad that nobody wants to have hateful sarcastic banter with him.
While we're on the subject, I finally found a portrait for Matsuda that I'm somewhat okay with. Just suppose he's wearing a changpao, instead of what's shown here.

File: 500 hours in ms paint.png (9 KB, 607x619)

9 KB PNG

>>4210586
I suppose she might be able to, but if she can't it's such a painless way to go.
It's not redemption for our brother nor is it the painful torturous death he deserves.
It's just instant death.

I've been thinking of an attack though, instead of just simply sending out a single tendril he can dispel with a swipe of his weapon, how about we create 5 tendrils which coil around each other like a rope, one of which will remain on course to pierce the original target (his heart) and the other four will spread outwards to entangle or pierce his arms (or weapon) and legs.

See attached image for a demonstration.

>>4210606
>I'm a bit sad that nobody wants to have hateful sarcastic banter with him.
What's the point of talking to a dead man? (Ignore the arc where we spent quite some time talking to dead men.)
Regardless of Matsuda's eventual fate, I just can't see Alberich being in the correct state of mind for his banter to be anything but "ONORE ONORE ONORE!"
His house just got blown up.

>>4210607
Alternatively, chains where we dismiss a link when it gets cut and have the rest continue on to it's original target.

Far better than ribbons against Matsuda.
A perfect blindside.
Taking what he knows of our abilities and using that against him.

>>4210606
I wanted to low-key taunt him about being a loner but no one seemed to be interested
>>4210607
Nice image, and kind of a cool idea

>>4210708
>I wanted to low-key taunt him about being a loner but no one seemed to be interested
Being incredibly frustrated about not being able to get a date is one of the classic tropes of delinquent manga. His face may have changed, but the Matsuda spirit lives on.

>>4210790
And it'll continue living on... after we absorb him.

>>4210790
Maybe we can taunt him for his complete lack of romantic success later on.
We'll see if he survives this fight with us first.
Then we can gloat about the romantic affections of an ex goddess, a perpetual loli, our sister, a highschooler.
And Hitler.
Oh and two more loli goddesses.


Also we should tell him he looks like a girl and ask him if he's sure he hasn't undergone the same process that happened to Ogawara and become a woman.

>>4210790
You know, I can't say I'm all that averse to a little bantz while we flip through the "channels".

>>4210847
I can't say I care for that particular style of insulting, but calling him a weak virgin would be a good meme

>>4210845
Honestly, I'm surprised by just how much hate Matsuda has earned by showing up.

He's clearly only following orders because he's much too stupid to do anything else.
Like think for himself.
Instead of just being used by everyone despite valuing his life more than he values battle or duty.

What a fucking tool.

His last lifeline is how he reacts to being told that he is Alberich's sibling.

>>4210863
>calling him a weak virgin
>two powerful servants are about to duel in a legendary battle of brother against brother
>fight immediately deteriorates into throwing playground insults at each other.
Hilarious.

>>4210864
>Honestly, I'm surprised by just how much hate Matsuda has earned by showing up.
Quoth the anon who's thrown more hate at Matsuda than anyone else. I'm still waiting for an explanation of why you hate him so much.

>>4210878
I've never liked Matsuda really.
I didn't realise my opinion of him was shared by so many though.
Besides, it's not like I'm not prepared to spare him still depending on how future events go.

The people demand blood, and Harris' shall be far more satiating then that of a clueless traitor with nothing to live for.

>>4210518
>Care to elaborate?

I'm not too good at is but while reading it seemed like something about us was really starting to get to him personally (probably that he keeps 'beating us' and leaving us for dead just for us to show up again tomorrow like nothing happened, we're even stronger and doing something else ridiculously unsubtle to kill off another enemy servant.) Towards the end of his POV, at least to me, he almost seemed like he was close to dropping something along the classic line of:

>Just think, all this could've been avoided on night one had they not insisted I stick to these moronic rules those mages created for themselves and didn't question my usual methods... 'You're not subtle enough Harris... Think of the collateral damage Harris... You're about to break the masquerade Harris... ' I'll show you Marshall; i'll show you all.

>>4211028
>"I'll show you Marshall; i'll show you all."
>proceeds to kill a nonmagical highschooler and MAYBE a maid and does a tremendous amount of damage to priceless grimoires and tomes
>While also aggroing a faction that if his plan fails, he has no hope of winning against, as his bag of tricks won't serve him so well on the rematch against a group.
Bravo Harris.

The real fuck up comes from the fact that he killed Yumigawa, and after Lily was so looking forward to torturing him.

>>4211028
If I had to make more baseless speculation, it's pobably because he got chewed out for ditching 'that useless saber' to us thinking we'd kill her off for him, hell we even cut off her connection to him several days before, and then the night before this happens we turn up again and we go and use what's clearly her NP to level a neighborhood.

>>4211048
>ditching your Saber to the single opponent that actually can get stronger with every Servant he slays.
>getting further btfo when instead he simply takes control of your servant and has her become far more useful to him by removing her moralfaggotry.
High IQ Harris does it again.

>>4211061
>Did those guys back at mission control do this on purpose? This Saber keeps preaching to me on how we can't just cause "unnecessary" collateral damage, just like them.
>Shit, how did he do it? not only didn't he kill her but he managed to convince her to nuke Tokyo.
>No one is going to buy that I didn't do this on purpose after the My Lai incident of the moonlit world.

I'm going to flesh out >>4209821 a bit
Same conversation prompt, then lead into
>You better get on that in a hurry my dude. Life is short, especially for Servants. Once the war's over it's time to die. I was working on a way to outlive the war but your master might have just blown that to hell.
If the idea of living past the war piques his interest, try to lead into something like
>Oh, you weren't aware? Say, why don't we put on a show so your master doesn't suspect foul play, I'll see if one of my associates can work out a way to get you some mana in his stead, and we come out of this nonsense together?

Guys, I really do think we should tell Saber to start sucking up mana from the leylines.
The update went out of its way to mention servants that were underfed mana would die in the explosion as well.
And since Saber has a death wish, she'd just let herself fade away if she survived the explosion.

>>4211401
Agreed.

>>4211404
I'm not sold on your multi-tendril plan.
We're not working with a huge mana reserve, so we've gotta be economical, and Matsuda has A rank agility.
He can probably cut all of them down as they're en-route, and make the entire effort worthless, especially if he retreats while cutting them.
This is why I suggest blowing the tendril, or tendrils up, since even if he retreats a bit to cut it better, the explosion should still get him, or surprise him enough we can make a mortal blow with our sword that should cut his lance to pieces.
We do have experience with controlling Nothingness that's not connected to our body, it just takes more energy than Nothingness that is.
We also need to take into account that if assassin or the Emiyas want to interfere with us, this is a perfect opportunity, so we need to act fast.

>>4211487
>The Emiyas
Are now rendered a non threat thanks to Rider, any attempt at killing us will kill her sisters. We might be able to convince them to stop involving themselves now.

>Matsuda has A rank agility.
So did Rider, and that didn't do her much good.
Now she has A+ though, so her effectiveness is dramatically improved.
God damn it, why must you sleep, new loli. You have the powerset to effortlessly deal with this situation.
I wonder if we'll get an interlude from her perspective when she wakes up next to her sisters.
The real question is where she's going to wake up?
Most places are kind of destroyed now.
Oh hey, is Ogawara's house anywhere around this area?

We only need to get our hands on Matsuda and we can beat him, and he isn't that fast really.
We should remind him that we actually held back in our last fight, and that we have more than enough strength to cave his face in with a single punch. Yet brotherly affection stayed our hand.
There's only a half rank difference in Agility and EotM now, so realistically there's no way that Matsuda wins this one considering the difference in every other parameter, and our MASSIVE improvement in magic since we last fought.
And it's also no longer too windy for Kenotis to delet his spear.

>>4211518
It's very optimistic to think he hasn't Martial'd up his EotM, or other associated skills

>>4211518
>Emiyas are now not a threat since we have Rider
I'd say the opposite, since they can just re-contract with Rider once we're dead, and if they just rule breaker Rider and take her away, we could just pull the tele-kidnapping again.
They should aim for our head directly to prevent this from happening again.

Rider's A rank agility let them hold out long enough for Shirou to complete his chant.
That's a decent amount of time.

>Rider intermission
Sounds nice. I'd like to read that.

>New place
We could find Kikuko and reconnoiter her place.
Or Ogawara's.
Or Shirou's.
Or some random mansion.
Plenty of choice here.

>Close in on him to defeat him.
Yes, but we shouldn't make moves that stress us more than necessary.
If he decides to run away and kite us, then the difference the A- makes will show.
But if we blow the tendril up, he'll be surprised and hopefully damaged enough that closing in becomes much easier.
With your plan he'd be constantly retreating to deal with the tendrils, and we wouldn't get any closer.
In an endurance match Alberich would win every time, but there's other factors here, like our fatigue, and the status of our comrades, that makes it so we should end this as fast as possible, before the situation gets even worse.

>>4211518
>there's no way that Matsuda wins this one considering the difference in every other parameter
Inb4 the status page gets updated after he spent a week grinding his zenkai boosts on those executors with Harris.
But seriously once this wraps up where should team Alberich "move in" next? Keep screwing with Shirou and show up with 'our family' on his doorstep, steal the church after all holy ground is a fitting place for all these gods, or have him recall that Ogawara's family is rich and wont settle for slumming in anything less than another manor after we evict the current residents of course.

>>4211538
Not really, his EotM was originally at A, after all, and his other skills aren't really the dangerous part.
Sweets brought it down to B after it was pointed out that it makes no sense for anybody to be able to train it up to A in mere days even with a skill like his.
EMIYA has a B rank despite spending every waking moment of his existence fighting and killing for god knows how many years, at least decades.
Heracles only got to B rank despite being talented enough with every weapon to create the Nine Lives technique. (He technically has both true and false at B, but whatever manifests depends on his divinity.)
The only character to have A rank EotM (other than Fergus because FUCK FGO) is Chiron, the mentor of heroes and an ex Divine Spirit.
Also, I imagine that Matsuda's skill has diminishing returns after a while.

>>4211540
>re-contract with Rider once we're dead
Depends if Sakura comes with them, if she sees Stheno and Euryale, she'll call off the attack.
She would definitely have seen Rider's memories of them and know exactly who they were.

>end this as fast as possible
Of course, dragging this out would be foolish.

>>4211545
>Inb4 the status page gets updated after he spent a week grinding his zenkai boosts on those executors with Harris.
I can't imagine Harris sparring with Matsuda at any point except when he was first contracted to him in order to gauge his effectiveness in combat.
The executors kind of all died.

>>4211556
>The executors kind of all died.
Can't recall the names of those guys who where bumming around harris' compound during their previous POV, although if Matsuda takes after anything from the rest of his family, by now they're all probably dead too.

>>4211571
Still, diminishing returns.
There's only so far you can get by simply fighting people way way weaker than you.
You wouldn't be able to grind to level 99 right after the first boss battle against trash mobs, would you?

>>4211581
It is an A rank training skill. SOMETHING has improved if Alberich has dicked his way to such an improvement in magic.

>>4211646
Maybe, but a reminder that it has only been THREE DAYS.
Since we last fought, so I'm really not expecting that much.
Alberich's dicking about with magic is because he's been given opportunity after opportunity to upgrade his knowledge of it, and he's not about to dick on a Caster with his magical skills in a straight battle of magic where he couldn't bring his magic resistance of physical ability to the battle.

Matsuda can't proceed much further in martial arts with his current personality, that's the problem.
It's all about inner peace and tranquility, and he's a dumb confused delinquent who doesn't even know who or what he is.

>>4211670
Jesus, when I put it into that perspective, it's pretty incredible how much Alberich has grown in those three days.
Just a shame we didn't get Affections just yet, otherwise we could just stomp Matsuda into paste with A+ Agility.

But yeah, I don't see training having gotten Matsuda anywhere near as far as his first 6 days got him, if it has gotten him anywhere at all.

>>4211670
So I was thinking about this and looked at Matsuda's stat page again. You know what he still doesn't have? A noble phantasm.
Don't Li Shuwen and Sasaki Kojiro have their ultimate martial arts super moves as their NPs? What if he spent the last 3 days developing one of those instead of ranking up a skill? Seems like the kind of thing super training powers could do.

>>4211689
I'm pretty sure the new magic skill is more of an acknowledgement of what we've been doing all along than an actual upgrade. If you read the description it sure sounds like that anyway.

File: regend.png (1.31 MB, 1479x1067)

1.31 MB PNG

>>4210607
Support this one, very creative and could easily catch him off guard and end this fight easily
>>4210847
that's quite...a bit too much for my tastes, I like it
>>4211689
>AffectionS
HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECAAAAAAAAAATEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
>>4211780
Kojiro's at least is a skill, as for Li Shuwen, the wiki says the following: No Second Strike (无二打, Mu Ni Da?) is Li Shuwen's title of "For Li Shuwen, a second strike is needless (God Spear, No Second Strike)" (李書文に二の打ち要らず(神槍无二打), Ri Shobun ni Ni no Uchi Irazu (Kami Yari Mu Ni Da)?) given shape. It is not a true Noble Phantasm, but rather the quintessence of his martial arts where all of his hard strikes, even those meant as a diversionary strike or a feint, are enough to snatch away the opponent's life.

>>4211670
>it has only been THREE DAYS.
Considering his "gets stronger the more he fights" skill and that we're artificial beings created to win a tournament and get a wish; at this point I'm almost half expecting to find out he 'inherited' the part of Judas' soul that made Akeldama last 2 weeks inside in a second outside.
Then all we need is to find out that once we absorb him it elevates us into semi-perfect Alberich and that only by consuming our sister will we be complete.

I wasn't able to write an update tonight anyway, but I'd like to ask you to try to come to a consensus on what exactly you'd like to try to do with your magic. There's a clear majority for some variation on the "feint bare-handed into magic" plan, but since you started discussing whether to use an explosion, chain, or rope, and how to contact your allies to check on them, and whether to try to keep him talking while you did so, etc, people haven't been framing their comments as formal votes.
At this point, I'm not exactly sure what's in the majority, so if you folks can try to come to a clear decision I'd appreciate it.

>>4212019
Calm down Cell.
Stop trying to get us to eat our siblings.
All Matsuda has is the physical ability version of our affinity for magic.
Likely, these two were inherited from Judas having a hero creation skill.
Poor Tsubaki got nothing.

>>4211780
>making a Noble Phantasm level skill in 3 days.
Matsuda doesn't have the correct frame of mind to develop a technique like that.
He strikes me as the sort who would get frustrated by a lack of progress and continually switch up his method.
He doesn't have the dedication required to spend his three days since our fight practicing one ultimate strike.
And he does have a noble phantasm.
His spear.

>>4212187
Sign me up for rope and contacting Ayaka and Saber as we do.
Have Saber start taking in mana too.

>>4211984
Yeah, unlike Li, Matsuda doesn't have the prerequisites to learn something like No Second Strike.
Put Numerically Li is 5 times better at Chinese Martial Arts (A+++ to B) than Matsuda.
Matsuda doesn't have the mastery of his own spirit to start using Chi or becoming one with nature, so while he might be good with the technique, he'll never attain true mastery unless he joins us and has an epiphany.

Also Sphere Boundary is broken as shit.

Li Shuwen is a horribly broken Servant.
>can kill anyone in one shot with any strike
>can attack while invisible and remain invisible
What the fuck, he's a hard counter to basically every servant.

>>4212277
Tell me about it think I broke my brain for a bit typing that shit out.

Sarcasm aside,
>>4212187
Count me in for the explosive ribbon trick, with A rank Agility and anti magic spear id like to do something he can't easily block, break, or dodge.
If we weren't currently trying to watch our mana expense i'd suggest experimenting with more nothing elementalism; try for something like lightning, wind, AOE explosion, maybe gravity to slow him down.
Does make me wonder, since we can't go into spirit form, would it be possible to attempt to bootleg Saber's invisible air as an 'invisibility cloak'?

>>4212479
The point of the rope trick is to basically lure him into a position where he goes to cut the one aimed at his heart before it splits into 5 strands.
Matsuda is terribly weak physically, so we can likely get away with super thin ribbons.
Ideally he goes to cut the rope and strikes only the core before getting entangled by the other four that are split off.
Then we beat him into unconsciousness.
Maybe hit him with "but don't worry, I don't plan on killing you yet... Brother." Before landing the knockout punch.
Explosive Trick ought to do about the same, except we won't get to punch him ourselves.

Won't he be helpless to resist the commands of Stheno and Euryale too?
God, it's worth keeping him alive just so the smug lolis have somebody to bully.
I don't imagine Medusa is much of a target now she looks like them again.

At this point it's looking like we have a slight majority for >>4209805, checking the link between you and your allies as quickly as possible without either using time in speaking to them or splitting your attention by speaking to Matsuda, and then aiming an explosive tendril (a first for you) at his legs.
If you feel I'm tallying the votes or interpreting the choice wrong, this is your moment. Otherwise I'll get to writing pretty soon.

>>4212575
Sounds right to me boss

File: Morshu.png (13 KB, 271x243)

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>>4212575
I'm partial to rope.

>>4212630
You must be, because you just tied the vote.

>>4212644
Shit, nevermind then.

File: 20 meter radius emerald splash.jpg (55 KB, 1024x576)

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The solution to all of our problems is the Twenty Meter Radius Emerald Splash.

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Alright, folks. Looks like you're decided. on a course of action. Writing now.

>>4212674
Gah!
No! Leave us be, Taiga!

>>4212575
>(a first for you)
This was our hint.

>>4212674
Shit. We don't have enough energy to do magic do we?

>>4212679
>Leave us be, Taiga!
What if the real reason Alberich is a lolicon is because he subconsciously remembers the tiger dojo and associates older women with death?

>>4212682
>Shit. We don't have enough energy to do magic do we?
I mean, if we don't have enough magic to do a single spell, then we certainly don't have enough magic to fight against a servant.

I think unless Sweets is giving us a red herring that it's going to be due to our inexperience with explosives.
But then again, if the explosion is even close to Matsuda, then he should be seriously wounded.
Dude is about as durable as a bag of potato chips.
Then again, an exploding tendril isn't that different from what we did against Laifos, and now we have Heilig to buff our magic too.

Also, looking at the Status Page there's a typo.
>Alberich's ultimate currently goal stems

>>4212691
>if we don't have enough magic to do a single spell, then we certainly don't have enough magic to fight against a servant.
We all know that isn't true. We've known forever that pulling out our elements uses a shit ton of extra magic energy compared to just fighting. We've seen it happen and it says so on the status page in heilig's description. My guess is Ayaka's ded and we just vaporized ourself.

>>4212704
>Ayaka's ded
Incredibly unlikely. Especially given that this explosion was originally intended to be an unpreventable event.

It also fails to take into account the fact that one of the humans in the house is missing, which we know isn't Lily.

> it says so on the status page in heilig's description
That's for the more active miracles like summoning or rift slashes. The third miracle is a passive miracle that allows us to use our magic without it destroying us with the drain of energy.
Did you not see what happened in the island arc when we tried using our magic without Heilig?

>>4212711
Did you not notice all the times we used our magic and Ayaka passed out, got woozy, or had some other effect of being over-drained? Sure it's worse without heilig but that doesn't change the fact that we've seen over and over that our magic uses more energy than normal fighting. If anything's wrong with Ayaka we're fucked on cost.

>>4212714
>Ayaka passed out, got woozy, or had some other effect of being over-drained?
It's a single spell, if we can't manage a single ribbon, we weren't beating Matsuda anyway. Usually she passes out because we need to absolutely SPAM ribbons to bind servants with incredible physical strength.

>If anything's wrong with Ayaka we're fucked.
If she's dead then we're fucked end of story.

>>4212674
Aw, so we aren't going to tell saber to suck up mana?

>>4212671
Save it for part 3.

>>4212843
Oh you!


I really hope that our allies weren't so incapable as to be unable to protect themselves and the non-servants from a magical explosion.
Adelheid should also be able to protect somebody from an explosion like she did at the final battle of Akeldama.

Next house we make is going to be a joint effort between Circe and Tsubaki.
Our defences shall never lack like this again.

Well, today has been an unmitigated disaster. I had hoped for things to get back on an even keel with a new thread, but that hope was misplaced.
I promise I'll get you this update on 4/24.

>>4214258
Aaargh.

>Sweets complains about how he doesn't get 100 posts of speculation every update anymore
>gets 100 posts on one update now that the plot has started again.
>kills momentum by not updating for two days.
Can I get an "oof"?

>>4214815
It's not as though I'm off on vacation, anon. I'm not updating at this pace because I want to. I'm trying to write whenever I can between work, but it's quite the tough time for me right now.

>>4214838
I'm going to fucking laugh so hard if we dead end after this delay and the story still goes nowhere.

>>4214926
Taiga did get posted...

>>4214928
>make players wait three days for an update
>"no that's wrong *instant death* do something else."
>booted back to previous choice.
Dead ends are horrible when presented like this.

>Servant Matsuda shows up
>story slows to even more of a crawl than when we were grinding on NPCs in Medusa's soul prison thing.
Cursed character.

>>4214944
Meh, that's a result of scheduling failures.
I'd still rather have a coherent story that had thought and time put into it than for something rushed just because you couldn't post for a few days.

>>4214963
I do think Dead Ends resulting from a single wrong choice on our part is silly though.
Like, to win against a Servant we'll usually need to go through 3 or 4 choices before getting to the point where we can win, while our enemy can easily kill us at any point through the fight.

I think Alberich being so easy to kill against enemies he struggles to kill (at least from the choices made.) Makes him look like a pathetic jobber.
Being made a servant was a mistake.
This Nasuverse VN format works much better when you're playing a glass cannon.
Like practically every single Main POV character in this setting is.

>>4214928
The truth is, I posted her because it was a near miss. Taiga perked up, but it wasn't her moment yet. Update incoming shortly.

>>4214975
I can somewhat see where you're coming from, anon, but I don't see why you feel that complaining about it now can accomplish anything. It isn't as though I can go back and change the premise of the quest.

You don't reply. Frankly, you haven't the patience to humor Matsuda in his pretense of friendship when you know he'll be trying to kill you shortly. Instead, giving him a contemptuous look that silently informs him what you think of his witticism, you focus your mind on the more pertinent details of the situation: the possible casualties of the explosion. The first target of your concern, though in her case it's more acute than that, a sharp fear for her safety, is Liliesviel; but a moment's thought reassures you that she must be at least alive, for you know that if either of you should die the other would share the same fate. She must, you decide with an inward sigh of relief, have either used her own magic to protect herself from the blast or had one of the other Servants protect her. As for the others, there are many you've no way of immediately gaining information on. Kōrakuhime, Circe, Adelheid, Odin... you have no way of confirming any of their situations except by a return to the manor; and given how far you were thrown by the blast, even that is likely to be less informative than you'd like. Still, you aren't completely in the dark. You can at least attempt briefly to ascertain the state of those to whom you are magically connected.

You stretch out your mind first to Ayaka, probing the state of the all-important tie between Master and Servant. Your findings are not encouraging. There's almost nothing, in fact: a strangled trickle of energy, a tenuous connection, and no response to attempts to contact her conscious mind. She's presumably alive, but something is affecting either her condition or your connection such that she's barely there to you. Arturia, your next point of inquiry, is more heartening. The connection there is strong and clear, and she seems perfectly well. Though you haven't the time to engage in conversation, you somehow feel that woman would come out of it perfectly fine no matter what might happen. From Futodoki and Hecate, your two summoned entities, you receive similarly positive responses. Neither death nor some obscure magical interference inhibits the connection between you.

So. Most of your allies and subordinates that you can gather information on are well, but something is terribly wrong with Ayaka. In that case, you most certainly can't give Matsuda any more time than the absolute minimum you must expend on him. In fact, you briefly consider ignoring him entirely, just scooping up the sleeping gorgons and sprinting back to the manor to investigate the remains of the blast; but no, that would be ridiculously foolish. Matsuda is still faster than you are, after all. He'd no doubt take great pleasure in cutting you down as you fled, seeing it as a victory both physical and psychological. You'll have to face him, but you can't risk the kind of protracted fight he gave you last time. You need a way to finish this instantly.

Your mind races for a solution, and it isn't long before you've managed to take hold of one. When you last fought, you had your best results from beating Matsuda with your fists, taking him by surprise when he was more prepared to face a swordsman. He'll likely have planned countermeasures against such an act this time, but it would be a believable thing for you to do, going directly back to unarmed combat; in other words, it would be a perfect ruse. You'll step in, feigning to grab at the haft of his spear with one hand and punch with the other; he'll likely back off to keep in the ideal range, then counterattack with his spear, and then you'll spring your trap: a tendril of Nothingness, hidden in each sleeve to spring out like a striking snake.

As you come out of your contemplation, time seems to come out of the honey-slowness of extreme focus and resume its normal course. Matsuda is saying irritably, "So that's how it's gonna be, huh?"

You raise your fists, spring forward with a burst of energy to close the distance while his weapon is still propped up against his shoulder, far from an effective stance. As you move, you ready your magic. The door opens within you, and Nothingness pours through; into your magic circuits; out through your arms to coil around them, one with the darkness inside your blazer's sleeves. The moment you do, you feel the tax it puts on you, the fatigue that's plagued you since awakening intensifying slightly, but you have no time for weakness. At the same time Matsuda brings his blade down, readied to intercept your charge, and you kick with your left foot to swerve right without losing speed.

Suddenly you're face to face with Matsuda, just a few centimeters between you, and you shoot your left arm out to grab his fangtian ji by its ridiculous plume and immobilize his sole means of attack. Sure enough, Matsuda brings his speed to bear dodging back, slipping expertly away from your feint without ever letting your hand come within reach of his weapon. He slows to strike once the space between you is equal to the length of his weapon, all within your expectations. At that moment, in the fraction of a second as he readies his lightning-quick thrust, your tendrils act. Two ribbons of darkness shoot out, blurred shadows in the night, as if to bind Matsuda, one from either side. Again his reaction is as you expect: the thrust becomes a swirling cut, effortlessly slicing through the tendrils and destroying their magical composition with that same impression of boiling away the darkness that you recall from before. Now comes the final maneuver. The tendrils, even as they evaporate, transform into new shapes: twin explosions of deep crimson flame, edged with a black not in smoke but in the fire itself, blossom out from the tips of their extent, set to consume Matsuda entirely.

Now, at last, your enemy surprises you. He is not so taken aback by the unexpected strike that he is consumed by fire while unable to act. Neither does he dodge backward, the motion you'd most expected from him, and one you'd planned to counteract by a continuation of your creations' forward momentum. Instead he charges forward between the explosions, almost at the moment of their birth, before the flames swell to fill the space between. Still, you think, it's a futile effort. He can't escape. You need only pull the burgeoning fireballs back toward you, and he'll be trapped as assuredly as an insect in a spider's web.

That act, though, gives you your second surprise of the battle. An explosion, you discover, is a thing of far more complex shape and motion than a solid ribbon, a sword, a barrier, or even a fireball held motionless within the hand for the briefest of moments. The outward burst, the intricate swirling of the flames, the interaction of shock-wave and fire itself, all knit together in a confusing mess of labyrinthine force and forms that change the moment you visualize them. You managed to bring forth an explosion of Nothingness, but when you try to impose your will on it, reshape it and move it, you discover that your conception of it is insufficient to maintain control; that in attempting to move it you've lost your power over it. The explosions, far from answering to your demand that they chase Matsuda, only continue on in the forward motion of the darting ribbons of Nothingness from which they were born.

Worse, as the explosions expand they demand more and more energy. Suddenly the ground seems to roll under you; you stagger; black blossoms bloom in your vision. You observe with a dull, distant indifference, as if watching the events play out at the opposite end of an enormously long tunnel, that Matsuda, propelled by the force of your explosions to even greater speed, has driven his blade through your heart. For a moment you seem to taste blood; then taste is gone. Strangely, the physical wound seems unimportant, by contrast with this overwhelming fatigue, this dizziness, the way that your senses seem to retreat before your mind, put to rout.

The explosions, you see, have disappeared after consuming your last reserves of magical energy and turning a large area of road into a strangely melted, glassy substance. The jacket or shirt-like part of Matsuda's outfit has fallen to the ground, its back half burned to ashes, and an extensive burn doubtless covers his back. Matsuda's blade draws back and strikes, again and again, piercing your torso in a hundred places, but the pain is far away; seen, but not felt. You watch as chunks of flesh are hacked from you by the flashing blade, as limbs or the ends of limbs are lopped off, all overseen by Matsuda's depressed glare. Evidently he had hoped for a better fight from you. At last you fall amidst a mess of your own gore, and blackness swallows you completely.

The first thing you feel is the pain. It's not distant anymore, even when the other senses have yet to surface. Your left arm, which ends at the elbow, screams its bereavement from its hand. A jagged line of fire carved through your chest demands your attention in furious tones. The muscles of your legs and thighs, hacked to pieces, complain bitterly of their uselessness. Every beat of your heart is keenly felt through the noticeable hole in that all-important pump, though this somehow doesn't seem to inhibit its functions. One by one, the rest of your senses follow the pain in awakening you. Your nose detects the unmistakable and overwhelming stench of blood. Your ears serve you the more welcome sound of near-complete silence, broken only by the faint, ordinary backround noises that never leave the city. Your eyes flicker open to take in a dark room. Dark, but not unusual. You're in bed. In a bedroom, in fact; an utterly pedestrian bedroom, not furnished as the manor you've grown used to was, but in a style that can best be described as moderately expensive without extravagance; tasteful, but not impressively so. It's the kind of room you remember Yumigawa's parents' bedroom as being. The only unusual thing about the room, really, is the presence of the three Gorgon sisters. Stheno and Euryale share your bed, one on either side of you, apparently unconcerned with the prospect of your blood staining their white dresses. Medusa, on the other hand, sits at a writing desk against the wall, the chair turned around to face you. She watches you keenly, though without expression, her hands folded in her lap.

"You've awoken, Master," she observes quietly, the politeness of her tone immediately surprising you. "How do you feel?"

>[ ] "Master, huh?" you echo. "It sounds odd, coming from you."

>[ ] "I'm far from well," you answer, "but I have some curiosity as to why I'm alive at all. What happened?"

>[ ] "It doesn't matter. I'll presumably heal eventually. What's important now is making making a plan. I need you to (Write in the orders you want to give Medusa.)"

>[ ] Say or do something else. (Write in)

>>4215003
>[X] "I'm far from well," you answer, "but I have some curiosity as to why I'm alive at all. What happened?"
No time for banter.

>>4215003
>[ ] "I'm far from well," you answer, "but I have some curiosity as to why I'm alive at all. What happened?"
Nice one you fucking explosionfags.
Way to make us job AGAIN.

Would the rope have worked any better, Sweets?

>>4215016
Almost anything would've worked better than trying to make an explosion for the first time while fighting someone both faster and more skillful than you, without manifesting your armor.
There were a lot of problems with this plan. Hence Taiga's momentary appearance.

...
>No Lily nearby.
>Japanese bedroom.
>Medusa and her sisters.
Oh god we're at Emiya's house aren't we?

Thank God for Battle Continuation making us fucking invincible.

>>4215026
Pfft
You might uh
>>4209668
>"Without a moment's hesitation you materialize your armor "
??????
You fucked up buddy.
You really fucked up.

>>4215031
>we dismissed our armour
Wait what the fuck that makes no sense
I missed that.
What the actual fuck.

>>4215034
It's not generally wise to keep an almost skintight suit of burning hot metal pressed against your flesh.
You might also have noticed that one of the options at the last choice specifically mentioned rematerializing your armor, cluing you in to the fact that it was (a) an option and (b) something that had to be noted.

>>4215034
>under attack by something obviously
>survive initial strike
>dismiss armour
>don't automatically put it back on when opponent appears
Holy shit.
We're dumber than Gilgamesh.
WE ARE DUMBER THAN GILGAMESH.

>>4215036
>It's not generally wise to keep an almost skintight suit of burning hot metal pressed against your flesh
So our armour is just completely metal?
There's no other part of it?
No padding?

Also it shouldn't have gotten hot at all, the explosion couldn't have touched us through A RANK magic resistance.
And if it was a normal explosion
No mystery, so again it wouldn't have done anything.
This was very silly.

>>4215037
You chose to be. The choice at the last option was deciding your immediate reaction to Matsuda showing up. I left it completely up to you.

From now on Sweets, please assume that we've voted to put on our armour when we're about to confront an enemy no matter what the vote itself says.

It's just common sense that can be done "in an instant."
There is genuinely no reason for Alberich not to open every fight by doing so.
Are we going to have to specify that we don't want to cut our own legs off in future votes?
God damn it.

>>4215047
Anon, remember the point about the explosion potentially killing Servants extremely low on magical energy?
I believe I've made it pretty clear by now that you were/are running basically on empty. Hence your semi-loss of consciousness while waiting for Liliesviel. Hence the breakdown of your magic resistance and partial damage from the explosion. Hence it being a terrible idea to experiment with a brand-new, highly energy-consumptive magic technique in this battle.
I really tried to make this as clear as possible to you folks in the last update.

>>4214975
>Dead ends from one bad choice.
I'll say that bad ends occur from accumulation of all previous choices, so it's not only the most recent one that leads to a dead end.
Also, it's not only Nasuverse VN's that have dead ends like that, it's almost a staple of the medium honestly.

>Alberich seems like he's going to work.
These fights only last a few moments you realize, and all the combatants are on decently similar footing, one wrong step and they could die.
We just don't see the outcomes where Alberich wins that quickly often because we don't develop strategies that are conducive to that outcome, or the enemies have their own counters.

>Being a Servant was a mistake.
Well, we've mostly gone and done things solo, even when we have allied servants.
When we set up positions and responsibilities for our group, it'll feel much more natural I think.

>>4215003
>[X] "I'm far from well," you answer, "but I have some curiosity as to why I'm alive at all. What happened?"

>>4215037
At least Alberich can survive getting hacked to pieces though.

>>4215054
Didn't something like this happen last time we fought Matsuda too? Alberich speared a tendril straight for him instead of slithering it along the ground?
Is there something about Matsuda that just makes Alberich forget how to fight?

>>4215054
No, I'm not going to compensate for your decision to skim the update and ignore battle-pertinent information in both the votes and the text itself. When one vote specifies an action, and another doesn't mention it at all, I will always assume inaction on the subject ignored. This should be fairly obvious.

>>4215060
>Is there something about Matsuda that just makes Alberich forget how to fight?
Knight tactics or plot convenience
Your choice.
>>4215058
>being low on magical energy removes Magic Resistance
Fuck off with this shit.
We know that's not the case from Saber in Stay Night.
Why do you make it so easy for everyone to bypass Magic Resistance where in reality it's not something so simple to bypass at all.
It doesn't just... go away when a Servant is low on energy themselves god damn it.

Saber when she is low is still immune to Caster's Magic, yet a shitty explosion almost kills us?
Ffs, Sweets.
The Harriswank is going too far.

I'll also point out that the winning option included as your opener, "make as if to fight barehanded".
As in, with bare hands. Unarmed and unarmored. This should have been clear to you from the vote itself.

>>4215072
Uh. I wouldn't say bare-handed is bare-chested, but I guess if that's how Alberich thinks...

>>4215075
Alberich has become completely retarded in order to continually job.
What a shame.

This is worse than Saber jobbing to a schoolteacher.

>>4215079
I'm not that miffed about the dismissed armor not reappearing, since the second part of my vote did explicitly mention rematerializing it.
But you might be onto something with the MR.
If an explosion that's only strong enough to kill humans, or severely weakened servants, so much so that they're at the human level, is enough to make Alberich want to remove his armor for fear of scalding himself, then why doesn't saber ever do the same when tanking Caster's magic that's gotta be way stronger, and heat up her armor way more?

>>4215079
You know, I'm thinking about it, and if you'd had armor on the scene would be almost exactly the same. The real problem here was wasting the last of your energy on explosive magic.
So, if it makes you feel better to imagine that you'd had your armor on, go ahead.

Fucking lmao.
Nice jobbing.
What a dumb motherfucker Alberich is.
You should've killed him here to prevent him from living through this embarrassment.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
WHAT A FUCKING LOSER HOLY SHIT.

>>4215088
Saber's armor is a magical artifact, like Gilgamesh's, though weaker. If I recall correctly, it was mentioned as having been woven by the fae in Zero.
But again, I'm not going to argue this in depth. The magic resistance point is somewhat valid, and at the end of the day your lack of armor contributed more to the look of the defeat than the fact of it.

>>4215089
>Instinctual Magic: B
>doesn't work
Despite the status page, it's like we do worse in every single fight.
Also
>fighting someone both faster and more skillful than you, without manifesting your armor.
>I'm thinking about it, and if you'd had armor on the scene would be almost exactly the same
Yeah sure whatever you say, Sweets. It just happened to be the first thing you mentioned because how little it mattered.

>>4215099
Saber's armour isn't what gives her her magic resistance though.
Her magic resistance is inherent to her draconic nature.
Just like ours is inherent to our conceptual nature.

Gilgamesh's armour is actually a noble phantasm and his magic resistance mainly comes from having every anti magic np there is just in his possession.

>>4215105
Man, the level of salt from you every time you lose a fight is unbelievable. At this point I'm not sure if there's even any reason for me to discuss it with you.
But I will anyway. Read through the fight again. Matsuda doesn't start hacking into you until you've already exhausted your energy and you're barely hanging on to existence, too exhausted to defend yourself. You think he couldn't have kicked your feet out from under you, peeled off your armor, and went about the same business?
The ways to clear this fight were either to keep him talking and get Saber to draw on the leylines and help you, or to fight efficiently with your sword and armor. I'm sorry you don't feel that this loss was justified, but it's not as though you had no way out.
One last thing, if I say he's faster, he's more skillful, and you had no armor, the armor is the third thing I'm mentioning, not the first.

>>4215003
>[ ] "I'm far from well," you answer, "but I have some curiosity as to why I'm alive at all. What happened?"
Well, I'm not terribly surprised at the outcome. I am surprised and worried its not a dead end.

>>4215072
I'm not going to complain like the rest, but this is a stretch. Lovely to see the endless anon complaints persist even to here.

>>4215145
>this is a stretch
Seems like I did focus on the wrong aspect of that, since I was looking at the choice I had originally written. The text of the winning write-in was:
"Matsuda should be wary of your fighting style, and be prepared for us to make feints and use trickery to take him down, so you just need to use something nobody alive has seen you use yet. Make as if to fight barehanded, then surprise Matsuda with a binding tendril aimed at his legs. When he makes to cut it, turn it into an explosion instead, then materialize your armor, close in and cut him down."
Considering that it specifically notes that anon wanted Alberich to materialize his armor only after the explosion had done its work, there's no real way for me to have interpreted that as with Alberich having materialized his armor at the beginning of the fight.

>>4215134
I am surprised to hear swording and boarding would have had a chance of success. I'd assumed "mundane" fighting would generate an instant btfoing

With this update, we can use "should have gone for the head" when it is time to end Matsuda.

>>4215134
Yeah but you italicized the last point.
I knew I fucked up there but you were clearly representing it as the most important factor.
Then it suddenly doesn't matter.
Then again, it's not like I was the one supporting the dumb explosion plan.
>>4215145
My complaints will be the complaints that pierce the heavens.

I don't mind too much though.
Just salty about perpetually jobbing even after leaving jobberland.
And now odds are that we have Shirou fucking Emiya to thank for us not being dead.
There goes our reason to kill him.

>>4215169
>And now odds are that we have Shirou fucking Emiya to thank for us not being dead.
Wouldn't it be funny if that were true?

>>4215003
>>[ ] "I'm far from well," you answer, "but I have some curiosity as to why I'm alive at all. What happened?"

No armor, degraded magic resistance, use an explosion after he's already in melee range, frankly i'm more surprised the fight didn't end with us blowing ourselves up.
>>4215151
If we're to win by doing what he doesn't expect, we opened the last two fights by trying to pull magic shenanigans and it ended poorly, at this point we have better odds of winning the third fight if we just drop the sorcery and pummel him 'for old times sake'.
>>4215169
>jobbing even after leaving jobberland.
Anon, between Akeldama and the Shapeless Isle vs reality, we didn't leave jobberland were back in it.

>make bad choices on literally every recent vote
>get mad when Alberich seems incompetent
sasuga anons. you've made this quest completely unbearable to read

>>4215169
Right, a little calmer now.
But yes, anger about losing to Matsuda AGAIN aside, we're probably in the Emiya household now.
Who knows what the rest of our allies are up to if they aren't here.
Hopefully not going too berserk at each other.
We need kisses from Lily so we can get our limbs back.
If it is the Emiyas house and Rider brought us there then I have absolutely no idea how this next encounter is going to go.
That is if it's not some unrelated house.

I mean, we kidnapped Rider and made her our Servant.
But we also gave her her preferred form and brought her two most precious people back to life.
Gonna be fun seeing how Sakura and Shirou handle this.
I do hope we get to see an Interlude about what happened after we slept.

>hurr explosions
I should've kept it tied.

>>4215239
>degraded magic resistance
I'm pretending it wasn't.
Just for the sake of things having consistency with F/SN.

>we're back in it.
At least I don't have reason to post Alberich on his bicycle again.
[EVADE]
>>4215256
you should have.
Rope Diagram even had boxy Alberich wearing his armor as he uses the spell.
>>4215227
Well let's look at the evidence.
>Shirou was likely observing the mansion from a distance and hoping for a chance to save Rider
>potentially saw us protecting smol Rider and ???? Clone smol Riders? (This depends on if Shirou has been told of Rider's past or if Sakura came with.)
>we're still wounded, meaning our allies (or at least Lily, Circe or Tsubaki) aren't around to aid our recovery.
>only Tsubaki would willingly choose to make a Japanese house the temporary base of operations
>Rider is the only person here watching us
>Shirou is capable of effortlessly fending Matsuda off with some Hruntings

I wonder what that Rider affection score is like now?
If you don't mind my asking, was Rider realising rhat we actually did as we said the biggest single gain of Affection Points, Sweets?

>>4215285
Oh
And it's also possible Rider regained consciousness and hard countered Matsuda with her superior speed, strength and meme eyes.
That A+ agility makes a serious difference.
She's twice as fast as Matsuda now.
...
To Matsuda, Loli Medusa would kind of be like it was for us fighting Achilles.

Matsuda being manhandled by a little girl would be hilarious

>>4215285
>Rider realising that we actually did as we said the biggest single gain of Affection Points
I'd say it was considering she went from hating our existence to referring to us as master without mocking how were currently a quadriplegic.
>Matsuda being manhandled by a little girl would be hilarious
I guess he shares one thing in common with his brother; a weakness to lolis.

>>4215300
Alberich (of then) vs Achilles (Pressure from Cybele)
>Strength B vs A (ten point difference)
>Agility B vs A+ (60 point difference)
>EotM C vs Madness A
Without magic we got stomped.

Meanwhile Matsuda vs Medusa
>Strength D vs Strength B (monstrous strength) (20 point difference)
>Agility A vs A+ (50 point difference)
>EotM B vs Rider as she normally fights.
It's not looking like a good matchup for our brother.

>>4215285
>At least I don't have reason to post Alberich on his bicycle again.
You can make a new meme about him making an explosion that propels his opponent towards him.

>>4215300
This is what I think happened.
I want to see that interlude.
It doesn't have to be the Emiya residence we're in.
This is Tokyo, and we are in a residential area.
She could've just dragged us into an empty house.

>>4215314
If we felt like it can't we still move?
Even if he had all his tendons and muscles cut he should still be able to move right?

>>4215321
This is also disregarding that she can turn him into a decoration with a glance too thanks to that E.
How unfortunate for you, Matsuda.

>>4215285
>If you don't mind my asking, was Rider realising rhat we actually did as we said the biggest single gain of Affection Points, Sweets?
It may just be. You had some pretty high point-gain moments with Liliesviel, but if this wasn't the single most impactful thing you've done for a heroine it's definitely up there.
Of course, the fact that Medusa started out so far in the negatives means she hasn't exactly fallen madly in love with you, but still; it was a good moment.

>>4215326
>It doesn't have to be the Emiya residence we're in.
>This is Tokyo, and we are in a residential area.
>She could've just dragged us into an empty house.
Look at this from Lolidusa's perspective.
>Alberich hasn't twisted her mind with evil
>Alberich has given her her youth back
>Alberich has actually done what she thought impossible and brought her sisters back
>Alberich likely still wants to kill the Emiyas
>She probably wants to bring things to a peaceful resolution now she wants us to stay alive because of her sisters
>bring him to the Emiyas while he's injured so he can recover there in safety.
She'd likely use this as her chance to get basically everything she wants.
Self-interest combines with gratitude.

...
Now I can't help but imagine loli Medusa bounding across the rooftops of Tokyo while carrying the mutilated body of her new Master and her two sisters somehow.

I also realise that Medusa probably woke up to notice three things.
1. Alberich made her young
2. Her Sisters are alive!
3. Alberich is being murdered and she's about to lose everything immediately.
And there's the E rank luck!

>>4215003
>[ ] "Master, huh?" you echo. "It sounds odd, coming from you."

>>4215352
>Alberich hasn't twisted her mind with evil
Have we though? How do we know we haven't? We used a curse modeled on Angra's with the aim of making her into our subordinate. After it finished working she passed out, and now that she's woken up she's calling us Master. That's all we've definitely seen. But we know the AM curse can transform a servant's mind pretty seriously from what the original did to Saber. Ours might have done something like that to Medusa. Did you see that her alignment changed?

>>4215375
>Have we though?
No. While the template is the same, the material used is different.

>>4215382
Sure. We didn't turn her evil after all. But we did a curse that transforms its victims' minds based on the emotion it's made out of. The emotion we used was how much Alberich wants everything to go his way, right? And then Medusa goes from chaotic good to lawful neutral. I don't think she's just going to be the same Rider brain in a loli body.

>>4215375
Because she's Lawful Neutral and not Evil.
Alberich's influence would make her Neutral Evil if that's what happened.
She overshot the neutral scale and became lawful.
The difference is that with Saber we just reverted her to Angra's modifications.
Alberich doesn't have the capability to you know.
Actually replicate the billions of curses needed to twist a mind like that.
If anything, her alignment was probably lawful neutral at that point in her life, before most of her experiences on the island.
I'm sure Gorgon would've been Chaotic Evil.
>>4215382
Yeah this basically.

>>4215399
Or this is a result of her taking on her younger form.

While we're talking about lolidusa, what kind of weapon do you think she uses? Sweets' picture showed her with her hands covered so that's no help. FGO scythe? Adult Rider's nail things? Something else? A Rider can use any kind of weapon so it seems pretty open.

>>4215352
I did consider that, but it seems like a really optimistic choice honestly.
Either the Emiyas know we're here and are letting us stay on Rider's behalf, or she brought us into an empty house and we're due a very awkward reunion.
The latter situation is worse for them, but if it's the former I'm not sure how reconciliatory Alberich would be.
But there is indeed a decent chance it happened.

Think we should communicate with Saber or Ayaka and try to prevent our allies from killing each other over losing their house?

>>4215405
Do you have an explanation for the Alter state? I was under the impression it was something like Saber's id manifest.

I wanted to have her go further even beyond but nooooooo.

>>4215405
Really? You don't think the brainwashing curse implanted any kind of changes in her mind? Wouldn't that make it a complete failure?

>>4215417
It basically acts like a super-strong command seal.
If it works that way then it's not a failure.
Since we technically could just order Rider any personality changes we felt like.

>>4215416
>turn her into Gorgon
>it's just a huge pile of snakes with one giant eye because Sweets rejects FGO

>>4215414
Alter's personality is basically Saber with all her morals removed.
Less her Id manifest, more the Superego thrown into the trash where it belongs.

Rider didn't really have many morals in the first place, what with being a rapist and all.
>>4215417
It shouldn't have done something like that. We could theoretically order Saber Alter to return to her original personality anyway.

>>4215426
I think Sweets kind of liked her monster design she has as a boss though.
You know, the one without pointless vestigal snek legs.
He likes Tiamat's design too... I think.

FGO can have decent designs.
Like Merlin.
It's just that we get a lot of nonsensical bullshit.
Like Fergus looking like Brock from Pokemon.

>>4215427
>Saber with all her morals removed
But what about Sparks Liner High where she's happily congratulating Shirou on defeating her before being disappointed he had no mind left?

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>>4215426
>>it's just a huge pile of snakes with one giant eye because Sweets rejects FGO

>>4215435
Just because she's lost her morality doesn't mean she can't compliment Shirou on beating her.
It doesn't mean she doesn't hold some sort of respect for her old allies.
Also she wants to die.

btw, wasn't that choice unrelated with her outward appearance?

>>4215451
>lost her morality
>respect
>suicidal even though she has no reason to be
does not compute

>>4215460
She respects Shirou's skill in combat.
She's basically just like "oh well." When she finds he's a vegetable.
She doesn't like living all too much because while her morality is gone, she is still being controlled by Angra.

>>4215473
>Angra
Sakura.
Angra was always just an influencer, if he could control people there was no need to go through the process of being born from the Greater Grail.
Doesn't Saber even refer to Sakura as her Master at some point?

>>4215352
>Alberich likely still wants to kill the Emiyas

Did we ever tell them we want to kill them or just left that we have to if we're to survive the war?
We stole Medusa from their house and brought back Salter but Shirou still didn't take up Harris' offer to storm he manor.
Odds are he's probably still rationalizing that we're just trying to survive and shouldn't try to kill us until we start tacking up a bodycount just for the sake of it.

>>4215479
>Did we ever tell them we want to kill them
Yeah, right before we almost killed them.

>>4215485
kek

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>>4215476
Fine.
Sakura under the influence of Angra.
it's still basically Angra.
Saber Alter the tyrant clearly didn't enjoy being her Servant.
>>4215485
Pic related.
>>4215479
Shirou did want us dead, but he didn't want the attempt to kill Rider.
But now that things have developed as they have, I can't see the Emiyas actually wanting us dead.
Not after what we did for Rider.
Real quandary for them now though.

Thank god it's HF Shirou.

>>4215502
Good thing it's not a quandary for Alberich.

>>4215502
That's an ominous image, considering Wheatley got spaced by Chell.

>Sakura under the influence of Angra is the same thing as Angra himself.
I wouldn't say so, with her great mental fortitude I think she had much greater control over herself than that.
I don't feel like people give Sakura the credit she deserves as a Magus.

He might not want to kill us anymore, but what about Saber?
They'll probably ask us to get rid of her or something, provided she's still alive anyway.
And, if they're still intent on dismantling the Grail then Alberich's still going to want them dead.
Not to mention his resentment for being blasted by Shirou.

>>4215523
>killing a man who helped you and let you rest in his home when you were gravely wounded.
It might've even been Shirou who saved us.
If it was then that means killing him would just make Alberich a huge evil jerk.
Are we still going to kill the Emiyas and make Rider sad?
This is a practically ideal way to have him agree to withdraw from the war or even strongarm them into helping us.
They can no longer kill us because a member of their little family is linked to us.
Said family member ought to protect us for her sisters' sake if nothing else.

Then again this could just be a random house, but Medusa would probably want us in the safest place possible.

Unrelated but
It's been a looong time since we've seen Truvi and Luvia.

>>4215485
I'm talking kill them for the sake of it from their perspective.
We go to them to deal with some arsonist servant (really baiting them into being extra muscle against Achilles), round 2 were working with the Einzbern's and we have to kill them to survive while Lily pushes for it for the sake of keeping them from interfering, Circe starts overdrawing mana to point people are being hospitalized in order to attack lily's op lancer we end up bringing back Salter and drop a Excali-nuke soon after (most of) the mana drain ends. Then we turn up again at his house with Lily, didn't bring along lancer and leave his house a crater, didn't kill his wife, took Medusa and now she has her sisters back.
Really from their POV he's more likely to rationalize that we're a guy whose trying to stay alive whose girlfriend that has a grudge against them, instead of us being some ultimate evil that must be stopped.

>>4215539
>what about Saber
What about her?
She's under our control anyway, there's no reason to kill her if we aren't Angra.
We had no way of knowing how much damage Excalibur would actually do.
And Sakura probably ate more anyway.

>still intent on dismantling
Somehow I feel Rin is the only one who really will be after seeing what has happened. Shirou considers family more important than the world, and our existence is linked to Stheno and Euryale, Rider's family.
>resentment for being blasted
He might just have to get over it.

>>4215547
Yeah, Shirou must be having a very hard time really figuring out just how to deal with us.
I sometimes forget Alberich is only 18 mentally.
It makes his mistakes more forgivable.

>>4215547
Nah, we told them we were killing them because they were trying to destroy our only way to continue living.
And I'm not sure where this meme that we only tried to kill the Emiyas because Odin was pressuring us to.
Alberich was very clearly planning to murder all of them when he agreed to with Lily, and came up with the rationalization about Berserker's Master to get them at the site.
Then instead of being panicked and trying to reluctantly kill them, which would be expected of someone who didn't really want to kill you, he calmly accepts Odin's presence, and proceeds to almost TKO the Emiya squad.
Only reason they didn't die is cause Shirou is bullshit, and Lily cared about Alberich more than vengeance.

>>4215579
Hmmm... if we're at the Emiya estate, do you think we should relay orders to Ayaka or Saber?
I can see our faction imploding pretty hard if we vanish after getting exploded, and they might start blaming each other for it.

>>4215606
>he's more likely to rationalize that we're a guy whose trying to stay alive whose girlfriend that has a grudge against them
>Nah, we were killing them because they were trying to destroy our only way to continue living.
These two aren't mutually exclusive and 'Odin tried made us do it' is a new one to me, I do recall our pre-battle conversation with him being over how they can know for certain the grail is corrupted, as though we're trying to talk them into backing down or leaving town, instead of us gloating over how they fell for our trap.
I may be optimistic but this is the guy who gave Shinji the benefit of the doubt right up until he tried to have him killed while gloating over "Oh you're with my sister now? How does it feel to have my sloppy seconds?"

>>4215606
Relay the orders to both.
Ayaka has probably been taken by Odin but there's no reason Alberich would know.

For Shirou, Alberich was having doubts about it which was why it was possible to threaten him with his family.

Humorously, that would've made Shirou hate Alberich forever. Probably.
Our actions don't make too much sense for somebody who only ever wanted them dead.
Well, if we have found ourselves in the middle of Emiya's house while heavily injured we may as well discuss things calmly with them.
The extent of our bad feeling for Shirou is because he shot us and wants to dismantle the grail, it's not really anything personal.
I mean it's Shirou.
He only makes things personal with himself, ancient Sumerian God Kings and priests.
Let's see what happened while we were out to determine if Shirou can be the closest thing Alberich has to a male friend again instead of a target on the kill list.

>>4215003
>[ ] "I'm far from well," you answer, "but I have some curiosity as to why I'm alive at all. What happened?"
Ah, so this is the result of picking the worst choice twice in a row. Lovely.
>>4215037
Yorokobe, zasshu

>>4215632
Oh, I don't doubt that Shirou would give us the benefit of the doubt, especially since he never really saw us in a terrible light even after we tried to kill him.

>>4215640
>Relay orders to both
I re-read the Update this time, and apparently intelligent discussion with Ayaka is impossible.
She must be in a serious coma.
Guess Saber will have to be our relay.
Assuming of course that we weren't rescued by our faction who then took up residence in an empty house.

Alberich's life has been a slideshow lately.
Think he's gonna faint again sometime soon?
But I'm truly uncertain if we're in the Emiya house.
Would they really want one of their rooms, not to mention halls, covered in blood?
If Medusa wanted to have us reconcile with them, would she not have tried to make us presentable or somesuch?

Do you guys think we should do Explosion training with Adelheid when we settle down after the manor attack, and maybe checking on the Greater Grail?
How about making a wave attack that freezes afterwards, immobilizing opponents? Or turns into acid and eats them up?
What about a wind buff that gives us an agility boost? Or creates a whirlwind that slows enemies who approach us?

>>4215653
Fine, then Saber it is.
I really wonder how Harris got away from booting a hornets nest like he did.
Maybe he didn't?
>one of their rooms and halls covered in blood
It's fine, the kids are asleep and I'm sure Shirou would be happier to see (loli) Medusa and her sisters than he would be upset at having to clean his hallways.
Also I doubt it even crossed Medusa's mind.
>magic training
Sure why not.
We can actually ask Sakura for pointers if we ally them again.
She'd probably be the best to ask.

>>4215667
It's Shirou. He'd probably be happy about having to clean his hallways.

>>4215675
That does sound in character for him.

>>4215667
>We can actually ask Sakura for pointers if we ally them again.
Harris tries to take out entire faction with a magic gas leak, only killed our prisoner and ended up handing us several more party members.
If that's how things turn out wonder how the guy whose hoping this would trim down our cast would take it.

>>4215686
Chainsmoke cigars till he dies, probably.

It would be funny if all his attempt at bombing us did was get us to ally with the guy he hoped would help kill us.

>>4215694
Surely that's why he's the 'best' modern assassin.
If he did kill Yumigawa we can at least 'console' him that at least his stunt did successfully manage to kill "us" technically.

>>4215703
>Yumigawa is dead
Rest in peace, /ourboy/.
We should find and kill original Matsuda and his parents and then gloat about it to Matsuda.
See how he feels after that.
I don't think he'll have stopped caring for them like Alberich did for his parents.

Honestly, the one good part about us losing due to being too weak from mana loss is that the third match with Matsuda will hopefully be post Affections.
We'll be able to toy with him like he's a child and taunt him for attacking us at our weakest.

>>4215721
Do you think we could spook Matsuda by throwing his mother's decapitated head at him in a fight?
"Here, catch."

>>4215745
And then maybe we could do a little dance, or something else incredibly cartoonish.
>>4215412
>nobody has any theories about how child Medusa is going to be different or why Sweets dug up that old concept art
That makes me sad. I don't want to think she's just the FGO one ported into a rider class container.

>>4215840
Hey, being cartoonishly evil is basically our go-to for when things don't go our way.
>how is she going to be different
She's going to basically fight in the same way her adult self did, I assume, just rebalanced for speed.
Sweets just prefers the original concept art.
She's got all her older self's abilities.
So she'll probably use the nails.
She won't have Harpe because that would be silly.
And also really useful.

She's not the FGO Lancer Medusa at least

>>4215861
What do you think Harris did immediately after the explosion, and the aftermath of our slicening?
How dead do you think he is from our allies deciding to nuke him off the map after that stunt?

>>4215961
That coward snuck the hell away, and the explosion can hardly be traced to him. I doubt useless Tsubaki or oblivious Circe havw scried him.

>>4215974
Yeah, do you think they scried for us at least?
I'm not full of much faith for our allies after they let Harris sneak around the yard for several hours.

>>4215979
Tsubaki, certainly. Circe? I don't know...

I'm writing now, and should have something done for you tonight.
I'm a bit unsure about starting off with another interlude. There's certainly demand for it, but it sort of overlaps with having Rider explain what happened to you, which is what you folks overwhelmingly voted for; besides, things have really been darting in and out of Alberich's perspective lately with all the unconsciousness, and I'm not sure about immediately going into another interlude right after the one with Harris.

>>4216190
Aren't there several back to back interludes in F/SN?

>>4216194
Yeah, there might've been.
I think what I'll do is give you the interlude from Medusa's perspective now, but set it in the text before you wake up in the house. That should help the flow a bit, so there isn't an interlude awkwardly shoved into the middle of a conversation.

Do you think Tsubaki could see what happened in Rider's inner world with her book?
Or did she just get "Alberich is unconscious." for however much time?

>>4215991
Bit late I know but i'd say Circe's a definitely; even if she herself might not want to, so long as she's in a position where she has to follow Lily's orders.she will.

>>4216821
Now that's a fun question. I'll have to leave you in the dark for now, but it's something worth thinking about.

>>4215003
>[ ] "I'm far from well," you answer, "but I have some curiosity as to why I'm alive at all. What happened?"
>Ayaka, Korakuhime and Hecate found dead after explosion
>We're at Emiya's or some random house Yumigawa found for us because he thinks we're the cool older him or something
>Saber Alter Rule Broken and having dinner with Emiya while telling how evil and despicable we are
>Lily tries to fix everything with Circe and Hitler-chan but ends up killed later on by Assassin bullshit earthquake illusions
>Edelfelts revealed as the Masters of Assassin(s)
>Futodoki roadkilled by Harris in a magic truck or something
>Odin laughing his ass off our current miserable state waiting to release Angra from the grail or whatever he plans to do with it
We are truly in the worst timeline

>>4216997
>>Ayaka, Korakuhime and Hecate found dead after explosion
We already know that at least two of them are fine, and Kourakuhime should also be fine.
>Yumigawa found for us
But how? He's more likely to be dead than anyone else.
>Saber Alter Rule Broken
Not all too likely to have happened
>Lily tries to fix everything with Circe and Hitler-chan but ends up killed later on by Assassin bullshit earthquake illusions
Lily is great because she can't die without it being a dead end for us too.
>Edelfelts revealed as the Masters of Assassin(s)
Eh, who cares, that just means an easy target for us.
>Futodoki roadkilled by Harris in a magic truck or something
Not really too big of an issue anyway, we can just get a new one.
Also it's a magic shapeshifting cat, if he wanted, he could disguise himself as any cat or person he wanted. Is Harris just going to kill every cat he sees?
>Odin laughing his ass off
I fail to see how this is different from anything he's already been doing.
Odin probably wants to start Ragnarok or something.
This is far from the worst timeline.
Now we can make friends with the sword autist.

>>4217025
>Now we can make friends with the sword autist
No. Stop trying to make this bullshit happen anon. Nobody wants to be friends with fucking Shirou except you.

>>4217038
>Stop trying to make this bullshit happen anon
No.
>Nobody wants to be friends with fucking Shirou except you
Then why did we go through so much effort to try not to kill him, again?
Alberich did actually like him somewhat before everyone started trying to kill each other.

By doing what we've done, we've caused a conflict of interests. Harming us will harm his family. So while he wants to stop us from getting the grail, he really can't anymore.

>>4217047
>Then why did we go through so much effort to try not to kill him, again?
We didn't, unless you're using a Shirou-obsessed lens to look at our actions and warp our motivation for everything. We wanted Rider, and wanted to make Shorou suffer more before he died by taking her. Everything we've done with Shirou since we first met up with Lily has been about revenge for his standing in our way and almost killing us.
>Harming us will harm his family. So while he wants to stop us from getting the grail, he really can't anymore.
What is Rule Breaker? Hell, even if he magically fucking forgets about Rule Breaker, who do you think he cares about more, Rider or his wife and kids? Remember that he thinks us getting the grail will end the world.

>>4217056
>We didn't, unless you're using a Shirou-obsessed lens to look at our actions and warp our motivation for everything.
based anon speaking truth

>>4217025
>We already know that at least two of them are fine, and Kourakuhime should also be fine.
ib4 Emiya plugged us into his wife and we can't feel Ayaka. We still have no idea of Korakuhime and Hecate could potentially be killed by Harris if he decided to grow some balls and finish what he started while we are unconscious
>But how? He's more likely to be dead than anyone else.
Just an amusing possibility in case we are somehow not at Emiya's
>Not all too likely to have happened
"Shirou, Aberich is evil and I require big borgar"
>Lily is great because she can't die without it being a dead end for us too.
Its time to go back and fix stuff, Lily please take the bullet just this once
>Eh, who cares, that just means an easy target for us.
Personally, I'm just waiting to see what kind of Noble Phantasm Sweets gave assassin to make this not a cakewalk
>Not really too big of an issue anyway, we can just get a new one.
Rude
>Also it's a magic shapeshifting cat, if he wanted, he could disguise himself as any cat or person he wanted. Is Harris just going to kill every cat he sees?
Never doubt the autism of Nasuverse characters
>I fail to see how this is different from anything he's already been doing.
He seemed like a chill dude that wanted to help us get stronger, WHILE laughing his ass off
>Odin probably wants to start Ragnarok or something.
"Hey there old man, want the world to end? Just free me and I'll make it happen, trust in the manjuice"
>This is far from the worst timeline.
You are right, everything that is bad can always get worse
>Now we can make friends with the sword autist.
If you mean making him and our family into magical test subjects/hounds/batteries, I totally agree!

>>4217056
>We didn't
Back before our fight against him, we set Tsubaki up at his house to potentially threaten his family, but the plan had too many flaws. Like uh... Tsubaki existing ruining everything with Lily.
After that, everything we've done has been because Alberich was salty about being exploded and how Emiya doesn't want to take the chance on the grail not being full of evil, but before that point, we did get along fairly well with him.
>What is Rule Breaker?
Something that if used on us will probably kill Stheno and Euryale.
Or actually, it might not even do anything.
>Rider or his wife and kids?
All of them equally, he considers Rider family, and wasn't willing to attack us in a way that would cause her harm. (like blowing up our house.)
>Remember that he thinks us getting the grail will end the world.
If it were Fate or UBW Shirou, he would be doing his best to stop us, but this is HF Shirou, who kind of doesn't care as long as the people he cares about are safe.

>>4217113
Anon, if Angra is in the grail and gets out it will kill everyone. Including Shirou, Sakura, and their children. Shirou's dilemma isn't "do I sacrifice a loved one to save a bunch of randos?" like it was in HF. It's "do I want one of my family to die, or all of my family?" Not much of a question. Even then he can probably still use RB on Rider to free her from us and only lose S&E. Sad, but definitely worth it to save Sakura's life. Just because he wouldn't agree to blowing us all up at once including Rider doesn't mean he's suddenly going to flip a 180 and happily work with someone who as far as he can tell is unwittingly trying to destroy the world.

>>4217077
>Emiya plugged us into his wife
No such luck I'm afraid, if we were plugged into Sakura, we'd at least have all our limbs. I don't think our allies are about to get off-screened either.
>decided to grow some balls and finish what he started while we are unconscious
Well he obviously didn't because we lived, and he isn't dumb enough to assault multiple servants.
>"Shirou, Aberich is evil and I require big borgar"
Saber Alter is likely to hate Shirou's food considering she loves junk food. Also
>Alberich is evil
So is Saber Alter.
>Lily please take the bullet just this once
Please no.
>what kind of Noble Phantasm Sweets gave assassin to make this not a cakewalk
Yeah, better be a Lord Camelot level defensive NP because otherwise they are getting erased instantly.
>If you mean making him and our family into magical test subjects/hounds/batteries, I totally agree!
Rude.

>Alberich gets exploded by Shirou
>Mad about it, swears revenge
>Alberich gets exploded by Harris
>Mad about it again
>"Fuck it, I'll use explosions myself, if they're so great!"
>Loses terribly, chopped up by Matsuda
Alberich and explosions just don't get along.

>>4217154
>"do I want one of my family to die, or all of my family?"
>Not much of a question.
For a normal sane person, yes. But for Shirou, he'll choose the route to save all the people he cares about at any cost.
>Even then he can probably still use RB on Rider to free her from us and only lose S&E
>murdering Rider's sisters
Rider would never ever forgive him for that.
It's also out of character for HF Shirou.
That's fucking Kerry tier.
>going to flip a 180 and happily work with someone who as far as he can tell is unwittingly trying to destroy the world.
Then maybe he'll have to figure out if there's a solution to all this that isn't trying to kill each other.

>>4217172
We need an anti-explosion NP on the double. Or Achilles' invulnerability/immortality on our armour, which we must remember NOT TO TAKE OFF.