You think for a moment as to just what the best course of action for retrieving Avenger is, and it's quite obvious that the first stage of your attack will need to be a scouting mission. Luckily for you though, you've not only got a Servant capable of creating an apparently unlimited number of powerful familiars to draw the attention of your opponents, but you also have a Servant that is really very suited to scouting. Disengage, when used properly, can be a terribly effective skill, after all. "Alright everyone. Here's the plan. I'm going to have my Servant create another one of her familiars to enter the Temple along with the one she's currently got with her in order to distract whatever might be defending the temple right now, then, Lancer will infiltrate the temple in order to investigate the place properly, regrouping with us when he's done. Then, when we know just what it is that we're up against, we'll prepare for a full scale assault." You have faith that Lancer will be able to accomplish this. He's quite the dependable hero... at least when it comes to situations that aren't solely about women.

While you were worried that Betty might be a weak Servant, her ability to create familiars is clearly second to none. The monstrous creatures she is capable of manifesting out of nothing but her magical energy are immensely powerful as far as familiars go. While they aren't on the level of a Servant, you don't imagine that a Servant would be able to fend off more than two or three of them at the same time before being forced to withdraw or use their Noble Phantasm. You already saw that Beaky is capable of immensely high speed regeneration, so simply trying to kill the beast would likely be impossible for most Servants without a Noble Phantasm or skill allowing them to saturate an entire area with destructive force. You don't even know if Betty has any limits on the size or type of the abomination she creates. In fact, she might even be capable of creating a beast on the level of Gilles' Gigantic Horror! Well, judging on the performance of the smaller monsters she's made so far, the performance would likely be on an entirely different level. While Gilles' demons weren't at all impressive, with Saber and Lancer alone being able to slaughter scores of them, Betty's abominations seem to be far more deadly. You wouldn't even really know where to start when it came to killing Beaky. Does it even have vital points? Could it regenerate from a single clump of flesh? You suppose that you could always use your Truth in order to rid the world of the monster should it come down to it, but the fact that the only solution you can think of that will allow you to get rid of the beast is to use your greatest and most energy intensive ability speaks volumes of just how dangerous the damn thing actually is.

"Works for me. Though I'd like to just get in there and deal with whatever the hell is causing the problem, it's probably better off we check the place out before jumping in anyway, if they've already managed to steal one Servant." Lancer seems pretty happy in your choice of using him in the plan, despite it only being a strict scouting mission to start things off. Well, you were half expecting Lancer to protest at being used to scout out your enemies capabilities, but then again, while he might not exactly be much of a team player, he's not exactly going to get mad and protest over being asked to do something with a clear purpose. It's not like Kirei's ridiculous command that prevented him from having any sort of satisfying battle in the original story for no reason other than because Kirei liked making his Servant suffer unjustly. Being forced not to use his full strength against opponents in his first battle with them must have been torturous for Lancer, who really only craves a good battle above all else in this war. Which he doesn't really ever end up receiving, bar perhaps his second battle against Archer.

"You're sending Lancer, huh? What about the other Servants here?" Bazett is obviously really quite invested in the fact that its her Servant that is being sent in first. Though she probably knows just how damn difficult it is to put Lancer down, so if things do get rough, she can just pull him out with a Command Spell. It won't be like in Illya's case, where she's incapacitated and unable to recall her Servant. If Lancer gets into any sort of trouble, a single Command Spell ought to be enough to rescue the Servant, and if that fails, you suppose that you can always just go ahead and launch the attack early. "I won't just say that I'm not a little hesitant to let you use my Lancer as... well, a minesweeper!" Her reluctance to go along with your plan is rising by the second, though it's not you who manages to calm down the Irish enforcer.

"You worry too much, Master. It sure beats camping out in that moldy old hotel and waiting for an opportunity, don't it?" Lancer gives Bazett a wild grin as he supports your plan. There's obviously some resistance on Bazett's part, as sending her servant into a place where one Servant has already been snatched away from their Master is clearly quite a foolish thing to do from her perspective, but given that it has Lancer's support, there's not much the woman can do but give a weak and silent nod of approval. Though it would be even more foolish to try to actually attack when you've got no actual intelligence on the situation at all, or if you were to send a Servant far less suited to this task than Lancer. Archer would likely do alright, but Medusa you can't imagine would be good at something like this at all. The only advantage she has over Archer when it comes to a scouting mission being her superior agility and speed, but experience wise? Rider never once investigated a single thing in however long her life was before she was finally slain, being trapped on a small island for your entire life would really hamper somebodies investigative ability, given that there wouldn't actually be anything to investigate on the island.

"I suppose I'll try to find a vantage point to... support Lancer from a distance." Archer shrugs. "If I'm needed, that is. I can't see the enemy within the temple even noticing Lancer. After all, just look at him. That blue spandex outfit is really concealing!" Archer makes a sarcastic comment towards the spearman, who immediately frowns as he looks over at the Archer.

"At least I don't have to wear belts on my pants like you, bowman." Lancer's response to Archer is a brief one, and you can tell that the response has obviously annoyed Archer, who is now frowning just as Lancer was moments before.

"Well, at least I don't have a ponyt-"

"Enough, both of you! Stop bickering like schoolchildren! Aren't you supposed to be heroic spirits?!" Rin has finally had enough of the two Servants getting into something of an insult tradeoff. Now really isn't the time for this, and if Rin hadn't said anything, it would've fallen down to you to get the two of them back on track. "As far as plans go, I don't really have a problem with it. It doesn't put Archer at risk, and at least this way we might be able to find out what exactly we're up against."

"B-but what exactly is Rider going to do?" Finally, Sakura speaks up. She's mainly been uninvolved in the discussion so far, but she does raise a good point, though you already have an answer to it, and it's one you don't think that either Rider or Sakura will have much of a problem with agreeing to.

You turn to Sakura and begin to explain in a tone that presents you as having thought things out more than you actually have. To be honest, other than a few of your long term projects, a lot of what you do is just made up on the spot. "Ah, it's quite simple, seeing as we have such a large group in need of some sort of Servant level protection, I had thought that Rider would've been better off used to guard the Masters here, so that Lancer and Archer can go about their own tasks without being worried about having to protect their Masters. We don't know just what the other Lancers in the war are like right now, and they may very well choose to take the opportunity of enemy Masters being unprotected by their Servants to strike at them. Besides, I think Rider is the sort of person who prefers to protect things rather than to attack things anyway." You softly smile at Medusa as you say that, though you don't know if she realizes on account of the blindfold or if you just managed to reach her with your words, but she gives you a smile in response anyway.

Illya looks somewhat miserable at being unable to properly contribute to the conversation in any meaningful way, and you try to think of a way to give her something to talk about, but you quickly realize that there's really no reason for her to get involved in the planning stage right now. It's not like the maids are going to be that useful when it comes to something like this, and being added support for Rider when it comes to defending the Masters will be enough. Still though, you can't help but feel a little bit bad that Illya has managed to have such a minimal impact on the plan. That will all change when you get her Avenger back though, you're sure of that much at least.

"Then we're all settled then, I'll go with Betty to the steps leading up to the temple so I can better... organize her=. "It's more that you just don't want her to fall asleep halfway though the plan and ruin everything, but you're saying nothing. "and when her familiars are ready to launch the attack, she has them charge towards the Temple Gates. It doesn't matter if there are any bystanders that witness any of this, we'll just brainwash them into forgetting all about it after we're finished anyway..." You quickly realize you're allowing yourself to be distracted by secondary factors.. "But anyway, while our enemy is preoccupied dealing with the summoned fiends, Lancer will slip past any defenses they have in order to look around the temple for clues."

There's a vague sound of agreement that echoes about you, with Illya and Bazett sounding the least enthusiastic about the plan, with Archer and Rin being a close second when it comes to measuring enthusiasm. Though each of them has their own reasons for disliking this particular plan. Rin probably just doesn't like it because it hinges on your own Servant and... well, you were the one who came up with it.

"Alright then. Kid, you're with me." The blue haired spearman addresses you before he turns to face Bazett, then his gaze shifts and he's looking at Rider harshly. "You better keep her safe, Rider. If you don't, I'll make sure I gouge out your heart." Lancer freely threatens his fellow ally, and you frown as you realize just how terrible fragile your alliance actually is. If you actually do manage to solve the problem in the grail, getting them all not to attack each other anyway might be more difficult than you first anticipated. You'll manage though... you hope.

Archer vanishes off by himself in the direction of the temple. Presumably, he's looking for some sort of vantage point to look out for any threats that might show themselves in the temple. But then again you don't even really know how much you can actually trust Archer not to decide that this is a perfect time to betray you. With any luck he won't see such betrayal as necessary anyway.

You then proceed to head off towards the temple. Betty is right by your side in spiritual form along with Beaky, and Lancer is walking quickly towards the temple. It's not a great distance from here, so it isn't really like you need to hurry, but Lancer seems to be taking things way too casually as he heads off towards the temple. When you're about halfway there, the spearman begins speaking. "You know kid... Nobody likes a know-it-all. If you want to be popular with the women, I'd suggest you tone it down a little." Unexpectedly, of all the things to begin to talk to you about, Lancer chooses women. "It never worked for men back in my era, you know." Of course, back in his era, strength was seen as the most important quality over all else.

"I don't need any advice when it comes to women, Lancer. I think I'm doing just fine as things are." The last thing you need is relationship advice from a man who ended up getting killed at least in part thanks to his bad decisions around women... and well, a rapist too. Threatening your enemy with death unless they bear you a child is very much rape, Lancer. But now isn't the time to try to explain the concept of sexual harassment to an Irish demigod from mythology. You can leave that to Shirou, you think.

Unexpectedly, Lancer begins to laugh. "Yeah, actually. You don't really seem to be in in any struggle to find women obviously interested in you. Hell, even-" Lancer ceases talking just as he's about to finish his sentence, and total focus appears on his face at the very moment you reach the foot of the stairs. "There's an enemy Servant waiting up there for us." Wait, really? Who could it be? Assassin shouldn't have been summoned, because Medea definitely didn't go here after you saved her, but if it's not Assassin, then who? Could it be another of the second set of Servants making their move?

As you peer up the long stairway, you can see the Servant standing atop the stairs. A man wrapped from head to toe in dark purple bandages stands atop the stairs, on guard for any intruders... It's... certainly not Sasaki Kojiro, That's for damn sure. You reinforce your eyes momentarily in order to get a better picture of the man on the top of the stairs, stumbling backwards a little as you catch a glimpse of the enemy Servants eyes through the bandages binding his entire body. They are mix of yellow and red, and seem to glow with a burning hatred. Could this Servant be the cause of the further corruption of the grail? He's unarmed right now, but that could change in an instant. While your ability to properly determine the stats and abilities of Servants hasn't been too useful at all compared to what you were expecting to be able to do, you can't get any information from simply looking at this enemy Servant! You wish you knew why your ability to perceive the stats of Servants who's abilities you aren't already aware of was so poor.

>Have Lancer battle the enemy Servant. Test what your opponent is capable of.
>While this is an unexpected obstacle. Your plan hasn't changed. Have Betty use her familiars to distract the Servant to allow Lancer to slip though.
>Approach the enemy Servant, see if they are open to speaking.
>Suggest Lancer cooperate with Betty's familiars in order to attain victory against this unknown Servant.
>Write-in...

>>4442134
>>While this is an unexpected obstacle. Your plan hasn't changed. Have Betty use her familiars to distract the Servant to allow Lancer to slip though.

>>4442134
>While this is an unexpected obstacle. Your plan hasn't changed. Have Betty use her familiars to distract the Servant to allow Lancer to slip though.

I’d rather we not alert them to our presence just yet so this seems like the safest bet.

>>4442134
>While this is an unexpected obstacle. Your plan hasn't changed. Have Betty use her familiars to distract the Servant to allow Lancer to slip through.
Ayyy, new thread.
Ayyy, new servant.
Ayyy, watch it be Avenger mind controlled and shit or Angra Manjew who has been kicked out the grail and made to fight for the new thing in the grail.
Ayyy, Betty Time.

>>4442134
>While this is an unexpected obstacle. Your plan hasn't changed. Have Betty use her familiars to distract the Servant to allow Lancer to slip though

Bets on whether its new servant or avenger bois?

>>4442134
>While this is an unexpected obstacle. Your plan hasn't changed. Have Betty use her familiars to distract the Servant to allow Lancer to slip though.

Can Betty do flying creatures? Maybe a swarm that envelops beaky sorta like a shield or something?

>>4442134
>While this is an unexpected obstacle. Your plan hasn't changed. Have Betty use her familiars to distract the Servant to allow Lancer to slip though.

>>4442134
>While this is an unexpected obstacle. Your plan hasn't changed. Have Betty use her familiars to distract the Servant to allow Lancer to slip though.
Oh boy, are you a Xehanort by any chance?

>>4442134
>While this is an unexpected obstacle. Your plan hasn't changed. Have Betty use her familiars to distract the Servant to allow Lancer to slip though.

At first i misread the thing about the eyes and thought it had many eyes, was about to say it was Argos.

While the appearance of a Servant at the Gate is something you didn't expect at all with the removal of Caster as the occupant of this place, it's not something that will be impossible for you to actually work around. All you'll need to do is preoccupy the gate guard so that Lancer can get through to carry out his mission. You doubt that it'll be that hard, honestly. Betty's familiars, of what little you've seen of them seem to be far more capable than the Dragon Tooth Warriors that Medea is capable of summoning. Though Medea should obviously be capable of creating more powerful familiars than just Dragon Tooth Warriors if she wished to do so. Of course, there was probably a reason she didn't bother doing that, but you find it hard to believe that Medea, who's skill in magecraft is said to rank in the top five of the entire world by Solomon himself, would be unable to replicate the achievements of lesser magi. Summoning phantasmal beasts should even be possible for her if her skill is that high, but controlling them might be a different story altogether, even Caster's tremendous magical skill wouldn't be enough to control the most powerful beasts like dragons.

"Betty. Lets give this Servant a little greeting, shall we?" You don't actually know if the Servant at the top of the Gate has even recognized you as a potential threat yet, but from those eyes of his, you can tell he's not the sort of opponent you ought to go easy on. This Servant is evil, through and through. A single glance at him is enough for you to gather that much. Though just what Servant this is a complete unknown. His appearance isn't one that you're familiar with. Could this be one of the other Servants of the war that was captured by whatever evil occupies the grail? Could it be possible that they are altering the Servants and twisting them to evil so they serve them? If they have access to the alignment twisting cursed mud of the grail, it's very possible that this Servant might be the altered form of a Servant you actually are familiar with!

'Alright, Master!' Betty's response to your order is short and sweet, and just a moment later, Beaky manifests, charging up the stairs towards the enemy Servant while you watch from afar. This should at least give you a good estimate as to the power of this enemy Servant. You'll be able to get a good idea as to your enemies strength from how he fares against one of Betty's abominations!

Lancer follows Betty's monster up the stairs, and when the enemy Servant acts to intercept the charging beast, Lancer simply leaps over both the abomination and the gate guardian in a fantastic display of acrobatic skill. The gate guard does nothing to actually try to stop the Servant from leaping over him, instead focusing entirely on the monster that is charging towards him.

In an instant, a weapon appears in the Servants hands, manifesting out of pitch black energy. A spear wrapped in the same tattered bandages that his body is wrapped in, irritatingly, you still can't get a read on the enemy Servant at all. Could this Servant be Second Lancer? Either that, or he is some sort of a spear wielding Assassin. A spear isn't really a very likely weapon for an Assassin to use though, so that's unlikely, and despite the clear burning hatred in his eyes, he's clearly not a Berserker. Hold on... this isn't Avenger, is it? As you think on the identity of the Servant, the clash between the spear wielding enemy and Beaky begins. The abomination of a creature lashing out at the man with three sharp tendrils, each with enough speed and force behind them to render the torso of a normal man to pulp.

The Servant easily deflects two of the strikes with the haft of the spear, and effortlessly cleaves through the third tendril with the blade of his spear. It's at that moment that you realize that Beaky is massively outclassed. The familiar that Betty summoned may be some sort of monster, but whatever has been done to the Servant standing guard at the top of the stairs has turned him into a monster also. You at least don't think that this is Avenger, Illya would definitely have told you if Avenger was fully taken from her, you think, and you at least think that you managed to gather a retrieval team fast enough.

While Beaky can regenerate from every wound that he's dealt by the enemy Servant, you can tell that as the fight is continuing, the enemy seems to be growing ever more accustomed to the attacks of Betty's familiar. A sweeping tendril to knock the man off balance is countered by an agile flip. A barrage of many tendrils is swept aside by a twirl of his spear. The creature lunging forwards with its sharp beak is easily countered by the man simply booting the creature right underneath it's protruding mouth, sending it spiraling down the stairs before it quickly recovers.

Yet despite the advantage that the enemy Servant holds over Betty's creation, he doesn't actually seem all too interested in dealing a fatal strike against the creature. Perhaps he knows that the regeneration of the creature would simply mean that attempting to actually kill it with nothing but a spear would be completely pointless? From what you've seen of the beast, it should be able to regenerate any part of its body just as easily as it regenerates the severed limbs.

Of course, just because Beaky is a strange eldritch beast capable of regenerating endlessly, it does still seem to feel pain from each of the spear mans strikes, grunting and screeching in pain whenever one of its clumsy attacks is countered by the far more skillful and fast enemy and it temporarily loses one of it's many limbs. While some sort of magical ability seems to be blocking you from viewing any of the information of the enemy servant, you'd say that he's at least faster than Lancer is, from what you've seen of how he handles his weapon, and his skill with that spear is incredible!

Well, Beaky was only actually meant to serve as a distraction, and thanks to the gate guardian not at all prioritizing Lancer, who was the far greater threat, the distraction has been a complete success! Still, you do kind of feel bad about the brutal beatdown that the monster is receiving. While you don't know why, the sight of the monstrous beast being so savagely and easily defeated is kind of... well, sad. There's something about Beaky's earnest attempts to please Betty that you just find endearing. The creature might look like something from a high budget sci-fi horror, but it acts more like a weird sort of dog that wants to please its master. At least in regards to Betty.

>Ask Betty to create additional familiars to overwhelm the enemy Servant.
>Have Betty get involved in the battle directly. She says she's strong, but now you've actually got an opportunity to put that to the test.
>Try to get involved in the battle yourself personally. (Do what?)
>Ask Betty if she thinks that her Mystic Eyes could help out in this situation.
>Withdraw for now. You've distracted the guard for long enough, Lancer should be just about done investigating now.
>Write-in...

>>4442463
>Ask Betty if she thinks that her Mystic Eyes could help out in this situation.
Backing out now could jeopardize the whole alliance thing. So, let's face Second Lancer for a while, i guess.

>>4442463
>Try to get involved in the battle yourself personally. (Use our Reinforcement to Reinforce Beaky)
Afterall even though we mostly use our Reinforcement to Self-Reinforce, that doesn't mean we can't use it on others.
Additionally, just in case this IS our Avenger, we probably shouldn't kill this servant and force a retreat or something.

>>4442462
>>4442471
Supporting.

Who the fuck is Second Lancer?
Does he think he's a mummy?
Nice bandages, you fucking dweeb.

>>4442463
>Ask Betty to create additional familiars to overwhelm the enemy Servant.
>>4442471
agree with this anon in that we should NOT kill this servant when hes clearly trying to not kill our servant's familiar.
we should probably tell our servant's familiars to try and capture or knock out instead of kill, familiars are disposable after all but whatever information this second lancer dude has is not

>>4442463
>Have Betty get involved in the battle directly. She says she's strong, but now you've actually got an opportunity to put that to the test.

File: Mot.jpg (951 KB, 1021x1652)

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>>4442481
It's Mot.
Pray that he allows you to live.

>>4442487
I don't know if we can rely on him not killing our autistic dog as proof he's a friend.

I think I figured out who they are.
But I'm not telling.

>>4442463
>>Ask Betty to create additional familiars to overwhelm the enemy Servant.

>>4442463
>>4442471
I support reinforcing Beaky but I don't think this is Avenger.

>>4442463
>Ask Betty if she thinks that her Mystic Eyes could help out in this situation.

>>4442463
>>4442471
Supporting Reinforcement.

>>4442463
Create a reinforced abomination swarm to overwhelm the servant.

Reminder that creating more minions has a very noticeable drain on our energy reserves. We also haven't seen on disappear...and we don't know were they go.

>>4442530
Overwhelm just enough for Lancer to get out safely. Then gtfo.

>>4442471
Support

>>4442471
Thanks for the dead end

>>4442471
supporting

>>4442565
new hair dont care

>>4442623
>cancerous newfags

>>4442463
>Withdraw for now. You've distracted the guard for long enough, Lancer should be just about done investigating now.

Getting over ambitious this early may be fatal.

>>4442761
fuck you i've been here this whole time

'Betty. Recall Beaky, I've had an idea.' You alert your Servant over the mental link. It's unfortunate that whenever she's not directly doing something or is certain that she isn't being observed that Betty is forced to take spiritual form, but until you find out more about her and her abilities, including whatever it is that is keeping this curse active on her. Really, you'd like to take her to Touko for an examination, but you have no idea if Touko will be able to prevent the curse from taking effect on her for long enough to actually take a look at the girl. If there's anybody you trust with something like this, it's Touko. Medea is also a potentiality, of course, but while Medea might be in the top five magecraft users in the world, just how much of that knowledge translates to actual technical knowledge is beyond you. After all, a lot of her magical knowledge is of the sort that is fundamentally incompatible with the modern world, so you don't know just how that would apply to Betty.

Touko however is quite the expert with spiritual bodies and containers. Her specialty is in puppets, and when you get down to it, a spiritual vessel meant to contain the soul of a human magus isn't that far a change from a spiritual vessel meant to contain the soul of a hero. Of course, it's because of this that ironically, Touko is probably the closest magus alive to actually achieving the Third True Magic without relying on some sort of ritual like the Holy Grail War, whether or not the woman actually has the inclination to truly learn the Third though is anybodies guess. All you know is that when it comes to the technical aspects of Servants, Touko is the woman you should speak to. Of course, Illya should also be quite well informed, but even the generations of knowledge built up by the Einzbern ought to pale in comparison to Touko.

'Beaky? Master... Did you give him a name?' Betty is clearly amused by your accidental revelation of the nickname you've been mentally using to refer to the creature. You had been so caught up in thinking about how to resolve Betty's curse that you hadn't even noticed your slip! She gives you a delicate laugh through the mental link. 'Beaky... I like it! I'll tell him that he's got a name now! He'll be so happy! You don't even really want to think too hard on the apparent fact that Betty is capable of properly communicating with the creatures she is capable of summoning. Though you really aren't sure if summoning is the right word for it. It's more like she actually creates the creatures herself, rather than summon them from another plane of reality or some other method like that.

Beaky, for its part. Disengages with the Servant on the steps, who makes no move to either reengage with the monster, nor does he even turn around to pursue Lancer. It seems content with just watching you and the monster that it was so dutifully blocking off from entering the temple only a few seconds ago.

Ah well, this gives you an unexpected amount of time to go through with your plan. While you aren't sure just how well that this is going to work for you, you place your hand on the chitinous black plates of the creature, and allow some of your magical energy to seep into the beast, giving you a perfect layout of it's utterly inhuman biology. Witnessing the true extent of it's alien biology would probably have been enough to break the mind of a lesser man, but there's absolutely nothing that exists in this world that could have that sort of effect on you. You think, and you instead just get a minor headache from looking upon the form of the monstrous creature.

While the abomination is startlingly efficient, with it's inner workings performing as soon kind of perfect biological machine, it's not like it's impossible for you to improve things with a little bit of reinforcement. You allow your magical energy to continue to flow inside the beast, and direct it towards strengthening the muscled tendons that already have otherworldly speed and strength. It doesn't take too long for you to finish reinforcing Beaky, but when you do, the Creature looks even more dangerous than before! There are glowing blue lines traced upon the chitinous plates of the master, indicative of the magical energy that is is still running through the system of the monster.

It seems to realize that you've made it more powerful too, as at the very moment you remove your hand from the creature, it leaps back up the stairs towards the enemy Servant, who appears far more wary of his opponent this time. Beaky starts to actually almost land hits on the enemy Servant, who can only just managed to dodge out of the way of the majority of the shots and ends up getting light cuts and bruises through the continued assault of the many limbed creature. Parrying the attacks is no longer a possibility for him. This Servant is going to either get serious about battling Betty's familiar, or he's going to die the humiliating death of a Servant who was unable to even defeat a single familiar!

Then, however, the bandaged servant does something you hadn't expected him to do at all, and in his hand suddenly appears a second spear, also mostly wrapped in bandages. Though this spear is just a tiny bit longer compared to his other spear. He wields the two long weapons with supreme skill, and the flow of the battle has once again shifted in his favor, then, it hits you. While you can't see his face or his actual body on account of the many bandages blocking you from observing the body of the Servant, there's one Servant who springs to mind when it comes to dual wielding spears which are concealed by what seem to be rags but are actually powerful talismans. But That's got to be wrong. Outside of Saber's very special case, the odds of somebody somehow managing to summon the exact same Servant as one that featured in the last war is practically nil!

Then, your suspicions are all but confirmed as the Servant leaps back and takes a moment to unwrap the bindings on the shorter spear. Revealing to you none other than the Yellow Rose of Mortality, Gáe Buidhe in it's unsealed form. But just as you're about to warn Betty to get Beaky to retreat away from the Servant who you now know simply cannot be anybody but Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, and as a Lancer to boot, a smooth strike lops off half of Beaky's limbs, and it stumbles away and cries out in great pain as it is unable to regenerate them. 'No!' Betty screams through the mental link, and you think that she's about to manifest to interrupt the Lancer before a loud explosion of energy rings out from the temple!

Mere moments later, Lancer's body is sent crashing through one of the pillars of the temple's gate! The body of Lancer flies past Beaky and who you suppose for now you'll refer to as Second Lancer, before Lancer manages to get his bearings and land on his feet, apparently not paying the large wound on his side any notice, despite suffering an injury that would rapidly kill a normal man, it's not something that would be fatal to him anyway. He managed to avoid having either of his cores struck. Beaky uses the moment of confusion to retreat, though it is unable to regenerate it's tendrils still, thanks to that damn cursed spear.

"Kid. I didn't think I'd be saying something like this at all during this whole 'war' thing. But I think that we ought to make a... uhh... tactical retreat." Lancer gestures to the top of the steps, and standing there is a figure that makes your heart freeze. No, more than that, your entire body freezes as if your blood turned to ice as you look at a truly dreadful sight standing at the partially destroyed entrance to the temple.

File: Saber Alter.jpg (125 KB, 1080x1524)

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Standing there is a short woman wearing an armored black dress which flutters in the gentle breeze of the night. Her hair is blond and tied into a bun, and her eyes and face are obscured by a black visor. In her hands is a sword, which would be black as night bar the glowing red engravings upon it. There's no question at all as to just who this enemy is. Somehow, Saber Alter stands before you as an enemy. Your mind races with questions. How!? Why!? When!? But now isn't the time for those questions. Now you need to ensure you survive this meeting!

>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.
>No! stand your ground, this isn't unwinnable!
>Write-in...

>>4443306
>>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.
>call Touko and say, "I just fucked up"

>>4443306
>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.
Oh. It's Salter. Bollocks.

>>4443306
>>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.
I am so sad

>>4443306
>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.


Well, our arrogance was bound to bite us sooner or later, but Alter was not what I expected. This is extremely bad, she is really good defense.

Also fucks up our metaplans but that comes with the territory.

>>4443306
>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.

>>4443306
>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.
tfw the shiroufags were right all along and we should've checked up on shirou, ah well this makes it somewhat more interesting at least

>>4443306
>>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.
Spicy.

>>4443306
>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImQ7K9iIupg

>>4443306
>>No! stand your ground, this isn't unwinnable!
Oh no. Saber simp I'm so sorry.
Also, poor Diarmuid can't catch a break.

>>4443363
>this isn't unwinnable
it actually 100% is unwinnable, 2 servants with magic resistance means that betty is limited (since mystic eyes and magecraft are both useless) to familiars which even with reinforcement can't beat diarmund much less saber who far surpasses him
meanwhile on our side we have a wounded lancer + unreliable archer support
no point wasting time with an assured dead end

>>4443371
I know, I'm just contrarian.

>>4443374
Now that I think of, Salter might be the worst possible matchup for just about any combo of our faction's servants. On the defense all the high damage NPs or cthulu familiars we can conjure can just be ignored.

I kinda just hear the now youve fucked up clip on repeat now.

Did the grail respawn the fallen 4th war servants as altered minions???

I want it to be known that Salter and the likely death of Shirou, is everyone's fault but my own unless proven otherwise.
I've been asking, BEGGING you guys to call Shirou as early as when we were first called by Rin about Sakura's collapse and you guys utterly refused.

Shiroufags are to blame because they refused to accept the compromise of just giving the lad the phone call, instead of visiting him in person, which led to us not communicating with him at all until it was too late.
Antishiroufags are to blame for being a bunch of spaztic children that attempted to ignore Shirou at every turn despite warnings of the potential consequences, although I'm not sure if anyone saw THIS coming.
Welcome to the hell you've created for us with your collective autism, let's try to get through it together, please.

Watch my dumb ass be off completely and it be because we tried to run to the temple instead of checking out whatever that mystery distraction was. I'll be fucking PISSED if that's the case, but it will serve me right I suppose. Watch Shirou be fine, and this whole thing somehow be Kerry's fault or something.

>>4443381
Possible, but Saber didnt really "fall"

>>4443306
>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible
I guess Diarmuid is still mad about being betrayed to death a second time.
I bet Cu would like to fight him though.

>>4443381
That could be it too.
Maybe Shirou never had a chance to summon Saber as opposed to him getting ganked and having Saber stolen from his corpse.
Maybe it's not this new element in the grail versus the originals.
It's once set of masters, versus another set of masters, verses the new element of the grail. Now that would be insane.

>>4443382
Between Kerry and Zouken floating around along with whatever the hell Thorpe's deal is we have a real shit sandwich on our hands.

Think we have enough money to research a time machine? Darkest timeline may be ahead.

>>4443378
So what the fuck do we do, are we gonna have to ask Gil for help? Because I don't wanna have to ask Gil for help.
>>4443382
Let it be known I voted to ally with Shirou since the very beginning.

>>4443394

Our priority now should be intel. We have no idea what the fuck is going on and anything we do is likely to fail if we continue with this little information.

Yeah leave Gil out of it.

>>4443382
I seriously doubt that Shirou is dead, more likely all the fourth war servants got resummoned as alters.
Why would Saber end up altered and then appear in the temple right when the Avenger retrieval was going on?
The shadow never showed up this early in HF and even if it is active in this world, why out of all masters would it single out Shirou and his servant to attack?

>>4443306
>Agree with Lancer

Something deep down in my gut tells me Shriou didn’t summon Saber......I don’t entirely know if I trust this feeling. But I also don’t doubt it might be true.

>>4443306
>Agree with Lancer
Soo from what information I could gather there are two, potentially three, sets of servants in this war.

Goddammnit Nyarly!!! What the fuck did you put in the grail!?

>>4443430
There's most likely only two sets of servants.
We have yet to see 3 versions of x class and so far have only seen two for each class.
e.g. two riders, two archers, two lancers, two caster

We're really only missing 1 berserker, 1 saber and 1 assassin from having met all the servants in the current war.

original 7
Saber: most likely saber alter
Lancer: Cu
Archer: Emiya
Rider: Medusa
Caster: Medea
Berserker: ilya's avenger
Assassin: ? (possibly medea summoning sasaki or zouken summoning one of the hasan. very unlikely to be the assassin with the tail we met)

additional 7
Saber: ?
Lancer: E rank luck
Archer: the one who shot at us (suspected master is monica since everything archer did helped us in the end but than again I could be completely off the mark)
Caster: Betty
Berserker: ?
Assassin: most likely the tail assassin we dead ended to

>>4443382
Fuck off, I and others have said to just call shitrou before.

>>4443306
>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.

Okay, in that case let's all calm down and evaluate the situation. Wherever shirofags, anti-shiroufags and whatnot, the most important thing is to know if Shirou and Saber are okay, we don't know what happened. Now, let's retreat, tell everybody we just done fucked up and go to Shirou's house and check on him. If he's dead, then all is lost, we'll need to visit the dojo.

>>4443473
I don't think the dojo can save us from this.

>>4443480
It all depends honestly. For now worrying about shit won't help us, information will. We now know two more enemy servants, and we now need to know more about Illya's servant, as well as her current connection with him. We also need to pay a visit to Shirou and see if our run just done fucked up. Hell, even if Illya goes on an autist rage it is better than knowing than plan B just done and poofed.

At this point do we really need Shirou? We still have Rouge coming and Manaka somewhere. Monica and Touko as well.

>>4443463
"everyone's fault but my own" is hyperbolic.
The point is that on multiple occasions the topic of calling Shirou had come up and very few of us opted to take that option given the potential benefits.
If you were part of the "Call Shirou you fucking idiots" gang, then I deeply appreciate your attempt. But the fact that only some of us were opting to vote for it is a bit frustrating.

>>4443488
Then don't you think the solution is to see with our own eyes? Information is always key.

>>4443487
>Monica and Touko
First one is MIA and Touko is a wildcard

>>4443487
>We still have Rouge coming and Manaka somewhere
Is this supposed to be comforting?

>>4443497
Yes

>>4443497
>Is this supposed to be comforting?
what is comforting in the first place? Even if we have archtype earth and zeltrech on our side, if plot going to fuck us over, then we're fuck regardless.
Let's be less dependant and actually do something with what we have.

>>4443491
I think keeping group cohesion is more important than personally seeking out information, especially when we have so many allies to do shit for us and so many alternative ways of seeking info.

Hints calling Shirou instead of going to his house and visiting him, thus exposing our lie to Illya and risking the alliance we've so carefully crafted.

Even now there is no reason to go seek Shirou out personally. We could send Rin or finally fucking find Monica and get her to go in secret, alternatively, Shinji could go in secret using a puppet body.
Our little group, as it's been stated, is a house of cards that can easily be toppled by the slightest disruption. As the one crafting this easily toppled mess, it's our job to ensure that we don't take actions that would lead to its collapse.
That means planning things out. That means not taking unnecessary risks when we could exploit readily available opportunities.
I'm all for seeking information from here on out, but what info we look for and how is just as important in the long run.

>>4443511
We should just use our Charisma and tell Illya the truth.

>>4443517
Not gonna work.
Shinji's Charisma can only take us so far and just like how Baz would have freaked the fuck out if we talked shit about her favorite priest, Illya will have more than a simple break down if she finds out that we've lied to her about what's in her head her most hated enemy.
Even if we've done considerable work dissuading her from that mindset, now that her servant is assuredly lost to us, even after all our fucking around getting allies, is literally the WORSE possible time to try to get her to worry about her brother.

>>4443517
I think we need more bonding time with every ally we got.
I mean, we're close to Illya but not THAT close for her to actually listen to us.

>>4443511
>We could send Rin
That's...actually a better idea, we got enough allies to plan shit up. We even have Lancer to back our claims and I'm sure the very existence of EMIYA might point that our Shirou might not be dead yet. Hell for all we know he's being chased by a random servant that will trigger SEIBA. We also have Bazette and Illya, but how could we use them without them blowing up on our face? I mean we ARE returning to the latter empty-handed and I'm sure she will throw a temper tantrum.

So what we can do is
>Send Rin to check on Shirou
>Give Monica a call and see if she's alive
>Plan with Illya and Bazette a way to break through the temple with what little information we've gathered

>>4443540
>>Give Monica a call and see if she's alive
Monica doesn't have her own mobile phone. Her powers wreck them as well as any other electronics she tries to carry.
Just as a reminder.

>>4443544
Didn't she have her own local phone?

>>4443547
She did, but she had to take precautions when using it/protecting it and especially made sure not to practice any variety of magecraft with it nearby.
A mobile phone would require it to actually be on her person.

I miss Monke

>>4443544
>>4443549
Ah, beat me to it.

>>4443540
Regardless, Sending Rin to find Shirou in secrete and sending a Puppet to find Monica personally while we plan with Illya and Baz isn't a bad plan.
Might also need to calm Illya down with the promise of a new servant or something, but we'll get there when we get there.
I'd also like Sakura do be doing something, but I don't know what would be the best use of her or Rider's talents at this time.

>>4443562
And we STILL need to ask Illya for info on her fucking servant.
I actually voted for that several votes ago and I don't remember every getting that info from her.
It could be that I just missed that information but I'm pretty damn she we were left on red in that regard.

>>4443565
Look all I'm saying is that we should have a consensus wherever we touch the child (Betty) or not.

File: Betty 4.jpg (129 KB, 600x800)

129 KB JPG

>>4443567
If you can call a consensus of two people a consensus then I agree. Betty deserves headpats.
But I'm also saying we still need to FUCKING GET THAT INFO ON ILLYA'S SERVANT!

>>4443567
Betty needs hugs, pillow and being told she is a good girl.

>>4443306
>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.
Imagine the sex Shirou and Saber Alter must have had. They DID fuck, right?

>>4443442
The only unknowns are
>Saber Alter (???)
>Original Assassin slot (???)
>Original Berserker slot Avenger (Illya)
>Second Saber (???)
>Second Archer (???)
>Second Berserker (???)
>Second Assassin (???)
Second Lancer is Diarmuid all but confirmed, no knowledge of his Master. Second Rider is Aife all but confirmed, Master is Nyarlathotep. All other Servants and Masters unknown

>>4443601
Makes me wonder, WHAT kind of eldritch abomination would we be, if Shinji ended up being something like Nyarla?

Are we Lovecraft?

Unfortunately today is a busy day again, so expect the update to be late.
I'll still try to do a second update if time/votes permit though.

>>4443306
>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.
Shirou. What the fuck.

Is Salter being Shirou-related really a given thing? What if Salter is the second Saber with the regular one being around just as pla- well, wished for?

>>4443640
unless this is literal fgo timeline. only one Saber (arthuria) exists to summon cus of Sabers deal

I pray shirou is still alive

>>4443657
Weelllll I wouldn’t entirely say that to be true. If memory serves right, proto saber (aka Arthur) is a separate spirit origin from our saber (Artoria/Altria/Arthuria/whateverthefuckthelocalizednameisatthispoint). So while VERY unlikely I wouldn’t say it to be completely impossible.

>>4443306
>>Agree with Lancer. Run. This battle just went from tough to impossible.

You stare at the stoic masked woman standing at the top of the stairs in silence for a while, and the woman looks in your direction. Looks like she isn't going to pursue you or Lancer just yet, and like Second Lancer, who you suppose must be the Altered form of Diarmuid, is simply standing on the steps still. Unlike with Second Lancer, of whom you are unable to get much of a read at all on, Saber here is leaking a tremendous amount of magical energy. The magical energy exuding from the woman is almost overpowering! She must be hooked up to the grail directly somehow, but by who? There shouldn't be anybody or anything else capable of functioning as a Lesser Grail! Sakura and Illya are both clearly not responsible for this terrible mistake, but if not them, who? Could there have somehow been a third lesser grail that is unknown even to you?

Then, as Saber Alter takes a single step towards you, Beaky, and the injured Lancer, your fight or flight reflex finally kicks in. This is a battle that you can't win. Not like this. Saber Alter has already shown herself to easily be capable of overpowering Lancer, if what you just saw is any indication of the gulf in strength between the two Servants. Though Lancer doesn't appear at all upset about his injury, judging from the almost battle crazed smile on his face. The fact that he's suggesting a retreat despite clearly having enjoyed himself though is pretty telling as to your chances if you were to try to do battle with the altered form of the King of Knights here. Things are even worse when you take into account the fact that Lancer Alter will be supporting Saber Alter. Diarmuid should be at least capable of stalemating Cu Chulainn, which would leave only you and Betty to deal with the overpowering tyrant king.

Your opportunity to flee quickly reveals itself as a sudden bombardment of arrows from the sky rains down upon the two enemy Servants. It's Archer! Guess that he wasn't joking when he mentioned that he'd be getting himself a good vantage point. He must be just as confused as you are right now, when you think about it. But even Archer ought to know the danger Saber Alter represents from her appearance alone, even if he never actually encountered her in the route his life took that lead him to becoming the counter guardian EMIYA.

The bright white projectiles rain down upon the black clad knight, and you take that as your cue to reinforce your body and sprint away as quickly as you can! Saving Illya's Avenger just got knocked down quite a few places on the priority list on account of potentially becoming impossible. With this level of defense, an assault on the Temple may well end up being a lost cause unless you were to somehow procure some major firepower! You continue running all the way down the steps, Lancer matching pace with you and Beaky rapidly hobbling after the two of you and only just behind you. Seems that losing so many of those tendrils has somewhat hampered the ability of the monster to move about. Betty remains silent and contemplative in spirit form as she follows along with you. She's probably upset that her monster got hurt. She does seem to share a strange sort of bond with the bizarre eldritch creatures she makes. It dawns on you that the girl may very well be absolutely livid with the actions taken by the Servant who hurt the beaked abomination.

You keep running though, all the way until you've reached the bottom of the steps. You take deep breaths of air as you reach the bottom of the stairs. Not from the exertion of running so quickly, but instead to try to calm yourself down. This is a complete disaster.

Lancer glares upwards at the now distant figures of the two Servants who seem to have given up on the idea of a chase at all. "I'm lucky I managed to trick that swordswoman into smashing me through the gate." He observes casually. "While I don't think that woman is an impossible enemy for me to defeat, the circumstances made it a fight that I couldn't win, at least." He sounds somewhat impressed as he says that.

"What are you talking about, Lancer?" Your voice is cold and distant as you try to piece together just what your next course of action should be. This has destroyed almost all your planning like a sledgehammer thrown through a pane of glass! Something you could never have expected or planned for has happened and you find yourself almost at a complete loss for the first time in a long time!

"That Saber... she wasn't the only other Servant in that Temple. While I didn't have long before she began to attack me, I could feel the presence of at least three other Servants in the immediate vicinity. Though I didn't get a good luck at any of them as only the swordswoman came out to drive me off." Three other Servants?! You almost scream mentally. You thought that you were playing things smartly by amassing such a large faction of Servants allied to you, but it doesn't even look like it's going to be enough! You try to calm yourself down a little. One of those presences probably belonged to Avenger, who for all you know is still able to withstand the efforts being taken to subvert him like poor Saber and Diarmuid have suffered. You clench your teeth so hard at hearing that that it actually hurts. It might be that your only course left would be to plead to Gilgamesh for assistance. If anybody is capable of defeating Saber Alter, it's him.

"I... see. Then this is grave news indeed." Your voice is still hollow, you can hardly even find the words to express how you currently feel as you walk back to the rest of your allies. Archer has yet to meet up with you, so you can only assume that he fled and ran to Rin after his bombardment. You finally allow yourself to think of what you were dreading the most as you reach a somewhat safe distance from your enemies.

Shirou. What happened to Shirou? If Saber has been taken and altered, then what of her original Master? Did he summon her earlier? Were the noises of the fight you heard back when you were being attacked by Second Archer related to this? Could... Could the reason that Shirou didn't pick up earlier be because he's been slain? Did you... not put him on the right track to mastering his magecraft? He should have at least been capable of defending himself!

>Call Shirou again as you walk back to your allies. Hoping beyond hope that he somehow picks up.
>Break off from Lancer, tell him to explain things to everyone with Archer. You need to go check on him immediately!
>Ask Lancer something else as you walk back to the rest of the group. (What?)
>At this point, things have already gone off the rails enough that you feel like getting Touko involved may just be your best option. Head to Garan no Dou.
>Write-in...

>>4443713
>Call Shirou again as you walk back to your allies. Hoping beyond hope that he somehow picks up.

If the Saber has been corrupted then we better find a way to uncorrupt her, for possible benefit of the Avenger as well. Alternatively, time travel.

>>4443713
>>Break off from Lancer, tell him to explain things to everyone with Archer. You need to go check on him immediately!
Please let shirou be alive
Poor Emiya has to see Saber be evil that's gotta suck.

>>4443713
Get Touko involved

>>4443713
>Call Shirou again as you walk back to your allies. Hoping beyond hope that he somehow picks up.

>>4443713
>Break off from Lancer, tell him to explain things to everyone with Archer. You need to go check on him immediately!

I dont think hes suddenly gonna start answering the phone. Get our ass over there.

>>4443713
>inb4 fucking Zouken created another lesser grail

>>4443713
>>Break off from Lancer, tell him to explain things to everyone with Archer. You need to go check on him immediately!

>>4443713
>Call Shirou again as you walk back to your allies. Hoping beyond hope that he somehow picks up.
If he doesn't pick up.
>Write-in...Activate a puppet and send it over to check Shirou's place while we debrief the team on the situation.
Alternatively we could have Betty summon a scout to check on him, a bird or something?
The point is abandoning the group to go find Shirou is incredibly irresponsible. We gotta keep a level head here.

>>4443713
>Call Shirou again as you walk back to your allies. Hoping beyond hope that he somehow picks up.

our whole faction and alliance is built on us as the lynchpin.
idk if leaving them is the best idea

>>4443713
>>Break off from Lancer, tell him to explain things to everyone with Archer. You need to go check on him immediately!
Let's not half ass this and at least give our bro some respect.

>I think my friend might be dead or in serious danger, better give him a phone call!

>>4443764
Yes

>>4443713
>Call Shirou again as you walk back to your allies. Hoping beyond hope that he somehow picks up.
Then
>At this point, things have already gone off the rails enough that you feel like getting Touko involved may just be your best option. Head to Garan no Dou.

>>4443764
Eh, he's shirou, he's going to be alright. The worst that could've happens is him in the brink of death. But he won't die.
A call is sufficient. We have another grave matter than just suddenly go to his house.
He's a bro, but some of you anon making it looks like you're obsessed with him. Chill out the shirou self jerk for a bit.

Oh to add, that one anon before convinced me (and other anons) that shirou is in fact the most dangerous, and the most powerful mage in this grail war.
So please understand that in the back of our mind we think that his survival is guaranteed no matter what.

>>4443764
We can't just ghost on the alliance we've spent this whole time building up, especially given the dire circumstances. We are the keystone of the whole operation and just running off is the worst possible thing we could do.
>>4443720
>>4443721
>>4443724
>>4443728
>>4443742
>>4443750
>>4443754
>>4443755
We have alternative means of checking on Shirou, we need to make use of them.
Betty, Puppets, Telling Rin or Sakura to check on him, hell calling Touko to see if she can help I doubt it though.
Running after Shirou isn't the answer, but just dumbly calling him probably won't get results either.

>>4443772
>Eh, he's shirou, he's going to be alright.
Given everything, we've seen that's a horrible assumption to make.

>>4443713
>>Break off from Lancer, tell him to explain things to everyone with Archer. You need to go check on him immediately!

>>4443713
>Call Shirou again as you walk back to your allies. Hoping beyond hope that he somehow picks up.
If he does not answer send one of our puppet bodies to check on him.

Yeah let's ditch our whole alliance that we spend so much time gathering and run across whole fucking city alone to check on Shirou.
What a great plan. Simply genius.

>>4443776
Why can't we leave a puppet with the masters here and go see Shirou ourselves then? Hell, we may need Truth Magic to help him out and we can't get that with a puppet. Who knows what kind of state he'll be in after that explosion and fighting whatever took Saber.
This feels like whatis kicking us in the butt for half-assing things and tunnel visioning.

>>4443794
What's the point of putting puppet? It's not about our presence, it's about our alliance. If we ditch everyone just to see shirou, then you're just a selfish prick.
Our alliance isn't a puppet that will just go "yes shinji", there's give and take. Like, be responsible.

>>4443794
Because it's dangerous. Not all servants are at temple. One lucky Assassin would be enough to send us to dead end.

>>4443796
We've tunnel visioned on this fucking alliance this entire goddamn time, not stopping for shit like mysterious explosions or going to pick up Shirou early, because you faggots whined about it.
What did that get us? We haven't saved Avenger and now we have Saber Alter to deal with. Good Job.

>>4443799
>Because it's dangerous.
No shit? It's a fucking grail war. Dead Ends will be around no matter what we do.

>>4443713
>Call Shirou again as you walk back to your allies. Hoping beyond hope that he somehow picks up
>Write In - immeadiately ask him without any hesitation or question if he has summoned his servant. This situation is dire so this question is heavily important.

>>4443796
NOOO YOU CANT SAVE THE LIFE OF YOUR FRIEND YOU HAVE TO BE UTILITARIAN JUST LIKE KIRITSUGU THATS SO SELFISH OF YOU

>>4443713
>At this point, things have already gone off the rails enough that you feel like getting Touko involved may just be your best option. Head to Garan no Dou.
Don't just ditch the alliance, and Touko may have a much better idea of what's happening right now than we do, she shojld have eyes all over the city.

>>4443804
What You call "tunnel vision" normal people call "concentration".

>>4443713
>Break off from Lancer, tell him to explain things to everyone with Archer. You need to go check on him immediately!
Our Alliance is perfectly fine.
You think it's going to fall apart in this situation?
Come the fuck on.
We need to help our bro.

>>4443804
Tunnel visioned is if you being narrow minded that only thinks about shirou by ditching the alliance we already have.
You're the one that tunnel visioning yourself.

>>4443810
Solving whatever is going on at the Temple is more important than saving your husbandu.

>>4443772
>hasn't picked up his phone
>saber alter is here
due to the logic I can conclude that shirou is perfectly fine and that nothing bad will happen to him.

>>4443810
Whoa calmed down there, maybe there's another /qst/ with shirou as yourself insert. No need to cry like a baby there.

>>4443812
No. Concentration is fine. What we've been doing is "focusing on the alliance to the point we've been excluding all other things." That's tunnel visioning.
If we had stopped to investigate the explosion, or stopped to pick up Shirou, we could have stilled had the alliance but have prevented some of our current misfortune.

>>4443814
>Our friend was most likely injured in a battle and had his servant stolen.
>STOP BEING SO NARROW MINDED AND ONLY THINKING ABOUT SHIROU!
Fucking retard.

>>4443813
Our alliance is holding together only thanks to us.
Bazett, Rin and Illya trust us but not each other. Whithout us it's gonna go to shit.

>>4443821
>you're tunnel visioning because you don't think about shirou! Now let me greentext my projection of you and use caps to makes you look mad
That aside, by your logic checking up by phone is still okay since the "most likely injured" part is only you tunnel visioning about shirou

>>4443822
The things about tunnel vision is that, he doesn't care about that. I bet he doesn't even know illya still holds deep grudge against shirou and her situation after all.

>>4443821
Hindsight is 20/20. If we wouldn't go to the Temple trying to find the Caster who clearly didn't want to be found we wouldn't be stuck with this Avenger-timer in the first place.
Running would be just a waste of time. Either he's dead and we jeopardised our alliance for nothing or he is alive and just left his phone home or lost it.

>>4443752
support.

>All this survivorship bias because we have information AFTER that shirou was fked from our choices
For all we know, choosing to take our time and involve ourself in other matters + searching for shirou would've screwed over Ilyas servant which means we'd be just as pissed now.

Everyone just fucking relax, people made the best decisions possible with the information available to them at the time. We knew ilya's servant was on a time limit whilst we thought Shirou would be fine after we spent all that time training him and we DID call him as well.

>>4443831
Or he's injured from having his servant stolen and needs some heals and won't last long enough for us to faff about hoping he picks up his phone this time after he didn't the last time.
Fuck, his phone could be destroyed for all we know.
If you're scared of assassins, let's take some of the idiots from our group. But we need to check on Shirou in a way that we can immediately help him.

ITT: We see that Shirouhaters are literal ESL subhuman retards.
Nobody gives a fuck about Illya's petty grudge.
She can suck it up, she's fucking irrelevant now.

>>4443834
>let's take some of the idiots from our group
Why don't we just talk no jutsu llya than visit Shirou with the whole group?

This completely solves the current argument fully.

>>4443836
If he's hurt, we could kill two birds with one stone and take his body to Garan no Dou with the puppet or one of Betty's minions.

>>4443836
>>4443843
He has the Avalon inside him. He does not need our healing.
If he managed to run into enemy servant while being alone he is either alive and on his feet or dead.

>>4443841
>>4443522

>>4443841
support.

>>4443845
Avalon don't work without Saber being his Servant, big brain.

>>4443845
We don't actually know that, and it's not like Avalon has stopped him from dying in the VNs

>>4443847
Wooooooow

>>4443847
as in vote for this or +1 instead of whatever I originally voted for

you should all vote for my idea as well since this is best of both worlds

>>4443843
The puppet is canon levels of useless Shinji outside of talking, sitting in class and doing paperwork and we don't know how Betty's minions react to people who aren't us or Betty.

>>4443845
>He has the Avalon inside him.
Avalon requires Saber's energy to activate. He does not have Saber. Fucking secondaries.

>>4443847
Samefagging nigger you can't just support your own idea.

>>4443841
I feel like that would be a waste of time. What if he is not home. That would mean we wasted like an hour on a stroll.

>>4443849
>>4443852
I know it needs Saber but whith Avalon inside him it's almost guaranteed he will summon her,
I know that we saw Salter but this War is all kinds of fucked up already so why not.

>>4443852
Puppet is easily capable of carrying Shirou to Garan no Dou and if Shirou is as hurt as you think he is, he won't be able to do much to the minon, and once it gets him to Touko its job is over anyway.

>>4443713
>>4443752
Supporting. At the very least, we can have the puppet carry a note telling him to call us or something.

>>4443857
>he won't be able to do much to the minon
I'm more worried about the minion doing something to him.

File: Betty 2.jpg (197 KB, 1200x750)

197 KB JPG

>>4443863
The minions have been very well behaved so far and seem to gladly follow all of Betty's orders.
There's no reason to assume that they would go berserk just to fuck Shirou over.

>>4443713
>>4443752
supporting

Oh.
You guys.
Servants from previous wars like Deermud being brought back isn't exactly a new thing.
I think Manaka might've hijacked the grail.

I'm having a serious time staying invested in this quest, just because all this drama between the Shirou dickriders and the Shirou haters is so fucking stupid.

>>4443892
>I'm having a serious time staying invested in this quest
>Says the one post anon.
Ok.
Not saying it's not incredibly annoying, but it comes with the Fate Quest territory and it's not like there's anything the QM can do about it, or you for that matter.

>>4443892
I have no problem with Shirou but at this point we should commit to one plan instead of flip-flopping and running all over the city like a headless chiken.

>>4443894
>serious time
What an amazing fuckup. I meant to write a seriously hard time. I haven't posted before because every time I go to vote my energy is drained by the insane drama.

>>4443892
I want the mc of stay night to be happy and healthy and not die. I would not call it dick riding

>>4443896
My point still stands.
If you don't have the energy to vote anyway, I say sit back, relax, and enjoy the story passively.
No need to pay attention to drama if you just read the updates.

>>4443887
ANON DON'T GIVE ME HOPE JUST TO TAKE IT AWAY.

>>4443892
Want me to pass you the popcorn? I think it's hilarious.

>>4443713
OKAY GUYS LISTEN
>Send Rin, Archer and one of our eldritch abominations to help them.
OR
>Send Sakura and Rider and have them check on Shirou with one of our monsters

Meanwhile we use them to save Shirou from whatever problem AND INFORM SHIROU THAT, IF HE IS TO MEET OUR GROUP, SHINJI AND HIM HAVE NEVER FORMALLY MET BEFORE, THIS IS FUCKING IMPORTANT.

Meanwhile we need to report this all to Bazette and Illya and maybe go somewhere safer for a strategic meeting and decide what to do next. We have both EMIYA and Lancer who can corroborate our story, so there's nothing to worry about it.

ALSO
>Hug Betty and tell her she did a good job
SPOIL THE LOLI

>>4443928
Let’s show her our BMC

>>4443928
Isn't Shirou a bad liar?

>>4443713
>Call Shirou again as you walk back to your allies. Hoping beyond hope that he somehow picks up.
Explain.

>>4443713
>Break off from Lancer, tell him to explain things to everyone with Archer. You need to go check on him immediately!
SHIROU BETTER NOT BE DEAD
>inb4 Saber Alter and Shirou ARE really Servant and Master, and SAlter is acting on Shirou's orders pretending to work for the enemy
Too galaxy brained for them?

>>4444018
Too high IQ requirements to pull that off.

>>4443713
>>Call Shirou again as you walk back to your allies. Hoping beyond hope that he somehow picks up.
>Heal Beaky, he did a good job.

This vote has had something of a confusing outcome.
While theoretically, calling Shirou is in the lead, it has been massively split up by additions to the vote that would each have quite a significant impact.
Meanwhile, simply going to visit Shirou has the second highest amount of votes.
I'm not writing yet though, and not just because I can't make heads or tails of what I should write.

>>4443713
I'll support >>4443752

>>4443752
Support

>>4444165
Then how about a second vote, but instead having the call be the known outcome but the rest as options for us to choose from?

>>4444175
support.

Ok, if you want to resolve this with a secondary vote...

>Just call Shirou.
>Call Shirou, use a puppet or a scout of some kind to check on him if he doesn't respond. (As a warning, using a puppet is hardly feasible here, as it would require either spending a long time programming it's actions, or to assume direct control over it. Not to mention the fact that you puppet bodies are in your workshop.
>Call Shirou while you head to Garan no Dou
>Call Shirou, immediately ask him about whether he has summoned his Servant.
>Call Shirou while you heal Beaky right in front of the badly wounded Lancer.
>Call Shirou and... (Write-in...)

>>4444241
Call shirou and heal beaky and pat invisible loli on the head

>>4444241
>>Call Shirou while you heal Beaky right in front of the badly wounded Lancer.

>>4444241
>>Call Shirou and... (Write-in...)
Call Shirou and accidentally call EMIYA instead while we go visit Shirou in person.

>>4444241
>Just call Shirou.
Can't we heal Beaky without being an asshole?

>>4444241
Can we heal both Beaky and Lancer? I kinda feel bad about leaving either one out.

send rin to heal shirou cause she has her pendant thing

>>4444241
>>Call Shirou while you heal Beaky right in front of the badly wounded Lancer.

>>4444241
what >>4444244 said

Fuck it, I'm changing it.
>>4444241
>>4444262
>Call Shirou while you heal Beaky AND Lancer.
I don't want him to keel over and die, he does enough of that as it is.

>>4444241
>Call Shirou while you heal Beaky right in front of the badly wounded Lancer.
Have some rendezvous and tell everyone about our enemies servants identity.

>>4444241
>>4444290
support

>>4444241
>>4444290
Support, assuming Lancer doesn't deny us.

>>4444241
FUCK FORGOT ABOUT LANCER
CHANGING VOTE FROM >>4444284 TO >>4444290 BECAUSE I'M A RETARD
CAN WE PAT OUR LOLI ANYWAY? THROW THAT IN!

>>4444241
>>4444290
This
It's a shame about the puppets but we could always send Beaky or another minon I suppose.
First and foremost we need to heal our allies and see if the call won't work.

>>4444393
Not beaky. We don't know if her minions can come back

>>4444394
I'm pretty sure they don't considering their creation process.

Wait, aren't Gáe Buidhe's attacks unable to heal unless the spear breaks or Diarmuid dies?

>>4444427
>It seems that it doesn't actually heal wounds, more than it erases them from having occurred.
Taken from pastebin

>>4444290
Support

Well, you think that you're out of immediate danger now, and unless Saber Alter suddenly decides to start pursuing you and Lancer, you don't think that you'll run into any more trouble. Of course though, there are a few things you ought to do before returning to the rest of your allies with the dreadful news that an assault on the temple will be far more costly than you had first imagined it would be. In fact, a full on assault to rescue Avenger is probably impossible as things are now. Your only real hope of retrieving the Servant from the clutches of whatever is responsible for this mess is to either somehow sneak past multiple Servants in order to retrieve a prisoner, which is an impossible task for just about anybody to manage. Or, alternatively, to get somebody capable of using spacial transportation magic agree to help you. Now where oh where would you be able to find somebody like that? If only Medea wasn't so flighty, you would probably already have rescued Avenger and be plotting a way to deal with th nigh-insurmountable fortress that the temple has become.

Originally, you had made contingency plans as a just in case for the situation at Ryūdō Temple, though they all relied on the Servant you were opposed to being somebody like Caster with the support of Assassin and Kuzuki. Not high power Servants like Diarmuid or Saber Alter. The only thing that made the whole situation with assaulting the Temple fair at all was the fact that the two Servants actually guarding the temple were easily the two weakest Servants in the war thanks to the caliber of their opponents. But when it has a defense on this level, you don't know if an assault is even possible at all! Not unless you were to somehow destroy the damn place entirely with an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm, but wait! Somehow, it looks like the Servant with the Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm has been subverted to the side of your enemies! Damn it, damn it, damn it! Damn it!

You dial Shirou's mobile again, and receive no response. You honestly weren't expecting anything else at this point. If Saber has been taken at this stage, then it's clear that the boy must have been targeted. Honestly, you hadn't even expected him to summon his Servant early, and given what has come of it, you would have preferred that Shirou had never summoned a Servant at all. You try his mobile one final time, and you still receive no answer from it. Out of desperation, you ring his home phone next, expecting absolutely nothing.

Only to have your heart almost jump out of your chest upon hearing the distinct noise of the phone being picked up. "Shirou? Is that you?" The voice on the other side of the phone asks you the question you were just about to ask them. It seems that Taiga picked up. You really have no idea how you're supposed to explain any of what might have happened to the slightly dopey teacher.

"Ah, is that you, Fujimura-sensei?" You try to keep your voice neutral, thinking about how there's still a chance that Shirou is somehow alright. "It's me, Shinji. I've been wondering where Shirou is. I've tried to call him a few times now, but I keep getting redirected to voice mail. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?" With any luck, Shirou was naive enough to tell Taiga where he was actually headed. Or at least give you a vague direction.

"Well, I visited in the afternoon, to find that this blond European girl with a weird name... I think it was... 'Seabar'?" Taiga doesn't sound too confident in her pronunciation of Saber's name, but you pay the horrible mispronunciation no mind. "But yeah, she said that she was one of Kiritsugu's friends from a long time ago..." Taiga briefly chokes up a little, she seems to be holding back tears. "I don't know what I'd do if Shirou went missing like Kiritsugu did!" She tries to get herself together a little as she keeps talking. "H-he left his phone at home too!"

...Ah. Well, that might explain why you've not been able to get in touch with him. Though why Taiga didn't end up answering you when you called Shirou on his mobile is a complete unknown to you. Maybe it was on silent or something? Phones are a little bit like alarm clocks, and you know how Shirou feels about Alarm Clocks. "C-calm down, Fujimura-sensei. I'm sure that Shirou and his father's old friend are just... admiring the beautiful scenery of Fuyuki City. I'll... I'll let you know if I find him. Call me if you find anything." You end the call without any further words exchanged between the two of you, it's already getting pretty damn late, and normally, Taiga wouldn't be waiting about for Shirou like this. You sigh as you put the phone back in your pocket. Well, it's confirmation that Shirou summoned Saber, at least... Before he got her stolen away from him. Your blood boils in anger. Could Shirou really have been taken out of the Grail War so quickly? No. You refuse to believe that Shirou and Saber after all the magecraft training you instructed Shirou to do would go out like chumps on the very first day! Hell, before the first day, even!

No, Shirou couldn't have gotten himself killed and though Saber has been stolen from him, then you know just the method to steal her right back and end Angra Mainyu's corruption at the exact same time! Rule Breaker! And better yet, there are three people capable of utilizing such a method. Caster, being the original owner of the dangerous dagger, Archer, being capable of tracing it, and of course, Shirou himself! Really, Angra Mainyu isn't that much of a danger to you as soon as you can ensure that you will have Rule Breaker to hand should it be needed. Still, you'd be stupid to trust EMIYA in this stage of the war. Though he's far less likely to betray you now that he's properly aware of the threat, at least.

You try to stop thinking about Shirou, Saber Alter and the Temple for a moment and instead focus on the problems at hand. "Lancer. That cut, is it hindering you in any way?" You ask the Servant as you observe Beaky, taking a look at the severed tendrils. The creature is clearly in no small amount of discomfort thanks to it's inability to regenerate.

"It hurts like a bitch, if that's what you're asking. But I've walked away from way worse than this!" Lancer declares proudly. He then seems to notice you staring at Betty's creature, before yawning. "Yeah, I wouldn't bother with trying to heal that thing. It'll probably be more merciful to put it out of its misery. Those wounds are cursed. I can tell that from here." Lancer's voice as he makes his observation is calm but really he is only telling you something that you already knew. Well, about the fact the wounds are cursed, that is.

"Cursed, huh? Good. I've been looking forward to being able to test my abilities against a curse on the level of a Noble Phantasm, or well, at least a curse linked to a Noble Phantasm." Beaky seems to look at you curiously as you take one of the severed limbs in your hand and begin the process of healing it, the severed tendrils miraculously appear almost instantaneously after you remove the cursed wounds, and you yourself aren't really certain if it was the monsters work that regenerated the limbs, or your own. It simply happened too fast for you to catch. "Would you like me to heal you as well, Lancer?" You can't really hear very well thanks to the barely articulated squeals of joy that your Servant is making because you fixed Beaky. You're pretty certain that if Lancer wasn't here, Betty would be trying to hug you. Hopefully she can control her own strength. A hug from her might end up being like a hug from a hydraulic press, if she gets too carried away. That Strength parameter of hers is nothing to joke around with.

You try to ignore the happy noises being made through the mental link as you listen to Lancer. "Tempting as the offer is, kid. I'll pass. While I do really appreciate you offering to heal me, I'd say you'd be better off saving your magical energy. My wounds aren't cursed, and I'm a Servant. This thing will be gone in the morning anyway, if not sooner, If I can... 'convince' my Master to share more of her energy with me." You're pretty certain that was a euphemism, but you don't mention it. Of course Lancer would refuse to be healed. Hell, he might have even done so just so he scores more points with his Master!

As your small party approaches the Rendezvous point, you spot Archer leaping out of the trees a very short distance away. He remains silent as he does so, but Lancer smiles at him, as if to tell him that he was aware he was following you the whole time. Annoyingly enough you genuinely had no idea that Archer was stalking you. But then he wasn't actually an enemy, so it's not like you were on the lookout for him.

The reactions of each member of the group hardly differ much as you approach with the hurt Lancer. It's only Bazett who is clearly panicked upon seeing her wounded Servant. Though she soon calms herself down. Illya just looks disappointed about the clear lack of an Avenger with you more than anything else, and the rest of your allies don't seem to care at all.. You suppose that you should probably get to explaining things...

>Try your best to explain things with what you know about your enemies.
>Have Lancer give his account and analysis on the situation
>Have Archer give his own account and analysis instead.
>Write-in...

>>4444605
Have all 3 give accounts. Get Betty out for a second under the super soft sheets and give her a hug. Tell her that her and beaky and a great pair and you love them.

>>4444605
>>Try your best to explain things with what you know about your enemies.
Fucks sake Cu...

>>4444605
Might as well have everyone report in on what they saw. At this point we aren't on much of a clock anymore, unless you guys want to rush around town trying to find Shirou or Medea.

>>4444605
>Try your best to explain things with what you know about your enemies.
how do we explain about diarmud and saber alter?
diurmud we can bs because of the 4th war but how do we convey what we know about saber alter without attracting suspicion?

>>4444605
>Try your best to explain things with what you know about your enemies.
Ultimately unless we want to reveal we have meta knowledge. We need to choose our words carefully. VERY carefully.

Reminder that Illya and the Einzbern already know about Shinji's "ability" to call out servants when we see them. It's not revealing our hand too much to dox servants we see, except EMIYA, we probably shouldn't dox him.
Shinji also told the Einzbern about Gilgamesh, meaning we have some knowledge of the last grail war at least.
So there's no real need to tip toe around the issue here. Hell, giving as much info as possible can only help...in fact this might be an opening to get our group to go looking for Shirou!
We can initially blame Saber coming back on Kerry, but also suggest we go looking for the Emiya boy just in case he might have something to so with it. Phrase it like an after thought or some such!

>>4444605
Weird choice. The point is to know what Lancer found out and what Archer seen.
I prefer if we think what to do next.
>what are we going to do know? Since the war is botched. Maybe ask Touko?
>Illya is the most vulnerable right now, defense wise she's got no servants protecting her AND her missing avenger is partly our fault. Since it was us that wanted to go to temple in the first place. We can be with her in the mean time in the pretext of protecting her while whispering sweet words to ease her hatred of shirou.
>then go find what happens with shirou
Is anything missing from this? Oh yeah, what's Monka on priority list? How do we know she's not one of the new master with her sudden disappearances?

>>4444786
Supporting! We can even say we got that info from Weaver! He DID participate in the last grail war

>>4444819
high iq support this.

>>4444819
We don't need to say who we got the info from. We didn't tell the Einzbern and we don't need to tell anyone here, especially since Illya is here to vouche for us.
Leave Weaver outta this thanks, for his benefit and our own.

>>4444819
>>4444828
It's Waver you fucks, WAVER.

>>4444832
Now that I think about it, why does Diarmuid gets to be in the sequel but not Iskandar? Fuck you Alan.

>>4444786
>>4444819
Supporting + Weaver man

>>4444832
Maybe I should start calling him Anxiety, seems like a much better fit for him anyway.

>>4444605
>Try your best to explain things with what you know about your enemies.
Do not mention Waver.

>>4444966
>>4444828
We don't NEED to mention Weaver technically, but it's a just in case people start getting suspicious about us. REMEMBER we are still in hot water, specially if Emiya decides to go solo.

>>4444970
Stop calling him that, retard.
>>4444605
>Give own explanation.
Maybe point out to them that our priority should be Medea now.
Then maybe ask Medea to help?
She said she'd be watching us, so she's probably watched this whole disaster.
I wonder if our healing impressed her.

GOD FUCK WHERE ARE YOU SHIROU

>>4444605
>Try your best to explain things with what you know about your enemies.

No but seriously.
Medea when.
I want to get a power boost from dragon blood.
I also want to find Shirou
Please let him be ok.
QM.
This is a threat.

>>4445056
That's why I've been pushing for Rin or Sakura to go and find him while we do other stuff. I mean, Sakura's been doing nothing as of late, might as well have her try and find the sword autist.

>>4444605
Support

>>4445109
nice vote

>>4445111
I’m on mobile it fucked up thanks for letting me know lmao

>>4445109
>>4444786

"Everyone. We've run into a... problem." Everyone turns their focus to rest squarely on you. "The Temple is far more fortified than I ever could have imagined it to be. The Servants defending the place, as far as I'm aware from their Noble Phantasms as to their true identity, are both Servants from the last war, twisted and corrupted to evil somehow. While I only saw two of them, one of the Servants is the Saber from the last war, and the other one is the Lancer from the last war. But Lancer apparently felt the presence of three more Servants." Bazett is the only member of the group who doesn't appear shocked. You wager that Lancer must've been telling her what was going on even when he was unaware if his escape was even going to be a possibility. An example of good foresight that you weren't expecting from him, honestly. "Though if we're lucky, then one of those Servants will be Avenger. Illyasviel, Avenger is still linked to you right?

Illya stands there in silence for a moment until she blinks and shakes her head. You had expected the revelation to shock her, but to cause her to become so distracted she zones out of the conversation? "R-right. He's still holding on, but I don't know how much longer he can keep it up. At this rate, by tomorrow, Avenger will be in the control of this enemy as well." Illya sounds terribly depressed about how things have gone down, it isn't like you were expecting her to be happy with the nigh impossibility of the situation.

Bazett speaks next. "But right now, in the best case, it's four Servants against four Servants, right?" She makes a rough observation as to the numbers of your enemy. "It might be a risk, but surely we can try an assault on them anyway? I don't like the idea of just leaving this alone so that whatever is stealing Servants can become even stronger." The experienced enforcer gives her opinion on what you ought to do.

"It is more than just a risk, Bazett-san." You try to keep your voice respectful despite how angry you feel about the whole situation, you aren't angry at your allies, after all. "But it's too much of a risk. I mentioned that the two Servants I saw I recognized them, didn't I? Well, the first, the Saber, is King Arthur twisted to evil. You already ought to know how powerful Excalibur is, but if you don't, the sword is an A++ rank Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm, and what's worse, Saber, and possibly also Lancer, seem to have an overwhelming amount of magical energy available to them, meaning that they can likely use their Noble Phantasm as much as they wish. I doubt that any of us here have something capable of stopping a blast from that legendary sword." Of course, you do have Rider and Archer, who together could pull off a superior version of the charge that put Saber Alter down in Heavens Feel, but you don't know if that same attack will work here. It's incredibly risky to do something like that charge when you don't know what other Servants might be lurking within the Temple. You don't even know if it'll achieve the same effect, either, the situation here isn't the same, and depending on how far away they are from Saber Alter when they start the charge, they might not even make it to her before being overwhelmed and obliterated by the unrelenting force of the twisted holy sword.

Everyone pales a little bit at that piece of information, even Lancer seems a little put off by the revelation of the true identity and power of the opponent he faced, the knowledge that his opponent was capable of ending him very quickly anytime she wished to do so clearly leaving the spearman in a relatively somber mood. Of course, the only person who doesn't look pale or shocked other than yourself is none other than Archer. Who just looks angry, about as angry as you, actually. Seeing Saber Alter must've been terrible for him, you realize. You then wonder if the counter guardian still harbors feelings for the woman. You remember that he came from a slightly different Fate route to the one you observed once, but it has never actually been elaborated on. You aren't expecting him to tell you what happened in his grail war either though, so you may as well just try to rid yourself of the wish to know. It won't do much other than to sate your curiosity about the war he went through anyway. Archer sighs as he begins to speak. "Lancer, when you were inside the temple, did you see any normal people around?"

The blue Lancer looks towards the red Archer "Normal people? You mean non-participants, or people who looked like they could be Masters?" He looks a little annoyed as he answers. "Because as far as people went, I only saw a few obviously unrelated people wandering about. Something has been done to them so that they completely overlooked my battle with that Saber though. I'm guessing it's a magus' work, maybe a Caster." Good lord, can the inhabitants of Ryūdō Temple ever catch a break? Caster isn't even at the temple, and yet somehow everyone still ends up having their minds messed with! You hope that Kuzuki is alright. Issei too, even if you hardly speak to him, that doesn't mean you wish harm on him.

"Damn. I guess demolition isn't really on the table then." Archer frowns as he realizes that there are people still living and residing within the temple. Though basically only as hostages at this point. You can only really imagine that Archer had maybe planned to demolish the entire temple, along with the Greater Grail itself. If you were to somehow destabilize the Greater Grail to allow the energy to explode outwards, the resulting blast would be tremendous, easily enough to vaporize the entire temple. Of course, using the Greater Grail like that would also require you to sacrifice all of your Servants anyway, though you suppose that between you, Illya, and Sakura, keeping them all around wouldn't be impossible. You don't really know what the hell Archer is going to do at this point though. You weren't really expecting him to suggest such a destructive solution to the problem. Though he's at least doing his best not to get innocent people killed. It's a shame, but you think that if Kiritsugu was around, you already know that he'd go through with the act regardless of the human lives lost. Well, at least he might have before, you don't know what he'd do now that he's had that world view of his shattered... then again, you have no idea where he is or what might have happened to him. It's entirely possible he attacked the Einzbern and ended up dying in the process. You've never really found yourself in a position to properly investigate though. Hell, you wouldn't even really know where to start. It's not really something you can ask Acht without it making you look incredibly suspicious, and the truth would've been concealed from Illya regardless of what happened, so it's no good asking her.

Bazett folds her arms as she hears Archer's rather destructive suggestion. "Even if not for the casualties, I'm not sure I can support the destruction of the Greater Grail when we don't actually know its current situation. The Mage's Association wouldn't take kindly to the destruction of a path to the root without at least analyzing the damn thing first." She sounds like she really doesn't care for the orders she's supposed to be enforcing. It's pretty clear to everyone here that something is wrong, but that doesn't mean that the Mage's Association will accept that as evidence. "Besides, the detrimental effects of detonating something so large that is hooked directly into the leylines of the city would be colossal. Not to mention that the explosion would be way too big to be concealed." Ah, so then that's probably off the table then. You really have to wonder how nobody in Fuyuki ever seems to get suspicious of stuff like Noble Phantasms going off. Hell, Excalibur by itself ought to set alarm bells ringing on a nationwide level! The Church and Mage's Association must have exceptional damage control teams. That's really all you can take from nobody caring about something like a gigantic sea monster appearing at Fuyuki's port. The only other explanation is that the people of Fuyuki are just incredibly unobservant, which is just silly.

"Yeah, no. We aren't blowing up the Greater Grail." Rin crosses her arms as she sternly looks at Archer. "Do you even know what could happen if all the energy stored in the grail was dispersed in an uncontrolled reaction? It would be like dropping a nuclear bomb just outside the city!" If that does end up happening, then it's pretty obviously not ideal. An uncontrolled explosion would be the worst solution here.

Archer doesn't look too bothered by Rin bringing up how dangerous such a thing could be. "Mhm, you might be right. It's probably too impractical a solution to work." He doesn't sound entirely convinced by Rin's claim that the Grail would go up like a nuke, and honestly. You aren't too confident in her claim either. Of course, if all of the energy dispersed as an explosion, then the resulting detonation would likely be enough to level half of the city, but it's pretty simple to avoid that happening. Though at the same time, a controlled explosion would take far more time to set-up, and you'd need to have somebody who is properly capable of interfacing with the energy of the grail to accompany you, specifically, a Lesser Grail. There are so many steps to the plan that wouldn't have an outcome that you would even be satisfied with that you don't even know why you're trying to think of the specifics. Even getting in wouldn't be something that should be possible with all the Servants guarding the place, maybe Archer has some sort of Noble Phantasm that grants invisibility? It's not an unheard of magical enchantment, after all. In fact, you're fairly certain that some of the legends of King Arthur spoke of a dagger that shrouded whoever was wielding it with shadows. Though if Archer has that particular dagger in stock, you don't know.

Illya steps forwards now. "I don't think that's a very good idea either, Archer." Even Illya lets her opinion on the plan be known, though in her case it probably comes more from a place of self-interest and a wish to attain the Third True Magic despite everything than it does out of any sort of major concern for the population of Fuyuki. Though Illya is at heart a good person, she still needs somebody to teach her actual morality first, and really, you've only been with Illya for a single day so far, and the war has been much too busy for you to do something like try to teach her right from wrong. Shirou would do it too, naturally, but there are two problems with that right now. First is that Illya might refuse to interact with Shirou, and the second is... well, Shirou is missing right now.

"It was just a suggestion, after all. If we fail at stopping this enemy, then I'm pretty certain that Alaya will summon Counter Guardians, and that'll be the end of the entire town anyway." Archer is probably right, actually. If the Counter Guardians do end up getting summoned, then the entirety of Fuyuki City might end up being lost as collateral damage, as a result of the actions taken to defend humanity by Alaya. Archer would know how Alaya and the Counter Guardians function better than anybody on the planet alive right now, after all, considering that he is a Counter Guardian. Of course, Rin and the others don't need to know his real identity just yet, and as much as you would like to reveal it, it'll just cause tensions. Especially with Illya here, she's not even close to reaching a point where she'll take that particular reveal very well. Of course, seeing as how Shirou's current situation is a complete unknown, she might not ever get the chance to forgive him. While you don't want to believe he's dead, the existence of Saber Alter at the Temple doesn't inspire you with all too much hope.

"Ok. Ok, putting aside trying to destroy the entire temple. Does anybody else have any plans as to what we should do?" Rin asks as she looks around at each of her allies. "Sakura? Anything?" Rin tries to brainstorm with the group, clearly, she doesn't really know what to do either.

"N-not really." Sakura sounds just as stumped on the situation as her sister is. She's not really a great person to ask when it comes to matters like tactics and strategy, especially not for asking something like how to assault a fortified position. Really, she'd have much more luck asking Sakura for a cake recipe or something than to quiz her on her military know-how.

"Then what about you... Bazett-san?" Rin tries to ask the professional for her opinion next, and it is quickly dawning just how little your faction actually has to go on.

"Other than hit and run tactics on the temple and trying to lure away their defenders for an ambush, I've not really got any ideas on how to go about assaulting a place like that temple. There's may too much unknown information right now." Bazett shrugs, honestly, not a bad plan. But you don't know if it will work. It seems that the Servants at the gate stopped and didn't pursue you. Probably to prevent the tactic of picking them off from being used.

Rin sighs as she looks at Illya before eventually giving in to ask her as well. "What about you? Any great ideas for attacking the temple?" It's pretty obvious that Rin and Illya have developed something of a dislike for each other already. Oh well, so long as it doesn't interfere with the alliance, they can squabble all they want.

"We just need a way to overwhelm them with sheer power! But... without Avenger, we won't be able to do that." Illya seems a little upset as she recalls the loss of her Servant. She must have quite a lot of faith in her Servant if she thinks that he would be a deciding quantity in a battle between two factions each made of four Servants each. It's just a pity that for all this strength that Avenger apparently holds, he managed to get himself captured and incapacitated by the enemy almost immediately!

"Fine." Rin almost sounds resigned as she finally turns to face you, she'd probably be having a much better time at having people suggest plans if she didn't just completely disregard asking Medusa and Cu Chulainn for advice. While Rider's advice admittedly wouldn't be great due to how her life played out, Lancer in life actually was the sort of person who would assault castles and fortified areas! "Come on then, Shinji. You may as well tell us your grand plan to solving all this. I can already tell that you're dying to reveal this masterpiece of a plan that you've put together." Rin sounds half-sarcastic and half serious as she speaks. Luckily though, you do have a few ideas on how to get around this. But some of them are a little... speculative.

>Focus all your efforts on trying to find Caster. She can easily help solve everything, including helping you find out just what happened to Shirou.
>If overwhelming power is what you require, then there's one Servant in Fuyuki who you just might be able to convince to help. Though the King of Heroes is just as likely to kill you.
>Bazett's hit and run tactics might not have worked under usual circumstances, but you have a Servant who is capable of forcing the enemies in the temple out of their fortress, have Rider start setting up Bloodfort Andromeda outside the boundaries of the temple, for the sole purpose of forcing them out of their base. Not to actually use.
>Go to Touko and request her assistance, she's at the level of a Servant in strength.
>Look for Shirou. He might have ended up summoning a different Saber, after all.
>Write-in...

>>4445339
>>Write in
Rin would kaleido-ruby be able to help?

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>>4445339
>>Look for Shirou. He might have ended up summoning a different Saber, after all.

As said by this post >>4444786 we can imply that Kiritsugu might know of a way to disable Artoria or outright defeat her, and that such a knowledge might be possessed by his second child, Emiya Shirou. Now that Illya is fangless and we have a bunch of people on our side and with enough firepower to slap her into her senses, I'm sure Illya would find it ill-adviced to betray us now that she knows shit's way beyond anyone's reach and that a single mistake can cost us everything.

If Shirou DID summon another Saber then we might just have the firepower needed to not focus on Salter and put all our focus on the other lancer.

>>4445339
>>Focus all your efforts on trying to find Caster. She can easily help solve everything, including helping you find out just what happened to Shirou.
killing two birds with one stone?

>>4445339
>>Look for Shirou. He might have ended up summoning a different Saber, after all.

what if kerry is salters master?

>>4445339
>Focus all your efforts on trying to find Caster. She can easily help solve everything, including helping you find out just what happened to Shirou.

>>4445339
Look for shirou.
Medea should turn up sooner or later.
>>4445344
Supporting. Getting Prillia would boost her moral and increase our fighting power.

>>4445345
>>4445359
How are You going to find Shirou? We have no clue where He is. Do You intend to search entire city?

>>4445359
>>4445344
also supporting in addition to looking for shirou

>>4445339
>>Focus all your efforts on trying to find Caster. She can easily help solve everything, including helping you find out just what happened to Shirou.

>>4445344
Does prisma exist in this universe???

>>4445339
>Focus all your efforts on trying to find Caster. She can easily help solve everything, including helping you find out just what happened to Shirou.

>>4445386
Wasn't it in hollow arexia?

>>4445344
I support meguca time.

>>4445371
I mean, that's what seems to be the idea with finding Caster.

>>4445409
It is not that it is any easier to find caster just that rule breaker solves all our problems.

>>4445409
Also since she is constantly monitoring the city if we find her she can easily find Shirou.

>>4445409
>>4445421
If anything finding Caster might be HARDER than finding Shirou. Caster might very well be plotting something, don't be fooled by the "what can be"s when right now in this moment of the story she'll fuck us up and our alliance if she can benefit from it in the end. Meanwhile Shirou's a dumbass and Sabers are not always the smartest of the bunch. So I'd say we'd have a better chance finding Shirou than Caster.

>>4445409
Caster is much more useful than Shirou. She has Rule Breaker, her summons and shit ton of magical knowledge.
We know she watches us, so we don't really need to find her. Just persuade her to help.

>>4445339
>Focus all your efforts on trying to find Caster. She can easily help solve everything, including helping you find out just what happened to Shirou.
>Go to Touko and request her assistance, she's at the level of a Servant in strength.
I doubt she'll help us fight, but she could get us the hook up on some useful mystic codes at the very least.

>>4445428
The Grail is fucked. Even if she is plotting something she has no way to get to the Grail without us.

>>4445339
>Write-in
>Have Sakura and Rin look for Shirou in the residential area
>Send Bazzett and Illya to ask Gilgamesh for help, use Saber's presence as a bargaining chip
>Personally go to Touko

>>4445432
There's also the fact that Shirou might be dead, if he's dead no matter how much of a magecraft genius Caster is, Gil will fuck us all unless we ḁ͎̓͑͋͗ͬͤ̿w͈͗a̦̭͔̱̺̯k̛ͮ̇e͖̫̰͈͇ñ̸̞̤̭̯͙͂̒̉̃͒̈́ t̸̿ͤ͊̏̔͂̓h̙̬͇͍̮e̙̼͍̬͗͐ͬ̀͐̀̌ ̪͔͍͚̪̩̠l̥͔͖͈͎̞̈́́͟õ͍͍̦͈̮͍̏̃l̋͑͛͆͒̉͒i͍̦̣̘̘̍̊͒͒̉̋ and I'm pretty sure at that point we all fucking lose anyway.

>>4445339
>Power up Illya with Truth, make her Command Seals impossible to resist
This will probably leave us with very little magic and not even work but I think it's worth a try.

>>4445436
wait changing my vote >>4445433
to this, i thought about it yesterday but forgot to voice it here

Could Betty summon something that could be used for scouting, and could we support a sufficient numbers of it?

Do we have any books taken from Zouken's that would possibly have any relation to what's going on?

Could we use the power of Money to tap into city's surveillance, or ask local mafia, to track where Saber has been seen? If she was walking around corporeal she would stand out, no?

Asking Mafia or whatever to look for lone woman fitting Medea's description could also be done, no?

>>4445435
We have Avenger for that exact purpose.

>>4445433
We don't know where Shirou is.
We don't know where Gilgamesh is.
Where are You sending all those people.

>>4445439
>Do we have any books taken from Zouken's that would possibly have any relation to what's going on?
What do you think zouken has a copy of the shadow over innsmouth?

>>4445444
Gil is probably in the church and we also don't know where caster is.

>>4445339
>>4445436
The simplest option option there is, I like it.
Support.

>>4445446
Old church was destroyed and I doubt Kirei would keep Gil in the new church with that hooded church agent around.

>>4445445
He probably had the damn Necronomicon itself considering the shit that's going down.

>>4445339
>Focus all your efforts on trying to find Caster. She can easily help solve everything, including helping you find out just what happened to Shirou.

>>4445451
I wonder how if he had a heart attack seeing this fucked up grail war.

>>4445462
Makes me wonder how fucked up Zolgen would be knowing not only what he did as an old man, but how the last of his line completely and utterly disregards any notion of seeking the root. Basically the family's legacy thrown into the trash.

>>4445466
We just have to go on a road trip with Zelrecht, perfect vacation after the grail war is over

>>4445339
>>4445430
Changing to this >>4445436
If it doesn't work or gets us killed, then back to my orignal vote.

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>>4445436
I like this idea
We should also at some point ask if Betty can summon one of pic related as fire support.
And maybe a few bug-sized flying bois with good vision and active-camouflage for recon.

>>4445476
I beg to differ, if we survive this shit we should firmly focus on continuing the Makiri legacy by mating with Monica, Satsuki and Betty.

>>4445462
What are you talking about, he's half the reason it got this bad; and he did it purely out of spite.

>>4445493
>and Betty
Yeah, no. Eldritch lolis are not good for your long term health.

>>4445504
I...fail to see the problem? A minuscule factor when compared to out-of-this-world cunny

>>4445491
Why did you quoted me?

>>4445339
Forgot to reference my vote -> >>4445492
[Asking for more summons not part of the immediate decision]