Fate/convergence [PsykerxOblivion]

It began with an explosion. In this timeline, the Magus Killer's explosives, intended to merely cause a 'bump' in Fuyuki's leyline, worked better than expected and cut the leyline off from the Great Grail entirely. The Grail system was cut off from its mana source early enough that it still lacked the power to sustain seven Heroic Spirits, despite the leftover energy from the Fourth Grail War. The spirit of All the World's Evil within the Grail raged at this unexpected turn of events and desperately sought a way to conduct a fifth Heaven's Feel and emerge from the Grail.

Were it not for a stroke of fortune, this would have been the end of the Heaven's Feel ritual. But in this timeline, Yggdrasil's degradation had advanced to the point that the Digital World's stability fluctuated nine years ahead of time, and portals began to open in the real world. A different group of Tamers managed to end the threat without revealing the Digital World to humanity, but the damage had already been done. During the incident, a portal had opened beneath Mount Enzo, in the very chamber of the Great Grail. Angra Mainyu took notice, and through the portal, managed to establish a connection to the Digital World's mainframe. There, he found a system disturbingly similar to the will of humanity's Throne of Heroes. Heroes of the Digital World, from every conceivable era and timeline, had their data saved onto the system, memorialized for eternity. With the Great Grail's direct connection to this system, summoning Digimon heroes became far more mana-efficient than summoning human heroes from the Throne.

And so the Fifth Grail War began on schedule, but none of the potential Masters could ever predict the Servant they were about to call forth...

____

Tohsaka Mansion, Fuyuki City
2005

Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.
The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.
Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill).
Repeat every five times.
Simply, shatter once filled.
――――I announce.
Your self is under me, my fate(doom) is in your sword.
In accordance with the resort of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.
Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance ―――！

In this timeline, Rin had remembered to set her clocks correctly, and so the summoning ritual was performed at the peak of her power. She had planned to summon her chosen Servant, Saber, but ultimately, the Grail was the one who decided the hero that each Master received and what class they were to be set in. Angra Mainyu took notice of the magus's potential, as well as the Saber that he had planned on inserting into the war, and decided that between Rin's talent and power and Saber's pure might, the war would be too easy for her.

An Archer was sent to be Rin Tohsaka's Servant, and he materialized within the perfectly-drawn summoning circle, kneeling at his summoner's feet.

"Servant Archer. Upon your summoning, I have come. I ask of you, are you my Master?"

____

Rin Tohsaka, heir to the Tohsaka magecraft and Second Owner of Fuyuki City, had expected some sort of mighty swordsman to be summoned. What she received was in the wrong class entirely, but managed to look absurd, yet imposing at the same time. A bipedal draconic beast clad in black armor with...was that a cannon on his arm?! What the hell kind of Archer was this?

Then, the young magus realized that her summoned Heroic Spirit was still waiting for the contract to be completed, and replied in the affirmative.

"Yes. I am your Master." Rin nodded, crossing her arms. "Now, what's your name and legend? Are you even human?"

"Hmph. If this was anything like the past Grail Wars, you would be a fool to ask. But in this case, every Servant would no doubt be too distinctive to conceal their identity. My name is Imperialdramon, and I am not human. I am a Digimon."

"What the hell is that?!"

____

With the summoning complete, Archer would have stood up, but the chamber was only just large enough for him to kneel in, and standing would have destroyed the basement. Still taking in the flood of knowledge that the Holy Grail was providing him, he nonetheless scowled in distaste at the thought of having to be bound to a mere human. But the promise of a wish was too tempting, and he would endure this until he found an opportunity to be free of her and forge his own path to victory.

Einzbern Manor, Germany, Two Months Prior

"..."

"..." Illyasviel von Einzbern silently replied to her equally-silent Servant as she crouched tired and hungry, but at least warm, nearby it in the center of the area of scorched earth that, up until a few hours ago, had been the 'training area' that she had been left in with her Servant by her family's elders.

To say that things had not gone according to plan would be a gross understatement. The Einzberns, in something of a blind panic after the betrayal that they had been subjected to by Kiritsugu Emiya and his Servant Saber in the previous Heaven's Feel, had resolved to go all-out for this war and summon one of the strongest possible Heroic Spirits- The Demigod Hercules. And to make especially sure that their Master/Grail Vessel for the war didn't end up betrayed by her Servant as they feared might be, they'd also resolved to summon him in the Berserker-Class. Naturally, this would inhibit some of his combat ability, as well as his ability to use one of his Noble Phantasms, but the boost in power that the already-hyperdestructive Heroic Spirit would receive was likely to make up for that in most practical situations. And in any case, it wasn't likely that a Spirit able to bring himself back to live twelve times in total would be going out of the war until the very end, right?

Well, it had at least seemed a decent plan at the time, but a certain God of Darkness dwelling in the Grail after the Einzbern's contribution to the Third War quickly decided to give the middle finger to the assholes who got him killed so quickly, and instead slapped them with... Something odd.

Whatever it was, it wasn't even vaguely human. The steel behemoth was humanoid, sure, but it felt as far from human as that... Thing that they had summoned in the Third War. It towered above the elders of the Einzbern present at its summoning, the heat emanating from it's body caused the snow in the area to begin to melt, the air around it seemed tinged with something that put everyone present on edge, and those eyes...

Those eyes were currently looking down at their owner's master as she huddled up in the warmth created by its attack against the living animal corpses besetting them, the hungry beasts that were now smouldering corpses on the ground, black stains on earth dyed black by raging flames.
The conditions imposed on her by her Servant's early summoning as well as the sheer intensity of the attack that she had ordered it to release to cause the destruction around her had combined to knock her out for a few hours- Whilst she was awake now, and the mana cost of the attack launched was a mere drop in the bucket compared to the homunculus's true reserve of prana, this had been something of a wake-up call for her- Even if she'd failed to summon Herakles, what she'd summoned instead wasn't far off in terms of sheer strength. The Einzbern's still had a chance. She could still make both her father and onii-chan pay like they deserved to.
With Berserker by her side, she could win.

And smiling as the pain continued to blare away in her exhausted system, Ilya gave in and fell unconscious once more, Berserker watching vigilantly.

And watching over its Master as she gave into unconsciousness, Megidramon Fighter Mode let out a grumbling growl of relief as it felt its Prana supply begin to climb a little.

London, Clock Tower
One Month Prior

The magus finally finished his carefully crafted summoning circle, and glanced at the Command Seal on his hand one last time in anticipation. This was it. He would summon his Servant, go to Japan, and win the Holy Grail. Power and prestige among the Magus Association would be his! All that was left was to call forth his Servant. Sitting down cross-legged on the floor, he began the ritual.


"Silver and iron to the ori-" An explosion. Whipping around, the magus realized that the door behind him had just been blown apart. Gandr shots whizzed out, two of them striking the magus in the chest and causing him to cough up blood. Cursing furiously, he conjured a blaze of fire at the entrance, hoping to incinerate whoever dared attack him. But his hopes were dashed when a figure emerged from the fire nearly unscathed, blurring towards him at speeds only realized through Reinforcement. The magus stepped back, but that was all he could do before his assailant was upon him, reaching out towards him.

And then Luviagelita Edelfelt piledrivered the hapless man into unconsciousness.

___

Fuyuki City
February 2, 2005
Nighttime

One day after she had summoned Archer, Rin settled into something almost resembling a routine with the draconic figure. She would go about her business with Archer in spiritual form, never saying a word unless they were scouting the city or discussing strategy. To be honest, this suited her just fine. Archer didn't seem interested in talking, anyways, and so Rin was free to carry out her magus facade. The duo were currently getting an eagle's eye viewpoint of the city from a skyscraper, and Archer had bothered to materialize, taking to the air with his wings to get an even better view.

Meanwhile, a certain Shirou Emiya was just leaving his part-time job at a nearby bar...

Fuyuki City Center- Also Nighttime

'So, you got summoned, did you?' Something thought to itself as it observed Rin and Archer from far down below on the ground, from the shadows in an alley between two clusters of buildings.

In those shadows, two eyes, one red and one green, stared up at the gigantic figure of the 'Servant of the Bow', senses far beyond anything human picking the black form of the Servant out in the darkness of the night, up high where the light would seem to conceal him.
In life, the Servant observing Rin and Archer had heard tales of the latter- Although he'd never had the 'pleasure' of meeting the Knight who had taken over Alphamon's position after her disappearance, but he'd heard plenty from one of his brothers of how he'd torn the order Digital World apart and, hand in hand with Yggdrasil, had held it ransom to the Sovereigns themselves. Whilst he had resigned himself to overseeing the darkest abyss of the Digital World, and had rarely (if ever) left that cursed domain, he was all too aware of the stories about Imperialdramon, Shadow Of The First and hated tyrant.

But honestly, if it hadn't been for the Knight's attempts to pass himself off as a Paragon of Order and a Champion for the Digital World, Servant Lancer would have enjoyed the opportunity to meet with him. Anyone who drove Zhuqiaomon to violent frenzies of rage with such ease would naturally have gained approval from him, and the sheer audaciousness of the atrocities and suchlike that the Knight had carried out were admittedly quite impressive to him. It was a shame that he had felt the need to hide his desires behind a guise of loyalty and good intentions- Had he admitted to doing these acts for his own sake and desires, Lancer could have given him some of the respect that he had reserved for the Patron of Pride, original First Knight and a handful of his brothers.

But as he was, Lancer couldn't give him that respect and feel it was justified. So, as he observed the materialized Servant from his place in the shadows, one thought held the highest position in his mind.

'Well, no matter. You've exposed yourself as a target, and we all know how best to reward that,' Servant Lancer of the Fifth Holy Grail War, known in life as GranDracmon, Black Sovereign and Overseer of the Dark Area, thought to himself with his trademark smirk, slipping out of the shadows under cover of darkness (or his limited Presence Concealment) towards the building that Rin and Archer had scaled in order to start the first battle of the Holy Grail War.
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Meanwhile...

Feeling a shiver run down his spine very quickly as what seemed to be a cold breeze brushed past him out of nowhere, Shirou Emiya just stopped for a moment to look around.

... Had something just gone past him?

... No, couldn't have been. He would have heard something, so he was probably just imagining things. Probably.

Anyway, resuming his walk through the city center as he took in the sights, sounds and smells of the nightlife in Fuyuki, brushing off the strange feeling that he had felt when the breeze brushed past him, Shirou took a look around as he made his way towards where the bus back to his house in the Miyama district of Fuyuki.

And for a moment, he could have sworn that he'd seen the figure of Rin Tohsaka, minute from a distance, atop the tallest building in the area, and something moving above her. But whether or not he did see her, the figure that could have been her disappearing almost as soon as he'd seen her.

Not knowing what to make of this at first, Shirou quickly resumed walking towards the bus stop, dismissing the possible sighting of the school idol as either a mistake or her indulging in some strange unknown hobby.

Little did he know what the Magus's presence atop the building and the shape above her boded for him. But we'll get to that later.

Fuyuki Church, two days ago

Kirei Kotomine chuckled to himself as he took Bazett by surprise, slicing her left arm off with a Black Key before plunging the sword into her back. Knowing that he didn't have much time before her Servant realized what was going on, he quickly grafted her Command Seals onto his own hand, just as Lancer stepped into the church.

"Greetings, Servant Lancer." Kotomine smiled beatifically, raising his left hand with Command Seals on it as he looked over the Servant. Bazett's Lancer was a humanoid figure in rich European clothing, and for some reason unknown to the priest, vaguely gave off a similar feeling to a Dead Apostle, perhaps even a Dead Apostle Ancestor. Still, he kept smiling mockingly as he kept his Command Seals visible, eagerly awaiting Lancer's reaction when he realized his Master had been slain ignominiously. "I am your new Master. And by the power of my Command Seal, I, Kirei Kotomine order you to scout out and gauge the strength of the other six Servants."

Lancer's reaction to this was only to smile and chuckle. "You are certainly an interesting man. I look forward to this...Master." The Servant of the Lance bowed, before exiting the church.

"So, that was Lancer?" A voice, emanating pure confidence and authority, boomed out. A handsome blonde man dressed in stylish clothing stepped out, frowning. "I do hope you know what you're doing, Kirei. The King will not tolerate failure."

"Worry not, Gilgamesh." Kotomine smiled, closing his eyes. "This Servant has intrigued me. No doubt he will put on a good show."

___

Ryuudou Temple, Nighttime
Present Day

"I do hope that this works, Caster." Luvia stated to her Servant as she proceeded to graft the hapless magus's Command Seals onto Caster's hand, just as she had with her own a month ago. Luvia herself didn't care about her Servant's class, but Caster had been severely disappointed that she hadn't been summoned as Lancer, and suggested bastardizing the summoning ritual to provide herself with an extra edge in the war.

"It is necessary." The angelic woman ground her teeth, already sensing a malicious presence in the city. "I feel the presence of a demon already, and I hold no doubt that it's a Servant."

"That still shouldn't be possible, though." Luvia frowned. Then she realized that her Servant was a damn angel. "...Never mind. Just keep going."

Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.
The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.
Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill).
Repeat every five times.
Simply, shatter once filled.
――――I announce.
Your self is under me, my fate(doom) is in your sword.
In accordance with the resort of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.
Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance ―――！

And Servant Assassin emerged.

____

Downtown, Nighttime

Unfortunately for Lancer, Archer's Clairvoyance combined with his high vantage point enabled him to see the figure slinking through the shadows, and he touched back down onto the building's room, glaring. He hadn't detected the figure before he saw it, so it had to have some kind of Presence Concealment.

"Master, I saw a Servant advancing. Judging by its approach, I would guess that it's Assassin."

Rin simply nodded, preparing a gem to defend herself with. This would be the first battle of the Fifth Holy Grail war, and she would conduct herself with all of the elegance expected of a heir of the Tohsaka family. "Did you see the Master? He's got to be nearby."

"I didn't. Now get behind me and keep your back to the wall." Imperialdramon stated brusquely, priming his Positron Laser. "Come and face me, Servant. I know you're here."

Ryuudou Temple
Nighttime

Quote:

---

And Servant Assassin emerged.

---

And as the form of Servant Assassin, a man of reasonable height dressed in red and black clothing with a grey, gnarled mask over the top half of a pale face, emerged from the summoning circle, he opened his eyes to look upon his Master.

"I am Servant Assassin of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Upon your summons, I-"

And then Assassin just stopped following the summoning procedure, his black and yellow eyes widening with some strange, terrifying emotion as he realized just who summoned him; As his face stretched into a vile grin made all the more sickening by the scars on either side of his mouth.

"Well well, lookie here!" Servant Assassin, known in life as Pierroumon, the Red Reaper and Mad Pierrot, crooned towards Ophanimon, preparing for a struggle as he reached for the hybrid axe-sword-cleavers holstered on his back, "Look who's going to be supplying me with mojo! How've you been, you crazy bitch?"
__________________________________________________ __________
Downtown
Nighttime

Carefully scaling the outer wall of the skyscraper as he made his way up towards Archer and Rin above, Lancer held fast to his Presence Concealment in order to get the best chance of remaining hidden from his foe. If he had been summoned as Assassin, the task would have been far easier, but as that was not the case, he had to take extra care.
He had initially entered in through the actual entrance of the skyscraper, shooting up to around halfway up the tall building in no time at all before making the decision to scale the rest of the way up. It had seemed a good idea at the time, at least.

In any case, as he came close to the top of the building, he suddenly paused in his climb as he heard what could only have been the voice of the Servant he was about to fight with speaking in a booming manner to it's Master.

"Master, I saw a Servant advancing. Judging by its approach, I would guess that it's Assassin."


'Well, doesn't he sound familiar?" Lancer thought to himself with a slight twitch of the side of his mouth as he mentally compared the voice of the Servant above to that of the priest that killed his Master and took her Command Spells for himself. Not that it really mattered to him, given that any Human's Prana was good Prana to him so long as it got him places, but it was still slightly disconcerting nonetheless.
In any case, getting off of that train of thought, Lancer had a quick realization as the Servant above continued to converse with his Master- He'd been mistaken for an Assassin. Barring Caster, Assassins were seen as some of the weakest Servants in the Holy Grail Wars, lacking the glorious legends that gifted other Servants with incredible powers and abilities and instead having to focus on killing Masters with the use of their Presence Concealment, or perhaps take another Servant only if the conditions were stacked high in their favor.

Upon this, Lancer smirked.
He had a card he could play to his advantage here. If Imperialdramon was to believe him to be in the weakest Class, it would only be a horrible surprise to him when he found out that he was facing down one of the Knight Classes- As unkind to it's members as said class actually was at times.
So, resuming his climb, Lancer heard Archer speak one more time just as he reached the top.

"Come and face me, Servant. I know you're here."

The smirk on Lancer's face widened as he decided to oblige the Knight.

"Well played, Lord Imperialdramon," Lancer said to Archer as he climbed up onto the same surface that the Knight and his Master stood upon, his limited Presence Concealment dispersing to reveal himself to the pair, "Please, allow me to make the first introduction. I am Servant Assassin of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Are you well?"

Whilst revealing himself to the pair like this was a risky move, it had its advantages. Using the Positron Laser that was being pointed at him by Imperialdramon in this exact location was a risky move considering the effects the long-range weapon could have on the surroundings if it were to miss it's target, or even if it didn't, so he could exploit that to dodge any shots made at him. In addition, the effects of the false identification he gave Imperialdramon could affect how he approached the problem of Lancer.

Ryuudou Temple
Nighttime

As Servant Assassin emerged, Caster's breath hitched as she realized who she just summoned.

"Look who's going to be supplying me with mojo! How've you been, you crazy bitch?"

"YOU." She snarled, teeth bared and cursing the Grail for summoning a damned demon as her Servant. She had been hoping for a minor Digimon hero, or a GuardiAngemon at best, but instead she got saddled with the accursed wretch that got himself cast out from the Celestials. No, this would not do. Damn the war and damn the consequences, there was no way in hell she was going to work with a demon.

Summoning her lance and spear, Caster roared in hatred as she swung her weapon at Assassin, who seemed to have anticipated the move and drawn his cleavers to parry.

"Caster, what the hell are you doing?!" Luvia cried out in confusion, a Gandr on the tip of her finger. She seemed to be familiar with Assassin, but did she really hate him that much as to pass up a second Servant to win the war with?

Glancing back at Luvia for a split second, Caster's eyes widened in alarm as she saw the spell on her Master's fingertip.

"Master, no! You can't risk making yourself a tar-" Caster never got to finish her statement, as Assassin took advantage of her momentary distraction and sliced her right arm off, which just happened to be the arm with the Command Seals on it. "AUUUGH!"

"Ooh, shiny." Assassin deadpanned as he took the severed arm for himself, backing away with a grin before hightailing it out of the temple with a cackle.

Caster lay kneeling on the temple floor, clutching what remained of her right arm with a scowl as Luvia ran up, eyes widened with worry.

"Are you alright, Caster?"

"Forgive me, Master." Caster groaned, picking herself back up. "Don't worry about my arm. I can heal it up within a day. But in any case, we should retreat back to the penthouse and start setting up workshop defenses there."

"Caster...who was that? It seemed like you knew him." The Finnish girl asked, curious about what exactly had set her Servant off so badly.

"Pierroumon is a demon of the worst caliber." Caster snarled in hatred as she kept walking. "In my time, he was infamous for being a vile murderer and servant of a Demon Lord. It shames me to think that he used to be among the Celestials. Master, trust me when I say that he would have betrayed us at the first opportunity solely for his own amusement."

And now that was one more enemy they had to contend with, Caster mused. Judging by his battle prowess, she probably could have beaten him one-on-one if she hadn't lost her focus. More than ever, she cursed whatever Lancer had been summoned before her, locking her out of the class.

____

Downtown
Nightime

"Well played, Lord Imperialdramon. Please, allow me to make the first introduction. I am Servant Assassin of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Are you well?" The Servant in front of Archer stated, causing him to narrow his eyes. It figured that he would have been recognized on sight alone. The final few years of his life had made him quite infamous across the Digital World.

"Quite. You are correct. I am Imperialdramon, the Tyrant Knight, and now, Servant Archer." Imperialdramon stated without hesitation. In life, he had only clung on to the pretense of honor and virtue in order to keep what allies among the Knights he could, but now, he could finally discard those pitiful affectations without penalty. "As for you, Assassin, what exactly is your angle? You are the weakest class in direct combat, and yet you would reveal yourself to me without hesitation. I know how assassins operate, and you had to have been a skilled killer in life to be summoned as one. No, you are holding something back." Archer snarled, his paranoia making him wary of why exactly Assassin would choose to reveal himself. Plus, there was the fact that while the enemy Servant was clearly a Digimon, Imperialdramon had never come across one of this species before. This Servant was a complete unknown, and that was cause for even more concern.

For her part, Rin wondered just how the hell Assassin knew Archer's identity. Normally, that would only happen if both of them were from the same legend, but her Archer didn't seem to recognize Assassin at all. Plus, there was this growing irritation with her Servant that Rin just couldn't identify. Something about the warrior just seemed to piss her off.

"But the time for words is over." Archer continued, raising his wrist-mounted cannon. "You will die here, Assassin."

"Archer, are you insane?" Rin choked, realizing that he was about to fire that cannon of his in an area filled with people. "If you missed, you'd kill innocent people!"

"I'm supposed to care about the lives of those gnats now?" Archer snarled, keeping his cannon leveled at Assassin. "In war, sacrifices must be made, Master. If you wish to win the Holy Grail War, then you must be willing to kill, enemy and innocent alike."

Rin froze in her tracks. The words coming from her Servant's mouth sounded so much like the words her father had often repeated to her.

To walk the path of the magus was to walk the path of death. A true magus must not show weakness.

But then, could she really give the order that could possibly kill dozens of people? They were just innocents, not caught up in this Grail War at all. At this point, Rin's magus facade warred with her humanity, and she remained stuck in place.

Imperialdramon scoffed in disdain at the show of weakness from his Master. Pathetic. No matter, he would make the decision for her, and if she knew what was good for her, she would not interfere. And so he fired, laser burst after laser burst flying towards Assassin.

"Quite. You are correct. I am Imperialdramon, the Tyrant Knight, and now, Servant Archer.As for you, Assassin, what exactly is your angle? You are the weakest class in direct combat, and yet you would reveal yourself to me without hesitation. I know how assassins operate, and you had to have been a skilled killer in life to be summoned as one. No, you are holding something back." Servant Archer began towards Lancer, eliciting a softer smirk from the Black Sovereign.

"Angle, Archer?" Lancer began with a false scoff as Archer took his bait, "I have no angle, and I don't know why you would assume such a thing of me... Could you not simply assume that even a lowly Assassin such as myself would have no trouble in dispatching you with full knowledge of your identity and potential Noble Phantasms?"

In any event, whatever the Tyrant Knight's response would have been to that comment was lost to Lancer (a dear regret to him, I assure you) as he proceeded to pull out his Positron Laser and point it directly at him, regardless of what effect it would have upon the surroundings.
Whilst his face remained plastered with that smirk, he mentally cursed the other Servant's recklessness- Not for the damage to the city and the death of humans that his actions could bring, nor of how it could compromise the secrecy of the Grail War, but of how it put a slight dampener on his plan to kill him. He put thought into that, dammit!

However, another opportunity presented itself to Lancer at this point- Archer's Master was less than happy at the actions that he was prepared to take to dispatch 'Assassin', and his comments to her both distracted him from the Servant before him and put her into a state of shock- Something Lancer could use to some form of advantage.

So, breaking into a sprint a few moments before the first Positron Laser was fired at him, Lancer headed for the wall which Archer's Master still had her back to, making a leap that landed him atop the structure she stood by in shock.
Lancer's movements from here on in were swift- Not wasting a moment, he dropped from the wall and landed back upon the surface of the building top that Imperialdramon and his Master stood upon. And immediately after that, with the current proximity between the two, his arm shot out towards the girl. His hand grabbed hold of her shirt's collar, before he pulled her in towards him, grabbing the unfortunate Magus in a headlock with one arm as he quickly secured her arms behind her back with the other.

"I believe that's quite enough of that," Lancer said with a nod towards Imperialdramon's Positron Laser as he held the now-struggling Rin in a vicious grip, "Either you cut it out or I cut off your ability to do it for much longer for you. What's it going to be?"

Downtown

Rin looked up from her internal debate to see Archer already firing on Assassin, with his opponent dodging and leaping...straight for her. Shit. The speed of a Servant was far above her own reaction time, and Rin found herself in a headlock as Assassin threatened to kill her to get Archer to back down. To her credit, Rin didn't hesitate to palm a gem and unleash the magic inside, buffeting Assassin with a wind spell charged by an entire year's worth of prana.

As the winds died down, Rin's eyes widened to see Assassin completely unharmed.

"T-that's impossible!" Rin exclaimed, struggling against the Servant's headlock. "No Assassin has that kind of insane Magic Resistance!"

Just then, Archer stepped forward, his chest opening to reveal yet another cannon, this one charged with a ridiculous amount of prana.

"That course of action would be foolish for you, Assassin." His voice boomed, suddenly reminding Rin of her mentor for some strange reason. "If you kill my Master, I will fire. You know my legend and my Phantasms. Even with your speed, you won't be able to dodge the blast from this."

Rin scowled, wondering just what the hell her Servant was playing at. If she guessed right, this phantasm was yet another one of Archer's ridiculous laser bursts, probably even bigger than the other one. If he fired, she'd die too. Archer continued on, seemingly in the same vein of thought as her.

"As you know, I am an Archer. My Independent Action skill is high enough that I can last long enough after killing you to find a new Master. And guess what Master will suddenly be missing a Servant?" Imperialdramon asked rhetorically, the Giga Crusher in his chest glowing with energy. "Now release my Master or die with her."

Even as she kept up a facade of defiance, Rin really, really hoped that her Servant wasn't being serious. If it came down to him about to fire, she'd use a Command Seal, but she decided to wait for the moment to see if he was bluffing and if Assassin would let her go.

___

Fuyuki Church

Watching through Lancer's eyes, Kotomine chuckled as his new Servant duped Archer into thinking he was an Assassin. And then he seized the Master, which turned out to be none other than his young charge, Rin. Lancer was already proving to be quite intriguing. Not many Servants would shed their pride easily enough to go so far as to claim to be a different class entirely. But alas, Kirei would really rather not have Rin killed. He wanted to be the one to do so, after all.

"That is enough, Lancer." He called out over the mental link with a chuckle. "We can save my student for another day. I'd much rather see the look on her face when I kill her. Release the Master and return to scouting out the other Servants."

"For something 'impossible', it certainly didn't seem impossible to me just now," Lancer snarked at Rin as he held her tight in his grip, as the insanely powerful wind spell that she blasted him with was shrugged off by his Magic Resistance.
Of course, had he actually been an Assassin, he wouldn't have come off the receiving end of that spell without significant injuries or suchlike, so it wasn't like the girl's disbelief wasn't justified. Although wasting such a powerful spell on a 'mere Assassin' was something else entirely- Lord knows what she could have done with that to a Class that didn't have the insane Magic Resistance of the Knight Classes.

"That course of action would be foolish for you, Assassin."

In any case, Lancer, upon seeing Archer open up his chest to reveal the Giga Death, could only raise an eyebrow at the Servant as he threatened to kill his Master along with him.

"As you know, I am an Archer. My Independent Action skill is high enough that I can last long enough after killing you to find a new Master. And guess what Master will suddenly be missing a Servant? Now release my Master or die with her."

Lancer had been aware of the Independent Action skill that Archers possessed going into this battle, but determining Imperialdramon's Rank in this Skill had proved impossible from mere observation of him. If what he was saying was true, he was at least Rank C in the skill, which meant that he could survive at least a day without a Master to provide him with Prana.
But there was a catch to Independent Action- Even the highest Rank of the Skill needed a Master or equivalent source of prana to utilize Noble Phantasms, particularly ones of high prana consumption. Archer's Noble Phantasms were fairly obviously of this type, so finding a way to survive the Giga Death could allow for this to be brutally exploited, especially if one had the element of surprise. Something like... Oh, I don't know... Revealing that he was of a completely different class from what he had indicated himself to Archer as. One that might just be better suited to taking on his Noble Phantasms. One that might have glorious Noble Phantasms of his own.

With this in mind, Lancer was highly, highly tempted to call Archer on his (possible) bluff. Whilst he didn't want to use his ultimate Noble Phantasm at this stage in the War, it could be activated in a much less conspicuous fashion should his body take enough damage for it to force a transformation. It would expend an even larger amount of Prana than it would otherwise in taking advantage of it, but it stood a good chance of allowing him to utterly destroy Archer if it kicked in and he moved fast enough.
After all, this was the method by which Daemon himself had met his end once. It hadn't stuck, but it had happened even whilst Lancer was being consumed from within by flames. In this case, Archer likely didn't have Daemon's resources to recover with, and Lancer wasn't morally inclined enough to care about where he got the Prana supply to make up for the attack from. there were over six billion humans on this planet, nobody cared if a few dozen of them died or got put into a coma for a few weeks/months.

Alternately, he could just bank on Archer's Master to shut his plan down with a Command Seal. Either or.

But as it was, Lancer wasn't going to be able to make good on these possibilities, as a certain someone took the opportunity to chime in towards him.

"That is enough, Lancer. We can save my student for another day. I'd much rather see the look on her face when I kill her. Release the Master and return to scouting out the other Servants."

Hearing his new Master's voice speak to him over the mental link, Lancer paused for a moment, thinking.
Even if he didn't finish Archer off here, he'd still achieved a decent deal. Archer and his Master believed him to be a mere Assassin and the actions that he was forcing the Knight to take would not sit well with his Master at all. In addition, if he were to retreat like a common Assassin now, he would reinforce the former point and gain a greater element of surprise the next time they were to fight. And it wasn't like he'd lost anything here.
"It seems you have a very interesting Servant, girl," He said to Rin as he released his grip on her, giving the girl a gentle push forwards towards her Servant, "Certainly one you might want to keep a close eye on."

Not waiting for reactions from either Rin or Archer, Lancer suddenly jumped up to the top of the wall above him (a path that would have been far more difficult for him to use had he kept Rin in his grip), just a short distance away from the edge of the building. From there, he could head back down to the ground level of the city and keep on scouting out the other Servants.

"Farewell, Archer. It was a pleasure to meet you at long last, but I'm afraid that my Master would have me elsewhere at present. A shame, really."

And with that and a sudden burst of speed, Lancer was gone from the building, fading into the darkness of the night with his Presence Concealment as he plummeted downwards.
__________________________________________________ ____
Elsewhere

In the alleyway he had made a little 'pit stop' into, Assassin growled with hunger for prana as he finished off the last scraps of his current meal.
As it was, he wasn't in too bad a situation for his prana supply. With the 'mojo' he was getting from the crazy bitch, he wasn't in any danger of fading any time soon, and with her arm in his possession, he couldn't be fully cut off from the supply until it was retrieved. However, Assassin knew that this was nothing compared to what he had worked with in life, and without being empowered by certain factors, it was up to him to collect the vast supplies of Prana that he needed for his strongest Noble Phantasm himself.

Surrounded by humans, the solution had been pretty obvious to him from the get-go. Just latch onto the odd stray human or group of stray humans heading out into the less busy areas, slip in with his Trump Swords, and BAM! More Mojo!
It hadn't even been three hours since he had been summoned, and yet he was making a killing (pun very much intended, thank you) from the gaggle of drunken humans going to and fro across the city in the late hours of the night. His latest group of victims were a small group of women who had stupidly taken a shortcut through an alleyway- Death by Genre Blindness, and another course for Assassin.

Usually, Servants would be a little apprehensive about being as prolific as Assassin was being- But with his Presence Concealment, it really didn't matter to him. Of course, it wouldn't have mattered even if he didn't have the Presence Concealment- His was a twisted, sick mind that just killed for the enjoyment of it. It wasn't like he had a Master whose plans would be compromised by all this.
...
Well, maybe he did, but he really didn't care about her plans. Fucking them up would be a nice little bonus!