[h2][center]Kumozaki Keisuke[/center][/h2]
Once Elizabeth had engaged in battle with the hooded Valkyrie, Keisuke was finally allowed to stand on his own two feet, which in turn let him figure out what exactly the situation had become by now. The two Lancers dueling were the furthest from his mind in terms of worries, though, as the giant light show that had started (mainly due to the intervention of the two Casters) caused him to shield his eyes. The sound of thunderous explosions echoed through the theater, and it took the Enforcer a moment to stop the ringing in his ears that came about as a result.

Most the Valkyries that the two Casters had struck were now lying prone on the ground, and more than a few of them were disappearing into golden particles. That number began to increase as a few more bombardments occurred, leaving the group at less than a quarter of what it had been initially.

By now, the group as a whole had been dragged out of Nero's Reality Marble, leaving them in the middle of the cold Nordic night. The sudden shift back to cold air caused Keisuke to shiver, and he involuntarily rubbed his arms to warm himself up before turning to survey the rest of the battlefield.

"What the heck happened while we were gone...?" he muttered to himself, glancing at the giant pieces of ice lodged in the ground and the massive shimmering wall in the distance.

[hr]
Once the Reality Marble had dissolved away, the Valkyrie who had been dueling Elizabeth faltered for a moment. The sudden shift back to the night caused her to flinch, and that mistake proved to be her undoing. In a few successive strikes, her opponent had quickly forced her on the defensive, and every so often she would slip up once more and cause another gash to appear on her body. Even so, if she could just keep her opponent here a while—

"Ortlinde! Put that on hold for a second and get over here! Thrud needs help!"

The familiar voice of her sister pulled her attention away from the fight at once, and with one final parry the Valkyrie quickly retreated from the battlefield and moved towards where her sister (and her opponent, oddly enough) were crouching over Thrud's battered body. She wasn't gone, if that meant anything, but she was certainly not in any state to fight.

"Hildr... What...?" she asked, half out of breath from the fight prior.

[h2][center]Tomoe Gozen[/center][/h2]
Once she had arrived at Saber's side, Tomoe took a deep breath and knelt down to examine Thrud's prone body. She wasn't dead, of course; if she was, then it was long past time for her body to be disappearing. Despite that fact, though, the Valkyrie seemed to be more than just 'unconscious'. It wouldn't be surprising if it took a few days for all of the damage she had sustained to heal—time that they didn't have to waste right now.

As she rose to her feet, the faint sight of someone—likely the one who had pushed their enemy into a corner while they were occupied—caught Tomoe's eye, and she immediately leaped over to go see the cause. It was as she had expected... Somewhat. To see a Servant dressed in such attire in the middle of an environment like this, even if they were more than superhuman...

Could they really have been anything other than a Berserker?

"Mmm... I thank you for keeping our opponent at bay," the Archer said, quickly nocking an arrow of flame and firing it to shatter the ice holding the Servant in place. "But that's not what I'm here to ask about. If you have enough of your senses about you, answer me thus: what was it that attacked us just now? And more importantly: are you willing to aid us in defeating it anyhow? There must have been a reason for you to keep attacking that Lancer for so long, after all..."

The Archer's weapon was lowered, of course, but it was clear that she was wary about questioning a Berserker in the first place.

Their Master, on the other hand, had by now run up to the two Sabers from the other side of the battlefield. The increasing amounts of ice scattered about coupled with the massive blockade in the distance caused him to pause for a moment, glancing behind him as the two Casters and Lancer followed close behind.

"Can I get some answers, please?" Keisuke asked, motioning towards all of the anomalies around him before Siegfried spoke up.

"Master, it is a relief that you are safe. I can summarize the situation in short: the two Valkyries are huddling over the body of the one who challenged the King of Knights here to a duel and failed to obtain victory in turn; the ice was thrown by the giant wolf Fenrir, who retrieved the enemy Lancer and created the wall that you see over there. It is unlikely that we will be able to pursue with the current wounded, as I believe that it would be too dangerous to leave them be and—"

"Hey, what are you talking about over there, not-Sigurd?" chimed in the pink-haired valkyrie as she walked out of the crater and stared at Siegfried. "Just because I'm all bruised up right now from fighting your friend doesn't mean I've gone mad, you know. Even I can tell after seeing that [i]creature[/i] that something was far stranger than what we thought was mind manipulation. Oh, right, introductions..."

With that, the Valkyrie took a deep breath and put of a half-smile, half-wince as she looked at the rest of the group.

"Lancer, Hildr. The one over there looking after our fallen sister, Thrud, is Ortlinde, and we're all technically summoned as a single 'Servant' despite being different existences physically. For the trouble we have caused, erm... We're really sorry," she finally said, bowing her head low before turning to glance towards the wall once more. "But to think that [i]it[/i] would appear... Without the gods present, I'm not even sure if all of us could defeaa..."

As the Servant spoke, her voice began to trail off as she spotted Skuld walking over. The glow of her spear began to strengthen ever so slightly as she adopted a stance in opposition to the Caster, despite the situation.

"...I was going to request that we form a temporary truce and figure out a plan to at least contain that beast, as the second-in-command following my sister, but knowing that [i]she[/i] is still alive is making me have second thoughts..."

[@VitaVitaAR][@Raineh Daze][@KoL]