Assassin stared out the window. In the distance, past the shadow of his face reflected in the dark glass, he could see a hellish crimson glow.

His Master was getting impatient. The fool. The demons of hell did not understand that Heaven killed with bureaucracy. Satan's great idiocy was that he applied the personal touch, corrupting souls one by one, tailoring temptation by instinct to the unique traits of each soul. She wanted to be out there, swords in their hands, smiling as the daggers rose. He had held hope that she might have been a peer, but it was clear that she was a mere king. She would need results and soon.

And that would have been fine if it was just kings that he had been dealing with. Driving three kings together promised the deaths of Saber, Rider and Archer in a violent cataclysm, the mess of which could have been easily mopped up by Caster. After that it would be a trivial matter of killing Beserker's master and the prize would have been rescued from the hands of evil. But somehow the barbarian warlord had failed to execute an ambush and shown mercy, Archer had begun his engagement directly, and if there was one hideous truth about warriors it was that they tended to talk endlessly while crossing blades. The more they talked the more of his web would come to light. That could not be allowed.

As much as he hated revealing his hand, perhaps it was time to deploy his field assets.

*

Archer soars in the sky on golden wings. He glows like an angel, a second moon in the sky, and his bellicose laughter rings out for miles as he directs the crash of airborne earth. Holding onto his back, arms around his neck, sipping boba tea out of a straw, is Cyanis. She is having a foxgirl great time.

She is especially stoked that she just uncovered an enormously powerful mana-generating shrine. She'd delayed the pursuit for long enough for Archer to do emergency repairs and draw some siegeworks around it and for her to do some attunement fraud, but now she was [i]juiced[/i]. She could maintain Archer's noble phantasm indefinitely like this. It hadn't escaped either of their notice that the shrine had previously been attuned to Actia, meaning that Cyanis now had a huge head start on the coming foxgirl betrayal showdown. And after that, who was going to stop her?

Take out Saber, take out Rider, take out Assassin, and then sit back and have Fluffybiscuits mop up the stragglers. Easy peasy.

*

Diaofei and Opalis, amidst their unhelpful squeaking as boulders and ballista bolts fell around them, continued what was frustratingly becoming less of an interrogation and more of a conversation.

"So what's clear," said Diaofei, "is that our enemy knows where we are. They can manipulate our communications. They sent you to die by our hand, and if I had not... gotten Saber under control... when I did then we would have killed you."
"But then what? If they knew so much then they'd know my Servant would go unsummoned -"
"But what if that's the point?" said Diaofei. "You're a dragon. As Saber said, your mana is all bound up in your physical body. Your death would release it."
Opalis eyes went wide. "Oh no. Oh no no no no," she muttered, putting her claws over her muzzle. "I'm a [i]bomb[/i]?"
"Saber, we need to -"

[i]Thwip[/i]

The crossbow bolt pierces right through Diaofei's forearm where she raised it to block. The tip, dripping black venom, embeds halfway through the scale right above Opalis' heart. 

"[i]Saber[/i]!" shouts Diaofei, but it's not necessary. These shadowed creatures, corrupt shades of misfortune on the road - these are aspects of Assassin, your enemy.