Chapter 63 – Entering a Man’s Inner World Without an Invitation

"Huh?" While searching for Gilgamesh and Lady Ava with Artoria, I suddenly feel a massive amount of Prana erupting right in the middle of the city.

It feels exactly like the sheer volume of Prana I need to output whenever I create a Reality Marble, and since the only Servant in this war who can use a Reality Marble is Rider, I already know exactly who caused it.

"But who is he fighting to use a Reality Marble like that?" I mutter, immediately turning toward the direction where I felt the Prana and walking that way before stopping just at the entrance of this abandoned factory.

"Master, what's wrong? Are Archer and Caster over here?" I hear Artoria ask from behind me, sounding curious because I just suddenly switched directions without warning.

"No... I don't really know how to explain it, but I can feel a massive amount of Prana being used in the distance, and if Lady Ava was here I'm sure she'd say the exact same thing," I reply, not entirely sure where Lady Ava wandered off to but mostly focusing all my attention on trying to figure out who Rider is actually fighting.

In the anime, the only time Rider ever uses his Reality Marble is when he fights Gilgamesh, but I don't think the current Gilgamesh has any actual interest in Iskandar right now.

"Don't tell me!" My eyes go wide as Manaka's voice from last night suddenly echoes in my head, reminding me how she cheerfully declared she was going to force open a direct path to the Root and needed massive amounts of Mana from Servants to do it.

"Manaka!" I'm really surprised because I didn't expect her to move this fast by targeting Rider in the middle of the day like this.

"Saber, this is an emergency!" I say then i start explaining everything I know to Artoria, and the more she hears about the situation the more her expression turns serious, looking even more intense than she did during her actual fight against Lancer.

After hearing what i said, Artoria just nods in understanding and immediately picks me up, running straight toward the red bridge over the Mion River where I felt that Prana burst earlier.

While she carries me I open a telepathic connection with Lady Ava to explain the situation and tell her to meet us at the river right now.

"[I understand, Master~]" Lady Ava replies happily through our connection, sounding completely relaxed before her voice shifts slightly as she talks to someone else on her end. "[Yes, please pack three of those strawberry parfaits, two boxes of the chocolate pastries, and that fruit tart, thank you so much~]"

"[Are you seriously buying pastries right now?!]" I yell through the link but the connection just abruptly goes dead because she actually has the nerve to cut me off and hang up on me.

I just sigh and open another link to Gilgamesh, repeating the exact same explanation about Manaka attacking Rider and telling her we need to group up at the river.

Instead of actually caring about the emergency, the only thing I hear coming through her end of the link is her angrily yelling at some random person.

"[Tch, a 1970 vintage? You dare present something so young to a king? Bring out the oldest bottles in your cellar immediately, mongrel, and do not make me wait!]" Gilgamesh complains loudly before my connection with her also just completely cuts off.

I just stare blankly at the road ahead while Artoria keeps running "well i did say they need to wait for us, but who would think they're gonna go buying stuff like that."

By the time Artoria drops me off near the red bridge over the Mion River, the entire street is completely empty, probably because all the normal people ran away from Manaka and Rider's fight.

The only person left is a tall guy wearing a dark priest outfit standing right near the walkway, quietly inspecting the leftover marks on the ground.

I recognize him immediately. It's Kirei Kotomine, obviously here doing his actual job for the Church to figure out what happened and handle damage control, since exposing the Grail War in broad daylight is a massive rule violation.

"Saber, keep an eye on him," I whisper to Artoria while watching the priest from a distance, knowing Kirei is genuinely dangerous even without a Servant backing him up, since Assassin is already dead.

With him standing right there, it's going to be really hard to use my eyes. I really don't want to reveal them to someone like Kirei, but I don't have much of a choice. The fewer Servants Manaka can turn into batteries, the better it is for us.

Both of us walk toward him, since the massive Prana source I'm sensing is literally right beside where he is standing.

As we get closer, Kirei slowly turns around. His cold eyes land first on Artoria before shifting over to me, his expression completely flat and emotionless.

"Saber, should I assume you came here because of the sudden surge of Prana?" Kirei asks.

I can't help but get annoyed because this guy completely ignores me, keeping his eyes focused entirely on her.

"Indeed. I detected a massive surge of Prana from across the city and came to see what happened here," Artoria replies smoothly, doing a really nice job of hiding the fact that I'm actually the one who sensed it.

"From my quick investigation before you showed up, multiple civilians reported seeing a young blonde girl using this mud on the ground to attack a massive man that I assume is Rider," Kirei explains, pointing at the black puddles in front of us.

Speaking of the mud, it looks completely disgusting. It just sits there bubbling and making this weird hissing sound that really creeps me out.

"What is the Church planning to do? Isn't a fight like this a breach of secrecy regarding magecraft and the ritual?" Artoria asks him directly.

"My father is already dealing with that," Kirei answers simply.

Hearing him mention his father reminds me he is talking about Risei. It makes perfect sense, because without Gilgamesh around to whisper weird stuff into his ear and corrupt him in this timeline, Kirei didn't end up killing his own dad and still has no actual goal in life.

I know I need to get Artoria to wrap up this conversation so we can figure out a way to make Kirei leave. We really don't have time to waste chatting with him.

But before I can do that, Kirei suddenly shifts his gaze completely away from Artoria and looks right at me.

"And who might this young lady be?" he asks.

Hmm, how should I answer that?

I could just introduce myself as Saber's Master, but that's a massive pain in the ass to deal with since the Church and the Clock Tower will definitely get involved.

Maybe I can introduce myself as just some random girl tagging along, though that doesn't really explain why I'm walking around with Artoria in the first place.

Right in the middle of my thoughts, I suddenly feel Artoria's arm rest casually on my shoulder.

"She is Irisviel's daughter. She wanted to see the city, so I am accompanying her," Artoria says directly to him, without a single change in her tone.

"Wha-?" I start to mumble, genuinely caught off guard by the lie.

Before I can even finish my sentence, Artoria's hand gently squeezes my shoulder to silently tell me to play along.

"Because it is still the middle of the day, Irisviel thought she would be safe from the war, but seeing this, I don't think we can continue our stroll," Artoria adds smoothly.

Hearing that excuse, Kirei doesn't react at all. He just keeps staring at me with those dark, tired eyes before finally giving a slight nod.

"I see," Kirei replies in that same flat, low voice. "It is unfortunate that your tour of the city was interrupted. Regardless, I must return to the Church to report to father and bring the proper equipment to clean up this mud. Saber, keep watch over this area until I return. Give Lady Einzbern my regards."

With that, the priest turns his back on us and calmly walks away down the street, finally leaving us alone so we can focus on the emergency.

Did he really believe what Artoria just said? Irisviel and I look completely different since my hair and eyes are just pitch black, leaving zero indication that I'm actually her daughter, but I know I shouldn't just assume he bought that lie.

​"...I should put a barrier around here so he doesn't pretend to go away but watches us from somewhere." I walk to the side and pick up a couple of stones, imprinting my spell into each of them and bringing them to Artoria, telling her to spread them around on each side of this location to activate the barrier.

"Fál!" I shout right after Artoria finishes placing the stones, activating them all at the exact same time, and I can immediately feel the area getting isolated by the bounded field I just made.

The second this entire area is completely locked down, two golden particles appear right next to us as Lady Ava and Gilgamesh finally show up.

"My, my, look at you!" Lady Ava chirps happily while holding a bakery box in her hands. "Setting up a proper bounded field to lock out peeping priests all by yourself? Seems like you joining this war is really increasing your skill, since a year ago you couldn't even make one properly during your training to save your friend, but now you can do it this smoothly."

"Ehh, really? Hehe," I grin, rubbing the back of my neck. "Well, back during training, I kept messing up because I couldn't find the right balance between my own Od and the natural Mana already sitting inside the rocks. Since natural stones absorb Mana from the earth over time, forcing my raw Od into them just made the two energies clash so the rocks would crack every single time, but what I changed today was blending my Od with the stone's natural Mana instead of fighting it. Once the energies harmonize, the rock acts as a perfect stabilizer, and all the nodes link up the second I shout the word."

Thwack

"Ow! What are you doing?!" I yell right as Gilgamesh suddenly steps forward and flicks my forehead in the middle of my explanation.

"Didn't you ask us here for a reason? If you just get distracted like this, I'm just going to drink this and go somewhere," Gilgamesh complains while holding up a bottle of wine, and honestly, she's completely right.

I clear my throat and quickly focus back on the actual emergency. "Anyway, Lady Ava, do you have something that lets us enter another person's Reality Marble? You never taught me anything like that before, so I'm completely lost right now."

"Did you forget who I am, Master?" Lady Ava giggles, looking completely amused by my question as she takes a bite out of one of her pastries.

"Think about what a Reality Marble actually is. It's just a person's inner mind and mental landscape being materialized to overwrite the real world around them, and since I'm a succubus, my entire existence is basically built around slipping into people's dreams and walking around inside their heads."

She casually gestures toward the lingering traces of Prana hovering in front of us. "Right now, Rider's inner world is sitting right on top of this exact location. Since it's basically just a massive physical dream, I can just open a path and pull us right inside."

I see. I never actually knew that, since I just assumed she could only enter someone's normal dreams like how she usually does with me, but it seems like being a succubus has a lot of other advantages I didn't know about.

"Here, Master," she suddenly says, handing her bakery box over to me before walking slightly ahead of us as her staff immediately materializes into her right hand.

"Let us speak of a fleeting sleep," Lady Ava chants softly, tapping the bottom of her staff against the concrete as a wave of her Prana washes over the area.

The second her Prana hits the ground, the disgusting black mud bubbling on the street around us actually starts disappearing, instantly getting overwritten and replaced by pink flower petals sprouting right out of the concrete.

"The paradise at the world's end knows no walls," she continues, pointing the tip of her staff directly at the empty space over the street, causing the air itself to start distorting and cracking.

But instead of just looking like broken glass, green vines and bright flowers immediately grow out of thin air, digging right into the cracks to physically pry the space apart.

"Open the path..." she says, and the vines aggressively spread outward to form a large circle in front of us, letting a blast of dry, hot wind leak out from whatever is on the other side.

"...Passage of Flowers," Lady Ava finishes with a smile, and the cracked air completely shatters away to leave a massive gaping hole framed entirely by blooming flowers, clearly showing a vast desert of loose sand just waiting for us inside.