Formless Self

I've changed some things in the previous chapter.

Skill <> has been changed into <>.

+++

Clang*Clang*Clang*

A sword, a lance, and a pole; fiercely striking each other.

A man and a berserk knight fought with the girl.

The girl had the appearance of a young woman in her early-mid teens with a slender physique, soft skin, and a pair of beautiful green eyes. She had finely textured blonde hair that seemed -- as if sprinkled with gold dust. Her face shows some signs of naivety and displays elegance.

She was wearing shining armor with an old-style dress, made from old-fashioned blue cloth, underneath.

Her left hand was limped, an indication of it being injured by some form of attack.

She tightly gripped her invisible sword in her right hand, swinging and parrying the lance and the pole.

The man who was fighting her had his facial expression morphed into anger. His face showed his unwillingness about this whole situation, but his hand swinging the lance didn't stop or flattered, in the least.

The only one who was willingly fighting this fight might be the black berserk knight. He swung the pole in his hands with anger and hatred, barely hidden.

Clang*

Another strike that the woman blocked with a sword, but the propagated pressure still pushed her one-two meters behind.

The woman gritted her teeth and again maintained her posture, a frown deepening on her face as her green-colored eyes looked at her opposing enemies.

"Saber!"

A shout filled with worry resounded from behind. A woman with long silver hair, pale skin, and a pair of red eyes - her hands clasped above her chest as she worriedly looked at 'her' Servant fighting with the two opposing Servants.

Her hands clenched tightens at her own uselessness about the current situation.

Normally, such a situation would never have risen because this woman, Irisviel von Einzbern, knew the healing magecraft.

In fact, she had already healed the wounds previously appearing on Saber's waist.

But not the current one due to the sole reason being that the cut on her left hand was something that couldn't be healed from normal magecraft.

After all, it was done by the Noble Phantasm of the opposing party - Lancer.

While one of his spears invalid mana, the other invalidates any form of healing done on the wounds dealt by it.

In simple terms, as long as Lancer was alive or his spear was not destroyed, it would pretty much be impossible to heal the wound with the current magecraft knowledge.

Resulting in the decrease of Saber's performance; her being a double-handed swordswoman and all.

At some distance away from the trio, was a war chariot with two bulls pulling it.

Standing on it was a giant man, two meters in height. He had large muscles that give the impression of being able to kill a bear with his bare hands.

At his side was a frail and weak-looking young man. He looked frightened of what was trespassing in front of his eyes, but the presence of the giant of a person beside him seems to give him a sort of relief during the whole situation.

"Such a disgrace to the pride of a knight!" Rider, the large man on a war chariot, shouted.

He gripped the reins of his chariot, ready to interfere with the battle that was going on.

But before he could make a move, a voice not so loud nor weak resounded into space.

<>

A pale white beam of light made its way towards the berserk knight, burning and destroying everything within its way, even the air itself.

"Roar!*" The berserk knight roared in anger and swung the light pole in his hands in the direction of the coming lightning beam.

Boom!*

A loud blast occurred, blasting Saber and Lancer away.

"Saber!" Iri shouted anxiously, seeing that Saber was blown away.

"I am alright, Irisviel!" Saber replied as she looked in the direction from where the beam came.

Lancer, Rider, Waver, the Masters that were hidden in the veil of darkness, and the assassins; everyone landed on the white-haired -- with a little bit of darkness -- haired person.

He Heroically stood in the air with his darkened finger pointed in the direction of the Berserker.

He was shirtless with a golden necklace and two earrings on him. He wore black pants with crimson lining on them, and a cape around them.

There were faint fluctuations of Mana around him, probably due to him using it recently.

"Oh~, a Servant?" Rider said as he interestingly looked at the flying Masato, "Are you, Caster?"

"Caster!?" Everyone looked towards him with vigilant looks, especially Lancer. It was his instinct, but it was screaming at him.

Don't mess with him - his instinct told him enough that it didn't matter if the one flying was Caster or not, he was dangerous was all that mattered.

"Caster? Is he the Caster?" Some distance away, on a crane, stood a black-haired man. He was holding a sniper in his hands whose scope he was using to look at the flying Servant.

"Why did he stop Berserker?" He questioned, but no one was there to answer him.

"Maiya, check the surroundings and see if there is another Master." Using the radio connected to his ear, he said.

"Understood."

While the black-haired man searched for any Master around the area, Saber looked at the flying man with her eyes widened to extremes.

Her hand holding the sword trembled as she looked at the flying 'Caster', her mind in turmoil.

'Even he was summoned? How am I supposed to fight with him?'

"Saber, what happened? Are you alright?" Irisviel asked, seeing the trembling hand of Saber.

Saber didn't hear her but clenched her hold on her weapon and looked at the flying man silently.

'Somehow… it feels like I have become the center of attraction… but damn… it feels good acting cool and all.'

While everyone was anxious due to the entry of another Servant, the culprit himself was thinking about what to do now in this situation.

'Hmm… Should I take the Gil route or not?'

He wondered if he said something like: Let this King incinerate your mongrel life for raising your hand against her or something along those lines.

After all, not only he was the ancestor of Saber but also…

"Retreat, Lancer.." Masato said while his rainbow-colored eyes looked at Lancer while Berserk was already blasted away some distance away and vanished, probably retreated seeing that he was in the odds.

"Or I wouldn't mind lending a hand to Saber." He narrowed his eyes and looked towards his right, in a certain direction, "Master of Lancer, make him retreat or I'll make your retreat from the War itself."

Silence filled the surroundings as everyone waited for the answer from Lancer's master.

"... Lancer… retreat." After some time, an unwilling voice came from the shadows, making Lancer relax his body.

He looked in the direction of Masato and gave him a little bow, "You have my thanks, unknown Hero. If, in the future, I had a chance, then on my knight honor, I'll make sure to pay this favor to you."

As he finished, he turned into particles and vanished.

Masato narrowed his eyes on this. He really wondered if Heroic Spirit's dematerialization is the same as the atomization of Vampires.

He thought he would see if he could learn it too. After all, he was not a complete Servant currently.

Alaya had only merged himself with his Servant self, making him a Demi-Servant. And adding the fact that his soul has merged with Balor, making him a Diving Spirit too.

At this rate, Masato wondered if he could rival Ichigo in different bloodlines. Though this was not a bloodline.

"Hahaha! Saving the honor of a knight, you are not a bad, unknown Hero!" Rider laughed loudly before he said, "I, Iskander, have taken a liking to you! How about it? Would you join my army?"

Masato smiled. He really liked the character of Rider in the anime. Remembering his death, he couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards the King of Conquer.

But he was also aware that this was not his position to be sympathetic towards him.

"You are asking this King to join another King?" Masato said as he looked down at Rider, "A King never serves, King of Conqueror."

While he looked quite serious outside, inside he was currently wondering if this is what others called the arrogance of a King.

Masato was aware that his personality was bound to change after he got his previous life memories. But…

'That still doesn't change the fact that I need to make Saber my wife…'

He was still as lustful as ever…

"Oh! You are also a King! Hahaha! This war summoned three Kings, how marvelous! If we all join forces, then we can conquer this world together!"

"You're delusional, King of Conqueror." Masato shook his head. If this was a normal world, then he might be successful. But this world has way too many people that wouldn't like the existence of past Heroes in the current timeline.

"That's good too! A King needs to be delusional! That is how Kingdoms are born." Rider loudly said before gripping the reins of his chariot, "Let's meet again, Unknown King!"

He jerked the reins, creating thunder around him before his chariot moved and took him and his Master with it.

Only Saber, Irisviel, and Masato were left alone on the shore with some hidden people in the shadows.

"Aster… you were also summoned in this war…" Saber gripped her sword tightly and said.

Masato silently looked at her.

He was not only her ancestor but also the processor. After all, it was him who wielded Excalibur before Saber.

Before he left his country, he had left a single intent of himself in the sword before giving it back to Vivian, the lady of the lake.

So when Saber or Artoria got herself Excalibur, she was able to get in touch with him through it.

After he got his memories from his previous life, he also got all the memories of the intent he had left behind in Excalibur, making him quite familiar with Saber due to their interaction during the time she wielded her sword.

"Aster?" Irisviel's eyes widened, remembering the story she read in a book about the history of Britain, "Aster Pendragon… he is the God Slayer?"

Neither Masato nor Saber replied to Irisviel's question.

"So you still entered the war, Artoria. Do you hate your past that much?" Masato questioned.

Artoria's grip around her sword tightens. She bit her lip, unwilling to say anything.

"Saber…" Irisviel becomes worried seeing such a Saber.

To her, Saber was a heroic knight and a King. But currently, she looks like a little girl who was caught doing something bad.

"But if not for me--"

"Britain would not have fallen?" Masato continued her sentence and shook his head, "Artoria… the things that are supposed to happen, will happen. Your people, your knights, and even I; we all know how great of a King you were."

He looked at her and asked, "Answer me, Artoria, do you have a certain belief that if someone else was chosen as King instead of you, he/she would be able to lead Britain to glory but not its destruction?"

That's right. Who knows? If Artoria didn't become King, was she sure that he/she would lead Britain to its glory and not its destruction?

No, no one knew.

"At least it would not fall as it did under my reign!" Artoria retorted back.

"Indeed. The ending might not be the same, but are you sure that it would even reach that point? Can you prove to me that it would not be destroyed even before that?"

Saber became silent, her head hung down.

She knew he was right, but her willingness brought from the death of her comrades stopped her from changing her idea.

How can she do it? After all, she still remembers the despised faces of those that rebel against her.

"You can't, right?" Masato's facial expression relaxes as he looked at the girl in front and said, "Remember your history Artoria… your myths, your folk beliefs; no matter how meaningless and demeaning these may appear. It is these that you create a new totality, the identity without which you will be formless, incoherent."

"Denying your reality would only result in sorrow and destruction."

"Saber…" Irisviel wanted to go and hug the defenseless Artoria who stood at her place with a painfilled expression.

After a brief silence, Masato appeared in front of her and pats her head, "Forget it. You still have the whole war to think about such things. Forcing yourself currently wouldn't change anything but only make it more unbearable."

"Aster…"

"Masato. Call me Masato from now," he replied while patting her head.

His expression looked gentle as if looking at his daughter while…

'Damn… I definitely looked cool as fuck right there… kinda… if only the system was open, I would have been able to see her affection and obedience. Sadly, it will take a day for it to work again.' he thought, 'And I can't kill a Servant during it or I might not get any rewards for it.'

Since every function of the system was shut down, he didn't know if he would receive a reward for killing a Servant or not. It was better to be cautious.