Chapter CI: Mad God

The Hind shuddered beneath our feet as we slammed back into the ocean, sending up a spray of salty water along the sides of the ship. We seemed almost to skip along the surface, teetering back and forth as we settled on the water, and the whole ship creaked and rocked under the forces it was being subjected to — without the Whydah reinforcing it, the whole thing likely would have snapped in half along the keel.

"Whoa!" Rika said as she and her brother reached for the nearest thing they could find to steady themselves. I had to do it, too, and clutched to the railing in front of the wheel. "You weren't kidding about how rough it was gonna be, Sam!"

"Any landing you can walk away from," Ritsuka added.

"Sorry!" Bellamy said. "Can't be helped!"

"Fuck!" Drake swore. "That would've torn the Hind in half! You Servants and your toys are bullshit!"

"You won't hear any arguments from me!" Rika replied.

"Speaking of bullshit," Emiya muttered, gaze narrowed on the sea ahead of us. "That guy… There's no way that's a normal boat."

"H-he's so fast!" Mash said. She shielded her eyes as she looked out at Hektor and the path he was blazing through the waves.

And he was. Despite the fact that it was barely big enough to raise the single sail that it did have, it was moving with the speed of a modern motor boat, at minimum. Even with our sails at full and the Whydah boosting the Hind's own speed by a significant amount, he was still outpacing us, still so far ahead and getting farther. We were going fast enough that we could have turned that four day trip it took us to get from the wyvern island into a four hour trip, and somehow, his little boat was faster.

His Master must have prepared it for him, because there was no way it was natural, and with the Grail to give it an even bigger boost…

"Goddamn," said Drake. "If the Hind could move this fast on its own… Fuck, there ain't no one on the seas who could catch us!"

"Where is he even going?" asked Ritsuka. "I know he's returning to his Master, but… The only thing that way is more ocean."

My mouth drew into a tight line. "Arash? What do you see?"

Arash narrowed his gaze on the sea ahead. "Not…much of anything. There's a storm far off — the outer edges of that maelstrom, from the other side, it looks like. Other than that, there doesn't look like there's anything else out there."

I strained my eyes, but although, now that he mentioned it, I could see dark clouds far off towards the horizon, I couldn't find anything else either. Not that I really expected to, considering how much better his vision was than mine, but even a hint of something would have been welcome.

Maybe Hektor's plan was our plan, and he intended to lose us in the storm. It wasn't the worst idea, but we were the ones with a map, so as long as we had his general heading, figuring out where he was going wouldn't be particularly hard. Provided he didn't feint and change course halfway there.

The issue was the Master. Who it was and where they were hiding, because we'd been to every island except the archipelago and the caldera, and Hektor wasn't sailing towards either.

"Could that be where his Master is hiding?" Ritsuka suggested. "Staying on the outer edges of the vortex, just far enough to avoid getting sucked in, that would be a great way to avoid running into anyone you didn't want to, wouldn't it?"

"How cowardly," said Bradamante disdainfully. "Hiding inside the storm while his underlings go out and risk their lives for him, has he no shame?"

"Depending on how strong he is, it might be the only way he can avoid getting killed," said Emiya. "It's definitely clever, I'll give him that, so if there's one thing we can be sure of, it's that he's probably not a frontline fighter."

"That doesn't narrow it down much," Arash chimed in. "We can definitely say it's not Blackbeard, but if it's another pirate Servant, that's still a pretty long list."

"Might be Captain Hornigold," Bellamy offered. "It all happened after I died, so I can't say for sure, but he became a pirate hunter, didn't he? I can't imagine Teach was all too happy about that."

"That's right," said Mash. She explained, "In 1717 and 1718, King George offered pardons to all pirates who willingly surrendered to a regional governor and gave up piracy. Benjamin Hornigold accepted, turned himself in to Woodes Rogers, the governor of the Bahamas, and became a pirate hunter, and unlike some of the others, he didn't eventually return to being a pirate himself. But, Sam, Blackbeard died before Captain Hornigold accepted the pardon, so he wouldn't have had any reason to consider him a traitor, would he?"

Bellamy winced. "Oh yeah…"

"It would certainly make things awkward between them," said Emiya. "If Hornigold reformed and Blackbeard remained a pirate to the end… Even as Servants, it could be that neither of them can stand the sight of the other. There's no enemy worse than one who used to be your friend."

As someone who had plenty of experience, I wasn't sure I could agree with that. Emma had done plenty to try and earn it, but I'd faced a whole lot worse than her petty insults and barbed words. She didn't even really compare to some of the people I'd had to fight over the course of my career, in any sense of the word.

The twins gave me a strange look, then traded one with each other, like they were trying to convince one another that the other should be the one to comment, and I deliberately smoothed out my expression. I wasn't sure what had shown on my face, but it was obvious that there had been something.

"Can't say as I blame 'em," Drake added. "As a pirate having to look at the guy who turned his back on everything you stood for or the guy who decided to do the turning, it's all shit either way."

"As long as it's not another pervert," Euryale said stiffly.

"One was more than enough!" Bradamante agreed. Discreetly, Orion shuffled away from her and closer to Artemis' legs.

Ahead, the looming storm clouds drew ever closer, and the sea became choppier and rougher — not that we really noticed it, with Bellamy and the Whydah keeping us steady and on course. Perhaps somewhat ironically, it was the smoothest sailing I'd experienced since we Rayshifted into this Singularity, although I wasn't sure how long Bellamy could afford to keep it up. Maybe it was easier for him now that we were no longer flying, and if he was still hooked up to Drake's Grail, then his supply of magical energy was functionally infinite, wasn't it?

Was Hektor's Master really hiding out in that storm, or was he actually going to try and lose us in it, the same way we'd outrun Blackbeard?

"Let's say it isn't Hornigold, for the sake of argument," I said. "Who else could it be?"

"Too many people," Emiya said dryly.

"Oh!" Rika hopped excitedly, her hand shooting up into the air like she was a student waiting to be called on. "It's Davy Jones!"

"Rika," her brother began wearily.

"No, really!" Rika said. "Seaweed Face is the only one we've met so far that we don't know what side he's on, right? And he changed the weather when he stopped the ship back when we first met him! What if he really was just coming along to check for Eury?"

My brow furrowed. That…was actually a good point. So far, the mysterious man with seaweed for hair was the only Servant we knew of for sure that we couldn't account for, discounting whoever was guarding the archipelago. We didn't know what he wanted or why he was here, and all things considered, he might not even have to worry about the storm.

"And if he can change the weather," said Ritsuka, "then he could just make a pocket of calm sea right in the middle of that storm, can't he?"

But then why had he shown up in the middle of that storm chasing Bellamy when Blackbeard was on our tails? Unless…his goal at the time had been driving Bellamy towards us, either to take us both out at once or to make us meet so we could team up against Blackbeard. It would have made his job easier, whatever his end goal happened to be, whether it was Euryale herself or Blackbeard's Grail.

The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. After all, if we were all in his way to whatever it was he wanted, then no matter who won the battle between us, he could just swoop in and take out the weakened victor, or even let Hektor do it for him. He came out on top no matter what.

When we followed Hektor back to his Master, would we find ourselves facing a derelict ship covered in glowing moss and manned by ethereal specters, with a ghastly, pallid corpse at the helm?

"If he tries any of that again," Bellamy said, "then we'll just blast him out of the sea. Ain't that right, boys?"

The crew roared back an affirmative answer. "Goddamn right, it is!" one of them shouted.

Drake sighed and shook her head. "It's a crying shame you were born a couple centuries too late, Sam. Would've loved to have you on the crew! You're a damn sight better than some of the wankers we've had to deal with before!"

Bellamy's cheeks bloomed with red, and Drake laughed boisterously, saying, "But I guess we'll have to settle for having you on it now! Better late than never!"

The crew cheered again, and Bellamy ducked his head bashfully. "Ah, geez, Captain…"

"When this is all over, Sam," Drake said, quieter and with meaning, "we'll have a right proper send off for you and these Chaldean stargazers, you hear? Something none of us will ever forget, no matter what happens when this screwy place is set to rights. Something we'll all remember 'til the day we die."

"Captain Drake…" Mash said softly.

Drake grinned. "We'll eat Emiya's rich food, and we'll drink some rich drink from this Grail of mine," she tapped her chest, "and we'll party all night long, no matter what that old nag of theirs says, and when it's time for everyone to go, we'll say our goodbyes and see you all off with a smile!"

Bellamy sniffled, but whatever it might have been from, he wiped his nose on the back of a sleeve, then lifted his head with a grin and loudly said, "Yeah! For sure!"

"Don't go celebrating too early," Arash warned, "because there might be a problem with your theory about our friend with the seaweed hair."

"Problem?" the twins echoed.

"Are you seeing something?" I asked him.

He nodded towards the ocean in front of us. "Up ahead, there's a ship. It doesn't look anything like what he was sailing either of the times we ran into him. It… Honestly, it looks closer to something from my era than it does the Age of Piracy."

"What?" Rika squawked, echoing my own surprise. "But I was so sure of it, too!"

"Sorry to disappoint," Arash said apologetically.

"You said it looked more like it belonged to your era?" asked Emiya shrewdly.

"You should be able to see it soon, too," said Arash.

Emiya clicked his tongue. "No, I'll believe you. If that's what you say, then that's how it is." He closed his eyes briefly. "There's only so many legends from that era with strong seafaring themes. One of them…happens to fit quite nicely with our estimation of a canny schemer known for maneuvering his enemies into no-win situations."

I realized what he meant immediately. "Odysseus."

And it did fit. The style of the boat, the era it must have come from, even the profile we'd built up of what our ultimate enemy might look like. The scheming type who used plans and trickery to defeat enemies he might otherwise be incapable of fighting normally — that definitely fit the Odysseus from the myths.

There was just one problem I had with that idea.

"Why would Hektor have agreed to team up with him? They were on opposite sides of a war, and Odysseus was responsible for destroying Troy."

Calliope chuckled lowly. "Because it's not Odysseus."

All attention turned to her, and everyone turned around to face her, where she was still leaning against the backmost railing of the ship. Everyone, that was, except for Emiya, who merely sighed and shook his head.

"The fact that it's coming from you tells me all I need to know about who it actually is," said Emiya. He tilted his head back, looking at her over his shoulder. "Are you going to let them know or should I? It's at the point where we can't afford to keep it a secret anymore."

She didn't say anything, just ducked her head. Emiya's lips drew tight as he turned to face her fully. "I was fine with letting it go as long as it didn't get in the way of our mission, but we're past that point now."

Calliope flinched and pulled her cloak tighter around herself, as though it could ward off his words. Emiya didn't offer her any mercy.

"I'm not bluffing," he said. "As a matter of courtesy between one Heroic Spirit and another, I'm giving you the chance to come clean. But if you're not willing to tell them what we're about to face, then I will, regardless of your own feelings about it. I won't let courtesy get anyone on this ship killed."

"Kuh…!" Calliope growled, her lips pulling into a snarl.

"You might as well," Euryale added lazily. "I didn't bother asking before, but it'll be too much of a pain if things go bad because you were keeping a secret like that."

Calliope hunched in on herself. "Fine," she muttered. "Fine! If you're going to strip me bare no matter how it goes, then I might as well…"

And with fingers clothed in black gloves, she lifted her hands to the cowl of her cloak, hesitating for a moment, as though it was some powerful protection she was scared of losing.

"That ship is the Argo," she said, "captained by Jason, and the Master that Hektor is returning to is a young mage by the name of Medea —"

Like ripping off a band-aid, she pulled back her hood, and pale blue hair spilled out, framing a beautiful face and eyes like chips of ice. Ritsuka gasped.

"— my younger self."

"Whaaaaaaaaaaat?" Drake said bewilderedly, drawing the word out.

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"Oh god," Rika said, horrified, "we're not in One Piece, we're in a soap opera!"

"What a twist!" Orion added. "I didn't see this one coming!"

The terrible thing was, she wasn't exactly wrong, was she? This was just like something out of a soap opera, with evil twins and time travel and everything. The only thing missing was someone in a coma waking up to find out her fiancé had married her best friend, and even that one could be ticked off the list if you counted Marie being married to her job.

"Your…younger self," I prompted, trying to get the mental image out of my head.

Calliope — no, Medea — sneered. "The me from before Jason revealed exactly how cruel and self-serving he was. The little chit is still madly in love with him, the fool, so she's going to choose his side no matter what. Even if it means the destruction of human history. She arranged for Blackbeard to have the Grail, in the hopes that he would manage to find the things she needed to make Jason a god king."

"And where do you come in with all of this?" asked Arash.

Medea's sneer turned into a dark smile. "Heroic Spirits are composite existences," she said. "Even if my younger self only views the memories of her future as a kind of prophetic dream, they still existed in her Saint Graph. When a demon came offering her the Grail, well, the possibility existed for those memories to manifest more…concretely."

She wasn't explaining everything, I was sure of it. There was something she was still holding onto, something about how she had ripped herself out of her other self's Saint Graph, but the fact that she had ripped herself out of the younger's Saint Graph explained a lot about what was happening now.

"That's why she's acting through proxies," I realized. "You literally tore her power in half."

And that neatly explained why our sensors could barely detect her, too. The one in front of us. Why she had shied away from fighting at all. Why she was so skittish and hesitant. It wasn't that she had some method of hiding herself or suppressing her presence somehow, it was that she was literally half of a Servant, and she only had a portion of her full power.

"Whoa," said Rika. "Hardcore."

"Well, damn," said Emiya. "Have to admit, that's not what I was expecting."

I hadn't been expecting it either. I'd known from the beginning that she probably wasn't the real Calliope, and I hadn't had any particularly strong theories about her true identity or why she was the way she was, but this wasn't what I would have predicted at all. Although — I stole a quick glance at Artemis and Orion — maybe it wasn't quite unprecedented.

"I didn't realize that was possible," said Mash.

"I think…when it comes to the Holy Grail, that word starts to lose some of its meaning," Ritsuka told her.

"What should we expect going into this, then?" I asked. "You said Jason was there, and this younger version of yourself, and Hektor will obviously be there, too. Are there any other Argonauts we need to worry about?"

Emiya stiffened, but he relaxed with a sigh a moment later when Medea shook her head.

"The other Servants she summoned left shortly after hearing what she planned," said Medea. "Atalanta, Hippolyta, and King David all ran — to where, I'm afraid I don't know. They went the opposite direction of me."

Considering she went to New Crete and hid out with Euryale and Asterios…

"They're down at the archipelago."

If they were still around, at least, and we had no reason to expect that they weren't. Atalanta, Hippolyta, and King David? Not the biggest names — not even the biggest names on the Argo — but big enough that I couldn't imagine them going down quickly or easily.

"And they seem to have made a friend or two while they were down there," Arash added thoughtfully. "None of those three is known for having a fleet, after all. Looks like they ran into another sailor and decided to team up."

Neatly explaining why one showed up and threatened to blow us out of the water when we went down there. Whoever they teamed up with was just protecting them from what they probably thought was a group of Jason's lackeys.

"Wait," said Ritsuka. "Doesn't that mean that the Grail Blackbeard was using to summon Anne, Mary, and Alexander is the same Grail that this, um, other Medea used to summon Atalanta, King David, and Hippolyta?"

"Oh," Mash said softly. "Then that's why he couldn't use his cannons at the same time as he was flying his ship. The Grail he's using is supplying power to several other Servants, too."

Beep-beep!

Frowning, I turned on my communicator. "Director —"

"Did you say King David?" Romani demanded immediately. "King David is there in that Singularity? He's really, actually there? It's not some other guy with a similar name?"

"Yes," said Medea. "I wasn't lying. Each of the Heroic Spirits I named was summoned by my younger self."

"Whatever you do, don't accept any deal he tries to offer you!" Romani said urgently. "I mean it! Don't let that cheapskate swindle you! He'll take you for everything you're worth if you —"

There was a sound as of someone being bodily shoved aside and the crash of someone falling out of their chair. The twins exchanged a bewildered look, then turned to me, but I didn't have any better explanation I could give them. All I could do was frown and shake my head.

"Excuse me," Marie's voice said tersely. "He activated the comms before I had the chance to stop him. Continue what you were doing. We'll be prepared to Rayshift you back as soon as you've handled this other Medea."

And then the line went dead.

"Well," Orion said into the awkward silence. "That happened. What's that guy's deal, anyway?"

Mash sighed. "I honestly can't tell you. Even for Doctor Roman, that was strange."

I turned back to Medea. "You said we only have to worry about Hektor, Jason, and your other self?"

"Even something like the Holy Grail has limits," she answered stiffly. "It's already supporting numerous Servants, so while it isn't impossible she summoned more, it only has so much power."

"And with the younger Medea weakened and Jason being, well, Jason," Emiya began, and Medea snorted, "Hektor should be the only combatant we really have to worry about."

"You have nothing to be concerned about," said Medea. "With this many strong heroes on board, Jason's little party will end quite easily."

"Which means it's almost time for us to head home," Rika said dreamily. "Ah, I can't wait to sleep in a regular bed again! No offense, Captain Pillows, but there's nothing like a real, actual mattress! And showers! Daily showers!"

"I guess being back in time before things like that existed makes you appreciate them all the more," Ritsuka said wryly.

"A damn shame I just have to take your word for it!" Drake laughed.

Up ahead, Hektor's destination came into view, a slowly growing sliver of honey brown amidst the blue of the ocean around it. The storm above us, threatening rain but not quite raining, made it harder to see among the churning waves, but once it came into view properly, it was hard to miss, and it became rapidly larger as we approached.

"Gonna bring us up alongside her!" Sam told everyone, and as he spun the wheel, our trajectory took on a more oblique angle so that we wouldn't just ram straight into it — as tempting an idea as it was for an opening attack, I wasn't sure the Hind would survive it, the Whydah supporting it or not.

"Damn," said Drake, "that definitely ain't a ship of the line like any I've seen! You're right, there, Arash, that thing is ancient!"

The Argo — because that was the only thing it could be — was, indeed, an older style of ship, one that looked, appropriately so, more like it belonged in Hellenistic Greece than the Caribbean Sea. Stretching twenty-five, maybe thirty feet across at the widest part, it was low and squat with a single, triangular sail affixed to a short mast sitting in front of a slightly larger square sail on a slightly taller mast. A little over halfway between the waterline and the edge of the deck, oars jutted out and into the water, marking it as a galley, just like Sam's Whydah.

"Well, shit," said Orion. "That really is the Argo, the real deal, accept no substitutes. I wasn't sure I could believe it would really be here, but now that I'm seeing it with my own eyes…" He waved one paw in front of his face. "Well, what counts for eyes on this body, anyway."

"That's really it," Mash breathed. "The legendary ship from Greek mythology, the Argo."

And as we approached, Hektor leapt up out of his little dinghy and onto the deck, where two vague figures awaited him — Jason and Medea's younger self, no doubt. The Whydah Hind slowed to something almost like a drift, and with a precision that should have been impossible for a ship on the ocean, Bellamy maneuvered us so that we would come to a stop with the slightest of gaps to spare.

"Get ready," I told my team lowly. "They're not going to surrender that Grail without a fight. Take out Jason and Medea first, and that'll make Hektor our only concern."

"A decapitating strike." Emiya nodded approvingly. "Works just fine for me. Master?"

"They didn't fight fair from the beginning," Rika said a little viciously. "So neither will we."

Emiya smirked. "Understood."

From the Argo, the taller of the two figures strode towards us, coming up near the edge of the deck, while the shorter trailed behind him deferentially, quiet and demure. Blond and green-eyed with a fancy gold embroidered tunic and bangles, he looked like some ancient king flaunting his wealth, an impression only made stronger when he smiled down at us smugly.

"Ahoy, there!" he called. "You motley crew on your derelict little ship! You pathetic dregs of society!"

"Who are you calling derelict?" Drake spat furiously.

"You, you worthless nag!" the man who could only be Jason laughed. "Well, maybe you're not totally worthless. After all, you did bring me both Euryale and the second Grail I needed, so I guess you had some use after all!"

My eyes narrowed on him. Focus on Jason, I ordered Arash silently. Emiya seems to know what to expect out of Medea better, so let him take her out.

Understood, Arash replied.

"Jason," I said evenly, drawing his attention off of our Servants. "Would you be willing to surrender that Grail to Chaldea so that we can set this era to rights?"

Jason sneered. "Hey, hey, what's with that tone? The only way for a peon like you to address a hero as grand as I am is with deference and respect! Awe should drip from your voice when you say my name!"

"Wow," Rika muttered. "Someone has an inflated opinion of himself."

Medea — our Medea — huffed out a quiet laugh. "You don't even know the half of it."

Considering his ego had played a large part in his downfall in the myths? Yeah, this was probably what we should have been expecting to begin with. Since this was the same man who thought his wife would accept being relegated to the role of concubine just because it would let him marry a princess, this really did seem like par for the course.

"I'm going to take that as a no."

"As well you should," Jason said snidely. "Why would the heroes turn around and surrender when they have the upper hand? Victory is right in front of me! Like hell would I let it go just like that!"

Fine. Not like I was really expecting him to just hand it over anyway, but it was worth a shot on the off chance he could actually be reasonable. Maybe one of these days, someone would actually surprise me. Today wasn't it.

Arash, I began.

"It's me who should be telling you," Jason went on. "Hand over that hag's Grail and Euryale and I might be merciful enough to let you stick around and bask in my glory! That's a pretty good deal, isn't it? You're going to lose anyway, so you might as well walk away with your lives!"

"Is he serious?" Rika asked incredulously. "He sounds like something straight out of a manga!"

"Unfortunately," our Medea said grimly.

Take him out, I ordered.

Jason smiled nastily. "Of course, if you're going to scorn my generosity, then it's all the same to me —"

Arash manifested his bow, drew back on the string, and nocked an arrow all in the same instant, with Emiya just barely lagging behind him. Jason had only a fraction of a second to realize what was going on and recoil, squawking with indignant panic, before that arrow aimed for his heart — his Saint Graph's spiritual core — flew at him faster than the sound of the bowstring vibrating could reach my ears. Emiya's shot followed in its shadow, aimed at the waif next to Jason, who was the spitting image of a younger version of Medea.

Just like that, it was over, and we could take out Hektor at our leisure.

Except a hulking shadow formed between the arrows and their targets, and it solidified into a gray mass of muscle and power, using its body as a shield. The arrows fired, each of them strong enough on their own to shatter boulders, shattered themselves against skin the color of lead and dissipated into golden sparks.

"What the…"

"Who…" I wondered.

"Shit!" Emiya cursed. "He really is here!"

"No…" our Medea whispered.

The hulking giant — nearly as tall as Asterios and twice as thick — slowly stood, and the muscles of his bare chest and arms rippled with obscene strength the whole way up. A wild tangle of black hair surged down the back of his neck like a lion's mane, and when he breathed out a low, ominous growl, it sounded more like something out of a tiger or some other wild animal than a human being. The only stitch of clothing on his entire body was an armored skirt that hung from his waist.

And from him exuded an aura of sheer menace, an air of barely contained violence, ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice. The bloodlust oozing off of him was enough to make my stomach curl and my heart thunder. My mouth was suddenly dry.

The dots connected. The reactions from Medea and Emiya, the appearance, the stature, the power, the location, the enemy and their identities — when I added it all up, there was only one conclusion for me to draw.

"Fuck."

That could only be —

"Herakles!" Jason shouted. "You lout! That was way too close! If you'd been just a little bit slower, that would have killed me for sure! Just how dedicated are you to our mission, fool! Are you trying to get me killed?"

The giant did not react at all to the insults, he just kept glaring at us, as though his gaze itself was enough to do us in. If I'd had to face him on my first night out, it just might have.

"Oh no," Mash gasped.

"We're doomed," Orion said matter-of-factly.

"What power," Bradamante breathed. "He's…he's incredible!"

"That's Herk?" Rika demanded. "He's huge! And…really muscular, whoa! Even Sparty wasn't that ripped!"

Jason leaned over, peering at us from around Herakles' massive bulk. "Shocked? Amazed? Dismayed? That's right, this guy here is Herakles, the greatest hero of Greece! Well, aside from yours truly, at least! This is the guy who went everywhere, killed every monster, and never failed any task ever given to him! He's never been defeated, not once!"

Still, Herakles stood there stoically, his face carved into an unmoved scowl. He wasn't reacting at all. In fact, I wasn't sure he was even breathing.

I peered closer, opening my mind's eye to scan him with my Master's Clairvoyance —

"Berserker?"

At this, Herakles finally moved, his brow twitching minutely and his head turning just the slightest, and my blood froze as I was suddenly the center of his attention. It was like having the eye of God staring down at me.

Fuck.

Emiya chuckled uneasily. "That really doesn't make him less dangerous."

"Unfortunately, that's what the big guy lacks in this form," said Jason. He patted one massive thigh. "Intelligence. Can't talk worth a damn, so he's not that great a conversationalist, and there really isn't that much going on upstairs, so his most dangerous asset has been ground into nothing." In spite of what he said, Jason still smirked. "But he's kept all the parts that make him more than enough to crush you worthless bits of trash. He's even more obedient like this, so when I tell him to break all of you over his knee, he won't even protest!"

Herakles snarled, as though to punctuate Jason's words.

"Master," Emiya said lowly. "We need to run."

"What?" But it was Drake who protested immediately. "Like hell! We chased these bastards all the way here, and you want to tuck tail now, with this lot right in front of our noses?"

"You've never faced him before, so you don't get it," Emiya said ominously. "That guy… It'd be one thing if we were just facing him as he is, but his Noble Phantasm means we can't just gang up on him and whittle him down. I can take a few of his lives, but even with help, I'm not sure I can take them all."

It took everything I had not to whip my head around to stare at him. A few of his lives? What?

"Oh? So you even know about that, mister trash?" Jason crowed. "Man, what a joke! You can take a few of his lives? As if! And even if you really did have the power necessary in that puny Spirit Origin of yours to kill Herakles a couple of times, there's no way you have enough to do it all twelve!"

"Twelve?" Ritsuka choked out. "You're saying…he has twelve lives?"

"What is he, a secret boss?" Rika cried. "You're supposed to stumble across those in out of the way places, not face them down right before the big bad!"

My eyes widened. Twelve lives. One for each of his Labors.

"And each killing blow," Emiya said lowly, "has to be at least A-Rank in power. Even Aífe's Gáe Bolg won't even scratch him."

"Shit," said Arash. "So even my Noble Phantasm wouldn't…"

There was no trace of humor in Emiya's expression. "No."

My mind raced. Twelve lives, each of them sturdy enough that we needed the highest level of attack to take them, and even then, they would have to be fatal blows to be worth anything. Emiya was confident enough that he had the firepower for at least a few of those — and I had to assume there was a reason he couldn't just use his Caladbolg over and over to get the job done, even if only as a matter of energy costs — but not enough to finish the job.

Our options, then. Bradamante, Arash, and Euryale were automatically out. I had to assume Artemis was, too. If he could get in a killing blow, Asterios could take one life, but presumably no more than that. If we brought in Aífe and Siegfried, then that was one life each between the Thunder Feat and Balmung.

That still only got us about two thirds of the way there.

"So?" said Jason. "I'll give you one more chance. Aren't I generous? Aren't I magnanimous? If you surrender that hag's Grail and Euryale, then the rest of you can take your little boat and sail away! What do you say?"

But…killing Herakles wasn't the goal, taking the Grail was. That was how we would solve this Singularity. As long as Herakles was unable to stop us, we could defeat Jason, take the Grail, and then it wouldn't matter how many lives Herakles had.

"Emiya," I said quietly, "do you have a way of keeping Herakles occupied?"

Emiya slid a glance my way. "I do. I can buy you a few minutes like that, but it won't be enough to defeat him for good."

"Senpai?" asked Rika. "Do you have a plan?"

I nodded minutely. "I do."

"Well, hell," said Drake, quieter than I was used to. "Let's hear it, missy. How are you gonna put that big beastie in the ground?"

"We don't need to kill Herakles," I explained, quiet enough to keep Jason from overhearing. "He doesn't matter, he's just an obstacle. Our goal here isn't anything at all to do with him, we just need —"

"The Grail," Ritsuka breathed. "That's right. As long as we get that, it's over, isn't it?"

Especially since Herakles had likely been summoned by it. Once it was in our possession, we would theoretically be the ones holding his strings, wouldn't we? At that point, his incredible strength and extra lives wouldn't matter.

"And Jason's the one who has it," I concluded. "He has no martial feats in his legend. He's just a guy who happened to know a lot of famous heroes. We can handle that easily."

Emiya made a noise of understanding in his throat. "So you just need Herakles out of the way long enough to do that. Yeah, that sounds doable. It won't be easy, but as long as Master focuses entirely on supporting me, I can buy you at least enough time for that."

"Then do it," said Rika seriously. "I don't care how you do it, Emiya, just keep him off our backs until we can mess that pretty boy up."

Emiya smirked. "That's all well and good, Master, but would you be terribly angry if I killed him instead?"

We all turned to look at him.

"W-what?" Mash stammered.

"B-but you just said," Rika began.

"Sorry, sorry," Emiya apologized, chuckling a little. "It's a bad joke, I know, but for just a second there… Well, it doesn't matter. You'll have more than enough time to take the Grail back, Master."

"Hey!" said Jason, annoyed. "You guys, do you think I'm just going to let you scheme over there forever? If you aren't going to accept my generous offer, then I'll just send Herakles over to deal with you!"

"Sorry to waste your time!" Emiya called back. "But, before we get this started, do you mind if I recite a bit of poetry? Against a hero as strong as Herakles, I need a bit of help to psych myself up to face him."

"Poetry?" Jason's lip curled. He waved it off. "Fine, fine. Never let it be said I don't give my enemies their dying wishes. Just hurry it up, would you?"

Emiya smirked. "I'll try my best to be quick, then."

He glanced back at Rika for a moment, and as though she heard something the rest of us didn't, she nodded. "Got it. We'll be ready."

Emiya squared his shoulders, taking a deep breath, and then he let it out as a sigh.

"I am…the bone of my sword."

Something beyond sight slid into place, like a giant gear turning. My eyes flitted about, but there was nothing there, only the stormy sea, the heavy sky, and us.

"Steel is my body and fire is my blood."

The air shifted. Something else slid into place, as though an unseen key was slowly turning in its lock. The Whydah Hind creaked.

"I have created over a thousand blades. Unknown to death, nor known to life."

Emiya suddenly slid into focus, as though my eyes had been glazed over before and I was only now seeing him in his entirety. Between one word and the next, his outline solidified in an indescribable way, like he had become more real.

"Have withstood pain to create many weapons, yet these hands will never hold anything."

Scorching heat radiated out of his body, so hot it was like standing in front of a furnace at full blast, or a bonfire at full burn.

Or, I realized, a forge.

"Wait a second," said Jason, "that's not any kind of poetry I've ever heard about!"

"Oh dear," the young woman at his side said. "Master, this may have been a bad decision."

"So as I pray," Emiya said in a voice thick with promise, "Unlimited Blade Works."

A ring of fire swept out from his feet, carrying swiftly across the boat, and half of us tried to leap away from it before it could touch us — except it washed over me without burning, without even the slightest bit of heat, racing outwards at speed until it had consumed first the Hind, and then the Argo, and between one blink and the next…vanished.

And it had taken Emiya and Herakles with it.

"Well, would you look at that," said Hektor, impressed. "Man, I really underestimated that guy. Who knew he had something like that up his sleeve?"

"Herakles!" Jason raged, whirling about like he could find his missing Servant huddling behind the mast. "Hey, Herakles! Damn it, where did you go? This is no time to be slacking off, you bastard!" He spun towards us. "You! What did your shitty Archer do, you little shits?"

"Senpai, now!" Rika shouted.

Arash, I ordered, and swifter than lightning, he had nocked another arrow, taken aim, and fired it, straight for Jason's heart. It moved so fast that I couldn't even follow it with my eyes, not even as a streak of color. Jason was way too slow to avoid it.

A bronze hand materialized suddenly in the path of the arrow, catching it with the tip less than an inch away from Jason's chest. Up the hand came an arm, then a torso, then a head and legs, and then, standing there, Arash's arrow clutched in her fist, was another Servant.

She turned one blue eye our way, and a wave of bloodlust slammed into me with all the force of a freight train. My knees threatened to buckle under its weight.

"Alright, you bastards," she said in a rough voice. "I was enjoying that nap, just now, so which of you made me get up?"