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“Is it just me, or did that previous fight have something of a distraction feel to it?" Seraphiel asked Arjuna and their two Masters.

Luviagelita lifted an eyebrow at that. “They send three Servants against two, at a perfect timing after our other Servants leave, and you call them a distraction?”

“They didn’t send their strongest Servants, however. If you wanted to make a quick surgical strike, you’d use your most effective Servants.” Seraphiel shot back.

“They sent Emiya, Cú Chulainn, and Siegfried. Any of the three alone could be considered powerful. Even if he didn’t get to show off his best, Emiya has defeated Gilgamesh in the past and Cú Chulainn has won entire Grail Wars.” Luviagelita insisted.

“And yet, they have The Lion King, and unless I’m mistaken, their Rider might be almost as strong. They knew the two of us have fought off multiple Servants before, and Siegfried at least should’ve known he was at a disadvantage against me.” Seraphiel explained. “They obviously assumed they’d do better than they did, but if they wanted to defeat me, they should’ve known those three would not be enough.”

"She has a point," Arjuna interjected. "We haven't exactly been quiet. They did give off the feeling that they were sent to keep us in place. If they won, then great, but I’m not sure they were aiming for that. Stalling seems more likely, only their stalling went bad.”

“Let’s say you’re right.” Luviagelita crossed her arms in front of her. “If we are not the real target, then who is?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Seraphiel nodded. “Luckily, with their Caster busy retreating, I might be able to answer that.”

She walked back inside and to the miniature map of the city. Several scrying windows appeared above the map, showing images of some of the Servants. “Hmm. Their team is not the only one whose protections against scrying have weakened.”

As the others looked at the screens, they noticed she was right. They could not only see members of the Purple team, but White and Gold as well as what was left of the Green team with their Caster and Rider. Another window showed the members of the Red team looking for a fight. “What are they doing?” Luvia asked with a frown. “They’re not aiming for our team it seems. Their movements seem strange.”

“It’s almost like they’re working together. Herding something or someone in.” Arjuna muttered. “But who?”

Another window opened, showing the Black team in the process of some kind of ritual. “Not the Black team, although that might not be a bad idea, considering they’re summoning Demons.” As Seraphiel spoke, another large Demon seemingly made of Fel fire and rocks appeared. “They’re going in a different direction.”

“The...Blue team maybe? Luthien suggested.

“We have most of the Purple team accounted for.” Seraphiel pointed at the window showing a regal Lion King, a more mature version of Arturia, walking alongside a colorfully dressed and happy woman and a man completely covered by a black armor.

"The Gold." Luviagelita pointed at the two golden figures of Karna and Gilgamesh, along with another armored figure wearing a red cape, a scantily-clad woman with a blindfold, and a large man seemingly made of nothing but muscle holding a sword that seemed to be made of a slab of stone. "Their Caster is missing."

“Three Whites.” Arjuna pointed at the trio of Elves, two men and one woman. The two men they’d seen before, their Lancer and Saber. The female was likely their Caster.

“Something’s happening.” Luthien pointed suddenly, as two figures stepped in front of the Purple team. Both looked attractive and seemingly looked Human, though they could all right away tell that was likely not true. Their skin was quite pale, and with their senses, they noticed the two were not breathing. One was a gorgeous woman wearing a sexy red dress and holding a rather impressive halberd, while the other was a man in an expensive suit, wearing an expensive watch and rings, and with no weapons in sight.

“Kindred. Vampires.” Seraphiel stated right away. “A Toreador and a Venture if I had to make a guess.”

“Vampires? They seem rather bold to be facing their opponents so openly.” Luthien said. “Even the Twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors would think twice about picking that kind of fight. Not to mention, they shouldn’t be able to become Heroic Spirits.”

“The other’s as well.” Arjuna pointed as two other similar figures walked out to face the other two teams. One of them, one of the pair walking to meet the Gold team, was accompanied by a small army of grotesque figures, much larger but similar to the one that had attacked them previously. That one was followed by a brutish-looking fellow that looked like a punk.

“Tzimisce and Brujah.” Seraphiel stated firmly, recognizing the clans even if the individuals were unfamiliar.

The last pair, facing the Elves and the remains of the Green team, consisted of a woman dressed in all black, and a bald man in a red coat and red-tinted sunglasses. That caused Seraphiel to chuckle. "Lasombra and Tremere. And I happen to know that particular Tremere. Strauss."

“They’re picking a fight with three other teams at the same time. This doesn’t make sense.” Luthien stated.

“They aren’t really. Arjuna was right. They were being herded. They are making a last stand, either because they think they can win, or because they have no choice. Besides, one of them is missing. The Assassin, I’d assume.” Seraphiel drew everyone’s attention to the fact that there were only six vampires.

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“I’m still confused how Vampires can be summoned by the Grail.” Luvia insisted. “They’re not Heroic Spirits. That requires legends and those believing and revering their legends, either in good or bad. Vampires tend to appreciate anonymity and obscurity. That doesn’t really help in forming a coherent legend even if they have the power.”

“I don’t think they were summoned. There’s something else going on. This whole war has seemed a bit weird from the start. I think they were empowered by the ritual instead. The reason I don’t…” Seraphiel speculated before she was interrupted by the woman standing next to The Lion King stepping forward and saying something, just before they could all feel a heavy concentration of power above the city.

"They're pulling out the big guns right away," Luthien said. As she spoke, The Lion King, Karna, and Gilgamesh all stepped forward to unleash their own powers. A golden pillar of light fell from the skies at The Lion King’s gesture, while flames bathed those in front of Karna. Gilgamesh pulled out a sword that looked almost like a small lance, with three spinning sections in the middle, before red strings of power extended from the blade.

The Elven trio unleashed their powers together, causing a burst of searing light that shattered even the scrying window. At the same time, it seemed like the skies fell as the light of the sun was concentrated into a single beam searing everything in its way. It seemed like the entire center of the city just vanished by the combined powers of the Noble Phantasms suddenly unleashed. To top things off, a giant figure suddenly descended from the skies, a Dragon of enormous proportions covered in dark black scales, bathing whatever remained of the center of the city in draconic flames, before disappearing back into the clouds.

The shockwaves of the attack reached all the way to their base, only stopped by the barrier erected by Seraphiel as the buildings around them collapsed and were shredded. As the devastation cleared, it seemed like 80% of the city had been wiped out in a matter of seconds. Only a single church stood in the center, where the arbiters and the Ruler Servant resided.

Seraphiel had seen the destruction of an Antediluvian Vampire, and that had required similar firepower. She seriously doubted these were Antediluvians, however. Although, she had no idea how long someone like Strauss had been in this universe, and thus how strong he’d become. Fire and light. The two biggest weaknesses of vampires. It was doubtful that any of the six had survived no matter how powerful they were.

Still, she remade the scrying windows just in case. The devastation in the city was absolute. Fires still burned here and there, but the buildings had been reduced to nothing but rubble at the bottom of a large crater. Some broken waterlines were spouting their contents out in the open. There was no sign of survivors, aside from the Servants that had done the deed. The scrying windows showed their mostly exhausted forms. Some, like Gilgamesh and The Lion King, still looked as if they were out on a stroll, but the Elves and the two members of the Green team looked exhausted.

“I think I know why they were trying to distract us.” She stated simply.

“I agree. Even Karna looks spent. He would not be able to fight me in his current state.” Arjuna said, even before Seraphiel had to point the obvious exhaustion out.

“Yes. It’s obvious they were worried we would capitalize on the situation and mop them up.” Seraphiel finished.

“What about the rest of our team? They were not the direct target, but the blast radius may have affected them.” Luviagelita asked slightly worried. “They probably split up, and at least some might have gone towards the city center.”

Seraphiel reached out with her mind. Ascertaining the location of her team was simple. One of the tricks she'd picked up in her time in the universe this legend was based on was the ability to tag people with her psionic powers, making them easy to find. In this case, she'd tagged every Servant she'd seen with a discreet [Doom]. She didn't actually mind if her own team got affected, as she'd have to deal with them eventually anyway. In fact, just that ability might have caused them to get caught in the blast because two of them were no longer present.

"Well, this is interesting. I can't locate two of our Servants anymore." There was a pleased tone in her voice, which the others caught despite her mask distorting her voice.

“You seem glad.” Luvia pointed out.

“That’s because one of the Servants missing is our Assassin. I didn’t expect him out of everyone to become collateral damage. Though of course, there is always a chance that he has found another way to avoid my senses.” She admitted, though it was extremely unlikely. The Old Man of The Mountain was very powerful in many ways, but avoiding psionics was not one of those. In fact, Seraphiel was likely the Servant with the greatest chance to defeat the man.

“You said two. And what about the Masters?” Luvia asked, less happy, but still seeing the upside. The Masters were her colleagues after all, even if they were not on the best terms.

“The other missing Servant is the one I suspect to be Leonidas, our Lancer. His master is also missing, although I can sense Trambelio still. He’s injured, but if he has any skill at all…” She moved one of the scrying windows to a particular part of the crater. There they could see the Trambelio heir, heavy burns on his body. Most of his clothing had been burnt away, and much of his skin showed signs of 1st and 2nd degree burns. His hand and the two Command Seals on it were also visible. The distribution of the burns was also odd, sparing his head and most of his torso, as if he'd been shielded by something. Or someone.

“He’s rather close to the epicenter. How is he still alive?” Luthien asked. As they watched, the young man’s skin was slowly healing as he was moaning in pain.

"I think he used a seal and ordered his Servant to take the hit in his stead," Arjuna stated. "I can sense the death of his Servant right next to where he is lying on the ground."

"Slightly despicable, but the right choice," Luviagelita muttered. "Had his Servant survived, the Assassin could've found any of the Masters without a Servant and thrown his lot with them. On the other hand, this way Trambelio has a chance, should another Masterless Servant appear. Like I said, despicable, but strictly speaking the correct decision."

"Somehow I get the urge to kill him while he's vulnerable," Luthien muttered.

"Just say the word, and I'll take care of it," Seraphiel said without hesitation.

Luvia grimaced. “Also slightly despicable, but not the wrong decision. That said, If I survive, I would be obligated to inform the Trambelio family. I wouldn’t want to, but I would have to.”

Luthien chewed on her lip for a moment before reaching a decision. “Leave him. I doubt he’ll manage to survive too long anyway.”

“Should we attack the tired Servants? They seem to have some sort of an alliance going on. At least against the Blue team, and perhaps us, seeing as they sent some servants to distract us.” Luvia asked.

"Normally I'd say yes, but I'm not doing great on Mana," Arjuna admitted. The last 24 hours had been a bit of a drain. "I would likely win against any single Servant present there, but that would in turn leave me vulnerable. I believe we should instead take this opportunity to gather our strength. We are not the only ones with the opportunity. You'll recall that most of the Black team didn't take part. If we're lucky, they'll take each other out."

Seraphiel was glad she’d asked Lucifer to make [Push Through] into doubling as mana regeneration, as it kept her going, even though this legend of hers was rather Mana intensive to maintain. That’s also why she’d avoided using her most flashy abilities. They would help her defeat any of the Servants but would also leave her with almost nothing in the tank. She’d placed a lot of the new stat points into both resistance and Mana, but it didn’t change the fact that those stats were lower than any of the other Servants in this war, especially since this legend of hers had not learned any Mana based magic yet and had not trained in those abilities. The only positive was that her Master had a lot of Mana stored, even though transferring it to her was not the quickest process. Ironically, if she’d had a male master with a lot of mana in their body through stats, there were certain ways to speed up the process, but as it were, they had to use the slower method of her draining the gems one at a time.

“Still, I’d argue this is good for us. Almost an entire team was eliminated without us needing to do anything, and the other Servants are also spent. Even if there is an alliance of sorts in the works, which I doubt extends beyond this one action, I doubt they’ll be able to maintain it for long. We can just lay low for a bit, and they’ll turn on each other sooner rather than later.” Seraphiel stated.

"She has a point," Luvia said thoughtfully. "The power balance between teams won't allow other teams to aid the Gold team any longer."

The Gold team still had six Servants, the only team aside from the Black team, and the power imbalance would push the other teams to work against the team in the obvious lead. “Besides, everyone will have something else to worry about soon enough.” Seraphiel pointed at the screen with the Black Team summoning more Demons. “The only positive thing is that the recent destruction didn’t leave any bodies to be raised as undead.”

A strange new voice suddenly interrupted them. “Well reasoned. On that note, with my team now gone, I wonder if you’d be interested in a little alliance.” The shadows revealed a man wearing non-descript clothing, someone that would not stand out in a crowd, yet now that he was standing in front of them, they could all sense danger practically oozing off him.

“Huh. He managed to walk through my warning wards.” Seraphiel had to grant some respect to the man.

“And who might you be?” Luviagelita asked suspiciously.

“I’m the last member of the Blue team. Most call me Haqim.” The man stated with a smile, knowing what sort of effect his presence had on people.