Other Dimension's Knight

After Taiga and Sakura were confirmed to be sleeping, Shirou, Saber and Alexander prepared themselves. Although the Matou residence wasn't that far away from here, Alexander told them that the man that was responsible for the things that Sakura had to endure was actually deep down the house in some sort of bas.e.m.e.nt, and that he had familiars all around the city previously, but he apparently retrieved them for some reason recently. Therefore he had limited vision of what was happening around the city currently.

As they left the house, Alexander made sure to keep looking for true assassin as he didn't want to let him backstab them while they left and take Sakura. Although he was hiding with his presence concealement, it wasn't enough to block Alexander's eyes and he was discovered in the house with the worm-man. It proved Alexander's suspicions that the man was true assassin's master. He couldn't guess what they were doing, but he probably had a reason to retrieve all of his worms like this. He could see the shadow that could taint servant aswell around the house.

" Saber, Shirou, I need to tell you something before we raid the house. " said Alexander suddenly stopping in their way.

" What is it, Alexander ? " said Saber.

" There isn't just one enemy in here. Although the worm-man could be problematic, he isn't as much of a danger compared to the servant, but remember that his body is basically an amass of worms so most physical attacks won't hurt him. We would probably have to destroy his entire body in one attack if we want to get rid of him. " said Alexander.

" The other problem is the shadow, it's basically connected to an evil god, with or without his permission and can taint pretty easily servants. " added Alexander.

" Taint ? " asked Saber, not understanding.

" Oh that's true you don't know what an alter is ..... Well, the shadow has the same properties as the mud of the grail, it take advantage of your mental weaknesses and doubts to entice you. It transforms you into your alter, it's basically a version of you that technically never existed and is entirely created by the grail and is corrupted. Although I don't know the details, it's basically a darker version of yourself. And we can assume that these darker versions are not friendly. " said Alexander.

" But what do you mean exactly by corrupted ? " asked Saber after pondering for a while.

" Corrupted mainly means that even if you have the same ideals and belief, your means are the opposite of what the normal version of yourself would have done. I don't really know how to exactly describe it since I've only met one alter in my life. " said Alexander.

" You've met one ? Then maybe you can describe her. " said Saber, looking somewhat afraid by the idea of getting corrupted. If the shadow took advantage of weaknesses then she would be easily corrupted considering the regret she has.

" Well you know Jeanne D'arc ? Oh wait .... you obviously don't " said Alexander which Saber answered with a questioning look.

" Basically she was a saint that died because the people weren't happy that she was apparently hearing the voice of god. She fought for France and died by the hand of the very people she protected. Although the heroic spirit Jeanne has no resentment against them, the altered version of herself, who is darker, wants to eradicate France from the map, yet she still believes in god. That's what the shadow does. " said Alexander.

Saber thought about it for a while and kind of understood the consequences of the mud and the shadow, she didn't know what would happen to her if she was corrupted but she guessed it wouldn't be good.

" Alright then now that it has been said, let's move on. " said Alexander as he astralized once again.

Shirou didn't completely understood what was the mud and the shadow, but like Saber, he realized that it wasn't a good thing to get corrupted.

-----------------------------------------------------

The group of three arrived in front of the Matou residence. While Alexander was checking the inside for traps and detection measure, they didn't realize that they were being watched by a lot of person in this Grail War.

" That damn Emiya, saying that it's not my problem. " said Rin on top of a building looking extremely pissing and tapping her foot on the ground repetedly.

" Calm down, master. What happened to the cool-headedness that you had at the start of the war. " said Archer, looking in the direction of the Matou residence.

" Shut up Archer. That damn Emiya told me that I shouldn't be concerned by Sakura's problem. " nearly shouted Rin.

" I guess I need to remember you that our alliance only lasts until Caster's master falls, but he has the right to move on his own . " said Archer.

Rin simply didn't answer and was even more unnerved by Archer's words.

" Anyway, we need to get closer, I'll make sure that Emiya pay for this if he needs help in his attack " said Rin with a nasty smile on her face.

Archer simply sighed at his master's antics but he was quite worried actually since Emiya Shirou wasn't following what should have happened in this war. Well, he already guessed that it would be like this the moment Alexander appeared.

---------------------------------------------

The group of three entered the house carefully. According to Alexander, the enemies didn't realize their intrusion yet. The house was huge, and it had as much space as the Ryuudou Temple overall. But the atmosphere was particularly unpleasant. The further they went, the stronger was the smell of deceased flesh. It was barely bearable for Shirou who never experienced these sort of things, but it didn't mean that Alexander and Saber were completely accustomed to it either.

Suddenly they heard some sort of insects moving around.

" Insects ? Even though it's winter ? " said Shirou, looking around.

Alexander realized that they knew the group was there. He unsheathed his weapons in his astralized form and was ready to appear.

" Now then, what do you people have to do with me ? " suddenly asked someone hidden in the dark of the house.

Both Saber and Shirou turned around and what they saw nearly made Shirou puke. The 'man' was quite small and looked also quite old, but the main problem was that his body was made out of thousands of small worms. Saber instantly recognized him as the threat Alexander evoked, but before she could make a move, she had to defend her master from the attacks of true assassin.

While the worm-man was laughing at Saber fighting against true assassin while defending her master, Shirou tries to fight against Zouken with a reinforced sword he prepared. His plan was to use fire in order to get rid of Zouken since physical attacks wouldn't hurt him but Zouken saw through his plan rather easily, and simply escaped by dispersing his worms. The shadow started to come to apparently absorb Shirou but Alexander was waiting for this opportunity.

While Saber was winning against the still injured true assassin since she was much stronger than him, Alexander waited for the moment the shadow appears completely. Shirou started to feel weak for some reason and saw at his foot a worm starting to devour him. The moment the shadow was about to jump on Shirou, Alexander appeared right in front of it.

𝑯𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.

Zouken who was laughing until now, quickly tried to order the shadow to retreat since he had a bad feeling about the man who just appeared.

The shadow sensed the amount of mana that the beautiful sword in front of him started to gather. And the true appearance of the sword was revealed. At this moment, the shadow started to run away, but it was too late.

𝑽𝒂𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒆, 𝑾𝒊𝒈𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒓!!!

The world stirred, everyone knowledgeable enough was alerted, because the sword saint once again picked up his weapon....

And striked.