29 Chapter 28: Edge of Disaster

Shirou wasn't as unlucky as he feared, but not as lucky as he wished. His court (minus Rin and Saber), Godou, Erica, Liliana, Yuri, and John Pluto Smith's civilian identity had all made it to the shrine. The problem is that neither of the Divine Ancestors or the Heretic God of Steel could be located, although the sealed god remained sealed, for the moment at least.

After introducing Annie Charlton as a representative of the 6th Campione (to those who didn't know the truth at least), they settled down and waited. Several hours of silence later, Godou was getting twitchy. Eventually he couldn't take the tension and spoke up, "just when are they going to get here? What if they're not coming here and instead targeting somewhere else?"

"Baka." was the response from Illya.

Yuri nodded, "to answer in reverse order, both the Divine Ancestor from America, Asherah, and the Heretic God Lancelot will listen to the Queen of Divine Ancestors. She doesn't waste time on trivial things and the only thing in Japan that would attract her attention is here. Several years ago there was a divine item by the name of Heavenly Reverse Halberd, but it was disposed of. All other possible sealed gods have been released and killed or disproved as fake. As for the first question, the job isn't to solve the issue, just to delay until the Campione who won't cause massive property damage returns."

Godou visibly flinched while Anne just twitched, unnoticed by the others. Godou was about to say that he didn't mean to cause the destruction that he did, but just as he was opening his mouth he noticed the way that all the members of the 5th Campione's court looked at him. Their flat gazes caused all excuses to dry up before he could say anything else.

Liliana tried to defend her new "king" from what was said by asking for clarification on a detail that eluded her, "you do realize that if they didn't know where to look before, they do now. We might have led them to what they seek."

Sakura shook her head, "aside from possibly trying to trick Godou into being her ally, there isn't anything else that would attract the Queen of Divine Ancestors to Japan besides here. Godou hasn't proven himself to the degree that coming here would have merit that outweighs the disadvantage of leaving her seat of power and making her more vulnerable than usual. Not to mention having to deal with two unfamiliar Campione at the same time."

Liliana closed her mouth unable to refute the logic presented by Sakura. Godou tried to add to Liliana's argument, questioning the inevitable location of the fight, "well, why aren't we try to have the fight occur elsewhere? We could limit the damages to the shrine and thus the need for a cover-up could be prevented."

"That isn't possible."

Godou turned to look at Rider before questioning why she said that, "why?"

"Because their goal is here. If we try to meet them elsewhere, they'll split up and prevent us from interfering with awakening the slumbering Heretic God. It will also spread out the damage over a larger area if we do. And like the young miss Mariya said, our goal is to delay, not defeat them. Acting aggressively only gives them an advantage over us acting cautiously. Given the fact that the 5th Campione will be returning as soon as possible, not to mention his spotless record as far as collateral damage goes, if you are taken as the average that is. The rules of this engagement are simple: revive the sealed god or escape before Shirou returns and they win. We remain here to prevent the first and the second condition won't be fulfilled until the first is complete, otherwise Guinevere would never have come in the first place. She would have sent a representative rather than come here herself."

Erica spoke up, "on a related topic, how long do we have until the 5th returns? Also you never told us who the sealed god is. If we are to have any hope of successfully fighting the god if it gets free, we will need its name."

Illya checked her watch before responding, "Onii-chan should be landing in Morocco within the hour. As for the Heretic God, he is known widely as Great Sage, Equal to Heaven."

Godou and his court, as well as the 6th Campione, all recognize the moniker and Godou began to question Illya, "y...y...you couldn't possibly mean..."

"Yes, I mean him." Illya cuts Godou off. "If he is released a tragedy like the one made by Heretic God Artemis is possible. Trapping him in a bounded field should prevent such an event but better safe than sorry."

"What?" Godou questioned.

"When the Heretic Goddess Artemis descended in California several years ago, she transformed many nearby people into wild animals." Godou turned to look at Annie, who was speaking for the first time since her introduction. Annie looked at Godou and her could see the pain in her eyes as she continued, "they're still transformed, even several years after the goddess was slain."

Godou could only return to waiting silently, the new knowledge occupying his thoughts. He had been told that Heretic Gods were treated like natural disasters, but even his own encounters with them seemed unreal. The other times he could try to avert his eyes from the damages, but what was described by miss Charlton rocked that view. Sure, dead couldn't be undone but death was inevitable and could be rationalized. Transformation into animals could not.

Silence returned, at least until a surge of magic alerted everyone present that something was wrong. Running toward the origin of the magic, they were greeted by the sight of a half-dead dragon, a Heretic God with the appearance of a mounted European knight, and THREE girls who gave off the power of Divine Ancestors.

"You have got to be kidding me," groaned Illya. The two extra Divine Ancestors hadn't even been detected before now. It also explained why Guinevere would walk straight into enemy territory, she had plenty of backup.

One of the girls, who Shirou's court recognized as Guinevere, stepped forward and spoke, "I believe the term is zugzwang. Give up."

"What does she mean?" questioned Godou, who was unfamiliar with the term.

"She implies that any move we make from this point forward will weaken us," replied Rider, "she is saying that they've already won."