Chapter Four

Vergil was quiet as Rin escorted him back through the dark streets. They had little to say to each other while he was busy contemplating what the priest had told him. On reflection, it wasn't actually very much. The 'rules' for the coming conflict were very sparse and he hadn't told him much else. The half-demon could understand why Rin didn't like the man after meeting him just once. He seemed like he was hiding something, though maybe just for the pleasure of keeping secrets than outright maliciousness. Or it could just be out of maliciousness. He was difficult to read beyond his outward demeanour. This was going to be a far more complicated affair than he expected, but at least it didn't look like the whole city was going to be torn apart in the process. Which was a significant step up from his own past efforts.

He had been quite a terrible person in the past, hadn't he?

"You're very lost in thought, aren't you?" Rin commented from just ahead of him, looking back over her shoulder.

"I suppose I'm simply considering my options," Vergil said, intentionally keeping his tone vague. "Though if I might ask you another question." He paused to let Rin give him a small nod before he continued. "Why are you showing me all of this? Wouldn't it be to your advantage to leave me floundering in the dark?"

Rin's lips twisted into a grimace. "I guess it would, but I have my own pride to consider. There's no point in a contest if one of the players has no idea what's going on."

"A matter of honor then." Vergil could understand that. He generally leaned into the pragmatic, but he wasn't completely devoid of honor. His distaste for Dante's flamboyant style and modern weaponry first and foremost. He had to hold onto some part of his humanity, despite his many attempts to dispose of it. "I can't say that I wouldn't do the same in your position."

"I suppose you would." The young woman made a thoughtful hum. "You know, you're a lot different than you act at school."

Vergil frowned. "I could say the same of you." In truth, Shirou didn't know Tohsaka well enough to really comment on that, but she did have something of a reputation as an honor student. Or maybe a school idol of sorts. He really didn't know her very well at all. It was distinctly unhelpful.

"Well, there's only so much I can let ordinary people see," Rin agreed evenly.

There was a hint of tension underlying her words, but Vergil could understand that as well. He didn't just walk around advertising his own heritage. Even Dante was smart enough not to do that, and he openly advertised that he fought demons for a living. "There's a logic to that. But I think this honest version of you is preferable." Rin stiffened and hastily turned around. Vergil almost swore that he saw a hint of a blush on her face, but surely that wasn't the case. It wasn't that much of a compliment. Was it? He was still out of practice with this whole social interaction bit. He hadn't had a female friend since… Nero's mother, come to think of it. That was rather depressing. He still missed her.

"Good evening." Another feminine voice interrupted their renewed silence, this one a great deal less friendly.

Vergil tensed up, his hand instinctively going to his hip, looking for a sword that wasn't there anymore. His eyes narrowed as a girl pale enough to be a ghost emerged from the shadows at the far end of the street. One of Shirou's memories surfaced unbidden, of exactly the same girl giving him some kind of cryptic warning the day before, shortly before he had run into the Servants at the school. His eyes flicked back and forth, assessing the surroundings. They were back at the graveyard they had passed on the way to the church, which gave plenty of room to maneuver if this turned into a fight. "Good evening," Vergil echoed, his voice cautious yet polite. "I don't believe we're properly acquainted."

The girl smiled in a way he usually associated with murder attempts. "I suppose we're not. All you need to know is that I am your enemy." The air behind her rippled and a towering figure emerged from the darkness. His breath steamed in the air and his muscles rippled as he stepped forward, making the road crack underneath his feet.

Oh yes, here came the murder attempt. "Well, that is one way to make an entrance. Saber!"

Mordred manifested in a flurry of blue light, her armor already surrounding her and her helmet drawn up over her face. "Right! Guess I get to go all out right from the start."

"Your Servant looks strong, onii-chan." The little girl's lips curled into a sadistic smile. "Unfortunately for you, they still stand no chance against my Berserker. After all, he's the greatest of all heroes, Hercules!"

Vergil raised an eyebrow. "Hercules? Really?" He had never considered what a hero like Hercules might look like, but a towering mass of muscle and anger wasn't quite it. Though he did have those famous fits of divinely induced rage to perhaps it made sense. And it wasn't like this world's version of myths appeared reflective of his own to begin with.

"Why is she just telling us who he is?" Rin muttered. "Something isn't right. A Servant's identity is their most valuable secret. No one in their right mind would just tell their enemies like that."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about me lying to you," the enemy Master said with a smug smirk. "It's simply because my Berserker is far too powerful to be defeated by your Servants, no matter how much you know."

"I'm not sure if I like this one, or really want to kill her," Mordred growled. "She's got a lot of confidence for being a little brat."

Vergil decided not to comment on that. "I don't think that you're going to have much of a choice…"

"Correct." The pale girl smirked. "Kill them, Berserker."

The titanic Servant reacted in a split second, storming forward and colliding with Saber with a resounding crash. The armored Servant braced herself, but she only lasted an instant before she was hurled backwards and skidded across the pavement. "Shit, he's fast!" The armored warrior drew her sword and her whole body crackled with red lightning for a moment before she blurred forward and her counterattack slammed into the Berserker. Hercules growled and brought up a massive stone blade, letting them collide with a resounding crash. But despite the sheer force of the impact, he barely reacted beyond his arm momentarily bending to absorb the impact.

"Perhaps her boasts weren't entirely unwarranted," Vergil ground out, raising one hand to keep the air pressure out of his eyes as the two Servants clashed.

"She can't hold up to this on her own," Rin agreed through gritted teeth. "Archer, you need to help!"

"Understood." The Servant's voice emerged from the empty air a moment before he appeared. "Saber will have to buy me time."

"She'll manage. Just hurry." Vergil wasn't actually sure if that was true, but he had to believe that it was or they might all just be dead. In his current condition, he wasn't at all confident in his ability to face down a superhuman wall of meat and rage. The red Archer gave him a glare before he disappeared into the darkness. Well, at least the Servant's dislike of him was consistent. Or maybe he just resented someone other than his Master giving him orders.

Saber growled, clearly displeased with an enemy that was not only matching, but seemingly exceeding her strength. "Yeah, sure, I'll handle it. He better hurry, otherwise I'll win before he finishes whatever smart ass plan he's cooking up." She jumped up and performed a rather impressive vault over Berserker's shoulder as he tried to swing his massive blade through where she had just been standing. She kicked out at his back as she did, making him over balance for a moment and giving her time to clear some more distance from him. The towering monster turned with a roar and barreled after her. Mordred growled and reluctantly continued her retreat, hopping over the graveyard fence with ease while Berserker just smashed straight through and kept coming.

"This… is… bullshit!" Saber growled and Vergil could easily picture the frustrated scowl on her face. She leaped over his blade and slammed her sword down at him, only for it to be blocked by one of his bracers as his arm came up.

"What the hell kind of monster did she manage to summon?" Rin muttered, watching as the Berserker cleaved through the headstones like they were made of butter. Her eyes flicked over to the small Master who was watching her Servant keeping Saber on the defensive with ease. "A Berserker shouldn't be able to fight like this."

Vergil found himself impressed and worried in equal measure. "Rage can inhibit combat skill, but a skilled enough warrior can keep fighting even in the midst of a bloody rampage. This may be bad."

"What else would you expect from the hero of heroes?" Berserker's Master practically gloated as she watched the battle from the other end of the street.

Rin clenched her jaw and after a moment raised her hand in a gesture that reminded Vergil of the thing Dante had called 'finger guns'. "We're going to have to do this the hard way," she said flatly.

The albino Master raised an eyebrow. "Oh my. I wasn't expecting the Tohsaka heir to be so uncouth."

"Have we met?"

The smaller girl's lips curled up into a smirk. "Well, I suppose I can introduce myself before your untimely death. My name is Illyasviel von Einzbern, representative of the Einzbern family."

"Einzbern…" Rin's eyes narrowed.

"That's one of the other founders, correct?" Vergil interrupted. "That would explain the exceptional Servant."

Rin clicked her tongue and there was a flash of light as a crimson bolt shot from her hand, aimed straight for the Einzbern Master. Vergil reluctantly admitted that he was a little impressed with Tohsaka's ruthlessness. Unfortunately, it amounted to very little when the blast was swatted aside by a strand of silvery light. "Is that all you can do?" The air around her began to swirl with strands of magical energy until they coalesced into ornate silvery birds made of light. "Well, if you want to fight me directly, I can oblige."

"Familiars…" Rin narrowed her eyes and a barrage of magical blasts flashed out, only to be met by pulses of magic from the constructs and batted away. One of them swooped down, returning fire and forcing Vergil and Rin to separate as it blasted the ground between them. She grunted as a few fragments of asphalt sprayed toward her and she raised an arm to cover her face before being forced to keep moving before the bird puppets could swoop down and tear into her with talons or more energy blasts. "Damn it, they're fast!" She fired another spell only for it to be intercepted by another bird. It wheeled around to strike again and Rin only had a split second to jump sideways as it suddenly shifted into a flying blade and fired at her like a missile.

The air was filled with a resounding clang of metal on metal the instant before it pierced straight through her body. Vergil stood between the two, his hand wrapped around the hilt a shimmering sword of smokey blue energy. "You should be more careful," he said dryly, flicking his blade as Illya's weapon dispersed into magical energy. "Someone with a family as powerful as yours isn't going to be defenseless."

"Oh, that's interesting," Illya mused. "I think I might have underestimated you, onii-chan. That's not quite the same as my magic, but it was able to break through one of my constructs so easily."

"You keep calling me that. Have we met before? You seemed like you were looking for me yesterday as well." Rin gave him a look that asked a lot of questions, but he didn't have many more answers than she did.

"Well, if you don't know, I have no reason to tell you family secrets." Illya looked rather smug at that. "But since you've decided to interrupt, it seems that I'll be killing you as well."

"You are welcome to try." Now Vergil was in his element. The air wavered and half a dozen swords of blue light appeared to match Illya's circling puppets. It was almost a dance between them as they lashed out at each other, Vergil's blades colliding with her swords and swooping birds as the soared through the air. Illya's control was impeccable, guiding her constructs through the air with pinpoint accuracy, but Vergil had years of combat experience and raw power. He tracked their movements through the air, firing his phantom blades to cut off the magical puppets before they could properly position themselves for an attack and knocking them out of the air with impressive accuracy. It was strange to battle someone while barely moving. In theory, he had more than enough opportunity to close the gap and simply deal with Illya, but she still had answers to questions that he couldn't answer with her dead. And he wasn't entirely sure that she wouldn't try to kill Rin again as a last 'fuck you'. Though perhaps he wasn't giving the Tohsaka mage enough credit. She had been doing fine until Illya had managed to catch her off-guard. She wouldn't be caught out like that twice.

His analysis of the fight was cut short by a loud explosion and the crackle of lightning. Illya's familiars veered away as her head snapped toward the Servants still battling only a few meters away from them. Saber had done an impressive job of maintaining the stalemate while they had been preoccupied with their own battle. Despite her own strength, she was forced to fight defensively, dodging and making fast, hard counterattacks rather than just trying to overwhelm her enemy with her raw power. He could see her frustration leaking out into her movements as she slammed into Berserker hard enough to make the ground beneath them crack from the sheer force of the impact. To her credit, the behemoth of a Servant did seem to feel the blow, but it didn't seem to actually slow him down in the slightest. "Just die already, you bastard!" The armored Saber snarled and hammered at him again, her whole body streaming with crimson lightning as their weapons collided and sent a shockwave through the air that even their Masters could feel.

Vergil stiffened as he felt a touch on his shoulder and he had to forcibly restrain himself from reacting. "Emiya," Tohsaka said, trying to make herself heard over the din. "Saber needs to dodge right now!"

Vergil just nodded. "Saber! Move!"

Thankfully, it seemed that Mordred's instincts told her to follow the order without questioning it. She kicked off of Hercules's sword as he swiped at her again, launching herself backwards and clearing a space between her and the Berserker. The giant Servant made like he was going to chase after her for a second, then his head snapped up, looking into the distance. He growled and raised his blade defensively just as a light bloomed on the distant city skyline. Vergil raised a hand to shield his vision as the flash closed in like a falling star, impacting exactly where Berserker was standing and consuming the Servant entirely in a massive explosion. "Yes!" Rin pumped her fist triumphantly as the explosion slowly cleared, revealing nearly half of Berserker's body missing.

"Oh my, your Archer is actually rather powerful." Illya looked far too happy for someone who had just had their Servant explode. "I hadn't expected some no name hero to be able to take one of my Berserker's lives."

"One of what?" Vergil said flatly. His question promptly answered itself as Berserker's missing flesh began to bubble and the damage seemed to reverse itself, the missing half of his body regrowing in only moments and leaving Hercules standing there, utterly unbothered by being nearly vaporized a moment earlier. "Fuck."

"As you can see, my Berserker is unbeatable," Illya bragged as Hercules straightened and turned his gaze back toward the visibly gobsmacked Saber. "But I think that we've had enough for one night. Consider this a show of mercy in respect for having such an interesting Servant. Berserker! We're leaving!" The towering Servant growled and obeyed, retreating to his Master's side and lifting her onto his shoulder with unexpected gentleness. "I'll be looking forward to our next meeting, onii-chan."

Vergil clenched his jaw and reluctantly let the pair vanish into the darkness. "That was… unfortunate," he eventually ground out. "It seems that the Einzberns have conjured up an extremely dangerous Servant under an… unusual Master." He wasn't sure what to think of this Illyasviel. She was hiding something, which didn't surprise him, and seemed to have some sort of connection to Shirou Emiya, which did. He did not like being caught off-guard and her taunting was just frustrating.

"That Berserker is absolutely ridiculous," Rin agreed, her gaze still locked on the spot where Illya and Berserker had vanished. "And to be able to shrug off a Noble Phantasm like that…"

Vergil considered his options for a moment. As much as he hated to admit it, he was short on options. Even with Saber's strength, that Berserker was able to match her blow for blow without a even flinching. If his managed to keep recovering his strength, then perhaps he could intercede personally, but there was no guarantee that Shirou's body would ever be able to match his inherently inhuman one. "I think… that perhaps we should consider a cease fire." Tohsaka raised an eyebrow in his direction. "I know we're supposed to be enemies, but as long as a Servant that powerful is in the competition, weakening ourselves by fighting will only put us at even further risk."

Rin hesitated for a moment before she nodded. "Until we find out a weakness to Hercules himself, the only way we were able to even match him was by having our Servants work together. At least until that Einzbern is dealt with, I'm willing to agree to that."

Not all that long ago, Vergil would have hated admitting that he needed help. The entire Qliphoth incident had changed him more than he was sure he was comfortable with. "The I will look forward to working with you, Miss Tohsaka."