Corrupted Dreams

The Corrupted

As we began walking again, there wasn't silence this time but a continual stream of banter.

Emiya grunted as a prelude to his contradicting declaration. "No, if you pull back a rubber band and don't release it, that energy can not transfer, and you don't know the length it will shoot. If you just hold something in potential and don't give it the opportunity to act, you can't tell exactly what will happen. It's untested. You never gave me the opportunity to react to Lancer's attack, therefore you don't know that the chain would've killed me."

Is that what we were arguing about? Honestly, I'd lost track. "Fine, fine, I'm sorry for saving your life, I guess."

"You never—"

"Now shut up, you're talking so damn loud anyone can hear you."

"Who? There's no one left to hear." Emiya tossed a rock into the air and caught it. "Well besides Saber and her minions, but we have to defeat them eventually, so why not lead them here?"

I frowned at him. "Blunt tactics like that typically aren't your forte?"

There was a humorless smile stretched on his face as he mumbled to himself. "And what tactics are my forte? Heartless strategies to ensure the greatest chance of success? What's the point if there is no one to save?"

It was odd for him to lash out like this, not to patronize me, but in pure frustration. "Hey..." I moved my mouth around, not sure if I really wanted to ask this question, but I would. "Is something bothering you?"

"Shut up."

"What—"

"Quiet — did you hear that?" So much for not caring who hears us. The sound came, like someone shifting in ruble. There was no doubt a lot of it from the burning and quaking of the earth. It'd be difficult for someone to move through it completely soundless, particularly if that someone was a large-bodied berserker. The sound came again, but not the slight grumble of shifting, but a smash as if something had deliberately been thrown.

Emiya and I hugged up against the wall of a building, and I cautiously peered over the side. Broad shoulders hunched down in the debris, shifting through the rock. My stomach clenched just looking at him. The smoggy corruption in the air weighed down my lungs when I looked at him. Strings of darkness blurred his body. "What is he doing?" I whispered.

Emiya pushed me a little, getting into a position where he could see, his hand on my shoulder and face next to mine. "It looks like he's searching for something."

"What the hell would he be looking for—?" I pulled the question to a jutted halt as Berserker paused. We were a bit of distance away, yet close enough that he may have caught our presence.

I pushed Emiya back before Berserker turned his head towards us. One thing seemed clear, Saber had gotten to him before we had. Back pressed against the building I listened to the silence. It was two against one, Emiya and I might have a chance against him. Though we had no idea about his identity or power levels, and, connected to Saber, it was difficult to say how his mana reserve was. Ours were certainly far from ideal, and may never get better.

My eyes went to Emiya. He too was in thought and abandoned it for a moment to look at me. "Do we fight?" The words were barely on the whisper of my breath, but Emiya caught it. His lips pulled taut and he looked off into the open air.

Before he replied I saw past him, a massive body of red and black emerged from the other side of the building. Berserker's roar made the fractured buildings tremble. Emiya's head flipped around and both of us kicked off from the wall as the servant smashed a meaty fist into the building. Massive chunks of stone fell behind us.