Fuyuki City, Einzbern Castle, was tranquil.
On the afternoon of the tenth day of the Holy Grail War, time quietly passed. Saber stood watch beside the still-unconscious Irisviel, worry in her eyes.
From time to time, she looked out the window, her thoughts drifting back to that mysterious Great Hollow.
"Shiki and that Saintess still haven't returned. It's been over twelve hours."
Saber murmured, her brow tightly furrowed.
In truth, the passage within the Great Hollow had vanished without a trace in less than an hour, as if it had never existed.
If not for the faint sense of his existence through the sphere of light connected to Shiki within her Servant heart, Saber might have long since given up hope.
Saber prayed softly, "boy, you have to come back soon."
"The Root."
It was the ideal place every Magus dreamed of reaching, yet very few who entered it ever returned safely.
Most either fell on the difficult road to the Root or were assimilated by it, vanishing completely from the world.
Yet for some reason, Saber had always held an inexplicable confidence in Shiki. She believed that even if the boy gained nothing from the Root, he would surely return safely.
Just then, Saber suddenly felt the sphere of light within her tremble violently, and an inexplicable message flooded into her mind.
"Shiki is coming back!"
Her spirits instantly lifted. Without hesitation, she leaped from the window and hurried outside the castle, staring fixedly at the empty space ahead, her heart full of anticipation.
A few minutes later, a red sphere rapidly expanded from a tiny point before her eyes, becoming clearly visible in the blink of an eye.
Then, two bedraggled figures fell from the sphere and crashed heavily onto the ground.
At a glance, Saber saw that