A few minutes later, Waver suddenly could no longer sense Rider's presence. He jerked his head out from under the covers, only to find that Rider, who should normally have been sleeping on the bed, was gone. That man who so hated dematerializing would naturally not dismiss his physical form without reason. Besides, even if he had dematerialized, Waver, as his Master, could not possibly fail to sense him entirely. There was only one possibility now: Rider was no longer in this room.
Thud, thud. Footsteps came up the hallway stairs. Accustomed to those heavy footsteps, Waver knew Rider was coming upstairs and felt slightly relieved. But once he realized what those heavy footsteps implied, his face immediately turned pale.
"Yo, you're up, kid." Rider's enormous frame appeared in the doorway along with his voice. As if showing it off, Rider held a package in his arms, then pulled out an XL short-sleeved T-shirt that looked cheap no matter how one looked at it.
"Not bad, not bad! It looks even better in person than in the photo! The price was quite reasonable too!" Rider quickly tried on his newly bought shirt, happily striking all sorts of poses.
"Wahahaha! This is exactly the effect I wanted—the world on my chest. Mm! What a delightful mood!" The carefree Rider swung his arms like a horny gorilla.
Looking at Rider, whose shirt bore a world map with the conspicuous logo "Admiral's Grand Strategy IV" printed across the front, Waver began wondering what would happen if he simply pulled the covers over his head and went back to sleep. If he did that, this excited Rider in a T-shirt would surely vanish from his sight, and he could flee into the comfort of sleep. It was the best solution Waver could think of right now. When he woke again, the world would surely be a better place, wouldn't it?
Yeah, right. He had to think of a way to fight the other Masters. His opponents included, but were not limited to, his influential teacher at the Clock Tower, the local landowners of Fuyuki City, the long-established Einzbern Family, and that classmate who had yet to appear!!!
Leaving everything else aside, that classmate who had remained mysteriously absent was a bomb that could explode at any moment. Though they had not spent much time together, Waver had a deep impression of the guy who called him "best friend." That guy was a top-tier magus who had inherited a Noble Phantasm; in terms of combat ability, he could ORA Waver for thirty pages with one hand! On top of that, the guy was smart, calm-minded, and utterly devoid of a magus's pride. Waver could imagine him hiding somewhere unknown, calculating plans against every possible pair.
As someone who knew his own limits, Waver was well aware of his standing among the Masters—the bottom of the barrel in combat power. Rider was strong, but not overwhelmingly so. On the other hand, when it came to pure fighting strength, the enemy Archer was practically unmatched.
Unfortunately, Waver's thoughts were interrupted by Rider's next action. Rider swaggered toward the door, and Waver hurriedly stopped him. "Where are you going?"
Going out into the November cold wearing nothing but a T-shirt was already strange enough, but the bigger problem was that Rider's imposing body had nothing on it except that T-shirt. He was not even wearing pants!!!
"Do you really need to ask? I'm going out," Rider said matter-of-factly.
"At least put on some pants before you go out!" Waver shouted with all his might.
"Are those something I have to wear?" Rider scratched his head, looking baffled. His era had no such thing as pants, so naturally he did not understand their importance in this age.
"That's common sense!!!" Waver felt that he needed to give Rider a crash course in modern knowledge.
Just then, a loud BOOM! reached Waver's ears. No, more accurately, it was not a sound, but a stimulus to his hearing that directly struck the nerves sharpened by his training as a magus—in other words, a pulse of magecraft.
The direction was the Holy Church. Looking out through the open window, he could see a layer of drifting mist in the clear sky. Although it looked much like the smoke produced by exploding fireworks, the flickering light within it made it clear that it was not smoke from ordinary fireworks.
Yet the next instant, thick, gloomy fog swallowed that flickering light, like a pack of wolves hunting down a stray deer—precise, swift, efficient. There was no doubt that someone had cut off the Holy Church's message. Centered on the Fuyuki Church, the gray fog began spreading wildly, quickly shrouding that entire area. The flow of mana in the air changed drastically. This was an artificial event. Someone was performing some large-scale magecraft, and the dense fog changing the weather across an entire area was merely a side effect!
Waver instantly realized that something was wrong. After a brief moment of thought, a terrifying truth appeared before him—someone had attacked the Holy Church! The Fuyuki Church was not summoning the Masters; it was calling for help!!!
"Rider, we'll deal with the pants later. I need to prepare for something else first." Waver's expression turned grave. "Caster has attacked the church."
There was no need to think too hard. Very few humans could launch a Grand Magecraft whose mere aftereffects could alter the weather in such a short time, and monsters like that would never care about some backwater ritual. Naturally, none of the Masters present had reached that level. The answer was obvious: the one attacking the church was Caster.
"I understand." Rider's shirt reverted to leather armor. He understood the severity of the situation. Someone had openly violated the rules of the Holy Grail War and struck at the referee.
Though Waver did not know why Caster had attacked the church, there was no doubt that Caster would gain enormous benefits from this battle. Otherwise, he would not have risked so much to assault the church, and Caster growing stronger was bad news for every other Master and Servant.
"Rider, let's go." Waver gritted his teeth and spoke to his Servant. "Use your Noble Phantasm."
Rider's Noble Phantasm, the Chariot of the Gods, was absolutely not a comfortable ride. It was a chariot pulled by two bulls that could race through the skies. The motion sickness from riding in a car was nothing more than a minor tremor compared to that chariot. If possible, Waver never wanted to see that chariot again, but they were short on time. There was no other choice.
"Understood, kid." The chariot's wheels rumbled, lightning crackled beneath the bulls' hooves, and the chariot they pulled floated into the sky. Rider grabbed his Master and leaped up, quickly taking his place aboard. After confirming that his Master was in position, the bulls kicked off from the empty sky. Purple lightning danced through the air as the Divine Bulls pulled the chariot toward the church.
"Wait, Rider, slow down—" A certain Master's scream was drowned out by the Divine Bulls' roars and the thunder.
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P.S.: Is anyone still here?
The typo has been corrected.