Chapter 819: Letting Assassin Loose? — Betty Shaw!
Rin walked out of the Bounded Field with a pale, but determined face.
"I don’t like this man," Archer said, blurting it out right away. "He was lying..."
"Of course," Rin scoffed. "He didn’t even tell me everything, I can bet! It was just..."
"Do you know the boy?" Archer asked, guessing her thoughts. "If I am not wrong, then that woman was..."
"... Saber," Rin said, finishing the sentence.
She still couldn’t believe it. Shirou Emiya, the same boy who used to help everyone at the school, the same boy who... Sigh! Why him?
"I don’t know why Kirei is not letting Shirou go," Rin said. "Still, we need to figure everything out — either with Kirei’s help or by ourselves. I have decided."
Of course, Rin was having this conversation with her Servants mentally, keeping Assassin in the loop. Now more so than ever, after learning the bare minimum truth about yesterday’s events, she couldn’t let anyone know about her summoning two Heroic Spirits.
"Did you pick it up as well?" Rin asked.
"Yeah..." Archer said. "Your Overseer didn’t mention Assassin and Archer at all."
Kirei had told Rin yesterday to summon her Servant, as only two places were left to fill up. One of them had been a Saber-Class Servant. That’s why she had gone to extreme lengths to make sure everything was right...
Regardless of how things turned out, Rin summoned an Archer... and an Assassin.
Between the two of them, there were extreme chances of one being present at the Matou Incident yesterday.
Even if one of them wasn’t here, there was no way Kirei would leave it to chance.
So, it didn’t make sense for him not to mention any of the two Servants when he took his sweet time mentioning Berserker, Caster, Ruler, and a damning Lich!
It only meant one thing.
"There was an Assassin or Archer at Matou Mansion," Rin said, wording her doubts. "But — it got killed. Which means..."
"... That means," Assassin said, "between me and Archer, one shouldn’t even be here."
Unlike Ruler-Class Servant, Enkidu, who had been summoned directly by Counter Force, Assassin’s summon was influenced by many factors.
Even though he was also a Counter Force Agent, like Ruler, he hadn’t come to this world with specific directives.
All he had was a feeling — He must vanquish all the evil...
Of course, Assassin had already let Rin know about it, telling her that he could resist this feeling, but not for long.
"Assassin..." Rin said, taking a deep breath, knowing she had no other choice in this matter now. "Go to Einzbern Mansion. Find out what you can about this Black Von Einzbern. Be careful... He has two Servants — Caster and Berserker. Also, every time I think of him, it gives me the creeps. So..."
"Then don’t think of him," Archer quipped.
"... Should I assassinate them?" Assassin asked.
Rin contemplated it for a moment before shaking her head. "I will not be able to fuel your Noble Phantasm properly from so far away. But... if you can... get Sakura back."
She heard a slight chuckle in her mind.
Was it Assassin or Archer?
"Alright," Assassin replied, accepting the orders. "Kid. Take care of her..."
"Rest easy, old man," Archer said. "If you die, I will make sure to avenge you..."
Then, sensing the Assassin disappear, Rin walked away toward home with Archer.
And, watching them from afar, was an insect. Not bigger than half a thumb, but there was something odd about it. It was...
... carrying a micro-Video Camera on it.
...
In some distant part of Fuyuki, within a cave, insects buzzed, carrying evil within them.
Suddenly, a mass of thousands upon thousands of insects gathered together and began taking a form.
It was a man in a black suit, black eyes, and black hair, holding a Video Camera on his shoulder.
Grinning like a maniac, he turned around and began walking into the blackness, a distinct buzz reaching his ears.
The deeper he went, the higher and more unnerving the buzz became.
Suddenly, the blackness gave in, revealing a massive crater, glowing green.
Millions of worms, of various sizes, were crawling in the crater, their buzz chilling the souls.
And, lying at the center of the crater, was the exact same man, but wearing a white suit.
"Have you gone insane?!" Betty Shaw screamed at his evil self from beyond the Video Camera. "You think doing this to me will let you become a Contestant?! Can you see this, dear audience? Do you really think Order will approve of such a vile existence?! No, right?! Right?!"
The Evil Betty Shaw, with no Stats, but with a Glitch, panned the camera down at the Contestant. "Dear Audience," he said, grinning from ear to ear. "Let me present to you a coward. Couldn’t even steal a toy from a child’s hands. Made a mockery of his awesome Glitch. Drowned the names of all 12th-floor Contestants in mud. That’s the kind of person you are looking at."
The Evil Betty Shaw jumped and landed near the real one.
Worms were crawling from the evil one’s mouth, as he had already assimilated the part of the Zouken’s Inheritance Betty Shaw had stolen yesterday.
It held the knowledge of turning oneself into a wraith and turning one’s body into a mass of insects to achieve immortality.
It also held the knowledge of storing one’s soul into a worm, almost like a Horcrux, but without any side effects.
Now, the Evil Betty Shaw had already turned himself into a wraith, becoming the same existence as Zouken Matou was.
With both camera panning down on each other, Evil Betty Shaw’s hand flicked, thrusting into his original self’s chest, blood spurting out, riling the worms up.
And, somehow, both camera lenses reflected a tiny worm attaching itself to the original Betty Shaw’s heart.
"Hehe..." The Evil Betty Shaw laughed as he saw the tiny worm, holding his entire soul, getting cozy near that heart. "Hahaha... Hahahahaha... Dear Audience..."
Coughing out blood, the real Betty Shaw stared at his evil self, a chill running down his spine.
"... if Order will not accept me," the Evil Betty Shaw commented, "then, don’t you think, Chaos will? Right? Right?! Thank you for agreeing with me!
"Thanks... a lot! Hahahaha!!!"
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