Destiny/Static Evening: Limitless Sword Mechanism
Berserker and Illya are truly dead. Gilgamesh claims his prize – Illya’s still-beating heart, and I am not being figurative here (Which wouldn’t even make sense if I were as she is very dead.) Now comes the part where Shirou breaks the plan off and engages Gilgamesh, who thankfully is saved by a combination of Rin’s gambit of threatening Shinji and the fact that they’ve “run out of time”, whatever that means.
Shirou and Rin later form a hasty alliance with Lancer who later helps them assault the church that Caster/Kizuki are holed up in, thankfully without assassin. I never thought I’d be cheering for Lancer to win in a fight against Archer, but here I was. I must admit, Lancer does seem to be more honorable than I originally had thought of him. Lancer has clearly been taken by Rin’s prowess and personality, and Shirou’s staunch beliefs. I found this more than a little charming as it truly makes them feel as though they are brothers and sisters in arms, even if it is only a temporary alliance to their mutual benefit.
Caster is defeated, surprisingly, through a cunning ploy by Rin which involves close combat – this really makes sense when you think about it as, despite being a talented magus, there’s little reason to believe that Rin can defeat caster in a magic battle. She gets the upper hand but Kuzuki intervenes; Shirou clearly was being a clueless moron and not distracting him like he was supposed to. It doesn’t matter, as Archer moves in to finish off Caster, as finish her off he does. He effortlessly dispatches of Kizuki afterwards (If he gave Saber trouble, how did he manage to defeat him so easily?!)
Archer reveals his intention as a “trojan horse” (which I think many of us initially suspected but quickly discarded) – but soon afterwards holds Rin in place and expresses his desire to end Shirou’s life. With Saber loose and on our side once again, I do not think he will so easily accomplish this.
