My Fates Codex in Type-Moon

This was definitely not an effect ordinary bullets could produce.

After freezing for a moment, Webber hurriedly cast healing magecraft to treat Rider's wounds.

"R-Rider! Are you okay?!" In the end, Webber was still just a student, and his voice had already taken on a tearful edge. "Idiot! You big idiot!"

"What are you panicking for?! I am a Servant. This little wound is less serious than the plagues I faced while marching to war!" Iskandar waved a hand. The wound on his right arm healed at a visible rate, and wisps of black vapor could even be seen leaking out, vanishing along with the lingering resentment.

"Those were bullets enhanced with necromancy." Though briefly flustered, Webber was still an outstanding student of the Clock Tower and immediately recognized the source of the damage. "To break through your Magic Resistance, Rider, they must have had at least two verses of a spell added to them... Can you find the killer, Rider?"

"No, I am not skilled at tracking down enemies." Iskandar lowered his head, looked at Webber—whose eyes still held tears, yet who seemed to have matured in an instant—and smiled. With a hint of testing in his tone, he asked, "So, what do we do next, Master?"

Lost in thought, Webber did not notice Rider's form of address. After pondering for a moment, he sighed helplessly. "As unwilling as I am to say it, we should retreat, Rider."

Perhaps death had tempered him. Webber spoke frankly, "My presence will hold you back. A cavalryman who has to worry about things cannot gallop freely across the battlefield."

By the end, the small Master had become somewhat dejected. "Sorry, Rider. You must be disappointed to have met a Master like me."

A hearty laugh interrupted his self-reproach. Webber only felt his body grow light before Iskandar lifted him up. Amid thunder rumbling across the heavens, the Wheel of Godly Might tore through the air and carried them into the distance.

"The King of Conquerors shall take his leave for now! Heroes, please continue enjoying this wonderful night!"

Even as he departed early, the King of Conquerors lost none of his boldness. The flashing blades and clashing weapons in the warehouse district also stalled briefly, as if bidding him farewell.

Then the battle resumed.

"Target elimination failed. According to the original plan, I will relocate to target point two."

Reporting in a low voice through her Bluetooth earpiece, the woman named Maiya Hisau—the other half of the Magus Killer, Kiritsugu Emiya—expressionlessly dismantled the AUG at high speed before leaving in quick, small steps.

Yet she inevitably recalled the burly red-haired man's figure, along with that instant of overflowing rage in his lion-like eyes.

Heroic Spirits... humans probably could not defeat them.

Maiya Hisau came to that conclusion calmly.

Only she and Kiritsugu knew what that magazine of bullets fired earlier had truly proven.

The matter dated back to Winter's Castle a year ago. Maiya Hisau had happened to be gathering information outside during those days. By the time she returned, the young man named Sakutsuki, who had defeated the Einzbern family by himself, had already vanished without a trace.

But the impact he had left behind remained—through his conversation with that young man, Kiritsugu Emiya had come to understand just how powerless ordinary bullets, the weapon on which he had built his reputation, were before truly powerful foes.

Thus, without even Irisviel knowing, Kiritsugu Emiya and Maiya Hisau went out several times. In the end, through an intermediary, they found a freak who was both a mercenary and a necromancer—Kairi Sisigou.

After paying nearly half his assets, Kiritsugu Emiya obtained a new Mystic Code aside from the Origin Bullet—magecraft bullets enhanced by the resentment of the dead.

Judging from that burly red-haired man's injuries, these bullets could indeed cause Servants some trouble.

That was enough—after all, defeating Servants had never been the Master's responsibility.

At that moment, Maiya Hisau suddenly realized something, and her body stiffened.

"...Kiritsugu?"

Even now, the Bluetooth earpiece that had been functioning normally remained silent.

Kiritsugu Emiya.

There was no response!

On top of the building

"The sniping attempt failed."

The moment the gunshot had been blocked by a blade, Kiritsugu Emiya knew that the plan to assassinate Rider's Master had failed.

After all, the essence of assassination was striking unexpectedly. Once discovered, it could no longer be called an assassination.

Hmph. Surely no one thought carrying a greatsword around and cutting down everyone they saw counted as assassination? That would be downright laughable.

As for Maiya's attack afterward, it had merely been an experiment to confirm the effects of the magecraft bullets. If it had actually killed Rider's Master, that would have been an unexpected bonus.

Dismantling his firearm at extreme speed, Kiritsugu Emiya wore a cold expression as he prepared to withdraw before Rider could react.

A warning honed through countless brushes with death rose within him.

Ignoring the expensive components, Kiritsugu Emiya tossed aside what he held. His Magic Circuits opened as he activated the one specialized magecraft he knew—and the only magecraft he knew—as quickly as possible.

"Time Alter, Double Accel!"

The magecraft that strained his body while preserving his combat capability activated. The Reality Marble within him unfolded, sending Kiritsugu Emiya backward in a leap at a speed nearly comparable to a Servant's, narrowly evading a flash of cold light like flowing water.

His black trench coat spread like a great bird's wings, only for those wings to be severed and scattered on the wind.

"Whew... whew..." The ruptured blood vessels caused by the magecraft filled every breath Kiritsugu Emiya took with the taste of blood. Narrowing his eyes, he looked at the shadowy Heroic Spirit before him, who was slowly retracting a short dagger.

"Assassin."

The being before him wore a skull mask and a coarse black robe. Who else could it be but the Assassin who had been killed in full view of everyone?

And now, the Servant resurrected from death once more raised a killing weapon at him.

The killing intent of a Heroic Spirit, the resistance to its own death, the fear of an assassin who had died again and again only to return again and again... Anyone else would surely have collapsed beneath that unbearable pressure.

But Kiritsugu Emiya was not that kind of man. In battle, he could only calmly analyze and process information like a machine, searching for a way to defeat or kill his enemy.

That was precisely why, upon Assassin's third appearance, he immediately overturned his original judgment and reached a conclusion.

"...I see. You did not escape with your life before Tokiomi Tohsaka's residence. You truly died twice, but you are a Servant that exists in multiple forms?"

If Sakutsuki had been there, he would surely have smiled and told Kiritsugu papa:

Congratulations, you got it right.

In the Fourth Holy Grail War, the Assassin summoned by the priest Kirei Kotomine was truly Hassan of the Hundred Personas. Her sole Noble Phantasm, Zabaniya, was precisely what made her so elusive.

Zabaniya

Rank: B+

Multiple souls existed within a single body. After splitting her soul apart, she could exist in the present world as multiple Heroic Spirits, dividing into up to eighty people, each with the possibility of unconsciously displaying their own individuality.

Put simply, this was a skill akin to dissociative identity disorder. It allowed Hassan of the Hundred Personas to split into eighty individuals and scatter throughout Fuyuki City, monitoring every move of the other participants like human surveillance cameras. Combined with Assassin's inherent skill, "Presence Concealment," Hassan of the Hundred Personas' surveillance was nearly impossible to detect. (Zhuge Kongming: ?)

Setting combat power aside, Hassan of the Hundred Personas' utility was crucial in a Holy Grail War, which was fundamentally focused on intelligence warfare. In the original story, the corrupted Kirei Kotomine had used the intelligence brought by Assassin to seize Irisviel, the Lesser Grail, divide Rider and Saber, drive Kariya Matou mad, and nearly win the Holy Grail War within only a few days.

Moreover, Assassin's supposedly low combat strength was only the result of comparing her horizontally against Servants of other Classes.

Against ordinary magi, even the weakest Servant could tear them apart with ease.

For example, right now.

Whoosh. A faint sound of air being torn rang out. A stone that could be found anywhere on the ground flew forth and shattered the pistol Kiritsugu Emiya had just pulled from his pocket.

The recoil from the gun split the web between Kiritsugu's thumb and forefinger, yet the man's expression did not change in the slightest. Instead, under the enhancement of Time Alter, he pulled away and threw a grenade at Assassin.

"Such a mundane object cannot harm me." Hassan of the Hundred Personas spoke indifferently, flicking out a pebble to detonate the incoming grenade in advance.

Yet Kiritsugu had long known that ordinary weapons could not harm Servants. How could he possibly let his guard down over something like that?

Did thrown objects exist solely to inflict damage?

Smoke from the explosion surged upward, briefly obscuring all vision on the rooftop. Before the wind could disperse it, Kiritsugu Emiya shook his tattered coat and scattered every throwable he had brought around the area to confuse Assassin's sight. Then he leaped forward, falling straight off the building.

The wind howled. When he was only a dozen meters from the ground, Kiritsugu Emiya clenched his teeth and silently recited:

"Time Alter, Triple Accel!"

The inner Reality Marble unfolded once more. It was as though only the actions of the man called Kiritsugu Emiya had been sped up threefold along the timeline. To others, it merely looked like a figure falling from the sky, then vanishing in an instant.

Even Heroic Spirits were human, and they would naturally assume that Kiritsugu Emiya had used magecraft to escape by jumping from the building.

Who could have known that a third-floor window had briefly opened and shut, while the famed Magus Killer was already lying inside a secret room lined with soundproofing?

"Cough, cough, cough..." Amid nearly inaudible coughing, Kiritsugu Emiya swallowed the blood rising to his lips. Enduring the agonizing pain throughout his body, he pulled out a first-aid kit and began emergency treatment on himself.

Naturally, this was not his only contingency. He had left traces around the building long ago. If Assassin tracked those traces, she would ultimately find nothing.

The most dangerous place was the safest place. Kiritsugu Emiya had asked the Fujimura-gumi, Fuyuki City's underworld organization, to build this safe house. It had almost no connection to him, which was precisely why it could deceive the eyes and ears of Fuyuki City's guardians, the Matou family and the Tohsaka family.

After sending Maiya a signal and administering basic treatment to himself, Kiritsugu Emiya closed his eyes, intending to recover some mental strength before deciding what to do next.

But...

Riiip.

A partition made of soundproof cotton was torn open by a blade. Assassin, weapon in hand, entered the safe house and looked down at the man who had nearly deceived her.

"If not for my Master's reminder, I truly would have been led away by you, modern Assassin, Kiritsugu Emiya."

So he had still been discovered... Bitterness rose at the corner of Kiritsugu Emiya's mouth. He was unwilling to accept it, but even more than that, he was confused.

Who had seen through his disguise?

But he had no time to think further. Before he could rise, Hassan of the Hundred Personas had already gripped her dagger and thrust it toward Kiritsugu Emiya's chest.

"I will not kill you. I will offer you to my Master instead, so prepare yourself!"

Was this the end...? Kiritsugu Emiya's pupils widened slightly.

Then he saw the girl behind Assassin, dressed in strange Mystic Code attire and holding a crimson spear as red as blood.

"Hello. Nice to meet you."

After that polite greeting, the thorny spear became a crimson streak and pierced Assassin's heart.

"Gae Bolg!!!"

Clearly, this Assassin operation had been Kirei Kotomine's own initiative. Out of interest in Kiritsugu Emiya, that mapo priest was entirely capable of doing such a thing.

Gae Bolg, the Noble Phantasm wielded by the Heroic Spirit Cu Chulainn, was a demonic spear that reversed causality.

It reversed causality, using the result of "the heart will definitely be pierced" to determine the cause of swinging the spear to attack. Since the result had already been decided, ordinary defense and evasion were meaningless no matter what one did. This effect was a type of curse—interference with fate.

Because the result of "piercing the opponent's heart" already existed the moment it was unleashed, even defeating Lancer beforehand could not change that outcome. Thus, the spear's trajectory could not be canceled.

There were only four ways to counter this spear. First, defeat Lancer before he could use it. Second, possess a skill like Heracles's that automatically revived one after death. Third, create a defensive barrier with more magical energy than the spear. Fourth, possess extraordinary luck capable of reversing a fate that had already been decided—at least Rank B Luck.

Though it was jokingly called "the spear that never kills whoever it stabs," that depended on who Doggo had stabbed: Artoria, who possessed exceptional Luck; EMIYA, a Heroic Spirit who was a Guardian... Which of them had been easy opponents?

But at least this time, the demonic spear pierced flesh without obstruction and tore Assassin's heart to pieces.

"Cas...ter." With an unwilling murmur, another of Hassan of the Hundred Personas' bodies fell and dissolved into spirit particles.

Kiritsugu Emiya had also heard Assassin's final words. Even at the risk of angering the girl, the severely wounded Magus Killer still smiled bitterly and murmured:

"A Caster using a spear... Just like her Master, she is a freak. Well, not that I am in any position to say that."

"Servant Assassin, eliminated." Miyu did not grow angry at this. She merely twirled her spear calmly before releasing her armament. "Lancer, Uninclude."

The ominous crimson spear transformed into the Sapphire Wand, while a Class Card fell and was collected by Miyu.

Miyu looked at Kiritsugu Emiya. A complicated emotion flashed through her eyes. She opened her mouth, but upon noticing her own attire, her little face reddened. She turned and left at once.

Kiritsugu papa: "???"

In the shadows, Caster had killed Assassin once more. On the battlefield, Caster's freak Master was locked in an intense struggle with Lancer.

Clang! Amid the clear ring of blade striking spear, two figures were sent flying backward at the same time. The instant he landed, Sakutsuki grabbed the white robe draped over him and hurled it into the sky. He then tightened his grip on his twin blades, his arms trembling slightly.

Opposite him, Diarmuid's pupils contracted. His crimson and golden-yellow spears lowered as he twisted his body and swung his arm!

Platinum and yellow-red interwove. Surging magical energy exploded in an instant. The two figures who had closed the distance in a flash each unleashed their attacks, then separated again after a brief clash. Diarmuid stepped back and thrust his long spear forward!

Taking several rapid steps to the side, Sakutsuki advanced rather than retreated. The black blade Kanshou in his left hand brushed Gae Dearg like a dragonfly touching water, driving Sakutsuki to spin like a top as he closed against Diarmuid's body.

For an ordinary Lancer, such distance would already be dangerous—but Diarmuid possessed another short spear besides Gae Dearg!

The golden-yellow spear shaft cut through the air, its excessive radiance turning it almost golden.

The spearhead pointed directly at Sakutsuki's neck. For Sakutsuki, who was not a Servant, that spot was equally fatal!

"Your life is mine!"