Yet this time, the one who changed tactics first was Berserker, who seemed to hold every advantage. Though rather than calling it a change of tactics...
The roar of gunfire, no less furious than Berserker's howl, ceased. Berserker hurled both weapons at Saber and Lancer, then dematerialized and vanished from the two Servants' sight.
"...He left?" Saber effortlessly cleaved the firearms apart and muttered in confusion.
Meanwhile, Lancer's expression suddenly turned grim.
Should I make a reader group? That was the question...
"Lancer, what's wrong?"
Saber noticed the change in Lancer's expression and asked naturally.
"My Master is in danger... It seems he left me here and attacked your headquarters himself." Lancer spoke slowly, his tone strained.
For this dual-wielding lancer to show such an expression, his Master's situation was likely far more dangerous than he described.
"In the end... was everything still within Kiritsugu's control?"
Saber felt helpless. Though she had no intention of denying the necessity of stratagems and schemes, the traps Kiritsugu had laid were utterly contrary to the Knight King's ideals.
But this was the Holy Grail War.
Moreover, Lancer's Master had initiated the conflict. Being left at the victor's mercy after defeat was only natural.
Saber's azure eyes trembled faintly as she stared at Lancer, whose expression had already calmed.
If she wanted to win the Holy Grail War, the most rational strategy was to keep Lancer here and buy time until his Master died.
Then her choice had already been made...
"It must have been my Master. Lancer, go help your Master."
Hearing Saber's utterly unhesitating urging, Lancer first looked stunned, then bowed his head deeply in immense gratitude. To Saber, this decision was clearly tantamount to betraying her own Master.
"Knight King, thank you very much."
The handsome lancer nodded, transformed into spirit form, and vanished. Like a gust of wind, he raced toward the castle deep within the forest.
The blonde girl remained alone in the forest. There was not a trace of wavering in her azure eyes as, guided by her senses, she ran toward a certain point within the woods.
Yes, this was the Holy Grail War. She had sworn to obtain the Holy Grail at any cost.
As a Servant, she should have worked alongside her Master to eliminate all other opponents and claim the Holy Grail together.
As a king, she had descended here to save her country. She should not be softhearted.
But...
Under the moonlight, the beautiful girl continued onward, her noble bearing unchanged for thousands of years.
Before all else, she was a knight.
As though recalling something, the Knight King stopped. With a hint of self-mockery, she smiled faintly.
Even so, how many unknown dark thoughts lurked beneath her decision to let Lancer go without heading for Einzbern Castle herself?
Just how much did she have to hate Kiritsugu Emiya before she would finally stop?
No, rather than hating Kiritsugu Emiya himself, she was rejecting certain shadows she saw reflected in him...
Shaking her head, Saber moved on, walking farther and farther away from her Master.
What... had happened?
Before he could realize it, devastating pain had already drowned Kayneth's ability to think.
Before his throat could even produce a scream, he vomited a mouthful of blood. His nerves descended into chaotic malfunction, causing every muscle in his body to spasm and making his slender form, dressed in an elegant suit, perform an ugly, laughable dance.
The high-density mana circulating through his Magic Circuits under intense pressure suddenly began to run wild, ignoring its channels and destroying the caster's own body. When Volumen Hydrargyrum blocked Contender's shot, Kayneth suffered damage far worse than if the bullet had struck him directly.
"Sizzle..." The shell casing drifted through the unrestrained mercury solution, reflecting the bright, cold moonlight.
Amid the unnatural groans of agony escaping his throat, the once-arrogant Clock Tower lord collapsed into the sea of mercury. The instinctive twitching of his body proved that a sliver of life still remained.
One shot. Just one bullet had buried the brilliance of a genius's lifetime and the nearly thousand-year glory of a family.
Kiritsugu Emiya, who had created this nightmare, kept a finger on the trigger and flicked the long barrel downward as though shaking blood from it.
The spent casing sprang from the folding chamber and flew into the air, falling onto the marble floor with faint traces of gunpowder smoke.
The fortieth Origin Bullet had successfully destroyed its target.
He felt nothing about the victory. Just as before, it was merely the result of successful guidance and calculated conclusions.
The destructive power of an Origin Bullet depended on how far the target had pushed their Magic Circuits at the moment of impact, because it was the caster's own mana that destroyed their body. This was especially fatal to a genius like Kayneth. Kiritsugu had repeatedly provoked him precisely to drive this red-eyed bull to the edge of a cliff, then send him over.
If he simply left Kayneth here, he would not survive for long. But Kiritsugu Emiya had always understood the importance of finishing the job. He switched the Calico submachine gun, which still had bullets remaining, to single-shot fire and walked toward Kayneth, who was like a living corpse.
As long as he fired one shot into his head from close range, one of the seven groups competing for the Holy Grail would be eliminated.
But at that moment, Kiritsugu sensed an enormous mass of mana approaching. He acted decisively, immediately raised the submachine gun, aimed at Kayneth's head, and fired several shots in succession.
Amid streaks of red and yellow crossing through the air, the bullets burst into sparks. The handsome lancer appeared before Kiritsugu Emiya and picked up the fallen Kayneth.
Kiritsugu could do nothing but click his tongue. Even he had found it difficult to anticipate that the enemy Servant would show up now to interfere.
Kiritsugu had always believed that Kayneth had stormed the castle alone because Saber was holding Lancer back. Then how had the lancer broken through the Knight King's blockade?
If Saber had been defeated, Kiritsugu should have felt the disappearance of the target receiving his mana supply. Yet Saber, somewhere out there, was still drawing on Kiritsugu's mana. His Servant was indeed still alive.
That left only one possible conclusion—Saber had deliberately let Lancer pass.
While Lancer watched the stunned Kiritsugu with cold eyes, he held both spears in his right hand and used only his free left hand to lift Kayneth's body. At first glance, these movements seemed completely defenseless, yet Kiritsugu could not make a move at all.
The bullets imbued with necromancy were inside his coat, but if he made the slightest movement now, the sharp spearpoint would immediately pierce his heart.
"--You understand how easy it would be to pierce you right now, don't you? Saber's Master."
If Saber had not told him in person, even Lancer would have found it difficult to believe that this man, who did not look like a mage at all, was her Master. But he knew how capable his own Master was. Since this man could defeat El-Melloi magecraft, there was no room for doubt about his identity.
But perhaps precisely because he was Saber's Master, Lancer could not point his spear at him.
"I will not let you kill my Master, but neither will I harm Saber's Master. Neither she nor I wish to determine the victor this way."
"Don't ever forget that you are still alive because of the Knight King's noble spirit."
After speaking coldly, Lancer held Kayneth and leapt through the nearby window, smashing it apart as he flew beyond the castle walls.
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Moonlight fell through the shattered window. The man who had endured a fierce battle hid in the shadows and pulled a cigarette from its pack.
Lancer had left.
He had lost the best opportunity to kill a Master.
Once he realized this, Kiritsugu once again felt how terrible the relationship between himself and his contracted Servant truly was.
Lancer had been right. He had indeed narrowly escaped death. With Saber absent, there was nothing he could do.
No, even if Saber had been beside him right now, could Kiritsugu truly have entrusted the matter to her?
That lancer, the Heroic Spirit Diarmuid, was already a remarkably naïve and kindhearted fellow. But Saber's knightly spirit was no less foolish, equally beyond Kiritsugu's comprehension.
She probably truly believed that Lancer would not kill Kiritsugu. Such thinking was simply absurd. The Knight King had actually left her Master alone to face an enemy Servant. If Lancer had betrayed her, her Holy Grail War would have ended that instant. Even if the lancer did not intend to kill Kiritsugu, if Kayneth still retained consciousness, he could have used a Command Spell to force Lancer to act. Had Saber not even considered that possibility?
Kiritsugu shook his head helplessly and lit the cigarette between his lips. What bitter irony. A Servant had formed a foolishly trusting relationship with an enemy, while growing farther and farther from her own Master.
Even if she was called the strongest Servant, where in the world could he find a subordinate as disobedient as her?
Had he known this would happen, he should have been more cautious when choosing a Servant—Kiritsugu slowly savored this belated thought, exhaling a stream of violet smoke with a sigh.
After all, Saber had still not come.
"Kiritsugu may look calm on the surface, but he must be absolutely furious inside, right?"
The golden-eyed young man leaned against a tree trunk, watching the image on a portable surveillance screen and grinning with undisguised schadenfreude.
"You have to understand, Masters aren't the only ones choosing Servants. Servants choose their Masters too."
Even Pokémon would refuse to obey a Trainer whose level was too low, let alone great heroes with personalities of their own.
By now, the chaotic battle among the three Servants had ended, and the duel between the two Masters had been decided—but tonight's Holy Grail War was not over yet.
"Miyu, rapid fire."
"Okay!" The sapphire-hued magical girl stepped upon an invisible mana barrier and leapt into the air, hurling dozens of Mana Bullets of all sizes. They collided with the incoming Noble Phantasms and exploded together.
The reason Sakutsuki could relax so much, even leaning against a tree to spy on Kiritsugu Emiya, was that he had summoned his own Servant and had her fight in his place.
Of course, that also included a certain Hero King holding back.
"What do you think of Saber?" Maintaining the output of Gate of Babylon, Gilgamesh sat upon an ornate chair, poured himself a cup of wine, and asked casually.
"What else could I think?" Projection Magecraft appeared again, helping Miyu knock down the excess Noble Phantasms. Sakutsuki answered calmly, "She's just a little girl who ought to be protected."
"Oh? An interesting assessment. She is Britannia's Knight King, you know?"
"So what? Since I'm here, since I'm standing here, all she needs to do is be as beautiful as a flower."
"Do you wish to keep her as a bird in a cage?"
"Confinement play does sound nice... but I'm afraid of getting blasted in the face by an Excalibur beam."
"Hahahahahaha... I never expected you to have such a talent for comedy, clown." Amid his hearty laughter, the golden Heroic Spirit slapped his thigh without the slightest dignity, not even noticing that he had spilled his wine. "The delusions of a mere mortal, yet you make them sound so convincing. It's enough to make one laugh one's head off!"
"And what about you, Hero King?" The golden-eyed young man did not get angry. He gestured for Miyu to return while rolling his eyes. "Though you are merely a phantom, do you still long for that moon reflected in the water?"
"What nonsense are you spouting, mongrel!" The Hero King drank deeply, a wicked smile spreading across his lips. "I possess the key to all the wonders of this world. There is no treasure in existence that did not originate from my treasury. Does such a slender body, such a holy appearance, not deserve to be cherished by me?"
"Then that makes us rivals?" The golden-eyed young man licked his lips, sounding as though he were asking a question—or issuing a challenge.
Archer answered with wild laughter mixed with killing intent and delight. "Who do you think you are? A cook, a Master, or a traveler who knows neither heaven nor earth?"
"From the very beginning, ours was a relationship where only one of us was fated to survive!"
Beside them, Miyu silently held her breath. The suddenly dangerous atmosphere made her unconsciously tighten her grip on her wand.
Yet in the next instant, Archer's body suddenly began to dematerialize, and his handsome face became fierce with rage.
"This damned... Tokiomi Tohsaka!!!"
In the blink of an eye, the golden king vanished against his will before the young man.
Yet Sakutsuki, his opponent, showed no surprise whatsoever. Gazing in the direction of Miyama Town, the smile on his lips was faint and unfathomable.
"I already said it... tonight's Holy Grail War isn't over yet."
His right hand felt a faint, intermittent pain. If he had to describe it, it was like a strained muscle.
But it seemed to have gradually evolved from some heart-rending agony, to the point that Kariya Matou could not tell whether the owner of this arm had grown accustomed to the sensation or had simply become numb to it.
He raised his grotesquely club-shaped right arm. As strange black mist spread out, the intricate Magic Boundary Field of the Tohsaka Estate gradually dimmed as though being corroded. Even the gems serving as its core turned to dust and crumbled away inch by inch.
Throughout this delicate operation, Kariya Matou did not make a single sound.
It was because of that Assassin class's Presence Concealment skill, wasn't it?
Though Kariya had memorized every detail concerning Masters and Servants before the Holy Grail War began, the wildfire of vengeance was now scorching his mind, leaving him no room to think of anything else.
Even so, his heartbeat remained steady, like a machine that had been set in advance. Not the slightest excess breath escaped him.
"Install."
"Through indirect contact between a Class Card and the Throne of Heroes, the power of a Heroic Spirit matching that class is overlaid onto oneself, thereby stealing the Heroic Spirit's might."
"Is there anything more suited to infiltration and assassination than Assassin?"
The meaningful expression of the golden-eyed young man, along with the strange card he had given him, flashed through Kariya Matou's mind.
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