Based on the teachings Tokiomi Tohsaka had given Kirei Kotomine over the past few years... on the surface, Kirei Kotomine truly believed that Servants were nothing more than tools similar to familiars.
But that was only on the surface... Even Kirei Kotomine himself did not realize that, deep in his heart... he had always looked down on Tokiomi Tohsaka's way of thinking.
After all, before becoming Tokiomi Tohsaka's disciple, Kirei Kotomine had been an Executor of the Holy Church... How could Kirei Kotomine possibly not understand what traditional Magi were like...
If Kirei Kotomine's heart had not been so utterly empty, making him somewhat susceptible to having ideas instilled in him by others... then perhaps even on the surface, Kirei Kotomine would not have believed Tokiomi Tohsaka's nonsense.
"What do you want with me... Gilgamesh?"
With a smile, Gilgamesh casually pulled over a female passerby who had been watching the car accident. Then... before Kirei Kotomine's baffled eyes, Gilgamesh suddenly took out a dagger-shaped Noble Phantasm and gently drove it into the woman's body.
Faced with Gilgamesh's sudden, unprovoked attack on an ordinary person, Kirei Kotomine wanted to do something to express his anger...
But it had all happened far too suddenly and quickly... Before Kirei Kotomine had even decided what expression he should make or what posture he should take—
The female passerby, blood spurting from her neck, had already been shoved into Kirei Kotomine's arms by Gilgamesh.
The pungent scent of rust... warm crimson blood...
As every sense in his body easily perceived the life rapidly draining from the woman before him, Kirei Kotomine touched the blood running down his face, and an involuntary, twisted smile once again appeared at the corner of his lips.
Satisfied. Extremely satisfied.
Compared to that mongrel Tokiomi Tohsaka, Kirei Kotomine was far more interesting after all.
"Kirei, Tokiomi has already been eliminated by this King... How about becoming this King's retainer?"
Kirei Kotomine tried his best to make an angry expression, but the involuntary twisted smile interfering with it made his entire face look especially warped. He did not look angry at all...
"You..."
Forcibly cutting Kirei Kotomine off, Gilgamesh ignored the blood staining him and once again raised a hand to pat Kirei Kotomine's shoulder before speaking.
"You have already noticed it, haven't you, Kirei... What your hollow heart truly desires..."
"I..."
"Become this King's retainer... This King shall teach you how to use pleasure to fill the emptiness in your heart..."
His heart stirred... Faced with Gilgamesh's words, Kirei Kotomine's utterly hollow and placid heart experienced a stirring for the first time...
It was a different sensation, one he could not feel no matter how much mapo tofu he ate.
"I... What should I do?"
Like a gentleman treating a noble lady.
Gilgamesh gently took hold of Kirei Kotomine's hand bearing the Command Seal... Then, beneath his aggressive and delighted gaze, the Command Seal on Kirei Kotomine's hand instantly transformed into Gilgamesh's mark.
"This is!"
Gilgamesh casually shrugged. He had long since been thoroughly disappointed in this Holy Grail War, filled as it was with schemes, falsehoods, and boredom. Now, all he wanted was some amusement, and several days after being summoned—
For the first time, he found the words "interesting" fitting...
"Kirei, from now on... follow this King."
Old Man of the Mountain Pays a "Visit"
Just as in the established history, Kirei Kotomine once again fell upon the path of pleasure.
Of course, this time... Kirei Kotomine did not stab Tokiomi Tohsaka in the back.
Still... Tokiomi Tohsaka had been stabbed, by Kirei Kotomine's former Servant.
Why call him former?
Naturally, it was because that mysterious Hassan was no longer Kirei Kotomine's Servant.
Carrying Tokiomi Tohsaka, Hassan moved through the forests on the outskirts of Fuyuki City.
At this moment, Hassan had learned that his contract with Kirei Kotomine had been severed by someone.
Although this Hassan seemed to have been sent into this Holy Grail War by the Counter Force... after losing his Master, he still clearly felt a wave of weakness.
Twelve hours... If he could not find a new Master, then he only had twelve hours left to remain in the present world.
He looked toward the mountain villa on the distant hillside, covered in unknown traps.
Then he turned to look at the white-haired Servant standing atop a nearby hill, nodding in greeting at him.
A bell rang with a deep dong.
Surrounded by cold blue flames, the Servant who had previously been hidden beneath a cloak, impossible to identify apart from a single streaked gray beard—
In an instant, completed his transformation.
Savage, shadowy heavy armor. A skull mask as cold as death itself... That was right, this Hassan was the Hassan among all Hassans—the Old Man of the Mountain, the Man of the Mountain... King Hassan, who absolutely should not have appeared in this Holy Grail War in Sakura's eyes!
Having changed forms and unleashed his fullest combat power.
When King Hassan looked again toward the white-haired Servant on the hilltop, he found, as expected, that the figure who made even him deeply wary had vanished.
A bloodstained red suit was silently thrown into the mountain villa of the Matou Family.
Sakura was dumbfounded as she looked at the suit that had been thrown in through the window...
However, compared to Sakura's bewilderment.
Aoi Tohsaka and Rin Tohsaka, who could clearly recognize at a glance who the suit belonged to, were far more shaken.
In an instant, the mother and daughter's faces turned deathly pale.
Looking at the savage tear in the suit, and the dark red bloodstains around it...
Aoi Tohsaka, who had just been calmly strolling through the villa garden with her daughter and former daughter, now all one family, went weak at the knees and collapsed to the ground in disbelief.
"Father... No... Mother, we..."
Compared to her mother, Rin Tohsaka looked no better.
Before that suit, all light had completely vanished from Rin Tohsaka's eyes... She stood there like a hollow puppet, quietly repeating something under her breath...
Furrowing her brows, Sakura saw her mother and sister turn into this state in an instant. Her heart was equally shocked and aching, but she unconsciously bit her upper lip and forced herself to calm down before waving her hand and giving an order.
"Shinji, Noyoru, take my mother and sister back to the villa... Sister Kurumi!"
At Sakura's command.
Shinji and Noyoru, who had no idea what the suit represented, did not understand the situation. Yet after seeing the state of the Tohsaka mother and daughter, as well as Sakura's expression, they more or less understood the seriousness of the matter.
Under Sakura's orders, the father and son quickly reacted. They immediately helped Aoi Tohsaka and Rin Tohsaka up, scanning their surroundings vigilantly as they headed toward the villa that Sakura had carefully fortified.
At the same time, Kurumi, whose compatibility with Sakura was exceptionally high and who had naturally formed a strong bond and tacit understanding with Sakura from their first meeting, needed no explanation from Sakura.
The moment Sakura called her name, more than a dozen clones flew out from their shadows and scattered toward every side of the villa.
At the same time, Kurumi's true body donned her Spiritron Dress and stood close beside Sakura, warily observing the surroundings.
One minute... Two minutes... Five minutes...
Just as Sakura thought that whoever had delivered the suit might have already left and was preparing to lower her guard.
A muffled groan from Kurumi suddenly sounded outside the villa's front gate. One of Kurumi's clones was thrown in from outside, like a discarded doll, landing directly at Sakura's feet.
Immediately afterward... with a thunderous crash from the gate, a pitch-black and somewhat savage-looking greatsword sliced through the heavily warded gate Sakura had set up as easily as cutting tofu.
Faced with this, Kurumi immediately summoned a sky full of clones.
In the blink of an eye, nearly a hundred Kurumi clones rushed from every shadow in the Garden, charging toward the figure who stepped into the Garden through the collapsed gate.
"Stop... Sister Kurumi!"
The instant Sakura saw the intruder, she gave up resisting.
There was no other reason... Against an existence like King Hassan, other than giving up resistance... What could Sakura possibly do with her current combat strength? Even if she fought to the death, she would only make King Hassan swing his blade a few more times.
Of course, giving up resistance did not mean Sakura would simply allow herself to be captured.
She and Kurumi could still escape, but... that would mean completely abandoning everyone else in the mountain villa.
Therefore... unless absolutely necessary, Sakura would not flee. So for now, she believed that before learning King Hassan's purpose, she absolutely could not attack him...
Although she did not know why Sakura wanted her to stop, Kurumi and her clones trusted Sakura completely and faithfully carried out her orders.
"Sakura, isn't he an enemy?"
"I don't know... I only hope he isn't..."
"...No matter what, I will protect you, Sakura..."
"Mm."
King Hassan casually reached behind himself. No one knew where he had kept Tokiomi Tohsaka before, but in any case, with that simple motion, the unconscious Tokiomi Tohsaka appeared in King Hassan's hand.
"Sakura, thou hast recognized me... hast thou not?"
Pressing her lips together, Sakura glanced at Tokiomi Tohsaka, whose fate was unknown, then nervously nodded at King Hassan.
"Mm."
Seeing Sakura nod and admit that she knew him, King Hassan's entire aura suddenly changed for some reason. If the King Hassan who had broken through the gate just now had seemed like death incarnate... then the fearsome-looking King Hassan before her now somehow made Sakura feel that he was gentle and kindly...
King Hassan had clearly done nothing, and neither his tone nor his pace of speech had changed, yet Sakura still felt that way.
"Then that is well... Come, Sakura. Let thy Time Spirit obtain time from me!"
An Unreasonable Gift from the Counter Force!
"Come, Sakura. Let thy Time Spirit obtain time from me!"
Hearing those words come from King Hassan's mouth, Sakura was undoubtedly stunned stiff.
The words had come far too suddenly, too unexpectedly...
What did he want? What was his purpose? Was this a trap?
Countless questions flooded Sakura's mind at once.
Perhaps sensing Sakura's doubts, King Hassan immediately threw the Tokiomi Tohsaka in his hand directly at Sakura's feet.
Was this some kind of display of sincerity?
Perhaps that was what King Hassan thought.
In any case, after he spoke those words, the air between King Hassan and Sakura seemed to freeze.
After a long while, Sakura looked at King Hassan, who still patiently stood where he was like a statue of a Demon God...
Unable to figure out what King Hassan was trying to do, Sakura gave Kurumi a look, telling her to spread the Castle of Time beneath King Hassan's feet!
As Kurumi's barrier for replenishing time, the Castle of Time forcibly drained the time of any living being that entered its range. It also made the target's body heavy and movement difficult... If she went further, Kurumi could even use the Castle of Time to capture a target directly within it.
But... did Servants even possess something like time for Kurumi to absorb?
The answer was naturally no!
That was because Servants were special existences formed from "a portion" of Heroic Spirits combined with a spiritual foundation.
And Heroic Spirits seated within the Hall of Heroes did not exist within the concept of time.
Therefore... ordinary Servants simply had no energy called time that could be drained.
But regardless of whether time could be drained from King Hassan... Sakura still had Kurumi give it a try.
As several of Kurumi's clones cautiously approached King Hassan.
Distinctive dark crimson barriers began spreading toward King Hassan from beneath the feet of each clone.
Time... A vast amount of time...
Excitedly, Kurumi extended her pink tongue and licked the corner of her lips.
Before you continue