Chapter Summaries

Nearly a year after arriving at the Clock Tower, Duanmu Huai and Medea had transformed its teaching and strengthened El-Melloi’s influence. The chapter ended when Fiolee asked Duanmu Huai for help with a Leyline her family had purchased, saying its residents seemed abnormal.

• Duanmu Huai finished teaching close-combat techniques to Clock Tower students, who bowed and left the class.
• Medea’s lessons attracted magical families and led some magi to reconsider their pursuit of the Swirl of the Root.
• Duanmu Huai taught close combat at the Clock Tower while Medea and he became well-known figures there.
• Mash served Duanmu Huai tea, and the narration noted that Sakura had grown closer to Reines and trained with Lorena.
• Fiolee visited Duanmu Huai and reported that the residents near the Forvedge Family’s newly purchased Leyline did not seem normal.

After Fiolee discovered that a hidden magus had occupied the Forvedge Family’s Leyline and that the nearby town was likely the magus’s workshop, Duanmu Huai agreed to investigate the strange clay left behind by the town head. He set out with Medea and Alice Phil, leaving classes suspended for a week.

• Fiolee discovered that the Forvedge Family’s supposed Leyline was an illusion concealing another magus’s claim, and the town’s residents attacked her when she visited.
• Fiolee realized the town might be the magus’s workshop, then watched the captured town head turn into sand and brought the strange clay to Duanmu Huai.
• Duanmu Huai sensed a faint trace of Divinity in the clay and decided to handle the matter with Medea and Alice Phil.
• Duanmu Huai told Reines that he, Medea, and Alice Phil would visit the Forvedge territory, and suspended classes for a week.

Duanmu Huai and Mash reached a remote town after their car blew a tire, then checked into its shabby inn. Alice Phil and Medea found no obvious sign that the townspeople were artificial or controlled, so Duanmu Huai planned to recreate the night Fiolee had been attacked.

• Duanmu Huai complained about the local food as Alice Phil drove him and Mash toward the town, until the car’s front tire blew out on the rough road.
• Duanmu Huai and Mash walked into the town, where the residents ignored them and the streets and buildings seemed frozen in an older era.
• Duanmu Huai rented two rooms at the inn from its sleepy old attendant, while Mash encountered a boy who quickly fled from her.
• Alice Phil said the townspeople’s souls seemed stable and compatible with their bodies, while Medea sensed no magecraft but felt something was unusual.
• Duanmu Huai decided to recreate the night Fiolee had stayed at the inn and been attacked by villagers.

Duanmu Huai and Mash learned that Chaldea had detected a Singularity in the town, where time passed differently from Chaldea’s perspective. When townspeople accused Mash of cursing a sick child, Duanmu Huai turned their religious accusations against the child’s father and helped the crowd seize him as an alleged Inquisitor, then prepared to leave with Mash.

• Doctor Roman told Duanmu Huai and Mash that Chaldea had detected a Singularity at their location and that only one day had passed there.
• Hundreds of townspeople surrounded the inn and accused Mash of cursing Todd’s sick child after she had spoken to him.
• Duanmu Huai argued that the alleged curse meant God had failed to protect the child, provoking the crowd to question Todd’s faith.
• Duanmu Huai accused Todd of conspiring to undermine God, and the priest confirmed Todd had reported the child’s illness and ordered him seized as an Inquisitor.
• After the townspeople dragged Todd away, Duanmu Huai told Mash there was nothing left for them there and suggested they leave.

After leaving the town, Duanmu Huai and Mash learned that its witch-hunt behavior came from an autonomous Faith Spirit Foundation workshop built on religious faith and linked to the Leyline. They decided to return the next day and find its core so they could shut it down without damaging the land.

• Duanmu Huai explained that the villagers ignored him but targeted Mash because the town's rules singled out women who used magecraft as witches.
• Medea and Alice Phil revealed that the town was an autonomous magus workshop powered by a Faith Spirit Foundation based on medieval religious belief and witch hunts.
• Alice Phil explained that the workshop used the opposition between religious believers and witches to sustain its ritual, while Duanmu Huai concluded that its goal was to reach the Swirl of the Root.
• Duanmu Huai reasoned that the town reprioritized its targets after identifying a heretic, setting aside Mash as a lesser threat.
• Medea warned that destroying the town would damage the Leyline, so Duanmu Huai agreed to return and search for the workshop's core.

Duanmu Huai entered the town disguised as an Inquisitor and began a heresy investigation to intensify the town’s religious ritual and expose its core. He left the residents frightened and suspicious of one another, confident that he could name anyone a heretic.

• Duanmu Huai put on a priest’s robe and explained that he planned to provoke the town’s transformation by launching a Heretic Inquisition.
• Duanmu Huai entered the church with Medea and Alice Phil, presented a forged Letter of Appointment, and ordered the priest to announce his investigation.
• Duanmu Huai addressed the gathered residents, declared that a heretic was hiding among them, and urged them to report any clues.
• Duanmu Huai told Alice Phil that he would find the heretic regardless of whether one existed, since he could decide who counted as one.

Duanmu Huai investigated a corpse that had appeared alive earlier, but he and Medea could not determine how it had been recreated or what the workshop was doing. When Dover reported Hawk for heresy, Hawk arrived and immediately reported Dover in turn, leaving Duanmu Huai with a new dispute to investigate.

• Duanmu Huai examined the dead farmer with Alice Phil and Medea, who suspected the farmer’s soul might have been transferred into a body without a soul.
• Medea said they could not find the workshop’s owner or identify its ritual, though the workshop base was operating normally.
• Dover reported Hawk to Duanmu Huai, accusing him of denying the Holy Son’s divinity and making blasphemous claims about his birth.
• Duanmu Huai ordered the priest to bring Hawk in for questioning, and he explained that the Inquisition gave longtime neighbors an excuse to attack one another.
• Hawk arrived and immediately reported Dover to Duanmu Huai as a blasphemous heretic.

Duanmu Huai turned the town’s heresy accusations against its Priest and burned the fanatical townspeople, triggering the collapse of the magical workshop. He discovered a golden-haired girl at the workshop’s core who was being used to summon Yog-Sothoth, and fought to corrupt her before the Outer God could fully descend.

• Duanmu Huai heard townspeople accuse one another of heresy as their fanaticism accelerated the town’s magical ritual.
• Duanmu Huai condemned the Priest as the greatest heretic, killed him, and declared all the townspeople heretics before setting the church ablaze.
• Medea and Alice Phil helped the ritual collapse, revealing a golden-haired girl imprisoned in a crystal as the core of the workshop and its recreated town.
• Duanmu Huai recognized that the girl was a conduit for Yog-Sothoth, sent Medea and Alice Phil away, and tried to corrupt the girl with his tentacles.
• As Yog-Sothoth’s descent overwhelmed Duanmu Huai’s corruption, he used a strange array to summon an enormous beast-like shadow that pounced at the Outer God.

Duanmu Huai stopped Yog-Sothoth’s connection through the girl, sealed her in a crystal prism, and destroyed the Magus’s workshop and Necronomicon. After the Leyline incident was resolved, Reines summoned Duanmu Huai to meet a captive young man he recognized as Rider’s Master.

• Duanmu Huai summoned Lord of Tindalos to distract Yog-Sothoth, severed the girl’s connection, and imprisoned her in a crystal prism.
• Medea and Alice Phil investigated the ruined workshop and found the Magus’s diary and corpse, revealing how he had used a Salem descendant and the Necronomicon to build the town.
• Duanmu Huai burned the Necronomicon, confirmed the Leyline would flow normally, and asked the Forvedge Family to monitor the ruins.
• Duanmu Huai restored his Command Seals, and Fiolee agreed to have the Fellwidge Family’s homunculi watch the ruins as Chaldea confirmed the Singularity was gone.
• Reines summoned Duanmu Huai and showed him a young man hanging upside down; after seeing his face without the hair covering it, Duanmu Huai recognized him as Rider’s Master.

Reines introduced Webber Velvet, Kenneth’s former student, and proposed that he take over the El-Melloi Classroom and family. Duanmu Huai agreed to give Webber the responsibilities of Lord before leaving with his companions for Fuyuki City eight years in the future, while Sakura stayed behind with Reines.

• Reines explained that Webber had taken the catalyst meant for Kenneth and summoned Rider, then later returned to run the El-Melloi Classroom.
• Reines proposed recruiting Webber to strengthen the El-Melloi Family, and Duanmu Huai agreed to make him acting head and give him Kenneth’s responsibilities as Lord.
• Duanmu Huai revealed that Chaldea had detected a new Fuyuki City Singularity eight years in the future, so he would leave with Lorena, Medea, Alice Phil, and Mash to investigate it.
• Duanmu Huai reassured Sakura that she would be safe with Reines, and Lorena encouraged Sakura to keep training while they were away.
• Duanmu Huai told Reines to consult Fiolee if problems arose, then said goodbye as he prepared to depart.

Eight years after Duanmu Huai and his companions left, Sakura returned to Fuyuki to investigate the reappeared Great Holy Grail and take part in the Fifth Holy Grail War. She arrived with ASSASSIN, determined to face her past and learn what had happened to the ritual.

• Sakura awoke from a nightmare about her father abandoning her and was comforted by her memories of her Master.
• Over the eight years, Reines, Fiolee, and Sakura helped the El-Melloi Family maintain its position in the Clock Tower while waiting for Duanmu Huai’s promised return.
• After a Command Seal appeared on her hand, Sakura decided to enter the Holy Grail War and investigate how the dismantled Great Holy Grail had returned.
• Reines provided Sakura with information about Masters Bazett Fraga McRemitz and Atram Galiasta, while Fiolee equipped her with protective Mystic Codes.
• Sakura boarded a plane for Fuyuki with her summoned Heroic Spirit, ASSASSIN, and arrived determined to secure a base and inspect the Great Holy Grail.

Sakura returned to Fuyuki and watched Rin enter the Holy Grail War, then confronted her sister after their Servants fought on opposing sides. As Sakura and Rin prepared to battle, Duanmu Huai and Lorena observed from the mountains and encouraged Alice Phil to approach the new Einzbern Homunculus.

• Sakura investigated the Tohsaka family and watched Rin, discovering that Rin had already used part of her Command Seal.
• Sakura witnessed Rin's Servant save a student from LANCER, then saw Rin meet the boy who had summoned SABER.
• Rin and her companions were attacked by the Einzbern family's BERSERKER after leaving the Church, while ARCHER could not respond because he was fighting Sakura's ASSASSIN.
• Sakura revealed herself to Rin and asked why she had entered the Holy Grail War; Rin said she intended to win as the Tohsaka heir, and the sisters prepared to fight.
• Duanmu Huai and Lorena watched the sisters from the Deep Mountain, and Duanmu Huai suggested that Alice Phil speak with the new Homunculus.

Tohsaka Rin and Sakura confronted each other over their family’s past and the Holy Grail, then fought in earnest. Sakura’s control of Imaginary Space and close-combat skill gave her the upper hand, but Rin recovered and prepared to continue the battle.

• Sakura told Rin she intended to defeat her and destroy the Holy Grail to end the obsession that had separated their family.
• Rin attacked Sakura with Gandr, but Sakura made the Curse Bullets disappear into Imaginary Space.
• Rin used gemstone magecraft, and Sakura absorbed the attacks and sent them back at Rin.
• Rin rushed Sakura with a reinforced elbow strike, but Sakura punched her into a utility pole and injured her.
• Rin and Sakura exchanged challenges, assumed fighting stances, and began their battle again.

Illyasviel from another timeline mistook Alice Phil for her mother, then fled with Berserker after discovering that Alice Phil had no memory of her. Duanmu Huai concluded that this Fifth Holy Grail War was likely the source of Singularity F, while the group was left to decide what to do next.

• Illyasviel approached Alice Phil and called her Mom, but Alice Phil did not recognize her or remember Emiya Kiritsugu.
• Illyasviel and Alice Phil exchanged attacks with Einzbern alchemy, then realized they could both perform the same magic.
• Illyasviel described her timeline, where Alice Phil married Emiya Kiritsugu and had her, but Alice Phil explained that her own past was different.
• Alice Phil showed Illyasviel her Command Seal, and Illyasviel fled into the forest with Berserker.
• Duanmu Huai and Medea emerged and discussed the alternate-timeline encounter with Alice Phil.
• Duanmu Huai observed that the Fifth Holy Grail War’s Saber, Archer, and Berserker matched Heroic Spirits from Singularity F and judged it its likely source.

After the Great Holy Grail proved sealed, Duanmu Huai’s group went to Ryudoji Temple to confront its CASTER. There, Medea faced an older version of herself, and their argument escalated into a fight, leaving the rest of the group watching.

• Duanmu Huai’s group learned that the Great Holy Grail could not be opened until certain conditions were met, so they planned to defeat the other Servants first.
• Medea sensed a territory formation at Ryudoji Temple and identified its caster as a likely CASTER.
• Medea and Alice Phil attacked the Witch, bringing her down and revealing that she looked like an older Medea.
• The Witch introduced herself as another Medea and reunited with her Master, Lord Soichiro.
• The two Medeas argued over love, Jason, and their different choices before declaring they would fight.

Duanmu Huai’s group defeated Caster and Soichiro, while Aika took RIDER from her former Master and revealed her plan to destroy a fake SABER and summon the true one. The next morning, Sakura told ASSASSIN she had an ace prepared to force her sister out of the Holy Grail War.

• Duanmu Huai killed Soichiro, and Medea and Alice Phil killed Caster at Ryudoji Temple.
• Medea rejected Caster’s curse, and Duanmu Huai reassured her before the group left the temple.
• RIDER killed her seaweed-haired Master and pledged herself to Aika, who planned to destroy the fake SABER and summon the true SABER to rescue Britannia.
• Sakura woke and thanked ASSASSIN for fighting ARCHER, explaining that she had withdrawn when BERSERKER left the battle and SABER remained a threat.
• Sakura told ASSASSIN she had an ace up her sleeve that would leave her sister no choice but to withdraw from the Holy Grail War.

Tohsaka Rin learned that Sakura’s ASSASSIN wielded a powerful firearm Noble Phantasm, while Duanmu Huai’s group discovered that dozens of schoolgirls had gone missing in Fuyuki City. Duanmu Huai ordered everyone to watch the students heading home and monitor the other Masters as the strange danger spread.

• Tohsaka Rin questioned ARCHER about his fight and learned that an ASSASSIN had attacked him with a powerful, short-range firearm.
• Tohsaka Rin realized Sakura’s unusual tactics would be difficult to counter, then hurried to school with ARCHER.
• Duanmu Huai’s group searched Fuyuki City without finding other Servants, while Duanmu Huai sensed a faint, familiar danger spreading through the city.
• Lorena, Mash, Alice Phil, and Medea reported that dozens of girls had gone missing on their way home from school the previous evening.
• Duanmu Huai ordered the group to monitor students heading home and sent Medea and Alice Phil to watch the other Masters with familiars.

Duanmu Huai learned that timeline correction had altered the Fifth Holy Grail War, then rushed to Einzbern Castle and killed the golden-haired attacker threatening Ilya. Elsewhere, Sakura rescued Tohsaka Rin and Archer from a mysterious Servant, leaving the group facing a new danger.

• Duanmu Huai and his allies discussed how changes to the Fourth Holy Grail War had affected the Fifth and noted that the Great Holy Grail remained inaccessible.
• Alice Phil sensed that Ilya was in danger from the golden-haired Archer summoned by the Tohsaka Family during the Fourth Holy Grail War, so Duanmu Huai went to Einzbern Castle.
• The golden-haired man defeated Berserker and attacked Ilya, but Alice Phil shielded her until Duanmu Huai arrived and killed him.
• Tohsaka Rin and Archer were trapped by a strange Servant that had swallowed Saber and her Master, until Sakura appeared and led them to safety.
• Tohsaka Rin thanked Sakura after they reached a nearby mountain.

Tohsaka Rin and Sakura agreed to work together as sisters against the black shadow and RIDER, while Duanmu Huai learned that Ilya was Alice Phil’s human daughter and that another Lesser Holy Grail was likely collecting Servant souls. Alice Phil planned to search Fuyuki City for traces of it.

• Sakura rescued Tohsaka Rin using Imaginary Number Magecraft and explained that her ASSASSIN’s abnormal spiritual foundation came from a catalyst Duanmu Huai had left behind.
• Tohsaka Rin and Sakura concluded that the black shadow was not a Servant and linked it to the disappearances and RIDER’s Master.
• Sakura rejected an alliance requested by Tohsaka Rin as head of the Tohsaka Family, but agreed when Rin asked her as a sister.
• Alice Phil told Duanmu Huai that Ilya was her human daughter, that modifications had stopped Ilya’s physical development, and that Medea could restore most of her body.
• Alice Phil revealed that neither she nor Ilya had received the souls of CASTER or the golden ARCHER, suggesting another Lesser Holy Grail was active.
• Alice Phil planned to work with Medea to scan Fuyuki City for traces of the other Lesser Holy Grail.

Tohsaka Rin and Sakura debated how to stop the bounded field threatening all of Fuyuki City, with Sakura arguing that destroying its building was safer than trying to rescue Saber and her Master. Rin accepted Sakura’s plan and chose the city’s residents over rescuing one person.

• Tohsaka Rin explained that a Servant was building a bounded field across Fuyuki City and that a direct assault had failed, swallowing Saber and her Master.
• Sakura proposed blowing up the building containing the bounded field’s core, arguing that destroying it was more certain than infiltrating the enemy’s stronghold.
• Sakura told Rin that protecting Fuyuki’s residents mattered more than rescuing Saber and her Master, and explained the Inquisition’s duty to protect humanity without imposing judgments of good and evil.
• ARCHER challenged Sakura’s reasoning, and she answered that the Inquisition protected humanity as a civilization and species rather than pursuing justice as an ideal.
• Tohsaka Rin agreed to follow Sakura’s plan and prioritize the citizens of Fuyuki City over Saber’s Master.