Sleep.
This was the most basic physiological response, something everyone experienced every day, and something necessary for survival.
But for Masters and Servants participating in the Holy Grail War, this act held a deeper meaning.
Where was this?
Kirei Kotomine felt dazed.
That was—battle?
This was a lake.
A vast, black lake.
Kirei Kotomine stood in the middle of it.
Yet when he lowered his head, what he saw was not lake water, but—floating corpses.
Great swathes of floating corpses.
This was—Black River Mountain.
Then, the one fighting over there...
"Assassin?"
Standing at the center of that black "lake water," Kirei Kotomine watched the battle taking place on one side of Black River Mountain and muttered to himself.
The young Sakumura was roaring and howling as he severed the head of that enormous, terrifying demon.
Was this the extermination of the great demon Day-Hiding Demon?
Kirei Kotomine felt somewhat dazed.
But... what was this?
Sakumura Anno beheaded Day-Hiding Demon twice. The human pillar shattered, revealing a tiny skeleton.
Why? Why had he done this?
Standing behind Sakumura Anno, Kirei Kotomine looked at him and the small gravestone, confused and puzzled.
But before Kirei Kotomine could make sense of that doubt, the scenery before him changed.
This was...
An assassination?
So this was Elder Abe Masahiro? He really had been assassinated by Sakumura Anno.
Sakumura drove the dagger in his hand into Abe Masahiro's mouth and questioned him coldly, but such a question did not require an answer.
He pulled out the dagger, plunged it into Abe Masahiro's head, wiped the red-and-white matter from its blade, and leapt away.
Kirei Kotomine stood before Abe Masahiro's corpse, whose eyes remained open and were still filled with tears, equally unable to understand.
The ideal of saving the nation?
In his daze, the scene