After the Grand Duke's bedraggled retreat, the night in Fuyuki City gradually grew quiet. Before dawn arrived, the entire city would sink into darkness.
Messmer crouched on the roof of the Matou Family's manor, his golden eyes looking down over the city.
With the Mion River as its dividing line, the entire city lay within a massive matrix...
Beneath Ryuudou Temple on Mount Enzou, the Tohsaka Residence, Fuyuki Church, Fuyuki Central Park (formerly the Shinto Residential District)... many leyline nodes were also nodes in the matrix.
Messmer spoke softly, neither happy nor sad. "Back empty-handed, huh."
Horace's voice rang out in his mind.
"Couldn't be helped. The first one we ran into was Saber... that one's no pushover."
Messmer asked in puzzlement, "Why wouldn't you let me go to the battlefield over there? When they started fighting, I clearly could have..."
"Could have what? Launched a sneak attack? Crashed the party?"
"Messmer, have you ever thought about it?"
"About what?"
"This Holy Grail War is absolutely abnormal. Actually, there's no such thing as a normal Holy Grail War."
Horace's tone grew serious. "Saber wields the planet's Excalibur, and Assassin probably isn't trash like Hundred Faces, either. Vlad III the Impaler is different from what I know, too. Then there's that glittering gold fellow, Gilgamesh... even though I helped you ban Divinity, who the hell knows what other broken nonsense Nasuverse's Father can pull out?"
Messmer couldn't understand what his uncle was saying. "So? Just steamroll them."
Horace was speechless. "Heroic Spirits are already outstanding figures from human history, and the ones here are the pinnacle of heroes. We're fighting on their turf. Better to be cautious! If they really gang up on you, even your stats won't hold up."
Messmer didn't seem particularly concerned. "Don't I still have a trump