A high-ranking angel.
Had been knocked out by a bowl of wine sold at a local wine shop in Fuyuki City.
Tokiomi Tohsaka felt a dull ache beginning in his temples.
But now was not the time for snark.
Caster was a handful when drunk.
Once her control over her Spirit Origin slipped, her Spirit Power easily ran wild, and her wings and Astral Dress would appear outright.
Once her emotions took over, she would also struggle to rein in her actions. Every one of these issues was enough to cost the Tohsaka camp dearly.
Tokiomi Tohsaka made a decision.
He raised his right hand.
The first of the three Command Spells on the back of his hand lit up.
"By my Command Spell, I order you, Caster, regain your senses."
Red light surged from the markings of the Command Spell, traveled more than twenty kilometers along their contract link, and sank straight into the deepest part of Mayuri's Spirit Origin core.
A Command Spell was a compulsory order granted by the Holy Grail.
It could directly suppress a Servant's abnormal conditions, including clearing out anything in their Spirit Origin that interfered with its operation.
The effect came quickly.
In the garden of Einzbern Castle, Mayuri was gulping down her second mouthful of cola.
Then the Command Spell arrived.
Red light flashed deep within her Spirit Origin.
From the outside, her rose-red eyes merely flashed, but within, all the confusion caused by alcohol had already been cleared away.
The wad of cotton was gone.
Her mind cleared at once.
Her rampaging Spirit Power stopped, and the output of her Spirit Origin core returned to normal.
The sheen on her wings faded from that dazzling white back to its usual gentle glow.
Mayuri blinked twice.
She was sober.
Completely sober.
Her first thought upon sobering up was, What did I just do?
Her second thought was, My Astral Dress and wings are exposed.
Her third thought was, Did I just challenge the King of Conquerors to a fight?
All three thoughts surfaced together, and Mayuri's expression changed several times in a very short span.
From blankness, to recollection, to regret, to resignation.
Finally, it settled into a largely expressionless face.
Forget it.
Words spoken were water spilled.
At the same time as he used his Command Spell, Tokiomi Tohsaka made a second decision.
He reached out and pressed the activation button on the magecraft communications device beside him, which resembled an antique gramophone.
A low hum issued from its horn, and a magical energy signal passed through Fuyuki City's ley line network to connect with the corresponding terminal in the church in Shinto.
"Kirei."
Tokiomi Tohsaka's voice was steady and brief.
"Send Assassin into action. Target: Einzbern Castle, Caster's current location. Mission: assist Caster's retreat and, at the same time, probe the other Servants present for their trump cards as much as possible."
He paused for a beat.
"It does not matter even if all of Assassin is wiped out."
The other end of the communications device went quiet for two seconds.
"As you command, teacher."
Kirei Kotomine's voice came through the horn, as flat and uninflected as ever.
He was sitting in a back room of Fuyuki Church, with a plate of cold mapo tofu remnants on the table before him.
The order went out.
The Servant Assassin-Hassan of the Hundred Faces-received her Master's instructions.
Einzbern Castle, the garden's perimeter.
Black figures emerged from the shadows in every direction.
Not one, nor two.
They were everywhere.
Every figure wore the same dark robes and the same white skull mask, much like the Assassin body Mayuri had destroyed with a single strike in the courtyard of the Tohsaka Residence.
But closer inspection revealed differences.
There were sturdy types nearly two meters tall, small ones under a meter and a half, slender ones with distinctly feminine builds, heavily armored types with particularly broad shoulders, and lightweight types with excessively thin limbs.
Hassan of the Hundred Faces.
The assassin Heroic Spirit with "a hundred faces."
She had divided her Spirit Origin into nearly a hundred separate bodies, each different in personality, skill specialization, and physical structure.
Nearly a hundred figures.
The garden was completely surrounded.
Under the moonlight, nearly a hundred skull masks turned toward the center of the garden together.
The faces behind those masks were invisible, but the sensation of that synchronized gaze still made the atmosphere in the garden turn heavy at once.
Iskandar glanced around.
Nearly a hundred separate bodies of an assassin-type Servant-he calculated their number in a second and assessed their threat.
Individually, they were not particularly strong, but with those numbers, combined with Presence Concealment, they were already troublesome enough.
His gaze returned to Mayuri.
"Caster. Is this your doing?"
Mayuri let out an inward wail.
This was definitely Tokiomi Tohsaka and Kirei Kotomine's doing.
The timing was too perfect.
She had only just been forcibly sobered up by a Command Spell, and Assassin had appeared.
Most likely, Tokiomi had ordered Kirei at the same time as he used the Command Spell.
But she could not admit it.
Admitting in front of the King of Knights and the King of Heroes that Assassin was on her side would directly expose the secret alliance between the Tohsaka camp and Kirei Kotomine.
Once the other camps learned of that connection, the subsequent intelligence war and strategic planning would be put on the back foot.
Mayuri kept her expression under control.
"I don't know."
She delivered those words expressionlessly, her tone cold.
Her guilty conscience was real.
But while sober, the facial control afforded by her spirit Spirit Origin was enough to maintain a perfect poker face.
After she calmed down, a stable connection was reestablished through the contract link.
Mayuri immediately sent a question to Tokiomi Tohsaka through their mental link: "What's going on with these Assassins?"
Tokiomi Tohsaka's response was immediate.
"These Assassins were sent by his disciple Kirei Kotomine on his orders."
"There are two objectives. First, to provide cover for Caster's retreat. Second, to take this opportunity to probe the trump cards of the other Heroic Spirits present." "Caster may now prepare to retreat at any time."
Mayuri received the instructions.
Her rose-red eyes shifted slightly, sweeping over Artoria, who was still seated on the ground in the garden.
The King of Knights' emerald eyes were calmly watching the Assassin bodies around them. Although Excalibur had not materialized, her right hand was already prepared to summon the holy sword at any moment.
If Mayuri wanted to retreat, she could leave right now.
But she kept feeling as though something else was about to happen.
Iskandar stood in the center of the garden, his amber eyes slowly sweeping over the skull masks around him.
His expression had regained its calm.
But that calm was not relaxation. It was another, more dangerous state.
He was the one who had initiated this Banquet of Kings.
In the name of the King of Conquerors, he had invited the King of Knights and the King of Heroes to drink together, using wine to weigh their respective ways of kingship.
This was a formal occasion he had initiated as a king, carrying a distinct sense of ceremony and honor.
Mayuri had jumped in midway to defend the King of Knights and even challenged him to battle, and he could accept that.
A challenge to battle was itself part of a kings' banquet. Someone slamming the table and rising to make bold declarations only made the feast livelier.
But these Assassins...
Nearly a hundred assassins had silently surrounded the site of the banquet he held in his name as king from every direction, each skull mask radiating undisguised killing intent.
This was not a "challenge to battle."
This was a desecration of the banquet itself.
In front of the other two kings-it was a direct slap in his face.
Iskandar drew a deep breath.
His white "Grand Strategy" T-shirt was stretched to its limit by his chest as he inhaled.
The next second, that T-shirt and his dark blue trousers were swallowed together by the glow of magical energy.
His modern clothes vanished, replaced by the King of Conquerors' full battle attire.
A great scarlet cloak hung from his shoulders, brass breastplate and arm guards fitted against his towering frame, and a short sword hung at the left side of his waist.
Red hair, red cloak, brass armor.
The King of Conquerors of Macedonia stood in the moonlight in full battle dress.
He turned to Artoria and Kid Gil.
"Saber. And Archer."
His voice changed.
It was no longer the hearty casualness of drinking, nor the impassioned fervor of debate, but something steadier and weightier.
"This is the final question of tonight's banquet."
Moonlight spread across his scarlet cloak.
"Tell me, must a king stand alone?"
Artoria's emerald eyes contracted slightly the instant the question fell.
She did not hesitate.
"To be king, one must stand alone."
Eight words.
Clear, direct, without the slightest hesitation.
This was the answer she had given through her entire life, already carved into the deepest reaches of her Spirit Origin.
Iskandar closed his eyes.
Then opened them again.
"As I thought."
"You understand nothing."
The King of Conquerors spread his arms.
His great scarlet cloak suddenly billowed in the night wind.
"Now I shall show you the bearing of a true king."
The change happened in an instant.
Without any warning.
There was no buildup of magical energy, nor any incantation.
It was as though someone had simply turned the world's page.
The paving stones beneath their feet were gone.
The garden was gone.
The castle was gone.
The moon was gone as well.
Overhead was now the midday sun.