The bulletproof vest beneath Kayneth's coat caught the shot.
The bullet drove the Kevlar fibers inward, spreading the impact across his entire chest.
Kayneth staggered back a step, his chest aching with a stifling pain, as though someone had shoved him hard from inside.
He coughed several times, doubling over.
A metallic sweetness rose in his mouth. The impact had probably ruptured some small blood vessels in his lungs.
But Kayneth held his ground.
The bullet lodged in the vest without penetrating it.
Kiritsugu Emiya watched the entire process.
The Origin Bullet had been stopped.
A runic Mystic Code disconnected from his Magic Circuits, plus a physical bulletproof vest.
His opponent had thoroughly studied his tactics and prepared countermeasures.
Kiritsugu Emiya narrowed his eyes slightly.
The Thompson Contender was a single-shot weapon.
He would have to load the next Origin Bullet manually.
At this distance, and with his body in this condition, reloading meant throwing his life away.
Fifteen meters.
He was already within Volumen Hydrargyrum's attack range.
Silver flashed.
Kayneth issued an attack command to Volumen Hydrargyrum as soon as his coughing subsided.
Automatic defense was off, but manual control still worked.
A mercury whip shot from his side at tremendous speed, sweeping in a semicircle toward Kiritsugu Emiya's hiding place.
"Time Alter-double accel!"
Before the mercury whip reached him, Kiritsugu Emiya forced himself into double speed.
His body reacted immediately.
His blood vessels had already been pushed to their limits by quadruple speed and repeated uses of double speed. This pushed them another step further.
The right half of his body began to go numb, and his nerves struggled to keep up.
Kiritsugu dodged left.
He avoided a fatal hit.
The mercury whip skimmed past his right side, missing his head and torso.
Its edge still caught his right arm.
The cut was clean.
When swung at high speed, Volumen Hydrargyrum was hard enough to serve as a blade.
His right arm was severed some distance above the elbow.
The cross section lay exposed, blood vessels, muscle, and bone all open to the air.
A second later, blood spurted out, splashing a dark red streak across the ground.
Kiritsugu's arm fell to the ground.
His right hand.
His left hand remained.
So did the three Command Spells on its back.
Kiritsugu Emiya made his decision the very second his arm was severed.
He did not hesitate.
At a time like this, the habits left by his career as a killer spared him unnecessary thought.
The first Command Spell on the back of his left hand lit up.
"By my Command Spell, I order you-Saber, come to my side immediately!"
On the battlefield three streets away.
Artoria's Excalibur was descending in a final strike.
Diarmuid half-knelt on the shattered asphalt, his red longsword held across his body as he barely maintained his guard.
The sustained, intense fighting had pushed both his arms to their limits, and more than a dozen wounds of varying sizes were still bleeding across his body.
His right shoulder had been pierced deeply, a horizontal slash crossed his left flank, and the outside of his right leg had been split open.
Every wound had been seared by Excalibur's magical energy, making them difficult to heal on their own in the short term.
He could not hold out much longer.
Artoria's holy sword cleaved down, wreathed in golden-white magical energy.
If this strike landed, Diarmuid's Spirit Core would be unable to withstand it.
The blade was less than half a meter above Diarmuid's head.
The Command Spell activated.
Halfway through her swing, a force pulled Artoria's body away from where she stood.
The next instant, she vanished before Diarmuid.
Diarmuid pitched forward.
His opponent had abruptly vanished, leaving his blocking motion without a target.
He dropped onto both knees on the shattered road, the tip of his red longsword sinking into a crack in the asphalt, barely supporting his body.
He paused for half a second, then looked up and around.
Saber was gone. Her Master had summoned her away with a Command Spell.
In the direction of the collapsed building.
Something had happened to Kayneth.
Inside the half-collapsed building.
Artoria appeared in a red glow, three meters in front of Kiritsugu Emiya.
Excalibur was still in her hand, its blade retaining the golden-white magical energy that her previous strike had not finished releasing.
She glanced around.
Fifteen meters away, Kayneth stood on a mercury platform, still surrounded by a portion of Volumen Hydrargyrum, though far less than before.
Three meters behind her, Kiritsugu Emiya leaned behind a collapsed desk, his left hand pressed over the stump of his right arm.
Blood seeped between his fingers, soaking half his clothes. A severed arm lay on the ground.
Artoria asked no questions.
The situation was already plain to see.
Her Master had lost his battle against the other Master and could only summon her with a Command Spell to save his life.
She stepped forward, holding Excalibur across her body and placing herself between Kiritsugu Emiya and Kayneth.
Kayneth saw Artoria.
The King of Knights. Still in very good condition.
If he still had seven hundred kilograms of Volumen Hydrargyrum, all three Mana Furnaces working, and Lancer beside him, Kayneth could have tried to hold things in check.
Not now.
There was little Volumen Hydrargyrum left, and only two Mana Furnaces were online.
Lancer was not here, and his chest still hurt. The dull pain left by that shot had not subsided.
Fighting the King of Knights head-on was too risky.
Only one final Command Spell remained on the back of Kayneth's right hand.
"By my Command Spell, I order you-Lancer, return to my side!"
Three streets away, Diarmuid, still half-kneeling on the road, was also carried away by the force of teleportation.
The next second, he appeared two meters beside Kayneth.
Diarmuid was not in good shape.
More than a dozen wounds across his body were still bleeding.
The puncture wound in his right shoulder was the worst, exposing the muscle deep inside.
The horizontal slash on his left flank had cut through his Astral Dress and skin, stretching over twenty centimeters.
His thighs, forearms, and back also bore numerous small and medium wounds.
His Spirit Core was undamaged.
For a Servant, these injuries were still repairable.
Kayneth began casting healing magecraft as soon as Diarmuid appeared.
Water-attribute magical energy was naturally suited to healing, and with the two Mana Furnaces still supplying magical energy, emerald light poured from Kayneth's hands and covered Diarmuid's wounds.
The wounds began to heal.
The puncture wound in his right shoulder slowly closed, while newly formed Spirit Origin tissue filled the horizontal slash on his left flank.
The small wounds on the surface of his skin stopped bleeding within seconds and closed up.
Artoria stood in front of Kiritsugu Emiya, keeping Excalibur in a defensive stance.
She could charge over now, before Diarmuid recovered.
Fifteen meters would take her less than a second.
But Artoria did not move.
Kiritsugu Emiya was right behind her, already missing an arm.
He could barely even stand now.
If Artoria left her defensive position and even one mercury whip slipped past during the fight, Kiritsugu Emiya would die.
Protecting her Master came first.
Behind her, Kiritsugu Emiya shifted with difficulty, settling into a more secure position.
Blood loss darkened the edges of his vision.
His body had temporarily suppressed the pain of his severed arm, but it could not suppress the weakness.
Continuing the fight was not entirely impossible.
Saber was still in good enough condition to have a chance against Diarmuid and Kayneth.
But Kiritsugu himself would die here.
Blood loss, the side effects of repeated Time Alter use, and torn muscles in his right leg. With those injuries combined, his body would give out within half an hour unless he received treatment soon.
"Saber."
Kiritsugu Emiya's voice came from behind her, hoarse and weak, but his order was clear.
"Get me out of here. Retreat to the castle."
Artoria did not look back.
She watched Kayneth and Diarmuid, who was receiving treatment across from her, and paused for two seconds.
Then Artoria reached out with her left hand, lifted Kiritsugu Emiya off the ground, and supported him at her side with one arm.
Her right hand still held Excalibur, its blade never lowered.
As she turned, she bent down and picked up the severed arm as well.
There was still a chance of reattaching it.
The Einzberns had ways of repairing human bodies.
Carrying Kiritsugu Emiya and his severed arm, Artoria strengthened her leap with Mana Burst, sprang through a hole in the collapsed building, and soon vanished into the night of Fuyuki City.
Kayneth stood where he was, watching that silver-blue figure recede.
He could not pursue her.
Nor was there any need.
His losses tonight were already heavy enough.
One Mana Furnace buried, five hundred kilograms of Volumen Hydrargyrum ruined, all three Command Spells spent, and a gunshot to the chest.
Kiritsugu Emiya had not come out ahead either.
He had lost an arm, the countermeasure against his Origin Bullets had been exposed, and his body was badly injured from pushing Time Alter too hard.
Once Diarmuid's injuries stabilized, Kayneth stopped his healing magecraft and turned toward the ruins of the Hyatt Hotel.
The third Mana Furnace was still buried underneath.
He would have to find a way to dig it out later.
In the southern outskirts of Fuyuki City.
At the edge of the basin left by the Spacequake.
Mayuri floated roughly twenty meters above the ground, her four wings beating slowly.
Her rose-red eyes watched someone on the slope below.
Waver Velvet.
He still lay where Diarmuid had set him down, his body curled into a ball.
The shock from the Spacequake's aftermath had sent his nervous system into a protective state, and he had yet to wake.
Mayuri watched from above for about three seconds.
It was terribly noisy inside her head.
The King of Conquerors had already left the stage.
Waver was now a Master without a Servant. Under the rules of the Holy Grail War, he was no longer qualified to participate.
Normally, he should return to the church and seek protection from the overseer.