Someone stood on a road on the outskirts of Fuyuki City at night.
He made no effort to conceal his aura.
The fluctuations of a Servant's Spirit Origin radiated outward from him. Anyone within several kilometers with even a little perceptive ability could locate him.
This was the signal.
I'm here.
His dark green combat suit bore a dull sheen beneath the streetlights. The red longsword for his left hand and the yellow shortsword for his right were both sheathed at his waist, and his golden-amber eyes remained fixed ahead.
Tonight would probably be the last night of the Holy Grail War.
The scenery on either side of the road gradually changed from the low buildings of the commercial district to suburban fields and woods. The streetlights grew farther and farther apart until they disappeared entirely.
Overhead, only low-hanging, lead-gray clouds remained. In the distance, the ancient forest surrounding Einzbern Castle was nothing more than a black silhouette.
Diarmuid stopped roughly fifty meters outside the forest's barrier.
To his senses, the barrier's edge was a thin membrane carrying faint fluctuations of magical energy.
Forcing his way through would trigger an alarm.
But there was no need for that.
He had walked all the way from Shinto, keeping his aura exposed for nearly forty minutes.
The people inside should have known he was here long ago.
Sure enough.
Less than a minute later, footsteps came from deep within the forest.
A fully armed knight walked over fallen leaves and dead branches at a normal pace.
Each step brought the faint clink of silver-and-blue armor.
The figure emerged from between the trees.
Artoria.
Her full suit of silver-and-blue armor gleamed cold and hard beneath the moonlight, and her blond ponytail swayed gently in the night breeze.
She held Excalibur in her right hand, its blade shrouded in Invisible Air, concealing its true appearance.
Across fifty meters, her emerald eyes met Diarmuid's golden-amber gaze directly.
Diarmuid saw the expression on her face.
It was somewhat different from their previous encounters.
The King of Knights had been serious before, but beneath that seriousness had remained a pure devotion to dueling, along with respect between knights.
That was gone now.
Now, there was something besides seriousness in those eyes.
As though something weighed deep within her, something even her emerald eyes could not conceal.
Diarmuid drew both swords.
The red longsword, Surging Waves of Fury, and the yellow shortsword, Ripples of Passion.
"King of Knights."
"Long time no see."
His tone was even, as though he were simply greeting her.
"Though I suppose 'long time no see' isn't quite accurate. It's only been a day since we last met."
Artoria did not answer.
She held Excalibur across her body, her emerald eyes fixed coldly on the opponent before her.
Seeing that she had no intention of speaking, Diarmuid said nothing more.
He crossed his swords.
He moved.
Artoria moved at the same time.
The two figures collided at the forest barrier's edge. The metallic shriek of Excalibur clashing with the red longsword tore through the silence of the entire forest.
The shock wave from the first blow swept up every fallen leaf within ten meters of their feet.
High above.
Beneath the clouds, roughly three hundred meters off the ground.
Mayuri hovered there.
Her four wings were folded behind her, and her black Astral Dress almost blended into the night.
Judgment Monitoring suppressed her presence so thoroughly that even Artoria's Instinct A had failed to detect her earlier.
She had stayed near Diarmuid the entire time.
From their departure from the Tohsaka Residence to the suburban road and then the forest boundary, it had been the same.
Diarmuid knew she was above him.
Artoria did not.
Mayuri watched the flashes of clashing metal erupt at the forest's edge below and confirmed that Diarmuid had occupied the King of Knights.
Time to move.
She leaned forward and descended some distance, then flew into the forest along the path the King of Conquerors had previously plowed through it with Gordius Wheel.
The path ran from the forest's eastern side all the way to the castle's front courtyard. It was over ten meters wide, and the trees on both sides had been uprooted, leaving only bare slopes of earth.
After gliding low along this path for around forty seconds, Mayuri saw the castle's outline.
A European-style stone building with pointed towers and gray outer walls covered in ivy.
In places, she could still see traces left by battle, damage from the earlier fights.
Mayuri extended her senses to their fullest.
Thunder Sanctuary's spherical shell hovered beside her as an extended sensory organ, expanding her perception to encompass the entire castle.
Three living human presences.
The first was in the east wing on the castle's second floor. Her vital signs were very weak, but still stable.
The presence felt somewhat familiar. It should be Irisviel.
Mayuri had seen her at the banquet last time: silver-white hair and wine-red eyes.
This was her target.
The Lesser Grail.
The second was in the west wing on the castle's second floor, with equally weak vital signs. It should be Kiritsugu Emiya.
According to the information Kayneth had provided during the day, the Magus Killer had lost an arm in last night's battle, and his body was already badly injured from repeated use of Time Alter.
The third was in a room on the castle's first floor, with normal vital signs. It was probably Kiritsugu Emiya's assistant, Maiya Hisau.
Mayuri made a decision.
Spirit Form.
Her body disappeared from the physical plane. In her spirit state, walls, floors, doors, and windows did not exist for her.
Mayuri's spirit passed through the castle's outer wall.
Gray stone swept through her vision like light and shadow seen underwater.
She passed through the outer wall, through a corridor wall, through an empty room, and then through another wall.
A few seconds later, she reached her destination.
A bedroom in the east wing on the castle's second floor.
Irisviel lay on the bed.
Her silver-white hair spread across the pillow, and her face was so pale it was almost translucent.
Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was almost imperceptibly shallow.
If not for the extremely slow rise and fall of her chest, she would have looked no different from a corpse.
She wore a white nightdress. Below its neckline, the skin around her collarbones was visible, unnaturally pale, with a faint, golden translucence.
Those were the marks left after the Lesser Grail's functions had eroded her to a certain extent.
Mayuri released her Spirit Form and became corporeal again.
She stood beside the bed, looking down at the woman with rose-red eyes.
Taking her whole body would be too conspicuous.
A living person's size and weight would both be a burden when moving at high speed. If anything happened along the way, protecting an unconscious hostage would also make it difficult for me to act.
Then I'll take only the Lesser Grail.
Mayuri raised her right hand.
She spread her five fingers and held them above Irisviel's chest for two seconds.
She was gauging the position of the heart.
The left side of the chest, between the fourth and fifth ribs, roughly three centimeters inward.
A faint reddish-gold glow rose from Mayuri's fingertips.
No incision needed, and no tools.
Just reach in and take it out.
Mayuri thrust her right hand directly into Irisviel's chest.
Her palm passed through the fabric of the nightdress, the skin, the subcutaneous tissue, and the muscles between the ribs, entering the chest cavity.
Irisviel's body shuddered violently the instant the hand entered.
Mayuri's fingers touched the heart.
Or rather, they touched the true Lesser Grail.
It felt completely different from normal heart muscle.
Its surface was smooth and warm, with a hardness and texture as though it had been steeped in magical energy.
Each beat was more than a muscular contraction; it also carried a very faint pulse of magical energy.
The souls of four Heroic Spirits were all stored inside it.
Mayuri tightened her fingers around the heart.
Then she yanked it out.
The major blood vessels connecting the heart to the chest were severed cleanly by the Spirit Power vibration field.
A fist-sized organ was removed from Irisviel's chest.
It lay in Mayuri's palm, a little blood clinging to its surface, but the pale golden light emanating from the organ soon evaporated it.
The Lesser Grail.
The vessel now holding the souls of four Heroic Spirits.
Mayuri could feel the enormous energy inside it: Hassan of the Hundred Faces, Lancelot, Iskandar, and Gilgamesh.
The souls of four Heroic Spirits layered together brought the magical energy fluctuations radiating from the fist-sized organ close to those of an A-rank Noble Phantasm.
Irisviel stopped breathing the instant she lost her heart.
But only for about two seconds.
Avalon inside her began repairing the damage the moment her heart was removed.
Golden healing light poured from within her chest, quickly restoring the damaged blood vessels and tissue.
Inside the chest that had been left empty, a new heart grew.
Irisviel began breathing again.
It was still shallow and slow, but it was definitely there.
Mayuri glanced at her.
I've secured the most important thing.
According to the original plan, I should withdraw immediately after obtaining the Lesser Grail.
Diarmuid can only keep Saber occupied outside for so long.
Mayuri turned to leave.
Then she stopped.
The west wing on the castle's second floor.
That second presence.
Kiritsugu Emiya.
According to Kayneth's information, the Magus Killer was already in very poor condition.
He had lost an arm, suffered internal injuries in multiple places, and the side effects of prolonged use of Time Alter were still worsening.
If I finish him off while I'm here, Saber will leave the war after losing her Master.
That's much more worthwhile than simply stealing the Lesser Grail.
Mayuri changed her route.
She entered Spirit Form again, clutching the Lesser Grail tightly in her left hand as she passed through the corridor wall toward the west wing.
After passing through two walls, she reached the outside of Kiritsugu Emiya's room.
She released her Spirit Form.
Mayuri stood in the corridor outside the bedroom door.
She activated her Presence Concealment skill.
The bedroom was very dark.
The curtains were tightly drawn, and the only light came from a lamp on the bedside table, turned to its dimmest setting.
Kiritsugu Emiya lay on the bed.
The stump of his right arm was tightly wrapped in white bandages extending from above the elbow all the way to his shoulder.
His face was ashen, his eyes sunken, and large patches of purplish-red bruising remained on his skin.
His breathing was steady.
He looked as though he were asleep.
Mayuri slipped silently into the room through the gap in the door.
Her footsteps made no sound at all.
Though she had left Spirit Form, her spirit body could move with almost no friction, the soles of her shoes roughly a centimeter above the floor.
Four meters remained between her and the bedside.
Three meters.
Two meters.
Kiritsugu Emiya's eyes did not open.
His breathing did not change.
Neither did his heartbeat.
But he was awake.
A professional killer's sixth sense needed neither eyes nor ears.
It was something he had honed through countless brushes with death, more direct than many forms of detection magecraft.
Kiritsugu Emiya sensed killing intent.
Mayuri had not deliberately concealed her intent to fight when she entered.
As she saw it, the person before her was merely someone missing an arm, lying in bed unable to move. There was no need to be too careful.
That assessment was not wrong.
In his current physical condition, Kiritsugu Emiya truly could not put up any sort of direct resistance.
But he still had one thing.
The Command Spells on the back of his left hand.
Kiritsugu Emiya made his decision the very second he sensed the killing intent.
His brain did not even go through any process of "analysis, judgment, decision."
More than twenty years of battlefield experience skipped the intermediate steps entirely, jumping straight from "detect a lethal threat" to "execute the optimal plan."
His lips moved silently in the darkness.
He made no sound.
Activating a Command Spell did not require a sound.
As long as the command was clear enough in his mind, the Command Spell would respond.
On the back of his left hand, the red markings of the second Command Spell lit up.