Asuka held nothing back, pushing his speed to the absolute limit.
"[Thunderclap and Flash・Swift Shadow]!!"
A piercing thunderclap exploded in the air.
The speed of this strike surpassed all his previous limits.
Even Diarmuid, a Heroic Spirit, revealed a trace of shock.
He instinctively crossed his twin spears over his chest to defend himself.
Boom!!
He was sent flying with tremendous force, crashing through a street wall and only stopping when he was buried beneath the rubble.
"Cough... What a heavy blow..."
Diarmuid shoved the bricks off his body, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
But he did not fall.
Possessing an A+ rank in Agility and extremely high combat intuition, even though he couldn't fully track Asuka's movements at the last second, his instincts had guided him into the optimal defensive posture.
Furthermore, as a Heroic Spirit, he could heal his injuries simply by expending the magical energy within his body.
This level of injury was nowhere near enough to take him out of the fight.
"Your Strength parameter feels even higher than a Saber's. If you weren't restricted by your magical energy, I truly wouldn't know how to deal with you.
"However... it seems your Master is about to reach her limit first, isn't she?"
Diarmuid stood up, his sharp gaze fixed on Asuka.
He could sense that after unleashing that explosive strike, Asuka's aura had instantly weakened by a significant margin.
Clearly, such a limit-breaking burst was an immense burden on a Master lacking sufficient magical energy.
Asuka remained silent, the hand gripping his blade trembling slightly.
It was exactly as his opponent said.
If he didn't end this battle quickly, Sumire might actually go into shock from magical energy depletion.
Clang!!
The two clashed once more, but this time, the situation was visibly deteriorating.
Distracted by his concern for Sumire Kamado's condition, Asuka's movements became hesitant, granting Diarmuid more openings.
From time to time, Gae Buidhe would tear open gashes across his body, leaving behind unhealable wounds.
Even when Asuka managed to land a counterattack, his opponent simply healed himself with magical energy. The situation was going from bad to worse.
"Abandon this fight. I can petition my Lord on your Master's behalf and ask him to spare the girl."
Acting as a true knight, Diarmuid attempted to offer Asuka one final chance.
But right at that moment.
"How utterly disgraceful, Diarmuid."
A cold voice rang out, dripping with unconcealed fury.
Asuka and Diarmuid turned their heads simultaneously.
A blond man, supported by a mass of silver fluid, was slowly floating toward them.
Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald.
He looked rather disheveled at the moment, his entire body stained with blood.
The blood was not his own; it all belonged to his fiancée, Sola-Ui, whom he held in his arms.
Because of this, the rage burning in his eyes was more intense than ever before.
"My Lord? Why are you here? My Lady's injuries..." Diarmuid exclaimed in shock.
"Shut up!"
Kayneth glared at him viciously. "I sent you to kill a Servant with a weak magus for a Master, yet you've dragged it out for this long?! If I hadn't come here myself, were you planning to share a drink with him next?!"
"No... I had only just..."
"Enough!"
Kayneth ignored Diarmuid, turning his hate-filled gaze toward Asuka instead.
"I've finally found you... you despicable coward!"
The moment he saw Kayneth, although Asuka had no idea how he had provoked the man, he realized there would be no peaceful resolution today.
The man's eyes clearly stated that this would be a fight to the bitter end.
"Volumen Hydrargyrum!"
Following Kayneth's furious roar, the mass of silver fluid supporting him—Volumen Hydrargyrum—instantly began to boil.
It rapidly split and transformed in the air, shaping into hundreds of razor-sharp mercury spears. They hovered densely in midair, aimed directly at Asuka like the Sword of Damocles.
"As a Color-ranked Magus, I will show you the consequences of angering me!"
Kayneth extended his bony fingers and swung them down violently.
"Strike!!"
Swish, swish, swish, swish!!
Hundreds of mercury spears rained down like a torrential downpour!
This was not merely a physical attack.
In his frenzy, Kayneth had infused every drop of mercury with high-density magical energy, applying a dual elemental reinforcement of wind and fire.
As a result, each spear glowed crimson from high-speed friction during flight, resembling a literal shower of flaming meteors!
"So this is the attack of a magus..."
Asuka gritted his teeth, forced to swing his blade to block.
Clang, clang, clang, clang—!
The dense sounds of collision merged into a continuous roar.
Black sword light formed a barrier, shattering the incoming mercury spears one by one.
However, the most terrifying aspect of Volumen Hydrargyrum was its fluid nature.
The shattered mercury did not disappear; instead, it rapidly pooled at Asuka's feet, attempting to entangle his legs or reform into spikes to attack from his blind spots.
"I'm not done yet!"
Kayneth sneered, the Mystic Code in his hand flashing with light once more.
"Boil! My blood! (Fervor, mei sanguis)"
Not only was he manipulating Volumen Hydrargyrum, but he also began directly chanting an offensive spell.
The ground began to tremble as countless sharp stalagmites erupted from the earth. Coordinated with the mercury's assault, they completely sealed off all of Asuka's avenues of evasion.
"Mr. Asuka!!"
Haruri Kamado was the first to react, a brilliant light erupting from her right eye.
Her Mystic Eyes altered the structure of the material world, manifesting a Bounded Field out of thin air that desperately blocked the stone pillars attempting to enclose Asuka.
However, the peaceful residential area was caught in the crossfire. Rows of houses were pelted by flying debris, and panicked civilians, completely oblivious to what was happening, scrambled for cover.
"Damn it..."
Asuka felt the pressure multiply.
If it were purely physical attacks, he could still manage.
But this omnidirectional, three-dimensional assault—mixing magical bombardment with fluid manipulation—put a country bumpkin like him, who knew absolutely nothing about magecraft, at a massive disadvantage.
To make matters worse, Diarmuid wasn't just standing around like a wooden statue either.
Reprimanded by his Lord, he threw himself into the battle with even greater zeal.
"Forgive me, Avenger!!"
Diarmuid's figure blurred, and the Gae Buidhe in his hands thrust straight toward Asuka's left ribs!
Magical bombardment from the front, a deadly demonic spear from behind.
Absolute despair!
"Get lost!!"
Asuka roared furiously. Left with no choice, he forcibly overdrawn Sumire's magical energy, erupting with a tyrannical surge of power.
Boom!
A wave of black and red energy exploded outward with him at the epicenter, scattering the mercury attacks while simultaneously repelling Diarmuid's thrust.
However, as a consequence of this sudden burst, a trickle of blood seeped from the corner of Sumire Kamado's mouth.
Kayneth looked down from on high at the wretched state of the young girl, a cruel glint flashing in his eyes.
"For the suffering Sola-Ui has endured, I will rip out your soul and roast it over a fire for a hundred years!"
Volumen Hydrargyrum condensed once more.
This time, it transformed into a massive executioner's axe, hovering directly above Asuka's head.
Meanwhile, hidden in the shadows.
A clone of Assassin, who had been observing the battle all along, was transmitting this scene in real-time to Tokiomi Tohsaka and Kirei Kotomine.
"It seems the victor has been decided."