The moment his consciousness returned to reality, Asuka heard the uncontainable cheers of the mother and daughter in the living room.
"It worked! Look, Sumire! I did it again!"
Haruri Kamado was excitedly covering her right eye. In front of her, a solid wood dining chair was levitating in midair.
"You're amazing, Mom! I can feel it too. My breathing is so smooth, and it feels like a warm current is running through my body!" Sumire Kamado clenched her fists, her eyes sparkling.
This sensation of growing stronger left them feeling completely revitalized, even giving rise to the illusion that they might actually win the Holy Grail War if they kept this up.
Sitting cross-legged on the tatami mat, Asuka recalled what the black-haired young man had just told him in his inner world.
This was a miracle brought about by his own 'wish'.
"Alright, that's enough special training for now. Get ready to warm up," Asuka said as he slowly stood up, rolling his slightly stiff neck.
"Huh? Warm up? Are we going out for a run?" Sumire swung her arms, brimming with fighting spirit.
"It's going to be a lot more intense than that."
Asuka's voice was flat, but a piercing, icy glint flashed in his eyes.
His gaze pierced through the walls and curtains, locking dead onto the darkness outside.
"What's wrong, Mr. Asuka?" Sumire asked, feeling a bit uneasy after noticing the sudden shift in his aura.
"We have a guest."
Asuka muttered in a low voice.
His hand was already resting on the Zanpakuto at his waist.
Leaving those words behind, Asuka's figure instantly vanished from the spot.
A second later, on the street outside the house.
The dim yellow streetlights cast Asuka's shadow onto the asphalt.
He stood quietly in the middle of the road. Nugata was not yet drawn from its sheath, but his body had already adjusted into a combat-ready stance.
Tap, tap, tap.
The crisp sound of footsteps echoed from the shadows at the end of the street.
As the footsteps drew closer, a handsome man wielding twin spears stepped out.
A dark green, tight-fitting combat suit outlined his slender physique, and the beauty mark beneath his right eye looked exceptionally bewitching under the moonlight.
"Since you've already noticed me, why didn't you flee?"
In his hands, the red and yellow demonic spears emanated a chilling, heart-palpitating gleam.
Asuka popped the tsuba with his thumb, revealing half of the gleaming blade. "You came knocking at my door. I have no reason to run."
"Is that so? You really are just as I imagined."
Diarmuid stopped twenty meters away from Asuka, his voice deep and his gaze complex.
Following the aura of malice left at the scene, he had tracked it all the way to this residential area and locked onto the magical energy fluctuations radiating from Asuka.
However, the man standing before him was completely different from the culprit who had attacked Sola-Ui.
Although both were Servants brimming with malice, that Avenger carried a slimy, damp, and nauseating wickedness, like a rat from the gutter wearing a human skin.
But this man in front of him...
Even though his aura was violent and ferocious, and the long sword in his hand carried an ominous, murderous intent—making him look like anything but a good person—
That aura was pure and straightforward. It was like a fiercely tempered, brutal sword, rather than a dagger meant for stabbing someone in the back.
"Avenger, although my intuition tells me that you are not the one who attacked my lord's fiancée."
Diarmuid slowly raised Gae Buidhe, aiming the tip of the spear directly at Asuka's heart.
"This is an order from my lord. Therefore, please fight me in a fair and honorable duel to the death."
"If we're going to fight, then let's fight. Stop making so many excuses," Asuka scoffed, a trace of disdain flashing in his eyes.
Since things had already reached this point, he couldn't be bothered to figure out what attack the other party was talking about.
Clang—!
Nugata was fully drawn. The blade glinted in the night, looking as if it were continuously devouring the surrounding light.
"My blade won't show mercy just because you were forced into this."
"Just what I hoped for!"
Diarmuid let out a low shout and kicked off the ground violently.
His speed was astonishing, even leaving an afterimage in his wake.
In the blink of an eye, the yellow short spear thrust toward Asuka's throat like a striking viper!
'So fast!'
Asuka's pupils slightly contracted.
'Is this the Lancer class, renowned for its agility? This burst of speed is almost on par with when I used rudimentary Shunpo.'
But he didn't panic.
The secret hellish special training of the Shihoin Family had long since ingrained the rhythm of such high-speed combat into his body.
"Too slow."
Asuka tilted his head slightly, dodging the lethal thrust by a hair's breadth.
At the same time, he swung Nugata upward, aiming straight for the wrist holding the spear.
"Hm?!"
Diarmuid clearly hadn't expected his opponent's reaction to be so fast, nor for the counterattack to come from such a tricky angle.
With a flick of his wrist, he swept out Gae Dearg with his other hand, directly blocking Asuka's slash.
Clang—!!
Sparks flew in all directions.
The two figures separated the instant they clashed, then immediately collided madly across the street like two bolts of lightning.
This was a pure contest of skill and speed.
Diarmuid's twin spears were like a violent storm. The long and short spears coordinated flawlessly—sometimes thrusting like a viper, sometimes sweeping like a python—pushing the finesse of dual-spear combat to its absolute limit.
Asuka's swordsmanship, on the other hand, was far more domineering and direct.
Every strike was aimed at a vital spot, carrying a ruthlessness and decisiveness honed through life-and-death struggles.
"What exquisite swordsmanship!"
The longer they fought, the more alarmed Diarmuid became.
He had originally thought his opponent was just a brute relying on a special Noble Phantasm to act tough. He never expected the man's proficiency in close-quarters combat to be so exceptionally high.
That sharp intuition, which seemed capable of predicting the trajectory of his attacks, combined with the ferocity to instantly read an assault and counterattack, made even him—the chief warrior of the Knights of Fianna—feel a trace of pressure.
Asuka cleaved away the thrusting red spear with his blade, using the momentum to leap backward and land on a roadside wall.
"Nice spear."
'Is this the strength of a Lancer-class Heroic Spirit? He's much stronger than I imagined.'
Asuka glanced down at Nugata in his hand.
The blade was not wreathed in the devoured power like it usually was.
During their exchanges just now, whenever Nugata tried to devour the opponent's magical energy upon contact...
That red long spear would emit a strange fluctuation, directly severing Nugata's absorption ability.
"There's something wrong with that spear," Asuka muttered, furrowing his brow.
"Have you noticed?"
Diarmuid flourished the red long spear in his hand, feeling a sense of pride. "That method of devouring magical energy is meaningless in the face of my Gae Dearg."
Whether it was a defense constructed from magecraft or a special weapon enhancement, it would be directly nullified by it.
He twirled his spear and took the initiative to speak. "Avenger, your Master's aptitude is quite mediocre, isn't it? Without that method of replenishing your magical energy, how much longer can you last?"
Asuka's expression darkened. This was indeed a major problem.
Originally, Asuka had planned to use Nugata's devouring trait to sustain himself through combat, plundering magical energy from his enemies to keep fighting.
But now, this tactic had been completely sealed off by the opponent's red spear.
This meant that his current magical energy supply had to rely entirely on Sumire Kamado inside the house.
Although Sumire had awakened new Magic Circuits, they hadn't been thoroughly refined yet. Her meager reserves of magical energy simply couldn't withstand the intense consumption of a battle between Heroic Spirits.
Every passing second of the fight was overdrawing the young girl's magical energy.
Asuka cursed inwardly.
'I have to end this quickly!'
"If I can't absorb it, then I'll just cut it down!"