The silver streak, tearing through the night sky, vanished into the heavens, disappearing from sight. A half-shattered bone mask fell from a distant crane, hitting the ground and breaking into pieces, finally dissipating completely.
"Assassin!"
"Assassin..."
"Assassin, how could he still be here?"
Although human eyesight wasn't enough to see clearly, Servants, as Heroic Spirits, could easily see the falling bone mask. Such a mask could not belong to any Servant other than Hassan, the Assassin.
Rin couldn't help but smile playfully. By exposing the fact that Assassin was still alive in front of the other Master groups, it was clear to anyone that there was something fishy going on between Assassin and the Tohsaka Family.
Does this count as messing with her dad? (Laughs)
—On the other side—
In the basement of the Fuyuki Church, shrouded in the deep night's silence, Kirei Kotomine, who had already been declared disqualified from the Holy Grail War, stood before an old gramophone.
Standing there with his eyes closed, an outsider might think he was meditating, but who could have imagined that a battlefield of sparks was unfolding before his eyes?
Kirei Kotomine suddenly opened his eyes wide, cold sweat instantly soaking his entire priestly robe. His perpetually unchanging poker face uncharacteristically showed a look of horror.
He breathed heavily, trying to calm the fear transmitted from Assassin, a feeling he had never experienced before.
He had just been using the shared perception Magecraft he learned from Tohsaka Tokiomi, using Assassin's eyes to monitor the battlefield. Because a Servant's vision changes to spiritual sight when they spiritualize, he had to maintain a physical form to use Assassin's senses.
Assassin was originally an expert in this field, and the chosen monitoring position was certainly the best spot, impossible to be discovered. But for some unknown reason, that strange, unknown female Servant suddenly discovered Assassin's position and launched a decisive, fatal blow without hesitation.
The moment the silver spear left her hand, it was as if all angles of evasion were sealed off by an invisible wall of aura, making it impossible to move. The only remaining space for action was to meet it head-on.
Assassin was never a Servant for direct confrontation. His ability parameters were the lowest among all seven classes, and this was just one of Assassin's many clones.
The moment Assassin felt he couldn't evade, he spiritualized. Although the silver spear's journey from throw to impact was just a blink of an eye, Assassin had completely spiritualized before being hit. Yet, he was still struck!
The magic power condensed in the silver spear carried an indescribable eeriness; the moment the spirit-form Assassin was pierced, an boundless sense of utter cessation, of all things coming to an end, was transmitted through the contract with Assassin deep into Kirei Kotomine's consciousness.
More thorough than death, more extreme than destruction, more hollow than nothingness, darker than despair! It shattered all so-called ultimate limits, and everything that could be perceived returned to a single point before everything ended.
"This feeling... this feeling..." Kirei Kotomine stared blankly at everything before him, involuntarily covering his heart. An unprecedented sense of fullness, of satisfaction, replaced the boundless emptiness he had always felt. The void within him was filled to the point of almost exploding!
Could this, could this be what the Holy Grail War was guiding him to pursue?
The priest, who had never known what emotions or feelings were, experienced them for the first time.
He absolutely, absolutely had to find that female Servant. This satisfaction, this feeling of having all his emptiness instantly filled, he absolutely had to taste it again!
"Kirei, what's wrong?" The voice came from an antique gramophone, its brass horn facing Kirei Kotomine. Although the sound quality was somewhat distorted, just by listening to the carefree tone, one could tell the speaker was Tohsaka Tokiomi.
Below the horn, there was no turntable or stylus for a record. Instead, a metal wire connected to a large gem. This was undoubtedly a magical artifact, used by Tohsaka Tokiomi to communicate with Kirei Kotomine, who was at the church.
It looked amazing... but wasn't it just a phone? The only benefit was probably not having to worry about being eavesdropped on.
"Teacher, one of Assassin's clones, responsible for monitoring the battlefield, was just broken by a suddenly appearing, eerie female Servant," Kirei Kotomine replied respectfully to Tohsaka Tokiomi through the horn, his voice returning to its usual tone.
"Is that so? The Holy Grail War always throws our plans off. Kirei, quickly dispatch another Assassin to the battlefield. We cannot lose control of the situation. I can feel that Archer has already headed to that battlefield."
"Understood, Teacher. However, even the fastest of the remaining Assassins, dispersed in various locations, will take at least twenty minutes to arrive."
"Then those twenty minutes will be a test given to us by Heaven."
If the contractor did not agree, shared perception could not be used. The proud Archer refused to share perception with Tohsaka Tokiomi. Therefore, Tohsaka Tokiomi, currently in the Tohsaka Family's underground magic workshop, completely lost control of the battlefield situation after losing Assassin.
"It should... be fine, right...?"
— Back to the battlefield —
Rin clapped her hands casually and said with a smile:
"The rat peeking from the side has been dealt with. Let's continue."
Now, whether it was Saber, Lancer, or Rider, they all couldn't help but stare at Rin in a daze. After all, they had been fighting for so long, and none of them had been able to detect Assassin's presence. That position was already 500 meters from the battlefield, well beyond the detection range of the Servants present, none of whom specialized in Breath perception (presence detection), let alone an Assassin with presence concealment.
After a moment of silence, Rider suddenly burst into loud laughter, facing the empty night sky and shouting with all his might:
"Come out! There are others, aren't there? You accomplices hiding in the darkness, peeking!"
Saber and Lancer both showed surprised expressions, while Rin let out a tense, excited, and utterly thrilled smile.
"What's wrong, Rider?"
Facing Saber's inquiry, the King of Conquerors smiled broadly and gave a thumbs-up.
"Saber, and Lancer, it's truly admirable for you to fight face-to-face. The clash of spear and sword made such clear ringing sounds, drawing in more Heroic Spirits than just myself and this young lady, I assume. So..."
Rider roared again with a powerful voice that seemed to want the whole world to hear, his deafening sound reaching every corner of the surroundings:
"Pitiable, truly pitiable! You heroes and great men gathered in Fuyuki. Seeing the spirit that Saber, Lancer, and that young lady can display, do you truly have no thoughts at all?! Possessing true names that will be eternally praised by later generations, yet merely hiding in corners, peeking at this battlefield filled with glory, how cowardly. Hmm!?"
After a burst of loud laughter, Rider tilted his head in a provocative manner, a fearless expression on his lips, and finally gazed at the empty sky around him with challenging eyes.
"Heroic Spirits invited to the Holy Grail War! If you still retain even a shred of your honor as heroes, show yourselves again! Lest I, Iskandar, mock you! Ah hahahahahahaha..."
As Rider's boisterous laughter echoed, Rin's heart instantly tightened, as if her heartbeat had slowed by half a beat. She muttered to herself in a low voice:
"He's here..."
---------------------------------
I hope you're enjoying the fanfiction so far! If the story has you hooked and you can't wait to see what happens next, you can unlock 30 chapters in advance over on my Patreon: patreon.com/TLHimejima1
Every bit of support means the world to me so if you're loving the ride, don't forget to drop a Power Stone and let me know.