R1 collided with his sports bike brutally. Metal screamed, asphalt tore, ground became sky and sky became ground.
The world spun in ceaseless, disorienting circles as my body flew—alongside Artoria and Assassin—toward a nearby building.
Mid-turn, my hand slipped beneath the back of my coat. I drew a Glock 34 tucked there and trained it on Assassin even as our surroundings blurred into continuous whirls.
BANG
A bullet tore from Glock's chamber, reaching Assassin instantly. His reaction was a beat slow—hand an inch away as the bullet closed on his eye.
Yet before it could land, a boundary field snapped around him. His time accelerated four times. His arm blurred mid-roll, and he caught the bullet between his fingers.
A fraction of a second later, his eyes narrowed. Excalibur had already reached his flank.
He tried to block with his other arm.
SHRRR
Blood spurted as Excalibur ripped his armour open and lacerated a long gash along his arm.
An instant later, all three of us crashed through a massive glass window. Tables, chairs, and cutlery flew in every direction as people screamed and scrambled out of our way. One table near a steel counter had been half-smashed by debris, wobbling on two legs, ready to give.
Cracking sounds rang from my ribs as I slammed into that steel counter. It groaned and bent. I felt my ribs crack, hairline fractures appearing across them.
My Glock slipped from my grip and skidded across the counter, jamming upright between a coaster stand, muzzle facing above. Too far away.
I looked around. Assassin had rammed through a wall, embedding himself into a second one behind it.
Artoria had smashed through the doors and into a kitchen.
Step.
The sound of a heel meeting ground made me glance that way. Assassin stumbled out of the wreckage surrounding him, unsheathing an M9 Bayonet from his hip.
I extended my arm to the left, fingers clamping around a napkin. Assassin snapped his gaze toward me at the motion.
My other hand wrapped around a fork lying beside me. Another fork sat on a wobbling table nearby. Useless.
Afterimages trailed in his wake as Assassin rushed at me.
I hurled that fork straight at his face while simultaneously bringing the napkin to my lips, dabbing at some blood dripping down my chin.
He tilted his head aside, dodging my throw mid-stride.
When his gaze snapped back to where I lay a moment ago—I was no longer there.
Instead, I was rushing toward him for a head-on clash.
My heel landed on a knife lying on the ground along my path.
With a slight push, it jerked up from below, becoming airborne. My hand flashed, fingers wrapping around its handle.
I was armed now.
Another chopstick on my path. Another kick. It launched straight at Assassin. He didn't slow as it bumped against his metallic chest plate and deflected back.
My free hand came up and caught the chopstick mid-air.
BOOOM!
We were close to each other when a sonic boom resounded from behind me. Artoria moved faster than me—faster than him—and reached Assassin's side, Excalibur leaving a golden trail as it ripped into his armour.
Assassin banked left, barely dodging at the last moment.
My arm snapped forward. I threw the knife in my grip at a nearly severed chandelier chain—the only thing still holding a shaking chandelier directly above Assassin.
My knife shattered on impact, but not before snapping that last thread of chain.
Assassin didn't even have a moment to breathe before the chandelier came crashing down on top of him.
He glanced up and rolled further left.
I pulled my leg back at that instant and kicked a plate lying nearby. It curved along the ground, streaking toward Assassin.
Air split opposite me. A shockwave ripped through the room—overturned tables slid, glass shards sprayed sideways. Artoria was already at Assassin's back, Excalibur a hair's breadth from his spine.
Assassin tried to use his heel as a pivot to dodge. Just before it touched the ground, my plate reached him.
His heel landed on the plate, cracking it before hitting the floor—disrupting his balance and buying Artoria a second.
A second was all she needed.
Excalibur tore into Assassin's back. Blood spurted as the Sword of Promised Victory slashed through his armour like paper.
In response, the boundary field around Assassin began to invert over itself. His hands started to vanish as he swung his knife—a virtually invisible slash toward Artoria's neck behind him.
Artoria pulled her neck back by a fraction on pure instinct alone. His blade missed.
Before she could press to attack, the wall beside us blasted apart. A red arrow became visible through the dust and debris—small edges coiling around a thin core, screeching toward us.
Artoria wrenched Excalibur from Assassin's back and raised it to block. Her heels dug into ground as the impact shoved her backward, punching through wall after wall.
I didn't need to look to know it was Archer.
My legs turned as I pivoted toward the nearly vanished Assassin fleeing from us.
A pair of stake-chains tore from behind him, burying themselves in his thighs. He stumbled and became visible once again.
Medusa had arrived.
She reached my side and wordlessly tugged on her stake-chains, dragging Assassin toward us.
I watched as his hand moved toward a certain compartment on his armour.
A detonator, perhaps.
Golden light. That was all I saw before his hand flew through the air. His wrist was severed clean.
Artoria stood beside him, gazing through the broken wall at a location kilometers away.
"Master... I'll handle the arrows. You finish Assassin." She spoke without looking down.
I acknowledged with a nod and crushed Assassin's remaining hand underfoot as it reached for the same compartment.
"Show me your face." I brought my hand down to the bandages covering his face and pulled, throwing them aside.
A tanned face became visible underneath.
Silence fell.
"Kiritsugu Emiya?" My eyebrow rose slightly. It was the same face I had seen in the files Medea provided—back when I had asked her to do a background check on Shirou and Kiritsugu Emiya.
Even though my deductions had already pointed to him...
I looked back up toward the approximate area where Archer was. Or rather—where Shirou Emiya was.
Then I gazed back down at the man beneath me. Kiritsugu Emiya.
Father and son. Both Heroic Spirits.
My musings died when an absolute silence descended over my surroundings.
[Ultimate Precognition] went eerily quiet. It did not scream. Instead, it went static. A vision flashed within my mind.
A vision of a mushroom cloud consuming half of Fuyuki.
I kept my eyes locked on Assassin—rather, on his parameters visible to me through a Master's authority.
Everything was blurred. Normally, I could see another Servant's parameters clearly. Yet everything about Assassin's was obscured, as if he existed outside the Grail's system entirely.
[Ultimate Luck] activated on its own. For a moment—only his luck—became visible.
It was E Rank.
As I watched... an X slowly began to materialise behind that E.
Turning his luck into—
EX.
Everything slowed. A small piece of the ceiling broke away and fell, straight toward the compartment Assassin had tried to reach with his hands.
I looked at his luck again.
[Ultimate Luck] clashed against EX Rank Luck.
The half-smashed table near that steel counter finally gave out, one leg buckling. A fork slid off its edge.
It fell directly onto my Glock—still jammed upright between the coaster stand where it had landed during our crash, muzzle aimed above.
The fork spun midair and slotted between Glock's trigger guard, pulling it down with its remaining momentum.
BANG
A bullet launched from its chamber, striking the falling chunk of ceiling and shattering it into harmless flakes.
I looked back into Kiritsugu's eyes.
"If it's good luck, I have that, too."
...
..
.
***
[200 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[5 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
Assassin's Skill used in this chapter. -
[Affection of the Holy Grail (A+)] - This skill boosts the rank of his Luck to EX Rank under special circumstances. With this, he can even break out of enemy Servant abilities that would normally be impossible to escape from. However, this good fortune comes at the merciless expense of others' happiness. He himself is not aware of the existence of this Skill.
[Author's Thoughts]
Do tell me how it came out, does it make sense and feel like connecting dots? Honestly... this is one of the most complex chapters I've ever written.
...
Still feeling confused? Even after trying to run your brain at hundred miles per hour? Author-sama has got you all with a cheat sheet.
So... First of all... Emiya (Assassin) is a Counter Guardian, not summoned by any Master but the world (aka Alaya/ Not Gaia) to wipe out any threats to humanity, no matter the cost. And he was here... especially to wipe out our boy Izuru.
Now, the mushroom cloud part... confused? In basic language, Kiritsugu had gotten his hands on a terrifying amount of explosives. How? He created them ofc. Kiritsugu from Fate/Zero is a child compared to this one.
Those explosives he created? Bro buried them straight into Fuyuki's leylines. With a single press from him, everything would've gone BOOM.
He is a mad lad I tell ya.
So, he was basically about to blow half of Fuyuki to take Izuru down with him. No matter the cost to eliminate dangers to humanity, remember.
Everything else you can understand from the falling ceiling at that exact location and moment due to EX Rank luck, to Izuru's passive luck setting up everything before clashing with Assassin's EX rank one.
Do tell if the cheat sheet helps?