"Lancer, is that how you're bowing out?"
Sitting atop a building, Caelus watched as the hotel was directly demolished. Shortly afterward, amid Lancer's furious roar, the figure dissolved into golden particles and vanished.
He had been following that unknown Master, witnessing with his own eyes how much explosive the man had planted in the hotel's underground load-bearing areas, and saw him detonate them after evacuating most of the people inside.
It was unclear whether this explosion had directly destroyed whatever measures Lancer's Master had set up, leaving Lancer with no choice but to roar in resentment as he faded away.
After watching this scene, Caelus continued to quietly follow the unknown Master until the man reached a castle outside the city and met with Artoria and Irisviel.
After hearing the information exchanged between the two parties and seeing their pleasant conversation, Caelus realized that the Master of the Saber he had previously assassinated was a decoy. The true Master of Saber was the man he had been tracking.
"I see. The Master himself possesses assassination and combat capabilities, so he hides in the shadows and puts forward a seemingly frail woman as the Master. Meanwhile, he takes the opportunity to find the Masters of other Servants and eliminate them through assassination."
"In other words, King Arthur's previous display of anger might have been an act, intended to create the impression of disdain and hatred toward assassination methods so that no one would suspect a connection between an Assassin and herself. As expected of a king, her acting is superb. To think she could feign such vivid emotions of rage."
Caelus nodded in approval, then took out his notebook to write the chapter on King Arthur. Drawing upon the mythological knowledge transmitted to him by the Holy Grail, he wrote a general biography of King Arthur, placing special emphasis on her outstanding acting during this Holy Grail War.
"As expected, the more beautiful a woman is, the better she is at deceiving people. The knowledge left behind by my other self was certainly not wrong on this point."
[System: "Uh... is that right?"]
Caelus noticed the System's confused expression and thought that since it looked so puzzled, he must have said something wrong. Could it be that King Arthur was truly angry about assassination, but was forced to accept it because her Master preferred such methods?
"System, was King Arthur not acting?"
["She definitely wasn't. At least, this version of King Arthur truly dislikes assassination."]
"This version?"
["This universe has many parallel worlds, so it is possible for similar people in different worlds to have different personalities. For example, there is a version of King Arthur who completely accepts assassination and even poisoning as means to achieve victory."]
"Parallel worlds... people with similar fates and appearances but different personalities, traits, and even abilities. It sounds like a vast world."
["The two universes inhabited by the two entities that constitute you are no simple matters either. The universe that obtained the Power of Nothingness itself has countless parallel universes, and even higher tier existences such as high dimensional beings. As for the universe of the other transmigrator, it is one of the very few Absolute Universes."]
"Absolute Universe?"
["Let me put it this way. There are bound to be differences between universes. In some universes, even ordinary people might have lifespans long enough to witness the collapse of planets and the death of stars. In others, even if your power is great enough to destroy galaxies and create black holes, your lifespan will always remain within a certain limit."
"Differences in laws and rules lead to inevitable variations between universes. For a universe to grow, it needs to constantly obtain information fragments different from its own from other universes to complete and develop itself."
"That is the growth method of a normal universe. But there is another extreme growth method. These universes do not learn any laws or rules from other universes at all. Instead, they constantly deepen the strength of their own rules. This growth method is exceptionally difficult, so few universes choose it. That transmigrator comes from such an Absolute Universe."
"His Absolute Universe follows absolute physical laws. Unless you are a Host protected by information beings like our System, any creature from another universe entering this Absolute Universe would lose all supernatural powers and become an ordinary being."
"Transcendents with the power to pluck stars and moons might die from lack of oxygen. Immortal beings with infinite lifespans who can witness the cycles of the universe would have their lifespans compressed to a mere hundred or thousand years upon entering this universe."
"Unless your strength is great enough to directly collapse the universe, you can only be suppressed into an ordinary creature there. Tragically, as an ordinary creature, you have no way to leave a universe and can only wait there naturally for death."
"Therefore, before reaching the eighth-rank live level, no being dares to casually traverse universes. Otherwise, if they are unlucky enough to cross into an Absolute Universe like this... if they are a carbon-based lifeform, even an Immortal Emperor capable of surviving ten thousand tribulations would hilariously die in space due to lack of oxygen, hypothermia, and various energy radiations.]
Caelus listened to the System's explanation as he walked. This was perhaps part of the desire for knowledge brought about by the curiosity that had not yet vanished from his heart.
In the dead of night, while Saber's Master, that middle aged man, was fast asleep, a figure stood silently beside the bed.
As a side note, not long ago, a man suspected of being a Caster had launched a frontal assault here. Caelus did not know why, but that mentally unstable fellow had mistaken King Arthur for someone else and was obsessed, shouting incessantly.
But that was not important. Caelus had already noted him down and would deal with him after finishing matters with Saber's side.
With the sound of a sharp weapon piercing through a body, Kiritsugu suddenly opened his eyes. He looked at the longsword piercing his chest and opened his mouth as if to say something, but his life ended there.
"Master!"
In the room next door, Artoria did not hesitate. She crashed through the wall and rushed in, only to see Kiritsugu's cold corpse lying on the bed, his eyes open in resentment and his heart pierced through.
And his hand, bearing the Command Spells, had vanished.
The System was right, this Holy Grail War was truly just a beginner's tutorial for Caelus.
Caelus looked at the pitch black streets. Standing at a crossroads, he suddenly did not know which direction to take.
Yes, he was lost.
(To be continued.)