"Shot to death?"
"You idiot! Why didn't you call for me?!"
"Why did you act on your own?!"
Sakura Kyoko crouched on the ground, releasing the spear from her grip. Fury radiated from every fiber of her being.
In the brief window she'd spent chasing Caster, how had things gone this wrong?
Her Master had been killed without her even knowing.
With all seven Servants gathered in one place, only the Masters would have been fighting each other. And as far as she knew, only one Master in this war used firearms.
Saber's Master.
"And what were you even doing, you long-faced bastard?"
She could feel her magical energy dissipating. If this continued, she would indisputably vanish from the war.
A Servant who lost their Master would fade as the supply of magical energy dwindled to nothing.
Sakura Kyoko refused to accept that.
Being disqualified like this was too pathetic for words.
Rising to her feet, she searched Sola's clothes and retrieved an orange orb from the pocket. Three gleaming stars shone inside it.
The Dragon Ball hadn't been taken. The killer had likely calculated that she would return too quickly and fled.
Her expression hardened with resolve. In that instant, Sakura Kyoko made her decision.
She could not disappear here!
She had to find a compatible contractor immediately.
"Of all the timing..."
A sword had grazed his right shoulder. Kayneth hissed through the pain, left hand pressing against the bleeding wound.
He'd been on the verge of killing Kotomine Kirei when the priest, without an instant's hesitation, had burned a Command Spell to summon Assassin.
And the Assassin who appeared brought a threat far beyond what Kayneth had anticipated.
Swoosh!!
Whish!!
The silver mercury couldn't remotely keep up with the Servant's speed. Forget attacking; even defense was crumbling.
Fast.
Impossibly fast!
That was the singular sensation Assassin inflicted.
Splurch!
"Aaagh!!"
A blade carved across his back, blood welling from the gash. Agony twisted Kayneth's expression.
'What's happening? I sent the signal.'
'Why hasn't Sola come?!'
Gritting his teeth, Kayneth couldn't understand. He hadn't stayed behind out of suicidal bravado. He'd been buying time for Sola's arrival.
The moment she received his coded distress signal, she was supposed to use a Command Spell to summon Lancer. That alone would have turned the tide entirely.
But as the seconds dragged on without any response, dread mounted.
"Volum--"
He tried to speak, to issue one last command. But the blade that pierced his throat snuffed out his words, and his life, in a single stroke.
Splurch!
Withdrawing the sword, blood spraying across the pavement, Kenshin revisited a sensation he hadn't felt in some time.
The familiar taste of killing.
It was the same as those days, cutting down enemies and officials of the old regime.
Against opponents who weren't Heroic Spirits, humans were this fragile.
Drip.
The masterless mercury pooled on the ground, collapsing into inert sludge.
"Hmph. Unlucky or fortunate, I wonder?"
"Assassin is Battousai, the manslayer by trade."
"Appearing without a Servant's protection was entirely too brazen."
Wounds of his own still bleeding, Kotomine Kirei studied the priest-turned-corpse of Kayneth and allowed himself a thin smile.
The great Lord of the Clock Tower had been utterly helpless before Assassin's blade.
While Kenshin appeared to struggle against Saber and Berserker, those were exceptional foes. Under normal circumstances, exactly as Kirei stated, facing Assassin without a Servant was a death sentence.
That blinding speed and razor-sharp swordsmanship could end a fragile human life in a heartbeat.
"Hmm?"
At that moment, Kenshin detected an approaching presence and spun around, guard raised.
A small girl holding a spear stepped into view.
By appearance alone, she seemed even younger than he was.
"Lancer?"
Identifying the newcomer, Kenshin did not lower his guard.
Anyone who had become a "Heroic Spirit" possessed formidable abilities. Even if the opponent was a young girl, the war-forged Kenshin would not be careless.
"Tch! Both of you just went and died on me!"
"What a matched pair of incompetents!"
Sakura Kyoko's head was spinning.
Sola, her Master, was dead, putting her on a countdown to vanishing. She'd come hoping to find Kayneth as a temporary contractor to buy time, only to discover he'd already joined Sola on the other side.
Perfect. Now her options were reduced to either the extreme measure of "killing humans for mana" or finding a surviving Master to forge a new contract.
Whoosh!
"?"
Watching Kyoko hoist the corpse over her shoulder and vanish, Kenshin found the reaction peculiar.
He'd expected an attack. Instead, she'd simply left.
"Assassin, what's the situation over there?"
"That King should be fighting in person by now."
"Is that so?"
"Much as I'd like to observe, I'm in no condition."
The combined battles against Kiritsugu and Kayneth had left Kirei considerably wounded.
He was at his weakest. If not for the Command Spell that had summoned Assassin, he might genuinely have been killed.
There was no capacity left to concern himself with the ongoing Servant clash elsewhere.
"Let's withdraw, Assassin."
"Iri... Maiya..."
Standing at the lip of a massive crater, Emiya Kiritsugu stared at the empty, scorched earth and let the anguish wash over him.
Kirei's scheme had been an inescapable "open gambit."
Unless he'd been willing to abandon Irisviel. To forsake Saber's scabbard.
A man who had always chosen to sacrifice "the few" for "the many" now found himself unable to contain the grief.
The weight of losing his wife and his assistant was heavier than he'd ever imagined.
It had been the same with the childhood friend. The same with his foster mother.
And now, the wife and partner he'd walked this road with.
'If I had given up... perhaps the ending would have been different.'
Once, he had considered it: abandoning the impossible dream, taking Iri, Maiya, and his daughter to live in obscurity.
But he had never fully committed to that choice.
And even now, having lost them, even his iron heart could not stop the grief.
An orange orb tumbled from his inner pocket, rolling across the ground. Its single lonely star shone up at him.
Picking it up, Emiya Kiritsugu found himself entertaining a different, selfish thought.
If he didn't pursue world peace, then perhaps everything could still be undone.
The grand ideal clashed with the personal desire. The conflict tore at him.
Continue fighting for world peace? Or use the wish to bring his wife and assistant back?
That agonizing choice lay before him now.
The cruelty of this war had finally bared its fangs.
It wasn't that casualties wouldn't happen. It was simply that the time hadn't come.
Those drawn in, whether bystanders or participants, would inevitably become its "sacrifices."
Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri... Dead!
Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald... Dead!
Hisau Maiya... Dead!
Irisviel von Einzbern... Dead!
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]