"No way... What kind of joke is this? It's not funny at all."
Kiritsugu Emiya, the Assassin without a Master, stared at the explosion in midair as cold sweat ran down his face.
Just moments ago, he had watched the .300 Winchester Magnum round fired from his WA2000 get shot down in flight.
As a sniper, he knew better than anyone how difficult it was to accurately hit a fast-moving target in midair.
So what if the target was a bullet traveling at over 900 kilometers per hour?
That was no longer something you could describe as mere precision marksmanship. It was a superhuman feat straight out of a fantasy.
And to make matters worse, the other side had only acted after he pulled the trigger.
Kiritsugu Emiya had thought he could end the life of the Einzbern Homunculus with a single bullet, only for his assassination attempt to be ended by a single arrow instead.
An indescribable chill ran through him.
Shirou Amamiya.
What made him terrifying was not just his marksmanship.
The boy had noticed that Kiritsugu Emiya had followed Rider into the forest tonight.
He had predicted that Kiritsugu Emiya would strike at the exact moment Saber unleashed her Noble Phantasm, when everyone's attention was completely drawn away.
His archery was extraordinary, but even more frightening was his grasp of the battlefield and the smallest details, along with his unbelievable composure.
This was already the second time Kiritsugu Emiya's actions had been stopped like this.
Unless Shirou Amamiya had come from another timeline and knew how the future would unfold, then he possessed powers of observation and judgment far beyond those of an ordinary person.
Either way, Kiritsugu Emiya's carefully prepared plan to assassinate Irisviel had failed once again.
And not only that, his current position was extremely dangerous.
Shirou Amamiya had most likely already told his companions the enemy's exact location, and they were now heading this way.
"Tch... What a pain."
Kiritsugu Emiya decisively abandoned tonight's mission.
He rose from his hiding place, and at that moment, he felt the air around him grow heavy.
"!"
Kiritsugu Emiya reacted instantly and spun around, but he was still struck in the shoulder by a flying dagger.
She made it here already? How fast is she?
The thought flashed through his mind, but the enemy who appeared next stunned him even more.
A purple-haired, brown-skinned woman in a black robe. It was Assassin, who should already have been eliminated by Saber.
So that's it.
Kiritsugu Emiya hurriedly retreated, but Hassan of the Hundred Faces lunged at him like a mass of chaotic darkness.
Unlike before, when her Spirit Origin had been evenly divided into eighty-eight parts, the current Hassan of the Hundred Faces alone possessed the full amount of Mana.
As a result, her magical power had reached an unprecedented level.
Kiritsugu Emiya may have been stronger in "Presence Concealment," but Hassan clearly held the advantage in speed and close combat.
A submachine gun woven from Mana appeared in Kiritsugu Emiya's right hand, and he opened fire on the Assassin.
Hassan of the Hundred Faces showed no fear. She elegantly slipped through the storm of bullets along trajectories that seemed to defy the laws of physics. But that brief delay was enough to give Kiritsugu Emiya time to chant.
"Time Alter, Triple Accel!"
The explosive burst of acceleration let him evade the slash from Hassan of the Hundred Faces. The tip of her blade tore through the air right in front of his eyes, and the flying kick that followed narrowly missed his neck.
"..."
Hassan of the Hundred Faces narrowed her eyes.
Again.
It had been the same before.
That day on the bridge, she had been on the verge of taking down Kiritsugu Emiya when he suddenly used some kind of Magecraft to alter his rhythm and explosively increase his speed... and in the end, he had escaped her encirclement.
Shirou had said nothing about it afterward, but Hassan of the Hundred Faces had reflected on her own failure.
No matter how one looked at it, letting a target escape right in front of her was a tremendous disgrace.
She had no intention of suffering that disgrace a second time.
"What?"
With Triple Accel active, Kiritsugu Emiya sprinted with all his might, trying to break out of the forest.
But Hassan of the Hundred Faces stayed right on his heels, refusing to fall behind the way he had expected.
"Whoosh!"
Hassan of the Hundred Faces threw a dagger, and Kiritsugu Emiya barely dodged it.
She still had enough room to attack while chasing him...
Watching her movements, swift to the point of absurdity, Kiritsugu Emiya suddenly remembered something.
Could this be...
The Hassan-i-Sabbah he had fought that night.
One of the eighty-eight personas of Hassan of the Hundred Faces. Makule, The Quick.
The purple-haired female Assassin had switched herself to the speed-specialized persona and gained that godlike swiftness.
Originally, this should not have been an ability Hassan of the Hundred Faces possessed.
"Zabaniya: Delusional Illusion"
Through this Noble Phantasm, which was constantly active, Hassan of the Hundred Faces split herself into eighty-eight individuals.
At the same time, those nearly one hundred Hassans shared a single common skill. "All Kinds of Specializations A+."
It allowed them to freely wield specialized skills.
In tactics, scholarship, stealth, assassination, deception, rhetoric, and a total of thirty-two other fields of expertise, they could display proficiency at rank B or higher.
Strictly speaking, all eighty-eight Hassans together were what made up one complete skill.
Now that all the other Hassans were dead, the female Assassin should no longer have been able to use the abilities of her other personas.
But that difficult situation had changed after she became Shirou's Servant.
It was not because Shirou had done anything.
Nor was it because Shirou was superior to Kirei Kotomine as a Master.
It was simply because their compatibility was so exceptional that "All Kinds of Specializations" had risen from A+ to A++.
"All Kinds of Specializations A++"
The current Hassan of the Hundred Faces could now draw freely on the strength and abilities of all the personalities within her, without any conditions.
"Ungh..."
Kiritsugu Emiya quickly realized that even with "Time Alter" activated, he still could not gain the advantage in speed.
In that case... I'll crush her head-on.
The instant he reached that conclusion, a bizarre-looking handgun appeared in Kiritsugu Emiya's hand.
Rather than a pistol, it looked more like a hunting firearm, something that called to mind a medieval short blade.
Its name was the Thompson Contender. A single-shot weapon that could not automatically eject spent casings, and a modified gun Kiritsugu had used as his trump card even when he was still human.
Originally developed as a single-shot pistol for competition and hunting, the man had remodeled it with Magecraft into a Mystic Code.
Loaded in its chamber was the "Origin Bullet," a magical bullet containing a fragment of Kiritsugu's rib and imbued with his Origins of "Severing" and "Binding."
Just like his Origin, "Severing and Binding," it could inflict irreversible distortion on whatever it struck.
If it hit a living being, the target's activated Magic Circuits would first be severed into pieces, then forcibly stitched back together in a chaotic pattern, leaving them crippled.
How much damage it dealt depended on how many Magic Circuits the target had active at the instant of impact, because it was the enemy's own Mana that destroyed their body.
Originally, this was a Mystic Code effective only against Magus, but after Kiritsugu Emiya became a Servant, the "Origin Bullet" had changed to the point that it could even wound Servants.
"Time Alter: Square Accel!!"
With a low growl, Kiritsugu Emiya leapt into the air, twisting as he raised his beloved gun.
His sights locked onto Hassan of the Hundred Faces's brow. Even so, the female Assassin showed no sign of stopping her pursuit.
She closed the distance between them at unbelievable speed while throwing the dagger in her hand.
Just as the blade was about to pierce the man's chest...
"Bang!!!"
A thunderous gunshot rang out.
The "Origin Bullet" struck Hassan of the Hundred Faces head-on, blasting the charging female Assassin several meters back before she crashed heavily to the ground.
"Hah... Hah... Hah... Ugh!"
Kiritsugu Emiya landed badly. Before he could even steady himself, he dropped to his knees and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
This was the side effect of using Time Alter at such intensity. His internal organs were practically turning to pulp.
But Kiritsugu Emiya did not stop for even a moment, because Assassin's dagger was still lodged in his chest.
Gritting his teeth, he yanked the weapon free, threw it aside, and used Magecraft to treat the wound.
Just as expected, Hassan of the Hundred Faces's dagger had been coated with poison.
It was a neurotoxin that interfered with the normal functioning of the enemy's Magic Circuits. It was not fatal, but for the time being, Kiritsugu Emiya could no longer keep fighting.
That was close...
The dagger Hassan of the Hundred Faces threw at the last moment had been vicious and precise. If it had landed just two centimeters higher, he would have been the one dead.
It seemed that this time, luck had finally been on his side.
In this clash between assassins, Kiritsugu Emiya had won.
Even an Assassin Class Servant should not have survived taking an "Origin Bullet" at point-blank range. And yet...
Hassan of the Hundred Faces rose to her feet with an easy expression.
Unlike Kiritsugu Emiya, who was so badly injured he could barely stand, she casually brushed the dust from her black robe.
"..."
Kiritsugu Emiya was speechless.
He saw something glinting between the neat teeth of the purple-haired female Assassin.
That monster had actually caught the "Origin Bullet" in her teeth in a situation like that...!
The Hassan who had been killed by Archer on the first night of the Holy Grail War...
Zayd of the Base. This sort of acrobatic feat had been his specialty.
By reading that personality and mastering his techniques, Hassan of the Hundred Faces had caught the speeding bullet with her teeth.
"..."
Kiritsugu Emiya could only think to himself that, as expected, he really was not suited for direct combat.
With one hand on her hip, Hassan of the Hundred Faces tilted her head and spat the brass magic bullet onto the ground with a soft "ptui."
"With that, we're even. Every wound you left on my body has now been returned to you in full."
The moment Hassan of the Hundred Faces said that, Kiritsugu Emiya finally understood. She had deliberately avoided aiming for his heart, his Spirit Core.
Having successfully taken her revenge, the female Assassin seemed in a very good mood. Looking down at Kiritsugu Emiya from above, she spoke.
"Though I'd love to kill you right here, my Master wants to leave you alive.
You've tried again and again to take the life of the Einzbern Family Master... so what exactly are you after?
My Master is very interested in your motives and wants to sit down and talk to you face-to-face."
Hassan of the Hundred Faces thought this was a complete waste of time.
The man looked exactly like the sort of silent killer who would never talk to his enemies.
Even so, she faithfully relayed her Master's wishes.
"Of course, you can refuse to cooperate. That would be even better.
Shirou has already left it to me to decide whether you live or die here. I'll send you back to the Throne of Heroes without any pain."
"..."
Without changing expression, Kiritsugu Emiya said, "Talking is meaningless. People like you could never understand the position I'm in."
But Hassan of the Hundred Faces's next words finally shook that unchanging expression.
"Your position? Of course I know. You're a Servant without a Master, aren't you?"
"...Wh." Kiritsugu Emiya's mouth fell half open.
Hassan of the Hundred Faces smoothly repeated what she had heard from Shirou.
"You are a Servant without a Master, an Assassin who does not belong to either side in this Holy Grail War.
The reason you were able to manifest as a Servant is still a summoning based on a contract.
It's just that the one you formed that contract with was not a human, but the 'World' itself...
Am I wrong, Agent of the Counter Force?"
"..."
Watching the expression hidden beneath the man's hood, Hassan of the Hundred Faces judged that Shirou's deduction had been correct.
Honestly, she was even more shocked than Kiritsugu Emiya himself.
While inwardly marveling at Shirou's imagination, the female Assassin let a pressing look appear on her face.
"Well? You should be interested in speaking with my Master now, shouldn't you?"
After a brief silence, Kiritsugu Emiya nodded.
"Understood. Tell your Master this.
I will tell him why the Einzbern Family's Homunculus must be killed, and also...
the truth behind the Fuyuki Holy Grail War."
...
…
"What happened, King of Knights!"
Rider rode the "Gordius Wheel" over to Saber and Irisviel, his face full of displeasure as he demanded an explanation.
At the time, Iskandar could have taken the chance to attack from behind while Saber was hurrying to save Irisviel, but he had not done so.
If he wanted Saber beneath his banner, then anything less than defeating the King of Knights head-on and breaking the Sword of Promised Victory would have no meaning.
That was only one reason. More importantly...
At the moment when both of them unleashed their Noble Phantasms, Iskandar's vast experience in war had told him something.
If they had not been interrupted then, the one who would likely have lost was him.
The breath of the stars released by the supreme holy sword would have swallowed the two on the chariot before the trampling charge of the "Gordius Wheel" could reach them.
Saber had given up a chance to destroy Rider for certain and rushed to her Master without hesitation.
At that moment, she abandoned their duel, the duel meant to prove their respective kingship, in order to fulfill her duty as a knight. Iskandar did not feel he had the right to criticize her for that.
If it had been him, he probably would have cast aside the "Gordius Wheel" as well in order to preserve his Master's life.
Saber explained the situation to Rider, Waver, and Irisviel, who still had no idea what had happened.
Someone had infiltrated the forest and launched an attack while the two of them were fighting, but Shirou had driven the attacker back from the shadows.
"Shirou protected me...!"
Irisviel covered her mouth.
If Saber had not told her, she would never even have known that this was already the third time Shirou had saved her.
"That brat... he really is something."
Rider clicked his tongue in amazement as he looked at the shattered fragments of blades scattered across the ground.
"As I thought, he and you alike both ought to become my companions... Hahahaha!"
Saber rolled her eyes.
"I already told you. Neither Shirou nor I will ever submit to you."
Rider did not seem bothered in the least.
"Don't be so certain. I'll make the two of you change your minds with strength."
"Oh? Want to continue?" Saber raised a brow.
"Forget it, forget it. That's enough for today. I'm heading back."
"Trying to run, Rider?"
Shirou's actions had heartened Saber, and she threw the challenge at him.
"We'll leave our final battle for next time... Look, the one you've been waiting for is here."
Saber and Irisviel followed Rider's gaze and saw Sella walking toward them, carrying a red-haired boy in her arms.
"Shirou!"