Within the distant castle, the man everyone spoke of—Kiritsugu Emiya—was at that very moment awaiting one of his greatest foes.
That foe was none other than one of the Twelve Lords of the Clock Tower, a leading genius of the Department of Spiritual Evocation, the heir to the Aristocratic Faction's future leadership…
And the very man whose workshop had been annihilated by Kiritsugu's explosives—Kayneth.
As a meticulous and methodical magus, Lord Kayneth had already begun collecting intelligence during the very first battle between Karna and the Servant called Satsuki, using both magecraft and the detection functions of specialized Mystic Codes.
At that time, he had clearly observed that the Knight King, Saber, stood alongside Kiritsugu Emiya.
Later, during the infamous hotel bombing, Saber had appeared once more. At that point, Kayneth immediately seized upon the opportunity—pushing Kiritsugu into the role of the "common enemy" of magi.
After witnessing the full might displayed by the other Servants, Kayneth's mindset had changed completely. He no longer underestimated anyone in this Holy Grail War. Casting aside arrogance, he now regarded every Master as an opponent who demanded his full effort.
Slaying Caster might earn him Command Seals as reward, but the existence of Saber marked Kiritsugu as his greatest threat. Thus, he dared not let Lancer stray from his side.
Confident in his own strength—and armed with intelligence provided in cooperation with the Holy Church—Kayneth resolved to infiltrate Einzbern Castle.
He had heard much of Kotomine Kirei's abilities: a prodigious Executor, with overwhelming advantages against magi. With such a figure as ally, Kayneth felt reassured. At the very least, he need not fear being attacked from behind—for clearly, the Einzbern family stood in alliance with Kiritsugu.
"Strange. I recall that Miss Iphis was also of the Einzbern family. And Saber, too, is connected to them… Is this what the priest meant when he said two Einzbern factions were involved in this war?"
That thought made Kayneth redouble his caution.
Yet even as he embraced this bold challenge, his confidence never wavered. Whatever defenses the Einzberns had prepared, he bore the resolve to shatter them—staking the honor of the Archibald family name upon it.
He could not let last night's humiliation at Sola's rebuke go unanswered. To erase that insult, he needed to display courage of this level.
For Kayneth, winning back his fiancée's respect was now his foremost priority.
His fighting spirit surged as he advanced deeper into the forest. Though the woods were veiled in illusion, Kayneth's rare intellect and instinct allowed him to deduce the structure of the bounded field. He located its core with ease.
The genius of the Department of Spiritual Evocation had a reputation for good reason.
"If Einzbern magecraft is only of this level, then their defenses inside the castle cannot be much stronger."
Thus Kayneth strode on with confidence. Though many of his Mystic Codes had been destroyed in the hotel collapse, his greatest trump card—the "Supreme Mystic Code"—was still on hand. With one of the strongest Servants, Lancer, at his side, he felt no lack of power.
The forest trees gave way, revealing the ancient stone fortress before him.
"So this is the famed northern magi family's seat… As a relocated castle, it is indeed an impressive construction."
But Kayneth, as the scion of House Archibald, was unimpressed. Even as the castle's grandeur pressed upon him, it only drew a scoff.
"After I rid myself of the Einzberns, I could claim this place as a new base…"
True, the Hyatt Hotel had been restored by Satsuki's power, but its magical systems were utterly ruined. Many physical components had been damaged beyond simple restoration. It could no longer serve as a magus's workshop.
And after that catastrophe, the Hyatt had been transformed into a tourist attraction and filming location. Hardly suitable for a proper base of operations.
Having lost the Hyatt Hotel as his base, Kayneth had temporarily taken over an abandoned factory in the suburbs as a hideout, stashing Sola there. Unsurprisingly, his fiancée's mood had sunk to its lowest—such squalid surroundings were an affront to Kayneth's pride.
Under his arm he carried a massive porcelain vessel, which he now set upon the ground. The bottle, enchanted to lessen its weight, sank heavily into the earth the moment he released it—for in truth, it weighed nearly one hundred and forty kilograms.
"Fervor, mei sanguis."
With the incantation, the bottle's contents began to spill forth—a sticky, metallic substance that gleamed like polished silver. The mercury-like liquid, roughly ten liters in volume, slithered from the bottle's mouth, quivering into a floating sphere as if alive.
This was Kayneth's pride, his greatest Mystic Code in combat: the Volumen Hydrargyrum.
"Automatoportum defensio. AutonlatoporIunl quaerere. Dilectus incursio."
With his chant, the sphere of quicksilver rippled in response, quaking softly as it followed him toward the castle gates.
Gifted with the exceedingly rare dual affinities of "Water" and "Wind," Kayneth had mastered the shared principle of fluid manipulation. His unique creation allowed mercury infused with magecraft to serve as weapon—malleable into any shape he desired.
The formless liquid could become blade, spear, or whip.
"Scalp!"
At his cry, a portion of the silver sphere stretched into a long, ribbon-like whip. It lashed forward at the gates—only to flatten, compressing into a razor-thin sheet just before impact. In an instant, it became a blade sharper than any steel, slicing clean through the heavy lock as if it were soft tofu. With a thunderous crash, the doors toppled inward.
Mercury was a dense, heavy liquid. Driven at high velocity under immense pressure, its kinetic energy was devastating. And when sharpened, its edge could surpass even lasers.
Brimming with confidence, Kayneth strode forward. Before the Volumen Hydrargyrum, no defense—be it titanium or diamond—could stand.
Having cleared the obstacle, he proceeded with caution, yet full composure, into the grand hall.
Crystal chandeliers shone overhead. The marble floor gleamed, polished to perfection, unmarred by any flaw. The still air carried only Kayneth's presence. None emerged to greet him.
"Ninth Head of House Archibald, Kayneth El-Melloi, presents himself!"
Standing tall, hands clasped behind his back, he proclaimed loudly into the empty hall.
"Kiritsugu Emiya! This is a battle between you and I alone. I have no wish to drag the ancient Einzbern family into it. If you are a man, then face me yourself!"
Yet no reply came. It was as if his challenge fell on deaf ears.
Though he had expected as much, the silence weighed heavily as he strode further inside.
"Master, be careful. Traps have been laid here—and I sense no trace of Saber's mana."
Lancer, Karna himself, materialized with his spear at the ready. His keen senses warned of danger. Yet he trusted in his Master's strength—Kayneth was no ordinary magus, but one who stood at the pinnacle of modern magecraft.
Since their brief encounter with Chaldea's group, their bond had deepened. Karna now held greater faith in this Holy Grail War, bolstered by his Master's conviction.
Still, this was enemy territory, and their foe was not one to fight by conventional means. Karna remained on guard.
Following hidden wires, Karna swept his spear across several vases arranged around the hall. They shattered instantly.
From the broken vessels spilled not flowers, but explosives—Claymore anti-personnel mines.
Designed to unleash over seven hundred steel balls, each one to two millimeters wide, in a fan-shaped blast, these weapons could obliterate entire groups of infantry in an instant. At the center of such an explosion, no one would escape.
But here, disarmed before they could trigger, the mines were destroyed by Karna's intervention.
"Tch."
Kayneth sneered at such crude tricks, his disdain extending toward the Einzbern household itself.
"So this is the gulf in dignity between magi."
Unimpressed, he pressed deeper into enemy ground.
From a concealed CCD camera, Kiritsugu Emiya watched his approach. He studied Kayneth closely, the image leaving no doubt.
Alone and without Saber by his side, Kiritsugu had no chance of victory in direct confrontation. Even with such traps, probing his enemy's strength seemed impossible.
Entrusting Saber to Irisviel had been a dangerous move.
It meant that in this Holy Grail War, Kiritsugu Emiya had willingly abandoned his most crucial support.
In the present situation, surrounded by enemies on all sides, such a decision was undeniably foolish.
When had he become so foolish?
Kiritsugu could not answer his own question. He had grown so used to coldness and silence, so used to detachment, that he had long ceased to react. This had driven both Saber and his beloved wife to resentment.
And then there was Maiya Hisau—the woman who entrusted everything to him without a word. During his nine years in hiding, it was Maiya who handled all his affairs in the outside world.
She had never questioned his actions, never objected to his cold words. Perhaps to her, what she sought from him was no longer the worth of a person, but simply the value of a tool.
So, when he revealed his plan last night, both women had been shocked.
The Kiritsugu they knew was a man who would coldly calculate everything for his dream, coldly use everyone, and finally coldly seize victory.
He had once been the man who could weigh human lives as numbers on a scale without hesitation, making decisions based on quantity alone.
But last night, as he stood on the balcony overlooking the castle's front hall, leaning against the railing and staring at the forest under the night sky, tears had slipped down his face—like those of a wounded, helpless child.
—He had begun to doubt his former self.
He now seemed cornered, far from the image of the formidable "Magus Killer," appearing instead as a powerless, hesitant man.
When one bears too much blood on their hands, when guilt covers them, and if they still possess a conscience, they are gradually drowned in that guilt until they can no longer endure it—until they long to die for redemption.
Kiritsugu had once found a way to numb his torment: by transforming himself completely into a heartless machine. A being who knew only killing, only the goal. He had strived never to regret—but the guilt had continued to grow regardless… consuming all humanity within him as he fought to exhaustion.
This had been Kiritsugu's life, the life he had forced upon himself for the sake of a harsh ideal, driving himself into such a state.
But now, Kiritsugu had changed. He had become fragile. Since the hotel bombing, when he had seen, among the evacuees, a mother and daughter the same age as Illya and Irisviel, crying in despair—
In that moment, all strength had left him. He could no longer convince himself that sacrificing others for victory was worthwhile.
Especially after witnessing the Heroic Spirits' power—enough to overturn the world—another voice had risen in his heart:
"In the end, you are no hero of this world. You're merely an executioner who sacrifices others for your personal ideal…
"When you weigh your choices, your actions are only slaughter. You've never truly measured the worth of those you choose to sacrifice…
"Give it up. There are heroes far greater than you in this world. After seeing such power, what reason do you have to go on carrying your sins?"
…
His thoughts returned to the image of Kayneth on the monitor. The faint scent of tobacco began to rise from his clothes again—a scent he had banished for nine years for the sake of Irisviel and Illya. Today, it had returned.
"From now on—I will give everything for our family. I will use my life to protect you and Illya."
He had tried to convince himself, and his gentle wife, with those words.
But—
"That's impossible. Kiritsugu Emiya, you cannot escape. If you abandon the Grail, abandon the ideal of saving the world, you will never forgive yourself. You yourself will become your final judge, pronouncing your own death sentence."
Yes. He had sentenced himself to death.
And he knew it. He had known, for a long time, that he no longer had any choice.
Thus, at last, he acted according to his heart—transferring Saber and the Command Spells to his wife, sending Maiya to remain with them. In this way, he could minimize the sacrifices demanded by the war.
"So this is how easy it feels to sacrifice myself… Perhaps I should have chosen this path long ago."
With that thought, he embraced his fate and, without hesitation, chose to face the intruding foe as a magus.
At that moment, he finally regained the sharp edge once associated with the feared "Magus Killer."
"Kayneth must be combing the first floor, searching room by room for me. With Lancer at his side, my opportunities are slim."
"Right now, I'm at the far end of the second floor. If I move quickly, I should still have time to choose ground more favorable for the fight."
Kiritsugu reviewed the mental map of the castle as he moved from his room toward the entrance—then stopped in his tracks.
At the keyhole of the door hung a single droplet of mercury, suspended like a spider's thread. Though tiny, he saw it drip downward, leaving a silvery streak on the door's surface.
Just as he noticed it, the droplet froze mid-fall—then, like a living creature, slithered back up the streak into the keyhole.
"…So. Automatic search, is it?"
Even as the realization struck, a flash of silver burst through the carpet beneath him.
In an instant, the center of the room's floor was sliced into a neat circle and collapsed downward. From the hole surged a silver tentacle.
Before his eyes, the Volumen Hydrargyrum took on a new form, like a metallic jellyfish. Its countless tendrils filled the opening, spreading outward like the ribs of an umbrella. At their center stretched a platform—upon which stood Kayneth, smiling smugly.
"At last I've found you, Kiritsugu Emiya…"
But before Kayneth could savor his triumph, Kiritsugu had already drawn a compact submachine gun from his holster and opened fire.
The Hydrargyrum reacted instantly, forming a protective membrane before Kayneth, absorbing the rain of 9mm rounds with ease. Fifty bullets were spent in mere seconds.
Yet those seconds were all Kiritsugu needed for his incantation.
"Time Alter—Double Accel."
At the words, prana surged wildly through his body.
"Scalp!"
As the last round left the barrel, Kayneth's voice rang out—a death sentence. Twin mercury whips lashed forward in a pincer strike, aiming to crush the prey before him.
"—What!?"
But it was Kayneth who cried out in surprise.
At the very instant the whips should have struck, Kiritsugu's body blurred with impossible speed, evading the attack and leaping down into the gap beneath Kayneth's platform.
The swiftness of his movement was utterly unreasonable. No ordinary man could achieve such speed.
"Oh? So you know some magecraft after all? But still—"
BOOM!!!
Before Kayneth could finish, a deafening blast roared up from below.