As soon as Jack darted into the alleyway, the atmosphere in the town shifted violently.
A thick, unnatural fog began to pour from the cobblestones, rolling through the streets and swallowing the buildings in a dense, grayish-white haze. Within seconds, a massive section of the town was plunged into zero visibility.
This was the Noble Phantasm of Assassin of Black: The Mist.
It was a bounded field that recreated the suffocating smog of 19th-century London. But it wasn't just a smokescreen.
The mist was highly acidic. If a normal human took even a few breaths of it, their lungs would melt, and they would die in agony.
Even a trained mage would suffer continuous magical poison damage, disrupting their mana circuits and eventually killing them if they didn't escape or deploy strong countermeasures. Servants could resist the poison, but it would still chip away at their health.
Furthermore, the mist scrambled the senses, completely stripping away a victim's sense of direction.
Unless a target possessed high-level navigation magic or an innate Instinct skill ranked B or higher, they were doomed to wander blindly until they melted.
This made catching Jack inside her own territory an almost impossible task.
Under the dual cover of night and fog, Jack moved like a phantom. She leaped silently from rooftop to rooftop, her small boots making no sound against the tiles.
As a Servant, Jack's base parameters were not particularly impressive. Her Strength and Endurance were only Rank C. But her Agility was a staggering Rank A. She was a blur, a perfect instrument for swift, unseen murder.
After all, the Assassin class was never meant for frontline brawling. Their purpose was to strike from the shadows and eliminate the enemy Master.
Tap.
Jack landed softly on the edge of a roof, peering down into the thick fog below.
She had found her target.
A figure wrapped in a heavy black cloak stood alone in the middle of the street. Jack frowned slightly. The figure wasn't coughing. They weren't stumbling blindly. They just stood there, completely unfazed by the deadly, acidic smog.
Is it a Servant? Or a mage with a really good shield? Jack wondered.
It didn't matter. Mommy was in danger, so this enemy had to die.
Jack coiled her legs and sprang. She dropped from the roof like a falling stone, completely silent.
A wicked, surgical pair of knives appeared in her hands. She aimed the deadly blades directly at the back of the cloaked figure's neck, intending to sever the spine in one clean stroke.
She was inches away. The kill was guaranteed.
Then, the target moved.
The heavy black cloak whipped to the side, revealing a pale, slender arm that shot upward with terrifying speed.
Before Jack could even register the movement, the world flipped upside down.
"Huh?"
BOOM!!!
A deafening crash echoed through the empty town.
The cobblestone street shattered, a massive spiderweb of deep cracks exploding outward from the point of impact.
Stell stood amidst the flying debris, her face completely devoid of emotion.
The mechanical device on her head had unfolded, its glowing plates humming with power. Her right hand was clamped like an iron vise around the throat of the little girl, pinning her brutally to the fractured stone floor.
"Huh?" Jack gasped again, her green eyes wide with absolute bewilderment.
She ignored the searing pain radiating from her back and neck. Her entire focus was on the violet-haired girl holding her down.
"How... how did you do that?" Jack rasped, her voice squeezed tight by the grip on her throat.
She couldn't process the reversal. One millisecond, her knives were about to pierce flesh. The next, she had been snatched out of the air and slammed into the earth. How did the target see her? How did they react so fast?
Jack had completely failed to dodge the counterattack.
Her questions, however, would never be answered.
...
So this is Assassin of Black.
Stell looked down at the tiny, thrashing Servant. She knew exactly who this was: Jack the Ripper. The legendary serial killer of London, manifested as an amalgamation of discarded, unloved children.
Within a single day of being summoned, this creature had already butchered four innocent people in this town, tearing out their hearts in a gruesome display of cruelty.
Looking at the angelic face of the child-killer, Stell felt a rare, distinct flicker of absolute disgust in her logic circuits.
Analysis: Target is significantly weaker than projected.
Stell had planned this encounter carefully. She never underestimated a Servant, knowing their abilities defied logic. But reality had proven disappointing.
The Mist was a deadly Noble Phantasm against biological entities. But to an Ex-Machina with no lungs, no blood, and an outer chassis made of advanced alloys, the acidic poison was completely irrelevant. It was like trying to drown a rock.
As for the stealth? The fog blocked visual light, but Stell's sensors tracked thermal signatures, mana density, and sonar feedback. Jack had essentially been glowing like a beacon on Stell's radar the entire time.
Even the Servant's vaunted Rank A Agility was sluggish compared to Stell's Velocity Override.
Stell scanned the struggling girl's Spirit Origin. She didn't crush Jack's throat and end it right there, though it would have been effortless.
She had a use for this Servant.
Stell had recently formulated a new "research project," and she required a live Heroic Spirit to serve as a test subject. A murderous, uncontrollable serial killer was the perfect, guilt-free candidate for such experiments.
She certainly wouldn't let Jack live to see tomorrow's sunrise, but for tonight, she would keep her alive.
[Notice: Mission complete. Target Master has been secured.]
A transmission pinged in her network. It was one of her clones. They had successfully infiltrated Reika Rikudou's safehouse and captured Jack's Master.
With both targets secured, Stell raised her free hand.
A golden Vector Gate tore open in the air behind the pinned Servant. Without a hint of hesitation or mercy, Stell lifted the struggling child by the throat and tossed her backward into the portal, sealing her inside a specialized holding dimension.
Once the gate snapped shut, Stell raised her hand again, opening a second portal for herself.
Her schedule for the night was far from over. There was another battlefield waiting for her, one that housed a target far more intriguing than a weak Assassin.
Her clones had already made contact. It was time for the Main Unit to join the fray.
….
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