"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
A distorted scream echoed through the forest. Caster had arrived at his Master's after feeling that their connection had been broken, but when he saw Ryūnosuke lying on the ground, throat slit and without a hand, he let out a heartbreaking cry of pain as tears welled up and fell down his pale face.
"Master! My Master! Misfortune has fallen upon you! Ahhhhhhh!"
He clutched his head with both hands and fell to his knees without stopping his screaming.
"Ryūnosuke, even for you, God was unable to give you salvation! What a disgrace! Damn disgrace! How my beloved Jeanne, you abandoned him!!! You let him suffer!"
He stretched out his arms and felt his body slowly losing mana. Without a Master, he cannot stay alive in this world. Without the mana supplied by a Magus, it is impossible for him to continue in this war.
"I'll make sure to give you a dignified farewell, Ryūnosuke."
He then took out the cursed grimoire from his robe and gently caressed it. By that time, his body was disappearing shrouded in black particles, but when he pulled out the grimoire, this stopped happening.
"I will not leave until I fulfill that. I will sow tears and pain to everyone in this world. I will be far more wicked than in the past, and then God will have no choice but to drop the quill of his story and look me in the eye..."
His grimoire, which had large reserves of mana, had become his new Master....
-Southwest area of Fuyuki City-
Someone else fell to the ground with a cut on his back. There were more bodies scattered around him, where blood decorated the walls and floor with its crimson red color. He looked up at the ceiling, sighing heavily.
'When will this all be over?'
He thought. The order was still taking effect. Toru had killed close to fifty people tonight. That's too many, but he couldn't stop. After killing Ryūnosuke, he couldn't control his body anymore and went back into the city, only to keep killing more.
Yes, it was true that Toru was enjoying the killing, but deep down he wanted to stop. He didn't want to dive fully into the deep ocean of blood that surrounded him. He couldn't allow himself to go back to being the same as before. This time he wanted to change, so he could look to his own future and not get stuck in the past.
But how to stop if disobeying an order from the Command Seal is impossible? The order will not be carried out until the final requirement, to strengthen himself with the gathered mana, is fulfilled. However, with ordinary humans, that would take too long. Although...
"Uh...?"
When the last corpse fell, Toru felt that he had completed the Seal's order. What was this due to? Toru wondered and quickly found the answer.
He had supposedly just killed Ryūnosuke, a Magus who, although mediocre, had a good amount of mana. So, thinking about this, Toru deduced that by killing that guy, he took a large portion of that mana. That was the only explanation he managed to come up with.
Still, whether it was true or not, Toru could already act independently on this night.
"It was too much..."
The killing was too much, certainly. Right now the police should be starting investigations for multiple murders all over the city.
[Well done. You did it...]
He heard Kirei's voice in his mind.
"No thanks to you, I must say. I killed Caster's Master. That Servant shouldn't be alive anymore."
"Good. That's good news. Now, regarding the last order."
"I thought that would be the first thing you would say. I killed all these people. I've grown stronger. What I want to know now are your motives, Kirei."
Kirei sighed.
"My motives are simple. You will go fight Rider right now. You should already know where he is and where he's headed."
"Rider? Hm..."
He held up two fingers and closed his eyes. When all the deployed clones returned, he opened his eyes and realized that something strange was going to happen, for Rider at this moment is heading to Emiya Kiritsugu's base of operations, namely the Einzbern Castle, where Toru was about to kill Saber together with Kiritsugu.
"You will go fight him right now..."
Toru frowned because he didn't understand this irrational order.
"Going to fight now won't bring us any benefits. If Rider goes to the Einzbern castle, that means Saber will most likely be there too. I can't risk fighting two such powerful Servants whose Noble Phantasm I don't know yet."
"It's your job to find out."
"Kirei, I don't know what's going through your head, but I can't follow that order. If I go there, I'll be killed. There's no benefit for you or me."
"..."
...
...
"Kirei?"
It was Kirei's sudden silence that alerted Toru.
[The power of the Grail commands you...]
In that church, Kirei activated his last Command Seal. Even he didn't realize it, but when he was giving the order, he had a faint smile of satisfaction on his face.
Toru did not take this well at all. If he's going to fight, it won't be the same as in the City Port.
"You've got to be kidding me. kirei this isn't something I can do! Last time I survived only because everyone withdrew their Servants! If you send me I'll die!"
[Follow Rider... and take care of weakening him...]
"Kirei... you..."
"Fulfill your role in this war, Assassin."
Toru's gaze darkened after hearing that. His body began to disappear enveloped in black particles. Entering his dematerialized mode, Toru silently began to move through the shadows on his way to the Einzbern castle. His eyes glowed with anger...
'Kirei... That will be the last order you will give me?'
With the third Command Seal used, Kirei ceased to be Toru's Master. However, he was still to fulfill the last order, for a Command Seal for a Servant is equal to taking away their freedom, they cannot refuse Seals and that was what doomed Toru.
Kirei had betrayed him. Even if it never crossed Toru's mind to betray Kirei, it was he who ended up betraying him. Toru didn't realize it at the time, but he had a very wry smile on his face. He thought that maybe people think the same about him, for he never knew what Kirei was thinking because of the same expressionless face of that man next to his empty eyes.
One learns from one's mistakes, but Toru wasn't about to let this be his last mistake. Again Kirei's order was not specific enough. He could use that to his advantage. In fact, his brilliant mind had already thought of how to get out of this without dying, however, his plan is a double-edged sword.
"I should be more expressive."
To calm his nerves, he changed the subject inside his mind. If he should be more expressive, that meant he should trust his own emotions more and let his body express them as it should, like a normal person. But that was quite difficult for him. In the end, all that was left for him to do was hope for the best of his plan.
Eyes glowing with death, he sighed and moved forward without hesitation.
-Einzbern Castle-
Saber watched from one of the balconies in silence. She watched the strangeness in the darkness of the night and how that darkness reminded her of Assassin. That boy seemed to become one with the darkness, like a perfect shadow born to take lives.
She clenched her left fist with all the strength she had, but her tendon was still in bad shape. She by sheer luck survived him the first two times, but she knew very well that the next time she encountered Assassin, the situation would not be the same.
"Assassin... if you had to answer one of my questions... would you do it without lying?"
Again she went by the Assassin stereotype. If Assassin arrogance and eccentricity are part of his personality, she wanted to know if there was something more to that boy. The Assassin who treated her like a child being that they were both possibly the same age.
"But the expression on his face told me otherwise..."
Although it was a somewhat distressed expression at first, the more she looked at him, the more determined that boy's expression seemed.
"He's my enemy... Then what should I do?"
Thinking so much about the enemy as something different would only lead to her death. There was no point in continuing to dwell on the same issue, for she would get nothing in return.
Waiting for a while, she finally turned around and walked back into the castle. She walked through the corridors destroyed by Kiritsugu and Kayneth's battle, caressed the battle-scarred walls until she reached the place where she almost died.
She looked at the window where Assassin disappeared through, wrapped in the dark cloak of night and clearly recalled the scene.
"Who are you, Assassin?"
She had never felt so desperate to know someone's truth. Still, those simple words were enough to make her want to know whether or not Assassin is a selfish liar.
She followed a thorny path as king of Britain. Pretending to be a man. Carrying all the responsibility all by herself. Even if at times it seemed that the burden of being king would crush her, she used all her willpower to keep moving forward. She followed her own ideal of what it is to be a king. A king walks the path of truth and order. A king sacrifices for her nation. A king suffers for her nation. All for the nation that gave him everything that she has.
Even if sometimes her own subjects turned against him.
"I... I will save them all... I promise..."
And that was the big difference she saw between herself and Assassin. While she fought for the sake of others, Assassin seemed to fight only for himself. A demonstration of extreme selfishness that somehow made her blood boil with anger.
Assassin represented everything she hated. No more, no less. But instead of feeling more hatred, she just wanted to know.
"Saber?"
The typical scene that was funny to Saber took place again. Irisviel appeared again, interrupting the heavy feelings of this girl who called herself a king.
Saber smiled and shook her head.
"What's wrong?"
"I wanted you to help me look at some things Kiritsugu left behind."
She nodded and advanced beside the woman. Irisviel hugged Saber's arm and rested her head on Saber's shoulder.
"Thank you..."
"It's alright. I'll do whatever you ask."
-Somewhere to the north of Fuyuki-
Kiritsugu was alone in a distant apartment. Sitting on the corner of the bed, he looked at his side. He had some food that Maiya brought him. It was a hamburger. He took it out of the wrapper and took a bite.
On the wall in front of him were pictures pasted over a map. Waver Velvet, Tōsaka Tokiomi, Kotomine Kirei, Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald....
There were also Ryūnosuke and Kariya, who at that moment took this man's attention.
First Kariya for possessing Servant's Berserker. A Heroic Spirit who turns everything he touches into a Noble Phantasm.
The Second, Waver, whose Servant still possesses an unknown power.
"Assassin..."
Though his attention was also diverted towards Kirei's Servant. He suspected something was going on with him since, from what he heard from Irisviel, Assassin seemed to be disobeying Kirei's orders.
"I'll have to stay awake..."
With that he finally laid back on the bed and continued to think about what he should do.
To save the world, to save more lives... Even he sometimes thinks that the burden on his shoulders is too great to carry alone. He thinks about giving up too often. He wants to run away... he wants to get far away from here... but if he doesn't, no one else will.
It is said that men do not cry, but Kiritsugu often cries silently, for he is afraid of what will happen in the future, afraid of what might happen if he loses this war....
-Einzbern Castle-
The gallop of the bulls resounded along with the roar of lightning. At the entrance of the castle suddenly stopped that two-meter tall man with an idiot's grin next to his small and feeble Master.
Irisviel and Saber heard this. They immediately approached the castle entrance to find out what was going on.
"Rider... What are you doing here?"
Wearing her battle armor, she frowned about to draw her sword. However, Rider smiled calmly.
"Calm down, King of Knights, I'm not here to fight. Look. I brought wine for a good banquet."
"Banquet...?"
Saber said in confusion. At the same time, Irisviel looked behind Rider and met Waver. He waved at her and she shyly waved back.
With this strange gesture, the banquet of kings was about to begin.
***
And while Saber and Rider looked at each other, Toru had finally made it.
Staring at the castle in silence, he pulled out the daggers and his body materialized.
"I have no choice..."
To be continued...