Rumble—!!
In the corridor of the Einzbern castle, the collision of gunpowder and magecraft tore the silence to pieces.
A battle no one could have predicted—an ambush born from pure encounter—had erupted here.
"I don't know where you crawled out from," Kayneth snarled, "but if you dare block me, then you can die with her!"
He redirected his Volumen Hydrargyrum at Ritsuka without hesitation, marking him as a target to be erased along with Irisviel.
"No," Ritsuka said calmly, eyes sharpening. "The one who should retire here is you."
"And—I saw all of it."
Mercury scythes screamed toward him.
Ritsuka snapped his finger down on the trigger.
Bang—bang—bang!!
Special rounds ripped through the air like streaks of silver.
They pierced Kayneth's mercury constructs mid-flight and struck the "points of death" dead-on.
Crack! Crack!
In the next instant, the mercurial blades disintegrated into light before they could even activate.
"What—what is this?!" Kayneth's pupils tightened. His face—already grim—froze solid.
He had lived long enough to think he'd seen everything.
He had never heard of this.
Never witnessed anything so utterly absurd.
Bullets that directly dismantled magecraft—and even Mystic Codes?
How was that remotely possible?
Only Diarmuid's spear—the Gáe Dearg, the crimson anti-magecraft Noble Phantasm—should have been capable of such a thing.
So what was this boy doing?
And as a Lord, Kayneth's eye could catch the details: his spell wasn't being "dispelled" or "countered."
It was being erased in a stranger way—interrupted before the magical reaction could fully trigger.
No… it was as if something had killed it.
As if the mercury itself—and the mana within—had been murdered by an unknown force.
Killed?
Magecraft… killed?
The moment that idea formed, Kayneth's body began to tremble, and a cold absurdity rose in his gut.
Mana was life refined into power.
Magecraft was phenomenon born from mana—mystery supported by the primal force that surged from life itself.
That was the bedrock of the hidden world. The principle Kayneth had built his entire identity upon.
He could accept Ritsuka being more skilled and "dispelling" a spell.
But "killing magecraft"?
That was the same as denying magecraft's very definition.
And yet—reality was slapping it into his face.
"This is insane…"
There was no time to unravel it.
Kayneth forced himself backward, because he felt another ominous surge of mana rushing in.
He didn't have time to understand what he'd just witnessed.
Sensing danger, he immediately thickened Volumen Hydrargyrum into a silver barrier around himself.
And the next moment proved his instinct correct.
Because as Ritsuka fired at him, dozens of crimson explosion-insects crawled out from cracks in the walls.
They dove at Kayneth like a flood and detonated—just before the mercury shield could fully stabilize.
Boom!!
The corridor shook with a deafening blast, powerful enough to crater the floor and make the centuries-old castle tremble.
But Kayneth's defense, this time, came just in time.
The explosion did not harm him.
And the bullets—already something he feared—were intercepted by fresh mercury blades he threw up to block them.
In a blink, their first clash of the night ended.
As the smoke thinned, the corridor was a ruin.
Kayneth rose from the crater on a platform of mercury, looking thoroughly disheveled.
His brows knotted, veins bulging at his temple, he stared at the black-haired boy who had ruined his plan—his expression unreadable.
Behind Ritsuka, Irisviel—who had been seconds from death—trembled.
She stared at his back, and the hope reignited in her shattered heart.
Her voice shook. "Who… are you?"
"I'm the Matou family's Master this time—Fujimaru Ritsuka," he answered simply. "Like you, I'm one of the Three Families' entrants. For now, don't worry—I'm here to protect you. At least for the moment, we are not enemies, Lady Irisviel."
He didn't look back. His eyes stayed on Kayneth.
"We'll talk later. Stay behind me."
"The fighting here—leave it to me."
Ritsuka had already confirmed two things in that brief exchange.
First: Kayneth and Waver were indeed working together, targeting the Saber faction.
Second: Irisviel's situation matched what he'd suspected—this timeline truly did not contain Kiritsugu Emiya.
Otherwise, the three Command Spells on her hand would make no sense. And if things had reached this point, even Kiritsugu couldn't possibly keep "waiting"—he wasn't a saint with infinite patience.
So this was the perfect moment.
Ritsuka could save her, earn a debt, and propose cooperation—exactly what he came for.
Kayneth, whose plans had been disrupted yet again, glared at Ritsuka and crushed down his fury until it became a cold, lordly voice.
"Matou…? So you're the so-called new heir of the Matou family."
Kayneth had gathered intelligence before the war. He knew there was someone named Matou Ritsuka—likely the future successor.
What confused him was why this boy was here instead of Matou Kariya.
He'd started by investigating the familiar names from memory, only to discover Kariya wasn't participating at all—he was just an ordinary salaryman in Misaki City.
That divergence, more than anything, convinced Kayneth that fate wasn't fixed—and that he could surpass it.
"I already told you," Ritsuka said, utterly straight-faced. "My name is Fujimaru Ritsuka. I'm eighteen. I live on the outskirts of Fuyuki City. I'm a magus."
"I don't smoke. I don't drink. I go to bed early and wake up early. Aside from possibly having some issues mentally, even the doctor says I'm perfectly healthy."
"Oh—and I've heard a lot about Director Kayneth. I'm about the right age for university now, so… could you send me an acceptance letter to the Clock Tower? I really want to go to college."
He delivered the pitch with a calm expression, as though the life-and-death clash moments ago had been a joke.
But Kayneth wasn't blind.
He could see exactly what Ritsuka was doing: buying time, waiting for Servant reinforcements.
"Is that so. You want to enter the Clock Tower?" Kayneth's voice sharpened. "Then you're welcome."
"But before that—let me test your talent personally."
No extra words.
Kayneth knew he couldn't spare even a minute.
He raised both hands. The mercury at his feet boiled into motion, swelling with lethal mana.
"Sleep!"
Volumen Hydrargyrum snapped into several razor-edged whips and surged toward Ritsuka and Irisviel in a murderous spiral.
The air screamed.
Walls were carved open with deep gouges as the whips lashed past, making the entire corridor feel like it was vibrating.
Even Ritsuka narrowed his eyes.
Kayneth had panicked.
He was starting with his trump card, willing to burn vast mana to end it fast.
And it was true: as a Clock Tower Lord wielding a supreme Mystic Code, Kayneth's magecraft was unquestionably master-tier. If Servants were removed from the equation, no Master in this war could likely beat him one-on-one in a straight magus duel.
Unfortunately for Kayneth, that was only true in a "normal" contest of magecraft.
Real fights didn't end on paper statistics.
So Ritsuka did not try to show off.
He didn't try to "kill" the spell head-on.
He did something else.
"Don't just stand there. We're retreating."
"Huh—?"
Without hesitation, Ritsuka turned and grabbed Irisviel's hand, yanking her into a sprint.
The decision stunned both Kayneth and Irisviel. Neither had expected the boy who had just appeared with such force to abandon the exchange instantly.
But the reasoning was simple.
Kayneth was terrifying. Ritsuka might not lose in a fight to the death—but there was no reason to take that gamble.
This corridor was too narrow; it limited Ritsuka's mobility.
And Volumen Hydrargyrum, in tight terrain, was practically a god of crowd control.
Only an idiot would choose to duel a battlefield-controller in a confined hallway.
More importantly, their goals weren't equal.
Kayneth needed to kill Irisviel before Saber returned.
Ritsuka needed to keep her alive.
So he ran—taking her with him.
Magecraft battles weren't about posturing.
If you don't need to fight, you don't fight.
You preserve strength. You secure safety.
As he moved, Ritsuka flicked his hand. Several smoke-insects burst from his sleeve, slamming into the oncoming mercury whips and vomiting thick black fog that instantly swallowed Kayneth's vision.
"Damn it! Don't you dare run!" Kayneth's roar blasted from behind the smoke.
But Ritsuka was already dragging Irisviel down the corridor at full speed, their figures vanishing at the bend where shadow and fog met.
Kayneth gave chase without hesitation.
This was a straight corridor. Only one road.
They couldn't escape.
With that certainty, he pursued—determined to catch them at the dead end and annihilate both Masters in one stroke.
But when he finally reached the corridor's end—
his pupils contracted again.
Because the "dead end" wasn't there.
The supposedly unbreakable wall had been carved out like tofu—cut cleanly from every side into a massive opening, as though some unseen force had "killed" the stone itself.
And Ritsuka—arms around Irisviel—had already leapt through the gap into the night below.
"Damn you…!"
Looking down, Kayneth caught sight of Irisviel's pure-white silhouette in the darkness.
He glanced at the "murdered" wall, then remembered his own magecraft being dismantled earlier.
He understood at once: Fujimaru Ritsuka possessed an abnormal power that defied comprehension.
"Don't think you're getting away!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Kayneth jumped after them.
Mercury surged around him as Volumen Hydrargyrum unfolded into a frantic pursuit.
There was only one thought in his mind:
He had to end those two Masters—immediately.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 120)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 95)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 85)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter85)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter81)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter60)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter66)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 40
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 50
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