Slash.
A piercing sound cut through the quiet night.
In the pitch-black forest, Volumen Hydrargyrum condensed into blades again—silver knives surging toward Ritsuka in layered waves, each assault faster and sharper than the last.
Ritsuka tightened his grip on the dagger, tracking every silver trajectory in the dark. Then, at the final moment—just as the blades swallowed his space—he intercepted them in his own way.
Bang! Bang!
A few dull gunshots rang out. Assisted by insect familiars, Ritsuka's revolver completed a rapid reload, and several more rounds erupted from the cylinder.
Guided by the golden beetles, the bullets curved through the air in arcs of gold—striking the mercury's points of death.
The instant the bullets touched, the seemingly indestructible Volumen Hydrargyrum couldn't endure the force. It ruptured midair, and its hardened shell shattered with a heavy crack.
"So it really is your eyes!" Kayneth's face twisted as the mercury scattered. "Those Mystic Eyes can kill magecraft itself?!"
The moment he watched his Volumen Hydrargyrum lose control—watched it "die" again—Kayneth's expression turned ugly.
But he had his answer now.
The problem was Ritsuka's Mystic Eyes.
And what still made his skin crawl was the eyes themselves.
The higher the rank of Mystic Eyes, the more terrifying the great magecraft embedded within them—
So just what rank were these pale-blue eyes that could kill phenomena?
Jewel?
Or something above that…
Rainbow?
"…I'm losing my mind," Kayneth hissed.
The instant "Rainbow" entered his thoughts, he crushed the idea as madness. Rainbow-class Mystic Eyes belonged to myth, to gods. In this era, even gold-class eyes were nearly extinct. If he—Lord Kayneth—told anyone he'd seen Rainbow Mystic Eyes, he would be labeled insane.
And yet…
What was this ability that violated the rules of the entire magecraft world?
Ritsuka didn't care what Kayneth was thinking.
After destroying the attack, he raised his head and looked straight at Kayneth with those icy eyes. In the black forest, his deep-blue pupils shone with a color that made the heart recoil.
Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.
Now opened to full power.
Lines and points—everything that made up the world—had entered his vision.
Ritsuka intended to use them to settle things with the Clock Tower's prodigy.
They stared each other down, and in each other's gaze, both men recognized the same thing:
unwavering intent.
Then—
"Boil—my blood!"
"—Magic bullets. Load."
New attacks erupted at the same time.
Mystic Code and Mystic Eyes bloomed again in the dark.
…
Elsewhere, along the route to the forest, Iskandar remained entangled with Saber and Gilles de Rais—unable to reach his ally in time due to Bedivere's earlier obstruction.
But as the forest continued to thunder with explosions, all three fighters paused almost in unison.
"That mana… it's Professor Kayneth's," Waver said, voice tight.
"So the lemon-head is fighting," Iskandar replied. "Sounds nasty."
He stared toward the forest, eyes deep and unreadable.
This was not unexpected.
The moment Saber's side had recovered and returned, Iskandar had already suspected Diarmuid had likely been eliminated—and that Kayneth's plan had gone wrong.
Their quick-kill operation was dead.
They had lost Lancer and only managed to eliminate Bedivere.
Saber was still on the board.
And Kayneth was now in danger.
Even Iskandar rubbed his temple and let out a heavy breath.
"A failed campaign," he rumbled.
Yet his tone held no true despair. His presence remained grand, his spirit unbroken.
Waver looked toward Kayneth's direction, then back at Iskandar and the two opposing Servants. Conflict was written plainly across his face.
His relationship with Kayneth had been bitter. Commoner and aristocrat. Mediocrity and genius. They had never been able to accept each other.
And yet, the moment Waver realized his teacher might truly die tonight, his heart refused to stay still.
He had sworn he would prove himself.
He had just found his wish.
He had just vowed—together with Iskandar—to defeat Kayneth and everyone else.
And now…
Iskandar made a quick decision.
"How about we stop here for tonight?" he proposed to the other two. "We should each go check on our Masters. Don't forget—this war has more participants than just us. Make too much noise and someone will pick the bones."
Saber, still burning with anger at the night's ambush, wanted to refuse.
They had nearly forced him to retreat. Now, the moment the advantage returned, they wanted peace?
There was no such bargain.
"I agree," Gilles said calmly.
His objective wasn't to defeat the Conqueror King. It was to ensure Saber did not fall—and to secure cooperation. There was no need to grind each other down here.
And he was worried about Ritsuka's safety.
Iskandar was right: after a commotion like this, other Servants would be converging already. If they didn't move to protect their Masters, they could all be wiped out.
"Calm yourself, King Arthur," Gilles urged, holding Saber back. "This isn't the time for a final battle. A Servant's first duty is the Master's safety."
"Berserker…" Saber blinked.
He wanted to argue—then met Gilles's eyes and forcibly cooled his blood.
Finally, Saber lowered his sword.
"I understand."
Too many had already died tonight.
No more.
"Excellent," Iskandar said, approving. "A marshal of France with a wide view. I respect that."
He didn't say it aloud, but he had his own calculation.
If those two insisted on fighting him here, it would still be favorable for Iskandar.
Kayneth was only an ally—not his Master.
Waver was here, beside him. But the other two Masters?
If this dragged on until their Masters were killed by a third party, Iskandar would still end up advantaged.
He didn't choose the board.
He let enemies choose for him.
That was the Conqueror King's strategy.
…
Back in the forest—
Mercury, bullets, insects, gemstones—every kind of attack exploded across the battlefield.
Trees thick as pillars were snapped or cleaved in half by the shockwaves.
Ritsuka cut down a wave of blades with his dagger, leapt from a branch, and fired another string of enchanted rounds.
Kayneth snorted and raised a mercury shield, then shaped two thin whip-blades and swept them toward Ritsuka again.
And as the scale of their duel continued to expand—
Not only did Irisviel watch from afar in stunned disbelief, even Cu Chulainn felt like applauding.
It wasn't the kind of raw Noble Phantasm devastation seen in Saber versus Diarmuid—but for Masters, this was top-tier violence.
The "lemon-head" controlling mercury was impressive enough that, even in Cu Chulainn's era, he could have served as a royal court magus.
And the "final Master of humanity" they'd been sent to find?
Cu Chulainn liked what he saw.
Magecraft, close-quarters skill, combat sense—solid. Even though his raw output was weaker, he'd taken minimal damage across an extended exchange, using those eyes to keep Kayneth trapped in his tempo.
That alone deserved respect.
And those eyes…
Blue Mystic Eyes, apparently capable of killing things—objects, magecraft, anything.
Cu Chulainn felt like he'd heard of something like that.
Somewhere.
Long ago.
Then his eyes widened.
He remembered.
Blue eyes that could kill all things—
Wasn't that what his father, the sun god, had once told him about?
The dread eye of Balor, the death-god of Celtic myth—destroyed by the strike that ended his reign.
So someone in this era had awakened something like that?
Cu Chulainn's interest in Ritsuka deepened.
That skill. That combat sense.
And Mystic Eyes of Death.
This "final Master" was far more interesting than expected—no wonder that one-eyed Nordic old man had insisted Cu Chulainn help them.
Even if the situation was desperate…
With a hand like this on the table, perhaps there truly was a sliver of hope.
But while Cu Chulainn was thinking—
another red presence in the forest could not hold back anymore.
He had been shocked by how much destruction two Masters could cause.
But shock didn't change his mission.
Kayneth was marked to die.
The black-haired boy was a priority target.
And the white-haired woman—
The moment his eyes fell on Irisviel, something strange stirred inside him.
Familiar. Warm.
And yet he couldn't name it.
Still, he didn't hesitate.
Irisviel was also one of the assassination targets assigned by the world.
If so, he had to eliminate her.
Everything he did was for the sake of protecting this world.
He made his decision.
From the darkness, the red-haired man drew twin guns formed from prana.
With Diarmuid dead, the curse of the yellow rose had vanished. His hands had returned to normal.
He could use his Noble Phantasms again.
And this time, he would not be careless.
He would open with a killing strike—and send these two strange Masters off the board.
As Kayneth and Ritsuka continued their deadly exchange—
the red figure stepped out of the forest's blackness, gaze fixed on both men. His hand rose.
"Activate Noble Phantasm—"
"Time Alter—Triangle Accel—Innate Time Control: Triple Speed."
"Die quietly in the gaps between time. For the world's protection, these sacrifices are necessary—Khronos Rose."
The low chant echoed through the night.
Because the duel had been so intense, neither Kayneth nor Ritsuka noticed immediately.
"What—?!" Both of them felt it at nearly the same moment.
A strange mana approached.
Smoke-like distortions and afterimages bloomed in their vision, and with them came a crushing sense of danger.
"Damn it!"
Both men stopped fighting instantly.
A Servant had entered the field—and had opened a Noble Phantasm on them.
Their first instinct was the same:
evade.
Ritsuka opened his eyes wider, following the mana source. In the blur of afterimages, he saw countless points and lines of death—proof that the attacker was already in motion, moving at a speed that made prediction meaningless.
Cursing, Ritsuka sprinted toward Irisviel, preparing to activate a Mystic Code Morgan had provided specifically to counter Assassin ambushes.
Kayneth, equally decisive, wrapped himself in Volumen Hydrargyrum, compressing it tightly around his body to block the incoming strike.
But just as the red man was about to reach Ritsuka—
a blue figure dropped from above.
"Hey, red guy. You picked the wrong target," Cu Chulainn drawled. "I can't let you lay a finger on this kid."
He landed squarely in front of Ritsuka, cutting in at the exact moment Ritsuka was about to activate his tool.
Cu Chulainn flicked a finger through the air.
A line of dark-purple rune symbols ignited, and a blazing wall of fire erupted in the forest—blocking the assassination cleanly.
"Caster?!" The red-haired man's eyes widened within the accelerated flow of time.
He clearly hadn't expected Cu Chulainn to be here.
But the moment he saw Caster guarding Ritsuka behind a flame barrier, he understood: the strike on Ritsuka had failed.
He redirected instantly.
His target became Kayneth.
The fire lit the forest—and everyone's eyes.
With time acceleration, the red-haired man moved like a phantom. In a heartbeat, he was beside Kayneth.
He hammered the mercury defense with a relentless barrage, forcing a breach through sheer destructive power.
And once he broke through, he didn't repeat the kind of "maybe it fails" close-range strike he'd used last time.
He drew his real finisher.
Another Noble Phantasm.
For a Servant to use a Noble Phantasm on a human magus was pure oppression—an execution dressed as combat.
But for Emiya Assassin, murder was not pleasure.
It was a mission.
A necessary act to protect the world.
So when he had a chance to guarantee a kill, he gave the enemy no room to breathe.
"Thompson Contender—Origin Bullets: Rapid Fire."
With a turn of his palm, a new firearm appeared.
Special rounds—carrying the power of time on their surface and the essence of a man's origin at their core—shot forth as if destined, threading through the gap in Volumen Hydrargyrum and flying straight toward Kayneth's body.
"Damn it!"
Kayneth's nerves screamed. Volumen Hydrargyrum reacted faster than his own body—compressing, wrapping him like armor, trying to take the hit.
"Protect—my blood."
The mercury armor yanked him backward at high speed. Other mercury masses shaped into round shields, desperate to block the incoming kill.
But under the boost of time manipulation, the bullets were far faster than any "normal" projectile—nothing like the rounds Ritsuka had fired earlier.
Just before the silver shields could fully form, the special bullets crossed the barrier—slipping through the seams of time—and surged into Kayneth.
"Damn it… I can't dodge—!"
Kayneth's eyes widened. He tried to compress more mercury around himself—
too late.
At that same moment, several other figures arrived at the battlefield, drawn by the chaos.
The forest was already a wreck.
Waver saw Kayneth forced into the brink—and raised his hand without hesitation.
"Rider—accelerate!!"
A flash of red light.
A Command Spell.
Waver didn't need to explain. Iskandar understood the will behind that trembling voice.
No matter what—save him.
Even if Kayneth had denied him, humiliated him—
save him.
Because he was still his teacher.
"Good lad," Iskandar roared. "That's what a real man does!"
He drew his sword, gathered lightning, and brought it down on Emiya Assassin.
Iskandar's Gordius Wheel had been destroyed by Bedivere, so his speed suffered—but even without it, the Conqueror King's half-divine might was more than enough to drive off an assassin.
Boom!!
Thunder fell like an aurora made of violence, smashing the ground where Emiya Assassin stood. The power was too great to contest head-on; Assassin was forced to retreat, unable to continue the pursuit.
"I… I lived."
Kayneth exhaled, believing he'd survived. His defense had held, and he'd "only" taken a shot through the abdomen—serious, but not fatal.
His eyes sharpened with renewed certainty.
The situation had escaped his control, yes—but as long as he was alive, as long as he could stabilize his injuries, there was still—
"No," Emiya Assassin interrupted coldly, looking at him as if at a corpse.
"Your life has already withered."
"Origin Bullet."
"What…?"
Confusion flickered across Kayneth's face.
And then—
he spat a mouthful of blood.
The result was decided.
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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