There it was!!
Rin Tohsaka and Luvia screamed inwardly.
Shirou's signature skill, Unconscious Sarcasm!
He could calmly say something devastating without realizing what he had done or feeling the slightest remorse!
The two hurriedly looked toward the Dead Apostle who claimed to be one of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors.
See? They knew it!
Even the aloof, handsome vampire was wearing an expression of profound anguish!
"Ahahaha, Shirou-sama... This really isn't the time for jokes..."
Cold sweat ran down Yvette's face as she watched the vampire warily. No matter how she looked at him, he seemed impossibly powerful.
She had not known Shirou for long, so she did not fully understand his personality yet.
"A joke? No, I'm being serious."
Shirou gave her a puzzled look.
"This guy really is weak, isn't he?"
The corner of Yvette's mouth twitched.
"..."
I-I get it! Just stop provoking him!!
In truth, Shirou's instincts were not wrong.
The Dead Apostle who had appeared in the Bloodsucking Forest was named Vlov Arkhangel.
Just as he had introduced himself, he was the nineteenth of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors.
However, even the other Twenty-Seven Ancestors and their sworn enemy, the Holy Church, knew very little about him.
The reason was simple. He was far too young.
Vlov had originally been a knight serving the Nineteenth Ancestor, Zaria Offenbaum. After killing his master, he inherited his current position and Principle.
He had only been an Ancestor for two hundred years. Many people did not even know that the previous Nineteenth Ancestor was dead, and the current list of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors still bore Zaria Offenbaum's name in the nineteenth position.
That was why Shirou had judged him to be weak.
Vlov had spent far too little time as a Dead Apostle Ancestor, so his strength lacked a deep foundation.
However, his origins as a knight had granted him exceptional combat skill and instincts. Such qualities were rare among the Twenty-Seven Ancestors, most of whom belonged to the Noble or Magus types.
Anyone tempted to underestimate him needed only to consider the fate of the previous Nineteenth Ancestor.
"Your instincts are correct. My power is still weak," Vlov said calmly. "But it is more than enough to kill you."
"That's nothing but wishful thinking."
The Dead Apostle launched himself across the snow.
With physical abilities far beyond those of any human, he crossed the distance between himself and Shirou in an instant.
He gripped a strangely shaped hunting knife and brought it down with tremendous force.
Shirou casually deflected the blizzard like assault with an ordinary iron sword he had projected on the spot.
"I see. You're quite skilled. I didn't notice at first because the stench of blood was so overpowering."
"I suppose I'll have to revise my assessment of you, though it doesn't change the fact that you're weak."
Shirou spoke as casually as ever, while Vlov continued swinging his hunting knife without the slightest change in expression.
His slashes grew faster with every strike.
He unleashed a lightning fast combination, shattering Shirou's sword into glasslike fragments.
Vlov Arkhangel was a genius among geniuses.
As a Mystery, his history as a Dead Apostle was far too short.
As a warrior and hunter, however, he possessed more than five hundred years of experience.
Vlov excelled at refining his techniques in actual combat and could rapidly adapt to his opponent's fighting style.
Yet the red haired high school student, Shirou Amamiya, blocked every attack with one ordinary iron blade after another.
"You're the kind of fighter who excels in prolonged battles, aren't you?
"You have exceptional insight. You observe your opponent's movements and thoughts during battle, then use what you learn to defeat someone stronger than yourself."
"I understand completely. I'm the same kind of fighter."
Even when his weapons shattered, Shirou showed no alarm. He simply projected new ones and continued fighting.
Both sides were still testing each other.
Rin Tohsaka watched the battle with wide eyes.
She had initially considered helping Shirou, but that thought quickly vanished.
She was already struggling just to follow their movements with her eyes. There was no opening for her to interfere.
So this was Amamiya's swordsmanship, the same skill that had allowed him to fight Servants head on during the Fourth Holy Grail War...
He had clearly been holding back during his usual kendo practice with Fujimura-sensei...
"Shirou-sama! Be careful!"
Yvette suddenly shouted as her Mystic Eyes flared with light. She had sensed Vlov's Mana swelling.
In the next instant, the vampire's blizzard wreathed body erupted with a massive burst of flame.
"?"
Luvia felt the scorching heat against her skin and frowned.
Was his power fire rather than ice?
No, it would be more accurate to say that he controlled temperature.
Vlov's hunting knife had already become a sword of flame, descending directly toward the red haired boy.
Shirou projected two long swords and blocked the attack.
However, he had only stopped the blade itself. He could not prevent the flames from spreading.
Orange fire erupted beneath Shirou's feet and swallowed him whole.
"Shirou!!!"
Alarm filled the girls' faces.
Their fear lasted only an instant.
Shirou swung his projected Blades of Chaos and created a whirlwind. It scattered the flames and sent Vlov flying more than ten meters away.
"Huh... What?!"
This time, the girls were genuinely stunned.
The centuries old vampire dropped to one knee, and the hand gripping his hunting knife trembled uncontrollably.
"That won't do. Something like that could never kill me. Show me what you're really capable of."
Shirou brushed the sparks from his clothes.
Compared to the Lancer's Mana Burst (Fire) he had experienced during the Great Holy Grail War, Vlov's flames were hardly worth mentioning.
That said, Shirou was now only flesh and blood.
He no longer possessed Arthur's Spirit Origin and could not access the King's Treasury.
Naturally, he also lacked the body and core of Dragonkind.
Even so, one burning human heart was more than enough to overpower the vampire before him.
He hurled the Blades of Chaos in his right hand.
The curved blade did not pierce Vlov's chest. Instead, it wrapped around his right arm.
The chain connected Vlov to Shirou, who gave it a violent pull.
Then he swung the vampire around like a helicopter.
Vlov's body spun with the chain, accelerating faster and faster before Shirou slammed him into the snow.
A torrent of white snow erupted into the sky.
Afterward, the Bloodsucking Forest gradually fell silent.
"..."
The girls stared in disbelief.
The battle had been so one sided that they had not even had time to react.
Less than five minutes had passed between the vampire introducing himself as one of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors and the battle's temporary conclusion.
Shirou had displayed overwhelming strength and crushed Vlov without mercy.
It was impossible to imagine such power belonging to a sixteen year old boy.
He had already surpassed the limits of modern humanity. No, even warriors from the Age of Myths could not have subdued a Dead Apostle Ancestor so effortlessly.
Only one word could describe him.
Abnormal.
Shirou's power defied common sense.
Even an Ancestor among the Dead Apostles, a deadly poison that corroded the Human Order itself, seemed ordinary beside him.
After witnessing that, no one could question Shirou for smiling and declaring one of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors weak.
"No, he really is weak. The Ancestors I know should be far more..."
A sudden gust swept through the forest.
Shirou frowned.
Something had arrived.
Something completely different from before.
"Run!"
Shirou rushed toward the girls, but he was one step too late.
The freezing wind sweeping through the forest became a Phenomenon in itself.
The forest rapidly lost all its heat.
Without the slightest delay, the ground that had retained at least some trace of its original form moments earlier became a glacier.
The remains of the Child of Einnashe were forcibly transformed in an instant, becoming part of the frozen world.
It was less like a sudden drop in temperature and more like the surface environment itself had been rewritten.
Just like that, the entire world was dyed white.
"Tohsaka!"
"Luvia?"
"Yvette-san!"
Shirou looked around, but an endless expanse of white obscured his vision.
The girls had been blown away by the lingering force of the freezing wind, cutting them off from Shirou.
The violent blizzard gouged chunks from the earth as if it were pudding and hurled them into the sky, transforming the area into an otherworldly landscape.
At the same time, Vlov slowly rose from the snow.
"The world... is so cold..."
The knight who had remained composed until moments ago was now mentally unstable.
Vlov fixed his dark crimson eyes on Shirou.
Shirou had no choice but to abandon his search for the others for the moment and focus on the enemy before him.
The temperature in the forest had already fallen to minus one hundred degrees Celsius.
Shirou was protected by the Einzbern cold-resistant Mystic Code, but Tohsaka and the others might not survive ten minutes in these conditions.
"You bastard..."
Shirou clenched his teeth.
The boundless glacier before him was Vlov's true power, as well as the mark of his status as the Nineteenth Ancestor.
Idea Blood. The proof of an Ancestor and the power to reshape the planet.
Long ago, there had been a strange woman who hated and feared humanity so much that she fled across the open sea and built herself a castle.
She was one of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors, Zaria Offenbaum.
She possessed a Principle more than a thousand years old. She had no descendants and merely ruled over her own territory.
Vlov had once been her knight.
Two hundred years ago, Vlov was led astray by an evil Magus. Seeking to dispel the cold that afflicted both his body and mind, he killed his master and stole her power.
With that power forcibly usurped from his predecessor, even a five-hundred-year-old vampire had enough strength to claim a seat among the Ancestors.
In exchange, Vlov lost all body heat, while his mind and consciousness became extremely unstable.
Only when he bathed in warm human blood could he find a fleeting moment of peace.
"..."
Dozens of sharpened pillars of ice appeared behind Vlov, while a massive lance more than six meters long formed in his hand.
The young Vampire Ancestor stared blankly at Shirou and spoke in a slow voice.
"Come. Let us begin the second round."
"That will be enough, Mr. Vlov."
A calm, intellectual voice pierced the blizzard.
A tall figure in a black overcoat stood amid the white world, seeming to stain his surroundings with darkness.
He possessed the same inhuman crimson eyes as Vlov, and a black raven was perched on his shoulder.
The instant their gazes met, Shirou felt an immense pressure descend upon him.
It was not enough to wrest control of his body away, but it made his movements feel restricted and deeply uncomfortable.
Enchanting Mystic Eyes based on the same Principle as Alice's, but several ranks more powerful... Were they Gold-class Mystic Eyes?
Shirou recalled what he had heard aboard the train. Gold-class Mystic Eyes were not uncommon among high-ranking Dead Apostles.
This guy... was much stronger than Vlov...!
The moment Shirou saw the Dead Apostle in the black coat, he was reminded of an old acquaintance from the Fairy Kingdom.
Wryneck, leader of the Fang Clan and the strongest warrior in the Fairy Kingdom.
The man in black was tall and powerfully built, with a stern face, but Shirou could not sense the same imposing air of a seasoned warrior that Wryneck had possessed.
Even so, he felt that the two resembled each other in some way.
That was it... the smell of a beast...!
Shirou sniffed the air.
Was this a by-product of studying cooking? Even he was impressed that his sense of smell still worked normally at minus one hundred degrees.
"Nrvnqsr Chaos... do not interfere."
Vlov bared his fangs in displeasure and glared at the fellow Dead Apostle who had entered his territory.
The Dead Apostle known as Nrvnqsr Chaos leisurely closed the distance between himself and Shirou before speaking.
"For the sake of my friend Roa, I granted you this precious opportunity to have the first taste…"
"Yet you failed to dispose of him. From beginning to end, you have done nothing but let him toy with you."
"The battle has only just begun... I was about to kill him."
"Battle? This is no battle. It is a hunt. That should have been obvious from the beginning."
Nrvnqsr Chaos spoke with disdain.
"Besides, you are incapable of killing him."
"Even if you invoke your Principle, you cannot hope to defeat him."
"Let us follow White Wing's wishes and complete this joint hunt together."
"Hey, you've been ignoring me this whole time, old man."
Shirou narrowed his eyes in irritation.
"My apologies."
The black-clad Dead Apostle turned toward the red-haired boy.
"In any case, allow me to introduce myself first."
"Like Mr. Vlov over there, I am one of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors. That should make matters easier to understand."
"I am Nrvnqsr Chaos, the Tenth of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors."
"Though it was a very long time ago, I originally came from the Wandering Sea."
Just as Shirou had suspected, the man before him was a Dead Apostle who had once been a Magus.
He could sense intelligence within him. Or rather, an absolute rationality that maintained his sense of self despite being fused with chaotic madness.
This man must have been an extraordinary Magus while he was alive. He might even have been a monster like Ziz, someone who had survived from before the Common Era until the present day.
"What's going on? Why would someone as important as one of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors show up in a place like this?"
"As I said, this is a reckless hunting festival. My brethren elevated me to the position of carrying out this blood sacrifice. Nothing more."
"So I'm the prey in this festival?"
Shirou asked without the slightest fear.
"I see... You truly have not realized it even now."
Nrvnqsr Chaos looked faintly incredulous.
"But what exactly is going on here?
"It certainly appears to be an extraordinarily sophisticated spell, one that even my mind cannot decipher."
"To accomplish something on this scale could almost be called deceiving the world itself."
"It would be impossible without a genius who had surpassed the limits of human intellect."
"At least in the world as I understand it, no Magus throughout history has ever accomplished such a feat."
"...?"
Shirou tilted his head.
What in the world was this man talking about?
Perhaps he was not actually that intelligent, just a madman who happened to appear normal.
Nrvnqsr Chaos continued staring at Shirou Amamiya with his emotionless crimson eyes.
"...How difficult to comprehend. Could the Magus who modified you be someone who no longer exists in this world?"
"Even if one searched the entire Wandering Sea, I doubt a Magus capable of such a feat could be found."
"Ordinarily, implanting those eyes into your body should have caused your mind to collapse immediately."
"Yet he minimized the side effects of the Rainbow rank by shifting their focal point... Truly ingenious in both concept and execution."
"Given the opportunity, I would very much like to meet him."
Nrvnqsr Chaos had been talking to himself for some time, discussing things Shirou could not understand.
Modified? Someone modified me?
And what did he mean by Rainbow-class Mystic Eyes? Did Shirou possess the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception as well?
...What was this man talking about?
The aura surrounding the black-clad Dead Apostle changed.
"In any case, your days of possessing those eyes in complete ignorance end here."
Nrvnqsr Chaos met Shirou's twilight-colored gaze and spoke calmly.
"I shall take the Crimson Moon Brunestud Mystic Eyes for myself."