“Bang—crack!”
A dull sound of fracturing bone shattered the silence in the middle of the park.
Bluebeard, Gilles de Rais, could never have imagined in his wildest dreams that an ordinary human who hadn’t even chanted a spell would dare rush right into his face and land such a devastating blow!
Summoned under the Caster class, his Agility and Endurance were at the absolute bottom among all classes.
Yoru Hayashi’s punch was reinforced by sixty high-quality Magic Circuits, stacked on top of the explosive power of Bajiquan.
Bluebeard’s face—with its bulged, dead-frog eyes—caved in instantly.
The bridge of his nose shattered on impact.
The man flew backward like a broken kite for over ten meters, smashing through a wooden park bench with a loud crash before rolling into the bushes.
“That’s it?
This is supposed to be a Heroic Spirit?”
Yoru Hayashi pulled back his fist and flicked off the blood on his knuckles, his face full of disdain.
“I haven’t even finished warming up.”
“Cough…
cough, cough…”
A fit of heavy coughing came from the bushes.
Bluebeard crawled out with great difficulty, his purple cloak covered in mud and his face smeared with blood.
Although injured, he was a Heroic Spirit after all; a blow of this level would heal quickly.
“Vulgar…
utterly vulgar!”
Bluebeard tremblingly raised the bizarre grimoire bound in human skin—Prelati’s Spellbook.
His copper-bell-sized eyes were filled with insane bloodlust.
“You know nothing of the art of terror!
Since you are so impatient, I shall let you witness the extreme despair of the abyss!”
Rustle!
The grimoire flipped open without wind, pages turning wildly.
A surge of black mud mixing the stench of seawater and rotting sewage gushed out from the pages, spreading rapidly across the park’s lawn.
“Gurgle…
squelch squelch…”
Accompanied by the squelching sound of slime rubbing together, over a dozen slick Horrors covered in tentacles and countless compound eyes crawled out of the black mud.
Waving tentacles lined with suckers and dripping foul-smelling drool, they surrounded Yoru Hayashi.
“Whoa!
Danna, those tentacles are so cool!
This is literally the best artwork in the world!”
Just then, a young man wearing an orange jacket with dyed yellow hair walked out from the woods behind the park.
Looking at the repulsive Horrors, far from feeling afraid, his eyes lit up, as excited as a child seeing a new toy.
This person was none other than the most infamous serial killer of the Fourth Holy Grail War—Ryuunosuke Uryuu.
Yoru Hayashi glanced at Bluebeard, then at Ryuunosuke Uryuu, feeling his stomach churn violently.
“If you two and your taste in art were thrown into an asylum, the head doctor would write a resignation letter overnight.”
Yoru Hayashi sighed, just about to step up and clear out both pieces of eyesore trash together.
Suddenly, a deeply suppressed roar echoed from the treetop above.
“Filthy maggots…
how dare you use such foul excrement to pollute My eyes and My garden?!”
Gilgamesh, who had been watching the show from a tree branch, had turned pale green with disgust.
He was a massive mysophobe, and as the King of Heroes possessing the absolute highest aesthetic standards, the Horrors summoned by Bluebeard were nothing short of a double visual and olfactory assault on his soul!
“I cannot tolerate this for even a single second!
Burn to ashes!”
Buzz—!
Dozens of brilliant golden lights instantly illuminated the night sky.
Gate of Babylon opened at full blast, but this time, what shot forth were not ordinary swords, but over a dozen spears and staves burning with fierce flames and radiating explosive magical energy!
“Holy shit!
Goldie, calm down!
I’m still down here!
Don’t use AOE!”
But it was too late.
Severely disgusted, Gilgamesh didn’t care about collateral damage at all.
Dozens of explosive Noble Phantasms rained down on the park lawn like a violent storm.
“Rumble—!!!”
A deafening explosion blasted straight into the sky!
Soaring pillars of fire instantly swallowed the writhing Horrors, along with the lawn, the wooden benches, and Yoru Hayashi, who hadn’t had time to run.
Everything was incinerated by the indiscriminate carpet bombing.
…
[Number of Failures: 19] [Cause of Death: Vaporized by the indiscriminate AOE fire of your temporary employee, ‘Goldie.’] [System Evaluation: So this is what ‘team-killing’ looks like?
When picking muscle, you clearly failed to account for his temper and clean-freak nature.
Remember to buy personal accident insurance next time.] [Death Settlement Rewards Issued: Fire Resistance significantly increased!
Mana Burst (Minor)!
Acquired Passive Skill: [Master of Positioning] (In area-of-effect attacks, your reaction speed and dodge rate are temporarily increased by 20%)]!
In the pure white space, the moment Yoru Hayashi opened his eyes, he blurted out a curse.
“Damn you, Gilgamesh!
Don’t you know how to avoid friendly fire in team fights?!
Just wait till I get back out there, I’m docking your pay!”
With a flash of white light, Yoru Hayashi returned to the real world.
The park was still engulfed in roaring flames, the air thick with the smell of charred seafood.
Those disgusting Horrors had been blasted into pile after pile of black charcoal, leaving nothing behind.
Because Bluebeard was standing at the edge of the blast radius, although he was blown away by the shockwave, he managed to escape with his life.
As for Ryuunosuke Uryuu, his luck was shockingly good.
When the explosion went off, a flying stone slab happened to block the fatal blow, leaving him with only a deep gash on his forehead from a flying pebble.
“Blood…
this warm sensation…
ah, what a beautiful red!
This is the color of life, this is so COOL!”
Ryuunosuke Uryuu wiped the blood off his forehead, looking at the crimson on his fingertips, and actually burst into a morbid, maniacal laugh.
“Cool my ass!”
A voice laced with fury suddenly rang out from the smoke and dust.
Before Ryuunosuke could react, he saw a young man in a short-sleeved shirt—who clearly should have been reduced to ashes just now—cut through the thick smoke like a ghost and appear right in front of him!
“You…
how are you still alive?!” Ryuunosuke’s eyes widened in shock.
“Your daddy here is hard to kill!”
Yoru Hayashi couldn’t be bothered to waste words with a psychopath like him.
Dealing with proper mages might require strategy, but against a mortal freak who only knew how to murder children, physical exorcism was the ultimate form of judgment.
Yoru Hayashi closed the distance with a swift slide, grabbed Ryuunosuke’s greasy yellow hair with his left hand, and slammed his head downward!
At the same time, he raised his right knee high, packing the terrifying weight of a mana burst, and slammed it viciously into the bridge of Ryuunosuke’s nose!
Crack!
Ryuunosuke’s facial bones caved in instantly, spraying a mixture of nosebleed and broken teeth.
“This knee is for the kids you kidnapped!”
Before Ryuunosuke could collapse, Yoru Hayashi released his left hand and spun his body around.
Using the centrifugal force of the spin, his right elbow struck hard against Ryuunosuke’s ribs.
Thump!
The sharp sound of multiple ribs snapping echoed in the air.
Ryuunosuke was lifted half a meter off the ground before crashing heavily onto the lawn, twitching like a dead dog, barely breathing and clearly on the verge of death.
“Ryuunosuke!!!”
Not far away, Bluebeard saw his Master—his one and only “artistic soulmate”—beaten to death on the spot, and completely spiraled into hysterical madness.
“Unpardonable…
you damned brute!
I will sacrifice you to God!
I will inflict the most gruesome torture upon you…”
Bluebeard wildly flipped through Prelati’s Spellbook, attempting to summon the giant Horror capable of swallowing an entire city.
In midair, Gilgamesh coldly interrupted Bluebeard’s chant.
In the King of Heroes’ hand, a strangely shaped golden sword had appeared at some unknown moment.
It had no blade; its shaft consisted of three cylindrical segments.
Though he did not unleash the True Name Liberation of this Anti-World Noble Phantasm, Ea, Gilgamesh simply pointed the tip casually down at Bluebeard.
A visible red storm of pressure gathered at the tip of the blade, and the surrounding space even began to show glass-like cracks.
“Vanish from this world, along with your foul grimoire!”
Boom—!
An ultra-compressed red storm instantly pierced Bluebeard’s chest!
Before he could even scream, the Spiritual Core of Gilles de Rais was utterly shredded.
His body, along with that evil book, turned into a cloud of golden light dust amidst the violent wind pressure, completely dissipating into the air.
The fight was over in less than five minutes from start to finish.
The first to be eliminated from the Fourth Holy Grail War was, unexpectedly, this infamous duo of serial killers.
Yoru Hayashi clapped his hands, walked over to Ryuunosuke’s corpse, and kicked it coldly to confirm he was completely dead before letting out a long breath.
“Refreshing.
All that anger I’ve been holding back these past few days is finally out.”
Gilgamesh leaped down from the tree and landed steadily beside Yoru Hayashi.
He glanced at Ryuunosuke’s corpse and furrowed his brows in disgust.
“To think you would make such a fuss over stomping two disgusting insects.
If your idea of ‘pleasure’ is only at this level, I shall be deeply disappointed.”
“It’s called an appetizer, get it?”
Yoru Hayashi rolled his eyes at him and turned to look across the street.
Kariya Matou was driving that minivan, parked at the roadside and honking the horn frantically.
With all the explosions and fire in the park just now, Kariya in the car had nearly had a heart attack from anxiety.
“Let’s go, Goldie.
Time to wrap up and head home.
It’s late, time to get a good night’s sleep.”
Yoru Hayashi stretched and walked briskly toward the car.
The moment he pulled open the car door, a crisp system notification popped up in his mind.
[Ding!
Congratulations, Host, on eliminating the Caster camp ahead of time and successfully altering a key event in the Holy Grail War!]
[Ding!
Hidden Achievement [Child Savior] Unlocked!
By eliminating Ryuunosuke Uryuu early, dozens of children in Fuyuki City have been spared a terrible fate.]
[Distributing Rewards…]
Yoru Hayashi paused for a moment, a satisfied smile creeping onto the corner of his lips.
Not a bad deal at all—not only did he clean out a piece of trash, but he also got rewards.
…
At the same time.
In the outskirts of Fuyuki City, at the European-style castle of the Einzbern family.
The “Mage Killer,” Kiritsugu Emiya, clad in a black trench coat, stood before the window, quietly smoking a cigarette.
His assistant and lover, Maiya Hisau, walked quickly into the room and reported with a grim expression: “Kiritsugu, a strong magical reaction was just detected in the direction of the Central Park.
Not only were there explosions similar to Noble Phantasms, but there were even spirit particle dispersions indicating the retirement of a Servant.”
Kiritsugu Emiya’s fingers holding the cigarette paused slightly.
A sharp glint flashed in his dull, dead-fish eyes.
“The Holy Grail War has only just begun on the second day, and a Servant has already been eliminated…”
Kiritsugu stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray and turned to look at the corner of the room, where a female knight dressed in blue and silver armor stood with braided golden hair, possessing a breathtakingly exquisite face yet a solemn expression.
Saber, Artoria Pendragon.
The legendary King Arthur.
“Saber, it seems the waters of Fuyuki City are deeper than we imagined.
This war has turned into utter chaos,” Kiritsugu said coldly.
Artoria gripped her invisible sword, her emerald eyes full of resolve.
“Master, no matter who the enemy is, I shall surely claim the Holy Grail for you.”
Kiritsugu didn’t reply, merely gazing silently at the night outside the window.
What he didn’t know was that on the other side of Fuyuki City, not only was there a madman running around with the script causing trouble, but there was also a rebellious, deeply dutiful son marching down the streets with a broadsword, looking to fight his “unlucky dad” to the death.
This Holy Grail War was destined to charge headlong down an utterly bizarre trajectory.