Outskirts of Fuyuki City, the Forest of Winter.
This vast virgin forest was shrouded in thick fog year-round, complete with Bounded Fields designed to repel uninitiated outsiders.
Anyone who wandered inside would find themselves walking in circles and inexplicably ending up right back where they started.
Deep in the heart of the forest sat a massive Western-style castle resembling a medieval fortress—the Einzbern family’s temporary stronghold.
Inside the second-floor monitoring room, smoke hung heavy in the air.
Kiritsugu Emiya had a half-burnt cigarette dangling from his lips, his deadpan eyes locked onto the thermal radar screen.
His fingers tapped rhythmically on the desk, an unconscious habit whenever he was deep in thought.
As the terrifying “Magus Killer,” Kiritsugu never placed his hopes on Servants slugging it out face-to-face.
Out in the forest surrounding the castle, he had feverishly planted thirty military-grade Claymore mines, two hundred meters of tripwire infrared fuses, and even rigged remote-detonated C4 explosives at several key vantage points.
Even if a fully armed company of modern mercenaries tried to sneak in, he was confident he could reduce them to a field of shredded meat.
“Kiritsugu,” Maiya Hisau said as she pushed open the door, holding a loaded submachine gun.
“Saber is on standby in the main hall.
The lady has been safely secured as well.”
“Mm.” Kiritsugu blew out a plume of smoke, his voice completely flat.
“The commotion at the waterfront warehouse last night was too loud.
Those two unknown Heroic Spirits could strike at any time.
Tell Saber to stay alert.
The moment an enemy steps into the minefield, blow them sky-high.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than three glaring red blips flashed onto the thermal display!
The intruders made no attempt to conceal their approach, swaggering straight through the highway entrance in front of the forest at unnaturally high speeds, heading directly for the castle gate!
“They’re here.” Kiritsugu snuffed out his cigarette, grabbed the Walther WA2000 sniper rifle beside him, and expertly racked the bolt, chambering an Origin Bullet—capable of severing a magus’s Magic Circuits.
“Maiya, I’m heading to the rooftop sniper position.
Keep your eyes on the radar.”
***
Meanwhile, on the outer perimeter of the Forest of Winter.
“Yoru, this road is terrible!
It’s pitch-black, there’s a Bounded Field, and I almost drove us into a ditch!” Kariya Matou gripped the steering wheel as the minivan skidded wildly through the mud and fallen leaves.
“Alright, man, pull over here.”
Yoru Hayashi pushed the car door open and hopped out.
Today, he had specially changed into a black tracksuit suited for movement, and he loosened his wrists.
Beside him, Gilgamesh wore an expression like he was severely constipated.
Looking at the mud beneath his feet and the gloomy trees around them, he looked disgusted enough to tear the entire forest out by its roots.
“A muddy, filthy backwater like this is fit for My presence?
Those skulking rats deserve to be reduced to ash along with this forest by Gate of Babylon!” the King of Heroes complained coldly.
“Old Gil, save that field-clearing skill of yours for smashing castle walls.
Setting a fire right now will just singe your allies.”
Yoru rolled his eyes and turned to Mordred, who was practically bursting with impatience.
Today, the girl had donned her silver full plate again, holding her helmet under her arm.
Her eyes gleamed with a faint red tint brought on by the excitement of Mad Enhancement.
“Little Mo, see that castle deep in the fog that looks like a giant tortoise shell?” Yoru pointed into the mist.
“Is he in there…
Is that bastard Arthur in there?!” Mordred gripped Clarent, her voice trembling with raw excitement.
“He is, 100%.
Man and sword, waiting right in the main hall for you.” Yoru patted her shoulder firmly, acting like an unprincipled director stoking the flames.
“Go on.
Show your dad how Britain’s most unfilial child comes back home!”
*BOOM!*
Before Yoru could even finish speaking, Mordred kicked off the ground, stomping a deep pit into the earth.
She launched forward like a silver human cannonball, plunging headfirst into the fog-drenched forest.
She didn’t care about a sense of direction or Bounded Fields.
Tree trunks blocking her path?
Sliced to splinters!
Boulders in her way?
She had a single-track mind right now: charge straight ahead, smash through the castle, and hack her father down!
Inside the Einzbern monitoring room.
Maiya Hisau watched the red blip charging straight across the radar screen in a dead straight line, cold sweat instantly breaking out across her forehead.
“This speed…
isn’t human!
Kiritsugu, the target has entered Minefield Alpha!”
From his rooftop sniper position, Kiritsugu Emiya lay behind cover.
Locking onto the wildly charging silver figure through his night-vision sniper scope, he decisively pressed the detonator.
*BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!*
In the forest ahead, three Claymore mines hidden behind tree trunks and in the underbrush exploded simultaneously!
Tens of thousands of steel ball bearings mixed with scorching shrapnel formed a seamless metallic net of death, slamming directly into Mordred face-first.
An explosion of this magnitude would turn even a light armored vehicle into a honeycomb, let alone a human.
The flash from the blast illuminated half the night sky.
“Direct hit,” Kiritsugu muttered expressionlessly, releasing the detonator as he adjusted his barrel to locate the next target.
The very next instant, however, his eye twitched violently.
Before the smoke could even clear, the silver figure paused for a mere half-second.
“What the hell is making all that noise?
Shut the hell up!”
Covered head to toe in black soot, Mordred burst from the smoke.
The steel ball bearings—powerful enough to reduce a human to pulp—pattered harmlessly off her Magic Resistance and Heroic Spirit armor without leaving so much as a dent, crackling loudly as if merely scratching an itch.
She irritably shook the dirt off her helmet, her pace accelerating even faster than before!
“That’s impossible…” Maiya gasped over the comms.
“Claymore mines couldn’t even slow her down?!
Is that Berserker?!”
Kiritsugu gritted his teeth.
Naturally, he knew modern weapons were ineffective against Heroic Spirits, but he hadn’t expected the enemy to refrain from dodging altogether, plowing through the minefield on sheer physical force!
“Keep detonating!
Blow all the C4 as well!” Kiritsugu ordered.
A string of violent explosions detonated throughout the forest in rapid succession, flames soaring into the sky as dirt rained down.
Yet amidst that infernal sea of fire, Mordred forcefully trampled over every single trap and burst out from the edge of the forest!
The heavy iron-bound oak double doors of the Einzbern castle were right in front of her.
“ARTHURRRRR—!!!”
Mordred let out a bloodcurdling howl as red lightning erupted from Clarent in her hands.
Without slowing down for a fraction of a second, she hurled herself and her sword straight at the main doors like a runaway semi-truck!
*CLANG—BOOM!*
Under the brute force, the solid wood doors—nearly half a meter thick—shattered like cheap crackers.
Splinters and howling gales swept violently into the magnificent castle hall.
In the center of the hall, Artoria, who had been waiting in full battle readiness, narrowed her eyes sharply.
“Mordred…” Saber held her invisible sword across her body, her emerald eyes filled with gravity.
“Found you!
My dear Father!” Mordred cackled, launching off her feet and leaping straight at Artoria.
The two legendary swords collided furiously in midair, erupting in blinding sparks.
The intense shockwave instantly shattered the priceless oil paintings and vases decorating the hall into dust.
Britain’s family beatdown—Round 1—had officially begun!
***
Meanwhile, outside the forest.
Yoru Hayashi and Gilgamesh were casually strolling toward the castle along the broad highway Mordred had plowed through.
Every mine along the way had been triggered by Mordred; even the surrounding trees had been blasted bare, leaving the ground covered in a soft layer of scorched earth.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.
What an incredible snowplow.
One-click field clearing—saves time and effort.” Yoru shoved his hands into his pockets, in high spirits.
Walking beside him, the King of Heroes came to a halt.
Gilgamesh looked up at the gloomy fortress, his brow tightly furled.
Even the air inside reeks of decay.”
“Well, since you’re already here, just hang out on the perimeter and loot the place.
Throw a couple of blades at anyone who rubs you the wrong way.”
Yoru knew the golden noble’s temperament and hadn’t expected him to go inside and engage in hand-to-hand combat anyway.
The instant Yoru stepped out from the forest edge and stood fully exposed under the moonlight…
A sudden, sharp, needle-like pain flared between his brows!
The sensation was like a venomous snake locking its gaze onto the back of his head, sending every hair on his body standing on end.
Mind’s Eye triggered!
Within Yoru’s perception, everything around him seemed to slow down.
He clearly “saw” a faint flash of muzzle fire flicking in a dark corner of the castle rooftop, eight hundred meters away.
“Sneaky bastard!”
Without a single conscious thought, relying entirely on his newly acquired intuition, Yoru snapped his torso, tilting his neck less than three centimeters to the left mid-stride.
*Whirrrr—!*
A bullet wrapped in a spiral airflow grazed past his right earlobe!
The scorching airstream whipped up by the projectile even clipped a few strands of hair at his temple.
*Crack!*
The heavy anti-materiel sniper round drilled violently into the tree trunk behind Yoru, blasting a hole the size of a bowl straight through a trunk three men couldn’t encircle.
Had Yoru not jerked his head aside just now, this Origin Bullet would have cleanly blown off the crown of his skull.
Although he had infinite revives to back him up, he didn’t feel like experiencing a headshot ever again.
Up on the rooftop, Kiritsugu Emiya watched this through his scope, cold sweat instantly drenching his palms.
“He dodged it?
Without any prior warning, he dodged a supersonic sniper round purely on instinct?!”
What kind of monster was this Master wearing a tracksuit?
“Survived?
Luck is on your side.
But you won’t dodge the next one.” Forcing himself to stay calm, Kiritsugu quickly racked the bolt, preparing to aim once more.
However, when he brought his eye back to the scope…
The young man in the crosshairs wasn’t taking cover, nor was he panicking.
Instead, Yoru looked straight up, his dark eyes staring directly toward the rooftop as if piercing through the eight hundred meters of pitch-black night to lock onto Kiritsugu’s exact position!
Yoru grinned, slowly raising his right hand and flipping a provocatively raised middle finger straight in Kiritsugu’s direction.
“Fuck.
Playing dirty, huh?”
Yoru spat onto the dirt.
The sixty Magic Circuits inside his body violently surged into action, and pale blue magical energy flared around his body like flames.
“Old Gil!
Enjoy the view down here!
I’m going up to tear down that sniper bastard!”
Before his voice faded, the scorched earth under Yoru’s feet collapsed with a bang.
Combining the force-generation technique of [Bajiquan] with Reinforcement Magic, Yoru transformed into a black afterimage.
Foregoing any footwork tricks altogether, he scrambled up the outer wall’s protrusions like a human gecko, scaling frantically toward the rooftop at a speed that defied the laws of physics!
Now it was Kiritsugu Emiya’s turn to panic.
He watched helplessly as the young man, like a creature possessed, leaped up the dozen-meter-high castle wall in a few bounds, closing more than half the distance to the rooftop in seconds.
“A magus specialized in close-quarters combat?!”
Gritting his teeth, Kiritsugu discarded the sniper rifle, pulled the Calico M950 submachine gun from his waist, and fired wildly down at the wall.
*Dda-dda-dda-dda-dda!*
A dense rain of bullets poured down.
But Yoru darted back and forth across the vertical wall.
Amplified by the passive boost of [Master of Positioning], the bullets repeatedly whistled past the hem of his clothes by mere millimeters, failing to graze even a sliver of skin.
“The Magus Killer?”
Yoru’s laughter carried up on the night wind into Kiritsugu’s ears, dripping with unabashed rogue energy.
“I’m specifically here to beat the shit out of you!”
*Bang!* Yoru latched onto the edge of the rooftop with one hand, flipped himself over, and landed solidly on the roof, standing face-to-face with Kiritsugu Emiya.