Chapter 231
"What...?"
Inside the church outside Sighișoara, a young priest with white hair and dark skin suddenly opened his eyes during prayer and looked toward Trifas.
Surprise appeared across his face.
"What is it, Master?"
A mature, magnetic female voice sounded behind him, and a striking figure materialized inside the church.
She was a tall woman with long pointed ears and exquisitely beautiful features, her appearance carrying a decadent, almost poisonous allure.
Her voluptuous figure was wrapped in an elegant robe, while her every movement possessed the majesty and arrogance of a queen.
She was Assassin of Red—Semiramis, Queen of Assyria and one of the oldest poisoners in legend.
The young priest she addressed as Master was Amakusa Shirou Tokisada.
During the previous Holy Grail War, the Einzberns had broken convention and summoned him into the Ruler Class.
Through an unexpected chain of events, he later touched the Greater Grail and obtained a physical body.
Ever since then, he had remained hidden within the world, working toward the wish he had pursued for so long—
The salvation of all humanity.
He had spent sixty years preparing for this moment.
Eventually, he managed to summon Semiramis ahead of the actual Holy Grail War, allowing her to begin construction of the Noble Phantasm essential to his plan.
At the same time, Amakusa had used his position as the Holy Church’s supervisor to gather all of the Red Masters together.
With Semiramis’s extraordinary skill with poisons, those Masters were quietly placed under his control.
As a result, Amakusa effectively seized command of every Servant on the Red side.
The earlier charge by Berserker of Red, followed by the movements of Achilles and Atalanta, had also been deliberately arranged by him.
His intention was to probe the abilities and trump cards of the Black Servants.
Unfortunately, he had learned almost nothing about them.
Instead, his own faction had lost two Servants in rapid succession.
And one of them had been the highly valuable Archer.
"How unexpected."
Amakusa’s expression grew solemn as he recalled Kiriya’s instantaneous movement and the enormous blue sphere of energy.
"I knew he was formidable after seeing him fight Lancer at close range, but now he has revealed several other abilities resembling magecraft."
He looked toward Trifas.
"The Black faction’s newest Master truly cannot be ignored."
"Oh?"
Semiramis raised an eyebrow after hearing what Kiriya had done.
"That is certainly an unexpected development."
"That man may become the greatest variable in this Holy Grail War."
Amakusa spoke quietly.
"His strength may be impressive, but Master, I think you’re giving him too much credit."
Semiramis shook her head.
"In the end, he is still only human."
"If you permit Rider to release his Noble Phantasm, defeating him should be simple."
"No."
Amakusa shook his head.
"Not yet."
"We still know far too little about the Black Servants."
"Revealing one of our greatest trump cards now would be premature."
He thought for a moment.
"For the time being... we should withdraw."
"Hahaha."
Semiramis’s lips curved upward.
"That man will probably be furious."
There was unmistakable amusement in her voice.
"I can understand how Rider feels."
Amakusa sighed.
"But this is a Holy Grail War."
"He’ll simply have to endure it for now."
"Very well."
Semiramis smiled.
"I’ll have those insects deliver the order."
Her figure disappeared from the church.
Amakusa remained where he was, gazing through the stained glass toward the night sky.
"Let us hope everything proceeds smoothly."
...
Meanwhile, Achilles was still relentlessly pursuing Kiriya.
Unfortunately for him, repeated use of the Flying Thunder God Technique was simply too unfair.
Even with his incredible A+ Agility, Achilles remained half a step behind every time.
His plan to attack at the exact instant Kiriya appeared beside a marked kunai repeatedly failed.
"Kid."
Achilles lowered his head slightly.
His expression was dark, violent, and filled with barely restrained killing intent.
"I’ll admit it."
"Your abilities are unusual."
"Without using a Noble Phantasm, I really can’t pin you down."
His grip tightened around his spear.
"But that ends now."
"This time, I’ll crush you completely!"
Achilles prepared to activate one of his Noble Phantasms—[Dromeus Cometes: Comet Form.]
An A+ Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm.
It embodied the legend that Achilles was the fastest of all heroes across every era.
Once activated, he could cross enormous battlefields in an instant without losing speed even when obstacles stood in his path.
Few Heroic Spirits could properly follow his movements in that state.
With Dromeus Cometes active, Achilles possessed speed worthy of being called the absolute pinnacle of humanity.
Even if Kiriya continued teleporting throughout the area, Achilles believed he could identify each destination and strike before Kiriya had any chance to react.
But just as he prepared to activate the Noble Phantasm—
A voice sounded inside his mind.
"Rider. Withdraw."
"What?!"
Achilles’s face twisted in disbelief.
His rage had finally reached its peak.
He had just prepared his ultimate move.
And now his Master was telling him to run?
What kind of timing was this?
He wanted to refuse.
But no matter how heroic and free-spirited Achilles had been in life, he was now a Servant bound by contract.
An order from his Master could not simply be ignored.
He glared toward Kiriya, who stood atop a tree branch.
"You’d better remember this, kid."
His teeth ground together.
"The next time we meet will be the day you die."
"Heh."
Kiriya’s expression remained gentle, as though Achilles had merely threatened him with a childish prank.
"I’m looking forward to it."
"Hmph."
Achilles sneered.
"Enjoy whatever peaceful time you have left."
He whistled sharply.
Three magnificent divine horses immediately appeared, pulling a golden chariot that thundered across the battlefield.
Achilles leapt aboard.
After one final glare toward Kiriya, he drove the chariot away like a shooting star and vanished into the night.
Kiriya merely shrugged.
Then he returned to Yggdmillennia Castle.
The moment he arrived, he found himself greeted by a collection of astonished and respectful stares from Masters and Servants alike.
"What?"
Kiriya touched his cheek.
"Is there something on my face?"
"No."
Fiore slowly shook her head.
"It’s simply... difficult to believe."
Her voice carried genuine amazement.
"We originally assumed your sortie would only be a brief probe."
"Instead, you directly eliminated two Servants."
She gave a helpless smile.
"That kind of efficiency is probably unprecedented in the history of Holy Grail Wars."
Everyone present nodded in agreement.
In previous Grail Wars, participants had always behaved cautiously.
They gathered information carefully.
They tested their enemies carefully.
They concealed their Skills and Noble Phantasms whenever possible, terrified that revealing a trump card too early would allow another participant to develop a countermeasure.
For that reason, a Holy Grail War would often continue for several days.
Sometimes even two weeks.
No one had expected Kiriya to arrive and immediately erase two Servants from the board.
"This surprises you?"
Kiriya curled his lips.
"You really haven’t seen much."
After all, he knew that somewhere among Fate’s countless parallel worlds, there existed a certain human teenager who had practically punched his way through an entire Holy Grail War in a single night.
Compared to that legendary madman, Kiriya’s accomplishments here were practically modest.
"Hahahaha!"
Vlad III laughed heartily.
"Strong, yet without a hint of arrogance."
"Excellent."
Astolfo immediately placed both hands on his hips and puffed out his chest as though he had personally accomplished everything.
"Obviously! My Master is the greatest Master in the world!"
Chiron gave a rueful smile.
"At this rate, the value of the rest of us being summoned may decrease considerably."
Then he looked toward Kiriya.
"Kiriya-san, I have a somewhat selfish request."
"If Rider of Red appears again, I would appreciate it if you could leave him to me."
"Hm..."
Kiriya grinned.
"That depends on how things play out."
"After all, opponents that strong don’t appear every day."
"..."
Chiron’s bitter smile deepened.
Was he really going to spend this entire Holy Grail War watching from the sidelines?
Astolfo rested both hands behind his head and looked at Chiron in complete confusion.
If someone else was willing to do all the difficult work, why was he disappointed?
"Heroes are really hard to understand."
That was Astolfo’s final conclusion.
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