Chapter Thirty-Four: Hidden Dragon, Shadow of Espionage

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My name is Ilya.

I am watching Kiritsugu play at infiltration.

155:47:12

“Can you feel it, Saber?”

On a mountain road in the southern outskirts of Fuyuki City, beside an unnamed low mountain, an utterly ordinary black sedan sat by the roadside. Its owner, its mileage, and the reason it had appeared there were all perfectly ordinary. Even a deliberate investigation could never have connected it to the Einzbern family.

Emiya Kiritsugu stood at the front of the car, gazing down at the Tohsaka residence below, and questioned the Saber Alter standing silently behind him.

Without Maiya to control them, the bat familiars Kiritsugu had originally used to gather intelligence had quickly reverted to their wild habits and scattered in all directions. Even though Kiritsugu could forcibly recall and control a few of them, the intelligence network as a whole remained in tatters. Rescuing her was therefore imperative.

Before that, however, if he wanted to investigate the enemy Servant and their bounded fields, sending his own Servant close enough to sense fluctuations in magical energy was, if nothing else, better than no method at all.

“Yes. Dense detection fields have been established around that mansion, but neither Master nor Servant is inside.” Dressed in a black suit with a cold, severe face, Saber Alter looked exactly like a genuine bodyguard as she answered him.

“Good. Remain here on standby. If a Servant approaches, inform me immediately.” Kiritsugu nodded, took two steps forward, vaulted the guardrail, and began checking his equipment.

The “communication” in question was a method Kiritsugu had devised by making use of the magical connection between Master and Servant. Put simply, it used the frequency of Morse code to consume magical energy through Saber’s Personal Skill, Magic Enhancement. Kiritsugu could sense the signals through his magic circuits, then decode them to understand what she wished to convey.

It was arguably wasteful of magical energy, but for some reason Saber had no objection.

Kiritsugu was not wearing his usual suit-and-trench-coat combination. Instead, he had dressed like an Assassin, in a tight gray bodysuit with a dark-red hood. Even if the familiars monitoring the Tohsaka residence caught sight of him, they would not be able to identify him.

The reason Saber would not be participating in this operation was that the sheer quantity of magical energy she possessed would cause the detection fields to sound their alarms from a great distance. They had been designed specifically to guard against Servants, and Kiritsugu had no intention of finding out what would happen once those alarms were triggered.

“Mm-hmm.” Saber nodded in agreement, then watched as Kiritsugu vaulted the roadside barrier and leapt down, resembling a gigantic bat.

After watching Kiritsugu leave the range of her senses, Saber turned around and opened the rear door of the car. From among the “supplies” piled across the seats, she picked up a large red cylindrical container that faintly exuded the aroma of fried chicken and french fries.

Everything was normal.

She sent Kiritsugu a message while replenishing her magical energy.

155:39:09

As one of the three great families of the Holy Grail War, the administrator of Fuyuki’s spiritual leyline, and the principal representative of the local Magus Association, Tokiomi Tohsaka had neither the ability nor the need to conceal the location of his stronghold. All he needed to do was establish sufficient defenses inside and out.

Although he, his apprentice, and his wife and daughter could enter and leave normally, that was because they possessed the proper authorization. Any uninvited intruder—whether an enemy familiar or an assassin attempting to infiltrate—would be met with powerful resistance and retaliation.

At that moment, however, Emiya Kiritsugu, who had infiltrated the grounds from the rear mountain, found himself trapped in the mansion’s garden.

From the perspective of a magus killer, the bounded field in the garden had a relatively simple function: once an enemy was detected, it would activate a prearranged spell within one of the statues and launch an attack. The problem was that there were far too many nodes scanning for enemies. Gems hidden in the bushes, streetlamps, benches, and even the small fountain continuously emitted pulses of magical energy.

Their function was similar to sonar. If a pulse of magical energy reached its destination without incident, nothing happened. Any interference indicated the presence of “something,” and the countermeasure spell would immediately activate and strike that location.

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Although Emiya Kiritsugu did not regard such simple magical attacks as a threat and could destroy them by force without difficulty, if he had to resort to violence merely to cross the rear garden, would the magical traps inside the mansion not be even more troublesome?

If the flow of magical energy through the garden were likened to fallen leaves, then Emiya Kiritsugu was walking through a forest in late autumn—and could not allow a single leaf to touch him.

“Time Alter—Double Accel!”

Having ultimately judged that he could not cross the bounded field at a normal pace without damaging any of its magical nodes, Emiya Kiritsugu employed his unique magecraft. Moving at an unbelievable speed, he threaded himself through the narrow gaps between several magical pulses and reached the rear entrance of the Tohsaka residence by the thinnest of margins.

There were no magical seals or traps on the back door at all, which surprised Kiritsugu slightly. He quickly dismissed the thought, however, and focused on picking the lock.

Everything was normal. Once again, Saber’s message came through the magical link.

Kiritsugu would have liked to question why she was sending messages so frequently, but he already knew the reason well enough. In the end, he remained silent.

155:27:41

Contrary to his expectations, the aboveground portions of the Tohsaka residence possessed almost no defenses. That was only natural. The rooms were primarily living spaces, and damaging them would be troublesome; besides, there was insufficient room for a confrontation between magical techniques.

There might have been treasured magical artifacts belonging to the Tohsaka family on the upper floors, but as a magus killer, Kiritsugu had no particular interest in such things.

If his guess was correct, the underground space was the Tohsaka family’s true stronghold as magi. The defenses and means of repelling intruders there would surely be—

Bang!

A massive arm came whistling through the air, confirming Kiritsugu’s assumption the moment he infiltrated the mansion’s basement.

“Is that… a golem?” Kiritsugu dodged the attack and rapidly surveyed both his assailant and the surrounding area.

The basement was completely empty, devoid of any unnecessary furnishings. Apart from the walls, floor, and ceiling having been reinforced with magecraft, there was nothing else. Beside the door leading to another room—or perhaps a deeper level—stood two golems identical to the one that had attacked him.

Magi generally used golems to guard fixed locations. Most were made from earth and stone, molded into powerful, giant-like figures, though some were constructed from steel to increase their strength.

The one before Kiritsugu, however, was made of ruby.

The intelligence report had already mentioned that the Tohsaka family specialized in gem magecraft, and the material was merely unrefined gemstone of no great rarity. Even if the golem were destroyed, the fragments could still be used. Nevertheless, it was impossible not to feel the malice of the rich toward the poor.

After realizing that its punch had failed and that its target had moved away, the ruby golem charged according to its preset instructions. Such a direct attack naturally posed no threat to Kiritsugu.

Using ruby as its material had increased the golem’s physical strength, but the transparency of the substance made its magical core clearly visible. While dodging, the magus killer drew a light machine gun fitted with a suppressor, pressed it directly against the golem’s back, and opened fire.

Pfft-pfft-pfft-pfft—bang!

As expected, its outer layer had been enchanted to deflect projectile attacks. That was useless against an attack made at point-blank range, however. Once its magical core was pierced, the imposing ruby golem quickly collapsed into a heap of ruby fragments.

The behavior patterns of magical constructs were extremely simple. The two guards by the door had not come rushing over even while the battle raged, which proved the point. If the entire underground workshop consisted of things like this, it would save him considerable trouble.

After quickly taking down the two guards, Kiritsugu opened the door.

Everything was normal. Saber repeated herself once more.

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155:07:18

A Binding Chamber generally referred to a specialized magical workshop in which an entire room had been enhanced with various spells of restraint and weakening. Magi primarily used such chambers to contain dangerous summoned creatures, but they could also imprison people with magical abilities or serve as sites for magical experiments. If his guess was correct, Maiya should have been confined in one of these “Binding Chambers.”

After half an hour of intense combat inside the Tohsaka family’s underground workshop, which could practically be called an underground fortress, Kiritsugu finally reached his destination.

His magical energy was somewhat depleted, and he had nearly run out of ammunition, but no other enemies remained. Kiritsugu reached out and grasped the doorknob of the Binding Chamber before him.

So far, aside from the usual golem guards and magical traps, he had found no arrangements specifically intended to target him. Tokiomi Tohsaka therefore likely had no intention of using his assistant as bait to lure him into a trap. Of course, it was also possible that they did not understand how important Maiya was to him.

“Kiritsugu! Retreat at once!”

The instant the door opened, Kiritsugu heard Maiya’s voice urging him to leave in an unmistakably anxious tone. In any other situation, with insufficient intelligence, Kiritsugu would naturally have accepted his assistant’s judgment and withdrawn immediately. But now, he could see perfectly clearly what had happened—or rather, what was about to happen.

Kuyu Maiya was trapped within a magical array. In addition to the usual effects of suppressing magecraft and restraining movement, it would explode if subjected to an external attack. With Kiritsugu’s ability, dispelling it would have been easy.

The problem was that a massive creature stood guard beside the array, twice the size of the golems he had destroyed earlier. Through its transparent ruby body, he could see that its magical core had been deliberately reinforced. He could not destroy it by repeating the same trick.

So that was it. They had not laid more traps outside because they were confident in this creature? If he became entangled with it, the resulting shock waves would inevitably strike the magical array and trigger an explosion. The golem would likely remain unharmed, while Kiritsugu and Maiya, trapped within the array, would be in grave danger.

Such a cold and effective method bore the mark of Kirei Kotomine. Yet as an Executor, he did not understand the significance of the Holy Grail War. This was no ordinary battle between magi.

Kiritsugu gave the panic-stricken Maiya a reassuring nod, then extended his right hand toward the approaching ruby golem.

Everything was normal—

“In the name of the Command Spell, Saber Alter, come to my side at once and destroy that golem’s core!”

The sword-shaped Command Spell on the back of Kiritsugu’s hand dimmed as one mark vanished. At the same time, the light within the Binding Chamber went out. The enormous golem, which had been advancing step by step, came to a halt. In the instant the lights returned, it had become a heap of shattered fragments.

“That is all?” The black-armored Saber appeared behind the golem, sounding faintly dissatisfied as she sheathed the dark sword in her hand. “Well, as long as you think it was worth my time.”

The magus killer forced himself to ignore the fast-food container Saber had casually tossed behind the pile of golem fragments.

“When he set this trap, he probably never considered the strength of a Heroic Spirit.” Kiritsugu dispelled the magical array restraining Maiya and said to her, “We are leaving.”

“…Yes.” Kuyu Maiya seemed to want to say something, but in the end she merely nodded and gave up.

In the next instant, a pitch-black shadow sprang from a corner and launched itself at Emiya Kiritsugu.

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