Watg Iskandar's figure vanish down the road, Waver let out a sigh.

  "That guy just does whatever he pleases…"

  Beside him, Kayh's brow furrowed. Regardless, their group pressed forward toward the Emiya residence. He realized Artoria had deliberately drawn Iskandar away, but it didn't matter. With Rider out of the picture and Saber occupied, that only left Emiya Kiritsugu himself to face them.

  And with three Servants on their side, the odds were heavily stacked in their favor.

  As they reached the address provided by Chihiro, Kayh sed the property with narrowed eyes. "There are faint traagical energy here. This must be the pce."

  Still cautious after his previous losses to Kiritsugu's tricks, Kayh avoided charging in himself. Instead, he instructed Diarmuid to go in and survey the area first.

  "Yes, my lord," Diarmuid responded dutifully. Sg the wall, he quickly moved through the property. Less than a mier, he returned.

  "My lord, there's no one inside."

  "What?" Kayh's eyes widened, his expression twisting with frustration. "Damn that Emiya Kiritsugu… He's always oep ahead."

  It was clear to everyone what had happened, Kiritsugu had been warned and mao escape before they arrived.

  "We might still be able to catch up," El-Melloi II ented, cheg the tracks. "The trail is fresh. They couldn't have left too long ago."

  "Brynhildr, could you?" So-ui asked.

  Nodding, Brynhildr summoned her Pegasus and soared into the night sky, searg for any sign of Kiritsugu's escape route. Within moments, she located a car speeding away in the distance. Signaling to So-ui and the others, she took off in pursuit.

  In the car, Maiya noticed Brynhildr approag from above and immediately pressed down on the accelerator.

  "Iri, we have pany," she muttered, keeping her focus on the road.

  In the passenger seat, Irisviel eled her magic, summoning silver threads that coiled into a silver eagle, which shot into the air to intercept Brynhildr.

  "Magic Burst: Fme!" Brynhildr responded, fmes engulfing her as she tore through the silver struct, redug it to molten silver. However, the brief distra allowed Maiya to swerve into a narrow alley, temporarily losing Brynhildr's line of sight.

  Meanwhile, Kayh's group tihe pursuit on foot, their pace slowed by caution. After everything that had been revealed in the ret videos, Kayh was wary of falling into another one of Kiritsugu's traps.

  Diarmuid stood on the roof of their vehicle, eyes sing their surroundings for any ambush.

  Suddenly, a gunsh out.

  A bullet strue of their tires, blowing it out and causing the vehicle to swerve dangerously. Diarmuid reacted instantly, using his spear to anchor the car and prevent it from tipping over, saving them from what could have been a deadly crash.

  Kayeh, So-ui, and the others quickly exited the vehicle, deg it was too dangerous to tinue enclosed in such a vulnerable position.

  No sooner had they stepped out than a figure in red shot out of the shadows, aiming a bde at Kayh's neck.

  It was Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu.

  Diarmuid moved with lightning speed, interposing himself between Kayh and the assassin. The bde cshed against his spear, f Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu back.

  Realizing the danger, Kayh and So-ui took cover, slipping into a er where they activated the Marrow of the Moon Spirit, rendering them safer from direiper attacks.

  Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu fired off another volley from his pistol, attempting to create an opening to escape. But just as he thought he had a way out, a streak of green fmes desded from above, blog his path—Brunhilde had returned, cutting off his escape route.

  "Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May: os Rose!"

  Seeing no other option, Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu activated his Noble Phantasm. He dashed forward, not aiming to escape but to attack Kayh directly.

  But Kayh's Marrow of the Moon Spirit wasn't something to be uimated. Even with Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu's enhanced speed, the fluid formed a protective barrier around Kayh and So-ui, preventing him from closing in.

  However, Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu had prepared for this. Drawing a single-shot pistol from his coat, he loaded it with a special bullet, an in Bullet, identical to those that Emiya Kiritsugu himself used to disrupt magical circuits.

  He aimed carefully and fired.

  The in Bullet tore through the Marrow of the Moon Spirit as though it were paper, heading straight for Kayh's heart. But just as it seemed he was about to nd a critical blow, Kayh's body wavered and transformed into a paper effigy, fluttering to the ground.

  Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu's eyes widened. "A decoy…?"

  "It's over, assassin," came a voice from behind him.

  El-Melloi II stepped forward, activating his Noble Phantasm. "Uurning Formation!"

  In an instant, the area around Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu shifted, and he found himself enclosed within a massive red pavilion, surrounded by eight t pilrs. Outside the formation, there was nothing but endless darkness, making escape seem impossible.

  Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu tried to break through by movi and right, but each time, he simply reappeared on the opposite side of the pavilion, trapped within the fines of the formation.

  "This is the ultimate teique of a true strategist," El-Melloi II said, watg with a smirk. "Let's see if you escape it."

  The Uurning Formation was a masterpiece, inspired by Zhuge Liang's renow Trigrams Maze. Not only was it an inescapable byrinth, but it tinuously draihe life force of arapped within.

  In El-Melloi II's mind, there was no way Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu could break out. fident, he lit a cigarette and watched as his enemy was ensnared irap.

  As for Kayh and the others, they hadn't actually been there from the beginning.

  Knowing how ruthless Emiya Kiritsugu could be, El-Melloi II decided it was better for the Masters not to expose themselves directly to potential danger.

  Instead, he used an advanced substitution teique, creating dummies of Kayh and So-ui and transferring their sciousness into these replicas.

  With the dummies, anyone them without scrutiny would mistake them for the real people. However, this teique came with a signifit drawback. The moment the inal body entered any form of disturbahe sciousness would immediately return to it. This safety measure ehat the real bodies would remain protected.

  El-Melloi II's pn was a calcuted gamble. He deliberately avoided leaving any Servants behind as guards, precisely to avoid tipping Kiritsugu off to the trap. He assumed that without any suspicious defenses, Kiritsugu would lower his guard.

  Before leaving, however, he had carefully yered protective magic around Kayh's real location to safeguard him.

  But just as he rexed, a tremendous bst echoed from within the pavilion.

  "Boom!"

  The Formation trembled, and to El-Melloi II's shock, one of the pilrs shattered, freeing Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu from the formation.

  "Phew… that was close," Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu muttered, catg his breath as he looked back at the now-damaged formation.

  "What… What did you just do?" El-Melloi II asked, his calm demeanor faltering.

  Heroic Spirit Kiritsugu smirked. "You uimated me. I may look like a mere copy, but I ied Emiya Kiritsugu's skills and titles—Magus Killer, after all."

  One of his i skills, Magecraft, allowed him to make quid effit judgments when fag Casters, granting him a signifit advantage in battle.

  Moreover, his Noble Phantasm, Phantasm Punishment, was a dagger imbued with his dual in of "severing" and "binding." This on could deliver critical damage to anything magically structed, allowing him to destroy mystical barriers and spells with terrifying efficy.

  bined with the "Affe of the Holy Grail" he received as a Heroic Spirit, Kiritsugu was able to swiftly locate the core of the Uurning Formation and slice through it in one precise strike.

  In this frontation, El-Melloi II had made the error of not fully uanding his oppo's abilities.

  ***

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