Chapter 9: Creature of the night

Beta read by Shigiya

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-Edelfelt Manor-

Sitting outside in the garden, sipping on iced tea while reading a specific book about mineralogy, was Luvia Edelfelt. Currently enjoying the calm summer weather all by herself while wearing her favorite blue sleeveless summer dress.

"Hmm... I wish I had someone to talk to..." she mumbled to herself as she absent-mindedly flipped through the pages of the book.

The girl had been feeling lonely lately having fallen into a mindless routine every day for the last few months. With her father busy with taking care of family affairs and her mother off on her own journey, there wasn't anyone at home who could give her any company. Well, there were maids and butlers around, but they didn't seem like good conversation partners either.

Of course, there was also her little sister…

As she sat there, lost in thought about this, a sudden gust of wind blew across her face. The Magus barely paid any attention before grabbing a blue sapphire gem and tossing it next to her.

The precious stone glowed brightly before a transparent film spread of Magical Energy spread around into the shape of a shield.

Its power was only moderate, but it was still effective against most attacks from common magical creatures...

Bam!

And the red blast that was sent right for her head. It would have hit if not for the barrier protecting her. The shockwave was strong enough to rattle the glass panes near her and flutter her hair—much to her dismay.

Speak of the devil…

"What a warm greeting. It brings me great joy to see my own sister go for my head." She said, getting slightly more annoyed as she saw her favorite tea cup having shattered from the attack. "Also, welcome back from your assignment. I heard from our father that you managed to take out Ashtaina Clyphestargo in a single month. Congratulations are in order. Our client will be quite pleased with the news."

Closing the book, her gaze trailed to a young girl standing near the entrance with a furious scowl on her face that was similar to her own. With long, golden hair that matched hers but was styled in a bland straight look that reached to her mid back, unlike her perfect drills. Red eyes that held a flash of anger that she was all too used to seeing, which she got from their father. Dressed in a matching red dress while holding a glowing red ruby between her hands, that was dimming down after her attack.

Marjatta Edelfelt, her younger sister and 'rival' of sorts, and the co-heir of the family.

The Edelfelt family was quite an infamous group in the Moonlit world. They were one of the few groups who could boast of owning a unique Sorcery Trait that many Magi families could only dream about — and most likely kill them to get their hands on it — the ability to impart their family's Magical Crest to two successors. A trait that Luvia was thankful for, as she knew the bloodbath and tragedies other Magi lineages had to go through to inherit their Crest.

Her sister, on the other hand...

She was less than happy with sharing their heiress status with someone else.

"Where are they!?" Marjatta demanded.

"My my, such crass attitude and that tone of yours... So unladylike and uncivilized, dear sister of mine. We need to work on your etiquette sometime soon." Luvia replied with a smile, not seeming bothered by her little sister's hostile attitude.

"I don't have time to waste on such nonsense! Where are they!?" Marjatta yelled again, her eyes flashing red as she clenched her fists tightly.

"I'm afraid I do not have the slightest clue of what you're talking about." Luvia continued to act innocent, already having an idea on what she might be talking about.Who was she kidding, the girl knew exactly what her sister was so enraged and just found it amusing to taunt her.

"Don't act ignorant with dear sister! I'm talking about my books!" Her sister shouted, looking ready to fire another spell. "Everything from my notes on boundary fields, basic spells, and mineralogy have all vanished! Who else in this house is capable of pilfering my work without tripping my security aside from you!"

Luvia pondered for a few moments, placing a finger under her chin and humming in thought, all the while riling up her sister even more.

"Ah, you are mistaken. I would never use such an underhand move to sabotage my… beloved sister. You, on the other hand, let's just say that I'm glad to always have backup plans for my own safety. Ohohohoh~!"

The sheer haughtiness in her words and the laugh that she let out, made Marjatta's anger grow even further. Luvia always thought of herself as the better mage in the family. Always seeing herself as the smarter one, despite her sister's 'childish' hobbies. Even her family always turned a blind eye to her actions just because her talent in their magecraft was superior.

"Why are you even angry? From what I remember, you never touched those old notes for the last 5 years. Left to rot in your library for decades before being eventually burned. And even if I did take them, consider this as a payback for nearly killing me during our last mission."

"Humph! You deserved it for sabotaging my chances to kill the target on my own!"

Anger flashed in Luvia's eyes, "I was protecting you! Like it or not, I'm your big sister, and it is my duty to make sure nothing happens to you. If I hadn't intervened, then you would have gotten killed in the end."At that time, her sister's Magical Energy reserves were nearly depleted with all of her gems gone or destroyed. The enemy planted an elaborate trap and used her Marjatta's short fuse against her. If she hadn't arrived in time...

"I did not need your pity!" She replied, conveying an emotion of nothing but hatred and unfairness. "I was capable enough to deal with a low-life rogue idiot by myself! These worthless insects have no power over a real pureblood Magi like me!"

Arrogant… that was what Luvia wanted to call her. That was her sister's problem. She overestimated herself too much while also underestimating any enemy without taking the time to take a careful approach.

"If you keep that kind of mindset, Marjatta… then you won't make it far." As Luvia said that, she saw a large shadow appear behind her. It was none other than her personal bodyguard, Clown.

"I have returned with what you've asked. Kalle is waiting for you." He spoke curtly, making the Edelfelt older heir nod with a smile forming on her face.

Luvia got up from her seat, leaving the book on the table before making her way back inside. "And before I leave, I can assure you that I never laid my hands on any of your notes or books. They provide little to no insight to me, a blatant waste of my time if I were, to be honest."

Marjatta just glared at her, venom in her voice "At least I take my research and training seriously, as a proper Magus. You call me uncivilized, but your senseless fascination with the poor commoners' world — especially these last few months — shows your true colors."

Luvia stopped a scene that made her sister smirk.

"You think I wouldn't notice? That your feeble act would fool someone like me? Please, I'm not our parents. I know that something happened on your last vacation. It's probably the main reason for all of your unsightly behavior as a noble heir."

Since she came back from the cruise, she noticed that her sister started to act weird, at least weirder than her usual self.

Their father was too busy with his work to notice, and their mother continued to travel across the world for the last few weeks. That left her as the only one to notice Luvia's new strange behavior, and that made her curious on what caused it.

Finding Luvia tinkering with what she assumed was the portable computer, another useless invention from those mundane commoners. Typing every night and blasting them away with a Gandr from time to time before buying another one. At this point, she stopped counting when the numbers of destroyed devices reached a dozen.

"And? Do you find the idea of me having a fun time on the cruise weird?" She asked, taking a moment to look back at her sister.

"You're doing nothing but wasting time with those wretched fools who will do nothing more than put our magecraft at risk."

"..."

"What? Speechless?" She said mockingly, believing that she was finally getting to her sister.

Luvia sighed, genuinely looking sad for a moment before putting on an indifferent face.

"If you think that I, of all people, will endanger our family's centuries' worth of effort for nothing but entertainment… really shows me how ignorant you are, Marjatta." Never in her life did she ever consider the possibility of sharing the knowledge of her magecraft to an outsider. Shirou himself was never interested in learning any of it aside perfecting what he knew already, he was a hardworking boy with a pure soul.

Not waiting for another answer, she walked out of the area, leaving her fuming sister all on her own. Luvia knew that no harm would come from those few missing notes. They were never going to be used again and would have been incinerated by Marjatta at some point in the future. So why not put them to good use and give them to someone who actually needs them?

Walking through the grand halls of the Edelfelt Manor, Luvia nodded back at every servant who greeted her on the way. It was comforting to see their genuine smile when seeing her rather than the blank and fearful faces that they gave to the rest of her family.

A few minutes later, she reached her study and workshop. Being the only place in the entire estate she could call her own. A safe haven devoid of any prying eyes and ears—where she could hone her focus on her research and training without the worry of someone trying to sabotage her work.

In the corner, she walked towards a large table where she found a large expensive-looking black laptop and a single cell phone.

This was followed by several rings. Ring after ring until finally, she picked up the phone.

"Speak," she spoke directly, not wasting any time with pleasantries. Her demeanor had changed from the usual cheerful smile to a look that she would call her 'Heiress' face.

"This is Kalle speaking. I have some good and bad news."

She knew Kalle. He was one of the butlers here in the manor. Serving their family for half a century, mentor to Clown and several staff members serving their family. A former enforcer who worked for the Clocktower for a decade before coming to serve under their wing after her grandfather somehow managed to persuade him.

"Did they find you?"

"Fortunately, nothing of this sort, mistress." He replied confidentiality. "I have scoured the Rhine River bank and came across no trail in the first few days of my search. Whether with the use of local rumors, familiars, landscape analysis, and just covering as much land we could — the Einzbern Castle still eluded us."

Luvia nodded her head, the family may only be specialized in Alchemy, but their long history and sheer resource allowed them to establish a far powerful bounded field to hide their main castle from anyone that would try looking for them. But that didn't stop rumors of their main castle from eluding her ears.

Near the Rhine River in Germany.

"Judging by your words and tone of voice, I take it you've found them," she stated, having a lot of confidence in her family's butler and main tracker. He never failed and would never waste her time for a call.

Kalle nodded, "You have stated correctly, my lady. But to be honest, we stumbled upon the Einzbern estate through nothing but dumb luck."

"Truly…" She mumbled, having a slight smile on her lips as she thought about it. It reminded her of a certain cute red head that met her by sheer dumb luck. Truth be told, though their time together was short lived, it provided so much fun and memorable moment that she would cherish for the rest of her life. With little to worry about her life as a Magus and heir to the Edelfelt, spending nearly everyday doing anything and everything just for fun and nothing else.

If Shirou had heard that, he would've considered it unlucky with how it played out.

"As we were on our last day and still were empty-handed, we nearly gave up hope. No matter how big our group was, no matter what kind of expert trackers we had—we still had zero clues. That is until we found this."

He paused for a moment.

A few seconds later, she saw an email notification. Opening it, she found Kalle's hand and a few other pictures of a patch of dirt on the ground. All of them had bullet casings buried under the dirt.

"Ho, now this is unexpected…." The Edelfelt heiress stared at the casing for a bit, scouring through every bit of knowledge she had about weaponry and her grandfather's gun collection he had taught her in the past.

"Give me a moment."

With a library big enough to accommodate thousands of books and scrolls from the most recently published records of all modern weaponry to copies of old weapons and artifacts of legends and their possible whereabouts. Many of them were given to her as a gift, and some of which she found while scavenging through old ruins or from the workshop of one of her targets.

From the size of the casing, obviously being used by a sniper rifle.

"What is the model's name?" She asked Kalle.

"A .300 Winchester Magnum."

Hmm, taking into account its maximum range and lethality, there could only be a radius of 1300 meters for the shooter's target. Fortunately for her, she didn't have to ask Kalle anything for him to guess her next question.

"Yes, we searched for any possible traces within that range. Both the west and south directions were nothing but water, leaving us facing nothing but an empty forest and a mountain. Upon further investigation, we found traces of damaged trees with obvious signs of a battle having taken place here. From our study, it could have taken many years ago… probably 5-7 years ago. Thanks to these clues, we managed to detect the presence of a substantial bounded field surrounding a large part of the Northeast forest."

Finally, Luvia sighed in relief. Kalle truly was the best at his job. She couldn't imagine doing all of that without being detected by the Einzbern and possibly getting herself killed by an army of the homunculus.

On her screen, she looked at the picture of a certain girl and mother with the recognizable features of an Einzbern that Shirou had sent her. Snow white hair and those eerie red eyes that promised a cruel end to many Magi in the Clocktower who dared to cause them trouble. Ever since Shirou sent her a request about a certain person he wanted her to find, she couldn't help but double-take when she saw the picture he sent.

She had so many questions.

Why would he want to be with such a dangerous entity? What was his connection to this girl? He promised to explain everything at a later date, but he just wanted to know her whereabouts and if she was alright.

'I promised to help him out, and I will stay true to my words.'

Thereafter, she tried to find anyone in the Clocktower with the name Illya but came empty-handed. There was no one of that sort, and that frustrated her to no end. Maybe out of pride or just to not let down Shirou, she decided to search for her in the lion's den.

"How did the infiltration go?"

"I'm afraid their bounded field is far too advanced and well-protected for even our best expert to pass through without being detected. We are talking about something which has been perfected for centuries."

Luvia waited, knowing his character, there was no way the man would have given up so easily. He was an expert in stealth missions, so she continued to listen to him, knowing he would give her good news.

"But through my efforts and the sacrifice of a few, I managed to temporarily bypass their security… but only for a few hours before my presence was detected."

Understandably, it was nearly impossible to escape the detection of a bounded field set up by a powerful mage family like the Einzbern. Only a handful of monstrous Magus in the last century could accomplish such a feat, and even then, these people were feared by every single family—especially one of them who was known to be one of the most deadly and effective assassins in the Moonlight world. A being who was known as the Magus Killer.

"Did you manage to gather any information about the existence of this girl?"

"Possibly." He gave her a vague response.

"Explain."

"The castle on itself is heavily guarded as expected, if we dared to advance any further or stay a minute longer, then Jubstacheit would have found out our identity, and I couldn't allow that. So I let my raven familiar approach the castle by itself, but it got killed by one of the battle maids homunculi with a giant halberd."

Luvia didn't worry about Kalle's health with the death of his familiar. While it was true that many would use the method of transfer of the master's consciousness into the body of regular familiars in order to remotely control them for recon and missions such as this one. However, Kalle's raven had a personality and soul of its own, making the act of taking over impossible.

But her family's best tracer did manage to duplicate such effects without needing to transfer his consciousness and would instead have the animal itself send everything it saw and felt back to the master without risking the latter's life in case it died. And just to be on the safe side, the creature's body would burn to ashes in the following seconds to prevent their enemies from tracking them back.

"That is unfortunate. I'll make sure to compensate you fully for your loss." Even if the Edelfelt couldn't compare their wealth to the Einzberns, who had a far more ancient history and foundation in the Moonlight world, they could still be counted as one of the richest families due to their many contracts and trade business with precious gems all across the world.

So giving away a few hundred thousand euros didn't mean much to her. Though Kalle preferred more resources and materials to perfect his magecraft.

"You are as generous as ever, mistress."

"You can flatter me later. Did your raven get anything?"

She heard a sigh from the other side.

"I'm afraid that's the bad news. It managed to catch a glimpse of someone. She is heavily guarded by two highly able combat maids and looks like she fits the description. But given how she looks the same after so many years, I can not say for certain if that is her."

That was better than nothing. Finally, she had a possible location of Illya with the coordinates to the Einzbern Castle no less. Even if they wouldn't have been able to find her, this information alone was worth a fortune.

"Better to keep it for myself."

Information was the most powerful tool in her profession, and it was natural to have secrets.

{Break}

-Fuyuki-

On the starry night of Fuyuki city, sitting quietly on the rooftop of a building overlooking the lights of the city, was Shirou dressed in a black vest and wearing an equally dark cloak that partially hid his face. Though the cold weather made him uncomfortable, he was enjoying the silence and the tranquility of the night.

Unlike other cities in Japan, where buildings and streets were lit up with lights to attract customers and tourists in the busy nightlife, Fuyuki had decided to go with the traditional style and chose to dim the lights around the city. This brought a calmer atmosphere and allowing the public a better view of the stars, that most people enjoyed. Especially him, as he always preferred to live in a quiet and peaceful environment.

"Hm, I can use this to enhance the bounded field around my house," Shirou said as he was passing the time by reading some of the notes and documents he had gotten from Luvia, mostly focused on the research of Boundary Field Theory. His field of expertise was only centered around basic spells like Reinforcement and Projection, but he had been researching ways to diversify and improve his efficiency and strength with spells Kiritsugu couldn't teach him before he died.

"Haa... I should talk to Sakura." He sighed, remembering how things became kind of awkward between them since what happened with Shinji. She still came around his house every so often, but there was an underlying tension even he could feel between them.

And that put him in a bad mood for a while.

Was she mad at him?

"No, that can't be it." She still smiled and talked to him like a regular. Sakura wouldn't do that if she was angry.

Shirou looked up at the sky above, the stars shining brightly against the darkness of the night.

"Well, I should do another round before going home." He got up, stretching his body from the long hours of sitting before taking his bag and leisurely jumping off the building's roof. With a small hop, he landed softly on a neighboring structure and continued to do so one after the other.

He reliably used the reinforcement on his legs to aid him in leaping from rooftop to rooftop. It allowed him to travel distances faster and avoid the traffic and unnecessary attention but more importantly, it allowed him to clear his mind.

As he continued to travel around the city, seeing nothing going on, no crimes or gang activities, Shirou decided to end it there and head ho—Crash!

His ears picked up the sound of glass shattering. He turned to where the sound originated and spotted the location.

The Fuyuki historical museum... That was where the sound came from.

Hurrying up, he arrived at a building, and his eyes widened when he saw several dead bodies near the stairs, all of them part of the security. Their entrails spilled on the ground, all having their midsection cut or devoured by something. All of them lay lifeless on the ground, their expressions stuck on pain and fear, except for one guard who was gasping for air, putting pressure on his stump where his arm used to be along with the slash wounds on his chest.

"Shit!"

Shirou rushed towards him, his hearting beating like a drum in his ear as he rushed to think a possible way to save him.

"What happened?!" He shouted to the barely alive man.

The guard opened his mouth, coughing blood while trying to speak.

"Som-Something a-attacked us!" The guard coughed again, the wounds on his torso bleeding profusely as Shirou tried to bandage up his stump. "Y-You need t-t-to escape before it comes back!" The man pleaded, knowing that it was already too late for him to get out alive.

But Shirou couldn't accept it, "I can't! Let me stop the bleeding, and then I can rush you to the hospi—"

"Look out!" The guard screamed, his last action being to push Shirou away before a large figure of a beast swooped in and devoured the man's head.

"—!?"

The corpse was now nothing more than a pile of bones and flesh that was thrown away by the creature, Shirou's eyes wide open in shock and anger at what just happen. He was shocked, watching the death of someone he could have saved. An innocent man who, in his last action, saved him instead.

'It happened again….' A dark voice inside his head whispered, the shadows of his past coming back to haunt him. But he forcefully shook that thought away and focused his rage on the being in front of him.

Roar!

The beast let out a loud roar, giving the boy a good look at it.

"What is this..."

An enormous creature almost twice the size of a lion, with feline features, sharp claws with blood dripping down from its gaping jaw. Its body was covered in fur similar to a puma, but it had several long spikes running along its back and tail. On its back were what looked to be the remnants of wings that seemed to have been torn off at some point.

His father's training jumped into action, and his eyes focused on the chimera-like monster. Everything else was gone. His ear drowned any noise from the surrounding, only leaving its heaving breathing and the sound of bones gettings crushed as the beast continued to chew on the man's head—until its attention went over to Shirou.

Grrrrrr!

"You'll pay for that," regret and anger filled the boy's tone. He should have taken the man to a safer area before trying to stop the bleeding. Now he died to this... thing because of his oversight!

From his vest, Shirou pulled a single gun.

A treasure he always kept by his side whenever he went out for his patrols, the last memoir, the last gift his father left him before he passed away.

A Calico M950.

Without hesitation, Shirou aimed the gun at the creature's face and pulled the trigger as the monster lunged at him.

Bang!

With a flash of light, the bullet struck the beast's head, which to his surprise, just flattened itself before falling to the ground, with not a single drop of blood visible on its head. But the impact was enough, causing the creature to stumble backward, screeching in pain and anger.

"I can't let it roam on the road and risk it running away or attacking another passerby..."

Shirou ran inside the museum, his eyes gleaming as he continued to pull the trigger, shouting a flurry of bullets again and again, aiming at different parts of the beast.

He fired a couple more times.

Each bullet hit the chimera in various places, but none of them managed to penetrate through its tough hide. Fortunately, he successfully aggravated the monster long enough for it to start chasing him inside the building.

"Damn...!"

Shirou knew that he couldn't take that thing head-on, so he moved deeper into the museum. Dodging every attack, a hairbreadth away from tearing his body in half like the previous guards.

Roar!

Another hail of bullets was fired into the beast, only to be answered by a claw swipe which managed to reach Shirou and send the boy hurtling through the museum wall and breaking it.

Crash!

"Argh!" He cried in pain, landing on the floor and groaning from the impact, rolling over to the side as he dodged a stomp that cracked the floor. His heart shook in trepidation from the sheer strength of this beast. Even with reinforcement, this thing could easily crush his ribcage like a twig if he hadn't dodged it in time.

"GRRRR!!" The creature roared again, its monstrous form towering over the boy. Saliva and blood dripped from its maw as it fell on Shirou's face, its jaw prepared to engulf his head.

"Take this!" Shirou's eyes narrowed as he raised his gun and took aim at the beast again.

Bang!

This time, his bullet hit the creature right in the eye, blood splattering from the wound, causing it to falter and fall backward in pain.

"Gah!" The boy scrambled out of the way as he rolled on the ground, but was unable to avoid the hit from the enraged creature, and was sent hurtling into the wall, the shock of the attack making him vomit blood as he tried to force air back in his lungs.

"D-Dammit...!" He nearly fell on the floor when a searing pain came from his chest. "I think I broke a few of my ribs..."

He was wounded and probably wouldn't be able to continue fighting the monster, but he couldn't just let it go! More people would die if he allowed it to escape.

"Raaaahhhh!" The monster roared, its barbed tail prepared to strike, as the beast looked ready to fill him with holes.

Shirou tried to shoot again, but...

Click!

Click!

Nothing happened.

"I'm out of ammo!" He screamed in frustration.

Meanwhile, in front of him stood his opponent, still standing tall despite his injuries and ready to finish him off.

Woosh!

Its tail whipped around and shot a bunch of needles, each coming at high speed. Without any time to dodge them, Shirou was caught in the barrage of needles and forced onto his knees, groaning from the pain. His arms protected his face while dozens of the projectiles stuck into his reinforced vest.

Despite the layer of Kevlar under it, some of the needles managed to pierce through his skin and further injure him.

"Ha!" Knowing he couldn't just sit around and let the monster attack him for a second time. Shirou did the only thing he could think of at the moment…

He rushed at it!

With great speed, he charged forward.

'This feels familiar...' he thought as he saw the monster lunge at him as well. Its claws were fully extended and were ready to rip him to pieces.

But just as they were less than a meter apart, he changed his move midway.

"Now!"

Going right under its belly, he used a familiar move that he had fallen victim to in the past. Something which a certain blonde proceeded to teach him later on. A technique that allowed him to balance the weight of a beast, probably twice his weight, and perfectly divert it. "Ha!" Shirou got hold of its paw and spun his entire body along with the creatures, applying more reinforcement to his muscles and nearly tearing them—he successfully slammed the chimera monster on the ground with a loud bang!

Crash!

The tiles turned to dust, immobilizing them for a few seconds.

"I need something… anything!"

He was empty-handed. This move would only keep it down for a short time. He needed something else... in a state of high adrenaline, his mind raced to think of anything he could use...

That's when his eyes trailed to the end of the hall, where a single sword lay on the ground, having fallen from the fight.

An old Tachi with a gray-worn ray skin grip. A brushed blade chipped from the passing of time and a sheath made of wood that looked like it would crumble at any moment.

But that did not matter. In what felt like an eternity, his eyes captured every single detail of the blade, from its weight to its length.

Judging the concept of creation.

Bzzt!

He felt a spark inside him, a wave of magical energy to wash over his hands.

Hypothesizing the basic structure.

Line after line, his basic shape formed in his mind. One so similar to the blade in front that it might as well be called a perfect replica.

Duplicating the composition material.

Despite a worn-down grip, the rusted and chipped metal. He already knew that it was made with Tama-hagane, the shine of the sword already reflecting perfectly in his mind.

Imitating the skill of its making.

The blue wave of Magical Energy took shape in his hand, bringing into life a blade that had long since died.

Sympathizing with the experience of its growth.

He never saw it once in his life, yet he already knew its name. Something he didn't have time to question how he managed to do it.

Reproducing the accumulated years.

Something changed inside him, no... Shirou felt like something awakened inside him.

In a barren field where the sunshine peeked through the sea of clouds and flowed over an unending expanse of grassland. Where there existed barely anything, a single blade came into existence on top of a hill. The light reflected against the perfect blade, having been returned to its prime state.

With a swift motion, the weapon pierced through the earth, standing all alone in this space, separate from reality. It felt like a dream, something that he couldn't understand, that was still foreign to the boy. But deep within his mind, he knew what to do next.

His instincts took over, and he called it forth.

The blades materialized In his hands, feeling like a part of himself. Blue lines stretched from his hands to the blade, pushing its existence beyond anything it was before.

Excelling every manufacturing process.

"Die!"

Grabbing the hilt, Shirou mercilessly shoved it under the monster's jaw and pierced it right through its skull.

Finally, killing the beast.

"Haa... Haa... Haa..." He breathed heavily, feeling his strength begin to wane, making even the act of standing up seem like a challenge.

"Hm?" Suddenly, the monster's body started turning black, breaking down bit by bit before it turned into ashes. Even the sword he held disappeared in motes of blue embers.

"Just... what was that thing?" Shirou said, having no answer or clue about what just happened.

The sound of sirens in the distance caught his attention.

"I... need to... leave." He muttered to himself as he slowly walked away from the scene and towards the exit, using the same route as earlier.

As soon as he reached outside the building, he went to hide somewhere dark, soon finding police cars rushing to the scene, a few officers trying to make sense of the situation, their faces pale and shocked from the sight of the carnage.

"...I still failed to save them," Shirou murmured with a heavy heart to himself as he began his walk home.

.

.

.

Right outside Fuyuki airport, a single figure walked through the gates. A demure woman in a black, two-piece business suit with a red-violet necktie. She had short, magenta hair and a mole just below her left eye.

"I have arrived at my destination." She talked while keeping her eyes glued to her watch. "My informants managed to track them to this location. I will contact you once I manage to take them all out."

She placed her phone back in her bag and started walking towards a car waiting for her in the distance carrying nothing but her briefcase.

The driver held a sign with a single name on it...

...McRemitz.

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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.