Fate/Stay Night the Last Stardust #4 Dead Apostle

Kiritsugu POV: 

I found myself back in the village, needing to restock on some essential supplies. Hastily grabbing my bag of food, I was prepared to make my way out when a booming voice echoed through the village's execution spot, catching my attention. Intrigued, I navigated through the village crowd, blending in.

At the execution spot stood a man with black hair, adorned in a general uniform. He wore a sinister smile as he addressed the gathering crowd. "Listen closely! Should anyone in this village dare to shelter a rebel, they will be apprehended and publicly eliminated. If you doubt my words, witness it here and now!" he declared. In response to his command, two military guards forcefully dragged an elderly, battered man to the forefront.

Silent and resolute, the poor man gazed defiantly at the soldier and the general before shouting, "You and your men seek to strip us of our freedom, Wali! Good people of this village, do not let this man do as he pleases. He will shatter the peace of our country with his mad ambitions!"

Without warning, Wali struck the old man across his face. "Silence, you old fool! Now, watch closely," he sneered. The two guards who had brought the man forward aimed their rifles and fired mercilessly, ending his life before I could even react.

My eyes had widened at the sight and when I looked at the smiling general, I saw his dark eyes gain a tint of red I glared I knew that look anywhere dead apostle and a strong one at that looks like this one is planning to take over the country like hell I would let that happen innocents would die if that happened. 

Gritting my teeth, I retreated to my hideout as the remaining crowd dispersed, leaving behind an atmosphere tinged with fear. Without delay, I began devising a plan to strike the base where the dead apostle resided. 

While I lacked a detailed blueprint, I had gleaned some information through careful observation. It was evident that the apostle occupied the tenth and final floor of the base, while the rest of the building was likely occupied by his ghoul minions disguised as soldiers.

With a strategy taking shape in my mind, I patiently awaited nightfall, knowing that the darkness would cloak my intentions and provide an advantage in executing my plan. 

When that time came, I snuck in through the vents of the building being careful to not make any noise reaching into my satchel I pulled out some C4 explosive planting them in each of the building's weak points.

Once that was done all I would have to do was blow the whole thing up sky high thus avoiding any confrontations. Crawling back out of the vent and reinforcing my legs I quickly distanced myself from the building. 

I reached into my coat pocket pulling out the detonator and pressed on the trigger the building blew up as the unholy shrieks of the undead disguised ghouls echoed out, I exhaled silently releasing the tension in my shoulders.

Much to my annoyance however the leader had survived after all walking through the flames the apostle had set his eyes upon me fury shown through his crimson eyes "You dare interfere, human?" the apostle hissed, his voice laced with malice and power. His vampiric presence filled the air, sending a shiver down my spine. 

I could sense his immense strength, far beyond that of an ordinary dead apostle but I knew I could easily defeat him his regeneration would be the only major problem so the quickest way possible to destroy him is to tear him apart completely from the inside out.

The apostle lunged towards me, his claws poised to tear through my flesh. In that moment, I activated my innate time control, encasing a small portion of the world around me and the apostle within my bounded field.

  "Time Alter: De-Accel," I muttered, and everything within my range began to slow down. The apostle failed to notice that his movements had begun to decelerate.

With my impromptu technique proving successful, I swiftly traced my double-barreled shotgun, alongside a time origin bullet and severing/binding origin bullet. 

"Time Alter: Disturbed Reset!" I chanted, firing the respective bullets at the apostle's heart. Freed from the constraints of time and space, the time bullet shot at an unimaginable speed, striking the apostle and activating its second effect an infinite death reset.

The combined severing/binding bullet then approached the creature's heart and with a mental command I made it so that the time bullet halted the infinite death reset and silently watched as the apostle's circuits, nerves, and heart were severed by my original origin bullet, only to be bonded back together in a tangled mess. Without functioning circuits, the creature could no longer regenerate.

I then commanded the time origin bullet within the apostle's heart to explode without resetting in a loop. "Time Alter: De-Accel Release," I chanted once more, slowly releasing the de-acceleration technique. This allowed my body to readjust gradually to any corrections made by Gaia when she fixed the time anomaly disruption caused by my techniques.

A minute passed as the technique released itself, and my body felt no ill effects from the time correction. The apostle, who had lunged at me a moment ago, suddenly blew apart into ash without even having time to react. It was a permanent death, effectively ending his reign of terror.

Drained of significant magical energy due to the cost of my techniques, I dismissed the shotgun with a mental command. When I turned around to leave, I noticed a crowd of civilians had gathered, witnessing the entire battle.

  They bowed gratefully, profusely thanking me for saving not only their village but also their country from the dead apostle's terrorism. It felt good to have saved them to have chosen a path that didn't require sacrificing the few to save the many.

The villagers insisted on taking me back to their homes, offering their hospitality and asking if I needed anything. Graciously, I declined, assuring them that I was fine and didn't require anything. However, their kindness persisted.

The next day, as I prepared to leave for my workshop, the village leader himself presented me with a red shroud. He explained that it had been in their village for a long time, providing protection from the intense heat of the sun. Grateful, I accepted the shroud, recognizing its potential as an effective mystic code material that I can use given the time and research.

-end of chapter 4-

Next chapter will be an effective time skip with a review of what Kiritsugu has done during his remaining year in Iraq before heading back to Fuyuki City to see Shirou. 

Reality Marble Chant/Name: Chronos Domain

Ten-Step Chant:

"Oh, shattered fragments of my fleeting existence,""Weave a tapestry of time, a symphony of persistence.""In this boundless realm of regret and despair,""Unleash the depths of my soul's unending snare.""Within the echoes of my fractured heart's lament,""I gather the remnants of moments misspent.""Through this incantation, my anguish takes form,""Unleashing the chronicles of a life forlorn.""Within this confined world, my sorrows enchain,""A Time's Embrace, my soul's eternal bane."

Time Alter: De-Accel is a technique made by Kiritsugu. It allows him to envelop the space around him in a bounded field effectively allowing him slow down time to his liking. 

Time Alter: Disturbed Reset is a technique that Kiritsugu uses when he fires off a time origin bullet alongside his original origin bullet together into a combo.

Time Alter: Time Reset is a technique birthed from Kiritsugu's second origin time and it allows him to keep anyone within a time loop.

Time Alter: Seven Fold Time Disruption is an added side effect from both Kiritsugu's time related origin and due to the seven-day effect of leaving his bullets soaked in his blood for seven days/nights. 

(Note this technique is not made in this chapter but talked about in chapter 6 when Kiritsugu confronts Lancer and stops him from killing Shirou the second time around) 

Time Alter: Chronos Rose 

Inspired by his alternate future counter guardian self Kiritsugu develops this technique to at least keep up with low leveled heroic spirit. It allows him to control his inner flow of time, utilizing high-speed attacks and maneuvers by accelerating the flow of time, and concealing himself by slowing time to stagnate his biorhythms. He also able to utilize extreme consecutive attacks to the point where he can be described as being invincible in anti-personnel combat.