novelraw Chapter 1061 - 1,060: Instantly Kills the Servant! Attempts to Resist!
Chapter 1061 - 1,060: Instantly Kills the Servant! Attempts to Resist!
Rei Ao's calm gaze swept over the three new arrivals.
Finally, it settled on Emiya Kiritsugu's face, etched with hardship and grim resolve.
His voice rang clearly in everyone's ears.
"All right. The mistaken Master and the mistaken Servant—now you're both here."
The courtyard fell into an unprecedented, suffocating silence.
Every gaze locked onto the newly arrived trio…
and onto the black-haired young man who held the entire situation in the palm of his hand.
Kiritsugu and Maiya's sudden appearance shattered the eerie, almost frozen atmosphere that had settled over the courtyard after the Grail's manifestation and the truth being revealed.
Relying on instincts honed over years at the edge of life and death, the two of them completed the fastest possible scan of their surroundings and assessment of the situation in the instant their feet hit the ground.
When Kiritsugu's eyes swept past the collapsed, utterly bedraggled Gilgamesh on the ground—
his pupils constricted sharply.
Then, his gaze jerked upward, past the golden Grail floating in midair, and locked onto the face of the black-haired young man lounging casually with an arm around a silver-haired woman.
In that moment, time seemed to freeze in Kiritsugu's perception.
That face… he could never mistake it.
Even if he tried to bury that utterly failed operation and the shattering of his ideals deep in his heart, that face—so indifferent it bordered on cold, yet carrying the sense of having already seen through and seized control of everything—remained branded in the depths of his memory like a scar.
It was the face that brought a cold sense of suffocation to his dreams whenever he jolted awake in the middle of the night.
"It's… you…!"
Kiritsugu's voice was dry and hoarse.
It sounded like it was being forced out between clenched teeth, carrying an uncontrollable tremor.
It wasn't fear.
It was a mixture of extreme shock, bone-deep rage…
and the helplessness of seeing his carefully laid plans utterly destroyed, when faced with an enemy he could not comprehend.
This man was the one who had appeared not long ago with overwhelming superiority and, almost off-handedly, crushed all of his preparations.
Why was he here?
How could he possibly be part of this Holy Grail War?
Maiya Hisau didn't have the same direct, searing experience of Rei Ao that Kiritsugu did.
But from the way Kiritsugu's expression changed in an instant and from that unprecedented loss of composure in his voice, she immediately understood that this black-haired youth was an extremely dangerous enemy with deep history tied to Kiritsugu.
Her eyes turned icy in a heartbeat.
Without the slightest hesitation—
almost as a reflex—she gave an order to the Assassin beside her, who had just regained his footing.
Her voice was short and lethal:
"Assassin. Kill them. All of them."
Even though this "Wrong Assassin"–class Hundred-Faced Hassan also felt bewildered by the complexity of the situation, the contract between him and Maiya still held.
He retained an instinctive obedience to his Master's direct commands.
His figure blurred in an instant, like a drop of ink dissolving into water.
In the next heartbeat—
Dozens, then hundreds of short silhouettes wearing white skull masks and dressed in tight black garb swarmed out of every shadow in the courtyard like ghosts.
They carried all sorts of strange weapons. They moved in total silence, yet radiated raw killing intent.
From all directions, they lunged toward everyone in the courtyard—Rei Ao, Artoria, Iskandar, Waver, Irisviel, Rin, Sakura.
The full nature of Hundred-Faced Hassan's skills was on full display.
Numerous bodies.
Tricky, unpredictable attacks.
All aimed at causing the greatest possible chaos and casualties in the shortest possible time!
Almost at the same moment, Emiya Kiritsugu moved as well.
He forced down the storm of emotion roiling inside him, compressing all of his shock and anger into the coldest, most ruthless action.
He raised his right hand.
On the back of it, that strange, blood-red "wrong" Command Seal began to glow intensely.
His objective was clear—he had to restore their strongest combat asset first.
No matter how hard Gilgamesh was to control, his overwhelming power was indispensable in a crisis like this.
"By my Command Seal, Archer, immediately restore your power and condition!"
Red light surged forth, the compulsory force of the contract flooding toward the collapsed Gilgamesh.
This was a counterattack launched from the brink.
It was the wordless, well-practiced coordination between Kiritsugu and Maiya, honed through countless deadly situations:
One directed their Servant to unleash an indiscriminate surprise attack to create confusion.
The other attempted to restore their strongest fighter to turn the tide.
However, the opponent they faced… was Rei Ao.
Faced with the black wave of Hundred-Faced Hassan clones flooding across the courtyard and into every corner, Rei Ao didn't even lift an eyebrow.
He simply raised the arm that was wrapped around Irisviel, and pinched his thumb and forefinger together lightly in the air.
The motion was casual, as if he were crushing an insignificant insect.
Buzz—!
A formless, invisible wave pulsed out from Rei Ao's position, sweeping across the entire courtyard in an instant—yet it felt as if it contained the very laws of the world itself.
The next moment—
a sight that made everyone's scalp prickle—including Iskandar, Artoria, and even the prone Gilgamesh—unfolded before their eyes.
Every one of the charging Hassan clones—whether they were already mid-air, or lurking in the shadows about to backstab, or in the middle of executing some bizarre assassination technique—
all of their movements froze in the same instant.
It was as if time itself had stopped flowing for them.
And then—
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop…
A rapid, dense series of sounds rang out, enough to make one's teeth hurt—somewhere between balloons popping and gravel being crushed under a wheel.
Every single Hassan clone, regardless of what position they were in, suddenly and without warning crumbled from the inside out into a cloud of black particles finer than dust, scattering through the air like glitter.
No screams.
No struggle.
Not even a single weapon or scrap of clothing left behind.
They simply disappeared—utterly and cleanly.
With nothing but a light pinching motion—
Hundred-Faced Hassan's full-force assault, along with all of his clones, had been wiped out in an instant.
At the same time—
"Ugh!"
Maiya cried out in pain.
She suddenly felt a burning sting on the back of her right hand.
She lowered her head and saw the three dark red Command Seals that tied her to the "Wrong Assassin" begin to fade, just like pencil marks being erased from paper.
Her skin returned to smooth, untouched flesh.
And with that, the contractual bond between her and Assassin was completely severed.